In Awe

 In awe of Terence McKenna. People throw him questions and he responds not only intelligently and fluently but poetically as well.  Wish I could talk like that. 

In awe of Alice Munro. Reading her, I keep thinking- "That's so true of human thoughts/feelings/behaviour; how come no one noticed it before?"

War Is A Racket

 We've committed ourselves to holding a Quaker vigil for Peace a week from tomorrow. It's timed to coincide with the DSEI arms fair in London. I think we'll arrange ourselves somewhere in the vicinity of the Eastbourne War Memorial. We have placards. Now what we need is texts to go on the placards.

I favour

War is Hell
General William T. Sherman

War is a Racket
Major General Smedley D Butler

War is Stupid
Boy George

I also like the idea of exhibiting Butler's precis of his thesis about war which goes...

War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.