Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...

Mine is one of my favorites, Remus Lupin:

You are a wise and caring wizard and a good, loyal friend to boot. However sometimes in an effort to be liked by others you can let things slide by, which ordinarily you would protest about.

But according to the quiz, I'm equal parts Albus Dumbledore (both 70%) and almost Harry himself (65%).

[thanks to Peacebang]

Press Button, Receive Bacon

Ahhh, so that's what it means! ;)



Mmmmm...baaaacon.

[via History of the Button]

Headbanger's Ball

A certain comment thread over at Eileen's got me to thinkin' about loud music, esp. after Pisco mentioned a Def Leppard tune.

So your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to name a favorite piece of music that you like to play at louder-than-is-prudent volume. The kind of song that, when you hear it come on the radio while you're in the car, you holler, "Turn it up!" Extra points if said piece of music has no redeeming social value or "message," and would irritate any self-appointed guardians of the public morality. I'll start us off with:

ZZ Top - My Head's in Mississippi

QotD for 17 July, 2007

The very logic of evangelicalism drives it inevitably towards a cultic fundamentalism

Michael Hampson, in
Last Rites: The End of the Church of England

[thanks to the Rev. Eliz. Kaeton on Telling Secrets]

What a Blog Isn't

The internet is a megaphone. It can amplify a voice, and reach across a country. It can unite those who are apart, and incidentally, make a group seem much larger. It can forge new connections that never would occur otherwise, share information, and facilitate strategy.

But it cannot wipe a tear, or make you dinner, or speak in a quiet voice outside in the moonlight. It cannot see a wry shrug, or hear a laugh, or feel a brief silent touch of support on your shoulder. It does not notice your frown, or sense your discomfort. It can't tell when you just want to be together in companionable silence, when you are hungry, when you are lonely.

Certainly, share knowledge and ideas by the internet. But don't forget those ideas are about and affect real people. You will not change minds with a megaphone. You will change them face to face, with human witness.

--- commenter "IT" on Fr. Jake's blog

Amen.

Our Lady Bird

Lady Bird Johnson died peacefully yesterday at the LBJ Ranch at the age of 94.

Lady Bird Johnson embodied all that is beautiful and good about the great state of Texas...We are proud to have known her and, like all Texans, are the better for it.

--- Texas Gov. Rick Perry

She was a woman of courtesy and courage alike. While her husband, Lyndon, could be brash, she was benevolent. While he could be tough and hard-charging, she epitomized style and grace. Together, they were a formidable pair...It never mattered where the Johnsons lived, Lady Bird was always a Texas rose.

--- Sen. Robert Byrd, West Virginia

Being an Austin native born in the early 1960's, I find myself, perhaps not unexpectedly, greatly saddened by her passing. Everytime I drive along a Texas highway bordered by wildflowers, I'll think of our Lady Bird.

My heart found its home long ago in the beauty, mystery, order and disorder of the flowering earth.

--- Lady Bird Johnson

May she rest in peace and rise in glory.

Coffee Quiz

I am 75% Addicted to Coffee

Mmmmm...coffeeeeee

Must. Post. LOLCatz.

Aaarrrgh. Eileen has corrupted me. Can't. stop. myself.

Where You Get to Believe in Physics

You've all heard the stories. Big natural disaster, loss of life and property, and the religious turn to their leaders for explanation. And instead we get garbage like this [via the Mad Priest]. Another example is when we heard a sermon (not at my current parish!) just after the big earthquake & tsunami in Indonesia a year or two ago. The priest said he thought the destruction & death was the result of "living in a sinful, broken world."

In the comments to the posting at the Mad Priest's, I found:

There was a wonderful series of interviews with church leaders a few years back after a swath of hurricanes went through Honduras. All were asked "Why these terrible storms." The local evangelical church leader said, "God is punishing the people for their waywardness." The Italian incumbent noted, "God is testing His people." The Episcopal Bishop (Leo Frade, now in Florida) said, "It's hurricane season."

--- the Rev. Br. Tobias S. Haller (BSG)

Doncha love it ?! It's like my t-shirt says, "The Episcopal Church: Where you get to believe in dinosaurs" (and, I'd hasten to add, "where you get to believe in physics, too." ;)