Blogspotting Again

Swamphopper at The Rough Woodsman has some nice things to say. He points muddled people this way. Jared at Thinklings was confused about whether I'm confused about the correct way to handle links to other blogs. He notes "that when most bloggers do a posted collection of links, they don't normally just collect links to posts about themselves." Yes, I know. That's what the blogroll is supposed to be for, isn't it? Problem is, I keep finding links to PyroManiac, and I want to interact with them all—friends and critics alike. It's my nod to the native narcissism of the blogosphere. Plus, it helps my mom keep track of all the new things people have found to criticize me for.

• Jared also thinks I linked to him because of his remarks about my self-referential links. No. I would have, but I didn't see his post. It didn't show up any of the 367 times I obsessively Googled my own blogname. My one reference to Thinklings was just an offhand allusion to the blogname, which I think is actually quite clever. (And the subtitle "Nexus of the Intellectual Universe" is even more so.) I probably ought to have made that clear. It might have saved Jared the time he spent dissecting and disavowing almost every word of my "DIY Blogging" post, which wasn't really aimed at Thinklings anyway. (Oh, wait. He didn't disavow every word. He silently skipped over the bit where I suggested that some groupbloggers have no tolerance for critics. Apparently, that's true whether the critics are real or imagined.)
  
• Kevin Johnson searches out and finds an alternative, more politically correct explanation for the origin of the term cappuccino. Kevin is convinced that "this is important"(!) because it shows the folly of the "great many people who view history in only one way." (I agree, of course, but I would be loath to conclude that there is more than one correct way to view a particular proposition, or to judge the truth or falsehood of this or that "fact.") Anyway, this whole scandal over the origin of cappuccino is "is an apt illustration that a limited perspective yields limiting results," Kevin intones. I'm not quite sure what to make of that, but I'm currently reading heavy doses of both N. T. Wright and Jacques Derrida, so bear with me, please, until I get it.
  
• Doug Burtt fears I'm really going to nail him for scoring too high as a holiness/Wesleyan. Nah. I don't want the angst level over at the BHT to go any higher than it currently is. (What is it today? About DefCon 13?)
  
• Patrick Lacson marvels at how old I am and gently reminds me how easy it is to come across as arrogant.
  
• Michael Kelley sends a postcard from camp Gilead.
  
• Jon Kopp seems relieved to discover he's a fundamentalist.
  
• John Dekker remarks that PyroManiac is worth a look. Commenters at his blog debate about whether that constitutes an "endorsement" or not. I don't think so. But it is another apt illustration that a limited perspective yields limiting results.
  
• Daniel William Cruver 1st predicts I'm destined for "blogdom 'prominence.'" Note: the scare-quotes are his, not mine. But commenters at his blog rip him for that remark. One of them gives me a great idea. (You'll have to read the comments, at least as far as number 10, to discover what it is.)
  
• Doug Wilson wonders how many of my readers would amen the quote Doug chose from Christianity and Liberalism. I, for one, would. But I'm not quite sure whether Doug and I would agree about how much of a "perversion of the Christian religion" Roman Catholicism is. I suspect Doug would actually agree with me that those who accept Rome's official dogmas about the doctrine of justification have embraced a "gospel" that fits in the "different" category Paul cursed in Galatians 1. But by some sacramentalist sleight of hand, Doug manages to make them "Christians" anyway.
  
• Josh Duncan thought he had better add me to his blogroll before I flamed the whole blogosphere.
  
• Gary Paulson links to my advice-to-group-bloggers post. At least one of his commenters thought it funny. I hope mom notices that.

That's all I have time for now. My flight is about to board.

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