You can imagine the effect of these diabolical speeches on a people the majority of whom had not yet grasped the full significance of the doctrines of the Church. Thank God, the old Christians stood firm as rocks, but as Lichwan is mostly a young Christianity, the newly converted Catholics did not fare so well. At best, it will take some time to undo the harm for which the Reds were responsible.... I know that you will remember us in your good prayers. The work here at Lichwan is an up-hill climb, and from year to year the ascent seems to grow steeper.

Instead he’s daymaring the burning sandy wastes of southern Iraq – the unknowable concrete-and-mud-brick towns and forgotten bazaars where the Rams could well lose themselves … in a wilderness of dust.

Camp Tewattsirokwas was the brainchild of a Trotskyite couple, the Gimelmans from Cedarhurst, begun back at the time of the Schachtman unpleasantness amid epical all-night screaming matches […].

Three cups of coffee, but I can't clear my head from what went down last night.