He's no lumberjack, but he's okay

As someone with not just one, but two vocations - I'm both a mime and a barista - I want to applaud our speed bag Rod Dreher's recent post on manly men not laying about like those layabout men who write while living off dwindling surpluses do.

I also invite you to join me in a mystery game of trying to identify just which of Rod's most regular commenters most closely fit the description he's denigrating. Think of it as "how many animals can you find in this picture?" My money would be on those protesting too much, quoting Marx, or both, but you guys might have tells of your own.

We also learn from a subsequent, highly crafted piece of work that Rod currently has a cold, reminding us once again of the first principle of learning to blog like Rod Dreher. Aw...feel better, Rod, and here's to your speedy return to that thankless assembly line soliciting tax-deductible contributions to fund posting the never-ending tsunami of VFYTs always threatening to overwhelm you.

Bread upon the waters

Frankly, this is an angle to save the dwindling The American Conservative (TAC) I would never have thought of: selling indulgences.

To be vague - or, in the how-to-blog-like-Rod-Dreher style we have all become rapt students of by now, UPDATE: - it's not clear whether TAC and Rod are actually actively selling indulgences or only that Scot F. Martin, claiming to have given money to TAC, would now like Rod to offer prayers for his business to be successful in the new year.

However this interesting venture potentially works out for TAC and its supplicants, I'd have to say it definitely fits TAC's mission to set a new (or, perhaps, very much older) and different course for conservatism’s next generation.