vade retro

Rogers has given my e-mail address to Yahoo. They're partnering. Doesn't that violate some sort of agreement I have with them? It's in poor taste at the very least. I don't want yahoo, I don't like yahoo, I don't subscribe to their services, and all of a sudden, I find myself dealing with this company anyway. Vade retro Satan!

Albers

. : P22 Terminal : .

Wanhope

I was very angry all day. I was looking for classical references to anger, looked up anger in the wikipedia, followed the link to the Seven Deadly sins Lust, Pride, Greed, Envy, Anger, Sloth and Gluttony. In that article, the author mentions the word "wanhope" when he discusses accidie. There is a dutch word, "wanhoop" for the same emotion. According to the dictionary, "wanhope" occurs in the B text of The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman, the earliest great work of English literature.

And there to jangle and jape and jugge hir evencristen,
And in fastynge dayes to frete er ful tyme were.
And thanne to sitten and soupen til sleep hem assaille,
And breden at burgh swyn, and bedden hem esily,
Til Sleuthe and sleep sliken hise sydes;
And thanne wanhope to awaken hym so with no wil to amende,
For he leveth be lost -- this is his laste ende.

The vision of Piers Plowman

Why I am always wrong

Paul Lewis suggests in the The Globe and Mail that agnostics have no compelling reasons to become terrorists.

Those of us who regard questions about religion as distractions from the urgent issues of this life are repeatedly startled and dismayed by the willingness of zealots - be they Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Jewish - to kill and die for their faith.

While it is no doubt true that a lot of terrorism is inspired by faith, and I cannot imagine a terrorism that is inspired by agnosticism, there has been plenty that was not inspired by any faith, but rooted in systems of thought that are not religious at all. Take the Rote Armee Faktion, the Brigate Rosse, the ETA, the GRAPO, Action Directe, the Irish National Liberation Army, the Japanese Red Army, all by no means religious extremists.

The real problem is the erroneous belief that we are right. Certainty is at the root of all evil. If we know the truth, then we must use all means to achieve our goals. Only doubt can stop us.

The solution is quite simple: We must convince everyone that we are always wrong.

Must have

I bought a hat yestday.

It ought to be the same kind of hat that "Skookum Jim" wore when he discovered gold together with his brother "Tagish Charley" and his brother-in-law George Washington Carmack on Rabbit Creek. His discovery led to the Klondike Gold Rush. The hats haven't changed much in the past 107 years that Filson has been making them. Apparently, they almost last as long as well. This might well be the only hat I'll ever own then. According to the site the hat also makes for a great bucket, shower and whatnot.

Skookum Jim, who was called Keish (pronounced "Kaysh") by his parents was not the average golddigger. A member of the Tagish tribe, he travelled extensively in the Yukon, and may not have been looking for gold at all. He and his brothers came across one who did though, a man called Henderson, who asked Carmack to join him, but didn't care for Jim and Charley and their sister Kate. Because Carmack suggested rabbit Creek to Cramack he should have been entitled to a stake when gold was found there, but Carmack, upset with Henderson for the affront to his native family, neglected to tell him. When he finally arrived, all the stakes were taken. Angela Sidney tells the story of Skookum Jim's Frog Helper

Vacation

We'll be following in the footsteps of Etienne Brûlé (we live near Etienne Brûlé park), when we leave for French River this vacation. The picture is by Frances Anne Hopkins, who may be the woman in the middle.