Interests meme

Ganked from drzero:

- Scan my interests list. List one that seems odd to you.
- I'll explain it.
- Then you post this in your journal so other people can ask you about your interests.

(And yes, I did go through adding stuff to the interests list to make it look more erudite before I posted this.)

In other news, lamest religious miracle ever reported in Chicago.

In other other news, Joh Bjelke-Petersen is reportedly dying, but they said that more than a year ago; I'll believe it when I see the receipt from Malebolge.

Historical context

So, habemus papam and all that. I get the impression Ratzinger is the Pope you choose when you don't want to make the difficult choice between keeping Rome conservative and maintaining some connection with the followers who are drawing further and further ahead of their own priests - he's conservative, but he's also the oldest choice in 275 years, so they can try again if it doesn't work out.

From his record so far, I'm probably not going to have a lot of good to say about him, but I've already seen people accusing him of Nazism, and that needs some context.

In 1941, Ratzinger joined the Hitler Youth, aged 14. In 1943, aged 16, he joined Hitler's armed forces (specifically, the anti-aircraft corps). However, both those things were compulsory at the time. Re. the Hitlerjugend, he has been described by his biographer John Allen as an unenthusiastic member who refused to attend any meetings, and quickly got a dispensation for his training at a seminary. When in the German army, he went through basic training and was posted to Hungary, where he worked on anti-tank defences before deserting in April 1945. By his own account, he opposed the Nazis but saw open resistance as futile, and his actions certainly seem consistent with that. His father was anti-Nazi and the family had been forced to move several times as a result.

There certainly were people who did resist, point-blank refusing to serve under the Nazis, and suffered greatly for it. If you believe a future Pope should have had the strength to do the same, I'm not going to argue with you; I'm not looking to the man for spiritual leadership, so I don't have to make a judgement either way here. But at least be aware of the context before you make that judgement. Joining the HJ and the armed forces is not the same as joining the Nazi Party.

It feels so good when it stops...

(I thought I'd posted about this earlier this morning, but I can't see it... maybe I closed the tab before posting, or something.)

After a month of being jerked around by the delivery company, we finally got a working exercise machine yesterday. (I feel like such a yuppie.) I have trouble with high-impact exercise (jarring makes my spine v. unhappy) and the whole "it's dark out and I don't want to drive to the swimming pool, and it's boring doing laps" factor makes it attractive to have something I can do at home, inside, any time, watching TV or listening to music. So I did about 30 minutes on it last night - I'll probably have sore knees later tonight, but it was pretty comfortable at the time.

And then this morning I got up, ambled out into the kitchen, arched my back, felt something hard in my upper spine, arched a bit more, and something went SNAP. I've been generally sore and tense up there for months; my chiropractor has been working on bits and pieces, but it always seemed to go out again, and there must have been something at the root of it he wasn't getting. I'd been putting up with that nagging background ache for long enough that I'd forgotten how my back is supposed to feel.

I've been wandering around all day feeling light-headed and happy. Even being called in to give a scientific opinion on somebody's advertising copy couldn't break my good mood. I feel more relaxed right now than I have done in months, without that constant tension.

*bliss*

Edit: And Girl Genius has just updated. Double bliss!