On American Religion On Its Death Bed, Going To Hell Soon
@happymisanthrope It is absolutely significant, and to my lights, a welcome development from an ecumenical/secularist point of view. Despite the annoying cliché of "spiritual-but-not-religious," I'm inclined to hope that the rise of "Nones" is perhaps indicative of a generation willing to approach questions of faith/non-faith with an independent scrutiny instead of a kind of traditionalist tribalism.
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On American Religion On Its Death Bed, Going To Hell Soon
@Murgatroid That exchange has been stuck in my mind for the last day or so. I kind of love this metaphor.
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On American Religion On Its Death Bed, Going To Hell Soon
@brianvan I'd agree with this. It's frustrating how it seems that faith in the US is caricatured as dichotomous choice between militant, gay-hating, biblical fundamentalism and militant, intellectually condescending atheism. Speaking as a former militant atheist twentysomething who has found a semblance of a meaningful "spiritual" life involving progressive Christianity at a liberal "mainline" church as a thirtysomething, it's important to point out that there's a vast territory between these two poles. Not all Christians subscribe to Jesus-as-No.-1-patriot thinking.
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On Happy Reverse Racism Day!
I'm absolutely not looking forward to the X-mas trip home, when I'm likely to hear versions of the same nonsense from mom and pop, who have lapsed into a rightish, Drudge-reading, rightwing semi-senescence as they're pushing seventy.
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On Giving Bad Advice To Kings
@deepomega You beautiful bastard! It's been out for a month now. Bought and downloading as we speak — you've both made my day and (in terms of productivity) ruined my week.
What I think I like best about Paradox titles is that rather than some kind of Civilizational linear, progressive, rational, (dare I say) Hegelian development from stone-age to space-age, games like Europa Universalis III and Victoria 2 present their periods of history as contingent, chaotic systems. An absurd multiplicity of mathematical variables abound, loosely influenced by policy choices and strategy, but predominantly by this matrix of interrelated, messy causality, unintended consequences, and random fate. Which as a "game" perhaps isn't as satisfying to a lot of people — it's hard to just kick ass and be awesome when you're dealing with such a granularly detailed level of shit happening. But as a modeling of history, it's delightful.
Although they don't have the graphical bells and whistles of CK2, I can definitely recommend Victoria 2 and EU3 (in their most up-to-date expansions).
And that's the end of my nerding out, publicly, on the Awl.
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On Giving Bad Advice To Kings
@deepomega All of the Paradox titles of that style are more geared to history-minded nerds than computer game nerds. I love them so, but it's never easy to explain why these games are fun to people who aren't already into them. I've been anxiously awaiting the Mac port of CK2 for months now, but am glad the game is Awl-commenter recommended.
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On It's Federal Primary Day! Let's Go Vote! (FOR CHARLES BARRON)
Wait, I can't even tell what is going on with this anymore. Is Choire being funny?
I was literally walking out the door to run errands and vote Jeffries, but am I somehow overlooking some legitimate political reason to vote for Barron? That he says amusingly horrible things all of the time is not a legitimate reason. I've got far left tendencies, but it seems to me that a bland liberal (whom Ed Towns hates) is preferable to Barron, who if he wins would be a tailor-made gift to the Fox News right for whenever they wanted to frighten white people on slow news days.
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On Frozen Food Critic Disappointed By Garlic Dipping Sauce That Comes With Digiorno Pizza Dipping Strips, For Which He Had Surprisingly High Hopes
Oh, mercy. I just watched a few more of these. It's like somebody did reviews of actual garbage spilling out of bags on the sidewalk on trash day. The big reveal is not that it tastes like garbage, but that some people actually enjoy the taste of garbage.
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On The Bodybuilder's Guide To Getting Rid Of "Computer Back"
@My Number Is My Address Donald Rumsfeld also was known to work from a standing desk. So there's that.
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On Now We Have So Many Bike Racks And No Bikes
@davidwatts You live in my neighborhood! Or close to it. Been to the dope new Walgreens yet?
I'm actually amazed and delighted that Bed-Stuy (or at least the western edge of it) was included in the initial rollout, whereas Williamsburg, Park Slope, Cobble Hill and Manhattan north of 59th Street were not. Ours is not a neighborhood used to being on the cutting edge of Rich People Things. I almost feel like it must be some kind of oversight.
q.v. citibikenyc.com/stations