...the Bible is probably the most genocidal book in the literary canon.
Noam ChomskyTag: bible genocide 2004 wallace-shawn
It [Ashfair House] was an old fashioned house—the sort of house in fact, as Strange expressed it, which a lady in a novel might like to be persecuted in.
Susanna ClarkeTag: house 2004 1815 damsel-in-distress jonathan-strange stereotype
Houses, like people, are apt to become rather eccentric if left too much on their own; this house was the architectural equivalent of an old gentleman in a worn dressing-gown and torn slippers, who got up and went to bed at odd times of day, and who kept up a continual conversation with friends no one else could see.
Susanna ClarkeTag: eccentricity solitude 2004
You might think that, by now, people would have become accustomed to the idea of natural catastrophes. We live on a planet that is still cooling and which has fissures and faults in its crust; this much is accepted even by those who think that the globe is only six thousand years old, as well as by those who believe that the earth was "designed" to be this way. Even in such a case, it is to be expected that earthquakes will occur and that, if they occur under the seabed, tidal waves will occur also. Yet two sorts of error are still absolutely commonplace. The first of these is the idiotic belief that seismic events are somehow "timed" to express the will of God. Thus, reasoning back from the effect, people will seriously attempt to guess what sin or which profanity led to the verdict of the tectonic plates. The second error, common even among humanists, is to borrow the same fallacy for satirical purposes and to employ it to disprove a benign deity.
Christopher HitchensTag: religion atheism humanism earth 2004 intelligent-design theodicy earthquakes natural-disasters 2004-earthquake-and-tsunami 2005 plate-tectonics tsunamis young-earth-creationism
In the aftermath of the recent wave action in the Indian Ocean, even the archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williamson [sic], proved himself a latter-day Voltairean by whimpering that he could see how this might shake belief in a friendly creator. Williamson is of course a notorious fool, who does an almost perfect imitation of a bleating and frightened sheep, but even so, one is forced to rub one's eyes in astonishment. Is it possible that a grown man could live so long and still have his personal composure, not to mention his lifetime job description, upset by a large ripple of seawater?
Christopher HitchensTag: stupidity religion atheism church-of-england insults voltaire 2004 theodicy sheep earthquakes natural-disasters 2004-earthquake-and-tsunami 2005 tsunamis archbishop-of-canterbury indian-ocean rowan-williams
The instant he knew he loved her, she slipped down his body and out of his arms.
Don DeLilloTag: 2004
As a Nobel Peace laureate, I, like most people, agonize over the use of force. But when it comes to rescuing an innocent people from tyranny or genocide, I've never questioned the justification for resorting to force. That's why I supported Vietnam's 1978 invasion of Cambodia, which ended Pol Pot's regime, and Tanzania's invasion of Uganda in 1979, to oust Idi Amin. In both cases, those countries acted without U.N. or international approval—and in both cases they were right to do so.
José Ramos-HortaTag: peace war tyranny united-states genocide iraq pacifism iraq-war 2004 vietnam nobel-peace-prize united-nations international-law tanzania 1978 cambodia cambodian-vietnamese-war idi-amin khmer-rouge pol-pot uganda uganda-tanzania-war
Bloomberg does not support the measure to silence the useless and maddening car alarm: he would rather impose himself on people than on mechanical devices.
Christopher HitchensTag: tyranny law 2004 cars big-government pettiness car-alarms mayoralty-of-michael-bloomberg michael-bloomberg
Classroom Activities
1. Using felt and yarn, make a hand puppet of Clarence Thomas. Ta-da! You're Antonin Scalia!
Tag: humor 2004 scotus antonin-scalia clarence-thomas
1. Society needs laws. While anarchy can often turn a humdrum weekend into something unforgettable, eventually the mob must be kept from stealing the conch and killing Piggy. And while it would be nice if that "something" was simple human decency, anybody who has witnessed the "50% Off Wedding Dress Sale" at Filene's Basement knows we need a backup plan—preferably in writing. On the other hand, too many laws can result in outright tyranny, particularly if one of those laws is "Kneel before Zod." Somewhere between these two extremes lies the legislative sweet-spot that produces just the right amount of laws for a well-adjusted society—more than zero, less than fascism.
Jon StewartTag: anarchy fascism congress 2004 legislature
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