A corridor of power

The US Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York

I find the article interesting because it closely matches my conception of power. As a kid who crawl out of a hole in southern China to miraculously land in the heart of Texas, the pathways to power in the U.S. has always been nebulous to me. But I thought the nature of power worked the same way everywhere: one dispenses justice to build legitimacy, then uses legitimacy to build consensus, and finally uses consensus to effect change. It is interesting to see part of this principle at work at a the level of individuals.

The article describes the people and the institution behind one mechanism of justice and legitimacy in the U.S. It also describes the interplay of the institution with peers that exert power of a different nature: money. Many of this institution are often captured by the pull of other powers. Others have gone on instead to capture power itself.

Overall, the article paints a fascinating picture of those who serve power, and those who are served by it.

Children's books. French children's books.

I was going to write about a wedding scene in a movie I liked, but the embed option for the movie clip was disabled, so I guess I'll just have to blog about children's books.

Voilà

Two modern fairy tales

Tale 1
Tale 2

Each left her own world for his.

I'm upset

8:30 PM me: just found out x is getting married 

9:20 PM me: I wonder if she is happy 
but more to the point, I feel quite upset 

11:09 PM V: Why upset?

me: for her getting married, but not to me 

V: Why do you want to marry a girl you don't even know? 

11:34 PM me: Yes, you do have a point 
but I'm still upset

But that's a sadder story

"And the mystery knight should defeat all challengers and name the wolf maid the queen of love and beauty."  

"She was," said Meera. "But that's a sadder story."

Will we ever get a proper review of ASoIaF?

A promising review turned massive spoiler

Checking in

‘Who really spoke? Is it really he and not someone else? With what authenticity or originality? And what part of his deepest self did he express in his discourse?’