Commonplaces

Patrick Nielsen Hayden's site Electrolite is usually delightful. (So is Teresa Nielsen Hayden's Making Light.) But I've decided I particularly like the selection of commonplaces over in the right-hand column of the comments pages. A couple of examples:

I’m a fuzzy-headed warm-hearted liberal, and I think fuzzy-headed warm-hearted liberalism is an ideological stance that needs defending—if necessary, with a hob-nailed boot-kick to the bollocks of budding totalitarianism. (Charles Stross)

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about. (Charles Kingsley)

Go read the rest.

Prayers

bibliotrope is bothered by a headline about President Bush praying for the Pope. This reminds me of a story I once read, about two rabbis - I think it was Eleazar and Akiva, but I could be wrong.

The gist of the story, as I recall, was that a certain city in the Holy Land was afflicted with drought, and the elders called in the promising young Akiva to pray for rain. He was pleased to do so, but his efforts met with no success. After several fruitless days, the elders turned to the aged rebbe Eleazar, whose prayers were immediately answered. Akiva, though he tried to be gracious, was plainly upset about this; Eleazar consoled him by saying, "You have such a beautiful voice that G_d is pleased to hear more of it. When I prayed, His only thought was to get me to shut up."

I don't know why that story comes to mind.