Some news items just catch your eye. This one by Zoe Williams in the Guardian gave me the first belly-laugh of the day.

From The Simpsons to his assault on high taxes, Murdoch’s always been the little guy’s friend.

I just read this paragraph from The Pilgrimage — a book written by Paulo Coelho. What it says to me is what I feel sometimes when I travel. I don’t think you have to go to some exotic place, I’ve experienced what he writes about here in Oz, riding my bike down a quiet country road and then stopping and sitting for a moment outside some General Store.

When you travel, you experience, in a very practical way, the act of rebirth. You confront completely new situations, the day passes more slowly, and on most journeys you don’t even understand the language the people speak. So you are like a child just out of the womb. You begin to attach much more importance to things around you because your survival depends upon them. You begin to be more accessible to others because they might be able to help you in difficult situations. And you accept any small favor from the gods with great delight, as if it were an episode you would remember for the rest of your life.

from The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho

On January 20, 1961, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35th president of the United States.

On Jan. 19, 1937, millionaire Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record by flying his monoplane from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds

Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province and the political and economic centre of Southwest China. It is a city of 10-11 million people and is the fourth largest Chinese city based on population. Chengdu borders the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Letter to Andrew West re his SMH article:

Evangelical Christians: another stereotype crumbles

Dear Andy,

Am I to believe that maybe you and some of Sydney’s fundamentalist God-botherers are feeling the heat? Let me say upfront that I have met too many right-wing evangelical Christians not to believe the stereotype is alive and well and not as you are suggesting, on the wane.

I reckon there’s a small record-player that sits inside the heads of people of religion — it’s just bigger and louder the more fundamentalist you are. This record-player plays a non-stop recording, that says over and over again — “I am right and YOU are dead wrong. Your beliefs are wrong, your god is wrong — in fact everything about you and the way you live is wrong. In fact, YOU ARE GOING TO HELL, you are so wrong!!”.

Andy, maaate, one swallow does not a summer make, but if the day ever comes that I hear evangelical Christians en mass (or any other religious fundamentalist group for that matter) accepting that just-maybe others’ beliefs have some validity — then I might say goodonya mate, the worm has turned and have a nice day.

Progressives have long stereotyped evangelical Christians as enemies and automatic allies of the political right, mainly because they embrace traditional values in relation to the nuclear family, opposition to abortion on demand (but not all abortion), gambling and drugs. But these positions are hardly inconsistent with a belief in economic justice; the rights of workers; opposition to war, racism and sexism (yes, sexism, because evangelicals were in the forefront of the suffragette movement); and a rejection of greed, exploitation and materialism. In fact, these values have historically been a staple of evangelical Christianity.

Andrew West | SMH | Link

We stopped for lunch and sat watching the gymkhana along with the woman in the photo.