Elizabeth David on Food and Wine

Rereading Elizabeth David's classic 1959 essay, An Omelette and a Glass of Wine:

Although there are those who maintain that wine and egg dishes don't go together I must say I do regard a glass or two of wine as not, obviously, essential but at least as an enormous enhancement of the enjoyment of a well-cooked omelette.

We are not in any case considering the great occasion menu but the almost primitive and elemental meal evoked by the words:  Let's just have an omelette and a glass of wine.

One of the main points about the enjoyment of food and wine seems to me to lie in having what you want when you want it and in the particular combination you fancy.

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Sam Harris on the Reality of Islam

Sam Harris writing on the TruthDig website:

It is time we recognized—and obliged the Muslim world to recognize—that “Muslim extremism” is not extreme among Muslims.  Mainstream Islam itself represents an extremist rejection of intellectual honesty, gender equality, secular politics and genuine pluralism.  The truth about Islam is as politically incorrect as it is terrifying:  Islam is all fringe and no center.  In Islam, we confront a civilization with an arrested history.

The idea that Islam is a “peaceful religion hijacked by extremists” is a dangerous fantasy—and it is now a particularly dangerous fantasy for Muslims to indulge.  It is not at all clear how we should proceed in our dialogue with the Muslim world, but deluding ourselves with euphemisms is not the answer.

Let us now acknowledge the obvious:  there is a direct link between the doctrine of Islam and Muslim violence.  Acknowledging this link remains especially taboo among political liberals.  While liberals are leery of religious fundamentalism in general, they consistently imagine that all religions at their core teach the same thing and teach it equally well.  This is one of the many delusions borne of political correctness.

The world, from the point of view of Islam, is divided into the “House of Islam” and the “House of War,” and this latter designation should indicate how Muslims believe their differences with those who do not share their faith will be ultimately resolved.  While there are undoubtedly some moderate Muslims who have decided to overlook the irrescindable militancy of their religion, Islam is undeniably a religion of conquest.  The only future devout Muslims can envisage—as Muslims—is one in which all infidels have been converted to Islam, politically subjugated, or killed.

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