No Rule Can Substitute Compassion

I happened to come across a few episodes of The World's Strictest Parents, a TV show where troublemaker teens are “shown the way.” The message is as conservative and moralistic as can be expected, narrowmindedly blaming the teenagers for just about everything. Still, upon closer inspection, it can't be brushed off all that easily.


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No Rule Can Substitute Compassion

The Weakness of Rhetoric

President Obama defended the massive NSA monitoring of digital information, which was revealed a couple of days ago. It was not an easy task, not even with his rhetoric skills. There are limits to the power of rhetoric.


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The Weakness of Rhetoric

The Great Misfortune of Society: It's Ruled by Freeloaders

Society is far from perfect, in spite of its thousands of years of evolution. Most of the suffering it causes or at least readily allows, is due to injustice. Some few are privileged at the expense of the vast majority.


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The Great Misfortune of Society: It's Ruled by Freeloaders

We're All Victims of the Bully

Bullying is a very serious social problem, a matter of life and death since some victims are pushed to suicide and many others are damaged for life. Still, the solution is very far away – probably because bullying is rooted within our instincts, which our conscious minds have trouble reaching.


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We're All Victims of the Bully

Profit Is a Lousy Ideal

No doubt, capitalism has brought a lot of good to the world – at least to parts of it. But it's at a cost. The strife for profit is an effective engine for the progress of material gains, but it's a lousy ideal.


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Profit Is a Lousy Ideal

Age-old Dilemmas Also Plague the Future

Looper is a film playing with the idea of time travel – but doing so with a dramatic nerve that leaves the intellectual paradox far behind. I wonder if that sci-fi ingredient is needed at all in the plot, except for the special effects. The story by director Rian Johnson is so classical, it needs no future.


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Age-old Dilemmas Also Plague the Future

The Poodle Bites

Recently, I was in Romania for an aikido seminar. That was my first visit to the country, and a delightful one. Something that I found odd was the great number of stray dogs in the streets, running free and somehow finding their way to survive and reproduce.


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The Poodle Bites

Murder Mystery

The truth is elusive. That's what intrigues us about crime cases – real or fictional. What really happened is rarely ascertained, nor why it did. That's certainly true in the case of Alex and Derek King, who killed their father Terry when they were only 12 and 13. Their story raises more question than it answers. Is it only in fiction we can reach solid conclusions?


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Murder Mystery

The Few Get More

The rich ones keep on grabbing more of the world's wealth. One percent of the world population owns 39% of its wealth. Greed is insatiable.


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The Few Get More

Openleaks to Close the Leaks

A group from Wikileaks is starting an alternative to it, calling it Openleaks, with a slightly different modus operandi. Whether this is true or just another hoax to discredit Wikileaks, the plans presented so far imply more of a seal than a leak.


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Openleaks to Close the Leaks

Rape is More than Rape in Sweden

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is locked up in English jail, in the process to be deported to Sweden for charges of rape. Rape is a terrible word, but in Swedish law it's not only what we normally mean by it. A number of sex offenses, major and minor, are called rape – and treated equally severely by the Swedish legal system. Moral panic replaces justice.


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Rape Is More than Rape in Sweden

Cablegate Is Another Gate to Democracy

Wikileaks has published thousands of cables to and from a number of US Embassies, revealing the diplomatic negotiations behind the scenes. They call it Cablegate. There is a lot of gates, these days, that governments struggle to keep shut. No can do in the Internet era. Learn to live with it.


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Cablegate Is Another Gate to Democracy

Condom News Sensations

The condom makes the news twice – the Pope suddenly expresses an understanding of its use to protect against HIV, and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is accused of not using it sufficiently. The rubber has the center stage.


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Condom News Sensations