The Secret Auden by Edward Mendelson | The New York Review of Books

The Secret Auden by Edward Mendelson | The New York Review of Books: By refusing to claim moral or personal authority, Auden placed himself firmly on one side of an argument that pervades the modern intellectual climate but is seldom explicitly stated, an argument about the nature of evil and those who commit it.

On one side are those who, like Auden, sense the furies hidden in themselves, evils they hope never to unleash, but which, they sometimes perceive, add force to their ordinary angers and resentments, especially those angers they prefer to think are righteous. On the other side are those who can say of themselves without irony, “I am a good person,” who perceive great evils only in other, evil people whose motives and actions are entirely different from their own. This view has dangerous consequences when a party or nation, having assured itself of its inherent goodness, assumes its actions are therefore justified, even when, in the eyes of everyone else, they seem murderous and oppressive.

| National Review

| National Review: Hillary Clinton believes that “religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed” to expand access to abortion.

Clinton said today that it’s not enough to legalize the procedure. “Far too many women are denied access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth, and laws don’t count for much if they’re not enforced,” she said Thursday, per the Daily Caller. “And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.”

The Disenchanted World | Glory to God for All Things

The Disenchanted World | Glory to God for All Things: A very apt word for the world we live in is: disenchanted. It was first used by Max Weber and a number of others to describe a certain aspect of the modern world – the absence of the sacred. Where people of earlier eras and other cultures have experienced the world around them as charged with divine power (of various sorts), we simply experience the world as inert. There is nothing there.

The disenchanted world is doubtless a major source of modern atheism. When someone says they do not believe in God, they are quite likely simply relaying accurately how they perceive the world – that the world they see is simply disenchanted. This experience is captured by Tolkien in his hints of the end of Middle Earth. The “Elves are heading West,” leaving the world of Middle Earth. The Age of Elves is coming to an end and the Age of Men is beginning. There is something of a hint that with the Elves, the world of magic and wizardry is leaving as well. The new dangers will simply be the will and work of men rather than larger, darker forces.

About SouthFront

About SouthFront: SouthFront: Analysis & Intelligence is a public analytical project maintained by an independent team of experts from the four corners of the Earth focusing on international relations issues and crises and working through a number of media platforms with a special emphasis on social networks. We focus on analysis and intelligence of the ongoing crises and the biggest stories from around the world. The project provides military operations analysis, the military posture of major world powers, and other important data influencing the growth of tensions between countries and nations. We try to dig out the truth on issues which are barely covered by the states concerned and the mainstream media.

Stephen Greenblatt's The Swerve racked up prizes — and completely misled you about the Middle Ages - Vox

Stephen Greenblatt's The Swerve racked up prizes — and completely misled you about the Middle Ages - Vox: The Swerve doesn’t promote the humanities to a broader public so much as it deviously precipitates the decline of the humanities, by dumbing down the complexities of history and religion in a way that sets a deeply unfortunate precedent. If Greenblatt’s story resonates with its many readers, it is surely because it echoes stubborn, made-for-TV representations of medieval "barbarity" that have no business in a nonfiction book, much less one by a Harvard professor.

Scholars have spent the past several decades upending the old myths that the Middle Ages were intellectual stagnant, emotionally repressed, and merely masochistic. Unfortunately, The Swerve heartily embraces those myths. In its insistent representation of what Greenblatt wanted the past to be like, instead of what the evidence suggests, it exemplifies that dire trend of "truthy" nonfiction books that present One Theory to Explain Everything. It represents the importation of Malcolm Gladwell–esque yarn-spinning into the academy.

How a colonial blunder grew into a part of the War on Terror | Aeon Essays

How a colonial blunder grew into a part of the War on Terror | Aeon Essays: The Durand Line has consistently proven ineffective as the basis of territorial delineation between Afghanistan and Pakistan, its division of Pashtun tribal lands a point of contention to this day. As recently as May 2016, the portion of the line between Afghanistan and Pakistan at the Torkham checkpoint was shut down, stranding thousands of people and cargo trucks. Pakistani military forces installed barbed wire; Afghanistan, which does not recognise the legitimacy of the border, responded to this as a hostile act. Escalating tensions, well-known to either side, led to a shutdown of the Torkham border post. It was only after high level diplomatic meetings that the post could be opened again.

When will Labour’s tribal warfare come to an end? | Maya Goodfellow | Opinion | The Guardian

When will Labour’s tribal warfare come to an end? | Maya Goodfellow | Opinion | The Guardian: Labour failed to capitalise after the referendum when the Tories were thrown into a crisis of their own creation. Instead they created their own mess with a poorly executed coup. MPs, understandably panicked by the referendum results and worried that Jeremy Corbyn wasn’t doing well enough, paired up with those who had – as Peter Mandelson advised – been waiting for the last nine months for a moment of weakness to overthrow their leader. At a time when Labour should have been attacking the Tories and standing up for people experiencing xenophobic abuse, they were embroiled in a feud.

Athonite Fathers call for Rejection of Cretan Council and Cessation of Commemoration of the Patriarch of Constantinople / OrthoChristian.Com

Athonite Fathers call for Rejection of Cretan Council and Cessation of Commemoration of the Patriarch of Constantinople / OrthoChristian.Com: OVER 60 Hieromonk and monks, with a disciple of Saint Paisios, Elder Gabriel of the Kelli of St. Christodoulos (Holy Monastery of Koutloumosiou) at their head, have written an open letter to the Holy Community of Mt. Athos calling upon the Abbots to reject the Council in Crete and stating their intention to cease commemoration of the Patriarch of Constantinople on account of his leadership in the "false council" at which the pan-heresy of ecumenism was given a green light and bolstered in word and deed.

We were made for these times

We were made for these times: My friends, do not lose heart. We were made for these times. I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world now. Ours is a time of almost daily astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people.



You are right in your assessments. The lustre and hubris some have aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking. Yet, I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is that we were made for these times. Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement.

Reported rape of dead Muslim woman evokes anger, revulsion amongst Indian Americans

Reported rape of dead Muslim woman evokes anger, revulsion amongst Indian Americans: The reaction of Indians around the world over the continuing attacks on the dignity and basic freedoms of India’s religious minorities as well as Dalits (lower-castes), has been eloquently expressed by former Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Ramdas, in a recentopen letter to the President and Prime Minister of India. Drawing the attention of the highest offices in the land to the “threats to our shared heritage,” Admiral Ramdas unequivocally separated Hinduism, the faith he was raised in, from “Hindutva, that seems to be fanning the flames of division and fear across the country.”

KING: ISIS terrorists aren’t Muslims — they're just evil men - NY Daily News

KING: ISIS terrorists aren’t Muslims — they're just evil men - NY Daily News: Maybe you missed it since “pray for Baghdad” didn't trend on Twitter and Facebook didn’t give you the option of overlaying an Iraqi flag on your profile picture, but something truly horrific happened there Sunday morning. A suicide truck bomb tore through a busy shopping district in Baghdad. ISIS has already claimed the attack as their own.

A rational nation ruled by science would be a terrible idea | New Scientist

A rational nation ruled by science would be a terrible idea | New Scientist: “Scientism” is the belief that all we need to solve the world’s problems is – you guessed it – science. People sometimes use the phrase “rational thinking”, but it amounts to the same thing. If only people would drop religion and all their other prejudices, we could use logic to fix everything.

Last week, US astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson offered up the perfect example of scientism when he proposed the country of Rationalia, in which “all policy shall be based on the weight of evidence”.

Assasination By Drone: America's Fatal Fallacy

Assasination By Drone: America's Fatal Fallacy: Endless hopes were pinned on Pres. Barack Obama when he entered the Oval Office in 2009. Hardly anyone back then seriously considered it possible that Obama would trump the belligerence even of Pres. George W. Bush who was seemingly hated the world over and would bomb nearly twice as many Muslim countries as his unspeakable predecessor.

US Options in the Ukraine: Trigger a Religious War? - The Unz Review

US Options in the Ukraine: Trigger a Religious War? - The Unz Review:



The AUOC-MP is the biggest of the three. It is self-governing, but not fully independent. It is probably the biggest of the three churches and it is in full communion with all of the other “official” (read: “state approved”) Orthodox Churches out there. The AUOC-MP is viewed as the “hand of the Kremlin” by the nationalists.



The UOC-KP was founded by a former Bishop of the Moscow Patriarchate, Filaret Denisenko who created a “schism” (a unilateral separation in contradiction to the Canons of the Church) from the Moscow Patriarchate (which is ironic since Filaret was a former “deputy” (locum tenens) to Patriarch Pimen I of the Moscow Patriarchate and even considered a front-runner to succeed him). Even by Soviet standards Filaret was always known to be an exceptionally immoral, corrupt and unprincipled man, but the Moscow Patriarchate only excommunicated him when he broke-off from the MP to create his own “church”.



The UAOC is basically a 1921 creation of the Ukrainian National Republic of 1917 (just as the Moscow Patriarchate is a 1937 creation of the Bolshevik state of 1917) and it represents the “non-Soviet” version of Ukrainian Christianity, with several of its clergymen have been persecuted by the Soviet state.

#SafetyPin: The simple way you can show solidarity with the UK's foreign-born population

#SafetyPin: The simple way you can show solidarity with the UK's foreign-born population: Vote Leave's campaign was tainted by accusations of racist dog-whistling: a poster unveiled by Ukip featuring an edited photograph of refugees came under particularly heavy criticism for its likeness to Nazi propaganda.

And sadly, as Tory MP Simon Hoare put it in the Commons yesterday, a "racism genie" appears to have been let out of the bottle as a consequence.

The National Police Chiefs' Council said on Monday there had been a 57 per cent rise in reports to an online hate crime reporting site between Thursday and Sunday compared to a month ago.

Don't blame Brexit on working-class anger - it's more worrying than that

Don't blame Brexit on working-class anger - it's more worrying than that: Brexit was a rejection of British multiculturalism. That is the real take-home message of the Ashcroft polls. Of those who see themselves as "English not British", 80 per cent voted to Leave, irrespective of social class. Those who see themselves as "British not English" voted 60 per cent for Remain.

This is Cyprus...: Cyprus, the EU and Brexit

This is Cyprus...: Cyprus, the EU and Brexit

Mbeki's chilling warning in 2007: A virus is eating up the ANC from the inside | Politics | RDM

Mbeki's chilling warning in 2007: A virus is eating up the ANC from the inside | Politics | RDM: I would like to cite a vitally important observation our Secretary General made in his Organisational Report to our 51st National Conference, five years ago.

He said: "We have also reported to the NGC (held in 2000), on the challenges being in power has on the structures of the movement. We found that the issues dividing the leadership of some of our provinces are not of a political nature, but have mainly revolved around access to resources, positioning themselves or others to access resources, dispensing patronage and in the process using organisational structures to further these goals.

"This often lies at the heart of conflicts between (ANC) constitutional and governance structures, especially at local level and is reflected in contestations around lists, deployment and the internal elections process of the movement. These practices tarnish the image and effectiveness of the movement.

"The limited political consciousness (among some of our members) has impacted negatively on our capacity to root out corrupt and divisive elements among ourselves. For the movement to renew itself as a revolutionary movement, we have to develop specific political, organisational and administrative measures to deal with such destructive elements."

Nelson Mandela also drew our attention to this challenge when he opened our 50th National Conference in 1997. Among other things he said: "One of these negative features is the emergence of careerism within our ranks. Many among our members see their membership of the ANC as a means to advance their personal ambitions to attain positions of power and access to resources for their own individual gratification.

"Accordingly, they work to manipulate the movement to create the conditions for their success.

Profiling house robbers – why a dog beats electric fences – HomeTimes

Profiling house robbers – why a dog beats electric fences – HomeTimes

The Top 100 Books Referenced by Noam Chomsky | ChomskyList.com

The Top 100 Books Referenced by Noam Chomsky | ChomskyList.com: The Top 100 Books Referenced by Noam Chomsky

Google is Recording Everything You Say — Here’s How to Hear It, Delete It, and Stop It | The Daily Liberator

Google is Recording Everything You Say — Here’s How to Hear It, Delete It, and Stop It | The Daily Liberator: Thanks to a function of their search software, Google could have years worth of your conversations recorded, and you can hear it for yourself. Your cringe-worthy history can be heard and viewed along with a list of all your searches, at your personal Google history page.

Notable.ca | Big Surprise: Harvard Study Shows that Sarcasm is Actually Good for You

Notable.ca | Big Surprise: Harvard Study Shows that Sarcasm is Actually Good for You: Data from a recent study entitled, The Highest Form of Intelligence: Sarcasm Increases Creativity for Both Expressers and Recipients, suggests that the delivery and deciphering of sarcasm offers psychological benefits that have been largely underappreciated and long overlooked.

When Being Pro-Life Did Not Mean Being Conservative | Religion & Politics

When Being Pro-Life Did Not Mean Being Conservative | Religion & Politics: Most of the pre-Roe pro-life activists were Catholics with liberal political sympathies shaped by their Church’s social justice teachings and the New Deal. They viewed their campaign to save the lives of the unborn as a human rights cause, which is why much of their rhetoric closely paralleled the language of the civil rights and anti-war movements.

The Heavy Anglo-Orthodox: The war in Iraq was a war on truth

The Heavy Anglo-Orthodox: The war in Iraq was a war on truth: The Iraq War was a hubristic demonstration, a demonstration of the Antichrist, that the truth itself is something that must be subjected to the human will, that it is human will that shapes reality and not the other way around.

How Charles Williams combined the occult with Christian faith | The Christian Century

How Charles Williams combined the occult with Christian faith | The Christian Century: Shadows of a saint

Charles Williams’s magical Christianity
May 12, 2016 by Philip Jenkins

In 1963, W. H. Auden reported his weary experiences on a lucrative U.S. lecture tour in the wry poem “On the Circuit.” It was grim maintaining a smiling face while meeting so many gushing strangers, but occasionally there was “a blessed encounter, full of joy . . . With, here, an addict of Tolkien / There, a Charles Williams fan.” The number of devotees of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis proliferated enormously over the following decades, and that boundless enthusiasm spilled over to any and all of their associates, including Williams. A rising tide lifted all Inklings

Louis van Gaal says 'it's over' with Jose Mourinho tipped to take over at Manchester United | Football News | Sky Sports

Louis van Gaal says 'it's over' with Jose Mourinho tipped to take over at Manchester United | Football News | Sky Sports: United have no plans for a victory parade in Manchester, and the club are believed to be angry that news of Mourinho's potential appointment has overshadowed the club's first FA Cup win since 2004 and first piece of silverware since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson.

Community stands against farm attacks | Vryheid Herald

Community stands against farm attacks | Vryheid Herald: FOLLOWING the brutal murder of Billy Van Rooyen and his father in law Ronnie Lombard, the community members of Zwathi took to the streets saying ‘enough is enough’.

These members of the ward 4 community headed down to the Gluckstadt Police Station to hand over a memorandum regarding their concerns over the rise in crime in their area.

The main issue raised in the memorandum was that of the killing of farmers, which in turn has a negative influence on the community’s infrastructure as many of those working on the farms lose their jobs.

He Carefully Places Sponges Inside His Fridge… The Reason? This Is Pure GENIUS!

He Carefully Places Sponges Inside His Fridge… The Reason? This Is Pure GENIUS!:

• How to quickly and easily peel a lot of garlic cloves by shaking them in a container
• Keep your vegetables fresh by keeping sponges in your refrigerator vegetable drawer
• Cleaning your shoes with toothpaste
• Disinfect your cutting board while eliminating odor with a vinegar solution
• Speed up the drying of your laundry by adding tennis balls to your load

Neoliberalism – the ideology at the root of all our problems | Books | The Guardian

Neoliberalism – the ideology at the root of all our problems | Books | The Guardian: So pervasive has neoliberalism become that we seldom even recognise it as an ideology. We appear to accept the proposition that this utopian, millenarian faith describes a neutral force; a kind of biological law, like Darwin’s theory of evolution. But the philosophy arose as a conscious attempt to reshape human life and shift the locus of power.

Neoliberalism sees competition as the defining characteristic of human relations. It redefines citizens as consumers, whose democratic choices are best exercised by buying and selling, a process that rewards merit and punishes inefficiency. It maintains that “the market” delivers benefits that could never be achieved by planning.

Distributism from the East

Distributism from the East: Distributism premises its economic principle of subsidiarity with the ethical principle of solidarity; as such an exploration of what economic justice is to the Orthodox is needed in order to see if it aligns with Distributism’s views. Saint Basil the Great has much to say on the topic of economic justice. For instance, he says in his homily “I Will Tear Down my Barns” that the rich “have been made minister[s] of God’s goodness, a steward of your fellow servants”2 and as such should not hoard what they have but use the money to help others. He further ties justice and economic activity together in his homily “To the Rich” when he says that wherever the rich man turns he will “behold the apparitions of [his] evil acts … the tears of the orphan, there the groaning of widow….”3 driving home that one’s economic actions have both real victims and spiritual consequences. The fact that St. Basil humanizes the poor and gives them identities (orphans and widows) is remarkable for a time period where the poor where generally viewed as a faceless mass for the rich to dump their excess wealth on if they decided to practice charity. In modern Capitalist countries the economic realities often make it easier to see the poor in the later manner, but in a Distributist society with its focus on subsidiarity and solidarity, we would be better able to see them in the former light.

Five Things You Need Know About the Attacks From a Peace Activist in Brussels

Five Things You Need Know About the Attacks From a Peace Activist in Brussels: “We are going to go after them,” Obama said a couple of hours after the terrorist attacks. Really? When?

We know, for example, that the real people fighting ISIS at the moment are the Kurds in Kobane and other cities. We know that helping and supporting them, while cutting the route of ISIS’s oil to Turkey, would deal a huge blow to the so-called Islamic State. Are we doing it? Not at all.

Supporting Turkey, a crucial actor in this whole story with Machiavellian policies on the ground, is a major factor in the ongoing violence.

Theology and Racial Justice with J. Kameron Carter

Theology and Racial Justice with J. Kameron Carter: Get a deeper understanding of racial justice by examining its theological roots. In this course, theologian and author J. Kameron Carter reveals and explains many of the theological underpinnings of racial injustice.

The journey toward racial justice in North America cannot be fully undertaken without a grasp of the theological implications underlying both its origins and development.

South Africa's rising tide of racial profiling | Politics | RDM

South Africa's rising tide of racial profiling | Politics | RDM: Black thinkers need to prick the bubble of black triumphalism if South Africa wants to progress. Afrikaners should prick their hedonism bubble and confront their history of violent submission of black people and land grabs, and English speakers need to understand that their jingoist monolingualism, which is as exclusionary as the worst Afrikaner racism, will only deepen the inequality already bedevilling our common future.

The Geography of Trumpism - NYTimes.com

The Geography of Trumpism - NYTimes.com: When the Census Bureau asks Americans about their ancestors, some respondents don’t give a standard answer like “English” or “German.” Instead, they simply answer “American.”

The places with high concentrations of these self-described Americans turn out to be the places Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has performed the strongest.

You really, really have to stop correcting the grammar of racists ranting about 'Muslins' on Facebook | Voices | The Independent

You really, really have to stop correcting the grammar of racists ranting about 'Muslins' on Facebook | Voices | The Independent: Fighting racism is virtuous; making someone feel bad because they don’t know about apostrophes is not. It is the same instinct that drives racism: the instinct to dominate, to denigrate, and to attack people rather than ideas.

Internet changing face of theology schools

Internet changing face of theology schools: Journalists, taxi drivers, musicians and motels have all had their economic apple carts upset by the Internet. Theology professors are discovering they too are not immune from the game-changing, democratizing effect of the world wide web.

Ever since the Council of Trent mandated seminaries to train priests, the only way to become theologically literate has been to enrol in a university, faithfully attend all the lectures and seminars, write the papers, debate with fellow students and pass the final exam. All of this had to happen in a classroom, on a campus.

No more.

Chant Matters - Compline at St Mark's Cathedral, Seattle - What is in Kelvin's Head?

Chant Matters - Compline at St Mark's Cathedral, Seattle - What is in Kelvin's Head?: That service breaks almost (and that almost is important, as we shall see) rule in the How to Attract Young People Big Book of Church Growth.

The building is as close to hideous as makes no odds.
The choir sing from behind a pillar and can’t be seen.
You don’t get a service sheet on the way in. You don’t in fact get anything.
The service is uncompromisingly old fashioned.
The service is based around Plainsong Chant.
There are no guitars. Not one.
It is unaccompanied by anything.
You don’t get to do anything.
You don’t sing.
You don’t speak.
You don’t engage.
You don’t form community.

And still they come. Hundreds of them. Every week they come.

The Return of Public Vulgarity

The Return of Public Vulgarity: It may appear that this disintegration is counteracted by the growth of political correctness, which prescribes exactly what cannot be said; however, a closer look immediately makes it clear how the "politically correct" regulation participates in the same process of the disintegration of the ethical substance. To prove this point, it suffices to recall the deadlock of political correctness: The need for PC rules arises when unwritten mores are no longer able to regulate effectively everyday interactions—instead of spontaneous customs followed in a nonreflexive way, we get explicit rules, such as when “torture” becomes an “enhanced interrogation technique.”

The crucial point is that torture—brutal violence practiced by the state—was made publicly acceptable at the very moment when public language was rendered politically correct in order to protect victims from symbolic violence. These two phenomena are two sides of the same coin.

‘We Think the Price Is Worth It’ — FAIR

‘We Think the Price Is Worth It’ — FAIR:

Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?



Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it.



—60 Minutes (5/12/96)

A Comedy of Terrors: When in Doubt, Bomb Syria

A Comedy of Terrors: When in Doubt, Bomb Syria:



Sanders’ policy on Syria is na�ve to the point of doltishness. But Hillary’s Syrian war plan—shared by most of her Republican rivals—borders on the pathological. Having not missed a minute of sleep haunted by the corpses of Libya, Mrs. Clinton is now stumping for the dismantling of Syria, using the carefully cultivated domestic anxiety over ISIS as the pretext. The cornerstone of Hillary’s rogue scheme is the imposition of a no fly zone over that embattled country.

Sounds like a relatively benign plan, right? But wait. ISIS doesn’t have an air force. They don’t even a have drone. Russia, of course, is flying daily sorties in Syrian air space, at the invitation of the Syrian government, such as it is, and some kind of confrontation would be inevitable. Still, Hillary doesn’t flinch. She has zealously vowed to shoot down any Russian plane that violated her unilateral ban.

SUNDAY TIMES - From SONA to Zika: 10 things that happened this week you should know about

SUNDAY TIMES - From SONA to Zika: 10 things that happened this week you should know about: The State of the Nation Address may be focused on political topics but with every important event come important fashion moments. From Thuli Madonsela's canary yellow gown to the long gold dress of Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba's wife, Noma, designer Gert-Johan Coetzee dominated the red carpet. Here are our best and worst looks from the night.



SONA 2016 fail | News24:
Watching this #SONA2016 has been the biggest joke, thus far nothing has
come of it, all it's been is a fashion show and a debate on the rules
of the house!

We the people are slave to this joke of a house they call parliament!

For heaven sakes dear lord please help this country and its people cause
we are getting nothing from the people who are meant to better the
country!

Far From Narnia - The New Yorker

Far From Narnia - The New Yorker:

Although he likes Lewis’s criticism and quotes it surprisingly often, he considers the fantasy series “morally loathsome.” In a 1998 essay for the Guardian, entitled “The Dark Side of Narnia,” he condemned “the misogyny, the racism, the sado-masochistic relish for violence that permeates the whole cycle.” He reviled Lewis for depicting the character Susan Pevensie’s sexual coming of age—suggested by her interest in “nylons and lipstick and invitations”—as grounds for exclusion from paradise. In Pullman’s view, the “Chronicles,” which end with the rest of the family’s ascension to a neo-Platonic version of Narnia after they die in a railway accident, teach that “death is better than life; boys are better than girls . . . and so on. There is no shortage of such nauseating drivel in Narnia, if you can face it.”

Don’t go changing: The gaping silence

Don’t go changing � The gaping silence:

To be virtuous, in other words, is to do good not because it’s good but because it’s right: to judge your actions by criteria entirely different from the question of whether other people benefit or suffer from them.

It’s this abstract, disciplined calculus of virtue which is threatened by the onset of nylons and lipstick and invitations. For Lewis, growing up – becoming a sexual being, not to put too fine a point on it – was a fall from grace, not because adulthood meant living in sin but because it meant living in the world. The world we know, Lewis believed, is only a poor shadow of a real world we can only know through the imagination.

The Ramshackle Vampire: Sorry, Ladies, C.S. Lewis Finds You Tedious and Icky

The Ramshackle Vampire: Sorry, Ladies, C.S. Lewis Finds You Tedious and Icky:

An episode in the final book that Lewis's readers call “the problem of Susan” thus becomes multiply alarming: it brings sexuality (teenage romance) into the series and then condemns it, and the women who express it. In The Last Battle (1956), Susan Pevensie was denied re-admission into Narnia – and thus allegorically into Heaven – because she dared develop an interest in “makeup” and “boys,” neither of which left her time for Narnia or Aslan. Several authors have subsequently addressed Lewis's callous dismissal of Susan in their own stories. Ana Mardoll last month drew her followers' attention to a recent and curiously moving addition to this Susan Pevensie subgenre, “Elegant and Fine” by T. Kingfisher (alias Ursula Vernon).

Politics: Madeleine Albright: There's a special place in Hell for women who don't support Hillary | Best of Cain

Politics: Madeleine Albright: There's a special place in Hell for women who don't support Hillary | Best of Cain:



Would it be taking this whole thing way too seriously if I bothered to correct the horrendous theology? I think so. It's not so much that the threat of eternal damnation is alluded to here. That's just Madeleine Albright being a presumptuous blowhard. But I do think she's trying to do something serious when she basically tells every woman in America they have no business not supporting Hillary for president:

There's Also a 'Special Place in Hell' for Madeleine Albright

There's Also a 'Special Place in Hell' for Madeleine Albright:



Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is making headlines today after her appearance at a Hillary Clinton rally. Standing beside a laughing Clinton, she said “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.”

What isn’t making headlines is the irony of someone who was responsible for the deaths of 2,000 civilians, including 88 children, pretending to have any moral judgement whatsoever.

Apartheid-era murder of sleeping teenagers returns to haunt De Klerk | World news | The Guardian

Apartheid-era murder of sleeping teenagers returns to haunt De Klerk | World news | The Guardian:



Mr de Klerk has not denied ordering the 1993 raid, in which the five boys were killed, on what was described as a Pan Africanist Congress safe house used to plan "terrorist attacks".

After the attack, the military said the dead were men who were armed and shooting but photographs of the scene showed the boys still in their beds, riddled with bullets and no guns in sight. Mr de Klerk later described the killings as a tragic mistake.

londinoupolis: The Holy Abbess and Wonder-worker Saint Brigid of Kildare, Ireland

londinoupolis: The Holy Abbess and Wonder-worker Saint Brigid of Kildare, Ireland:



According to tradition, Saint Brigid (Brigit, Bridget) was born at Fochart (or Fothairt), near Dundalk of County Louth in Ulster, of a noble Irish family, which had been converted by Saint Patrick. A wonderful striving for virtue was seen in her from her earliest years. Being uncommonly beautiful, she had many suitors and her father tried to marry her to the King of Ulster. At the age of sixteen, she implored Our Lord Jesus Christ, whom alone she desired as her spouse, to make her unattractive, so that no longer would anyone want to marry her. Her prayer was heard; she lost an eye, and was allowed to enter a monastery. However, on the very day that she took the veil, she was miraculously healed and recovered her original loveliness, which was now set off by spiritual beauty.

Wheaton Faculty Council Unanimously Asks College To Keep Lary... | Gleanings | ChristianityToday.com

Wheaton Faculty Council Unanimously Asks College To Keep Lary... | Gleanings | ChristianityToday.com:



Update (Jan. 22): At a public listening session yesterday, Wheaton provost Stanton Jones presented his own answer to the question that started the current controversy: Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?

"Ontologically all monotheists affirm that there can only be one divine being, and it seems logical to me that there must be some referential overlap or similarity in the divine being that each is referring to in each of the monotheistic religions," said Jones, according to a transcript posted by The Wheaton Record.

Orthodox Christian Initiative for Africa: Capitalism, Protestant Ethics & Orthodox Tradition

Orthodox Christian Initiative for Africa: Capitalism, Protestant Ethics & Orthodox Tradition:



Orthodoxy is not linked to metaphysics. We saw in the previous analysis that the spirit of Capitalism, as analysed by Max Weber, is very closely linked to the theory of predestination, which is one of the characteristic marks of metaphysics. Of course, the term metaphysics includes many other aspects that will not be analysed here.
We could preferably say that Orthodoxy is anti-metaphysical. The centre of Orthodox anthropology is not the “orthos logos” (the appropriate word, reasoning). Without abolishing logic, Orthodoxy transcends it through a revelation by God, which is beyond all reasoning and not against reasoning.
The theory of predestination is rejected by the theology of the Fathers of the Church. God does not violate man’s freedom and those who wish can become sons of God. In Orthodoxy there is no “aristocracy of the pious”. When man follows a specific method of therapy, he can even reach the state of theoptia (the ‘sight’ of God). Thus, he comes to know God, he acquires selfless love and loves the entire world. Just as medical science cannot be metaphysical, so Orthodox theology cannot be metaphysical.

THICK END OF THE WEDGE: Mkhize to thank for Zuma turnaround | Columnists | BDlive

THICK END OF THE WEDGE: Mkhize to thank for Zuma turnaround | Columnists | BDlive:



Zuma, though, couldn’t see the problem, so some or all (certainly enough members) of the meeting told him bluntly if he continued to imperil the future of the country they would withdraw their support of him as leader of the party. That got through. It was a political threat, not an economics lecture, and Zuma understood it instantly.

UPD “It’s Kids drowning in the Aegean, stupid!” – 42 Migrants dead in two boat incidents, among them 17 children

UPD “It’s Kids drowning in the Aegean, stupid!” – 42 Migrants dead in two boat incidents, among them 17 children:



While refugees keep drowning in the cold waters of the Aegean Sea trying to flee the war, thousands of kilometers away, in snowy Davos, political and economic leaders meet in cosy chalets and try to find solutions to the world and European problems.

Panicked by the refugees and migrants flow that doesn’t come into a halt despite the winter conditions, the EU leaders raise fences and close their borders, while others like Denmark or Germany “strip the refugees’ of their money and valuable assets to have them self-finance” the honor of finding shelter in their countries.

800 Free eBooks for iPad, Kindle & Other Devices | Open Culture

800 Free eBooks for iPad, Kindle & Other Devices | Open Culture: Download 800 free eBooks to your Kindle, iPad/iPhone, computer, smart phone or ereader. Collection includes great works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, including works by Asimov, Jane Austen, Philip K. Dick, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Neil Gaiman, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf & James Joyce. Also please see our collection 700 Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free, where you can download more great books to your computer or mp3 player.

A truly liberal society would tolerate the Anglican church's views on sexuality - Spectator Blogs

A truly liberal society would tolerate the Anglican church's views on sexuality - Spectator Blogs: The preposterous claim that the contemporary church’s view of marriage is like supporting slavery is still worth deconstructing. There are only two ways you could plausibly make this argument. First, if today’s church supported using the coercive power of the state to uphold its teaching on marriage. Secondly, if the church – simply by teaching traditional views on sexuality – is indirectly responsible for persecuting homosexuals.

Refrain from Anger: On Anglican Bigotry | The Sub-Dean's Stall

Refrain from Anger: On Anglican Bigotry | The Sub-Dean's Stall: The Episcopal Church – this supposedly high-minded and elevated form of rational Christianity – has succumbed to the nastiest abusiveness of fellow Christians. Whether it is the veiled racism of referring to “the Africans” or the copious use of various forms of the word “bigot” or casting the acts of the Primates as devious and underhanded – we are reacting in ways entirely out of proportion to the sanction that we have received.

We are reacting in ways that actually imperil communion – in ways that are more dangerous than a sanction or reprimand from the institutional arm of the Church. The Church is the Body. It is a mystical union as well as an institutional entity. Our reactions – our words and deeds – have the potential to undermine the mystical union we share for we are literally saying to one part of the Body, “We have no need of you.”

Syrian endgame could begin with Aleppo - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Syrian endgame could begin with Aleppo - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East: This column has warned for more than two years of the campaign to mainstream radical jihadi groups under the rubric of the “moderate” Syria opposition. This trend has done a disservice to the true secular, democratic opposition that rose against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2011. In November 2015, we advocated keeping Ahrar al-Sham out of the Syrian political process, despite the group’s purported influence “on the ground,” which is at least in part due to its collaboration with the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group. Unfortunately, Syrian democrats can’t rely on the largesse of regional patrons who don’t mind a sectarian edge to the anti-Assad military campaign. Even prominent former American diplomats are ready to welcome Ahrar al-Sham and their fellow jihadi travelers into the peace fold, as long as there is some tactical divergence with Jabhat al-Nusra and these groups are willing to “engage” with the West.

How to Fail at Family History Research in 10 Simple Steps | Family History Daily

Yes, we've all made most of these mistakes, many times. but I was saved from the first two to a large extent.



I was saved from the first by the friend, visiting from overseas, who sold me on the joys of ancestor hunting. When I said I was interested, he said "Have you got any aunts or uncles living nearby?" And we went to see an aunt I hadn't seen for 10 years, who had my grandparents' marriage certificate, and as we left he said to me, "They always know more than they think they do."



And I was saved from the second because no one had personal computers in those days and Ancestry.com did not exist.



How to Fail at Family History Research in 10 Simple Steps | Family History Daily:

How to ‘Fail’ at Family History Research in 10 Simple Steps

• Step 1. Jump right into your family’s history without taking the time to talk to any of your relatives. Whatever you do, do not ask parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins what they know about your family’s past.
  
  

• Step 2. Get a subscription to Ancestry.com and never, ever leave their site. Do not, under any circumstances, check out the many free genealogy websites that contain oodles of unique, helpful information.

But the rest of the mistakes I have made many times, and still do. Read them and be warned.

Blaming the Africans: Cultural Imperialism and the Meeting of the Primates | Thicket of the Jordan

Blaming the Africans: Cultural Imperialism and the Meeting of the Primates | Thicket of the Jordan: when the Anglican Communion does gather to discuss issues of theology and Africans repeat the official teaching of the Communion and the teaching of the vast majority of Christians everywhere, they are rebuked for taking the focus away from the common mission (of African economic development) that unites the Communion. We seem to be confused as to how those Africans would dare do this after we have spent the last thirty years congratulating ourselves for granting the aid that we have made the basis of our common life. We cannot understand why they would be so divisive and on the wrong side of our definition of justice.

Harry Potter vs. Huckleberry Finn: Why the British Tell Better Children’s Stories Than Americans - The Atlantic

Harry Potter vs. Huckleberry Finn: Why the British Tell Better Children’s Stories Than Americans - The Atlantic: If Harry Potter and Huckleberry Finn were each to represent British versus American children’s literature, a curious dynamic would emerge: In a literary duel for the hearts and minds of children, one is a wizard-in-training at a boarding school in the Scottish Highlands, while the other is a barefoot boy drifting down the Mississippi, beset by con artists, slave hunters, and thieves. One defeats evil with a wand, the other takes to a raft to right a social wrong. Both orphans took over the world of English-language children’s literature, but their stories unfold in noticeably different ways.

U.S. Dropped 23,144 Bombs on Muslim-Majority Countries in 2015 | Alternet

U.S. Dropped 23,144 Bombs on Muslim-Majority Countries in 2015 | Alternet: Nobel Peace Prize-winner President Obama dropped a serious amount of ordnance last year.

Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Lashes Out Against Gays: “Spit on Them, Beat them Up, They Are Not Human” - The Pappas Post

Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Lashes Out Against Gays: “Spit on Them, Beat them Up, They Are Not Human” - The Pappas Post:

Ambrosios is the Metropolitan of Kalavryta and Aigialeia— a region in north central Peloponnese and ranks as the 8th in order of hierarchy and influence in the Church’s synod, or governing body. Numerous politicians, media and public figures have called for condemnation of the bishop’s comments.

His vitriolic blog post (in Greek) followed legislation set forth by the ruling government to extend domestic partnership status to same-sex couples, granting them similar rights to those who are married.

Entertainment News - Magufuli’s ‘Pombe’ is intoxicating the world

Entertainment News - Magufuli’s ‘Pombe’ is intoxicating the world: The 5th president of Tanzania knows this all too well. Barely months into his first term, John Pombe Magufuli continues to win every one over with his anti-graft messages and actions. He storms hospitals and government offices to see if everyone is pulling their weight. Those who don’t are sacked, or threatened with the sack.

But the perception among Tanzanians is that finally, someone high up the leadership ladder is walking the talk. The raft of austerity measures the president has so far instituted have saved the East African nation trillions of Tanzanian shillings and for once, the country of some 50 million people seems to outclass her egotistic neighbour Kenya, while hogging the international limelight for all the right reasons.

Habetis Papam by David Bentley Hart | Articles | First Things

Habetis Papam by David Bentley Hart | Articles | First Things: F

ar be it from me—not being a Roman Catholic—to tell Catholics what they should think of their pontiff. But, just as a brief amicus curiae (so to speak), I want to note that I feel a wholly unqualified admiration for Francis; and nothing he has done, said, or written since assuming office has had any effect on me but to deepen that esteem. I have to say also that I am utterly baffled by the anxiety, disappointment, or hostility he clearly inspires in certain American Catholics of a conservative bent (using “conservative” in its distinctly American acceptation). And frankly I find it no more inexplicable in its most extreme expressions—which at their worst verge on sheer �hysteria—than in its mildest—an almost morbid oversensitivity to every faint hint of hidden meanings in every word, however innocuous, that escapes the pope’s lips or pen.

Christians, Capitalism, and Culture: A Response to David Bentley Hart | Public Discourse

Christians, Capitalism, and Culture: A Response to David Bentley Hart | Public Discourse: In an article praising Pope Francis in the December 2015 edition of First Things, the Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart confesses his bafflement at “the anxiety, disappointment, or hostility he clearly inspires in certain American Catholics of a conservative bent.” Referring to Francis’s environmental encyclical, Hart states that “I can quite literally find not a single sentence or sentiment in Laudato Si’ to which it seems to me possible for any Christian coherently to object.” Hart adds that he “simply cannot find an assertion anywhere in its pages that strikes me as anything other than either a plain statement of fact or a reasonable statement of Christian principle.”

Such comments are audacious but untenable. Close examination of some of Laudato Si’s arguments does raise questions about their coherence.

Warning: Actual Bible Reading Likely To Turn You Into A Liberal, Study Shows �

Warning: Actual Bible Reading Likely To Turn You Into A Liberal, Study Shows �:

Christian researchers have discovered the existence of a book that is so dangerous to conservative ideology, Republicans may soon decide to ban it altogether. Strangely enough, that book is the Christian Bible.

According to a study published in Christianity Today, people who say they read the Christian Bible frequently are far more likely to support liberal policies, when compared to those who read the Bible less often.

Scientists discover that atheists might not exist, and that’s not a joke

Scientists discover that atheists might not exist, and that’s not a joke:

This line of thought has led to some scientists claiming that “atheism is psychologically impossible because of the way humans think,” says Graham Lawton, an avowed atheist himself, writing in the New Scientist. “They point to studies showing, for example, that even people who claim to be committed atheists tacitly hold religious beliefs, such as the existence of an immortal soul.”

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, since we are born believers, not atheists, scientists say. Humans are pattern-seekers from birth, with a belief in karma, or cosmic justice, as our default setting. “A slew of cognitive traits predisposes us to faith,” writes Pascal Boyer in Nature, the science journal, adding that people “are only aware of some of their religious ideas”.

Book Maven: Williams goes mainstream

Book Maven: Williams goes mainstream: There could not be a more appropriate venue to launch a book about a man less known than his two fellow Inklings, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R.R. Tolkien, but who had a powerful presence at their meetings at the Eagle and Child. Lindop describes him as the "missing piece of the jigsaw" - a novelist, publisher, lecturer, poet, critic and, yes, magician.

Book Maven

Book Maven: There could not be a more appropriate venue to launch a book about a man less known than his two fellow Inklings, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R.R. Tolkien, but who had a powerful presence at their meetings at the Eagle and Child. Lindop describes him as the "missing piece of the jigsaw" - a novelist, publisher, lecturer, poet, critic and, yes, magician.

Things Done In Secret - Anglican Pastor

Things Done In Secret - Anglican Pastor:

As a priest, I live at the intersection of two worlds: at the corner of seen and unseen, at the juncture of things in heaven and things on earth. So do you; so do we all. Yet, even this language is fraught with difficulty; it doesn’t get it quite right. It is too conditioned by Enlightenment dualism. There is, after all, only one world, not two – a single world containing both that which we see with our eyes and touch with our hands and that which we know only through revelation and perceive only by faith.

Things done in secret matter insofar as they reveal and partake of this unified world in which God is everywhere present and filling all things, a world in which water can actually become holy, a world in which bread and wine are actually consecrated by word and Holy Spirit and by prayer and touch, a world in which a bow is worship and the sign of the cross banishes demons. If this is, in fact, the kind of world we live in, then yes, things done in secret matter as much as things done in plain sight. I believe this is the kind of world we live in. If I am wrong about this, then seen or unseen, none of this matters.

Top editor ‘was an apartheid spy’ - South Africa | IOL News

Top editor ‘was an apartheid spy’ - South Africa | IOL News: A legendary figure in journalism, who edited the largest and arguably most influential newspaper of the day, was a “mole” working in the interests of the apartheid government, according to a book released this weekend.

God, Spies and Lies: Finding South Africa’s Future Through its Past is written by veteran journalist John Matisonn.

He says Tertius Myburgh, who edited the Sunday Times between 1975 and 1990, was the editor whom apartheid secret service head General Hendrik van den Bergh boasted he owned.

We can save atheism from the New Atheists like Richard Dawkins | Jeff Sparrow | Comment is free | The Guardian

We can save atheism from the New Atheists like Richard Dawkins | Jeff Sparrow | Comment is free | The Guardian: Why are the New Atheists such jerks? Case in point: Richard Dawkins’ continuing pursuit of Ahmed Mohamed, the Texas 14-year-old humiliated in school after authorities mistook his homemade clock for a bomb.

The other day, The God Delusion author called Ahmed a hoaxer and responded to suggestions “he was only a kid” by linking to a report about a juvenile Islamic State (Isis) fighter. “And how old is this ‘kid’?” Dawkins asked.

John Daniel’s Question — Or, Why Searching for the Missing Still Matters for South Africa (A Tribute) | Backstories

John Daniel’s Question — Or, Why Searching for the Missing Still Matters for South Africa (A Tribute) | Backstories: Before he died of cancer last year, and up until the moment he could no longer focus on much more than getting through the next treatment, John Daniel was a passionate and active supporter of the Missing Persons Task Team (MPTT) – of its cause, its work, and of its incredibly brave and overworked staff. His interest in the MPTT emerged not only from the long standing social justice orientation that came to define his political and academic life, but also from his work as a researcher for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) which constituted the MPTT to continue with aspects of its overall mandate.

What I Discovered From Interviewing Imprisoned ISIS Fighters | The Nation

What I Discovered From Interviewing Imprisoned ISIS Fighters | The Nation:  An Islamic State fighter’s biggest resentment was the lack of an adolescence. Another of the interviewees was displaced at the critical age of 13, when his family fled to Kirkuk from Diyala province at the height of Iraq’s sectarian civil war. They are children of the occupation, many with missing fathers at crucial periods (through jail, death from execution, or fighting in the insurgency), filled with rage against America and their own government. They are not fueled by the idea of an Islamic caliphate without borders; rather, ISIS is the first group since the crushed Al Qaeda to offer these humiliated and enraged young men a way to defend their dignity, family, and tribe. This is not radicalization to the ISIS way of life, but the promise of a way out of their insecure and undignified lives; the promise of living in pride as Iraqi Sunni Arabs, which is not just a religious identity but cultural, tribal, and land-based, too.

SLAVA – what makes Serbs different from other Orthodox

SLAVA – what makes Serbs different from other Orthodox: Slava is connected to the times of old Slavic religion, when a cult of ancestors was very strong. For Slavs, family and its legacy is one of the holiest things in life; and this custom is highly appreciated even today. In order to maintain this legacy and implement it into Christianity, Serbian archbishop St. Sava canonized this ceremony and formed a unique cultural heritage for Serbs

Oswald Spengler and the Soul of Russia � Katehon

Oswald Spengler and the Soul of Russia � Katehon: while Spengler, like many others of the time in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution, regarded – partially - Russia as the Asianised leader of a ‘coloured revolution’ against the white world, he also considered other possibilities. This paper examines Spengler’s views on Russia as a distinct culture that had not yet fulfilled her destiny, while Western civilisation is about to take a final bow on the world historical stage. His views on Russia as an outsider are considered in relation to the depiction of the Russian soul by seminal Russians such as Gogol.

Why Anti-Authoritarians are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill

Why Anti-Authoritarians are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill: In my career as a psychologist, I have talked with hundreds of people previously diagnosed by other professionals with oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, anxiety disorder and other psychiatric illnesses, and I am struck by (1) how many of those diagnosed are essentially anti-authoritarians, and (2) how those professionals who have diagnosed them are not.

Anti-authoritarians question whether an authority is a legitimate one before taking that authority seriously. Evaluating the legitimacy of authorities includes assessing whether or not authorities actually know what they are talking about, are honest, and care about those people who are respecting their authority. And when anti-authoritarians assess an authority to be illegitimate, they challenge and resist that authority—sometimes aggressively and sometimes passive-aggressively, sometimes wisely and sometimes not.

Remembering St. John Coltrane

Remembering St. John Coltrane: “My goal is to live the truly religious life, and express it in my music. If you live it, when you play there’s no problem because the music is part of the whole thing. To be a musician is really something. It goes very, very deep. My music is the spiritual expression of what I am – my faith, my knowledge, my being.” –John Coltrane

Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe

jameschater.com - Home:

The Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe (hereafter referred to as the exarchate), headquartered at the Cathedral of Alexsander Nevsky, Rue Daru, Paris, is facing an unprecedented crisis. And that is saying a lot, given the archdiocese’s turbulent history! Recent actions by Archbishop Job of Telmessos have done nothing to stabilize what was already a precarious situation. Rather, they have brought matters to a head, with implications that run all the way to the throne of the Ecumenical Patriarchate itself. As such, the issues raised deserve the attention of all Orthodox.

The Rise and Rise of Papism in African Churches | Her Zimbabwe

The Rise and Rise of Papism in African Churches | Her Zimbabwe: You have to have study for a PhD or a medical degree to be called Dr. Somebody. You must have certain educational qualifications, experience and character qualities to be called Judge So-and-So. But in many churches have people called Apostle Ningi when he had not planted even one church and Bishop Lokhuzeni who has no leadership track record that anyone can attest to. These titles are often meaningless and only serve the purpose of distinguishing the title from other members of the church. They are the super-Christians and everyone else is subordinate. They are not about respecting a person but about exalting the person behind the pulpit further above the people on the pews.

Carmen Bugan: Secret Police Records and The Language of Memory - Nieman Storyboard

Carmen Bugan: Secret Police Records and The Language of Memory - Nieman Storyboard:

Reading my personal “biography” in the secret-police speak of the files sends me back to a self I both recognize and don’t, creating another place of writing, which I could not have imagined before. I am caught in the conflict between the free, fluid language of memory and the shackled, impersonal language of surveillance reports.

The Slow Death of the University - The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Slow Death of the University - The Chronicle of Higher Education: From Cape Town to Reykjavik, Sydney to S�o Paulo, an event as momentous in its own way as the Cuban revolution or the invasion of Iraq is steadily under way: the slow death of the university as a center of humane critique.

The Real Reason College Tuition Costs So Much - The New York Times

The Real Reason College Tuition Costs So Much - The New York Times: a major factor driving increasing costs is the constant expansion of university administration. According to the Department of Education data, administrative positions at colleges and universities grew by 60 percent between 1993 and 2009, which Bloomberg reported was 10 times the rate of growth of tenured faculty positions.

What Happened When Sam Harris Tried (and Failed) to Embarrass Noam Chomsky | Alternet

What Happened When Sam Harris Tried (and Failed) to Embarrass Noam Chomsky | Alternet: Harris shares the perverse belief that pervades the corridors of power, “people are going to be killed, many of them women and children – and unlike our enemies it appalls us so that makes it okay.”

Daily Maverick Chronicle: #FeesMustFall – Violence at the Gates of Parliament | Daily Maverick

Daily Maverick Chronicle: #FeesMustFall – Violence at the Gates of Parliament | Daily Maverick: When students stormed Parliament's grounds on Wednesday afternoon, SHAUN SWINGLER was there to document the police's brutal response. It is an upsetting but important video.

Shooting Feet: Israel Targets Palestinian Soccer Players | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

Shooting Feet: Israel Targets Palestinian Soccer Players | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community: One more God-awful chapter in the ongoing God-awful narrative that is Israeli occupation: Israeli forces attacked two teenage Palestinian cousins and soccer players, Jawhar Nasser Jawhar, 19, and Adam Abd al-Raouf Halabiya, 17, shooting them repeatedly in the feet and legs - ten bullets into Jawhar, two into Adam - before unleashing attack dogs and finally beating them in what critics call another egregious targeting of Palestinian athletes in a place where "soccer is politics."

Here’s How Facebook’s News Feed Actually Works | TIME

Here’s How Facebook’s News Feed Actually Works | TIME:

Facebook is injecting a human element into the way News Feed operates. The company’s growing army of human raters help the social network improve the News Feed experience in ways that can’t easily be measured by “Likes.” A new curation tool launching Thursday, for instance, called “See First” will let any user choose which of their friends they want to see at the top of the feed, rather than having the decision dictated by an algorithm.

John Pilger: Fascism and a new holocaust beckon if we remain silent - Stop the War Coalition

John Pilger: Fascism and a new holocaust beckon if we remain silent - Stop the War Coalition:

Had the Nazis not invaded Europe, Auschwitz and the Holocaust would not have happened. Had the United States and its satellites not initiated their war of aggression in Iraq in 2003, almost a million people would be alive today; and Islamic State, or ISIS, would not have us in thrall to its savagery. They are the progeny of modern fascism, weaned by the bombs, bloodbaths and lies that are the surreal theatre known as news.

Neoliberalism and Higher Education - The New York Times

Neoliberalism and Higher Education - The New York Times:

...neoliberalism is a pejorative way of referring to a set of economic/political policies based on a strong faith in the beneficent effects of free markets. Here is an often cited definition by Paul Treanor: “Neoliberalism is a philosophy in which the existence and operation of a market are valued in themselves, separately from any previous relationship with the production of goods and services . . . and where the operation of a market or market-like structure is seen as an ethic in itself, capable of acting as a guide for all human action, and substituting for all previously existing ethical beliefs.” (“Neoliberalism: Origins, Theory, Definition.”)

Zuroff: What happened in Srebrenica does not fit definition of genocide | InSerbia News

Zuroff: What happened in Srebrenica does not fit definition of genocide | InSerbia News:

BELGRADE – It is absurd to compare the Holocaust, genocide in Rwanda and the crimes committed in Srebrenica, said Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Efraim Zuroff from Israel as one of the most famous Nazi-hunters.

Stanford scholar upends interpretation of philosopher Martin Heidegger

Stanford scholar upends interpretation of philosopher Martin Heidegger: After a lifetime of studying the German philosopher's groundbreaking works, Stanford Religious Studies Professor Thomas Sheehan concludes that Heideggerians' obsession with Being misses the point.

ReligiousLeftLaw.com

ReligiousLeftLaw.com:

Germany will be able to export much more than it otherwise would, since its currency — the euro — is undervalued as a German currency. It also means Greece will have much more trouble exporting than it otherwise would, since its currency — the euro — is overvalued as a Greek currency. So Germany will tend to rack up huge trade surpluses, and Greece will tend correspondingly to incur deficits and debts — all thanks to the nature of their shared currency in relation to their very different economies.

Almost Everything You've Heard About The Anti-Gay Sweet Cakes Wedding Cake Case Is (Probably) Wrong - The New Civil Rights Movement

Almost Everything You've Heard About The Anti-Gay Sweet Cakes Wedding Cake Case Is (Probably) Wrong - The New Civil Rights Movement:

the Oregon DOJ sent Cryer's consumer complaint to the Kleins, with a cover letter requesting that they respond to the complainants. It was an attempt to encourage reconciliation.

Instead, Aaron Klein posted the discrimination complaint to Facebook (not taking the precaution of redacting the couple's name and address from the document). "This is what happens when you tell gay people you won't do their 'wedding cake,'" he posted.

The Kleins then took to the news and media. They cozied up to anti-gay hate group Family Research Council, campaigning at appallingly anti-gay hate rallies, for their business' totally-fictional right to discriminate against LGBT people.

After filing the discrimination complaint, the Bowman-Cryers became the victims of death threats — as well as outrageous and horrific claims by conservative media outlets and anti-gay groups.

The Evolutionary Mystery of Left-Handedness and What It Reveals About How the Brain Works | Brain Pickings

The Evolutionary Mystery of Left-Handedness and What It Reveals About How the Brain Works | Brain Pickings:

So what can the brain reveal about handedness? One of the first scientists to ponder the mystery of left-handedness was pioneering French surgeon Paul Broca, whom Wolman calls “the closest thing the religion of Southpaw has to a prophet.” In 1861, just two years after Darwin had discovered the principles of evolution, Broca encountered two patients who stumped him profoundly. One was an epileptic man named Leborgne but known as “Tan,” nicknamed after the only syllable he was capable of uttering. Leborgne was able to understand spoken language but couldn’t articulate his thoughts in speech — something that perplexed Broca enormously, doubly so given that one of Leborgne’s first symptoms was a weakening of function in the right side of his body, which progressed to more loss of motor control and eventually the loss of sight and some of his mental faculties.

This Is How Hillary Loses the Primary - The Daily Beast

This Is How Hillary Loses the Primary - The Daily Beast:

Hillary Clinton has supported every U.S. war since Vietnam. She supported not only DOMA, which her husband signed, but a travel ban on those who were HIV positive. She supported welfare cuts (remember her husband’s efforts toward “ending welfare as we know it”?). She supports the death penalty and campaigned in her husband’s place during the 1992 New Hampshire primary when he left to oversee the execution of an African-American man whose suicide attempt left him brain damaged.

Greece referendum result and the meaning of debt - Business Insider

Greece referendum result and the meaning of debt - Business Insider:

To pay back debt, you have to have a growing economy. That's a basic law of economics. It's how credit cards work. It's how mortgages work. And it is how sovereign/central-bank debt works. But Greece's economy was never in a position to benefit from debt, because it has been shrinking for years:

Thomas Piketty accuses Germany of forgetting history as it lectures Greece - The Washington Post

Thomas Piketty accuses Germany of forgetting history as it lectures Greece - The Washington Post:

A number of prominent economists have raised concerns about Germany's approach to the Greek debt crisis, which Germans say reflects a need to force changes in Greece's economy so that it never again has such a crisis.

But in the interview with Die Zeit, Thomas Piketty went even farther, saying that the Germans are only in the strong economic position they are today because they benefited from the forgiveness of their neighbors after World War II.

This 200,000 Year-Old City in South Africa Could Rewrite Human History | The Mind Unleashed

This 200,000 Year-Old City in South Africa Could Rewrite Human History | The Mind Unleashed: A giant stone city was discovered in South Africa, approximately 150 km west of port Maputo, Mozambique. By calculating the erosion rate of the dolerite, it became possible to assess the age of the site. It was estimated that the 1500 square-kilometer metropolis was constructed between 160,000 and 200,000 years ago!

Dylann Roof’s racist manifesto: ‘I have no choice’ - The Washington Post

Dylann Roof’s racist manifesto: ‘I have no choice’ - The Washington Post: Authorities said Saturday that the man accused of killing nine African Americans in a venerable Charleston, S.C., church left a racist manifesto targeting blacks, Jews and Hispanics on his Web site, a white supremacist broadside that also appears to offer a rationale for the shootings.

The lengthy declaration, loaded with offensive racial characterizations of blacks and others, includes the conclusion that “someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.”

“I have no choice,” states part of that final section, titled “An Explanation.” “I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is [the] most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country.”

A Letter From a White South African to White America�|�Bronwyn Lea

A Letter From a White South African to White America�|�Bronwyn Lea: I know there are many differences between America and South Africa's histories: they are complex narratives, woven in blood and ink. I do not write this as an expert analyst, or as a political pundit -- but as one confessing there is so much I don't know and understand. But, I offer the little I've learned living in a country which shed tears and blood over race, and now living in another doing the same:

The Usenet Improvement Project - Home

The Usenet Improvement Project - Home: What is the Usenet improvement Project?

The Usenet Improvement Project is an attempt to make Usenet participation a better experience for those who are clued as to what the Usenet medium is and how to use it.
Lamers
Lamer Street Sign

Most of the people who post to Usenet via the clunky Google Groups web interface are lusers or lamers. Because of their use of a clunky Usenet web interface (and all Usenet web interfaces suck - Usenet wasn't designed for webification and does not need webification), they have no idea what Usenet is, how it works, or how to use it properly. And, generally, they don't want to learn.