I believe a caveat must be stated.
I am not a brain-numbed robot.
Nope.
I am currently looking for a twelve-step program for talk-radio addiction.
"I can quit any time I want to........I just don't want to!"
It's tiresome, being driven by the impulse that I might MISS something, some tid-bit that will bring it all together. I love music. I love Old Time Radio CDs. Books on tape. Alexander Scourby
reading the Bible. (Now he is top-of-the-heap, but I might reconsider if Patrick Stewart did a narration. Yeah, right...) All sorts of goodies that I regularly miss because I-don't-want-to-miss-something.

All because of one guy.
Goolsby.
Sixteen+ years ago we spoke long distance -back when that meant something- and he asked if I had heard of Limbaugh. He said -now this is important. You must parse this properly- he said:

"Rush Limbaugh reminds me of you."

I couldn't help myself. That night I turned on the telly, because on that fateful day, Limbaugh was guest hosting Pat Sajac's late night show. The night the audience was loaded with, ummm,
slightly left of centre enthusiasts.
That hijacked the show.
That could not allow reasoned discourse, because Limbaugh disagreed with them.
That resorted to the ne plus ultra weapon of choice for their arguments.
That's right.
They called names.
Limbaugh honestly attempted discussion.
They railed.
They pointed the Bony Finger of Indignation.
And called Rush Limbaugh names.
The studio was cleared, because the whole situation was beginning to attain gladiatorial levels of bile and vituperation, and Telemachus was nowhere to be found to stem the tide.
That was my intro to Limbaugh.
The next day I found a local station: AM770 Huntsville that carried Rush.
Yes, the same station that launched Sean Hannity. The Bethlehem of Talk Radio. For that I heartily apologise. I even tried out to take Sean's place after he left for Atlanta, and stardom.
That's another story.

Hello.
My name is Weatherly, and I'm a talk radio junkie...

Paving with good intentions

I am a member of an e-group dedicated to the 60s SF series Fireball XL5. The topic of the use of force by members of the crew came up, and I posted the following (thinking it on-topic):

As a popular pundit opines: "Ours is a world governed by the use of
force.". Whether it is the Inland Revenue, or the local cop pulling
you over for speeding, or the UN making a >snicker< Resolution, the threat of force is what keeps folks in line. If this were not so, there would be no armies, police forces, or West Virginia militias. And no Neutroni missiles on Fireball XL5.
Love,
Weatherly

I was responded to by the following slap on the hand:

L**** and I very recently reminded all members not to post off topic
messages to our Fireball XL5 group. L**** also reminded everyone that
offensive posts would not be tolerated.
Your remark about the United Nations appears to be meant as some kind of
'joke', intended to poke fun at an organisation set up to promote and
preserve world peace.
Larry and I find the remark offensive.
I don't propose to give a lecture on ethics and morality here.
All we want is for people in this group to refrain from making offensive
remarks. This is not the venue for venting personal hatred or prejudice.
This is a place for friendly discussions about a great t.v. show.

I am fascinated that making a mild criticism of a Faceless Organization lines me up for accusations of "personal hatred or prejudice".

Which brings me to the question of offense.

I wonder if any of the one million Rwandans killed during the UN's beneficent oversight were offended?

I wonder if any of the Iraqi men, women, and children for whom the "Oil For Food" benefits were intended are offended by the multi-billion dollar "mismanagement" of the funds by UN leadership.

I wonder if any charity-minded US citizens were offended by the UN functionary's assertion that they are "stingy" in response to human need and suffering, when our charitable giving, public and private, is very good indeed. (I shall be charitable and NOT do percentage comparisons with other countries.)

I wonder if any of the women and children sexually victimized by UN blue helmets in Bosnia and Africa were offended.

I wonder if any of the Sudanese victims of the black-on-black slave trade are offended by the UN's inaction.

Whatever good intentions the founders of the UN may have had have clearly been subsumed in the hell of inaction and self-serving of the current leadership in NY.

Y'know, I was offended at being called a prejudiced hater, especially after several years of a track record of civility and friendliness. But they MAY have a point.

I HATE hypocrisy. An international organization to promote world peace and justice should not behave in these ways. And well, I guess I'm prejudiced against
the pretense of righteousness and respectability which the United Nations projects.

The Dark Design...

I have sussed it out. George Delano Bush is in the hands of the Late Great Planet Earthers.
Iraq...Iran...the whole point is to plug the hole: control the Euphrates River so as to prevent the Chinese Hordes from crossing into the Middle East, and immanentizing the Eschaton.
I betcha!

On a tangential note: ignoring the issue of the inspiration of the Bible, any man who pens the words: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;" (Ephesians 5:25) cannot possibly be a woman-hater. Hmmm...Husband, be prepared to bleed and DIE for your wife, live a life of loving self-sacrifice for your wife.
Yeppers, Paul had a REAL problem with women!

Hoot mon! Went to ChattaCon this weekend. Cold weather, fun folks, good food. Larry Niven was GOH at the convention-he of Ringworld fame- but I saw him not!

By good food, I refer to the restaurants. Portofino's, a Greek-run Italian place,(why are the best Italian places run by Greeks?) is so good that I use Chattanooga conventions as an excuse to be able to go there! Their Brochetta is incredibly good, and tho' an appetizer, will serve as a meal! Two friends (Sunshine, who is a con pal of my wife and me- she deals in etched glass goodies- and Kelsey, who works with Sunshine), who happen to be hot babes, went with me for dinner (chunky, short, cue-ball me--envy me, boys) not quite believing the place could be as good as I raved. Well, they got SCHOOLED! I had the Brochetta and antipasto; Sunshine, the Tour of Italy-lasagna, manicotti, chicken, and spaghetti; and Kelsey the Chicken Marsala. A great time was had by all. Not a bad bite to be had! (It is great to be well and happily married AND good-natured..One can enjoy the company of Beauty with none of the attendant angst and pressure.)

I drove us all to the Read House Hotel- the Con site- and dropped 'em off. They suggested sneaking me into the hot tub, but I demurred...being well and happily married and all...
Drove back to my digs at the Motel 6- I rarely stay at the convention venue as I am almost 48, and fond of my sleep. Yeah...I'm a stick. In the mud. A happily married stick.

...And, no, there is no Deep Meaning here.

It's so great living in the land of the Cesspool, receiving the effluent from Canada's tax subsidised film industry. I had such hope and joy when the SciFi channel came to town, and now it's just filled with the rustle of dried, talentless maple leaves.

Saturday morning...IFC is on, and it is presenting short films. From Canada. If we didn't take their stuff, Canada would sink under the sheer weight of wasted film.

The question this particular crop of drek (Pssssst....Why doesn't he turn it off?) raises is cogent, however. Why do the women in the 21st century insist on talking. Oh...about "our relationship".
Endless, endless chatter and self-examination about Our Emotional State. Still, it makes sense that the Film Board as the enabler for these movies. They are so painful in their rummaging through couples' emotional pain that no sane person would willingly part with a dime to see them.

Now, I am the "romantic" member of our married life, so don't go thinking I'm all stoic and unfeeling. It's just that there are limits to how much gubbish one can stand. (Philip K. Dick fans take note!)

Sometimes...it's just good to be.

ABOLISH THE IRS!

Make April 15th just another day.
Go to this site.


http://www.fairtax.org/

Read it.
Then do what it says.
It WILL lead to Freedom and increased prosperity.

Outstanding!
I'm doing my best to re-establish the Plumbline after my five-month hiatus. A glitch wiped all links, and readership has plummetted.
******************************
Flaming Thunderbolts Theology: Part the First

I have a bit of virtual dyspepsia regarding, ummmm, "the whole state of Christ's church".
I came to the faith during the Late Great Planet Earth era. Even at that time in my mid-teens, I had difficulty reconciling the various eschatological angles into a coherent model. It all seemed so...contrived and needlessly messy, as though the Almighty was a hack screenwriter who peeked at all the worst James Bond / Austin Powers capture and escape scenes, and cobbled together a Rube Goldbergian finish to the little ball of mud we call home.

Enter the dichotomy: Dispensationalism versus Covenant. C.I. Scofield, that evangelical P.T. Barnum, cooked up a scheme in the crack- er- crockpot environment of Bible conference fervor, a system of Biblical interpretation worked out with Gaebelein and Darby which artificially divided the scripture into a series of Dispensations.
I say artificially because this Johnny-come-lately doctrine is virtually unknown prior to the late 1800s.
Why did it take close to 1900 years for anyone to figure this out?
http://www.preteristarchive.com/dEmEnTiA/need-ovid_dd_01.html

is a potent link calling the whole dispensational scheme into question. While I have not crawled the entire site, this section appears to be sound.

The Biblical record tends to fall naturally into COVENANTS, which is really odd, given that Yahweh is a covenant-making God. You don't need reference books and commentaries to see it.

To Be Continued...

OK, people, I have WORK to do. I do not have time to blog this morning, but I half-heard a news report which concerned me, and then heard Boortz fulminating about my suspicions.
The US Give-mint's pledge money for tsunami relief is going to be GIVEN TO THE UN to distribute.
If I give One Hundred Dollars to my youngest son to purchase our groceries, but he buys anime DVDs with it instead, then my response is to sell whatever stuff he has purchased to recoup my shekels, and then refuse to entrust ANY more simoleons to him again for a VERY long time.
This US action is stupidity of the most egregious sort, and deserves our sanctions.
If they cannot use our tax dollars in a sane and.....SANE manner, then we as a nation should deny our non-representing representatives any more opportunity to misuse our earnings.

THIS MUST STOP!

The obligatory "Happy New Year" to you all.
I dunno...This "holiday season" has been the most secularised in my memory. I'm talking about in my household. Christmas, whilst a lovely time with family, was just not the holy-day of years past. I allowed myself to be too busy (not that there was much choice. The screenprinting orders just kept avalanching in. Odd how blessing served to distract from Meaning.) We are thankful for it all, and I freely admit that there is no Scriptural sanction for the celebration of Jesus' Birth. (Neither for Easter; we are to celebrate the resurrection of Christ in the Lord's Supper on each Sunday, by the NT church's apostolic example.) It's just good to have the focus of Faith to lend Meaning to this holly-encrusted point on the calendar.

Even New Year's Eve was just another night. I helped around the house, sat on my fundamentals and trekked through the blogosphere, appalled at the bonhomie of the postings at Evangelical Outpost. When did "evangelical" come to mean "intellectually arrogant"?
"They will know that you are my disciples, if you snark at one another."

We didn't watch the warp-drive Times Square ball drop, either.
We brought in the new year counting down with:
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/clock.php

Perhaps it is a function of my age, but celebrating the passing of another annum holds few charms for me.

We didn't even do fireworks.

Face it. The events of the past year in my life have taken out my heart.
I have lost My Heart. You know what I mean.
Happy New Year.

JOY! I get to play electrical contractor to-day. Gotta replace the porch light.
The old one lasted seventeen years, but finally rusted away. I have a new one from Lowes. Call it "Early Brooding Sci-Fi Tech", stylistically speaking. It would look right at home in the police facility from "Escape From New York". It is quite stout.
I'll tell you about the sparks in awhile.

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

No pretty blue sparks! Everything worked swimmingly, even on an aluminium ladder!
I'll try to get a picture of my handiwork and put it up. I know that you will find it fascinating, because it is another thing that I do. >tongue firmly in cheek<
We have a lit front porch again. Hmmm...Maybe I can reduce my liability coverage.
Ri-i-i-i-i-ght.

OUT
OF
THE
U.N.
NOW!!!

Kick 'em off of our shores.
Let 'em see what stingy REALLY means.
Let the U.N. make the pizza runs without our dollars.
Oooooh. Is that mean-spirited?

Before his gentle readers go all Luther on his keister, let this Aardvark say that he is not giving a pass to things like homosexuality, adultery, or dealing from the bottom of the deck. Here is the baseline from which this discussion proceeds:


Matthew 28:18-20, "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."


As a rule, the church at the beginning of the twenty-first century seems to have, errrr, relaxed somewhat from Jesus' requirements of discipling and baptism. When the disciple finally confesses Christ, today one is more likely to hear "When's the next potluck?" (or "pot-bless" for the more superstitious amongst us) than to hear echoes of First century faith:
"...See, here is water; what prevents me from being baptized? (Acts 8:36)"

The testimony of the New Testament is clear.
God expects change.
God commands change.
God enables change.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."

Note this: "And such WERE some of you..."

The person given over to sin is not given a pass...discipleship inevitably pins the tail to one's donkey and demands change. However, one CANNOT submit to discipleship until one is a DISCIPLE.

If we present the life-changing truth of the Gospel, according to the New Testament pattern, then we can begin again to see New Testament results. Nothing else will work.

WHOA! The Aardvark's BACK!
I've missed being here, but I have been busier than I have EVER been before. Our screenprinting operation has mushroomed, and I have had to be a major squeegie-jockey to keep up. As I do NOT wish to hire outside of my household at this time (to avoid multiplied Imperial entanglements), we have maxed ourselves out, and are looking toward getting an automatic press to multiply our efforts.
*******************************************************************************

No doubt you have heard of the Philadelphia Four, aptly appelled by Joseph Farah.
(Hi, Joe. How are you?)
These members of a "Christian Ministry" attended a homosexual rally, preached the Word of God in a peaceful and non combative way, and are facing 47-some-odd years in prison for their troubles. Hate speech. This is a hateful attack on First Amendment
rights, certainly. The preachers assert that "The early church preached in the open air, in the marketplace." That's as may be, and I do not agree with the prosecution of these guys, but neither do I agree with their tactics.

They are wrong.

How can a Christian of some 34 years standing say such a thing? How can I not stand in solidarity with my brothers?

Because they are wrong.

They are preaching against the EEEE-VILS of homosexual practise.

Yet they are still wrong. Wrong on at LEAST two counts. First, there is this whole "Christian Ministry" thing. God in Christ Jesus authorised ONE Christian ministry.

The local church.
Period.

Not Repent Now. Not the 700 Club. Not the Billy Graham organisation.Not even Focus on the Family.

The New Testament authorises only ONE Christian Ministry. The local church. Anything else is presumptive error. It may be a GREAT idea, but it is only man's idea, and is thus WA-A-A-AY less than God's best. Try actually READING the thing beyond your "Upper Room" devotional. All these "para-church" organisations are man's addition to God's Pattern, and will all ultimately be as successful as Uzzah was when he reached out to keep the Ark of the Covenant from tipping. He didn't play by the rules, either.

Second, they were doing theological bear-baiting. Back to New Testament authority for stuff: Not even Paul when confronted by the rampant idolatry of the Athenians, not EVEN Paul attacked these people. Acts 17 shows that Paul actually found a place of AGREEMENT with them, and proceeded from that point to teach them:


Acts 17:22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are very religious.
Acts 17:23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

Paul acknowledged their devotion, and THEN taught them. He did not quote anti-idolatry verses from Jeremiah at them. He did not wag the bony finger of indignation at them and intone:"You worship idols...YOU'RE GOIN' TO HELL!".

Paul met them on their turf, introduced them to the Creator God, and His Son Jesus Christ, and a local church was born. Athenians believed, were baptised and the work expanded.

Be very clear on this. Paul preached CHRIST.
The early church preached Christ, and Him crucified.

This must be understood. We must preach the answer which God has provided: the Good News of Jesus Christ. We must preach it from the platform God Himself has authorised: the local church. Not just in the building...certainly in the marketplace, but the message and the platform must be God's, else we will be doomed to failure.

Look at American Christendom after fifty-plus years of evangelism being dominated by
not-the-church organisations.

We're ALMOST as successful and unified as the Republican majority in Washington.
Almost.

My sweet wife has earned a place with her "Quote of the Blog"
We were watching the march of anarchy in the streets of Boston, and she asked:

"How can Anarchists have a parade?"

Gad, it's been an awful, scary, maddening, overweeningly stress-filled month so far.

...But enough about ME...

I continue to be fascinated and alarmed by current trends in TV & Radio adverts.
I mean, they are REALLY awful. The most troubling angle from a business sense- and I was nurtured by the Freberg school of advertising- is that which is typified by the Progressive Insurance commercials. The template works like this:
***********
Customer has a catastrophe.

Customer calls repairman.

Repairman stares disbelievingly at the scope of the problem, and wants to get to work.

Customer demands a quote from the repairman, including a quote from 3 competitors.

The catastrophe worsens.

Moral: OUR customers expect competitive quotes from their inquiries to us. They are SMART.
***********

NO. The ULTIMATE message is: Our customers are STOO-PID.
That's what I get. AND, I do not wish to be lumped in with the cretinous rabble which apparently comprises the Progressive customer base.

Hello, little lizard...

Toyota has jumped aboard with THEIR latest ad campaign, with a Typical Married Male
who went out for milk, and was beguiled into buying not one, but TWO Toyotas, a sporty red car, and a black SUV. He proceeds to angst over how to tell his wife, when his REAL problem is how to get the two vehicles home. The helpful Toyota salesman has clearly NOT offered to assist by driving one vehicle for him, so the
hapless dupe must leapfrog the cars home: Milkboy drives the Red car a few yards beyond the Black SUV, then the SUV a few yards beyond the Red car. And so forth.

This commercial is an infinite sadness. I could go all Dobson on their keisters and decry the typical stupification of the American Husband on TV, but that is not my issue. The message I get is:

Toyota customers are STOO-PID.

The list goes on...

There was an interview years ago with the actor Ricardo Montalban. At some time
during the discussion he was asked (being the symbol of the early, Latin leading men of Hollywood), "How would you describe a great lover?" To this he replied, "A great lover is not a man who continually goes from woman to woman, for any dog in the street can do that.

No, a great lover is a man who can captivate and nurture the love of one woman
her entire life."

God bless Ricardo Montalban. I know that he is a believer in Christ, and that he is a man of integrity, besides being one of the three best things to hit the Trek franchise in its history.

My wife and I are headin' towards our 27th year. Thanks for giving us something concrete to shoot for!

Stupid Blight CommunityStupid Blight CommunityStupid Blight Community


My youngest, Loen, said something that inaugurates our "Quote of the Blog".

"We need a white Bill Cosby."

Now, to be clear, ours is a VERY conservative household, and one in which ANY hint of racism is abhorred. When I was growing up, I autonomously arrived at the idea that the "N" word was as egregious a "cuss" word as "G--D---", and thus was not to be used. Period. Paragraph. BTW, I grew up in South Carolina.

It is from this background that the youngest son o' mine issued his pronouncement. We were discussing Cos's NAACP comments admonishing the black community to watch its collective mouth. Huzzah! God bless Bill Cosby.
Well played, Sir.

Hence my son's "Quote of the Blog".

And y'know...he's right.

So where does "Blight Community" come from?
It's the white kids who have learned their parents' liberal White Guilt, and have chosen to pretend that they are black by their dress code, mode of speech, and popular inattention to education. Yo, yo.

We need to be who we are, and be the BEST who we are that we can possibly be.

As much as I HATE them, I took yet another quiz.



take the "what's your dark secret?" quiz
| courtesy of mewing.net. where darkness and secrecy abound.


...so now we know!

...AND NOW A WORD TO THE FAITHFUL FEW...

5 posts per week. Yeah, right. Truthfully, we have had the most incredibly busy few weeks. Hugely busy.

We have been blessed. Our business has been re-directed into the whole anime (Japanese animation for the non-otaku reading this) arena. Mucho shirts, mucho dinero.

Amazing times. Again, we are blessed.

We are trying to handle this influx of biz, and are forced to triage our daily tasks.
We WILL be writing more regularly, so KEEP COMING BACK, please.

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

Meanwhile, I was tearfully moved by the funeral of President Ronald Reagan.
Death and I have an odd relationship. I don't DO death. I don't relate at all to the whole file-past-the-casket-doesn't-he-look-NATURAL thing. And I don't CRY.

My blood pressure dropped from the fluid loss during the Reagan funeral. No boo-hoos, no sobs. Just tears and tears and tears.

I loved Ronald Reagan. Based on what I know of his history, I fully expect to see him again. Clothed in the light of our Lord. I pray this is so.

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

Yet, during the service, I saw that the Clintons, prominently seated, were rather dozy-looking. Not to be snarky, but I'm not surprised. They were probably concentrating on potent eldritch wards to keep from bursting into flames...

The Aardvark RETURNS!!!

I bought some cereal the other day. Not terribly GOOD cereal. Not fruity, not chocolatey, not coco-lossal.
Ok. I bought Fiber One bran cereal.
Bran.
Cereal.

YUM.

Now, to be fair, Fiber One- a General Mills product- is the tastiest of its ilk. Truth be told, this is like saying that THIS
is a tastier stick than THATone. It is sweetened with aspartame, and is a blend of wheat and corn brans. And it looks like twigs.

YUM.

The thing that amuses me, though, is that this small 16 oz. box of cereal is uniquely packaged. It says a LOT about the marketers' expectations.
It contains two- count 'em- two 8 oz. sealed poly bags.

Guys, It's gonna take A-while to get through a box of Fiber One.

YUM.