@robertbreen Glad to learn of it. Looks perfect for reading during the downtimes in an upcoming vacation.
Paul Kingsnorth on The illusion of a pagan West via UnHerd:
What we are seeing with the likes of Bambi Thug, Sam Smith and the rest is not the resurgence of a threatening new (or old) religion. It is an aesthetic. Nobody would die for it. Nobody would fight for it. It is LARPing and play-acting. Rather than signifying a sinister new development or threatening new faith, it is a flimsy veil drawn over a gaping void.
Not a big surprise:
I don’t believe we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states … As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.
I have the dubious luxury of not living in a swing state.
I haunt obscure corners of Bandcamp and YouTube the way criminals seek out dark corridors and midnight alleys. You can’t get what I’m after with a Costco membership card. I need to hunt for it in the underground culture economy.
@bbowman Yes. Convictionally from my late 20s, ecclesially from age 33 to 49 (counting right up to my Crismatioin). Earlier, frank Wheaton-College-style Evangelical.
I think I read everything Schaeffer wrote in my later Evangelical years. He was the closest we had, we thought, to C.S. Lewis.
@jabel I dug around a bit and determined that I knew Oswin, very very slightly, as John. I am godfather of one of his sons, Ben.
@jabel Hmmm. Is Oswin Craton the son of a physician and a composer?
@JohnBrady With me it runs a layer deeper. Read this Kevin Williamson piece (if not paywalled). Then imagine going off not to college at age 18 but to boarding school at age 14 — and off somewhere-or-other this time of year for the next 8 years.
Nice to have a cold snap going in Indiana right now.
@JohnBrady I think I may have read it because you mentioned it once. I have some (Arthur?) Machen with your fingerprints on it, too, as I recall the source of my interest.
Timely
@bbowman Good point about the datedness of the "isms" list, but I was more impressed by "The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually or corporately, tending to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit."
@bbowman Blasts from the past.
When James Carville is on a podcast with Andrew Sullivan, I’m going to find the time to listen.
But, boy! Those altar boys have drifted a long way from their religious roots!
Chatting with brothers about Brian Lamb’s retirement, I’m reminded that our local high school has produced a couple of other recognizable names: Dick the Bruiser and Axl Rose.
@jabel My parish had a group of three young friends who made a CD in a style they called Byzantine Bluegrass. Then two of them married, followed by three sons and busyness. They're finally back to recording. (My son supplies keyboard work as needed.) I've got to go back and listen to the CD.
@jabel Thanks for that. I'm not much into pop music, and had never paid attention to the lyrics on Mad World. I'm also not much into bluegrass and had never heard of Sierra Hull.
Local boy made good: My fair city’s Brian Lamb retires from CSPAN, which he founded in his 30s..
@KyleEssary I saw it and pulled some of those same paragraphs for my "big blog."
Ewwww! Something’s Poisoning America’s Farms. Scientists Fear ‘Forever’ Chemicals. - The New York Times (unlocked article)
Bill Buckley used to tell about a New York City liberal who was incredulous at the 1968 Presidential election: “How could Nixon have won?! I don’t know anyone who voted for him.”
That’s kind of how I’ll feel if Trump, God forbid, wins.
If you’re not opposed in principle to paying for “content,” Ted Gioia’s Honest Broker Substack gives you more bang for your buck than any other place I can bring to mind.
@tinyroofnail Enjoy!
Cunning mail from a local car dealer says they’re having trouble keeping a stock of good used cars and would make us a very generous trade-in offer on our CX-9. It makes me feel like doing them a favor.
But I don’t want a BMW! There was a time I would have, but that’s not now.
Last one today …
Descriptive or normative?
Idolatry critique …
If he persuades me, I’ll have to rearrange my mental furniture.
@bbowman First foray into the meat of the book, some of it felt very dense — more closely argued than I'm accustomed to reading any more. I may need to pay less attention to trees, more to forest. Excerpt to follow.
I wonder how much Nick Saban was paid for this ad?
@eastbrad In the east, we commemorate the beheading of John the Baptist tomorrow.
@bbowman Just finished the introduction last night. In some ways, Cavanaugh acknowledges, he's working out the same insights as Myth, perhaps at a more fundamental level. The "idols" of the present book are (much?) the same as the non-religious causes of violence in the former.
Reading William T. Cavanaugh, The Uses of Idolatry. 📚 His The Myth of Religious Violence was one of my more heavily highlighted reads.
Finished reading Jack Matlock, Autopsy on an Empire, the U.S. Ambassador’s close-up view of the Gorbachev years. 📚Workmanlike and detailed (740 pages with Epilogue).
@ChrisJWilson Glad to hear it.
@JohnBrady Why not if you can buy pre-torn, pre-weathered Levis?
@JohnBrady Subscribed
Thought for the day. Not an aphorism, though I love them, but a full thought to be thought about.
@jabel There is a term for this: Sandwich Generation
@eastbrad Historically, the use of unleavened bread in celebrating the Eucharist dates to the 8th century.. How, then, can its use be a sina qua non of a proper Eucharist?
@JohnBrady Ouch!
@JohnBrady "If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." Deuteronomy 13:6ff
@JohnBrady I have a nylon jackass shirt (loud floral "Hawaiian" print - woven, not knit) that must be close to 40 years old and still looks new. I'm wearing it right now.
I wouldn't buy another, but it sure qualifies in the longevity department. (Presumably would not compost)
@ChrisJWilson I'm not sure Evangelical Christianity is any more a target in this podcast than Western Christianity generally since history-as-Wissenschaft got applied to the histories in the Bible.
@KyleEssary I wish he and Fr. Damick wouldn't digress so much. (Maybe if I were more tuned into pop culture I'd chuckle along.) But I soldier through to the payoff.
Having listened to the podcast, I'm now working my way through the very long transcript.