January 2010
Totalitarian tolerance
I found these comments on parenting from Slavoj Zizek somewhat “convicting”:
Let’s say you have a good old-fashioned father. It’s Sunday afternoon. You have to visit Grandma.
The old-fashioned totalitarian father will tell you, “Listen, I don’t care how you feel” - if you are a small kid, of course - “I don’t care how you feel. You have to...
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“The iPad’s unprecedented use of DRM to control all capabilities of a...”
– iPad DRM endangers our rights | DefectiveByDesign.org
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-1-24) →
Fugazi (38)
St. Vincent (37)
Cat Power (30)
Amy Macdonald (28)
Chumbawamba (25)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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Formula = normula?
Yes, I’ve officially joined the Breastfeeding Mafia®. Here’s my email to BBC’s Panorama in response to their programme description asking how we can “provide the healthiest possible nutritional start for little ones as they move from formula to solid foods” (emphasis added):
Dear sirs, Part of the “the hunt for healthy food for children” lies in media...
“There is something about seeing your words on a screen before you that makes you...”
– Charles Bukowski on writing with a computer
“The bourgeoisie has at last, since the establishment of Modern Industry and of...”
– Communist Manifesto (Chapter 1). I’m just sayin’…
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The unmasking of democracy
The SCOTUS decision on corporate political funding is depressing, though arguably it’s in line with European human rights law (which also accords human rights to corporations - while at the same time having a less “absolutist” approach to freedom of speech as against other rights).
The decision is being described (correctly) as a threat to democracy, but I wonder if it is a...
“‘Targets’ have joined ‘health & safety’ and ‘political...”
– Don’t listen to Jeremy Clarkson: look to England to see NHS ‘targets’ vindicated | Columns | Progress
“If you call yourself orthodox, at the very least it should mean that most...”
– Revd Bosco Peters on “homodoxy” vs “orthodoxy” | Liturgy
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-1-17) →
Vampire Weekend (65)
Fugazi (40)
St. Vincent (36)
Suede (27)
Johnny Cash (18)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“It is better not to believe in God than to believe in a God who minimizes human...”
– Edward Schillebeeckx. (Thought this was so good I’d lift it out of the previous post and quote it separately.)
“The crucified but risen Jesus appears in the believing, assembled community of...”
– Edward Schillebeeckx (1914-2009), as quoted at Faith and Theology. I clearly need to read some Schillebeeckx, especially when he has book titles like Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter With God…
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-1-10) →
Florence + The Machine (47)
The Divine Comedy (47)
Pixies (43)
The Streets (31)
Amy Macdonald (23)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“The late Alan Clark once drew up a list of the occasions on which it is...”
– Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine
The Guardian has a list of the top 50 TV dramas of all time. Here are the ones I’ve seen (Bold = watched the whole thing/substantial amount. Italics = watched the occasional episode. Ordinary type = haven’t seen.)
I’d be interested to know what others have/haven’t seen off this list…
1. The Sopranos 2. Brideshead Revisited 3. Our Friends in the North 4. Mad...
Waiting for the train
Heiner Müller on the “waiting-room mentality” of communist eastern Europe. Depressingly familiar for anyone trying to use the trains in Britain this week:
There would be an announcement: The train will arrive at 18.15 and depart at 18.20 - and it never did arrive at 18.15. Then came the next announcement: The train will arrive at 20.10. And so on. You went on sitting there in the...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-1-3) →
Amy Macdonald (22)
Rufus Wainwright (16)
The Gothic Archies (15)
R.E.M. (11)
Camera Obscura (10)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz