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MUSICAL NOTE: Riding along in an automobile, in southern Michigan no less, I was pleasantly surprised to hear Kate Bush come on the radio. I read a couple weeks ago the kids of America had sent her almost forty-year old song, “Running up the Hill (A Deal with God)” up
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Subscribe now Governance at the federal level — US, Italy, Brazil, Nigeria, name it — is failing across the planet. Some thought China, in their decades dash to industrialization, found the governing grail, but there was nothing sacred about it. Industrialization and centralized governance always went hand in hand, whether in the
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An interesting money fact appears at the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century. The Fed raising interest rates is causing inflation across much of the rest of the world. FT has a piece, “Ghana raises interest rates to 22% in biggest move for 20 years, central bank
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Thank you for reading Life in the 21st Century. This post is public so feel free to share it. Mexico City has spectacular new library, the Biblioteca Vasconcelos. As someone who has spent a lot of time, in a lot of libraries, it's a very wonderful architecture. The
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Life in the 21st Century is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Nigeria's Premium Times has a nice article on Nigerians struggling with oil’s toxic legacy. It's difficult to say the last six decades of
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Subscribe now Recently walking through the Barnes and Nobles in Mishawaka, Indiana, I was pleasantly surprised to run across three different books by the Good Doctor Hunter S. Thompson, stocked under Current Affairs no less! Such are times when you briefly think... well, it makes you smile anyway, some people
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Subscribe now Created by fossil fuels and industrialism, modernity induced great social anxiety, an ambient anxiousness. Fossil fuels sped up life, creating ever greater need for motion, an incessant need for action, a perpetual busyness. Being in motion, doing something, alleviated some modern anxiety. One look at the American populous,
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Subscribe now In our memory deprived world, very few remember or understand anything about inflation. In the old industrial world, you have to go back 40 years to the last inflationary era, which basically means no one under 55 has any conception. This includes people in institutions, especially financial and
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Subscribe now Joe Biden continued a half-century tradition of American presidents making a hajj to Riyadh to ask the House of Saud to keep the oil taps fully open. It's sort of pathetic, but then don't let Hollywood or rock and roll convince you otherwise, junkies
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Subscribe now Yesterday's NYT write up on their most recent poll is an attempt to put lipstick on a pig. It used to be, back when I paid more attention to such things, in a generic question on who should control the Congress, the Dems needed a five
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Subscribe now As part of my politics of the absurd, I haven't owned a car for over a quarter century. I've been telling Americans for decades we needed to become less car reliant, but saying that to people in a culture built around the automobile, well,
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Subscribe now Mesdames et Messieurs, Bon Soir, this is Joan of Arc, Tonio has asked me to personally deliver a rather special message. He say he just cannot get enough of my 15th-century wisdom. After many a Saturday night of doing ze funky western civilization together I know for a