Category Archives: Nihilism

Mark Toias film is set during the pivotal moment when the creature escapes its maker in this case, when military robots acquire the ability to think for themselves, go rogue and decide to kill everything in sight.

Three computer nerds run what they think is a navigation test involving four mechanical soldiers being airdropped into a jungle in the Golden Triangle. They dont have a problem with black ops involving secret weapons until things go haywire, and Monsters of Man is quite good at describing the techies hubris and utter lack of morals, as well as their terminal navet: What did they think they were building, exactly? Not that the trios handlers are any better.

The films ruthlessness in killing off almost every character, including women and children, may feel exploitative, but there is honesty in showing the full range of casualties caused by American weaponry. If you thought drone attacks were bad, wait until you see what autonomous robots that were built to kill are capable of.

The film overstays its welcome by a solid half-hour (it is not about a time loop but feels like one because the last third is so repetitive) but its nihilism and violence are unsettling because the action feels as if its set just minutes into the future.

Rent or buy from Amazon and Vudu.

So, what happens after the killer mechs become sentient? Daniel Raboldts debut feature, thats what.

In it, the robots have fully taken over and exterminated as much of humankind as they could details are fuzzy but it looks as if there are few people left. A banged-up survivor, Tomasz (Stefan Ebel), moves around in a foil-lined van and sets up camp in an empty house in the woods, which he protects with a jury-rigged force field. He meets Lilja (Siri Nase), a member of the local resistance with a plan to vanquish the killing machines, and together they take off for a long walk to a mysterious destination.

Much of this, along with flashbacks showing how the world ended up in this mess, is told wordlessly to avoid alerting the new overlords the German A Living Dog is a bit like A Quiet Place with robots instead of aliens. Raboldt shot in a Finnish forest by the Arctic Circle, an inspired location that gives the film a natural grandeur and beauty while suggesting a forlorn emptiness. Another asset is that unlike too many C.G.I. creations, the robots project a real sense of massive weight. Add a steady, deliberate pace that is mostly absorbing, and you have a solid debut that doesnt always match its ambition, but at least puts up a valiant fight.

Stream from Starz or buy from most major platforms.

Do not confuse this movie with the schlocky (in a bad way) Monster Hunters.

This Monster Hunter is the one in which a feline cook, the Meowscular Chef, prepares a meal Benihana-style for a crew of desert pirates led by Ron Perlman, who then asks a flabbergasted Milla Jovovich: Whats the matter? You dont have cats in your world?

If this makes you laugh I did by all means cue up the preposterously entertaining latest by Jovovich and her husband, Paul W.S. Anderson, one of the best action directors around.

Based on a video game, as is so often the case with Anderson, the film is essentially an extended dash-and-fight sequence. Jovovichs Captain Artemis finds herself marooned in a strange landscape packed with bloodthirsty creatures, which she must defeat if she ever wants to go home. Every time a beastie goes down, a bigger one pops up. Good thing a badass warrior played by Tony Jaa (from the Ong-Bak series) is there to lend a hand. The film is big, loud, boisterous and proudly nutty. Naturally for such an unabashed exercise in pulp fiction, the ending invites a sequel. Bring it on.

Has there ever been a movie where hopscotching between dimensions went smoothly? The various strands and timelines tend not to interact in harmonious ways, creating headaches for everybody involved (including screenwriters trying to overcome niggling paradoxes). Those problems are at the core of Gaurav Seths indie film, in which a student experiment exploring the coexistence of multiple planes spins out of control: This is what happens when STEM education spills from physics into metaphysics.

A car accident at the very beginning is just one in a cascade of consequences and choices, many of them deeply personal for the students. In one world, for example, a deaf woman (Sandra Mae Frank) can hear, but is that better? Another character gets so carried away that he forgets all about ethics and basic decency, raising quandaries on how to handle him. The film is at its most interesting when it juggles a series of interlocking tendrils you may feel compelled to rewatch the beginning to search for missed clues about the final plot twist. Seth probably had a fraction of Paul W.S. Andersons catering budget for Monster Hunter, so the Multiverse description of alternate realities relies on dialogue and a goldfish rather than explosions and rampaging Black Diablos. But the issues it raises are almost as infinite as the universes it posits.

Stream it on Hulu.

Some of the best what-if scenarios provoke tangible emotional responses. Such is the case of Chad Hartigans film, which is lovely and heartbreaking without ever feeling manipulative or sappy. The hypothetical here is as simple as it is soul-crushing: What would happen if a virus destroyed the afflicted persons memory? Emma (Olivia Cooke, just as good in a subtly poignant role as she was as a powerful rock frontwoman in Sound of Metal) narrates her experience watching her husband, Jude (Jack OConnell), progressively forget who he is and what they mean to each other. Emma sees some of the practical consequences of the pandemic at the animal shelter where she works people forget to look after their dogs, who are then brought in and euthanized since nobody claims or adopts them. She also watches the couple formed by their friends Ben (Ral Castillo) and Sam (Soko) sink when Bens mind goes. And still, Emma is not prepared when the illness hits home. You, the viewer, can be: make sure to have a box of tissues ready when watching this most romantic, and sad, of love stories.

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Five Science-Fiction Movies to Stream Now - The New York Times

Dusty Donaldson is definitely an inspiration to anybody who has the opportunity to meet her. Dusty was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005 and founded the Dusty Joy Foundation (LiveLung) in 2010. She has served as executive director for more than a decade, focused on helping anybody who is diagnosed with lung cancer. LiveLung is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity, part of the Dusty Joy Foundation, with a mission of advancing lung cancer awareness and early detection and increasing compassion for people impacted by lung cancer.

Dusty co-authored the book The ABCs of Lung Cancer for Patients and Advocates with Kimberly Lester. Dusty also is cochair of the Lung Cancer Action Network (LungCAN), an association of U.S.-based nonprofit groups focusing on lung cancer. In addition, Dusty is a contributing writer for Health Unions http://www.lungcancer.net and a member of the National Lung Cancer Roundtables Survivorship, Stigma and Nihilism Task Group.

For the past 10 years, Dusty has worked so hard to support patients like me. She serves a large number of patients locally and in other states and is always eager to create partnerships with other organizations to better serve all of us. She is an amazing lung cancer advocate and an inspiration to us all. As one of the members of LiveLung, I have learned to admire her commitment, her energy and her engagement with other supporting groups locally and nationally.

Prior to being diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer in 2005, Dusty had been an award-winning journalist and a media and public relations professional. She uses her knowledge of communication and personal and professional experience to advocate for all of us and help us continue the fight. I am honored to be a part of her group, and I am delighted to nominate her for the Lung Cancer Heroes award.

For more news on cancer updates, research and education, dont forget tosubscribe to CUREs newsletters here.

See the original post here:

A Lung Cancer Survivor, Hero and Inspiration to Many - Curetoday.com

Summary

First U.S. case of Omicron variant discovered in CA. Jan. 6 Committee votes to refer ex-Trump DOJ Official Jeffrey Clark for contempt of Congress. Meadows reveals strategy for 1/6 deposition. Some GOP threaten shutdown over vaccine mandates. Scotus hears arguments over Mississippi abortion law that undermines Roe v. Wade.

LAWRENCE O`DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: My dear friend Holum Taylor (ph), and all of you K.I.N.D. contributors get tonight`s "LAST WORD." THE 11TH HOUR WITH BRIAN WILLIAMS starts now.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, MSNBC HOST: Well, good evening, once again. Day 316 of the Biden administration, the nation has been bracing for the arrival of this new Omicron variant. And this afternoon, the first U.S. case was indeed confirmed in a patient in the San Francisco Bay Area.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: The individual was a traveler who returned from South Africa on November the 22nd. And tested positive on November the 29th. The individual is self-quarantining, and all close contacts have been contacted and all close contacts thus far have tested negative.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: Dr. Fauci went on to say, this patient in question had received two shots of the Moderna vaccine but no booster as of yet and is experiencing mild symptoms. Fauci offered this to those who might be holding off on getting that booster shot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAUCI: People say, well, if we`re going to have a booster specific vaccine, should we wait? If you are eligible, namely six months with a double mRNA dose or two months with the J&J, get boosted. Now, we may not need a very specific boost. The mistake people would make is to say, let me wait and see if we get one. If you`ve eligible for boosting, get boosted right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: Tomorrow, the President lays out his strategy to try to control and contain this variant as we head into the colder months. NBC News among those reporting. He`s going to extend the federal mask mandate for public transportation into mid-March. There`s much more on the potential impact of this new variant just ahead in our hour.

Also tonight, the January six committee is keeping the pressure on witnesses who refuse to comply with their subpoenas. Just a few hours ago, they voted unanimously to refer former Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark for criminal contempt of Congress, but the committee is also giving Clark one last chance to testify.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BENNIE THOMPSON, (D) MISSISSIPPI JAN.6 SELECT COMMITTEE CHAIR: Around eight o`clock last evening, Mr. Clark`s attorney sent a letter to the committee, another in a long series of long letters stating that Mr. Clark now intends to assert his fifth amendment privilege even though Mr. Clark previously had the opportunity to make these claims on the record. The Select Committee will provide him another chance to do so.

REP. LIZ CHENEY, (R) WYOMING VICE CHAIR, JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE: We will not finalize this contempt process if Mr. Clark genuinely cures his failure to comply with the subpoena this Saturday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: Meanwhile, former Trump`s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows today revealed how he plans to handle his upcoming appearance before that same committee. Meadows has been resisting, asserting that he was following Trump`s claim of executive privilege. Well, yesterday the panel said he started complying with a subpoena for records and plan to testify but comments from Meadows today raise questions about just how much cooperating he plans to do.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK MEADOWS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: The President has made it very clear that he is claiming executive privilege and not because he has anything to hide. I`m going to be honoring his executive privilege, is not something that I have the ability to waive. Even with my interview that potentially is coming up with the House. We`ll be talking about non privileged information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: We`ll see how that goes over. Even as he claims to honor his old boss, The Guardian in Great Britain was first to report this revelation from Meadows forthcoming book he reveals Trump first tested positive for COVID three days before that September 26, 2020 debate against then candidate Joe Biden.

New York Times and NBC News have since confirmed that initial positive test. According to the Guardian, Meadows writes, "Nothing was going to stop Trump from going out there." He ads "Trump received a negative result from a separate test just before the debate. But the public didn`t learn about Trump`s COVID case until the early hours of October 2." Today, the former president in a statement stayed on brand saying, "The story of me having COVID prior to or during the first debate is fake news." Which of course doesn`t answer the question of whether he had received a positive test before the debate.

By the way, tonight we`re just a little more than two days from a potential government shutdown. The deadline to pass a funding bill to keep things open is midnight Friday in the Saturday morning.

[23:05:01]

Washington Post, among those reporting tonight one faction of Republicans on Capitol Hill is trying to hold up efforts to vote on that bill over federal vaccine and testing mandates. Senate Majority Leader Schumer today urged Republicans to abandon their protest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK MAJORITY LEADER: It`s always easy to shut down, to say you want to shut down the government something I care about, this one cares about that one, everyone did that we`d have chaos. We need to come together and keep the government open.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: The House Freedom Caucus today appeal to Mitch McConnell in a letter asking that he helped them out by blocking any temporary funding bill that includes federal dollars to enforce vaccine mandates. McConnell appears to be resisting so far and has said a shutdown is not an option.

As all that was going on in Congress across the street in front of the Supreme Court building this morning, protests were underway as the justices sat down to hear oral arguments on the Mississippi abortion law, banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. For two hours, the justices questioned the legality of the statute and the possibility of letting it stand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Viability, it seems to me, doesn`t have anything to do with choice. But if it really is an issue about choice, why is 15 weeks, not enough time?

JUSTICE BARRETT: It doesn`t seem to me to follow that pregnancy and then parenthood are all part of the same burden.

JUSTICE KAVANAUGH: If you think about some of the most important cases, the most consequential cases in this Court`s history, there`s a string of them where the case is overruled precedent.

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: Now, the sponsors of this bill, the House bill, in Mississippi, said we`re doing it because we have new justices. Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts? I don`t see how it is possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: Most experts who were listening agreed the six conservative members of the court appear to lean toward upholding the Mississippi law. Should Roe versus Wade be overturned abortion could be severely restricted or banned right away in at least 26 states over half of our union.

With that, let`s bring in our starting line on this Wednesday night, Peter Baker, longtime journalist and author, Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times, Sam Stein, Veteran Journalist and White House Editor at Politico, and Barbara McQuade, Veteran Federal Prosecutor, former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. She worked with the DOJ during the Biden transition, is a professor at her alma mater University of Michigan Law School, who badly wants you to know they beat Ohio State, she co-hosts the podcast, Sisters in Law along with Kimberly Atkins Stohr, Joyce Vance, Jill Wine-Bank. Good evening, and welcome to you all.

Indeed, Counsellor, I`d like to begin with you, what signals did your trained ears pick up listening to oral arguments this morning?

BARBARA MCQUADE, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Well, Brian, I appreciate the chance for shock, because I think that`s the last left, I`ll be doing for a while in light of the arguments that we heard today. I think, you know, all ears were on some of the justices who might be swing justices, maybe Chief Justice Roberts, maybe justice Kavanaugh, maybe Justice Barrett, but all of them I think signaled very strongly an indication that they would be willing to uphold this Mississippi abortion ban after 15 weeks, which of course, is much more stringent than we had under Roe v. Wade, which is the pre viability standard of 22 to 24 weeks.

It`s not clear whether they`re willing to overturn Roe versus Wade, but I think they can effectively do that in this two-step dance that Chief Justice Roberts often likes to do. You know, we`re not going to overrule Roe v. Wade right now, we`re just going to uphold this Mississippi law. But we`re left without the kind of standard that we`ve had before. So essentially, it`s a -- all is fair game now for states on abortion laws.

WILLIAMS: Peter Baker, let`s talk about where this may be going with the help of something said on this network earlier by a frequent guest of ours NYU Law Professor Melissa Murray who clerked for Sotomayor, at the federal level.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELISSA MURRAY, NYU LAW PROFESSOR: This has been a long game of the conservative legal movement for some years we have never allowed fundamental rights to be subjected to the whims of the Democratic process, to be subject to the whims of the majority. And if you think that gay marriage is not on deck after a day like this, then you are frankly completely delusional because yes, they are coming for that too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[23:10:00]

WILLIAMS: So, Peter, if you would put today`s oral arguments and the comments Barbara just added to the conversation in the context of the long game, i.e., Mitch McConnell`s life`s work.

PETER BAKER, THE NEW YORK TIMES CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, no, that`s exactly right. This is the combination of a half century campaign on the part of conservatives to get to the point where they could overturn Roe v. Wade, or at least, you know, this right, a lot of the tenants of it, right? The big question that of today`s oral argument seems to be as Barbara said, whether or not they actually overturn Roe v. Wade, or simply allow the Mississippi law 50 weeks ago forward, signaling that they`re open to other states that want to restrict, even if not completely ban abortions going forward.

There has been an effort over years to build a court system, to put more conservatives on the bench through Mitch McConnell`s efforts. He obviously worked in tandem with Donald Trump. One of the few things, the two of them really worked well together on was putting conservatives in district courts, in circuit courts, and three seats on the Supreme Court.

Mitch McConnell, of course, was the one who held open that seat that Antonin Scalia vacated when he passed away in 2016, rather than let President Obama fill it in the final year of his presidency, arguing that they should wait until the election. But as a result of that, that seat went to Neil Gorsuch. And if Neil Gorsuch as a more conservative judge, ends up voting to over to uphold the Mississippi rule here or even overturn Roe v. Wade. That`s a startlingly different result than you probably would have had with Merrick Garland, who, of course, was President Obama`s choice for that seat.

If this is six, three takes, it may not make that big of a difference in that one seat, but it`s certainly, as you say, the culmination of a half century of work on the part of conservatives to get to this point where they could overturn or at least, you know, take out a lot of the fundamental tenets of Roe v. Wade.

WILLIAMS: Sam Stein, because so many of these nine justices are at time so nakedly political, I feel less gross asking a nakedly political question. And that is, this we heard the phrase over and over today, a lot of it on social media elections have consequences. Will the Democrats be able to convert this?

SAM STEIN, POLITICO WHITE HOUSE EDITOR: That`s a great question. The conventional wisdom would say, yes. The country, if you look at public opinion polls, still, by and large, supports the right to choose about whether or not you want to have an abortion, usually around a 60/40 percentage.

But you know, you can`t just judge things in that type of vacuum. What we`ve seen time and again, is that conservatives get incredibly more passionate about these types of fights than their liberal counterparts. We also have seen a change in sort of the voting dynamics in this country where what was sort of traditionally suburban women who were Republican voters have already drifted to the Democratic Party. Those are the types of people that would have had a backlash against Republican politicians than a court if they had overturned Roe v. Wade. Already, they are in the Democratic camp. So, I`m not totally convinced that this will rebound to the Democratic favor, we`d have to see, you know, both whether this is eclipsed by other issues like COVID, and the economy entering into the midterms. And of course, we have the decision, it`s up.

WILLIAMS: Barb, I never could have dreamed a switch in topic to 1/6 would be preferable subject but here we are. Let`s talk about Mr. Clark. They voted to hold him in contempt tonight, while also agreeing to bring him back and hear him out, I believe, on Saturday at a session where he may take the Fifth. Opinion seems split on whether this shows weakness or wisdom. Where do you come down?

MCQUADE: I think it`s wisdom, Brian, but you know, I think they have to proceed cautiously here. A Fifth Amendment privilege is a little different from the executive privilege that we saw with Steve Bannon. People have an absolute right under the Constitution to invoke the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

But there are certainly indications that Jeffrey Clark is kind of playing games here. As Chairman Bennie Thompson has pointed out, Jeffrey Clark did not assert the Fifth Amendment right back when he testified before the committee. He at least appeared for a deposition on November 5. And so, if this isn`t said simply a stall tactic, then I think this vote keeps the heat on him. It forces him to at least show up and go through question by question the issues on which he is going to plead the Fifth Amendment.

WILLIAMS: And Peter, back over to your bet, hard as it is to believe life in this White House and for this administration has changed once again in the past 24 to 48 hours with the arrival of this variant forcing the administration to scramble. It throws certainly a wrench in the national works when this nation has zero appetite for new restrictions?

[23:15:02]

BAKER: No, I think that`s exactly right obviously. President Biden came to office on the promise of getting a hold of this pandemic and getting us past it. Now, whether this Omicron variant is actually going to be as serious as some people fear, we don`t know yet. Obviously, it`s still a little early, there`s not enough data yet to tell us whether the current vaccines will manage to handle it, or whether or not this is something that`s going to require a whole new set of restrictions or responses, as you say. But if it does, it puts this White House once again, back in the position where it was months ago, trying to get hold the Delta variant, and make sure that people can, you know, be healthy, get vaccinated, find ways of avoiding that the changing nature of this pandemic, while not doing anything to hold back the economy that`s just begun to really take off again, after so many, you know, starts and fits. And I think that this for a White House is not what they want heading into the holiday season. We`ve already expecting a winter surge, even of regular COVID Omicron, just as one more, you know, uncertain factor on top of that.

WILLIAMS: Indeed. And Sam, speaking of uncertainty, the deadline for our government shutdown is roughly two days away. As a McConnell watcher, Sam, what`s your bet on McConnell? Does he do the right thing? Or does he joined the GOP nihilism caucus?

STEIN: I think they`ll have a very small shutdown, but to suspect that Joe Biden would sign a government funding bill and restricts his ability to fight the pandemic is ludicrous. Frankly, that won`t happen. And so, you know, this seems to me to be sort of traditional congressional theatrics to throw a stone saying, look, we`re going to stop all funding for the government unless you end these private mandates for vaccination. It`s hard to imagine that McConnell can wrangle 10 Republicans to eventually say, yes, we`ll allow this bill to go through.

WILLIAMS: So, Sam, backup just one second, a closing the seconds of this segment, you feel we will go to the brink and indeed, go officially to a shutdown period before pressure brings both sides together?

STEIN: It`s -- yeah, but I -- it`s possible they cut a deal before then. It`s not likely, but I would not be surprised, honestly, if we had a day or two of a government shutdown after which everyone comes to their senses.

WILLIAMS: Great. Thanks tonight to our starting line, Peter Baker, Barbara McQuade, Sam Stein. Thank you very much. I wish we had happier material to pass along.

Coming up, new, tougher travel restrictions just hours away. We`ll ask one of our leading physicians what more should be done to protect against COVID newest variant.

And later, the man who wants so badly to be Speaker struggling to keep his half of the House in order. While the other party works to avoid a government shutdown. Our political experts will zero in on the Republican dilemmas. All of it as the 11th Hour is just getting underway on this Wednesday night as a tree driven in from California lights up Capitol Hill.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:21:48]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. GRANT COLFAX, SAN FRANCISCO HEALTH DIRECTOR: We knew that Omicron was going to be here. We thought it would -- it was already here. We just haven`t detected it yet. So, this is cause for concern. But is also certainly not a cause for us to panic.

San Francisco is relatively well positioned to respond to variants. Our vaccine rate is high. More boosters are going to arms every day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: In a beautiful place where you can hold a news conference outdoors and December that was San Francisco`s Health Director with assurances today that the city is prepared for this new variant despite being the home to the only known so far U.S. patient.

But medical experts can see a lot is still unknown about the threat here. And to walk us through it all, we welcome back Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, an Infectious Disease Physician, Founding Director of Boston University`s Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Policy and Research.

Doctor, so glad to have you. And I`m afraid, I`m going to launch a very broad question your way, what questions do we still need answers to considering it is so young and the lifespan of this variant just emerging, there will surely be new cases in the United States?

DR. NAHID BHADELIA, INFECTIOUS DISEASES PHYSICIAN: So, Brian, and I should start by saying that we probably will hear about a few more cases over the next few days. But having said that, you know, our sequencing has gotten better compared to a year from now. So even if it`s here, it`s probably not at high rates yet.

So, what do we know, I think the biggest concern is how many mutations this variant has? And that combined with some really concerning epidemiology from South Africa, one of the countries that sort of really sounded the alarm were both the cases have been going up, but actually also they`re seeing about a 65% increase in hospitalizations in the last week or so.

Now, the question here is that, you know, are they just seeing that because South Africa is under vaccinated, only 30% of their population has gotten vaccinated. But there is concern looking at even in the data of the last couple of days, that`s the cases are going up that we may be looking at a more transmissible variant, however, until we see this variant, sort of do the same thing and other communities and other, you know, in other settings, other vaccination rates in other countries, we won`t really know for sure about its true transmissibility.

Over the next few weeks, Brian, I think what we`re going to learn, right, in the next couple of weeks, you`re going to learn a bit more about the laboratory results that tell us a bit more about the effectiveness of these vaccines. And I think most people in my field, feel that based on these mutations, you may see some decrease in infections. And what you`re likely to see is increase in -- decrease in protection against infections, but that protection is probably going to be linked to how many doses of vaccine you had. So, if you had three doses, you had your booster, you`re most likely to be protected. Having said that, everybody, I think most people agree that there might still be very good protection against severe disease in that setting.

WILLIAMS: I want to see if you agree or disagree with the following. These are the comments this morning on CNBC by former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who full disclosure, is a member of the Board of Pfizer.

[23:25:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: There`s a presumption that the growth in cases in South Africa is comprised of this Omicron variant. But the reality is that they were having a mini-Delta surge, we don`t know how brisk before this emerge. We don`t know whether or not the increased number of cases that they`re seeing is this new variant. Think of all the variants that have emerged in the vaccine still demonstrated efficacy is no reason to believe that we`re going to lose them against this one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: Doc, do you agree with the central point he`s making there?

BHADELIA: Yes, which is that we still don`t know a lot of others epidemiology, right? A lot of this is observation and gathering up that data. And really, it is seeing what Omicron does in other settings. One other further example I`ll give is that there have been other variants like the Delta variant that haven`t taken foothold, that we were really concerned about a lot of these mutations that could have decreased the effectiveness of vaccines. But it is something to keep watching. But I take that also, as a lesson to see, look, there are multiple states in our union that have less than 50% vaccination, you know, Alabama versus Virginia and Mississippi, when we`re looking at vulnerability in the potentially in the face of a more transmissible, you know, variant. The best thing that we can do, if we`re not panicking and getting ready, right, best thing that we can do is to make sure we get those rates up, and that we continue that vigilance going into this winter surge.

WILLIAMS: Does the variant mean we have to change our behavior or return to our prescribed behavior? And I`m asking in light of, what I`m assuming as your support for an extended mask mandate on public transportation in this country into the spring into next March? Is this a way of not putting something new on us, but extending getting us back into what we know to be best behavior?

BHADELIA: I think we have to realize that, you know, the end of the pandemic is not around the corner, you know, this -- but we always knew this. We knew that before Omicron, we knew that we were going into a winter surge. And even from that perspective, leaving the variant out, Brian, I think, you know, in many parts of this country we`re already seeing in winter surge, and that`s before full-on holiday travel case numbers start to go up again.

And so, from that perspective, I think requiring masks, you know, and I would encourage people to wear a good quality mask as they`re travelling, doing testing and getting, you know, vaccinating and getting boosted before holiday travel is a way that we can ensure that those protections are in place.

I think that what I would say is let`s not panic. Let`s be concerned and let`s go back to what we know protects us. And that`s doubling down on those things that keep us safe from both getting infected and passing that infection on to others.

WILLIAMS: Our medical guest again tonight has been Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, our thanks as always for taking our questions.

Another break for us and coming up whatever the justices say, about choice, about abortion, the political fallout will be immediate and immense in a country where choice has been the law of the land for half a century.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:31:48]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, (D) MISSOURI FORMER U.S. SENATOR: I was a pro-choice senator that won statewide elections time after time in this state. They are not going to accept the in vitro fertilization is illegal in Missouri, or the morning after pill or exceptions for rape and incest, which they did not put in the Missouri law that is going to be galvanizing to Democrats in this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: To that end, one of our next guests writes this, "If Roe is reversed, then the political cold war over abortion will flare immediately into a roaring blaze. As if our politics needed more heat."

Read the original:

Transcript: The 11th Hour with Brian Williams, 12/1/21 - MSNBC

The current Somerset House exhibition in London, Beano: The Art of Breaking the Rules, revels in the joyful impudence of the 83-year-old comic magazines characters. A tribute to the publications impact seems long overdue; as curator Andy Holden says: Beanos irreverent sensibility is something that appeals to you as a child, but also, for some, never leaves you.

The Beano plays an important role in childrens lives because, along with other Beano readers, you become part of a community, through the readers letters page, fan art and fan club.

Beanos longevity can be attributed to what educator Carol Tilley calls the participatory culture of comics and its diversity of characters.

Of all the Beanos characters, no one better exemplifies the essence of sheer impertinence and anarchic subversiveness - as represented in the exhibitions title - than Dennis the Menace himself.

Indeed, the 70-year-old character has helped maintain the Beano as a long-running publication. Dennis debuted in a black-and-white half-pager tucked inside the issue of March 17 1951. From that pivotal moment, growing demand for Denniss adventures led him to the colour back cover in 1954 and then to the cover replacing Biffo the Bear.

I first discovered Dennis when he was 20 years old, and I was all of eight. In December 1971, I was growing up in Quebec, Canada, and my UK grandparents sent me the 1972 Beano Book as a Christmas present. Dennis was introduced as a large red and black drawing that depicted him shaving his name into his dog Gnashers fur. As Beano characters often do, Dennis broke the fourth wall, gazing beyond the page. I immediately identified with this cheeky chap.

Journalist David Mapstone observes that, until recently, the UKs weekly printed comics, such as Beano and Dandy (among others), were a massive influence on the lives of children for decades and then they were gone. All apart from the best - the Beano - still read weekly by thousands.

Dennis the Menaces influence on culture in the past is undeniable, from raves to professional darts, to RuPauls Drag Race.

However, todays Dennis (formerly the Menace) appears more influenced by society rather than the other way around. For instance, he wears new trainers instead of old boots, and hes addicted to the internet rather than bent on disturbing lines of communication.

Read more: How Beano and Dandy artist Dudley D. Watkins made generations of comic fans roar with laughter

Those original themes of subversion appealed to young readers; Dennis would try to fight the law, but the law would generally win a timeless lesson that can almost be considered a sort of delinquent rite of passage. Denniss charm lay in being an anarchic figure who expressed others feelings of rebellion vicariously through him.

Cartoonist David Law was the artist behind the characters adventures from 1951 until 1970.

I dont think the two Dennis stories in my 1972 Beano Book were drawn by Law, but the team that took over from him when he died. Laws original Dennis the Menace, on the other hand, presented a comparatively raw, crude, and proto-punk aesthetic: irreverance, nihilism and amateurism.

There are visual links between this chaotic Dennis the Menace and the UKs Viz comic, which began as a do-it-yourself fanzine in 1979.

In researching this article, I rang up Viz co-editor Graham Dury and we talked about the influence that Beano, and Dennis the Menace specifically, had on the comics scene in the UK, and Viz in particular. Beano and Dandy were a major influence on the wonderfully rude and crude Viz, which even satirised some of its characters, Dury told me.

Denniss anarchist appeal is not what it used to be; in fact, he is not even featured on the cover of a recent issue of Beano (week of November 27 2021). He does appear in a two-page story, but he is an ally (rather than a menace) to his family, who all work together to escape to a world unspoiled by internet and mobile phones. Contrast this with Denniss first adventure in 1951, where we are introduced to a very different relationship: Dennis wants to be free to play on the grass and climb trees. Denniss dad, meanwhile, decides to control the cheeky chap by tying a dogs leash around his neck.

The art of breaking the rules is, apparently, knowing what the limits are.

Continue reading here:

Dennis the Menace lives on: the influence of this 70-year-old on everything from darts to raves - The Conversation UK

Reading Another Day in the Colony led me back to Jackie Huggins Sister Girl. Not just Jackie: I went back to Aileen Moreton-Robinson. I went back to Audre Lorde. I went back to bell hooks Talking Back and Feminist Theory. Thats the beauty of Chelsea Wategos debut: it puts us in dialogue with work and women weve known and loved for years. Or, if youre unfamiliar with them to paraphrase the great scholar Alanis Morissette women you ought to know.

Wategos background is in health. Her work is informed by bringing Black people back into the conversations where they have often been ignored Black women in particular.

Another Day in the Colony combines memoir, philosophy and analysis to tell us, quite simply: Fuck hope. This invocation is a critique of hope as complacency, the dream deferred.

What Watego seeks instead of hope is the emancipatory possibility of not giving a fuck. Some people may think that calls to retire hope for nihilism are irresponsible, she writes. But what is irresponsible is to require us to maintain the status quo of keeping Black bodies connected to life support machines theyve been deemed never capable of getting off.

White critics may dance around the fact that they know this book is not written for white people. But why bother? There is power in having non-white people as the assumed audience. There is power in talking to mob.

For First Nations, this discursive confidence is ordinarily considered impossible; as though the marginalised dont have the luxury of making assumptions. But if First Nations are sovereign if, as Dr Lilla Watson tells Watego in this book, we havent moved and therefore the violence we encounter for having held our ground is not of our making then shouldnt some assumptions be possible? And shouldnt one of those assumptions be that power and joy are possible now? Our existence and, by extension, the existence of joy are not marginal. Marginal to whom? Marginal to what?

The penultimate chapter, titled Fuck Hope, meditates on this question. It is a no-fucks-given laugh. As a critic my only response was to underline. I have nothing to add; its all true. Fuck hope, Watego says: why not? Hope, she writes, is something we can hold on to temporarily, a breath taken before diving: It does not give oxygen to your lungs, it just stops the water from entering. This murder is not a metaphor.

Divesting of hope does not mean giving up, Watego adds. It means accommodating the idea that, if joy and sovereignty do not exist right now, then they never did. But they did, and they still do. The force of this idea lies in how it gets beneath the skin. It speaks to us emotionally; we recognise its veracity in our bodies.

It is an idea Watego, quoting Paul Beatty, describes as: Unmitigated Blackness. The Tarneen Onus-Williams burn it down kind of Blackness. Beatty calls it a nihilism that makes life worth living. However, as Watego goes on to say: While there is something freeing about no longer giving a fuck, I dont think I necessarily found the freedom in it that was promised, because the strength of not giving a fuck typically feels most possible once theres nothing left to lose. Still, it is the closest thing to an embodied sovereignty that I have heard articulated.

The guiding idea behind white supremacy is that whiteness is neutral. That it has humanity, a humanity in which everyone else is lacking. Those not imbued with this humanity, this whiteness, are seen as requiring rectification or, as Watego puts it, paternal benevolence. The money allocated to First Nations portfolios is premised on colonial control, the fantasy that First Nations are, before anything else, a problem to be solved. It is a concept, Watego writes, informed by the same racialised ideologies that enable them to forget that where they came from is not the land in which we became human.

Two journeys, each separated from the other: a people who remain and a people who forgot and who go on forgetting their history in order to stake out a new one. Yet this history is never truly new. It is cultural amnesia; the white supremacist longing for a homeland that can never admit to all the homes it has left behind. The only home it knows how to inhabit are those belonging to others.

Watson, whom Watego mentions as one of her mentors in writing this book, might agree. Watego writes of Watsons appeal that we imagine a future as long as the past that is behind us. [T]he act of living demands of us a refusal, a refusal to accept their account of things and a refusal to let them rob us anymore of our joy, our life and our land.

She advised me, Watego adds later, that we were never to see justice, in that we will never have returned to us what they have taken. She then questioned me as to why I needed to win. Why was my being in the world predicated upon wresting something from the coloniser protagonist, knowing that it wouldnt restore us whole? She reminded me that our being on our terms is winning, of the everyday kind.

By the time I came to the end of this chapter with only a few pages of the book left I was shaking my head with appreciation. Reading Watego, I was reminded of how the Mohawk political scientist Taiaiake Alfred and the Anishinaabe feminist Leanne Betasamosake Simpson take a sceptical stance toward the idea of liberal evolution, or what Watego calls the 67 Referendum was a sign of progress kind of Blackness. They seek not inclusion in settler-colonial society, but flourishing; a self-determination based on loving and resisting as we have always done.

This is flourishing on our terms. No sanctions. No permissions. No slaves. No masters.

Another Day in the Colony by Chelsea Watego is out now through UQP

Here is the original post:

Another Day in the Colony by Chelsea Watego review a fierce manifesto for First Nations to flourish - The Guardian

Thanksgiving should be a simple holiday to celebrate. Its in the name, giving thanks. Amid the travel, grocery store scramble and clashing family politics, ideas of gratitude might easily be eclipsed. Even more so in an ongoing pandemic and when prices are so high and goods so limited that mac and cheese might replace our dinner turkey.

So, its worth a reminder, especially during a pandemic when youre exhausted with nothing left to give to dig deepand give thanks.

Not simply to endure another holiday. But for your sake and sanity.

Everyone has a mission in life. Finding it is tough. Mastering it is tougher. If, however, you want to master your mission, and improve your mental health, giving thanks gratitude is key.

Meaning in life facilitates well-being and impedes ill-being. Meaning via gratitude can help us get through and from the pandemic. Gratitude promotes meaning in life by facilitating mastering your mission and thriving.

First, it aids personal thriving by increasing happiness, life satisfaction, self-esteem and optimism. It also boosts our physical health. Helping us manage our mission instead of doctors appointments. Gratitude, thus, makes us resilient. It buffers us against burnout and COVID-19 fatigue. Providing the energy to hit the ground running toward our mission and not a wall.

Second, gratitude aids social thriving. It promotes relationship closeness, forgiveness and trust, as well as altruism, sympathy and the motivation to improve relationships. Being grateful, thus, helps us find and forge connection; its social crazy glue. Therefore, while COVID-19 may keep us apart, gratitude brings us together providing the love needed to flourish and the support needed to master our mission.

Finally, gratitude aids spiritual thriving. It promotes more time at religious services and in prayer, as well as a closeness to God and purpose and meaning in life. Because of its transcendent nature, gratitude connects us to humanity. It connects us to the galaxy. It connects us to God. Life absent these celestial connections is scary, stressful and confusing. We then drift. We then meander. We then slam the snooze button. Lacking the energy to rise in the morning is one thing. Lacking a reason is another.

Mastering our mission requires knowing and being grateful that were a piece in the cosmic puzzle. Although corner pieces are prized, every piece matters.

Of the dimensions to thrive personal, social and spiritual gratitude most strongly aids mastering our mission via spiritual thriving. Why? Because you shouldnt be reading this, and I shouldnt be writing it. Let me explain. Physician, Dr. Ali Binazir, calculated the odds of our existence. He concluded, It is the probability of 2 million people getting together each to play a game of dice with trillion-sided dice. They each roll the dice and they all come up with the exact same number. For example, 550,343,279,001. And you thought getting the first COVID-19 vaccine was hard!

Life, therefore, is a gift. Its unearned. Its undeserved. And it shouldve remained unknown. Yet, for us, it isnt. So, how do we explain the impossible odds of our existence? Random chance? Or Gods love? The answer determines our gratitude for life and, thus, our drive to thrive.

Think your life is accidental, and nihilism awaits. Be grateful for life your life and meaning awaits. So does happiness, love and mastering your mission.

Life is a loan from God. Lets repay it with interest.

Jeffrey J. Froh, Psy.D. is a writer and professor of psychology at Hofstra University. Hes the founder and past clinical director of the Positive Psychology Institute for Emerging Adults. His is the author of the new book, Thrive: 10 Commandments for 20-Somethings to Live the Best-Life-Possible.

Continue reading here:

How giving thanks fuels our drive to thrive | TheHill - The Hill

Keiji Nishitani died on this day, the 24th of November, in 1990.

If youre unfamiliar with him, and you are interested in Zen, I suggest you may want to learn more.

He was one of the principal figures in the establishment of the Kyoto School, which the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, tells us was a group of 20th century Japanese thinkers who developed original philosophies by creatively drawing on the intellectual and spiritual traditions of East Asia, those of Mahyna Buddhism in particular, as well as on the methods and content of Western philosophy. I would add about the Kyoto School it is of particular importance to those of us concerned with Zen as a living spiritual tradition.

Nishitani was born in a small town on the Japan Sea on the 27th of February, 1900. While brilliant he failed to win entrance to the prestigious Daiichi High School because of tuberculosis, the disease which killed his father when he was fourteen. At seventeen he retook the examinations, again proved to be brilliant, but also passed the physical examination.

In High School he became fascinated with Zen, principally through the writings of D.T. Suzuki. He also wandered from the curriculum reading Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Emerson, the Bible and a life of St Francis. He also found a book by Kitaro Nishida, a professor at the Kyoto University, and the founder of the Kyoto School, as noted above bringing Western philosophical disciplines to Buddhist and Zen studies. When he graduated he entered Kyoto University in order to study with Nishida.

Upon graduation he became a professor at Otani University in Kyoto, and then later, at Kyoto University. He also began Zen studies as a householder with Gyodo Furukawa at Engakuji. Then continued with Taiko Yamazaki at Shokokuji. He would continue with his Zen teacher for twenty-four years.

Obtaining a fellowship he spent for two years at the University of Freiburg where he studied with Martin Heidegger. There Nishitani became fascinated with Germanys mystical traditions, delving into Eckhardt as well as Nietzsche. He returned to Japan where he earned his doctorate.

At the end of the war he was deemed unsuitable for teaching by the occupation forces, having supported the war time government. A truth.During this time he intensified his Zen practice as well as turned to writing. It was also at this time he dove deeply into the questions of nihilism and a Zen response to it.

Five years later he was reinstated to his teaching post. At this time Nishitanis magnum opus, published in 1983 in English asReligion and Nothingness was published. In his retirement he accepted the position of chief editor of the Eastern Buddhist, a periodical founded by D.T. Suzuki, which became a fountain of insight into aspects of Buddhism and Zen from a scholarly perspective.

In this fruitful post-war period Nishitani became the generally recognized successor to Kitaro Nishida as leader of the Kyoto School.

James Heisig writes, As a person, Nishitani is remembered by those who knew him as magnanimous but possessed of an inner strength and an uncanny ability to strike at the heart of the matter in discussion. Ueda Shizuteru recalls after nearly forty-five years in his presence, It was almost as if he were breathing a different air from those around him. Muto Kazuo, known as one of the major disciples of Tanabe, called him the finest, most remarkable teacher I have ever encountered upon this earth.'

The unsigned article about him at Wikipedia notes In works such as Religion and Nothingness, Nishitani focuses on the Buddhist term nyat(emptiness/nothingness) and its relation to Western nihilism. To contrast with the Western idea of nihility as the absence of meaning Nishitanis nyat relates to the acceptance of anatta, one of the three Right Understandings in the Noble Eightfold Path and the rejection of the ego in order to recognize the Prattyasamutpda, to be one with everything.

Stating: All things that are in the world are linked together, one way or the other. Not a single thing comes into being without some relationship to every other thing.However, Nishitani always wrote and understood himself as a philosopher akin in spirit to Nishida insofar as the teacheralways bent upon fundamental problems of ordinary lifesought to revive a path of life walked already by ancient predecessors, most notably in the Zen tradition.

Link:

Keiji Nishitani, Zen's Philosopher of Nothingness | James Ford - Patheos

(RNS) In an unexpected reversal of policy, the Indian government announced Friday (Nov. 19) it would repeal agricultural reforms passed a year ago that triggered massive protests including one that drew some 250 million demonstrators and has been called the largest in human history.

For a year after the measures were passed in September 2020, farmers camped out in the streets of New Delhi, enduring a scorching summer, a bitterly cold winter, police brutality and a deadly pandemic. More than 700 died.

Given the cost, celebrating their victory is difficult. Those lost are exactly the kind of people we want walking in this world with us, showing us what it means to be kind and generous and wholehearted.

And the fight is not over. Those who understand why the farmers protested as well as those who engage in activism in any context know that moments like these can feel more like beginnings than ends.

RELATED: Bowing to protests, Indias Modi agrees to repeal farm laws

For one thing, the governments grain incentives, which left the country with large surpluses, still need to be remedied. While many of the farmers themselves supported reforms, the Modi regimes market-based changes and sudden evaporation of official oversight would have caused a price collapse, impoverishing whole rural regions.

So while repealing the governments inhumane reforms was a positive step, genuine reforms are needed to enhance Indian farmers lives. A culturewide shake-up is necessary to remove the shackles that Indias agricultural, economic and social infrastructure has put on the working class.

Few engaged in this fight, furthermore, expect that the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ended its campaign against marginalized communities, which has resulted in widespread human rights abuses. When Modi made the announcement last week, not so coincidentally timed to coincide with Guru Nanaks birth anniversary (many of the protesting farmers were Sikhs), I immediately began thinking about the governments machinations. What were they up to? Whats their endgame here?

Indian farmers participate in a tractor rally in a protest against new farm laws at Ghaziabad, on the outskirts of New Delhi, on Jan. 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)

This cynicism and doubt, I have come to realize, only serves those who would use it as a weakness. I have a responsibility to those who died and those who lived to feel something more generous: hope. In a world where change is slow and pushing for progress can feel futile, where injustice feels like the rule rather than the exception, theres something to be said for witnessing a barbaric power surrender to a group of nonviolent farmers.

Seeing the protesters resolve is indeed inspiring; seeing their ability to effect change should give us all hope. When it feels as if the political system, society at large or the universe itself is conspiring against us, its still worth trying, not just because its the right thing to do, but also because nothing is futile.

Its the tiny difference between impossibility and implausibility that can make all the difference in the world for us. With impossibility, we might fall into the trap of nihilism, which so many of us have felt the past few years: Nothing will change anyway, so whats the point?

The victory of the farmers protest forces us to reconsider. Its commitment demanded that intractable injustice give way to plausibility: Perhaps we can make the change we want to see, so lets give it our very best shot.

There are many lessons to take away from the farmers protest for organizing, for justice, for our individual happiness and more.

At a time when it feels like our world is moving toward authoritarianism rather than away from it, and when it feels like justice remains elusive, it can feel easy to sink into hopelessness.

We can find hope in the farmers protesting in India. The sheer scale of their movement reminds us that we are not alone and that there are millions among us who care about fairness and dignity for all. And lets not overlook what theyve been able to accomplish too, sticking with their convictions and risking their lives to ensure a better world for all of us.

This is why its so important for all of us to take a moment and celebrate in spite of the high costs and despite knowing how much more work we have ahead of us. Recognizing the magnitude of the moment instills in us hope, and hope is the fuel we all need to continue our fights for justice.

See original here:

Why the Indian farmers' protest victory is good for us all - Religion News Service

Hard-hitting, insightful and full of hyperbolic political tension, Window Shopping returns to YouTube this week with another inspiring challenge. The goal this week was to find examples of cars that, upon a redesign, practically destroyed that brand forever. Thats like, well, how the 58 Chevy was worse than the 57. Or how the 58 Thunderbird pretty much wiped away the awesome of the 57. But surprisingly, all five of this weeks august panelists picked vehicles of more recent vintage. Cars that suckedin the recent past.

Beaming in from Espaa is contributor Jonathan Ramsey whose choice hails from an entirely different hemisphere than the one hes in. Road & Tracks John Pearley Huffman hones in on a major mistake from a company that rarely makes mistakes. Senior editor Joey Capparella finds yet another silver (Actually, it's redEd.) Japanese car as his nominee. Second Sub-Assistant to the Plenary of Objective Testing K.C. Colwell picks out one of the great betrayals in the history ovals that are blue. And finally, theres our moderator, Poobah-elect Tony Quiroga who picks on a marginal car from a marginal manufacturer.

You know you have an hour to kill. So kill it with this excitingokay, exciting-ishadventure in arguing about things that dont matter. Because nihilism is a philosophical dead-end and Window Shopping is the antidote.

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Cars That Were Ruined by a Redesign: Window Shop with Car and Driver - Car and Driver

A

n A&R man once told me an interesting definition of artistic genius. A genius, the theory goes, is someone whose early work can only be fully understood in light of their later. Deciding to whom this applies in music is a fun brainteaser on hearing the theory, I could only, and semi-reluctantly, submit Damon Albarn.

Now, I hate to bandy about the g-word with regard to a band whove only made four albums, but I do think that IDLES might make a fit. A Bristol punk group whose latest full-length, CRAWLER, was released earlier this month, their music is heavy, propulsive but melodic, occasionally funny, often angry and sad those last two being my favourite musical characteristics. All this, and their songs are infectiously catchy too.

I first came across them, shamefully late, via their 2018 YouTube session for the Seattle radio station KEXP. (Incidentally, these sessions are worth following, as they are often excellent.) I was struck by the same things everyone else who encountered them was the urgency and commitment, the raw vocals and ominous heaviness, and by guitarist Mark Bowens slightly incongruous, 70s rock stylings. But mainly I was struck by how great a performance this was how it stood in such stark relief from the teeming multitude of run-of-the-mill rock bands.

I went to see them play live in Los Angeles the following year and loved them. On stage, vocalist Joe Talbot prowled and thrummed with the jittery energy of someone on the drugs hed once struggled with. An interloper on the stage was dragged off by security. Dont kick him out, Talbot said into the mic. He was just having fun And he might have some cocaine on him. He flashed a quick, mischievous grin. Only joking, he added. I am no longer a cocaine addict. Later, he ribbed Bowen for his on-stage enthusiasm and proggy spandex trousers: Alright, Mr Pink Floyd.

I began to be a fan, drawn in by the thunderous rhythm section, snarling guitars and personal lyrics, but a little less persuaded by the more didactic, social justice-themed moments. Amused, too: Imagine a young, Bristolian Henry Rollins bellowing at you about being more positive, and youve got the picture. As someone with the misfortune of being born at the fag end of Gen X, I prefer my punk a touch more nihilistic. But nihilism is not the spirit of this care-or-else age, as Talbot implies on CRAWLER: He says hes a nihilist, he spits on Stockholm Syndrome.

All four of IDLES albums are great, and whether or not this latest is their best (probably) isnt really the point. The point is that theyre evolving brilliantly. Whereas the early work harked back to Black Flag, CRAWLER shows the band mastering their sonic style to explore new forms. Urgent punk rock is still the backbone of the music, but here youll find shades of Martin Gore or Trent Reznors dark electronics, late 70s, icy gothic rock, and even dare I say it something close to a punk torch ballad.

Combined with this is the fact that on CRAWLERS, Talbots psychic pain is his dominant lyrical concern. This is an infinitely richer seam than the political stuff (almost always the case see PJ Harvey.) The electronic elements that some rock bands apply like a thin coat of paint to give the appearance of freshness (see The Nationals last album) here add whole new atmospheres and depths.

Best of all is Talbots growing confidence as a vocalist on CRAWLERS he really sings, expanding the emotional range of their music. This is exemplified by the soul-roar vocal of The Beachland Ballroom, which grows in intensity as the songs instrumental embers blaze into life. Without this confidence, IDLES wouldnt be able to produce this work. Life is beautiful, as Talbot sings on The End.

If I were to submit a corollary to the initial theory of genius, it would be this: Bands being able to make albums swiftly and regularly can also be a sign. Consider how many make one promising record, struggle to produce a slightly worse second, then either decline further or disband. I have often wondered why artists from the past The Beatles, Bowie were so much more productive than their modern equivalents. Bands that can make albums as good and as quickly as IDLES do are exceptional.

If you havent listened to them already, nows the time.

More here:

Why you need to listen to IDLES now - Evening Standard