murf

Desegregation in Iran (just a bit)

July 5, 2018 No Comments

For the first time since 1979, women in Iran are allowed to attend a men’s game in a stadium with a mixed crowd. For nearly 40 years, half of Iran’s population was not allowed to go to a stadium to watch soccer, the country’s single most popular sport. The defacto ban, instilled by religious clerics […]

Read on ...

Government History Human Rights Religious Organisations Society

Catholic Adoption

July 5, 2018 No Comments

In the news, more adoption issues in a case that further illustrates the attitudes and social mores of catholic Ireland as detailed in The God Squad. The fudged adoption papers, un-vetted placement, obfuscation and misdirection of the supposed Sisters of Charity is sadly unsurprising yet still awful to read: His client became pregnant shortly before her […]

Read on ...

Books Human Rights Muse

Read: The God Squad

July 3, 2018 No Comments

The God Squad is the remarkable true story of a survivor, told with an extraordinary lack of bitterness for one so shockingly and shamefully treated. In Paddy Doyle’s own words: ‘It is about a society’s abdication of responsibility to a child. The fact that I was that child, and that the book is about my […]

Read on ...

Food for Thought Places & Travel Wonderful World

Dalmatia’s fjaka state of mind

January 19, 2018January 19, 2018 No Comments

What a beautiful description of a state of being, languishing in the Mediterranean sun: The Croatian poet Jakša Fiamengo said that fjaka is a specific state of mind and body. “It is like a faint unconsciousness,” he wrote, “a state beyond the self or – if you will – deeply inside the self, a special […]

Read on ...

Life People Sounds

Malcolm Young, Dead at 64

November 20, 2017 No Comments

“Malcolm Young, AC/DC Guitarist and Co-Founder, Dead at 64” Rock In Peace.

Read on ...

Government Human Rights Society

The Chain of Destruction

October 3, 2017October 3, 2017 No Comments

I’ve just finished the excellent documentary “The House I Live In” (thanks to D for recommending). It’s a fascinating look at the consequences of the so-called ‘War on Drugs’, which is really just a proxy war against an entire class of humanity with no end in sight. It’s created a criminal problem from a public […]

Read on ...

Food for Thought

Misdirection

October 2, 2017October 2, 2017 No Comments

“The way to take a problem, and make it a huge problem, is first to ask the wrong question and then to feed us the wrong answer.” — Charles Bowden, “The House I Live In” (2012)

Read on ...

Arts Photography

Iron Rails, going places

September 2, 2017 No Comments

“Could have stayed somewhere, but train tracks kept going It seems like they always left soon And the people he ran with, they moaned low and painful Sang sad misereres to the moon” – Josh Ritter, ‘Harrisburg’

Read on ...

Arts Photography

Crossing the line

August 7, 2017August 8, 2017 No Comments

Do it. flickr

Read on ...

Life People Sounds

Chris Cornell, Dead at 52

May 18, 2017 No Comments

Fuck. I was only talking about him yesterday with a friend who’d recently gotten me into Audioslave. Chris Cornell, the lead singer of American hard rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, has died aged 52. The medical examiner confirmed Cornell’s death was suicide. Chris Cornell: rock star who kicked down the boundaries of sound Alexis Petridis […]

Read on ...

Who?

Desegregation in Iran (just a bit)

Catholic Adoption

Read: The God Squad

Dalmatia’s fjaka state of mind

Malcolm Young, Dead at 64

The Chain of Destruction

Misdirection

Iron Rails, going places

Crossing the line

Chris Cornell, Dead at 52

Author: murf