Whatcha reading?

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Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

101Walterton wrote:
17 Oct 2018, 9:36pm
Silent Majority wrote:
06 Oct 2018, 11:38am
Look upon my bath, ye Hooky, and despair.

IMG_20181006_163306.jpg
I like the fact you can drink beer and have an eye lash at the same time :approve:
Yeah, without society judging me on this occasion.
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Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Dr. Medulla wrote:
17 Oct 2018, 8:23pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
27 Sep 2018, 7:36pm
New tub book:
Image
I still have a romantic blind spot for Robert Kennedy. I recognize any number of disagreements/flaws—e.g., liberal, American interventionist, Cold Warrior—but in the last several years of his life, especially culminating in his brief presidential campaign, his fundamental humanism and moralism, his championing of the many groups that make up the underclass, and his deep belief that people can actually be better make him the only major political figure of postwar America that I genuinely respect and admire. A guy born to privilege who, in his gut, identified with the marginalized and was genuinely angry about their exclusion. To me, JFK's assassination wasn't the watershed moment; RFK's was. It all goes to fuck after him and that's no coincidence.
Finished it up this morning. It's rather concentrated political history that's big on policies and hearings and community meetings. Not the stuff that especially charges my imagination, but that's on me, not the author. Still, he gets across quite well that what RFK offered was a communitarian version of liberalism, and in that he was able to appeal to more conservative people. And, frankly, it's that emphasis on community rather than the individual, that appeals to me. Our politics is dominated by appeal to individual self-interest, which has proven to be a sprint to cynicism and fuck-you-ism from the left, right, and centre. As well, I'm always impressed by RFK's identification with the people who have been excluded from the good life. There's a moment where he explains to a black boxer showing him around a ghetto that these people have proven to him that his life of privilege was not real. We can critique that from the angle of white privilege and all, but that diminishes the fact that there was someone of privilege who chose to invest his convenience to advocating for those without a voice, even tho it made little sense in a mercenary political way. When he lost the Oregon primary in 1968, RFK admitted to an aide that he didn't do well with people who didn't have problems. That said, his belief/faith that he could induce private interests via tax breaks to invest in ghettos and allow those residents to pull themselves up reflects the naive liberal belief that capitalism can be steered to not be vampiric. He was a liberal and whatever the void of what ifs he left, that was a blind spot that was always going to hinder. Still, better than Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump. I'm all for a crusader on behalf of the excluded, even if she/he's flawed.
Nice. Will put it on the long list. RFK probably never becomes committed to social justice without his brother getting murdered, based on my read.
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Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Silent Majority wrote:
18 Oct 2018, 4:07am
Nice. Will put it on the long list. RFK probably never becomes committed to social justice without his brother getting murdered, based on my read.
It's not a page turner by any means. Vast chunks I'd describe as really fucking boring, actually, but that might be my low interest in that kind of political history. While I went in thinking the same thing as you about the catalyst effect of JFK's murder, Schmitt makes the argument that it began in 1960, when JFK campaigned in the West Virginia primary and they were exposed to the poverty of mining communities, and then RFK's role as AG in combatting juvenile delinquency. It might be more about a historian seeking a pattern and magnifying dots to make it stand out, tho.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Dr. Medulla wrote:
04 Oct 2018, 8:48pm
Bedtime reading:
Image

A crime novel that takes place in 1946,1986, and 2014 in Boston (which means the Red Sox are part of the scenery just because). So far, a lot of teasing, but I'm still reading.
FInally finished this (distracted by a lot of things that kept me from evening reading). It's actually pretty good in that McGuffin mystery kind of way, tho Boston folks might appreciate it more. The three competing/complementary storylines work inasmuch as I was interested in how each evolved. That said, the ending felt a bit lazy, tho in keeping with the McGuffin aspect. But if you're a fan of hardboiled mysteries, this is solid.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Image
Starting this today. Something something seems relevant today something.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Audiobooks:
Image
Finished this today. Very short and fairly clear to the layboob. Hawking was a hell of a lot more optimistic than me.

Starting tomorrow:
Image
Oddly enough, given that it's one of my historical areas, I've only read this once, when it came out. At the time, I found it a bit bland and celebratory of an era that was a lot more troubling and dynamic. Tho I expect I'll find this assessment to hold—even more so—I'm hoping to just enjoy a wonderful storyteller do his thing.

Tub book:
Image
I tend to return to this every few years, but it's a bit more intentional this time around as my thinking has evolved to largely dispensing with all modern ideologies in favour of a more simple humanism of the kind that Saul argues for. While there is a certain snobby tone to the work, I do find much of it thought-provoking.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Dr. Medulla wrote:
08 Nov 2018, 12:38pm
I tend to return to this every few years, but it's a bit more intentional this time around as my thinking has evolved to largely dispensing with all modern ideologies in favour of a more simple humanism of the kind that Saul argues for. While there is a certain snobby tone to the work, I do find much of it thought-provoking.
Only -ology I support these days is PROCTology. Eh, Inder?
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Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead

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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Flex wrote:
08 Nov 2018, 8:35pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
08 Nov 2018, 12:38pm
I tend to return to this every few years, but it's a bit more intentional this time around as my thinking has evolved to largely dispensing with all modern ideologies in favour of a more simple humanism of the kind that Saul argues for. While there is a certain snobby tone to the work, I do find much of it thought-provoking.
Only -ology I support these days is PROCTology. Eh, Inder?
Is Inder cheating on his cardiologist?
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Flex »

damn, i fucked up the joke
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead

Pex Lives!

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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Flex wrote:
08 Nov 2018, 8:55pm
damn, i fucked up the joke
Not if we accept that Inder is slutting his way through the hospital.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

God and the State - Mikhail Bakunin. A rambling unfinished polemic. The atheist argument is privileged over the anti-statist, understandably, given it is over 100 years old and the hegemony of the Church was as yet unchallenged. It's rightly considered a classic but may be inessential in a post-Dawkins world. I like his style but wish the book had gone deeper. He rants and digresses as his passion gets away with him which is arresting but not completely edifying.
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Inder »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
08 Nov 2018, 8:57pm
Flex wrote:
08 Nov 2018, 8:55pm
damn, i fucked up the joke
Not if we accept that Inder is slutting his way through the hospital.
👺

Also, that Fifties cover is hideous. Like, an especially tasteless K-Tel sleeve hideous.

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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Inder wrote:
11 Nov 2018, 3:20pm
Also, that Fifties cover is hideous. Like, an especially tasteless K-Tel sleeve hideous.
Attractive and enticing book jackets are a seriously lost art.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Machiavelli - Ross King. Audiobook. A life of the man I barely noticed. It drifted right by me.
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Wolter »

Silent Majority wrote:
11 Nov 2018, 7:49am
God and the State - Mikhail Bakunin. A rambling unfinished polemic. The atheist argument is privileged over the anti-statist, understandably, given it is over 100 years old and the hegemony of the Church was as yet unchallenged. It's rightly considered a classic but may be inessential in a post-Dawkins world. I like his style but wish the book had gone deeper. He rants and digresses as his passion gets away with him which is arresting but not completely edifying.
It’s a fine polemic, but yeah. Bakunin was a lot more of a doer than a writer, which unfortunately makes it easy for the tankie types to dismiss him.
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