For two years now, the number of baptisms performed in Southern Baptist congregations has dropped, giving the denomination a lackluster 1% increase in members, well below the national “replacement rate.” Does this make them one of those moribund, declining mainline denominations now?

I’m going through a snark crisis.

Chutney is an old blogger. I remember the old days, back when me and Philocrites were the only UU bloggers either of us knew about. Then we (and by “we,” I mean Philocrites) stumbled on a few more blogs, back when Peacebang and Boy in the Bands were getting started up. (And didn’t you guys know each other from offline?) We were a tiny lot there at first.

Then there were more and more, and the conversation blossomed. Cross posts and long comment threads. Commenters started to take on their own blogs, folks like Chalicechick and Jeff Wilson. Most of us wrote under pen names then, our real names only known to other bloggers, and then only after a history of cross blog commenting.

Then more and more blogs. It was great! At one point, I’d talked half of my covenant group into blogging. It seemed like everyone was blogging.

And the best part was the snark. Oh, we were a snarky bunch back then. Lots of back and forth. We could really mix it up. A lot of ribbing, an occasional bar fight, but no one was worse for the wear. (Or at least not from where I sat.)

Now we’re such a civilized bunch. So much more polite. Quick to reconcile. Click to continue reading “I miss the snark”

Thursday night after dinner my wife started getting some bad stomach cramps. Then worse stomach cramps. Then nine on a ten scale painful stomach cramps. So off to the ER we went.

She has Crohn’s disease and got about a foot of her colon taken out seven years ago, so anything GI-related is serious business for us. We thought it might be a blockage.

We got to the ER around midnight, and got into a room about three hours later. An hour or two later the ER doc came in and got her some morphine, and she finally was able to get some sleep. Another two or three hours later they got her that CT scan they had promised.

Then the ER doctor said it just might be a blockage. He said he’d call in a surgeon, that surgery was likely. He’d give her an NG tube in the meantime, thought it might take the pressure off.

My wife has only had major surgery that once. She’s had some “flares” since then, and some minor procedures, but nothing like that first time. The thought of major surgery threw me. I about lost it.

It was morning now, so I went outside to start calling family. I’d had about a half hour of sleep.

Another couple of hours later the surgeon came in and asked a lot of questions. Very good bedside manner. Maybe the best I’ve ever seen. She didn’t think surgery was necessary but would call in a GI doc to make sure. A couple of hours later the GI doc, who I’d seen in the hallway off and on for three or four hours, came in and said the same.

After twelve hours, we went home with three prescriptions and a diagnosis of gastroenteritis and went to bed.

A new study shows a very interesting correlation between national SSRI use—SSRIs are Prozac and its kin—and the national suicide rate. Since 2000, SSRI rates have gone up 12%; suicide rates have declined 5%. (Sorry, no link. Atlantic Monthly isn’t link friendly.)

First, a shout out to Will Shetterly for his shout out for my recent bipolar post.

And a second out shout to his commenter Chris McLaren, who points out a BBC piece hosted by comedian Stephen Fry called “The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive.”

To the person who kept insisting today that I am charming: Shut up. And go to hell.