12.06.04
Posted in culture at 10:24 pm by
This unholy thing has really started to get annoying. So have the vigilantes that are dying to make me look like an idiot. Clearly, they don’t read much of my writing. I do a fine job on my own of making myself look like an idiot.
The thing is when you make yourself look like an idiot, you look less like an idiot than when you try to make others look like idiots. This for example is what Ransom at The Crusty Curmudgeon is saying about badchristian.com:
Why does everybody want a bad reputation?
You’re so bad, you’ll be a big sensation.
- Fleming and John
Read this post from Proverbial Wife, which I just read in the Christian Carnival.
Now, read this overweening response to one of Marla’s offhand remarks. Today’s meditation: Why are there so many poseurs who feel an overwhelming need to remind us all how much of a badass they are? And why are there so many people happy to affirm them? (”You done told her good, Cletus. That’ll larn her, haw haw haw.”)
(No trackbacks. Deal with that, buddy.)
What’s with that? I assure you I may be many things, but a redneck? That’s crossing a line. I have yet to develop an official blog strategy as to naysayers. Perhaps ignorance is best. Perhaps. Maybe this is one of those situations where what is best isn’t what’s just.
The whole ordeal just makes me feel two things, one, that I don’t want to blog for a while, and two, that it’s not just me that makes me an evangelical expatriate, and people wonder why I don’t like to go to church even though I’m a Christian…it’s not God I don’t like, it’s the assholes that follow her.
Trust me, Mr. Ransom, I don’t think of myself as a badass. That’s not a label many would self-apply where I come from.
Oh, and one other thing. What the hell is up with everyone getting pissy about tracking back? To quote one of the greates films of all time:
Does no one give a shit about the rules…this is a league game Smokey.
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Posted in culture at 10:52 am by
Too often, I think, humans are polar creatures. I don’t mean we walk around on all fours in really cold climates. I mean we tend to think about the world just as though it’s black and white, or some shade of gray. We like to think of things as being either this, or that, or somewhere on the road between those two points.
That would be fine in a one dimensional universe. However, sometimes it pays to realize that we don’t live in a one dimensional universe. I think that’s hard, but we should endeavor to do that–to imagine a multidimensional world.
Take love for example. In our one dimensional world, we see love as an endpoint on a scale. The opposite of love is hate, right? Since you can’t respond because you’re reading, let’s just say I’m right. So, we have a scale. Love is on one end and hate is on the other. Now we have a useful measure for ranking things we either love or hate. For example, on the love/hate scale I hate CREED, but I love my wife, somewhere in the middle (but closer to my wife) is U2.
That’s great in a one dimensional world. But what if, we don’t really live in a one dimensional world. What if we actually were living in a two dimensional world but didn’t know it. (If you’ve ever read Flatlanders, you’ll know where I got this example.) One day, a dude in a helicopter (of course the wise reader would have to recognize that this world was actually 3 dimensional…but bear with me) comes along and takes you for a ride. He brings you up into the air and you, for the first time, realize that your 1-dimensional world is bigger than you thought. In reality, love isn’t a ‘one-line’ horizontal scale. In reality, love is a target. On the edge of one of the quadrants of that target is hate, but another quadrant is bordered with all other sorts of badness.
We live in a world that is best perceived as being 3 spacial dimensions (I’d prefer not to get into a discussion of quantum phyics…so let’s just call it a 3 dimensional world.) Likely, the love target is spherical.
I think we’d do well to remember that. That there are lots of other concepts that are the oppositte of love. The most salient,to me right now I think, is fear. More on this tomorrow…thanks for reading!
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12.05.04
Posted in culture at 9:53 pm by
I’ve been thinking lately. I know, bad habit. Anyway–apart from that attempt at self-deprecating humor–I really have been thinking. I’d like to shorten some of my entries. Of course, the ones that aren’t finished unless they’re the normal lenghth, they’ll still be long. But, the ones that really only deserve a half a page, I’ve decided to just give them a half-page, rather than prattling.
So, wonderful weekend this weekend. Great times, great music. Wilcox was fan-friggin’-tastic. His wife Nancy Pettis was along for the show (as was his son Nate.) There’s something special about seeing a musician on stage singing about (and several times with) the object of his love. Nancy has a beautiful alto voice that pairs so nicely with David’s. Seeing them up there really made me miss my wife (she was at home in Grand Rapids while I was away in Indianapolis for the show.)
Wilcox always gets my brain moving. He’s really folky (perhaps even a bit too ‘folky’ for me.) Nonetheless, he really gets me thinking. I want to get some of those thoughts into a post. Then, I’ll have sort of an outline for this week, and I’ll be able to remember exactly what it was that was running through my mind.
So, here’s my short-list (from things at the Wilcox show and this weekend’s events.)
Why I could live in Indianapolis
Love and fear
How to be a good husband
Being mad at churches
A good person
The dirty little ‘l’ word
Wow. That was easy. Believe it or not, I think there’s some good stuff there. Check back if you like and see what we come up with. Any thoughts about any of these topics (broad though they are) are welcome.
Thanks, and good nite.
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12.03.04
Posted in homebrewing at 1:13 am by
Well friends, tomorrow, when I’m done with work and school. I’m not going home. Some of you are preparing to scream at me with all your might. I can tell, you’re planning on screaming, “You IDIOT, don’t leave your wife! You’ll never get that lucky twice.”
Never fear, I’m not leaving my wife. Jen and I are fine. I’m just going on a road trip to Indianapolis for a David Wilcox concert. I love David Wilcox. If you’ve never heard of him, or heard him, you should. He’s great.
I’ll try to come up with a trip report, but if you don’t hear from me for a while, that’s why. Have a happy weekend.
Oh, one other thing. Any of the rest of you who are interested in homebrew (read: Streak) you may be interested in this, my first recipe. (Yes, after enjoying the brewing process so much I bought another bucket and carboy and started another batch recently. (That’s two batches this week if you were keeping track.)
Brandon’s High Hopped Dark Amber Ale
Steep at 150 degrees for 30 minutes:
12 oz. Crushed Crystal Malt Barley
3 oz. Roasted Barley
Remove muslin grain bag and bring mash to boil.
Add:
7 lbs. Light Liquid Malt Extract
1 oz. Centennial Hops (10 percent AA)
Boil for 45 minutes then Add:
1 oz. Cascade Hops (5.8 percent AA)
1 tbsp. Irish moss
Boil for 14 minutes then Add:
1 oz. Cascade Hops (5.8 percent AA)
Kill heat bring wort to 80 degrees
Pitch yeast:
California Summer Ale Yeast (White Labs pre-hydrated)
Primary Fermentation: 5-7 days
Rack to carboy
Secondary Fermentation 2-3 weeks
Prime and bottle:
Prime with 4 oz DME (dry malt extract)
Bottle age for 2 weeks, minimum.
This is should be a high hopped ale with a citrus, floral hop flavor and good aroma…let me know, if you give this a try.
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12.02.04
Posted in culture at 4:53 pm by
Randomly searching was I. Just flipping through the random blog. Truly. I was hardly even trying to find a reason to write. When lo and behold I randomly stumble onto a mention of my blog. Wow. The concept that I would be randomly running through the internet and find a mention of myself, I find nearly incomprehensible.
When I recover from this shock, I begin to read the post in more detail. The Proverbial Wife has this to say about Unholy Alliances–of which, I seem to be one. Ah, yes.
I’m really still taken aback by what I’ve read there, but what else is one to expect from “conservative is scriptural” religious right wackjob wingnuts on rampages. Let me give you just an example…but the whole post is worth a read. Here’s some juicy bits to whet your appetite:
I recently stumbled on to “They Will Know Us By Our T-Shirts” which I found quite amusing and insightful–the few posts I read–so I added it to my blogroll. Today I went back and decided to click on the first link in the blogroll, Bad Christian, because the title aroused my curiosity. This guys is proud that he swears, is liberal, etc. In fact, to find out whether you qualify as a “bad Christian”, the author links to a Biblical worldview test, and the lower your score, the worse a Christian you are…which is supposed to be a good thing (I scored high, btw).
Now I’m wondering, why is T-shirt Guy, a.k.a. seminary student, promoting Bad Christian? Perhaps I don’t know T-shirt Guy as well as I thought.
This woman, for fear of linking to objectionable material I suppose, wouldn’t even do the courtesy of offering me a trackback prior to publicly slamming me on her webspace. In fact, she wouldn’t even link to Christian Retail because they link to me!!!
I suppose that it’s convenient for her to forget that ripping a person to shreds–even though her arguments were just about as full of holes as swiss cheese–without offering that person an opportunity to respond or even notifying that person is also highly objectionable. In which case, she should stop linking to herself–at all costs. I’m not going to hold my breath.
Here’s another good bit:
From time to time, I have to delete stuff off my own blogroll when I realize that even if the blog itself is largely ideologically consistent with what I support
So, the moral of the story here is to eliminate ALL voices in your life that aren’t ideologically consistent with yours TO THE LETTER. Fine if you’re God. I’m pretty sure that Ms. Marla Swoffer isn’t.
I guess what gets me most is that I’ve been judged. Marla didn’t come here and really take the time to even try to understand my position on the use of language. That I don’t think the words fuck, shit, damn, ass, etc. are bad words. But, when humans derogate other humans, that’s swearing of the highest order. Marla didn’t care to read that far. She was interested in writing people off as ‘objectionable.’
She writes Andrew Sullivan off because he’s gay, and being gay is clearly not a christian value. Finally, she didn’t come right out and say it, but I don’t think she’d balk at the chance. In not so subtle subtext, there was the concept forwarded that any liberal content was objectionable content.
Marla, grow up. Put that high powered Berkeley journalism education to work. Do some research before you defame my character publicly but are too afraid to link to me. I don’t even care if you don’t like me, but not inviting me to defend myself, that’s just unChristian.
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