… i have been a-weigh

i have been absent, not least due to a series of reasons that have occupied both my academic and personal life.
respites aside, i am currently assessing the possibility of renewing my ‘blog-o-sphere’ membership and, if i do decide to answer the above pondering in the affirmative, the conditions under which ’signonthebrokenline’ will continue will [...]

spoken discomforts

children asking questions because it is easy to do so, because they were raised by parents who answered every question as if they actually knew the answers (never mind whether their answer was correct or otherwise) to every question (since they self-aggrandized to that extent), is a serious concern all interested parties should be aware [...]

Part C, The Five Minute Meltdown

I took a walk in the park.
And i saw a flower.
Horse.
I took a walk in the park.
And i saw a horse.
Flower.

local melodrama: 2:12 AM

I’m sitting on the couch. Being a vegetable. While I’m lying here, growing sprouts, I begin to notice a rather distinct buzz. Spring being months away, I begin to tune in to logic – to try and figure out this mild conundrum. Bikes. Motorcycles. If I could remember what [...]

brian barry’s culture and equality: a critical review

Brian Barry, in his monograph on the “politics of difference” or the “politics of recognition,” is skeptical of the degree to which current multiculturalism policies have in fact advanced “the values of liberty and equality,” to the extent that “the implementation of such policies tends to mark a retreat from both.” Multiculturalism introduces more [...]

eu series: hegemonism – an eu love affair

Enlarging the European Union to include “new” member states is an ambitious and fascinating political project. Controversy however, does exist. Expanding the EU is an ideological exercise that strives to provide the impetus for the spread of neo-liberal market policies as well as other fundamental “democratic” concepts that may include a commitment to [...]

inside asset bubbles: the rationality of speculation (exec brief)

I wrote a paper on speculative asset bubbles, having loads of fun doing it. Although I am aware of the brutal reality that not everyone may full understand the dialectic/specific vernacular, this should not prevent discussion.
Caveats aside, here is the introduction:
“Chain letters, bubbles, pyramid schemes, Ponzi finance, and manias are somewhat overlapping [...]

immigration mini-series: hijabs and burkas in schools

Question 3: Should the hijab or the burka be banned in schools?

An interesting response to this once again “should or should not” question, would probably originate from Brian Barry and the thin liberal argument that he makes in his book, Culture and Equality, that current multiculturalism (read: inclusionary and accommodating) policies have failed to reconcile [...]

immigration mini-series: brubaker on france and germany

Question 2: Critically evaluate Brubaker’s thesis on France and Germany

Brubaker’s thesis on France and Germany posits that France and Germany have distinctive and deeply rooted “understandings of nationhood.” He further goes on to propose that while current criticism is unjustified and that this distinction between these two countries has and will continue to provide [...]

immigration mini-series: on open borders

Question 1: Should there be open borders?

It is ambiguous to concede an answer, to the question of whether there should or should not be open borders between sovereign states, in either the affirmative or otherwise. It needs to be made explicit that a tension does exist, whether it may be desired or not, between [...]