god is got Great

And neither is this book. Christopher Hitchens god is not Great has a great book hidden in it somewhere underneath the diatribe. And annoyingly it's way under referenced. And even more annoyingly the little referencing there is, is in my paperback copy (published by "12" in 2007) incorrectly referenced. I suspect it's taken straight from the hardback without any thought about the changing of the page numbers.

If you didn't like The God Delusion for its language, then you're going to loath god is not Great. And frankly even I, who's batting on the same team as Hitchens, had trouble with some the outlandishness of it. Let's take look.

'In 2004, a soap-opera film about the death of Jesus was produced by an Australian fascist and ham actor named Mel Gibson. Mr. Gibson adheres to a crackpot and schismatic Catholic sect consisting mainly of himself and of his even more thuggish father...' [131]


Now maybe the above is true, but there's not a further explanation, reference or footnote for any of this. It reads like opinions backed up by bile. Gibson has never had even an Oscar nomination for acting, but could you really call him a ham? What sect of Catholicism is Gibson in? What's the story with Gibson's father being a fascist? Is it common knowledge, and I'm just out of the loop?

I recommend the book to those who want a good laugh.

Memoirs

Finished two books this week. Both were memoirs. One was more fictional than the other. I'll leave you to decide which was which.

Flashman's Lady is another in the Flashman series. As usual it was thoroughly anti-PC, and thoroughly hilarious.

Grinding It Out is the autobiography of Ray Kroc, the businessman who saw the potential of the McDonald's brothers' hamburger. As I've no interest in McDonald's or its products I've no idea why I picked it from amongst the Patricia Cornwells or Dan Browns that covered the bookshelf. But it was a really entertaining read. Especially Kroc's pre-McDonald's life. He didn't get into the hamburger business until he was in his 50s. Up until then he'd worked or was working several different jobs (paper cup seller/ real estate agent / pianist) during the depression and after. And this slice-of-life of the times was simply fascinating. I'd recommend the first half of the book to any GM who wants to get a feel for the era for their next gangbusters campaign. I'd recommend the second half to anyone who wants to found their own business empire.

My favorite quote - A man who represents himself has a fool for a lawyer.