The Web We Weave

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I forget who it was who updated the old moral couplet: Oh what a tangled web we weave/ When first we practice to deceive” by adding the lines:

But when we’ve practiced quite awhile
How vastly we improve our style!

-- Christopher Hitchens, “Death from a Salesman: Graham Greene’s Bottled Ontology” in Arguably

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Tweet to Save Your Soul

The Catholic Church is apparently hungry for some e-popularity and does not mind sacrificing a little credibility for some more page views.

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Social media may damage friendships, ruin concentration and cause anxiety — but for some Catholics, at least, it can also help save their souls.

The Vatican has turned heads with a recent decree that grants “indulgences” not only to attendees of the upcoming World Youth Day, but to Catholics who follow the event on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube, as well. Indulgences are complicated business — the Church has an entire court overseeing them — but they essentially grant the receiver time-off purgatory, the period of purification before a soul moves into heaven. Considering St. Augustine described purgatory as a pain “more severe than anything a man can suffer in this life,” that’s a pretty good deal.

-- ONTD

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a funny weather system

What a funny weather system we have had these last few days. Each day we get a couple of five-minute shots of rain, your fair summertime shower, and that's it. I'm not sure if it adds up to anything significant. I suppose it helps that at least we are shielded from the hundred-degree days and a lot of the sun. So, if the lawn is not really getting enough to slake its thirst, at least it is not being remorselessly beaten down by the usual July heat.

Daily Fun

Summer is in the Air by Svenimal

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