Top 10 politicians' lines... and why they're always lies

Good friend Danny de Garcia II forwarded this piece from his own blog: "Top 10 Politician Lines (And Why They're Lies)". I am directing y'all to it in turn because I found it to be a brief but noteworthy essay detailing the most commonly heard cliches out of the lines of incumbents and candidates... and why we should never take them at face value.

Here's a sample...

4. “I’m a leader that people can count on.”
Technically speaking, if elected officials obeyed the Constitution, there would be very little evil that they would be allowed to work against the people. It’s a dangerous thing to believe in men.

5. “I’m not dominated by party politics.”
(Yet they’re running with a party label. ‘Nuff said.)

For more of the list visit The Official FALCON Blog.

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Fan-made GEARS OF WAR 3 trailer MUST be seen to be believed!

I wound up driving past Epic Games' studio in Cary the other week. Wasn't much to see. But I couldn't help feeling like Charlie Bucket from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: wondering if there were Oompa-Loompas inside. But chasing each other around with chainsaws.

Anyway...

What you are about to see is not an official trailer for Gears of War 3. This is something that a group of fans collaborated on and... honestly, I think this is a much better piece than the "Ashes to Ashes" trailer.

Focusing on Augustus Cole and with Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt" helping to set the tone, here is "What Have I Become?"

That is just plum haunting. Hey Epic Games, hire these guys now!

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Creepy new biotechnology

Researchers have created a new type of solar energy cell that uses the corneas of blowflies as the primary method of gathering light for conversion into electricity.

Meanwhile those brilliant eggheads at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - who previously brought us such wonders as the Internet and the Global Positioning System - have developed a new technology that turns humans into batteries for powering gadgets like cellphones (but for now is being considered primarily for use in the military). Thankfully, artificial intelligence has yet to arise that would no doubt enslave us to the Matrix.

Elsewhere in the world, the concept of the In Vitro Meat Habitat has recently been introduced. There's really no other way to put it: this is a house made out of meat.

And while you are lounging in your living room of liverwurst, what more fitting attire than clothing grown from bacteria?

After reading stuff like this, I can't shake the notion that somewhere, out there in this all too scary world, somebody is hard at work on making Soylent Green...

Yeah you laugh now. But just watch. It wouldn't surprise me if sometime during the lifetime of most of us that this will happen... if not at least seriously suggested by politicians, "experts", whatever.

The microbe-grown clothing is pretty cool though. If I recall my comic books correctly, that is much like how Tony Stark manufactures his current Iron Man armor: with bacteria "growing" it via nanotechnology. So that might be worth watching...

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Guillermo del Toro is directing a big-budget adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS!

But that's not all: in addition to being directed by del Toro, At The Mountains of Madness is also being produced by James Cameron!

And... wait for it (like anyone wouldn't be expecting it these days)... it's going to be shot in 3-D!

Mash down here to read more about the news that will send waves of joygasm across legions of geeks throughout the world.

Lovecraft's classic tale of ancient horror in the Antarctic, brought to the screen by the director of Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth, with the pioneer of the most groundbreaking 3-D filmmaking of the modern era on board as producer...

I am totally stoked about this. If it's going to be 3-D it might as well be done right and if it's going to be anything at all to do with H.P. Lovecraft well, I can think of nobody better to helm this than Guillermo del Toro.

And let's face it: there are some movies which should be made in 3-D.

And then there are some movies which should not be made in 3-D. And possibly even not made at all...

Truly, Yogi Bear in 3-D is this week's sign that the Apocalypse is upon us.

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So busy lately...

...and there's been precious little time for blogging. A shame, that, 'cuz according to the stats this site's readership has been increasing this summer rather than going into the usual "lull".

For the moment, I'll try to make up for things by posting this portrait of Chewbacca riding a giant squirrel while fighting Nazis.

I can only wish that I had the skillz to pull off an image that awesome! As it is, somebody forwarded it to me this morning, and it was too good not to share. Kudos to whoever it was who executed this startling depiction.

EDIT 4:20 a.m. 07-29-2010: That picture has become crazy popular in the past 24 hours across the Internets and The Official Star Wars Blog has tracked down the artist who created it! A dude named Tyler Edlin is responsible for it... and this was a piece originally commissioned as a wedding present! Stranger and stranger. And I wouldn't mind having this hanging on my own wall, to be honest :-)

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What happened when Westboro Baptist Church tried their antics at Comic-Con?

In a word: hilarity!

Rev. Fred Phelps and his demented progeny came to San Diego on Thursday to, for whatever reason makes sense to the inner fog of their warped minds, "protest" at this year's San Diego Comic-Con. What the world's biggest comic book/pop culture convention has done to rile the "God Hates Fags" loons, I have no idea...

...but the geeks of Comic-Con certainly knew how to respond in kind!

ComicsAlliance has a bunch more photos of the counter-protest, which also included numerous "robots, magical anime girls, Trekkies, Jedi and...kittens?"

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This week...

...we begin shooting the craziest film project that I've yet embarked upon!

How crazy? Looks like I'm gonna have to be notifying the local law enforcement agencies about it so that we won't be getting arrested during filming. Considering that we've a special guest star who's come all the way from western Europe, the last thing we want happening is our lil' movie creating an international diplomatic crisis.

Expect some production photos soon.

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He shot his wife with toilet paper

I would pay good money to see that headline depicted as an illustration in the National Police Gazette.

It happened folks... and not just anywhere but right here in Reidsville, North Carolina (though more than a few friends have noted that this sort of thing is already inherent to this town's nature).

Here's the story from Fox 8 WGHP...

A 55-year-old North Carolina woman was taken to the hospital after her husband loaded a gun with toilet paper and shot her in the back early Tuesday morning, according to the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office.

Lonnie Irvin Pinnix, 38, of 951 Garrison Rd., was charged with assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly shooting his wife after she returned to their home shortly after midnight.

According to the sheriff's office, Darlene Pinnix came home and found her husband agitated. She lay down on the bed, but Lonnie Pinnix held a pistol and told her to get up. Before she could, he fired, hitting her in the back.

Darlene Pinnix suffered a powder burn from the gunshot. She was taken to the hospital for treatment.

Lonnie Pinnix told police he loaded the pistol with toilet paper instead of bullets and shot his wife because she would not leave.

His bond was set at $1,000. He's scheduled to appear in court August 11.

I know this area has been hit especially hard by the economic downturn... but it's still pretty bad when a man has been reduced to loading his shootin' irons with toilet paper. I mean, if you're going to get serious with non-lethal loads, at least consider using a 12-gauge double-barreled shotgun firing a load of rock salt...

Let's see Charmin or Scott do that!

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It's that new trailer for TRON LEGACY!

As of last night there's a bunch of us that are plotting to make it to Comic-Con next year in San Diego. None of us have been to one so we figured we'd make an epic cross-country road trip out of it.

I just wish I could have been at Comic-Con this year, 'cuz this afternoon that's where Disney unloaded this intense trailer for Tron Legacy!

If you can't watch the YouTube embed, don't fret 'cuz this thing is pretty much everywhere tonight.

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Darth Vader robs Long Island bank

So I'm able to get back into blogging this evening and the perfect story lands in my lap for it...

A man dressed as Darth Vader - complete with helmet and cape but curiously camouflage pants - robbed a Chase bank in Setauket on Long Island in New York this morning. "Vader", described as being 6'2", brandished a handgun at the bank teller (I'm compelled to comment: "So uncivilized...") before fleeing the premises with a drawer-full of cash.

Ummm... just, wow.

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A thought about God and desire...

Regardless of who we are, in the end God gives each of us nothing less than what we most sincerely desire. If we desire God, He abundantly gives us that relationship. If we don't want God at all, He will grant that absence. When nothing else is left, it can't be said that He has been less than fair to us.

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Going to finally see INCEPTION tonight...

...which will bring the total number of movies that I've seen this summer to three. And I ain't reviewed any of 'em yet! So I'll prolly unload those tomorrow.

(Hey, it's hard to see and write about movies when you're prepping to shoot your own. And I ain't even mentioned the international cast that's coming in next week for this thing...)

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This is the kind of stuff that I think up at 5 in the morning...

Owning a Bible makes one no more righteous than owning a bicycle makes one Lance Armstrong.

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Listen to Jeffrey Sykes' song "Eau Claire" on SoundClick

Local writer and musician Jeffrey Sykes has a song up on SoundClick that is currently burning a path up the charts! It's called "Eau Claire" and you can click here to listen to it. I thought it has a nice sound to it so as with everything else that I find particularly kewl or interesting, I'm passing it along to y'all as well :-)

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Look! A trailer for the third TRANSFORMERS movie!

Made ya look! I should have been honest and said "Optimus Prime has a trailer for the third Transformers movie!"

Here is the leader of the Autobots, who finally gets a Generation 1-style trailer for his third live-action film outing...

There's plenty more photos of vehicular-mode Transformers and associated wreckage on Ain't It Cool News this afternoon.

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Congrats to Spain on winning the World Cup!

But if we have to listen to vuvuzelas again, it'll be only too soon!

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