Comments on: Burn, Guy, burn

By: By Common Consent » Playing with Fire

By Common Consent » Playing with Fire — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 16:11:36 +0000

[...] I have memories of going with this sister to the empty fields near our house with a string of (illegal) firecrackers and various things to blow up (Katsup packages, hardboiled eggs, etc.). Once she took an entire box of kitchen matches, spent an hour or so carefully tying them all together in a bundle and then lit it just to enjoy the five seconds of flash. It would figure that we would live in Arizona, where fireworks and firecrackers are illegal, campfires are heavily restricted, and wildfires run rampant every summer leading to strict regulations on when and where fires may be burned. I wonder how my sister would have been different if she’d grown up somewhere else, like in England, where Bonfire Night was a regular occurrence. [...]

By: Ronan

Ronan — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 20:13:07 +0000

Larry,
You make a sobering point. This was a silly post.

By: Larry Ogan

Larry Ogan — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 19:35:23 +0000

Robert Hughes in his book “American Visions” implies that the Puritans saw the Native people as a hindrance to estabtishing New Jerusalem in New Egland. He claims they made only halfhearted attempts to convert them. They praised the smallpox epidemic as a “miraculous plague” creating a “void of inhabitants” on the land they wanted to settle.

Would Latin America be better developed with fewer livng Native Americans?

By: bobie

bobie — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 17:10:20 +0000

did the protestants agree what je was doin?

By: anthony

anthony — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 05:22:40 +0000

i like the movie, “V For Vendetta.” i think it was R rated though.

By: Ronan

Ronan — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 06:37:51 +0000

aRJ,
Had we stayed, the mess wouldn’t exist. Things only went to pot when they kicked us out.

By: Tatiana

Tatiana — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 05:03:21 +0000

And don’t forget Tolkien!

By: Hellmut

Hellmut — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 02:02:49 +0000

Besides Ronan, of course, my favorite Britons are all Catholic: Agatha Christie, Alfred Hitchcock, and Lord Acton.

By: a random John

a random John — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 18:33:31 +0000

Spain and Portugal did indeed produce a mess in South America. But I wonder what amazing country drew the borders resulting in the current conflicts in Israel, Iraq, and Kashmir? hmmmm…

By: Brad Haas

Brad Haas — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 17:17:13 +0000

I’m with Tatiana; I couldn’t tell if it was a joke or what. Thanks for clarifying.