So I guess I should put it on record, my prediction for Trump’s VP is Newt Gingrich.
Doubling down on the old white guy thing?
Trump needs someone who knows where the levers of party and government power are yet is willing to associate w/ him, also his valuations of public figures’ reputational position seem based largely off the experience of the ‘80s/‘90s.
Gingrich still feels the mantle of destiny upon him but has no clear conventional route back to power, values the “eccentric genius’ thunderbolts” style of leadership, and has been talking Trump up in public for a while now.
Well, if I want credit for my correct predictions I should take my lumps for wrong ones.
Interesting essay on the role of American regulations in shaping the development of religious broadcasting. Argues for an essential link between broadcast ministries and end-times theology but doesn’t theorize it much.
Just rolling it over in my head, I can see the unidirectional one-to-many format of broadcasting being better suited to jeremiads or prophecy than, say, pastoral work. I’d still like to see numbers on the business model though.
Like, how did Jimmy Swaggart compare with his half-century predecessor Sister Aimee in terms of income sources and expenditures? (When I included the Foursquare Church with Scientology and Pentecostalism as religious innovations from Los Angeles, I’m talking not of theology but the “media spectacle” approach, and would rope in things like the Crystal Cathedral).
(Looking back over that post on Scientology, realizing there’s an aside that’s like “however iffy the ‘50s LA literati were, it’s not like you’ve got any significant authorial output to your name” which I still like as a matter of attitude but taken literally is no longer something I can assume of my readers.)
Oh, I just realized the Pentagon was shaped like a star fort. That’s a nice touch.
And still more defensible - with major office buildings coming under assault in the 9/11 attacks, the Pentagon took one death per 29,600 sq ft of office space (125 per expended attack craft), as compared to the World Trade Center taking one per 5,142 sq ft (av. 1303 per)
Also, ICP are America’s leading clowns. I’ve heard people say they “dress up as” clowns.
Even beyond the facepaint, they put on performances of musical comedy with elements of violent spectacle and folk spirituality, they emcee festivals where the adventurous young poor from farming regions gather, get intoxicated and enjoy a state of suspension of everyday society.
And if that doesn’t fit your understanding of “clown”, like, what?
