martyrdom

PARIS — In the year after the United States’ invasion of Iraq, a 22-year-old pizza delivery man here couldn’t take it anymore. Sickened by images of American soldiers humiliating Muslims at the Abu Ghraib prison, he made plans to go fight United States forces. He studied a virtual AK-47 on a website. Then he took lessons from a man, using a hand-drawn picture of a gun.

It was an almost laughable attempt at jihad, and as the day of his departure approached, the delivery man, Chérif Kouachi, felt increasingly unsure of himself.

Like dogs, we “need something to do”. Dogs will be trained to volunteer for sheep herding and cattle mustering. 

There were times past when we thought that things were more simple and assured. They were not. The controversies were well-contained and hidden from view.

 

 

When the European Central Bank’s governing council met last week it was expected to do something, or at least say something, about the strengthening of the euro against the US dollar. It did nothing and said little.

The Western genre has long been associated with right-wing and libertarian politics, and is said to promote individualism and free-market economics.

 

In a new look at the Western, however, Ryan McMaken shows that the Western is in fact often anti-capitalist, and in many ways, the genre attacks the dominant ideology of nineteenth-century America: classical liberalism.

 

Trump says he’ll ‘negotiate’ for a third term in office

 

Australia’s Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton, warned foreign journalists that they may be investigated if they give a “slanted view” of the country. Meanwhile, cops in Victoria have crushed lockdown protests with an iron fist.

We need to expose the cretin-intentionists (oops, I meant to say the creationists) when they are pontificating about "scientifically" understanding these modern times…

Jules Letambour revisits Paris, 1830... The painting above was done by Delacroix — not to illustrate the French revolution of 1789 — but to depict that of 1830 which toppled King Charles X of France. 

 

And by arranged coincidence, Jules sent us his translation of "La Fille Aux Yeux d'Or" by Honoré de Balzac... It is horrid, though as contemporary as New York and the rest of the word today...

 

 

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Drawing a rigorous distinction between the feeling of being bored (“boredom”) and the tendency for some people to be bored more easily than others (“boredom proneness”), Eastwood and Danckert systematically review empirical evidence in an attempt to determine whether boredom is good or bad, ultimately concluding that it is neither. Just like play, they argue, boredom serves important functions across species, guiding behavior away from inaction, toward novel and potentially rewarding outcomes.

 

Trump has a long history of disparaging military service

Long before the president’s views of the military would emerge as a flash point in his 2020 reelection campaign, Trump had an extensive track record of incendiary and disparaging remarks about veterans and military service.

By Michael Kranish

Trump and allies ratchet up disinformation efforts in late stage of campaign

The president and his supporters are trafficking in obfuscation and disinformation at a rapid clip, through the use of selectively edited videos, deceptive retweets and false statements.

Vladimir Putin and Sergei Lavrov discuss the Navalny case…