Okay, it's stopped, and the sun is sort of peeking out again. I think Mother Nature just wants to mess with my head. Stoopid Mother Nature.

Oh no, now you're going to get a big lecture from JZ on this subject. (In brief, while Chesterton's early writings certainly were anti-semitic, he recanted them and was one of the earliest journalists to speak out against the anti-semitism in early Nazism etc.)

Well maybe I need the lecture. I do know 'The Curse of the Golden Cross" published in the 1926 collection The Incredulity of Father Brown still contained anti-semitic stuff. (Basically the assertion that Jews were the only ones NOT oppressed on account of their religion in Medevial Europe.)

Since Chesterton died in 1936, that means he was still publishing anti-semetic stuff ten years before his death.

And that links mentioning he had Jewish friends reinforces Shaws point that it was especially inexcusable because he knew better. It looks from here like he finally recanted his anti-semitism when the Germans (who is was pretty obvious at that time would be facing the British in another war sooner or later) started practicing an extreme form of it. It is always easier to see that something is sinful when an enemy starts practicing it. He gets some points for a late recantation, but not a whole lot of them in my book. Not going to stop me from reading and enjoying "Thursday" now that it has been pointed out to me. I can seperate the teller from the tale. But it works both ways; brilliance in other areas does not get him a pass from me on that one. He had great powers, and sometimes he chose to use them for evil.

It's nice and sunny here. I just spent two hours in the computer room at the math department (basement, no windows, extremely over-heated) typing up some math homework. I've determined that, at this point, my TeX skills are such that I can type each problem in about 45 minutes. So far, I have solutions to four problems, and I've typed up about 2.5 of them. There are a total of nine problems. They're due Wednesday. This is not looking like it'll be in on time.

However, it's nice and sunny outside. I'm trying to decide whether I want to go outside and do stuff, or if I should stay in and cook and do laundry -- I bought enough stuff to make a few days' worth of dinner, and laundry really must be done today.

Ridiculously sunshiney and warm.

Yup. I should go mow my lawn.

I finally got rid of my Honda! Sold it off to a 19-yo fannish friend who came up from LA to get it. I'm feeling weirdly maudlin and maternal over her (her first car!) and the loss of the car, which I've had since 1994.

I'll get over it.

My niece is getting confirmed this spring, and I'm one of her sponsors. I wonder if an iPod shuffle would be too much as a gift.

It is always easier to see that something is sinful when an enemy starts practicing it.

You'd think, but that really wasn't the case in the early 30s in Europe. I'd grant your point if he changed his mind after the Holocaust. As it was he was protesting against Nazism as Hitler came to power, well before the horrific evidence of the Holocaust - that's when it mattered most.

You'd think, but that really wasn't the case in the early 30s in Europe. I'd grant your point if he changed his mind after the Holocaust. As it was he was protesting against Nazism as Hitler came to power, well before the horrific evidence of the Holocaust - that's when it mattered most.

No, I know this was before the Holocaust. But it was still an enemy doing it. Most intellectuals in the UK in the thirties understood that Germany and Britain were going to war. So, yes, he gets credit for it being pre-holocaust. But still he did not object until somebody likely to go to war against his country started practicing it. It took that to call his attention to it. And meanwhile the anti-semitic culture he'd helped foster and keep respectable contributed to the Clivedon set that supported appeasement towards the Nazis. The time it would have really counted was not just before WWII but in the decades preceding it.

It's 60 degrees here, sunny with a little breeze -- that perfect early spring day when you have the first softball practice of the season, and the ground is all damp and squshy so that your shoes get caked in mud but you don't care because you're so happy to be back out there, and you don't warm up enough before tossing the ball around so that the next day your arm is *killing* you but you don't care because you're so happy to be back out there throwing the ball around, and everything smells damp and new and just a little fecund.

I just took a long walk, and stopped to chat with a drag queen who was walking 2 pit bulls, both of whom sized me up and decided "This is a human who needs to be licked, now!"

Now I'm eating cheddar and kalamata olive hummus and strawberries. It's a good Sunday.

The time it would have really counted was not just before WWII but in the decades preceding it.

You just know PETA is going to use this argument against us for our non-Vegan diets...

that perfect early spring day when you have the first softball practice of the season, and the ground is all damp and squshy so that your shoes get caked in mud but you don't care because you're so happy to be back out there, and you don't warm up enough before tossing the ball around so that the next day your arm is *killing* you but you don't care because you're so happy to be back out there throwing the ball around, and everything smells damp and new and just a little fecund.

And in fact, Emmett and I have just returned from our first bit of baseball practice. Official team practice is tomorrow, but we spent a good 45 minutes playing catch, shagging flies, fielding grounders, pitching, catching and taking some BP (which ain't easy with two people). Emmett is shockingly UnRusty, considering we've only played catch twice all winter.

And in fact, Emmett and I have just returned from our first bit of baseball practice.

See, somehow I knew it.

I've got B.B. King tickets tonight...deficit spending at its...well, not quite finest, but close. It just seemed like such an omen watching Scorsese's Blues and having him come here.