[Alia]

William Buckley quoting Belloc: "We sit by and watch the Barbarian, we tolerate him; in the long stretches of peace we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence, his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creeds refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh, we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond: and on these faces there is no smile."

Superb quote; and good 'minder.

[decal]

"We sit by and watch the Barbarian, we tolerate him; in the long stretches of peace we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence, his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creeds refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh, we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond: and on these faces there is no smile."

I need to write that down and keep that with me, ready to pull out at a moment's notice.

[Blind Eye Jones]

The ultimate conceit of Mather is that he is an atheist looking for redemption from that which is non redeemable. He rehashes this irksome religion question and wants to play the Saul on the road to Damascus -- his ego or some such subaltern movement within him demands it -- demands that he be a glorious HBO sinner. No prick of logic... just a prick.