Comment

Comment by Ian Mason on January 12, 2018 at 12:05am

Thank you for the video, Bertold. Hitchens was the most eloquent of them all.

Comment by Patricia on January 11, 2018 at 2:08pm

Like ELO music a lot!

Comment by Idaho Spud on January 11, 2018 at 10:34am

I very much enjoyed that video, Bertold.  Dawkins introduction was wonderful.

Comment by Thomas Murray on January 11, 2018 at 10:33am

This video is by ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) and the song: " All Over the World "

It is inspiring and I love the dance......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh3i3vWgPyk

Comment by Bertold Brautigan on January 11, 2018 at 7:01am

I agree, Joan. It was painfully sad but inspiring as well. Dawkins was magnificent. I loved how he characterized the notion that There are no atheists in foxholes as religionists' "most squalid claim."

Comment by Joan Denoo on January 11, 2018 at 1:00am

Bertold, thanks for the video of Hitch's last public appearance. It was a touching event, memorable. 

Comment by Joan Denoo on January 10, 2018 at 4:36pm

Plinius, I read a great many news articles about the condition of women in China. When I did my research, China was one of the places most wanted to see for myself. I wrote a proposal and sent it to a Chinese official requestion permission to interview women about their lives, their children and elders, their education, their work, their involvement in politics, and their access to healthcare. Seven subjects in all. 

The Chinese government gave me permission to do that project; I had a "handler" who saw to it I saw the best of each of these subjects. In the process, I kept my eyes open to whatever I could see and undoubtedly, I did not see the day-to-day lives of women but did see condition under which these women lived. 

Much of what I saw reminded me of rural Tekoa, WA State when I was a child. The rural culture was far behind U.S. culture.

Urban culture was overcrowded, masses of people scurrying around from bus to and from work or on bicycles by the thousands. Fewer cars then on the streets than we now see in news clips of today. The pollution was awful! mostly caused by industry. Little shops with open doorways revealed hoards of people manufacturing irons, coffee makers, and all kinds of appliances destined for the U.S. These shops were along the normal business streets, with food stalls, clothing shops, repair stores, just like small towns in the U.S. of the 1930s and '40s. Except there were far more people in the cities to which I was accustomed. I had not been in a big U.S. city until I was in high school when I visited Mexico and saw terrible living conditions.  I cannot make any claims about conditions in U.S. cities in those early years. 

I am delighted when anyone comes back from China and tells me of current conditions. 

I saw many more smiles from the Chinese people than I saw in news reports. The Chinese people were very generous with me, inviting me into their homes, sharing their meals, playing with children. In the rural places, the people were hard-working, dedicated to their child/ren. The women wanted small families and the government did too. The men did not have free access to women's sexuality because of the one woman/one child rule. I sought information about wife-rape and was unable to find any evidence of it. Who knows what the wife-rape was and is in China. It takes deeper searching than I was able to do. 

In Thailand, I asked the same question of Thai women, I visited a hospital and talked to two female physicians there. I asked them what the violence against women rate was and they both, independently, answered that they were both battered by their husbands and they did not have records of the violence rate of their different hospitals. 

Both my grandmothers had been raped and/or harassed, as had my mother, and I when I was a young woman. We all learned to keep our mouths shut; when I did complain, I was told how to cope, not how to stop the assaults. 

#MeToo finally happens and it is far past time it should. 

Comment by Bertold Brautigan on January 10, 2018 at 3:42pm

Hitchens' last public presentation, two months before he died. With a lovely intro by Dawkins

Comment by Bertold Brautigan on January 10, 2018 at 1:29pm

Interesting article--

Evangelicalism Is Now Officially Recognized as a Tainted Brand
JANUARY 10, 2018 BY CAPTAIN CASSIDY

Patheos

• We talk a lot about Christianity being, in essence, a business–which makes evangelistic Christians into salespeople for their worldview, which then becomes simply a product they’re pushing at prospective customers, who will–they hope–then go on to purchase the product by adopting that worldview. In the past, for various reasons, Christianity didn’t need sophisticated sales techniques or a particularly proficient sales force. That’s changed significantly over time, but Christians haven’t adapted to that new reality. Well, now there’s another similarity to the business world that we can add to the growing list: Christianity is a brand of sorts, and slowly–oh, very slowly!–the religion’s leaders are starting to recognize just how tainted that brand really is. Today I’ll show you one of the most important recent developments in the religion–and the surreally out-of-touch course of action that Christians are suggesting as a response to that development.

Comment by Randall Smith on January 9, 2018 at 7:40am

I added some photos to my profile page yesterday. I thought I'd add a title today, but didn't expect the act would be mentioned in the "latest activity" column to the right of this page. Oh well. One photo is of sweepers in Beijing. They were everywhere keeping the sidewalks and curbs spotless. Littering is a world wide occurrence.

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