A Thought for the Day
What shall we say at the end of the day to guide us along a halcyon way?
Some believe that such a reprieve is more than we shall ever receive;
Still, at the heart of where we may start if we search for such a typecast part
Remain amendments to sacred commandments that merely ask our attention:
To wit,
1. The Golden Rule Reigns Supreme.
2. All Children Receive Priority.
1. All Who Work Are Welcome.
4. All Who Work Are Equal.
5. All Who Work Have Responsibilities & Rights.
6. All Who Work Receive Benefits & Provide Support for Others.
7. All Who Work Own Everything That Labor Transforms.
8. All Who Work Are Family.
9. All Beliefs, Congruent with the Golden Rule, Are Welcome.
10. All Other Matters Are Negotiable.
We’d hardly need a gentler creed to assist us as we try not to bleed
Away all the joy that comes, bold or coy, if only we’ll make appropriate noise.
This Day in History
Today in Liverpool and Hamburg is Beatles Appreciation Day, and around the world people commemorate Nikola Tesla Day; on the plains of Macedonia 2065 years back Pompeian armies came close to crushing the forces of Julius Caesar at the Battle of Dyrrachium; a millennia and twenty-nine years before today, the deference that Scandinavian royalty showed to Irish aristocrats led to the founding of the city of Dublin and a consolidation of Irish ethnic power; just two years short of a century afterward, in 1086, a peasant insurgency led to the execution of Danish king Canute IV; five hundred and eight years prior to the present pass, a baby boy was born who would rise to the stern center of reform in Protestant circles occupied by John Calvin; MORE HERE
Doc of the Day
"david brion davis" OR "eric williams" OR "walter rodney" OR "hugh thomas" slavery "slave trade" history analysis = 108,000 results
Nearly Naked Links
Puerto Rico – https://ofamerica.wordpress.co
Koreans and Demian –
http://blog.lareviewofbooks.or
Space – http://nautil.us/issue/49/the-
The End of Retail – http://www.newgeography.com/co
Interesting People Places Things of Note
A fascinating Aeon post by an accomplished academician who tells us a true spiritual experience is closer than we think: “Over the past five centuries, Western culture has gradually marginalised and pathologised ecstasy. That’s partly a result of our shift from a supernatural or animist worldview to a disenchanted and materialist one. In most cultures, ecstasy is a connection to the spirit world. In our culture, since the 17th century, if you suggest you’re connected to the spirit world, you’re likely to be considered ignorant, eccentric or unwell. Ecstasy has been labelled as various mental disorders: enthusiasm, hysteria, psychosis. It’s been condemned as a threat to secular government. We’ve become a more controlled, regulated and disciplinarian society, in which one’s standing as a good citizen relies on one’s ability to control one’s emotions, be polite, and do one’s job. The autonomous self has become our highest ideal, and the idea of surrendering the self is seen as dangerous. “
Writers Tools Issues
Jelly Roll ‘Aural History’ Review-Essay
An Utne look at how storytelling and musicianship changed forever with this one interview: “Lomax soon realized that this was an interview like no other…. He heard the stentorian tones of Morton’s voice, part preacher, part medicine-show huckster, a rich, languid baritone that looped and slid, stretching one-syllable words into two. He saw how Morton seemed to light up as he faced the phonograph day after day, a one-time jazz has-been who had found a new purpose. And he marveled at the music that the microphone seemed to elicit: the Creole street cries, the obscene whorehouse melodies, and, most haunting of all, the formless, nameless chord progressions that he played as he spoke, changing from major to minor to augment the mood of his tale.”
General Media & ‘Intellectual Property’ Issues
An Establishment ‘Fake News’ Disquistion
An ongoing look, this time from Nieman Lab, as to the realities of the ‘fake news’ imbroglio: ““Only Hungary has a bigger gap…” The Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2017, out this week, touches on all kinds of digital news trends — see here for Nieman Lab’s general roundup and here for two of the report’s authors’ takes on how social media may actually diversify people’s media diets. There’s also more on fake news in the report: “Definitions of ‘fake news’ are fraught with difficulty and respondents frequently mix up three categories: (1) news that is ‘invented’ to make money or discredit others; (2) news that has a basis in fact, but is ‘spun’ to suit a particular agenda; and (3) news that people don’t feel comfortable about or don’t agree with,” the authors write. “In our analysis very few people can accurately recall having seen items in category 1, except in the United States.”
Recent Events
Assessing U.S.-Russian Relations
An Information Clearing House look at the current grim relations between the two nations, as well as a historical look at what defines Russia generally: “To understand how Russians usually respond to Western power a little time travel, starting 1219 AD, is more than useful. …
Russia’s greatest fear begins here – crushed between their European foes to the West and the Mongols to the East. Russians were to develop a paranoid dread of invasion and encirclement which has tormented their foreign relations ever since. Hardly ever has an experience left such deep and ever-lasting scars on a nation’s psyche as this cataclysm did on Russians. This explains, among other things, their stoical acceptance of harsh rule at home.”
General Past & Present Issues
A Consortium News article that contextualizes the history of America’s elitist deep state: “The idea of an elitist Deep State – erasing a “mistake” by the people – pervades current efforts to remove buffoonish President Trump, but the concept has deep historical roots dating from the Founding, writes Jada Thacker”