16 Comments
author

Thank you for the excellent summary of Plato's Republic. I've been reading Phaedrus, actually, with friends, but it's difficult to discuss Plato without hearing lots about Republic, so it's been on my mind.

I'm going to save your summary. I might need to steal it (with attribution, of course) someday.

Your transformed furniture pieces are stunning! Bravo! I might need you to fly out and help me redecorate my home.

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author

I would love to. I've repainted every surface of this apartment ten times: I really need a big, American house with tons of furniture to ... *develop my craft.*

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author

You know what they say, everything's bigger in Texas. Especially the homes! And all my furniture is of the Craigslist variety, so some of it really needs some help.

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Tipping turbans off the heads of clerics is just so Bertie Wooster. Except you get your hand chopped off instead of a £5 fine.

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Nov 9, 2022·edited Nov 9, 2022

Ballots in one county in the entire United States were printed with ink the scanners couldn’t read. That’s hardly a widespread failure of the mechanics of American elections.

In other news, I watched the video on the American Imran Khan supporter. It was a train wreck; I wanted to stop watching it, but I couldn’t turn away. I don’t see what purpose it serves, besides soft Khan propaganda to boost his followers’ morale. The lady in question thinks America needs more strong, masculine leaders like Khan, Andrew Cuomo, Bernie Sanders, and Fidel Castro. She’s N-V-T-S nuts. I felt stupider for watching it.

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author

I haven't watched it yet. I'm less exciting about watching it after hearing this.

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author

As for the ballots--if after *all this* election officials haven't realized that we just can't afford screwups like this, and if they're not testing *everything* ten times before the election, with all the care and attention to detail of astronauts going through the pre-lift checklist, something is really wrong. That shouldn't have happened.

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Nov 9, 2022Liked by Claire Berlinski

All kidding aside, we’re suffering from a shortage of election officials courtesy of five years or so of credible threats of violence. America is a country of over 330 million, with 10,000 plus local election boards. And Maricopa County is large and dysfunctional (the home of sheriff-turned-felon Joe Arpaio). Needless to say, I still have faith in our elections, and the ballots got hand-counted, which is what the paper-ballot hand-counting lobby wants anyhow, no?

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author

That makes sense, actually--I hadn't thought about the shortage of election officials. (And how depressing.)

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That’s how we’ll lose liberal democracy: when people get too tired and/or scared to do it.

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Hey, Bill Gates is the Chairman of Maricopa’s Board of Supervisors, so you can blame Microsoft. 🤣

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founding

Did you break the mirror's glass, Claire? Oy gevalt! I sure hope you have saved, unused, 7 years of good luck. Otherwise...

https://www.twowaymirrors.com/broken-mirror-superstition/

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author

I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to think about it. It didn't happen. If I don't acknowledge it, it isn't true.

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Nov 9, 2022Liked by Claire Berlinski

Claire,

Many thanks for the Iran piece. Interesting throughout. I will listen to the podcast shortly.

Best

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Nov 8, 2022Liked by Claire Berlinski

Wow!

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author

That mirror, right? Amazing what a bit of paint can do.

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