Saturday, December 31, 2016

Here's Wishing You All a Happy New Year

by Nomad

I wanted to wish all of you copious amounts of positive energy, limitless patience, and emotional strength in the coming year.
I suspect we are all going to need it.

Out of curiosity, I also have a few questions for you:
  • What was the single best thing that happened to you this past year?
  • If you could pick three words to describe 2016, what would they be?

  • What was the most important thing you learned this past year?
  • What's the most important decision you had to make in 2016?

  • And finally, if you could go back 12 months ago, what advice would you give yourself about 2016?

Thursday, December 29, 2016

The Delightful Sport of Deflating The Donald

by Nomad

For comedians and cartoonists, the Trump Presidency will be boom years. Hopefully, for the rest of us, that won't be true in the literal sense.
Here are some that caught my eye. Hope you enjoy them.

Donald Trump Cartoon 1

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Why This 1967 Interview of Prof. A.J. Toynbee is Still Thought-Provoking

by Nomad

Toynbee
The observations of an esteemed historian from 1967 still hold true in our time.


More than a Historian

To call Professor Arnold J. Toynbee a historian is to fall short of the mark. He was called a " philosopher of history." 

His most famous work "The Study of History" is a staggering 12 volumes and took three decades to write. On a human scale, that's a lot of history right there.
Today, Toynbee is known mostly in academic circles but in his time, he was a widely read and discussed scholar in the 1940s and 1950s.
Sadly, for the anybody without a masters' degree, the work is not what most people would consider and "easy" read.

But that's not to say it is inaccessible. A later condensed version allows us mere mortals an opportunity to understand Toynbee's brilliance. Even then, there are moments when you look up from the book and wonder, what the heck did I just read?
(The Wikipedia version is perhaps the ultimate abridgment.)

To put it simply, Professor Toynbee studied what caused primitive societies to transform themselves into civilizations and the reasons why civilizations collapsed.
Toynbee's goal was to trace the development and decay of 19 world civilizations in the historical record, applying his model to each of these civilizations, detailing the stages through which they all pass: genesis, growth, time of troubles, universal state, and disintegration.
In a way, Toynbee turned a very wide angle lens on humanity. Toynbee, as dry as his works could often be, provided remarkable insight into where we are in the bigger picture. He also hinted at where we might be going.

Friday, December 23, 2016

Sanity Break: Three Holiday Songs by Sufjan Stevens

by Nomad


I think it's time to take a break from politics for a few days and enjoy the holidays. Whether that means Christmas, or Hanukkah or a belated recognition of winter solstice, whatever, just consider this post a bit of relief from the relentlessly depressing political news.

To take our minds off of all that, I have selected the ever-quirky Sufjan Stevens who apparently has a particular fondness for this time of year. He has not one but two Christmas collection albums

Here he performs "Lumberjack Christmas / No One Can Save You From Christmases Past."