My Father's Calling | Hazlitt

My Father's Calling | Hazlitt:

I don’t remember the eulogy spoken for my father at his funeral.

On that day almost six years ago, I sat in my childhood church’s well-worn pews of pale wood unable to comprehend the words offered as both a supposed comfort and a celebration. Although my body ached with loss, it wasn’t the fogginess of grief that created this disconnect for me. I couldn’t grasp a single word because the eulogizer spoke in Russian, a language my father did not speak and a language none of his family, including myself, understood. The man who took this honor of remembrance was the Bishop assigned to our Russian Orthodox parish, and he barely knew my father.

The demise of the nation state | News | The Guardian

The demise of the nation state | News | The Guardian:

Nothing advertises the crisis of our nation-state system so well, in fact, as its 65 million refugees – a “new normal” far greater than the “old emergency” (in 1945) of 40 million. The unwillingness even to acknowledge this crisis, meanwhile, is appropriately captured by the contempt for refugees that now drives so much of politics in the rich world.

Submitting Your Novel: Key Tips for Success | Now Novel

Submitting Your Novel: Key Tips for Success | Now Novel:

Submitting your novel to an agent or publisher is a multi-stage process. It helps to know the fundamentals of what makes a strong submission. At book fairs, aspiring authors often ask, ‘How can I get ‘discovered’? What can I do to make my submission stand out?’

Racism, Justified: A Critical Look at Critical Race Theory | The Harvard Law Record

Racism, Justified: A Critical Look at Critical Race Theory | The Harvard Law Record:

By now, most of you have heard of Critical Race Theory. Its narrative, ideology, and even vocabulary have become a familiar refrain. “Systemic oppression,” “institutional racism,” and “white privilege” have become common topics of debate. At Harvard Law, a group of protestors calls for $5 million and three tenure-track faculty to establish a program on Critical Race Theory at HLS. But, beneath the demands, there remains a lack of clarity about what Critical Race Theory actually means.

ANC Floats New Deal On Land Expropriation Without Compensation

ANC Floats New Deal On Land Expropriation Without Compensation:

The ANC is trying to provide for land reform without uncompensated expropriation, to ensure that the Constitution does not have to be amended and take the sting out of the party's latest attempt to get more land into black hands.

A parliamentary motion for muscular land expropriation sponsored by the EFF and supported in an amended form by the governing party sailed through the legislature in February and has raised fears about property rights in general.

Since then, the number of sporadic land occupations by poor, homeless and landless South Africans has increased. The seaside town of Hermanus faced an attempted occupation, as did Midrand and other areas in Johannesburg, over the past week.

Book Review: 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson | Mere Orthodoxy

Book Review: 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson | Mere Orthodoxy:

Before they get carried away, the Christians now tuning into Jordan Peterson need to realize that this man is not the next C.S. Lewis. On the contrary, Jordan Peterson is the man C.S. Lewis warned them about. It’s not that I don’t understand why Christians are attracted to Peterson’s message of personal responsibility, especially as it is addressed to young men. For one thing, everything Alastair Roberts wrote in his recent essay is basically true. Peterson really is an effective communicator (though a better speaker than a writer), who could teach most pastors a thing or two about sermonizing. And Peterson has many admirable personal qualities, especially intellectual virtues but also compassion and a strong sense of justice.

We must end the manipulation of history

We must end the manipulation of history:

Systematic lies and propaganda have colored the Zionist agenda to keep alive the myth of Zionist Israel as a Democracy. Jews-as-victims is hammered in, to include many references to the Nazi Holocaust and quite horrifyingly has twisted, lied and distorted the reality of Zionism, which includes jailors, occupiers, murderers, persecutors, torturers and profoundly fiendish victimizers. The obsessive propaganda reference to Jews as victims has colored many in the older generation of Jews who maintain a strong allegiance to Zionism. In this way, references to the Nazi Holocaust are used to imprint and inflame the fear of a second Holocaust. The identification is as eternal victims destined to be wiped out. This time the perpetrators are “Arabs,” hated would-be destroyers of Israel, sub-human monsters who must be countered or destroyed in order for a Jewish state to be born. Yes, Zionism an ideology of Nationalism and racism has managed to keep the lies alive through domestic intimidation that obscures the violent agenda of genocide that continues to reign.

Jordan Peterson & Fascist�Mysticism | by Pankaj Mishra | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books

Jordan Peterson & Fascist�Mysticism | by Pankaj Mishra | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books:

12 Rules for Life is only Peterson’s second book in twenty years. Packaged for people brought up on BuzzFeed listicles, Peterson’s brand of intellectual populism has risen with stunning velocity; and it is boosted, like the political populisms of our time, by predominantly male and frenzied followers, who seem ever-ready to pummel his critics on social media. It is imperative to ask why and how this obscure Canadian academic, who insists that gender and class hierarchies are ordained by nature and validated by science, has suddenly come to be hailed as the West’s most influential public intellectual. For his apotheosis speaks of a crisis that is at least as deep as the one signified by Donald Trump’s unexpected leadership of the free world.

Fox News and Alex Jones could pay for pushing fake news about real people.

Fox News and Alex Jones could pay for pushing fake news about real people.:

It’s been a bad week for white supremacists and fake news. First, Matt Heimbach—the founder of the neo-Nazi group the Traditionalist Worker Party and a man famous for shoving a black woman at a Donald Trump rally—was arrested for assaulting another woman (his wife). Since Heimbach was also accused of choking the co-founder of the party as part of what seems to be a complicated love rhombus, it now appears the entire group is defunct. Also this week, the Southern Poverty Law Center discovered that the wife of Stewart Rhodes, founder of the alt-right anti-government militia group the Oath Keepers, had filed for a temporary restraining order, claiming her husband was abusive and violent. Alt-right servers are being shut down, as are YouTube channels, albeit too slowly. And Richard Spencer, who was meant to be the alt-right’s palatable offering, has ruefully declared that his white-supremacist rallies—as a result of which at least one woman has been killed—are “not fun anymore.” He says he is considering canceling his whole not-fun, poorly attended speaking tour. He’s also dropping his lawsuits against colleges that had barred him from speaking. Also, he can’t get a lawyer to represent him.

And in a law suit against fake news:

Are lawsuits like the two filed this week attacks on newsgathering in general? Not really, because both suits distinguish between what real media does and what media scams and hatchet jobs do, and how the latter victimizes literal bystanders. As the Gilmore complaint puts it, in describing Alex Jones and his ilk:

Fact-based journalism is essential to our democracy, because it provides citizens with objective, reality-based information on issues of public concern. Defendants are not fact-based journalists. Defendants spread lies to construct false narratives that terrify a gullible audience, all in a desperate attempt to generate revenue and momentum for a hateful agenda. The First Amendment necessarily creates space for democratic debate, but it does not and cannot protect the spread of deliberate lies driven by hate and designed to incite violence against private citizens. In this era of ubiquitous smartphones and social media saturation, ordinary citizens like Mr. Gilmore increasingly find themselves in situations where they capture breaking news and are compelled out of civic duty to share it. The consequences for fulfilling this civic duty cannot include becoming the target of premeditated character assassination, based on lies and carried out by professional conspiracy theorists instrumentalizing their throngs of followers.

South Africa votes through motion to seize land from white farmers without compensation | The Independent

Fake news:

South Africa votes through motion to seize land from white farmers without compensation | The Independent

Thousands Sign Petition Asking Trump to Let White Farmers in South Africa Migrate to U.S. After Country Votes to Force Them Off Land

Fake news from Newsweek.

Thousands Sign Petition Asking Trump to Let White Farmers in South Africa Migrate to U.S. After Country Votes to Force Them Off Land

Mondli Makhanya: The great land return lie | News24

Mondli Makhanya: The great land return lie | News24:

The ANC has over the past two decades developed comprehensive policies on land reform and restitution and put in place an institutional infrastructure to give effect to these policies. Study after study – including those by the ANC government – have shown that the failure is due to capacity weaknesses, corruption and shoddy implementation, not any constitutional impediment.

Meoliberalism and fascism in Ukraine - The Heavy Anglo Orthodox

The Heavy Anglo Orthodox: There’s always a Hitch…:

Is the current Ukrainian government ‘far-right’ or ‘fascist’? No. It is neoliberal. That is a distinction that critical observers need to continue to make. However, that same neoliberal government continues to rely on far-right and fascist support, for everything from the rewriting of its history to the maintenance of the status and geopolitical alignment of its current political �lites. It shouldn’t take someone like me to explain why that’s troubling.

Bermuda legalized same-sex marriage a year ago. This week it abolished it. - The Washington Post

Bermuda legalized same-sex marriage a year ago. This week it abolished it. - The Washington Post:

In an unusual move, Bermuda has abolished same-sex marriage less than a year after it was legalized, replacing the same-sex unions with domestic partnerships.

Bermuda Gov. John Rankin signed a bill into law Wednesday that reverses an earlier Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage. The new law gives domestic partners in the British island territory similar rights as married couples — but without the legal title.

This Country Has Become The First To Scrap Same-Sex Marriage

This Country Has Become The First To Scrap Same-Sex Marriage

: The Bermuda House of Assembly and the Senate have already passed the Domestic Partnership Act, which, in replacement of their same-sex marriage law, states that any Bermuda citizen will be allowed to form a domestic partnership. The Bermudan
government says the new act will offer equal rights.

It's a Book Thing: South African Book Bloggers

It's a Book Thing: South African Book Bloggers:

If you too are a South African who has a book reviewing blog, or if you regularly review and promote South African fiction and would like to be on this list, please contact Lauren Smith at violininavoid(at)gmail(dot)com with the following information:

the name of your blog
a link to your blog
your tagline, if you have one
the genres you most often review
(optional) any other important information eg. If you also write movie reviews, if you specialise in indie fiction, etc. Please keep this brief (1-2 lines max).

10 top writing tips and the psychology behind them - without bullshit

10 top writing tips and the psychology behind them - without bullshit:

1 Write shorter.

Why it matters. Readers are impatient and will give up on your blog post, email, or document before you’ve made your point. Every extra word makes readers antsy.

Why you write long. It’s far easier to type than to edit. So people just keep adding things.

How to fix it. Edit. Delete your “warming up” text and start with the main point. Cull extraneous detail and repetition. Work as if each word you eventually publish or send will cost you $10. I’ve often had writers who were outraged that I had redlined two-thirds of what they wrote . . . only to read the shortened doc and respond “that’s so much more powerful.”

Former Navy SEAL who killed bin Laden: Trump's military parade is 'third world b*llsh*t'

Former Navy SEAL who killed bin Laden: Trump's military parade is 'third world b*llsh*t':

Adding to the list is Robert J. O’Neill, the former Navy SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden in 2011.

A military parade is third world bullshit. We prepare. We deter. We fight. Stop this conversation.

— Robert J. O'Neill (@mchooyah) February 8, 2018

How Anti-Semitism’s True Origin Makes It Invisible To The Left – The Forward

How Anti-Semitism’s True Origin Makes It Invisible To The Left – The Forward:

Underlying this pervasive point of view is the notion that Jews, who are often conflated with whites, should “check their privilege,” because anti-Semitism just isn’t as bad as other forms of racism. On campus, where the ADL notes an acute rise in anti-Jewish hostility, alarmed Jewish students are sidelined for being white and middle-class and the Holocaust is trivialized as “white on white crime.” Elsewhere, Jews who protest anti-Semitism are dismissed for failing to ante up sufficient concern about people of color.

The dark aftermath of 1968's murder, revolution and protest is nearly forgotten - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The dark aftermath of 1968's murder, revolution and protest is nearly forgotten - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):

It's hard to pinpoint precisely the moment when the switch was flicked and 1967's Summer of Love turned into the year of murder, revolution and protest that was 1968.

January 31, and the start of the Lunar New Year (Tet), in 1968 must be close.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono say end the war
Photo: The Beatles came under enormous pressure to declare their allegiance to the anti-establishment cause. (Flickr)

That was the time chosen by North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces to begin co-ordinated attacks on the city of Hue, its fortified citadel and multiple America bases across the already war ravaged country.