I wanted to share this most excellent news with you.
Go get this film. Really.


If you like cops and robbers, you will LOVE this.

If you enjoy great animation, well, this is a feast.

If conspiracy stuff is your bag, then put on your aluminium-foil hat and break out the Jiffy-Pop - which has its own tinfoil turban!

Romance? This is your movie.

Heroics and derring-do? This is it!

Adventure and hair-breadth escapes? Lupin (loo PAHN) is your man!

Martial artistry and gunplay? You can bet your NRA card that you will love this.

Egregious cinematic disregard of the laws of physics? Get ready to kvetch and whine...but you'll STILL enjoy the movie!


All this, and it's pretty, too!

Press Release

"...One of the Greatest Adventure Movies of All Time..."
-- Steven Spielberg

FROM THE OSCAR™-WINNING DIRECTOR OF “SPIRITED AWAY” --
IDT ENTERTAINMENT’S MANGA ENTERTAINMENT OPENS THE
“CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO” SPECIAL EDITION DVD

Chicago, IL -- Before he enthralled audiences all over the world with such magical animated features as Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke and the 2001 Academy-Award™ winning Spirited Away, renowned Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki held audiences spellbound in 1979 with his first feature-length animated film, The Castle of Cagliostro. Now, Manga Entertainment, an IDT Entertainment company, proudly presents The Castle of Cagliostro Special Edition DVD, digitally remastered with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, available August 29th at the enchanting SRP of $24.98. Pre-book is July 19th.

The Castle of Cagliostro (also known as Lupin III: Cagliostro No Shiro) spins the fantastic tale of master thief Lupin III, traveling to the European province of Cagliostro (pronounced “Cal-ee-os-tro”) to pull off a huge job. When a chance encounter with the Princess Clarice, engaged to the evil Count Cagliostro, distracts him from his original plans, he also stumbles upon a secret kept for over 500 years and now struggles to keep one step ahead of Cagliostro. Torn between his professional objectives and his increasing affections for Princess Clarice, Lupin is locked in a race to solve the mystery of a fabulous hidden treasure, dating back to the Renaissance...

Filled with Miyazaki's trademark rich animation and imaginative storytelling, The Castle of Cagliostro Special Edition DVD takes the experience even further with a treasure chest of bonus features including:

• Interview with Animation Director Yasuo Ohtsuka.
• Complete Animatic – Storyboards with Feature Soundtrack;
• Imagery from Original Storyboard
• Original Character and Set Drawings;
• Fans Gallery;
• Trailers

Hey, if you are a fan of Supermarionation series like Thunderbirds or Stingray, you will get a larf out of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxaGuVWcSo8

Enjoy!

NOPE!

They didn't.

 


















I dearly love the concept of "Zero Tolerance". It completely removes the need to use judgment, or to make case-by-case assessments. Like the poor tykes who get thrown out of school for having a 1 cm G.I.Joe solid plastic pistol in their pocket. I heard of one child removed for wearing a shirt with the image of a gun emblazoned thereon.
Yes, he endangered scores of lives with a t-shirt.

Wikipedia is a Good Idea held hostage by ZT. I signed on and did a one-word adjustment to an article on R.J. Rushdoony, correcting the entry based upon Rushdoony and company's own writing, (I substituted "Theonomy" for the incorrect and biased term "Theocracy") whereupon I was blocked indefinitely, not because of egregious inaccuracy, nor bloviating obnoxiousness, but because of my nomen. "The Aardvark" is a handle perilously close to a banned vandal yclept "Blu Aardvark". One of the admins took it upon herself to Play Mommy and remove the threat I posed by using my Somewhat Well-Known online and business persona. Being an apparent Good Leftist, she did not respond to my Reasonable Appeal, but rather used the excuse that she would be tarred with the same brush if I turned out to be Naughty, and she had not pre-empted it. A Nanny Statist for sure.

...I wonder if they have removed the 'pedia entry for anteaters?

IT'S TOO HOT!!!!!

My shop is an oven...literally.
Our new curing oven works VERY well.
We don't have the automatic press up and running yet. Some ancillary systems need setting up...air line, wiring...like that.

We are headed to MechaCon in Louisiana this weekend, Riatsila and I.

Soon I will be caught up, and able to deal with the truly important, here.
Thanks.

Which Harry Potter Character Are You?

You are FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY. Although you are a lovable goofball, prankster, and slacker, you're no idiot. You are extremely intelligent; you just don't always show it. You like to be funny and goof off, but you also have strong convictionns and know when it's time to be serious. Dedicate yourself to something you love, and you will most likely become very successful.
Take this quiz!








Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Wow.

WOW!

Great anime convention. Riat and I are tired and happy. My middle son and I were in Orlando for five days at the excellent Wyndham resort. Anime Festival Orlando was the event, and we went beyond our expectations!

Wow!

(And Pretty Lady...we stayed an extra day. To do NUTTIN!) We took Monday off, slept til 10:30, got up, breakfasted, played tourist at Ripley's for a couple of hours, then walked back to the room, watched anime and dozed for three hours, then walked more in search for grazing material. We looked at a Japanese restaurant, but i did not wish to take out a second mortgage for sushi. Wound up at a Mexican place. The fajitas tasted like they used cuts like ribeye. Very nice.

We also ate in very low places over the weekend. We went to one of those notorious feedlots, Golden Corral, with fellow vendors. Originally a family steakhouse, it is now a restaurant that specialises in throughput; also one that does many things not very well. We saw, too, that it is not a fools errand to stock 5X t-shirts. One enters through a queue reminiscent of what cattle enjoy on the way to becoming T-bones. I swanee, I actually "mooed" in line.

One can get many foods there, from steak (their grill reminded me of the chophouse scene in "The Road to Wellville") to turkey, shrimp, pizza, assorted overcooked vegetables, yeast rolls, and desserts, desserts, desserts.

I expected to see a Kanamit come out from the back with his "To Serve Man" book tucked under his arm.

But a good time was had by all, and over 200 more anime fans have Aardvark t-shirts with which to proclaim their passion.

I will be away for a week. "Where is away?"

Anime Festival Orlando

Riatsila and I will be in Epcotburg selling our 'varky wares.
Come see us at the Wyndham.

On Saturday, go to the FairTax Rally on the steps of the Orlando City Hall.
Neal Boortz will be there exhorting the faithful and converting the tax heathens as well.

Have a grand weekend!

IS The Difference Clear?

Many of my reader may have received an RNC email from our president entitled "The Difference Is Clear"
Now, Crystal Pepsi was clear...current political comparison tests are rather murky between "Brand R" and "Brand D"

Here is my response, emailed to them, and shared with you:


To the RNC, GOP, and President George W. Bush:
Our robust economy is in main due to coasting on the policies of President Ronald Reagan, the last truly Republican president to my knowledge. The current spending spree enjoyed by Congress, and UN-vetoed by President Bush, is unprecedented in its magnitude, and is driven by...Republicans. Spending-wise, there is not a pin's worth of difference between the Republican majority, and the current crop of Democrats slavering for control.
Tax-wise, current "reform" policy is to my mind too little, way too little, too late. It is like putting new floormats in a totaled car. It's an effort, but not much of one. Real tax reform, or perhaps "tax revolution", is the only thing that can keep the Ship of State from foundering on the shoals of a moribund economy. Allow me to encourage you to FULLY BACK the Fair Tax (www.fairtax.org), the national retail sales tax championed by Congressman John Linder. It is a program guaranteed to practically stop the Underground Economy, garner taxes from organized crime, illegals, and others who currently pay no taxes. It has safeguards for the poor, and provides instant incentive for foreign investment on our shores.
As to "immigration policy", if I am to believe the news, there isn't one. Border patrol officers and INS agents having their hands tied by bureaucracy or overt orders to do nothing, and the official demonization of citizens like the Minutemen who risk much to do what our taxes should be paying for, does little to assure me of the security of our borders. With willfully porous borders, we have no Homeland Security. For what it is worth, here is a digest of what would convince me to remain in the Republican fold:

• Fully backing the passage of the FairTax.
• Fully enforcing our immigration laws, including capture and deportation of illegal aliens who are breaking our laws by merely being here, and who are taking jobs from hard-working Americans. The Fence will be a good start as well.
  
• Even beginning to rein in spending, with a view toward returning our government to Constitutional limits. You know...the Constitution.

Failing this, I must admit, the Libertarian Party is starting to look quite reasonable.
Sincerely,

Weatherly Hardy

If you are a fan of science fiction, conspiracy theory, GREAT voice acting, animation, comics...or any combo of same,

go HERE

Paul Giamatti, David Hyde-Pierce, Molly Shannon, and Corey Burton voice REAL history in

The Amazing Screw-on Head.


....You may thank me at your leisure.

And PLEASE vote on the thing, if you will.

BOUNDARIES
---------------------

Where are the boundaries in our lives? I must admit to some curiosity, here.
I am a shirt vendor at many anime and SF conventions each year, and I find the...familiarity...that total strangers exhibit to be a discomfort. I went to the bathroom, f'rinstance, and lo, a man (compared with whom Adam's cat is a close confidante), a guy I had never before met, began to regale me with Tales of His Prostate.

OK...maintain eye-contact...back s-l-o-w-l-y toward the door...

What has changed in our culture to so remove boundaries? It used to be forever before one could claim to be a "best friend", but now, the second week of school and you find Ashleigh and Brittanee sporting badly airbrushed "BFF" t-shirts. Heck, make a call to Hannity's show, and the simple act of so doing earns you the assesment that "You're a Great American!".

Remember the era of "I don't kiss on the first date."? Now, a Big Mac dinner can earn you at least part of a baseball game.

I guess it all comes down to Issues of Virtue, or at least Perspicacity, and Behaving Circumspectly.
We all of us fall short of perfection, and you will find no stones lurking in my pockets, available for a convenient hurl. The setting of boundaries in behavior, and thinking, and speech will go a long way toward arming oneself against invaders, foreign, domestic or personal. If I set in stone "thus far, and no farther", then I establish a boundary, a hedge against intrusion, or worse.

Good walls make good neighbors.

I assume that no-one is interested in my Habits of Elimination -not even the doctor is...he's just paid to SEEM so. My finances are None of Your Concern, nor are the Dread Dormomoo's and my Practises of Connubial Bliss.

I do not care to hear of yours, either.

Were I to set a hedge as to Public Displays of 'Varky Wrath, and then, ooopsy, I blow my stack in a spectacular manner -and the Scripture says that I am not to be wrathful- I can go to my Father and ask forgiveness, and receive same. If someone else therefore blows HIS stack, I can commiserate, I can counsel if asked, but I cannot point the Bony Finger of Indignation in disdain and accusation. Religious and political leaders brought a woman "caught in the Very Act of adultery" to Jesus, to test and trick him, and see if he would abrogate the Law of Moses. She was worthy of stoning (as was the gent, who was Conveniently Not There- leading me to believe that it was a put-up job. Jesus did not disagree. He did set the parameters for the execution: "The one without sin may cast the first stone.".

They all slunk away.

Jesus did not soft-peddle what had happened, but said "I do not condemn you. Go and sin no more.".

If we transgress boundaries, either those we make in good faith, or those God has made, we are told the same, and Jesus says to our repentant heart "Neither do I condemn you. Go and don't do it again."

My apologies...I have had to add word verification temporarily. I got hit by a comment bot, and I will NOT put up with it. Please bear with it for a few days.
Thank you.

Here is a disturbing thought. If the historic Christian understanding that AD 70 marked the fulfillment of Matthew 24, and the end of political Israel, what must the Lord think of the modern Israeli pretentions of nationhood? Could that be the problem? And how long is a piece of string?

John Bloom, aka Joe Bob Briggs of Monstervision fame, has a website. I just ran across his paean to southern Niceness: HERE

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

Ever had a pipe sent to you in the mail? It can give you great pause. I'll tell more with pictures next week.

-------------------------------------------------
Well, we received it! YAAAAAAY!

Oh...you have NO idea, do you?
On Thursdae, an Old Dominion -not to be confused with Rousas Rushdoony- 18-wheeler pulled up to the Aardvark Heavy Industrial Concern (Limestone Prefecture) offices, filled with multi-ton CHRISTMAS!
Our 8-color, 10-station press, 16-foot conveyor curing oven, and sundry Odd Bits to Make Our Lives Better arrove. A friend, Lynn, brought his fork lift, and lo, the unloading commenced. We got everything into the shop except the Monster Oven, which lay outside well tarped against the elements. No-one was gonna haul it off. It took 6 guys, 2 long metal poles, 2 pallet jacks, and infinite finesse to manoeuver it into the shop on its side. If there is a Nobel Prize for Moving Things Around, we should get it. We levered the pallet up, and slid the Hulking Thing on its side onto the pallet jacks, and had to negotiate a 90 degree turn to gain entry.We learned of Levers, Inertia, Mass, and the Cussedness of the Inanimate, but we got it in. When the restaurant opens next door on the 25th, these guys eat steak on me. (Ummmm....no, it is not one of those restaurants, nor am I one of those guys. I mean I'm paying the bill.)

Now I have several days of intense Tinkertoying, and an indeterminate learning curve, and our production will increase eight-fold, at a minimum! All this, and it's paid-for, too.

This is why I have been quiet of late.

Have an excellent rest of it!

It is a RARE cigar that would make me resort to keyboarding.
I really HATE two things: driving, and typing.
I ENJOYED driving whilst enjoying The Cigar.
Now I am forced to keyboard about it.

Drew Estate .
For a flavored cigar, they are the best. Their Acid range is amazing.
But THESE, well, just defy rational description. Especially the White Sage.
I don't think that I have tasted anything better in my life, unless it's chocolate. I'll have to think about it.
It is like smoking Thanksgiving. Seriously.

Ian and I each had one going to Huntsville to purchase a huge compressor that will run the automatic press we are getting this week at the shop. He hates me, now. I guess that I can share 'em with him.We literally smoked them down to a half-inch or less. I have surely never before considered the old hobo trick of collecting the butts. Five will make a whole cigar.
CI are discontinuing their inventory, so good deals can be had, but not for long.
Think good thoughts of the 'vark that put you onto these.

Subject:  The Sky is Falling!!!!  

...actually no...but these people here at http://www.worldjumpday.org/
are apparently wanting US to go out and hit IT.  Do your part, join us here
http://www.welikethewayitis.com/ to help with countermeasures to this attack
on the world on which we live !

Happy Independence Day!

A happy one indeed, for me, because...

I learned from RICHARD K. LLOYD that....that...

I WON THE U.K. NATIONAL LOTTERY!
(they even sent me two emails about it, so I know it's true!)

O frabjous day! Calloo, callay, I chortle in my joy!!

So, rejoice with me, dear friends, and sometime readers, for I, your humble Aardvark, will now be Truly Independent. I can devote my full time to enlightening and entertaining you with my madcap antics.

And yes, I DID in fact fall off the turnip truck yesterday.

Last Friday I heard the most pellucid bit of stupidity ever to issue from a radio blatherskite.

Yes, the inimitable microphone stylings of...Sean Hannity. The Seanster was justifying our Fearless Leader's incursion into Iraq - this is news?- and uttered the following. This is a paraphrase, as I cannot properly Hannitisetm -his trademark use of the Rule of Three, wherein he uses a word, then uses two synonyms in succession to hammer home the point.

"We are a free country. Therefore, we should export that freedom to the rest of the world. That's why we are doing this."

Ummm, Sean. This is not the playground, where you are forced to share your Pop Tarts with some unfortunate child because it's fair. Freedom does NOT work like that. Freedom does not get shared around because it is NICE to do. Freedom is not a commodity to be parceled out like cans of beans on a shelf.

Freedom has a context.

In the US, our freedom has the context of Western Civilisation, rooted in Christian thought and mores. It is debatable that our nation was ever "Christian" in the Falwell/Robertson/Dobson/D.J. Kennedy sense.
It CERTAINLY grew from a "Christian Consensus", a culture rooted in Biblical understanding and ethics.
Francis Schaeffer ably defends this position in his works.

The politics of Europe, the art, the literature, for all their imperfections, still sprang from a Biblical understanding. Much of English common law sprang from the Scriptures, as Leda from the forehead of Zeus. (Sorry....I could not resist.) Given this context, which provided the basis for the concepts of Freedom, Dignity, and Rights Inherent, how can we expect to transplant "Freedom" alone into a culture that denies liberty to vast swaths of its citizenry, and denies human value to same?

It will not work. It CANNOT work.

Hannity is a sock puppet.

Here is your Aardvark Sampler for the weekend...
Better than a Whitman's Sampler: no calories, and I'm all creams, truffles and caramels. No nasty fruit gel centres!


Comments on Vox's blog

Actually, the church in China is thriving...underground. Persecution does that; it gets the fat out, makes for a lean, mean disciplin' machine.

From what I hear, the Persecuted Church prays that the same happens here in the US, not out of spite, but to see the church get fit.

What we have now is a carping indifference from the Other Side. The whining we experience from them is not true persecution. When it comes, though, expect major persecution from many pew-mates.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My comment at PL's blog

My business has been conned-at least an attempt was made- via a relay phone call scam. Very similar to the Nigerian email scam, but using TTY operators as go-betweens. The operator relays info between parties, and sets up email or other contact. (The operator is a tool in this, and is not one of the artistes.)
Turns out this Nigerian (!) company wanted to purchase 2000 unprinted white tee shirts from us, and would pay by credit card. Whilst awaiting their email, I checked with my shirt distributor rep, as my inwards were going uh-uh, uh-UH, UH-UH!! He told me that it was in fact a scam making the rounds. While I am not ordinarily an Obi-Wan "Trust your feelings" sort- often the feeling is from one too many cups of coffee- there is a particular sort that I have learned to heed. Call it the Holy Spirit, or the Gift of Suspicion, whatever, I have learnt to ignore it at my peril.
Here is the Snopes article detailing this iteration of the Nigerian scam:


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another comment at the Voxster's re: white slavery

It is darkly suspected that this is / was the ultimate end of Natalee Hollaway, the wise and street-smart chick from Alabama who went off with stranger(s) in the middle of the night to the beach in Aruba.

Hmm...where's the best place to get someone out of your country quickly and quietly?

Here is Vox Day's WND article:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50789
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Pretty Lady's blog:
danonymous said:
Hmmph....Now Shaespeare comes upon the scene, looks around with one raised eye brow and says the prophetic words that later become a hit play.....
"Pretty Lady....
I do observe, that after all, there is
Much Ado About Nothing.
(You see, even when he talked, there were ten beats to a line).

Aardvark said:
Had I a white horse, and no attachments...
but no, it is not to be, cherie.

Glad to see it got better.

You should try Down South when it's cooler.
We have this GREAT restaurant next door...and not a deep fat fryer in sight!
**************

danonymous is terribly amusing!
----------------------------------------------------

danonymous said...

ardvark said...
danonymous is terribly amusing!

But Am I terrible or..amusing?
For if I waiver, if I miss a beat,
these artful types will have me off my feet.
No restful pose will that be,as forced
am I to bended knee and thoughtful mood.
Aardvark chose his wording well ,line one
had ten beats, line two alas, shot to hell.
--------------------------------------------------------
The Aardvark said...

All critique the humble 'vark, betimes,
His metre, yes, but ne'er his worthy rhymes.
With cadence true my love for Lady Belle
I chaste proclaim despite thy carping knell.

But thanks I give thee for setting the bar.
Since senior English, I've not come so far!


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More from Pretty Lady's blog

Woof...well done.
I am imagining "Mother J" at the Sermon on the mount, with such twaddle falling from his lips. It reminds me of Max von Sydow's portrayal of Jesus in 1965's The Greatest Story Ever Told . He did not seem to have a context for any of his lines...he would be walking along with his crew, when suddenly he would allow a Wise Aphorism to plop from his lips, like some animate vending machine.
Thanks for your input on this, from one who considered the Episcopal priesthood as a yout'.

Happy Sunday.

Johnny D Symon said...

Lest anyone missed his comment on yesterday's entry, here it is:

I couldn't help but notice the ad you placed to help people like myself learn English. It was a nice try, but you full well know that I gave up tryin' years ago. My lingo is also a mighty difficult thing to pick up and learn so I'm the only guy who understands myself.

Now if you'd offered me to learn angling instead, you'd still be wasting your time. I've been gone fishin' for years and still I'm hopin' for the big one. For me a course on cooking would do the job. I'm a keen viewer of TV cooking shows and I watch 'em all over the world. The ones in Morocco have one main ingredient between them all, and that thing is butter! You know, in England they have apple festivals, in Georgia it's watermelon, and Holland it's tulips. They actually have a tulip festival ... interested? No, neither am I. I'd rather eat glass.

But in Morocco in the spring, it's the national festival of butter! They love that stuff so much they preserve some of it in stoneware jars full of salt, and covered with water ... I've eaten vintage butter that's over 6 years old, and you know what? It most likely tastes exactly like John Kerry's boxer shorts. I once found a pair of his underwear in a place called the Land of Nam. In actual fact I found quite a few pairs of Calvin Kerry's lying around in that country, but this pair was different; They smelt like vintage butter, but were full of little holes, with about 2 ounce worth of Uncle Bens stuck in there. Now what do you think caused that?

But still on the thoughts of cookery; I heard a Spanish chef, called Karlos Arguinano, tell the following story a few months back. He said, “A while back I set about doin' some cooking and the recipe required a few fresh apples. Out in the garden I happen to have a big apple tree and I knew there were some good ones ready for pickin'. But as I arrived, one big ripe red apple came loose and fell with a thud to the ground, then the strangest thing happened. I heard all the other apples, still hanging up on the tree, burst into loud laughter. And if that wasn't strange enough, the fall guy on the ground shouted up, 'What are you all laughing at. You're all immature!'”

He told me this as well; In his house he keeps a pet parrot, and one day when he opened his window the old bird figured it time to escape, so out it flew and settled in that self-same apple tree ... right at the top. Now it just happened to be walkabout time for the mentally infirm people who stayed in the asylum across from his house. So he called three of them over and offered them ten euros apiece if they could fetch old Anton the parrot down off the tree. So they headed out to his garden, and he set to work in the kitchen. The time was about 10 a m ...

By 4:30 he suddenly remembered about the round-haircuts, and wondered what was happening. So he headed on out, and there they still were, sitting down under that big old tree, staring at the parrot above. He asked them what was taking them so long to go get the bird, and here's what they said, “We can't bring it down just yet, 'cos it's still green!”

Now I bet you're thinking to yourself, “Man, that was a poor idea of mine, to write Johnny D and ask him to communicate something.” And I fully admit my writing ability is not quite the quality and standard of Al Gores “Earth In The Balance” fairy tale, but the fact is, I like people to laugh at my writing, whereas Al is plainly unaware that he's a high falutin' humorless crud-boy, and besides he and John Kerry, I'm told, share each others underwear.

In fact I've been told even further, that they go as far as wearing the same pair at the same time. Now who told me this? You may be asking yourself. Why, it was a big old parrot in a tree, called Anton. And how would he know this? You may further be asking yourself? And the answer is ... He don't. He's too green and immature to know anything of any worth! But I figure that when two monumental figures get together, like Kerrygore, even the wildest things may be possible ... perhaps they'll occur soon ... 2008 perhaps?

Have fun, Johnny D