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From
The Federalist:
The women of the Right are allowed to believe things that the women of
the Left are not. They are allowed to believe there is a difference
between women and men, female and male, and that those differences are
real, not a false cultural construct imposed by a self-interested,
manipulative patriarchy. Unlike Gloria Steinem, they can express their
femininity in any way they choose to, without fear of being accused of a
calumnization of the sisterhood.
Even more, women of the Right are allowed to accept obvious things
rather than engage in exhausting psychic gymnastics to get to a place
that is politically correct, while preposterous. If a thug murders a
pregnant woman, he should be charged with two murders, not just one, and
women of the Right feel no compulsion to weary themselves by filing amicus briefs on behalf of the murderer to nullify the second killing because the unborn baby does not qualify as human life.
Even further, they have no difficulty with the notion that the woman
in question had every right to effectuate her own protection, if she
chose, with whatever weapon she preferred to use, for the easily
understood and non-controversial purpose of blowing the thug away before
he could murder her and her baby. It’s not tiring to get to that
conclusion; it’s tiring to get to the opposite one.
They are allowed to love their gay friends and want all good things
for them, but still believe it’s a bad idea to start redefining marriage
without being labeled a bigot by those same friends, and that, too,
removes a burden. They are allowed to go through life treating
people—all people—with dignity, respect, and friendship, and not be
concerned about being called racist, even if they are called racist,
because they know they are not. (Read more.)
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From
The Scotsman:
Despite boasting far greater numbers, King Alexander III’s Scots struggled to gain the upper hand over the Norwegian King Haakon IV’s 800 maritime marauders. King Haakon’s flotilla ended up at Largs as the result of poor weather encountered while negotiating the Ayrshire coast. Some reckon they were outnumbered by ten to one, but they managed to survive a Scottish onslaught and patch up their longships. It is not known how many perished in the battle, but scholars estimate that many hundreds would have been slain. One legend goes that the Norwegians revealed their location to the Scots by yelping in pain after stepping on a field of thistles, and this was the moment responsible for the thistle becoming a national emblem. The result of Largs is given as ‘inconclusive’. Had the Scots decisively lost the battle, history may have been very different - Scotland gained control of the Hebridean isles back from Norwegian hands just two years later. (Read more.)
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From
Victoria:
As frosty winter winds sweep across the British lowlands, residents from
Birmingham to Bromsgrove wrap their scarves a little tighter as they
dart in and out of local shops, carrying daunting to-do lists. But in
the village of Little Aston in Sutton Coldfield, Sarah Wilton-Basi is
happily putting the finishing touches on her holiday décor, warmed by a
blazing fire and her enthusiasm for the task at hand. Sarah and her husband, Param, moved into their circa 1660 semi-detached
cottage in 2009 after a six-month renovation restored many of the home’s
original features. The structure, which formerly served as the local
schoolhouse, was christened Little Latches because of the number of
latched doors on the property. It is a particularly appropriate venue
for Sarah, who taught theatre studies at a performing arts school in
Liverpool for many years. Filled with Shakespearean-themed keepsakes,
from volumes of plays and poetry to art prints, the shelves are also
laden with antique books of classic literature—treasured heirlooms
passed down from her great-grandparents. (Read more.)
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U.S. Navy SEAL Chief Edward “Eddie” Gallagher has been imprisoned for 13 weeks for a crime he and numerous others maintain he didn’t commit. Throughout his ordeal, Eddie’s wife Andrea has championed for his freedom. “These allegations are malicious and shameless, and I know that my husband did not do what is alleged,” Andrea recently told American Military News. “I will stand by him and I know he will be exonerated of these charges,” she added.
The Navy alleges that Eddie fatally stabbed an ISIS prisoner in the neck and torso after other SEALs in his unit stabilized the fighter, who was critically injured from wounds sustained from an earlier gunfight with Iraqi forces. The incident reportedly took place on May 3, 2017. Other evidence, including witness testimony, argues that the fighter had succumbed to his wounds while still in the presence of the Iraqi Emergency Response Division (ERD) due to excessive blood loss from a severed artery.
Eddie’s attorney, Phillip Stackhouse, told Task & Purpose in October, “What we’ve learned in our independent investigation into these allegations is that a crime simply didn’t happen.” It’s been a month since Eddie’s preliminary Article 32 hearing to hear the evidence in the case and determine whether or not to proceed with a full trial. A full trial date still hasn’t been set. He’s remained in confinement for 13 weeks so far, with no end in sight.
“Eddie is stuck in pre-trial confinement – treated like a criminal, and treated as guilty until proven innocent,” Andrea said. Eddie faces 14 charges, including other accusations unrelated to the ISIS fighter incident, all of which were reported by other SEALs in his unit. Andrea, along with Eddie’s brother Sean Gallagher, say the allegations have been fabricated in retaliation against Eddie. (Read more.)
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From
1843:
Founded by Laaleen Sukhera, a journalist, JASP is two years old. It has chapters in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi and a Facebook page with over 1,000 followers. There is just the one dress-up party annually but they meet two or three times a year to discuss all things Austen.
The members of JASP, while perhaps a tad more ardent, are not alone in their passion for Jane Austen. For the truth – universally acknowledged – is that Jane Austen is enduringly popular in Pakistan. Bookshops have whole shelves dedicated to her novels, critiques of her novels and novels inspired by her novels. Visit a DVD rental store and you will find film and television adaptations of her work. She is taught in schools and read at home. “Pride and Prejudice” has been translated into Urdu, and “Aisha”, the Bollywood adaptation of “Emma”, was watched by millions of Pakistanis. Plans are afoot to publish adaptations of all six novels with contemporary sub-continental settings. Meanwhile, “Austenistan”, a book of short stories written by members of JASP and edited by Laaleen Sukhera, has been acquired for publication.
“Austen resonates with us because Regency England is so much like today’s Pakistan,” says Sukhera, 40, a mother of three girls. “I know her books are 200 years old and set in small English county towns and villages but, really, her themes, her characters, her situations, her plots, they could have been written for us now.” (Read more.)
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From
The Medieval Manuscripts Blog:
Whenever I talk to members of the public who have visited the British Library's Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms exhibition,
one of the most common reactions is, ‘I didn’t expect there to be so
much about women!’ As Claire Breay recently discussed on Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4, more evidence survives about early medieval women than many people realise. Our exhibition includes a prayerbook connected to the wife of Alfred the Great; chronicle accounts of the victories of Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians; the oldest substantial woman’s will that
survives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms; the first surviving political
tract written for (and about) a woman in England; and one of the
fabulously jewelled gospel-books of Judith of Flanders.
The majority of the population in Anglo-Saxon England — including the
majority of women — probably couldn’t read or write. That said, women
made up a sizeable proportion of the part of the population that was
literate. In Anglo-Saxon times, literacy was highest among monks, nuns,
priests and other clergy, who had committed to a religious life.
Religious women, such as abbesses, were at the forefront of several
literary developments. Additionally, we have evidence that some lay
noblewomen owned books. (Read more.)
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From
News Punch:
“It’s not about political colours, it’s about the people, one of the speakers,” journalist Katerina Janouch stated. “I am here for the 9-year-old girl who was raped and beaten in a junk
room. I am here for all the women who no longer dare go out.
“I am here for the poor elderly who paid tax their whole lives and
now are forced to starve. I am here for the homeless. I am here for
those who don’t get what the social contract promises.” According to Janouch, all Swedes, regardless of political
affiliation, should participate in the demonstrations and protest
against the politics in Sweden. (Read more.)
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From
Forbes:
Self-awareness. I've said it before at different times and in different places, and I'll say it again: Without a reasonable degree of self-awareness, you can't be a highly effective manager. Without some awareness of how you're coming across to others and how they perceive you, it's hard to thoughtfully exercise authority over the long term. Without an accurate idea of how your employees are responding to you, you'll always be (avid fly fisherman speaking here) a trout swimming upstream. Meaning against the current.
Empathy. Studies have shown that empathy (the ability to understand and share the feelings of another) is a critical driver of successful management -- and that only 40% of "frontline leaders" are "proficient or strong in empathy." This stat doesn't surprise me -- if anything, maybe sounds a little high. People are usually selected for management more for reasons of authority than empathy. Though as noted earlier, the ability to understand employees (what their issues are, what motivates them and what doesn't) is no doubt part of managerial success.
Patience. Amid the chronic deadlines and stress of the working world, employees appreciate working for managers who are patient, as opposed to say, those who are short-tempered. Why wouldn't they? This I can say with confidence: A management coaching style that patiently supports an employee when he or she needs help will 9 times out of 10 (at least) be better received than a traditional command-and-control style focused more on authority than assistance.
None of this should be hugely surprising. (Read more.)
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Stephanie Mann quotes Chesterton:
Scrooge is not really inhuman at the beginning any more than he is at
the end. There is a heartiness in his inhospitable sentiments that is
akin to humour and therefore to humanity; he is only a crusty old
bachelor, and had (I strongly suspect) given away turkeys secretly all
his life. The beauty and the real blessing of the story do not lie in
the mechanical plot of it, the repentance of Scrooge, probable or
improbable; they lie in the great furnace of real happiness that glows
through Scrooge and everything around him; that great furnace, the heart
of Dickens. Whether the Christmas visions would or would not convert
Scrooge, they convert us. Whether or no the visions were evoked by real
Spirits of the Past, Present, and Future, they were evoked by that truly
exalted order of angels who are correctly called High Spirits. They are
impelled and sustained by a quality which our contemporary artists
ignore or almost deny, but which in a life decently lived is as normal
and attainable as sleep, positive, passionate, conscious joy. The story
sings from end to end like a happy man going home; and, like a happy and
good man, when it cannot sing it yells. It is lyric and exclamatory,
from the first exclamatory words of it. It is strictly a Christmas
carol. (Read more.)
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