quod numquam

Though the popular myth that no one expected the Spanish Inquisition has been dispelled for the most part, it’s a pretty fun thing to proclaim and the phrase might have its origins in another Church culture struggle. In 1875 on this day, Pope Pious IX issued the encyclical called Quod Numquam, “What we never Expected” to Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and Prussian King Wilhelm I during the height of what was known as the Kulturkampf, the systematic dissolution of Church holdings in Protestant territories and discriminatory measures taken against the congregation, including the forced exile of priests and bishops. What was never expected was that the House of Prussia might turn its back on Catholicism, and though no on the level of the Crusades, clerics ignited a holy war to sue for the freedom of religious worship.

redirected from berenstein

Via Reddit, an older speculative post on a blog called the Wood between Worlds by the self-described world’s worst scientist puts forward such a profoundly baffling psychological blind-spot that the imaginative explanation—that we are in our own parallel universe, seems pretty plausible.

Like the cognitive dissonance that occurs when the seating arrangement of the Last Supper (with Mary Magdalen next to Jesus) is pointed out or a revisionist Orwellian memory hole, the Berenstein Bears—and I distinctly remember the book covers and the stories that my Mom read to me, though I knew nothing about an animated syndicate in the mid-80s or relaunch—is and always was Berenstain. Either we’re all remembering it incorrectly, like some famously misquoted line from a movie that no one bothers to correct, or there’s an element of time travel or dimensional engineering involved. One ought to read the whole post through, and I am glad it’s of the right vintage to have garnered a lot of responses, to be rewarded with a comment from the son of the authors with an explanation about the spelling of the family name. Can you think of other examples were something false was so broadly ingrained? I hope the Scientist is continuing his intrepid research.

empty nest oder relocation bonus

A consortium of architects and civil engineers and some elements that advocate for the welfare of senior citizens in Germany are proposing (DE) that one way to address the housing shortage in metropolitan areas would be to provide pensioners with support and an incentive to move out of apartments that have gotten to be too big for them that would better accommodate young families with children. No one is proposing to force homesteaders out and of course retirees have the liberty to do what they want, but the logistical and financial help, finders’ fees and helping to arrange and pay for relocation, may prove amiable to some who feel otherwise tied to too big a place. What do you think about this idea? Most Germans are apartment dwellers and no one is occupying a McMansion but that still comprises a vertical neighbourhood, and I am sure something changes when the most veteran residents leave and are replaced with up-and-comers.

pax populi

Back to World War III—though it’s hard to say when the declaration came, the sort of false urgency lent to housekeeping items that really could and ought to be tabled until cooler consideration can be paid, like breaking the internet or pushing through a shambles of a shady trade deal with international ramification usually seem to herald its beginning—it seems that the US is poised to directly, rather than its usual proximate warfare, supply armaments to certain factions in Ukraine.

The whole business seems pretty murky and shrill propaganda won’t allow matters to settle enough for any party to gain their bearings. Naturally, this announcement is also an overture to the broader coalition of the West to join in, willingly or not. I cannot think of an instance, at least during the American Century, when arming terrorists/unionists/rebels/freedom-fighters (depending on one’s point of view) has ever served to calm the fighting and did not escalate the violence. Arguably, US support for al Qaeda bankrupted the Soviet Union and ushered in Glasnost and Perestroika, but of course that backing had unintended consequences, whose inheritors are at the war’s other front. I don’t pretend to know what course to take, even if there wasn’t the little strip-tease of opposing world-views, but I do know in many instance no action is wiser and not at all the same as inaction, much more in line with the popular peace we’ve consented to. There’s a real danger in conflating the belligerents, and distinctions will be lost while circling one’s wagons, forgetting that one faction is looking for the barest sign of provocation and the other already has every justification it needs.

eschat and eschew

Here’s a rather disheartening romp through the US public education system, now tossed into a Romano-Briton gladiatorial ring and pitted against the Christian text book publishing racket.
The poor defanged beasts hardly stand a chance, with what little financial support allowed to them siphoned off by quasi-private institutions that placate and patronise God-fearing parents with creationist curriculum. The twenty-two theses levied against the syllabus in the article illustrate not only droning ignorance but also unchecked propaganda and nutty conspiracies—which are not unique to this group’s agenda or even this day and age. Rather what appears most tragic in all of this, outlandish claims included, is in the disdain and contempt for which the programme holds for free-thinking and independent thought. Parents, both in the US and UK, may believe that their children are schooled nearer to God (or maybe at least a safe distance away from those Sharia magnet schools that everyone’s talking about) but it’s about as far as one can stray, since the instruction is very disengaging and fosters no curiosity, intellectual or spiritual.