I found in a book sale and eventually read “Trapped on Zarkass”, a 2022 English adaptation of “Piège sur Zarkass”, a 2013 Science Fiction comic book based on an eponymous 1958 novel I read in my youth. The result is somewhat entertaining, yet the thought it inspires me is: Oh how the mighty have fallen.

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Yesterday, I watched Siddhartha (1972), a beautifully made movie based on Hermann Hesse’s novel. The protagonist, contemporaneous and homonymous with the famous Buddha whom he meets, wastes his life, and later those of his lover and his son-in a pointless Quest for the Transcendent. To reject, seek then forfeit worldly pleasures and attainments is ( Read more... )

Tonight I somehow watched "Tokyo Chorus", a 1931 silent movie by Yasujirō Ozu. It tells the struggle of a middle class man to do what's right in tough situations: standing up to your boss, not lying to children, eating humble pie to feed your family, befriending and helping the people around you, cultivating community with your former comrades and ( Read more... )

The foundation for the right of mothers to abort: MYOB. Mind Your Own (Goddamn) Business.

The only acceptable justice is retributive justice. Unless you're the fetus, you haven't been harmed by abortion and have no leg(al interest) to stand in court.

The only acceptable police is to repel a threat. You are not being threatened by abortion, unless ( Read more... )

You know boy, it's a bad strategy to pick fights with old men. Sure, in most cases, you're a muscular punk used to street fighting, while he's an old fool who's got no fight in him, so you'll beat him easily-so easily in fact that there's no glory in it whatsoever. But in some cases, you'll find an old man who has got some fight in him. And then he ( Read more... )

Leftists constantly harp about the evil of a supposed "American Empire" to denounce US foreign policy. As usual they are doubly wrong: the US foreign policy is precisely not an Empire, and not being an Empire is actually what makes it wrong.

Empire is power exerted to rule over the conquered ( Read more... )

After some sad news, Jacques Brel has everyone in the assistance sit around ( Read more... )

In my morning dream, I was inside a computer role-playing / adventure game, but following the instructions in the manual didn't have the expected effect. Interestingly, said manual had funny text alignment and spacing-It turns out, to leave space for extra text that only appeared when heat was applied, and deeply changed the meaning of the text. ( Read more... )

In France, there are always enough polling stations. Schools and town halls are polling stations. More people whose ballots to count? That's automatically more people to run polling stations and count the votes. The very notion that some areas may be disenfranchised by lack of polling stations is inconceivable.

In France, people must show ID to ( Read more... )

Regarding Slave reparations: About everyone in Europe was a slave (in Latin, "servus" - serf) since Diocletian's socialist "reforms". Emancipation came very slowly through the emergence of free cities, literally the first meaning of "bourgeoisie" - people living free in cities rather than slaves on the land. Only "blue blood" descendants of the ( Read more... )