Heh, I just got my first post-debate de-friending out of the new batch of people. Frankly, I would have thought it would have come sooner but it's not like I've been commenting as much as I used to. It takes a good back and forth to really send someone off in a snit. I just can't help punching rhetorical holes in certain people's idiocy. It ecspecially gets my goat when the opinion expressed is some PC, regurgitated crap. In this particular case, the comment that started the whole thing was that "Oppression, or actions similar, does not equal faith". If you think about it, the entire phrase is idiocy. It all depends on what your faith demands, right? If a tenent of your faith is that you should go out and oppress someone, and you go oppress someone because of it, then it's all about faith.

I should have suspected it was some sort of touchy-feely, hippiecrap right off the bat. You know, the sort of message which sounds all nice but generally means absolutely diddily squat. I guess it's not surprising in this day and age. Plenty of people would like to believe that what you feel or what you think is more important than what you do. What the hell does it matter what you believe if you don't put whatever it is into action when it comes to faith? It's just as well I don't subscribe to any religion. I seriously doubt I'd be much for follow through.

The whole thing reminds me a lot of when I was reading The Year of Living Biblically. There was this great little question asked by a Rabbi and related in the book. There are two men, one schedules 15 minutes each day to pray to God and does so without fail. He takes his time and the prayer makes him feel closer to God and buoys his spirit for the rest of the day. The second man is having an incredibly busy day at work where he's barely keeping up. In between meetings, he manages to mumble a quick prayer before dashing off to what he has to do next. Which of these two men is more faithful? The answer is the second, because he prays for no other reason than because of God. In fact, it's a sacrifice to even take the time to utter the prayer when he's so busy. The other man prays too, but he gets something out of it. The prayer makes him feel good, and while there's nothing wrong with that, it's clear that it's not in the same league as the man who prays with no gain. Interesting when you think about it.

Well, I just finished A.J. Jacobs' book The Year of Living Biblically and I'm not sure exactly what I feel about it. I liked the book overall and read for entertainment it was great. I'm just not sure if I expected something more out of it and if so, whether I got it.

Overall, it's very similar to his previous book, The Know It All, in style and content. Someone commented over at Amazon that the book is more like a blog than anything else. It basically consists of chapters seperated based on month and then each section within is about one particular day wherein he tries to follow the bible, similar to when he seperated his last book based on Britanicca volumes. Since it's a memoir, many of the characters are retreads. He, of course, stars as the not-so-mildly neurotic guy at the center of the project, and we once again meet his long-suffering wife who is sketched in very sympathetic terms as she tries to deal with what might almost be considered an extended bout of insanity. Into the mix are drawn various family members and friends, as well as a whole host of spiritual experts that function as some sort of religious hotline to be used in times of need.

First and foremost, the book is incredibly entertaining. It's hard to imagine that it wouldn't be considering that the premise is for someone neuroticly OCD to follow every rule in the bible as literally as possible. Right from the start he stops shaving, eventually turning into an ambulatory hedge, attaches tassles to all his clothing, only wears white clothing, and refuses to touch women because they might be impure having just menstruated recently. Hijinx ensue.

On the otherhand, Jacobs actually makes quite an effort to actually go out and mix with the various religious groups. He could have easily just stayed in NYC and milked the local angles, but ends up going to Jeruselum, as well as visiting the Amish, snake handlers, and Jerry Falwel's church. He ends up going to lengths that most people could and would have avoided. Considering the sheer number of biblical rules out there, he probably could have avoided tithing 10% of his income without anyone really batting an eye. Paying a hundred dollars to swipe a pidgeon egg in order to fulfill some obscure hsidic ritual could also be considered overkill. In the end, a lot of the focus was on the weird rather than any real spiritual journey. He even acquires a slave (unpaid intern) and proceeds to list just how severely he could beat him based on biblical rules.

I guess in the end, if for entetainment, the book is a winner. As long as you're not really looking for some sort of epiphany moment or anything much deeper. Even in those moments where he seems to find something more in his biblical exercise, he's quick toa jerk himself back as if almost embarassed to have let us see him strting to slip from a completely logical (and superior) agnosticism.

On the plus side, the book is filled with all sortsa interesting little facts that might come in handy one day if I ever become a contestant on a quiz show and see a bible category. I've only tried to read the bible once in my life and got flummoxed by the near endless pages of begat's. I tossed it aside and I've never gone back since. I think I might even have a book of mormon somewhere in the garage after a couple of runins with missionaries around a decade ago. It's sad but the most interesting fact that has stuck with me so far is that 'tarnation' is actually a bastardization of 'eternal damnation'. And all this time I thought it was just some nonesence spouted by Yosemite Sam.

I just ordered a couple of books from Amazon that I'm anxiously waiting to arrive. It's a bit unusual for me but they're both hardcovers. Unless it's some sort of massive clearance, I almost never buy hardcover books. I'm more than willing to sit around and wait until the paperback comes around and save myself the difference. I decided to make an exception in this case, but for different reasons.



The first book I picked up is Until Proven Innocent by KC Johnson and Stuart Taylor. It's basically all about the Duke Lacrosse case which I followed religiously for over a year. So far the book has received fantastic reviews from just about every source I've read. KC Johnson has been reporting on the case from the beginning at his blog Durham in Wonderland and I've read along all this time. It's an unbelievable example of railroading and racism and, in the end, good vs evil. If you had a story like this appear in some John Grisham novel, I'll bet most people would feel that it was simply unbelievable.

The only downside in this is that since I have been a daily reader of the blog and I've devoured all the news accounts and police documents and ever iota of information out there, a lot of the book will be a retread. That's a shame really, since the amount of research that KC put into his blog was simply amazing. To have had it condensed down to book size would have been a great way to summarize the whole case if I hadn't been getting all the info piecemeal. In the end, I figure the least I could was to buy the HC version and support him and the effort he put into providing info and research on the case.




The second book I snagged was AC Jacobs' The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. I had read Jacobs' last book The Know It All and had enjoyed it. In that book, he documented his efforts to read the Encyclopedia Britanica from A to Z, and in this one he tries to follow all of the rules in the bible both large and small. I found out about this latest book after hearing an interview with him on NPR and it sounds like it'll be a lot of fun. Apparently, he even got around to stoning an adulterer. I had so enjoyed the last book by him that I figured it was worth the extra few dollars to get this one early. Besides, it's quite likely that if I didn't order the book now it'd slip my mind and I'd never remember to get a copy.

I'll be sure to jot down a couple more book review entries when both books finally arrive and I work my way through them. I can't wait.