Make Sense of the world
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Last fall, I applied to the yoga teacher training program at Avalon Yoga in Palo Alto. I wrote the following to the director, the scientist and historian Dr. Steve Farmer: “I am perhaps the least naturally-gifted yoga student ever. I was surprised to find through a chiropractor's X-ray,...
On February 21, yet another nominal election will take place in Iran, coming on the heels of widespread protests in over 100 cities at the end of last year. It was the third time that the Iranian government faced protests in the last decade and the biggest since the Islamic Revolution of...
Gallup’s current survey of how Americans feel about their personal financial situation has surprised many people. The media and Gallup’s analysts are citing it as evidence that US President Donald Trump’s policies have been successful and that Trump consequently has excellent chances of...
Elected in 2019 as a political outsider to El Salvador’s two main parties, Nayib Bukele assumed the country’s presidency with the promise of ending gang violence and enforcing the rule of law in an institutionally weak nation. However, Bukele’s recent actions as president seeking to pressure...
There was a time, not so long ago, when the idea of Turkish troops placing their boots on non-Turkish soil was almost unthinkable. Turkey might bomb Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions in Iraq, Turkish aircraft might skirmish occasionally with Greek counterparts, but no one got their boots...
Jeff Bezos has apparently realized that for his customers to retain the level of disposable income required to ensure their continued capacity to order goods from Amazon, their survival might be a critical factor. Not everyone can spend $165 million on a residence that will never suffer from a...
In today’s world, where refugee crises are exacerbated by xenophobic border policies, where the global north refuses to engage in burden sharing, where people’s freedom of movement is ruthlessly repudiated, the ability to travel is a particularly salient privilege. As Dallen Timothy and Victor...
The Democratic presidential primary contests are now turning into aggravated hyperreality. It has suddenly turned into a three-way battle between anti-billionaires, a billionaire and a group of billionaire devotees. The panicked party’s nagging doubts about its capacity to win an election...
A 1975 article in British Patriot magazine tells the story of John Coey, a 24-year-old college graduate from Ohio who was killed fighting for the continuation of white supremacy in the unrecognized state of Rhodesia. A member of the National Socialist White People’s Party (previously American...
Sweeping new regulations restricting social media in Pakistan put freedom of expression and the media at the heart of the struggle to counter both civilizationalist and authoritarian aspects of an emerging new world order. The regulations, adopted without public debate, position US social...
After Iowa and New Hampshire, two states known for the homogeneity of their white populations, the Democratic primaries move west and south. The next venue is Nevada, a state with a significant Mexican minority. The pundits see this as the first test of the capacity of Democratic candidates to...
