Deactivating my Bluesky account. It's as much a time-suck as Twitter is, and I'm not a Democratic partisan or a journalist so it's much more infuriating. It is tempting me to sin.

Had a lovely day offline. Came online for no good reason, and, I have to say, for some reason a lot of people still seem to think the Democrats are an opposition party.

Speaking of impactful, I just noticed that my Rhetoric teacher from Hampden-Sydney College, Victor N. Cabas, Jr. (1948-2018), passed a few months before his father, Brig. Gen. Victor N. Cabas (USAF) (1920-2018), did.

FYI, overwhelm is a verb, not a noun. I know language changes over time, but the jargon from corporate HR and post-modern academia has to be the most annoyingly impactful. Except that from medicine. I don't have itch. I have an itch.

Understanding the past is not a "diversity policy." Why it was dressed up as one so many years ago still boggles my mind, but I'm sure buzzword compliance has reasons.

Delivered mail today to a former carrier who met me at the curb wearing his Trump t-shirt to ask my opinion on this DOGE nonsense, as he put it. It's only stereotypes who are simple and easily predictable.

The only incorrect sentence in this executive order. 'The exhibit further claims that “sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism” and promotes the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct, stating “Race is a human invention.”'

As Dorothy's aunt would have said if she weren't a Christian woman, "straight to jail." Proponents of AI should be shot. It is not and will not be used to benefit humanity.

In short, the President MUST do what *Congress* says he must. He is the executive, not the legislative power. Glad at least one branch of the government understands that. Would that Congress did.

Consider this: No. 1 Daughter born in 2000 loved the Harry Potter books; No. 2 Son born in 2008 has never read them. No. 1 Son born in 2006 closely followed the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A Scout I was working with the other day, born in 2012, has never seen them.

Just curious, but if British Steel is owned by the Chinese, doesn't that make it Chinese Steel?

If humans are not necessary, then we can assist in their dying and decrease the surplus population. Surprised Mr. Gates hasn't volunteered to go first. www.cnbc.com/2025/03/26/b...

On this upcoming transgender day of visibility, will the Episcopal Church admit that detransitioners exist and thus that promoting transition as an unalloyed good is a rather foolish thing to do, pastorally speaking?

“They … have no honor.” — Worf

What authors, other than Madeleine L’Engle, are known Episcopalians and also wrote great books?

What novels would you suggest for a seminar series on the theme "in the Anglican tradition"?

I would only add that neoliberal policies are actively sinful, for the particular reason that they view people as objects to be used.

Actually, Canada wouldn't be the 51st state because that would piss off Texas by making it the 3rd-largest state. Making Canada the 51st through 64th states wouldn't help that particular problem, but does raise some interesting questions regarding the balance of power of representation in Congress.

Interesting piece in the LRB, but why the passive voice here? Who forbade? Is this simply an academic conceit to imply intention where there was none? www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

One of these days the cats will stop waking me up at 02:30.

A brief note from Amazon on why the purchase of an electronic book from them is more of a rental.

Monopoly is Bad (Exhibit No. Way Too Many to Count)

What novels would you suggest for a seminar series on the theme "in the Anglican tradition"?

Which is a more appropriate gift for an Episcopal bishop: the short book by a Catholic woman or the long one by an Anglican man? Or is a letter sufficient?

How did the imago dei become the divine itself, as in the phrase "the divine in others"?

Back in the day, one had to use a secured device to send her e-mails instead of a Blackberry, but these days no one is disciplined.

As far as I know Mr. Musk has not asked Mr. Mullenweg to turn off Tumblr nor sued the doctors who advised him to permit extensive cosmetic surgery on a minor, so this is interesting background material related to the insistent, poorly thought-out, and often vengeful pattern-matching done by DOGE.

There are many days when I feel out of my time.

Not a bad essay. Some people may favor the racial framing of this, but I find the problem more adequately expressed by comparison of author biographies from the last century and this. www.compactmag.com/article/the-...

My sense is that the world is not better off now than it was 50 years ago. Also, signs on the corners advertise a business cleaning dog shit from a yard, which implies 1) some jerk will pay someone else to pick up his dog's shit, and 2) someone is desperate enough to pick up someone else's shit.

In the introduction to this edition of Anthony Trollope's _The Warden_ (1855), E.F.S. notes that "[e]arly in 1851 Trollope was assigned to the agreeable duty of touring the southwest counties of England in the interest of rural mail delivery... during which he achieved his first success in writing."

Does no one else think it's ironic that the same people who insist on multi-ethnic representations of Christ also insist that he was a Jew and then proceed to draw the most caricatured representation of a Jew one could imagine?

Why are people surprised that things that have nothing to do with DEI are caught up in DOGE's rather incompetent and naive DEI string search when everything was rewritten to be DEI-buzzword-compliant?

For what it's worth, there were no African-Americans in the African-American Studies department at my alma mater, possibly including students, so I'm still unsure why it existed as separate from the history department.

Cui bono?

Footnotes are all for the good.

The identitarian portrayals of Christ as various ethnicities seem to me to be an excellent example of why the Reformed and the iconoclast are correct that any representation is a violation of the 2nd Commandment.

In which XKCD considers arguments over the liturgy.... xkcd.com/3063/

Is it appropriate to place (sic) after every failure to use the Oxford comma?

I'm glad to see members of the Democratic Party starting to understand that their leaders don't give a shit about them.

The picture of Poughkeepsie that Pat Ryan (D-NY) has on his website includes No. 1 Daughter's apartment, a closed parish church and school of the Archdiocese of New York, and a church building that was formerly in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, and then ACNA, and now who knows.

The new issue of The Historiographer has a laudatory and not entirely accurate article on the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, so I might have to write a letter to the editor.

Why are people surprised that things that have nothing to do with DEI are caught up in DOGE's rather incompetent and naive DEI string search when everything was rewritten to be DEI-buzzword-compliant?

@theodramatist.com lovely picture of hen and chicks in today's newsletter.

Daylight Saving Time kills people.

I first listened to the BBC World Service on shortwave radio in the 1970s. My favorite program was The Essay.

"Though we are convinced, that all our support, and aid, and comfort, depend on the blessing of God, yet our senses allure and draw us away, to seek assistance from Satan, as if God alone were not enough." -- John Calvin, Commentary on Matthew 4:5-11 ccel.org/ccel/calvin/...

I was told I would have an extra hour in the evening now.