New Zealand is not free of racism and bigotry

The shocking murder of Muslims in two mosques in New Zealand by an Australian enabled the country’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern to make a claim that is familiar to us in the US whenever some ghastly act occurs, that ‘this is not us’. It is undoubtedly true that the gracious and warm and inclusive way that she responded to this tragedy reflects very creditably on her and on a country where the leader can say such things, especially when compared to the crass way that the US president responds to similar events
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The Brexit shambles has exposed the UK in more ways than one

British prime minister Theresa May has requested from the EU an extension of the current deadline of March 29 until June 30 to negotiate a Brexit agreement. This seems like far too short an extension. If the framework for a deal had been agreed upon and all that remained was to tie up loose ends, then three months may have been adequate. But the situation surrounding the current negotiations is nothing like that. Given that even after two years, they have failed to arrive at even the outlines of a deal that parliament can support, expecting it to happen in three more months seems wildly unrealistic.
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Hasan Minhaj on the Indian elections in May

Given the massive size of the country and the voting pool, Indian elections present formidable logistical challenges.

General elections in India will begin on April 11, officials announced on Sunday, with some 900 million voters eligible to cast ballots to fill parliamentary seats and choose the next prime minister in the world’s largest democracy.
…

The chief election commissioner, Sunil Arora, said voting would be held in seven stages, staggered across the country, before polls closed on May 19. Ballot counting will begin on May 23 and is expected to be completed in a day.

Got that? Voting results are available the very next day whereas in the US some results take months.
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Why Dan Lipinski must be defeated in the next Democratic primary

I have written before about Democratic congressman Dan Lipinski, easily one of the worst Democrats in Congress, who occupies a seat that he ‘inherited’ from his father when the latter stepped aside to make room for him. In the 2018 election, he was challenged in the primary by a much better candidate Marie Newman but the Republican-lite Democratic party leadership threw its weight behind Lipinski even though Lipinski is pretty much opposed to everything that the Democratic party claims to represent.
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The Middle Ages and the periods before and after

We all have in our minds short histories of how knowledge grew and a popular one is that there was a period of scientific and philosophical growth that began more than a couple of millennia ago with the ancient Greek, Arabic, and Chinese civilizations that slowed down sometime during the early second millennium where there were no real advances and indeed a regression with a loss of knowledge. That was then followed by the period we now call the Age of Enlightenment with its associated scientific revolution that began in the 17th century around the time of Galileo. Scholars of the much-maligned middle period that has come to be down as the Middle Ages (or more pejoratively the Dark Ages) take umbrage with characterizations that compare that period unfavorably with what existed before and what came after.
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Public shaming

Piling on someone whom the internet has decided is worthy of public shaming is now a commonplace phenomenon. John Oliver has an excellent segment on when public shaming is justified and when it is horribly wrong.

The second half of this segment features an interview with Monica Lewinsky who was viciously and unjustifiably slut-shamed twenty years ago. She has weathered the storm that surrounded her and which could have easily destroyed her. Remarkably, she seems to have come through that ordeal and the interview reveals her to be a delightful person who deserves an apology from all those who attacked and ridiculed her.

Uh-oh, one Brexit option shut down by speaker

Just yesterday the Guardian published a flow chart about the options available to prime minister Theresa May when, as was expected, she resubmitted the Brexit deal that was defeated by a margin of 149 votes for another parliamentary vote, presumably hoping that a sense of desperation due to the looming deadline of March 29 might persuade enough people to switch their votes in favor of it to avoid a no-deal Brexit.
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