totalitarianism today

Remarkable.

50 Russian classic films on YouTube in HD.

"In praise of dissent".

Mark your calendars. It's Pynchon in Public Day.

"Britain's top 300 intellectuals" in John Naughton's opinion.

 A letter from Joan McClure on May 30, 1969.

"Shirtless Others", a poem by Jason.

John Kerry prepares Pakistan for a tough squeeze.

Karl tries to find a sane position on Libya.

Proving one's point sometimes requires a live chicken vending machine.

 

The Saturday goulash.

A documentary about skinheads in Russia doesn't sit so well with the Russian government. Director Pavel Bardin discusses his new film, Russia 88. + Theo Anderson reviews Alan Wolfe's The Future of Liberalism. + Nicolas D. Kristoff maintains that "silence is the enemy". + "Jesus mania", the KGB, and the aftermath. + "Vietnam: The History of An Un-winable War", and the title of a Wilson Center event which promises to post the audio stream soon. + French actress, songstress, and muse Charlotte Gainsbourg insists that she is "not a prude". + Ultra-right radicals clash with anarchists in a Czech town. + The Vatican considers art as a means of building peace between Muslims and Christians. + What a Berlin court deemed as "totalitarian methods" may keep Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany from gaining official status as a religion. + Deception as a way of knowing, and other conclusions which emerge from a conversation with Anthony Grafton. + Thomas Harrison takes a look at socialism and homosexuality. + Political Animal is tired of the right-wing violence which has taken on the hue of a trend. + Anthropologist Olivia Harris passed away too soon. + Phillipe Bourgois is, in some sense, a righteous dope fiend who writes books about other righteous dope fiends. The interview. The long article. +  Bob Trubshaw knows a little something about paganism in British folk customs. + Sculptures in the sky, or the aesthetic importance of chimneys in Cambridge. + The American Indian Mafia, FBI agents, historical battlefields, and tingly conspiracies. + Left-wing architecture from 1998-2000. Image credit due. + A survey finds Estonian companies are suspicious of foreign religious minorities and tend to hire workers who live closer to home. +  1914 and environs at the Library of Congress' flickr photo group. + The top ten existential movies of all time from Sentient Developments. + JD Salinger is not too old to sue over sequels. + Image borrowed from Blondie's Highlights. 

Afternoon links + a song.

The evolution of crayons, a visual history.

"Emergency Threats and Security Planning: How Should We Decide Which Hypothetical Threats To Worry About?", a new report from RAND attempts to do what no government or whiskey has done before-- acknowledge the hypothetical nature of security threats and security dilemmas.

Newt Gingrich thinks being a citizen of the world is "stunningly dangerous". I guess he plans on refusing funding from those American international corporate executives most likely to use such labels.

These are economic boom times for private prison firms, like GEO, in America. 

Les femmes de Brancusi. In Romanian. With French titles.

Iranian dogs may be playing a role in the elections.

A Greek gentleman's opinion on "why the left got hammered" in the EP elections. Compare & contrast with this Italian politician's view on what happened in the EU elections.

Does religion reduce homophobia? A new study nods in this direction. But that fails to explain what often comes from the pulpits of American churches.

Over And Done With - The Proclaimers [Right-click and "save as"]

Today's top ten list.

1. Clive Crook minces no words in his article describing a "criminally stupid war on drugs in the US". 
2. A tribute to East Germany's "commie couture". 
3. How government intervention quashed community health insurance schemes.  
4. "The need for autarky" explored at the lovely Front Porch Republic.
5. Poland plans to send its prisoners to Auschwitz for "shock therapy".  
6. John Komkov revisits the Marshall Plan.  
7. Make films not war, the latest venture from Cultures of Resistance.  
8. Borges and the Jews.  
9. Waking up one morning to discover you are a terrorist.  
10. Scott Horton always seems to be reading or re-reading the same books as yours truly. 

Singapore, sci-fi, the Taliban, Nobel Prizes, etc.

How Muhammed Yunus inspired the young founders of MicroPlace.

Why a Nobel Prize in economics says nothing about personal integrity or financial acumen.

Is Chief Justice John Roberts the Supreme Court's "stealth hard-liner"?

The 10 greatest libertarian science fiction stories (via Amy Sturgis at HNN).

Singapore might be the "best guide" for the new Guantanamo.

The Romanian government can't seem to make its teachers happy.

Nicolas Lezard describes "the last outpost of Bohemia".

The wife of Kiev's mayor recently received a message from God about the upcoming elections.

Google's Eric Schmidt tells newspaper owners and editors "they need to be more innovative".

Our putative enemies, the Taleban, are currently using weapons supplied by the US Army. 

Lunchtime links.

The 2008 electorate dissected by Pew and deemed "the most diverse in history".

Derek Edwards picks up the "sword" in the Bible and tries to discover its intent. 

The Argonaut is an animated tale about a colonist trying to sustain human life on another planet. No dialogue.

Al-Jazeera's profile of Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashviili credits him with bringing free-markets to the political discourse.

The Pashtuns are "caught in another proxy war".

Australian parents are charged with manslaughter in their baby's death for using homeopathic medicine. See my previous post for nausea.

The many results from a European poster contest make good browsing.

The Guardian puts Hobbes and Rand in the same equation for an interesting read.

The photo is from Zoriah's post about the Dachau concentration camp, where signs indicated that "work brings freedom" while reality indicated otherwise.

Morning links.

Baudelaire would be happy to know that German brothels remain competitive during economic down-times by cutting prices.

Kurt Schwitters brought Dada to the barn, and now the barn is fair game.

Who serves in the US military? How have the demographics changed since Vietnam?

Are NATO's new members security producers or consumers? A lengthy paper from the Strategic Studies Institute at the US Army College has a few answers.

A video interview with Hannah Arendt in which she discusses the nature of the American republic, the role of innocent people, Israel, and other bits. A treasure for Arendt fans.

A European debate and discussion on how the EU understands totalitarianism 20 years since its most recent failings on the continent. Camilla Andersson from the Institute for Information on the Crimes of Communism in Sweden told the hearing about public perceptions on Communism and Nazism. In a recent survey of students aged 15-20 it found that 90% had never heard of the Gulag whilst the same number were well informed about the Holocaust. In addition 40% believed that Communism had contributed to increased prosperity in the world.

Lunchtime links.

Some of my best web-time is harvested with sandwich in one hand and the keyboard at the other. If we were having lunch together, I’d probably furrow my brow and ask your opinions on the following:

Amy Ridenour can't conceal her outrage over "Putin's totalitarianism". But she does more than rant and rave-- she provides good evidence. Is she right? Or are we stuck in Cold-War Russophobia?

Uniformity remains the most successful endeavor of the US military. Two Sikh men say they wanted to report for active duty in July even as they refuse to comply with the Army's demands to cut their unshorn beards and hair and remove their turbans. "I am willing to lay down my life for America," said 2nd Lt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan, one of the men who filed a complaint, on Tuesday. "In return, I ask only that my country respect my faith, an integral part of who I am. My turban and my beard are not an option -- they are an intrinsic part of me." For anyone unfamiliar with Sikhs and their history, the Sikhs began as warriors and their turbans are, indeed, a critical part of their religious belief. Should American Sikhs be denied the opportunity to exist as Sikhs in the military? Are Christian men allowed to wear crosses in uniform?

Dana Goldstein encourages a return to "the questioning spirit" for American and diaspora Jews. A well-written piece to which I will return at another time. So much to say about this...

The image is from the Children's Books of the Early Soviet Era collection at McGill's library. Early Soviet propaganda and agitprop infected so many with its idealism.

Arthur Suciu urges Romanians to refrain from the temptation to commi-nostalgia and embrace the future.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime released its handbook for prisoners with special needs. 

Our Neandethal roots seem to be closer than ever. German scientists have substantially deciphered the genome of Neanderthals. George Church, a genome researcher at the Harvard Medical School, recently told The New York Times that since modern human and Neanderthal genes are mostly the same, it should be relatively straightforward to create a living Neanderthal. He suggested splicing the uniquely Neanderthal genes into a human genome and using a chimpanzee as the surrogate mother. What would Richard John Nuehaus do?

Today's touches.

Touche #1.

Touche #2.

Touche #3.

Touche #4.

Touche #5.

Touche #6.

Touche #7.

Touche #8.

Touche #9.

Touche me till it hurts.

Not touche at all.

The touche you regret.

Good old touche.

Touche #10.

Touche #11.

Touche #13.

Touche #16.

Image credit.

Touche #17.

Touche #18.

Touche #19.

Touche #20.

Touche #21.

Touche #22.

18 irksome items.

1. "Building US-Russia Bonds" by Dmitry Medvedev.
2. Lemon populism.
3. The truth about Abu Zuhbaydah.
4. Federal Reserve keeps pumping out the prints.
5. In vitro fascism.
6. God is a Mormon.
7. Hitler, the artist.
8. Vaclav Klaus' new allegiances.
9. Biden, Iraq, and Obama's betrayal.
10. Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2008.
11. Confidence in banks as an assumption.
12. Political donors with friends everywhere.
13. Tax Freedom Day is on my birthday this year and I still have to pay taxes.
14. TV news men corrupted by the money and the power.
15. Crafting a suitable, blinkered past.
16. Russia and China cooperate on new currency proposals.
17. Liberal but.
18. Another president who needs more power.

[Illustration by Alvaro Dominguez Gamez with hat tip to Drawn.]
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