I have been worried about the new "Prisoner" mini-series coming on AMC in November. I just saw the trailer, and while the architecture more closely fits "The Villages" in Florida, the whole thing hangs together in a creepily good way. Something more than turkey to look forward to come the eleventh month.

Cuppa tea?

The placards, flags, and banners are back in the garage, becoming homes for blobby, splotchy spiders, people are back at work, and the gas cards need to be paid. The Tea Partyers and 9/12ers have come home. Hail the conquering heroes.

Don't misunderstand my tone. They accomplished some important things: they showed the nation that they made it to D.C., gave FOX News a day or two of sexy programming. Most importantly, they fellowshipped with each other, showed each other that they have common ground, common concerns, ideals, goals. They displayed an almost church-like level of koinonia and commonality of purpose, bound together across social, sectarian, and ethnic divides. I just don't want these good people to go home thinking that they accomplished much more than that. Remember Mr. Smith Goes to Washington ? Frank Capra was a prophet. Remember the scene of the Evil Political Machine cranking up to shut out any reporting of Mr. Smith's Congressional heroics? That is what happened the 9/12 Saturday. FOX reported in depth. NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC mentioned. As far as the non-FOX watchers are concerned, a few thousand people had a tantrum on the Mall.

The marchers wanted their voices, their Voice, heard by their representatives. By-and-large, they weren't. Even the President was out-of-town that day. (And has anyone noticed Barack Hussein Obama's use of the word "rule" as to his office? He refers to "ruling" which betrays a misapprehension of his station. Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm.)

Two weeks have passed, and the rumblings have subsided, and A.C.O.R.N.'s corruption fills the news...at least on FOX. Our reps seem to have gotten that , at least, and are defunding that bunch of nuts, but this is only one thing: getting rid of something that shouldn't have been there in the first place. Congress and the Senate are being unprofitable servants, doing only what they ought to have done. Our government is so far out of bounds as to provide an endless menu of deconstruction.

I do not mean to discourage you doughty marchers, Tea Partyers, 9/12ers, but rather to encourage you stay the course, as Ronaldus Magnus said. Eat the elephant one bite at a time. Work to diminish the Federal, and enhance States Rights. Restore the Founders' vision. Do not lose sight of the Goal, in the flush of victory of beginning the race.

Dormammu (c) Marvel Comics

The Dread Dormomoo does not have a blog. She desperately needs one. Hear what the D.D. saith:

The current illegal alien / undocumented worker debacle is a bit of cleverness by the Left. A look at any demographical data shows that (1) The Boomer generation is getting overwhelmingly old, fast, and (2) the old majority white Euro-derived population is not reproducing at replacement levels, thus we have a shift in age and spectrum in our broad land. Social Security is bankrupt. Srsly. It consists of boxes filled with IOUs from Congress (which has used all the money for everything but Social Security) likely stored in the West Virginia warehouse that Scully and Mulder found the DNA records of every soul in the YewEssof AY. Congress has spent every dime. Every one. The S.S. checks issued to oldsters today are drawn on the money withheld from present-day workers, who will never see a penny of that money, and whose withholding will not be able to cover the vast needs of a populace pulling into Geezerville. Never, unless some alternative source of funding is found.

But WAIT! What if we IMPORT strapping young workers to pay into the system. But some are already here illegally. How shall we deal with them?

*coughamnestycough*

Once they are legal, they can be taxed, and the Union is SAVED!
The idea is amazing in its simplicity, and duplicity. Our "representatives" have come up with a way to save their rears, and save Social Security, unless of course they spend all of that money.

And she got here before Glenn Beck.

Of COURSE women never lie about rape.

(AP) Four New York men were released from jail Wednesday and authorities dismissed charges that they gang-raped a Hofstra University student after the 18-year-old woman recanted her story.

"I'm so happy the truth finally came out," said Stalin Felipe, 19, outside the Nassau County Jail in East Meadow where he and the other three had just been released Wednesday night.

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said in a statement late Wednesday that the woman told law enforcement officials that the sex encounter in a dormitory men's room was consensual.

Rice said a county judge then dismissed the charges against the four men and ordered their release. She said her office has launched a criminal investigation into the woman's statements.

The woman had accused five men, including a Hofstra student, of taking her cell phone at an on-campus nightclub and luring her into a dormitory men's room and sexually assaulting her early Sunday.

I heard this from the corner of my ear yesterday, and it has been percolating. I like what Vox suggests:

One hopes that the lying woman will be prosecuted and jailed, as crying rape harms the interests of innocent men and real female victims alike. A woman who lies in an attempt to press rape charges should not only be prosecuted and jailed for years, but her picture should also be distributed as widely throughout the media as were the pictures of those she falsely accused.

Of course, it must be stated in all fairness that men never lie about sex either.

Happy 9/11 DAY!


You remember September 11, 2001. You know, the day when the US Government condemned and razed some real estate in NYC, added a door to the Pentagon, and attempted aerial plowing in a Pennsylvania field. That MUST be what happened, 'cos an actor and a Communist rabble-rouser both agree that it did. Don't forget, too, that today has been determined by some tool-or-other to be a National Day of Service. Find a member of Al Qaeda and polish his Quran.

I have fussed about the uselessness of psychological scab-picking at celebrations like the Oklahoma City Bombing, letting the wounds heal for a year, then reopening the thing with One More Remembrance. It would be like a wife buying her husband a Happy Adultery Day cake each year to commemorate his indiscretion. I don't have much patience for this kind of psychological self-injury.

That said, 9/11 is different. Our nation, and our fellow citizens were attacked by Muslims. Not Swedish Lutherans, nor Southern Baptists. Whack-job Muslims incited to murder, and then financed with Saudi money. Ron Paul AND Osama bin Laden have stated that the reason for the attacks was the US's involving itself in the Middle East and elsewhere. I trust Dr. Congressman Paul far more than I do bin Laden, and believe the the most prudent course for the US is to bring back our troops from every locale where we have overstayed our welcome, which is almost everywhere, except for one task: hunt everyone down who was involved with the attack on the US with extreme prejudice. For those unaware, that doesn't mean make fun of their clothing, coloring, or mode of speech. It means take them out. Kill them. Period. Then, get on with our lives.

Muslim extremists plotted, some acted, killed our people, and destroyed our buildings. That bunch needs to be made to go away. All Muslims are not murderous jihadists. There are many who do not accurately follow the Prophet's teachings. They likely make good neighbors. I am not worried about them, but the culpable jihadists still living need to be not living anymore.

Remember 9/11. Remember who our enemies are. Remember that they are out there still, and that they have made promises.

NOTHING has gone right today, and now The Prexy is talking on about his sorely needed healthcare revamp that is being begged for by millions whom I never see.

Nancy Pelosi is reacting to naysaying noises from the Right like the psycho mom in the Rollover Minutes adverts. Scary.


One salvo of applause from the Right: a promise of a measure of tort reform.

Obama beat the drum of TeddyCare, invoking the Ghost of Kopechnes Past. Lets win one for the Tedster.

I'm so reassured. I'm also waiting for the Givemint to start paying my mortgage. I mean, he's been President seven whole months.

Czar Van Jones is lookin' for work, and should be thankful that this is not 1917. Unknown Forces have promulgated "lies and distortions" about him, so he is pouting and taking his Fair Trade ball, and his eco-friendly bat, and going home. I'm not sure which cheeses me more, that he was in an unConstitutional "Green is the new Red" unvetted position in the first place, or that he weeniely folded after Glenn Beck and WorldNetDaily started digging out the truth about him. "They lied about me, so I'm leaving!" Wow, how loser. He could at least have identified the truth, and let the facts be known...

Awwwwwwwww....

Because I said so, that is why.

I had talk radio on as room noise whilst doing laundry - the Dread Dormomoo is recuperating nicely from her surgery, but still may not do much aboot the hoose - and heard Mark Steyn parrying a female caller who was claiming that conservative talk hosts were anti-ObamaCare because they are in the pockets of groups like Big Pharma (which oddly is supportive of nationalized healthcare here). What bugged me was her naked assertion that Limbaugh, Beck, Hannitoad, and the rest are bought-and-paid-for by Eeeee-vil Corporate Forces. No proof, no footnotes, just her insistence that This Is So. It has nothing to do with thoughtful opinion derived from study, or forensic digging into public records...just making a statement, 'cos she heard it from NPR, or heard it from a friend, or read it on HuffPo, or got an ACORN email, or merely pulled it from her nethers.

Ergo, it is all true.

When did we all become sixth-graders parroting gossip about The New Girl? Wait...most of us WERE in public school sixth-grade! From K through Twelve, we are prudently not taught how to think, nor how to effectively look into a matter. I mean, Wikipedia is now accepted as a legitimate source for term paper research. In college, liberal arts education is more about fitting in, and trying to be cool for the popular profs. Rather than the avowed raison d'etre of teaching one how to think, and how to learn, modern liberal arts education methods ultimately teach one what to think, whether through indoctrination, or peer-pressure. This was true when the Aardvark was in college; moreso now.

President Obama relies upon his charisma, more than even did President Clinton. (Have I mentioned lately how much I miss Bill Clinton?) The drum-bangers and tambourine-janglers in Congress support razing our vast healthcare system and building a Rube Goldbergesque structure to distribute inadequate care equally claim to support it "because the Peeeee-pul demand it!". The poll numbers do not support this claim, and a bit of reading will show it to be a top-down effort like HillaryCare, and is just as loved by the Peeeee-pul. Seen any good Town Hall meetings lately?

Tortured Logic


Much of the fuss about the "torture" of terrorists, or non-military combatants, comes from the fuzzy thinking of the religious - both right and left - who somehow conflate the State with the Kingdom of God. This is not a biblically tenable position, for while the State "is a servant of God to you for good" (Romans 13:4), it is not presented as the Kingdom of God. This distinction is important. Were I to be a Roman householder with bondservants, they would be the servants of the household, not members of my family. While individual members of the government may be Christian, the government is not. While individual citizens of the country may be Christian, the country is not. A "Christian consensus" may hold sway in the Body Politic, but this does not make it Christian. The Kingdom of God is wholly Other than the kingdoms of mankind.

I believe that it says much of our society, and the echoes of former Biblical influence upon it, that so much effort has been put into finding non-lethal, non-maiming methods of persuading terrorists to part with intel. Torquemada and his ilk had quite an arsenal of effective persuasion; we could have gone with those, but instead, we have developed methods that leave the subject perhaps wet and breathless, perhaps emotionally shaken, but still whole. War is a nasty business, terrorism worse still, and that we still seek not to cross the line into Inquisitionville must needs be recognized and trumpeted.

Ooooooh, I'm wet.

Ooooooh, there is dog breath, and I'm scared.

Ooooooh, they shot the guy in the next cell, so I'll talk....Ah, they didn't really. Boy is my face red.



Ooooooh, they say that they will take out my family if I kill another three thousand of their citizens.

Seems rather tame, doesn't it? But even if it doesn't, the State, the governing authority HAS the authority to do that, and worse:

For if you practice evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword in vain; for it is a servant of God, a revenger for wrath on him who does evil. (Romans 13:4)

Much of the torture teapot-tempests are brewed from emotional squeamishness, not the accurate intel from God's Word. That said, what our interrogators do does not approach what has been ID'd as torture historically: beatings, maimings, burning, impromptu surgery, rape. Read some history, then maybe you will understand. The name "Club Gitmo" isn't as far-fetched as you thought.

The Dread Dormomoo keeps the yoks coming:



Q: How are the American people like Astroturf?


A: Neither of them needs government healthcare.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the convicted Lockerbie bomber, arrived in Tripoli to a hero's welcome. Playing the strings of (very) nominally Christian Scottish sentiment won him his freedom. Confronted with combined Brit and American ire at Al Megrahi's being released on compassionate grounds because of his terminal prostate cancer, Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice secretary grumped about Scotland not having a "vigilante" justice system. Al Megrahi was convicted and sentenced by a Scottish court, not exactly what I would call vigilante justice. His release is blamed on "compassion". Read: he is dying of cancer, so he should do so in the bosom of his family. Not to release him would be mean, not compassionate. It is kindergarten reasoning. Likewise, the retort thet "He didn't show any compassion toward the victims of Pan Am Flight 103.". Well, DUH. Of COURSE he didn't, and the sky is blue, and water is wet. Kindergarten again.

The feelgood fairness of releasing the bomber is a foolish shadow of Christian justice. When you remove a culture and justice from the direct influence of Biblical teaching and discipline, as is evident in the UK and Europe, all that remains is silly sentimentality in the guise of moral certitude. His malady does not exonerate him. It does not mollify any of the victims' families, nor resurrect any of the dead. His having prostate cancer changes nothing, beyond the actual duration of his sentence.
Shucks, I'll bet that NHS Scotland offers better healthcare than does Libya, except that the Libyan reaction of Local Boy Makes Good might bode for preferential end-of-life care for the Hero Come Home.

Frankly, the Scottish justice minister makes me, a MacLeod, want to hang up my kilt.

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Finding their inner bigot.

Your Aardvark has been a civil rights proponent all his life. (It is rumored that the placards he waved about in utero were responsible for his premature birth. That, and the auto accident.) Thus he looks askance at the race-baiters and Klan types alike, if for no other reason that we all of us have sinned, and are in need of rescue, whatever one's hue. But it remains difficult to maintain a pristine reputation of Tolerance (what an awful thing, to be merely tolerated ...) when one disagrees with the President, and opinion has it that ANY disagreement is base bigotry: "You just don't like him 'cos he's BLACK!".

Perhaps your Aardvark should consider a run for the Maison Blanc, campaigning as the first 'Varky President. Mr. Obama's fans certainly raised the bar with the hosannas over the first black president, or African-American, or somesuch. I thought that Martin Luther King, Jr. expressed the ideal of content of one's character, rather than the color of one's epidermis, but then, Mr. Obama is from Chicago politics, so the character issue may be moot. Certainly much of the bigotry charged by his followers against detractors of his blatantly ruinous and unConstitutional programs is imputed rather than inherent in "them wot disagrees wiv 'im". While there are sheet-wearers and cross-burners out there, for the most part they do little more than hang around each other and indulge in paranoid conspiracy talk. ("If it ain't the blacks, then it must be th' Joos!")

The biggest problem is this imputed bigotry thing. If you are unjustly accused of being intolerant or bigoted for your disagreements with the first President of Color, is there a point where one throws up one's hands and says " if everyone says it, it must be true" and dons the figurative hood for oneself? Perhaps finding one's inner bigot is possible because others helped put it there.

This is not a thing to be concerned about:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Surely sign up as an informant now! You could become the head of your Neighborhood Security Unit. It's a ground floor opportunity. Unlike MLM's, the payoff for taking advantage of this is POWER!

OH, THE PAIN !



Your Aardvark is 52, has (controlled) high blood pressure, is somewhat overweight (no longer a svelte 165, but certainly not needing a piano-crate coffin, either), and has no health insurance.

Oh, the pain!

That's right, kiddies. When your Aardvark has pollen-impacted sinuses, or the galloping bronchitis, or has his arm yaw when it should have pitched whilst carrying a heavy piece of equipment, he goes to a local clinic, where he pays cash, either then, or in thirty days.

He is often prescribed pharmaceuticals, and more often than not, at least part of the scrip is in the form of free samples of the drug. When he thought he was having a heart Event at an out-of-town convention, the pain eased, and (we perhaps foolishly drove back to AL)) upon arriving home, to the local clinic he went, fast as he could caper. The nurse practitioner did an EKG, then asked about insurance. None. He went "Whoops" or somesuch, trundled the EKG out, and pretended he had not run the test, which had shown normal. Finally after much pokery and proddery, he put his palms on your hero's breastbone, and all but did a handstand. "Did it feel like this?" "Yessss" came the reply. Turns out the 'varky sternum had been strained from overmuch t-shirt printing, and himself was told to lay off for awhile. Your Aardvark was treated, and well, and paid in cash.

Your Aardvark has Health Care. No insurance, but health care.

The Dread Dormomoo, now, has insurance. She will be going in for a Small Procedure in a few weeks - nothing dramatic or to be flailing arms about, but needful. There will be a Deductible, which we will pay out over a few months, but the bulk will be paid for by insurance. She has Health Care, and insurance.

We both of us have Health Care.

A woman of our acquaintance does not work. She was kept out of school by her well-meaning parents because of "nerves". She has zero marketable skills, and I do mean zero. Both of her parents are dead, so now Everyone is her parent. She is on welfare, buys food with an EBT card, and lives in subsidised housing. When she is ill, she goes to the Clinic. If there were no clinic, she would likely go to the ER, where she would be treated.

She has Health Care. No insurance, but she DOES have Health Care.

Seems the ObamaCare argument uses the wrong terms. Everyone in the nation has Health Care available. By law.

The Aardvark drives Dodge minivans, firstly because they are so-o-o-o-o sexy, secondly because nothing gives him more pleasure than zooming past a Camaro on the Interstate in one, and thirdly because he is cheap, and refuses to pay Escalade prices. There are many such vehicles on the market, and each has its fans. So too health insurance. Some pay for insurance, some pay more for insurance, some cannot afford insurance, and some choose to use their money in ways other than paying for insurance. Some drive Vespas, some VW's, some Beemers, some bike, some walk. The market is filled with -dare it be said? -diversity. The Obama administration is proving that it does not truly believe in diversity, but in Tapioca. Very, very expensive Tapioca, that no-one really wants, and which purports to fill a need that does not truly exist.

Bite My Shiny
Metal Daffodil

The new FUTURAMA episodes are on order from Comedy Central...26 whopping episodes, due in 2010. i09 offers a disturbing twist to the gladsome tidings:

Excited about the return of Futurama to our television screens? Prepare to lose that feeling: Fox have apparently cut the original voices of Fry, Leela, Bender and many other characters from the revival and are about to recast the roles.

Meh. It's like casting Ben Stiller as Captain Kirk.
A move to write to the casting people is in the works, and is detailed in the comments for the i09 article. Here is mine:



Dear Mr. Moller:
The excitement over the restart of the FUTURAMA franchise is palpable in our household...or at least was until we heard of the announcement of the recasting of the main characters. We are hoping that this is a pro-wrestling type promo for a staged San Diego Comic Con dustup between the cast and FOX executives. If, however, the recast news is true, I predict major fan unrest, unpleasant faux audition CD's, and possibly dogs marrying cats in the streets.
FUTURAMA without its classic cast will not be FUTURAMA. It will be unwatchable, and thus, we will not watch it. Nor buy merchandise, nor DVD sets, nor purchase from show sponsors.
I strongly urge that you push for the original cast, and pass this on to the Powers That Be.
Thank you,
Weatherly Hardy

Photo by Loen (c)2009

This lovely bit of plating is from Loen. My youngest son made real croissants from scratch, the eighty-one buttered layers kind. The blackberry jam was made by the Dread Dormomoo, from our home-grown blackberries, and Fuji apples. The berries of the lovely garnish are what our homegrowns look like, pre-jam. The sugared mint sprig is a variety we brought from my home in SC. Butter by Sam's Club.

A lovelier num num I have never had.

Well-done, son.

Trot out the little carts, and those adorable little hats; the dog-and-pony show is set to begin Monday. Supreme Court la-TEEN-a nominee Sonia Sotomayor-r-r-r-r will be bunting softballs for a few days next week. (I am reminded of a rarity: a funny SNL skit from years ago, showing TV news reporters ordering Mexican for lunch, very white, very American newsreaders pronouncing the dishes as though they were reporting from Central America- Nee-ha-RAH-WAH, chee-mee-CHONG-ah.) Rightists are fulminating that a liberal woman will be on the Supreme Court, not realising that she will merely be replacing one.

I am headed to 'Bamaburg on Thursday. G-Fest is held right outside of Chicago in Rosemont. Hello, Crowne Plaza! A Godzilla convention is great fun, and J.D.Lees and crew ALWAYS do it up right. We print their convention shirts, and take our own super-cool and groovy kaiju (giant monster) designs, which the con-goers buy with gusto! Here is our latest design, a take-off of the "Yo Gabba Gabba" show on Nick, with a kaiju flavor. The Mothra makes me so happy! Marty Whitmore did the art for us, which we printed four-color process on pastel shirts. We will have 12-14 kaiju-related designs this year, besides the other pop-culture stuff we do. Check the Aardvark Tees link to your right and check out our goodies!

Phony headlines that would not surprise us

"Obama Administration Implicated in Michael Jackson Death"

Hey, who's the King NOW?

Sure is taking the minds of the dumb masses off of Cap and Trade, and the Bernanke Follies, idd'n it?

I must make a new tinfoil bowler.
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I emailed AND called our local Congressman Parker Griffith Friday. The poor, sweet lady who answered was bumfuzzled as to why they were being hammered so, so I gently 'splained it to her. She was still surprised at the fuss since "Congressman Griffith had sent a letter out in April presenting his opposition" to this carbon energy tax thingie. I thanked her gave my "Vote NO!" message, and left her to figure out that congressional opinions are only exceeded in lifespan by the Mayfly.
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Do you hate the product name "Salonpas" as much as I do?