Abraham Lincoln

Reviewing Michael Burlingame’s “Abraham Lincoln: A Life”, Christopher Hitchens finds another opportunity to take a swipe at Christianity by citing Abe’s somewhat irreverent attitudes.

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Burlingame’s highly diverting early pages show Lincoln being actively satirical in matters of faith, lampooning preachers, staging mock services, and praying to God “to put stockings on the chickens’ feet in winter,” in the words of his stepsister Matilda. Reminiscing about frontier Baptists many years later, he told an acquaintance: “I don’t like to hear cut and dried sermons. No - when I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees!”

-- Christopher Hitchens, “Abraham Lincoln: Misery’s Child” in Arguably

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Morning Walk

An eventful walk this morning.

First, I got to see Socks again. I had given up on him, thinking that he has become an indoor cat, or else those dobermans got at him - maybe a combination of these two possibilities.

Then, further down the road, a young lady gets out of the car and starts calling after me, “Sir, sir...” I ignored it at first, being certain that the shout-out was not for me. She is a gorgeous girl, maybe still in high school. Olive skin, dark hair, wonderfully slim. She is dressed in her Sunday’s best, a nicely layered ensemble. She says, “I saw that you are reading, and I thought I’d give you something to read.” A Jehovah’s witness! I let her give her little spiel, so that I can just stare at her loveliness and think of all the very un-Christian things that I would like to do to that soft, delicate, delectable body. It didn’t last more than a minute. Perhaps I should have asked questions.

Later, on the last leg of the walk to the pond, the weather suddenly takes a drastic turn for the worse. The clouds got darker and started speeding across the sky as it started getting very windy. It was very warm when I left the house and I did not put on a jacket, though I did carry my two sweatjackets in the bag on the off-off chance that the weather would so something harsh, and I ended up putting on a jacket. I said to myself, “Great, now the rain!”

I was just half a block short of reaching the pond and was tempted to start fast-walking my way back home. I was particularly concerned about the cats, because I let them go outside before I left. However, I had a good cache of bread on hand, and I loathed the prospect of having it go to waste, especially after getting so close to the pond.

I took a chance and rushed to the pond. The ducks really were starving. As soon as the bread was gone, I started walking back home. However, I started feeling better about my chances with the weather, and I resumed reading my book and fairly taking my time. The weather cleared and not a drop of rain was felt.

Terry Richardson

"It's not who you know, it's who you blow."

-- Terry Richardson, fashion photographer

Richardson is ,uh, controversial, and he gets a lot of complaints, sometimes verging on criminal complaints, with the way he behaves with his models. One example:

Last week, the Danish supermodel Rie Rasmussen confronted Richardson in Paris, and said he abuses his position of power within the industry to sexually harass young women with impunity. "They are too afraid to say no because their agency booked them on the job and are too young to stand up for themselves," said Rasmussen. "I told him, 'What you do is completely degrading to women. I hope you know you only fuck girls because you have a camera, lots of fashion contacts and get your pictures in Vogue.'"

Yet, he also has his defenders among these models. Here is Charlotte Free, runway model and Maybelline girl:

I love Terry's raw sexuality. It's one of the things I really admire about him. Terry likes to do sexy stuff, that's his shit. If you don't wanna be part of that, make it clear in the beginning. Don't willingly blow the man and get all mad when you feel ashamed later.... I hate when girls say "but he asked me to." You should have said no then, stupid bitch! There's plenty of other girls waiting in line, so he's not forcing you to do shit. When you make a choice you have to live with it - unless someone got you fucked up against your will. That's how I feel about it.

Terry obviously believes that you should love your work.

( a couple of more complaints )

Celebrity Kids

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s children reportedly all want to become stars.

The actress’ daughter Vivienne recently landed a role in her mother’s upcoming Disney film Maleficent and is said to be getting £1,970 per week for her role.

And it seems the star’s other five children may want to follow in their sister’s and parent’s showbusiness footsteps after learning how much Vivienne is getting paid.

-- ONTD

Well, it beats flipping burgers or being a lawyer, right?

Daily Fun

#715天鵝暗護 by John&Fish on Flickr.

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