Reading

At least houses were built in the great financial crisis.

— Turning hippies into Reagan voters: The values of the 1960’s countercultural movement (liberation, freedom, etc) were co-opted by corporations and used to perpetuate a culture of consumption and production. An interview with Carl Cederström, an author of The Happiness Fantasy — Mariana Mazzucato recommends 5 books explaining how political forces shape the markets: Franzen’s […]

Now they’re eating their own…

Low rating cable station Sky news Australia has urged their last remaining viewer to sleep through the year 2023, so as to avoid being woke. ”Wokeness is a dangerous disease that inhibits the mind of all those who disagree with... Read More ›

Of course this isn't a service I provide even in the best of times, but when I am diverted by other obligations I feel tremendous stress at not even being able to pretend to do it.

My life is easy and my stresses are mostly self-imposed and I fully understand that, but I still feel the stress when this blog is shittier than usual!

There currently is a problem with the commenting system, with some readers reporting comments not showing up. While the site may indicate some number of comments on a post, new comments are not visible on the post’s page. (I can see them as an administrator for the site, but at least some readers cannot.) I’m looking into what the cause of this is, but in the meanwhile one fix appears to be for the reader to switch the ordering of the comments from “oldest” (the default) to “newest.” The arrow in the image below (screenshots of the latest Mini-Heap post) shows where you click to do this. As you can see, the site indicates that there are 5 comments, but the fifth one is only visible once the view is switched to “newest.” Thanks to Daniel Dennett for inadvertently making the problem known to me. With luck, I’ll be able to resolve it soon.

Noam Chomsky: Another World Is Possible. Let’s Bring It to Reality Noam Chomsky Interviewed by C.J. Polychroniou January 4, 2023. Truthout. It’s a truism that the world is in a dismal state; indeed, there are too many great challenges facing our world and the planet is in fact at a breaking point, as Noam Chomsky […]

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Today's News:

~ Today's Water Cooler ~

Our fundraiser is extended until January 20, which means you have more time to participate in helping us reach our goal! Miriam discusses how memberships help drive our advocacy.

Owning the libs is all that matters As we watch the unfolding dumpster fire in Washington, keep in mind that this is what these people are doing to their own constituents. There is no good reason for this other than a deep and abiding belief that they must kill people rather than have the government help pay for their health insurance. This is who they are: Mississippi’s health-care crisis is worsening, and an overhaul of the state’s “current system of care is unmistakably essential,” a leading medical group warned hours before the State Legislature was set to begin its 2023 session at noon Monday. “The lack of access to healthcare for many Mississippians is currently a crisis, not a new crisis, but one that has been fermenting—and is getting worse,” the Mississippi State Medical Association said in a press release this morning. “As hospitals close across Mississippi, access to life-saving medical care becomes a real threat to all Mississippi.

The rising tension over Taiwan is not the making of either of the two Chinese parties to the dispute. After all, the fundamental problem has been the same since its inception. It was an unfinished civil war between two political factions, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China, over control of the country after Continue reading »

There is some terrible double-foolishness afoot, that is certain to be widely noticed beyond the Western bubble. Australia is stepping forward with gusto to secure its position as a best-military-buddy not only with America, the most warlike nation in history, according to Jimmy Carter, but also with Japan, one of the 20th century’s most infamous Continue reading »

In an interview, John Lander outlines the “Herculean” task ahead to repair the China-Australia relationship. The odds are heavily stacked against Albanese and Wong, who will need both political courage and diplomatic skill to bring it off. But for Australia’s sake, bring it off they must.  Watch it here. Commemorating fifty years of relations between Continue reading »

The Chinese government refined its COVID-19 prevention and control measures recently, ushering in a new phase of the country’s efforts to prevent and control the disease. The refined measures are in line with people’s wishes, conducive to China’s economic and social development and world economic recovery, and will inject more stability and positive energy into Continue reading »

Australia’s Albanese government has taken the lead of countries in North America, Europe and Asia by introducing COVID-19 testing measures on arrivals from China. The decision was reached in variance to advice from the Commonwealth’s chief medical officer, Paul Kelly that there was no “sufficient public health rationale” for the measure. It looks like yet Continue reading »

Starting with Robert Parry’s groundbreaking reporting on the 2014 Maidan coup, through the Russian intervention this year, Consortium News has been a leading source of analysis on Ukraine that defies the ‘psyopcracy.’ Consortium News has been on the leading edge of Ukraine coverage, beginning with Robert Parry’s work in 2014 to identify U.S. involvement in Continue reading »

One of the empire’s strongest assets is the widespread assumption that propaganda is something that only happens to other people. Another is the widespread assumption that propaganda only comes from other countries and other political ideologies. The status quo remains the status quo because those who benefit from the status quo are able to use the Continue reading »

Philip Stratton-Lake, professor of philosophy at the University of Reading, died last month following a period of serious illness. David Oderberg, Head of the Department of Philosophy at Reading, shared the following brief memorial notice: Philip was a much loved and respected colleague in the Department since he joined in 1998. He was an internationally reputed moral philosopher with expertise in a wide range of areas including meta-ethics, moral epistemology, Kantian ethics, contractualism, intuitionism, and Ross-style pluralism.  He was one of the world’s leading figures in the revival and defence of ethical intuitionism, writing the article on the topic for the Stanford Encyclopedia and editing a seminal volume (Ethical Intuitionism: Re-evaluations). He also edited the now standard edition of W.D. Ross’ The Right and the Good. Other work includes an important monograph on Kant (Kant, Duty and Moral Worth) along with many articles and chapters in collections.

Feeding time.