Lysistrata's Daughter

Today is A's name day, and he got a new pirate hide-out thingy. The old pirates and the new pirates are getting acquainted and will probably be planning some expeditions to find treasure in the near future.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | The age of 'celebrity terrorism' : "Perhaps we have come to the point where casually self-radicalised, sociopathic individuals can form a loose organisation, acquire sufficient weapons and equipment for a few thousand dollars, make a basic plan of action and indulge in a violent expression of their generalised disaffection and anomie." I promise this won't turn into a round-up of political stuff I find interesting, but this really was a totally novel and convincing, to me, at least, analysis of modern terrorism.

I've stopped looking at Facebook recently, and I hardly ever watch YouTube videos anymore. The reason? I can't stand to watch the total disintegration of American political discourse. On Facebook, friends of all political stripes post snarky status messages taking potshots at one side or the other. They also post propaganda-style YouTube videos and fear-mongering articles, which cite few checkable sources. I can't take it any longer. I can't stand to watch the most outrageous propaganda masquerading as serious political comment. I can't stand to watch the artificial division of the country into 'us' and 'them'. I can't stand to watch as people I love, throughout the political spectrum, are painted as ill-intentioned, hateful people. Politics is not a parody of fundamentalist religion, in which we must choose between good and evil or face an eternity of Bill O'Reilly and Michael Moore wet t-shirt contests. Politics are contingent, ambiguous an...

I've been recommending this talk to everyone I know lately. It is one of the most revolutionary and healing things I've heard in a very, very long time. The thesis is: you are not your thoughts, meaning that stream of chatter that goes on in your head all the time, quite independent of what you're doing. I think the Buddhists call this the 'monkey mind'. The talk is about an hour long. It's absolutely worth it to take the time to listen to it carefully.