I GOTS THE REMEDY

There’s been way too much bad news blowing through the blogosphere this week, so let me share a little joy with you all: We found out this week that we’re going to have a baby. The little Hasty is due on Halloween.

Yep. Preacher’s kid. Halloween. Have a little fun with that.

Of course, we’re excited. I’ve known about this since Monday, but I’ve kept it quiet until we had a chance to tell the church, which we did this morning.

YOU DON’T NEED A WEATHERMAN

It’s 50 degrees and perfectly sunny today. I’ve got better things to do than blog. See ya later.

NOW HE CAN TELL YOU WHAT HE REALLY THINKS

Congrats to Steven Taylor, now a tenured member of the faculty at Troy State University.

Hmm . . . the same week he blogrolls TBP, he gets tenure. Coincidence? I think not!

“GEE, BRAIN, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO TONIGHT?”

FROM STEM TO STERN

Glenn Reynolds opines about Clear Channel dropping Howard Stern’s show:

It’s hard for me to get too exercised about this. I’m opposed to censorship, but Stern was “censored” by his employer. I’m capable of getting exercised about such things, sometimes, but not this time. And if Rush Limbaugh had been canned over the kind of racial comments Stern made, and allowed on the air, nobody would be crying “censorship.” Instead they’d be saying that it showed the inherent racism of his show and his audience.

Well?

it: This whole mess shows the basic boorishness of Stern’s audience. Just like the Opie and Anthony incident showed the basic boorishness of their audience. You can fault Stern, O&A, Mancow, et al., for pandering to the basest instincts of the basest among us, but the fact remains, they only do so because it always works. Talking in the basest and vilest sexual and racial terms always draws a huge audience.

For years, Howard Stern has been an actor playing the part of “Howard Stern,” a prominent New York radio personality whose persona is essentially a caricature of the jerkiness inherent in many people. There’s a long, sad history of people attempting to poke fun at the lowest common denominator and failing miserably, because the lowest common denominator turned out to be even lower than they had imagined. This goes back at least as far as Archie Bunker, with stops along the way at David Bowie’s Thin White Duke, “Beavis and Butt-Head” (idolized by the very audience it was intended to mock), Homer Simpson, and even Marilyn Manson (Brian Warner has publicily admitted that “Marilyn” is a character he plays). All of these characters were conceived as commentaries on undesirable attributes; all of them wound up being embraced for their inherent wrongness.

“Howard Stern” is just another example of this, and he’s just the latest to become a joke that isn’t particularly funny anymore. There’s almost certainly some political motivation behind the timing of ClearChannel’s actions–but you could also say that they’re just trying to stay ahead of the curve and let Stern go out like Barry Sanders, instead of Michael Jordan.

HASTY’S SECOND AXIOM

Hasty’s Second Axiom of Blogging (the first is here) states:

There is no topic so controversial and interesting that the blogosphere can’t make people thoroughly sick of it within five days.

I only say this because I’ve noticed some people are getting a little sick of a certain topic. So am I, sorta, but I don’t think everything’s been said about it yet.

STILL MORE SMART PEOPLE NOTICING TBP

Thanks to Steven at PoliBlog for blogrolling The Bemusement Park.

I’D STAY OUT OF THE ‘SAND’ TRAPS

From the St. Paul Pioneer Press: Minnesota politicians investigate the possibility of a building a golf course on top of a sanitary landfill. A power-generating sanitary landfill.

There are so many possible jokes here, it’s hard to know where to start. Could this be the first golf course where you replace a divot by cleaning out your golf cart?

RIPPLES OF THE REFORMATION

I promised in the comments on this post that I would eventually get around to writing the article I originally intended to write about the church and gay marriage.

I have a thesis: The separation of civil and religious understandings of marriage was a necessary consequence of the Reformation.

One of the most profound effects of the Protestant Reformation was the severing of the tie between secular and religious authority. When Frederick elected to give the Lutherans safe harbor, he in effect told the Pope that Rome had no right to sovereignty in his region. This profound challenge to Roman authority had far-reaching effects, if only because the Vatican was not in a position to wage wars–even ideological ones–on all the fronts where such wars were breaking out.
–> read more

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM WARNING

You who believe that a house is always a good investment, no matter what the price, because real estate always goes up in value, go read this.

Now, try to imagine if this happened here. But, oh, no, it can’t happen here . . . can it? I mean, the economy’s got to be governed by different laws in Europe . . . right?

UPDATE! Kate has found a place that’s available.