Archive for July, 2012
Remembering the Battle of Gettysburg
July 23rd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
During our recent visit to the United States, we made a one-day visit to the site of the famous American civil war battlefield of Gettysburg [my account here]. I have just finished reading “The Killer Angels”, a brilliant novel by Michael Shaara set during the three days of the conflict [my review here]. I wanted […]
Posted in History | Comments (0)
An amazing act of wartime betrayal
July 22nd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Sometimes we record an interesting programme on the television and do not watch it until some weeks or even months later. So it was only this evening that we viewed a BBC2 programme broadcast on 21 May with the title “The Fall Of Singapore – The Great Betrayal”. The programme told the astonishing story of […]
Posted in History | Comments (0)
How the super rich become much much richer
July 22nd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
“A global super-rich elite has exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to hide an extraordinary £13 trillion ($21tn) of wealth offshore – as much as the American and Japanese GDPs put together – according to research commissioned by the campaign group Tax Justice Network. James Henry, former chief economist at consultancy McKinsey and an expert […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
The tradition of bun throwing in Abingdon
July 21st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Vee and I spent today in Abingdon visiting our Chinese ‘family’: Zhihao, Hua and five year old Joshua. Abingdon claims to be the oldest continuously populated town in Britain with people living there for some 6,000 years. Certainly it is very proud of its history and traditions. Two weeks ago, the Abingdon County Hall Museum […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (2)
Driving home the latest murder statistics
July 20th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Most people are convinced that crime levels have never been higher and are continually on the rise with murder rates similarly on the increase because it seems that we live in an ever more violent society. In fact, the statistics present a totally different and much more reassuring picture. This week, we had the latest […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (3)
The films of Emily Blunt
July 17th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I’m a fan of British actress Emily Blunt whose career is going from strength to strength. This summer, she has been in three releases, all of which I have seen:”Your Sister’s Sister” [my review here], “The Five Year-Engagement” [my review here], and “Salmon Fishing In The Yemen” [my review here]. Last weekend, i caught up […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Why America is the greatest country in the world
July 16th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Actually it isn’t – as explained in this great clip from the first episode of “The Newsroom” which I ‘ve just watched on British television (Sky Atlantic channel):
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (4)
What the upcoming American elections are really about
July 14th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Berkeley professor Robert Reich – Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton – gives a short but cogent explanation in this video:
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)
An account of the American Civil War
July 14th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Earlier this ‘summer’, my wife and I had a holiday in the United States which included a visit to the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg [my account here]. Our one day tour of the site led me to buy a history of the American Civil War so that i could put the Battle of Gettysburg […]
Posted in History | Comments (1)
How deep is your love?
July 14th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
One man’s love was deep indeed – as revealed here.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)