(no subject)

Read a collection of Continental Op stories by Dash Hammett. Great hardboiled stuff, with occasional flashes of profundity. Thumbs up.

I've just started Stephen Donaldson's Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. And I'm already sucked back in.

Intriguing little essay entitled "Atheistic Democracy: An oxymoron". I only bring it up for the following bit:

The very notion of democracy is based on Christian principles—a historical fact, though one not really emphasized in our public school system. ... Yes, the Greeks had a democracy, but it was not a democracy for women and slaves. It was the radical Christian notion of equality--that there was neither “Jew nor Gentile,” and that even prostitutes could repent--that forms the basis of our democratic values.

Ah yes, I remember vividly how the Christian Continental Congress got together and freed the slaves and gave women the vote. It's a good thing America was founded on principles entirely different from those of the Greeks.