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Created
Tue, 01/07/2025 - 23:36

The Senate is on the verge of passing the distinctly misnamed “big beautiful bill.” It is, in fact, one of the ugliest pieces of legislation to come out of Congress in living memory. The version that passed the House recently would cut $1.7 trillion, mostly in domestic spending, while providing the top 5% of taxpayers with roughly $1.5 trillion in tax breaks. Over the next few years, the same bill will add another $150 billion to a Pentagon budget already soaring towards a record $1 trillion. In short, as of now, in the battle between welfare and warfare, the militarists are carrying the day. Pentagon Pork and the People It Harms The bill, passed by the House of Representatives and... Read more

Source: Feeding the Warfare State appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Created
Tue, 01/07/2025 - 22:00

I just had a tour of your newly renovated theme park. I hate to be that guy, but I just want to mention that, while you refer to your destination as a theme park, it would be more accurate to describe it as a motif park.

See, a theme is the central subject your experience is about, like lost love, patriotism in wartime, or the allure of social status. What you have is a cluster of motifs, distinct features of your work that attempt to develop a theme.

I say “attempt” because the imagery here is unhinged. On the map we have a castle, a geodesic dome, a haunted house, and a Chinese pavilion with a dragon poking out of it. What thematic concept, in the abstract, are you going for? Amusement? Yes, but what about amusement are you saying?

Most great themes are about conflict. For example, while the title of your park, Cedar Coppice, evokes the arboreal, the attractions are more man-made. So maybe your theme is “man versus nature.” Then one of your motifs would be that thirty-foot-tall plexiglass treehouse. Or there’s “man versus machine,” exemplified by rides like the Tungsten Titan.

Created
Tue, 01/07/2025 - 18:57
Considered in Greek mythology to be a member of the fifth generation of beings to appear after the creation of the world, Cadmus was a Phoenician prince and the founder of the Boeotian city of Thebes. A great slayer of monsters, he appears in Herodotus as the conduit through which the Phoenician alphabet was introduced... Continue Reading →