Merry Christmas To All My Nomadic Friends

by Nomad

Sanity Sunday Musical Break for November 2022

by Nomad

All in all, it's not been as bad a week as it could have been. In fact, it was a very good political week. It's time to take a calming break.

Analysis: The Riddle of Why Russians Don't Protest Against the War in Ukraine

by Nomad

Although now a British citizen, Oxford-educated political philosopher Vlad Vexler was born in the Soviet Union. For this reason, when it comes to an understanding the Russian mentality, he is something of an insider.
He says:

I know that there are a lot of people who are concerned and overwhelmed about what's happening with politics, not just in their country but all over the world, what I do here is help us operate openly in the light and not blindly in darkness.

In the video below, he takes on one of the most perplexing questions of our time: What can account for the apathy of the Russian people in the wake of the brutal invasion of Ukraine?

You will probably what he has to say interesting and, given the current politics in the USA, a bit foreboding.

On the Madness of the Mob

by Nomad

Time to dig into our past and to discover something interesting.

Meet Mr. MacKay.
Charles MacKay was, intellectually, a man of varied pursuits. Born in Perth, Scotland in 1814, MacKay was, in his time, a poet, journalist, author, anthologist, novelist, and even songwriter. 

Today, if he is remembered at all, he is remembered for his early study of crowd psychology entitled Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. 

This entertaining work was published in three volumes: "National Delusions", "Peculiar Follies", and "Philosophical Delusions". (When it comes to public insanity, there are categories but not degrees.)

As a first-rate storyteller. MacKay covers such diverse topics as economic bubbles, alchemy (the imaginary science of transforming worthless metals into gold), haunted houses, fortune-telling, and the mania for murder through slow poisoning. (It was apparently the thing to do.)

Persons who would have revolted at the idea of stabbing a man to the heart, drugged his potage without scruple. Ladies of gentle birth and manners caught the contagion of murder, until poisoning, under their auspices, became quite fashionable.

Watch LIVE: Day 9 of the Public Hearings of the January 6th House Select Committee

by Nomad

After a month's delay, the January 6 House-Select Committee today picks up where it left off back in summer. The committee has spent the last 15 months wading through tens of thousands of documents and interviewing more than 1000 witnesses.

 

This was to be the last of the public hearings, however, given the amount of newly-discovered information gathered from subpoenaed witnesses, there could be further hearings added to the schedule.