🔗: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/aug/20/help-ukrainian-publishers-russia-attacks-books

Good ol' Uncle George distills it down to the essentials... And sadly here we find ourselves today. Human civilization has so much potential, yet we demonstrably lack the wisdom to handle our inherent greed, hubris, and now also our developing technologies. Auwe.

I'm never going to recover from this financially. 😂

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Was Machiavelli describing the nature of politics as it is, or was he providing a philosophical justification for the practices of power?

If we look at international politics today—from the United States’ dealings with its allies and adversaries to the great-power struggle for influence—do we see the application of Machiavelli’s ideas, or is modern politics too complex to be explained through his framework?

🔗: https://www.advocate.com/news/lgbtq-book-clubs#toggle-gdpr

The podcast will be a limited series examining “The Fire Next Time,” by James Baldwin; “Song of Solomon,” by Toni Morrison; “All the Pretty Horses,” by Cormac McCarthy; “Gilead,” by Marilynne Robinson; “All the King’s Men,” by Robert Penn Warren; and “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” by John le Carré.

In Tolkien’s book The Hobbit, the Master of Lake-town: "Being of the kind that easily catches such disease he fell under the dragon-sickness, and took most of the gold and fled with it, and died of starvation in the Waste, deserted by his companions."

In The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug film, Balin says to Thorin, "A sickness lies upon that treasure hoard -- a sickness that drove your grandfather mad." In the next film, Gandalf claimed that dragon-sickness affected anyone within the vicinity of the Lonely Mountain, possibly explaining Thranduil's eagerness to go to war (https://www.cbr.com/lord-of-the-rings-eol-dark-elf-explained/) over a single necklace.

A book and a community for those who are concerned about the future, and who want to find a way to make it our own. In Part One, a brief non-partisan review of the ideas and influences that have led to the America we know today: What would we like to keep, and what would we prefer to reject? Part Two offers a practical strategy for actual dialog among Americans who are uncomfortable talking to each other. Genuine dialog will only be possible in local communities, and Americans will need to relearn what authentic community is and how to make it happen. A second book is on the way: "Conflict and Community: A Handbook for Humanity." You are invited to visit the website, www.freedomstruth.net

In March of 2022, three weeks after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces bombed the shelter housed in the Donetsk Regional Academic Drama Theater, in the city of Mariupol, despite (or because of) the word "Children" written outside in letters large enough to be seen from the air. The bombing stands, to this day, as the single worst act of mass civilian killing of the war, with approximately 600 killed. Three years later, Russian occupiers reopened the rebuilt theatre to stage Russian fairy tales.

James Verini refers to that war crime as the "defining atrocity" of the war in this book The Theater.

Is it? Hard to choose. There's Bucha, the mass child trafficking of Ukrainian children into Russia, the human safaris, the bombing of hospitals, the Kremlin's Wagner neo-Nazi PMC bragging about their own atrocities, torture chambers for civilians, use of rape as a tool of war...