Christopher Hitchens on the Ten Commandments--

I can get behind the Commandments as Hitchens proposes. My kvetch against the standard-issue commandments are here. His version makes more sense to me.

(It's possibly the most inconsequential one from a moral POV--but Re: the cell phone-- I hate to see people who have a technological tumor with a rate plan growing out of their ear, who can't disconnect from the hive mind long enough to drive, tend to their progeny in public places, or stop using that lilting tone of voice? That makes every statement a question? Because you aren't sure you were heard? Because your friend was using the tunnel or was in one of those zones--so, like, you probably could have waited until you were at home to e-mail her? But OMG--you so totally had to talk about that episode of Lost this very minute?)

But no, really, the bits about not discriminating because of race, or because of orientation, and never, ever harming children, I think are far better than what the original version gave us.