A Homily of Humility

As the newsbeasts wrangle over what-is-and-is-not-fake, BitCoin defies gravity and loses, and partisan politics takes all the fun out of Parties, allow me a small homily. A homilette?
Perhaps I will not wind up with egg on my face.

It has been a rough year, a tough year, a busy year of third shifting, and me without a 'Vette.

It has been a year of paucity of praise for the One with Whom we have to do. It is always better - or easier - to complain, or riot, or throw stones. We can always lose ourselves in playing THIS or binge-watching THAT, and forget what is troubling us, and forget that we are troubled by going our own way, taking our cues from Sinatra.

Mostly, we are wanted to forget that One with whom we have to do, Who did not come to us in a red suit, but came in no suit, very God made man, stripped of His splendour, born of the shunned virgin in a feedlot for sheep, a palace redolent of manure, the God-man sharing the squalor of a sin-spoiled world. An omnipotent baby, born to die.

We are in the season where it is easier to speak of Him, for how inoffensive is a baby in Bethlehem? Offensive enough to earn the murderous wrath of the king, and offensive enough to be tempted to throw His identity away for earthly fame and glory. This baby was to grow into a threat against the whole order of things on our silent planet.

So we celebrate the birth of a baby, who is born to die.
For you.
For me.

Therein is the offense. A sweet baby is permissible; a mangled, bleeding, crucified Son of God is not.
Let us therefore celebrate the birth of Jesus, as is your wont. Just be prepared to screw your courage to the sticking place, for Easter comes soon, and we must share the offense of the Cross with as much gusto as we share Silent Night, and Adeste Fidelis.

A blessed, merry Christmas to you all, with love from your humble...

The Aardvark

A tirade of twaddle

The accusers sound scripted. The method of trotting them out in series appears scripted. And THEN...Gloria Allred....

This has "October Surprise" spray-painted all over it.. McConnell's antipathy toward Moore (which predates these accusations) is telling.

Also, the timing is really off. The PERFECT time for this would have been during his Ten Commandments statue era. "Mr, High-and-Mighty Christian Guy" shown to be a hypocritical lecher. Now, it comes across (to one who has breathed politics for decades - with no filter!) a wall thrown up to keep him out of the He-man Wimmen-Haters Club. This tactic parallels what was done to Pres. Trump. Moore is an ideological outsider who would not kowtow to the whims of McConnell and his ilk. The verdict of my personal court of public opinion is: this is the Senate Republican power base playing Democrat political schemes. The timing is enough to raise the red flags.

Thus saith the guy from Alabama.

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Sometimes life demands a cream cheese and green olive sandwich on buttered toast.
Butter side out.


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The people who believe they are REALLY a kitty or a puppy or a tiger should be turned in to Animal Control. Can't have stray critters running around....

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"The Great Gatsby" is filled
with terrible people being terrible.
It is "Seinfeld"
without the dubious comedy.


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The balance of the Universe
is off when the hotel coffee
is better than the
area restaurants' coffee.


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Clearly the zenith
of Western civilisation
is the tactical spork.

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This is spiritual in nature, and may result in contact dermatitis if mishandled.
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There is a phony dichotomy out there between "praying" and "doing". This betrays a misunderstanding of prayer. It is not either/or. Someone said "You can do more than pray, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed." Prayer can provide a channel for thought and wisdom to see what must be done, and in the most useful way. It is contacting the Creator and asking for aid. Obviously, if someone is on fire, you put them out...you don't pray for a thunderstorm. This is reductio ad absurdum, and is an unworthy argument. The spiritual life is both/and; praying to see the opportunities, and then DOING what needs done.
Jesus said "Give when asked." That is pretty clear, especially in its context of the covenant community. Paul said to Christians "Do good to all, especially those of the household of faith".
Do...give...these are clear and require little prayerful prep time.
If someone is using "I'm prayin'!" as a social band-aid, a nice caring cliche, well, that's on them.
It's not how the system is designed.

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"Inchoate" has crept back into my working vocabulary. How very Lovecraft of me.

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Few fannish things seem more desperate than the "Trek the Halls" shirts.

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I am reminded of the more "spiritual" folks who would refer to a "pot bless", because "pot luck" is superstitious. Selah

A reverent consideration of the bunny.

This may be most...unexpected...from me.

Bless me brethren...

Hugh Hefner is dead.
He took a magazine concept sold at seamy bookstalls, just down from THAT theater across the tracks, added tonnes of erudition and professional photography, and made a legend of it.

"I read it for the articles."
Old gag.
The first Larry Niven story I ever read as a callow yout' was in a Playboy magazine, so yeah.

I am...impatient with the whole porn industry. I am not a reader of Playboy...too many problems with it, and too many opportunities to cause someone to stumble, nor do I encourage its reading. I MUST say, though, what I must laud Mr. Hefner for.

What he did, he did with excellence.

He took a dreadful market of pulp-printed dirty magazines, with dreadful stories, and turned it into art. He sought the best writers of the day. The prettiest women, the coolest cars.

Excellence.

The ex-Methodist-Sunday School teacher rejected the religious niceties, but exported the Doing With All Your Might.

So, Mr. hefner, I salute you for your striving for Doing It Well. I pray in your latter days, you returned to the savior of your youth, and took full advantage of His Excellence.

I wish that those in the churches could have caught your vision for excellence.

A Tumulus of Typing

We understood hurricanes, tornadoes, and ice storms just fine when I was a kid, without on-the-spot weather reader histrionics on telly. Live OR green screen.

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That's IT!
I don't care if you use a rotisserie, or wrap it around a tin can with a light bulb on inside...You are COOKING bacon.
Not hacking it.

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Vaal was a vegan.



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Spent the wee hours mugging. Not street larceny, nor making rude faces at passersby (who are not in evidence during the wee hours), but making pretty coffee mugs for customers.
Such a varied life I have.

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Whoa!
Those green Nyquil caps pack a palooka's punch to a glass jaw.
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Vocabulary mavens: I'm looking for the word used "for when an animal (of the illustrated variety) is depicted gleefully offering himself up to be eaten by people".
There is a specific term which is eluding my memory.

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Well hallelujah! I got the Roku menu voice to go away!
Amazing what a shotgun can do!


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I recall that "W" was excoriated for not landing so as not to take resources away from Katrina rescue efforts. Now Mr. Trump DOES land to check on the situation, and he is excoriated for not doing enough.

Were I President, I would let my people do their jobs, and keep to my business. Of course, I would then be excoriated for not caring.

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The "Trump is Hitler" thing renders the actual Holocaust as meaningless except as a political bludgeon. The Holocaust Victims, ALL of them, then have no worth except as pawns in political rhetoric.
And Der Fuhrer smiles....

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Posting against "hate" does little more that bolster the progressive moves against "thoughtcrimes". If I kill you dead, you are no deader if I "hate" you vs. my killing you in a fit of anger. My thoughts are my own. I would suggest not joining in the anti-hate rhetoric, as it will ultimately be used against you.
Because disagreement with MY opinions = "hate".
And please to note that nowhere am I "encouraging hate". I am warning against linking arms with those who would destroy you.

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Since the South is the Big Burr under the US saddle, I have two ways to solve it. Both must be implemented.
1- All those who are unhappy living in the South MUST move out of the South, if only for their own mental health.
2- The United States, so as to punish the Southron miscreants for things their forbears may have done, must eject the Southern states from the Union. We clearly do not deserve to be part of it. This must be done unilaterally, and instanter.

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Here's the deal. There are CERTAINLY bad people who want to soak others with high prices during an emergency like in Houston. OTOH, it's the way economics works. Small supply=higher prices.
This provides an odd benefit, by discouraging hoarders from buying up the limited supplies of, say, water, enabling more people to get some, albeit with some grumbling about the price.
Houston gas prices will go up as well, because the refineries are down. It's likely to take awhile for repairs to be made, and the gas to flow again.

There are SOME gougers, but in main, it's just the way it works.

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I did research. Apparently this is how it's done:



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The essential error that the "Confederates were traitors" people make is not understanding the "states" part of "United States".
The assemblage of states was the overarching thing. The States were sovereign, and had agreed to be united in a mmmm...confederation. Those who had a grievance could opt out, as secession was not illegal.
We, with our post-Lincoln federal behemoth, have little way of understanding this.

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I've got a friend online, hight "Ed Kramer". He has a YouTube channel archiving the history of computer graphics, from creaky radio station logos to "The Last Starfighter" and pretty fractal thingies. TV, movies, gaming type stuff...CG is his thing. Allow me to encourage you to subscribe to his YouTube channel (Basement Tapes) He is writing a book "The Wizards of Hollywood" about the history of CG in Tinseltown, and his publisher wants to see more YouTube activity. So subscribe and watch. It's all great fun!

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THIS CONTAINS LIFE SPOILERS

I'm sorry.
The celebrities we grew up with were adults when we were kids.
Now that we are *ahem* mature, they are elderly. This has a natural consequence: we will likely outlive them.
Just wanted us all to be aware, and not be surprised.

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Anyone in the mood to watch "In the Year 2889"?
Naaaaahhh. Me neither.


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On what planet is wishing that someone "*bleeps* up his eyesight" after glancing up at the early eclipse considered a good and laudable thing?
No matter WHO it is.

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Best eclipse quote, from my nephew Garrett:
"I have not seen this many people outside since the release of Pokémon GO"


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I slept through 96% totality, which any other time would be called "twilight". (I DID see the diminished illumination through my window when the Dread Dormomoo woke me to see the thing, and I grumbled and waved her off.)
I was mildly disappointed to see that civilisation was not cast in ruin...then I remembered the last two weeks.
So, did the super-werewolves leave anyone alive, and did California solar power limp through the gloaming?

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"I disagree with your politics. I hope bad things happen to you."

Welcome to 2017.


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The imbeciles in Nazi outfits are not on a level with the horror-mongers of WW2. To even equate them with Nazi Germany is to belittle the millions who were killed by the Germans in the Second World War.
These are little more than cosplayers, lacking even the style of Hugo Boss. I would be far MORE worried about the ready acceptance of "But". "I believe in freedom of speech, but...."
There are vast amounts of "but" out there, and at some point, YOUR preferred group can be in those same sights.

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All said, I am DONE with arm-flailing foodists whose major argument is "IT HAS CHEMICALS IN IT!!".
You know what a solvent is? It melts things. Dissolves them.
Water is the virtually universal solvent. AND YOU'RE DRINKING IT!!!

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Aldi rolls into town. 28 cents for a dozen large eggs.
WalMart lowers eggs to 30 cents for a dozen large eggs, because no-one is gonna drive blocks to save 2 cents on a dozen eggs.
This, kiddies, is how economics works.

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I cannot tell how much I appreciate the sage "bend over and kiss your bum good-bye" advice in comments about surviving a nuke.


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That Jesus did not set up a chain of "Five Loaves and Two Fishes" diners appears to have meaning.

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Plugging a moth

Google, besides being a company FAR more interested in identity politics, and riding herd on employees expressing BadThink than producing good software anymore, is getting FAR too uppity and Nosy-Parker for my taste.

Last night (9 August) I went to the car wash to strip screens for re-use. Whilst there, I saw the prettiest moth (and I watch Mothra flicks)!

The Rosy Maple Moth.
It climbed aboard my proffered finger, and I took it to a place where it would not become Wet and Dead. Quite friendly and lovely.

Of course, at the time I had no clew as to what type of moth it was. I had to look it up today, which included pictures.

Ten minutes or so ago I was on Facebook, and this ad appeared:





Google.
Amazon.

That's not funny one bit.