Howards End is considered by many to be E. M. Forster’s masterpiece. First published in 1910, this beguiling and completely captivating tale explores social conventions, codes of conduct, and relationships in turn-of-the-century Edwardian England. The story revolves around three families: the Wilcoxes, rich capitalists with a fortune made in the colonies; the half-German Schlegel siblings,
The RV that burned last Friday night was started by the owner smoking in bed and went to sleep with a lit cigarette. He suffered some burns on his face and leg but was able to get out of the RV which was destroyed along with everything in it. He was transported by helicopter to a burn unit in El Paso.
My neighbor, one space closer to the burned unit, said that an explosion was what woke him up. I slept through it all. When I got up to take Erik out for his midnight potty break the fire engine was still here but they had the fire out and were just doing mop up operations. I thought it was a health emergency call and went back to bed.
I went to town yesterday with my first stop at Greenway Laundry. The washers are $3 or $4 and I got everything dry for $1, a good laundromat. It was only a block from there to Tony’s for breakfast where I got their Huevos a la Mexicana with potatoes rather than beans and lucked out with that being the Special of the Day. Last stop as I was leaving town was at Bullocks to pick up some groceries. This time I found some green chile and cheese tamales that have been made with lard versus vegetable oil. They are made in Bayard, NM so I might stop there next year and pick some up IF I like them I can’t find them anyplace else.
I have not quoted from this article but recommend it be read. It is VERY good!
Once upon a time, progress meant a tangible conquest of necessity—something that could be seen, held, and mended. Things have changed. — The Illusion Of Progress by Anthony Deden
Americans, the less alert anyway, think they live in a democracy. They do not. Why? First, the parties select the candidates we get to vote for, and these are preloaded to do things such as protect Wall Street, Israel, and the military budget. Elections determine division of the spoils, but not policies that matter. The public is allowed to get all riled up over things that don’t interest the lampreys and leeches in New York, such as abortion and gun control. Second, the populace knows on average nothing about anything–and what little they think they know is determined by the media, both legacy and social, which are de facto organs of government. Those alert enough to see through this are so few that they can be ignored.
Which brings us to Abraham Lincoln, who said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Being a politician he didn’t say that you don’t have to. You can fool enough of the people enough of the time, and that’s enough. This is the fundamental principle of American politics…
The genius of the American system is that it allows democracy without giving the public influence over anything. I mean, do you have a say over what your children are taught in school? Over what kind of teachers they have, and whether these teachers can read? Would you rather have decent medical care or a war in Ukraine? But which do you get? Would you prefer modern infrastructure in America, such as the kind of space-age rail the Chinese have, or a hundred batplane international nuclear bombers at a half-billion a pop? Well, you have the bomber. Do you have any influence over who it bombs? Do you have any influence over anything? — Fred Reed
This book was published in 2024 in French and has also been published in a half a dozen other languages but not in English. I have found it as a PDF book that was translated by Google that I’m reading off and on with the PDF reader on my laptop. Perhaps there will be more quotes to follow. You can read a review of the book by clicking link.
The tenth and final surprise is about to materialize.
It is the defeat of the West. We will be surprised at such an armament when the war is not over. But this defeat is a certainty because the West destroys itself rather than being attacked by Russia.
Let us broaden our perspective and escape for a moment the emotion that the violence of war legitimately arouses. We are at the age of complete globalization, in both senses of the word: maximum and finished. Let’s try to have a geopolitical vision: Russia, in reality, is not the main problem.
Too vast for a decreasing population, it would be incapable of taking control of the planet and has no desire to do so; it is a normal power whose evolution is not mysterious. No Russian crisis destabilizes the global balance. It is indeed a Western and more specifically American crisis, terminal, which endangers the balance of the planet. Its most peripheral waves came up against a mole of Russian resistance, against a classic and conservative nation-state. — The Defeat Of The West by Emmanuel Todd (Machine Translated by Google)