Todd Haskell

Settling back in to South Africa

@patrickc When I first read this post, I assumed it was satire. The thrust of it was, “Arabic literature seems very violent. Whom, besides the writers of these books, can we blame?” As Orwell would have said, the obvious answer is right front of your nose—Arab culture is pretty violent

Which are the most humane (empathetic, compassionate) Arab / Middle Eastern novels? Thought behind the question: I read a bunch of these novels last year -- my selection algorithm was to sample widely among the award-winning works from the region (Egypt, Sudan, Iran, Palestine, Jordan, among others) -- and, overall, I was very struck by the darkness and violence. (Abundant rape, murder, violence, and so forth.) In trying to figure out why the outlooks are so consistently bleak, I don’t think it’s only a matter of colonialism. For example, The Blind Owl is often ranked as the best novel to come out of Iran, which was never colonized as such, but nonetheless describes an obsessive madman who kills and dismembers his partner. In Season of Migration to the North, the colonizer -- Britain -- is described as being quite benevolent at least at the object level (granting a scholarship to the protagonist; treating him unreasonably justly during his murder trial). Men in the Sun is similarly grim while taking place in a post-colonial Arab world. Even books that are sometimes described as heartwarming (such as Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy) centrally feature rape and female oppression (that Amina is not permitted to leave the home is a core plot issue). One guess is that it is a function of award selection algorithms: gritty despair is seen as high-status and structurally celebrated. Another theory would be the period: there are lots of humane novels in the Western canon (Dickens, Tolstoy, Eliot…), but those are more likely to be from the nineteenth century, whereas the Arab / Middle Eastern novelistic canon didn’t emerge until the twentieth. I’m not sure this explains it, however. In Search of Lost Time, Great Gatsby, Ulysses, Midnight's Children are all critically-acclaimed 20th century novels, close to the top of almost any list, that one would not describe as macabre. It’s possible that I just read the wrong books and got unlucky. So: which authors from the region can best be compared to Faulkner, Eliot, Fitzgerald, or Rushdie? (And if they haven't won major awards, does that indicate that the awards have a negative bias?)

@Nihonpolitics @Noahpinion As somebody who’s used to work in Embassies, I imagine this this was inspired by a recent incident. Often when an American would be the victim of any crime, they would complain there was no mention of that specific crime in the Embassy’s advice to citizens. So we would add it.

What the hell? The Spanish Embassy in Japan warning people against committing petty theft in Japan. First, what the fuck are you guys doing in Japan? Second, it’s true, we’ve become used to these kinds of crimes happening in Spain (especially big cities)...

@JDVance If everything you say is true, then clearly she deserved execution

This is preposterous. First of all, she's not waving the officers through and has no right to do so even if she were. She is waving another car through, before the officers approach her car. Second, the officers are not randomly searching her, they are approaching her vehicle because she is violating the law: namely, she is obstructing a lawful enforcement operation. You're not allowed to walk up to or drive up to people who are enforcing the law to make it harder for them to do their jobs. Third, this defense attorney is drawing a meaningless distinction between an ICE officer and a "real police officer." Again, you're not allowed to interrupt a lawful enforcement operation, which is exactly what this woman was doing. Fourth, the officer didn't discharge his weapon to prevent her from fleeing. When he discharged his weapon, she had pointed the vehicle at him and pressed the gas. He discharged his weapon in self defense, and other angles of the video show the woman *clearly* hit the officer with her car while accelerating. The gaslighting is off the charts and I'm having none of it. This guy was doing his job. She tried to stop him from doing his job. When he approached her car, she tried to hit him. A tragedy? Absolutely. But a tragedy that falls on this woman and all of the radicals who teach people that immigration is the one type of law that rioters are allowed to interfere with.

@discogs Wings at the speed of sound

What's the best live album of all time?

@politico Release the hostages

Israel hits Gaza with new airstrikes that kill at least 200 ow.ly/I1WS1062M21

@sarahleah1 Lie or ignorance

ISRAEL's daily death toll of Palestinians in Gaza surpasses that of any other major conflict in the 21st century. Israel has murdered more children in Gaza JUST in the past six months than the cumulative number of children killed in GLOBAL conflicts around the world for the past six years.

@zerohedge You don’t seem to know hat the word inflation means

Inflation has not fallen in a single month since Biden's term began (the closest was July 2022 when it was unchanged), which leaves overall prices up over 19% since Bodenomics was unleashed. And prices have never been higher.

@abwshyb59079701 @POTUS No, it’s not. There have not been any israeli settlers in the Gaza Strip since their dismantlement in 2004

@POTUS Where did Hamas attack the Zionist settlers and soldiers? Isn't it in the Gaza Strip?? Where is the Gaza Strip located on Mars, for example!!! So where is Israel's right to self-defense when it occupies parts of Gaza? Where is your mind? Where is your conscience?

Last night I signed a bill preventing a government shutdown. It’s an important step but we have more to do. I urge Congress to address our national security and domestic needs — and House Republicans to stop wasting time on extreme bills and honor our bipartisan budget agreement.

@Noahpinion Everything you say makes sense. So what should Israel do to prevent the next October 7?

"The Allies leveled German cities, Hamas are as bad as Nazis, thus it's OK to level Gaza" ignores the fact that even if strategic bombing had been as effective as people thought (note: it wasn't), leveling Gaza will not produce a WW2-like outcome.

The reason Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza is bad isn't because civilian casualties are never acceptable when fighting against evil, but because bombing Gaza seems like it will not actually do much to eliminate Hamas, and will simply kill civilians for no purpose.

@davidshor @_fat_ugly_rat_ @UniteCarolina Africa is not a country

@_fat_ugly_rat_ @UniteCarolina This is a PUMA level map of TX using ACS data showing plurality place of birth among citizen adults not born in the state they're in. First map excludes foreign born residents, second map includes them. Let me know if you want any other states!

Most of this makes a lot of sense

@rafkhach @eidlin Irony alert

@alon_levy Cairo?

Dominant capitals with metro populations as a %of country population: Seoul 50.6% Tokyo 29.6% London 22% Paris 18.5% CDMX 17.3% Moscow 12%

@MonetaristMaia Visa backlog

@realDonaldTrump John f Kennedy

No candidate has ever won both Florida and Ohio and lost. I won them both, by a lot! #SupremeCourt

@Redistrict @NateSilver538 I’ve seen enough

I see...what you did there.

@profwolff Virus started in country ruled by the communist party.

Corona virus as an excuse? Mutating viruses have always been with us. A rational economic system would have learned to plan and manage them. Capitalism failed to learn because profit was/is its #1 priority. Capitalism caused today’s disaster, not the latest virus.

@georgetownhoyas houston

@NYSE ukm