Old Time Radio at OTRCat!

Monday, January 31, 2005

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

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

"Rush Limbaugh reminds me of you."

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

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


Sunday, January 30, 2005

Paving with good intentions

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

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


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

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

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

Which brings me to the question of offense.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

The Dark Design...

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

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

Monday, January 24, 2005

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

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

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


Saturday, January 15, 2005

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, January 14, 2005

ABOLISH THE IRS!

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


http://www.fairtax.org/

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

Saturday, January 08, 2005

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

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

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

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

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

To Be Continued...

Thursday, January 06, 2005

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

THIS MUST STOP!

Saturday, January 01, 2005

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

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

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

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

We didn't even do fireworks.

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