At Luckys bar on Meath Street in Dublins Liberties, Adam Fogarty, aka MathMan, is drinking an IPA called Hop-On with a picture of the Dart on the can. The rescued Metro Burger sign that used to hang from the now demolished Screen Cinema building takes up a corner of the smoking section.

His creative partner, the rapper Mango, arrivesand as Drexciya booms over the speakers, they leave the bar, walking around the corner to the Liberty Belle on Francis Street, stopping to gaze at something no longer there, the site of the demolished Tivoli Theatre/District 8 venue. Both men fall silent looking at the remnants of street art in the closed-off carpark. Like their parents before them, a new generation of Dubliners now trace the citys landscape in absentia, memories held in outlines of places no longer there. Pints of Guinness are placed on a barrel outside the pub, and the group know as Mango xMathMan begin to discuss their debut album, Casual Work.

The weight of Dublins shifting environment and economics is shouldered by many artists in the capital, yet while some seeking success tend to look outward, urban introspection and the specificity of place has yielded interesting results in recent years. Acts such as Fontaines DCand Kojaque have centred the city in their work, with both romanticism and resentment at play. Reclamation is another. Contemporary creative representations of the city have moved far beyond the tropes of Poolbeg prints, and seep into everything from skateboard culture, to hiphop, to apparel, to street art.

Its in this context that Casual Work arrives, 4 years in the making, a year-and-a-half after their EP Wheel Up. At times, Casual Work transmits the literal sound of the streets, the actual noise of the city. The first thing on the record is immediately Dublin, the sound of town breathing and seagulls screeching. Zero, zero : zero, zero, the album begins, a reset, Another day in the Dub.

What follows is the anthemic, questioning, sincere, and bittersweet Dublin ode, Deep Blue, featuring Lisa Hannigan. This earnest transmission of resilience and tenacity positions their art in opposition to external forces piloting the city, towards what, we dont know.

Ostensibly, Mango occupies three emotional spaces as a rapper. One is the hard-jaw-ism of an early track, Badman, which on this album, also extends to Chest Out and Mad Ting. This is the public Mango, the endlessly sociable crew leader, session ready, laden with confidence and swagger Fag and a stout, take after McGowan, he raps on Chest Out. The lyrical flip side is the private Mango, for whom the crowds and clinking of glasses fade away and the late night emotional interior is cracked open, unleashing a stream of self-doubt, insecurity, fear and hope. The third is both overarching and embedded, the part of identity that is utterly rooted in a sense of place, and contains the questions such an attachment raises, namely whether ones connection to Dublin is an anchor or a millstone?

MathMans primary accomplishment has been to capture the eclecticism of a particular kind of Dublin taste, and manage to contain all of its contradictions. Music in Dublin is not as segmented as seemingly disconnected waves of success are framed as. The underlying culture is revelling in a blend of everything everyone is doing and more across all artistic disciplines. The audience freely meanders through clashes of taste and genre, with so many tribes bumping off each other, and all ending up at the same session at the end of the night.

The common denominator is the lust for music as a therapeutic release, of which rave culture is such a integral part. The essence of rave underscores a good deal of MathMans productions, which often ignore the delineations of genre by embarking upon triple sonic entendres that incorporate nostalgia, esoteric winks, and the bald and bare forcefulness that encapsulates so much of contemporary music globally.

This is a melting pot first brewed on the sticky floors of teenage discos flavoured by the unmistakable scent of a malfunctioning smoke machine, brought into bigger clubs and on to larger stages, while maintaining the sense of bedroom studio graft. MathMans music is sedimentary, containing within it layers of time, the anthropological observations of what makes a city bop, and the memories of settings where a sound first connected; clubs, sheds, car parks, back seats, bedrooms, fields, tents, bars, basements, warehouses, studios, headphones.

Getting to this point was not easy. The group is independent; no industry management, no label, no booking agent. The highs of shows such as their buzzing Saturday night gig at Electric Picnic this year are accompanied by the lows of the financial reality of trying to make their art work (Mango still works in a shoe shop stock room). Cracks began to show, which, remarkably are exposed, not smoothed overon the album. Running through Casual Work is a narrative of creative tension and a friendship fracturing. Whats the craic bro, its me, an early interlude runs, MathMan leaving a voicemail on Mangos phone, Listen, I dont know whats going on with you at the moment, but theres something I need to tell you. Youre acting the b******s right now man, and youre messing a whole load of people around . . . Look, I think we can really make a go at this, so gimme a call when youre ready to work.

You cant sugarcoat it, Mango grimaces. What you hear on the album is a watered down version of the reality at that time, MathMan explains. At that time, Mango was having a rough year. A long-term relationship ended, there were deaths in his family, he lost a job. He had tried school, college, music with a former group The Animators, and it felt as though nothing had worked out.

I just went, f**k this. I went drinking, sessioning, riding, taking everything, I just went out figuring myself out, but out on a binge. I think you can get lost in that. I was like, f**k studio money, I remember you [MathMan] turned around and went, what do you mean f**k studio money, youve got a fresh pair of Timberlands on your feet you f**kin eejit. I wasnt making priorities right. To be honest I was like, if I go, I go. Highway to hell, doing what I want. I think everybody goes through that at some stage. Thankfully I had someone saying, yo, what the f**k?

MathMan pinpoints a moment at a Maverick Sabre show in the Academy where it was time for Mango to snap out of it. He took Mango aside and told him that selling out shows like this could be their reality, but it wasnt, and if Mango kept up his messing, it never would be. I was upstairs in the Academy, Mango says, looking at the bar and looking at the stage and went, I want that the stage more than I want the bar, the party.

That choice didnt exactly result in a monastic lifestyle, but perhaps creatively a more fruitful one. What is strangely compelling about this record is how it ignores as many environmental influences as it sucks in. Hypebeasts, beware, Casual Work is in many ways the antithesis of the transient fashions that dominate hiphop.

While it possesses some of the directness of grime, there are also tinges of neo-soul and doses of garage, there are strings and there are moments of stunning vulnerability. On the closing track, Said & Done, one such moment lands like a gut punch. Three times I tried to take my life, Mango raps, I dont want to talk about it no more.

We dont follow trends. Its not about making whats popular now, MathMan says, with complete conviction.

Both are full of enthusiasm for the creativity bubbling in Dublin right now. The city is illuminated with talent, even if its becoming harder for those very people making the town what it is, to live in it.

We sit here and look left and right and are surrounded by cranes and cultural institutions in rubble. We reject that, MathMan says, Whats happening around us does not represent us as artists, or as citizens of this country, or people who live in this city. We reject this. We hate this. The reason we came to the Liberty Belle is because we feel comfortable here. Its part of who we are as people. We wont grow in parallel to whats happening in the city right now because we detest it.

Mango steps in: Also, were not allowed to go along with it. Prosperity is for those who are given it. Thats a very specific group. Were not allowed that . . . But see them cranes? They say to me, your time is up soon, son. Thats what it feels like to me. The Bernard Shaw is across the road from where I live. I walked home from work one day and something was missing, the Charlo [Charlemont Street] flats were just gone. I came home late one night after a session and saw the amount of cranes and its like: wow, this is what this is, this is a war on us. And if we cant use our voice, were f**ked.

Read the rest here:
Mango x MathMan: 'Prosperity is for those who are given it' - The Irish Times

The setting was the Gladstone Library, a dramatic, imposing room named after one of Britains most cherished politicians, though on closer inspection, its grandeur was somewhat faded. Ornate faence-tiled columns held up lofty, sculpted ceilings punctuated with chandeliers above mahogany shelves along the rooms perimeter lined with faithful replicas of the 30,000 volumes spanning 17th- to 20th-century political material now safely housed at the University of Bristol.

In many ways, this staid, cavernous hall filled with ersatz books at the very heart of the National Liberal Club established by William Gladstone himself is the perfect metaphor for the state of liberalism today. Which brings us to why an unlikely crew of atheists, secularists and evangelical Christians were gathered here on a balmy Sunday October morning. Instead of bedlam, there was unity and congeniality. At stake, it seemed, was the complete takedown of liberalism and, with it, Western civilization.

The conference, organized by Sovereign Nations and titled Speaking Truth to Social Justice, featured the masterminds behind the so-called Sokal Squared scandal: Helen Pluckrose, Peter Boghossian, and James A. Lindsay. Its name is a nod to an earlier hoax, which parodied the extreme postmodernist criticism of science, perpetuated by physicist Alan Sokal, who graced the occasion with his presence. Last year, the three current and former academics, who are prominent speakers in atheist and humanist circles, published bogus research papers in several academic disciplines gender studies, queer theory, critical race theory, intersectional feminism, fat studies and postcolonial theory to highlight the charlatanism and obscurantism that stand in for scholarship, the lack of academic rigor and flaws in the publishing protocols of these fields. Some of the hoax papers they submitted border on outright hilarity. One published paper suggested that dog parks perpetuate canine rape culture while another was basically Mein Kampf dressed up in intersectional feminist lingo. The trio popularized the term grievance studies to refer to these fields because, according to Pluckrose, they begin from the assumption of a grievance and then bend theories to confirm it.

They found in Michael OFallon, the evangelical Christian founder and editor-in-chief of Sovereign Nations, an ally who is likewise deeply concerned about our postmodern era in which grand narratives that have guided our discourse are collapsing. What he fears is the encroachment of the secular theoretical perspectives that undergird social justice upon the gospel and the church, weaponizing identity to upend the Christian interpretation of doctrine.

And so an unholy alliance between a bunch of atheists and evangelical Christians was born. Having the inaugural conference dedicated to defending liberalism in a venue named after the Grand Old Man of liberalism could not have been more symbolic. William Ewart Gladstone was a four-term British prime minister whose political doctrine centered around peace, economy and reform. He instituted laissez-faire economic policies and free trade, extended voting rights, promoted equality of opportunity and self-governance of Britains colonies and disestablished the Church of Ireland (so that Roman Catholics no longer had to pay tithes to support the Anglican Church), among other reforms, and was an early if ultimately unsuccessful advocate for Home Rule for Ireland.

Deeply religious with an evangelical sensibility, Gladstone served under Queen Victoria in a society shaken up by the publication of Charles Darwins On the Origin of Species, in which the theory of natural selection was pitted against the reigning theory of creation in an epistemological zero-sum game. The Victorian age might have been characterized by an ever-widening rift between science and religion, but it was during this time, in the grand quarters of the Gladstone Library, that two unlikely members of the National Liberal Club met and bonded: George Bernard Shaw, the Irish atheist playwright and polemicist, and G.K. Chesterton, the English writer and theologian whose work in Christian apologetics needs no introduction. These two men of great stature often engaged in intellectual sparring, but they were also friends, each recognizing in the other a common humanity through jokes and banter and harboring a respect for the others colossal genius.

Today, this state of affairs between two such people holding diametrically opposed views seems almost quaint. Both OFallon and the grievance studies authors have come to realize that the post-Victorian culture war is no longer about metaphysics, the supernatural realm or miracles. They have come together to defend what Boghossian calls the rules of engagement and cognitive liberty, the very forces that enabled the warm friendship between Shaw and Chesterton despite their occupying antagonistic sides of an ideological axis.

Principled-based rules of engagement create an environment in which dialogue can be fostered and cultivate a culture that values freedom of speech and dialectics that eschew ad hominem attacks and mischaracterization. They begin with, according to James Lindsay, putting forth the best arguments from opposing and differing sides in the best-possible faith, and seeking understanding and communication across divides. To him, this is the way to preserve all that is good and effective about free liberal societies that tolerate and welcome differences of opinion. Those societies seem to be under threat, given recent headlines about the rise of cancel culture and public debates about the moral validity of punching Nazis and hurling milkshakes at people with whom we disagree.

According to Boghossian, the fault lines in Culture War 2.0 center around the correspondence theory of truth and the role that intersectionality ought to play into our worldview. The correspondence theory of truth states that that there is a truth and that our beliefs correspond to a stable, knowable world. Intersectionality is the idea that there are intersecting identities that comprise ones identity (e.g., lesbian, white, disabled, etc.) that contribute to a framework of power dynamics and moral hierarchy. Much of social justice ideology and activism is predicated on intersectionality and standpoint epistemology, which in contrast to the correspondence theory states that it is ones position in a system that determines whats true. A liberal atheist, Boghossian says that if the conservative Christians at the conference believe Jesus walked on water (that either is or is not true for everyone regardless of ones race or gender) and they value discourse and adhere to basic rules of engagement, then they are closer to my worldview than an atheist whos adopted intersectionality and does not adhere to the rules of engagement.

These views are causing a schism in every walk of life, from knitting clubs to religious organizations. Its ripping apart Christianity as the church grapples with what OFallon has characterized as apostmodern crisis. Intersectional Christians believe one must examine scripture through an intersectional lens and have adopted tactics from their secular counterparts to protect these ideas from scrutiny.

The deeper problem is that wherever intersectionality goes, cognitive liberty is lost. One can no longer pursue truth and seek it for oneself; one must subscribe to the new secular dogma of intersectionality or risk being labeled a heretic or blasphemer. And there are a multitude of speech and thought-policing mechanisms to assure that intersectionality takes root: Bias Response Teams, political correctness, Offices of Diversity and Inclusion, safe spaces, trigger warnings, etc. Taboos and stigma attached to running afoul of the moral orthodoxy eliminate the rhetorical space that allows these ideas to be critiqued, further entrenching the moral orthodoxy itself. The evening was perfectly capped off with an appearance by Andrew Doyle, the columnist and comic behind the woke parody Twitter account Titania McGrath. Doyles satire has been so on-point that on a few occasions, Titanias feed has been more prophetic than parody.

When the Sovereign Nations conference was first announced, Richard Dawkins signal boosted it on Twitter, only to be dogpiled by critics accusing the new atheists of aligning themselves with right-wing Christian fundamentalists. The grievance studies authors had to contend with myriad charges of grifting, an overused slur virtually impossible to dispute. Calling someone a grifter accusing one of holding a point of view that violates ones own conscience simply for profit motives effectively delegitimizes that persons sincerely held views. Unless youre a mind-reader, there is no way to prove it. Eventually, the mob won and Dawkins deleted his tweet.

When asked what the goals of this new venture are, the organizers and speakers asserted that they share a vision of growing a movement that tries to clarify what social justice is about and offers alternatives that dont rely upon postmodernist ideology to address issues of social inequality and other grievances. By design, the movement should be apolitical and encourage the breaking down of barriers that prevent meaningful dialogue across divides (mostly via guilt by association), fostering free and open dialogue even with people with whom we have substantive disagreements.

Boghossian and Lindsay have gone a step further and written a how-to-manual titled How to Have Impossible Conversations, a guide through conversational techniques necessary to talk about the wedge issues du jour: climate change, religious faith, poverty, immigration, gun control, etc. Almost a century ago, Shaw and Chesterton took part in the kind of public debate that exemplifies an impossible conversation it just happened at a time and in a climate that made it possible.

It is this spirit that these evangelicals and atheists are fighting to restore. Faith or no faith is no longer the dividing line here. Bad faith is. And you dont need to be religious to argue in bad faith.

Read more here:
The unholy alliance between atheists and evangelicals - The Spectator USA

Shakespeares whining schoolboy creeping like snail unwillingly to school might well have been more sprightly and full of beans had he been around today in California. The authorities of the Golden Gate state have had a law passed which mandates that all middle schools can begin classes no earlier than 8 am, and high schools not before 8.30 am, thereby giving students more sleep time. California is the first state in the land of the free and home of the brave to enact such legislation which says `aye to more shut-eye but its example might well be followed in other parts of the country. Sleep therapists say that slumber unlumbers the mind of harmful stress and its beneficial for people of all ages to get in forty-one, or even forty-two, winks in preference to the conventionally recommended forty.

Indeed, sleeping on the job can sometimes prove to be the most efficient way of getting the job done. The German chemist Kekule is said to have hit upon the structure of the carbon molecule while he was in the arms of Morpheus. Freud used his innovative interpretation of dreams as the keystone to the understanding of the psyche through the working of the subconscious. As the poet more succinctly put it, I sleep, and my soul awakens. When a playwright protege of Bernard Shaw remonstrated that the Irish dramatist had been caught napping during a performance of the acolytes latest work to which hed been invited to give his opinion on, the Shavian response was Sleep, sir, is an opinion.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

Read more here:
The Land of Nod gets affirmative nod in California: Putting snooze in the news - Economic Times

But there appears to be precious little inner peace in Meghans troubled life today.It has been three years since Meghan went public with her romance with Prince Harry, and since becoming the Duchess of Sussex last year the very idea of sitting beside the ocean to contemplate the universe is unthinkable without being watched and condemned by social media trolls.So its little wonder that, as Harry and Meghan plan a six-week break, to include a large chunk of time in her Los Angeles homeland next month, rumours that they want to quit Britain are rife with suggestions that the couple will be house-hunting in Malibu and Beverly Hills.

And when all the leaves are brown and the sky is grey in England, you can be sure that Meghan is California Dreamin.

But its not just a song, its an animated principle that runs deep through Meghans veins.

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, a California girl who lives by the ethos that most things can be cured with either yoga, the beach or a few avocados, she once wrote on her now-deleted lifestyle blog, The Tig, replete with snaps of sun-kissed palm trees and Meghan running, power-walking and performing yoga asanas.

When Meghans official coat of arms was unveiled last year, Buckingham Palace explained, the heraldic shield she helped design included two golden rays representing the California sunshine against a blue background symbolising the Pacific Ocean, set on a field of grass with golden poppies Californias state flower. I love being a California girl, she has said. Theres no place like home.

But unlike Dorothy in the Wizard Of Oz, Meghan cant tap her ruby slippers together and transport herself home.

Her legion of critics angered by Meghans repeated breach of Royal tradition throwing her own baby shower, not bringing her newborn to the hospital steps to meet the world, stopping Harry hunting and kissing and cuddling him in public might do well to understand that no HRH title or diamond tiara can change Meghan from the California Girl she is at heart. Her existential problem: Is Meghan too Californian?

George Bernard Shaw said that Britain and America are two countries divided by the same language, and Meghan is still reeling from the culture shock.

Meghans dilemma is rooted in her DNA, growing up in the most liberal, self-indulgent, touchy-feely, pseudo-spiritual state in America.

It is a scientific fact that if you stay in California you lose one point of your IQ every year, said author Truman Capote, no fan of the locals penchant for narcissistic introspection. In California everyone goes to a therapist, is a therapist, or is a therapist going to a therapist.

Meghans long-divorced parents, former TV lighting director Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland, were married in an Indian ceremony at the Self-Realization Fellowship temple in Hollywood, in a ceremony presided over by Brother Bhaktananda in blazing orange robes.

Doria, now aged 64, is a yoga instructor, who called Meghan Flower.

I started doing mummy-and-me yoga with her when I was seven, Meghan has recalled. I was very resistant as a kid, but she said, Flower, you will find your practice, just give it time. In college I started doing it more regularly.

Like many Californians, Meghan set great store by the importance of personal exploration. Self-discovery and self-actualization are virtually enshrined in the state constitution.

In coming to Britain shes had to give up her meditation guru named Light, and her psychic Richard Win, who predicted she would be moving to the UK months before Meghan met Harry.

She has moved from California, where making a human connection means expressing your innermost doubts and fears to total strangers you meet in the queue at Starbucks, and come to a country where emotional diarrhoea is considered impolite.

Worse, she has joined The Firm, as the Royals call their family, where emotions and self-interest have been suppressed for centuries beneath the stiffest upper lips in the nation, in what has proven a culture shock off the Richter Scale.

Meghans move to Britain has also seriously cut back on her available time for meditation, exercise and yoga.

I love an intense vinyasa class and even better if its blasting hip hop and done in a dark room with candlelight, she gushed before meeting Harry. Ill do yoga a couple of times a week.

She was also a fan of Pilates Platinum classes for cardio and strength training, raved about Russell Simmonss Meditation Made Simple app, and followed Hollywood personal trainer Tracy Andersons workout DVD, loved by Gwyneth Paltrow and Kim Kardashian.

Her Frogmore Cottage home has been upgraded to include a wellness sanctuary and yoga studio where she can escape.

But she must miss Californias al fresco lifestyle not to mention the camaraderie and anonymity of working out in a class full of like-minded granola-eating woke souls who would never dare gawp.

Meghan admitted this week that she didnt know what she was in for when marrying into the Royal Family, and friends warned her: You shouldnt do it. She grew up in Hollywood wanting to be a Disney princess, and in later years was a fan of Elizabeth Hurley in TV series The Royals, which hardly prepared her for the reality of life under the strictures of the Palace, where insiders claim she feels personally stultified and emotionally calcified.

She has come from a land of political correctness run amok to marry a man who once dressed up in Nazi uniform for a party, and who exposed the temple of his body at a drunken bash in Las Vegas.

Not that its easy for Harry to understand his wifes psyche. Californians embrace introspection, though rarely do they have any real understanding of themselves. Rather, they enjoy the solipsistic self-exploration that makes them the centre of their universe, with all the intellectual rigour of a Cosmopolitan magazine personality quiz.

Its so important to surround yourself with people who are grounded and really optimistic, Meghan has said.

But there seems little grounding or optimism in Meghans life today. She has complained of Royal life in Britain that she is existing not living, and Harry has spoken of moving overseas, raising speculation that the couple could even resign from the Royal Family.

This is the same Meghan who was so affected by the experience of reading the romantic memoir Eat, Pray, Love, that she took a month off to tour Italy. Now every single moment of her day is planned out for her in advance and contains no room for spontaneity.

Its noteworthy that Meghan recently renewed the trademark for her deleted lifestyle blog, The Tig, sparking speculation that she might relaunch her innermost thoughts on the world once again in what would undoubtedly be seen as yet another breach of Royal protocol. In The Tig she once explained: I write about empowerment and self-identification.

One wonders if she can identify herself these days or spends much of her time California Dreamin.

Originally posted here:
Meghan Markle: Stressed Duchess gave up her whole way of life to marry into Royal Family - Express

RUSH: This is Eric in Des Moines, Iowa. Great to have you, Eric. I appreciate your patience. Thank you for waiting.

CALLER: Rush!

RUSH: Yes!

CALLER: I wanted to call and I wanted to thank you because 24 years ago the first time I heard you was right after the Dukakis campaign which I was working for cause that was my mindset. I was a card-carrying liberal Democrat. And when I listened to you, I was angered and shocked, but it was funny. You were so funny. And I couldnt stop listening. And eventually I began to get it. Conservatism, as I understood it, Id never been exposed to any of these ideas of conservatism, individual liberty, until I listened to you. And Ive been wanting to say

RUSH: Now, wait, wait, wait. This is important. How old were you at the time that this was all happening?

CALLER: Twenty-four, 25.

RUSH: At 24, 25, the concept of self-reliance and individualism is something you dont think you had been exposed to?

CALLER: Nope. No way.

RUSH: How is that possible?

CALLER: I grew up in the Northeast, publicly educated.

RUSH: Okay. But if you werent taught that you had to do things yourself, if you werent taught that there was joy in accomplishment, what were you taught?

CALLER: You were taught the collective. That the government should solve the problems. That theres an agency that will solve a problem. That theres a think group that will solve a problem. And its very lonely. And its very frustrating, until you get it, you have the power within. But I didnt know that.

RUSH: That is an eye-opener for me. See, I thought everybody I thought maybe, if youre not taught this, you at least have to realize it. I mean, you get yourself out of bed every day, you get yourself dressed, you maybe get yourself to where you want to go, maybe a school bus is involved. See, this was something front and center for us growing up as breathing was, self-reliance, accomplishing things yourself, that nobody can do it better than you can because nobody cares as much for yourself and you as you do. This is stuff that was part of just the natural growing up and maturation process. And that you never were exposed to it, thats just

CALLER: No. In fact, Rush, when I graduated high school, I really didnt have much going on, and I talked about going into the military. And my mother told me that only people of color and poor people did that.

RUSH: Well, thats what a lot of liberals think of the military, that its a place to go for the hopeless. Its a place for people that dont have any education, dont have any future, dont have much smarts, minorities, its where they go, thats what its for.

CALLER: Thats so terrible.

RUSH: Well, it is. I mean, that I understand. To this day they talk about the military that way.

CALLER: Yeah. Yeah.

RUSH: As a repository for the hopeless. They use people that volunteer to the military as examples of how America is a failure. These peoples only hope, Mr. Limbaugh, is going into the military, its the only way theyre gonna get a fair shake. America sucks. Capitalisms unfair. Thats what the left still teaches today! Well, Eric, I appreciate the call.

Yeah, the Dukakis days were funny. We had more fun hell, he was the one funny, wearing the Beetle Bailey helmet sitting in the tank trying to prove that he wasnt a military wuss. Yeah. Our nickname for him was The Loser. Michael Dukakis. This is the guy in a debate, the old CNN info anchor guy was Bernard Shaw. And he asks a hypothetical question to Dukakis. If your wife was raped, da-da-da-da-da-da, what would you do?

And Dukakis gives a professorial answer about being open and fair to rapists and making sure we dont prejudge em. And even the liberal media couldnt believe that he didnt have one additional ounce of energy answering the question, what would you do if your wife was raped? Then we found out his poor wife was drinking lighter fluid when she couldnt find any scotch in the house, his wifes name was Kitty, and then we said, ah, that was horrible to find that kind of stuff out.

But it made sense, your husband hears that you just got raped and you get into a professorial think tank faculty lounge discussion about the future of rapists and fairness in the criminal justice system. So, you know, the humor was kind of handed to me by the Dukakis campaign. Eric, I really appreciate your honesty there.

Folks, this is what I mean. Im 68 and I still learn things. You might think, Rush, everybody should know this. I just assume that self-reliance, whether you like it or not, you at least are aware of it. How do you get out of bed every day if you dont do it yourself? I mean, even if you live in a welfare state, you sometimes still have to make the transaction. The idea that you can reach age 24 and not learn or be exposed to self-reliance?

Im not talking about rugged individualism. Im simply talking about doing things for yourself. Now, today I understand it because self-reliance is criticized as selfishness, unfairness, because some are better than others. One of the greatest atrocities to happen to American culture is the elimination of competition. And weve been doing that in kindergarten, grade school, high school for 30 years. And the reason that the left wants to breed competition out is because they want to get rid of the notion that there are losers. In competition somebodys gonna lose. Its not fair. Not fair. Everybody wants to be a winner.

So now everybody gets a trophy for participating. And theyre so ill-equipped for life outside the bubble that they become snowflakes and start using things like political correctness to shield them from ever having to really grow up. But self-reliance, I mean, that was taught right along with you dont lie, heres some good manners, you say, Yes, sir. No, sir. Thank you. You take care of yourself. It was just part of it. It was part of the equation. I cant imagine not having that emphasized and spoken about growing up. But apparently it happened to a lot of people. It explains a lot too.

And yet again we have run out of time, and I failed to get to the Trump sound bites. Its okay. Its okay. We still have plenty of time to try to get to the Trump sound bites.

See more here:
Former Dukakis Campaign Staffer Converted by Rush - RushLimbaugh.com

Dark Capitalis a series that explores the intersection of business, wealth and crime. Its featured on Sundays.

Iwas dreaming a fine bogey tale.

Robert Louis Stevenson had spent the night in his sickbed enveloped by a nightmare that had descended like a swift-forming fog, swirling together memories and discarded thoughts. Illness plagued Stevenson his whole life, and hed suffered especially after he and his wife, Fanny, moved to Dorset on the English seaside in 1884. He had spent the previous evening trying to recover from a respiratory infection, but a fever kept restful sleep from him, and Fanny eventually roused him after he cried out several times.

To Fannys surprise, he rebuked her for waking him. Hed wanted to stay within that shrouded mix of thoughts, where an idea had started to forma fine tale of a bogeyman and his mirrored opposite, a gentleman. Stevenson, then in his mid-30s and already a famous author after Treasure Island was published in 1881, rose and went down to eat with his family. There, he was obviously in a very pre-occupied frame of mind, his stepson Lloyd Osbourne observed, hurrying through his meal[an] unheard-of thing for him to doand on leaving said he was working with extraordinary success on a new story. The writer left very clear instructions: He was not to be disturbed, even if the house caught fire.

At first glance, Brodie resembled any other well-to-do man in 18th century Edinburgh. But there was a darker side to his nature. He gambled, partiedand kept at least two mistresses.

For three days, Stevenson wrote constantly, filing page after page from bed. Later in life, Fanny would reflect on this moment in their lives, thinking back on what inspired Stevensons marathon effort, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. She recalled that her husband had recently read an article in a French scientific journal about the subconscious, about the minds inner workings and buried desires. Yet that was not the only thing on Stevensons mind when the dream came to him. There was something else, too, and Fannie knew it: his memories of Deacon Brodie.

At first glance, Brodie wouldve resembled any other well-to-do young man in 18th-century Edinburgh. He was a successful artisan, known particularly for his cabinetry skills. (As a child, Stevenson, also an Edinburgh native, had a Brodie-made bookcase and chest of drawers in his room.) Brodie belonged to the city council and served as its Deacon of the Incorporation of Wrightshence his epithet, Deacon. Hed been born William Brodie in 1741, the son of an already successful builder. When his father died, he inherited a 10,000 fortune, a princely amount (worth about $2.1 million today) at a time when the average Brit might earn a few pounds a year.

Brodie made as much as 600 annually, pushing him well into the ranks of Edinburghs wealthiest. Those fortunate circumstances put a particular air in [the] walk of the slender, youthful-looking man, as one of chronicler of Brodies life later noted, allowing him to dress in fine suits, often ensembles of all white.

But there was a dark side to Brodies nature. He loved to gamble, regularly losing large sums on cockfighting matches. (He kept several cocks himself in a pen at home, a large, high-ceiling manse that featured a mural depicting a Bible scene, the Adoration of the Magi.) Brodie partied and drankin places high and low, a member of Edinburghs tony Cape Club and a frequent patron of one of the citys lowest dives, a tavern on Fleshmarket Close. And he kept at least two mistresses, with whom he fathered five children.

It was, presumably, his spendthrift nature that helped push him from his rarefied world into the underworld, becoming one of Britains most notorious criminals. At night, he transformed into a top-notch burglarhis face obscured by a crepe maskand spent 20 years capering across the city. Often, he robbed friends and acquittances, finding opportune moments to swipe their keys, create duplicates, replace the original and later use the copy to enter their home or business.

Its likely Brodie began his double life as early as 1768, but his most prolific period came in the 18 months beginning in July 1786. At that time, he grew close with two men who would become his chief accomplices, George Smith, a traveling salesman, and John Brown, a convicted felon on the lam in Scotland facing deportation to an overseas penal colony. The trio, who all enjoyed drinks and cockfighting, struck up a fast friendship. From there, the Brodie Gang embarked on a blitz of burglaries, starting with a goldsmiths store the following fall.

Brodie fled the country, decamping for Amsterdam, a hair-breadth escapefrom a well-scented pack of bloodhounds.

They followed that with the robbery of a jewelers on Bridge Street, carrying off ten precious watches; a grocers on St. Andrew Street, where they purloined 350 pounds of highly valuable black tea; and even the University of Edinburgh, which lost a precious school heirlooma silver maceto the bandits.

By January 1788, authorities were straining every nerve to discover those responsible for the growing number of thefts, according to a chronicle at the time, claiming the crimes were strik[ing] terror to the hearts of wealthy Edinburghers.

Brodie, undaunted, planned their biggest heist yet. The city Excise Office was too tempting a target, and so after a dinner of chicken, herring, gin and beer on a blistery spring evening, Brodie, Smith, Brown and another man broke into the place armed with pistols. They turned up little, though, and their night was spoiled when an Excise Office employee returned, sending Brodie and the others into a hurried, disorganized retreat.

The police stepped up their search, and Edinburghs newspapers filled with ads placed by the investigators requesting information from the public. The reward had increased: 150 and the promise of a pardon, tooa clear ploy to break apart co-conspirators. It worked.

Brown cracked first, then Smith. Brodie fled the country, decamping for Amsterdam, a hair-breadth escapefrom a well-scented pack of bloodhounds, he remarked in a letter to a friend. A police search of his home turned up pick-locks, a set of false keys and pistols buried near his beloved gamecocks coop. A riveted public was scandalized by the revelations, with one editorial in the Edinburgh Evening Courant summing it up: With what amazement must it strike every friend to virtue and honesty to find that a person is charged with a crime who very lately distinguished rank among his fellow-citizens?

Deacon Brodie became Stevensons Kilgore Trout, his Randall Flag. A character he could not quit.

Brodie was apprehended a few months later. His trial was swift, lasting little more than a day, but the courtroom was packed; the publics interest in Brodies case well stoked. Throughout it all, he displayed nothing but refined mannersperfectly collectedrespectful to the Court, and when anything ludicrous occurred in the evidence he smiled as if he had been an indifferent spectator, the Edinburgh Advertiser notedeven when the jury handed down its verdict: guilty. Brodie would hang for his crimes.

The following October, he ascended the gallows dressed as finely as ever, hair carefully powdered in keeping with the trend of the time. A last step into the air brought the career of Deacon William Brodie to an end, wrote Stevenson in Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes, the first of several times he would feature Brodie in his work. He may be seen, a man harassed below a mountain of duplicity, slinking from a magistrates supper-room to a thieves ken, and pickeering among the closes by the flicker of a dark lamp.

Deacon Brodie became Stevensons Kilgore Trout, his Randall Flag. A character he could not quit. After Edinburgh in 1878, he and his friend the poet W.E. Henley joined up to dramatize Brodies life. They produced a five-act play, Deacon Brodie, or, The Double Life, which took some significant liberties with the deacons escapades. This included making him a cold-blooded murderer. In one scene toward the plays end, his sister discovers his evil-doings:

Mary: Wille, Willie!

Brodie: (taking the bloody dagger from the table). See, do you understand that?

Mary: Ah! What, what is it!

Brodie: Blood. I have killed a man.

Mary: You?

Brodie: I am a murderer; I was a thief before. Your brother the old mans only son!

Stevensons dialogue was not dagger sharp, and Deacon Brodie flopped almost immediately after opening in Bradford, England, shortly after Christmas 1882. George Bernard Shaw described it as pasteboard scenes and characters.

But four years later, Stevensons novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde drew praise on both sides of the Atlantic, with the New York Times deeming it thoroughly delightful, while The Times of London found it sensational, comparing it to the sombre masterpieces of Poe. Either the story was a flash of intuitive psychological research, dashed off in a burst of inspiration; or else it is the product of the most elaborate forethought, fitting together all the parts of an intricate and inscrutable puzzle, The Times concluded.

Stevenson wasnt shy about how he came up with the tale. When reporters caught up with him on a trip to New York, Stevenson, still sunken-eyed and sickly, explained his good doctors origins, saying that it came to me as a gift.

I am so much in the habit of making stories that I go on making them while asleep, he said. Sometimes they come to me in the form of nightmares, in so far that they make me cry out aloud. So soon as I awake, and it always awakens me when I get on a good thing, I set to work and put it together.

A few stray voices criticized the work as an overcooked fable that relied on cheap scares, but Stevenson only grinned in response. Such criticisms, he said, cannot fail to be suggestive of the braying of asses.

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Bogeyman And Gentleman: The Real-Life Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Forbes

1. Was read and admired by the Soviet underground

George Orwell. Nineteen Eight-Four

George Orwell (born Eric Blair) clicked with Russian readers. First, because1984and the parableAnimal Farmdrew clear parallels with Soviet society. And second, because his works were banned for many years inside the USSR, which meant only thing they were worth reading.

Orwells books began to be printed in thesamizdatof the 1960s, and brave readers were able to get hold of a copy for one nights reading. Vyacheslav Nedoshivin, the author of a new biography of Orwell (AST: Elena Shubina Publications, 2018), recalls how he spent such a night with colleagues from the newspaperKomsomolskaya Pravda.

I clearly remember how the door to the editorial office was locked, a pencil was surgically inserted into the telephone after removing the rotary disk (which supposedly thwarted wiretapping), and the conversation began in hushed tones. It was heart-pounding stuff, especially learning that your newspaper was just a tiny cog in the machine of the sprawling Ministry of Truth; that the disconnected phone was not to protect against the KGB, but from Big Brother, who sees everyone in the world; that Stalin, Khrushchev, and the immortal Brezhnev were Napoleon and Snowball inAnimal Farm,or simply power-hungry pigs (at this point my heart stopped pounding and leaped out of my chest!).

Nedoshivin was so impressed that he wrote his dissertation on the topic of dystopia, carried out the first philological analysis of1984in the USSR, and co-authored a translation ofAnimal Farminto Russian. He believes his biography is just one of many, many more to come.

George Orwell. Animal Farm (A special edition of the book with pictures by Ralph Steadman, is published by Secker & Warburg)

There was tremendous sympathy for the Russian Revolution in Britain, and revolutionary ideas pervaded the country. Orwell recalls a school test in which he had to list ten outstanding contemporaries he and almost the entire class named Vladimir Lenin among them.

At Eton College, where Orwell studied, it was fashionable to behave "like a Bolshevik." The future writer, like most well-read English teenagers, regarded himself as a socialist.

Naturally, the adult Orwell sympathized with the leftist movement. In 1936 he went to fight in the Spanish Civil War in the ranks of the left-wing Workers Party of Marxist Unification (POUM). There he was wounded, but after recovering did not continue fighting, since the party had been banned as anti-Stalinist, and it was vital to keep such an ally as Stalin on the side of the International Brigades.

Later, in 1943-44, Orwell wrote his famous fairy-taleAnimal Farm a satire on the Russian Revolution and the Stalinist regime. At the time, it was considered too radical even for British censors. With the war in full swing, it seemed inappropriate to criticize a crucial ally, so it remained unpublished until 1945.

The KGB archive contains a dossier on Orwell in which he is described as the author of the most vile book about the Soviet Union. For many years his name was taboo in the USSR (Read more: 10 books that were banned in the USSR).

For his part, Orwell was eager to ensure that sympathy for the USSR did not spread throughout England. It is known that for many years he kept a special notebook in which he wrote down the names of people whom he suspected of having criminal leanings toward communism and the Stalinist regime. In 1949 he was offered a government job in counter-propaganda, but he declined, opting simply to give his list to the British Foreign Office (it was later published). The names included J.B. Priestley, Charlie Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw, and John Steinbeck with notes on each.

According to some accounts, Orwell had long-standing links to the British intelligence services, which allegedly even paid for his novels to be printed abroad, using them as anti-Soviet propaganda.

Eric Blair (George Orwell) from his Metropolitan Police file

As a young man, Orwell went to Paris in search of "writers inspiration." These years would later be chronicled in the autobiographical workDown and Out in Paris and London(1933). Like many writers eager to partake of the moveable feast (as Ernest Hemingway called Paris), Orwell was crushed by poverty. He was saved from starvation by a Russian migr who had fled to France to escape the Bolsheviks. He found Orwell a job as a washer-upper in a restaurant, which was frequented by Russians of various stripes.

Orwells social circle included several of them for example, he was acquainted with Russian migr artist Boris Anrep, known for his mosaics (four of which decorate the floor of the entrance to Londons National Gallery) and his affair with Anna Akhmatova.

Another of Orwells Russian acquaintances was migr Lydia Jackson (ne Zhiburtovich), who later became a writer under the pen name Elizaveta Fen. She was a friend of Orwells wife, and at some point she and the British author became drawn to one another. It is not known for certain how far things went. Lydia responded warmly to his hugs and even kisses, though she may have done so purely out of sympathy.

In the 1930s-40s, despite the choking censorship, the Soviet magazineInternational Literaturestill managed to print excerpts and reviews of Western novels (even JoycesUlysses, which was banned as immoral in many countries, including England). Editor-in-chief Sergei Dinamov is known to have written aletterto Orwell in 1937 asking him to send a copy of the latters bookThe Road to Wigan Pier, which he found interesting and wanted to review.

A few months later he received a response. Orwell apologized for not writing sooner he had just returned from Spain. He also wrote that he had reconsidered some of the views expressed in the book. Enclosing a copy as requested, he nevertheless warned the editor-in-chief that he had fought in Spain on the side of the POUM, which was now regarded as anti-Soviet: I tell you this because it may be that your paper would not care to have contributions from a POUM member, and I do not wish to introduce myself to you under false pretences.

The editor-in-chief was required to hand the letter over to the NKVD, and reply to Orwell that he was grateful for the latters sincerity, but was forced to break off their relationship.

A portrait of Yevgeny Zamyatin by famous Russian artist Boris Kustodiev

Penned in 1920, Yevgeny Zamyatins novelWewas immediately banned in the USSR and first published in the West only in 1927. Orwell read it much later, writing areviewof it in 1946.

He describesWeas certainly an unusual [book], and it is astonishing that no English publisher has been enterprising enough to reissue it. Orwell was greatly impressed that Zamyatin had written the book before the horrors of Stalinism, noting that he cannot have had the Stalin dictatorship in mind, and conditions in Russia in 1923 were not such that anyone would revolt against them on the ground that life was becoming too safe and comfortable. What Zamyatin seems to be aiming at is not any particular country but the implied aims of industrial civilization.

Orwell also drew in-depth parallels between Zamyatins novel and Aldous HuxleysBrave New World, exposing the source of much of Huxleys nightmare vision. Orwell acknowledged his own literary debt to Zamyatin, and numerous scholars have since highlighted the similarities between the two.

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5 things that connect legendary '1984' author George Orwell & Russia - Russia Beyond

The house I grew up in was not bookish so Ive made amends by filling my home with novels, biographies, travel books, works of popular science; every conceivable genre. When I was a child it worried me that I might not manage to read every book in the world. Now it seems entirely possible that I wont even get to read every book in my house. A recent brush with cancer brought this fear into sharp focus but Im on the mend now. My book stacks seem less daunting, although they never grow shorter since I add to them every week.

My definition of wealth is having the wherewithal to buy any book that takes your fancy, including hardbacks. All I remember from my childhood home are random editions of those Readers Digest condensed books, anthologies of abridged bestsellers of the day. Decades later, I still recall the searing heat and harshness of the Australian outback as Neville Shute described it in A Town Like Alice. Abridgement made the shark attacks more frequent in Peter Benchleys enthralling Jaws. I can trace my passion for crime fiction back to a bookcase stuffed with battered Agatha Christie novels that stood in a corner of my grandmothers sitting room. I worked my way through them over the course of a rainy summer.

When I was about nine years old, my mother changed my life by steering me in the direction of our local library in the Dublin suburb of Terenure. Her small act of kindness was transformative. I remember swapping my junior library card for an adult one, green for blue, or perhaps it was the other way around, and starting shyly on the shelves just inside the door. With no one to guide me, thank goodness, early choices included Asimov and Austen. The books that stayed with me, I left behind in the junior library. My favourites, borrowed so frequently that they may as well have been mine, were gripping tales of magic and adventure written by a person called E Nesbit. Im not sure when I discovered that E stood for Edith.

The best of these was a time-travelling thriller with the intriguing title The Story of the Amulet. Lost between its covers, I accompanied Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and their baby brother, Hilary, known fondly as the Lamb, back in time to ancient Egypt. In historical Mesopotamia, we stood awestruck before the gates to Babylon as they shone like gold in the rising sun. We marvelled at the beauty of the Temple of Poseidon in the lost city of Atlantis. In their company, I encountered Emperor Julius Caesar as he stood on the shores of occupied Gaul gazing across towards England. I too longed to live in Nesbits verdant, utopian London of the future, where school is delightful, mothers and fathers share the burden of childcare, and everyone wears comfortable clothing.

At the height of her popularity, literary magazine John OLondons Weekly declared, Take a book by E Nesbit into a family of young boys and girls and they will fall upon it like wolves. A profile from the September 1905 issue of the Strand Magazine, where her stories were serialised, praised her almost uncanny insight into the psychology of childhood. The key to Nesbits appeal, the enduring devotion she engenders in children, is her ability to write just like one of us. The adventures she describes, though clearly impossible, feel utterly authentic. Surely, they could happen to you or me if we were fortunate enough to dig up a grumpy Psammead or stumble upon a broken amulet in an old junk shop.

In Wings and the Child, Nesbits manual for a successful childhood, she explained how she achieved this: Only by remembering how you felt and thought when you yourself were a child can you arrive at any understanding of the thoughts and feelings of children. Of the children in her Psammead trilogy Five Children and It, The Phoenix and The Carpet, and The Story of the Amulet second cousins once removed to the Bastable children from her earlier books, she wrote: The reason why those children are like real children is that I was a child once myself, and by some fortunate magic I remembered exactly how I used to feel and think about things.

Nesbit came of age in the Victorian era but she had no interest in leaving us more of the moralising tales she was exposed to as a child. In Treasure Seekers and Borrowers, Marcus Crouch, English librarian and influential commentator on childrens books, explained how she threw away their [the Victorians] strong, sober, essentially literary style and replaced it with the miraculously colloquial, flexible and revealing prose which was her unique contribution to the childrens novel. Nesbit wove her whimsy into the everyday lives of children in such a convincing fashion that we, her devoted readers, will not easily let it go. She offered us the potential for magic at a time in our lives when the boundary between reality and imagination is at its most porous.

Nesbits own early experiences fueled a vivid imagination capable of conjuring up phantoms at every turn. A nervous, solitary child, she experienced loss and displacement from the age of four. Circumstances conspired to deny her a formal education, but she read voraciously and indiscriminately during her peripatetic early years. As a teenager, she wrote poems, which her mother sent to the editor of Sunday Magazine. He published several. When I got the proof I ran round the garden shouting Hooray! at the top of my voice, to the scandal of the village and the vexation of my family, Nesbit recalled.

In Secret Gardens, Humphrey Carpenter described the adult Nesbit as an energetic hack, keen to try anything to support her wayward husband and her odd household. Her abiding passion was for poetry with a socialist theme but she rarely had time to indulge this since she was obliged to write for money, a constraint that generations of children have reason to be grateful for. It fell to her to support her charismatic but unreliable husband, Hubert Bland, and their three children. The first of these, Paul, arrived two months after his parents were married, suggesting reluctance on one side at least. Nesbit added to her household by adopting the two children Bland fathered with her close friend Alice Hoatson, and taking Hoatson in as well.

After Blands business failed and he fell victim to smallpox, Nesbit would put her small children to bed then stay up late, composing verses to accompany the greeting cards she painted for Raphael Tuck & Sons. Later, when she was commissioned to write stories for the Strand Magazine, she would work feverishly to meet looming deadlines, filling page after page of the glossy paper she favoured before flinging each one to the floor until her desk became an island in a sea of unedited work. At the end of each session, she would gather these pages together to revise them. Literary success came relatively late. The first of her Bastable books, The Story of the Treasure Seekers, inspired by her childhood adventures with her brothers, Alfred and Harry, was published in 1899 when Nesbit was in her early 40s.

Nesbits experience of poverty engendered a strong sense of social justice, which she channeled into her stories. During a time of astonishing political upheaval, she was instrumental in introducing socialist thinking into British intellectual life. A founder member of the Fabian Society, she counted fellow members George Bernard Shaw and HG Wells among her closest friends. One practical manifestation of her campaign for the alleviation of poverty in London was the annual party she hosted for impoverished children living just beyond her doorstep in Deptford. She was an early environmentalist and some of her finest writing celebrates the natural beauty of the English countryside. She detested creeping urbanisation, the ugly little streets crawled further and further out of the town eating up the green country like greedy yellow caterpillars.

Edith Nesbit is one of the worlds most important writers. She has entertained and inspired generations of us. She put the best of herself into her books for children. Some of her closest friendships were with her young fans and she often wrote them into her stories. A strikingly attractive woman with a keen sense of fun, she attracted a circle of admirers who left fascinating accounts of her in their letters and memoirs. As Marcus Crouch points out, no writer for children today is free of debt to this remarkable woman. CS Lewis borrowed his wardrobe from one of her stories. JK Rowling identifies with her more than any other writer.

Jacqueline Wilson brought the first installment of her Psammead series up to date with Four Children and It. I was astonished to discover that just two full biographies had been devoted to E Nesbit, both long out of print. It has been my great pleasure to write a third, The Life and Loves of E Nesbit, published by Duckworth this month.

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E Nesbit: JK Rowling identifies with her more than any other writer - The Irish Times

City staff and students train body and mind with celebrity fitness guru, Faisal Abdalla.

Trading star names like Ellie Goulding and Ella Eyre for City, Faisal Abdalla spoke to staff and students about the importance of keeping a positive mental attitude (PMA) when approaching work and exercise.

The event which was organised by Sodexo, Citys official catering partner, allowed attendees to sample naturally sourced energy drinks and healthy protein balls while asking Faisal questions about how they can improve their own fitness levels.

Faisal said: I apply PMA to every single part of my life as it is amazing what you can achieve when you approach things with a positive attitude. Being happy is just as important as being strong, fast or fit when training. If you have a healthy mind then there is no stopping you!

My job as a personal trainer is to help get my clients to be the best possible versions of themselves. I tell all of them that it is ok to fail and in fact failure is what we are after as that is the best way to learn and improve.

It cant all be about the aesthetic your mind and body need to work as one and be as strong as each other.

Whoever my clients are, the one piece of advice I always give them is to be happy. You will never run out of excuses, but one day you will run out of tomorrows. So get out there and live your best life today!

Faisal Abdalla, Fitness Coach and Celebrity Trainer

Praising Citys focus on wellbeing, the gym consultant and bestselling author, Faisal said: The CitySport gym was massive! It was great to see such a variety of equipment and studios for students to use.

The staff all seemed really passionate about fitness and that says a lot about the university. If I were a student here I would be more than happy to train there.

After an impromptu group exercise session, fitness addict and third year student Giulia Basana, (BSc Journalism), said:

Fitness is so important to me as when I train I just feel happy. It is easy to feel stressed and worried when meeting deadlines and writing my essays, but when I am running on a treadmill or lifting weights I feel so powerful and that can make a bad day good again.

Even just yesterday I was in the library and I couldnt focus after going to the gym for just a quick 30 minutes I was able to go back and concentrate on my work again. Sometimes stepping away and focusing on your body can really help your mind.

Meeting Faisal was so inspirational, I can relate so much to what he was saying about staying mentally positive.

"It isnt just about exercising to look good, it is so important to ensure that your mental health is just as good as your physical health as then you will truly succeed.

Giulia Basana, (BSc Journalism)

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Training body and mind - City, University of London

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You are your habits. Every single one of us has habits that impact our lives, but theyre not always good ones. Smoking cigarettes is a habit, after all, and so is watching television for hours on end. These bad habits can prevent us from reaching our potential, but they can also cut our lives short.

Of course, the opposite is also true. The good, positive habits many of us have habits like exercising regularly, eating nutritious meals, and meditating can make our lives better in immeasurable ways. This is especially true if youre old enough to see why habits matter but still young enough to make your positive habits count.

As you age, you will rely on your habits more and more. As our physical and mental abilities ebb and flow with age, our habits takeover as an autopilot. Build great habits and those will be the autopilot youll rely upon to remain healthy, active, and engaged.

Heres a good example of positive habits at work: Recently on my retirement podcast, we profiled a listener who was navigating a health crisis (her husband had cancer). You can hear her resilience radiate during the show. Their habit of being proactive has helped them continue to live even with the difficult situation. The couple loves cycling, but his condition has made him weak. But with the aid of an electric mountain bike, he is still able to hit the trails. That attitude has served them well.

Build poor habits and your autopilot can lead you to a constant struggle to maintain altitude. Here I think of an older client named Roxanne who smoked for decades, never exercised, and has a poor relationship with her children. Roxanne is now a widow in her early 80s who struggles to get out of bed every day. Her bad habits dictate how she sees the world and her view of the power she has in it.

The Best Habits to Help You Live Well in Retirement

If youre in your 50s or 60s, you may have twenty, thirty, or even forty-plus years of retirement ahead of you. This simple fact means that the habits youre able to pick up and stick with could make a marked difference on your physical health once you enter the final stretch of your life on this planet. When it comes to your longevity, also consider recent research published in the Journal Circulation which shows that around 60% of early deaths can be attributed to lifestyle factors, including those bad habits we talked about. Based on my observation, even if someone doesnt die early from their bad habits, their joy in life is diminished. To put it more bluntly, they live just as long but dont get to enjoy life the way the rest of us do.

On my retirement podcast, I am constantly talking about how retirement shouldnt be about survival it should be about thriving and enjoying life during a season when you have the time and hopefully the money to live the way you want.

Longevity may be the underlying goal, but what about the quality of your existence? Even if youve had not-so-great habits in the past, now is the time to establish good ones. Here are some habits that could lengthen your lifespan and help you rock your retirement now and later:

Regular Exercise

Plenty of research shows that regular, vigorous exercise is crucial when it comes to maintaining your physical health as you age. This means you should go out of your way to take part in difficult, uncomfortable exercise that feels like work. In other words, you arent helping yourself that much if you hop on the treadmill and watch The Price is Right while you walk at a snails pace.

In addition to strength and endurance training, your exercise habit should also include stretching. In my eyes, stretching is a lot like flossing because everyone knows they should do it but few people actually do.

The less flexible you are, the more likely you are to fall, break your hip, and wind up in a nursing home like Aunt Karen. Make sure youre exercising and stretching your body because thats the best way to protect yourself against preventable injuries and the physical signs of aging.

Do Something Meaningful

Having a purpose in life may be more important than people realize, but your purpose doesnt have to be something over-the-top or mind-blowing. For some people, their purpose is being an awesome grandparent, volunteering for an organization that matters to them and hardly anyone else, or maybe even learning a skill like woodworking or gardening. It doesnt matter so much what your purpose is as long as you have one.

On the flip side, not having a purpose can lead to bad habits that can affect your longevity and your mood. Think of it this way: When you have nothing to do, you might wind up sitting in front of the tube all day, or worse, diving into the pointless void of social media.

Train Your Mind

As you get older, training your mind is just as important as training your body. Your body carries you around, but your mind also needs training to stay in great shape.

Constantly learn and challenge yourself so you can stay sharp and potentially even avoid diseases like dementia. While brain-engaging activities like Sudoku or puzzles can help, learning anything can make a positive impact.

Consider this: Research analyzed by John Hopkins Medicine recently showed that staying in school longer reduced the prevalence of dementia in the United States, particularly among those ages 65 and older.

Maintain a Healthy Weight

Eat well and pay attention to the food youre putting in your body. Take special care to consume foods that support your mental health and spiritual well-being while staying away from empty calories and foods that make you feel unwell. (Im looking at you, refined sugar!)

A recent article from Catharine Paddock, Ph.D. in Medical News Today also suggests keeping your body mass index (BMI) under 25% if possible.

Cultivate a Positive Mental Attitude

If your glass half full or half empty? Your current outlook on life can play a huge role in how well your mind and body hold up. According to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, people who embrace positive stereotypes about aging are more likely to recover from a disability.

Improve Your Mood

Depression and anxiety can become rampant as we age. Do anything you can to improve your mood whether that includes exercise or stimulating mental activities. Go for walks in the park, get back out in the dating scene, or volunteer for a cause you love or basically anything that will make you feel better about yourself and the world.

Stay Social

If you dont have an expansive social network, you may wind up having one by default your family. This can be a good thing if your family members are happy and successful, but not so much if they arent.

If you find your default social network is overly negative, look for ways to build a new one. Try to make friends with younger people who may have different interests than you, and be sure you continue cultivating friendships you already have or may have had in the past.

Remember: Who you allow in your inner circle matters just as much as who you dont allow.

Own Your Life

Finally, take steps to be a participant in life, not a spectator. Stay out and about instead of sitting at home and watching the world pass you by.

This can be a difficult feat in todays internet age where we can see what other people are doing on the hour without even leaving the couch. But sitting on the sidelines wont help you maintain optimal physical or mental health.

Make sure youre not just watching other peoples stories; get out and create your own.

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Longevity And Retirement: 8 Great Habits To Rock Life As You Age - Forbes