Cranky motives

When William F Buckley hired George Will to write a twice-weekly column for the National Review, Will was unsure he could turn out that much work on a regular basis. Where would his inspiration come from. Buckley told him that he'd be annoyed about something at least twice a week and that would provide his inspiration.

Truer words.

I do occasionally write about things that make me happy or smile. And my icons of the male form proceed solely from appreciation. No ranting there.

But the typical literary form of this blog is the rant. It's not elegant --though I think that (my overuse of parentheticals excepted) I am a good writer-- but truth, infallible truth in this case, need not be arrived at only through the high roads of rhetoric.

So, two and a half brief annoyances.

Anti-Christian. The Pope made some speech about the tyranny of finance and the poverty of the poor and the world financial system. As if he's some kind of expert. My usual complaint about clerics lecturing experts based on ideals they concoct. 

Pro-Christian. Or at least anti-anti-Christian. Media ignorance about Christianity, or wilful distortion of Christianity by media and entertainment types, almost as a badge of honor. An X Files episode where a Bible-based cult believed that Christ had returned to earth as a foot-long slug who needed human hosts... 

Anti-reactive/compulsive-inclusionism. In an otherwise laudable article about the revolting prayers of a Muslim imam at the funeral service for the dead Navy Seals in Afghanistan, a Jewish writer complains that they had been deprived of prayer to the Seals' "Judeo-Christian" God. I have complained about this before. Given the rarity of Jews in the Navy, much less the Seals, what's the likelihood of there being a Jew in the bunch?