Your Aardvark, at fifty-three, is flexing his maturity. As a callow yout', he used to view submitting to Emily Post as equivalent to durance vile. The bondage of societal niceties was a burden not to be borne.He would read Miss Manners later in life for the entertainment value. Today, he is still unlikely to write a thank you note, but that is his being boorish, or at least busy. This blogging thing, both reading and writing, consumes time, as does the working.

What brings this up is TV. Chez 'Vark is enthralled by the smorgasbord of history and science shows served up on Charter Cable. A commercial came on, breathlessly touting an upcoming something-or-other on the National Geographic channel.

Wait. "Nat Geo".

When a very young callow yout', your Aardvark was nominated by some kinsman to be a Member of the National Geographic Society. No, it was not a mere subscription, nosireesir. Your Humble had the feeling that when the magazine arrived, he should have donned safari jacket and pith helmet. It was An Event, participating as a Member of the National Geographic Society, whilst reading of Kon Tikis, bathyscaphes, Biblical archaeology, Telstars and Sputniks, safaris on the Serengeti, like that. The International Geophysical Year, for cri-yi! The Dust of Ages on every page. The National Geographic TV specials were "put your homework away 'til this is over" programs. Alexander Scourby narrated them, and he recorded the whole Bible four times!

And your Aardvark was a Member.

To quote Commodore Decker: " But not 'nymore". Now, any rube with a couple of shekels to rub together can buy a subscription, and revel in well-crafted articles supporting politically-approved articles on Climate change, rainforest predation by indigenous farmers, and the amazing strides forward in Sustainable Energy.

The venerable National Geographic Society has been stripped down to "Nat Geo", to feed the fast-food brains of the fast-food fed and bred.

Faugh. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find appropriate times and places to wear a pith helmet?

SEXTING...ONOES!!!

Now that all our healthcare woes are solved, we can turn our attention to the true causes of all ills in our Great Democracy! Yeppers, I'm talking about sexting.

We're talkin 'bout Trouble, right here in River City,
With a capital "T" and that rhymes with "T", and that stands for.......

Oh, never mind. There are new laws being considered to deal with teen sexting, because in many locales, as one Ohio State rep reports:

with the current law, teens could be charged with a felony and forced to register as sex offenders, which he felt was an “extra burden” they didn’t need.

So for (stupidly and naively) texting a boy or girlfriend with a sexy message or picture, you can get a felony charge, and get a sex offender rap. Sweet. I was listening to a cable news report on the issue, and one woman was committing verbal hand-wringing: "What can we do about this problem?" The underlying question is "What can the Government do about this problem?".

Too late, honey! There is nothing that can be done now, outside of Mommy and Daddy actually giving a rip. and teaching their now-almost-too-old kinder what is right, and what is inappropriate. And maybe taking their kid's phones away, or giving them bottom-of-the-line TracFone that has only basic phone services. If these kids have no clue that sending naked pix over the cell waves is a bad idea, the problem is FAR deeper than what they are doing.

Mommy, Daddy, RAISE YOUR KIDS!! Teach them right from wrong. Quit treating them like special pets. Train them. Take time with them. Your kids are more important than your job, your hobby, your team, your pals, American Idol, or People Magazine. They aren't just a side-effect of sex. You will be held accountable for how you raised them, both now, and in the age to come.

Lulululululululululululululululululuuulu !!!!!

Allahu akbar !!!!!!!!


Well, our Fearless Leader Barack Hussein Obama has taken his clothy-headed followers, and flown passenger jets directly into the home offices of every health insurer in America. The carnage will be devastating when totted up, because he has effectively destroyed the health insurance industry. By removing risk assessment from the equation, he has turned insurers into mere funnels through which very finite money must trickle to quench an infinite demand for care. (The obscene profits trumpeted by the opponents of what is laughably called the Free Market in the US amount to 2 - 3%. Such obscenity!) Ben Bernanke does not have enough helicopters to ferry the funds necessary to supply the hemorrhage. Commander Brotherhood cannot come to the rescue.*

Your Aardvark is not being over-the-top, nor is he disrespecting the lives lost on September 11th, 2001. No, he is drawing a distinct and deserved parallel. Every nation that has gone down the road toward a National Health single-payer plan (and no, we are not quite there yet, but the first domino has been pushed.) has, within short order, begun massive cutbacks on military spending, in order to stanch the flow of the fiscal fistula.
Anyone who has been used to paying their own way medically, and then begins receiving health insurance as a job benefit knows the score. Things that previously were taken care of with bandaids and Neosporin suddenly become cause for a doctor visit. If you HAVE health insurance, you will USE health insurance.

So, with military cutbacks in the offing, we will see withdrawals from theaters of operation, probably overseas base-closings, most likely troublesome ones.

Bin Laden wins!

Aerospace contractors and materiel support companies will contract, laying off workers, closing offices. With no effective space program in the offing, there will be no place to take up the slack.

Things may not bode well for Huntsville, AL and similar cities.

Insurance companies, aerospace, the military. Three big dominoes right there.

Enjoy your "free health care" while you are looking for work.



(*Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke played the character "Commander Brotherhood", the head of a commune, in the Dillon High School Senior play production of Hip-Hippie-Hooray .)

1Ki 12:12 And they came, Jeroboam and all the people, to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had appointed, saying, Come to me again the third day.
1Ki 12:13 And the king answered the people roughly, and left the old men's advice which they advised him,
1Ki 12:14 and spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke. My father whipped you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
1Ki 12:15 And the king did not listen to the people, for the cause was from Jehovah, that He might perform His saying which Jehovah spoke by Ahijah of Shiloh to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
1Ki 12:16 And all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, and the people answered the king, saying, What part do we have in David? Yea, there is no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now see to your house, O David! And Israel went to its tents.

Neither in the House of White.

During Nancy Pelosi's "Proud Humility" speech tonight, The Dread Dormomoo noted that the Congressional Majority Leader's snicker is unsettlingly like Major Arnold Ernst Toht's insane snigger in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Personally, I find Toht to be more attractive...or maybe it was his Nazi nunchuck-coathanger.

No, he's definitely more attractive. Not as predatory.

Have I said how much I miss the Clinton Years lately?

The drama in Washington persists in hurting my head. The moral high ground is being staked out by representatives who are paining themselves to "vote their conscience". I weep tears of blood for them, but wait a minute...If I am elected (hired) to represent the folks back home, then have I not in a sense hired out my conscience? Put another way, if I am elected to represent the home-folks, is their will not therefore my conscience?

A hireling is a hireling, and must do the will of his masters.

It amuses me that Pretty Lady was a Young Republican in college, and that I was a Mother Earth News, Organic Gardening-reading Environmental Studies major.

I feel a need to burn some tires, now.

Over at Vox's a commrnter hight "Damagehold" opens a can:

Ok, I have to go and open up the can of worms.
I get from Bane and Nate and various sources that demons are here, they're queer, and for the most part we can easily send them packing. Like Jesus said, some can only be driven out through prayer and fasting, fine. But certainly they can't bother us when they're just floating around in the ether. It's game over. Nate's hinted at "what happened to Baal and his buddies" and I can guess, but I'd love to hear that thought expanded.
On to the can of worms:
What about miracles? Why so few and far between? Are we supposed to be doing them?
What about the Holy Spirit? Speaking in tongues, baptism, etc?
I'm not asking about end times or any of that flamebait, I just want to know if there's some massive portion of ministry we're supposed to be doing RIGHT NOW that's been almost totally neglected in my churchian experience.
It occurs to me that I should look up the name of Vox's former pastor and that minister who co-authored the christian video game with him. Someone I can recommend is Dennis Peacocke, not as an author really but for his recommended book list.
As personal background, I'm mid 20s and in the past spent a fair amount of time studying the Bible, mostly through E-Sword and the Dennis Peacocke Foundation series, and whatever books were around the house. Right now my syntopical reading cycle is focused on secular matters, but I'd like to build a good list of resources because I'm sure I'll come back to this topic. I did already see Vox's recommended reading path culminating in GK Chesterton's Orthodoxy, although last time I tried it I was too much of a sci fi snob to endure more of Lewis' Perelandria. Perhaps having read A Wrinkle In Time since then I'll be more forgiving.

I think the major flaw in my churchian education has been studying only the Bible itself and filtering that study through a modern churchian lense. Christianity is a pre-Biblical religion... duh. I guess I assumed that since Jesus Christ was the truth, therefore my religious education in my upbringing had to be also substantially true. WRONG.

A #10 can, at least, shading toward a 55 gallon drum. I replied in a place-holding manner:

One point: Modern Charismania tends to put a "three miracles before breakfast" gloss on NT Christian life. Outside of spiritual gifts in the assembly, there appears to be a minimum of the miraculous showcased in the first century church (the NT covering a period of some 40 years. Certainly, it is not likely an exhaustive catalog of charismata and the miraculous, but still, it isn't all raising the dead by elevenses, either.

I learned a wonderful word this weekend: "presentism". It is a History term, referring to the error of viewing the past through the lens of today. It reminds me of the fuss made by Darwin otaku who reject the Bible out of hand because it classifies "bats" with "birds".
Holy St. Linnaeus on a stick, the Bible does not use a system of taxonomy developed some 1700 years after its writing was complete! Into the dustbin it goes! Unless, of course, it is using a different taxonomy, like lumping non-insectoid things having wings together. My understanding then is to allow the Scripture to instruct me from its time, rather than instructing it pridefully from mine.

Jesus said at the end of Mark's Gospel:

¹⁵And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

¹⁶ He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.

¹⁷"These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues;

¹⁸they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."(NASV)

This opens several cans, as well. His commission did not stop at "preach". Jesus then proceeded to meddle with Evangelical theology by saying "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.". Jesus (apparently) held baptism (Greek for "immersion") to be of some importance, as He linked them (He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved). "He who has disbelieved shall be condemned"does not negate the previous sentence, since it is faith in Christ that validates baptism. What, you gonna get baptised without believing first? So baptism is important, and part of Christ's salvific instructions. Not mine.

Once in the church (Acts 2, f'rinstance) Other Things happen.

¹⁷"These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues;

¹⁸they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

Casting out demons, and other manifestations and protections of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12) would be in evidence, a sort of spiritual toolbox with which to do the work of the church.

Contextually, that all these things are together in one small context leads me to believe that they are to be together historically.

(More to be added)

Here's an amusing way to waste some time.
The Warning Label Generator

Flaming Carrot (C) Bob Burden

I'm late on resolutions. Srsly. I am beginning a three-week meatless regime. The bod is really craving fruits and veg, and has a serious need to drop avoirdupois. We shall see. I will allow bare amounts of dairy or egg to maintain sanity, but the leafy and globular is the thing. Our local Publix has 25 lb. bags of organic carrots, which run nicely through the juicer. Fresh carrot juice is an oddity. It has no fat content, but it has the mouth-feel of milk.Mix it with a little fresh Fuji apple juice for the yum factor.

I'll continue report along the way.

------------------------------------------------------------

Overall, I like Chuck Jones' work. I LOVE his Looney Tunes at Warner Bros., but his later work seems a tad self-absorbed, and ultimately self-caricaturing. His Tom and Jerry work is loathsome to me, taking a second to the Gene Deitch East European cartoons. Much of my issue with those is the oddball sound design. I fondly remember Deitch's Tom Terrific cartoons from my childhood. (There was a Jones T&J on TV, which jogged my rant.)