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(Date Posted:10/03/2007 10:40:11)
Artist gets probation for building secret mall apartmentOctober 2, 2007PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- The leader of an artists' cooperative has been sentenced to probation for illegally setting up a secret apartment inside the Providence Place Mall that was equipped with furniture and a video game system.reminds me of a fiction book I read once....Michael Townsend, 36, saidhe and seven other artists built the apartment in a 750-square-foot loft in the parking garage four years ago and lived there for up to three weeks at a time while documenting mall life.The apartment included a sectional sofa and love seat, coffee and breakfast tables, chairs, lamps, rugs, paintings, a hutch filled with china, a waffle iron, TV and Sony Playstation 2 -- although a burglar broke in and stole the Playstation last spring, Townsend said. The artists built a cinderblock wall and nondescript utility door to keep the loft hidden from the outside world.There was no running water -- instead they used the mall bathrooms.Townsend said plans to make the loft "super-sweet" with laminated wood flooring and other perks fell apart last week after he and a visiting artist from Hong Kong walked into the room and were greeted by three security guards. He pleaded no contest to a trespassing charge.Mall spokesman Dante Bellini Jr. described the living space as little more than "an area with stuff in it."But Providence Police Major Stephen Campbell said he and other detectives were so intrigued they visited the apartment to see for themselves."I was surprised at what he was able to accomplish," Campbell said. "But what he did was clearly criminal. The mall is private property."------On the Net:www.colincantread.com/Yoto/Malllife.htmlhere's a clip...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9WOj0hCOFE
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In exchange for obedience, Christianity promises salvation in an afterlife; but in order to elicit obedience through this promise, Christianity must convince people that they need salvation, that there is something to be saved from. Christianity has nothing to offer a happy person living in a natural, intelligible universe. If Christianity is to gain a motivational foothold, it must declare war on earthly pleasure and happiness, and this, historically, has been its precise course of action. In the eyes of Christianity, woman(man) is sinful and helpless in the face of God, and is potential fuel for the flames of hell. Just as Christianity must destroy reason before it can introduce faith, so it must destroy happiness before it can introduce salvation.
-- George H Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God
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I think I read it on holiday? It did stay with me for awhile - maybe because of the 'abandonment' issues I had at the time. ? 
