Strangeness.


The Dread Dormomoo was doing number things in The Red Room, and felt a...thing...on her leg.
she reached down and picked up a sizeable ant. It screamed.
----------------------
Loen and I were at a surprisingly good convention this weekend. The otaku at the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa put on Kami-Con. This was the first year for the con, and the keeds loved our shirts. The con putter-onners had about double the attendance than they had expected.

We arrived Friday night (it was a Sat, Sun. con) and delivered the convention shirts. On our way back to the La Quinta, we saw a Chipotle Grill, and pulled in for supper. Their offerings taste good, but come on, the burritos look like they are pregnant to bursting with ANOTHER burrito, like some fat larval...something, or a mutated termite queen. As far as investment strategies go, forget gold and silver: guacamole is the commodity to trade. At $1.80 for a couple of tablespoons, it has real growth potential. I bet Glenn Beck could get behind this one.

If you go to Tuscaloosa, you MUST try The Snappy Tomato. This is a pizzaria for those who prefer tomato sauce to the normal corn syrup sludge that passes for sauce at, say, Papa John's. Sweet pizza is an abomination. The Snappy Tomato has a tomato-ey, peppery sauce made of win. It is not hot...but spicy. Om nom nom nom. Even their Hawaiian pizza is Not Sweet, though it has lots of pineapple. It is not a huge chain, but it's growing, deservedly so!

Meh...now I need to write about death. One of the reasons that I'm "not a minister" is that I do not relate to it well: read: "at all".
 Here's the thing: when someone dies, they are out of my life. That's all. I do not grieve, as a rule, whether friend or family. No, I am not a tight little bundle of neuroses; I do not suck my thumb, nor cry myself to sleep at night. The departure of a person in death affects me as little as a person leaving town on a trip. Maybe this means I am very well adjusted insofar as death is concerned. I have not shed a tear over my father's murder, nor the death of my wife's mom and dad, both to cancer. I lost it when my mom died, but I was only four or five. I found my eighty-six year old grandfather dead in his bed when I was in eighth grade, and had the presence of mind to call the hospital and get the arrangements rolling, only then going upstairs to awaken my grandmother. No tears. I have cried over The Dread Dormomoo's sister's death, years after the fact. As to Public Figures, there is one whose departure affected me deeply. Beyond that, nope. They are gone, and my attention is now elsewhere.

The obsession with Death and Heaven in many churches is beyond me. There is an amazing amount of work right here to occupy us 24/7, without cow-eyed singing about "over there", and "crossing over Jordan". Ummmmm, people, nowhere in Scripture is the Jordan River a metaphor for Death, and Going to Heaven. It is an entry into Kingdom life, either in a figure, as in Israel crossing Jordan to enter the Promised Land, or in the image of baptism in the Jordan. Jesus has defeated death in the Resurrection, period. For the believer death is a Customs counter as we move from one realm to the next. The Bible is relatively quiet about our life in eternity, sufficiently so that we really don't need to yammer on about it. Jesus came that we might have life, and that more abundantly. That's what the Kingdom is about. Let's work with that.
---------------------------------------------------------

This week also brings us to celebrations, that of the Oklahoma City Bombings, and Columbine. These masochistic parties are also beyond my ken. Everyone burbles on about closure and healing, but every year that rolls around, we give the lie to that. We tear off the bandage of closure, and peel off the scab of healing. Pointless. Shall we get on with our lives, please? This cannot be healthy. Oh, Happy Holocaust Awareness Day!
Because I surely wouldn't remember the Holocaust without video of traffic stopping in Israel in memory of it.

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

A local custom which eludes me, but which does bring in some shekels, is remembering the Dearly Departed by purchasing shirts with their picture on them. Add to that the "In Loving Memory of (insert name here)" vinyl lettering on back car, truck, or SUV windows. It's just creepy to me, and does not seem conducive to getting over it. I guess tearing off psychological scabs is just so deliciously painful and rewarding.
------------------------------------------------------

One more thing: I DO NOT GET these execrable roadside displays where fatal road accidents have occurred. You know the ones: a white cross with the decedent's name on the patibulum, with faded plastic flowers draped thereon. They make me consider legislation. To echo a Scroogian sentiment, "Are there no cemetaries?". That's what they are for, you know, the whole gravestone and flowers thing. My belief is that they are a sufficient distraction to cause MORE road accidents. The writing is sufficiently small to cause inattention to the road as you squint to read it. They either need to be a billboard (you have to pay for the sign, which stimulates the economy, too), or they need to be gotten rid of. If you care enough to vomit your grief on the public roadways, then you can pay for the privilege.

Hmmmm...no takers.

Humbug.

I have tasted
the future,
and it is
YUK!














Kellogg's latest foray into merchandising is sub-par. Sweetened oat swirls (Just flip 'em to face the right way for your hemisphere) with gold Starfleet insignia marshmallows, and blue-and-white swirly galaxy-thingy marshmallows (also hemispherically adaptable). The cereal I had hopes for. It is the standard sweet Alpha-Bits-type* sweetened oat cereal, apparently basted with space-y industrial waste, trilithium resin or somesuch, which leaves an icky aftertaste...or is it foretaste, since time-travel plays an important part in the new Trek movie? The marshmallows are the expected dense singularities of artificially-flavored what-they-call-FUN in the Trade. This is the Star Trek V of movie-related cereals.

Gothgeek gave me a box as a giggle, and Loen asked to open it and try it. So much for collectability (wink). I had to taste it. I wish I could go back in time.

Thanks for the fun gift, though. The package graphics are excellent!

Maybe the movie will be better than the cereal.

*I know that Alpha-Bits are a Post cereal. Take your lateral lisp elsewhere.

Oot-fray Oops-lay
Ea-tay Arties-pay













This is REAL Tea Party season. with this week being the watershed. This tax protest movement a-borning is really taking on, and it has me worried. ACORN, it is reported, plans to crash Tea Parties across the nation in an attempt to make them appear kooky, fringe-y and well, Froot Loop-y. A local talk radio guy, Dale Jackson, is taking part in the Huntsville, AL event, and has warned of loopiness crouching at the door. He played an excerpt from a tea party speaker elsewhere in the Union who began by sounding sane-if-excitable, then spectacularly moved off-message, swerving into CrazyTown with a rant about "Obama's hypnotic mind-control speech techniques". Maybe true, maybe not, but irrelevant to the event at hand, and made me squint from the glare of his aluminum-foil hat. The idea is that the ACORN types and Huffingtonians will infiltrate and do weirdnesses to turn the rallies into media circuses crying for cartoon sound FX and a laugh track on the evening news. The leaders of these Tea Parties need a firm hand to keep the events on-track. Area bloggers like this are rattling on about "Violence on Twitter" and "Hate Speech" coming from the tea party movement. My response:

Hate speech? HATE SPEECH? Come on, now. Being angry at being robbed by non-representative government is anger, not hate. Let's get a refresher on our emotions. Throwing around inflammatory terms like "hate speech" is not helping dialog at all, unless of course "hate speech" really means "doesn't agree with us".

The lunatic fringe and crazies have always been around. The Dread Dormomoo ID'd this follower of Jesus:

Luke 11:27 And it happened as He spoke these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice and said to Him, Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which You have sucked.

Jesus had been teaching, and this lady was so emotionally charged that she...yelled...THAT at Jesus. (Though frankly I'm surprised it never happened at an Obama rally....)

Jesus proceeded to get the situation back on track. He did not scold, but merely said:

Luke 11:28 But He said, No; rather, blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it.

(Read the chapter for the whole event.)
Jesus retained control, and prevented the thing from becoming a Springer Moment. I would encourage the leadership of the several Tea Parties to

1) Know your people.


2) Have some SANE people to work your security (hint...the ones who volunteer specifically to work security...don't use 'em.)


3) Be prepared to remove a speaker from the microphone IF he strays too far from the message and starts huffing ozone. Have an "announcement" ready in case you need a "reason" to reclaim the mike (don't lie, I'm not saying that, but have an announcement ready as a contingency plan. You don't want to appear to "limit free speech" on-camera!)
*NOTE: keeping the message focused is NOT "censorship". It is staying on-topic. The left would portray it as "censorship". Don't give 'em the chance. Imagine the preacher interrupting his Easter sermon to give out his grandmother's Sally Lunn bread recipe. Yummy, but inappropriate. The tea party is not a time to debate, say, FairTax vs. Flat tax. Unite the hearers.

Enjoy the events, beat the drum, stir up the Vital Fluids of the Body Politic, but don't let the day be hijacked by well-meaning loons. Stay on-message, and make this Mean Something, and Lead Somewhere. The Tea Party is not the point...holding Washington accountable IS.

Happy Easter to all!

The Dread Dormomoo has assembled the requisite calorie-laden celebratory fare for the kinder tomorrow, the sacramental sweets. The littlest 'Vark, the grand-Vark, has the traditional pail-and-shovel thing happening.

Several of my Easter memories of a yout' are getting a Junior Detective kit in my Easter basket, complete with ink for taking fingerprints. My cousin Shawn and I did inkblots. I got a pastel-colored duckling, which my cousin's dachsund killed. Never have had much to do with the breed since.

The Sisters of St. Mary, the religious order which ran the St. Eugene hospital in Dillon, SC, would bake a lamb-shaped cake, iced and colored, and send it over to us. They were sweet ladies, those nuns.

One year I received a spun-sugar egg with a window in one end, with a pretty scene inside.
----------------------------

As a child, I could never understand how Jesus' declaration of "three days and three nights" in the earth could be fit into Friday evening through Sunday sunrise. It's the sort of thing that must have led Mark Twain to say "Faith is believing what you know ain't so.", except I didn't believe it. I preferred to believe what Jesus said over what a cleric said. I figured it was merely representational, that Friday evening through Sunday sunrise thing.
Years later, Lowell Blankenship, one of our elders, and a REAL rocket scientist, explicated it clearly and plainly and Scripturally, the three days and three nights thing. I will find the notes and show a diagram one day.

It is fascinating what people will believe traditionally, in the face of the clear statements of the Bible.

It's the First Day of the week. Please consider going to commemorate the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Plastic eggs and candy are optional.

Courtesy of Dept of Special Collections/UCLA Library, A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library, 405 Hilgard Ave, Box 951575, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575; http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/

Give Me Your Huddled Masses, Yearning To Work Cheap.

All the pro-illegal crowd, and lionizers of the Humble May-hee-can sans carte verte , listen up. The Aardvark is now a victim.
He has LOST work, specific shirt-printing work, to a shop that uses "undocumented workers". A convention promoter who "wanted to give the opportunity" gave a quote for us to meet-or-beat. I know shirt prices, labor, and the rest. The only way to charge that little for multi-color printing on decent quality shirts is to have the work done by workers who can be paid very little. Your Aardvark told him in essence that if he wanted shirts from Planet Pedro, that was fine. He got offended, somewhat. No moreso than your servant. This is work that an American WILL do, does do, being taken by those who do not belong here, and that frankly are being victimized themselves.

To add insult to injury, the Voxster reports thus.

Makes me ponder the truth of a Remo Williams quote about Public Service.

Love affairs are fascinating to witness. The news media are ardent in their infatuation, nay, their lust for the economic meltdown we currently enjoy in the You-Ess-of-Ay, and true to the dynamics of amorous fixation, they ignore the obvious bad dentition, warts and hunchbacks on their intended. Case in point: the report on ABC radio news today trumpeting that a GOOD thing has come out of "the recession" - fewer traffic deaths. Higher gas prices and lower disposable incomes have synergised into a life-saving force of nature. The recession has saved lives! YAAAAAY. What's not to love? After all, Hitler brained out the Volks-Wagen, too! People cannot (or will not) drive as needlessly, thus reducing their chances of a close encounters with the illegal, the unlicensed, and the inebriated motorist. The Recession is doing GOOD for us!


BUT, does it have a grrrrr-eat personality?

Gentlesouls, this is the Christmas season for our biz, and your Aardvark is running ragged. This weekend past, the indomitable Dread Dormomoo and I were in Ft. Lauderdale, FL (this ain't Arizona, kiddies). This geographical state of being is far less fun than it sounds. Really, now, whose idea was it to make Florida so lo-o-o-o-ong? Driving to Orlando is just a tad farther than Birmingham by my lights. South Florida is somewhere off the orbit of Ganymede. We were not visiting the Mecca of the Discipleship Movement or anything. We were there for Naruto Trek. , a convention combining the two most despised sectors of anime and SF fandom into one huge Reese's Cup of Doom. The cast of the Star Trek, Phase 2 fan films were there, being grimly earnest. Walter Koenig was as well, looking like a 60's Teen Beat cover boy in 2009. The picture above is W. Morgan Sheppard with Your Humble.
He is a sweet man, and delights in his craft, which is experiencing a renaissance from anime and video game voice jobs. I first saw him as Blank Reg in the Max Headroom series. Not to come across like the drum major of the suck-up parade, but finding Morgan Sheppard in a role is like picking an especially yummy sweet from a Whitman's Sampler.

None of the anime voice actors apparently deigned to walk through the huckster room. (Kudos to con founder Ray, who used the correct term for sellers of fannish goodness.) Ray has a love for the fans, and a real desire for the show to be fun. I would encourage him to broaden the scope from "Naruto" to "anime" in general. We did not have a huge business weekend, but did OK. If he broadens the scope of the con, I'll do it again. Even if it's in South Florida.

This is from 1999, from a list I used to participate in.
Gentlesouls:
I've been thinking.....I've been meditating.....(no,....REALLY!) and
I am
moved to testify........I said TESTIFY. To speak ex cathedra, even.
(Hey, I AM sitting in a chair....)
There is a concept being bandied about on the list, and throughout
the world, that if not explicitly spoken makes the conversation appear
intellectual, urbane, sophisticated, and (the Holy of Holies) open-minded.
However, once spoken, this concept is so scintillatingly stupid that the
hearers should heave a collective "DUH". Simply put the concept is:

*********** God is so incredibly inept, so dismally dull, so
impossibly IMPOTENT, that He is incapable of
protecting His Message from the predations
of sleazy ecclesiastics, and politicos with doctrinal
agendas. *********************************************

There. It's said.

Truthfully, I cannot imagine giving the time of day, much less love
and worship, to such a loser of a Deity.
Can you?

But thankfully, God is an Awesome God, an omni-potent God,
a God who makes promises, AND KEEPS THEM. Who speaks His will and word, and
needs not to revise it. Who makes Covenant, and everlastingly honours it.

The Word of God as contained in the Bible (no, I don't CARE "which
version". Compare 'em all, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you into the stratum
of truth you need at that time, and you'll be on the way) is not a mere
intellectual exercise. It contains the 6000 year covenant history of God,
and His extraordinary love to a humankind who rejected Him for slavery under
a 2nd string fallen angel .

John 3:16-21 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the
world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men
loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the
light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made
manifest, that they are wrought in God.


God the Father of the Bible and his Son, by the Holy Spirit have made
" unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be
partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust (unlawful desire)." 2 Peter 1:4

By the promises of God, I have a sound mind, rather than being in a State
Hospital ** For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and
of love, and of a sound mind.2 Timothy 1:7**

By the promises of God, and following His "handbook" I will celebrate my
22nd anniversary with my only wife. Joyfully! No "ball & chain" jokes here!

By the promises of God, my wife & I have been healed of chronic back
problems. No magnets, no , "Well, I felt good for a coupla days." Immediate,
lasting, physically evident healing in the name of Jesus.
8 years and counting.....

By the promises of God, I have been delivered of demonisation.
Cast out in the name of Jesus Christ.

and have gone on to minister the same to others, seeing personalities change
before my eyes ( NOT a brag.... Zechariah 4:6 ...., Not by might, nor by
power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts)

Mark 16:17-18
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast
out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall
not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

( No,.....no snakes, scorpions, or strychnine,yet, tho' I am sure that
should the need arise in His service, that promise would also apply...)

Philippians 4:6-7 Be careful (worried, anxious) for nothing; but in every
thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made
known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

It works.

God's Word is Kinda like the subject of abstinence
It works every time it's truly tried......

Y'see God is a covenant-making God. The nature of covenant is such that
should one partner in the blood-covenant Break the covenant, that partner's
life is forfeit. ( This is why adultery is the scriptural reason for
divorce. The adulterer is "dead" to the marriage covenant, the victim is
thus a covenant "widow(er)", and may thus remarry. (PLEASE don't get hung
up & start posting me on this; I include it merely to aid in getting a
handle on covenant) Thus, if God breaks his covenant, WHICH HE INITIATED,
He would have to die!! How Nietzche would GIGGLE...

With this in view, I am amazed at the ease with which folks reject, not a
BOOK,but 6000 years of covenant history, 2000 years of scholarship,
myriads of archaeologically and textually sound documents, on the strength
of a handful of books written 1900 years after the fact by disaffected
disbelievers, agenda-driven haters of so-called "organised religion" or von
Danikenesque scholars. ( I withstand the idea that the Gospel is a religion
at all. Not even the Pauline epistles, which were primarily trouble-shooting...)

God is QUITE able to protect and preserve His word, because it is His
covenant word. On the strength of that a may simplistically say

"Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so..."


(and He loves you, too...)


en agape
Weatherly

HMH Photo by Jeff Vespa - © WireImage.com - Image courtesy WireImage.com

And why precisely does Seth Rogan have a movie career?

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

The "Miss March" teensploitation flick features Hugh Hefner as himself.
I'm glad he chose to end the charade as his alter-ego Ernest P. Worrell. Srsly.

Your Aardvark has discovered the wonderful world of Facebook. I guess I'll get my first Model-T next.

Must be Italian. Fah-CHAY-book.

I was IMMEDIATELY discovered by 5 high-school chums and my speech teacher. Very neat.
So I have yet another way to wast...spend time on the net! It is lovely to be in touch with these people again. It is good to know that there are good memories from my life back then. That may sound all tragic and drama-ey, but I have a LOT of baggage from back then. It is good to see, well, good from the high school days.

Alabama is headed toward the poor paying Their Fair Share with a move to tax legal bingo games (to fund education and health care). Next we will have a state lottery as another savior of education. The next stage will be legalised hemp, well-taxed (though a good way down the pike). I no longer have a problem with any of these moves. The state is not a church, and if people are going to do things, and the state needs money, well....

The lottery would be a true move toward True Equality, and the beauty is, it is a truly voluntary tax. I used to brandish a broken Welch's bottle with Baptist friends over issues like that, but no more.

Truth is, the state needs money. Here is a sentence from the State Treasury website:

The Alabama Prepaid Affordable College Tuition (PACT) program and the Alabama Higher Education 529 Fund offer savings and investment opportunities for families planning for future college expenses.

The latest news on the "investment" program:

Economy Crisis Impacts Alabama's PACT Program

Letter to purchasers talks of stock market's impact on program

Amber Stuart WHNT Reporter

HUNTSVILLE - The Alabama PACT Program is offered to parents to help them pay college costs for their children. This week, parents received letters saying the program was in trouble.

After receiving a letter about the PACT program not escaping the economic crisis, Don Phelps sat down with his son.

He explained to him what the future holds for his dream of going to college.

"After we got this thing we sat down and I just said you know, your grades have always been important, now they've become even more important," said Phelps. "I said we'll get you to college one way or the other. It may not be the way you imagined or I imagined. Maybe you might have to go to junior college or maybe a community college a year or two. What really counts is where you finish up."

The letter informed parents the PACT program has been affected like other investments because of the stock market dropping roughly 50%.

"They also said because of that their viability is a little bit in question but they're going to start talking with the different universities and the leaders of those universities to see if they can work out a plan," said Phelps.

When Phelps enrolled his son in the PACT program, he expected four years of college.

"When we got into the program, yes, that was our anticipation. Yes, at least the tuition and fees would be paid for, but we also knew there was a risk with it, too. They were very up front about that because it is based on investments. Like anything else you do. That's always been one of those things we've had back that we paid for a very long time ago, and it was like we've got this covered."

Now, Phelps will wait to hear from the state treasurer what the next step will be.

The PACT Program has not advised people to cancel contracts.

State Treasurer Kay Ivey will hold a news conference Friday at 10:00 at the state capitol to discuss the future of the PACT program.

PACT is also urging people on their web site, 800alapact.com, to give the board time to work through this situation. PACT promises an update on the web site every Friday at 2:00pm.

In addition, PACT has added this email address, alapact@treasury.alabama.gov, for individuals to use to send in questions or comments.

State Treasurer Kay Ivey will hold a news conference Friday at 10:00 at the state capitol to discuss the future of the PACT program. These will be shared with PACT board members.

Expect a scramble for new and interesting ways to make up the various state shortfalls looming. I'll keep you posted.

A Prophecette:


I claim no divine power of fore-seeing, but here is my take. There is no threat implied, merely extrapolation from the present.

I seriously doubt that Pres. Obama will last his first term. I do not think some supremacist yahoo will take him out or anything like that. Rather, when he sees that all of his efforts to wrestle an obstreperous economy into submission are coming to nought, and that his approval ratings are lower than the Fed's interest rates, Humpty will fall, and no-one will be able to put the pieces together again. I see breakdown in his future. I do not wish for it. I harbor no animus against the man. I object strenuously to his policies, and I think that he is wired tight, on top of which is the burden of living up to his press.

Just some thoughts. W'll see within four years.

I keep hearing the word "retirement" bandied about. Hmmmm...I must look this up.
There is no concept of "retirement" in the Aardvark's lexicon. The idea also seems a tad un-Biblical. (No, this is not a shaggy-dog entry.) As lovely as not-working from age sixty-five on sounds, I come back to the fact that so many men die soon after retirement. As lovely as Heaven is likely to be, I have no real comparison for what it is like, and being reluctant to change, I wish to stay here as long as is permissible.

I have a business, and I have it for two reasons: to provide a livelihood for the Dread Dormomoo, meself, and what kinder are hanging on to home for dear life, and to provide an inheritance for our children, something of wealth-producing value such that if they choose, they will not have to work for The Man, said man being likely less intelligent and capable than they. (How's that for home-schooling pride?) Seriously, no pride involved, but rather a recognition of Things As They Are. (Look at our leadership. I rest my case.)
Alas, there is nothing in the program like retirement. This is NOT a matter of pride, or of better-than-you-are, but rather an assessment of Work as God has established it for mankind. "Work is part of the Curse." No. Pointless work is.

In Eden, God set Adam several tasks: To dress and keep the Garden. To dress the Garden is agricultural work, to keep the Garden has a decidedly protective, police aspect
to it. Mind you, this was PRIOR to the Fall. Adam rather fell down on the job as far as serpenty incursions are concerned. The point is: God gave Adam meaningful labor to do in the Garden . I am concerned that the world's entitlement attitudes are rubbing off on Kingdom people, especially as regards work. As far as aging is concerned, the nature of one's work may change (the picture of the older man sitting in the gate- a judicial and advisory role- comes to mind, and the role of elder or deacon in the church.), but work is still in the picture.

If someone can provide retirement info as far as the Scripture is concerned, let me know.

image from: charliechanannex.blogspot.com


Be on the lookout!


I want you to be aware of what is going on in Washington. The Left is well-trained in dialectic behavior, a kind of "two steps forward, one step back" dance. You will likely have seen the Marx 3-step at work already.

updated 2:15 p.m. CT, Fri., Feb. 20, 2009

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will not adopt a policy to tax motorists based on how many miles they drive instead of how much gasoline they buy, his chief spokesman said Friday.

Press secretary Robert Gibbs commented after Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told The Associated Press that he wants to consider the idea, which has been proposed in some states but has angered many drivers.

"It is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration," Gibbs told reporters, when asked for the president's thoughts about the policy and LaHood's remarks.

An outrageous plan will be put forward, then withdrawn in the face of negative public reaction. Then, a somewhat-less-outrageous idea will be floated, showing how reasonable he really is. Be on the lookout for this dance in the coming months.

The Dread Dormomoo was a tad tart this morning over the morning java. I brought up the new Transportation Secretary's idea of taxing drivers by mileage driven, rather than by gas alone. Every time the Give-mint fiddles with summat, it messes up what it has already fiddled with. They set gasoline taxes, then they messed with gas prices to make one Special Interest happy, and that changed people's driving habits. They messed with gas mileage standards to please other Special Interest Groups, and that made gas usage go down (and made driving far less safe), and played hob with the gas tax revenues. Now they want to tax mileage. The method being tossed about will be a GPS chip in your license registration sticker, so not only will they be able to track mileage, but also your whereabouts.

Unacceptable.

I would sooner have toll-roads. Building the toll islands would make jobs, and Stimulate the Economy (cue '70s pr0n music), It would make me think I'm vacationing in Florida every day, except for the humidity and palmetto bugs. Ooooooh, can we stop for free OJ?

Back to the Dread Dormomoo. She said: "Every time a politician talks about raising taxes, or suggests a new tax, they are really saying 'I'm a failure.', because they couldn't do their real job." What job? Governing. Governance is more than "spend, then tax to make up the shortfall". Governing requires, true governing IS , self-control: spending within means, not saying yes to every whiner with a shopping list, then handing an ever-burgeoning bill to the taxpayer.

It is time to tell Washington "NO!" No new taxes, no new intrusions. One thing is already becoming certain: any change from this administration is apt to be bad.

I like Ranch Dressing. Om nom nom nom. Makes me happy. Hidden Valley brand is the ne plus ultra of bottled ranches.

But come on ! Why does everything have to be ranch flavored? Nacho chips, buffalo wings, pizza...my youngest boys like mac and cheese with some ranch dressing on it.

The final straw (oh, no...Ranch Pixy Stix!) was going to the local Piggly Wiggly, and seeing Planters Ranch-Flavored Peanuts on the shelf.
I don't like ranch that much.

I do live in fear of the day that they come out with Ranch-Flavored M&Ms.

Benny Hinn:

The Sixties called.

They want their
Nehru Jacket
back.

Sunday morning at the con. not where I'd LIKE to be, but that's life!

What a great little con. The dealer liaison and her hubby were at breakfast, and we sat talking about Freberg, and old time radio. Good times.

A sign that one is somewhat older than one might like: telling the waitress that she reminds you of an actress...and she has no clue who you're talking about (a young Tyne Daly. She even had the upper-gum smile thing.)

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I want to make something plain. Anymore, when the issue of one being a Christian comes up, the concept is given a black eye by certain, ummmmm, church-types who give everyone a bad name.

People, being a Christian has nothing to do with Westboro Baptist Church. Period. I examine the New Testament for examples of such hate-mongering, and cannot find any. Jesus taking on the hypocrisy of religious leaders of his day, and the apostle Paul doing much the same was not hate! Accurate character assessment is not hate!)
There is NO call by Christ or the apostles to spew venom and hatred at sinners (defined as those devoted to a lifestyle of self-serving, trespassing over the boundaries God has set for human attitude and behavior.) The very God who went to cosmic lengths to be born into the world to redeem a lost and dead mankind is antithetical to the message of Westboro. They pick Old Covenant verses to support their spew, but I see no effort for them to rebuild the Temple and re-institute animal sacrifices.

Is there a Cohen in the house?

If you are going to cherry-pick your doctrine from the Law of Moses, you need to be consistent with it. Where's that red heifer, guys?

Lookit, there is sin. Sin is breaking God's laws (His house, His rules. Want different rules? Fine. Create your own universe.) The perfect God hates sin. But he loved the practitioners so much that He sent Jesus to atone for those sins. You may take advantage of this remarkable gift at any time, preferably sooner than later. But God does not hate you. He loves you, and wants you to have the best possible life, but this does involve playing the game by His rules (His house, again).
But c'mon, having principles, having rules, is NOT HATRED, any more than Parker Brothers hates you because there are specific rules for playing Monopoly.

Thus, however much I might disagree with your lifestyle or choices, I should not hate you. Hatred, in fact, is one of the works of the flesh spoken against in Galatians.

¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, ²¹ envy, murders drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Please note that hatred is in the same boat as murder and adultery. The statement:

those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

is a no-brainer. If you live a non- kingdom life, then you won't inherit the Kingdom. I would be bold and say you would not WANT to be in the Kingdom. It would be uncomfortable.
Compare the fruit of the Spirit, borne in the life of a Kingdom citizen:

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. ²⁴ And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Crucifying the flesh is not comfy. It involves denial of what I want to do, and submitting my will to the One with a better plan. This is likely why Jesus said:

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. ¹⁴ Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." Matthew 7:12-14

Point: Christian, if you are exuding hatred, I might question your right to the name, as you are displaying allegiance to your flesh, your own will, rather than obedience to Christ Jesus. But that is between you and your Maker, and we all of us are at different points in a life of obedience to our Lord.

In the parlance of The Street: Don't be hatin'.
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CON UPDATE!

The Spirit of the Lord Family Church meets upstairs at the Crowne Plaza on Sunday afternoons. Some of their members were "concerned" at the demonic costumes of some of the cosplayers here at the con, and, being vexed in their spirits, attempted to exorcise someone, because, you know, the kids weren't wearing tapioca-colored polyester, I guess. Thanks for giving a black eye to people who are trying to live the faith in the marketplace.

Chapter and verse, people. Where did Jesus, or an apostle, try to cast out demons from someone because of their clothing?

I'm waiting....

Can we PLEASE stop passing off boogeyman superstition as Biblical faith? Please?