{"id":18642,"date":"2013-10-29T08:59:48","date_gmt":"2013-10-29T12:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=18642"},"modified":"2013-10-29T00:30:33","modified_gmt":"2013-10-29T04:30:33","slug":"7-things-9-oclock-10-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/10\/29\/7-things-9-oclock-10-29\/","title":{"rendered":"7 things @ 9 o’clock (10.29)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

1. <\/strong>Eshet Chayil<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

She\u2019s immune to the horror stories by now. While it\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever heard such an awful story, she hears them on a regular basis. The youngest caller this year, she tells me, was only 11.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

2.<\/strong> Christopher Skinner has a fascinating review and overview of The Wife of Jesus: Ancient Texts and Modern Scandals<\/em><\/a>, by Anthony Le Donne. And Peter Enns has an interview with Le Donne<\/a>. The key here is that Le Donne\u2019s answer to the question \u201cDid Jesus have a wife?\u201d is far less important than what he makes of the meaning of the question, and how he goes about addressing it. Here, via<\/em> Enns, is Le Donne on the subject of Mary Magdalene:<\/p>\n

The legacy of Mary Magdalene is a key thread in my book.\u00a0 The \u201cwife of Jesus,\u201d in many ways, is a construct that we\u2019ve invented in the last decade, a cultural symbol that has emerged quite recently in our collective imagination.<\/p>\n

This development provides an interesting mirror for the Christianized West \u2014 Magdalene\u2019s legacy illustrates much more about us than it reveals about her as a historical figure.\u00a0 Mary\u2019s 2000-year evolution from disciple, to obscurity, to prostitute, to royalty, to girlfriend, to wife reflects our sexual fascinations at almost every turn.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, our imaginations have not been kind to Mary.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

3.<\/strong> \u201cThe Wilhelm<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>4.<\/strong> Josh Marshall<\/a> directs our attention to something called the \u201cPatriot Survival Plan,\u201d which he describes as \u201cthe ur-document that brings together so much of today\u2019s neo-gold-buggism, Prepperism, paranoia about Obama\u2019s impending martial law, gun hoarding, the coming descent into urban warfare, food shortages and crazed mobs of dark people.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not wrong. This is transparent hucksterism. Fear makes people vulnerable. That vulnerability makes them targets for scammers like this. Getting fleeced by such scammers makes them even more financially insecure and thus more fearful and more vulnerable. Lather, lather, lather. Repeat.<\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> Broadband Internet access in America is slower than in Europe and Asia, but on the other hand it is also much more expensive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re reading this in America, you\u2019re having to put up with a sluggishness that readers in other countries don\u2019t have to deal with, and you\u2019re paying a lot for the privilege.<\/p>\n

The cooperative monopoly between Comcast and Verizon in my area is lucrative because customers don\u2019t have any other options to keep them honest. If other options are ever permitted to arise, though, the biggest challenge for Comcast and Verizon won\u2019t be trying to compete with newer technology, it will be their having to compete while saddled with decades of ill will from their former customers. No one likes them because there\u2019s no reason anyone should. Overcharging for lousy service because you can is not a long-term plan for instilling customer loyalty.<\/p>\n

6.<\/strong> Michael Schaffer takes aim at some fish in a barrel: \u201cWhat if Politico had covered the Civil War?<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

NEW BATTLEGROUND POLL:\u00a0<\/strong>Lincoln\u2019s negatives are \u201cthrough the roof\u201d in Va., N.C., S.C., Ga., Miss., Ala., Louisiana, Ark., Tenn.\u00a0 PLAY-BOOK TRUTH BOMB: Lincoln is not going to improve these numbers if he refuses to press the flesh. A playbooker telegraphs: \u201cI don\u2019t know what happened to the gregarious guy we saw in 1860. Jeff Davis hasn\u2019t been invited to the White House for cocktails once since Abe became president!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

7.<\/strong> Two things that transcend the particularities of culture, language and religion: 1) The liberating spirit of Bob Marley\u2019s music; and 2) Ridiculous attempts to restrict the agency of women through arbitrary pseudo-religious claptrap that has nothing to do with the actual religion in question.<\/p>\n