Dive into the archives.
- Pyramid of Capitalist System
Image randomly found on Wikipedia. It is a 1911 critique of capitalism advocating unionism. I think it reflects nicely how unionism is about “me” getting my gains, and not about the group/humanity at all.
- Grain of Salt
Here’s the WSJ on the US intelligence report that Tehran has, for reasons yet to be explained, stopped atomic research for military purposes:
Before rolling out the peace banners, though, it’s worth looking at the agencies’ track record in getting these sorts of “estimates” right. As a matter of fact, U.S. intelligence services have so far [...]
- Turkish Family Tree
Via Registan comes this excellent book review of Hugh Pope’s Sons of the Conquerors: The Rise of the Turkic World, which contains a fun family tree of the Turkic nation.
- Six Environmental Hotspots
From the Christian Science Monitor comes a look at six places on the globe where a “warmer” world poses different problems. I think the magazine, like most contemporary observers, mistakenly look at “climate change” as the issue, which is just one of an assortment of environmental degradation issues. But the review is a [...]
- The Big Day Looms
While Americans ponder Pearl Harbor Day, December 7th, Europe is pondering December 10th, the day that will finally end negotiations over Kosovo and either on which, or shortly after which, Kosovo is expected to unilaterally declare independence. While around 15,000 NATO troops will remain in Kosovo to maintain peace regardless of what happens, a great [...]
- Venezuela Update
As if Venezuela couldn’t get any crazier with Chavez engaging in battles of insults with the King of Spain and President of Colombia, everyone’s favorite buffoon-president is now signing oil production agreements with Belarus of all places (showing once again that birds of a feather flock together). Belarus and several Latin American countries are [...]
- Chilly, I Take It?
Which do you think is colder, Hillary Clinton or her office? Or perhaps someone was just excited.
(Via Marmot.)
- PKK to Kansas?
Since the founding of the Republic, Turkey’s archenemies have been those whose who harbor legitimate claims against their territory: Greeks, Armenians and Kurds. Ankara’s deepest fears always involve some conspiracy consisting of several of the aforementioned groups collaborating against them to dismantle modern Turkey.
Usually these claims are nonsense, if not utterly absurd.The plot of [...]
- The Japanese character
The following quote really struck home with regards to my own personal observations about Japanese culture. It is from the prominent anthropologist NAKANE Chie, famous for her work on Japanese societal structure and her theory on the unchanging Japanese character:
The Japanese way of thinking depends on the situation rather than the principle — while with [...]
- Mohammed v.s. Jesus
As Sudan’s president pardons the British schoolteacher jailed for allowing her students to name a teddy bear “Mohammed,” Slate answers: what are the official rules for naming people and things after the prophet? An abridged version of the article appears below:
For Mohammed, there is no prohibition on the name in any religious text, but [...]
