Empathy

Phrack!

Phrack, via https://phrack.org/ Language is constantly evolving, not only by time and location, but also because of usage and changing cultural associations. When I think of the word “ manifesto ”, the example which leaps to mind is the Communist Manifesto , obviously due to the title, but also because it is short and clearly laid out. Manifesto is defined as “a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer”, and such statements are gen

Apr 15 min read

I don't grok Grok!

Fallen Caryatid Carrying Her Stone, Auguste Rodin, via Cleveland Museum of Art When I first read Stranger in a Strange Land , I was too young to fully understand much of it. Of course I only realized that when I read it again, several years later. Over the years, I have read the book a dozen or so times, and picked up a bit more each time. This is the nature of good books – you can read them again, and pick up something new. Sometimes, you pick up some subtlety in the story o

Feb 114 min read

Who The F^ck is Charlie?

Charlie Chaplin, in The Great Dictator, 1940, via Wikimedia Commons Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about fascism. While I already had a fair degree of familiarity and understanding of the big picture, I’ve been picking up (and often blogging about) items which are new to me. Predictably, most are disturbing, but I occasionally come across something wonderful. Charlie Chaplin was an immensely influential figure in the history of cinema, and his “Tramp” character has been an

Oct 15, 20254 min read

Who The F^ck is Horst?

Cover of "Living Next Door to Alice" single by Smokie, via Wikipedia Living with the name “Alice” was not always easy in the 1970s and 1980s. For those not aware, the name of the song is actually “ Living Next Door to Alice ”, and was originally released by an Australian band called New World in 1972. The rest of us generally associate the song with the band Smokie , and think of it as “ Alice! Who the F^ck is Alice? ”. The song is about a man’s unadmitted love for his next-d

Oct 1, 20254 min read