In light of current mumphing about the CLASSIC "Punisher" movie starring Dolph Lundgren (hey, remember when it was the only game in town...?) here is the Dolphster in the

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evAR!

Norton Anti-Virus - Lundgren vs Unicorn - Deny (2010)

Aardvark Versus the Ants

I am currently enjoying a stay at the Baton Rouge Crowne Plaza. Bonnie P. and Tajia are around, being helpful during dealer room hours. I came not expecting to have room-mates, though.

No, your Aardvark is not practicing moral turpitude. I refer to the little beggars currently scarfing down my pizza. I ate some of my dinner, then got a mighty craving for chocolate. I went down to the hotel shop and availed myself. Upon returning, I found movement on the small sofa in the room, around my Domino's box. Ants, Mr. Rico, zillions of them! I moved the box to check the situation, and got myself well bitten for my efforts. There is a caravan of ants moving from the wall under the window, going under and within the sofa (which explains the odd bites I suffered last night when I sat on the sofa to relax a little while). The appropriate personnel are at home abed, so no fumigation is forthcoming tonight. I am receiving a free breakfast. We shall see what happens.

Here is a link to an excellent Radio Drama, Leiningen Versus the Ants. Very good listening, being a story of mankind versus army ants in South America. Enjoy!

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

UPDATE:

After another call to the front desk, the facilities guy came up with a can of Raid. Lemony death to the ants. Hurrrrr hurrrrrr!

The con this weekend is Louisianime. We are doing far better here than we did in Wooster OH at KitsuneCon. Far. Better.

"Goose-stepping morons like yourself should try reading books instead of burning them."-- Dr.Henry Jones





Everything about the proposed Koran-burning points to the problem of a maverick church group utterly ignoring the authority of the Scripture it purports to follow.

"Pastor" Terry Jones of the the "Dove World Outreach Center" in Gainesville, Florida is doing this profoundly stupid act apart from any clear directives from God's Word (though between his title and the name of the group, I have no clue why this should surprise me).
The New Testament does not promote inter-religion warfare, only the preaching of the Gospel. The ONLY time the burning of books occurred was when the Ephesian Christians repented of their occult involvement and chose to burn their own sorcerous tomes.

Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.
And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. (Acts 19: 18-19)

That is some serious repentance. They repented of their own sins, and chose to destroy the implements thereof. I am leery of church-related practices that hearken back to the German book-burnings of WWII. It's just bad form, and the press it receives serves to further inoculate the world against hearing the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul did not lead the believers to hang the Emperor in effigy, nor to burn his latest best-seller, nor even melt down silver statues of Diana. Jesus, who warned against the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem, did not encourage the faithful to stone little models of it. Jones is taking it upon himself to behave badly in reaction to the 9/11 bombings, never mind that it will infuriate millions of adherents of Islam, and render them even more difficult to reach with the Gospel.

Great job!

The church, the "Dove World Outreach Center" is acting against its own name, unless it wishes to reach out with unreasoning hatefulness. There is no love of God evident in this dog-and-pony show, just a little man giving the digitus sinistrus to a rival religion, and thereby trading a ministerial collar for a Star Trek red shirt.

The better to be a martyr with, my dear.

Glenn Beck and I share some things in common, most notably that we both make Wonder BreadTM look like pumpernickel. This makes it doubly ironic that Mr. Beck has a much firmer grasp on the finer points of Martin Luther King's vision of racial relations than do the Al Sharptons, Jesse Jacksons, and their cadre of racialism-mongers. Beck's 8/28 message sought to renew the call to examine content of character rather content of melanin. Sharpton's rally message was essentially "black, black, black, us, our". Of course, this makes sense in that the "civil rights leaders" make their daily bread by maintaining the drumbeat of disaffectedness.

While there is a...distance between Beck's message and the Tea Party movement -though overlap will naturally occur- but he himself has a movement, not political, but moral and Constitutional. His message is pure. (Bear with me, here.)



Luther's followers were so odious that he wished to kill off some of them. Luther's message was pure. His revelation of justification by faith in Christ as taught in Romans was freeing to him, and to Western Christendom. His followers turned it into an "ism". Alexander Campbell and other Restoration leaders wished to get back to the simplicity of New Testament church life. Their message was pure. Many of their followers have reduced the vision from the simplicity of grace and truth to a pharisaical once saved-never saved play-it-safe system that robs the faithful of joy. Any leader with insight or a truth learns that that truth can be hostage to the whims of the followers. The Restoration leaders pointed to the Bible. Now we point to their writings; books, sermons, and letters. Truth once removed.

Beck is at heart a Believer. He believes in God and Christ, and some other bits we may not understand. He is a Believer in the Constitution, and that it works when applied. He believes in the Republic, and that it is what the founders gave us, if we could but keep it. Perhaps we can rescue and keep it still. Beck's vision is pure. He must ride herd to make certain that followers do not bend his message to their own political will, and dilute and sully it. Partisan mumphing will kill any restoration of the Republic, which the darker-minded suspect may be the point. Keep your enemies close, and your friends closer. Often, they can be your real undoing.

The panoply of human perversity boggles what we laughingly call my mind. Being in an anime fandom industry, I have the misfortune of seeing the unseemly from time-to-time. The Japanese are a lovely people, but that little island nation is a a bubbling fetish-pot. If it's weird, and you get off on it, there is likely a vending machine that sells it.

Perversity is not limited to the sexual, though. There are more benign weirdnesses. The news has been awash with tales of Infection Most Vile regarding The Incredible Edible Egg.
Two MAJOR egg producers have had to recall over half-a-billion chicken eggs due to salmonella issues. Over a thousand people have come down with the squits after eating at Sam 'n' Ella's Cafe'. The federal inspectors have finally gotten around to checking these mega-farms out, to find disgustingness on a grand scale. Chickens being chickens, you are never going to have a sterile environment, but things they found are beyond horrible. What if YOU went to work producing whatever widget you make for a living, and the guy next to you on the production line was a rotting corpse? Sweet work environment.

Do chickens have a sense of time, such that they would cluck to themselves "The foodening person will be along to get this horror out from my cage." or is the chicken's life one endless stinking suppurating NOW?

So, with the possibility of living in the loo for awhile, I get a jones for fried eggs. Not well-done, with a crumbly yellow yolk. No. Over easy, fried in butter. Oozy. Better yet, that amazing, horribly-named-yet-apt English confection: toad-in-the-hole. Two slices of toast with a hole cut in the center using a small biscuit-cutter. Plop those in the pan with some melted butter on med-low heat. (Heat the pan well first, then cut the heat down.) break one egg into each hole. Put a little butter on top. (I said BUTTER!) Let it fry intil the underside is firm enough to hold the rest of the egg in. With your spatula, carefully flip the toast/egg combo, to finish cooking. I poke the egg a bit to see if the yolk is still jiggly. When it has cooked as long I dare let it, onto the plate with salt and pepper to taste.

Yum.

Hustle

on,

Jack

Horkheimer!


In the late '80's and early '90's after Doctor Who and the Britcoms, our local PBS station would close out the day with The Star Hustler. We got the heads-up on awesome astronomical phenomena for years, courtesy of Jack Horkheimer. His cheesy enthusiasm was a neat addition to our homeschooling household, and his Tomita-flavored theme was the best!

He has passed away, now, at age 72. Thank you, Jack. Though the later years were PC-titled "The Star Gazer", you will always be our Star Hustler. We'll keep looking up!

Exactly WHAT are they warning us about? What are we preparing for? A sudden destabilization of Earth's gravity? I cannot fathom this. The Dread Dormomoo, who is the farthest from Fox Mulder that I can imagine, harbors concerns of Dark Possibilities, like Alien Incursions or somesuch. Precisely what is in the tiny family bug-out bag? Freeze-dried provisions for a ride to Algol or Canopus? Hmmmm....

Inroads into feminism


Here are two of our latest shirt designs. (They look better on the shirts!) I look at them as getting in touch with your inner Ward and June Cleaver.

I really wanted to do these. I designed the top one, Riatsila the bottom one.
They make me happy.

Now, the trick is, how do you market them, given the rabid feminist doctrine to which Western culture have been subjected?



You put 'em on the table, and wait.

The college freshman chick walks by, looks at the top design, reads it, and slaps the shirt with her hand. "That is SO wrong!" she huffs.

I look her in the eyes, and say with utter innocency "What is wrong with doing something to make someone happy?" Sometimes it clicks. If she is with a boyfriend, often they buy both designs, his 'n' hers, to be ironic. Sometimes, a couple will walk up, and she says to the other "I'll wear that if you buy it for me.".

I recognize the "irony factor" in many of these transactions, but I think that I am seeing cracks in the feminist facade. We will do our best to chip away at the edges.

Hello, Mr. and Mrs. America, and all the ships at sea:

I am reporting from the wilds of Northern Atlanta, at a Holiday Inn Select, wherein is held the Faerie Escape Atlanta, an odd little con dedicated to , well, the fantastical world of faerie. Pretty girls and older women are running around in woodland attire, trailing wire-and-silk wings, alternately hoping for and dreading a stiff breeze. There are steampunk encroachments, as well. We did the con shirts, swapped for a table, and now I am seeing every fannish person from Huntsville. Lots of Alabamastanians here, slumming in GA. We have had a lovely time, seeing old friends, making new ones, and seeing yet another facet of fandom. I have seen the teaser trailer of a lovely film, the Titania prequel by Lisa Stock. Get behind this work. It is a beauty! Hi, Lisa!!

We 'Varks have been uber busy with cons. G-Fest in Chicago was amazingly good, record-breaking, even. J.D. Lees, Ruth, and crew did the usual wonderful job of putting on a successful and drama-free Godzilla convention! We saw tons of fan-friends, and clothed lots of kaiju fans with our shirts.

Animazement (Raleigh, NC) was another outstanding anime con. We printed their con and staff shirts, lots of them, as well as setting up for selling in the dealers room. We LO-O-O-O-OVE Animazement. They are easy to work with, and know how to balance the fannish and cultural aspects of Japanese pop-culture. Like G-Fest, they bring Japanese guests: artists and voice actors to the fans of anime.

IkasuCon (Ft. Wayne, IN) was a record-breaker saleswise. It has historically been a coma con for us, but this year was our best year at the con. The food helps, too. "Pint and Slice" is a wonderful pizza place, featuring area brews as well. We show up once a year, and the owner rcognizes us, smiles and greets us warmly...she's a peach!

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

Hygiene tech begins to pall. The bathroom faucets with motion-sensor or IR valves still need work. The sensors can be picky, and in order to get the water to flow, it seems to onlookers that you must be playing a theremin, moving your hands about, but not actually touching the faucet. Perhaps a clever soul could incorporate theremin technology in the faucets, so that you can play ethereal music whilst getting the thing to turn on.

Your Aardvark had great fun, working late the other night. He watched "Kronos" a 1957 SF movie that he picked up from his bud Kev with Monsterland Toys at G-Fest a couple of weeks ago.Overall, it is one of the most satisfying of the Cold War alien menace flicks, primarily because of the giant alien robot, and its non-standard design. Very cool. Watch the trailer, especially the "walking" animation around 1'30". It has the feel of the "realistic" NASA animations from the late '50s, early '60s featurettes shown early Saturday mornings on telly. The movie is available online for viewing, but it's better on DVD, so holler at Kevin! OH! Dr.Arnold Culver, the computer whiz, is none other than
George O' Hanlon, later the voice of George Jetson.

We have spent two weekends on the road (more on that later), and have discovered an epidemic in hotels. No, not bedbugs, nor housekeeping staff who don't speak the English so good. I do not go over the room with a black light to see what oughtn't be seen. No, this is worse than any unseemly splatters. I refer to hotels succumbing to Down Syndrome. You know, the kind you find on your bed. Pillows used to be fiber-fill, with at least a little support, but now, down pillows are The Thing. They offer no support, are squashy and unpleasant, and now I am forced to get a foam pillow to take to conventions.

The conventions, however, have been awesome. More on that next.

We just had our run-off election here in North Alabamastan (as he held up a purple-stained thumb).For some reason-or-other the Christian Coalition still has some pull, and backed The Other Guy for Repub Gubernatorial candidate. The ads for Bradley Byrne sounded just like the bogus Conservative ads that were really done by the Democrat / Alabama Educrats in the election which prompted the run-off.The Christian Coalition backed Byrne. I received a bot-call from Paul Hubbert, the czar of the Alabama Education Association (the teachers' union) encouraging me to vote for Byrne for Repub Goober. This decided me to vote for Bradley, an MD who refuses to take a State salary until we are back to full employment, which also decided me. We have had attack ads questioning Bradley's faith. Political ads claiming that he "doesn't believe the whole Bible".

Yawn.

I really wouldn't care if Dr. Bradley was a Neo-Zoroastrian. I've had precious little luck with the True Believers I've voted in, starting with Jimmuh Cahter, and ending with our estimable Governor Riley. Once again, I must admonish my brethren: Neither America, nor Alabama, is the Kingdom of God. Neither is it the church.

The Christian Coalition (or any Christian voting bloc organization) now plays the role of Constantine. Having seen flaming signs in the sky, he gave the church Most Favored Religion status, and made law to benefit his pet belief-system, just as the Robertson/Dobson/Fallwellbeforehedied influence groups seek today. Neither Constantine, nor the Christian political blocs of today have any Biblical authorization to behave in this manner. Neither Law handed down on Sinai, nor law cobbled in Washington or Montgomery has any power beyond affecting external behavior through threat of sanction. As the NAACP conference is in the news, this example will suffice.
Were I a bigot (Which I am not. This is an example, not my identity), the law says that I must allow a black man to sit with me on the bus. The threat of the force wielded by the State merely prevents me from taking overt action to remove him from my proximity. I may not hit him, kick him, or kill him. I must abide his presence on the bus. The law constrains my acting against him for just being.

But the law cannot make me love him.

So, too, any attempt to "Christianize" America politically. Law governs by force. This is antithetical to the Christian faith. External change may make the bus ride less bloody, but only internal change, new-birth change, can bring either of us to embrace each other as brothers.

Jesus taught to make disciples, not to make Kings. We are called to teach them what Jesus taught His disciples, and it took Him three years to do it. Changing the inhabitant of the White House or Governor's Mansion won't change the nation, nor the culture. Only changed hearts will. Vote for the ones to represent us. Pray for them, but don't expect them to turn 21st Century America into "Gloryland". That's kinda our job.

Picture from shoreacres.wordpress.com

Let's all move to Vermont!

Sparklers less than 14 inches long with no more than 20 grams of pyrotechnic mixture and novelty sparkling items limited to snakes, party poppers, glow worms, smoke devices, string poppers, snappers, or drop pops with no more than 0.25 grains of explosive mixture, that are in compliance with United States Consumer Product Safety Commission regulations, are now legal for sale and use in Vermont.
-- Vermont...Division of Fire Safety

Oooooooooh! Sounds a PARTY!!!

Let's all celebrate our freedom from tyranny.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

Thinking SyFy into the
cornfield.










July 4th, Independence day, has a lot going for it: Cookouts, fireworks, meditating on why Neal Boortz despises what the holiday has become, and knowing that when I turn on the telly to beat the heat outdoors, I will not be treated to Sharktopus, or The Chicken Heart That Became The Black Hole That Ate Peoria on SyFy. Always, always The Twilght Zone marathon. But in a move destined to damn eternal verities, and royally tick off fans of the channel, SyFy has chosen to compound the indignity of its name change, and run, not Rod Serling's opus as a marathon, but instead, treat us all to a twenty-hour marathon of Stephen Cannell's The Greatest American Hero .

Humph.

Now, I enjoyed TGAH when it first ran. My first experience with it was when we lived in the Smokies, and I had Galloping Bronchitis, and pulled muscles in my chest from the coughing. The dear sweet teetotalling Dread Dormomoo saw my plight, and displaying Wisdom Beyond Her Years,. she suggested that we stop and pick up some wine to relax my muscles. Heh. I didn't know from wine, but had read about port, so we got port.

We got home, and the DD prepped supper. I sat moaning and sipping a glass of port wine. Yum. I turned on the tiny black and white set that served as our link to Outside, and there was this new show about a guy who found an alien super-suit, but lost the owner's manual. By this time my near-virgin metabolism was gnawing away at the wine, and I was feeling considerably less pain. By the time My Sweet brought my supper, my opinion was that The Greatest American Hero was the finest piece of comedic Sci Fi television to spring from anyone's fertile imagination as Athena leapt from Zeus's brow.
Despite my beleaguered chest muscles, I was laughing. Uproariously.

Wine that maketh glad the heart of man. The Psalmist knew what he was talking about.

So, fond memories of The Greatest American Hero, but I know The Twilight Zone, and you sir, are no Twilight Zone .

SyFy seems to have taken FOX's programming style: give the people something good, then take it away when they are hooked. Now we have pro wrestling, and reality shows about grown people who go to dark places with night vision cameras and scare themselves like ten-year-olds on a Scout campout. Oh, and now they have a show about a psychic who makes her family's life miserable. (Ben Stein voice) Yaaaaaaay.

I may watch some of the Greatest American Hero marathon, but it will probably require port to make me enjoy it.

I could always go outside, play Handel's "Music for the Royal Fireworks" and wave a sparkler around.

Yaaaaaaaaay.

Your Aardvark has arrived. He has been accorded two honors that are wondrous strange.
Firstly, he was quoted in a church bulletin. Honest! (See scan below) The Apostle Paul
is headlining here, but I'll gladly play second banana to him.





















Secondly, he has been proclaimed the 2011 Fan Guest of Honor
at Mobicon, the SF con he attends and hucksters at in Mobile, AL
each May.

He promises to be a fair and just tyr...laird of the con, and will
seek to shed as little blood as possible during his reig...tenure.


Noblesse oblige, n'est ce pas?

Please allow an overheated Aardvark this drop of laziness.

Enjoy the show.

Friday afternoon, The Dread Dormomoo, Loen, and I headed north to Smyrna, TN to revel in Polynesian kitsch with Gothgeek and fam. The Omni Hut is a fifty-year-old tiki restaurant in Middle Tennessee, and is a wonder. The history of the place is found on their website, and I invite you to visit it. As I opened the door, I breathed in the redolence of an early-sixties family restaurant. We went in, saw the South-Seas hostess, who took our party info on a little spiral pad. The small lobby had chairs, a small aquarium with a few fish, and several lovely anemones. Next to the tank was a stack of magazines for those easily bored with the sea life.

We entered the dining room through a beaded curtain, and were politely seated by our waitress. She gave us menus, and took our drinks order. The Omni Hut has existed for fifty years without a liquor license. How have they stayed in business without selling beer and spirits?

Great food, great service...

and BYOB.

Patrons are welcome, nay, invited to bring whatever potent potables they wish. More on this later.

GG recommended the TAHITIAN FEAST:

EGG FLOWER SOUP, BORA BORA (Bacon Wrapped Pineapple Chunks), WON TON, CRAB RANGOON, EGG ROLL, RUMAKI (Bacon wrapped Chicken livers and water chestnuts dredged in island sauce.), POLYNESIAN PIT RIBS, BEEF TERIYAKI STICKS, SHRIMP PANAMANIAN, TAHITIAN TID BITS, SWEET & PUNGENT PORK, CHICKEN CHOW MEIN, SHRIMP-FRIED RICE.

The appetizers came out on a flaming Pu-Pu tray. with one tray sufficing for three adults (four, if one is prudent to remember that these are, in fact, appetizers) The drinks for our table were iced tea, and Hawaiian Tea, which at $3.50 for a bottomless glass is a delicious steal. It consists of fruit juices, coconut syrup or milk, a cherry, and a paper umbrella (Ooooooooooooh, exotic!) over perfect drug-store soda-counter crushed ice.
It may actually have some tea in it to keep it honest.

It is by all intents a Virgin Daiquiri. This underscores the importance of the BYOB policy, for given a bottle of one's favorite spirit, and the Hawaiian Tea, one could be well anaesthetized by meal's end. Now, I do not practice public intoxication, nor do I condone such; I merely project probabilities, here. The drinks boy (I pretend I am an adventurer from the '40s) kept all the drinks well filled. Perhaps the Liquids Lad would be better, but I doubt it.)

After the appetizers settled, (and in future, I would settle for the appetizers, and maybe an entree) the meal arrived: SWEET & PUNGENT PORK, CHICKEN CHOW MEIN, SHRIMP-FRIED RICE. All were lovely, delicious, and also delicious.

But you could have that at any Asian or South Seas dining saloon (I speak with watering tongue slippery-ly in cheek), but the raison, the thing of it all is the tiki ambiance. Tiki masks and carvings festoon the walls, with Day-glo painted tropical flowers, all excited by hidden UV lamps. The big aquarium in the wall of our room was filled with large goldfish and koi, I believe, with the obligatory suckerfish to tidy up the glass. The Polynesian mania of the '40s and '50s lives on in the Omni Hut. Grab your Tiki shirt (available at aardvarktees.com !) and visit the place. The service is equal in attentiveness and competence to the best (real) Japanese restaurant I have frequented. This is by no means a "fine dining" establishment -no putting on airs and discussing Kubrick and Truffaut. It is fun dining in the not-Happy-meal sense, that of friends and family islanding out for an evening, having different nom-noms from normal, and being cared for by an attentive and friendly staff, soaking in the '50s exotica. The background music is Island, but not obtrusive...truly atmospheric.

Please treat yourselves to the Omni Hut sometime. It WILL be a treat.

VITAMIN PILL WITH LEGS!

For your amusement:

(PLEASE watch Miss Hutton's face and movements. What an amazingly fun performance!)

Created by Oatmeal

Well, the morning after, and the assault on the Constitution continues. Barack Hussein Obama (PBUH) has strongarmed BP execs with demands for a $20 billion-dollar trust fund to be set aside and administered by A Third Party. Beyond the fact that the Obamster does not have (as Neal Boortz put it) authority to demand the set-aside of a roll of toilet paper, much less twenty huge, the prexy's ignorance of business fair takes the breath from me. Here, in the middle of an pollution crisis, we propose to take working funds away from the people who are trying to solve the problem. "But what about the shrimpers?"
BP has responsibility to take care of those whose livelihood has dwindled because of the oil spill- did I forget that BP is also responsible for the spill?

No, but so is the Federal Government, the "regulators" Trans-Oceanic, and likely Dick Cheney's shoe salesman. A veritable slick of groups have some culpability in this. BP must certainly pay its share, do so timely, and pay those legitimately hurt by the Gulf spill. BHO's imperial decree for BP to escrow twenty billions of dollars displays a brazen lack of business sense, which surprises me no end, himself being a Chicago community organizer and all.

The $20B really has nothing to do with the shrimpers, the hoteliers, the restauranteurs or the trash-picker-uppers on the sugar-sand beaches. It is punishment, a fiscal time out for BP. "Go to your room, and give me your allowance money!" When campaign mouth-flapping about hope and change does not suffice, BHOOTUS can be relied upon to resort to his Chicago political roots. Careful, or the president of BP will wake up with an oily pelican head on the pillow next to him.

Mmmm...mmmm...mmmmmmm....

A Parabolic Tale of Woe

There is a road accident involving three cars: my Aardvan, a doctor's new BMW, and a beater driven by a drunk. The doc gets out to survey the damage. His Beemer is totaled, and he is shaken but unhurt, having been protected by the forty-seven airbags that deployed on impact. The drunk who caused it all is relaxed, unhurt save for some bruising, and his '74 Impala is crumpled but driveable. The Aardvan, apparently built out of cola cans, has shredded places with sharp bits, one of which has nicked the Dread Dormomoo's femoral artery, which is fountaining. I am freaking, and trying to stanch the flow. I happen to see the doc, face contorted in fury, pull out a gun and put an end to the drunk's DUI career.

I have a choice. I can call the cops, and have the doc hauled away for Murder Most Foul, OR, I can call the doctor over, smoking gun still in hand, and have him save my wife with his expertise, and then let jurisprudence take its course.

I know what the White House would do, because they are doing so on the Gulf Coast. Having the Progressive's penchant for focusing on drilling for dollars, they are spending much time and energy extracting bucks from BP, rather than letting them focus on the job at hand, stopping the oil leak.

I have no great love for BP, but they do have expertise that, I believe, could be more fruitfully brought to bear on the problem if BHO would back off, and leave the strong-arming 'til after the faucet is closed.

Then you can bleed 'em dry, 'cos, y'know, all those British pensioners don't really need the BP dividends to get by on. They have the National Health!

So the cries of outrage begin. Abby Sunderland, the 16-year-old sailor who attempted to sail around the world solo, ran into equipment malfunctions and had to be rescued, has a cadre of supporters coming to her aid.

The parents should be charged with child endangerment!!! (commentor on NBCSports)

Geraldo has proclaimed her homeschooling parents as "kooks", and divined that she was seeking escape from her parents' control. Where's that Psych degree, G.?

Abby, whom I do not know, even though the Dread Dormomoo and I are part of the same kooky homeschooling thing, is apparently a self-starting ambitious person, with a strong sense of competitiveness. Oh, if only she had used her skills in a meaningful way, like wresting the captain of the football team from the clutches of the head cheerleader. Wait...she would probably be the head cheerleader, if only she had been public-schooled.

Alas, she was homeschooled, and had kooky ideas, ideas above her station, ideas like SAILING AROUND THE FLIPPIN' WORLD ON HER OWN! And she tried it. And she failed. And she wants to try again.

Idiot. She COULD have been hanging around with gang-bangers and drug peddlers in the halls at school, but NO. She and her family think that they are BETTER than everyone else, and that being able to read, and do sums, and navigate the globe have some intrinsic worth. Heck, she probably knows the meaning of 'intrinsic'. Uppity thing.

Kiddies, let me be clear: if you do NOT want your kids to be self-motivated, intelligent, willing and able to take risks and rise above their failures, by all means, do not be a kook.

Send 'em to government schools. I'll guarantee, you won't have to worry about their accomplishing anything out of the ordinary.

Word to your mother.

Your Aardvark has been in the thick of it. We are in our "Christmas season" business-wise, and are just this side of gibbering.

Last weekend we attended Animazement, the wonderful Raleigh convention I have gushed over in years past. We print their convention shirts each year, several hundred of them, and have prodigious dealer room sales, besides. This year, we also did the concert shirts for a band that appeared at the con! Uchu Sentai NOIZ is the band, and we were privileged to do their shirts. Very cool.

The weekend was marred by Fellow Dealers Not With Us.. Frank and Lisa, of Frank's Cool Stuff, purveyors of used anime DVDs, are our normal neighbors. They could not make it this year due to a scheduling conflict. We had Loen, Riatsila, James, Micah, and Your Humble staffing the AardBooth, and we ate well! We re-visited Tir Na Nog, the Irish pub with wonderful food. We were ably served by Victoria, a lovely lass who did a faboo job. We found that we five did not form the critical mass necessary for Maximum Enjoyment. We did not have Frank and Lisa with us, and missed them mightily. Next year in Raleigh!

Ragazzi's in Cary, NC was our Sunday night dinner. They have marvelous Italian food, and creme brulee to boot!

The Animazement staff did their usual outstanding job of putting on the con. Thanks, guys and gals!

I have been a science fiction fan for almost as long as I have memories. I remember "It Came From Beneath the Sea" being shown on TV, along with the Ivan Tors series "The Man and the Challenge". Of course, "SUPERCAR" goes without saying. Later, I became a voracious reader of everything from The War of the Worlds and the SF short stories in "Boys Life" magazine. It wasn't until college that I became introduced to fantasy as a genre.
(I include McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series in that pigeonhole, though she has science elements in the stories. Go ahead and complain.) Lewis, Tolkien, Charles Williams all contributed to my fondness for both types of story. Heinlein was my favorite hard SF author, followed by Bradbury, for his glorious evocative prose. College found me in the clutches of Niven and Pournelle. I did not, however, discover SF fandom until 1980, when I attended my first convention: PhilCon 80. It was our first foray into the world of huckstering (the selling of fannish goodies at a con). It was that which introduced me to the wild and wacky world of SF fandom, and SF conventions (would that be SF Con-dom?)

The Dread Dormomoo has been an artist most of her life, and picked up the airbrush in 1980. We took her t-shirt painting setup all the way from the Grand Strand of SC to Philadelphia, in our little blue Monza wagon. She was a hit, but we learned the quirkiness of SF fans right off while she was painting unicorns and rockets on shirts when a lady came up and asked if DD could paint a portrait of Johnny Mathis on a shirt.

Johnny Mathis??!?

The DD could, and did. Later on at MunchCon, held at Marshall University in Huntington, WV, we had a lass combine her interests by having the saucer of the USS Enterprise, with a unicorn rampant, put on a shirt. Then came the endless string of D&D players who had her paint their game characters on shirts: elves, dwarves, orcs, you name it.

MUCH later, after we began screenprinting our own designs to sell, the guys popped out of the woodwork to fix our shirts, to make them O so much funnier. One of our earliest designs was the "classic":

C:\DOS
C:\DOS\RUN
RUN\DOS\RUN

For those educated after the Seventies, this was a takeoff on the Dick and Jane readers:

See Dick.
See Dick run.
Run, Dick, run.

Now, the helpful souls, usually bearded and stooped, would sonorously intone: "You need to add a fourth line: 'RUN\DAMMIT\RUN'."; never mind that it completely misses the syntax of the original first grade reader quote. Admittedly, that is more annoying than anything, but the modern trend is far worse. The old-school SF cons were built around the science in science fiction. panels about space travel and even time travel abounded.
Today, the shift from science to psy-ence has taken its toll: fans of the "telepathic lesbian were-seal"-type stories are numerous, as are their preferred plotlines, shaky on the hard sciences, strong in agnostic or a-theist mysticism. One of the last SF cons I attended featured at least one author of that ilk, and in the dealer room (one is not a huckster any more) there was a nice lady with a webcam, and "video aura" software, which would visualise your chakras. (Now, I remember a couple of conventions years ago where the guys had a Polaroid camera with a diffraction grating over the lens, which gave you a lovely rainbow "aura" from the backlight. Ooooooh, lookit my aura!) This modern version spits out a printed book with your image, and various interpretations of the picture. The lady then gave a 15-20 minute counseling session. The customer paid real money to a total stranger to advise him about his life. Another woman, a guest of the con, offered Tarot readings to the infidel faithful.

Hmmmm...let us step back and examine the context. These women are not advising Heads of State, nor the Crown Princes of Europe. They are doing fortunetelling at a science fiction convention. A small one. In the huckster room.

Current science fiction fandom has abandoned its science for credulity, its Western skepticism for non-theistic open-mindedness. The "thump" you hear is its collective brain falling out.

The WiFi at our aging Holiday Inn was not as reliable as some, so reportage about our triumphal Animazement sojourn will be up tonight sometime. I hope this explanation protects me from Murder Most Vile!

I was looking through the worst website in the world, and found this jewel of profundity.

CALLING INTERNATIONAL RESCUE!

The oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico has brought the EEEEE-vils of offshore drilling to the fore. I cannot help but marvel at the timing: the day before Earth Day (Hail Gaia!!), and scant weeks after President Barry O' Bama announced initiatives to begin the process of thinking about studying the feasibility of considering resuming talking about offshore drilling. The seafood industry is about to be damaged terribly in Louisiana, an area that is already still reeling from Katrina. Knowing that groups like the ELF have no compunction about doing short-term environmental damage to ultimately restore the Earth to her pristine glory, by burning SUV dealerships and such, I have ZERO problem thinking that this was sabotage.If we can show the deadly peril presented by oil drilling , we are one step closer to the goal of an agrarian planet, where we can gum our yoghurt and roasted grain around (small) campfires

This is actually dialectical thinking, by which through taking an apparent two steps forward, they take a step back by (secretly) causing an eco-catastrophe. They still win that single step forward (decreased offshore drilling). Too bad for the mom-and-pop seafood businesses in the Gulf. It's all for a Great Cause! Besides, the seafood businesses are doing it for profit!

I am fascinated by the talking-points reflected in all the news reports, especially the consistent use of the word "fragile" to describe the marshlands and estuaries. Now, a single shrimp is fragile, and will not take much pummeling, but the environment as a whole is tough. Remember the Cuyahoga River bursting into flames? Remember Lake Erie, and its extreme pollution? All have been rehabilitated in record time; great news for the environment, bad news for those who should be happy about it. Now as an Environmental Studies person, and a believer in stewardship, I don't think that we should cavalierly mistreat our terrestrial ball by pumping out bilges, or doing sloppy oil drilling, or dumping barges-full of noisome garbage in mid-ocean. We should care for our home, but agonizing over every erg of power or drop of oil wasted will turn you grey. Ask Ed Begley, Jr.

Bottom line: I do not have a bit of trouble believing the Gulf oil rig explosion to be the result of eco-terrorism. The ends justify the means. You gotta break a few oil rigs....
(The convenient invoking of "Halliburton" also gives me pause. They are pushing all the buttons on this one.)

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Now to International Rescue. Why hasn't some billionaire industrialist actually created such an organization? (I know there is an SAR group in the UK by that name, but that's small potatoes by comparison.) The well-capping scheme currently in play resembles a THUNDERBIRDS episode, where a dome is maneuvered into position and anchored to the ocean floor. We really need an independent rescue group with uber-technology for the hard stuff like this oil spill. It would be so sweet. Oh well, we've got no space program to draw from anymore. Sigh.

Well, here we are at Anime St. Louis, which is in Collinsville, IL. There is an enthusiastic crowd of otakus who are demonstrating their mania in part by buying our shirts. The Twilight fad is on the wane...at least until the next movie...but the polarization that we help foment, the dyspepsia the non-Twilight fan feels at the mention of scintilla-laden creatures-of-the-night is helped along by our small efforts: our "Vampires don't sparkle" shirts are still a big hit, along with "Team Alucard".

We are doing well here, as are the other two teams we have out at Anime Detour in MN, and KamiCon in Tuscaloosa, AL. We are set for MTAC in Nashville next weekend.

It is important to Belong. Being the loner can be an unenviable situation, so providing a fellowship of point-of-view is an asset. "He believes like I do." offers a sense of place, and uncomprehending their own motivations, they purchase, or join, or convert.

I am not trying to be cynical. People are motivated to do all that they do by their programming. They can choose alternative programming (see conversion), but normally people do not recognize the why of what they do. They merely do. And I go to the bank!

Evangelism as Lifeboat

Our preacher gave these projections yesterday:

5 years - Europe will be majority Muslim

`18 years - US will be majority Muslim


Evangelism is no longer merely an option for the church in America, sandwiched in amongst the youth retreats, church league games, and 'pot bless' dinner get-togethers. By 'evangelism, I mean disciple-making, not just leaving a newsprint tract on the lavatory at Wal-Mart or Waffle House, where it will rapidly turn into papier-mache. (Why do people leave tracts on top of the urinals? I sure don't want to collect reading matter from there!)

Muslims are not shy about their convert-making, and are not scattershot in their efforts. They target the underclass: prisoners, the poor, the disenfranchised (rather reminds me of Jesus' methods), sharing a vision of power and worth, of being on top when they are the majority, wielding Sharia to subjugate 'the man' who put them down. The jackleg theology of many black churches, misapplying the Exodus story to their own history of slavery from a century and a half ago, has prepared a backslidden group for assimilation by the adherents of Islam. White teens, privileged and spoiled, with no good roots in Biblical knowledge or history, are prime candidates for Muslim 'evangelists' They are offered discipline and meaning for their lives, along with a vision of a subjugated corrupt West.

The UK is almost gone. The combination of the rejection of the historic Christian faith, with the concomitant non-breeding of the European stock (sacrificing their potential progeny to the twin gods of Gaia and Selfishness), along with a kindergarten concept of 'fairness'; opening the door to unlimited immigration has torpedoed Merry Olde.

The U.S. is in moderately better shape, hence the longer time-frame. The left/Gaia/tree-hugger crowd are talking themselves out of breeding, but the evangelicals and other theologically conservative Bible-believers are breeding more. The homeschoolers are just wacko about it!. The Dread Dormomoo and I had four children, doubling our replacement, and people thought we were out of control.("You DO know what causes that, right?"), as did her parents. Six and eight kids is not unusual for believing homeschool parents; generally being good at reading comprehension, they take "be fruitful and multiply" to be a given in the Christian life. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof" is an article of faith; it forms the basis of my own views of stewardship of our lovely ball of mud. That the Christian faith is the most potent defense against the predations of Islam ExtremeTM is also a given; mere reproduction is not the key. We must do other things, harder things, less-fun-things than making new children. We must make disciples, teaching our zombie neighbors, the dead-in-sin-but-walking neighbors the life-giving Gospel, Not just John 3:16 amd Acts 2:38, but also Matthew 5-7...teaching them day-by-day how to live the life, just like Jesus taught his disciples. That will result in more of God's kids in the country, who are taught to teach more disciples, so that we will be able to form a spiritual bulwark against the onslaught to come. I do not see an alternative, not one that will work. We must do this Jesus' way, or all will be lost. Do it His way, or break out the burqhas, and learn what dhimmi means.

Your Aardvark, at fifty-three, is flexing his maturity. As a callow yout', he used to view submitting to Emily Post as equivalent to durance vile. The bondage of societal niceties was a burden not to be borne.He would read Miss Manners later in life for the entertainment value. Today, he is still unlikely to write a thank you note, but that is his being boorish, or at least busy. This blogging thing, both reading and writing, consumes time, as does the working.

What brings this up is TV. Chez 'Vark is enthralled by the smorgasbord of history and science shows served up on Charter Cable. A commercial came on, breathlessly touting an upcoming something-or-other on the National Geographic channel.

Wait. "Nat Geo".

When a very young callow yout', your Aardvark was nominated by some kinsman to be a Member of the National Geographic Society. No, it was not a mere subscription, nosireesir. Your Humble had the feeling that when the magazine arrived, he should have donned safari jacket and pith helmet. It was An Event, participating as a Member of the National Geographic Society, whilst reading of Kon Tikis, bathyscaphes, Biblical archaeology, Telstars and Sputniks, safaris on the Serengeti, like that. The International Geophysical Year, for cri-yi! The Dust of Ages on every page. The National Geographic TV specials were "put your homework away 'til this is over" programs. Alexander Scourby narrated them, and he recorded the whole Bible four times!

And your Aardvark was a Member.

To quote Commodore Decker: " But not 'nymore". Now, any rube with a couple of shekels to rub together can buy a subscription, and revel in well-crafted articles supporting politically-approved articles on Climate change, rainforest predation by indigenous farmers, and the amazing strides forward in Sustainable Energy.

The venerable National Geographic Society has been stripped down to "Nat Geo", to feed the fast-food brains of the fast-food fed and bred.

Faugh. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find appropriate times and places to wear a pith helmet?

SEXTING...ONOES!!!

Now that all our healthcare woes are solved, we can turn our attention to the true causes of all ills in our Great Democracy! Yeppers, I'm talking about sexting.

We're talkin 'bout Trouble, right here in River City,
With a capital "T" and that rhymes with "T", and that stands for.......

Oh, never mind. There are new laws being considered to deal with teen sexting, because in many locales, as one Ohio State rep reports:

with the current law, teens could be charged with a felony and forced to register as sex offenders, which he felt was an “extra burden” they didn’t need.

So for (stupidly and naively) texting a boy or girlfriend with a sexy message or picture, you can get a felony charge, and get a sex offender rap. Sweet. I was listening to a cable news report on the issue, and one woman was committing verbal hand-wringing: "What can we do about this problem?" The underlying question is "What can the Government do about this problem?".

Too late, honey! There is nothing that can be done now, outside of Mommy and Daddy actually giving a rip. and teaching their now-almost-too-old kinder what is right, and what is inappropriate. And maybe taking their kid's phones away, or giving them bottom-of-the-line TracFone that has only basic phone services. If these kids have no clue that sending naked pix over the cell waves is a bad idea, the problem is FAR deeper than what they are doing.

Mommy, Daddy, RAISE YOUR KIDS!! Teach them right from wrong. Quit treating them like special pets. Train them. Take time with them. Your kids are more important than your job, your hobby, your team, your pals, American Idol, or People Magazine. They aren't just a side-effect of sex. You will be held accountable for how you raised them, both now, and in the age to come.

Lulululululululululululululululululuuulu !!!!!

Allahu akbar !!!!!!!!


Well, our Fearless Leader Barack Hussein Obama has taken his clothy-headed followers, and flown passenger jets directly into the home offices of every health insurer in America. The carnage will be devastating when totted up, because he has effectively destroyed the health insurance industry. By removing risk assessment from the equation, he has turned insurers into mere funnels through which very finite money must trickle to quench an infinite demand for care. (The obscene profits trumpeted by the opponents of what is laughably called the Free Market in the US amount to 2 - 3%. Such obscenity!) Ben Bernanke does not have enough helicopters to ferry the funds necessary to supply the hemorrhage. Commander Brotherhood cannot come to the rescue.*

Your Aardvark is not being over-the-top, nor is he disrespecting the lives lost on September 11th, 2001. No, he is drawing a distinct and deserved parallel. Every nation that has gone down the road toward a National Health single-payer plan (and no, we are not quite there yet, but the first domino has been pushed.) has, within short order, begun massive cutbacks on military spending, in order to stanch the flow of the fiscal fistula.
Anyone who has been used to paying their own way medically, and then begins receiving health insurance as a job benefit knows the score. Things that previously were taken care of with bandaids and Neosporin suddenly become cause for a doctor visit. If you HAVE health insurance, you will USE health insurance.

So, with military cutbacks in the offing, we will see withdrawals from theaters of operation, probably overseas base-closings, most likely troublesome ones.

Bin Laden wins!

Aerospace contractors and materiel support companies will contract, laying off workers, closing offices. With no effective space program in the offing, there will be no place to take up the slack.

Things may not bode well for Huntsville, AL and similar cities.

Insurance companies, aerospace, the military. Three big dominoes right there.

Enjoy your "free health care" while you are looking for work.



(*Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke played the character "Commander Brotherhood", the head of a commune, in the Dillon High School Senior play production of Hip-Hippie-Hooray .)

1Ki 12:12 And they came, Jeroboam and all the people, to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had appointed, saying, Come to me again the third day.
1Ki 12:13 And the king answered the people roughly, and left the old men's advice which they advised him,
1Ki 12:14 and spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke. My father whipped you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
1Ki 12:15 And the king did not listen to the people, for the cause was from Jehovah, that He might perform His saying which Jehovah spoke by Ahijah of Shiloh to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
1Ki 12:16 And all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, and the people answered the king, saying, What part do we have in David? Yea, there is no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now see to your house, O David! And Israel went to its tents.

Neither in the House of White.

During Nancy Pelosi's "Proud Humility" speech tonight, The Dread Dormomoo noted that the Congressional Majority Leader's snicker is unsettlingly like Major Arnold Ernst Toht's insane snigger in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Personally, I find Toht to be more attractive...or maybe it was his Nazi nunchuck-coathanger.

No, he's definitely more attractive. Not as predatory.

Have I said how much I miss the Clinton Years lately?

The drama in Washington persists in hurting my head. The moral high ground is being staked out by representatives who are paining themselves to "vote their conscience". I weep tears of blood for them, but wait a minute...If I am elected (hired) to represent the folks back home, then have I not in a sense hired out my conscience? Put another way, if I am elected to represent the home-folks, is their will not therefore my conscience?

A hireling is a hireling, and must do the will of his masters.

It amuses me that Pretty Lady was a Young Republican in college, and that I was a Mother Earth News, Organic Gardening-reading Environmental Studies major.

I feel a need to burn some tires, now.

Over at Vox's a commrnter hight "Damagehold" opens a can:

Ok, I have to go and open up the can of worms.
I get from Bane and Nate and various sources that demons are here, they're queer, and for the most part we can easily send them packing. Like Jesus said, some can only be driven out through prayer and fasting, fine. But certainly they can't bother us when they're just floating around in the ether. It's game over. Nate's hinted at "what happened to Baal and his buddies" and I can guess, but I'd love to hear that thought expanded.
On to the can of worms:
What about miracles? Why so few and far between? Are we supposed to be doing them?
What about the Holy Spirit? Speaking in tongues, baptism, etc?
I'm not asking about end times or any of that flamebait, I just want to know if there's some massive portion of ministry we're supposed to be doing RIGHT NOW that's been almost totally neglected in my churchian experience.
It occurs to me that I should look up the name of Vox's former pastor and that minister who co-authored the christian video game with him. Someone I can recommend is Dennis Peacocke, not as an author really but for his recommended book list.
As personal background, I'm mid 20s and in the past spent a fair amount of time studying the Bible, mostly through E-Sword and the Dennis Peacocke Foundation series, and whatever books were around the house. Right now my syntopical reading cycle is focused on secular matters, but I'd like to build a good list of resources because I'm sure I'll come back to this topic. I did already see Vox's recommended reading path culminating in GK Chesterton's Orthodoxy, although last time I tried it I was too much of a sci fi snob to endure more of Lewis' Perelandria. Perhaps having read A Wrinkle In Time since then I'll be more forgiving.

I think the major flaw in my churchian education has been studying only the Bible itself and filtering that study through a modern churchian lense. Christianity is a pre-Biblical religion... duh. I guess I assumed that since Jesus Christ was the truth, therefore my religious education in my upbringing had to be also substantially true. WRONG.

A #10 can, at least, shading toward a 55 gallon drum. I replied in a place-holding manner:

One point: Modern Charismania tends to put a "three miracles before breakfast" gloss on NT Christian life. Outside of spiritual gifts in the assembly, there appears to be a minimum of the miraculous showcased in the first century church (the NT covering a period of some 40 years. Certainly, it is not likely an exhaustive catalog of charismata and the miraculous, but still, it isn't all raising the dead by elevenses, either.

I learned a wonderful word this weekend: "presentism". It is a History term, referring to the error of viewing the past through the lens of today. It reminds me of the fuss made by Darwin otaku who reject the Bible out of hand because it classifies "bats" with "birds".
Holy St. Linnaeus on a stick, the Bible does not use a system of taxonomy developed some 1700 years after its writing was complete! Into the dustbin it goes! Unless, of course, it is using a different taxonomy, like lumping non-insectoid things having wings together. My understanding then is to allow the Scripture to instruct me from its time, rather than instructing it pridefully from mine.

Jesus said at the end of Mark's Gospel:

¹⁵And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

¹⁶ He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.

¹⁷"These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues;

¹⁸they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."(NASV)

This opens several cans, as well. His commission did not stop at "preach". Jesus then proceeded to meddle with Evangelical theology by saying "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.". Jesus (apparently) held baptism (Greek for "immersion") to be of some importance, as He linked them (He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved). "He who has disbelieved shall be condemned"does not negate the previous sentence, since it is faith in Christ that validates baptism. What, you gonna get baptised without believing first? So baptism is important, and part of Christ's salvific instructions. Not mine.

Once in the church (Acts 2, f'rinstance) Other Things happen.

¹⁷"These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues;

¹⁸they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

Casting out demons, and other manifestations and protections of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12) would be in evidence, a sort of spiritual toolbox with which to do the work of the church.

Contextually, that all these things are together in one small context leads me to believe that they are to be together historically.

(More to be added)

Here's an amusing way to waste some time.
The Warning Label Generator

Flaming Carrot (C) Bob Burden

I'm late on resolutions. Srsly. I am beginning a three-week meatless regime. The bod is really craving fruits and veg, and has a serious need to drop avoirdupois. We shall see. I will allow bare amounts of dairy or egg to maintain sanity, but the leafy and globular is the thing. Our local Publix has 25 lb. bags of organic carrots, which run nicely through the juicer. Fresh carrot juice is an oddity. It has no fat content, but it has the mouth-feel of milk.Mix it with a little fresh Fuji apple juice for the yum factor.

I'll continue report along the way.

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Overall, I like Chuck Jones' work. I LOVE his Looney Tunes at Warner Bros., but his later work seems a tad self-absorbed, and ultimately self-caricaturing. His Tom and Jerry work is loathsome to me, taking a second to the Gene Deitch East European cartoons. Much of my issue with those is the oddball sound design. I fondly remember Deitch's Tom Terrific cartoons from my childhood. (There was a Jones T&J on TV, which jogged my rant.)

Sharktopus concept art by Matt Leach

The Loen asked a potent question whilst watching Mike Rowe collect giraffe poo.

"I wonder if SyFy is going to make Giraffetopus?"

Using his Adam's Apple as a trigger,
Nidworth activated his Phlegm-Ray.

Yet another reason it ain't easy bein' green.




This blatant ripoff of John Kricfalusi hurts to watch. Some find John K to be an acquired taste, but this horror is like zombie Ren & Stimpy, or The Ripping Friends. All the life has been sucked out of the cartoon, with only slavish form remaining. Sadness.

I am relieved.
Balance is restored to the Universe.

I'm sorry. I was Googling Fair Tax stuff, and noticed a number of anti Fair Tax blogs out there. The all seem to revert to the tired old arguments, first referring to "the so-called Fair Tax". This is just kindergarten-level grumping, almost on the level of saying "Neal Boortz is a poopy-head".

"So-called". Yes. It is so-called, because it is called so. "Fair Tax" is the name of the plan. So? The effort to prejudice the reader before any substantive arguments are made is disingenuous and low. It is the sign of a weak argument."It is called the Fair Tax, but it's not REALLY fair, so nyahh nyaaaahhhh."

"We can't afford another so-called economic 'expansion' like the one from the last decade—what some call the 'lost decade,'" Obama explained in his State of Obama address. An expansion that had a max of 5.6% unemployment, heady halcyon days, compared to the 10% unemployment we currently enjoy.

So-called. Man up, people. Range your arguments. Get out of play school.

The FairTax has far more pros than cons. I have trouble dredging up even one con.
To date, all the objections to the FairTax I have heard are from people who haven't read up on it, or who have an axe to grind. Mrs. P once expressed a concern relative to her hubby's business, as I recall, and many people wax horrified when they contemplate that "I won't be able to deduct interest on my mortgage!!" We have all been schooled in the importance of taking advantage of ALL the legal outs so lovingly provided by our benevolent Uncle Sam. Thus, we quail when our favorite loophole is unaddressed or eliminated in discussion of the FairTax. I would have to say that ALL objections to the FairTax stem from a single misapprehension of the facts; not recognizing one salient point:

Under the FairTax, there will be NO I.R.S. Period.

The most important part of the FairTax is the repeal of the Sixteenth Amendment. There will be NO withholding, No FICA, no need for deductions. No I.R.S. No government bullies holding a gun to your head, robbing you of your pay to hand to some bureaucrat to disburse.

You will take home your entire paycheck. Your first check after the enactment of the FairTax will be like getting a raise.

You won't need deductions, because the government won't be taking your money.

"But Mr. Aardvark, sir, isn't the FairTax still a tax?"

Yes. Yes it is. But it is truly a voluntary tax.The FairTax is a national retail sales tax, a tax you pay when you purchase something at retail. If you buy a new car, 23% of the cost of that car is what you pay as FairTax. (NOT 23% added to the price of the car. It is a part of the sticker. The lying liars in Washington like to accuse the FairTax proponents of wanting to add 23% tax ON TOP OF all the current taxes. This is NOT TRUE.

Every can of beans, DVD, or automobile that you buy already has 22% of its price as tax. Each time a raw material is changed, at each level of manufacture, a tax is levied by the government, so that by the time it hits the shelf or the showroom, 22% of its price consists of tax. At the abolition of the I.R.S., all of those taxes will vanish in a puff of justice. The FairTax will then be made a part of the price of your beans. Your $1 can of beans will remain your $1 can of beans (it may go up a penny, but with the business cost of manufacturers' compliance with I.R.S. regs vanishing, their cost of doing business decreases dramatically, and they may choose to eat the penny. I would.)

Considering that your take-home pay has increased by a third or better, you could afford a penny on the dollar.

You will have no tax forms to fill out, no accountants or tax preparers to hire, no headaches. You pay your tax when you buy your beans, your steak, your new car.

Golly, Madge, let's go to Target and pay our tax!

You even get a check or credit at the first of each month, a prebate check, to cover whatever tax would be paid up to the poverty line, meaning that the poor will pay no tax on the necessities of life, and neither will you.

If you buy a used car, no national retail sales tax. Buy a used TV, no FairTax. Only new, retail sales will have the FairTax.

All this, and no I.R.S.

But what about the Flat Tax?
You will still have the I.R.S. You will still have to file. The Givemint will still be in your bidness.

Go HERE to read the basics of the FairTax, including answers to the most popular attacks used against it.

The FairTax will truly make April 15th just a pretty Spring day.

Iran is now a 'nuclear state' says Ahmadinejad

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1250127/Iran-Revolution-day-protests-Islamic-Republic-nuclear-state.html#ixzz0fFFqFd0h

Oooooooh, he gave us such a PINCH!

I shudder, I reel.

Big deal. This is news? We didn't know this was coming? If Mr. Ahmadinejad and the mullahs rattle their Aladdin swords a little too loudly, Israel will take the job and deal with it. All the US will have to do is wag our Big Finger at Israel and admonish them to never EVER do that again.

Bad Israel. You need a time-out.

And that will be that.At least until some Jafar wannabe mines the Strait and dams it with a supertanker or two. Start saving your pennies. You'll need it to buy gas to go to the store for milk, bread and eggs to tide you over during the Global Warming-generated snowstorms.

Mmmmmmm...snow day French Toast!
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Incidentally, Go to Flying Buffalo, and order Nuclear War. It is a HI-larious card game, great for whiling away those blizzard days.

OK, so I was listening to the talking heads at Faux News (I say "Faux News" because it is terribly chic to dump on FOX News, and I do so want to be terribly chic.), and someone began burbling about Social Security. Boortz has also been ranting on Social Security. There is no lock-box. No-one has "their own Soc. Sec. account". There is no money in Social Security, because the PEE-pul's honored representatives have plundered it for decades for pet porcine projects. Our kids, and their kids, will have to pay for Sen. Phogbound's roundabout back in Dogpatch. All of the money you pay in to Soc.Sec. is already gone. You lose.

Then, I was struck by A Thought. This being an unaccustomed sensation, I sat down and gathered my Thought.

Social Security was never about the money at all.

It is about Keeping Up With You. It is the pecuniary carrot to the Government's Big Stick. You have a number, and you are not a free man, Number 6.

Have a nice day.

Be Seeing You.