December 2011
98 posts
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2011: Let us waving part, waving drop from sight
2011: Let us waving part, waving drop from sight
Marco Harder
Writing an entry to cap off the year has started to feel like a ritual in the past few years, but this particular period makes it even more apparent as this has been more eventful than most of the years I’ve had to live through. Either that, or I’ve developed a more acute sense of perception that allowed me to experience this year more...
Hitchens On Death
Holdengräber: In the first 4-5 pages of your memoir, one thing that strikes me is a real fear of death, and it some way I think that the memoir is written to hold it at bay.
Hitchens: Of course. I’ve always known that I’m born into a losing struggle… don’t know anyone who’s come out of that a winner. One should try to write as if posthumously. Because then you’re free of all the inhibition that can cluster around even the most independent-minded writer. You don’t really care about public opinion now, you don’t mind about sales, you don’t care what the critics say. You don’t even care what your friends, your peers, your beloved think. You’re free. Death is a very liberating thought.
“Kiss me and you will see how important I am.”
– Sylvia Plath (via seaduction)
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My opinions on the best moments in OPM on the... →
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“One reason a gentleman may be obliged to lie is to protect the reputation of the...”
– Christopher Hitchens (via greatgatsby)
Forget Jesus, today is Sir Isaac Newton's...
astupidpoem:
“I love her,” I say. ”You love the idea of her, Nic,” he says. “You don’t love her.”
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Happy holidays, Tumblr.
You guys managed to keep me sane this year. You have no idea how big of a help all of you have been.
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Love, We Must Part Now by Philip Larkin
Love, we must part now: do not let it be Calamitious and bitter. In the past There has been too much moonlight and self-pity: Let us have done with it: for now at last Never has sun more boldly paced the sky, Never were hearts more eager to be free, To kick down worlds, lash forests; you and I No longer hold them; we are husks, that see The grain going forward to a different use. There is regret....
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This is what the left has been reduced to: the...
Person from Facebook: Rest in Peace Kim Jong-il! ='(
Marco Harder: Are you seriously mourning this nutcase?
Person from Facebook: Yes, he is a staunch dissenter of US Imperialism.
Marco Harder: Wow, now I see where your morals lie. You're willing to support a regime that has made beggars out of its citizens, treats them like they were his personal property and reducing them in two very clear ways: the average North Korean is now 6 inches shorter than the average South Korean, and that the only right of any North Korean citizen is to worship the dear leader. I think it's a real shame that the left has been more than willing coddle totalitarian regimes as long as it'll allow them to satiate their knee-jerk --- and therefore uncritical --- anti-American sentiments. Bravo.
Person from Facebook: I'm not the left. This is my personal sentiment. And I'm not stupid to believe what CNN or BBC tries to signify. I'd rather adhere to the stories of people I know who have been to North Korea.
Marco Harder: I don't see how being unpersuaded by major news networks while being credulous enough to believe in what would technically qualify as hearsay in any way shows what measures of critical thinking you apply on these things. In any case, being on the left or not matters little to me. It's principles that that do matter, and I find yours [as implied by this exchange] to be very questionable.
Person from Facebook: The issue of who owns mass media? If mass media is indeed owned and controlled by the ruling/imperialist class, therefore this suggests that it was meant to serve the status quo. You didn't even suspect why CNN did not cover Occupy Wall Street without public pressure?
Marco Harder: I'm not going to let you get away by trying to cheaply sneak away from the real issue here. Sooner or later, you will have to answer the question whether KJI's rule was morally right based on actual facts. Clearly, you've only consulted people who've been to North Korea as tourists, as journalists aren't allowed in that country. I'm not licenced to conduct psychological diagnoses, but the Stockhom syndrome may have been at work. I suggest you try looking up stories of North Korean defectors, as these people have had to live under the rule of this self-deifying maniac. Name me one defector from North Korea who would like to go back and stay there and I will buy you a drink. Let me also offer this satellite photo of the Korean peninsula at night time. See how the southern part lights up at this time, while the north is enveloped in almost pure darkness. http://upbynoon.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/korea_night1.jpg Since you insist on getting your information from reliable sources at well, let me now ask you this: up to what point are you willing to believe the North Korean accounts of KJI's birth being divinely heralded by two rainbows and a new star? You will have to believe that if you're to be consistent with your position, as well as the official North Korean assertion that he also invented the hamburger.
Person from Facebook: Hahaha! You're so funny! I appreciate the effort. Question all you want, that is the essence of Conflict Theory! I just want to quote my former professor in Sociology of Mass Media, "Ang pagyakap sa katotohanan ay pagyakap sa posibilidad na ito ay mali."
Marco Harder: Suit yourself but at the end of the day, what you believe in is a function of likelihood and probability according to Hume. Agreed that conflict and disputation are good, but know that this conversation about KJI would not have been possible in his regime.
Person from Facebook: Very condescending! ;)
If one is to keep his integrity, he at some point...
The idea of a celestial brawl between Kim Jong-Il...
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Today, a reckoning and an admission.
I think it’s time I admitted to myself that so far, there has only been one woman who’s moved me strongly enough to actually write music for, and in a specific instance, about her. In my limited musical experience, concepts were [and still usually are] the typical points of germination for ideas I have ended up pursuing and seeing to completion.
This person, however, has managed to...
“Take the risk of thinking for yourself, much more happiness, truth, beauty, and...”
– Christopher Hitchens (via nevver)
“The true believer cannot rest until the whole world bows the knee.”
– Christopher Hitchens (via fauxerious)
“Mental slavery is mental death and every man who has given up his intellectual...”
– Robert Green Ingersoll (via lystmord)
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The letter I sent to Christopher Hitchens on...
I read Christopher Hitchens saying that one should not put off writing someone a letter and as a response to that, I sent him one via hitchbitch@vf.com after much dallying over the decision to send it electronically or via post. His death this morning [Manila time] somehow vindicates me in that decision to choose the former, as the decline of traditional mail has had an inverse relationship with...
