Old age, degeneration and death is pretty much the way of all flesh. Impermanence is a feature of the universe, not a bug. Still it is depressing to witness someone’s mental decline, which is worse than watching them physically decline. Mr B Raman, once a somewhat sharp mind, is evidently losing his grip on reality.
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That question is the topic of an ongoing debate at the Economist.com. Pete Spence of the Adam Smith Institute says no, as one would have expected given his institutional affiliation. Similarly his opponent in the debate, Alan Davey, chief executive of the Arts Council England, quite understandably says yes. Mr Davey has to support the motion — otherwise he’d be arguing for the abolition of the Arts Council. I suppose it is easy for you to guess where I come down in this debate. I stand for freedom, and consequently stand against governments dictating to people.
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The Sanskrit word “niti” connotes politics, governance, economics and a whole bunch of other things. As in the case of all abstract nouns, it is hard to precisely translate into other languages. Anyway, today we launch a new initiative for transforming India — NitiCentral.com!! My use of the double exclamation marks — I am usually very sparing with the use of even single exclamation marks — should tell you that I am really thrilled about it. Go visit and lend your support to a site that promises to neutralize the leftist insanity with classical liberal right value-based sanity. Hey, I am associated with it. How can it not be insanely sane?

Happy Independence Day, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters. OK, now that we have got the pleasantries out of the way, let’s talk turkey. I really don’t mean to rain on anyone’s parade but it seems to me that reports of India’s independence are seriously exaggerated. Why so, you may ask. Because to me it does not appear that India’s much of an independent country. Independence, if the notion has any meaning, must mean freedom. Otherwise, it is a meaningless word bandied about by the ignorant self-deluded for comforting themselves in the face of bitter reality.
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Though not everyone, many people who are genuinely concerned about the state of the world bitch and moan (I use that phrase advisedly) about the deplorable news media. It is said that the Indian media — notable examples being NDTV, the Times of India, The Hindu but not restricted to them — really earn the distinction of being unprofessional, lazy, dishonest, opportunistic, shallow, callous, narrow-minded, myopic and bigoted. Futhermore, they appear to be generally stupid and yet they are quite successful in their evil intentions to misinform and mislead the public which of course is well-meaning, good-natured, broad-minded, generous and wise. What’s wrong with this picture? It just does not make sense.
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This is what happened in a little town in Wisconsin today morning around 10:30 (CDT). A man went to a gurudwara and shot some people there. The police arrived on the scene and killed the man. The media were naturally on top of it, reporting live as as the event was unfolding. The police instructed the TV channels to not show any live helicopter video footage to avoid revealing their tactical moves to the attacker(s). The TV channels complied and that was that. The twitter channels burst into frenzied activity over the incident. Naturally enough, many Indian twitterers noted how restrained the TV channels were and how quickly they followed the police’s request to avoid jeopardizing the law enforcement’s response to the killer(s). NDTV, tweeters said, should learn a lesson.
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