Friday, December 30, 2011

Cox Family News Letter Volume 41 Number 12


Cox Family News Letter Volume 41 Number 12

Dear Friends

2011 was a wonderful year for the Cox Family here in Raleigh.  Evelyn continued her volunteer work with the local chapter of The American Red Cross.  This year, Evelyn concentrated more on volunteering for Red Cross events where they provide first aid locations for public events.  This fall and winter she began to help with the Disaster Assistance Teams (DAT) again.

Zach continues to work full time but has set a definite date when he will no longer work full time (The date is 15 May 2013). Zach rode in his 14th consecutive MS-150 Bicycling Tour this year and participated in his 7th Cycle North Carolina Bicycle Tour.  He continues to visit the gym for an hour or so 5 days a week at 5:30am to swim and exercise, and gets in as many bicycle rides as he can.

Robert continues to help around the house as well as take courses at the local technical college.  This fall Rob gave up using Apple Computer products and instead built up from scratch his new (and now only) Windows-Intel computer (it really is a nice computer).

Anna and James have announced their engagement to be married in 2012.  We are all very excited about this and look forward to the wedding.

Ginny and Joe are doing grand in Berkeley CA.  Evelyn drove out to CA this summer with Anna and they had a good visit.  Anna flew back and Evelyn stayed on.  Zach flew out the last week in August (had a great visit with Ginny and Joe) and then Evelyn and Zach drove back across country together.

We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a safe, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Christopher Hitchens passed away 15 December 2011. Here is a link to a YouTube video where he discusses the 10 commandments.  At the end of the video he gives an updated version of them that do fit very nicely modern times.  Here is a link to to the text of the discussion on Vanity Fair.


And here are the updated commandments.
  1. Do not condemn people on the basis of their ethnicity or color. 
  2. Do not ever use people as private property. 
  3. Despise those who use violence or the threat of it in sexual relations. 
  4. Hide your face and weep if you dare to harm a child. 
  5. Do not condemn people for their inborn nature—why would God create so many homosexuals only in order to torture and destroy them? 
  6. Be aware that you too are an animal and dependent on the web of nature, and think and act accordingly. 
  7. Do not imagine that you can escape judgment if you rob people with a false prospectus rather than with a knife. 
  8. Turn off that fucking cell phone—you have no idea how unimportant your call is to us. 
  9. Denounce all jihadists and crusaders for what they are: psychopathic criminals with ugly delusions. 
  10. Be willing to renounce any god or any religion if any holy commandments should contradict any of the above. In short: Do not swallow your moral code in tablet form.