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Aug. 25th, 2012
Orwell's Diary
Aug. 25th, 2012 09:00 am“Life was hierarchical and whatever happened was right. There were the strong, who deserved to win and always did win, and there were the weak, who deserved to lose and always did lose, everlastingly.”
-- George Orwell
The quote comes from an essay titled "Such, Such Were the Joys", which apparently was about his school days, and so might be taken as testimony about school life rather than life in total, but maybe not. It does feel right, anent life in general, except for the use of the word 'deserved', which suggest a moral stamp that may not be appropriate. Shit just happens, or maybe that's just the everlasting loser in me talking.
The article is about Orwell's diary, and we will take down the closing section, in which we see Orwell's apparent disdain for his fellow upperclassmen, with an early invocation of the '99%' slogan.
_ _ _
In the end, who was George Orwell? With the embellishment stripped bare, the diaries present a nastier, more easily irritated side of the man. From the pages of the Daily Telegraph he would read a letter from a Lady Oxford who complained that the war has forced “most people” to part with their cooks. “Apparently nothing will ever teach these people that the other 99 percent of the population exist,” Orwell wrote. No wonder he chose to live so often with those in poverty—true, he was scouting for material, but he also seemed to have truly preferred their company over the social elites, whom he wished would disappear, not quite acknowledging that such vicious classism nudges him rather closer to Stalin, Mao, and some of his other favorite villains.
In January of 1949 he was admitted to Cranham Sanatorium for tuberculosis, and was still there on April 17, when he wrote about being uncomfortable in the most expensive block of the hospital and hearing the voices of upper-class English visitors:
A sort of over-fedness, a fatuous self-confidence, a constant bah-bahing of laughter about nothing, above all a sort of heaviness and richness combined with a fundamental ill-will—people who, one instinctively feels, without even being able to see them, are the enemies of anything intelligent or sensitive or beautiful. No wonder everyone hates us so.
So goes the last entry in Diaries. Orwell died of a massive hemorrhage of the lungs in the early hours of January 21, 1950. On his headstone is inscribed a simple, ineradicable fact: “Here Lies Eric Arthur Blair.”
-- Jimmy So at The Daily Beast
-- George Orwell
The quote comes from an essay titled "Such, Such Were the Joys", which apparently was about his school days, and so might be taken as testimony about school life rather than life in total, but maybe not. It does feel right, anent life in general, except for the use of the word 'deserved', which suggest a moral stamp that may not be appropriate. Shit just happens, or maybe that's just the everlasting loser in me talking.
The article is about Orwell's diary, and we will take down the closing section, in which we see Orwell's apparent disdain for his fellow upperclassmen, with an early invocation of the '99%' slogan.
_ _ _
In the end, who was George Orwell? With the embellishment stripped bare, the diaries present a nastier, more easily irritated side of the man. From the pages of the Daily Telegraph he would read a letter from a Lady Oxford who complained that the war has forced “most people” to part with their cooks. “Apparently nothing will ever teach these people that the other 99 percent of the population exist,” Orwell wrote. No wonder he chose to live so often with those in poverty—true, he was scouting for material, but he also seemed to have truly preferred their company over the social elites, whom he wished would disappear, not quite acknowledging that such vicious classism nudges him rather closer to Stalin, Mao, and some of his other favorite villains.
In January of 1949 he was admitted to Cranham Sanatorium for tuberculosis, and was still there on April 17, when he wrote about being uncomfortable in the most expensive block of the hospital and hearing the voices of upper-class English visitors:
A sort of over-fedness, a fatuous self-confidence, a constant bah-bahing of laughter about nothing, above all a sort of heaviness and richness combined with a fundamental ill-will—people who, one instinctively feels, without even being able to see them, are the enemies of anything intelligent or sensitive or beautiful. No wonder everyone hates us so.
So goes the last entry in Diaries. Orwell died of a massive hemorrhage of the lungs in the early hours of January 21, 1950. On his headstone is inscribed a simple, ineradicable fact: “Here Lies Eric Arthur Blair.”
-- Jimmy So at The Daily Beast
Orwell's Diary
Aug. 25th, 2012 09:00 am“Life was hierarchical and whatever happened was right. There were the strong, who deserved to win and always did win, and there were the weak, who deserved to lose and always did lose, everlastingly.”
-- George Orwell
The quote comes from an essay titled "Such, Such Were the Joys", which apparently was about his school days, and so might be taken as testimony about school life rather than life in total, but maybe not. It does feel right, anent life in general, except for the use of the word 'deserved', which suggest a moral stamp that may not be appropriate. Shit just happens, or maybe that's just the everlasting loser in me talking.
The article is about Orwell's diary, and we will take down the closing section, in which we see Orwell's apparent disdain for his fellow upperclassmen, with an early invocation of the '99%' slogan.
_ _ _
In the end, who was George Orwell? With the embellishment stripped bare, the diaries present a nastier, more easily irritated side of the man. From the pages of the Daily Telegraph he would read a letter from a Lady Oxford who complained that the war has forced “most people” to part with their cooks. “Apparently nothing will ever teach these people that the other 99 percent of the population exist,” Orwell wrote. No wonder he chose to live so often with those in poverty—true, he was scouting for material, but he also seemed to have truly preferred their company over the social elites, whom he wished would disappear, not quite acknowledging that such vicious classism nudges him rather closer to Stalin, Mao, and some of his other favorite villains.
In January of 1949 he was admitted to Cranham Sanatorium for tuberculosis, and was still there on April 17, when he wrote about being uncomfortable in the most expensive block of the hospital and hearing the voices of upper-class English visitors:
A sort of over-fedness, a fatuous self-confidence, a constant bah-bahing of laughter about nothing, above all a sort of heaviness and richness combined with a fundamental ill-will—people who, one instinctively feels, without even being able to see them, are the enemies of anything intelligent or sensitive or beautiful. No wonder everyone hates us so.
So goes the last entry in Diaries. Orwell died of a massive hemorrhage of the lungs in the early hours of January 21, 1950. On his headstone is inscribed a simple, ineradicable fact: “Here Lies Eric Arthur Blair.”
-- Jimmy So at The Daily Beast
-- George Orwell
The quote comes from an essay titled "Such, Such Were the Joys", which apparently was about his school days, and so might be taken as testimony about school life rather than life in total, but maybe not. It does feel right, anent life in general, except for the use of the word 'deserved', which suggest a moral stamp that may not be appropriate. Shit just happens, or maybe that's just the everlasting loser in me talking.
The article is about Orwell's diary, and we will take down the closing section, in which we see Orwell's apparent disdain for his fellow upperclassmen, with an early invocation of the '99%' slogan.
_ _ _
In the end, who was George Orwell? With the embellishment stripped bare, the diaries present a nastier, more easily irritated side of the man. From the pages of the Daily Telegraph he would read a letter from a Lady Oxford who complained that the war has forced “most people” to part with their cooks. “Apparently nothing will ever teach these people that the other 99 percent of the population exist,” Orwell wrote. No wonder he chose to live so often with those in poverty—true, he was scouting for material, but he also seemed to have truly preferred their company over the social elites, whom he wished would disappear, not quite acknowledging that such vicious classism nudges him rather closer to Stalin, Mao, and some of his other favorite villains.
In January of 1949 he was admitted to Cranham Sanatorium for tuberculosis, and was still there on April 17, when he wrote about being uncomfortable in the most expensive block of the hospital and hearing the voices of upper-class English visitors:
A sort of over-fedness, a fatuous self-confidence, a constant bah-bahing of laughter about nothing, above all a sort of heaviness and richness combined with a fundamental ill-will—people who, one instinctively feels, without even being able to see them, are the enemies of anything intelligent or sensitive or beautiful. No wonder everyone hates us so.
So goes the last entry in Diaries. Orwell died of a massive hemorrhage of the lungs in the early hours of January 21, 1950. On his headstone is inscribed a simple, ineradicable fact: “Here Lies Eric Arthur Blair.”
-- Jimmy So at The Daily Beast
Yippee ki-yay!
Aug. 25th, 2012 12:00 pmWe thought there was another mass shooting yesterday, and at the Empire State Building, and in a sense, there was a mass shooting, but it turns out that it was the New York police who was shooting up everyone:
Questions have been raised over the New York police department's handling of a shooting near the Empire State Building after armed officers injured nine passers-by as they pursued a gunman who had just shot dead his former boss.
One of those injured by police told the Guardian that officers appeared to fire "randomly" as they confronted Jeffrey Johnson, 58, minutes after a workplace dispute escalated into a chaotic shootout in one of the busiest parts of Manhattan.
And the authorities are backing their cowboy cops. Yippee ki-yay! That's just the way it is. We really are just another specie of monkey.
(Source: News-LJ)
Questions have been raised over the New York police department's handling of a shooting near the Empire State Building after armed officers injured nine passers-by as they pursued a gunman who had just shot dead his former boss.
One of those injured by police told the Guardian that officers appeared to fire "randomly" as they confronted Jeffrey Johnson, 58, minutes after a workplace dispute escalated into a chaotic shootout in one of the busiest parts of Manhattan.
And the authorities are backing their cowboy cops. Yippee ki-yay! That's just the way it is. We really are just another specie of monkey.
(Source: News-LJ)
Yippee ki-yay!
Aug. 25th, 2012 12:00 pmWe thought there was another mass shooting yesterday, and at the Empire State Building, and in a sense, there was a mass shooting, but it turns out that it was the New York police who was shooting up everyone:
Questions have been raised over the New York police department's handling of a shooting near the Empire State Building after armed officers injured nine passers-by as they pursued a gunman who had just shot dead his former boss.
One of those injured by police told the Guardian that officers appeared to fire "randomly" as they confronted Jeffrey Johnson, 58, minutes after a workplace dispute escalated into a chaotic shootout in one of the busiest parts of Manhattan.
And the authorities are backing their cowboy cops. Yippee ki-yay! That's just the way it is. We really are just another specie of monkey.
(Source: News-LJ)
Questions have been raised over the New York police department's handling of a shooting near the Empire State Building after armed officers injured nine passers-by as they pursued a gunman who had just shot dead his former boss.
One of those injured by police told the Guardian that officers appeared to fire "randomly" as they confronted Jeffrey Johnson, 58, minutes after a workplace dispute escalated into a chaotic shootout in one of the busiest parts of Manhattan.
And the authorities are backing their cowboy cops. Yippee ki-yay! That's just the way it is. We really are just another specie of monkey.
(Source: News-LJ)
The End of Men?
Aug. 25th, 2012 03:00 pmAt this unprecedented moment, women are no longer merely gaining on men; they have pulled decisively ahead by almost every measure. Already "the end of men"—the phrase Rosin coined—has entered the lexicon as indelibly as Betty Friedan’s "feminine mystique," Simone de Beauvoir’s "second sex," Susan Faludi’s "backlash," and Naomi Wolf’s "beauty myth" have. ... Rosin reveals how the new world order came to be, and how it is dramatically shifting dynamics in every arena and at every level of society, with profound implications for marriage, sex, children, work, and more.
-- Sully's Dish
Yeah, well, I think most of the money and property and leadership positions are still held by men, not to mention more of the muscles and guns, so I don't think we need to write off men quite yet. Hell, in America, women are having a hard enough time holding on to the legal right to get an abortion and control their own reproductive health. No, baby, men aren't going anywhere. So, why don't you run your cute little butt to the refrigerator and get us another beer!
-- Sully's Dish
Yeah, well, I think most of the money and property and leadership positions are still held by men, not to mention more of the muscles and guns, so I don't think we need to write off men quite yet. Hell, in America, women are having a hard enough time holding on to the legal right to get an abortion and control their own reproductive health. No, baby, men aren't going anywhere. So, why don't you run your cute little butt to the refrigerator and get us another beer!
The End of Men?
Aug. 25th, 2012 03:00 pmAt this unprecedented moment, women are no longer merely gaining on men; they have pulled decisively ahead by almost every measure. Already "the end of men"—the phrase Rosin coined—has entered the lexicon as indelibly as Betty Friedan’s "feminine mystique," Simone de Beauvoir’s "second sex," Susan Faludi’s "backlash," and Naomi Wolf’s "beauty myth" have. ... Rosin reveals how the new world order came to be, and how it is dramatically shifting dynamics in every arena and at every level of society, with profound implications for marriage, sex, children, work, and more.
-- Sully's Dish
Yeah, well, I think most of the money and property and leadership positions are still held by men, not to mention more of the muscles and guns, so I don't think we need to write off men quite yet. Hell, in America, women are having a hard enough time holding on to the legal right to get an abortion and control their own reproductive health. No, baby, men aren't going anywhere. So, why don't you run your cute little butt to the refrigerator and get us another beer!
-- Sully's Dish
Yeah, well, I think most of the money and property and leadership positions are still held by men, not to mention more of the muscles and guns, so I don't think we need to write off men quite yet. Hell, in America, women are having a hard enough time holding on to the legal right to get an abortion and control their own reproductive health. No, baby, men aren't going anywhere. So, why don't you run your cute little butt to the refrigerator and get us another beer!
Neil Armstrong, Dead at 82
Aug. 25th, 2012 06:09 pmAs commander of the Apollo 11 mission, Mr. Armstrong, with one short sentence on July 20, 1969, became a hero to the millions of people watching back on earth.
The words he spoke upon stepping onto the lunar surface — “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” — were beamed live into homes around the world, captivating viewers and immediately and indelibly becoming a symbol of America’s resolve and ingenuity in its race against the Soviet Union for supremacy in space.
It was a singular achievement for humanity and the culmination of a goal that President John F. Kennedy had set eight years earlier with his bold statement: “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.”
-- Marc Santora at The New York Times
The words he spoke upon stepping onto the lunar surface — “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” — were beamed live into homes around the world, captivating viewers and immediately and indelibly becoming a symbol of America’s resolve and ingenuity in its race against the Soviet Union for supremacy in space.
It was a singular achievement for humanity and the culmination of a goal that President John F. Kennedy had set eight years earlier with his bold statement: “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.”
-- Marc Santora at The New York Times
Neil Armstrong, Dead at 82
Aug. 25th, 2012 06:09 pmAs commander of the Apollo 11 mission, Mr. Armstrong, with one short sentence on July 20, 1969, became a hero to the millions of people watching back on earth.
The words he spoke upon stepping onto the lunar surface — “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” — were beamed live into homes around the world, captivating viewers and immediately and indelibly becoming a symbol of America’s resolve and ingenuity in its race against the Soviet Union for supremacy in space.
It was a singular achievement for humanity and the culmination of a goal that President John F. Kennedy had set eight years earlier with his bold statement: “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.”
-- Marc Santora at The New York Times
The words he spoke upon stepping onto the lunar surface — “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” — were beamed live into homes around the world, captivating viewers and immediately and indelibly becoming a symbol of America’s resolve and ingenuity in its race against the Soviet Union for supremacy in space.
It was a singular achievement for humanity and the culmination of a goal that President John F. Kennedy had set eight years earlier with his bold statement: “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.”
-- Marc Santora at The New York Times
