Aug. 12th, 2012

monk222: (Default)
Fareed Zakaria apologized publicly for passing off New Yorker writer Jill Lepore's work as his own in an essay he wrote for Time magazine. Not to put too fine a point on it, Zakaria committed egregious plagiarism, as Alexander Abad-Santos of the Atlantic Wire reported.

-- Jim Sleeper at Huffington Post

That's a bit of a surprise and a disappointment. That piece also linked to another article from "The New Republic" magazine on their list of the most overrated thinkers of 2011, upon which Mr. Zakaria figures prominently.

Though, I don't think we ever understood Zakaria to be a true scholar and public intellectual. He is a bona fide member of the 'official' commentariat who runs a good chat-show table, an opportunity that was probably due as much to his darker skin and non-Western name as much as anything else. No doubt he's a genuine smart guy who can argue 90% of we commoners under the table, but not a leading intellect.

I expect that he will suffer a little spanking on account of this incident, and everything will go back to being business as usual. We cannot really afford to lose Zakaria as one of the prominent faces of the American establishment. He makes us look that much more cosmopolitan.

A few of those overrated thinkers )
monk222: (Default)
Fareed Zakaria apologized publicly for passing off New Yorker writer Jill Lepore's work as his own in an essay he wrote for Time magazine. Not to put too fine a point on it, Zakaria committed egregious plagiarism, as Alexander Abad-Santos of the Atlantic Wire reported.

-- Jim Sleeper at Huffington Post

That's a bit of a surprise and a disappointment. That piece also linked to another article from "The New Republic" magazine on their list of the most overrated thinkers of 2011, upon which Mr. Zakaria figures prominently.

Though, I don't think we ever understood Zakaria to be a true scholar and public intellectual. He is a bona fide member of the 'official' commentariat who runs a good chat-show table, an opportunity that was probably due as much to his darker skin and non-Western name as much as anything else. No doubt he's a genuine smart guy who can argue 90% of we commoners under the table, but not a leading intellect.

I expect that he will suffer a little spanking on account of this incident, and everything will go back to being business as usual. We cannot really afford to lose Zakaria as one of the prominent faces of the American establishment. He makes us look that much more cosmopolitan.

A few of those overrated thinkers )

Literally

Aug. 12th, 2012 06:00 am
monk222: (Christmas)
Sarah Miller rants against the excessive use of 'literally':

People use 'literally' because they feel like all their stories have to be exciting. "I literally had to sprint to my class." Okay, who gives a fuck? "I literally ate the whole hamburger." Again, unmoved. Here's one you hear a lot: "Oh my God, my best friend's apartment is literally right across the street from…" …whatever.

Jen Doll adds a note favoring 'actually':

While 'literally' and 'actually' can be used interchangeably, 'actually' has a bad attitude. 'Literally' can be mocked and laughed at, because literally almost no one uses it correctly. 'Actually' is more sneaky, a wolf in sheep's clothing. 'Actually' is the word that you use when you're actually saying, "You are wrong, and I am right, and you are at least a little bit of an idiot."

I have always been more of an 'actually' person myself.

(Source: Sully's Dish)

Literally

Aug. 12th, 2012 06:00 am
monk222: (Christmas)
Sarah Miller rants against the excessive use of 'literally':

People use 'literally' because they feel like all their stories have to be exciting. "I literally had to sprint to my class." Okay, who gives a fuck? "I literally ate the whole hamburger." Again, unmoved. Here's one you hear a lot: "Oh my God, my best friend's apartment is literally right across the street from…" …whatever.

Jen Doll adds a note favoring 'actually':

While 'literally' and 'actually' can be used interchangeably, 'actually' has a bad attitude. 'Literally' can be mocked and laughed at, because literally almost no one uses it correctly. 'Actually' is more sneaky, a wolf in sheep's clothing. 'Actually' is the word that you use when you're actually saying, "You are wrong, and I am right, and you are at least a little bit of an idiot."

I have always been more of an 'actually' person myself.

(Source: Sully's Dish)
monk222: (Mori: by tiger_ace)
“I always see the skull beneath the skin, which, incidentally, is the title of one of my books. I have always been preoccupied with death and nowadays I think of my own death often. But as Shakespeare said ‘the readiness is all.’ I don’t fear death; what I fear is loss of mind and limb, a long protracted painful dying. At seventy-four I have had my biblical three score and ten. I feel I have been privileged with a long life. Those of us who lived through the last war, or have watched younger friends die of cancer or heart attack, are particularly aware of being lucky. My father used to say, I’m on borrowed time now. I’m grateful for every extra day I have. But I do love life, and as long as I stay healthy I hope I’ll go on for a long time.”

-- P. D. James

Wow, I actually recall reading that detective novel, "The Skull Beneath the Skin". If my memory is not mixing things up, I was just beginning college and I was in my miserable efficiency apartment. I was someone else, someone who had a future, still a teenager, more than a little deluded.

If I could go back to that time, and had it all to do over again, I'm not sure what I would do to try to make things different. I don't think I could simply try harder as a student; I am just not that gifted. I would certainly get a much earlier start into my serious reading, but that is not a living. I may as well forget about college, but it is not like I would be interested in getting a job at the grocery store or a fast food joint. Nor can I take seriously the idea of trying to make my way as a writer. I don't think there is any way for me to win, me being me and the world being the world, no matter how many tries I get. Maybe it is a good thing that you only have to die once.
.
monk222: (Mori: by tiger_ace)
“I always see the skull beneath the skin, which, incidentally, is the title of one of my books. I have always been preoccupied with death and nowadays I think of my own death often. But as Shakespeare said ‘the readiness is all.’ I don’t fear death; what I fear is loss of mind and limb, a long protracted painful dying. At seventy-four I have had my biblical three score and ten. I feel I have been privileged with a long life. Those of us who lived through the last war, or have watched younger friends die of cancer or heart attack, are particularly aware of being lucky. My father used to say, I’m on borrowed time now. I’m grateful for every extra day I have. But I do love life, and as long as I stay healthy I hope I’ll go on for a long time.”

-- P. D. James

Wow, I actually recall reading that detective novel, "The Skull Beneath the Skin". If my memory is not mixing things up, I was just beginning college and I was in my miserable efficiency apartment. I was someone else, someone who had a future, still a teenager, more than a little deluded.

If I could go back to that time, and had it all to do over again, I'm not sure what I would do to try to make things different. I don't think I could simply try harder as a student; I am just not that gifted. I would certainly get a much earlier start into my serious reading, but that is not a living. I may as well forget about college, but it is not like I would be interested in getting a job at the grocery store or a fast food joint. Nor can I take seriously the idea of trying to make my way as a writer. I don't think there is any way for me to win, me being me and the world being the world, no matter how many tries I get. Maybe it is a good thing that you only have to die once.
.
monk222: (Flight)
In today’s installment from Emmanuel Goldstein’s book, we get a sort of cross-cultural study of the three superstates, and I suppose the lesson we should draw is that there just is no escape.

_ _ _

[T]he conditions of life in all three superstates are very much the same. In Oceania the prevailing philosophy is called Ingsoc, in Eurasia it is called Neo-Bolshevism, and in Eastasia it is called by a Chinese name usually translated as Death-worship, but perhaps better rendered as Obliteration of the Self. The citizen of Oceania is not allowed to know anything of the tenets of the other two philosophies, but he is taught to execrate them as barbarous outrages upon morality and common sense. Actually the three philosophies are barely distinguishable, and the social systems which they support are not distinguishable at all.

-- “1984” by George Orwell
monk222: (Flight)
In today’s installment from Emmanuel Goldstein’s book, we get a sort of cross-cultural study of the three superstates, and I suppose the lesson we should draw is that there just is no escape.

_ _ _

[T]he conditions of life in all three superstates are very much the same. In Oceania the prevailing philosophy is called Ingsoc, in Eurasia it is called Neo-Bolshevism, and in Eastasia it is called by a Chinese name usually translated as Death-worship, but perhaps better rendered as Obliteration of the Self. The citizen of Oceania is not allowed to know anything of the tenets of the other two philosophies, but he is taught to execrate them as barbarous outrages upon morality and common sense. Actually the three philosophies are barely distinguishable, and the social systems which they support are not distinguishable at all.

-- “1984” by George Orwell
monk222: (Noir Detective)
But I get so shocked and almost disgusted by women (and men) who read 50 Shades of Grey and get aroused by it.

I found out that my sister is reading it. And I just snapped.

That book depicts BDSM play in such a non-safe way. Celebrating a book that depicts violence and intimacy going hand-in-hand is extremely dangerous. The book celebrates abuse, and depicts a woman who is willingly letting a man control her life.

Not only that but she finds her “sexual awakening”, which all these horny house moms are so fucking excited about, through sexual abuse led by a man.


-- Tumblr

Hmm, maybe I should give this book a chance, after all.
monk222: (Noir Detective)
But I get so shocked and almost disgusted by women (and men) who read 50 Shades of Grey and get aroused by it.

I found out that my sister is reading it. And I just snapped.

That book depicts BDSM play in such a non-safe way. Celebrating a book that depicts violence and intimacy going hand-in-hand is extremely dangerous. The book celebrates abuse, and depicts a woman who is willingly letting a man control her life.

Not only that but she finds her “sexual awakening”, which all these horny house moms are so fucking excited about, through sexual abuse led by a man.


-- Tumblr

Hmm, maybe I should give this book a chance, after all.
monk222: (Devil)
Ayn Randian logic is not entirely groundless. The new socialist French president is finding that a number of that country's wealthy citizens are looking to hot-foot the country with their wealth in tow.

_ _ _

President François Hollande is vowing to impose a 75 percent tax on the portion of anyone’s income above a million euros ($1.24 million) a year. “Should I be preparing to leave the country?” the executive asked Mr. Grandil.

The lawyer’s counsel: Wait and see. For now, at least.

“We’re getting a lot of calls from high earners who are asking whether they should get out of France,” said Mr. Grandil, a partner at Altexis, which specializes in tax matters for corporations and the wealthy. “Even young, dynamic people pulling in 200,000 euros are wondering whether to remain in a country where making money is not considered a good thing.”

-- Liz Alderman at The New York Times
monk222: (Devil)
Ayn Randian logic is not entirely groundless. The new socialist French president is finding that a number of that country's wealthy citizens are looking to hot-foot the country with their wealth in tow.

_ _ _

President François Hollande is vowing to impose a 75 percent tax on the portion of anyone’s income above a million euros ($1.24 million) a year. “Should I be preparing to leave the country?” the executive asked Mr. Grandil.

The lawyer’s counsel: Wait and see. For now, at least.

“We’re getting a lot of calls from high earners who are asking whether they should get out of France,” said Mr. Grandil, a partner at Altexis, which specializes in tax matters for corporations and the wealthy. “Even young, dynamic people pulling in 200,000 euros are wondering whether to remain in a country where making money is not considered a good thing.”

-- Liz Alderman at The New York Times
monk222: (Noir Detective)


America may be rotting within, but she obviously can still rake in the gold. Wasn't Canada in the Olympics?

(Source: ONTD)
monk222: (Noir Detective)


America may be rotting within, but she obviously can still rake in the gold. Wasn't Canada in the Olympics?

(Source: ONTD)
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