Our friend Ori Pomerantz has started a blog called “Instructional Design.” I’m not entirely sure what it’s about, but since it’s his, it will doubtless be worth reading.
Hubris alert
In my ongoing effort to overcome the limits of my shyness disorder, and to put myself squarely in a position where failure and humiliation are inevitable, I’ve accepted an invitation (through the good offices of Hunter Baker, who’s written a book called The End of Secularism, in case you hadn’t heard) to become a blogger at Touchstone Magazine’s Mere Comments blog.
That does not mean I’ll be leaving Brandywine Books (which may be good or bad news for Phil). I expect my blogging at Mere Comments to be fairly occasional, proportionate to the frequency with which I have anything to say worth writing. (This qualification doesn’t bother me here, as you’ve already noticed.)
No point looking for anything from me over there just yet. I haven’t even signed up as of now. I’ll do that later this evening, barring a coronary or a home invasion. My plan is to start with a cross-post of my piece on the Great Minneapolis Tornado. This will doubtless provoke numerous angry comments, which will hurt my feelings; I will then retire to my room and refuse to ever post again, and it will be the last anyone hears of me.
But I feel I need to raise my profile a bit, because as far as I can tell the buzz that greeted the release of West Oversea has dissipated like the waves churned up by a very small stone thrown into very deep water, and is gone as if it never were.
Oh, did you know I wrote a book? You can buy it here.
Taking a Breather
Incredible!
Frank Wilson links to “The Narrative,” a presentation on PJTV on the playbook many media outlets use to present their views. It’s incredible. The war against Western culture and by extension the God whose words informed that culture has been waged for decades by the people with the bumper stickers “War is not the answer.”
T.S. Eliot: “Unreliable Judge of Censorship”
Many have thought of the poet and publisher T.S. Eliot as stern and unapproachable, but an exhibition of letters coming to the British Library shows him to be a compassionate advocate of struggling writers and willing to publish a lesbian novel, one of the first ever. I think it’s interesting that he says, “I am perpetually being shocked by what doesn’t shock other people and not being shocked [by what does],” meaning he thought himself a poor judge of censorship issues. (via Books, Inq.)
On my must-have list
The inestimable Dr. Boli, of Dr. Boli’s Celebrated Magazine, finds a need and fills it once again.
“Save the Dragons”
David Freer is a Baen Books author, and a very nice guy with whom I’ve chatted once or twice online.
He’s in the process of arranging to move from South Africa to Australia. He wants to take his numerous pets with him. That means time in quarantine, which is expensive.
So he came up with this website. He’s telling a story here, a chapter a week, but the chapters (after Chapter 1) come only when he gets $400 in his Paypal jar for each one. Four subsequent chapters have been paid for to date.
If and when the book gets published, subscribers who have given over $25.00 will receive a signed copy.
Read a good comic fantasy. Help an author.
Tip: Ori Pomerantz.
Killing Chickens
A group working to make eggs un-palatable to everyone has a video showing baby roosters killed by being tossed into a grinder. Male chicks apparently have no market value.
No, I didn’t watch the video. Yes, I think I’d have a problem killing cute little chicks, though I could get over it. A friend told me about killing quail for the first time recently, and he was rather disturbed going into it. But sanity returned to him, and he learned that quail come apart like they are made to be eaten. Fancy that.
About the chickens, I know the animal group thinks killing or eating animals is essentially cruel, but I don’t think most people do. A video like this will probably disturb those who are so completely removed from the land or natural processes that they don’t think where their food comes from and that any blood, dirt, or sweat is unnice and unwanted. (Unnice should be in the dictionary. It’s a good, modern word.)
I would think farmers have killed roosters for years, and I see that claim made on this blog post talking about city people keeping chickens in their city yards. Roosters fight with each other and make a lot of noise. That’s very unnice, but you can’t talk them out of it, so you have to grind them up. Someone from the hatchery shown in the video, according to USA Today, says this type of “instantaneous euthanasia” is standard for the industry and acceptable as humane by vets. It’s the industrial angle that makes this yucky, I think. Who wants to think of any animal being tossed in a grinder? Anyone would rather the company wring the chicks neck with their hands.
Obama Adviser Labels GOP
From our Thomas Jefferson Desk on Political Discourse and Civility: In a video just released or noticed, an Obama adviser says Republicans who are resisting the president’s agenda are doing so because they are–well, I won’t type that word here. You know that word repeated too often in the movie Hancock? That’s the word.
Cautionary Tale or Over-reaction?
Woman in New Zealand is fired for using BOLD, RED, ALL-CAPS in email to co-workers. She has sued and won a wrongful termination verdict. Seems to me a little personal communication would have helped here. Just to fire her after the bosses take an email the wrong way is so mechanical.
In other news, hackers are targeting Christians on Facebook. Watch your privacy settings.