Reading

Created
Tue, 07/04/2026 - 00:00

There was a time when approximately one-third of the globe was shaded pink, signifying lands that were part of the British Empire. Of course, some people claim that the Empire was a civilising force — a vehicle for spreading democracy and embodying a kind of moral crusade. However, one should always be drawn back to […]

Created
Mon, 06/04/2026 - 23:49
Departing from this amusing yet entirely real vignette, it is worth considering several outstanding and insightful books that thoughtfully engage with various dimensions of this fascinating subject matter: Billig, M. (1995). Banal nationalism. Sage. Bloch, M., & Parry, J. (Eds.). (1989). Money and the morality of exchange. Cambridge University Press. Desan, C. (2014). Making money: […]
Created
Mon, 06/04/2026 - 22:00

My God. What has happened to the Republican Party? The Party of Lincoln, for goodness’ sake!

Nothing about them resembles the Party of Lincoln. Like, for instance, they have a signature hat, but it’s not a stovepipe one.

They don’t wear blankets over their shoulders and laps indoors to protect against the chill as they strategize about the Civil War in 1864. They just turn up the thermostat while fantasizing about a Civil War in 2026.

They don’t see plays anymore. And if they do, they get photographed doing hand stuff during them. Lincoln never did hand stuff. He was too busy bearing the heavy mantle of statehood to do hand stuff. And if he did do hand stuff at any plays, he wouldn’t get photographed. Photographs took longer than hand stuff back then.

They don’t project from their diaphragm with a high, powerful voice that carries their poetic oratory over the heads of the crowd assembled at Gettysburg. They bark unhealthily from the throat like someone who doesn’t understand how a speakerphone works.

They don’t likely have undiagnosed Marfan syndrome, and in fact, they’re not tall at all. Physically or spiritually.

Created
Mon, 06/04/2026 - 21:33
It is a public holiday in Australia today and I decided that I would use the time, which is free of workplace-type interruptions, to finalise a major project that has an impending (very) deadline. So happy holidays to all not that the global events are anything to be very happy about.
Created
Sat, 04/04/2026 - 22:18

Ahead of next week’s resident doctors’ strike, Keir Starmer and Health Secretary Wes Streeting issued an extraordinary ultimatum to the doctors’ union, the BMA: call off the planned six-day walkout or lose 1,000 promised training posts. The BMA rejected the ultimatum, and the government has now scrapped plans to create the training posts. The six-day […]

Created
Sat, 04/04/2026 - 04:00

Wherever I look, my gaze can find something horrific on which to focus. Whether it be news of atrocities committed by our fascist-leaning governments, obvious acceleration towards environmental collapse, or the Criterion Collection’s glaring omission of the Jackass series, heinous evils are all around us.

Yet, despite it all, I still believe in the unassailable goodness of humanity.

I also believe that the Easter Bunny is a real, tangible creature capable of wielding magic and producing plastic eggs filled with individually wrapped candies.

Throughout human history, righteousness inevitably triumphs over evil. Yes, sometimes the darkness becomes so strong and oppressive that we forget what the light is like. And that darkness can last for so long that people live entire lives in its grip. But eventually, the light always returns.

Created
Sat, 04/04/2026 - 00:00

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FEATURES:

  • Middle-aged athletes
  • Scoobers
  • Coke Slurpees
  • The unknowable future
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In July of 2025, I flew out to Aurora, Colorado, with my wife and some friends to see if we were still the best forty-something ultimate frisbee players in the United States of America. We’d been training for months, and for decades. A gold medal from 2024 hung in my closet in Minneapolis, gave a muted clink when I reached for my khakis, but in the meantime, a whole other crop of mid-forties motherfuckers had sprung up or aged into the grand masters division. They wanted to snatch our gold.

Created
Fri, 03/04/2026 - 23:00

I hope you’re proud of yourself, Harold. That nice Jesus boy has died, and it’s all your fault. He had prospects, that Jesus, a nice carpentry business going. And that voice! He could climb a mount and give a sermon, and you’d be rapt. Rapt, I tell you! And now, pfffft.

All because of you, Harold, you and your sin. That one sin.

Oh, you know perfectly well which one, Harold. Don’t make me spell it out for you. We’ve all seen you. You think we didn’t notice, but a sin like that, how could we not? Any sensible person would tell themself it wasn’t right. A normal person, a good person, would know in his heart that this sin they were doing was bringing on eternal damnation. Not just for you, Harold, but for all of humankind. Such a sin!

We were all going to go to H-E-L-L, Harold, because of that sin of yours. And on a weekday evening. Who sins like that on a worknight? There were children nearby.