From Deer Hunting with Jesus (Joe Bageant, 2007) pp258-9
(more…)May 12, 2024
May 11, 2024
Israel is the key to everything
From Deer Hunting with Jesus (Joe Bageant, 2007) pp162-8
(more…)May 8, 2024
A gangster capitalist class
From Deer Hunting with Jesus (Joe Bageant, 2007) pp88-92
(more…)May 5, 2024
Contorted mental gymnastics
From How to Win an Information War (Peter Pomerantsev, 2024 ) pp159-60
(more…)April 25, 2024
Doudna quits
From The Code Breaker (Walter Isaacson, 2021) pp210-2
(more…)April 9, 2024
White Australia
From Manning Clark’s History of Australia (Ed: Michael Cathcart, 1993) pp411-2
(more…)March 29, 2024
Blacks were being driven away too
From Dark Star Safari (Paul Theroux, 2002) pp356-8
(more…)March 23, 2024
Structural unfairness
From The making of America’s fury (Evan Osnos, 2021) pp52-3
(more…)March 15, 2024
They are the future of this country
From The Rebels (Joshua Green, 2024) pp174-6
(more…)March 10, 2024
Obama’s populist makeover
From The Rebels (Joshua Green, 2024) pp147-51
(more…)March 9, 2024
March 8, 2024
Warren’s brand of liberal populism
From The Rebels (Joshua Green, 2024) pp83-6
(more…)March 1, 2024
Human nature as such is at stake
From The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt, 1951) pp590-2
(more…)February 28, 2024
The worst have lost their fear and the best have lost their hope
From The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt, 1951) pp575-7
(more…)February 27, 2024
Objective enemy
From The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt, 1951) pp448-51
(more…)February 23, 2024
Job holders and good family men
From The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt, 1951) pp446-9
(more…)February 22, 2024
Meine Ehre heisst Treue
From The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt, 1951) pp428-32
(more…)February 21, 2024
Sanitation worked
From Doom (Niall Ferguson, 2021) pp158-9
(more…)February 20, 2024
The germs of a deadly sickness
From The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt, 1951) pp368
(more…)February 17, 2024
Not remembered by human history.
From The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt, 1951) pp250-4
(more…)February 11, 2024
The impossibility of social democracy
From Techno Feudalism: What killed capitalism (Yanis Varoufakis, 2023) pp179-85
(more…)February 10, 2024
Two, conflicting, super cloud fiefs
From Techno Feudalism: What killed capitalism (Yanis Varoufakis, 2023) pp151-3
(more…)February 8, 2024
Krushevan and the forgery
From Pogrom: Kishinev and the tilt of history (Steven J. Zipperstein, 2018) pp167-70
(more…)January 25, 2024
January 23, 2024
January 12, 2024
Identity, mobility, prosperity, security and sovereignty – the conservative base.
From Geography is Destiny (Ian Morris, 2022) pp13-5
(more…)January 7, 2024
Information processing is critical to social development
From Why the West Rules – for now (Ian Morris, 2010) pp148-9
(more…)November 8, 2023
Elements for a participatory socialism
From Capital and Ideology (Thomas Picketty, 2020) p967
(more…)November 4, 2023
Noise and smells
From Capital and Ideology (Thomas Picketty, 2020) p830
(more…)October 7, 2023
Lang had seen Kilcoy coming
From Killing for Country (David Marr, 2023) pp128-30
(more…)July 7, 2023
A new model … “mafia state”
From Surviving Autocracy (Masha Gessen, 2022) pp4-6
(more…)Arguments are often lost this way. .
From Surviving Autocracy (Masha Gessen, 2022) pp114-6
(more…)June 17, 2023
Anti-Semitism was a fixture of the Czech state
From Still Pictures (Janet Malcolm, 2023) pp10-12
(more…)May 28, 2023
“One People, One Reich, One Faith”
From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William Shirer, 1960) pp236-40
(more…)May 18, 2023
A state within a state
From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William Shirer, 1960) pp118-21
(more…)May 10, 2023
Amongst the elite
From The Bodies of Others (Naomi Wolf 2022) pp50-2
(more…)Reasonable goals
From The Bodies of Others (Naomi Wolf 2022) p154
(more…)May 4, 2023
A new social experiment?
From The Bodies of Others (Naomi Wolf 2022) p131
(more…)April 16, 2023
Omissions and double standards
From The War on the West (Douglas Murray 2022) pp174-83
(more…)April 3, 2023
Support for political extremism
From The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism (Martin Wolf 2022)
(more…)The educated have a huge advantage
From Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism (Anne Case & Angus Deaton, 2020) pp52-3
(more…)April 2, 2023
A new destiny
From The German Genius: Europe’s Third Renaissance, the Second Scientific Revolution and the Twentieth Century (Peter Watson, 2022)
(more…)March 31, 2023
We have largely ignored …
From How the World Really Works (Vaclav Siml, 2022) p190-1
(more…)March 28, 2023
The wave of the future?
From How the World Really Works (Vaclav Siml, 2022) p132-3
(more…)March 26, 2023
Everybody would be pitching in
From How the World Really Works (Vaclav Siml, 2022) p66
(more…)Potatoes partly made of oil.
From How the World Really Works (Vaclav Siml, 2022) p74-5
(more…)The four material pillars of modern civilization
From How the World Really Works (Vaclav Siml, 2022) p41
(more…)February 15, 2023
High cultural values
From History’s Fools: The Pursuit of Idealism and the Revenge of Politics (David Martin Jones, 2022) p13
(more…)February 8, 2023
A teller of half-truths
From Deep South (Paul Theroux) p348-50
(more…)February 4, 2023
We should use contact tracing to find superspreaders.
From How to prevent the next pandemic (Bill Gates, 2022) p97-100
(more…)January 29, 2023
Something weirdly colonial
From Deep South (Paul Theroux) p162-3
(more…)January 17, 2023
Tapping out the code
From Deep South (Paul Theroux) p96-8
(more…)January 13, 2023
December 10, 2022
… what “politics” means for us …
From Politics as a Vocation (Max Weber, The Vocation Lectures) p33
(more…)November 18, 2022
Forty interlocking committees
From That Hideous Strength (C.S. Lewis, 1945) p38
(more…)November 5, 2022
Surely, nothing could be worse.
From The Human Condition (Hannah Arendt, 1958 1998) pp2-5
(more…)October 12, 2022
They can’t afford to be wrong.
From Mistakes were made but not by me (Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson, 2016) pp296-9
(more…)September 6, 2022
Law & Order in Asia
From The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia (Paul Theroux, 1975)
(more…)August 30, 2022
In the giant planetary hypermarket
From On the plain of snakes (Paul Theroux, 2019) pp406-10
(more…)August 7, 2022
MD audio
July 30, 2022
Speech is what makes man a political being
From The Human Condition (Hannah Arendt, 1958, 2018) pp 1-6
(more…)June 12, 2022
A tragic story
From The Land of Plenty: Australia in the 2000s (Mark Davis, 2008) pp 38-41
(more…)May 24, 2022
The same region by another name
From Contest for the Indo-Pacific (Rory Medcalf, 2020) pp 102-6
(more…)May 12, 2022
April 23, 2022
A substantive strategic alliance.
From The Avoidable War (Kevin Rudd, 2022) pp 35-7
(more…)April 11, 2022
To claim God is on your side is no guarantee of virtue
From Dangerous Allies (Malcolm Fraser, 2014) pp 20-3
(more…)April 3, 2022
“memory alone can be a form of justice”
From In Europe’s Shadow (Robert D. Kaplan, 2016) pp 215-8
(more…)April 2, 2022
There are incalculable human costs to Western inaction
From In Europe’s Shadow (Robert D. Kaplan, 2016) pp 175-6
(more…)March 16, 2022
“Cut their throats”
From Churchill and the Jews (Martin Gilbert, 2007) pp 52-6
(more…)March 13, 2022
A Jewish homeland in Palestine
From Churchill and the Jews (Martin Gilbert, 2007) pp 10-12
(more…)March 12, 2022
Geographic logic
From In Europe’s Shadow (Robert D. Kaplan, 2016) pp 47-8
(more…)January 25, 2022
“You’re just a pack of liars”
From Spying on the South (Tony Horwitz, 2019) pp 242-9
(more…)January 24, 2022
Huey Long foreshadowed Trump
From Spying on the South (Tony Horwitz, 2019) pp 131-2
(more…)December 31, 2021
She’d done a course in cosmetology
From Deep South (Paul Theroux, 2015) pp 269-71
(more…)December 30, 2021
The Truth Won’t Out
From Dishonesty is the second-best policy (David Mitchell, 2019) pp 4-8
(more…)December 29, 2021
The Inevitable Mr. Patel
From Deep South (Paul Theroux, 2015) pp 159-63
(more…)December 28, 2021
She hates the unions
From Deep South (Paul Theroux, 2015) pp 42,44,48
(more…)December 24, 2021
Packing the Court
From Yesterday’s Man: The case against Joe Biden (Branko Marcetic, 2020) pp 85
(more…)December 22, 2021
“They covered it up”
From Rage (Bob Woodward, 2020) pp 333-5
(more…)October 16, 2021
The Waste Generation
From Notes from a Big Country (Bill Bryson, 1998) pp 235-8
(more…)Socrates on Merit
From The Consolations of Philosophy (Alain De Botton, 2008) pp 19-20
(more…)September 26, 2021
The most potent military base south of Guam
From China Panic (David Brophy, 2021) pp 90-3
(more…)
September 25, 2021
A convenient location
From China Panic (David Brophy, 2021) pp 77-8
(more…)
September 18, 2021
C4ISR – the new catch-phrase for Oz
From The End Game (Rush Doshi, 2021) pp 323-5
(more…)Straddling fault-lines
Swept up by relentless flood of mingled Authoritarianism & Capitalism. Australia with both feet in the quagmire.
(more…)September 10, 2021
The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation
From The End Game (Rush Doshi, 2021) pp 264, 267-71
(more…)August 23, 2021
Democratization of digital connectivity
From ‘Out Of The Mountains‘ (David Kilcullen, 2013) pp173-6
(more…)August 21, 2021
Without satellites, without an air force
From Three Cups of Tea (Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin, 2006) pp 273-4
(more…)The emerging environment of coastal megacities.
From ‘Out Of The Mountains‘ (David Kilcullen, 2013) pp261-4
(more…)August 7, 2021
The warning of John Cotton
From The Irony of American History (Reinhold Niebuhr, 1952) 21-3
(more…)August 4, 2021
We will teach those little people a lesson.
From The River at the Centre of the World (Simon Winchester, 1996) 133-9
(more…)July 20, 2021
Work Hard to Make the Company Prosperous
From The Life and Death of Democracy (John Keane, 2009) 832-6
(more…)July 9, 2021
Kefauver liked to investigate things.
From Empire of Pain (Patrick Radden Keene, 2021) 82-4
(more…)April 18, 2021
Joining the dots
US withdrawal from AF marks end of US-Islam wars.
(more…)March 31, 2021
Repudiate neoliberalism, and build back better.
From Unmasked: The Politics of Pandemics (Bill Bowtell, 2021) excerpts
(more…)February 13, 2021
The absence of insects
From God Save Texas (Lawrence Wright, 2018) pp311
(more…)February 9, 2021
A sinister, bewildering dreamscape
From Twilight of the Elites (Christopher Hayes, 2012) p104-7
(more…)February 4, 2021
Hyper-Globalization and its Discontents
From Money and Government (Robert Skidelsky, 2018) p311-4
(more…)The question of how capitalism will evolve
From Capitalism, Alone (Branko Milanovic, 2019) p216-7
(more…)A dystopia of personal relations
From Capitalism, Alone (Branko Milanovic, 2019) p196-7
(more…)February 2, 2021
Global inequality of opportunity is not … a problem
From Capitalism, Alone (Branko Milanovic, 2019) p157-8
(more…)January 31, 2021
They do not want to subsidize the “others”
From Capitalism, Alone (Branko Milanovic, 2019) p51-3
(more…)January 30, 2021
Unity is a chimera that some will always pursue
From Twilight of Democracy (Anne Applebaum, 2020) p109-13
(more…)January 25, 2021
There would have been no Lexus
From What’s wrong with Economics? (Robert Skidelsky, 2020) p36
(more…)January 24, 2021
Our utilitarian political culture
From How Much is Enough? (Robert Skidelsky & Edward Skidelsky, 2012) pp176-7
(more…)January 22, 2021
I don’t see anything!
From We have been harmonised (Kai Strittmatter, 2020) pp246-50
(more…)January 21, 2021
The Master Algorithm
From We have been harmonised (Kai Strittmatter, 2020) pp183-8
(more…)January 20, 2021
Singles Day
From We have been harmonised (Kai Strittmatter, 2020) pp102-3
(more…)Xi-time
From We have been harmonised (Kai Strittmatter, 2020) pp138-9
(more…)January 17, 2021
Business as usual in America’s backyard
From The concise untold history of the United States (Oliver Stone & Peter Kuznick, 2015) pp257-62
(more…)A truly American obsession — the fear of weakness.
From The concise untold history of the United States (Oliver Stone & Peter Kuznick, 2015) pp197-205
(more…)January 15, 2021
Racism prevailed
From The concise untold history of the United States (Oliver Stone & Peter Kuznick, 2015) pp95-6
(more…)January 13, 2021
Tanks, bayonets, and tear gas.
From The concise untold history of the United States (Oliver Stone & Peter Kuznick, 2015) pp34-41
(more…)January 9, 2021
Texas leads the way
From God Save Texas (Lawrence Wright, 2018) pp280-3
(more…)The long and bloody march of Texas history
From God Save Texas (Lawrence Wright, 2018) pp271-4
(more…)January 8, 2021
January 7, 2021
Recount the vote!
From God Save Texas (Lawrence Wright, 2018) pp133-6
(more…)January 4, 2021
This is Buurtzorg
From Extra Time (Camilla Cavendish, 2019) pp173-8
(more…)January 2, 2021
Geriatric peace
From Extra Time (Camilla Cavendish, 2019) pp16-8
(more…)January 1, 2021
The Story of the Sugar Tax
From Extra Time (Camilla Cavendish, 2019) pp63-5
(more…)Toward better telehealth consultations
John Campbell’s COVID19 updates on Youtube could be an exemplar.
(more…)November 30, 2020
Luanda: the improvised city
From The Last Train to Zona Verde (Paul Theroux, 2013) pp318-9
(more…)November 29, 2020
Heaven is high and the emperor is far away
From The Last Train to Zona Verde (Paul Theroux, 2013)
(more…)November 8, 2020
Alone, Unarmed, Afraid
From The Fear (Peter Godwin, 2010) p135-42
(more…)October 30, 2020
Like asking for the moon
From The wonderful mistake (Lewis Thomas, 1988) p28-32
(more…)October 22, 2020
We’re afraid of strangers
From The Demon-Haunted World (Carl Sagan, 1997) p388- etc
(more…)October 13, 2020
Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester
From Britain’s Best Museums and Galleries (Mark Fisher, 2004) p299
Manchester’s industries remembered in mighty 19th-century warehouses and market hall
(more…)August 30, 2020
Chaos, like the grave, is a haven of equality.
From The True Believer (Eric Hoffer, 1951) pp98-101
(more…)August 29, 2020
Let the sleeping morality lie
From Strangers at Our Door (Zygmunt Bauman, 2016) pp107-12
(more…)August 24, 2020
Democracy does not breed democrats
From Can it happen here?: Authoritarianism in America (Ed: Cass Sunstein, 2018) pp209-11
(more…)July 26, 2020
The “inner dialectic” of expansion
From The End of the Myth (Greg Grandin, 2019) pp284-5
(more…)July 25, 2020
A restored imperial presidency
From The End of the Myth (Greg Grandin, 2019) pp218-222
(more…)July 24, 2020
The promise of endless economic growth
From The End of the Myth (Greg Grandin, 2019) pp197-200
(more…)July 18, 2020
Saxon freedom
From The End of the Myth (Greg Grandin, 2019) pp114-7
(more…)July 17, 2020
War-sharpened racism & blood-soaked entitlement
From The End of the Myth (Greg Grandin, 2019) pp96-9
(more…)Foreigners in their own land
From The End of the Myth (Greg Grandin, 2019) pp94-6
(more…)July 11, 2020
Where endless sky meets endless hate
From The End of the Myth (Greg Grandin, 2019) pp14-6
(more…)His own worst and most terrible enemy
From The Cold War (John Lewis Gaddis, 2005) pp46-7
(more…)July 9, 2020
Not, as it turns out, to infinity
From The End of the Myth (Greg Grandin, 2019) pp2-5
(more…)June 19, 2020
New dilemmas
From The Language of God (Francis S. Collins, 2006) pp270-2
(more…)June 14, 2020
Foxes do it better
From On Grand Strategy (John Lewis Gaddis, 2018) pp8-9
(more…)June 11, 2020
Stan Grant @ABCTheDrum 26/5/2020 on liberalism
[part of his comment, from abt 49min]
(more…)May 26, 2020
Competition and criticism in every walk of life
From Alien Powers (Kenneth Minogue, 1985) pp172-4
(more…)May 24, 2020
The appeal to magic
From Alien Powers (Kenneth Minogue, 1985) pp167-70
(more…)May 21, 2020
The profession of denunciation
From George F. Kennan: An American Life (John Lewis Gaddis, 2011) pp488-90
(more…)May 13, 2020
A very long sentence
From George F. Kennan: An American Life (John Lewis Gaddis, 2011) pp437-8
(more…)April 28, 2020
Anchored in the experience of centuries
From George F. Kennan: An American Life (John Lewis Gaddis, 2011) pp243-6, 250
(more…)April 26, 2020
A profoundly democratic approach
From George F. Kennan: An American Life (John Lewis Gaddis, 2011) pp167-9
(more…)April 15, 2020
A devastation of the human world
From Alien Powers (Kenneth Minogue, 1985) pp70-3
(more…)April 14, 2020
Ideological theories do not generalize; they discover models
From Alien Powers (Kenneth Minogue, 1985) pp48-50
(more…)April 13, 2020
The emergence of ideology
From Alien Powers (Kenneth Minogue, 1985) pp17-9
(more…)April 10, 2020
April 7, 2020
The corrupting power of institutions
From After Virtue (Alasdair MacIntyre, 1997) pp194-5
(more…)April 5, 2020
The new dark ages
From After Virtue (Alasdair MacIntyre, 1997) pp263
(more…)March 30, 2020
Financial power
From The Knowledge Wars (Peter Doherty, 2015) pp160-2
(more…)March 16, 2020
Perfidious Albion
From The Phoney Victory (Peter Hitchens, 2019) pp102-3
(more…)March 15, 2020
Character, Role and Personality
From After Virtue (Alasdair MacIntyre, 1997) pp27-30
(more…)March 10, 2020
Ruinous arms race
From The Phoney Victory (Peter Hitchens, 2019) pp76-8
(more…)Identity masquerading as ideology
From This Is Not Propaganda (Peter Pomerantsev, 2019) pp208-11
(more…)March 8, 2020
Their revenge, when it came, was terrible.
From The Lost Boys (Gina Perry, 2018) pp56-61
(more…)‘A coincidence? I don’t think so!’
From This Is Not Propaganda (Peter Pomerantsev, 2019) pp68-9
(more…)You couldn’t see the enemy
From This Is Not Propaganda (Peter Pomerantsev, 2019) pp23-30
(more…)March 7, 2020
The warning that went unheeded
From The Road to Unfreedom (Timothy Snyder, 2018) pp208-15
(more…)February 15, 2020
We know how to reduce harm
From Dead Right (Richard Denniss, 2019) pp146-9
(more…)Graft, kickbacks & old boys’ clubs
From Dead Right (Richard Denniss, 2019) pp143-6
(more…)February 8, 2020
The gas is already in the air
From The Weather Makers (Tim Flannery, 2005) pp164-5
(more…)What he really wrote about sea-level rise
From The Weather Makers (Tim Flannery, 2005) pp149-50
(more…)January 19, 2020
All sponsors must also be thanked in the appropriately sized font
From Dead Right (Richard Denniss, 2019) pp6-11
(more…)January 6, 2020
Dictatorial power at any price
From The Lesser Evil (Michael Ignatieff, 2003) pp41-4
(more…)December 24, 2019
Prophetic anointing
From Counterfeit Revival: Unmasking the Truth Behind the World Wide Counterfeit Revival (Hank Hanegraaff, 1997) ppiii-ix (Foreword by Tom Stipe)
(more…)December 20, 2019
Russian politics of eternity
From The Road to Unfreedom (Timothy Snyder, 2018) pp122-4
(more…)December 11, 2019
Ellul on Hatred
From Propaganda (Jacques Ellul, 1965) pp72-7, 152-3, 162-3
(more…)December 8, 2019
Construction of a myth of innocence
From The Road to Unfreedom (Timothy Snyder, 2018) pp58-60
(more…)December 6, 2019
True believers and their deeply held myths
From Mr Putin (Fiona Hill & Clifford Gaddy, 2015) p380-1
(more…)The Conservative International
From Mr Putin (Fiona Hill & Clifford Gaddy, 2015) p350-2
(more…)December 2, 2019
Harnessing the Power of Orthodoxy
From Mr Putin (Fiona Hill & Clifford Gaddy, 2015) p253-6
(more…)November 24, 2019
The Survivalist
From Mr Putin (Fiona Hill & Clifford Gaddy, 2015) p76-7
(more…)November 19, 2019
The savagery of their conflicts
From Black Mass (John Gray, 2007) p185-8
(more…)November 10, 2019
Building a mental forecast
From Farsighted (Steven Johnson, 2018) p122-3
(more…)October 30, 2019
Transgressive energy of the untrammelled market
From Black Mass (John Gray, 2007) p91-3
(more…)October 29, 2019
Combating Global Islamist Terrorism
From Leaderless Jihad (Marc Sageman, 2008) p175-8
(more…)October 27, 2019
They are all disciples of the Jacobins
From Black Mass (John Gray, 2007) p26-7
(more…)October 12, 2019
They Will All Be There on Sydney’s Shores
From Eye on Australia (Geoffrey Blainey, 1991) p134-7
(more…)October 7, 2019
Capitalism’s riches so glaringly concentrated
From A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things (Raj Patel & Jason W. Moore, 2018) p198-200
(more…)October 6, 2019
At least the chicken was cheap.
From A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things (Raj Patel & Jason W. Moore, 2018) p152-3
(more…)October 5, 2019
Into the company of the heroic.
From Alien Powers: the pure theory of ideology (Kenneth Minogue, 1985) p118-22
(more…)October 2, 2019
Europe’s wealthy ate the sugar, and sugar ate the island.
From A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things (Raj Patel & Jason W. Moore, 2018) p14-17
(more…)September 17, 2019
The elephant
From The Retreat of Western Liberalism (Edward Luce, 2017) p32-9
(more…)September 15, 2019
A mixture of gullibility and cynicism
From The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt, 2004, p499)
(more…)September 6, 2019
The magic name of Krupp
From Blood and Iron (Peter Mason, 1984) pp122-4
(more…)August 20, 2019
He understood the uses of the media
From Rome (Robert Hughes, 2011) pp435-6, 454-5, 462
(more…)August 12, 2019
Tony Abbott on USSR, 1982
From Quarterly Essay 48, 2012 (Correspondence re ‘Political Animal’ by George Brandis, pp82-3
(more…)August 11, 2019
Taiwan is the big prize. Washington is the biggest obstacle.
From The Retreat of Western Liberalism (Edward Luce, 2017) p162-7
(more…)The Reaction
From The Retreat of Western Liberalism (Edward Luce, 2017) p118-21
(more…)August 4, 2019
No longer barbaric
From A Most Dangerous Book (Christopher B. Krebs, 2011) pp92-6
(more…)July 28, 2019
Ethnic shoehorning
From The Retreat of Western Liberalism (Edward Luce, 2017) p94-7
(more…)July 26, 2019
Dashed expectations
From The Retreat of Western Liberalism (Edward Luce, 2017) p31-5
(more…)July 22, 2019
The Blacks were considered unfriendly
From I Can Jump Puddles (Alan Marshall, 1965) p41
(more…)July 18, 2019
Because God likes us best
From The Lost Continent (Bill Bryson, 1996) p265-6
(more…)July 17, 2019
Some of them can hardly speak a coherent sentence.
From The Lost Continent (Bill Bryson, 1996) p212-4
(more…)July 14, 2019
Back to a timeless, placeless, utopian Germanien
From A Most Dangerous Book (Christopher B. Krebs, 2011) pp214-7
(more…)July 12, 2019
Modernization
From The Post-American World (Fareed Zakaria, 2008) pp73-7
(more…)Davos culture
From Twilight of the Elites (Christopher Hayes, 2012) p154-9
(more…)July 7, 2019
Universal civilization?
From The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (Samuel P. Huntington, 1996) p56-9
(more…)Law and order is the first prerequisite of Civilization
From The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (Samuel P. Huntington, 1996) p318-21
(more…)Enemies are essential
From The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (Samuel P. Huntington, 1996) p1-2
(more…)July 4, 2019
Exuberantly nihilistic
From Black Earth (Timothy Snyder, 2015) p1-2
(more…)July 3, 2019
Counting the syringes
From The Patient (Mohamed Khadra, 2009) p81-2
(more…)The idea that Britain is a big place
From Notes from a small island (Bill Bryson, 1996) p1-3
(more…)June 21, 2019
Many millions of persons will be starved to death
From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer, 1960, 2011) p832-4
(more…)June 19, 2019
“We’re in a Street Fight with These People”
From The Signal and the Noise (Nate Silver, 2012) p408-11
(more…)A moment of convulsive rage
From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer, 1960, 2011) p824-6
(more…)June 15, 2019
A typical falsification and … a dire threat
From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer, 1960, 2011) p778-80
(more…)June 12, 2019
The main thing lacking has been the necessary political will.
From Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis (Jared Diamond, 2019) pp414-6
(more…)June 11, 2019
They do not want to apologize
From Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis (Jared Diamond, 2019) pp314-6
(more…)June 10, 2019
Leftists don’t have to be radical and intransigent
From Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis (Jared Diamond, 2019) pp163-5
(more…)June 9, 2019
Lessons for Australia from Finland
From Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis (Jared Diamond, 2019) pp87-91
(more…)June 8, 2019
More Extremism, Less Extremism
From Conformity (Cass Sunstein, 2019) pp93-4
(more…)May 27, 2019
A suitable place for profitable operations
From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer, 1960, 2011) p664-5
(more…)May 26, 2019
He was thinking of Churchill.
From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer, 1960, 2011) p641-2
(more…)May 12, 2019
Insisting on a world that had never existed
From Pandora’s Lab (Paul Offitt, 2016) pp185-9
(more…)Ill-suited to the demands of an industrial economy
Spoken Here (Mark Abley, 2003, 2011) pp163-7
(more…)May 11, 2019
Ecological catastrophe
From Rainbow Pie (Joe Bageant, 2010 ) pp85-93
(more…)The warning signals of annoying minorities
From The Journalist and the Murderer (Janet Malcolm, 1990) pp111-2
(more…)May 7, 2019
Seduction and betrayal
From The Journalist and the Murderer (Janet Malcolm, 1990) pp3-5
(more…)May 6, 2019
The weakness of the democratic powers
From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer, 1960, 2011) p477
(more…)The summit of his oratory
From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer, 1960, 2011) pp471-2
(more…)May 5, 2019
“This is the greatest day of my life!”
From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer, 1960, 2011) pp446-8
(more…)May 3, 2019
The nation was catching it, as if it were a virus.
From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer, 1960, 2011) pp434-5
(more…)The proof is stronger if the people still speak an ancestral language
From Spoken Here (Mark Abley, 2003, 2011) pp37
(more…)May 1, 2019
The ringing cheers of the crowd
From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer, 1960, 2011) pp396-9
(more…)April 30, 2019
A shabby diplomatic trick
From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer, 1960, 2011) pp376-7
(more…)April 29, 2019
Nagawicka
From George F. Kennan: An American Life (John Lewis Gaddis, 2011) pp10,11,13
(more…)April 28, 2019
Manipulation of empathic intuitions
From Behave (Robert Sapolsky, 2018) pp632-3
(more…)April 27, 2019
Intertwining of moral and visceral disgust
From Behave (Robert Sapolsky, 2018) pp561-2
(more…)April 24, 2019
Hierarchy, Obedience, and Resistance
From Behave (Robert Sapolsky, 2018) pp475-7
(more…)April 23, 2019
What a wonderful country.
From Neither Here Nor There (Bill Bryson, 1991) pp262-5
(more…)April 20, 2019
Esperanto didn’t have a hope.
From Spoken Here (Mark Abley, 2004) pp88-94
(more…)April 19, 2019
Everything costs a fortune.
From Neither Here Nor There (Bill Bryson, 1991) pp147-9
(more…)April 17, 2019
It depends on the environment.
From Behave (Robert Sapolsky, 2018) pp253-4
(more…)April 7, 2019
Immense feudal estates
From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer, 1960, 2011) pp257-8
(more…)Our frequent human tragedy
From Behave (Robert Sapolsky, 2018) pp69-70
(more…)March 1, 2019
Estimating Uncertainty
From The Signal and the Noise (Nate Silver, 2012) pp406-11
(more…)January 28, 2019
A revolt of middle class hipsters
From The Revolt of the Public (Martin Gurri, 2018) pp138-42
(more…)In the dubious limbo
From Fire and Fury (Michael Wolff, 2018) pp16-8
(more…)January 21, 2019
Doomed to extinction
From The Enigmatic Mister Deakin (Judith Brett, 2017) pp120-3
(more…)January 19, 2019
A pious empty hope
From The Enigmatic Mister Deakin (Judith Brett, 2017)
(more…)January 10, 2019
Bannon’s strategy of the United States.
From Fear (Bob Woodward, 2018) p196
December 30, 2018
December 23, 2018
A slow, powerful drilling through hard boards
From Politics as a Vocation (Max Weber, 1919, Rodney Livingstone translation) p92-4
December 11, 2018
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Hunter S. Thompson, 1972(Excerpts) (more…)
November 29, 2018
Russians exploited American gullibility
From The Road to Unfreedom (Timothy Snyder, 2018) p244-9 (more…)
November 27, 2018
For me, the irony never quite abated
From Unaccountable (Janina Wedel, 2014) p86-7 (more…)
“Putin is not going into Ukraine, you can mark it down.”
From The Road to Unfreedom (Timothy Snyder, 2018) p212-5 (more…)
November 26, 2018
The only winner was China.
From The Road to Unfreedom (Timothy Snyder, 2018) p196-7 (more…)
November 18, 2018
A question of the price of bread
From How democracy Ends (David Runciman, 2018) p106-8 (more…)
November 17, 2018
Coups and zombie democracy
From How democracy Ends (David Runciman, 2018) p44-7 (more…)
November 7, 2018
The very basis of all leftist humanism
From Crises of the Republic (Hannah Arendt, 1972) p114-5 (more…)
November 6, 2018
The spirit of history
From Nations and Nationalism (Ernest Gellner) p124 (more…)
But they didn’t get it
From The Shortest History of Germany (James Hawes, 2018) p126-7 (more…)
Fordism
From The Shortest History of Germany (James Hawes, 2018) p157 (more…)
A Prussian solution for Russia, 1887
From The Shortest History of Germany (James Hawes, 2018) p124 (more…)
November 2, 2018
Students of myth
From Weimar Culture (Peter Gay, 2001) pp34-5 (more…)
There was one exception: Max Weber
From Weimar Culture (Peter Gay, 2001) pp36-7 (more…)
He thought himself a German
From Weimar Culture (Peter Gay, 2001) pp18-21 (more…)
November 1, 2018
Jews, Junkers & Priests
From The Shortest History of Germany (James Hawes, 2018) p110-123 (more…)
October 31, 2018
What is to be done?
From Identity (Francis Fukuyama, 2018) p163-183
(more…)October 29, 2018
Lords of the world
From If This is a Man; The Truce (Primo Levi, 1979) p377 (more…)
October 27, 2018
It started in Kogarah
From Falling Towards England (Clive James, 1985) pp102-7 (more…)
The Champion Bullock Driver
From Australian Short Stories (Murdoch & Drake-Brockman, 1951) pp130-3 (more…)
October 19, 2018
The fear of modernity
From Weimar Culture (Peter Gay, 2001) pp80-96 (more…)
October 16, 2018
‘On the Disadvantages of Wearing Fur’
From The Great Extermination (A.J. Marshall, 1966) pp26-9 (more…)
October 14, 2018
Hitler’s unintentional gift
From Snakecharmers in Texas (Clive James, 1988) ‘On the library coffee-table’ pp91-110 (more…)
September 24, 2018
The very glue of the peacetime Nazi state.
From The Shortest History of Germany (James Hawes, 2017) pp172-3 (more…)
Unnerved by prior ownership
From Hitching rides with Buddha (Will Ferguson, 1998) pp347-9 (more…)
September 22, 2018
A brand new kind of anti-semitism
From The Shortest History of Germany (James Hawes, 2017) pp117-20 (more…)
September 4, 2018
A Convenient Fear
From Factfulness (Hans Rosling, 2018) pp232-4 (more…)
August 30, 2018
Immigration: Australia’s Rag Doll
From Speeches and Essays of Geoffrey Blainey (1991) pp229-35 (more…)
August 29, 2018
Without satellites, without an air force
From Three Cups of Tea (Mortenson & Relin, 2006) p274 (more…)
August 20, 2018
Fear that they can ride into office
From The Demon-haunted World (Carl Sagan, 1996) pp379-81 (more…)
August 4, 2018
‘Let us be one!’
From Krakatoa (Simon Winchester, 2003) pp184-98 (more…)
July 28, 2018
Fear and Loathing
From The Post-American World (Fareed Zakaria, 2008) pp250-1
America has transformed the world with its power but also with its ideals. When China’s pro-democracy protesters gathered in Tiananmen Square, they built a makeshift figure that suggested the Statue of Liberty, not an F-16. America’s image may not he as benign as Americans think, but it is, in the end, better than the alternatives. That is what has made its immense power tolerable to the world for so long.
Before it can implement any of these specific strategies, however, the United States must make a much broader adjustment. It needs to stop cowering in fear. It is fear that has created a climate of paranoia and panic in the United States and fear that has enabled our strategic missteps. Having spooked ourselves into believing that we have no option but to act fast and alone, preemptively and unilaterally, we have managed to destroy decades of international goodwill, alienate allies, and embolden enemies, while solving few of the major international problems we face. To recover its place in the world, America first has to recover its confidence.
By almost all objective measures, the United States is in a blessed position today. It faces problems, crises, and resistance, but compared with any of the massive threats of the past — Nazi Germany, Stalin’s aggression, nuclear war – the circumstances are favorable, and the world is moving our way. In 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt diagnosed the real danger for the United States. ”The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” he said. “Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror.” And he was arguing against fear when America’s economic and political system was near collapse, when a quarter of the workforce was unemployed, and when fascism was on the march around the world. Somehow we have managed to spook ourselves in a time of worldwide peace and prosperity. Keeping that front and center in our minds is crucial to ensure that we do not miscalculate, misjudge, and misunderstand. America has become a nation consumed by anxiety, worried about terrorists and rogue nations, Muslims and Mexicans, foreign companies and free trade, immigrants and international organizations. The strongest nation in the history of the world now sees itself as besieged by forces beyond its control. While the Bush administration has contributed mightily to this state of affairs, it is a phenomenon that goes beyond one president. Too many Americans have been taken in by a rhetoric of fear. The 2008 presidential campaign could have provided the opportunity for a national discussion of the new world we live in. On the Republican side, it has been largely an exercise in chest-thumping hysteria. The contenders may have left the scene but their words both reflect and shape the national consciousness. “They hate you!” Rudy Giuliani repeatedly shouted on the campaign trail, relentlessly reminding audiences of the nasty people out there.
July 26, 2018
From Antigua to the United Kingdom
From The Post-American World (Fareed Zakaria, 2008) pp236-8 (more…)
July 24, 2018
A Do-nothing Politics
From The Post-American World (Fareed Zakaria, 2008) pp210-4 (more…)
July 21, 2018
Anti-Americanism in RoK, 1986
From Korea (Simon Winchester, 1988, 2004) pp181-4 (more…)
July 11, 2018
Signifying modernity
From The Post-American World (Fareed Zakaria, 2008) pp73-7 (more…)
June 29, 2018
Confucian determination
From Korea (Simon Winchester, 1988, 2004) pp4-9 (more…)
June 26, 2018
A glimmer of hope
From Can It Happen Here? (Cass Sunstein, Ed, 2018) pp358-60 (more…)
June 13, 2018
‘What in hell are you talking about?’
From Death Sentence (Don Watson 2003) pp108-110 (more…)
June 12, 2018
Democracy’s core dilemma, and a critical crossroads.
From Can It Happen Here? (Cass Sunstein, Ed, 2018) pp215-7 (more…)
May 27, 2018
You really think all Japanese have a vision of the end of the world?
From Underground (Haruki Murakami, 2003) pp296-301 (more…)
May 20, 2018
What could they do?
From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William Shirer, 1960 [2011]) pp232-4 (more…)
May 12, 2018
The Gap Instinct
From Factfulness (Hans Rosling, 2018) pp38-9 (more…)
May 7, 2018
No British superman
From The Long Shadow (David Reynolds, 2013) pp424-5 (more…)
April 25, 2018
A special relationship
From The Long Shadow (David Reynolds, 2013) pp274-8 (more…)
April 9, 2018
Politics does throw up hypocrites and liars
From Death Sentence: the decay of public language (Don Watson, 2003) pp58-60 (more…)
April 6, 2018
The wrong lama was chosen
From The River at the Centre of the World (Simon Winchester, 1996) pp400-1 (more…)
March 31, 2018
White, Black, Yellow
From The Long Shadow (David Reynolds, 2013) pp120-2 (more…)
March 30, 2018
The Left’s Blind Spot: Moral Capital
From The Righteous Mind (Jonathan Haidt, 2012 ) pp288-94 (more…)
March 20, 2018
Creation of a new, Pan-Asian identity
From The River at the Centre of the World (Simon Winchester, 1996) pp309-10 (more…)
‘Good on ya, Mrs Thomas! Australia for the white man!’
From Jessica (Bryce Courtenay, 1998) pp64-70
(more…)
March 19, 2018
They forgot that they too were white.
From March of Folly (Barbara Tuchman, 1984) pp284-91
(more…)
The Lansdale Mission
From The March of Folly (Barbara Tuchman, 1984) pp276
(more…)
Like fibers of a cloth absorbing a dye
From The March of Folly (Barbara Tuchman, 1984) pp264-5
(more…)
March 17, 2018
The Price of Freedom
From Silent Invasion (Clive Hamilton, 2018) pp277-8 (more…)
2500 years of 祖先
From Silent Invasion (Clive Hamilton, 2018) pp258-9 (more…)
Exploiting Antarctica
From Silent Invasion (Clive Hamilton, 2018) pp253-4 (more…)
March 15, 2018
China and Australia as one family
From Silent Invasion (Clive Hamilton, 2018) pp235-7 (more…)
March 11, 2018
The Secret Shame
From Dismantling the Empire (Chalmers Johnson, 2010) pp191-4 (more…)
It was all a pipedream
From The Life and Death of Democracy (John Keane, 2009) pp832-4 (more…)
March 8, 2018
To Yichang from the far side of the planet, 1994.
From The River at the Centre of the World (Simon Winchester, 1996) pp248-52 (more…)
March 4, 2018
February 28, 2018
In trouble simply because he had told the truth – the lesson of Peng Dehuai.
From The River at the Centre of the World (Simon Winchester, 1996) pp188-91 (more…)
February 27, 2018
Flipping, as we have done, between timidity and petulance.
From Without America (QE68, Hugh White 2017) pp76-9 (more…)
February 26, 2018
Pattern of thoughtless tough talk
From Without America (QE68, Hugh White 2017) pp52-3, 56-7 (more…)
February 22, 2018
Henry Morganthau’s plan for Germany
From Masters and Commanders (Andrew Roberts, 2008) pp 513,525 (more…)
Turnbull plays the Trump card – “defence” to stimulate Science
From The Demon-haunted World (Carl Sagan, 1996) pp314-7 (more…)
February 20, 2018
China, India, opium, tea & England
From The River at the Centre of the World (Simon Winchester, 1996) pp175-9 (more…)
February 18, 2018
The message is plain enough.
From Weimar Culture (Peter Gay, 2001) pp80-4 (more…)
February 15, 2018
We will teach those little people a lesson
From The River at the Centre of the World (Simon Winchester, 1996) pp 136-9 (more…)
February 13, 2018
The Chinese never have forgotten, and never will forget.
From The River at the Centre of the World (Simon Winchester, 1996) pp128-35 (more…)
February 5, 2018
Turnbull’s Australia in the arms race?
From Dismantling the Empire (Chalmers Johnson, 2010) p148, The Military-Industrial Man (more…)
January 28, 2018
In the image of the West
From On Identity (Amin Maalouf, 2000) pp58-9 (more…)
January 26, 2018
A new concept of identity
On Identity (Amin Maalouf, 2000) pp26-31 (more…)
January 21, 2018
US history, Hollywood & the press
From Final Cut (Steven Bach, 1985) p285-6
(more…)
January 20, 2018
Charismatic personae or mere stunts?
From Masters and Commanders (Andrew Roberts, 2008) p398
(more…)
December 24, 2017
Dick’s Trick
From Breach of Trust (Andrew Bacevich 2013) pp56-8 (more…)
December 17, 2017
A powerful trump
From Pacific the ocean of the future (Simon Winchester, 2015) pp348-50 (more…)
November 30, 2017
November 23, 2017
“But we keep on trying, because there’s nothing else to do.”
From Annie Proulx’ speech for National Book Award, by Boris Kachka @ Vulture
November 14, 2017
Fake News, Munich 1933
Explaining Hitler (Ron Rosenbaum, 1998), The Poison Kitchen pp51-2 (more…)
November 12, 2017
ENSO
From Pacific, the Ocean of the Future (Simon Winchester, 2015) p264-5 (more…)
November 4, 2017
October 8, 2017
Figure things out for yourself.
On Tyranny (Timothy Snyder) p72-80
11. Investigate (more…)
September 10, 2017
August 31, 2017
Churchill and the Patria
Finest Hour (Martin Gilbert) p910-1 (more…)
August 27, 2017
Wir werden keinen zivilen Ungehorsam tolerieren
August 20, 2017
August 5, 2017
ABF and Biometrics
Nicholas Stuart writes (‘Government needs to act on our information security’, 2/8) (more…)
June 20, 2017
One unified media
Iron Curtain (Anne Applebaum) xxiii-xxiv (more…)
May 16, 2017
May 4, 2017
New directions for EHR?
I haven’t detected any upswing in the current pushing citizens to MyHR. There are subtle indicators that tides (for integrated records) may be swinging in another direction. (more…)
May 2, 2017
Changes
Have absorbed tgk21277, added Archives, Tweets
to do – default text, change colors
April 30, 2017
Clive James’ blue collar
In his Latest Readings he has another look at John Howard & his writing. (more…)
April 29, 2017
Shabby brown
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer) p215-6 (more…)