Ken Smith (4)

Horrible things did happen; however, the incidents are important only in so far as they represent the the mores and customs of the time. The message of the bible is that a grand scheme of universal order is being played out to the benefit of humankind--indeed to the universe itself; and any particular incident or passage has something to say about that scheme or is part of a larger discussion of some aspect of that scheme. There are those who simply lack the intellectual hardware to access the message; and for them the bible is just a group of bloody, sexy, violent fairy tales. What else can I say: “For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible.”… (més)

This was a non-fiction collection of short biographies of people who had a raw deal in life, supposedly. After reading it, I would argue that some of these people were privileged folks that had many of their advantages taken from them and some of them made some poor decisions, but many of them were innocent people that got screwed over again and again.

At any rate, it's an interesting history lesson. It's no surprise that two of these stories are about Native American peacemakers that got repeatedly screwed by white invaders and their broken promises. But did you know that there used to be "teleharmonium" wires that ran alongside the telephone wires, that brought music into homes and businesses? Apparently the guy who invented this machine got screwed over. The inventors of vulcanized rubber and FM radio also got screwed and died penniless and alone.

The most compelling story in my opinion was the one about Karen Silkwood, the woman who was poisoned with radioactivity and then run off the road and killed for investigating serious safety breaches in the plutonium processing factory where she was working. There was also a doozy about a guy who worked for the CIA who got dosed with LSD without his consent by a coworker, and ended up committing suicide.

This is not the book of the century, but I did learn some things. Good for when you want to read a chapter that only takes a few minutes.… (més)