If you cannot answer a man’s argument, all it not lost; you can still call him vile names.  ~Elbert Hubbard

While this is a political/environmental message, it is really well done. The narrator’s voice, for example, is perfect.

via Wimp

for all city hall crossings. It might remind us of the limits of corporate-style authority.

via The Daily Dish

On awaking just before 4 and realizing that I was not going to be able to sleep again I got up and went to my desk. I started reading more of Jon Butler’s Awash in a Sea of Faith. What a delight the book is.

Compared to some others I have read on the topic his command of both his material and his imagination makes reading it an act of mental nourishment – a bit like a huge fresh seafood salad after weeks of sausage with mac and cheese. I feel like my brain has had its palate refreshed.

More on the book later, but just a little sparkly I found.  In the introduction (“The European Religious Heritage”), during a discussion of the rise of Dissenting Protestantism there was a reference to “endless cycles of religious extremism” (nice!) and a list of

social and spiritual radicalism at Munster, anabaptism in Switzerland and the Low Countries, and Familism, Fifth Monarchism, Ranterism, Muggletonianism, and Quakerism in England.

Muggletonianism! I actually giggled. I have always admired J. K. Rowling’s apparent familiarity with little bits of European esoteric history (she does have a French and Classics degree after all). I actually giggled when Nicholas and Pernelle showed up in HP. Imagine introducing actually history into a kids book! I suspect the delvings of some readers into European magical history will show up in tomorrow’s scholarship, sort of like early StarTrek technological fantasies have showed up in today’s shoulder sling bags.

I had never come across Muggletonianism before. No idea if Rowling knew about them but, even if not (and the wikipedia article suggests not), the coincidence is delightful anyway.

This from the wikipedia article linked above:

The six principles of Muggletonianism have perhaps been best set out by George Williamson

• There is no God but the glorified Man Christ Jesus.
• There is no devil but the unclean Reason of men.
• Heaven is an infinite abode of light above and beyond the stars.
• The place of Hell will be this Earth when sun, moon and stars are extinguished.
• Angels are the only beings of Pure Reason.
• The Soul dies with the body and will be raised with it.

Is this what muggles believe? No magical ability perhaps, but magical thinking seems to obviate its need.

Anyway, this is what I do with sleeplessness when I don’t have to freak out about having to spend all day at work. I can (and will) take a nap later and continue my pursuit of restedness.

My son sent me the link. It is wonderfully apropos to the day. The thing is everyone who knows me knows I am no good at all at games. No interest. No talent.

from: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

via wimp

also via the Wooster Collective

For whatever reason videos like this make me feel good about being human. Go figure. They just do.

via Wimp

via wimp.com

I learned something new about my sometimes Jehovah Witness visitors that I suppose I would have suspected if I’d thought about it. All new religions have this habit of reading themselves back into history, it helps validate the belief set. Think about which desk is likely more valuable – a desk built 2 years ago or one built 200 years ago. One has stood the test of time, one is just used furniture.

I was working at home and there was a knock. When I answered there was a nicely dressed young woman in her 20s with a little girl of about 11. The elder had a colourful tract rolled up in her hand and after she introduced herself she asked me one of the supposed-to-be-caring questions about how I feel about something happening in the world today. I stopped her and asked “Are you a Jehovah Witness?” She looked a little annoyed that I’d interupted her pitch, but answered “yes.”

I was off. I told her that I found her way of life interesting but that I was an atheist and wasn’t going to be converted to which she replied that she found my beliefs interesting (fuel to the fire), to which I responded by starting to talk about society and its history of millenarian-type organizations and how there are people who start with a desire to believe there is one true answer to all human questions and how a person like that can read any fact and weave it out of existence through the power of narrative, etc etc. I mean I used to teach this stuff to college kids so I did go on a bit. (The tract never did get unrolled.)

I was being polite because of the little girl so all of this was said with a smile and several times I spoke to her directly to reassure her that her friend’s increasing tension wasn’t a sign of danger.

The young woman responded rather well to this deluge of erudition. She smiled through it all, at least until I got to the origins of the JW faith. Hooboy.  She believes that the JW’s formed during Jesus’s time. No kidding.

When she said that, I laughed and said “That is soooooooooo not true.” She got mad then. She said “Well I have read and researched our origins and I suspect you have not.” That last bit’s not actually true but, as she was in the process of taking the little girl’s hand and getting ready to make her hasty but dignified exit, I forbear from saying so.

That was fun.