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Not Your Grandfather's Conservatism

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america Archive

Monday

2

March 2015

3

COMMENTS

Different Mentalities

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2

Hello. I’m a Russian occupier. It is my profession. Historically, it just happened. I once occupied Siberia… I once occupied the Baltic States … I once occupied Central Asia … I once occupied Ukraine … Yes, I’m an occupier, and I’m tired of apologizing for it! I’m an occupier by birthright, an aggressor and a bloodthirsty monster. Be afraid. … All and sundry came to my house: the Turks, the British, the Poles, the Germans, the French — we’ve got enough land, two and a half meters for each and every one of them! Please, understand. I don’t need your hypocritical “freedom.” […]

Monday

9

February 2015

10

COMMENTS

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin: Autist

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theautist

Last Wednesday, USA Today obtained a 2008 report commissioned by a Pentagon think-tank that postulated long-time Russian President and part-time bare-chested Siberian horseman Vladimir Putin had Asperger’s Syndrome, “an autistic disorder which affects all of his decisions.” Further accusations include a citation from a psychiatry professor that “Putin carries a form of autism,” that Putin “carries a neurological abnormality” and that his “neurological development was significantly interrupted in infancy.” These reports get mighty specific too: “Today, project neurologists confirm this research project’s earlier hypothesis that very early in life perhaps, even in utero, Putin suffered a huge hemispheric event to the left […]

Friday

6

February 2015

20

COMMENTS

Don’t Get Too Bearish On America

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He's not finished yet.

There’s a certain current of thought, which runs across parts of both the Left and Right, that enjoys proclaiming the Death Of America. Its proponents often come from contradictory and conflicting backgrounds. Anarcho-communists and anarcho-capitalists; nationalists and libertarians; opponents of Western imperialism and proponents of Chinese, Russian, and Islamic imperialism. The general thesis is usually fairly similar: the things that made America great – capitalist power, superpower status, oppression of the Third World, religious values, or what have you –  are disappearing. Massive debt, geopolitical shifts, and/or demographic transformation will cause America to shrink its global reach even as it […]

Friday

2

January 2015

9

COMMENTS

Political Antifragility: China and the West

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Al-Jazeera English’s Head to Head program recently featured a debate with Dr. Zhang Weiwei, renowned expert on the Chinese model of development and professor of international relations. It’s not the strongest of debates; AJE host Mehdi Hasan leaps from point to point and doesn’t grant Weiwei much opportunity to address the worldview and grand strategy of the Chinese State. As a result, Weiwei comes off looking weak at points. I’d encourage watching it anyway in addition to Eric Li’s fuller exploration of these topics. Hasan also seems to assume that the results of Chinese democracy would be good and desirable ones, ignoring […]

Monday

29

December 2014

1

COMMENTS

Thy Name is Social Alienation

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On a particularly cold Autumn day, I stood on a street corner in a small North American town. It was windier and chillier than normal, and hardly conducive to the kind of procrastinative loitering typical of Southern Europe — but the Sun was unusually bright, and when its warmth caught my face I knew what the moment demanded. I lit a cigarette and let the Sun toast me as best it could. Whistling old Christmas tunes, I watched as three desperate souls hurried past me in three different directions. All three walked quickly. They maintained a nervous gait, as if trying to […]