On a completely personal note, Atkins is doing that voodoo that it do so well. I have dropped 5 pounds.

"Oooooh, you know it's all water weight! "

Nope, 'cos I'm on diuretics already for a mild blood pressure thing.

I'm doing it this way for sanity and health's sake: Monday through Friday I do severe Atkins.
Saturday I do fruit and melon like mad as a cleansing and "Boy that tastes good" regimen. Sunday I eat a more-or-less normal diet, a good mix of protein and carbs and such. Monday I start again.

It works for me. What's funny is that I drop weight from my head first. (You may stop laughing, now.) My face slims down, and people ask "Have you been sick?".

Twenty five pounds to go.

There has been response to my post a few days ago regarding Jesus' teaching on marriage.

I am coming from a place that it has taken me awhile to get. I was long a greasy grace proponent (It doesn't REALLY matter what you do, 'cos Jesus will forgive you.) While at first blush this appears credible (1 John 1:7, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.") it ignores the difference between "sins" and "sin". (It also ignores the previous verse 1 John 1:6, "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:".)

The thing that motivates me now is Jesus' own words: "If you love me, you'll keep My commandments.". Not 'salvation by works', as the gainsayer might intone whilst waggling an admonitory digit, but my response to the love and grace He proffers.

The standard evangelical answer to the idea of marrying an illegitimately divorced person is 'Well, Jesus will forgive me!", as though you had "hooked' one of Aunt Polly's doughnuts. That relationship yields a lifetime of sin, whether the relationship itself is the transgression, or the (mere) individual instances of sexual union constitute the individual sins; you live in a continual state of rebellion against God and His righteous commands. It is not a matter of "Oopsie...I made a mistake...." (Another peeve: calling willful transgression a "mistake".), rather, it is entering into a lifetime relationship of trangression.

If this sounds harsh and [Neal Boortz voice] "leg-al-IS-tic", well, sorry. Jesus set the rules and his disciples clearly understood the ramifications by their response: “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”

On a positive note, Jesus entire ministry was spent teaching how to live in a Covenant Kingdom fashion, and thus the majority of His teaching is applicable to having a strong, joyous, loving marriage with a person whom you may legitimately marry. The fact is, there are some people it is OK to marry, and some it is not. Scripturally speaking, you may not be eligible to marry, if you have divorced illegitimately. It is up to you to determine this through the counsel of God's Word.

Our generation feels a sense of entitlement as far as pleasure is concerned. "I deserve to feel good!" However, He Who made the rules is entitled to be obeyed. If He set the rules for marriage, covenant, and who may-or-may-not, then we should take care in the decisions we make as far as who our marriage partner is. American society, churchy or not, may not care, but our Father does, and be sure that He Who made us, loves us, and so wants to spend eternity with us that He sent His Son to die to make it so does not do so by mere whim or fiat; He constrains us for our good.

Always for OUR good.

That Marriage is also a material picture of the relationship of Christ and His church should give ample reason for marriage to be under the gun, culturally speaking. I bet YOU weren't taught that aspect before you got married! If the Enemy can sully marriage, and pervert the intent of covenant, then there is yet another inroad made against a Christendom in decline.

Don't take my word for it. Check the Word out for yourself.

Then DO it.

The Evil face of Yahtzee

TAMPA, Fla. -- Mark Kelvin Allen, 49, was playing the dice game with 47-year-old Edith Elliot at her home in Tampa's Ybor City neighborhood on Saturday night, an arrest report said. They began to argue and Elliott went into a bedroom with her 49-year-old boyfriend.A dispute over a game of Yahtzee ended in a fatal stabbing, police said. Allen kicked in the door, scuffled with the boyfriend and then stabbed him twice, police said. The man, whose name is not being released until his relatives can be notified, later died at a hospital. --AP

Well, I've had enough!

This sort of thing has gone on for TOO LONG.

The Aardvark calls for...nay, he DEMANDS that there be Federal oversight of All Things Yahtzee. The poor girl on the "Superman" ride lost her feet, and the usual whiners started yammering for Federal investigations of thrill rides, but she did not lose her life. Yahtzee is at the heart of Murder Most Foul.

Let the committees commence.

Mingle² - Online Dating

Humph. Here's why:

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
crack (2x) porn (1x)

Boy, the disciples actually GOT something!

3 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”
4 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”
8 He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”
10 His disciples said to Him, “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”

Oh, yeah. They got it. Note the amazing reaction they had to Jesus' pronouncement:

"And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”

They understood the finality of covenant commitment. They understood the limits of God's "winking". They realized that if you cannot divorce for just any reason and expect grace to flow,
then it is better not to marry at all. You can read Jesus' intent in the reaction of his disciples.

The insanity, the serial adultery that fills what passes for Christendom is painful to see. The Old Covenant rebuilders of the Jerusalem walls and temple were required to put away their unsanctioned (foreign pagan) wives. If the church were to get serious about obedience rather than relying upon the false salve of greasy grace, there would be an upheaval the likes of which has not been seen since Nehemiah snatched them bald, who dared marry the pagans.

Jesus is all about grace and forgiveness, but He also said: If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

How much do we love Jesus?

Wiki Woes Redux


The essential problem I see with Wikipedia, and our current cultural view of scientia overall, is the assumption that consensus yields Truth. We see this most glaringly in the Global Warming "discussion". It appears that few have a handle on the concept of objectivity. 2+2=4.

No, 2+2=42, assuming very large values for 2.



If I feel like assigning those values.



And I do.


Wikipedia, however, only allows the robust exchange of ideas and concepts if you toe an ideological line. Or if you have an ID that is acceptably pristeen to the many proctors and overseers that make sure that you stay on Massa's biased plantation.

Gravity pulls us toward Gaia's bountiful bosom at a rate of 32 feet per second, per second.
This is an objective measured fact...unless you happen upon some anomaly that Art Bell would be keen on. My feelings, my personal politics, my opinions on stem cell research, none of these alter the gravitic pull of Earth upon my person. Outcome-based Wiki might find another answer if your screen name is incorrect. (Hey, I have no axes to grind...Heavens, no!)

So what brought about this colicky bleat? This:

Blu Aardvark has left a new comment on your post "I dearly love the concept of "Zero Tolerance". It ...":

Heh, sorry about that. They do get quite paranoid there on Wikipedia.

Did you ever get them to lift that ban? If not, I can probably make a point of showing this blog post to them. Not that I imagine you'd have a large desire to edit after being treated like that.

Then again, "being treated like that" is the exact reason I went on several vandalism sprees. Ah, irony.

But apologies for the mistaken identity.

Apology accepted, though my beef was never with you. (Hmmm...perhaps I should say "My lentil stew was never with you". Then the Wiki gods would smile again. Just a feeling I have.)
Hope your business does well, Blu!

Well, it begins...again.
Atkins. I've got thirty pounds I would LOVE to drop by fall, and Atkins works well with my metabolism. Now, if I can just stay SANE. There are sweets that one can eat sparingly (Russell Stover has several excellent goodies). I'll keep you posted.

***********************

We are having RAIN! We are suffering the worst drought in Alabamastan since 1924, so even spitting on the ground helps. Texas gets floods, and we're bone-dry.

***********************
Spiritually, your wise and loving Aardvark is in a staredown contest with The Almighty. What big eyes You have....

I wonder who'll blink first.

***********************

David is recorded as having been in a snit with God. The whole Uzzah thing. God didn't Smite David for his impertinence, and David got over it. The accretion of superstition and opinion upon the Faith Once Delivered (atheists note: I did not just repeat myself.) utterly astounds me.
To read the image of the Christian Faith as represented in Twain's writings is staggering when compared to the Actual Teachings. Read "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven". Better yet, go HERE and buy Will Vinton's Claymation classic The Adventures of Mark Twain. Not just a kiddy romp; it conveys much of the darkness of Twain's later years, when he blamed God for taking his wife Livy. Stormfield's race with a comet garners him trouble in the afterlife. You will laugh.
To be plain: buy the DVD. AND read the story.

Back to cases: The amazing collection of junk that passes for Christian thinking saddens me.

Don't get mad at God.
God helps those who help themselves.
Cremation is bad.
The devil is So-o-o-o-o powerful.
Forgive and forget.
Getting angry is BAD.

...like that.

Anger is wired into our circuitry, as surely as is sex or hunger for food.
The scripture says "Be angry, and sin not". Anger is not sin. What you do with it can be.

I personally blame the hymns that we sing. There is no better way to insinuate an idea into your brain than to link it to music. Tragically, there are MANY bad ideas, and MUCH bad theology linked to hymns. Considering the "Heaven as Escape" motif from the Depression Era (Albert Brumley was a hack in my book, but a popular one. The Stamps-Baxter machine has churned out scads of theologically glurgey ummmmm...fertilizer, that is sung by millions.) The most harmful is the Heaven is Escape stuff: "I'll Fly Away", "This World Is Not My Home, I'm Just a-Passing Through", "There's a Rainbow in the Cloud". Mercy, I get ill just writing the titles.

There is precious little actual "Heaven" talk in the Bible. The majority of the teaching of Jesus was not about getting you into Heaven, but getting Heaven into YOU. The Kingdom of God is transforming to you, and to the world around you. Living as a Kingdom person makes you other than the world, and sets you apart. As your life attains Kingdom order, that order spills over to those around you, and opens opportunity for sharing what God has done in you through Christ.

Bottom line: We are to make disciples of the nations, not whine about escaping the mean ol' nations by flying away to heaven. I can't find THAT attitude anywhere in the Bible.

If it's not in the Bible, then as Christians, it shouldn't be in us.

The death of Matthew Winkler, and the jury's finding his wife Mary guilty of voluntary manslaughter, and the judge's (apparently) lenient sentencing seems a gross miscarriage of justice to some. I see a different dynamic at work.

Believe it or not, not every American is sexually "sophisticated". This is to say that not every American has had her character sullied by exposure to porn and other uncleannesses.

Take a deep breath. I know that was a shock.

Mary Winkler is a member of the Church of Christ. This is a fellowship that rates VERY conservative on the continuum that is American Christendom. She is in fact a member of a very theologically conservative wing of that fellowship. Here are some core beliefs of that group:

• Marriage is for life.
• The only Scriptural (accepted-by-God) reason for divorce is the sexual unfaithfulness of the spouse.
• The husband is to love the wife as Christ loves the church.
• The wife is therefore to submit willingly to her husband.

The bad news is, the preacher's family must (apparently) multiply this fourfold. When there are Problems, often there is no-one to whom the beleaguered wife may turn. This is, after all, the Preacher's family, and surely they must be the Best of us!

To those of us who would consider ourselves to be Sexually Sophisticated (read: have read Playboy-at least- and have squinted real hard at the scrambled pr0n channels on cable) the Horror of platforms and a wig is laughable in the extreme. In a time of silicone-wrapped bedroom power tools, and artificial pudendae molded from the Stars of Pr0n themselves, such naivete and -dare I utter it- Innocence is hard to comprehend. Nonetheless, it still exists.

Isn't that cute.

I would be willing to bet that Mary was still a virgin on her wedding night.

To such innocence what would the ultimate message of wig-and-sexy-shoes be from Him who should love her as Christ loves the church? What would she perceive from her "godly" preacher swain?

You

Are

Not

Good

Enough.


This is NOT an issue of feminism Rampant. It is an issue of Love Sullied.

Surely then her actions are justified?

Errrrrmmmmmm, no. I would be willing to conjecture that she was behaving as programmed.
Hubby, her Vicar in Shining Armor, taught her the seamy side of marital love. Taught her (apparently) the art of violence.

She (apparently) was a good student.

This is NOT to say that lingerie is bad, or that sexual games are a bad thing (within the rubric of Love). It is to say that husbands, you should truly love your wives as Christ loved the church, and self-sacrificially gave Himself for the church.

It's a good way to keep from being killed with a shotgun.

Animazement!

Well, I'm amazed!

Riatsila and I went to our favorite convention last weekend in Raleigh-Durham NC. Brian Exelbierd and his crack team of Convention-eers (like Disney Imagineers, only cooler) did their usual faboo job putting on a primo anime and Japanese culture convention. We saw old friends and customers, ate at our favorite Italian place, Ragazzi's, spent time with Frank and Lisa of Frank's Cool Stuff, and generally had a Grand Old Time.

That, and we made a pantload of money.

Our customer fan base is...enthusiastic about our shirts.
We were told that our shirts are happy, (as opposed to dark and brooding, I guess). Not a bad endorsement. I've always preferred humor and cultural comment on our shirts, rather than nastiness.

Back to Bex and crew. Four years ago, I approached them about printing their convention shirts, and they agreed. We haven't looked back. They sell lots of well-printed quality tees. So do we.
Everybody happy. The amazing thing is that they do not sell black t-shirts with a white design. (Sacrilege!) They sell colored shirts, with black artwork. (Scandalous!!)

The operative words being: they sell.

One thing I've noted over the forevers that I've done conventions is that many of the con officials have, um, Control Issues. Crack that whip. Not so the Animazement crew. I actually heard some teen con-goers comment on the laid-back nature of the Management. The local Sheriff's Department handles security for the Dealer's Room, and does so unobtrusively. This is not a draconian measure, and goes a LONG way toward discouraging the miscreants and oafs who might otherwise relieve us of our goods, sans shekels.

The Con Crew lets the attendees have fun. Outside things that might injure people or break stuff, most anything is OK. The Katamari fans have a big ball that they roll around certain allowed halls. People love it! Zero-Tolerance means Zero-Brains. The con allows costume weapons and such. One kid had a HUGE foam mallet. No prob. He behaved himself, and all was well. The Cosplayers maintain a family-friendly level of dress, and largely excellent quality.

I could go on, but I must sleep. Bex and Co. are great, and put on a great con.

They like us, and that's the best of all. We're like adopted family, or at least the like kids that ALWAYS show up at meal time, and you invite 'em in 'cos you like 'em.
We were invited to the apres-con staff dinner party. Thanks guys 'n' gals!

Lookin' forward to next year!