This came up on Vox Popoli today.



We can ship on Monday. Choose a shirt color that white ink will work on, and contact me via aardbiz (at) hiwaay.net

The television box is rife with ads for various slick liquids to enhance your sexual experience- especially if you are female. They give tingly cold or buzzy warm sensations, and are flogged as making your sex more intense. Hurrah for intense, though I prefer mine in the house. This has raised a serious question in what we laughingly call my mind, to wit:

When did sex itself stop being good enough?

Your Aardvark has been married for over three decades, has four kids, and thus has some experience in these matters.
Overall, sex is a pretty neat deal. It requires effort, as anything worth doing does, especially if one is interested in one's partner getting as much out of it as oneself does. The payoff is quite nice, indeed. Some will ruin their lives and existing relationships to get that payoff with persons not-their-spouse. (I know, take a little lie-down. That revelation was surely a shocker.) The question remains: when did sex stop being good enough? Why do we have to buy exotic (and comparatively expensive) tingly goo to enjoy ourselves?

I wonder if we are seeing the penultimate result of promiscuity, people becoming so jaded with their merry-go-round of lovers and hook-ups; not quite to the end, yet, but almost...alllllmoooosssst *ahem* ...sorry. Really, though, does a person become so overcome with ennui that the normal cannot satisfy anymore, that juices and suits and power tools and kink become the new normal? Are we a culture of Dorian Grays?

From the outset, God created male and female humans, looked and proclaimed it "very good", as opposed to merely "good" for the rest of creation. When Adam and Eve were introduced in Genesis, they were told to "be fruitful and multiply". One of the first commandments recorded amounts to God patting the young couple on the head and telling them to go make love. Given the lack of self-help books extant at the time, they apparently had to figure it all out on their own. They apparently did, and all without Victoria's Secret or the internet.

Now, do not consider this a bleat for the standard of the position du missionnaire or any such pseudo-puritanical nonsense. The palette of sex-play is large and varied, and bounded by very few biblical strictures, largest of which looms: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". Between that and common sense, you can go a long way. I merely ask that we examine the why. Why is what was very good in the beginning now just not good enough?

For your Hallowe'en enjoyment:

So, Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan- principal exports being hounds that look like supermodels and small blankets- has received millions of dollars in cash from Iran.

Clearly, he does not need us.

Mr. President Obama, sir, take a hint from this and bring all our soldiers home NOW!

Behold our small efforts to keep 1950s Tiki culture alive. Bamboo huts, violently-colored fruity drinks with umbrellas in 'em, flaming pupu platters, wahines in grass skirts. Tiki statues.

Wahines in grass skirts.

Your Aardvark has eBay auctions going (aardvark3 is my eBay name). Check out his tie-dyed tiki goodness. Also, the fluorescent tie-dyed Easter Island Moai head shirts!

Isn't this what blogging is really all about?

"I have ridden the mighty Moon Worm!"

That ain't so much...of a much. (QUICK! What's that from???)

For I have eaten...THE MIGHTY PEANUT BUTTER! (and liked it.) Now, my family will be in all-but-seizures over this, because my dislike, nay, hatred of peanut butter is legendary.
I really loathe it. The oily silkiness, which is great in a CAO wrapper, is dreadful in a sandwich. However, I have felt...other...than everyone else, and have wished that I did like PB, because everyone else seemed to get so much out of it. But I was not a PB eater. I was not of the Body. I could not eat it, even if it was the Will of Landru.

Then, tonight happened. Riatsila brought home some JIF Natural. It is the closest thing I fave found to freshly, coarsely-ground roasted peanuts like GNC used to grind and sell in-store, back when they were more of a health-food store at the mall, instead of the phony-steroid store at the mall. THAT was yummy, back in college. Regular peanut butter was terrible.

Tonight, I had a bit on a spoon, and it was nice. So I went a little crazy. We had some Lance Smokehouse Cheddar Captain's Wafers. I put a dollop of the Jif Natural on one, and lo, it was very good. I won't overdo this, though. Might need to eat it after the Crash.
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Not only has GNC fallen from its former purity. Back when I was an environmental Studies major, we went all the way, baby. Mother Earth News. Prevention Magazine. Organic Farming and Gardening. J.I.Rodale published the last two, and they were the blueprints of healthful living. After his death and the death of his son Robert some years later, the blueprint faded. OGF has a name change and a website, which is good. Prevention has become a shill for Big Pharma. How the mighty have fallen.

Yet more shirty silliness from the Aardvark.
4chan should be pleased.

The Horror...THE HORROR!!!

I discovered a wonderful 1950's series called "Science Fiction Theater", a syndicated program from Ivan Tors of "Flipper" and "Gentle Ben" fame. From 1955-1957, this anthology explored science, space, time travel, and the paranormal in 30-minute bites. It is full of '50s sensibilities, and you may recognize many a guest star. Here is Wikipedia's description of an episode:

Before the Beginning

An obsessive scientist is unaware his wife is gravely ill as he works to develop a machine for generating high energy photons. He believes the photons, similar to those ejected from the sun, were the origin of life on Earth. When his "photon gun" generates living matter, he uses it to treat his wife's degenerated endocrine system with positive results. But was it the technology or his renewed love for his wife that caused her to rally? Episode is heavy with 1950s religiosity and tacit Frankenstienian warnings about man meddling with things he shouldn't.

A true horror tale, with that 1950s religiosity and all. That is what chaps me. This quasi-warning by the wiki writer is so typical of the quasi-intelligentsia that tend to write and proctor the online encyclopedia. It is also typical of the progressive/left, period. The thing that really frightens people about Beck, f'rinstance, is his unashamed faith, his daring to speak openly about God, Christ and the spiritual history of the US.

Another attitude that exists is shown most clearly in the Brookings Institute report from 1960 concerning "Implications of a Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life", part of the larger "Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs".
Regarding the reaction of mankind (what Neal Boortz refers to as the 'dumb masses') to the revelation of the existence of extraterrestrial life, the report states:

"The positions of the major American religious denominations, the Christian sects, and the eastern religions on the matter of extraterrestrial life need elucidation. Consider the following: 'The fundamentalist (and anti-science) sects are growing apace around the world . . . For them, the discovery of other life–rather than any other space product–would be electrifying. . . . some scattered studies need to be made both in their home centers and churches and their missions, in relation to attitudes about space activities and extraterrestrial life.'" – page 225, n.34

One writer notes:

Curiously, the report also suggests that both scientists and religious fundamentalists might have their paradigms most altered by the verification of extraterrestrial life.

The report warns:

"Anthropological files contain many examples of societies, sure
of their place in the universe, which have disintegrated when
they had to associate with previously unfamiliar societies
espousing different ideas and different life ways; others that
survived such an experience usually did so by paying the price
of changes in values and attitudes and behavior."

Poor Bible bangers will go off their nut if they learn of alien lifeforms.

A weird site called The Bible UFO Connection posits:
Organized Bible based religions are, for the most part, also silent on the UFO phenomenon, either through fear of facing the reality, refusal to recognize it or church mandated social isolation. This is an enigma in itself considering the fame of Ezekiel's wheels, the chariots of the Gods, (the verse, not the book, well maybe the book too), and other evidence of flying vehicles in biblical text. When mainstream religion does deal with the anomaly, there are two doctrinal views concerning the presence of UFOs, the holograph theory and the evil alien conspiracy. One approach states that the UFOs are holographic illusions projected by Satan to lure the congregation away from the church and into alien worship, eventually enslaving mankind. The other, more radical view surmises that the beings piloting the UFOs are actually fallen angels with Satan in the mother ship. They are lurking on the dark side of the moon or some other evil hideaway, occasionally visiting our atmosphere to abduct and implant a few of their human followers, slaughter some cows, scrawl satanic graffiti in our barley fields or run circles around our jets. Either way, UFOs are evil and UFO believers are either dupes or disciples of Satan. Contrary to the doomsday bellowing of the satanic UFO prophets, this widespread cover-up itself could easily be classified as a Great Deception, while evil soul-stealing aliens piloting UFOs are not mentioned in scripture. Certainly the cover-up is safe here, in total confusion and ignorant bliss.

(The site is doctrinally suspect, and unless you have a good grounding in Biblical teachings, and have a knack for being discerning, peruse with extreme caution.)

The cultural bottom line: Bible-believing Christians are too stoo-pid to handle the possibility of life on other planets. Their faith will implode, and their heads explode, should ET come a-calling. There will be riots in the streets, pitchforks and firebrands, and it will all make Westboro Baptist look sane by comparison.

As one of those Bible-believing Christians, I take umbrage at this. Yes, I will take ALL the umbrage. None for you. *ahem* Biblically, we are informed that there are other non-human intelligences: angels (cherubim, seraphim) and demons for starters. If you read the Bible without traditional blinders, there are even other gods, for how can one have others before Yahweh if there are no others? Perhaps they are hyper-demons. Who knows? (I bet I know Someone who does!) It would not trouble me one whit if we found lizardoids from Yed Prior (look it up!). God, being the Creator and all, may have myriads of races out yonder.

My personal opinion, ngaaaaah, and it is only an opinion, is that all the expanse of Creation lives in perfect harmony with the Creator, and ours is the only planet that blew it.

I suspect the Roman Catholic take is a tad shady. The human race fell because of Adam's sin, not the Zan from Rukbat 9. If another race in another star system required redemption, I daresay the Redeemer would appear at the appropriate time. I find the pale, blue-eyed, brunette images of Jesus to be lacking in redemptive or Biblical qualities. What would a spiky air-slug from Grumium 4 think of them? No, they would need their own Grumian redeemer.

Wow, talking about this makes me want to set fire to something, then stick it with a pitchfork.

A person with a true Biblical worldview and cosmology is proof against the slings and arrows of oddness in the news, or in the saucers.

Now, if I could just wrap my head around Richard C. Hoagland's hyper-dimensional physics, and why it makes my souffles fall....

Living in the '60's your Aardvark developed a strong fondness for simplicity in logo typography. The examples above are testimony to the usefulness of simplicity. It was only later, when liberal arts foofery insinuated itself into my brain that Art Nouveau and such polluted the elegant plainness I loved as a yout'. Art Deco started my healing, and now I'm back to my first design love.

Granted, Nouveau and such have their place: wine shops, boutiques, and bistros on the square, but an Aardvark craves not these things. The Seatrain logo says it all: how stuff gets from there to here

Strength, simplicity...works in advertising; works for the Gospel.

In honor of our burgeoning welfare state:

From a former schoolmate:

I am SOOOO angry! The $**%^ oral surgeon's office called this afternoon and said they have decided not to accept **** as a patient! She cried most of the afternoon. I did, too, in my car coming home early to be with her. Now I am over the crying and ready to kick the butt of every conservative or rich fat cat that thinks only those who can afford it should get health care....**** is the littlest one on my profile picture. She has suffered from the effects of Lupus since puberty. How could she have worked and saved money to pay for health care? So what do the Republicans want me to, push her off into the ocean in a row boat to die? We spent what little family savings we had paying my mother's medical bills. There is just ****'s Trust fund and it's not that much....Okay, I am done now. It was good to get that off my chest so I didn't punch the next "I got mine screw you" person.

How precisely have we gotten here? I know "Shrek" Grayson, the doubtable Florida Congresstroll has beaten this drum in his pathetic bid to Be Noticed, but I know this person. She is hurting, her child is hurting, and she perceives that the Republicans wish her and her daughter ill. The siren song of the Left lyrically states that if you have a need, we will pick someone's pocket -MANY someones' pockets- and help you with the proceeds. The Obamster and his lapdog legislators are dreaming up even more creative ways to extract money from you to give to others. Have you a 401K? They would lo-o-o-o-o-ve to "administer" that money for you. There are plans in the works...studies...examining just how to do it. If there is a fund of mega-moolah floating untouched in private hands, pensions, f'rinstance, the Federal Givemint wants control of it, yelling like a J.G.Wentworth ad: "It's MY money, and I need it NOW!". In tax legislation and regulations, money that you keep to spend is viewed as "negative revenue". ALL your money is really Uncle Sam's, but he graciously lets you keep some of it. Welcome to Beltway-think.

Now, my friend has done what she should: used money that she had to help care for her mom.This depleted her family's resources. This has left her in an unsteady situation financially. Her daughter has unmet medical problems, beyond what a local clinic can handle. What to do? Anyone have any ideas? Any resources she might be able to rely on? Any charities? Any "fat cats" with a good heart?

I am astonished at this. How can someone be so infected with disinformation...lies...and cut themselves off from the very ones who want better for her than the Government dole? I'm not rich, but I am a conservative, and I surely wish only the best for her and her family. The liars, schemers and thieves who promulgate such ogreish "row-boat" lies have much to answer for. Who exhibits an "I've got mine, screw you" attitude?

How have we gotten here?