Listened to some Boortz this morning. Some things to help you make decisions...

LinkedIn is joined at the hip with the Obama machine.

Progressive Insurance...where do you think the name came from?  Peter Lewis, head of Progressive, is as left as you get:

Lewis, Peter B.
Contributions to 527 Committees:
The chart below shows the total amount of money contributed since August 2000 to 527 committees by this individual donor. Click on committee name for a summary of activity.

Committee Amount Contributed
Joint Victory Campaign 2004 $16,000,000
America Coming Together - Nonfederal Account $2,995,000
MoveOn.org Voter Fund $2,500,000
Young Democrats of America $650,000
Marijuana Policy Project Political Fund $485,000
Democracy for America - Non-federal $250,000
Sierra Club Voter Education Fund $200,000
Stonewall Democrats United $117,220
Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund $100,000
Punk Voter Inc. $50,000

Be careful where your money and energy goes.

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

On a lighter note: On Coast to Coast AM last night, a caller attempted to establish Tim Tebow as the white horse in Revelation.

Tebow 3:16!

  Please call, write, fax, or email your Representative and Senator and tell them (perhaps a bit more politely) to vote down SOPA and PIPA.

These are bad news for free speech on the internet. Let them know now. Also, tell them not to sponsor them.

Find your Representative's info. 

Find your Senator's info. 

And To Think That it Happened On Liddell Lane.

...And it happened so innocently, too.

I was emailing a customer, and in my winsome 'Varky way, I wished to include lines from "The Walrus and the Carpenter:

"The time has come," the Walrus said, 

"To talk of many things:

Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--

Of cabbages--and kings--

And why the sea is boiling hot--

And whether pigs have wings."

Being unhappy with keyboarding more than I must, I went online and found the poem, ctrl C'd the passage, then ctrl V'd the thing in place. Hey, presto! I are literate! 

What began in innocency moved into dreadfulness, for I Followed a Link. Then another, and another, from one fan site, to a scholarly site, to another until: the man who has entertained generations of children (and adults) with his tales of Alice, either down a rabbit hole, or through a  looking-glass, this Victorian author, poet and mathematician, this paragon of the fantastic, this acme of excellence, this man of his age became besmeared with accusations vile. His life and career, through the alchemy of Presentist thought, were brought to nought with the smarmy scholarship of modern biographers who knew neither the man nor his times. Pedophilia, not merely whispered, but shouted, and writ large.

You know, I never considered such a thing, even reading about Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), and his friendship with the Liddell family and children when I grew up. I don't think that way (unless forced).  I grew up with adult friends and kin, none  of whom showed any inclination to fiddle about, fiddle about. 

I am angry, angry because apparently the current high-water mark of biographical scholarship requires one to suppose, to extrapolate, perhaps even to project. (This has been my suspicion of Freud, that he attempted to exonerate his own loathsomeness by painting everyone else with it, but hey, that's my Inner Biographer talking.)

So now, one cannot study the man without facing the bootless accusation as well. I rage, I blog! 

What horror might we learn about Dr. Seuss today?

Oh. This.

Because The Aardvark Loves His Many Reader

This is truly why animation exists!

THANKS, WINDSOR McKAY!

Anime is taken from the French, who love their comics and cartoons. They also love Jerry Lewis, but that is wa-a-a-a-a-ay beyond my ken, and thus will likely never be dealt with here.

It is a Vox Day-level conundrum. Have at it, Mensa-boy.

Yup. The Japanese, who love Frenchy-French-Frenchness (Give Fantastic Plastic Machine a listen), ganked the word "anime" for their own brand of big-eyes, small-mouth cartoonery,  and thereby hangs the tale.


We, just this month, made cable TV to go away, wishing it into Charter's corporate cornfield. We still have cable internet, though, and a ROKU box, a hockey-puck-sized bringer of joy. Through it you can access all manner of 'Net-TV wonders: Netflix, GBTV, all sorts of newsfeeds. And Crunchyroll.

"Crunchyroll is an American website and international online community focused on streaming East Asian media including anime, manga, drama, music, electronic entertainment, and auto racing content. Founded in 2006 by a group of UC Berkeley undergraduate students, Crunchyroll’s distribution channel and partnership program delivers content to over five million online community members worldwide. Crunchyroll is funded by Venrock." -- Wikipedia

The site is www.crunchyroll.com


I have been a fan of French comics for years. Asterix, Carmen Cru (Please note: no "z". This was from the '80s "French Ice" book), and Valerian - Spatio-Temporal Agent. Well.

The Franco-Japonais partnership has brought forth a treat: "Time Jam - Valerian and Laureline", a very creditable adaptation of the Dargaud  "Valerian" comic series. Crunchyroll has it. You can get it on your household Logic, or online via ROKU, your PS3, or other such technical gimcrackery.

Why?

Sorry, guys, but here is a Cautionary Tale...a warning against Artistic Hubris in Adaptations, and Thinking More Highly of One's Own Vision Than The Author's, and perhaps even Why Didn't You Just Read The Story?





Comments are welcome.
A Word: Gene Deitch was behind this, though his name Does Not Appear.


OH! As a reward, go HERE. 

Here's one I hope gets released.

 




HERE'S MORE!!

Iron Sky First Trailer

http://www.ironsky.net/demand/

Congress Votes on SOPA on January 24th

http://americancensorship.org/meet

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the internet censorship bill on Tuesday, January 24th, and unless we can find 41 senators to block the vote, it is going to pass. Will you meet with your senators during the January recess and ask them to vote it down?

I got someone on my mind whilst showering tonight: Rev. Charles Marshall Furlow III. Now, I do not hold with Titling and such, but that was who he was. He was chaplain at the Porter-Gaud school in Charleston, SC when I was a young troubled kid there for one year. I had grown up in an environment of amazing food and comfort, wherein I did precisely nothing right. I was sent to this ex-military boarding school, experienced freedom and camaraderie (as well as some hatefulness and spite), and did precisely nothing right. Except, of course, Social Adjustment. The school was ecstatic about that; my folks less-so my Cs, Ds and Fs. It was an expensive social club. Call it my rebellion.


Fr. Furlow was a mentor. He took time out of his busy-ness (he was also the soccer coach, having introduced the game to Charleston in 1959) to walk and talk with me, gently working the gears to see what made me tick. I believe that the goal of everyone there was to get me happy, because I wasn't. Not the superficial good-time happiness, but a deeper-seated one akin to joy. Summat was wrong. They (and he) wanted it to be right. I remember his Sunday chapel services, where Communion was to be had...Episcopalian, y'know. I have had a fondness for the form ever since. (Call me High Church Church of Christ!).

He passed away last summer. I wish I could have expressed my thanks for his friendship and help those decades ago. He was a good and kind minister of grace, who helped me on the road to that grace. May God bless His family with comfort. I pray that Jesus is more gracious than many religious out there give Him credit for. I believe that He is, and look forward to seeing my friend again.

Unicorn clarification.

Of course, it is always good to remember that Lisa Frank did not invent the unicorn.


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

Anne McCaffrey's  short story collection Get Off the Unicorn  was originally titled Get of the Unicorn. Her editor didn't get it, so "Off" it became.

Editors know so many things, and are smart.

Bah... Humbug.

Bah... Humbug.

I awaken on this January twoth, and feel mean . Not drop-kicking kittens into a brick wall mean. The classic meaning. Scrooge mean. We were (unsuccessfully) phished this morning. Our good con friends were NOT, in fact, robbed at knife-point by a gang of thugs. The Dread Dormomoo, who has more cleverness in her little finger than I have in my big finger, searched a key phrase in the email, and lo, Google set us straight. The fact that we, in whom the milk of human kindness flows by the quart in every vein (reference - QUICK!), would have that used against us, as though we were suckers, yokels from whom the fruits of our not inconsiderable labors may be plucked by a scheme playing upon our natural sympathies, sends me around the bend.

"Hmmm..." sez my many reader, "seems a bit extreme to react that way to a scam email."

But wait, THERE'S MORE!

We have been providing shelter for for some months to someone "trying to turn his life around" (Please, I relate this NOT to garner The Praise of Men, or to trumpet "What a good boy am I!!" but rather to provide A Cautionary Tale. Please do not think good OR ill of me for doing so. I am not doing the Pharisee DanceTM). We have in return been lied to voluminously, and perhaps stolen from yesterday. Happy New Year!

I do not go to Vegas. I do not buy lottery tickets. I do not bet on even a sure thing, for I believe in entropy. Yet I have consistently picked losers in the "help them" department. The restauranteur who needed money as a down payment for the building, and did not purchase the building springs readily to mind.

Bah... Humbug. Sucker.

Altruism is a lie. No-one gives for altruistic reasons. Altruism is a concept whereby one giver may feel superior to others because "I give altruistically".

Altruism is a champagne-at-brunch counterfeit of charity, or "agape" as the Greek puts it. The altruist preens when he gives, because he feels superior to the believer who "gives out of duty" or "gives to his church", or "doesn't give to save the gay unborn whales from being nuked".

The agapist gives, yes, because God says to. He gives because of the pressure of Need. He gives because in his giving he provides God yet another pipeline through which to bless. Jesus did not teach "Give and it shall be given to you" so that televangelists may wear Rolexes, or drive shiny purple Cadillacs. 

Given this, why do I feel mean? I am hurt. Hurt once too often. Hurt by "it wasn't good enough".
Hurt that I am, apparently a sucker, a straw-gnawing yokel. And I am done.

I'll give to the homeless man, buy a burger for the hitchhiker on the on-ramp, but for now, in answer to the sob story, the pathos, the Tales of Schmaltz, the "more that 25-words plea", my answer will be:

"This is my problem how ?"

So, every week or so I buy two rolls of quarters, go to Ardmore with a load of  screens to reclaim at the carwash. We strip off the old design chemically and spray it out with the high-pressure water spray. Several times, now, I have noticed an odd trend. Nestled midway through the roll of quarters is...a nickel. This occurs a calculable percentage of the time.

What amazes me (as though this would go anyone's mind at all, at all) is that one would risk hell, or eternal separation from God, or no Nirvana, or less-than-72-virgins for twenty cents.

Playing the conspiracy card

I have had a fondness for tinfoil hat stuff since I was a kid. UFO magazines, history, movies. I read 1984  and Brave New World  when I was 12 or 13. Dystopias 'R' Us. Ira Levin's This Perfect Day  was a favorite of mine. I came into the faith on the Late Great Planet Earth wave of end-timey-wimey silliness, waiting for the Forces of the Antichrist to come behead the faithful. Then AM Christian radio brought me Marlin Maddoux and "Point of View". From government anti-Christian social engineering to the LaLonde Brothers telling us who the Antichrist was THIS month, it was immensely entertaining. Then I studied and was taught my way out of dispensational follies (in short, letting the Bible say what it says, without interpreting it by the New York Times headlines), and that show began to pall. When I discovered Art Bell's Coast to Coast AM on latenight AM, I was ecstatic. A new conspiracy fix! UFOs, transhumanism, Area 51, government goons taking out inventors who would cut into Big Oil's profits, Tesla, Greys, Reptilians, subterranean complexes, all great fun. Then, "X-Files", "Millennium", "Dark Skies", all increased my regular fix. (The fact that I was having wacky brain chemistry at the time made it all the more delicious in that I had a bit of a problem being certain that the stories were entirely fictional.)

I will leave you to look into F. Tupper Saussy.

Now, full disclosure, I collect conspiracies. I am not so open-minded that my brain falls out. I am merely entertained by them, though I find that harboring the suspicion that all is NOT as advertised keeps me on my toes. Any more, I think that the Alex Jones end of the spectrum may in fact better reflect what is going on. GMO madness, chem trails, a government actively seeking increased control over the people, like that. Look at today...we have a President fundamentally transforming America by taking vacations!

Cue "Twilight Zone" theme. Georgia Guidestones, anyone?

But all is not aspartame sweetness and CFL light in Conspiracyburg. Alex Jones is under attack by anti-Zionist conspiracy types for his blaming Luciferian Globalists instead of Jewish bankstas and such. Oh, and for being ungrateful. Apparently, despite Ben Bernanke's best efforts, there is a finite amount of fiat money with which to purchase conspiracy books and DVDs, so the contest is on to be the True Conspiracy Source. Thank God for the internet, where I can wallow in conspiratorial crapulence to my heart's content! I don't have to buy their books!

I collect conspiracy theories like grandmothers collected thimbles. Whether they are of value depends upon history's verdict.

I have my suspicions....

Happy Hew Year!

So, thinking about the Ancient Aliens stuff, Jan Irvin's "Magic Mushrooms are a basis of the Christian Faith" routine, and UFO / paranormal things in general, I wonder why any of these things are accepted as normal or reasonable compared to the historic Christian faith? The world goes to astounding extremes to plug the putative "God-shaped hole" with anything but Biblical teaching. Pascal's wager makes eminent sense to me, pointing out that of the possible choices, living the Christian life is best for you and everyone around you. When I shuffle off this mortal coil, as the curtain falls, and the lights go down, if all I see is blackness, then...nothing...what have I lost? Ravaging my body with damaging chemicals (cocaine, meth, aspartame...), ravishing other bodies with psyche-draining serial one-night stands, not to mention diseases, contracted or shared, or just living as a lump, satisfying my own whims at the expense of others. I listened to an XM show "The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe", hosted by skeptics (though not of the militant atheist type), and BOY it was unpleasant to listen to. Smug, self-satisfied attitudes. Nothing terrible or faith-shaking, but the sort of conversation that if I was seated at the next table at the cafe, I would move.

A summary of the wager is:

1. One does not know whether God exists.
2. Not believing in God is bad for one's eternal soul if God does exist.
3. Believing in God is of no consequence if God does not exist.
4. Therefore it is in one's interest to believe in God.

 There are hordes of atheist / agnostic sites that trumpet the weaknesses and fallacies of Pascal's bet.
Being an uncomprehending and unsophisticated oaf, I ignore them. It makes sense to me. I would rather live a life which blesses and helps those around me, so that at least I may depart leaving fond memories of myself. The stats have been in...believers are more giving, more charitable than non-believers. At least partially the pudding's proof.

The differences in charity between secular and religious people are dramatic. Religious people are 25 percentage points more likely than secularists to donate money (91 percent to 66 percent) and 23 points more likely to volunteer time (67 percent to 44 percent). And, consistent with the findings of other writers, these data show that practicing a religion is more important than the actual religion itself in predicting charitable behavior. For example, among those who attend worship services regularly, 92 percent of Protestants give charitably, compared with 91 percent of Catholics, 91 percent of Jews, and 89 percent from other religions. -

October 1, 2003  Religious Faith and Charitable Giving by Arthur C. Brooks

"Believers give more to secular charities than non-believers do"

Nuthin' more...just some thoughts.

Entitlement Xmas

Gratitude is a vanishing commodity. APMEX should sell it as an investment.  The Outrage du Jour can be found at Market Ticker in the form of tweets from dreadful children practising for the role of 'ingrate #3' on some Lifetime movie or other.

These are the milder ones. Welcome to Entitlement Xmas. Now, I am the first to admit that there is ZERO biblical instruction to celebrate Christmas as Jesus' birthday, or anything, but history and culture have deemed it so, but come on. One time of year when the world turns toward Bethlehem, hey, I'm for it. The difference now is that instead of looking to the manger, most are turning toward Macy's. (Oh, no, an anti-commercialism screed!) No. I ALSO like the goodies, kind of as an echo of the Greatest Gift, but when Jesus is moved out of the equation, and all you have left is a Santa Ho-Ho-Holiday...well, you get Tweetage like the above, and that is sad.

I pray that our culture may yet be redeemed. There is still hope, I think. My concern is that it will only happen after the dynamite goeth boom.



.

 Merry Christmas

to you!

from the Aardvark,

the Dread Dormomoo,

and 'Varks the youngers!

Last week-end, Vox had a theological post regarding (historic) fundamentalism, Trinitarianism, and other holy alphabet soups. I only participated with one comment out of 383. I am not...sophisticated enough for the ilk where theology is concerned. Those who know me may start at that thought, as I can hold my own in theological debates, but, no, I have a problem. I am eschewing doctrinal sophistication; I, who at one time held Calvin and Arminius in his 'varky noddle at the same time!

It is because I have noted that the farther the church got from the simplicity of the gospel message (and I am including Paul in that simplicity), the more involved, and complicated doctrine (teaching) became. One might say Byzantine. The attempts to dissect, parse, and even avoid inconvenient truths led the church leaders after the first century down tortured paths of logic and rationalisation until the church that grew to fill the ancient world ceased to resemble the template very much. From simple apostolic commands to "repent, be baptised (baptizo - immersed) in Jesus' name for the remission of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the formula morphed to include year-long catechumen classes before the person could even be baptised. A simple system of church leadership consisting of elders (men who met specific character attributes, who were overseers of the flock of the local church) and deacons (men who dealt with more mundane concerns of the church, benevolences and the like, who were also of specific character!) was stuccoed with a system of priests, bishops, archbishops and such. The churches, which were local and autonomous, became The Church, hierarchical and overarching. Theological entropy reigned, partially from trying to apprehend an Eastern Hebraic gospel message using Western Greek thinking, while fighting off encroachment by heretical teachings and philosophies. The historic creeds were developed as a circling of theological wagons against predation by gnostics and other weirdos. The local churches maintained their collections of gospels and epistles until the valued ones were assembled into the New Testament. (The Nicaean Council did not invent the NT, they pulled together what was accepted by the churches.)   The Church appears to have been playing a defensive game by this time, and you tend not to win with defense. You take no new ground on defense. Along came Constantine, wedding the Church and State, and the damage was almost irreparable. The great theologians wedded Greek Philosophy and the Bible into a chimaeric monstrosity, little resembling the "as a child" nature of Jesus' teaching.

East split from West, Protestant from Catholic, Presbyterian from Lutheran, Pentecostal from Baptist.
Behold how good and how pleasant it is when brethren dwell in unity! Reformers and restorers came and went, all with a similar theme: return to the simplicity of the New Testament teachings. This worked for a generation or so (like Israel's history), a doctrinal Occam's Razor snicker-snacked through the baroque crenelations  of man's theologies, paring them back to more primitive, basic dimensions. Then the gingerbread began to overtake the refreshed church's facade, and what was a small, inviting, homely dwelling of God's people became again a Barnumesque parade of innovation and thrill-packed canonical acts, with credal clown cars, and theological trapeze acts.

I am not a sacerdotal sophisticate, because I have come to see the divisions in the church not as a good thing, not as spiritual smorgasbord where one can glut on his favorite bits (no brussels sprouts, thank you!) and leave the rest, but as a stiff, quivering digitus sinistrus in the face of God. The unity which we are commanded to walk is ignored in light of tony something-for-everyone-ism.

Paul wrote to strive (to fight, ain't that a giggle?) for the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. You fight the things that divide, and be at peace with one another. He lists the seven unities around which we should meet:

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;  one Lord, one faith, one baptism;  one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4:4-6

This is simple. Jesus' teachings are simple. The epistles are largely ways to apply the gospel to life.
We have made this wa-a-a-a-y more complex than it needs to be. If we read the Word with no agenda, we stand a greater chance of apprehending the truth than if we go at it with preset conditions and assumptions. Exegesis vs. eisegesis.

Trinity? God's word refers to the Godhead. We can better rally around the Spirit's speech than our own. May not be as urbane as playing doctrinal Scrabble, but it is simple, perhaps easier to understand. Peter (whose Greek was so odd that translators called it "Baboo Greek") said to "speak as the oracles of God", that is, speak what God says. The church might take a memo.

Escalating the Christmas War

"(C)ounty officials received a letter Monday from the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation... "

This was the situation in Athens, TX. Yes, Texas. A Nativity scene in Texas offended atheists in Wisconsin. This shows that Mike Judge is a Prophet True. Chic militant atheism represents the most annoying segment of the population. I saw the Eric Bolling interview with the Quark-like spokes-atheist, who whinged about how insulting Jesus is, and how exclusionary Christmas celebrations are.

Well, I feel excluded, too. I NEVER get invited to Kwanzaa parties. Ben Bernanke NEVER invites me to Hanukkah celebrations. Blast it, when can I experience Eid?!? I feel so left out!

OH! It's because I am a member of My Club, and they are members of Their Clubs. If you choose a group to be with, you are de facto excluding those not-with. If my group says that a different group is stoo-pid for being that group, it is unlikely that I will receive an invite to their annual dinner.

I dealt with this ages ago, and I think that it serves again:

This Aardvark is uncertain. I do not know which is the greater annoyance: the anti-Christmas lobby with their incessant whining about their minority rights, or the Chick tract-ors who cry pagan-this, and heathen-that, and demonic-the other regarding things Yuletide.

As to the anti-Christmas Lobbyists: Become 51% of the population, then we'll talk.
Besides, you don't HAVE to go to the C-word Parade, or to any of the parties, and you SURELY don't have to accept any C*******s presents.
Have your own grey parade. Have parties. Don't forget the Cold Oatmeal Dip. MMMMMM!
Grey gooey goodness!

"Christian" freakazoids: I don't see Paul, et al, worrying that demons are gonna jump into Christians because they walk past a pagan temple. Besides, Believers aren't worshiping Saturn or whomever. They are honoring Jesus. Say it. JEEEEE-sus. Not Saturn.
Paul DID write *ahem* NOT to judge another because of a feast day.
Besides, you folks with steeples on your church buildings, the case *can* be made that you are honoring The Erect Penis. I won't EVEN get into obelisks.

EVERYONE: Stop whining, and have a merry Christmas, a cunning Kwanzaa, a hot Hannukah, a stunning Saturnalia, a cool Yule, it really doesn't matter, 'cos y'know what?
Jesus is STILL Lord.

Oh, the Big Red Button? Just a little shirt idea we are producing.
A big red button on the shirt front.

... that says "OFFEND ME!". 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/10/atheist-group-seeks-banner-to-join-christmas-display/#ixzz1glHeamlP

Never knew forgiveness contained high fructose corn syrup.

    

      Forgiveness is not a commodity to be passed around "fairly", like cans of beans. God requires that we repent of our rebellions, stupidities and cupidities. The first Christian evangelistic meeting carried the message “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.". The modern evangelical Rev. Feelgood messages appear to remove most responsibility from us, beyond "slipping your hand up" and "praying this prayer". When Columbine happened, the next day school was in session a "We forgive you" type banner was up in the commons. Now, I recognise that a sentiment like that feels good, and in a sense will aid in not building up bitterness, but there is that other side of forgiveness.

Paul writes a peculiar thing in 2 Timothy 4.

Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:

Paul the apostle did not say "but I forgive him". He said " the Lord reward him according to his works".
That falls into the realm of  "imprecatory prayer", calling upon the Lord to deal with the bounder. It is a left turn from "forgiveness", leaving any resultant response up to God. King David was a master of this.

This is curious and confusing to me. I was brought up in the greasy grace mode, where you mutter "I forgive you" in an almost warding mode. I am having...difficulty...with this. I am no theological lightweight, but I really want to be clear on this. I don't want to spread around empty feelgood "forgiveness" where it is not called for, but neither do I wish to presume upon grace when the Scripture also says " And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors". This may appear silly, but it is a puzzle, and one which I should like to solve, both for my own satisfaction, and to the satisfaction of my Lord.

A Rare Finnish Export...EUREKA! It's Christmas!

I have found a movie worthy of being up there on the Christmas DVD shelf with the likes of "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". Finland has  exported a gem!

"Rare Exports" is a movie about, well...

A film for those who think
they don't believe in Santa Claus anymore

In the depths of the Korvatunturi mountains, 486 metres deep, lies the closest ever guarded secret of Christmas. The time has come to dig it up!

It plumbs the depths of Santa myths, and gives us great Christmas Horror tale. I shall not speak more of it, for I don't want you to spoil a single scene. I want you to trust your Aardvark on this one. SEE THIS FILM! From the first scene, it feels completely different than American cinema, less plastic-ey.
The subtitles (yes, one of those...) are very readable and well-timed. The dialogue is a tad...spicy at times, but you heard it all in high school anyway. And you will come away with an unaccountable yearning for gingerbread....

TRUST YOUR AARDVARK!

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

Now, my disdain for Syfy channel knows few bounds, but last night they hit three out of the park! (reel it in, Aardvark...one out of the park, and two runs.) Eureka's Christmas special ("Do You See What I See?") was worthy of the classic Christmas specials of yore...because of a malfunctioning McGuffin, the entire town became...animated. Their uber-photon thingie rewrites reality and the whole cast and environs cycle through animation styles from Looney Toons to "Rudolph" to Disney (sorta) to the Peanuts Christmas, to an anime finale. It works. The animation as excellent, the writing and voice work are crisp, (Jim Parsons voices the Sheriff's Jeep, Carl.) I don't care how you see it. (cought*rrentcough), just buy it when it is available!

again...

TRUST YOUR AARDVARK!

I mean, come on...it's got snow ninjas! Made of snow !!

The Haven and Warehouse 13 (A "Wonderful Life" homage) Christmas eps were quite good as well, But Eureka stole the evening.

Pegacorns are REAL!

shirt.woot.com

Pic from shirt.woot.com

Lateral lisp [on]

You should know that the correct term for a pegasus with a horn is "alicorn". Latin for "winged horn".

Pegacorn is so  fangirl.

You people need to take your fandom seriously.

Lateral lisp [off]

Dying to Self and other heresies

  Over at Vox's , one of the commentors modestly said:

And forgive my un-Christian ego attitude here, but I know I can and do do better than they in regards to educating my children.

this said regarding a post about homeschooling vs. government school excellence.

One of the other commentors then asked:

How is that "un-Christian"??

An important question. How is acknowledging what one is good at (and which is commanded by God for parents: train up a child in the way he should go..." - Prov. 22:6) possibly be un-Christian? The mistaken assumption here is that this smacks of pride, the "goeth before destruction" type. Modern evangelicalism seems to have learned more from Buddhism than the New Testament. Jesus rightly claimed that He was Who He was. "I am the way, the truth, the life; no-one comes to the Father except through Me." Paul "bragged" about his pedigree as a Pharisee:

 ¹ Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.
² Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! ³ For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit,^[a] rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, ⁴ though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: ⁵ circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
⁷ But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. ⁸ Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; ¹⁰ that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, ¹¹ if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Phil.3)

Paul and Jesus both acknowledged freely what they were, yet without pride.It is OK to own what you are, what you are good at, and what God has equipped you to do. I am not referring to "religion" here, but rather every part of life, for every area of our lives should reflect God's nature in us. Your work, your family, your fun. When people see you as a Christian father or mother, engineer or waitress, model rocketeer or Frisbee golfer, they should be able to see Jesus' character reflected in it all.

Paul knew that he was The Stuff as far as his career in Judaism was concerned, but he counted it all as rubbish (literally, dung) compared to Christ, and the righteousness found by faith in Him.

You can fully acknowledge your own "good ats" without pride, as long as you acknowledge Jesus as being boss of all of them.

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

I have always thought it a reductio ad absurdum exaggeration to say that dispensationalists believe God's Kingdom is a future thing, to be revealed when Jesus returns, since he failed to persuaded the Jews of His Messianic credentials. Bet he couldn't have sold vacuum cleaners door-to-door either.
But no, I heard no lesser a personage than Mr. Bible Bus himself, J. Vernon McGee report this.
He does say in his notes on Matthew that

To read into this expression (the Kingdom of Heaven) the history
since John and Jesus made the first
announcement is a presumption which the Scriptures will not countenance. The
kingdom was near in the person of the King. The kingdom has not been postponed,
as God still intends to carry out His earthly purpose on schedule — “Yet
have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion” (Psalm 2:6). God’s dealing with
men since the rejection and crucifixion of the King has been in the framework
of the kingdom of heaven. He is carrying out a heavenly purpose today “bringing
many sons unto glory” (Hebrews 2:10).

But I think that this is doubletalk. John taught that the Kingdom of Heaven "is at hand" - close enough to reach out and touch. Then comes Jesus, teaching of the Kingdom. Hey, Presto!

The dispy idea that the church is a sort of half-time change of tactic when it was evident that the Jews weren't buying it is abhorrent, and again, I never really believed that anyone really believed it.
I think that the biggest obstacle to understanding these things is not perceiving the relationship between time and eternity. God is eternal, and knows "the end from the beginning". He stands outside of time, and sees it all. Think of time as God's snowglobe. He can see every angle, count every particle of snow, plot the position and trajectory of each. Time is separate from God, a pocket in eternity. The Kingdom exists eternally, just as Jesus, who died on the cross in ~30AD, can be said to have been crucified before the foundation of the world. In the eternal view, all time IS. God, in space/time, declared Himself to be the I AM. As I live my life in time, God sees the end from the beginning. Even if we still see the rebelliousness of sin in time, all is accomplished in eternity.

The flavor that I get from the dispensational shoehorning of Scripture is that since the Jews blew it in accepting Jesus as Messiah, God established the church as a sort of placeholder for the Gentiles until the Jews come around and accept Him the second time around. Of course, with all of the Hell the Jews have gone through (and even put themselves through), and especially the Antichrist / Tribulation firestorm, it seems as though the dispys have not considered certain PR problems, because for all the world it seems as though the plan is to forcibly rape the Jewish nation into submission. (The antichrist in the End-Timey-Wimey scenario does not invite the Jews for tea and crumpets!)

This does not sit well with me, and totally ignores the whole of Old Testament prophetic warnings to Israel and Judah, as well as Jesus' clear warnings in Matthew 24, et al. The coming of Messiah was the fulfillment of God's promises from Adam to Abraham to Moses on. Isaiah is all about it! The warning Jesus makes is clear: I AM He. Receive Me or perish, for there is no Other. The Jews in main rejected Messiah, and all of God's promises came home to roost...not just the nice ones we put on Promise Cards. The Temple was destroyed, Jerusalem burnt, and the Jewish nation killed or scattered. God said "Abbadee, abbadee, that's all, folks!". The religion of Judaism was ended by the One Who established it, as it was all fulfilled in Jesus. Now it is up to individual Jews and Gentiles to make peace with Messiah Jesus. That Britain established the Mid East home of the Jews on the Palestine real estate was a cynically sentimental religious way to get the Jews out of everyone's hair* .Worked swimmingly, that. Now, we all accept, reject, or ignore the Lordship of Jesus, and await the Last Trumpet announcing Judgment Day.  

I understand that this was not a pleasant look at the teaching, but the truth is, if you take the Left Behinder teaching to its logical conclusion, that's what you get. Israel defies YHWH, rejects Messiah, then gets a second chance after being prophetically raped into submission.

It's just that putting it plainly doesn't sell a lot of books. I'm not selling books. I just want to see this pernicious attack on the character of our Heavenly Father put to rest. Painfully. I want to see an end to looking for "The Antichrist" and instead have our focus be on Jesus Christ, as it should be. This less-than-200-year-old, Johnny-come-lately doctrine cobbled together as a "new way to understand the Scriptures" largely by Darby and Scofield has led a majority of American churches astray, and has removed the focus from "make disciples of the nations" and "do good to all, especially those of the household of faith" and replaced it with dispensational depression and "you don't polish brass on a sinking ship".

If you read the Bible without an agenda, you will arrive at the truth, allowing it to teach and change you. If you read it with an agenda, "you have your reward already", you get what you're looking for.
Exegesis vs. eisegesis.

Here endeth the lesson.


*To be clear, I am presenting what appears to have been the global attitude, not MY attitude.

This makes me happy, so VERY happy!

If you will pardon your Aardvark's penchant for going fanboy, he has News of Import.
The Dread Dormomoo sent himself a link:

Big Bang Theory Star Back on Broadway
Actor Jim Parsons is making his return to Broadway. Yes, your favorite lanky egg-head from the set of Big Bang Theory, has been making a name for himself away from the small screen. He may be Sheldon once a week, a role that has earned him two Emmys. But he has also acted as Tommy Boatwright in the Tony-winning revival of Normal Heart. That marked the young man’s first stint on the stage, but it must have agreed with him. Next season, it’s Harvey for Jim Parsons.
In Harvey, Parsons will play Elwood P. Dowd. This is where things get strange. Elwood’s best friend is an imaginary rabbit. Harvey must be a comedy because his own sister will be inspired to try and have him committed. Then, despite her best efforts, she’s the one who gets hospitalized for questionable sanity.

What brings Varky tears to the fore is (1): he loathes big cities, so it is unlikely that he shall ever see the Broadway show, nor meet Pretty Lady, and (2): they had to explain the plot to the hoi polloi.

Despite his enormous disdain for Whollyodd's inability to bring original ideas to the fore, but instead making remakes of old (often failed) movies (Tron, anyone?), the Aardvark would gladly bask in the argent glow of the Big Screen to see a Parsons remake of the "Harvey" movie. Oh, yez.

And the title is....

I am somewhat jaundiced as to another Disney rebirth, though this time, one for the lads..While not animation, it displays a typical degree of suitthink..."John Carter of Mars", E.R.Burroughs' beloved book (and series) about a man astrally drawn to Mars, and thence to heroism.

How awesome! How sexiful! Derring-do on Mars, saving beautiful Martian queens, fighting hulking Martian opponents with more than standard limb quantities.
Thoats! All this action ON MARS!

So, they are titling the movie "John Carter".

Not even "John Carter of Flushing" nor even Croyden. His name is so musky with masculinity that it will draw the boys in on its own strength. 'Course, Dejah Thoris helps.

Who needs Mars?

Swiss America ads banned by FOX and other major networks

While the animation is on the level of "Gaither's Pond", the caricatures and writing are clever.

Bad FOX. Naughty FOX. Trying to shed your "Glenn Beck" image like this.

May well be the time to invest in precious metals.
Here are the gladsome tidings:

The first ever GAO (Government Accountability Office) audit of the Federal Reserve was carried out in the past few months due to the Ron Paul, Alan Grayson Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill, which passed last year. Jim DeMint, a Republican Senator, and Bernie Sanders, an independent Senator, led the charge for a Federal Reserve audit in the Senate, but watered down the original language of the house bill(HR1207), so that a complete audit would not be carried out. Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan, and various other bankers vehemently opposed the audit and lied to Congress about the effects an audit would have on markets. Nevertheless, the results of the first audit in the Federal Reserve’s nearly 100 year history were posted on Senator Sander’s webpage earlier this morning.
What was revealed in the audit was startling:
$16,000,000,000,000.00 had been secretly given out to US banks and corporations and foreign banks everywhere from France to Scotland. From the period between December 2007 and June 2010, the Federal Reserve had secretly bailed out many of the world’s banks, corporations, and governments. The Federal Reserve likes to refer to these secret bailouts as an all-inclusive loan program, but virtually none of the money has been returned and it was loaned out at 0% interest. Why the Federal Reserve had never been public about this or even informed the United States Congress about the $16 trillion dollar bailout is obvious - the American public would have been outraged to find out that the Federal Reserve bailed out foreign banks while Americans were struggling to find jobs.
      To place $16 trillion into perspective, remember that GDP of the United States is only $14.12 trillion. The entire national debt of the United States government spanning its 200+ year history is "only" $14.5 trillion. The budget that is being debated so heavily in Congress and the Senate is "only" $3.5 trillion. Take all of the outrage and debate over the $1.5 trillion deficit into consideration, and swallow this Red pill: There was no debate about whether $16,000,000,000,000 would be given to failing banks and failing corporations around the world.  (unelected.org)

So, yeah. Precious metals like brass and lead.


Also, tar and feathers.

Thanksgiving

The Aardvark wishes ALL my many Reader a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving.


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

Now to biz. Went to Dollar General last night for a few last-minute things: brown sugar, sweet potatoes, like that. I have become inured to the Christmas-ey colors and toys that have been out since Hallowe'en, but last night, the day before Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Eve, even, and they had their radio tuned to 96.9 (used to be "Beautiful 97" in the old analog days, when it didn't matter) which plays non-stop Christmas music starting the day after Thanksgiving.  As Commodore Decker sez, "...But not 'nymore!". The ever-homogenizing glacial creep of holiday mashing-up continues unabated.

I am the guy that is horrified at the business of opening presents on Christmas Eve. That is only acceptable when the opener has already received Last Rites. There are Temporal Lines of Demarcation which should not be crossed. Christmas Day is Christmas Day. Do you eat your turkey dressed as a skeleton or Captain Jack Sparrow whilst handing out fun-sized candy bars? I understand the lead time deemed necessary in retail, but people sure bought well enough in the early '60s to fuel a booming economy without tinsel up at half-past August. Beck's HanaRamaKwanzMas may well be just around the corner. Our culture's inability to wait bodes for debilitating emotional problems in the future. If everything must be RIGHT NOW, then there is little to look forward to. Having your dreams fulfilled instanter is great in fiction, but even then there is a Price. The Genie and the Monkey's Paw all exact their toll.

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven." In our individual lives, let us try to live seasonally, taking them as they come. Why rush life? Let it come to us as it will, and savor each day's, each season's arrival.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Bob Schieffer Attempted to pillory Ron Paul with bumper stickers on Face the Nation this Sunday
 (the link is to the transcript). Of course it is foolish to listen to the reasons an enemy gives for attacking you. Of course to do so is to say "It's all America's fault". Schieffer has ceased to be a newsman, and has devolved into a mere Establishment shill. Oh, wait. He's on CBS.

Paul is correct. Our foreign policy has consequences, some profoundly negative ones. Vox Day deals with the issue with grace and dispatch. We HAVE to be clear on this. The rest of the world is not happy with the presence of the US Armed Forces Police and Pizza Delivery Service. Our budget does not like it either. Oh, wait. "Budget". We cannot afford continued foreign intervention, and President "Never Met Spending He Didn't Like" O'bama cannot get that between his jug ears.

REPRESENTATIVE RON PAUL (Republican Presidential Candidate/R-Texas): Oh, I-- I-- I think there's an influence. And that's exactly what, you know, the 9/11 Commission said. That's what the DOD has said. And that's also what the CIA has said and that's what a lot of researchers have said. And just remember immediately after 9/11 we removed the base from Saudi Arabia. So there is a connection. That doesn't do the whole full explanation. But our policies definitely had an influence. And you talk to the people who committed it and those individuals who would like to do us harm, they say, yes, we don't like American bombs to be falling on our country. And we don't like the intervention that we do in their nations. So to deny this I think is very dangerous. But to argue the case that they want to do us harm because we're free and prosperous I think is a very, very dangerous notion because it's not true.  

Schieffer countered:

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, I-- I would-- I would question the import of what some of those commissions found that-- that you've cited there. But basically what you're saying, Mister Paul, is that it was America's fault that 9/11 happened and it was our fault that it happened?

Well, there it is. The crux of the whole matter, making Paul's statements broader than they are. Saying that our policies contributed to a problem is patently not saying that it is ALL OUR FAULT.
I love Schieffer's judgment of the commissions. On what basis, by what authority does he render these judgments?

REPRESENTATIVE RON PAUL: No. I-- I think that's-- I think that's a misco-- misconstruing of what I'm saying because America is you and I. And we didn't cause it. The average American didn't cause it. But if you have a flawed policy, it may influence it. When Ronald Reagan went in to Lebanon, he was deeply-- he deeply regretted this because he said if he'd been more neutral those Marines wouldn't have died in Lebanon because the policy was flawed. The same thing that McNamara said after the Vietnam War. He wrote in his memoirs that, you know, if-- if he would have changed-- if it-- if we don't learn from our policies, it won't be worth anything. So I'm saying policies have an effect. But that's a far cry from blaming America.

When I was driving home from YuleCon yesterday, I had to cease listening to Glenn Beck's prattlings about Congressman Paul. Beck and his Merrie Yes-Men were displaying an almost America-love-it-or-leave-it attitude.Clearly we could have done no wrong, could have no culpability at all. Roger Hedgecock and other reliable neo-con (and no, that is not code for "Jew") talkers are all taking the same line, which ultimately is at odds with the Founders. Few of our overseas adventures have been according to Hoyle, much less according to Washington or Jefferson.

Ron Paul is on firm ground in attempting to drag us back to more Constitution-sized government. Please support him, if you have any interest in a more righteous, more Constitutional government.
A more free nation. Don't cherry-pick a single issue; look at his whole platform.

Tonight...tonight...

Your Aardvark has not abandoned you. He has been busy in the non-E-world. When having downtime, he reads. The current book is My Saber is Bent by Jack Paar. Yes, that Jack Paar; the one what got the whole late-night TV talk show rolling. Real talk, with intelligent people saying interesting things to one another: authors, playwrights, politicos like Kennedy & Nixon, raconteurs, up-and-coming comics who, having to follow Broadcast Standards and Practices, had to work at their craft, rather than playing to the sniggering twelve-year-old cultural mind that has been so ably trained since by Johnny Carson and his chat progeny.

The copyright of the book is 1961, the era of FCC head Newton Minow referring to television as a  "vast wasteland". Plus ça change.... The difference in TV from the mid-Fifties to the Sixties is Grand Canyonesque.
Serling's "Twilight Zone" gave way to "Land of the Giants". Paar's "The Tonight Show" gave way to Carson's.  The televised plays were replaced by yuk yuk sitcoms and Westerns churned out by the numbers on the Warner back lots. "Did you learn your lesson, Beav?". Morality plays replaced by the moralizing irreligious. Here is an example of Paar's thought:

The talents of Sid Caesar and Paddy  Chayefsky and Jackie Gleason have departed the home screens because the public didn't care.Apparently people would just as soon watch Hawaiian Eye and Lawrence Welk. The "Golden Age of Television" turned to dross when the fine original dramas of the mid 1950's gave way to the assembly-line, machine-tooled series ground out by the Hollywood film factories. Why should television lavish a vast amount of money on bringing Oedipus Rex or the Moiseyev Dancers to the public when it is just as happy watching something like The Price is Right or Candid Camera? The majority of viewers seem happy with TV as it is - and that's what keeps it the way it is.

Your Aardvark is not sanguine about the future of television. Sometimes cartoons seem to be the best produced and written programs out there. TV programming exists primarily as the gooey filling that keeps us watching commercials. Period. What precisely renders a show "good" merely because of its self-conscious references to other shows? That seems to be the sole raison for Ben10, f'rinstance.

Old-time radio, anyone?

Holy?...Really?

The Bible is a spiritual book. It does not need our help to make it more so.














The illustration above amuses me no end. Assuming that the Bible is God's Word to mankind, than certainly it is "holy", completely other than any other book. Why,then, do we have to help it to be so with our nomenclature? "Holy Bible". Makes it a special place to keep the TV Guide on the coffee table.

And if it is  the Word of God (and I believe it so), why, when God says "X", do teachers and preachers teach "not X", and deem it to be OK with God?

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

OH! The King James Bible mentions unicorns six times!