In Brief II

“I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, KCVO, DL (10 January 1834 – 19 June 1902), in response to the introduction of the doctrine of papal infallibility.

Nuns

Catholic nuns take a vow of poverty.  The nuns who taught me in primary school were no exception.  It is a semblance of poverty if we are honest; they did not face starvation and there was always plenty for them to eat.  However, it gave them an air of detachment from the material world.  They were located firmly in the realm of the spiritual.  You could present them with the most precious diamond in the world and they would remain unmoved.  Money was not their driving force and I envy them that.  They are as close to God as one can get.  They are replete, complete, self-sufficient.  The slender threads that pass through the eye of the needle.

‘Curiouser and Curiouser,’ said the Theology Graduate

Curiouser and curiouser.

Maybe she’ll get to share a cell in Holloway with Felicity Whatsherface. Maybe they can anchor their respective mental illnesses to some kind of religion so that everyone, even their victims, will be tying themselves in knots in a fruitless attempt to understand why they did what they did.

Stalking, murder, stalking, murder…which is worse? You decide.

Oh, and it would appear that the rest of the world disagrees with the self-appointed bastions of British Blogdom (bloggery? Buggery?) who fought so hard to bring Ms Lowde to ‘justice’.

‘There is a very weird witchhunt-y feel to all this stuff about tracking her down

On reading the two blogs, that’s my feeling as well. From what I can tell, what we seem to have here are two female bloggers involved in a catfight. One is popular and politically astute. The other is quite smart but clearly has serious psychological problems. Both seem to take great pleasure in publicly needling the other, but the astute one knows what lines she can and can’t cross, how to whip up public support, and how to use the system to her advantage, while the unhinged one is obviously isolated and in need of help.

After reading the two blogs, I can’t help but think I’d much prefer the more overtly insane one — even though you know that eventually she’d turn on you over some imagined slight as well.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 5:13 AM on May 28

Damn straight!