Rumi Nations

This is surely a bonanza for readers but how, pray, is one going to find the time to go through it all? This list by publications is interesting. Bunch of articles from the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, The Verge, WSJ, Businessweek and so on and on and on and so forth. Enjoy!

We used to celebrate the rebels ... the misfits ... now they're all dying young. Aaron Swartz, Michael Hastings, and now Barnaby Jack . What happened to us? Are humans becoming conformists and conservatives? Look at all the crazy people who are still about the various medieval religions and the men who wear funny clothes. Have the challenges of living in the modern world of constant change become so big for most humans that we have decided 'Enough is enough!' 'We do not want any more new information; we are happy with the old shibboleths.' That seems to be the attitude ... about abortion, about marriage, about religions, about science & technology. Look at how timidly people have fallen in line with the government's line about 'not spying on Americans.' I worry about Edward Snowden. Seems to me if we were living in a segregated society of the pre-Civil Rights era, people would be okay with that too rather than coming out on to the streets. No? You d...

It's not by being solicitious towards our parents that we show our humanity. Our humanity should embrace all of humanity. When individuals are killed in cold blood by the police, people should not be egging the police on. Sadly, people of India have decided that the right way to deal with stunt bikers doing crazy stuff on the roads of Delhi at night is to shoot one of them dead. http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Delhi-firing-on-Parliament-street-one-killed/Article1-1099627.aspx It is not this particular instance which worries me. It's the thought process of people that this reveals which is worrisome. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Biker-killed-another-injured-in-firing-by-Delhi-cops/articleshow/21416295.cms See the comments supporting Delhi Police. See the naked display of religious bigotry. What does that reveal? The mother is complaining. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Why-was-he-shot-He-was-no-terrorist/ar...

When spouses are concerned, it seems to me that kindness and consideration should be the key words, not loyalty, and  sexual  infidelity does not necessarily wipe them out. Fidelity  in the sense of keeping one's word I respect, but I think it tiresome that it is tied so tightly in people's minds to the idea of sex. The belief that a wife owes absolute  fidelity  to her husband has deep and tangled roots, being based not only on a man's need to know himself to be the father of his wife's child, but also on the even deeper, darker feeling that man  owns  woman, God having made her for his convenience. It's hard to imagine the extirpation of that: think of its power in Islam!

Couple of resources for lovers of Shakespeare. Quotes from Shakespeare with explanatory notes and arranged by play. All of Shakespeare's plays in one place! Will I ever get the time to read them? Shakespeare is so tough to get one's head around.

Let's take a 'pulse' on the many news items of today. Why today? No reason really. The heroic Edward Snowden continues to look for a 'safe' place and a safe country to live in as the U.S. government — I don't know whether to describe the Obama administration as Fascist or Soviet-style — continues to try and arrest him and put him in jail for life. Mr. Snowden left Hong Kong and we know now that the U.S. government got a 'secret' arrest warrant from a court in Virginia and tried to get the Hong Kong government to arrest him. He has landed in Moscow and his future destination remains unknown although the speculation is that he will leave Moscow and go to Cuba en route to Ecuador which is considering giving him asylum. The Snowden saga is of course one-of-a-kind. Here are the other events that the news media is tracking.

What business books to read? Andrew Ross Sorkin lost a lot of the regard I had for him when he opined that Glenn Greenwald should be 'almost arrested' for exposing NSA spying through the whistle-blower. That is the problem with 'experts' in one domain butting into other domains which are not their bailiwick. Sorkin is good in finance though and he wrote this column about the best business books for this 'summer' in America. He lists some good books and readers have added their own favorites in the comments. The list includes everything from The Art of War to Machiavelli to Warren Buffett, Michael Lewis, Michael Porter, Malcolm Gladwell, to Andrew Sorkin himself. The well known books such as Barbarians at the Gate and books about insider trading feature in the list.