File under: Smarter than thou
Surprise! People who think they are smarter than everyone else enjoy coming up with excuses for and more acceptable ways to tell those other dummies why they are right and should be listened to (All praise Nate for the intellectual courage of posting someone else's work! Yeah, it is such hard work e-mailing someone and asking permission to do that, after all. You should probably be thanking Heather since it was probably her who had to do all the typing. Hail Omans! May your name long be honored on the Bloggernacle!).
Mauss' essay is an important reminder to all of the Nacle's fault-finding smarties need to accept that being ark steadiers will result in people scorning them and not giving them callings, because that is what happens when you are smarter than everyone else, right? The ignornant masses spurn you because of your brilliance. Ah, but it is all futile anyway, because the very premise of the LDS Church is they are authoritative in all things all the time and failing to recognize that undermines the very core of the Church!
For people who are supposed to be so smart, they sure don't get this whole gospel thing, the whole Sermon on the Mount, walk in Jesus' footsteps like a disciple, do they? Nah, that is too hard. Why actually do stuff when you can just talk about it and argue about who is right and knows more about what you are supposed to do, than actually do it? That thing Jesus said about learning the doctrine by actually doing the Father's will, I guess a PhD or JD exempt these guys from that since they are smarter than everyone else.
But, hey, you know, credit to Mauss for encouraging the intellectuals in his Dissenter's Decalogue to actually turn the other cheek (D4D #4) so the dummies will accept you when you condescend to their level (D4D #6), try to "pay your 'dues'" by keeping the commandments (D4D #5), and "endure to the end" by not wavering in the face of unrighteous dominators who reject your brilliant preeminence (D4D #10). Nothing like trying to frame Christ's teachings into the context of academe.
ARJ admitted to hacking into T&S in comment number seven here, and also re-hacked into T&S to confess it was him who hacked them.
Apparently whoever is supposedly the T&S admin is not exactly security conscious...or even conscious for that matter.
File under: Copycat
Kaimi is apparently miffed that Kaavya Viswanathan’s is getting all kinds of attention for plagiarising and wants in on the action. So, he cribs Rusty's prior post on Gaut, which post he lovingly adored, and turns it into a post on NYC, whom his wife Mardell also loves (making her the coolest wife in the world since she loves anything he loves and does whatever he does...take note there wives aspiring to unseat Mardell for 2007 Coolest Wife in the World). Or, maybe, being on sabbatical means you don't have to be original.
File under: Judging
Not only is Caroline irritated that men spent half of the time talking at her RS Presidency meeting, she is aggravated that her Mercedes-driving, Armani-wearing, Great and Spacious Building-dwelling Stake President is counseling the women leaders to discourage girls from aspiring to lavish and inappropriate wedding gowns for Temple weddings that cannot be subsequently used after the Big Day.
Caroline pretty much agrees with his counsel, but that is besides the point, because this is an opportunity to detect masculine hypocrisy (the WORST form!) that simply cannot be passed over! I mean, if we are going to discuss cultural idolatry, then lets really start the fault finding. Never mind the Stake President did not counsel them to not spend a lot of money on the gown, only to keep it appropriate for the setting and useful for future Temple attendance. Oh, yeah, lets just skip that part and insinuate what he really meant, which was to keep girls oppressed in cheap hand-me-down rags so Priesthood Leaders can spend all of their money on themselves and their fancy cars and buy loads of meat, since we all know every self-respecting feminist has to be a vegetarian and must apologize at length for not being one and still advocate it, and watch Monday Night Football instead of having Family Home Evening like they tell all of us to do!
And did I mention I was surprised at how much men were speaking at this RS meeting? I mean, REALLY! They should just shut up and sit down, or better yet, don't even show up, since all they can do is spew their vile and pernicious hypocrisy! Oh, uh, I mean...he is a good guy...really...um...what do you all think?
You know, this Ed Snow guy, I mean, come on, like he kissed any girls at all during his teenage years. Uh huh, right. Look at that picture. He is so uptight and nervous, if a girl even talked to him he would have a panic attack. Guys like that didn't score make outs as teens, they played Dungeons & Dragons in their basement and if they rolled a 20 they got to debauch the fairy queen forest dryad, but only if she missed her saving throw.
And he totally misses the entire point of what Paul's point was with the whole "holy kiss" thing. He was telling the members of the early church to remember to brush their teeth, especially noticeable when fasting, because approaching someone with bad breath is just so distracting. Everyone knows Paul came from a wealthy Jewish family. Isn't it obvious Paul's dad was a dentist? Duh! So he was just telling people to brush and floss daily so they don't offend their Churchly brothers and sisters with stanky breath.
I tell you, Ed is about on par with Kevin when it comes to interpreting the Scriptures.
File under: Puerile
There are loads of really pathetic fanboys trapped in prepubescence on the Inernet. The Bloggernacle has seen their own version of this at times, but not anything fully realized. Well, it has taken awhile, but someone has finally come out of the closet. An informant has sent in a rather revealing photo of how Steve likes to spend his spare time, which is kind of embarassing. This is probably one of those secrets Steve would rather keep under wraps, so don't spread it around, OK?