Fun stuff

[nameandnature]

The site of the book of the sites, The Internet, now in handy book form, is good fun. Crackbook and Poormatch are particularly well observed. It reminded me of TV Go Home, but a little less bitter and scatological (only a little, mind you).

Quotable quotes of the week:

"... any time anyone's said anything comprehensible about the Trinity the Church has declared it a heresy." - gjm11 on a Rilstone post created specifically for him.

"The universe tends toward maximum irony. Don't push it." - jwz on taking reliable backups (which is much harder on a Mac than it ought to be).

"All those fine words about the rule of law safeguarding our liberties, the arbitrary exercise of power and Bunker Hill, Lexington and Normandy went right out the window on 9/11. That was when Henry and the rest of his stalwart defenders of the rule of law promptly wet their pants and then let their president use the constitution to clean up the puddle." - Digby, via a friend of a friend.

There's an option that I might have considered instead of apostasy. Unfortunately, in those conservative days, you couldn't really do that sort of thing. These days, if LiveJournal is anything to go by, it's all the rage. A woman tells us how she's in an open relationship with Jesus.

Comments

[brokenhut.livejournal.com]

I shed a joyful tear at the Schmapple page. Apple spoofs are just too easy, but so fun...

[ex-robhu.livejournal.com]

Looks like gjm11 is handing out the smackdowns as usual.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, I'm sorry. I thought we were having an interesting and constructive discussion where we listened to each other's points and tried to learn from them.

If what we're actually having is a wrestling match, then perhaps I shan't bother...

Andrew Rilstone

[nameandnature]

gjm11 is much too polite to "hand out the smackdowns".

[ex-robhu.livejournal.com]

So you're going to stop discussing with gjm11 because of what someone unrelated to the discussion said?

Nice move.

[gjm11.livejournal.com]

Well, for what it's worth my impression was the same as yours. Perhaps the ideal is to have an interesting and constructive discussion where we listen and learn *and* where My Side is so transparently Right that being sweet and mild and reasonable looks to third parties just like handing out smackdowns...

But if you find that I've been unreasonable or impolite or otherwise turned our discussion into a wrestling match, please accept my apologies and feel free to suggest how I could have done better.

To forestall misunderstandings, I should perhaps add that of course I don't exactly think that no one has ever been allowed to say anything comprehensible about the Trinity; it would have been more precise to say something like "any time anyone's given a specific and comprehensible account of the Trinity the Church has declared it a heresy". But, regrettably, I'm not always as perfectly accurate as I'd like to be.

[nameandnature]

[I cannot decide between the llama and my "Internet: serious business" icon here. The llama is is, then.]

robhu may have some bias about which side seems transparently Right ;-)

For my part, I thought that the quoted sentence was funny because it was recognisibly close to the truth, but I didn't think it meant that you weren't taking the discussion seriously.

[gjm11.livejournal.com]

[Yup, the llama is good.]

The more biased robhu is, the better: it means he gets to read more righteous smackdowns while the rest of us have respectful and constructive discussions :-). I should add, to continue being as boring as possible for the sake of clarity, that in fact I don't think robhu is particularly biased or unreasonable.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh my hypothetical micro-designer! A meta-meta-meta discussion!!!

No, I don't think that Gareth's posts have been turning the discussion into a wrestling match -- I just don't like the idea of people watching from the sidelines thinking of "their side" getting in "hits" against "the other side." Would have been as perturbed if someone had said I was issuing "smackdowns" against thee...

Have a piece re the Trinity half written. Although I may give up and review the new Morecambe and Wise DVD instead....

Andrew Rilstone

[gjm11.livejournal.com]

I think you issue quite a lot of smacksdown (it's like "courtmartial", right?) yourself, actually, and they're generally enjoyable. (Go on, admit it, you were pleased when you came up with the Argument From Onanism.)

[ex-robhu.livejournal.com]

Did you see the TGD (http://www.theinternetnowinhandybookform.com/amasszone/deluded_fucks.html) parody in The Internet, now in handy book form?