dear orthodox on the internet: what is your damn problem

I read a post from somebody saying, essentially, "Hi, I'm interested in Orthodoxy, I'm from a skeptical secular background or something, some things are hard, of course, etc." And the responses were, essentially, HUMBLE YOURSELF. YOU MUST BECOME ORTHODOX ON ORTHODOXY'S OWN TERMS.

That's not what they said, but, essentially, that was the message that got across. It doesn't help, of course, that if you're looking for information on the internet, nutterdox are far more prominent than they are in reality, but that's something else.

Part of it is certainly the culture of "replying to stuff" that we pick up: to reply to something, you must be critical, and so you find something wrong in what they said and say what was wrong with it, and that is how you reply. That's not healthy at all, or at least not pastoral, and definitely not encouraging. Even if you really think, "Everything you just said is awesome except this one little bit...", all that gets communicated is, "You're wrong about this here!" I mean, if everybody who expresses interest and concern about becoming an Orthodox Christian on the internets essentially gets lawyered into realizing that they're not good yet at this "being Orthodox" thing, who would be left? If you really read this thing, technically, we're not allowed to go to the bathroom.

The proper response is, of course, to slaughter the fatted calf. Who is so great a God as our God? Sure, don't gloss over anything or paint an unduly rosy picture, but there is, at the very least, room for another bad Orthodox in the back here.

Was Ronald Reagan the worst president, morally, of the modern era?

Perhaps. On the one hand, he didn't like murdering babies, but, on the other, he really enjoyed racist policies and stuck it to the poor. Nixon's foibles, at least, were purely personal.

Is the Iowa GOP racist?

Yes.

I'm not saying this on the basis of racist posts on the Iowa GOP facebook page that they have deleted, but rather the posts that they have not deleted and have not commented on. eg, https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152122084787159&set=a.335425257158.150470.82076817158&type=1&relevant_count=1 What the hell? As much as I would like to pretend that being a GOP supporter in IA is not a matter of supporting racists, they are making it very hard to do. I mean, they had one big thing they deleted, but this shit is still around. The Iowa GOP is really making a mess of things here.

Worst common liturgical practice

Having been reminded elsewhere of the difference between, eg, a very Russian Russian vigil and a very convert-y touchy-feely service, I tried to think of the things I hate most when they occur. This isn't very healthy, but perhaps listing them will help me repent and heal. Or something.

1. The "holy handshake". Please, just keep going, don't stop the liturgy and don't touch me.
   
2. Stopping to explain things. I was at a service once where, right before the canon, the priest stopped the liturgy of St Basil to explain that this is the liturgy of St Basil, so the prayers are different, but they're great, so pay attention. Very disruptive, should have been mentioned during the sermon if it was to be mentioned.
   
3. Gratuitous linguistic acrobatics. With the exception of Greek, because everybody must use Greek if possible no matter how poorly they do it, it's probably not a good idea for a lot of non-native speakers to try to read in some language. Singing as a group might be okay if there are a few around who actually know what they're doing, but I really dislike it when somebody tries to do "40 Lord Have Mercy" by doing a decade in each of English, Greek, Slavonic, and Swahili.
   
4. Pews or chairs. Perhaps this should be first on the list. There is nothing in the world I hate more than having the sanctuary filled with rows of crap. Pews (and rows of chairs - they're morally the same) - stifle spiritual life.
   

More on the Rand Paul Quote.

If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and $50 in cash, I don't care if a drone kills him or a policeman kills him.

Sen Rand Paul on the proper use of domestic drones

It reminded me of a remark from twenty years ago in Ron Paul's newsletters. I don't know if actual authorial attribution is provided, I've only seen scans of pages of them and not had an entire issue in my hands to look for bylines and attribution, but they have Ron Paul's name on them, so that's who I'll say they belong to.

Anyway, this is what then-Rep Ron Paul (R-TX) "wrote":

If you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be.

This perhaps provides a justification of why a drone might be a better choice for gunning them down. Same desired Paul-approved result (whichever Paul you want), but much more efficiently and effectively done. Also, more libertarian, as it doesn't require paying a police officer or, most importantly, a pension.

Political Quote of the Year

Some (more or less odious) political quotes that amused me from this year.

• "If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and $50 in cash, I don't care if a drone kills him or a policeman kills him." Rand Paul.
  
• "The law is not a breast that fills itself with milk." Rafael "Ted" Cruz.
  
• "Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine." Rob Ford.
  
• "People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children." Richard Cohen (columnist for the Washington Post).
  
• "Whatever you may think of the value of IQ tests, it is surely relevant to a conversation about equality that as many as 16% of our species have an IQ below 85. While about 2% have an IQ above 130." Boris Johnson.
  
• "We’re not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is." Marlin Stutzman.
  
• "I can give assurances to the publics in Europe and around the world that we’re not going around snooping at people’s emails or listening to their phone calls." Barack H. Obama. His famous "lie of the year" properly belongs to another year.
  
• "For every one who’s a valedictorian, there’s another hundred out there that weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert." Steve King. It was hard to choose just one for this guy.
  
• "As I answered before, congressman, we will be open for open enrollment Oct. 1. We are on track to meet the Oct. 1 deadline." Kathleen Sebelius.
  

Nicer quotes:

• "You are Cumberpeople." Benedict Cumberbatch.
  

That's all I've got. Nothing good ever happens.