Olivier5

Before. Hugo Chavez stayed in power too long for his own good, perhaps a bit like Putin or Thatcher: started good but ended shitty.

That's ridiculous.

Rather, it's not the first time an honest, popular politician is unfairly accused of corruption by corrupt elites. Because you see, only the rich and ...

I don't think that materialist folks are wired much differently than idealistic types. Dennetists are not p-zombies -- in fact they keep wondering why...

I might have spoken too fast: some bolsonarists have wrecked the congress hall, president palace and supreme court in Brasilia over the weekend... 200...

Lula is A-okay in my book, much better than most politicians worldwide. Mandela too was accused of all sorts of crimes and spent time in jail ... but ...

Alone at the top? Lone Putin Observes Christmas at Kremlin Church By AFP Updated: one day ago Russian President Vladimir Putin stood alone at a midnig...

It's not my argument that the European far left is in bed with Putin, though some of them hate or mistrust NATO enough that they cannot take Ukraine's...

That’s minuscule. What did the Russians get for that money? One plane? A hundred rockets?

I don’t think the Cat is trying to do that. He’s only pointing at the convergence of extremes, a well known phenomenon. I can agree with that. They ha...

I would start by saying that the link with Putin is clearer and stronger with the extreme right than it is with the extreme left, in my opinion. Talki...

The claim was about the extreme left and the extreme right, not about the left.

Why yes, anti-democratic forces in general.

Surprise surprise... Pro-Putin operatives in Germany work to turn Berlin against Ukraine In Germany some are clamouring for a change in course on Ukra...

Why the outrage?

Somehow I doubt one could do a poll in Donetsk right now.

My pleasure! I landed on Choukri through my interest in anticolonial literature from the point of view of the colonized (or recently decolonized) 'Sou...

You could do worse than read For Bread Alone. It's a blast of a story, realistic, in fact autobiographical, about a street boy in Morocco in the 50's....

Joining my voice to the acclaimations. Well done @"Caldwell"! Thanks for your good work, patience, and for being such a good reader. Also thanks to th...

I agree it's a good piece. Reminded me of For Bread Alone, by Mohamed Choukri. Well done, @"180 Proof"!

:sweat:

Thanks. I even called up the ghost of Dennet:

It's not plagia when you make it obvious. The title is (almost) a direct quote from Quining Qualia. The names are changed but transparently so: Maxwel...

Agreed. NATO is neither here nor there. The reason Putin panicked is his fear of the people.

Nope.

And now, for @"Amity", something a bit cheesy perhaps, a bit old school, but oh so very cheerful. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DkSy5Mas-As

Ha ha! Love the way she mimics the trumpet by just making tut tut with her mouth. Thanks for the cheer up. I like this tune below, though I am afraid ...

Comrade Stalin said that, I think. Quantity has a quality all its own. Very true. Boethius used to write volumes.

And I for one expected better from this forum than endless obfuscation and lies in defense of a murderous dictatorship, but this is what we get.

I know this feeling.

The Klezmatics - An Undoing World By the time we're done with dancing, Elsewhere darling you'll be glancing And the night's a river-torrent tearing us...

Stromae -- Formidable https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S_xH7noaqTA

And so will the priests. Amen.

Don't worship idols, is one of the best advices in all scripture. Idols - defined as human things we hold sacred - are surprisingly common, even beyon...

Science is also failing here. Don't let your anti-religion push you into worshiping or idolizing science.

Vladimir Putin faces legal challenge after calling the war in Ukraine a "war" The opposition councillor who made the legal challenge said he knew it w...

You're not paying attention. Merry Christmas.

Explain to me why it should come from below.

If my Latin classes memories serve, Eros did end up mating with Psyche, the most beautiful girl in the universe, although she then reported him on Twi...

Yes, but the point I am making here is that chirality makes no sense at the atomic level, it is an emerging property of molecules. So the laws of chem...

The shape of a particular molecule is not "contained" in or determined by its atoms. That is to say, one can construct several different molecules wit...

The murderer accusing his victims of a "lack of concern". :vomit:

This is the only thing in your post that I disagree with (also the animist bit about the universe having desires). In practice, you cannot derive chem...

This is just not true. Indeterminism is fine with determination existing, it just says that not every event is predetermined.

I agree, and that is precisely the indeterminist view point, which states that some event are not predetermined, and others are. So you are not a dete...

That's defining "free will" as magic. So of course, defined as such it cannot exist. I personally prefer the term "free choice" (a choice not imposed ...

Things don't maintain themselves very well, for the most part. Perfect stability is extremely rare in nature. Things tend to transform after a while. ...

https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/a77c2f86ae80480380dac7324b7d2892/1000.webp In this photo released by the Dnipro Region Administration, M...

I do. I just consider emergence as non-determined. First, I would need a clear definition of what free will is. Second, I would not consider as eviden...

In Ukraine, the delicate political reinvention of "pro-Russian" MPs The parties considered too close to Moscow were dissolved after the outbreak of th...