Supreme Court Makes Religious Exception to Health-Care Law
Winston was struck, as he had been struck before, by the tiredness of O’Brien’s face. It was strong and fleshy and brutal, it was full of intelligence and a sort of controlled passion before which he felt himself helpless; but it was tired. There were pouches under the eyes, the skin sagged from the cheekbones. O’Brien leaned over him, deliberately bringing the worn face nearer.
WASHINGTON----The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday in a 5-4 split said "closely held" companies can on religious grounds opt out of a federal health-care law requirement that companies provide contraception coverage to employees, carving another piece from President Barack Obama's signature domestic achievement.
"You are thinking," he said, "that my face is old and tired. You are thinking that I talk of power, and yet I am not even able to prevent the decay of my own body. Can you not understand, Winston, that the individual is only a cell? The weariness of the cell is the vigour of the organism. Do you die when you cut your fingernails?"
In a ruling by Justice Samuel Alito, the court's five conservative justices wrote that private companies, such as Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., can't be forced to provide contraceptive health services that violate their owner's religious beliefs.
He turned away from the bed and began strolling up and down again, one hand in his pocket.
The case was the first challenge to the Affordable Care Act to reach the Supreme Court since 2012, when the justices upheld most of the health-care overhaul against a constitutional challenge.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Sunday, June 29, 2014
June 29, 2014.
On the Go With Google Glass
"That was stupid, Winston, stupid!" he said. "You should know better than to say a thing like that."
WHAT'S THE MOST rewarding way to navigate a city: paging through a guidebook, thrusting your high-school Spanish at passersby or talking to your eyeglasses?
He pulled the lever back and continued:
It's not a joke question----not in the era of Google GOOGL +0.16% Glass. Technology has changed almost everything about how we travel. But Google seems to be hoping that Glass will be one of the biggest breakthroughs.
"Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?"
For those who haven't seen Glass yet, it's basically a smartphone you wear on your face----either on a thin, cyborg-y sort of headband or integrated into a pair of glasses. The screen is a small, clear cube that juts in front of one lens; the speaker transmits sound directly against your head. Glass has been available to the public on and off—right now you can buy them from Google or (for Diane von Furstenberg-designed frames) Net-A-Porter, but the official launch is several months away.
"That was stupid, Winston, stupid!" he said. "You should know better than to say a thing like that."
WHAT'S THE MOST rewarding way to navigate a city: paging through a guidebook, thrusting your high-school Spanish at passersby or talking to your eyeglasses?
He pulled the lever back and continued:
It's not a joke question----not in the era of Google GOOGL +0.16% Glass. Technology has changed almost everything about how we travel. But Google seems to be hoping that Glass will be one of the biggest breakthroughs.
"Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?"
For those who haven't seen Glass yet, it's basically a smartphone you wear on your face----either on a thin, cyborg-y sort of headband or integrated into a pair of glasses. The screen is a small, clear cube that juts in front of one lens; the speaker transmits sound directly against your head. Glass has been available to the public on and off—right now you can buy them from Google or (for Diane von Furstenberg-designed frames) Net-A-Porter, but the official launch is several months away.
Saturday, June 28, 2014
June 28, 2014.
Magnus Carlsen's Parents on Raising the World's Best Chess Player
Nevertheless Winston did not speak for another moment or two. A feeling of weariness had overwhelmed him. The faint, mad gleam of enthusiasm had come back into O’Brien’s face. He knew in advance what O’Brien would say. That the Party did not seek power for its own ends, but only for the good of the majority. That it sought power because men in the mass were frail, cowardly creatures who could not endure liberty or face the truth, and must be ruled over and systematically deceived by others who were stronger than themselves. That the choice for mankind lay between freedom and happiness, and that, for the great bulk of mankind, happiness was better. That the party was the eternal guardian of the weak, a dedicated sect doing evil that good might come, sacrificing its own happiness to that of others. The terrible thing, thought Winston, the terrible thing was that when O’Brien said this he would believe it. You could see it in his face. O’Brien knew everything. A thousand times better than Winston he knew what the world was really like, in what degradation the mass of human beings lived and by what lies and barbarities the Party kept them there. He had understood it all, weighed it all, and it made no difference: all was justified by the ultimate purpose. What can you do, thought Winston, against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?
HOW DO YOU SPOT a chess prodigy? Is there a moment----perhaps when he makes a boldly brilliant move out of nowhere or plasters his bedroom with pinups of Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov----when it all becomes clear?
"You are ruling over us for our own good," he said feebly. "You believe that human beings are not fit to govern themselves, and therefore---- ----"
Well, that wasn't quite how it happened for Henrik Carlsen and Sigrun Øen, parents of 23-year-old Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian who became a grandmaster at 13 and the youngest-ever world No. 1 at 19, and whose peak World Chess Federation rating (2,882) is the highest in history. Last November, Carlsen defeated Viswanathan Anand to become the World Chess Champion, a title he will defend against Anand later this year in a yet-to-be-decided location----possibly Norway.
He started and almost cried out. A pang of pain had shot through his body. O’Brien had pushed the lever of the dial up to thirty-five.
Carlsen's route to chess took a little longer than his subsequent stellar progression might suggest. Henrik, 52, a keen chess player himself, remembers introducing the game to Magnus and his older sister, Ellen, now 25, when his son was turning 5. But after a month or two, Henrik says, "I gave up, basically, in the sense that we continued to play chess occasionally, but I didn't have any ambitions." He knew that legendary players such as Capablanca and Kasparov had understood the game—he clicks his fingers—"just like that." Magnus and his sister, he says, "learned the rules quickly, and they could capture a piece, but to get two or more pieces working together, which is what chess is about, this spatial vision took a long time."
Nevertheless Winston did not speak for another moment or two. A feeling of weariness had overwhelmed him. The faint, mad gleam of enthusiasm had come back into O’Brien’s face. He knew in advance what O’Brien would say. That the Party did not seek power for its own ends, but only for the good of the majority. That it sought power because men in the mass were frail, cowardly creatures who could not endure liberty or face the truth, and must be ruled over and systematically deceived by others who were stronger than themselves. That the choice for mankind lay between freedom and happiness, and that, for the great bulk of mankind, happiness was better. That the party was the eternal guardian of the weak, a dedicated sect doing evil that good might come, sacrificing its own happiness to that of others. The terrible thing, thought Winston, the terrible thing was that when O’Brien said this he would believe it. You could see it in his face. O’Brien knew everything. A thousand times better than Winston he knew what the world was really like, in what degradation the mass of human beings lived and by what lies and barbarities the Party kept them there. He had understood it all, weighed it all, and it made no difference: all was justified by the ultimate purpose. What can you do, thought Winston, against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?
HOW DO YOU SPOT a chess prodigy? Is there a moment----perhaps when he makes a boldly brilliant move out of nowhere or plasters his bedroom with pinups of Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov----when it all becomes clear?
"You are ruling over us for our own good," he said feebly. "You believe that human beings are not fit to govern themselves, and therefore---- ----"
Well, that wasn't quite how it happened for Henrik Carlsen and Sigrun Øen, parents of 23-year-old Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian who became a grandmaster at 13 and the youngest-ever world No. 1 at 19, and whose peak World Chess Federation rating (2,882) is the highest in history. Last November, Carlsen defeated Viswanathan Anand to become the World Chess Champion, a title he will defend against Anand later this year in a yet-to-be-decided location----possibly Norway.
He started and almost cried out. A pang of pain had shot through his body. O’Brien had pushed the lever of the dial up to thirty-five.
Carlsen's route to chess took a little longer than his subsequent stellar progression might suggest. Henrik, 52, a keen chess player himself, remembers introducing the game to Magnus and his older sister, Ellen, now 25, when his son was turning 5. But after a month or two, Henrik says, "I gave up, basically, in the sense that we continued to play chess occasionally, but I didn't have any ambitions." He knew that legendary players such as Capablanca and Kasparov had understood the game—he clicks his fingers—"just like that." Magnus and his sister, he says, "learned the rules quickly, and they could capture a piece, but to get two or more pieces working together, which is what chess is about, this spatial vision took a long time."
Friday, June 27, 2014
June 27, 2014.
Iraq's Christian Minority Feels Militant Threat
"Is it true, what it says?"
BAGHDAD----Surrounded by a blast wall topped with razor-sharp concertina wire, Our Lady of Salvation Church in downtown Baghdad resembles a fortress more than a sanctuary. Despite the fortifications, however, those who worship there are feeling more vulnerable than ever.
"As description, yes. The programme it sets forth is nonsense. The secret accumulation of knowledge----a gradual spread of enlightenment----ultimately a proletarian rebellion----the overthrow of the Party. You foresaw yourself that that was what it would say. It is all nonsense. The proletarians will never revolt, not in a thousand years or a million. They cannot. I do not have to tell you the reason: you know it already. If you have ever cherished any dreams of violent insurrection, you must abandon them. There is no way in which the Party can be overthrown. The rule of the Party is for ever. Make that the starting-point of your thoughts."
An appeal for help in guarding the Syriac Catholic Church this month brought no volunteers. A ragtag trio of armed men protects the churchyard. At Mass, guards patted down worshipers and checked their belongings for concealed weapons and explosives. Only a few dozen people occupied the pews, the wan echo of their voices lost in the vast nave where hundreds used to worship each week.
He came closer to the bed. "For ever!" he repeated. "And now let us get back to the question of “how” and “why”. You understand well enough HOW the Party maintains itself in power. Now tell me WHY we cling to power. What is our motive? Why should we want power? Go on, speak," he added as Winston remained silent.
As Sunni militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, sweep through the country, the church's small congregation and makeshift defenders highlight the precarious condition of Iraq's Christian community. The community's ranks have shrunk by half in the past decade, as the devout flee the sectarian violence that has become a hallmark of post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.
"Is it true, what it says?"
BAGHDAD----Surrounded by a blast wall topped with razor-sharp concertina wire, Our Lady of Salvation Church in downtown Baghdad resembles a fortress more than a sanctuary. Despite the fortifications, however, those who worship there are feeling more vulnerable than ever.
"As description, yes. The programme it sets forth is nonsense. The secret accumulation of knowledge----a gradual spread of enlightenment----ultimately a proletarian rebellion----the overthrow of the Party. You foresaw yourself that that was what it would say. It is all nonsense. The proletarians will never revolt, not in a thousand years or a million. They cannot. I do not have to tell you the reason: you know it already. If you have ever cherished any dreams of violent insurrection, you must abandon them. There is no way in which the Party can be overthrown. The rule of the Party is for ever. Make that the starting-point of your thoughts."
An appeal for help in guarding the Syriac Catholic Church this month brought no volunteers. A ragtag trio of armed men protects the churchyard. At Mass, guards patted down worshipers and checked their belongings for concealed weapons and explosives. Only a few dozen people occupied the pews, the wan echo of their voices lost in the vast nave where hundreds used to worship each week.
He came closer to the bed. "For ever!" he repeated. "And now let us get back to the question of “how” and “why”. You understand well enough HOW the Party maintains itself in power. Now tell me WHY we cling to power. What is our motive? Why should we want power? Go on, speak," he added as Winston remained silent.
As Sunni militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, sweep through the country, the church's small congregation and makeshift defenders highlight the precarious condition of Iraq's Christian community. The community's ranks have shrunk by half in the past decade, as the devout flee the sectarian violence that has become a hallmark of post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
June 25, 2014.
GE's Alstom Deal Shattered France's Dream
"As you lie there," said O’Brien, "you have often wondered----you have even asked me — why the Ministry of Love should expend so much time and trouble on you. And when you were free you were puzzled by what was essentially the same question. You could grasp the mechanics of the Society you lived in, but not its underlying motives. Do you remember writing in your diary, “I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY”? It was when you thought about “why” that you doubted your own sanity. You have read THE BOOK, Goldstein’s book, or parts of it, at least. Did it tell you anything that you did not know already?"
In April, Alstom SA ALO.FR +0.71% Chief Executive Patrick Kron received a letter from German rival Siemens AG SIE.XE -0.93% touting a "unique opportunity." Siemens, the letter said, was ready to team up with Alstom and create "two strong European champions" in energy and transport, fulfilling a long-held dream of the French government.
"You have read it?" said Winston.
By the time Siemens acted, France's dream was already evaporating.
"I wrote it. That is to say, I collaborated in writing it. No book is produced individually, as you know."
General Electric Co. GE -0.60% was deep in negotiations that led to its conquest of the French engineering conglomerate's core assets, muscling Siemens out of the picture and ultimately crushing France's ambition of building new alliances with Europe's economic powerhouse, Germany, akin to aerospace titan Airbus Group EADSY +0.96% NV.
"As you lie there," said O’Brien, "you have often wondered----you have even asked me — why the Ministry of Love should expend so much time and trouble on you. And when you were free you were puzzled by what was essentially the same question. You could grasp the mechanics of the Society you lived in, but not its underlying motives. Do you remember writing in your diary, “I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY”? It was when you thought about “why” that you doubted your own sanity. You have read THE BOOK, Goldstein’s book, or parts of it, at least. Did it tell you anything that you did not know already?"
In April, Alstom SA ALO.FR +0.71% Chief Executive Patrick Kron received a letter from German rival Siemens AG SIE.XE -0.93% touting a "unique opportunity." Siemens, the letter said, was ready to team up with Alstom and create "two strong European champions" in energy and transport, fulfilling a long-held dream of the French government.
"You have read it?" said Winston.
By the time Siemens acted, France's dream was already evaporating.
"I wrote it. That is to say, I collaborated in writing it. No book is produced individually, as you know."
General Electric Co. GE -0.60% was deep in negotiations that led to its conquest of the French engineering conglomerate's core assets, muscling Siemens out of the picture and ultimately crushing France's ambition of building new alliances with Europe's economic powerhouse, Germany, akin to aerospace titan Airbus Group EADSY +0.96% NV.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
June 24, 2014.
The Problem With Portions
He raised a finger to the man in the white coat. Evidently the session was at an end. A needle jerked into Winston’s arm. He sank almost instantly into deep sleep.
Question: Which is healthier: the 100-calorie pack of Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies or the regular-size bag?
CHAPTER 3
"There are three stages in your reintegration," said O’Brien. "There is learning, there is understanding, and there is acceptance. It is time for you to enter upon the second stage."
Answer: It depends on how many bags you eat.
As always, Winston was lying flat on his back. But of late his bonds were looser. They still held him to the bed, but he could move his knees a little and could turn his head from side to side and raise his arms from the elbow. The dial, also, had grown to be less of a terror. He could evade its pangs if he was quick-witted enough: it was chiefly when he showed stupidity that O’Brien pulled the lever. Sometimes they got through a whole session without use of the dial. He could not remember how many sessions there had been. The whole process seemed to stretch out over a long, indefinite time ----weeks, possibly----and the intervals between the sessions might sometimes have been days, sometimes only an hour or two.
After years of ever-swelling portions, food-and-restaurant companies in the past decade have increasingly experimented with smaller plates and packages, targeting those consumers who now crave portion control in a nation long obsessed with getting more.
He raised a finger to the man in the white coat. Evidently the session was at an end. A needle jerked into Winston’s arm. He sank almost instantly into deep sleep.
Question: Which is healthier: the 100-calorie pack of Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies or the regular-size bag?
CHAPTER 3
"There are three stages in your reintegration," said O’Brien. "There is learning, there is understanding, and there is acceptance. It is time for you to enter upon the second stage."
Answer: It depends on how many bags you eat.
As always, Winston was lying flat on his back. But of late his bonds were looser. They still held him to the bed, but he could move his knees a little and could turn his head from side to side and raise his arms from the elbow. The dial, also, had grown to be less of a terror. He could evade its pangs if he was quick-witted enough: it was chiefly when he showed stupidity that O’Brien pulled the lever. Sometimes they got through a whole session without use of the dial. He could not remember how many sessions there had been. The whole process seemed to stretch out over a long, indefinite time ----weeks, possibly----and the intervals between the sessions might sometimes have been days, sometimes only an hour or two.
After years of ever-swelling portions, food-and-restaurant companies in the past decade have increasingly experimented with smaller plates and packages, targeting those consumers who now crave portion control in a nation long obsessed with getting more.
Sunday, June 22, 2014
June 22, 2014.
Inflation Is Back on Wall Street Agenda
"What is in Room 101?"
For years, critics have warned that the Federal Reserve’s easy-money policies would produce massive inflation. So far, they have been wrong.
The expression on O’Brien’s face did not change. He answered drily:
Now, however, inflation is showing signs of picking up again and Wall Street is debating what it means for investments.
"You know what is in Room 101, Winston. Everyone knows what is in Room 101."
If inflation returns to more normal levels and stays there, that could signal a stronger economy, which could be good for stocks. But an inflation uptick also could signal the end of the long bond rally that has kept bond prices up and yields down since the early 1980s. It would mean higher interest rates, which are bad for home buyers, businesses and holders of existing, low-yielding bonds.
"What is in Room 101?"
For years, critics have warned that the Federal Reserve’s easy-money policies would produce massive inflation. So far, they have been wrong.
The expression on O’Brien’s face did not change. He answered drily:
Now, however, inflation is showing signs of picking up again and Wall Street is debating what it means for investments.
"You know what is in Room 101, Winston. Everyone knows what is in Room 101."
If inflation returns to more normal levels and stays there, that could signal a stronger economy, which could be good for stocks. But an inflation uptick also could signal the end of the long bond rally that has kept bond prices up and yields down since the early 1980s. It would mean higher interest rates, which are bad for home buyers, businesses and holders of existing, low-yielding bonds.
Friday, June 20, 2014
June 20, 2014.
Offshore Accounts: What to Do Now
"Does the Brotherhood exist?"
The federal government's campaign to track down money held by U.S. taxpayers in foreign countries shifts into high gear July 1.
"That, Winston, you will never know. If we choose to set you free when we have finished with you, and if you live to be ninety years old, still you will never learn whether the answer to that question is Yes or No. As long as you live it will be an unsolved riddle in your mind."
That is when the main provisions of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, known as Fatca, come into force.
Winston lay silent. His breast rose and fell a little faster. He still had not asked the question that had come into his mind the first. He had got to ask it, and yet it was as though his tongue would not utter it. There was a trace of amusement in O’Brien’s face. Even his spectacles seemed to wear an ironical gleam. He knows, thought Winston suddenly, he knows what I am going to ask! At the thought the words burst out of him:
The law, which Congress passed in 2010, is pushing tens of thousands of foreign banks and other financial institutions to disclose information about U.S. customers. It will make life more complex and expensive for many U.S. taxpayers with financial ties abroad, affecting everything from retirement savings to investments to divorce settlements.
"Does the Brotherhood exist?"
The federal government's campaign to track down money held by U.S. taxpayers in foreign countries shifts into high gear July 1.
"That, Winston, you will never know. If we choose to set you free when we have finished with you, and if you live to be ninety years old, still you will never learn whether the answer to that question is Yes or No. As long as you live it will be an unsolved riddle in your mind."
That is when the main provisions of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, known as Fatca, come into force.
Winston lay silent. His breast rose and fell a little faster. He still had not asked the question that had come into his mind the first. He had got to ask it, and yet it was as though his tongue would not utter it. There was a trace of amusement in O’Brien’s face. Even his spectacles seemed to wear an ironical gleam. He knows, thought Winston suddenly, he knows what I am going to ask! At the thought the words burst out of him:
The law, which Congress passed in 2010, is pushing tens of thousands of foreign banks and other financial institutions to disclose information about U.S. customers. It will make life more complex and expensive for many U.S. taxpayers with financial ties abroad, affecting everything from retirement savings to investments to divorce settlements.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
June 19, 2014.
Premiums Rise at Big Insurers, Fall at Small Rivals Under Health Law
"It is of no importance. He exists."
Hundreds of thousands of consumers nationwide who bought insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act will face a choice this fall: swallow higher premiums to stay in their plan, or save money by switching.
"Will Big Brother ever die?"
That is the picture emerging from proposed 2015 insurance rates in the 10 states that have completed their filings, which stretch from Rhode Island to Washington state. In all but one of them, the largest health insurer in the state is proposing to increase premiums between 8.5% and 22.8% for next year, according to a Wall Street Journal review of the filings. That percentage represents the average rate increases for all individual health plans offered by that carrier.
"Of course not. How could he die? Next question."
At the same time, insurers with the smallest enrollments are proposing to cut rates so they can lure customers as the cheapest plans in their markets.
"It is of no importance. He exists."
Hundreds of thousands of consumers nationwide who bought insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act will face a choice this fall: swallow higher premiums to stay in their plan, or save money by switching.
"Will Big Brother ever die?"
That is the picture emerging from proposed 2015 insurance rates in the 10 states that have completed their filings, which stretch from Rhode Island to Washington state. In all but one of them, the largest health insurer in the state is proposing to increase premiums between 8.5% and 22.8% for next year, according to a Wall Street Journal review of the filings. That percentage represents the average rate increases for all individual health plans offered by that carrier.
"Of course not. How could he die? Next question."
At the same time, insurers with the smallest enrollments are proposing to cut rates so they can lure customers as the cheapest plans in their markets.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
June 18, 2014.
U.S. Patent Office Cancels Washington Redskins' Trademarks
"You do not exist," said O’Brien.
An appeal board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has canceled the trademark registrations of the Washington Redskins on the grounds that the team's controversial name is disparaging to Native Americans.
Once again the sense of helplessness assailed him. He knew, or he could imagine, the arguments which proved his own nonexistence; but they were nonsense, they were only a play on words. Did not the statement, ‘You do not exist’, contain a logical absurdity? But what use was it to say so? His mind shrivelled as he thought of the unanswerable, mad arguments with which O’Brien would demolish him.
The ruling on Wednesday could give ammunition to critics who say the word Redskins is a term that is offensive to Native Americans and have urged Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder to change it.
"I think I exist," he said wearily. "I am conscious of my own identity. I was born and I shall die. I have arms and legs. I occupy a particular point in space. No other solid object can occupy the same point simultaneously. In that sense, does Big Brother exist?"
The immediate legal impact of the ruling, which can be appealed to federal court, could be limited, trademark experts said.
"You do not exist," said O’Brien.
An appeal board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has canceled the trademark registrations of the Washington Redskins on the grounds that the team's controversial name is disparaging to Native Americans.
Once again the sense of helplessness assailed him. He knew, or he could imagine, the arguments which proved his own nonexistence; but they were nonsense, they were only a play on words. Did not the statement, ‘You do not exist’, contain a logical absurdity? But what use was it to say so? His mind shrivelled as he thought of the unanswerable, mad arguments with which O’Brien would demolish him.
The ruling on Wednesday could give ammunition to critics who say the word Redskins is a term that is offensive to Native Americans and have urged Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder to change it.
"I think I exist," he said wearily. "I am conscious of my own identity. I was born and I shall die. I have arms and legs. I occupy a particular point in space. No other solid object can occupy the same point simultaneously. In that sense, does Big Brother exist?"
The immediate legal impact of the ruling, which can be appealed to federal court, could be limited, trademark experts said.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
June 17, 2014.
Showdown for Surgical Tool
"Does Big Brother exist?"
Proponents of a surgical tool used for a common uterine procedure will argue at a hearing next month that the device's benefits----facilitating a less-invasive operation----make it too important to take it off the market.
"Of course he exists. The Party exists. Big Brother is the embodiment of the Party."
But opponents say the device's cancer-spreading risks make it too dangerous, especially for an elective procedure for which there are clear alternatives.
"Does he exist in the same way as I exist?"
The debate about the tool will come to a head at the Washington-area hearing, where a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel will weigh whether to ban the device----a drastic move the agency has made only once before.
"Does Big Brother exist?"
Proponents of a surgical tool used for a common uterine procedure will argue at a hearing next month that the device's benefits----facilitating a less-invasive operation----make it too important to take it off the market.
"Of course he exists. The Party exists. Big Brother is the embodiment of the Party."
But opponents say the device's cancer-spreading risks make it too dangerous, especially for an elective procedure for which there are clear alternatives.
"Does he exist in the same way as I exist?"
The debate about the tool will come to a head at the Washington-area hearing, where a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel will weigh whether to ban the device----a drastic move the agency has made only once before.
Monday, June 16, 2014
June 16, 2014.
Somali Militants Attack Kenyan Town
O’Brien smiled again. "She betrayed you, Winston. Immediately----unreservedly. I have seldom seen anyone come over to us so promptly. You would hardly recognize her if you saw her. All her rebelliousness, her deceit, her folly, her dirty-mindedness----everything has been burned out of her. It was a perfect conversion, a textbook case."
NAIROBI, Kenya----Gunmen attacked a town in a popular local tourist region along Kenya's Indian Ocean coast, killing an estimated 48 people, officials said Monday.
"You tortured her?"
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which occurred late Sunday in a region with a long history of tribal conflict.
O’Brien left this unanswered. "Next question," he said.
But Kenyan authorities immediately blamed al-Shabaab, a Somali militant group that is allied with al Qaeda and has claimed responsibility for scores of attacks in Kenya, including last year's four-day assault on a shopping mall in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
O’Brien smiled again. "She betrayed you, Winston. Immediately----unreservedly. I have seldom seen anyone come over to us so promptly. You would hardly recognize her if you saw her. All her rebelliousness, her deceit, her folly, her dirty-mindedness----everything has been burned out of her. It was a perfect conversion, a textbook case."
NAIROBI, Kenya----Gunmen attacked a town in a popular local tourist region along Kenya's Indian Ocean coast, killing an estimated 48 people, officials said Monday.
"You tortured her?"
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which occurred late Sunday in a region with a long history of tribal conflict.
O’Brien left this unanswered. "Next question," he said.
But Kenyan authorities immediately blamed al-Shabaab, a Somali militant group that is allied with al Qaeda and has claimed responsibility for scores of attacks in Kenya, including last year's four-day assault on a shopping mall in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
June 15, 2014.
Clinton Finds Hurdles on Book Tour
"Any question I like?’"
It was supposed to be an easy re-entry into the world of campaign-style politics, a book rollout that put Hillary Clinton in front of adoring crowds and handpicked interviewers from the national media.
"Anything." He saw that Winston’s eyes were upon the dial. "It is switched off. What is your first question?"
Yet Week One of Mrs. Clinton's book tour proved a tougher slog than the once-and-probably-future presidential candidate might have preferred. Mrs. Clinton looked unpolished in some of her appearances, critics said, fueling perceptions that she's out of practice after a six-year sabbatical from the rough-and-tumble of national politics.
"What have you done with Julia?" said Winston.
She sounded tone deaf when she talked about her family emerging from the White House in 2001 "dead broke," gliding over the reality that her husband possessed earning potential that no ordinary American could match.
"Any question I like?’"
It was supposed to be an easy re-entry into the world of campaign-style politics, a book rollout that put Hillary Clinton in front of adoring crowds and handpicked interviewers from the national media.
"Anything." He saw that Winston’s eyes were upon the dial. "It is switched off. What is your first question?"
Yet Week One of Mrs. Clinton's book tour proved a tougher slog than the once-and-probably-future presidential candidate might have preferred. Mrs. Clinton looked unpolished in some of her appearances, critics said, fueling perceptions that she's out of practice after a six-year sabbatical from the rough-and-tumble of national politics.
"What have you done with Julia?" said Winston.
She sounded tone deaf when she talked about her family emerging from the White House in 2001 "dead broke," gliding over the reality that her husband possessed earning potential that no ordinary American could match.
Saturday, June 14, 2014
June 14, 2014.
Thousands Heed Call to Arms in Iraq
"Yes," said Winston.
Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric issued a rare call to arms to defend against attacking Sunni insurgents, portending a wider sectarian conflict as thousands of young men heeded his words.
O’Brien stood up with a satisfied air. Over to his left Winston saw the man in the white coat break an ampoule and draw back the plunger of a syringe. O’Brien turned to Winston with a smile. In almost the old manner he resettled his spectacles on his nose.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who has millions of followers world-wide, called on all able men to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, an al Qaeda offshoot, whose lightning offensive across a large swath of western Iraq this past week sent tremors across the region.
"Do you remember writing in your diary," he said, "that it did not matter whether I was a friend or an enemy, since I was at least a person who understood you and could be talked to? You were right. I enjoy talking to you. Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you happen to be insane. Before we bring the session to an end you can ask me a few questions, if you choose."
"Given the current threat facing Iraq, defending the land, honor and holy places is a religious duty," said a statement from Ayatollah Sistani that was read by his representative at a Friday sermon in Karbala.
"Yes," said Winston.
Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric issued a rare call to arms to defend against attacking Sunni insurgents, portending a wider sectarian conflict as thousands of young men heeded his words.
O’Brien stood up with a satisfied air. Over to his left Winston saw the man in the white coat break an ampoule and draw back the plunger of a syringe. O’Brien turned to Winston with a smile. In almost the old manner he resettled his spectacles on his nose.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who has millions of followers world-wide, called on all able men to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, an al Qaeda offshoot, whose lightning offensive across a large swath of western Iraq this past week sent tremors across the region.
"Do you remember writing in your diary," he said, "that it did not matter whether I was a friend or an enemy, since I was at least a person who understood you and could be talked to? You were right. I enjoy talking to you. Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you happen to be insane. Before we bring the session to an end you can ask me a few questions, if you choose."
"Given the current threat facing Iraq, defending the land, honor and holy places is a religious duty," said a statement from Ayatollah Sistani that was read by his representative at a Friday sermon in Karbala.
Friday, June 13, 2014
June 13, 2014.
Obama to Review Options on Iraq, But Will Send No Troops
"Yes."
WASHINGTON----President Barack Obama Friday laid the groundwork for U.S. military action in Iraq, saying the crisis poses a threat to American national security interests—but cautioning that a possible strike isn't imminent.
And he did see them, for a fleeting instant, before the scenery of his mind changed. He saw five fingers, and there was no deformity. Then everything was normal again, and the old fear, the hatred, and the bewilderment came crowding back again. But there had been a moment----he did not know how long, thirty seconds, perhaps----of luminous certainty, when each new suggestion of O’Brien’s had filled up a patch of emptiness and become absolute truth, and when two and two could have been three as easily as five, if that were what was needed. It had faded but before O’Brien had dropped his hand; but though he could not recapture it, he could remember it, as one remembers a vivid experience at some period of one’s life when one was in effect a different person.
Mr. Obama said he would make a decision in coming days as he considers a range of military options in Iraq that are designed to slow the tide of Sunni militants, who have seized control of several major cities in recent days and are encroaching on Baghdad.
"You see now," said O’Brien, "that it is at any rate possible."
However, the president made clear that he isn't considering the deployment of U.S. ground troops, saying "we will not be sending U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq."
"Yes."
WASHINGTON----President Barack Obama Friday laid the groundwork for U.S. military action in Iraq, saying the crisis poses a threat to American national security interests—but cautioning that a possible strike isn't imminent.
And he did see them, for a fleeting instant, before the scenery of his mind changed. He saw five fingers, and there was no deformity. Then everything was normal again, and the old fear, the hatred, and the bewilderment came crowding back again. But there had been a moment----he did not know how long, thirty seconds, perhaps----of luminous certainty, when each new suggestion of O’Brien’s had filled up a patch of emptiness and become absolute truth, and when two and two could have been three as easily as five, if that were what was needed. It had faded but before O’Brien had dropped his hand; but though he could not recapture it, he could remember it, as one remembers a vivid experience at some period of one’s life when one was in effect a different person.
Mr. Obama said he would make a decision in coming days as he considers a range of military options in Iraq that are designed to slow the tide of Sunni militants, who have seized control of several major cities in recent days and are encroaching on Baghdad.
"You see now," said O’Brien, "that it is at any rate possible."
However, the president made clear that he isn't considering the deployment of U.S. ground troops, saying "we will not be sending U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq."
Thursday, June 12, 2014
June 12, 2014.
Iraq Girds to Defend Capital Baghdad
"Yes."
Iranian forces joined Iraq's battle against insurgents taking over a growing swath of the country as the Baghdad government girded to protect the capital and the U.S. weighed direct military assistance, including possible airstrikes.
O’Brien held up the fingers of his left hand, with the thumb concealed.
Iraq edged closer to all-out sectarian conflict as Kurdish forces took control of a provincial capital in the oil-rich north on Thursday and Sunni militants threatened to march on two cities revered by Shiite Muslims as well as the capital.
"There are five fingers there. Do you see five fingers?"
"What we have seen over the last couple of days indicates the degree to which Iraq is going to need more help----more help from us and more help from the international community," President Barack Obama said from the Oval Office. "My team is working around the clock to identify how we can provide the most effective assistance to them," he added. "I don't rule out anything."
"Yes."
Iranian forces joined Iraq's battle against insurgents taking over a growing swath of the country as the Baghdad government girded to protect the capital and the U.S. weighed direct military assistance, including possible airstrikes.
O’Brien held up the fingers of his left hand, with the thumb concealed.
Iraq edged closer to all-out sectarian conflict as Kurdish forces took control of a provincial capital in the oil-rich north on Thursday and Sunni militants threatened to march on two cities revered by Shiite Muslims as well as the capital.
"There are five fingers there. Do you see five fingers?"
"What we have seen over the last couple of days indicates the degree to which Iraq is going to need more help----more help from us and more help from the international community," President Barack Obama said from the Oval Office. "My team is working around the clock to identify how we can provide the most effective assistance to them," he added. "I don't rule out anything."
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
June 10, 2014.
Militants Overrun Government Headquarters in Large Iraq City
"Eleven years ago you created a legend about three men who had been condemned to death for treachery. You pretended that you had seen a piece of paper which proved them innocent. No such piece of paper ever existed. You invented it, and later you grew to believe in it. You remember now the very moment at which you first invented it. Do you remember that?"
BAGHDAD----Al Qaeda-inspired militants seized control of one of Iraq's largest cities on Tuesday in a brazen attack that underscored the weakness of the Baghdad government across vast swaths of the country.
"Yes."
Government forces fled the northern city of Mosul in disarray as hundreds of well-armed militants overran government buildings, television stations and military bases where U.S.-supplied heavy weaponry is stored.
"Just now I held up the fingers of my hand to you. You saw five fingers. Do you remember that?"
City residents said they were shocked at the speed of the rebel advance.
"Eleven years ago you created a legend about three men who had been condemned to death for treachery. You pretended that you had seen a piece of paper which proved them innocent. No such piece of paper ever existed. You invented it, and later you grew to believe in it. You remember now the very moment at which you first invented it. Do you remember that?"
BAGHDAD----Al Qaeda-inspired militants seized control of one of Iraq's largest cities on Tuesday in a brazen attack that underscored the weakness of the Baghdad government across vast swaths of the country.
"Yes."
Government forces fled the northern city of Mosul in disarray as hundreds of well-armed militants overran government buildings, television stations and military bases where U.S.-supplied heavy weaponry is stored.
"Just now I held up the fingers of my hand to you. You saw five fingers. Do you remember that?"
City residents said they were shocked at the speed of the rebel advance.
Monday, June 9, 2014
June 9, 2014.
Harry Reid Shapes Energy Regulator With an Eye to Nevada Industry
"Yes."
The nation's top energy regulator may soon get two new leaders who share at least one thing in common: the unrelenting attention of Sen. Harry Reid.
"Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. Since the beginning of your life, since the beginning of the Party, since the beginning of history, the war has continued without a break, always the same war. Do you remember that?"
As majority leader of the Senate, the Nevada Democrat is one of the most powerful people in Washington. Over the past year, he has on two occasions scotched the White House's pick of leader for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a low-profile agency that oversees the nation's electric grid, and he has successfully pushed for other preferred candidates.
"Yes."
His efforts will be tested as soon as this week when the Senate's energy committee votes on whether to confirm Norman Bay as FERC chairman and Cheryl LaFleur as a commissioner. Mr. Bay is a Reid-backed candidate. The senator blocked Ms. LaFleur from getting the top job, and he is blunt about his interest in shaping FERC.
"Yes."
The nation's top energy regulator may soon get two new leaders who share at least one thing in common: the unrelenting attention of Sen. Harry Reid.
"Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. Since the beginning of your life, since the beginning of the Party, since the beginning of history, the war has continued without a break, always the same war. Do you remember that?"
As majority leader of the Senate, the Nevada Democrat is one of the most powerful people in Washington. Over the past year, he has on two occasions scotched the White House's pick of leader for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a low-profile agency that oversees the nation's electric grid, and he has successfully pushed for other preferred candidates.
"Yes."
His efforts will be tested as soon as this week when the Senate's energy committee votes on whether to confirm Norman Bay as FERC chairman and Cheryl LaFleur as a commissioner. Mr. Bay is a Reid-backed candidate. The senator blocked Ms. LaFleur from getting the top job, and he is blunt about his interest in shaping FERC.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
June 8, 2014.
Fiercest Match of French Open Tennis Tournament? Raptor vs. Pigeon
Winston thought. He knew what was meant by Oceania and that he himself was a citizen of Oceania. He also remembered Eurasia and Eastasia; but who was at war with whom he did not know. In fact he had not been aware that there was any war.
PARIS----To prepare for the French Open, one of the biggest events of his professional year, 007 loads up on protein----raw pigeon, rabbit and pheasant. Then he sharpens his beak and claws on Italian marble.
"I don’t remember."
In the past two weeks, in the skies over Roland Garros, the site of the French Open, 007 has participated in one of the fiercest matches of the French Grand Slam tennis tournament: raptor versus pigeon.
"Oceania is at war with Eastasia. Do you remember that now?"
The falcon is one of six predatory birds hired by the French Tennis Federation to scare off pesky pigeons. "We choose the birds we think will be most successful and train them in sporting conditions," says Ludwig Verschatse, the falconer who brings his birds to Paris's courts once a year.
Winston thought. He knew what was meant by Oceania and that he himself was a citizen of Oceania. He also remembered Eurasia and Eastasia; but who was at war with whom he did not know. In fact he had not been aware that there was any war.
PARIS----To prepare for the French Open, one of the biggest events of his professional year, 007 loads up on protein----raw pigeon, rabbit and pheasant. Then he sharpens his beak and claws on Italian marble.
"I don’t remember."
In the past two weeks, in the skies over Roland Garros, the site of the French Open, 007 has participated in one of the fiercest matches of the French Grand Slam tennis tournament: raptor versus pigeon.
"Oceania is at war with Eastasia. Do you remember that now?"
The falcon is one of six predatory birds hired by the French Tennis Federation to scare off pesky pigeons. "We choose the birds we think will be most successful and train them in sporting conditions," says Ludwig Verschatse, the falconer who brings his birds to Paris's courts once a year.
Saturday, June 7, 2014
June 7, 2014.
At the 'End of History' Still Stands Democracy
"This time it will not hurt," he said. "Keep your eyes fixed on mine."
Twenty-five years ago, I wrote the essay "The End of History?" for a small journal called the National Interest. It was the spring of 1989, and for those of us who had been caught up in the big political and ideological debates of the Cold War, it was an incredible moment. The piece appeared a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, right about the time that pro-democracy protests were taking place in Beijing's Tiananmen Square and in the midst of a wave of democratic transitions in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
At this moment there was a devastating explosion, or what seemed like an explosion, though it was not certain whether there was any noise. There was undoubtedly a blinding flash of light. Winston was not hurt, only prostrated. Although he had already been lying on his back when the thing happened, he had a curious feeling that he had been knocked into that position. A terrific painless blow had flattened him out. Also something had happened inside his head. As his eyes regained their focus he remembered who he was, and where he was, and recognized the face that was gazing into his own; but somewhere or other there was a large patch of emptiness, as though a piece had been taken out of his brain.
I argued that History (in the grand philosophical sense) was turning out very differently from what thinkers on the left had imagined. The process of economic and political modernization was leading not to communism, as the Marxists had asserted and the Soviet Union had avowed, but to some form of liberal democracy and a market economy. History, I wrote, appeared to culminate in liberty: elected governments, individual rights, an economic system in which capital and labor circulated with relatively modest state oversight.
"It will not last," said O’Brien. "Look me in the eyes. What country is Oceania at war with?"
Looking back at that essay from the present moment, let's begin with an obvious point: The year 2014 feels very different from 1989.
"This time it will not hurt," he said. "Keep your eyes fixed on mine."
Twenty-five years ago, I wrote the essay "The End of History?" for a small journal called the National Interest. It was the spring of 1989, and for those of us who had been caught up in the big political and ideological debates of the Cold War, it was an incredible moment. The piece appeared a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, right about the time that pro-democracy protests were taking place in Beijing's Tiananmen Square and in the midst of a wave of democratic transitions in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
At this moment there was a devastating explosion, or what seemed like an explosion, though it was not certain whether there was any noise. There was undoubtedly a blinding flash of light. Winston was not hurt, only prostrated. Although he had already been lying on his back when the thing happened, he had a curious feeling that he had been knocked into that position. A terrific painless blow had flattened him out. Also something had happened inside his head. As his eyes regained their focus he remembered who he was, and where he was, and recognized the face that was gazing into his own; but somewhere or other there was a large patch of emptiness, as though a piece had been taken out of his brain.
I argued that History (in the grand philosophical sense) was turning out very differently from what thinkers on the left had imagined. The process of economic and political modernization was leading not to communism, as the Marxists had asserted and the Soviet Union had avowed, but to some form of liberal democracy and a market economy. History, I wrote, appeared to culminate in liberty: elected governments, individual rights, an economic system in which capital and labor circulated with relatively modest state oversight.
"It will not last," said O’Brien. "Look me in the eyes. What country is Oceania at war with?"
Looking back at that essay from the present moment, let's begin with an obvious point: The year 2014 feels very different from 1989.
Friday, June 6, 2014
June 6, 2014.
Colombia's Bloody Gangs Color Vote
He paused and signed to the man in the white coat. Winston was aware of some heavy piece of apparatus being pushed into place behind his head. O’Brien had sat down beside the bed, so that his face was almost on a level with Winston’s.
BUENAVENTURA, Colombia----On a recent morning, a 20-year-old member of a gang here finished his breakfast of eggs and fried bananas, called his mother to say hello, and then set off to gun down two strangers.
"Three thousand," he said, speaking over Winston’s head to the man in the white coat.
"All the victims say, 'Please don't kill me,' and scream and cry," said Pedrito, an assassin for La Empresa, or The Company, a gang terrorizing this dilapidated Pacific port city. "But I simply do my job."
Two soft pads, which felt slightly moist, clamped themselves against Winston’s temples. He quailed. There was pain coming, a new kind of pain. O’Brien laid a hand reassuringly, almost kindly, on his.
The grisly work of such young assassins and the numbing violence here has helped fuel doubts that peace negotiations between President Juan Manuel Santos and a Marxist guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, will end warfare in the country.
He paused and signed to the man in the white coat. Winston was aware of some heavy piece of apparatus being pushed into place behind his head. O’Brien had sat down beside the bed, so that his face was almost on a level with Winston’s.
BUENAVENTURA, Colombia----On a recent morning, a 20-year-old member of a gang here finished his breakfast of eggs and fried bananas, called his mother to say hello, and then set off to gun down two strangers.
"Three thousand," he said, speaking over Winston’s head to the man in the white coat.
"All the victims say, 'Please don't kill me,' and scream and cry," said Pedrito, an assassin for La Empresa, or The Company, a gang terrorizing this dilapidated Pacific port city. "But I simply do my job."
Two soft pads, which felt slightly moist, clamped themselves against Winston’s temples. He quailed. There was pain coming, a new kind of pain. O’Brien laid a hand reassuringly, almost kindly, on his.
The grisly work of such young assassins and the numbing violence here has helped fuel doubts that peace negotiations between President Juan Manuel Santos and a Marxist guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, will end warfare in the country.
Thursday, June 5, 2014
June 5, 2014.
ECB Unveils Rate Cuts, Lending Package
O’Brien smiled slightly. "You are a flaw in the pattern, Winston. You are a stain that must be wiped out. Did I not tell you just now that we are different from the persecutors of the past? We are not content with negative obedience, nor even with the most abject submission. When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us: so long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him; we bring him over to our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul. We make him one of ourselves before we kill him. It is intolerable to us that an erroneous thought should exist anywhere in the world, however secret and powerless it may be. Even in the instant of death we cannot permit any deviation. In the old days the heretic walked to the stake still a heretic, proclaiming his heresy, exulting in it. Even the victim of the Russian purges could carry rebellion locked up in his skull as he walked down the passage waiting for the bullet. But we make the brain perfect before we blow it out. The command of the old despotisms was 'Thou shalt not.' The command of the totalitarians was 'Thou shalt.' Our command is 'THOU ART.' No one whom we bring to this place ever stands out against us. Everyone is washed clean. Even those three miserable traitors in whose innocence you once believed----Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford----in the end we broke them down. I took part in their interrogation myself. I saw them gradually worn down, whimpering, grovelling, weeping----and in the end it was not with pain or fear, only with penitence. By the time we had finished with them they were only the shells of men. There was nothing left in them except sorrow for what they had done, and love of Big Brother. It was touching to see how they loved him. They begged to be shot quickly, so that they could die while their minds were still clean."
FRANKFURT----The European Central Bank reduced interest rates and announced a series of other measures designed to boost bank lending Thursday as officials scramble to keep ultralow inflation from becoming embedded and derailing the euro zone's fragile recovery.
His voice had grown almost dreamy. The exaltation, the lunatic enthusiasm, was still in his face. He is not pretending, thought Winston, he is not a hypocrite, he believes every word he says. What most oppressed him was the consciousness of his own intellectual inferiority. He watched the heavy yet graceful form strolling to and fro, in and out of the range of his vision. O’Brien was a being in all ways larger than himself. There was no idea that he had ever had, or could have, that O’Brien had not long ago known, examined, and rejected. His mind CONTAINED Winston’s mind. But in that case how could it be true that O’Brien was mad? It must be he, Winston, who was mad. O’Brien halted and looked down at him. His voice had grown stern again.
ECB President Mario Draghi said he and his colleagues were prepared to take further unconventional measures should that combination of rate cuts and cheap funding for banks prove inadequate.
"Do not imagine that you will save yourself, Winston, however completely you surrender to us. No one who has once gone astray is ever spared. And even if we chose to let you live out the natural term of your life, still you would never escape from us. What happens to you here is for ever. Understand that in advance. We shall crush you down to the point from which there is no coming back. Things will happen to you from which you could not recover, if you lived a thousand years. Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves."
"We think it is a significant package," he said at a news conference. "Are we finished? The answer is no. If need be, within our mandate, we aren't finished here."
O’Brien smiled slightly. "You are a flaw in the pattern, Winston. You are a stain that must be wiped out. Did I not tell you just now that we are different from the persecutors of the past? We are not content with negative obedience, nor even with the most abject submission. When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us: so long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him; we bring him over to our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul. We make him one of ourselves before we kill him. It is intolerable to us that an erroneous thought should exist anywhere in the world, however secret and powerless it may be. Even in the instant of death we cannot permit any deviation. In the old days the heretic walked to the stake still a heretic, proclaiming his heresy, exulting in it. Even the victim of the Russian purges could carry rebellion locked up in his skull as he walked down the passage waiting for the bullet. But we make the brain perfect before we blow it out. The command of the old despotisms was 'Thou shalt not.' The command of the totalitarians was 'Thou shalt.' Our command is 'THOU ART.' No one whom we bring to this place ever stands out against us. Everyone is washed clean. Even those three miserable traitors in whose innocence you once believed----Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford----in the end we broke them down. I took part in their interrogation myself. I saw them gradually worn down, whimpering, grovelling, weeping----and in the end it was not with pain or fear, only with penitence. By the time we had finished with them they were only the shells of men. There was nothing left in them except sorrow for what they had done, and love of Big Brother. It was touching to see how they loved him. They begged to be shot quickly, so that they could die while their minds were still clean."
FRANKFURT----The European Central Bank reduced interest rates and announced a series of other measures designed to boost bank lending Thursday as officials scramble to keep ultralow inflation from becoming embedded and derailing the euro zone's fragile recovery.
His voice had grown almost dreamy. The exaltation, the lunatic enthusiasm, was still in his face. He is not pretending, thought Winston, he is not a hypocrite, he believes every word he says. What most oppressed him was the consciousness of his own intellectual inferiority. He watched the heavy yet graceful form strolling to and fro, in and out of the range of his vision. O’Brien was a being in all ways larger than himself. There was no idea that he had ever had, or could have, that O’Brien had not long ago known, examined, and rejected. His mind CONTAINED Winston’s mind. But in that case how could it be true that O’Brien was mad? It must be he, Winston, who was mad. O’Brien halted and looked down at him. His voice had grown stern again.
ECB President Mario Draghi said he and his colleagues were prepared to take further unconventional measures should that combination of rate cuts and cheap funding for banks prove inadequate.
"Do not imagine that you will save yourself, Winston, however completely you surrender to us. No one who has once gone astray is ever spared. And even if we chose to let you live out the natural term of your life, still you would never escape from us. What happens to you here is for ever. Understand that in advance. We shall crush you down to the point from which there is no coming back. Things will happen to you from which you could not recover, if you lived a thousand years. Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves."
"We think it is a significant package," he said at a news conference. "Are we finished? The answer is no. If need be, within our mandate, we aren't finished here."
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
June 4, 2014.
Karachi Braces for Backlash After Arrest of London 'Godfather'
Then why bother to torture me? thought Winston, with a momentary bitterness. O’Brien checked his step as though Winston had uttered the thought aloud. His large ugly face came nearer, with the eyes a little narrowed.
KARACHI, Pakistan----For more than two decades, Altaf Hussain has effectively run Pakistan's largest city from London, where he lives in a luxury home in the upscale neighborhood of Mill Hill. His arrest this week by British police could lead to the unraveling of his political party and of a criminal empire that Karachi police officers say underpins his clout and wealth.
"You are thinking," he said, ‘that since we intend to destroy you utterly, so that nothing that you say or do can make the smallest difference----in that case, why do we go to the trouble of interrogating you first? That is what you were thinking, was it not?"
Mr. Hussain was arrested on suspicion of money laundering. He hasn't been charged with any crime and is currently in a London hospital because of ill health, according to his party.
"Yes," said Winston.
In Karachi, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement that Mr. Hussain founded and ran is virtually indistinguishable from the man at its helm. Giant portraits of him bedeck the Karachi neighborhoods the MQM controls.
Then why bother to torture me? thought Winston, with a momentary bitterness. O’Brien checked his step as though Winston had uttered the thought aloud. His large ugly face came nearer, with the eyes a little narrowed.
KARACHI, Pakistan----For more than two decades, Altaf Hussain has effectively run Pakistan's largest city from London, where he lives in a luxury home in the upscale neighborhood of Mill Hill. His arrest this week by British police could lead to the unraveling of his political party and of a criminal empire that Karachi police officers say underpins his clout and wealth.
"You are thinking," he said, ‘that since we intend to destroy you utterly, so that nothing that you say or do can make the smallest difference----in that case, why do we go to the trouble of interrogating you first? That is what you were thinking, was it not?"
Mr. Hussain was arrested on suspicion of money laundering. He hasn't been charged with any crime and is currently in a London hospital because of ill health, according to his party.
"Yes," said Winston.
In Karachi, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement that Mr. Hussain founded and ran is virtually indistinguishable from the man at its helm. Giant portraits of him bedeck the Karachi neighborhoods the MQM controls.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
June 3, 2014.
White House Considering Cleveland Clinic Head for VA Secretary Post
"No!" exclaimed O’Brien. His voice had changed extraordinarily, and his face had suddenly become both stern and animated. "No! Not merely to extract your confession, not to punish you. Shall I tell you why we have brought you here? To cure you! To make you sane! Will you understand, Winston, that no one whom we bring to this place ever leaves our hands uncured? We are not interested in those stupid crimes that you have committed. The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them. Do you understand what I mean by that?"
The White House is considering nominating the chief executive of the Cleveland Clinic to be the next secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, people familiar with the matter said.
He was bending over Winston. His face looked enormous because of its nearness, and hideously ugly because it was seen from below. Moreover it was filled with a sort of exaltation, a lunatic intensity. Again Winston’s heart shrank. If it had been possible he would have cowered deeper into the bed. He felt certain that O’Brien was about to twist the dial out of sheer wantonness. At this moment, however, O’Brien turned away. He took a pace or two up and down. Then he continued less vehemently:
Delos "Toby" Cosgrove has led one of the nation's most prestigious hospital systems and is a decorated Vietnam veteran. Three people familiar with the matter said the White House has approached Dr. Cosgrove about the position, and two of them said Dr. Cosgrove is seriously considering pursuing the position.
"The first thing for you to understand is that in this place there are no martyrdoms. You have read of the religious persecutions of the past. In the Middle Ages there was the Inquisition. It was a failure. It set out to eradicate heresy, and ended by perpetuating it. For every heretic it burned at the stake, thousands of others rose up. Why was that? Because the Inquisition killed its enemies in the open, and killed them while they were still unrepentant: in fact, it killed them because they were unrepentant. Men were dying because they would not abandon their true beliefs. Naturally all the glory belonged to the victim and all the shame to the Inquisitor who burned him. Later, in the twentieth century, there were the totalitarians, as they were called. There were the German Nazis and the Russian Communists. The Russians persecuted heresy more cruelly than the Inquisition had done. And they imagined that they had learned from the mistakes of the past; they knew, at any rate, that one must not make martyrs. Before they exposed their victims to public trial, they deliberately set themselves to destroy their dignity. They wore them down by torture and solitude until they were despicable, cringing wretches, confessing whatever was put into their mouths, covering themselves with abuse, accusing and sheltering behind one another, whimpering for mercy. And yet after only a few years the same thing had happened over again. The dead men had become martyrs and their degradation was forgotten. Once again, why was it? In the first place, because the confessions that they had made were obviously extorted and untrue. We do not make mistakes of that kind. All the confessions that are uttered here are true. We make them true. And above all we do not allow the dead to rise up against us. You must stop imagining that posterity will vindicate you, Winston. Posterity will never hear of you. You will be lifted clean out from the stream of history. We shall turn you into gas and pour you into the stratosphere. Nothing will remain of you, not a name in a register, not a memory in a living brain. You will be annihilated in the past as well as in the future. You will never have existed."
One source familiar with the matter believed Dr. Cosgrove was the main person under consideration, but said the decision wasn't final.
"No!" exclaimed O’Brien. His voice had changed extraordinarily, and his face had suddenly become both stern and animated. "No! Not merely to extract your confession, not to punish you. Shall I tell you why we have brought you here? To cure you! To make you sane! Will you understand, Winston, that no one whom we bring to this place ever leaves our hands uncured? We are not interested in those stupid crimes that you have committed. The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them. Do you understand what I mean by that?"
The White House is considering nominating the chief executive of the Cleveland Clinic to be the next secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, people familiar with the matter said.
He was bending over Winston. His face looked enormous because of its nearness, and hideously ugly because it was seen from below. Moreover it was filled with a sort of exaltation, a lunatic intensity. Again Winston’s heart shrank. If it had been possible he would have cowered deeper into the bed. He felt certain that O’Brien was about to twist the dial out of sheer wantonness. At this moment, however, O’Brien turned away. He took a pace or two up and down. Then he continued less vehemently:
Delos "Toby" Cosgrove has led one of the nation's most prestigious hospital systems and is a decorated Vietnam veteran. Three people familiar with the matter said the White House has approached Dr. Cosgrove about the position, and two of them said Dr. Cosgrove is seriously considering pursuing the position.
"The first thing for you to understand is that in this place there are no martyrdoms. You have read of the religious persecutions of the past. In the Middle Ages there was the Inquisition. It was a failure. It set out to eradicate heresy, and ended by perpetuating it. For every heretic it burned at the stake, thousands of others rose up. Why was that? Because the Inquisition killed its enemies in the open, and killed them while they were still unrepentant: in fact, it killed them because they were unrepentant. Men were dying because they would not abandon their true beliefs. Naturally all the glory belonged to the victim and all the shame to the Inquisitor who burned him. Later, in the twentieth century, there were the totalitarians, as they were called. There were the German Nazis and the Russian Communists. The Russians persecuted heresy more cruelly than the Inquisition had done. And they imagined that they had learned from the mistakes of the past; they knew, at any rate, that one must not make martyrs. Before they exposed their victims to public trial, they deliberately set themselves to destroy their dignity. They wore them down by torture and solitude until they were despicable, cringing wretches, confessing whatever was put into their mouths, covering themselves with abuse, accusing and sheltering behind one another, whimpering for mercy. And yet after only a few years the same thing had happened over again. The dead men had become martyrs and their degradation was forgotten. Once again, why was it? In the first place, because the confessions that they had made were obviously extorted and untrue. We do not make mistakes of that kind. All the confessions that are uttered here are true. We make them true. And above all we do not allow the dead to rise up against us. You must stop imagining that posterity will vindicate you, Winston. Posterity will never hear of you. You will be lifted clean out from the stream of history. We shall turn you into gas and pour you into the stratosphere. Nothing will remain of you, not a name in a register, not a memory in a living brain. You will be annihilated in the past as well as in the future. You will never have existed."
One source familiar with the matter believed Dr. Cosgrove was the main person under consideration, but said the decision wasn't final.
Monday, June 2, 2014
June 2, 2014.
Ticketmaster Agrees to Tentative Settlement
"To make them confess."
Live Nation Entertainment, LYV +0.13% Inc.'s Ticketmaster agreed to a tentative settlement in a more than decade-old class action that, if approved, would offer to issue roughly $400 million in credit to 50 million ticket buyers.
"No, that is not the reason. Try again."
The 2003 lawsuit alleged that Ticketmaster, then owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, IACI +0.14% misled consumers by charging "order processing fees" and "UPS delivery fees" that the company didn't spend entirely on delivery or order processing.
"To punish them."
The fee labels were misleading, according to the suit, because the five ticket-buying plaintiffs were also charged separate "convenience fees" and "facility fees," both of which they understood to be profit centers for Ticketmaster. Had the plaintiffs known that the order-processing and delivery fees were also "secret profit generators" for the company, they wouldn't necessarily have paid the charges, the suit said.
"To make them confess."
Live Nation Entertainment, LYV +0.13% Inc.'s Ticketmaster agreed to a tentative settlement in a more than decade-old class action that, if approved, would offer to issue roughly $400 million in credit to 50 million ticket buyers.
"No, that is not the reason. Try again."
The 2003 lawsuit alleged that Ticketmaster, then owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, IACI +0.14% misled consumers by charging "order processing fees" and "UPS delivery fees" that the company didn't spend entirely on delivery or order processing.
"To punish them."
The fee labels were misleading, according to the suit, because the five ticket-buying plaintiffs were also charged separate "convenience fees" and "facility fees," both of which they understood to be profit centers for Ticketmaster. Had the plaintiffs known that the order-processing and delivery fees were also "secret profit generators" for the company, they wouldn't necessarily have paid the charges, the suit said.
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