heroes and villains

Leonardo da Vinci, according to some probably unreliable tv program on the Turin shroud the other day, wrote circa 13000 closely-written pages in his lifetime without once mentioning the Judeo-Christian deity. For a man whose life happened to unfold in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, that's about as heroic as you can get. Cheers, Leo.

I was diverted by this vid of celeb secularist Hitchens grappling with a very silly yank Christian, one who's apparently well-known to American readers/viewers. Something Australians can be reasonably proud of: a bloke like that would have little hope of achieving celeb status here. the comments are amusing too - I'm surprised anybody can take this non-event seriously for a moment. The Christian's argument - gravity's inexplicable to me, it's like magic, therefore god exists. Magic happens! Most five-year-olds are more reflective than this.

Just finished David Day's hefty bio of John Curtin - solid and straightforward as its subject. Was particularly moved by how deeply Curtin worried about those he had to put in harm's way to defend the nation during the war. Nightmares, depression, the works. Compare Cheney and Bush and their gratuitous war.