We should remember this when it comes to current debates about internet regulation: the legislature has a role to play here in defining freedom of speech. It is not all up to what nine smart people in robes say.

ALGASZER Then out spake brave Horatius, The Captain of the Gate: "To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his Gods."

Naval postapathy.com/era-of-wolves/

since the pandemic, US’s nearly 200 dioceses and other Catholic institutions received at least $3 billion in taxpayer aid despite having billions in assets. compare with india where MH/Haryana state govts took massive interest-free “loans” from temples. apnews.com/article/cathol…

storm chasin in West Texas

"The traits I respect are erudition and the courage to stand up when half-men are afraid for their reputation. Any idiot can be intelligent." - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Lower pleasures are never quite as sharp the second time: they depend on surprise.

George Orwell wrote about his experiences among the poor and working classes in “Down and Out in Paris and London” On why restaurant waiters are seldom socialists:

Since the days of Aristotle, voluntary has been a prerequisite for the morality of actions. Someone's action cannot be judged morally unless it was voluntarily chosen. But the meaning of voluntary has shifted. Here follow a couple of thoughts on what voluntary means.

Scale distorts morality: You get people who are prepared to push the button to drop bombs but squeamish talking about gun ownership

Cultural Pluralism Cultural Pluralism describes the idealist notion that an organically-developing plurality of cultures allows for the richest and most resilient human societies to develop. Put simply, it is the basis for the 100,000 city-states arrangement.

GuruAnaerobic What made UK common law a standard, in administering justice, is accountability. Judges had to write their reasoning, by name. So we know - for centuries - what judge supported what decision, and who (among multiple judges) dissented. Woke judges are anonymous soy-dictators.

And I found that revealing but chilling answer. Not only because of its eugenic sensibility but also because it seemed to concede so readily the project of moral and political improvement. As if to say that human agency is impotent in the face of that project. 8/11

Great piece on how trust is a key constituent of a functioning society By Matthew Syed in S Times

O Son of Rudra, if am not doing intense tapas then it's your fault. Why didn't you impel me to do so? If you say you have impelled me but I am not following, then I ask you, O Lord, is this the power of your impelling?

"We need to feel a little bit lost somewhere, physically or intellectually, at least once a day." - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Getting a lot of “Bitcoin fixes this” in response to this tweet. Let’s be clear: the Babylonians “fixed” this. So did Song Dynasty China, 12th c. Genoese bankers, and 17th c. London goldsmiths. The problems none of them - including Bitcoin - solved were greed and incompetence.

I don’t wish to sound apocalyptic about this, but one has the sense that at present our society is simultaneously characterized by wildly disproportionate accountability for trivial transgressions and zero accountability for profound institutional failure.

I wish the breeding grounds of Islamofascism, the madrasas in Pakistan, are hit too. Let the inbred bastards know what it is to be hated with equal passion, or more. May Agni reduce the Mlechha bastards to ashes, before that land is ready for Shuddhi.

Superbly articulated by Priyanka Joshi. "The world doesn’t know what to do with India. We don’t fit their neat little boxes. We’re not white. We’re not monotheistic. We’re not ex-colonizers or submissive ex-colonized. We are something they can’t decode. We are too many things