Justyna Zduńczyk, Wrocław, Poland.

As the year 2013 drew to an end, the BBC reported on the results of the WIN/Gallup International poll on the question: “Which country do you think is the greatest threat to peace in the world today?”

By contrast, the debate in American scholarly and media circles is about whether Iran can be contained, and whether the huge NSA surveillance system is needed to protect U.S. security.

N.C.

toormix, Barcelona, Spain.

The softest thing in the world dashes against and overcomes the hardest; that which has no (substantial) existence enters where there is no crevice. I know hereby what advantage belongs to doing nothing (with a purpose).

L.T.

Love Hate Affair, Austin, United States.

If you look back, say around the Enlightenment—that period and the early Romantic period—there were connections drawn.
And they’re not totally without basis. There’s some fundamental concept that grew out of early 17th century Enlightenment thought, about creativity being a core element of human nature.

N.C.

Alessandro Puccinelli, Lisbon, Portugal.

There is no time here to run through the shocking record, but there is little doubt that it strongly supports the lament of General Lee Butler, the last commander of the Strategic Air Command, which was armed with nuclear weapons.
In his words, we have so far survived the nuclear age “by some combination of skill, luck, and divine intervention, and I suspect the latter in greatest proportion.”

And we can hardly count on continued divine intervention as policymakers play roulette with the fate of the species in pursuit of the driving factors in policy formation.

N.C.

The knights disemboweled the wounded horses inside the Sanctuary, held an orgy with the prostitutes of the camp and then proclaimed on the Patriarch’s throne a lascivious woman who sang lewd songs.

Fontän – Early Morning (Version by Studio) – 2009
Cass McCombs – Opposite House – 2016
Poliça – Lately – 2016
Mop Mop – Adhara – 2016
Rostam – Gravity Don’t Pull Me – 2016
Felt – Evergreen Dazed – 2009
Vacationer – Gone – 2011
Apparat – Ash/Black Veil (Mokhov Remix) – 2013
Ed Harcourt – The World Is On Fire – 2016
Ratatat – Supreme – 2015
Cloud Boat – Lions on the Beach – 2011
Holly Miranda feat. Kyp Malone – Slow Burn Treason – 2010
The Flaming Lips feat. Tame Impala – Children of the Moon – 2013
Slime – My Company – 2015
Keaton Henson – Earnestly Yours (feat. Ren Ford) – 2014

David Drake, Norwich, United Kingdom.

For a century, the Zionist colonization of Palestine has proceeded primarily on the pragmatic principle of the quiet establishment of facts on the ground, which the world was to ultimately come to accept.
It has been a highly successful policy.

There is every reason to expect it to persist as long as the United States provides the necessary military, economic, diplomatic and ideological support.

N.C.