Keeping track of Brayton's discontents

The endlessly irritated Ed Brayton, proprietor over at Dispatches from the Culture Wars "Aggravation at Everyone Who Disagrees With Me" Department, seems to have missed the point of my mockery of those who think ouija boards and Magic 8 balls are tolerable party games while more mainstream religious activities are to be ridiculed. He writes:

The endlessly irritating Martin Cothran, contributor over at the Discovery Institute's Media Complaints Division, seems to have missed the point of my mockery of those who think ouija boards are going to bring people under the control of demons.

Actually, I fully understood his point. I was making an observation about something he said in making his point, which was that people shouldn't get upset at people who use ouija boards because they are just like Magic 8 balls--and, by implication, dowsing and astrology, since these are commonly played at too.

Obviously Brayton thinks these are harmless party games--unlike activities that might appeal to more benevolent spirits, which, if you read Brayton on a regular basis, are to be roundly ridiculed and driven from the public consciousness.

The point, of course, was that, serious religious activities and the social beliefs that stem from them get less respect on the blog than playing with Ouija boards and Magic 8 balls.

The second paragraph, however, I'll retract, since it implies that Brayton believes in the efficacy of these things, which he clearly doesn't--and which doesn't support my main point anyway and should have been deleted before posting.

Brayton also writes in his new post that he would happily ridicule these things when used playfully as well--something he didn't say in his first post--which brings into some confusion the relative scorn with which he holds things.

It's so hard to keep track.