Decoding Culture (5-6-24)

01:00 Where does culture come from? https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n08/terry-eagleton/where-does-culture-come-from
02:00 Literary critic Terry Eagleton, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Eagleton
06:00 My favorite songs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1_xDytEB1Q&list=PLhQp0uq1786ISg586sYF7k8cDug1-avU0
12:00 American Hearts by Air Supply
15:00 Work sucks – what could salvage it?, https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/work-sucks-what-could-salvage-it
28:00 Simon Kuper: Europeans have more time, Americans more money. Which is better?, https://www.ft.com/content/4e319ddd-cfbd-447a-b872-3fb66856bb65
32:00 Christians vibrate to the word ‘love’ while Jews vibrate to the word ‘law’
38:00 Almost all of our thoughts and feelings come from society
40:00 Culture vs politics
60:00 Non-Americans Are Revealing The Ways They Can “Spot An American Tourist From A Mile Away”, https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahloewentheil/weird-things-american-tourists-do-gd
1:06:15 Elliott Blatt joins to talk about tipping and Facebook marketplace
1:09:00 Dublin, CA, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin,_California
1:13:00 Elliott’s encounter with a woman with lobster claws for arms
1:29:00 My Tiktok, https://www.tiktok.com/@lukeford613/

Posted in America, Culture | Comments Off on Decoding Culture (5-6-24)

NYT: Just How Dangerous Is Europe’s Rising Far Right? (5-5-24)

Posted in Europe | Comments Off on NYT: Just How Dangerous Is Europe’s Rising Far Right? (5-5-24)

Decoding The Anti-Israel, Pro-Palestine Campus Protests (5-5-24)

01:00 My analysis of campus protests: https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=154961
03:00 National Review: Since When Does Criminal Law Not Apply to College Campus Protests?,
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/since-when-does-criminal-law-not-apply-to-college-campus-protests/
10:00 New York Times podcast on campus protests, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV1_3EovQZs
13:00 Journalist Lydia Polgreen, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Polgreen
16:30 Victor Davis Hanson: Radical Far-Left Palestine protests threaten America, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doGEL3z_Z-w
29:00 Khalid Safir joins the show, https://www.bigquestionsanswered.com/

01:00 Khalid Safir joins the show, https://www.bigquestionsanswered.com/
05:00 Khalid Safir makes the case for marriage, https://twitter.com/KhalidSafirx
1:04:00 Khalid leaves the show
1:12:00 Personal connections fuel your ability to survive disasters such as crime, inflation and earthquakes
1:27:00 Stephen J. James joins the show, https://twitter.com/MuskMaximalist
1:40:00 Who are the pro-Palestine protesters?
1:45:00 Islam and Religious Studies Post-9/11, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=133478
1:51:00 The case for a rules-based international order
1:52:00 The case for aiding Ukraine
1:53:00 Aiding Ukraine to bleed Russia
1:58:00 Talking cybercurrencies such as Bitcoin
2:18:00 Dismissing medical advice for natural healing often leads to premature death
2:26:00 SJJ’s under-earning
2:43:00 Try Pro-Palestine riots in a small town, https://genius.com/Jason-aldean-try-that-in-a-small-town-lyrics
2:49:00 WP: “College students are dropping out in droves. Two sisters could fix that. A new AI tracks college students who are missing classes, running out of money or just feeling lonely.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/01/edsights-college-ai-student-retention/
2:50:30 NYT: Widening Racial Disparities Underlie Rise in Child Deaths in the U.S., https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/04/health/child-deaths-us-race.html
2:52:00 WP: “Brittney Griner’s ordeal riveted the nation.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/05/04/brittney-griner-memoir-coming-home-review/
2:56:00 WP: For Laura Loomer, a Trump comeback is everything, https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/2024/05/02/laura-loomer-donald-trump/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/05/03/us/ucla-protests-encampment-violence.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/05/walter-kirn/678187/
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/05/pen-america-writers-gaza-israel/678272/
https://www.newyorker.com/news/fault-lines/a-generation-of-distrust
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-02/online-sleuths-rush-to-identify-the-men-who-attacked-ucla-camp
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-03/mocking-gaza-protesters-isnt-funny-its-dangerous
https://www.wsj.com/articles/mark-helprin-asks-are-americans-ready-for-war-novelist-scholar-0214b82b
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/05/03/january-6-documentary-00155780?cid=apn
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/03/biden-college-protest-violence-00156111?cid=apn
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/05/house-republicans-gwu-protest-boebert/678280/
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/college-protests-parents-angry-e93bb2ef?mod=education_news_article_pos2
https://www.nytimes.com/audio/app/2024/05/03/opinion/campus-protests-israel-gaza.html?referringSource=sharing
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/05/03/late-night-goes-soft-on-biden-00154694?cid=apn
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/05/college-activism-hypocrisy/678262/

Posted in America, Hamas, Interviews, Islam, Israel | Comments Off on Decoding The Anti-Israel, Pro-Palestine Campus Protests (5-5-24)

Pro Palestine campus protests at UCLA (5-3-24)

President Joe Biden said protest is fine but disruption is not. The essence of these campus protests has been disruption. The only reason these protests have captured the attention of the news is because of their disruption. Pro-Palestine speech is not going to be warmly received in America because Palestinians have not contributed anything to the world. Not many people in America will care about pro-Palestine or Pro-Israel speech on its own because Americans care primarily about Americans.

I learned in therapy that it is best to deal with problems when they are at a low level of intensity. It’s much harder to resolve disputes when intensity is 10/10. College president should have dealt with protesters once they broke the first window.

National Review: Since When Does Criminal Law Not Apply to College Campus Protests?

It’s a mistake to focus on the anti-semitism element of the college protests. Different groups have different interests. Instead, the focus should be enforcing the law to maximize the ability of unis to focus on their core missions of education and research. Expel the disrupters.

Interest groups such as Jews do themselves no favors when they focus publicly on their own narrow interest. With regard to the pro-Palestine campus protests, Jews should make the case for law enforcement rather than seek privileges from criticism. If the pro-Palestine or pro-black or pro-gay cause wants to win, they too should frame their case in terms of the general interest. People care primarily about themselves. They don’t care much about out-groups.

Posted in America, Israel, UCLA | Comments Off on Pro Palestine campus protests at UCLA (5-3-24)

Decoding The Anti-Israel, Pro-Palestine Campus Protests Part Two (5-2-24)

02:00 Historian J. Otto Pohl joins the show, https://twitter.com/JOttoPohl1
09:00 The world runs on hierarchy, not democracy, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=153654
14:00 Elite discourse, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=154774
16:00 Knowledge is a conversation through time by the keepers of knowledge
24:00 Is Iran a rational actor?
32:00 Palestinians destabilized Jordan, Lebanon
37:00 Turkey’s attitude to the Iran-Israel conflict
38:15 The quality of life in Iraq now vs when Saddam Hussein reigned
40:00 WEHT to the Kurds?
42:30 Anti-Kurdism – wanting to deny Kurdish national sovereignty
44:30 Secularization trends among European Muslims
46:30 Prospects for peace between Israel and the Palestinians
54:50 Pohl: Lipstadt and the Denial of Soviet Ethnically Targeted Deportations and Killings, https://jottopohl.substack.com/p/lipstadt-and-the-denial-of-soviet
56:30 Pohl: Radical Right Reaction in Europe and the US in Comparative Perspective, https://jottopohl.substack.com/p/radical-right-reaction-in-europe
1:06:00 Lock up the super predators
1:16:00 Over-Taking Responsibility: What It Is & How It Holds Us Back, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py7t7XIsILA
1:19:30 Jonathan Chait on the House Anti-Semitism Bill: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/the-house-antisemitism-bill-is-bad-for-the-jews.html
1:23:00 Pro-Israel arguments, https://twitter.com/SiaKordestani
1:39:00 60s Backlash, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/05/02/why-campus-chaos-should-give-democrats-ptsd-00155537
1:43:00 Biden’s Patience With Campus Protests Runs Out, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/05/bidens-patience-with-campus-protests-runs-out/678269/
1:48:00 Joe Biden loses the center, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/biden-is-losing-the-election-in-the-center-not-the-left.html
1:52:00 NYT: Before the Violence, U.C.L.A. Thought a Tolerant Approach Would Work, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/us/ucla-classes-protests.html
1:55:00 NYT: Trump Embraces Lawlessness, but in the Name of a Higher Law, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/02/opinion/trump-trial-2024-election.html
1:58:40 LGBTQ+ people in Huntington Beach fearful of what they say is a rise in hostility, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2024-05-02/huntington-beach-lgbtq-community-fights-back
2:01:00 America’s Colleges Are Reaping What They Sowed, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/05/college-activism-hypocrisy/678262/
2:08:00 Men in caves wait for the apocalypse
2:18:00 Letterman: Norm MacDonald’s Bob Uecker Story

Posted in America | Comments Off on Decoding The Anti-Israel, Pro-Palestine Campus Protests Part Two (5-2-24)