What are you currently reading?

[SimonNZ]

Superb.

[Karl Henning]

How FBI foiled a 9/11 anniversary terror plot

[kishnevi]

How FBI foiled a 9/11 anniversary terror plot

counterpoint

[Ken B]

counterpoint

This is hilarious, in a bad way. Knapp asserts there was no conspiracy while admitting Goldberg assumed the bomb would go off and wanted to assist in a bombing. That's a strange definition of "non-existent".

[kishnevi]

This is hilarious, in a bad way. Knapp asserts there was no conspiracy while admitting Goldberg assumed the bomb would go off and wanted to assist in a bombing. That's a strange definition of "non-existent".

You are missing the point.
To have a conspiracy, you need at least two people with a common intent.

[Ken B]

You are missing the point.
To have a conspiracy, you need at least two people with a common intent.

Oh come on. You had one guy and the cop who caught him by pretending. The guy had serious intent and belief. if I get you to plot with me to murder Karl and then arrest you are you seriously going to say "No plot here!"

[kishnevi]

Oh come on. You had one guy and the cop who caught him by pretending. The guy had serious intent and belief. if I get you to plot with me to murder Karl and then arrest you are you seriously going to say "No plot here!"

The usual term for that is entrapment.

[Ken B]

The usual term for that is entrapment.

That requires that the cop induce you to commit a crime you were not previously inclined to commit. Evidence of that here?

[Ken B]

Nick Cohen is unhappy. http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9637452/why-ive-finally-given-up-on-the-left/

[SimonNZ]

On the bus:



At home:

[Artem]

I haven't read this specific collection, but I love reading Carver, even though his stories are almost always devastating.

[Artem]

Here are some books that I finished recently.



This is my second book by Denis Johnson. I quite like him as a writer. This short collection of stories reminded me of Raymond Carver but with a heavier focus on drug abuse.



A large part of the book deals with Newport music festival and the clash between folk and rock crowds, so it is not about Dylan all the time.



That novel was really great. I suppose it is considered fantasy, which is something I don't normally read, but it is such an odd story with so many interesting characters. Highly recommended. I'll just post this here:

Next to the colonial town of Essenwald sits the Vorrh, a vast—perhaps endless—forest. It is a place of demons and angels, of warriors and priests. Sentient and magical, the Vorrh bends time and wipes  memory. Legend has it that the Garden of Eden still exists at its heart. Now, a renegade English soldier aims to be the first human to traverse its expanse. Armed with only a strange bow, he begins his journey, but some fear the consequences of his mission, and a native marksman has been chosen to stop him. Around them swirl a remarkable cast of characters, including a Cyclops raised by robots and a young girl with tragic curiosity, as well as historical figures, such as writer Raymond Roussel and photographer and Edward Muybridge.  While fact and fictional blend, and the hunter will become the hunted, and everyone's fate hangs in the balance, under the will of the Vorrh.

[lisa needs braces]

Audiobook via audible.com

[Karl Henning]

One Virginia teen's journey from ISIS rock star to incarceration

[Ken B]

One Virginia teen's journey from ISIS rock star to incarceration

Worth noting that he found no support for his radical views from his local religious leaders. 

[Karl Henning]

Worth noting that he found no support for his radical views from his local religious leaders. 

Indeed!

[Karl Henning]

Makes me think a little about the Robt Sheckley story, "Is That What People Do?"

Woman admits storing 93-year-old mom's corpse while she cashed checks for a year

[ The really strange thing about chancing on that story is, I only heard about Gloversville for the first time at the church choir picnic this past Saturday. ]

[Karl Henning]

Volkswagen is a de facto German national icon, and so its deception is forcing Germans to rethink their most basic assumptions about their country.

[Ken B]

Volkswagen is a de facto German national icon, and so its deception is forcing Germans to rethink their most basic assumptions about their country.

Like perhaps basing your view of your country on a single company? 

Insert Tim Horton's joke here.

[Karl Henning]

In a YouGov poll released this summer, Germans chose Volkswagen as the national icon they most identify with, with 63 percent voting for it – far ahead of Bach, Goethe, and even Chancellor Angela Merkel.

I cannot decide which is the occasion for greater national disgrace: far ahead of Bach, Goethe or and even Chancellor Angela Merkel . . . .