Batshit is an Accelerant

Notre Dame's famous rose windows survived fire: report https://t.co/QDw7pC4CQP pic.twitter.com/E910ldv7m6

— The Hill (@thehill) April 17, 2019

When I consider the great tragedy of the fire that threatened to consume the Notre Dame Cathedral, I will hold on to the amazing effort of so many people, the fire department, the clerical and historical personnel, that tried to ensure that whatever existed of cultural and historical and artistic importance that could be preserved, was. That the rose windows survived, the optical brilliance that they are, the technological and artistic genius of a bygone era that they represent, still survive, is, to me, a great comfort. Glass, after all, is notoriously fragile. But this glass was made to endure. As many things of great beauty and cultural significance have been and do, despite heat and pressure and the accidents and incidents of mankind's interference. The rose windows created a part of the sacred atmosphere within the cathedral by diffracting light in a way different than we normally see--in a human-engineered way, that seems touched by whatever we might mean when we think of the divine.

I have a great reticence for taking the potential destruction of any work of human hands as symbolic of anything--are we so stolid and numb to our fate to fail to know that even the works of our hands are subject to decay and disaster? It should not be possible. The bashed noses of the Sphinx and other ancient representations of faces should tell us that much. There is no homeland skyline that will not be altered in someone's lifetime. In one of our great US cities, we have seen a skyline greatly altered, ourselves, via a travesty of political demonstration and a tragedy of human action.

And here is were the greatness subsides to the banal and even stupid--where one might even ask how anything so old might burst into flames?

I don’t understand how a fire of this magnitude could happen accidentally

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) April 15, 2019

The question might well be how it was not destroyed prior to now, wood being very flammable and growing more dry and brittle over the years. The structure was a mess and in the midst of a renovation--perhaps too late. But now a more radical correction can be made.

Certainly, some people never being off of their bullshit, will openly suppose it had to be the result of an act of arson and terrorism. The irresponsibility of this is incalculable as fingers of blame can point any and everywhere, but certainly at non-Christians.


The imbeciles of the right wing somehow made the supportive comment of Rep. Ilhan Omar the subject of a more than two-minutes' hate. I will not point out those commentaries except to note that all buildings are art and architecture, even those occupying a sacred space. Taking any words said by anyone anywhere, and holding them to an impossible standard of saying exactly what your own brain wants them to say, is more chillingly PC than any liberal would ever expect for any speaker, ever. Congrats for out jack-boot-thugging us libs again--the fanciest way to own us is always by being worse, so, you go, guys!

Anyhow, Fox News proceeded from the idea that Paris deserved this tragedy, even if no actually good network would've. And several sites spread bad information.

The fire at Notre Dame is now out, but the rumor and lies regarding what happened can be an accelerant to further tragedy. This kind of thing would be a greater folly and a worse catastrophe. There is no good reason that batshit should reignite such a destructive fire.