Friday, August 02, 2013

Friday Night ADHD Linklets

Bruce Sterling: "If Snowden had gotten things his own way, he’d be writing earnest op-ed editorials in Hong Kong now, in English, while dining on Kung Pao Chicken. It’s some darkly modern act of crooked fate that has directed Edward Snowden to Moscow, arriving there as the NSA’s Solzhenitsyn, the up-tempo, digital version of a conscience-driven dissident defector."

Victor Davis Hanson assumed that an invitation to racial dialog was sincere--aftermath summarized here, along with related reactions. If the ground rules of a conversation constrain one side to pretend that they do not see, hear and know what they in fact do see, hear and know, the ensuing conversation may be quite balletic, but it won't be honest. As Voltaire famously said, the great consolation in life is to say precisely what one thinks.

Will Detroit's splendid art collection become a bankruptcy casualty?

You can learn about loss just as effectively from a laser gun as you can from an unsuccessful affair in Paris.

“Your help is hurting.” More to the point: Helping people is good. Making pets of them is bad.