(Audio)Books I've actually finished lately: 131

Eighty-one hours! Unbelievable.

But fascinating.

(Audio)Books I've actually finished lately: 126

Collateral Trumping

Importance of grammatical accuracy

These things happen

Keystroke twins - 31/32 (for my Sri Lankan brethren)

contests
converts

election
ejection

War literature - what is it good for?

What are the humanities about if not the cultivation of an informed conscience, a habit of reflection in which the flow of thoughtless action and means-end calculation is interrupted by a consideration of historical contexts and ethical considerations, by an imaginative awareness of the character and consequences of action, by a deep investment in the human condition and its possibilities? If those with such knowledge and such capacities do not assume some kind of responsibility for worldly action, including the management of violence, then that responsibility passes to the Kilgores, and the Kurtzes, of the world. 

- Geoffrey Galt Harpham, The Humanities and the Dream of America

Today's post*

- John Felstiner, Translating Neruda: The Way to Macchu Picchu

--
* as Brother Christopher was rather fond of pointing out...

This page is not in Ukrainian.

Alas.

Free ebook!

(now with added typo-humour!!) courtesy of Denis Beckett.

Four-letter words

I want you to dictate to me a memorandum of a couple of pages. Four letter words and short sentences on the situation in Vietnam, the 'Vietnam Picture'.

- Lyndon Johnson, in Errol Morris' The Fog of War

InDefinition - 67

irredentist, n. one who wants his teeth fixed by a Saxon

[Untitled]*

I think I am going to have to buy this book.

--
* 'Anticipation is everything!'
- Abraham Lincoln

Books I've actually finished lately: 15

And God sayeth

God ‏@TheTweetOfGod13h

People who brag about being politically incorrect tend to also be morally, ethically, factually, and grammatically incorrect.

Emphasis mine. (Yes, I'm editing God now.)

Got watalappam/n?

Nifty Sri Lankan advert/plea for national unity. Nice T-shirt, too, by the looks of it.

Or vice versa

Barry Goldwater - the unmaker, unmasked.

Sensible Conservatism

What do we want change for – aren't things bad enough as they are?

- Lord Salisbury, three-time Prime Minister (Conservative) 

Myth-busting

Our contemporary politicians actually ARE less Churchillian than, well, Churchill.

Says the Sunlight Foundation.

Article of faith

I'm a true believer in the separation of Church and baser instincts like hypocrisy, power, exploitation of innocence.

- Ken Russell, on The Devils (in his final article for The Times)

Less impressive, admittedly, is when he describes the friction between Cardinal Richelieu (yes, The) and 'French King Louis III', a man who had predeceased Richelieu by some 750 years.