As he says, "I do not seek robust debate. I seek power over the godless heathen dissident."

Godless Heathen Dissidents would be a great name for a band.

Does anyone else hyperventilate? I’ve been on and off doing it for the last week or so and it’s really pissing me off. I’ve been doing it since I was a kid but this is a really long stretch even for me. Any advice? The only thing I can do is try and breathe shallowly to reboot my stupid brain but then I either get distracted and notice I’m yawning to get extra air or just give in and do it anyway. Grrr. And then when I do stop, I notice I’ve stopped and just the thought of the act of hyperventilating is enough to set me off again.

Also, godless heathen dissent is like my number one pasttime.

Is "godless heathen" redundant, or no? I mean, I guess you could be a heathen with different god(s), but if you're godless, aren't you by definition a heathen? Just checking.

I figured out lunch -- an old standby Irish pub, perfectly located. Phew. Now I feel like I should be working, or at least preparing, but don't really have anything to do. Man, this trip is a total boondoggle.

I think there's an actual Heathen movement, and I think it invoves the Norse pantheon. But the original meaning of the word had something to do with people who lived out in the heath, i.e., country people, to whom Rome hadn't conveyed Christanity yet. They had their gods, but the church didn't recognize those gods as real or valid, hence "godless".

I thought pagans were the country rubes who hadn't heard the Word of God yet, and so couldn't be blamed for their sin, and heathens were those barbarians who had heard the Word and rejected it in favor of their own gods.

"Godless heathen" is self-contradictory, no? A heathen believes in many gods. Godless is atheist.

If I were a student at that school, I would quit. Loudly.

I had no idea! Huh.

I thought pagans were the country rubes who hadn't heard the Word of God yet, and so couldn't be blamed for their sin, and heathens were those barbarians who had heard the Word and rejected it in favor of their own gods.

Etymologically, they both pretty much translate into "ignorant hick." Pagus = heath = rural countryside.

[eta: Either way "godless" is redundant, because even if the pagan/heathens did have their own gods, they weren't real gods and therefore didn't count.]

they weren't real gods and therefore didn't count

Oh right, I forgot! Silly me.

We've talked about the psychic octopus predicting the outcome of World Cup games:

[link]

But here's something I didn't know:

Dubbed the "oracle octopus", Paul beat his rival Mani, Singapore’s psychic parakeet, who incorrectly predicted a win for Holland.

In your face, Singapore’s psychic parakeet!

Hee--Two Lumps has a summer haiku today.