Ekta A Thakur

Anyone dreaming of US decline is smoking nice things...

I can’t believe that Jeffrey Archer - who was always so alive - is suddenly dead. We had a wonderful day together yesterday - as anyone who was there will tell you, he was in brilliant form on stage yesterday celebrating the publication of his 50th and final best-selling novel.

Spencer Pratt just called George Clooney out in public, and he didn’t miss. Clooney has spent years treating every red carpet and every interview like a pulpit. Income inequality. The usual Hollywood sermon. “Do as I say.” Then he and Amal hit the Venice Film Festival this week and she walked a four-hour event in a custom Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford look with Cartier earrings priced at $149,000 and a Cartier diamond bracelet at $225,000. Roughly $375,000 in jewelry. For one night. Pratt posted the Page Six photos and wrote: “$500M net worth George Clooney could’ve permanently housed 8 homeless people for the rest of their lives with the money he spent on a single-use dress for his wife at a 4 hour event.” Then the line that actually landed: “I will never tolerate a woke scold lecture from these people. Just be an ostentatious celebrity and own it.” That’s the whole point. Wear the diamonds. Fly private. Buy the custom gown. Spend what you earned. Nobody elected Clooney to live like a monk. What doesn’t work is the lecture while the same people drip in stones most Americans will never see in their lifetime. Clooney can spend his money however he wants. He does not get to spend it like a king and then scold everyone else about fairness. Pratt said the quiet part out loud. Own the lifestyle. Drop the sermon.

When 740 children died at sea and every country said "no," one man—who had reason to remain silent—said "yes." The year was 1942. The ship drifted in the Arabian Sea, like a floating coffin. There were 740 Polish children on board. Orphans. Survivors of Soviet labor camps, where their parents had died of the flu or starvation. They had escaped through Iran, but a more terrible punishment awaited them. No one would accept them. The British Empire—the most powerful power of its time—refused entry to port after port along the Indian coast. "It's not our responsibility. Sail away." Almost finished with food. No medicine. Time was running out. Twelve-year-old Maria held her six-year-old brother's hand. She had promised her dying mother to protect him. But how do you protect someone when the whole world turns on them? And then news came to the small palace in Gujarat. The ruler was Jam Sahib Digvijay Singhji, Maharaja of Navanagar. In the royal system, he was just a minor prince. The British controlled the ports, trade, and army. He had every reason to obey and remain silent. When his advisors told him that 740 children were stranded at sea after the British refused to take them to any port in India, he asked one question: "How many children are there?" "Seven hundred and forty, Your Majesty." He paused and calmly said: "The British may control my ports. But they do not control my conscience. These children are docked at Navanagarh." The advisors warned him: "If you challenge the British—" "So I will stop. " He sent a message to the ship: You are welcome here. When British officials protested, the Emperor remained firm. "If the strong refuse to save the children," he said. I, the weak, will do what you cannot. In August 1942, the ship struggled to enter Navanagara harbor under the blazing summer sun. The children walked like ghosts—exhausted, blank-eyed, many too weak to walk. They had learned to hope for good. Hope had turned dangerous. The Maharaja was waiting for them on the dock. Dressed simply in white, he knelt down to be at their eye level. Through interpreters, he spoke words they had not heard since their parents died. "You are no longer orphans. You are my children now. I am your Bapu—your father." Maria felt her brother's handshake. After months of rejection, these words seemed surreal. But he was serious. He didn't build a refugee camp. He built a home. In Balachadi, he created something amazing—a little Poland in India. Polish teachers who understand trauma. Polish food flavored with memory. Polish songs in an Indian garden. A Christmas tree under a tropical sky. “Suffering tries to erase you,” he said. “But your language, culture, and traditions are sacred. Let's keep them here.” " Children who were told they had no place in the world finally found a home. They laughed again. They played again. They returned to school. Maria watched her brother chase a peacock in the palace garden, and her body remembered again what safety meant. The Emperor used to visit them often. He remembered names. He celebrated birthdays. He watched high school plays. He comforted children crying for parents who would never return. He paid for doctors, teachers, clothing, and food—from his own wealth. For four years, while the world was torn by war, 740 children lived not as refugees, but as a family. When the war ended and it was time to leave, many wept. Balachadi became the only home they had ever truly known. These children have grown and moved around the world—becoming doctors, teachers, engineers, parents, grandparents. And they have never forgotten. Warsaw's Good Emperor Square appeared in Poland. Schools bear his name. He was awarded Poland's highest honor. But the original monument wasn't made of stone. It cost 740 lives. Today, at 80 years old, they still gather. They tell their grandchildren about an Indian king who refused to turn compassion into political calculation.

सूर्य अपने आकाश गंगा की एक परिक्रमा ३० करोड़ ६७ लाख और २० हज़ार वर्ष में पूरा करती है । इसे एक मन्वन्तर कहते हैं । एक मन्वन्तर में ७१ महायुग होते हैं और हर महायुग में चार युग होते हैं -सतयुग , त्रेता, द्वापर और कलयुग । कलयुग ४३२०००, द्वापर ८६४००० वर्ष, त्रेता १२९६००० और सतयुग १७२८००० वर्ष का होता है । दो मन्वंतर के बीच १ संधिकाल होता है जिसकी आयु १७२८००० वर्ष है । इस प्रकार एक मन्वन्तर ३० करोड़ ६७ लाख और २०००० वर्ष हुआ । इसे १४ मन्वन्तर से गुना कर दें और १५ संधिकाल की आयु जोड़ दें तो इस ब्रह्मांड की वर्तमान आयु ४ अरब ३२ करोड़ वर्ष हुआ । यही ब्रह्मा जी का एक दिन एक रात है । उसके बाद नई सृष्टि उत्पन्न होती है । अभी ६ मन्वन्तर गुजर चुके हैं - स्वयंभू , स्वरोचिस, उत्तम , तामस, रैवत, चाक्षुष । अभी हम वैवस्वत मन्वन्तर में हैं । वैवश्वत मन्वन्तर में २६ महायुग बीत चुका है । यानी २६x ४३२०००० वर्ष बीत चुका है । २७ वें महायुग में सतयुग त्रेता और द्वापर बीत चुका है । हम कलयुग के प्रथम चरण में हैं । यानी ३८८८००० ( अड़तीस लाख अट्ठासी हज़ार से ज़्यादा समय बीत चुका है और हम कलयुग के प्रथम चरण यानी क़रीब ५००० वर्ष भी गुज़र चुके है । यदि आदि मनु को छोड़ दें और वैवश्वत मनु को ही आधार मान लें तो मनुस्मृति की रचना न्यूनतम ३८ लाख ८८ हज़ार वर्ष पहले हुई । हम बिना सोचे समझे उस मनुस्मृति को गाली देते हैं । इन काल खण्डों में न जाने कितने जोड़ घटाव हुए होंगे । वर्तमान में मनुस्मृति के कई संस्करण हैं । आप अंदाज़ा लगा लें कि जो मनुस्मृति को गाली देते हैं उनका ज्ञान का स्तर क्या है ?

Emma K, age 6

The entire COVID saga perfectly explained by @adamcarolla 🎯

“Our sexual norms should encourage the actions and dispositions of character that enable our capacity to love and discourage those that hinder it.” theimaginativeconservative.o…

casually reading some Carl Jung and then he hits you with this:

The intellectual case against Marxism was won more than a century ago. The most rigorous and devastating blows came from the Austrian School of economics – but the strange part is that hardly anyone is taught the winning arguments. Carl Menger’s subjective theory of value, developed in the 1870s, undermined the labour theory of value on which Marx built his entire system. Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk then delivered a systematic demolition of Marx’s economics, exposing the contradictions in the theory of surplus value and the so-called transformation problem. Ludwig von Mises went further still, demonstrating that rational economic calculation is impossible under socialism because without private property and market prices there is no way to allocate resources efficiently. Friedrich Hayek later extended this into the knowledge problem: the information required to run a complex economy is dispersed and cannot be centralised. And Murray Rothbard showed how Marx misunderstood the nature of capitalism by replacing voluntary exchange and entrepreneurial creation with a false theory of exploitation based on labour value and class conflict. These were not minor objections. They struck at the theoretical foundations of Marxism and, in the case of Mises and Hayek, correctly predicted the chronic waste, shortages, and eventual collapse of socialist economies. History confirmed their arguments on a civilisational scale. Yet in universities, media and political debate, these critiques remain marginal. Marx is still widely taught as a serious economist and social theorist. His errors are softened, historicised, or treated as interesting starting points. The Austrian responses are rarely given equal weight. Students can pass through entire programmes in the social sciences without encountering Böhm-Bawerk’s critique or Mises’s calculation argument in any depth. This neglect is not accidental. It reflects a deeper intellectual preference for theories that pathologise markets and legitimise expanded state power. The result is a public discourse that continues to recycle Marxist categories long after their economic foundations were shown to be unsound. The cost of that selective memory is still being paid.

Why did a private citizen with no official public health role get security clearance to sit in on government pandemic discussions? Bill Gates helped shape COVID policy, and Americans never got to vote on it.

A woman in a hot-air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am." The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude. "She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Republican." "I am," replied the man. "How did you know?" "Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me." The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Democrat." "I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?" "Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going.. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault."

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind."