Ruth Anne Latta

 Put Christ back into Christmas by Billy Bragg Put Christ back into Christmas The season of goodwill Peace on earth for everyone So let the bombs be still Let the guns fall silent Let the hungry be fed And let the tyrants of the world Lie uneasy in their beds You want Christ back in Christmas Yet you ignore his words And live your life in selfishness As if you've never heard Of the Samaritan who stops to help The stranger dressed in rags You pay lip service to the Lord While worshipping the flag A flag won't ask you what you've done To help the poor survive But Christ demands you cast away The sin of national pride Love they neighbour as thyself And you will plainly see That the true message of Christmas Is one of empathy In haste to vilify you forget Christ was a refugee King Herod's murderous orders caused His family to flee Into the land of Egypt Where their safety did lie Would you refuse to let him in And send him back to die? God rest ye merry gentlemen So drunken...

    https:// compulsivereader.com/2025/12/ 19/a-review-of-a-different- kind-of-power-by-jacinda- ardern/ Above is the link to  my review of Jacinda Ardern's memoir, A Different Kind of Power.

 A friend gave me a booklet from her church: " Forward Day by Day": Daily Devotions for Disciples.   I was impressed by the devotion for November 6th, 2025. The text is Matthew 14: 5, "Though Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd because they regarded him as a prophet." The reading is as follows: "History is full of awful rulers. Some, like the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible, are so bad that we include their nature in their names. Others, such as Roman Emperor Nero, are metonyms for evil, their reputations permeating our language.  Then we have Herod, whose legacy places him high in the pantheon of awful rulers. "Herod beheaded  John the Baptist, and then fearful of the growing following of Jesus, he condemned the prophet to death. Herod witnessed this cowardly nature in his father, Herod the Great, who was the ruler who called for the Slaughter of the Innocents because he worried a baby would unseat  him. When we look closely at powerful ...

 My Aunt Lucy      Aunt Lucy was a large woman who wore dark print winter dresses and thick spectacles. In the summers, she  wore cotton print dresses with aprons that did not necessarily match.  She taught nine and ten year olds, and in the summer, when her sisters came to visit her, they slept late, then sat over brunch in their bathrobes talking about school until two or three in the afternoon, when it would be time to think about supper.      At nineteen, in November 1924, she wore a shapeless black coat on the train to a remote school district near Parry Sound where she’d been belatedly hired to teach.  She was met during a blizzard by a burly fur-coated man who looked like a buffalo driving a horse and sleigh. Twenty years her senior, he was the school board chairman. Though she  was afraid of him at first, two years later they were married.  He earned a living as a resort owner and hunting guide for tourists.  She c...

Book Reviews ,  Non fiction reviews A review of Capitalism and its Critics by John Cassidy November 2, 2025 Reviewed by Ruth Latta Capitalism and its Critics: A History from the Industrial Revolution to AI by John Cassidy Farrar, Straus and Giroux May 2025, 624 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0374601089 John Cassidy’s examination of capitalism from its origins to the present day is a big book, the size of  The Dawn of Everything  by David Graeber and David Wengrove. The “two Davids’ book, about the cooperative nature of early indigenous societies, was abbreviated and summarized in a shorter volume. Should Cassidy’s book be summarized to make it more digestible to a public that likes a quick read? No. Cassidy’s book is a reader-friendly book that takes readers on a journey from the Levellers and Diggers of the English Civil War, to Trump’s America.  By selecting an historical figure as the focus of each chapter, he gives readers a human story and makes the past come alive. Cassid...

  Fwd: Beautiful! Thank you to you both RE: Alighting in Time - Lynne Wycherley - with all my thanks Inbox Magdalena Ball Wed, Oct 15, 5:09 AM (1 day ago) to  me Some nice feedback for you :-) - thanks again.  Begin forwarded message: From:  "Lapwing" < lapwing@far-light.co.uk > Subject:  Beautiful! Thank you to you both RE: Alighting in Time - Lynne Wycherley - with all my thanks Date:  15 October 2025 at 8:18:43 pm AEDT To:  "'Magdalena Ball'" < maggieball@compulsivereader. com > Heartfelt thanks Magdalena, and especially to Ruth (Latta)  ~ it’s so kind of her to have taken the time, I feel from her words she is something of a kindred spirit, sensitive to Nature and the feminine ... Radiant leaves are peeping through my small window here, as if Nature would like me to send some of Her inner brightness to you both… Warmest wishes,  Lynne   Sent using cable   From:  Magdalena Ball [ mailto:maggieball@ compulsiveread...