Marginalia

Odd scraps, bits and pieces, notes from other blogs and other stuff.


Ask me anything  


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“ With the Marikana Massacre we seem to have finally become what we have been threatening to become for a while now, namely, a country where state and citizens compete fiercely in both violence and corruption. Such contests are usually won by the state - hands down. The state alone is legally and constitutionally given the power to use and invoke violence – with our authority, in our name and on our behalf. In both the killing of Andries Tatane and Marikana Masscre the state was ostensibly acting for us and in our name. Writing Africa - Tinyiko Sam Maluleke’s Website: South African Government Insanity: Is it Temporary or Permanent?


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New scam or cable theft?

I recently paid Telkom for a DSL top-up, because we had run out of Internet
bandwidth, but it wasn’t credited, so we still don’t have web access. Ususaly
I enter the credit card number, say how many gigs I want to buy, the bank
send a one-time pin, I enter that, and it is paid. I did that, but Telkom say
they have no record of the payment. The SMS from the bank saying the amount
has been debited to my account has two phone numbers, one marked for queries
about the payment, I dial the number. “The number you have dialed does not
exist”. I dial the other one, “The number you have dialed does not exist”.
What can have happened? One possibilitiy is that the banks telephone lines
have been nicked by cable thieves, which would explain why Telkom didn’t get
notified of my payment and I can’t contact the bank. The other possibility is
that it is a new scam of some kind…



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My Father's "Eviscerated" Work - Son Of Hobbit Scribe J.R.R. Tolkien Finally Speaks Out -

first ever press interview of Christopher Tolkien, the official executor of J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate, and the interpreter of his father’s unpublished works. This original article and interview appeared in Le Monde on July 9, 2012. With the film version of the The Hobbit hitting theaters, we are publishing it for the first time here in English.



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Second Terrace: Things to Think About This Year

That the Absolute is Person. Oneness-and-Threeness, and Oneness-and-Twoness. Instead of one-or-the-other. That Pattern and Freedom unite in Dance. That Necessity can be transfigured by Love. That Children, who should be most easily fascinated by Wonder, know better than to break Friendship by lesser things, like politics. Adults do this all the time. Sad.



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“ England has 39 police forces, headed by 39 chief constables or commissioners. In the past 18 months, seven have been sacked for misconduct, suspended, placed under criminal or disciplinary investigation or forced to resign. That is not far off a fifth of the total.

Have the men in blue crossed the line? - Telegraph

So if you were worried about corruption in South Africa, take heart, we’re not alone.


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Tumblr seems to be broken

I’ve ysed Tumblr as a way of aggregating posts from my various blogs, but it
seems to be broken:

Failed
Catching up with the Sandercock family
Reason: Tumblr::API::AuthError
Next attempt in 30 days
30 days ago
Failed
A couple of Ellwood mysteries
Reason: Tumblr::API::AuthError
Next attempt in 3 months
3 months ago
Failed

And so it goes.



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“ But you know who does get it? Jacob Zuma gets it. The ANC gets it. They understand how black anger about apartheid and black anger about white obliviousness to that anger can be used to shield themselves from criticism. Mampoer - Black anger and white obliviousness


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Hipster Christianity

A couple of years ago I came across an article on Hipster Christianity,
which, it seemed to me, was pretty wide of the mark. It linked to a quiz,
which purported to show whether you were a hipster Christian, and dropped a
bunch of names I had never heard of.

About 50 years ago I was a proponent of hipster Christianity, which was
nothing like what was described in this article;.

Yesterday, however, I came across another article, here:

http://exconvert.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/on-hipster-christianity-and-
their.html
or
http://tinyurl.com/d3wqvh3

which seemed to come a lot closer to the mark.

The article is written by someone who rejects that culture but some aspects
of it at least are recognisable. It also seems to have something in common
with the “emerging church” fad that was popular some 5-6 years ago, and
seemed to fall into the category of “Stuff White People Like”.

One of the features this article ascribes to “Hipster Christianity” is an
interest in the works of Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton, though no
mention of other Inklings, such as Charles Williams. .

I think the article is worth reading, and would be interested in hearing what
others think of it. How well does it describe you. Where does it come close
to the mark, and where is it far off the mark, and why?

I think it is related to the whole “Gospel and ‘our’ culture” thing that was
being promoted by fans of Lesslie Newbigin about 10-12 years ago, though
again, it is not something one hears much about nowadays.

I’ve written a few thoughts about it here:

http://khanya.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/hipster-christianity-redux/

with links to some of the other articles on the topic, and I’d really like to
discuss it. And what does it have to say about the gospel and Western
culture, or about evangelising (or re-evangelising) the Western world?

I’m hoping that people will discuss it in the Christianity and Society forum, and if you are at all interested in the topic, I invite you to join us there

Christianity & Society
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chris_soc/

Group Email Addresses
Post message: chris_soc@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe: chris_soc-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: chris_soc-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
List owner: chris_soc-owner@yahoogroups.com



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“ The SA I fought for, alongside millions of fellow citizens, and that Nelson Mandela personified as our founding father, was at the forefront of freedom of expression, enshrining it in our Constitution, ostensibly for an eternity. Freedom of expression is not a neoliberal principle. It is the embodiment of the democracy we fought for. The security cluster’s rise has been a steady trend over the last decade, from the cowboy behaviour of “shoot to kill” to the increasing militarisation of the police forces. I, you, we all should be very afraid of the increasing influence of intelligence sectors that are being subordinated to political agendas, intent on drawing veil secrecy across our country. Daily Maverick - To my generation: Listen. Listen very carefully.


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The Case for Drinking as Much Coffee as You Like - Lindsay Abrams - The Atlantic