Book to share - October 2024 PINNEDLittle Cyclone: The Girl Who Started the Comet Line by Airey Neave (1954) The exhilarating true story of the greatest escape route of the Second World War. On a hot afternoon in August 1941, a 24-year-old Belgian woman walks into the British... See More » (1)
Book to share - September 2024 PINNEDDemocracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom (2017) by Condoleezza Rice In her book the former Secretary of State described Populism, Nativism, Isolationism, and Protectionism as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and in an interview on the... See More » (1)
Book to share - August 2024 PINNEDThe Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicolas Carr (2010): "We want to be interrupted, because each interruption brings us a valuable piece of information… And so we ask the Internet to keep interrupting us, in ever more and... See More » (1)
Book to share - July 2024 PINNEDOn my country's national holiday I like to offer the following book. On its sleeve one can read that this is the first full biography of Michel de Montaigne in English for nearly fifty years and it relates the story of his life by way of the... See More » (1)
Book to share - June 2024 PINNEDLast Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War by Lynne Olson (2017) Synopsis: When the Nazi blitzkrieg rolled over continental Europe in the early days of World War II, the city of London became a... See More » (1)
No, not whateverI've been wondering about the decade to come. You know, the next four years or so. Somehow I've managed to stay alive this far but I'm indeed scared enough to start panicking. What will happen to the rest and quietness, let alone the periods of high... See More »
Anne Applebaum is wrongEurope hasn't been a heaven of peace since the ending of the Second World War. Nor has the recent war in Ukraine shaken us in Europe out of that dreamy world. First of all, there have been wars in the period between now and 1945. The Cold War was... See More »
Lee Miller - Kate Winslet Go and see the movie! But remember, it's only a tiny part of her life. Whole is the story of the woman's woman. Hope Kate will go for a Tony next! (2)
The Boy Who Said WowThere's so much out there to cheer ones heart. Keep both an open mind and a receptive heart. Daily I try to help people see a stream of light. To people who have difficulties, to people who are in utter despair, I say that I know what you're feeling.... See More » (1)
What is today's main disconnect?Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. I'm sure that almost everyone in this so-called postmodern era that we live through knows these few lines from Yeats's poem The Second Coming. Either you had one terrific English Lit teacher in your youth or... See More » (1)
From great speeches of the past (1)Reagan's Farewell Address to the Nation (1989) "... And let me offer lesson number one about America: All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents... See More »
Old bat am IThe female gender equivalent of 'Old Fart' is 'Old Bat'. Now I know. Yes, I'm that old. What has changed? Well, my full retirement age has gone up again to 67. I started from 63 only ten years ago but the Belgian state in its wisedom changed that... See More » (1)
Naivety as a shield?The meaning can lie between two poles, with on the positive side an unbiased purity uncorrupted by knowledge ("This observation is of a touching naivety"), and on the negative side stupidity, lack of worldly wisdom and culpable ignorance ("He... See More » (2)
The 21st JulyBelgian National Day was originally celebrated on 27th September, the date of the expulsion of the Dutch forces from Brussels during the revolutionary "September Days" anno 1830 in the southern provinces of the Low Countries. In 1890 it was changed... See More » (1)
What is their final settlement?Lubitsch's movie To Be or Not to Be used to be unjustly critised once because it made fun of the Nazis. Like the banality of evil can't be real subject matter for ridiculization. Nowadays there are also Israelis that make fun of their fellow Israelis... See More » (1)
Thank you for your prayers and best wishesI like to thank everyone who prayed for my dad in the last two or three days. The doctor told me that he had pneumonia so that was pretty serious and still is. I'm trying to help him as much as possible whilst also nursing my own overall snottiness.... See More » (1)
Prayers neededMy dad was dreadfully ill yesterday. Please pray for him. I've been struggling with bronchitis and having had it for near to one month now. Since yesterday I'm again sick from work. I've been trying to do whatever people are telling me. Continue to... See More »
The Freedom to DissentHave you seen the Munk Dialogue with Douglas Murray, Natasha Hausdorff, Mehdi Hasan and Gideon Levy on the question: Is anti-Zionism antisemitism? There was even a moment when Murray denied his infamous The Spectator piece in which he claimed one... See More » (1)
Truthful or radical?These days there's a lot of talk about radicalisation of faiths. I like to put you a question now. In the parable of the paralysed man being brought before Jesus, is it right for a lesson or reading to tollerate someone else focusing more on the... See More » (1)
Am I right? Is this the new international boogeyman?What's the supposed difference between the Ukraine and Gaza? Has communism now become radical islam? Are all sins forgiven for amoral and indeed immoral conduct just because there's radical islam to cope with? So one is a war of imperial conquest... See More »
With mute one begets mutationIf you start to ignore someone or something then there's the possibility that you start off a mutation from reality. It's like what they say in the media today: there are two realities. No, there are not. There's only one reality with two mutations... See More » (1)
Colette: The French resistance fighter confronting fascismWhat if you discovered that your gran was once an young resistance fighter? Not only that, but that she was still wanting to put up a fight against fascism even today? (1)
Beethoven's role in resistanceLike faith knocking at the door, and the whole of occupied Europe was listening. Thank you, Beethoven! (1)
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