Rowland Croucher
Christopher Hitchens miscellany
Some notes left over from my brief review of Hitch-22: Oscar Wilde’s fatal phrase: ‘the problem with socialism is that it wastes too many evenings on “meetings”.’ (149) Expense accounts: he wrote a story which led to the imprisonment of a corrupt mayor. ‘I’ve passed your Dundee expenses (wrote the finance director) but I couldn’t […]
Living in Australia on a $2-a-day diet
Man lives on $2-a-day diet Grant McArthur From: Herald Sun June 30, 2010 Anti-poverty crusader Richard Fleming is up to 52 days of a 90 day diet living on $2 dollars of food a day. Picture: David Caird Source: Herald Sun A MELBOURNE man is living on a diet costing just $2 a day to […]
EGYPT: PERSECUTION STILL ESCALATING
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 064 | Wed 14 Jul 2010 EGYPT: PERSECUTION STILL ESCALATING In May 1980 Egypt amended its constitution to elevate Sharia (Islamic Law) as ‘the principal source of legislation’. This provision is now common in Muslim constitutions, including the new constitutions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Constitutional guarantees of religious liberty […]
Women writers worth reading
11 Women Writers You Should Be Reading by Brian McLaren 07-12-2010 Here are some of my favorite women writers of spirituality and theology in no particular order with short comments on why I recommend them. Sharon Baker: Her new book, Razing Hell, will put her on the front line of Christian thinkers asking important questions […]
Myanmar troops seize vulnerable boys for tough army life
by Staff Writers Mae Sot, Thailand (AFP) July 12, 2010 The spiky-haired teenager said he clearly recalls the day when Myanmar state troopswhisked him from the streets of Mandalay, accused him of stealing and forced him to become a child soldier. “They said if you don’t want to go to jail, you must join the […]
Australians and creativity
“There are cultural reasons why innovations in church life are welcome in Australia. Australians place a high cultural value on innovation and ingenuity. A British general commented in World War I, ‘If the world fell apart tomorrow, an Australian would put it back together … with three bits of string and a length of fencing […]
When the facts change I change my mind
I put this onto Facebook: Christopher Hitchens (Hitch-22) quotes, with approval, John Maynard Keynes: ‘When the facts change, I change my mind. And you sir?’ Class: apply that to * climate change (96% qualified scientists affirm a significant human component); * the aetiology of homosexuality (98% – genetic); * and evolution (99% of qualified, peer-reviewed […]
A QUIET MIND
******** ‘Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm’. -Robert Louis Stevenson In order for me to attain a quiet mind, which I have found to be a glorious state in which to remain, I need to practice […]
Wisdom for seniors
Until you have done something for humanity, you should be ashamed to die (the great American educator, Horace Mann) Celebrated piece of doggerel by Kingsley Amis: Death has this much to be said for it: You don’t have to get out of bed for it. Wherever you happen to be They bring it to you […]
HITCH-22
HITCH-22: A Memoir, By Christopher Hitchens, 2010 Christopher Hitchens (born 1949) is probably the Western world’s best-known ‘Public Intellectual’ and ‘contrarian’ (a term he doesn’t like, though he wrote a book titled Letters to a Young Contrarian). He describes himself as a ‘writer, whose promiscuous mandate is to be interested in everything…’ (424): he certainly […]
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