The Twleve Days of Mythos

On the First Day of Mythos my True Love Gave to Me, A God Sleeping Under the Sea

On the Second Day of Mythos my True Love Gave to Me, two kings in yellow, and a God Sleeping Under the Sea

On the Third Day of Mythos my True Love Gave to Me, three shoggoths, two kings in yellow, and a God Sleeping Under the Sea

On the Fourth Day of Mythos my True Love Gave to Me, four black goats, three shoggoths, two kings in yellow, and a God Sleeping Under the Sea

On the Fifth Day of Mythos my True Love Gave to Me, five for-got-ten tomes, four black goats, three shoggoths, two kings in yellow, and a God Sleeping Under the Sea

On the Sixth Day of Mythos my True Love Gave to Me, six mi-go going, five for-got-ten tomes, four black goats, three shoggoths, two kings in yellow, and a God Sleeping Under the Sea

On the Seventh Day of Mythos my True Love Gave to Me, seven cities sunken, six mi-go going, five for-got-ten tomes, four black goats, three shoggoths, two kings in yellow, and a God Sleeping Under the Sea

On the Eighth Day of Mythos my True Love Gave to Me, eight cultists praying, seven cities sunken, six mi-go going, five for-got-ten tomes, four black goats, three shoggoths, two kings in yellow, and a God Sleeping Under the Sea

On the Ninth Day of Mythos my True Love Gave to Me, nine voids a-howling, eight cultists praying, seven cities sunken, six mi-go going, five for-got-ten tomes, four black goats, three shoggoths, two kings in yellow, and a God Sleeping Under the Sea

On the Tenth Day of Mythos my True Love Gave to Me, ten Deep Ones deeping, nine voids a-howling, eight cultists praying, seven cities sunken, six mi-go going, five for-got-ten tomes, four black goats, three shoggoths, two kings in yellow, and a God Sleeping Under the Sea

On the Eleventh Day of Mythos my True Love Gave to Me, eleven hybrids hiding, ten Deep Ones deeping, nine voids a-howling, eight cultists praying, seven cities sunken, six mi-go going, five for-got-ten tomes, four black goats, three shoggoths, two kings in yellow, and a God Sleeping Under the Sea

On the Twelfth Day of Mythos my True Love Gave to Me, twelve dreams a-dreaming, eleven hybrids hiding, ten Deep Ones deeping, nine voids a-howling, eight cultists praying, seven cities sunken, six mi-go going, five for-got-ten tomes, four black goats, three shoggoths, two kings in yellow, and a God Sleeping Under the Sea!

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Let Me Show You What the Jesuits Taught Me: Jared Lee Loughner as Gordon Pratt

Jared Loughner has proved somewhat impervious to political analysis, but that hasn't stopped all sides of the blogosphere from weighing in on his possible partisan motives. Right-wingers point to the presence of the Communist Manifesto among his favorite books as evidence that he's a liberal. In some odious homage to ahistorical nonsense, they also cite the presence of Mein Kampf as additional evidence, but somehow manage to overlook the presence of Ayn Rand's We the Living.

Saner observers point out that Loughner's rants on secret mind-control grammar are more associated with the outer fringes of the Right Wing, and that his obsessive bimetallism is an article of faith to actual elected Republicans on the state and national level. They also note that the gunman targeted a Democrat who voted for the Affordable Care Act, a fact which the wingers only take to mean that even Democrats are murderously enraged over Obamacare.

A third faction argues that Loughner's possible mental illness depoliticizes his murder spree entirely. But this is simple evasion. The mentally ill have politics, just as the physically ill do. Loughner was politically obsessed, even if his commitments were somewhat opaque to others. He went to a political event, and targeted political figures.

That said, the combination of communism, Nazism, Randism, and existentialism, along with goldbuggery and other obsessions makes me think that looking at a list of favorite books isn't going to tell us much about him. Such a motley assortment of mutually exclusive philosophies seems more like padding than it does an actual foundation for political commitment. Most of all, it reminds me of this: