![]() ![]() ![]() Should we care about Amazon warehouse workers, if we don’t work in an Amazon warehouse or know anybody who does? What about UPS drivers? What about immigrants? That one might actually kill us, eventually, but there are countless “smaller” examples that prevent us from understanding the plight of other people. The obvious example here is climate change, which is so relatively incremental (for now) that even though the concept is widely known, it’s proven impossible to foment a serious mass movement with the power to force real change. One of the most pressing problems for… well, for our entire world… is how to make a large number of people care about something that doesn’t directly affect them, and that may be hard to understand without the kind of effort that the vast majority of people won’t make. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() I never went to university-nor did the majority of my friends-and so never received any manner of guidance or instruction, or even bar table theoretical bullshitting, at the academic level to go along with my burgeoning interest in philosophy, politics, and culture. We live in a neoliberalism economy where the most important think we can do is buy, so the best way we can turn the system around it by starting to think critically about your own consumerism. It's people thinking hard work alone will lead them anywhere they want because they've been told by people who haven't necessarily worked harder than them in order to become successful and who are very self-conscious about protecting the social order they prosper in. People crafting their identity around fictional characters (* ahem * Tyler Durden * ahem * ) and shunning their relationship to their real environment. It's people arguing over iPhones vs Androids. What is the spectacle, then? Debord has a great way of summarizing it: the colonization of human life by commodities. ![]() Everybody acknowledge we live in the society of spectacle, but either don't believe its rules apply to them or adopt a defeatist attitude towards it. The spectacle is a concept that's very swanky to talk about in dinner parties like George Orwell's 1984, but it is often simplified and, ironically enough, objectified by its debaters. Re-read this bad boy for research purposes. ![]() ![]() ![]() After the fourth paragraph, where I describe the background of The Last Time I Saw Her, in particular, you may find spoilers for some of the earlier books.ĭr. Additionally, I suggest that you not read my review beyond the next two paragraphs which generally explain the series. ![]() Although each book contains a different central serial killer case which must be solved, the romance arc develops over the entire series, and therefore for maximum enjoyment the books should be read in chronological order starting with Book 1, The Last Victim. In that regard, I will note that a large part of the plot in this series requires you to suspend belief long enough to accept that ghosts exist and that there are some humans who can interact with or hear their remnants.įor those of you who are not familiar with this series, please also note that the The Last Time I Saw Her is the fourth and last book. ![]() ![]() Equal parts paranormal, thriller, mystery, romance and even a touch of humor, this series is sure to have something for everyone as long as you love fantasy style romances. If you’re looking for a completely original storyline, and love all sub-genres of romance, then I highly recommend the Dr. ![]() ![]()
![]() ![]() I grew up in all Black neighborhoods and environments. GP: What inspired you to devote your life to this work? They realize they haven’t taken the conversation seriously enough I work to help with that. Organizations are recognizing there is a problem. I’m working with a lot of organizations who are trying to respond to the Black Lives Matter movement. I’m also working with large predominately white churches to help them staff in a more diverse way and create a culture of diversity. I start conversations and try to be a voice of reason during this time of civil unrest. SC: I consult with a lot of faith-based leaders on the issue of race and diversity. GP: What are you currently doing in your community to bridge the gap between races? I would see that mural of John Lewis and know that he did it, so I could do it. But when I would experience opposition, I would look up to those Black leaders. It’s a normal part of your routine, you build your wardrobe around it. I even have a picture of myself sitting on John Lewis’ lap when I was six after my dad cut his hair.įor me, racism is like the weather. ![]() I remember walking down the street and seeing murals of great Black leaders like John Lewis. My father owned a barber shop right across the street from where Martin Luther King, Jr. SC: I grew up in Atlanta, the birthplace of the Civil Rights movement and a Black mecca in the U.S. GP: What was it like growing up the South? ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() To top it off, my copy (dated February 2016), while readable, could do with better editing, with spelling and grammar errors every few pages.Ĭolumbus Day will work for many, but it didn't hit the mark for me. The already-messy story also takes a turn for the worse, venturing through a wild tonal rollercoaster of pew-pew action sequences, space battle pirate hijinks, and frustratingly one-dimensional geopolitical nonsense. com (Columbus United States) ping response. We’re a collaborative community website about the Expeditionary Force series by Craig Alanson that anyone, including you, can edit. Perhaps they are in the sequels, but his abrasive character doesn't entice me to find out. 88 Newly Added Alien Gear Holsters Rapid Force Level II Light Bearing Mid Ride. His constant barrage of snark, while certainly successful as comic relief, repeatedly journeys into the unbearable, and despite apparently being a god-like intelligence, his indiscretions are inconsistent and never explained. ![]() I was introduced to Columbus Day via Skippy, but what I found was not a highlight of the story, but an inexplicable deus ex machina ( machina ex deis?), with no apparent character other than ‘he's an arsehole until he's not’. Critics rave about Skippy, but I must disagree. Joe Bishop is hiding from technologically-advanced aliens, then he's a Starship Trooper, a several page description of military technologies follows, and then not much happens while Joe does farming and slice-of-lifey things with a side of political intrigue. Columbus Day doesn't quite know what it wants to be. ![]() ![]() ![]() After all, we discovered the laws of nature, lengthened and enriched our lives, and set out the benchmarks for rationality itself. ![]() ![]() Pinker rejects the cynical cliché that humans are simply irrational–cavemen out of time saddled with biases, fallacies, and illusions. How can a species that developed vaccines for Covid-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, medical quackery, and conspiracy theorizing? Today humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding–and also appears to be losing its mind. Can reading a book make you more rational? Can it help us understand why there is so much irrationality in the world? Steven Pinker, author of Enlightenment Now (Bill Gates’s “new favorite book of all time”) answers all the questions here ![]() ![]() In between these essays, Mohanty meditates on the lives of women workers at different ends of the global assembly line (in India, the United Kingdom, and the United States) feminist writing on experience, identity, and community dominant conceptions of multiculturalism and citizenship and the corporatization of the North American academy. Feminism without Borders opens with Mohanty's influential critique of western feminism ("Under Western Eyes") and closes with a reconsideration of that piece based on her latest thinking regarding the ways that gender matters in the racial, class, and national formations of globalization. ![]() Mohanty offers here a sustained critique of globalization and urges a reorientation of transnational feminist practice toward anticapitalist struggles. This collection highlights the concerns running throughout her pioneering work: the politics of difference and solidarity, decolonizing and democratizing feminist practice, the crossing of borders, and the relation of feminist knowledge and scholarship to organizing and social movements. Forging vital links between daily life and collective action and between theory and pedagogy, Mohanty has been at the vanguard of Third World and international feminist thought and activism for nearly two decades. ![]() Bringing together classic and new writings of the trailblazing feminist theorist Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without Borders addresses some of the most pressing and complex issues facing contemporary feminism. ![]() ![]() “What is it? My mom?” Jake’s voice came out hoarse. When he raised his head, his eyes glistened, and an electric jolt of terror seized Jake. Ted took a deep breath and blew it out, his gaze still on the floor. Black and white prints of baseball greats watched from behind glass frames on the beige walls. ![]() They stood there on the faded carpet by the desk, a small fridge humming with a slight rattle beside a brown couch and fluorescent lights harsh overhead. ![]() No, something was up, and as he followed Ted into the visiting manager’s office and closed the door, nausea churned his gut. Sure, his left knee ached with every step, but that was nothing new, and he sure as hell hadn’t complained about it. Jake had just been scratched from the lineup near the end of the game even though he wasn’t injured. Gruff and unsmiling was Ted’s usual MO, but a different tension hunched his shoulders. Their footsteps echoed dully in the dank tunnel leading to the visitors’ clubhouse in Boston, cleats scratching on concrete. It rocketed over the field, his pulse zooming as he followed his manager down the stairs from the dugout in the top of the ninth. Jake Fitzgerald wasn’t even in the room when his carefully contained life was smashed right out of the park. ![]() ![]() Merit and Ethan had one of the better literary relationships, there was always plenty of action and suspense, and I got to read about delicious Chicago food. I really enjoyed the first four books of the Chicagoland Vampires series. She'll have to turn to friends old and new to find out who's behind this, and stop them before it's too late for vampires and humans alike. That's when the waters of Lake Michigan suddenly turn pitch black-and things really start getting ugly.Ĭhicago's mayor insists it's nothing to worry about, but Merit knows only the darkest magic could have woven a spell powerful enough to change the very fabric of nature. If only they could lay low for a bit, and let the mortals calm down. With the city itself in turmoil over paranormals and the state threatening to pass a paranormal registration act, times haven't been this precarious for vampires since they came out of the closet. ![]() ![]() For those of you who have read Hard Bitten but not Drink Deep, I'll let you know when we get to those spoilers.**įrom Goodreads: Clouds are brewing over Cadogan House, and recently turned vampire Merit can't tell if this is the darkness before the dawn or the calm before the storm. **Warning: do not read this review if you have not read the rest of the Chicagoland Vampires series. ![]() |