Roland Boer's Blog, page 82

Today my older daughter finally introduced me to her new boyfriend - a tall, striking, smart and muscled young man - and it got me thinking about arranged marriages. I have become a strong advocate! These days I'm all in favour of asking one's children to choose - since I am generous - twenty or so potential partners. I employ specialists to check medical records, family history, genetic strengths and weaknesses, fincancial viability, and so on. And then I narrow the field down to four of five f

I'm just back from a couple of days with my parents, where matters are becoming simultaneously grimmer and more humorous.

Take the latest phase in the morphine saga. As the liver misfires and starts to close down, his brain isn't getting what it needs to work properly. So yesterday, after a cocktail of anaesthetic (from an abdominal drain), morphine and wine, he regaled us with endless stories about alcohol, challenged us to take theological positions on what happens after you die ... And decided

Thought I'd share some of my research findings relating to Fleshly Readings, especially that piece on 'Hittites, Horses and Corpses':

Here's Pete the onion man: http://www.nerve.com/Opinions/Singer/heavyPetting/

And here's a guy called Steve Rinella with 'Depraved Indifference': http://www.nerve.com/personalessays/rinella/depravedindifference/

The other day my father mentioned, in a moment of lucidity between morphine-induced stupor, that he regrets he can't go camping any more ...

A couple of years ago my father pondered his growing lameness from polio - his knee had begun folding the other way - and decided that the solution was: NOT pack the tent way for the last time or travel in a little more comfort. No, they bought a work truck. Why? Since pitching a tent had become too difficult, they'd just sleep in the back of the truck. It h

From my recent trip to China:
Makes you wonder how the walkway got its sag.

The other person I met on my recent trip to China was the bum-crack professor. BC teaches biblical studies at a state university in the Department of Religious Studies. He lives with his wife and mother-in-law in a small, new minimalist apartment on the other side of Shanghai – in a city of 19 million that meant a one hour taxi ride belting along the new freeways. I did need to give the taxi driver a scrap of paper with the address in Chinese, a trick I soon learnt on arrival.

Why not the univers

It's a difficult moment to pinpoint: the moment when, as they say, intellectuals become fascinated with growing onions, or go into property, or suddenly see management and administration as a scintillating career option.

Matt Chrulew passed this example on to me. At the recent 'Minding Animals' conference here at Newcastle, that arrogant wanker, Peter Singer (you know, the ethical philosopher) gave a talk. And his line was that everything had been mapped out on the issue of animals and ethics in

It's almost enough to make you jealous - the morphine and cognac cocktail. First, mix a few milligrams of morphine in a small glass of water, toss it down like a shotglass; second, ask for a glass of ice, reach for the cognac bottle underneath your chair, pour a generous slug and knock it down as well. The morphine multiplies the effect of the alcohol. The result: blissful, painless rest with pleasant, pleasant dreams. What a way to get plastered!

Please, please, someone tell me why ageing and dying parents behave like irresponsible teenagers. This morning my father struggled out of his death bed, put some clothes on his bones, covered his protruding belly (from liver failure), stumbled down the stairs so that my mother - who of course did not say 'you can go on your own' - could drive him 90 km to church, a free Presbyterian church of all things. A church where he can't hear anything that is said, where neither of them can stand the mini

The state of Victoria (down south) is reviewing its anti-discrimination bill. Religious schools at the moment can sack a gay teacher, or one who has a child and is not married. The government has been advised to put an end to that. Of course, there is uproar from the Roman Catholic arch-bishop and conservative Protestant schools, claiming infringement of their rights to do as they please.

Come on! It's one thing to insist that an employee in a fundamentalist school is a believer, but quite anothe