The road to charismania is paved with good intentions.

I take up the keyboard yet again.

I have missed you.

The subject matter may be...rarified...but it has been hamster-wheeling in my noddle, and I must get it out. The stupid wheel squeaks.

One of the most disingenuous arguments out there is this: "all Pentecostal / Charismatic / Spirit-filled churches are un-Biblical, because they misuse "speaking in tongues". "They all stand up and babble in gibberish at the same time, and no-one interprets!".
Apparently, so did the Corinthian believers.

And it's always "tongues". There are eight other tools in the charismata toolbox, but NO...we gotta pick on tongues. Granted it being the most, ngaaah, vocal of the gifts of the Spirit, it is the most readily abused, for "who can tame the tongue?", whether you are speaking English, or La-ma-salala.

Have you ever given a grandchild or nephew a set of magic tricks for beginners, and he then endlessly treats you to the same disappearing nickel or magic numbers trick? Yeah, that was the Corinthian church. They had a new toy, the likes of which they had never experienced, so they wanted to experience it againandagainandagain! And they jumped ahead in line. Didn't wait their turn.

In short, immaturity was rife.

This does not render the GIFT inferior, or bad, nor does it provide a doctrinal reason for saying "Well, THAT went away after the apostles died. HURRAY! Now we have a BOOK!". (Since I brought up the Book, I will add that there is ZERO Biblical evidence for spiritual gifts being the conduit through which the Bible came to be written, beyond out-of-context application of two individual verses from two different New Testament epistles, by two different authors, Paul and James.)

One issue is cognitive dissonance, on all sides of glossolalia. Paul APPARENTLY has two things in mind when he speaks of tongues. One (in 1 Corinthians 12) is the contextually inspired utterance in tongues, which should be coupled with the gift of interpretation from another speaker, which renders them analogous to the gift of prophecy, apparently, and unexplainedly (though Acts 2 may well give a clew). This exists for the edification and understanding of the congregation. The other is from 1 Corinthians 14, where Paul teaches that, failing the presence of the interpreter, one should pray in tongues to oneself (quietly) and to God. The first is a Happening in the church's worship, the second is apparently a readily available and usable mode of praying (I will pray in the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding -my native language- also. This appears to be a volitional thing for the believer.)

Excitability being what it is, people got it all backward, and then, as now, believers took to babbling uninterpreted, because GIFT! Paul does NOT CONDEMN THE GIFT, as many modern pulpiteers are wont to do. Paul CORRECTED the Corinthian misuses. Between chapters 12 and 14, The Holy Spirit sandwiches what became chapter 13, the "Love Chapter". The logical flow is this:
Ch. 12: These are the gifts of the Spirit. You are doing them wrong.
Ch. 13: This is agape, how to love one another.
Ch. 14: This is how to do the gifts in love.

Assuming that modern "Spirit-filled" practise is analogous to that in the New Testament church, human nature works its way, and the same errors and behavior repeat themselves. Could there be a reason for Paul's correction of the Corinthians to be included in the extant canon?

Mmmmmyeeahh, COULD be!

An Agglomeration of Angst

One man's licorice
is another man's cilantro.

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

When a leg vein fails, and the shower looks like a scene
from the Grand Guignol.


THIS IS GRAPHIC AND IS ABOUT BLOOD. DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE THE QUEASY TYPE! I MUST WRITE THIS.
====================
Varicose vein did not like wash cloth scrubbing. Next thing I knew, the tub looked like a murder scene. Could not see where the blood was coming from, then I saw a fine spray from my lower shin. It was fascinating, until I thought "that's my blood, and it's going down the drain". I lost a measurable amount of it (I estimate between 1/2 cup to 1 cup), so I knotted my washcloth around my leg, dried off, and woke Lanie up to help me. She bandaged my leg, and I stayed still for an hour with leg elevated. Then I got a cane, got to my bed, and proceeded to sleep the rest of the day.

Have stayed still most of the evening. There is NO evidence of continued leaking, so maybe I have dodged a bullet. Gonna take it easy as best I can. If there is a recurrence, I'll go get the sucker cauterised or something. But it was briefly entertaining.
LOOK! A new thing!!

It was, as I said, fascinating, almost hypnotic. I lost enough for me to be a bit dizzy later. Have eaten well and hydrated, and feel right as rain, now.

I wish we had had the presence of mind to photograph the shower, but it may have disturbed some.

I guess the Brillo pads will have to go....
------------------------

"I have never had a fire ant bite"

I can no longer say this.

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

I can "temporarily" suspend service on a Verizon line for $10 per month.
I can pay them NOT to have a line.

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

If the Prexy had come up with a cool name like
"CONELRAD",
everyone
would be fine.

(Comment on the whining about the cell phone "Presidential alert")

Good GRIEF, people.
It was an emergency alert system test, like the old EBS tests for the cell age.

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



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

The word is "ogle", not "oogle".
Neither is it PRONOUNCED "oogle".
------------------------

The Bible is not a grimoire, filled with potent spells that if you say them JUST right, or enough times, they will bend the Almighty to your will.

Instead, it instructs you to bow your knee, your desires and plans, to His Will.
Just a thought....

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

Amazed at how much data people happily proffer with these
"Find out how Santa will kill you" type quizzes.

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

Here is the con shirt design Lanie and I did! The copper details are metallic copper ink. You can catch some of the shimmer in the upper left gears.



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

So much current comics art comes from folks whose mommies clearly said "You're such a GOOD artist!"

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

Kind of amazed at how not terrible the '77 movie "Shock Waves" was.


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

Have a lovely week!

A congery of convivialities!

Not liking what someone says does not render it untrue.
It merely means that you do not like it.

--------------------
It is significant that the historical creeds of the church make no mention of "The Rapture".

--------------------
Here's yer conspiracy theory.
What is the Alex Jones ban
supposed to distract us from?

--------------------
Who was forcing you
to listen to
Alex Jones,
again?

--------------------
Freedom of speech covers the palaver of John Birchers, Communists, Democrats, Republicans, even those who would advocate running around the pool, or yelling "FIRE!" at public gatherings.

(The latter two especially must then own the response to their advocacy.)

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

------------------
The use of "Conspiracy Theory" as a pejorative serves to shut down "the conversation". Deviate from The Narrative, and you will be gifted the redshirt of "conspiracy theorist".


------------------
Then you think
"Maybe Orwell should
not have written
some things.".

------------------
Two neologisms that twist my gut.
"Gastropub"
"Nutraceutical"

------------------
Anyone remember a '60s
sci-fi movie that referred to "lasser beams"
I think it was Italian.

------------------
My brain tonight
gives new meaning to
"spindizzy".

------------------
Limestone Co. officially
has black bears.
Mister Ranger's not going to like this....

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

Later....

A plethora of (self) plagiarism

Colossus blue screened me. Had to get an ASUS gaming computer, because graphics programs.
New computer boots up in 12 seconds. CorelDRAW opens in less than that.
WOW!
I can also play a mean game of mahjong solitaire!

Don't tell ME I'm not a gamer!!

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

Just celebrated the Dread Dormomooo's and my 41st anniversary on the 23rd.
YAYYYY US!!

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

Limestone Co. officially
has black bears.
Mister Ranger's not going to like this....


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


Himself and Archie Waugh enjoying life in Chicago.
Went to a great Japanese/Thai place.
Celebrating a marvelous G-Fest! Go, go Godzilla!


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

Because eternal verities are eternal...



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

The ORIGINAL Jonny Quest is being released on Blu-Ray.
I am NOT a Blu-Ray fanatic, but I WILL have this.

The cartoons are uncut, and will have the correct credits at the end.
You heathen monkeys.

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

Speaking of JQ, here is a link to a FREE online comic, that TOTALLY gets the original.
http://stormerbrooks.com/free-comic-to-read.html



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

Here is a pic of Archie, Noel, and himself at Maki, that restaurant....



The tilt is because the earth could not stand the burden of
that much awesomeness on one spot.

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

Can't we leave politics out of our animu?
Just watch the pretty pictures, eat Pocky and drink Ramune?


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


Our latest kaiju shirt. Art by Kez Wilson. Noel did the print.


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

You're welcome.




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

I had forgotten that the movie "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla" was titled here in the states "Godzilla vs. the Bionic Monster" in 1977.
Universal threatened to sue over the use of "their" word "bionic. Cinema Shares, the distributor, changed it to "Godzilla vs. The Cosmic Monster".

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

Exposing screens to print shirts with. The vacuum blanket whines, the lights come on, and then...everything stops.
I figured I would have to open the panel and see if a fuse burnt out, or a wire came loose. I looked at the power cord, and it was plugged in. There was SOME light in the panel's neon pilot light.
The Dread Dormomoo came out, looked at the plug.
Pushed it in.

All better. "Did you unplug it, then plug it in again?" works.

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

Hard cases make
for bad policy.

--------------------------Talking about a thing does not fix a thing. Talking endlessly about it, fixes it even   less.


--------------------------
Becoming wiggy...out-of-time. My sleep cycle is playing with my head like a kitten with a dead frog.


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


Later, kiddies!

The 5000 Musings of Doctor A

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


And THAT'S amusing. The microwave comes on when you open the door, now.

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

Did ANYBODY like Keiko O' Brien?


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

So, Patrick, it's OK to say that the US is a democracy, because through people's misuse of language, we can write it off to the evolution of language, despite the fact that the designers of our constitutional republic meant very exact and specific things in their use of their language? Is that what you're telling us here, Patrick?



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

I grew up in South Carolina.
"Why don't you go back?"
they asked.
"Chicken bog." I said.


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

Why exactly cannot selfie
                               people flip their photos
                                    taken in a mirror?



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

Wow.
"King Kong vs. Godzilla" sure has some terrible bluescreen work.
"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" levels of bad.
Yet, it is a really fun movie!


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

SF readers: Remember Lupoff's The Adventures of Professor Thintwhistle and His Incredible Aether Flyer? Proto-steampunk!

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


TRIGGER WARNING
A spiritual screed for Christian-types:
There are a LOT of preachers, and a lot of voices out there, vying for your attention, and perhaps your eternal destiny. Despite the smiles, the positivity, and the promises, you will do well to examine, compare and contrast what they teach, over against what the Founder and His apostles taught. Do these teachers use buzzwords and terms foreign to Jesus, Paul, Peter, and the rest? Do they introduce "spiritual" concepts not found in Scripture? Do they challenge you to be more Christlike, loving, caring, or do they say you are fine just as you are? Is their focus on your growth, or the growth of your (and their?) bank accounts?

Jesus told His apostles-in-training regarding preaching the Good News "Freely you have received, freely give.". They were free to receive food and care from those who appreciated their service, but they were not to ask for it.
How much time does your TV Preacher of Choice spend talking about money, especially, extracting money from the Faithful? Compare that to Jesus and His apostles. A word to the wise.



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

After 40 years,
I finally watched
"Capricorn One".

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

I foresee a revolution
fought with
fondue forks.

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

ONOES!
The Chakra Orgone Pyramids
are almost sold out!!!

(My reaction to an internet advert.)

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

The last Children's
Crusade did not go well.
Just sayin'.

(My reaction to David Hogg and Company.)

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

Got home the other morning around 4AM,
opened a can of chilled consomme,
ate it with lemon juice and Worcestershire. Yum!

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

Isn't "The Shape of Water"
just a
"Jabberjaw" reboot?

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

Amuses me that no one
talks about
The Weapon Shops of Isher  by A.E. van Vogt
anymore.

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



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

Justin Trudeau looks like
he should host a remake
of "Blues Clues".

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

She has a tongue
would clip a hedge.

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

You have a heart
as cold
as a wet Christmas.

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

Anyone else recall how clueless you really were
at age sixteen?

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

Feelin' the need to march
and beg that my rights be taken away.
Seems to be in vogue.

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

I can find no example
of Paul refusing to make a tent
because the customer worshipped Zeus.

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

Things I've learned from X-Files season 11.
Avoid the Internet of Things.

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

This is making America great? A revisiting.

I was asked years back
"Aardvark, do you think people's behavior has turned for the worse over the years?"
------------------
Now, THAT'S a question. As this is my blog, and my opinion reigns supreme:

Yes.

But a yes with caveats.

"Yes", because there are more people to behave badly, and more to interact synergistically, badly.

"Yes", because people have longer lives, and can get really good at being bad.

Violinist: How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
NY Cabbie: Practice.

"Yes", because people have cut themselves from moral and spiritual moorings, and by that, self-control, through a cultural rejection of Biblical teaching. Like it or not, the strength of the West has lain in its Biblical Consensus. America has not been a "Christian Nation" (darn hard to baptise a landmass). I could argue that the concept is not tenable, but the fact remains that what governed The West was an overall "Christian" mindset, with Biblical underpinnings in intellectual thought, common law and jurisprudence, and man-on-the-street morality. Francis Schaeffer and others have documented this ably, and I recommend Schaeffer as a start.

"Yes", because we abandon our children to be cared for and taught in government-run schools, a government that WE have allowed to become the poster child for the wholesale rejection of what made America what it was. I was born in the Fifties. It was a time when rifle manufacturers advertised in the Boy Scouts' "Boys Life" magazine, and kids took part in marksmanship contests at school. GUNS! at SCHOOL!! Yet there were no "mass shootings" in, oh, 1963. Now, 50 years later, I find myself...well-armed, and have had at least three instances in my life that could have been adequately answered with ballistics, yet I shot no-one. I had self-control. I had been taught "thou shalt not do murder". Because our culture has rejected wholesale what made it great and good, now we have school shootings, many schools with armed security, and we have a congregation that carries for protection, because churches are also a target. Policy-types quake at the prospect of the kiddies having their eyes and thoughts sullied by lessons about the Ten Commandments, a historical compendium of basic get-along-ism. "Because Religion". The biblical consensus that kept us safe and for the most part civil has been deleted because people also cannot read the Constitution; because Thou shalt not kill is such terrible teaching.

"Yes", because public behavior has coarsened, with...unpleasant results. Road rage was not a phenomenon when I was a kid. Public discourse has degenerated to who can out-F-bomb the other. (Yes, I have a problem with public vulgarity. Jesus making a godly assessment of the Jewish leaders' character as being "sons of snakes" is NOT equivalent to my calling someone an "S.O.B.").

"Yes", because the church has become a Voters Auxiliary. Our proper mission is making disciples (teaching folks how to live, and then SHOWING them how to do it. Jesus walked, talked, camped out, preached and taught with His disciples for three years. We drag 'em to a crusade, "get 'em saved", and ensconce them on a pew. NEXT!), NOT marching on Washington, or Montgomery. Can and should a Christian vote as an individual? Likely so, but the church's purview is not to be a Voting Bloc.

So, in a word, yes.

"Make America Great Again"? Maybe, but first America will have to be good again, as de Tocqueville famously did not say.

Nuevo Nattering

Customary comestibles consumed.
Black-eyed peas, turnip greens, fried chicken.
Now to repent of sympathetic magic.

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

In this New Year,
I shall rabble-rouse until
Congress investigates Clinton/Brungarian collusion.

----------------------
SERIOUSLY
Air Fryers.
Are they REALLY good,
or is this hype?

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

How much bandwidth
is wasted by people
not turning off gifs?

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

Why are adverts becoming more infantile?
"BeMoreLala"
"Dilly Dilly"
Next we'll talk using with li'l icons.

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

Jim Goolsby wrote:
"Parker Posey is Dr. Smith in the Netflix reboot of "Lost in Space"...somewhere in Alabama they are scraping Weatherly Hardy's brains off a print shop wall..."

My response:
" I thought this was old news.
Makes me no never mind. I have zero expectations.
Too many reboots. So little satisfaction."

----------------------
Why are there so many Japanese toys of the SR-71 in the mid-Sixties,
when no one was supposed to know about it?
They even did a model kit which had the drone that launched from the SR-71, that NO-ONE was supposed to know about!


-----------------------
Fuzzy Mothra!
Want to hug!!



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

Had I known that
Trunk Monkey was a thing,
I might have asked
Santa for one.

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

I neglected to ask Santa for what I REALLY want.
To be Hugo Drax.

"James Bond. You appear with the tedious inevitability of an unloved season."


"Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him. "


"Even in death, my munificence is boundless. When this rocket lifts off, I shall be leaving you in your own private crematorium."

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

HAPPY NEW YEAR, MES AMIS!
Blessings to you all!

A Homily of Humility

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Aardvark

A tirade of twaddle

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

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

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

Thus saith the guy from Alabama.

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

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


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



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

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

---------------------- 

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


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

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


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

Clearly the zenith
of Western civilisation
is the tactical spork.

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

This is spiritual in nature, and may result in contact dermatitis if mishandled.
---------------

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

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





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

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

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

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

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

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

A reverent consideration of the bunny.

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

Bless me brethren...

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

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

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

What he did, he did with excellence.

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

Excellence.

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

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

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

A Tumulus of Typing

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

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

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

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

Vaal was a vegan.



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

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

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

Whoa!
Those green Nyquil caps pack a palooka's punch to a glass jaw.
----------------------

Vocabulary mavens: I'm looking for the word used "for when an animal (of the illustrated variety) is depicted gleefully offering himself up to be eaten by people".
There is a specific term which is eluding my memory.

---------------------- 

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

THIS CONTAINS LIFE SPOILERS

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

Welcome to 2017.


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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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Plugging a moth

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

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

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

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

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





Google.
Amazon.

That's not funny one bit.