2012-12-19

winterbadger: (colbert eh?)
2012-12-19 11:53 am

say what?

In an article on apocalypse fantasies, the BBC states

This month marks Advent in the Christian Calendar, during which Christians are encouraged to read from the Book of Revelation, the apocalyptic vision of St John the Divine.

Say what, now? I was baptised, brought up in the Christian faith, and confirmed (twice, in fact, though it seems not to have stuck), and I've never heard this. Tell me, Christian friends and relations, is this a piece of common knowledge I somehow missed?

Or is it a line of bullshit that some apocalyptic fed the BBC reporter, who was so clueless that she just published it as fact?
winterbadger: (coffee cup)
2012-12-19 01:42 pm
Entry tags:

and history again trips up our memory

I reposted on FB a link to a NYT article about "the War on Christmas" and the way in which false narratives can be brought up short by real historical study.

A blog I've neglected reading lately, Abu Muqawama, has a good piece on a topic, the use of drones in whatever we're calling the GWOT these days, that has the same effect. Anyone needing a refresher on Thomas Jefferon and his own proto-GWOT could do worse than read Joseph Whelan's Jefferson's War: America's First War on Terror 1801-1805.