Lysander Spooner need not apply.

So, allow the Aardvark to suggest a third party, the Liberty Party (for them wot feels that "Liberty" sounds too close to "Libertarian", we'll go for the Freedom Party). The Freedom Party would stand for constitutional liberty, small government, large freedom and opportunity. The name is what it is all about. Constitutional limits on the government = freedom the Several States, and for the people.

"But there is a Constitution Party alREADY!"

Fine. It comes across like the High School Bible Club. Yes I am a Christian. No, I don't believe that Congress should be run like a Jr. High lock-in. "Ooooh, ooooh! I wanna watch "A Thief in the Night" again!!!" I do believe that righteousness exalts a nation, and should be sought after and practised, but that comes from the men whom we vote into office. THEY are the source of right-doing, based upon the Standard God has set. Were I a Congressman (no, don't even think about it) I would be bound to behave as my faith dictates, and as my constituents require, for the one-or-two terms which I would serve. We need to restore a milieu in which that vision is more readily realised. This requires Work, and Effort.

Think about it, will ya?

Every time a bell rings, a Vorlon gets his wings!

 



















I have been watching Babylon 5 as I print shirts. I like where I work sometimes. I am well into season 4. I cannot help but feel really bad. Heretical, even.

To paraphrase Twain: "Trek ain't shucks to B5".

Babylon 5 is the story of an Earth Alliance space station used as a meeting-place for humans and aliens to engage in commerce, peace talks, and everyday life
The characters are finely drawn.
The story arcs are coherent and well-considered. J. Michael Straczynski wrote the entire thing, unlike the various Trek series, which are episodically piecemeal, even the ones that have overarching stories. Deep Space Nine is the story of a Federation space station used as a meeting-place for humans and aliens to engage in commerce, peace talks, and everyday life. It is the most coherent of the Trek franchises, yet it is more of a hodge-podge by different writers. B5 shows one man's vision, rather than humanitarian retconning.

The largely CG effects in B5 (1993 and on) hold up well. The alien makeup is superb. The characterisations are exceptional, cinematic. "Strac" is as good as Bellisario at creating characters that you care about, even when they are being loathsome. Londo Mollari (played by Peter Jurasic), the alien with the crest of hair, can be ...ethically challenged, yet he is ultimately not a bad sort. He wants the Centauri Republic to achieve it's former glories yet again, and chooses bad company to help. Thomas Wolfe comes to mind.

G'kar (Andreas Katsulas), the Narn ambassador is played to the hilt. He is a leader of his people, who were subjugated by the Centauri a century before. The other aliens are wonderfully cast and drawn. The enigmatic Vorlon ambassador Kosh (voiced by Ardwight Chamberlain) lives ever in his encounter suit, as it would be unsettling to other races to see him as he is.

I shan't go on about characters. That is what the internet is for. The thing which interests me is the point of view. Trek (especially DS9) is now-ward in outlook. It draws upon what's happening currently, or in the very recent past. The Bajoran religious/political tensions (particularly involving Louise Fletcher's "Kai Winn" character) reflect ham-handed attempts to demonise the Christian Right, a favorite target for Hollywood. All of the Trek series deal with current issues in the Twilight Zone "let's sneak a parable past 'em using science fiction" mode, but with far less panache. Kai Winn is a caricature from Hollywood's paranoia of Christian theocracy-building (a truly amusing myth), wrought from Christian political involvement (How dare they, the cheeky monkeys!).

Babylon 5 takes a more prophetic view. This SF series from the mid-'90s plays like current events in the Obama nation, especially the rise of "Earth First" and the "Night Watch" wing of the Ministry of Peace (MiniPax), and the spying of PsiCorp. The tension between B5 head of security Garibaldi and PsiCop Bester (Walter Koenig in perhaps his best role) takes an interesting turn here:







Watching B5 is, for me, like reading current newsfeeds. Straczynski knows writing, he apparently knows history, and Santayana. He does his homework. When he wrote for the "Real Ghostbusters" cartoon, he researched the occult, myth, and Things Ghostly. He did not make up scary stuff. Same with B5. He has a finger on the pulse of How It Works. Current events offer few surprises, if you follow the Babylon 5 roadmap.

I bet Alex Jones knows who the Shadows REALLY are!

Saturday-night Sober Blog

Vitina Marcus. She's the green one  (c)20th Century Fox TV

Lost in Space has our intrepid heroes ultimately headed back to Earth, but the green-skinned Chick of the Green Mist, played by Vitina Marcus, is wooing Doctor Smith to get at the Jupiter 2's deutronium fuel , which she prizes as an apertif. Will they get home? Well, this is the second episode of the second season...figger it out!
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My obligatory glass of port is hard at work as my favorite Trek villain goes through his paces: Harcourt Fenton Mudd (Roger C. Carmel) in the episode "I Mudd". I proclaimed to my family " I could DO Harry Mudd!"

I then hurriedly amended that I would PERFORM Harry Mudd's role accurately. The Dread Dormomoo was palpably relieved. Srsly, I love the Mudd persona! Such a fun character!!
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Our MeTV signal was spotty tonight. We have instead resorted to the Warner Archive channel on the Roku. "Battle Beneath the Earth" is our ersatz "Svengoolie" movie. Kerwin Matthews, and Ed Bishop (Commander Straker in "UFO") battle Chinese laser drillers beneath the Lower 48. The ChiComs are planning to  detonate nukes beneath key points in the US. I saw this movie as part of a drive-in triple feature when I was twelve. The other films were Polanski's "The Fearless Vampire Killers", and "The Conqueror Worm", which was an Inquisition flick starring Vincent Price. Those were the days!!
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Supper was my May-HEE-can cornbread, redolent with onion and jalapenos, with pinto beans cooked with country ham. AWEXOME!
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Back is being evil, and the Dread Dormomoo has a cold. We may be in the rest of the weekend.


Everyone have a lovely Sunday!

Bad Wolff's Bilious Bleat

I enjoyed this by regular Michael Wolff, and thought it share-worthy.

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


Ordinarily being something of a phlegmatic sort I nonetheless occasionally meet some people who absolutely drive me to Perdition and back, and I want to somehow lash out at them

For example:

The More You Know: this is a group which puts chirpy little feel-good PSAs on television.  The PSAs offer all sorts of cheery Nanny State suggestions dealing with how best to fit in with the New Drone Society.  I keep wanting to send them an e-mail along the following lines: Hey!  I have a suggestion for a segment dealing with child raising.  Do you (the parent) want to raise healthy and happy kids?  Here's a tip.  Stop taking advice from self-declared television "celebrities" whose main goal in life is to insure that your child effortlessly becomes a cog for the Great Social Machine.  A happy little consumer who'll demand nothing but reality television.  Do something radical and try raising your own kids for a change.

Then there's . . .

Luminosity.com: on the surface this sounds like a worthwhile endeavor.  A site for online games and such designed to keep the mind busy and, as a result, exercised.  All well and good.  The problem is that the people in their commercials all look and sound as if they don't have two brain cells to rub together.  This is what Luminosity.com wants us to become?  Not only that, but the Internet already has more than enough sources for brain games and related puzzles if one only takes the time to search.  And then there's also . . . oh, I don't know . . . READ A BOOK?

Both these sites have something in common.  You can like them on Facebook and such, but you sure as hell can't contact them directly with a complaint.

(Urgh!)

Michael


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

Aardvark here...
I have one to add: the fitness PSA's that the Obama Administration has been backing. Momma keeps having daughter to run upstairs, out to the car, down in the basement, all to find Momma's car keys or summat, when Momma has them all along. Mommy Dearest lies to make Miss Chubbikins do laps. It ALL comes down to lies with these people!

Here you go!

The Kennedy Assassination.

Because you can ALWAYS believe the Government's story.

Saturday will happen....

Because it has been that busy, that is why.

Because Late Thanksgiving.

In Other News....

I write like
H. P. Lovecraft

I Write Like. Analyze your writing!

The 'Vark's spleen, she is vented.

This is an opinion piece. Please to note that no harm is wished upon anyone. It merely examines cultural change in my lifetime. It should be read in the context of my extant writing, opinions, and clear motivators, as well as in the setting of my life as you know me to be. That I see a need for this preamble is a more strident indictment of our society and culture than it is a flag about my stated opinions below.
-------------------------------------------

Things fall apart. The center does not hold.

Nothing is the same anymore. Candy bars do not taste right. Baby Ruth tastes like Payday with chocolate and a soupçon of industrial waste. Tattoos and piercings, formerly the decoration of the Lower Classes, have now become Chic and Trendy (although if Dear Leader continues his work, the Chic and Trendy will become the lower class). Love of country was de rigueur; now it is aberrant and atavistic. Aberration itself is the New Normal. Joe Haldeman's The Forever War deals with a soldier who goes on multiple missions to space wars on board vessels that travel at relativistic speeds. He doesn't age, but generations pass on earth, and with them, the cultural distinctives of those generations. Eventually he comes back to an Earth where homosexuality predominates, and his preference for women earns him the moniker "The Old Queer".

I know somewhat how he felt. I live in a culture that has given up sane standards of behavior, and has jettisoned consistency. I come from a time when there was the Correct, and there was the Aberrant. The Aberrant was viewed as alien, mistrusted, and often ridiculed. What a difference a couple of generations (and PR.) makes. What was once villified as the Sin Not to be Named has become a Civic Virtue, and Normal. A decades-long public relations campaign has paid off. For as long as, the homosexual, the mincing, lisping fageler, has been a mainstay of funmaking. Practically every country ridicules homosexual activity and 'lifestyle.' Anime series often have a homosexual character displaying unrequited feelings for the main character for comic relief. We know 'what ain't quite right,' and humor reveals it. As to cultural inconsistency, our alleged science-mad society completely ignores the Darwinist and Gouldian evolutionary dogmas to accept homosexuality as anything other than what those very dogmas would maintain: that homosexual behavior is an evolutionary dead-end, and should be avoided for The Good of the Human Race.

What has brought us here? Only a massive and universal  PR campaign to render three-to-five percent of the population as fit for human society. Not merely fit, but lionized. What is a tiny minority of the body politic has become a great mouth, a whine machine demanding that all of Western culture be bent to the minority's will. This is ultimately where democracy fails: it is not the quantity, it is the decibels, and bruvvah, they have been loud. They have invented rights where none before existed, and in so doing diminished the rights of the majority. Where new "rights" are invented, new mechanisms must be developed to administer those rights, and the price tag for such instrumentality is borne by the majority through taxation. "What will equal marriage rights do? How will they affect you?"

In the bottom line.

Now let it not be assumed that I am some throwback crank with an 'anti' axe to grind. I've paid my dues. I've lived amongst them. My father was a homosexual (he pauses, waiting for the inevitable stupid comment like "Well, you're here....")  Let's say that I was the result of a foray into an alternative lifestyle. By living in such company, I harbor no illusions about homosexual behavior. I have seen the crudity and demeaning nature of "the lifestyle", and have been pawed as a teen by "friends" of my father. There is nothing better for your self-esteem than to see one's father's exploits on the high school bathroom wall. I have a good number of friends who are homosexual, and they tend to be the crudest people of my acquaintance. I say this not to point the bony finger of indignation, but to give the lie to the high pretensions of those who most loudly promote the homosexual agenda.

On the flip side, I must say that I am live-and-let-live. I do not enthrall all of my reader with tales of The Sensuous 'Vark. The Dread Dormomoo's and my connubial deliberations are off-limits. Please make your private practises Not My Business. I do not participate in Straight Pride Parades. I DO poke fun at "End The Silence" days, because, really, hasn't it been rabbited on about for decades, now? I recognise that the anti-bully message is largely "don't bully effeminate boys". But neither do I throw stones, or insult them, or militate against the marching minority. Please, just leave me alone. Keep your hands to yourself, especially, hands off my wallet.

Another Saturday night, and I ain't got....

Photo:redneckorselfsufficient.blogspot.com

I have done what I said I would never do. We have a TV in the bedroom. It has been there for years, as a monitor for my region-free DVD player. Watch stuff on it like Space Patrol (the Roberta Leigh one), Lavender Castle, other cult shows only available in PAL, Region 2. I just put in a digital to analog decoder, and I have the glories of local (digital) broadcast TV. The only thing missing is rabbit ears swathed in Reynolds Wrap. MeTV in my room. YAAAAY!

Star Trek: "The Apple". Plays like a third season, but is a second season episode. It DOES have some sexiful phaser scenes. The People of Vaal, serve a Godzilla head carven from solid rock. Their god provides a paradise for them, they provide fruits and veg for him. A god who prefers a high-fiber diet. Who'd-a thunk? How can Kirk and Co. figure out how to ruin Paradise? Of course, the natives have John Boehner tans, their face decorations look like the results of a sleepover of eleven-year-old girls, and all the people, male and female, wear girl's moccasins.  They may have Paradise, but they live in fashion hell. Or New Jersey.

Which Kirk and Co. rescue them from by destroying their ancient computer/provider "god".

Reminds me of atheist trolls on internet forums.
-----------------------------
Svengoolie is showing the wonderfully weird original Universal "Frankenstein". The studio sent him a restored version, which includes the blasphemous utterance by Dr. Frankenstein:  “In the name of God, now I know what it feels like to be a God!”

After the monster is vivified, Dr. Waldman, Henry Frankenstein's old medical professor promises to destroy the rampaging victimized creature painlessly. Poor old Waldman forgot to actually kill the creature before he began dissecting him. It is his last mistake.

The technical work is beautiful. The "Strickfadens", the whirly, sparky electrical contrivances in the lab (so named for Kenneth Strickfaden, the effects man) branded themselves into the Frankenstein gestalt, so much so that they were used in all of the following Frankenstein movies involving creation of a monster, including "Bride of Frankenstein" and Mel Brook's comedy "Young Frankenstein". Apparently, Strickfaden secured a Tesla coil made by Nikola Tesla himself!




"It's ali-i-i-ivve!"
-------------------------------
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is "The Left-Handed Man" S2, E6.

Nelson is told by a man claiming to be from Naval Intelligence that he must prevent George Penfield from becoming Secretary of the Navy. No Salad Bar Monsters. Here is a Salad Bar Monster:






Have a happy Sunday!

The Warm Breeze From the Hot East

Picture: http://coyoteprime-runningcauseicantfly.blogspot.com

 

It is time to prepare. As trendies and "environmentally aware" people from the West Coast become cognizant of the new gift that Japan is sending us, the air and sea-borne radiation plume from the Fukushima nuclear wreck, they will abandon California and environs faster than FOX abandoned "Dollhouse". They will move East. To see the results of this migration, just look at Austin. It is the pox of Western proggie politics on Texas' bum. (I blame "Austin City Limits" on PBS. It attracted the trendy leftists like chronoton particles to a cosmic string, or something.) Civil liberties like free speech and the second amendment are regularly quashed and ignored there, at least if you are on the wrong end of the political spectrum.

Expect to see incursions of West Coast denizens fleeing the Atom Monster in your state soon. Understand that they WILL bring the attitudes that render The Left Coast unfit for human habitation, and with those, the legislation to force California regulationism onto their hosting states, like the bothersome houseguest who insists the A/C be this temperature, the coffee just so strong, and that station to always be on the radio. It is imperative to be vigilant. This is a real threat, coming to a "conservative" state near you.

You heard it here first.

For the edification of Doom.

From runt-of-the-web.com/shibe-meme/2

Also, make "Startpage.com" your search. No cookies, and they are working on a private email setup.

Such private.
Very email.

Into the warm embrace of Molech

Vox Day did a homeschooling post yesterday, sharing a Kentucky blogger's thoughts. A Vox commenter shared a comment from the OTHER blog:

"There's even a someone claiming to be a minister (certainly of the churchianity sect) claiming that homeschooling prevents Christian children from being the "salt and light" of the government schools."

This invariably sets me teeth to "espresso grind". I have no patience with Christians (or churchians) who fob THEIR responsibility off on their (and others') progeny. Not a surprise, as Western churches are bound to the heinous tradition of the hireling preacher, rather than following New Testament example. Clearly WE don't have time to make effort to evangelise, aid the weary and infirm, and teach brethren in the congregation. Not like we have a BIBLE or anything....

NOT the children's job, no matter how many episodes of "The Captain's Club" you listen to. You train up the child to make them ready to do such when they mature, not drop them into the lion's den with a handful of pulp tracts and a headful of memorised salvation verses. This attitude springs from the aberrant "make converts" paradigm, rather than Jesus' "make disciples" instruction and example.

Ok, so I have standards!
--------------------------
Went to my guinea pig appointment, where I filled out a survey:

Do you eat beans?
Would you like to see a new movie starring George Wendt?
Do you eat beans with George Wendt?
Would you like to see George Wendt eating beans in a movie?
Do you eat beans at George Wendt movies?
Would you like to see George Wendt in a bean-eating movie?
How many beans do you eat in a George Wendt bean-eating movie?
How many bean-eating movies have you seen with George Wendt?

Or something like that.

I got to have a blood test. Mine was red. I passed.
Actually, the Sweet Young Thang who was my caretaker this go 'round, and who was an experienced blood-taker, wound up doing the needle like a fifteen-year-old trying to parallel park, then called for someone to help. This was odd, because my veins are practically promiscuous in their readiness to share their bounty. I had shared an anecdote with her about a doctor who had pincushioned me in like manner, and the moment I had uttered the terminal syllable, I felt the cold hand of Fate. NEVER program your healthcare people.

She got the office gal, an ample lady who meant business, but my veins were out to lunch. Finally Jeff, the guy running the trial shooed everyone else out and coaxed a vein out of hiding. We discussed the eyelid, but considered it a bad idea. I was good-humored about it all, and apologised to the original gal for setting us both up for disaster.

Always watch what you say.

So I had to sign in to Facebook. It told me that I had to convert my "Aardvark Screenprinting" page to "Facebook for Business". I did so, and it promptly lost two-plus years of postings. This is me being unhappy.
--------------------
I had a neat discovery. Warner Archive has a channel accessible to my Roku, and I think for online viewing, and they offer a two-week trial. I signed up, and watched the two-hour pilot of "PROBE", the 1972 cyber-espionage series. Highly recommended, and makes me want to wear French cuffs, or '70s necklaces. Ther is also the Irwin Allen SF schlock-fest "City Beneath the Sea". Gotta use those VTTBOTS props for something!
--------------------
Star Trek's "Mirror Mirror" is on Bearded Spock and all. Vic Perrin is the Halkan Council Leader. What is with Starfleet chicks wearing hair like Church of God matrons?

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Svengoolie is showing  "Kiss of the Vampire", a Hammer offering distributed by Universal. Creepy, and Christopher Lee - free.


Living la vida Centauri, thanks to Chris Hagood:

I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas (or) An Intellectual Aglet

Zed-PM photo: THINKGEEK

The underlying assumption that our 'Green' president, and the other politicos in Washington actually WANT sustainable energy to replace coal, nuclear and other sources of electricity is unwarranted. Between UN plans like Agenda 21 and our Dear Leader's consistent failures to fund a successful green energy plan (see Solyndra, as one example) while shutting down functioning power plants with no replacement, it is clear that what they truly want are United States of third-world capabilities, of a citizenry operating at energy deficits, and an industrial base underpowered and incapable of competing on the world stage.

When we prepare the garden here in North Alabamastan, come harvest-time, we do not uproot the produce and throw it away so as to make room for plants we have not even sprouted yet. This illustrates Liebe Führer's energy plan. There is no magical mystery uber windmill or solar cell array that will produce enough energy to replace the coal plants that he continues to shut down. Depending on whose propaganda to which one attends, nuclear is arguably "cleaner" than coal insofar as The Dread Carbon is concerned. El Presidente is shutting down plants while having no replacements extant. This is a plan, not for world market leadership, but for downsizing, downgrading.

Downright foolish (or otherwise very well planned).

To follow up on a bleat awhile back I have discovered Font Squirrel, a site that features eminently usable free font downloads that are 100% commercial friendly. Hurray!

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Got a new tool yesterday from Amazon, an ASUS laptop. Blistering fast, and it even has Mahjong! It is my office/con machine, and its name is NOMAD. The only downside is the learning curve with Windows 8. Not, shall we say, intuitive. I had to look up how to turn it off. (We had to look up several things, like how to get a usable desktop, so we may just have hunted a lot for the offening.)
---------------------
The medical trial continues apace. The medication is allowing me to sleep through the night without having to get up to drain the wing tanks (unless of course I drink summat late at night, like the cinnamon tea I am currently enjoying).
---------------------
I am seething. I am angry with rage. Warner Brothers DVD is Teh Suck. I opened season one of "Babylon 5". Three episodes are unwatchable due to bad discs. Pixilation and freeze-ups. AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!! Of course, they are KEY episodes, too, like the one introducing Mr. Morden, the Shadow operative.

Of course, now I am annoying everyone in earshot with my Londo Mollari impersonation, yes?

The REAL Nightmare Before Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Went to Cracker Barrel last night w/ the fam, and MERCY! Christmas Town had thrown up. Lookit, I have a soft, creamy centre where Christmas is concerned, but REALLY, people....

When I was a kid, there was Hallowe'en, then the Jack-o-lanterns got healed, and there were whole pumpkin pictures and cornucopias and turkeys with Pilgrim hats for Thanksgiving, then the day after Thanksgiving, Wonderland happened! Lights were strung, snowflakes and angels and fir trees, oh MY adorned the shop windows. Horns and candy canes went up on the downtown light poles, and late Fifties Christmas music filled the stores.

Magic happened. In a good way.

Now we have the Holiday-Industrial complex flogging Hallowgivingmas. Jewish folks should rejoice that Hanukkah has escaped relatively unscathed.

Non sequitur. Your facts are uncoordinated.

MeTV had one of my favorite Star Trek episodes: "The Changeling", which features one of my favorite voice actore, Vic Perrin (who has been credited at last in the remastered episodes, one of the only true improvements of the effort. I mean, the CGI Enterprise looks like an inflatable...). Kirk's haranguing NOMAD into a cybernetic breakdown is the most plausible of all of his anti-computer reasonings.

"Curse of the Undead" is the Svengoolie offering, a Western vampire tale. The Trek pilot "Menagerie" featured the doctor from this film as the doctor on the Enterprise. John Hoyt was the actor, a prolific character actor. Eric Fleming plays the Preacher, a far cry from his Gil Favor on "Rawhide".

Not much more to say except:

VTTBOTS was an excellent episode, guest starring Victor Buono as the Villain of the Week, a crazy Swiss scientist bent on taking over the world with cyborgs! He replaces Admiral Nelson with an exact duplicate, in order to trigger a nuclear war. Buono's character eats constantly, and has a golf cart to ride in, as he cannot comfortably walk anymore.

Later....

The Foodening

As has been said elsewhere, I was a huckster at TsubasaCon this weekend last. Huntington, WV has many of the usual suspects as far as not-so-fine dining is concerned: Steak and Shake, Red Lobster, Starbucks...good enough, but one need not dress for dinner. I had Five Guys burgers three lunches in a row. Their burgers are freshly-made patties, and juicy, which is to say "can lube a tank with". The bags have tell-tale grease windows by the time you get them. The fries are freshly cut, with skin on, then fried, meaning they are full of moisture and un-crisp. BUT! They are full of flavor, and the place supplies malt vinegar with which to anoint the spuds, rendering them anything but bland. Why three days? It wasn't Subway. Or Jimmy-John's, or Jack LeScoulie's, or whomever's.

Z-Brick Pizza served my in-room dining Friday night. Their small calzone was twice what I could manage, and I was sad at that, because it was yumsome. The Pullman Plaza Hotel did not have an in room fridge in my digs, but it did have hot and cold running Book of Mormon, so I guess that's something. It also had a Free Hot Breakfast, which means I have paid for it already with my room cost, along with the soap and toilet paper, which may have been a better choice. The scrambled eggs were quite probably powdered. The bacon was industrial, and the Cheerios tasted like the box. They didn't used to. Thanks for the healthy choice. I had Starbucks after I got to the con. It was ambrosia compared to the hotel coffee. I have long maintained that out-of-date store brand coffee is repackaged for hotels.

Wil and Tyrene of Musetap had a taste for Asian, so we walked across the street Saturday night to "Taste of Asia", a mildly upscale hibachi and Chinese restaurant. It was Homecoming in Huntington, so the hibachi section was filled with overdressed teenagers, so we opted for a la carte in the Chinese section. Always the ghettos. They ordered unpronounceable things. I got Hot and Sour Soup, which was both for a change, and delightful. I also got General Tso's Chicken, which wasn't. so I don't think he missed anything. The waitress was winsome, so there was that.

The best meal I had was at The Marshall Hall of Fame Cafe on Sunday night. It is overweenngly sports-themed in the best "We are Marshall" tradition. The bathroom brought flashbacks of locker room embarrassments, as it is institutional in the showers sense, with the small white and black hexagonal tiles for the floor, as well as giving a visceral twist to the gut when you wash up. The soap is that green/yellow chemical-scent liquid that all schools used for economy. It smells like humiliation.

The meal more than made up the time spent weeping in the stall. French Onion Soup with a toasted cheesy crouton afloat, with a hint of sherry, that makes all the difference. A classic Reuben sandwich made well enough to almost hold together all the way through was my main course, with fries. I almost dashed across the street to get some malt vinegar, but opted for the Heinz catchup, which was also something, anyway.

 



 

It should have become apparent that the Aardvark has a penchant for the conspiratorial. What the mainstream would view as confabulist is, to his mind, most plausible, even more reasonable than the things most hold as self-evident.That the most powerful arguments the mainstreamers can offer up consist of name-calling does little to dissuade him.

I have spent the week-end in Huntington, WV, plying my shirty trade at TsubasaCon, blissfully cut off from News, Facebook, and rabbitings about Obamacare. to pass the time I run up the spindizzy on my Kindle and read; the current book of choice is That Hideous Strength, the Late Great Planet Earth of his Space Trilogy. Even that waggish comparison is unfair; THS is no more end-timey-wimey than is the Book of Revelation. It is more all-timey-wimey, a picture of the forces that are ever-present in the world, ever vying for power, ever jockeying for position; it is the always-new contest for the Domination of the World: Caesar v. Christ. The shiny chrome and tile world of the National Institute for Coordinated Experiments (NICE) and its goals read like UN agency memoranda, or talking points for Planned Parenthood, though risking to use those as examples might occlude the breathtaking scope and prescience of Lewis' literary Progressives. Written in 1945, THS takes my breath away in revealing the thought behind what is de rigueur for those who are in, who are shaping the world and our opinions in the name of The News.
“Isn't it absolutely essential to keep a fierce Left and fierce Right, both on their toes and each terrified of the other? That's how we get things done.”
 ----------------------

“Why you fool, it's the educated reader who CAN be gulled. All our difficulty comes with the others. When did you meet a workman who believes the papers? He takes it for granted that they're all propaganda and skips the leading articles. He buys his paper for the football results and the little paragraphs about girls falling out of windows and corpses found in Mayfair flats. He is our problem. We have to recondition him. But the educated public, the people who read the high-brow weeklies, don't need reconditioning. They're all right already. They'll believe anything.”
 -----------------------
“We want you to write it down--to camouflage it. Only for the present, of course. Once the thing gets going we shan't have to bother about the great heart of the British public. We'll make the great heart what we want it to be. But in the meantime, it does make a difference how things are put. For instance, if it were even whispered that the N.I.C.E. wanted powers to experiment on criminals, you'd have all the old women of both sexes up in arms and yapping about humanity. Call it re-education of the mal-adjusted, and you have them all slobbering with delight that the brutal era of retributive punishment has at last come to and end. Odd thing it is--the word 'experiment' is unpopular, but not the word 'experimental.' You mustn't experiment on children; but offer the dear little kiddies free education in an experimental school attached to the N.I.C.E. and it's all correct!”
-----------------------

The N.I.C.E. was the first-fruits of that constructive fusion between the state and the laboratory on which so many thoughtful people base their hopes of a better world. It was to be free from almost all the tiresome restraints – “red tape” was the word its supporters used – which have hitherto hampered research in this country. It was also largely free from the restraints of economy, for, as it was argued, the nation which can spend so many millions a day on a war can surely afford a few millions a month on productive research in peacetime. - See more at: http://www.wanliss.com/2011/11/quotes-that-hideous-strength-by-c-s-lewis/#sthash.0pF0HOar.dpuf

The N.I.C.E. was the first-fruits of that constructive fusion between the state and the laboratory on which so many thoughtful people base their hopes of a better world. It was to be free from almost all the tiresome restraints – “red tape” was the word its supporters used – which have hitherto hampered research in this country. It was also largely free from the restraints of economy, for, as it was argued, the nation which can spend so many millions a day on a war can surely afford a few millions a month on productive research in peacetime. - See more at: http://www.wanliss.com/2011/11/quotes-that-hideous-strength-by-c-s-lewis/#sthash.0pF0HOar.dpuf

 "The N.I.C.E. was the first-fruits of that constructive fusion between the state and the laboratory on which so many thoughtful people base their hopes of a better world. It was to be free from almost all the tiresome restraints – “red tape” was the word its supporters used – which have hitherto hampered research in this country. It was also largely free from the restraints of economy, for, as it was argued, the nation which can spend so many millions a day on a war can surely afford a few millions a month on productive research in peacetime. "
-----------------------
"Perhaps few or none of the people at Belbury knew what was happening; but once it happened, they would be like straw in fire. What should they find incredible, since they believe no longer in a rational universe? What should they regard as to obscene, since they held that all morality was a mere subjective by-product of the physical and economic situations of men? The time was ripe. From the point of view which is accepted in Hell, the whole history of our Earth had led up to this moment." 

Lewis during The War saw clearly the direction Things were leading, and produced a work of scientifiction that reads like a modern novel, Art Bell, Alex Jones, and Agenda 21 all rolled up into one, and more. I encourage a reading of his entire trilogy, but That Hideous Strength, if you pay attention to current happenings, will set the heart crosswise in ye.

The N.I.C.E. was the first-fruits of that constructive fusion between the state and the laboratory on which so many thoughtful people base their hopes of a better world. It was to be free from almost all the tiresome restraints – “red tape” was the word its supporters used – which have hitherto hampered research in this country. It was also largely free from the restraints of economy, for, as it was argued, the nation which can spend so many millions a day on a war can surely afford a few millions a month on productive research in peacetime. - See more at: http://www.wanliss.com/2011/11/quotes-that-hideous-strength-by-c-s-lewis/#sthash.0pF0HOar.dpuf

The N.I.C.E. was the first-fruits of that constructive fusion between the state and the laboratory on which so many thoughtful people base their hopes of a better world. It was to be free from almost all the tiresome restraints – “red tape” was the word its supporters used – which have hitherto hampered research in this country. It was also largely free from the restraints of economy, for, as it was argued, the nation which can spend so many millions a day on a war can surely afford a few millions a month on productive research in peacetime. - See more at: http://www.wanliss.com/2011/11/quotes-that-hideous-strength-by-c-s-lewis/#sthash.0pF0HOar.dpuf

BOOM goes the dynamite.

The Boomer politicians are behaving according to type, and are eminently indictable. And it IS the Boomers in main that have placed us where we are, and by their insistence on "gimme" legislation, have helped squander any surpluses the nation ever enjoyed. Whenever you see an RV with an "I'm Spending My Children's Inheritance" bumper sticker, that's Boomerthink.

The Boomers took full advantage of the post WW2 economic boom. but never figured out WHY there was a boom: we had bombed our competitors into scrap metal. WE were the industrial powerhouse because we killed the competition. Then we rebuilt them. They never had a clue that the boom would end, so they let themselves get promised impossibly sweet pension deals, and sweet entitlement deals. Well, now the boom is a bust, the money is gone, the Boomer pols think "printing" billions in dollars will not devalue those dollars...It's like watching a 50 year old man on the front lawn waving a stick around and shouting Harry Potter spells, expecting something to happen, expecting them to work.

Blehhhh!

Tonight is CHEAT NIGHT! Pinto beans and Mexican cornbread made by my own self. Garlicky, oniony, jalapeno-ey, cheesey! Om nom nom!

Bela Lugosi starring in "Dracula". I have NEVER seen this before. Arte Johnson's "Renfield" laugh in "Love at First Bite" was spot on!

Saw an excellent "Lost in Space" episode: "Follow the Leader". Doctor Robinson is possessed by an alien spirit, who seeks to take the Jupiter 2 to wreak vengeance on his enemies.

"Star Trek" was "Amok Time", wherein Spock gets a hankerin' for the home fires. Most egregious use of bad King James-speak by actress Celia Lovski. Theodore Sturgeon, you know better!  

"Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" is IN COLOR! "Time Bomb" is the second color episode, a real Cold War thriller wherein Admiral Nelson is hypo-sprayed with a Cesium isotope which will turn him into a nuclear bomb if he gets too close to a reactor. Features the 4-window Seaview (sort of a Lupin red vs. Lupin green), and the first appearance of the Flying Sub. Sexiful!

See also the guest star, Ina Balin, who plays a Soviet double agent:















G'night, everybody!

Waxing WROTH!!

So, the Angry Little Aardvark hears that BIGGER barricades are being erected at great expense to prevent elderly WW2 veterans from viewing the PRIVATELY FUNDED memorial. Also armed guards.

Armed. Guards.

If a nonagenarian vet insists upon seeing HIS memorial, to see the names of his fallen comrades at Iwo Jima, or Omaha Beach, to remember, he runs the risk of being shot. At HIS privately funded memorial.

This is not "budgetary". The administration is spending make-believe money to prosecute a spiteful tantrum. This is Sending a Message. Veterans are not heroes, they are scum. They are The Enemy.

IMMEDIATELY upon hearing this news, I heard this a radio ad. I paraphrase the first clause badly:

"Veterans served well, but when their behavior changes, call 800-XXX-YYYY, and press '1'."

I rest my case.

If this resonates at all, please share. America has changed. The "servants" style themselves as rulers.

Breakfast not at Tiffany's. (I told her NEVER to call me here....)

Himself went to his MARC guinea pig appointment yesterday, and got my peelz. Little tan ovals, that smell like dirty socks. Such a pleasure. I have a one-in-four chance of receiving a placebo (I get the same whatever throughout the trial). On my way home, my face got flaming hot and red. That flush makes me pretty convinced that I have the real thing. (Do not ask on what basis I suspect this. Doom.)

Jeff, my guy at the study, shared some tidbits about my blood work at my behest. My blood sugar level is high. Borderline. *Robot arm flail* Losing more weight will likely fix this. I have lost ten pounds and maintained it for a couple of months, so yesternight I reinstituted the low carb, high protein regimen which works for me. Thirty-eight pounds,and I will be a happy camper. Twenty-five below that, and I will be around my college weight. I may eschew the final stage, a little heft, and my natural stance and walk seems to scream "alpha", and unpleasant people leave me alone. I'm a cross between an ape and Michael Dunn. (My preemie-ness appears to have left me with quasi-dwarfish short legs. Not freaky, but enough...off...to affect my gait. I descend stairs like Doctor Loveless.)

Jeff did not call the ambulance re: my blood sugar, so I am OK to  handle this meself for the nonce. The duration of the study is sufficient to allow me to lose weight, and bring the blood sugar under control. If the end bloodwork  reveals it as still elevated, we shall resort to more drastic measures, like actually seeing a doc about this. (Note: FLUSH! My face is red and hot. The pill is doing its ineffable thing, plus, I slept through the night without needing to "go".) The weight loss should  fix my BP issues as well.

So dinner was chuck steak, grilled. Cheap cut with LOADS of flavor, but Mr. McLeod revealed The Secret: slather a steak with lard. Yes. The relatively lower cooking heat of the lard causes the fat of the steak to fry, imparting an amazing crispness and flavor. Breakfast: leftover steak and two fried eggs. Do NOT freak out over the fat intake. (Picks up a stick of butter and peels it like a banana: "I can eat this. I'm on Atkins!") The biochemical magic of the diet actually lowers triglycerides and such.

Here endeth the symposium on The Health of the Aardvark.

Firing up the Interociter, or summat.

The Aardvark is approved. Really! Waves of approval wash over his diminishing bod (having lost ten pounds and maintaining it before the next bout of de-pounding). MARC, the lab that does medical testing, has OK'd me for the "Gotta go in the middle of the night again" trial. My first dose is on Tuesday. Posted, you shall be kept.
-------------------

The incipient Government shutdown has me extraordinarily filled with ennui, as does the expected arm-flailing. Here is a link to a news site with a breakdown of the earth-shaking effects:
WIS-TV10

"Entitlements" will be unaffected. The POOR will have no worries, so feel free to allay your friend's fears. I'll sleep better if the bounders aren't in D.C.
--------------------

So, your Aardvark is in the throes of depression vile. We have just come off  the stresses of Hell Week at the shop, just having too many jobs at once, besides prepping for Anime Weekend Atlanta. The release from the stressors has me auguring in emotionally. Bleeeah. I could use a SEE-gar, but they are all at the shop, and I am not willing to make that effort. Chocolate milk didn't touch it. This is serious. Where's my lithium orotate supplement?
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Happy week, all.

OH!!

YouTube search: "Smarter Every Day". Outstanding science videos by a Real Rocket Scientist from here in Huntsville, AL.

Tonight....

Tonight on Svengoolie! "The Leech Woman".

We'll see....
---------------------

I picked up the Toho Collection, with "Mothra", "The H Man", and "Battle in Outer Space". Greatly fun stuff! It has both Japanese and English releases, and for "Mothra" and "Space" there is a commentary track. Faboo!

OK.I may have to give Roddenberry his due. The retconners have long said that the Great Bird's motivation in creating "Star Trek" was to help mankind with the evolution of the species to an altruistic, non-capitalistic society. My take has been that he wrote a concept to sell, which was bought, and which helped the evolution of his bank account. Ishiro Honda made his sci-fi movies with an eye toward world peace, and nuclear non-proliferation, at least that's the story from the commentators. I do have more faith in that angle, than the burbling about the altruism of Star Trek and its progeny. The Japanese post-War psyche was a tad ticklish as regards The Bomb, and every opportunity to decry it was utilised agin' it. This continues into the anime age today.

The anti-nuke drumbeat is understandable, and provides the rhythm for the three movies. "Mothra's" "Infant Island" is first revealed as a Bomb-blasted atoll, with a jungle surprise farther inland. "The H-Man" involves fallout-induced spooging, with people exposed turning to suspiciously "Blob"-like gel.  "Battle in Outer Space"is less obvious about the nuke thing, but is a paean to peace.

The films are visually excellent. I have only seen the dubbed versions, as I watch them while I print shirts, and cannot take the time and attention to read subtitles. "H-Man" is a treat, with Paul Frees providing several different voices. I saw part of "Battle" in the '60s on a Dillon High School band trip featuring none other than Ben Bernanke his own self. I remembered the saucers firing their rays, and had wondered what the movie was. Well, now I know. Great stuff!
-------------------

Now we have Star Trek "Operation-Annihilate" on, one of my favorite episodes. It is loaded with extended phaser effects. Very nice. The plastic puke puppet master aliens are effectively creepy, and Spock's battle with the pain of the creature trying to subsume his will is an exercise in stolid Vulcanity.
------------------

"The Leech Woman". Dreadful. (The link is spoiler-filled.)

Their Little Pony - Larceny is Magic.

 

 
On top of it all, the world's smallest pony was abducted?

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

I am loading up on (cheap) vintage anime. Watching "Giant Robo" (spoilers galore!), a quite good mech series in which the mechanical giants do not overshadow the human drama. The soundtrack is breathtaking, as is Ginrei, the Experts of Justice operative with legs that won't quit!



















The story is engaging, revolving around the Shizuma Drive, an energy source that has effectively replaced coal, oil and atomic power generation. But the Shizuma Drive has a dark secret....

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Thank you for bearing with my rant. It is still accurate, but allow me to say that I have not dug a hole and pulled it in after me, nor am I kicking kittens, nor even slapping charitable Whoppers from the clutching hands of the indigent. I will help with the "at hand" stuff, certainly, but the bigger demands for emotional and cognitive caring, well, I'm going dark for awhile, at least until the next Awful Thing surfaces on Facebook.

Like this.
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REALLY looking forward to Svengoolie's new season. Because change.
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Discovering things...apparently beer is to me as gluten is to the Dread Dormomoo. Must find non-wheat beer. My digestion is unhappy, so am spending the morning away from Polite Company.
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Your Aardvark ceases to be an Aardvark this week, and transmogrifies into a Guinea Pig. There is a medical study going on about getting-up-at-night-to-urinate, and I am involved. The drug in question is apparently a first cousin to stuff like Cialis. What has Science done? Tadalafil is also used as a hypertension drug; Cialis is its trade name for...other uses. Let the giggling begin, kiddies.
----------------------------------
Have a lovely Sunday!

The out...SHE BURNS!

I wish to be carefree. Care-free. There is too much to care about. I have been enjoined to care about ice melting, and polar bears having to swim in it. Now I am told that Arctic ice has grown hugely this year. I suppose they want me to care about that, too. The bears may need ice skates

I am far less hirsute than once I was. There are commercials and billboards telling me about hair growth methods. They want me to care about my hair (most of the guys in the ads look better in the "before" shots. They look fatter "after".) My email spam filter is full of things about parts of my body that need improvement by their lights, and I should care about that. I care that they want to separate me from my money to fix problems I don't have. I regularly get phone calls from "firefighters organisations" or "police organisations" who want me to care enough to give money to them so their telemarketers can get paid. (I give to my local departments directly. Don't fall for obvious telemarketing, when the background sounds like the audience at a boxing match with all the other marketers calling all their other marks for funds.) We are often besieged by people intensely interested with our using their method or product to make more money. I have learned that their intensity is really aimed at our bank account. Sorry, I do not believe in altruism, doubly not from a cold-caller. I don't care about them, or their offers.

I have been called upon in the past decade to care about large financial buildings mysteriously telescoping into their own footprints after being hit by airliners. I have been told to care about bearded men hiding in caves plotting our national demise. I have had "lather, rinse, repeat" about Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, now Syria. I am told to care that Israel...whatever. I am told to care about how dreadful our healthcare system is, and that I should care to have my pockets raided to pay for others' healthcare in our dreadful system. I am supposed to care about Congress, and our political process, and representation, of which I see little; thus, I care little. I am supposed to care, because our President and First Lady care. They appear to care more about golf and travel than about my needs. I am supposed to care that groups are upset at my group over things that my group haven't done in a century and a half.

I don't care about these things.

I am supposed to care that you didn't place your order right, so you need me to not go on a weekend with my wife...away...so you won't look as stupid as you are. I am supposed to care that this might offend.

I don't anymore.

There is a thing called Disclosure. It is the Holy Grail of UFO-dom: getting the Guv-mint to admit that there are extraterrestrials, that UFOs are alien spacecraft, and that MacArthur learned to smoke a corn-cob pipe from the Greys in a downed foo-fighter. Never happen. Not caring anymore. And Georgr Noory, I don't care about "Contact", either. Lousy movie. "Cosmos" was much better science fiction.

My wife and I have a life. It is called Work. We do work for tons of people, and the vast majority are ginger-peachy; the snowflakes, and the public school teachers who cannot follow directions and get an order done correctly, and the people who expect my schedule to bend, and who jump ahead of others through their poor planning, well, I'm supposed to CARE that they don't want to look dumb, if they are even capable of realising it. I'm beyond caring.

Gas bombs in Syria. I don't care. Not my problem, not my country, not Our Country's business. I am supposed to care about wars fomented by those who would profit from both sides. I am supposed to care about loathsome diseases largely spread by choice, and to pity (and fund) those who so choose. I am supposed to care about a group that feels disenfranchised for this or that, when there are no rights extant to support their whining, and when what they want is a privilege, not a right. I am supposed to care when people arm-flail and panic at the mention of a gun. Or a knife. Or a spork.

I. Don't Care.
Not. My. Problem.

If you are reading this and have the idea rabbiting through your head "Well, that's not very CHRIS-chun." go ahead. I DON'T CARE. I do not stand before you for judgment.

I'm supposed to care that womyn fear me, because I am a man, and therefore a rapist by nature. According to my spam, they should have no worries. But I don't care. If they want to live like scared twelve-year-olds perpetually telling ghost stories around the campfire, that's their lookout. Watch out for the guy with a hook for a hand.

Environmentalism-ists invariably have a new Dire Prophecy that makes Nostradamus look like an optimist. They are invariably wrong, and have to change their terms, move their goalpost. Not caring.

There is an endless number of things waving at us, saying "Hey, listen!" in a high squeaky voice. There is a care surplus...every day if it's not GMO, it's the bees, or aspartame, or the latest heresy spouted by a huckstervangelist...or our President. It's Lindsay Graham flouncing about worrying us over nukes in Charleston Harbor.

Fukushima, anyone?

Every day brings new things to care about. Well, I'm done. I have a care gap. We cannot care anymore. Those synapses have burned out. The Giving Tree has withered.

And I don't care that it has.

Send three boxtops and 25 cents in coin to....

The Aardvark loves and APPRECIATES his customers from all over the Western Spiral Arm of the galaxy. He would be unable to buy toys and oatmeal for the 'varklets without you. One thing puzzles him.

Why the need for all the handholding during online transactions? In his yout', the Aardvark would order Fun Things from the back of cereal boxes, f'rinstance. He would fill out the form, address and stamp the envelope, include the twelve boxtops and the requisite moolah. The post would take it away, and 6-8 weeks later, the wondrous toy would arrive. No-one called me to say "This is Kellogg's, and we got your order to-day! We have opened the envelope.". Or a week later, "This is Kellogg's again, we have processed your order, and will put it in the box in ten days. We shall mail it two Mondays hence.".

Like that.

There seems to be a neurotic assumption that EVERY business online is just out to GET you, that swindling is in the air, and that a spotless record on eBay, say, means absolutely nothing. Back in the mail-order days of the Fifties and Sixties, we cast our bread on the commercial waters, and our goodies would return Parcel Post. No worries, other than the delicious anticipation. Six weeks? We were ecstatic to get the thing.

What has happened?

Bless me, for I have....

I was in the wilds of Lexington, KY this weekend, at a little anime con. In thirty-three years of huckstering at fandom conventions, your Aardvark has seen a lot. Seen a lot. He normally handles it with grace and aplomb, as well as dispatch. Not so this weekend, and I don't know why....

One of the downsides of fannish and cosplay activities in a culture adrift from the moorings like self-control and modesty is the issue of people almost wearing costumes. Or almost wearing regular clothes. The thing du jour this weekend was shorts. Cutoff shorts. Short shorts. One chick wore black shorties with a black studded bikini top.  What is normally pretty much just part of the scenery at a con became Noticeable-Very- and difficult to ignore or turn away from. The sort of thing Warm Thoughts can be made of.

Now, I am married, and faithful. I try to stay away from what might compromise that estate, so I was intensely uncomfortable with this situation. I was thinking about this, and other issues congruent, especially the "slut walk" phenomenon whereby young women parade their non-responsibility for any consequences of their actions, period (Rigel Kent wrote eloquently of this over the weekend). Much bloody ink has been spilled over this point. The bottom line is that there is no excuse for rape, yes? If anyone suggests that a woman might have ANY contribution toward having been raped, ALL the umbrage is taken. "YOU'RE SAYING IT'S THE WOMAN'S FAULT!. YOU'RE BLAMING HER!! You're using SHAMING language."

Again, there is no excuse for a man to rape a woman. (Note: changing one's mind the morning after does not constitute rape.) However, it IS possible to provide a convivial environment for Unlawful Carnal Knowledge to take place, providing an environment for Warm Thoughts. (I do NOT buy the feminist line that  "Rape is just about power". That is just Marxist cant.)

[Allow the assurance for all my Reader that your Aardvark is NOT in stir for making improper advances, or for being anything other than a Consummate Gentleman.]

The young women at the con, and all the innocent slut walkers are guilty of something, however. They are being unkind. Unkind to thoughtlessly(?) titillate the young men, the older men, around them. The "Do unto others" rubric applies. It is not kind, it is not helpful to subject others to unwanted or unneeded inappropriate display. Clear? Of course, in an increasingly narcissist society, this may not be simple to grasp. Makes me unhappy, makes me uncomfortable, makes me think unpleasant things about you, like "You don't care about others.", "You are none too bright.", "Did you even think before you left the house?  Like that.

I want to "keep me only unto" the Dread Dormomoo. I do not appreciate what might skew my vision from that goal, that might cause my eye to wander.

"Oh, that is YOUR problem Mr. Aardvark. You should not oughta look!"

Ahhh, Grasshopper. The marksman does not shoot where there is no target.

It is the stuff of tangos.

A little Adam West fun...with VO by Paul Frees!

Saturday

I really hope I am never killed as a hate crime. It would be terrible to be so much MORE dead because the killer hated me.

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The day has been fine. I built the bookshelves for The Dread Dormomoo, and we feasted on what should be termed "Tennessee Valley Oysters": boiled peanuts. I did a crockpot version overnight, and they are wonderful!

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Watched "Ghidorah" for the first time today. 1964 never looked better! I must confess to watching the American version. The dub was not bad.  Akiko Wakabayashi played "Mas Selina Salno, Princess of Sergina" in the film. She is best known to folks like us as "Aki", "Tiger" Tanaka's girl Kinyoubi in "You Only Live Twice". Lovely gel!

The slapstick in Ghidorah, especially between Godzilla and Rodan provides an amusing break in the fighting and suspense. Overall a fun flick.

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Amazon has a lot of the kaiju movies on their video service. Very good stuff!

Have a lovely Sunday, and then Labor Day. We do not plan to labor.

A Paul Frees fix for Jay:

This is the opening to a tragically amusing CBS offering in the late sixties:






Paul Frees did a standout narration. No-one says "man" quite like he.

In Other News...

Met with Vidad and family on Monday. He had written a commercial for Aardvark Screenprinting.

A ten-minute commercial.

We recorded it. Riatsila voiced Jean-Luc Picard and Mr. Scott. I voiced Kirk, McCoy, Stan Aardvark.

Vidad stole the show. In our ten-minute radio ad.

It will be put up on YouTube, with a link here in a few days. I will shop it to podcasts and college stations. (We have a couple of 'casts already). If anyone likes it and wants to link it in Reddit, feel free. We want this to go viral.

I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas!

The Creature...

Been to Orlando and back. I'm sure this sounds fun.

I am SO busy (or at least, so disorganised in my time management) that I have little time to read dead-tree books. No leisurely hour-long lunches spent scarfing whilst vacationing on Perelandra, or Camazotz (reminds me of Orlando with less color), or time-traveling through the 20th century. I have a Kindle, which seems to lend itself to shorter stints, but as my reading speed drops by half when I use it, it frustrates.

Ah, but audiobooks! The Kindle supports them, and Riatsila and I spent the 20-hour round trip listening to a horror story, a true one. Not Mengele's diary, nor Mussolini's train schedules, no. This is global horror, and a tale I have wished to read for years.

The Creature From Jekyll Island By Edward Griffin

 (The Creature From Jekyll Island is also an hour+ long audio presentation. The link sends you to a .pdf transcript with a link to the audio as well.)

Creature tells the story of the creation of the Federal Reserve, starting with a secret meeting of men who controlled 1/7 of the world's wealth. From this compelling start, Griffin weaves a tale which not only will make your jaw drop and raise your hackles, but will explain simply and plainly How Money Works, and Why It Doesn't Anymore. It may be the most important secular book book I have ever read.

I cannot recommend it more highly.

My new hero!

The Monolith Monsters

Svengoolie was running "The Mummy's Hand", which I opted to shake off. Instead, the Dread Dormomoo and I are watching Universal's "The Monolith Monsters", one of the finest late Fifties SF thrillers. No A-bombs, no giant bugs; instead a meteor lands in the desert and becomes a force of nature. No malevolent will, just mindless mayhem.

I am reminded of Washington, DC.

The obsidianesque shards begin to grow when wet. The rains descended, the floods came, the rocks grew. They grow into towering crystals until the ground no longer supports them, and they topple, crashing to splintered ruin on the ground. Then those shards begin to grow and spread. Dreadful catastrophe approaches the little desert town of San Angelo.

I cannot recommend this movie enough. It was a refreshingly different concept when made, and remains so today. The visual effects are well done, the miniature work is apparently shot at high speed to give a feeling of weight and menace to the growing monolith crystals, as well as to the solution at the end of the movie.

Les Tremayne is standout in his portrayal of the town's frustrated newspaper publisher. SF stalwart William Schallert has a fun little bit as a meteorologist being pressed as to when the rain will stop.
Here is how I got it.

The 'Vark Opines, wherein he deals with Him who is Who.

Peter Capaldi announced as the new Doctor

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

I do not know about this actor. I did not know about Eccleston, Tennant, or Smith, so it's up for grabs. I am reasonably assured that despite the darker opinions on the Internet, Moffat and Co. have no interest in torpedoing their cash cow. (Pause and meditate upon that image). We've had Dark and Brooding, Pretty Boy, and Pardon Me, I Have a Face Like a Shoe. This guy has the Look that may make for an interesting personality. I'm willing to give him the chance.
As I said on Facebook when tasked by a young friend, I really could care less. It is a good show, I will watch it, unless it is unexpectedly execrable. I believe that it transcends the actor. Doctor Who survived Colin Baker.

Yeah. I went there.

So here's the thing...I see people kvetching about members using Biblical texts in their comments on other sites, particularly conservative or Tea Party-type fora . "Some of us don't want Bible verses thrown in our faces..." or somesuch. (That was a quasi-quote, NOT an attack.) The hilarious thing is that attitude is what has placed us in our current situation (and I speak of the West in general, not just the YouEss of AY). A culture inculcated in the attitude of "Do to others as you want them to do to you." is going to be a more pleasant place to live than one where it is everyone for himself. The West was built on the foundation of the Biblical text; from the Law of Moses to the Golden Rule, our system of laws was based upon that. (Please note: I am not making the absurd assertion that "everyone was Christian".) Law was at least somewhat viewed as an objective authority by which to govern our lives, passions and behaviors. England has quite self-consciously denied that foundation, and is in the painful process of crashing and burning to the music of Islamic ululation. These United States have done similarly, legal precedent (judges' opinions) rules the day, and we have no objective cultural plumbline by which to measure ourselves. By denying our foundation, we are cast adrift on the tide of popular opinion, so please view the inclusion of a Biblical quote as an attempt to provide an anchor point in our national slide toward the abyss.

We are where we are because it became chic to be irreligious, and to deny our cultural roots. The lawlessness of our "leadership" is the endgame to this scenario. Without an objective standard, it all becomes a battle of opinions, and mine is as valid as yours (or as in-valid).

The Bible quotes that you decry are ultimately attempts to rescue our culture, our nation. It will be good for you, too. "Rising tide" and all that.