Full report on BUTT-NUMB-A-THON 9: First looks at CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR, SWEENEY TODD, MONGOL... and a review of the most offensive movie of all time!

Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News and me on the night before Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9

So here it is: my review of Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9, the annual 24-hour long film festival hosted by Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, which was held at the Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz in Austin, Texas this past weekend on December 8th through 9th. It might be worth noting that according to the yearbook that we all received, I was the attendee who was from the most obscure town anywhere: a miniscule spot-on-the-mind somewhere in North Carolina, as opposed to being from Austin or Los Angeles or Atlanta.

This was also my first Butt-Numb-A-Thon.

First film festival ever for that matter.

Heck, this was my first time in Texas, period.

I left my friend Deborah's house around 10 a.m. and was in Austin about 30 minutes later. I parked at the Hilton a few blocks away and headed to the Ritz. Quite a colorful crowd milling around outside, including a number of folks that I'd met at Harry's get-together at the chili honky-tonk the night before (hey Michael, I didn't see ya inside but I hope ya got in dude!). There was a short line for people who got invites, and when I got to the table I gave them my name and was presented with a numbered wristband and an envelope. Inside were three tickets: one for the t-shirt and poster, one for the goody bag and one that the girl told me was for "the big giveaway" sometime during the show. The wristband's number was your assigned seat.

I picked up my t-shirt and tube with posters, then got the goody bag. That included nifty loot like the Battlestar Galactica: Razor DVD, some independent film DVDs and the Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9 Yearbook, with names and pictures of everyone who was invited to attend. Also got a set of Star Wars mini-busts from Gentle Giant: all six of the bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back, plus Darth Vader. Very nice!

Before I ascended up to the theater an Alamo staff member asked me to open my backpack, to see if there was any contraband like recording devices etc. Nope, nothing there: I came in completely bereft of gadgetry, per instructions.

Okay, "Butt-Numb-A-Thon" was aptly named, 'cuz while most people got those nice plushy seats to sit back in and enjoy the show, a few folks including myself got hard folding chairs! But I didn't mind: a little discomfort helps to keep you awake and alert. Get too comfortable and your neurobiology lulls you into a state of contentment that's hard to shake out of. And I'd flown all the way to Texas for this and didn't want to waste a moment (or money).

Things kicked off right at 11:30 a.m. with an intro by Harry, wearing a Santa hat. A video camera piped Harry's head onto the screen. He gave a big shout-out to people who came from Atlanta and Minnesota. And then Harry announced that EVERYONE was getting a free Toshiba HD-DVD player! I looked at the guy next to me and asked "Is he serious? He's kidding right?" Nope, Harry was serious all right. That "mystery ticket" was what we'd use to redeem for our players at the end of the show. Harry wasn't foolin' around when he told people coming in by plane to have plenty of space in their check-in luggage. On my way to the airport the next day I had to have the player and my posters shipped home 'cuz I didn't expect such generous loot. I'm looking forward to messing around with it once it arrives. Up 'til now I haven't committed to buying into anything from the HD-DVD/Blu-ray format war until the dust settles. And regular DVD still looks pretty darned good on our setup (37-inch LCD HDTV with a great upscaling player) so it might still be awhile before I start investing heavily in titles for it, but in the meantime at least I'll get to watch Transformers in high def. In addition to 300 and The Bourne Identity, which came free with the player.

And so Butt-Numb-A-Thon was up and running, warming things up with Hobo With A Shotgun...

I'd never seen this before but I loved it! That was followed by the trailers for Popcorn (which I vaguely remember from my high school days), Pinocchio's Birthday Party (has that early-70s "coming down off the drugs" look), Happy Birthday To Me, The Party Animal, and Stunt Rock, which one of the guys next to me said is something of a Butt-Numb-A-Thon tradition...

As that one was winding down, Drafthouse owner Tim League came out decked out like the wizard in the Stunt Rock trailer and banged his staff on the stage, sending confetti flying everywhere.

Then there was a product demo of the HD-DVD player that we were getting. We saw a bit of Miami Vice, including a neat feature that shows you what kind of planes are good for drug running and what routes you want to follow to get your "Guatemalan Gold" from Central America to Florida. We were also shown some of the German version of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which really opened my eyes as to how beautiful high-def video can look on a big screen. The last time I saw Terminator 2 this good was the summer of '91.

And then things got cranked-up full-bore and the real movies started...

- THE GREAT McGINTY (1940)

This is why I immediately came to love the whole Butt-Numb-A-Thon experience: because it was 24 hours of discovering, for the most part, movies that I had either never heard of or otherwise might have ever not had the pleasure of enjoying.

Preston Sturges sold this screenplay for $10 and wound up winning the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay (he also directed it). The prologue at the beginning of the movie informs us that "This is the story of two men who met in a banana republic." Ever since watching The Great McGinty I've wondered if that's a double entendre and that the "banana republic" in question isn't the south-of-the-border location where McGinty is presently living in but America... 'cuz strip away the Depression-era setting and The Great McGinty is a pretty damning indictment against modern-day American politics. Brian Donlevy plays Dan McGinty: a down-and-out bum in a major city of an unnamed state who goes from homeless tramp to political enforcer, and then all the way to mayor and governor. But to be a viable candidate, McGinty's handlers have to spin him as being a family man. So he gets into a "marriage of convenience" with his secretary (who comes complete with kids from a previous relationship) and this sets up the "one crazy minute" that causes him to lose it all by the end of the movie.

I was reminded quite a bit about The Last Hurrah: another great film about politics and the corruption that comes with it. The best line of The Great McGinty is by the political boss played by Akim Tamiroff, who at one point tells McGinty that "In this town I'm all the parties!" Which is probably far more true these days than Preston Sturges ever imagined when he made this movie. A solid opening for a (largely) great slate of films.

After The Great McGinty we saw more trailers: The 'Burbs, Bachelor Party (both with Tom Hanks) and then for no apparent reason (or was there?) the trailer for Amin: The Rise and Fall, which is a movie about Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. The highlight of that trailer was Amin's cutting a piece of meat out of one of his victims and devouring it...

Pretty sick stuff and at the time it didn't make much sense, but I realize now that Harry was trying to inure us to the pain of what was to come later in the program...

- CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR (2007)

Three things I learned from this film...

1. Never accept wine bottles from CIA agents.

2. Baptist girls are HOT! (but those of us who married Baptist girls know this already.)

3. Foreign policy should not be made by those with no grasp of history and too much grasp of Armageddon.

Mike Nichols's movie (with screenplay by Aaron Sorkin) about Charlie Wilson, a member of the U.S. House from Texas who convinced his fellow members of Congress to supply arms and funding to the Mujahideen in the years following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Tom Hanks plays Wilson. Julia Roberts is Texas socialite and activist Joanne Herring. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is in a plum role as rogue CIA agent Gust Avrakotos. Ned Beatty and Amy Adams also figure into the main cast.

I kept thinking that Charlie Wilson in this movie was much like Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List in that they are both very materialistic and corrupt men, who come to care for others and go to great lengths to protect and save them. In Wilson's case, this means getting weaponry to the Afghan freedom fighter so they can take down Russian helicopters and tanks. Unfortunately, at least as depicted in Charlie Wilson's War, Wilson's motives in and of themselves might be a pure thing. But the means to fulfilling those motives are quickly tainted by people like Joanne Herring and other "Christian activists" who see American involvement in the Mid-East as fulfilling the will of God. Complicating matters is the fact that although Wilson wants to help the Afghans, it can't look too obvious that American munitions are entering the country... because that might honk-off the Soviets more than anyone really wants to.

I have no idea if the real-life Joanne Herring was ever like how she's depicted by Julia Roberts in this movie. If Joanne Herring really was like this, I hope and pray that she's wised-up by now. I'm a Christian, and this kind of playing games with the lives of people in the name of God disgusts me to no end. It's faith turned to blind ideology for sake of worldly power. "God" is no longer something that compels these people to change themselves but instead becomes a tool – or a weapon – that these people are using to change the world... and it always destroys more than it ever creates anything good.

And I say this as sincere a follower of Christ as I can possibly strive to be: that too many Christians in this world - and especially America - don't do a damned thing with the brains that God gave them. But I'll talk more about that later: Farewell Uncle Tom was still 15 hours away.

In the end, the American aid to the Afghans turns the tide against the Soviets and the Russians are forced to retreat. The "good Christians" like Herring and so-called "right wing" politicians are satisfied that America has won, no doubt because God was on their side. And then they basically tell the Afghans to pick up their own mess. Charlie Wilson's War doesn't elucidate on what happens after that, and it doesn't really need to either: the United States may have won the proxy war in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the short term. But the American government's failure to follow-up on its involvement would sow the seeds for discontent that in a few years time would make way for the Taliban to come to power in Afghanistan, and give rise to prominence for a former supporter of the Mujahideen by the name of Osama bin Laden.

I think that Charlie Wilson's War is a more effective film than the recent spate of movies about the Iraq situation. And I think that people will tune into it for two reasons. One is that Iraq is a war that's still going on right now and folks go to movies to escape having to think about news like that for a few hours, not to pay money to be confronted by it. And second, unlike those movies, Charlie Wilson's War doesn't hit you square in the face with what the filmmakers want you to go away from this movie believing about their agenda. They let you "suss things out" for yourself and let you draw your own conclusions.

All things considered, Charlie Wilson's War was a strong entry for the first new movie on the program, with great performances by Hanks, Roberts and especially Hoffman. There are also some pretty effective sequences in which we see the Afghans using their new toys against the Soviet military.

After Charlie Wilson's War it was 3:50 p.m and Harry announced that next on the agenda was Pickup on South Street. We got a ten-minute break and then more trailers: A Bomb For A Dictator, a 60s/70s-era spot from the Will Rogers Institute promoting immunization, and Mr. No Legs.

- PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (1953)

A noir-ish tale of honor among thieves, with a heaping dash of McCarthy-era anti-Communist paranoia thrown into the mix. That it stars the indomitable Richard Widmark (hey Harry how about The Long Ships for next year's program?) in a rather uncharacteristic role for him makes it all the more fun. Widmark plays three-time loser pickpocket Skip McCoy, who steals from the way wrong purse on a subway. Mainly: McCoy quick-handed heists a microfilm from the purse of Candy (Jean Peters) who’s been hired to be a courier by a ring of Commie spies, which includes here ex-boyfriend Joey (Richard Kiley). Soon everyone is coming after McCoy: the Commies, the police (especially a captain played by Murvyn Vye who wants nothing more than to get McCoy with a fourth conviction, sending him away for life), and Candy herself.

I liked everything about this film. Just a darned perfect movie rife with great dialogue, editing and action (maybe a bit harsh in a movie for its time... especially regarding violence toward women). But it's the characters that made this movie shine so much for me, especially Moe (beautifully played by Thelma Ritter), a stoolie for the police whose biggest dream is a nice cemetery plot instead of an ignominious burial at Potter's Field. Indeed, it's Moe who gives, in my mind anyway, the best speech of the entire film, and it sadly sums up a lot of what our world has turned into: "I have to go on making a living so I can die."

By this point I was beginning to discern a pattern. It seemed that Harry intentionally programmed movies that reflect on the corruption of human nature, and how in our own way each of us attempts to deal with it. In The Great McGinty we saw how the lust for power lures a man to greatness before destroying his life in the end. In Charlie Wilson's War it is a powerful man who is corrupt (and seems to revel in it at times) who tries to rise above it... but in the end it becomes an open question as to whether he was right at all to have tried to follow through on his good intentions. Ironically in Pickup on South Street we have Skip McCoy, a man who by all accounts should be driven by fatigue and despair to stay committed to corruption, yet he's the one who manages to escape (with a pretty girl in tow, to boot).

After Pickup on South Street it was time for a break. When we came back, we saw the new trailer for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian...

...and then Ain't It Cool News's Drew McWeeny - AKA "Moriarty" - did an on-stage interview with Mark Johnson, one of the movie's producers. This was followed-up by a five-minute segment of footage that for the most part hadn't been seen by the public before. A lot of the effects were unfinished, but it was pretty cool to check out Reepicheep in action, as well as Warwick Davis as a dwarf. We also heard that Eddie Izzard would be voicing Reepicheep.

You may have heard by now that apparently Rambo was programmed but that Sylvester Stallone didn't send it along because a lot of the effects weren't finished. I can understand that, along with apparently why Cloverfield didn't make the event (even though it's safe to say that those were the two movies that were most anticipated for this Butt-Numb-A-Thon). But to help assuage our grief Stallone sent two clips from Rambo (along with a nice note telling us that if we didn't like it, that Rambo would come while we were sleeping and slit our throats). The first is as Rambo is taking the people up the river and Julie Benz's character is trying to wheedle some background story out of him. Rambo mentions being a Vietnam vet and how he might still have a father somewhere. The next clip takes place at night and has Rambo's boat assaulted by river pirates. Pretty violent, even for a Rambo movie. I've a good feeling about this though: just as Rocky Balboa brought the Rocky character back to his roots, I think that Rambo might swing that series away from the Eighties cartoonish caricature that John Rambo has become and back to the grim underpinnings of First Blood.

More trailers: The Secret of Magic Island (they're animals... that act like people!!)...

...Big Trouble in Little China...

...and Thunder Cops, which I remember mostly for a lot of gunplay, a lot of mysticism and a lot of tiny flying killer toy helicopters...

It was 6:05 p.m. at this point and time for...

- MONGOL (2007)

The breakout hit of the show. This Russian-produced film by Sergei Bodrov chronicles the early years and career of Temujin (spelled "Temudgin" in the subtitles and played as an adult by Tadanobu Asano), a youth from the steppes of Mongolia who history would come to know and fear as Ghengis Khan.

Thematically, Mongol reminded me quite a lot of Conan the Barbarian: the whole thing about "that which does not kill you can only make you stronger", as we see Temujin betrayed by allies and repeatedly imprisoned (and escaping just as often). I thought that Mongol was fairly accurate to the existing accounts of Temujin, with a few details loosely interpreted and a number of things omitted entirely, like how Temujin killed his half-brother at the age of 13. According to longtime legend, Temujin was also born while clutching a blood clot in his fist: a Mongolian omen that meant the child would be a great leader. We don't see that in this movie. Maybe we will in a flashback later on because Mongol is the first of a planned trilogy about the great Khan's life. Plenty of battle and blood-spilling here (and most will probably wonder how much influence 300 had on this production) but it never overwhelms the character-driven storytelling of Mongol. Who would have thought that the warrior king who eventually subdued half the world and brought panic to Russia was also a loving husband and family man?

I will gladly see Mongol again in a theater when it comes out domestically in June 2008. Mongol is a two-hour movie, but is such a sweeping epic that it feels much longer and I didn't check my watch until the credits rolled, so enthralled was I by the film.

It was during Mongol that I had my first real meal at an Alamo Drafthouse: the Porky's Pepperoni Pizza. And now I know why this place is so popular, because the food is terrific! It’s cooked to order too. And for about 8 bucks it was a pretty good amount of pizza. I also spent $11 for a bottomless soft drink that sustained me throughout Butt-Numb-A-Thon: not a bad deal at all. If I'm ever back in Austin, especially with family or friends, I will definitely give Tim League and his crew some patronage again.

There was another break and at around 8:20 p.m Drew McWeeny came out on stage with Jim Morris and Lindsey Collins from Pixar Animation to talk about the studio's upcoming film WALL-E. I must sadly admit that I haven't seen a Pixar movie during an initial theatrical run nearly often enough. I will be there on opening day for WALL-E. This may be the best CGI work that Pixar has ever done: just gosh-darned beautiful eye candy that looks extremely real. But more than that, based on the four clips that we were shown, I think that WALL-E is going to be classic silent storytelling (for the most part) of a kind that we haven't seen since the days of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. Pixar's Morris also told us that at any given time, the studio is working on about four projects and that they now have a schedule for one new movie a year through 2012.

The Pixar presentation wrapped-up at 8:45 p.m. and Harry came back on the big screen, wearing a red jacket with the cryptic "BnL" logo that we saw in the WALL-E clips. That thing about how the movies had been about human corruption? Harry confirmed that in his lead-up to the next film: The Abominable Dr. Phibes.

But first... more trailers! There was one for The Exterminator (I actually rented that one a long time ago), a commercial for pizza, and then a trailer for something called Sorceress, which looked like schlock from the fantasy-laden days of the early Eighties that gave us real classics like Beastmaster, Krull and Yor: Hunter From the Future (okay I may be going too far with that last one...). I mostly remember the Sorceress trailer because of the giant floating head of the woman with Death Star laserbreath.

- THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES (1971)

"He looks like a demonic Captain Kangaroo."

-– Me, to a guy sitting next to me, during The Abominable Dr. Phibes at Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9, Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz in Austin, Texas on December 8th, 2007

The first Vincent Price film that Butt-Numb-A-Thon has ever shown! I think I may have heard of this one no more than three times over the years. I'm telling y'all here and now, Butt-Numb-A-Thon seriously has left me wondering what other great movies have I missed during my life. In that regard, as a celebration of all films and opening up new appreciation for those that don't get nearly enough respect and admiration, I think that Butt-Numb-A-Thon succeeded wildly (it sure did for me).

The Abominable Dr. Phibes is six scoops of crazy with sprinkles on top. Price is Anton Phibes: a brilliant musician and theologian who is thought to have died in a car wreck while rushing to get to his ill wife... who was herself in surgery. Alas, poor Victoria Phibes dies on the operating table! So a now disfigured Dr. Phibes goes into seclusion and spends the next several years plotting revenge on the doctors and nurses who he blames for killing his wife. But he doesn't just murder them: he devises horrible methods of death that are inspired by the Ten Plagues of Egypt from the Book of Exodus (my favorite was probably the frog mask). Loud in sound and color, The Abominable Dr. Phibes is a camp horror delight!

10:30 p.m now, time for a break. Harry announced that the next movie would be a perfect follow-up to the previous one: Tim Burton's new film Sweeney Todd, starring Johnny Depp. Which I knew absolutely nothing about other than seeing the title a few times in the past months. But hey, it's a Tim Burton movie and it's got Johnny Depp in it so I figured it had to be good. I didn't ask questions: just settled in to enjoy whatever the heck it is that we were about to see.

After the break we got to see what at first seemed like another trailer for Big Trouble in Little China. But this one had a computer-rendered Harry Knowles as Jack Burton driving a big-rig. And then more trailers: Voyage of the Rock Aliens, Get Crazy, and Freckles.

And then, right around 11 that night...

- SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (2007)

Burton directs! Depp sings! Rickman repulses! Borat bleeds! Carter cooks! Fleet Street eats!

I loved this movie so much, that I regret that my wife Lisa wasn't with me to share it with (I'll be taking her to see it on opening weekend). This tied with Mongol as my favorite "new" movie of Butt-Numb-A-Thon. Sweeney Todd continued the "vengeful serial killer in London" vibe initiated by The Abominable Dr. Phibes. This might be the best Tim Burton movie that I've seen since Ed Wood. It's also by far the bloodiest work he's ever done.

There's more that I'd like to say about Sweeney Todd, but as I saw it pretty cold and ended up so delighted by it, I'd like to give others that same opportunity to be surprised by it too. The only thing that I'll add about it – and I only say this to try to thoroughly chronicle Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9 – is that during Sweeney Todd the Drafthouse staff went around serving free meat pies to everyone. I can't remember seeing anyone actually eating the things though. Can't say I’d blame 'em (and I was still full from pizza so I didn't eat any either) but it must be said: you gotta respect the twisted sense of humor of the Drafthouse guys!

I'll not only be going to see this again, but I'll be buying the soundtrack.

It was 1 a.m. when Sweeney Todd ended. We were on the downhill stretch of Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9 and it was time for another break. Harry announced that the next movie would be Lonely Are The Brave. Some more trailers: Blind Fury, Rambo III, and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (Estelle Ghetty with a handgun? In a movie with Sly Stallone? It really happened, children...).

- LONELY ARE THE BRAVE (1962)

Kirk Douglas has said that this is his favorite movie. And this one, more than any other movie at Butt-Numb-A-Thon, has stuck with me over the past few days and refused to let go.

Douglas plays Jack Burns: a cowboy who refuses to join along with the rest of modern society. He has no Social Security card or driver's license, and he lives as an itinerant ranch hand. A scene early in the movie sets the tone for everything that follows: Burns on his horse, trying to cross a busy highway. Jack Burns refuses to live in a time other than that when a man could cross a landscape unencumbered by barbed-wire fence and power cables. Unfortunately time and modern society don't look too kindly on his free-willed spirit. When Burns hears that a friend has been jailed for helping illegal immigrants, he gets himself arrested so that he can bust his buddy out. But his friend would rather wait in jail rather than put his family at more risk, so Burns springs out alone.

This movie was much like First Blood, so far as the "outsider from society on the run from the law" angle goes. Walter Matthau is the sheriff who must bring in Burns, despite coming to respect Burns's stubbornness. Also look for George Kennedy playing a hard-ass deputy eager to give Burns a bad time. And Carroll O'Connor plays a truck driver in a seemingly unrelated side-story that ultimately collides with Jack Burns's plight.

This is a movie that made me laugh, and brought me to the point of tears. The closing shot of Lonely Are The Brave is, for me anyway, an extremely haunting image that sums up the movie better than any words possibly could. If every other movie at Butt-Numb-A-Thon was sub-par and this was the only standout, then seeing Lonely Are The Brave for the first time alone made this trip one worth taking.

A break. It was 3:20 a.m. More trailers: Man Beast, W, 3 In The Cellar, The Evictors.

And then...

- THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES (2007)

I didn't like it. I didn't understand it. I didn't enjoy it at all.

But I would be willing to give it another chance.

So The Poughkeepsie Tapes is drawing a lot of flack right now. I'm not going to attempt to defend it. But I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon and openly bash it either.

I can't figure out what exactly the filmmakers were trying to do with this movie. Is it a horror? Is it a comedy? Not once did I feel particularly scared or humored by this film. But in the past few days since Butt-Numb-A-Thon I can't help but wonder if I (and perhaps others) are blaming John and Drew Dowdle for something that was sincerely beyond their control.

Did The Poughkeepsie Tapes suck most of the good mojo out of the Butt-Numb-A-Thon audience? It sure did. And it never fully recovered either. But was it a plainly bad movie... or just bad timing?

It's like this, folks: I wonder if, had this been programmed for earlier in the show, when people could watch it a lot less bleary-eyed and minus the elevated serotonin that comes with eating so much food, if The Poughkeepsie Tapes might have had a somewhat more positive reaction.

That far into the stretch, especially at that time of night, and most people can't focus their mental faculties on any movie... much less one that might demand such focus. I barely remember the "dismemberment expert" and whatever it was still awake in the inner fog of conscience telling me that MapQuest as a website didn't exist in 1991 or 1993 or whenever. This is stuff that with a fully aware and cogent mind, I could probably laugh at. So would probably a lot of other people. But not at that hour. Not after a continuous stream of movies that while not particularly "shallow", didn't require consistently steady brain functions to fully appreciate the filmmakers' efforts, either.

It's kinda like Police Squad!, the original half-hour comedy: ABC pulled the plug on it because to "get" the show, the viewer has to actually pay attention and invest his or her thought process toward understanding the humor, instead of having it served up pre-digested. And I think that's what a lot of people by that point during Butt-Numb-A-Thon (and I count myself among that number) were expecting, even needing that far along in the game.

I want to give the Dowdle Brothers the benefit of the doubt, and believe that with The Poughkeepsie Tapes they were attempting that same kind of high-brow entertainment. If that's what the Dowdle Brothers were sincerely aiming for with The Poughkeepsie Tapes then they should be commended, not condemned. It means that they think highly enough of their audience than to insult our intelligence or "lower the bar".

I'm not saying that The Poughkeepsie Tapes is outstanding. It could be. And it could also deserve the terrible reputation that it gained at Butt-Numb-A-Thon. But I want to be able to see this again, in a more aware state of mind that can grasp the nuances, before rendering a final judgment on this movie.

At 4:40 a.m. Tim League came out and said that John and Drew Dowdle weren't able to make it for a Q&A as it had been hoped.

Then it was Harry's turn again on the big screen with some Fanboys news: the movie's not finished yet 'cuz they’re doing some more shooting, but there were some clips that they were able to show. Although I've followed Fanboys's development since 1998, this was the first real bit of footage that I've seen so far. Looks... promising. I didn't care too much for the sexual references though, not for a movie about something like fans's love for the Star Wars movies. But as these are supposed to be outtakes and not for the final release, I've no problem with that. Will have to just wait and see how the end product looks.

At 4:55 a.m Tim League said that we would be watching Teen Wolf. A few seconds of it ran and then the film stopped and melted in the projector. This was something of an in-joke for past attendees of Butt-Numb-A-Thon. Even as a "new guy" to the event, I thought it was pretty funny.

Then came what was my least favorite movie of the event...

- TEEN LUST (1979)

Directed by James Hong, who's been in a jillion movies over the years including Big Trouble in Little China and who also played the part of Chew, the eye designer from Blade Runner. Ahhh Hong, if only you could have seen what we saw with our eyes.

This is a movie about how NOT to make a movie. Bad acting, bad costuming, bad music (was that the theme from the original The People's Court that I heard in there?!?), bad best boying, bad catering... you get the picture. And absolutely NO plot at all! It was like they were making things up as they went along. Pretty mindless stuff. I won't say it was the most painful movie that I had seen in my life, because the pain was yet to come...

But all the same, for whatever reason there was for putting it on the program, I won't disparage Teen Lust's place at Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9. Every legitimate movie (ain't talking pornos here) is, somewhere or another, a work of love. Each film represents valuable time and energy spent making it, that the people involved earnestly believed that they were doing the right thing to go to the effort to make it work. Sometimes it does and other times... it doesn't. Teen Lust is a movie that doesn't work at all. But to its credit I'll also say that TEEN LUST is a product of its time. Nothing more and nothing less. For that alone it deserves some respect as a curious relic of late-1970s filmmaking.

We were now at 6:30 a.m. After the break, Harry came back on and commented on how at Butt-Numb-A-Thon 2, that the animated version of The Hobbit was shown as a warm-up to the following year's release of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. And with J.J. Abrams's Star Trek movie coming out next December, Harry thought that it would be appropriate (especially since word on the street is that this ties in quite a lot with the new movie) to show the classic...

- STAR TREK episode: "The City on the Edge of Forever" (1967)

Digitally remastered, with new CGI special effects and in high-definition. Looked BEAUTIFUL!! And this was the perfect way to come out of the previous four hours and into the morning. I'm still surprised at how many people had said that they had never seen this episode at all before, because forty years later this is perhaps still the greatest and most defining single episode of a Star Trek show ever made.

At 7:30 a.m., it was time for breakfast. The Drafthouse staff was going around taking orders and delivering food.

What happened next was without a doubt one of the most evil things that I have ever witnessed in my life (and I've seen evil, believe you me)...

Tim League came out on stage and said that he had programmed a special short film, that he had seen at some festival and he thought that this would be perfect for Butt-Numb-A-Thon. He then brought out Gary Huggins, who made a movie called First Date, and we were told that he followed that up with Feels So Good. Huggins said that Feels So Good was something he wanted to do after 9/11, that would be upbeat and positive and make people smile.

So picture it: people are just starting to eat breakfast. And they've been told to expect a "happy" movie.

So here comes...

- FEELS SO GOOD (2007?)

Fifteen minutes of graphic footage of a urethroplasty! Accompanied by Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good". Horrified screams of aghast disbelief filled the Drafthouse. One poor girl went running out look like she was going to blow chunks all over. A well-known person in attendance had his face buried in his hands in disgust. It was evil and sick and demented... and I was having a giggle-fit of laughter the whole time! Pretty soon though we were clapping our hands to the music. I never thought I'd live to see the day when surgery on some poor schlub's anus would bring together so many in good fellowship.

Then at 8 a.m. came the strangest, ugliest, most racist, most pornographic, most offensive, most unbelievable film that I have ever seen. And the movie from Butt-Numb-A-Thon that has left me feeling the most conflicted...

- FAREWELL UNCLE TOM (1971)

An Italian movie that was filmed in parts of the southeastern United States as well as Haiti during the regime of "Papa Doc" Duvalier, the premise of Farewell Uncle Tom (originally titled Addio Zio Tom and sometimes called Goodbye Uncle Tom) is that a film crew from Rome has traveled back in time to the antebellum South so as to document American slavery. It was made by Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi, with music by Ritz Ortalini.

The cinematography itself is beautiful. The editing, outstanding. So is the audio quality. Ortalini's music haunts and resonates. On a strictly technical level, everything about this movie is a profound work of art.

But there is something very, very wrong if you are not bothered on some level by the content of Farewell Uncle Tom.

It's kinda like a Rorschach test: you see in this movie what it is that you want to see. And it's not necessarily the same thing from moment to moment.

Farewell Uncle Tom is the most over-the-top cinematic assault on the senses that I've ever been hit with. No matter who you are, you will be offended by this movie, and probably dozens of times over by the point the black dude's mind is screaming "BECAUSE YOU ARE WHITE!!" at the end of the movie.

I won't deny it: I was absolutely bothered by this movie. I thought it went too far in confronting the audience with the dark potential of human nature: not because of the sheer boldness of the filmmakers but because they overdid it. There are only so many times that you can witness rape in a single movie before it fails to move you anymore, and whatever else happens on top of that becomes a dreary bore. Watching the reporter be seduced by a 13-year old virgin made me quietly pray for there to finally be an end to this movie.

So yeah, Farewell Uncle Tom has shock porno. And I don't care for porno the least bit. But if that's all that this movie was about, I wouldn't be spending so much time writing about it. Indeed folks, I have come not to bury Farewell Uncle Tom, but to praise it (seriously).

There's also the question of the historical accuracy of Farewell Uncle Tom: something that the filmmakers swear at the beginning of the movie that they are adhering very strictly to. I'm a guy with a bachelors degree in the field, going for my masters in American history. And from my own perspective, there was a lot of stuff in Farewell Uncle Tom that was... well, wrong. At least in how Jacopetti and Prosperi chose to portray this aspect of American history.

There's no denying that there were some very bad things that happened regarding slavery. But Farewell Uncle Tom would have you believe that this kind of treatment was universal. Folks, it wasn't. That's not to say that abuse didn’t happen, and when it did it tended to be more gruesome than anything you might have seen depicted in this movie. Laws on the books in every slave state fully empowered owners to maintain control by any means necessary, including indemnity from physically abusing their slaves.

Legally, slaves were property. That doesn't mean that slavery was right, only that at the time it was something that did happen and was enforceable by law. And although abuse has been amply documented in both written accounts and photographs, it was far from ubiquitous, for the simple fact of the matter that it makes no sense whatsoever for someone to abuse personal property. Any slave, no matter the age, was an important investment that represented quite a lot of money. And it's not usually in human nature to buy property only to abuse that property for sake of abuse.

Indeed, modern research indicates that as a general rule, slave owners did whatever they could to take care of their slaves and see to their needs, including that of family stability. I'm old enough to remember when Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder was fired by CBS for saying basically the same thing that Farewell Uncle Tom depicted about masters using their slaves as breeding stock. There is plenty of evidence indicating that this wasn't an unheard-of practice. But for the most part slaves had family relations as normal as their white owners. They were encouraged to marry and raise their own children, even. And although in many slave weddings the vows to be recited went "until death or circumstance do you part", the classic image of the cruel master forever separating a black mother from her children by taking them to the market was far from a common occurrence. Toward the end of the institution of slavery, slave families were mostly being sold and traded as entire units, rather than being split apart.

By the way, here's something for you to consider: Nobel-winning economist Robert Fogel believes that slaves in the pre-Civil War South, on average, were able to keep about 90 percent of the income that they made. Think about that: 90 percent. Now how big a percentage of your own income are you allowed to keep after taxes to the government in 2007? But we'll get back to that thought in a bit...

Farewell Uncle Tom does have moments where it's obvious that some research went into this film though. The story of the slaves who escaped as a white man and his slave? That really happened. Their names were William and Ellen Craft. Ellen was born of a black woman and her white master, and had unusually light skin. For the holidays of 1848 William and Ellen both secured passes for travel to visit family elsewhere (how many people today know that most slaves had fairly broad permission to travel about, so long as they came back within a specified time period?). Ellen actually dressed up like a white man and set off with William posing as "his" slave. Eight days after they left Georgia, on Christmas Day, they arrived in Philadelphia as free husband and wife.

But you want to know what pissed me off most about Farewell Uncle Tom? There's a scene not too far into it of a church service. Well-dressed white parishioners are seated at the front and black slaves in dingy clothes are standing at the back. They are listening to Reverend Thornton Stringfellow, who was a real minister and infamous proponent of slavery, preaching about how slavery is a divine institution and that to doubt it is to question the will of God Himself...

The white people are listening in rapt attention, nodding their heads and agreeing. And the black slaves... are agreeing with him also. I saw the black man with his hands together in supplication and that particularly outraged me.

No one is daring to defy this cassocked twit in the pulpit. No one is standing up to say "Stop this is WRONG dammit!" Instead everyone in the place – white and black alike – simply accept what this loon is saying and accept it as gospel truth, because he tells them that he comes in the name of God.

Why did that scene bother me so much? Last year I ran for school board. It was a non-partisan race and there were a lot of candidates (sixteen hopefuls going for five seats). With that big a field, a single vote could make all the difference. And I would have definitely appreciated getting every vote that I could. A number of people that I personally know didn't vote for me though. They couldn't vote for me at all. Because they voted a straight-party ticket and when you do that you can't vote in the non-partisan races. They've bought too much into the con that God has ordained one political party over another. They're good people. But in my heart I doubt that they'll ever shake loose from the inculcated belief that God actually gives a damn about worldly politics.

They're slaves. Just like too many other people in this country are today. Slaves to blind ideology and party. Slaves to sex and entertainment. Slaves to government handouts. Slaves to whatever else our own masters in the media and elitist political circles and "spiritual leaders" decree for us.

They tell us to separate into "conservative" and "liberal" camps. We do it, without asking them why. They have us hate one another, and so turned onto fighting each other that we're too occupied to notice them stealing from us and raping our posterity of a future.

They lord themselves over us, and we don't bother to demand of them "Who in the hell gave you the authority?"

Why is it that some can wrap themselves up in a flag, or put on a badge, or hold up a Bible, or claim some "scientific study", and the rest of us are not just willing to do as we're told but we gladly accept it? Are we so shallow that we have to let others define us rather than define ourselves?

How are too many Americans in this day and age really that much different from the slaves depicted in Farewell Uncle Tom? At least enough of them were only willing to be bound physically. They didn't bend their minds toward another's will. Can a lot of us in our own era boast the same?

When we don't act like the individuals that God made us to be, we become slaves. If you don't think for yourself, there’s always someone out there willing to think for you.

We no longer have Reverend Thornton Stringfellow of the state of Virginia, but we still have Pat Robertson of Virginia Beach and James Dobson of Colorado Springs and Hillary of New York and Bush in the White House and countless "gurus" on syndicated television, all claiming to be anointed and favored by the Almighty. They want us to believe that we "need" them. That we can't live without them. That they are good masters and that we are like children. To their peril, they forget that God is no respecter of persons.

And then there finally comes defiance. Someone else comes along claiming to be sent by God. That's all it takes. Rationality fades. God becomes a weapon of collective will. Regard for individual life becomes like a vapor. People die.

I didn't like the coda to Farewell Uncle Tom at all, because it makes no sense. Or perhaps it did. The last several minutes of the film are of a modern (early-1970s anyway) black man in a priest’s outfit sitting on a beach and reading William Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner. He sees the white people frolicking around him and he starts fantasizing about killing them just as Nat Turner did in his 1831 revolt.

I've never liked what Nat Turner did: killing a lot of mostly innocent people, including children, with axes and knives. Some of his followers did pick up babies to bash their brains out on the walls. Nat Turner deserves no more sympathy than anyone else who also claims to be following "the will of God".

Maybe in some weird way, that was part of the filmmakers' master plan though. To cap the whole thing off with a demonstration of what this kind of mindset invariably leads to. There is absolute good and absolute evil. But in our lives on this earth we yet see through a mirror darkly and it still looks like a myriad shades of gray. It's the height of folly to believe that we might already possess the wisdom to see the world, no pun intended, as a matter of black and white.

I'm probably going to draw some flack for saying this, but I think that Farewell Uncle Tom is a brilliant expose on modern America, far more than it is a "documentary" about slavery a century and a half ago.

Farewell Uncle Tom is ultimately how human cruelty is excused and even celebrated in the name of God and society and science. And how all too often the abused will acquiesce and bow their knees to their supposed masters.

If Harry wanted to examine human nature and its proclivity toward evil with this Butt-Numb-A-Thon, he couldn't have wrapped it up any more powerfully than he did with Farewell Uncle Tom. I think that although it's not explicitly stated, that this movie also has quite a lot to say about how to choose to turn aside from that nature... if we want to.

I honestly feel different after this experience. Not just about Farewell Uncle Tom but about it and everything that preceded it during the program. Jim Valvano, the much-beloved basketball coach at North Carolina State who succumbed to bone cancer in 1993, said shortly before his death that every day we should laugh, be made to think, and be moved to tears. "Think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry - that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special."

If you went to Butt-Numb-A-Thon this past weekend with an open mind, without really demanding to see something that may or may not have been coming anyway, you were made to laugh and think and cry a lot. Not too bad a way to spend 24 hours, if ya ask me. I certainly feel like I came out of this a perhaps wiser person.

By this time, 23 hours into Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9, we were all pretty much thoroughly drained. Especially from the previous several hours of programming. We were in dire need of something different. So for the final movie of the event, following the trailers for Halloween III (which I think is a good movie but it should stand on its own without having "Halloween" as part of the title), Nightmares, and Trick Or Treat, we saw the first public screening of...

- TRICK 'R TREAT (2008)

Loved it!! Kind of a throwback to Creepshow and Cat's Eye and other horror anthology films of the Eighties, with a bit of Pulp Fiction-style “cut-up” storytelling. Michael Dougherty wrote and directed this collection of four stories set on the night of Halloween. Brian Cox, Dylan Baker and Anna Paquin were some of the faces that I recognized (but I caught a few others too). This should be quite a success when it comes out around Halloween next year. And I hope it's a big enough hit to warrant further entries.

After Trick 'R Treat finished, Drew McWeeny did a quick question/answer session with Michael Dougherty.

Then there was a raffle for prizes and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Harry, and that was it for Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9. We left the Drafthouse and parked outside was a big yellow Hertz fan packed with the HD-DVD players. I gave the guy my ticket and left with my new player, trying to figure out how to get it back home to North Carolina.

Final verdict on Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9: AWESOME event and well worth the wait it took to get in after all these years! I'm hoping that I'll be able to come again next year and bring some friends to share the good times with (Lord willing there'll be a whole contingent of us from the Tarheel State :-).

EDIT 1:39 p.m. EST: I also submitted another version of this review to Ain't It Cool News and Harry Knowles posted it earlier this morning. Here's the link!

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Mid-December afternoon in Reidsville, North Carolina ...

... and according to the Weather Channel website it's 72 degrees and sunny.

Normal temperature for this time of year should be in the 40s. 50s at the most. Not this. And the high tomorrow is supposed to be 78.

Gotta wonder if we're going to have to make up for this sometime this winter. By the way, when I was in Texas last week the daytime temperatures got up to the 70s, then dropped on Sunday and Monday to a high of about 50. So now Texas is cold and North Carolina is way too warm.

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Back

I got home just after midnight, local time (though my body is still on Central Time). Have a few things on this end waiting for me but expect a wazoo-load of stories and pictures in the next few days, and a full report on what happened at Butt-Numb-A-Thon :-)

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Just got back from Butt-Numb-A-Thon

And my butt is, literally, numb after watching movies for 24 hours straight :-)

I'm going to file a more complete report later on, maybe even after I get back tomorrow, about what went down. But for those who are curious: we didn't see Cloverfield or I Am Legend or the new Rambo movie (although Sylvester Stallone did send two new clips from it that we got to watch and one of them is pretty violent even for a Rambo flick). However we did get to see Sweeney Todd... and I'm going to have tons of stuff to rave about that after it's had a chance to settle in. We also got to see a couple of movies that won't be coming out 'til late next year.

Around 8 or so this morning came one of the most diabolically evil things that I have ever witnessed in my entire life. It happened right as the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz staff was serving breakfast. If you were there, then you know what I'm talking about.

Butt-Numb-A-Thon host Harry Knowles gave everyone something very cool, and I'm going to have a dilly of a time getting it on a plane tomorrow.

Anyhoo, I'm gonna get cleaned up and take a nap and recover some. Expect a far more full post about what happened sometime in the next couple of days :-)

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Ron Price update: 1 year later and still no "complete and factual account"

Yes, even from somewhere deep in the heart of Texas, I am still committed to holding Ron Price accountable for his misdeeds!

Just a little reminder to everyone that it was one year ago today that Ron Price, admitted sign thief and disgraced member of the Rockingham County Board of Education, promised us the "complete and factual account" of the "sign incident". If you're a regular reader of this blog then you already know that Price was caught stealing campaign signs belonging to Congressman Brad Miller on the night before the 2006 election. Price went on live television on election night and blamed "goons" for going after him and then said that he wished that this hadn't raised such a "commotion". And then he said that the full story was coming soon.

Well Ron, it's one year later and you still haven't given it to us.

And don't even think you can scrub it out that you promised that either. I've got that saves as both raw file and screen capture, saved in multiple locations. Just like I saved your admission: the one that you later tried to erase out of existence.

So it's a full year later. Where is it?

There is a bunch more stuff about Ron the Con that I've recently come into possession of. Might be releasing that soon. In the meantime, I'm gonna get back to enjoying my lil' Texas odyssey :-)

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Texas, Day 3

Still can't get the pics to load at the moment (our digital camera is more used to hooking up to a Windows XP machine and it's nothin' but Macs here) but I'll be showing the cream of the crop from the bunch when I get back. In the meantime, I can report that it was another action-packed day here in Texas...

My friend Deborah and I got in my rented Jeep about 10 this morning and headed to Austin. She got us on Congressional Avenue and I got some awesome photos of the Texas State Capitol. Then we headed over to the University of Texas at Austin campus, and Deborah got a pic of me standing in front of "The Tower". And yes, this is the building from which Charles Whitman shot and killed all those people. Which isn't really why I wanted to see it: it's always struck me as a great design for a building. But I couldn't disassociate being there from the history of the place, either.

After that, we got on I-35 and headed north to Waco, 'cuz there's something I've been bound and determined to do ever since I found out that I was going to this year's Butt-Numb-A-Thon in Austin: visit my brother-in-law Jonathan who's a seminary student at Baylor. About 1 p.m. we got to his apartment and hooked up with him, and we went to this place in Waco that serves up Chicago-style deep-dish pizza... which was the first time in my life that I'd had any. After that (and it was a lot of pizza, believe you me) we went to the Dr. Pepper Museum: Waco is where Dr. Pepper was invented and I think the whole state is pretty darned proud of that :-) Then Jonathan took us around Baylor: a school with more steeples than some entire towns that I've been too.

We got back to Jonathan's place, and we said goodbye for now (I'll be seeing him again in a few weeks). Then we got back on I-35 for the drive back to Austin. I dropped Deborah off at her home around 7 and then high-tailed it back to town. The reason? A get-together for the Butt-Numb-A-Thon people at some chili joint in downtown Austin. Took me awhile to find it but in the end I got there and met some of the Ain't It Cool gang: Nordling (will be posting a funny story about when he and I met when I get the pics up), Massawyrm, and then the man himself Harry Knowles! Will have a pic of Harry and me up soon too.

Then I came back here, and I'm gonna be hitting the hay soon 'cuz I'm gonna be getting up early tomorrow morning so that I can be at the Alamo Drafthouse (the Ritz one) at 10 for Butt-Numb-A-Thon. Which is where I and a few hundred other movie geeks will be spending the next 24 hours watching Lord-knows-what.

So this is the last report that I'll be filing 'til Sunday afternoon. Expect tons of good stuff that I'll be writing about when I get back :-)

Butt-Numb-A-Thon starts in 13 and a half hours. Here we go, fast and furious...

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First report from Texas

I arrived in Texas just after noon local time yesterday, flying in to the airport in Houston. On the flight from Orlando I saw the Gulf of Mexico for the first time in my life, New Orleans (got good pics of the French Quarter and the causeway across Lake Pontchartrain), offshore oil rigs, Johnson Space Center and the Astrodome, and then touched down in Houston. Waited there 'til 1:30 and took off for Austin. The girl at the car rental place recognized me from when my school board commercial ran on E!'s The Soup a few weeks ago!

The car rental people said that they didn't have too much to choose from at the moment. I said "Give me the most Texas-ish thing you got." The girl said "You want the big white Jeep." So that's what I'm driving.

I'm staying with friends in Travis County. If I'm not mistaken, this is the home turf of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Today I went down Highway 281 to San Antonio and visited the Alamo. Am having trouble uploading pics at the moment but hope to have them up soon.

Tomorrow I'm hitting Austin, then driving up to Waco to hook up with my brother -in-law. Butt-Numb-A-Thon starts at noon on Saturday.

This has already become far more an adventure than I could possibly let on right now.

More soon :-)

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4 days to Butt-Numb-A-Thon: Austin-bound!

Hee-hee-hee... not bad eh? I didn't have much time to do a perfect job on it, but ever since I found out that I'm going to the Butt-Numb-A-Thon film festival in Austin, Texas this year, I've had it in mind to do a spoof of Preacher: Gone to Texas (a really good graphic novel that I discovered some years ago). Just 'cuz it sounds cool to say "gone to Texas" like that, and this'll be my first time ever going there.

I'm not staying in some swanky hotel in Austin, either. I'll be staying with some friends who live outside of town, in an area notorious for scorpion infestations and whatnot. They tell me that I'm going to love Texas barbecue... which is not pork at all but beef. "Porkless barbecue ribs" ummm sounds like blasphemy to me. But you know, "when in Rome..."

Expect posts on this blog from Austin, San Antonio, maybe Waco, and a blow-by-blow after-action report on Butt-Numb-A-Thon over the next few days, including photos (well not from Butt-Numb-A-Thon 'cuz cameras aren't allowed 'cuz there's going to be some real top-secret unreleased movies going on in there :-)

The next time you hear from me, I will be somewhere in the Lone Star State: home of the Dallas Cowboys, the Alamo, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Ron Paul, Leatherface, millions of illegal immigrants, J.R. Ewing, Ann Richards, Howard Hughes, Gene Autry, Dale Evans, Charles "Tex" Watson, and world-famous Texas Pete hot-sauce!

(Actually, Texas Pete is made in Winston-Salem, North Carolina... but French Fries are from Belgium too, so go figure.)

See y'all on the flip side!

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Andy Griffith's "What It Was, Was Football!"

In 1953, a young North Carolina actor named Andy Griffith did a stand-up routine about the game of football. The recording of it became a runaway bestseller across the country, and it quickly propelled Griffith toward major motion picture roles and of course The Andy Griffith Show. And since that time "What It Was, Was Football!" has become one of the best-known comedy monologues in history.

I first heard this bit around 1984, when the local edition of P.M. Magazine did a video clip of Griffith's routine accompanied by footage from a local game. They even had a guy act out the "Buddy have a drink!" part. I thought it was pretty hilarious and years later when I spotted an Andy Griffith CD at a store in Asheville I bought it, just for "What It Was, Was Football!". It's now on my MP3 player :-)

And guess what? You can enjoy it via YouTube, complete with lots of football images! So whether you first heard it many years ago or have never enjoyed it until now, here is Andy Griffith's "What It Was, Was Football!"

But that's not all! I didn't know until tonight that in 1958, "What It Was, Was Football!" was adapted into graphic form by MAD Magazine! Click here to see MAD artist George Woodbridge bring to life Griffith's tale of a country rube discovering the game of football :-)

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Happy Birthday to Mom!

A wonderful Happy Birthday today to my Mom!

We had dinner with her and Dad tonight at Sagebrush here in Reidsville. And they got to ride in my new car for the first time. A great time was had by all :-)

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First official image of Darth Plagueis

Last week the new Star Wars book Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force came out. I haven't bought it yet but might later this afternoon (and I found these images on Wookieepedia). Within it, hauntingly painted by Chris Trevas, there is the first-ever "canon" image (meaning it's fully approved by Lucasfilm) of Darth Plagueis. If you saw Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith then you already know that Darth Plagueis was the Sith Master who trained Darth Sidious. He was also obsessed with stopping death.

So here it is: Chris Trevas' portrait of Darth Plagueis (watching a young Sidious spar with a lightsaber):

And here's a close-up of the face of Plagueis:

Even though that's just one picture, that's still an awful lot more about Plagueis than has been released since Episode III. There was going to be a novel about Darth Plagueis that James Luceno was working on, but it was cancelled mid-stream 'cuz Lucasfilm announced that George Lucas wanted to keep a tighter grip on the Plagueis/Sidious part of the Star Wars backstory. Might this mean then that we might start seeing more about Darth Plagueis? Let's hope so! :-)

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An update ... a major one ... about running for Congress

I'm still going to run for United States House of Representatives.

But not right now.

No, I'm not "dropping out". I'm still wanting to see if a regular American citizen can do this. But for the time being, the experiment is delayed.

Please understand something: I've been dead-serious about this all along. I filed to create the exploratory committee. The website was almost finished. Some other stuff was taking place behind the scenes too, that I've been busy with the past few days.

Looking back over the past week, it's pretty darned amazing at what came together, so fast on this.

But there've been a few other developments too. Enough to make me realize that yes, the time is soon for this... but the time is not now. Not yet. And before people start sending in real money, this needs addressing.

A lot of people have wanted me to do this. Plenty of them have said that I probably could have won this thing, even though how I was going to run this campaign was going to be wildly different than anything you've probably ever seen before.

I would love to take a shot at it. Would like nothing more than to try this, so far as that "arena of ideas" thing that I've been fighting in for most of my life goes.

But if I were to go to Congress now, I wouldn't be as strong and capable a servant as I could be if I waited a few more years.

If you want the real reason why I've chosen not to do this at the present time, here it is: the past few days (no I don't want to say what exactly caused me to arrive at this) made me realize that I'm not as wise as I would like to be. That I still have some growing-up to do. That doesn't mean that I'm "immature" in the least bit... but I would be doing a terrible thing if I didn't give myself some time to grow into that more, into whatever it is that God is wanting me to become.

I've said on here before that between being in Congress and being able to live my life to the fullest according to what God would have for me, there's no contest as to which I would pick. My life has to be defined by something other than whether or not I win an election. That's not the basis of my happiness. And in many ways I'm still looking for that basis. But it's not in politics as most people understand it. But whatever it is, it's out there. And I'm just going to trust in the Lord to bring me to it.

There are a few other reasons why I'm choosing against doing this at this point in time. Some personal and some that would take a very long time to discuss here, so I'm not going to try.

Let's see how things are around 2009. That's not far away at all anyway...

EDIT 11:00 a.m. EST: One other reason why I'm not doing this now: I sincerely believe that we are coming upon a time when those outside of government, will be able to do much more good than those inside of government can possibly achieve.

I'd rather be one of those who is capable of doing something meaningful, with whatever passion and talent that I possess. As I've said before, you don't have to be elected to make the world a better place :-)

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Today in review

It was a good day today! In short...

- We visited my parents.

- We had lunch at Salsarita's (great new taco/Mexican restaurant) in Grensboro.

- We bought a new computer: one perfect for high-definition video editing.

- We went to the Greensboro Historical Museum (and my friend Johnny Yow told me about this last night so I gotta credit him for passing along the word) to see North Carolina's original copy of the Bill of Rights. It had been in North Carolna's possession until 1865 when it was stolen by a Union soldier (darned Yankees!). It was out of the state all this time until 2003 when some dude tried to sell it for millions, before it was taken in a sting operation. It was one of only 14 original copies made, along with the one at the National Archives and the ones belonging to the 12 other original colonies. If you wanna see it, better hurry: the show ends tomorrow afternoon and then it goes back to Raleigh, where Lord only knows when it'll go on display next.

- We went to Rice Toyota and three good fellas named Don, Vic and Mike helped us get a new car. After a month since my Corolla got totaled, I'm finally roadworthy again!

So all things considered, it was a productive day :-)

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Evel Knievel has passed away

Time keeps on slipping into the future...

Now it's motorcycle daredevil legend and 1970s icon Evel Knievel, who has passed away at the age of 69.

Evel Knievel: the only man who could literally "jump the shark" and have it still be awesome.

I've heard quite a bit that in the past year he had an intense spiritual awakening and came to have a profound Christian faith.

Don't know what else to say, except that he was quite a character who will be greatly missed.

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Those danged Nazi lizards from outer space are coming back!

Look at what's being published on January 8th, 2008!

From the creator of V himself Kenneth Johnson, and weighing-in at 448 pages, it's V: The Second Generation.

So in case you are one of the "younger" generation (i.e. my friends younger than 20) and are wondering what V is: almost a quarter-century later it still ranks among the scariest and most disturbing things ever put on American television. And had it been better managed, it had the potential to be one of the greatest sci-fi franchises of all time.

In the spring of 1983, NBC broadcast the two-part original miniseries V. They came from a distant star: a fleet of fifty gigantic "motherships" - five miles in diameter - one for each of the largest cities on Earth. These "Visitors" - who looked human in every way - came begging for Earth's help, claiming that their home planet was dying and that only certain chemicals manufactured on Earth could stave off disaster. In return for our aid, the Visitors promised new technology and medicine and that when done, they would leave us in peace.

What happened after that made V into one of the most brilliant fables about tyranny and resistance of modern times. It was Nazism on a global scale. And there are moments from this miniseries that have haunted many people to this day: I've no doubt that the scene where Diana "has dinner" is going to be burned into my gray matter until the day I die.

The original miniseries was amazing, and ended on a terrific cliffhanger. And had creator Kenneth Johnson had his way, V would have become a series of television movies that would further chronicle mankind's worldwide fight against the Visitors. Unfortunately the NBC suits wanted another full-blown miniseries and then a weekly series. Johnson worked on the 1984 sequel V: The Final Battle for a bit and then left the project, and based on what I've heard over the years Johnson had a much different (and better) idea of where to take the story than what NBC did with the franchise. The ending of V: The Final Battle has too much mystical hokum (I hate the whole "star child" thing) and the ensuing regular weekly series quickly devolved into not much more than "Dallas in Space". It was canceled after one season.

I've thought for a long time now that V was a great concept, that is perhaps more fitting to the world we live in today than it did twenty-odd years ago. There was an attempt in the early-1990s to revive it (courtesy of Babylon 5-helmer J. Michael Straczynski) that would have been set in the years following Earth's final surrender to the Visitors, before the arrival of the Visitors' "enemy" that Juliet had sent the signal to at the end of the first miniseries. That didn't get past the script stage, but from what I've read of it Straczynski had bold ideas in mind for maturely progressing the story past the mistakes of the second miniseries and the regular show.

It looks like V: The Second Generation is going to build on at least the original miniseries. But perhaps a thorough rebooting is more appropriate. I mean, V - the original four-hour miniseries anyway - was a magnificent achievement of compelling story, wonderful characters, and early-Eighties special effects. But by today's standards, it's woefully out-dated. Seeing the Maxwell kids playing an Atari 2600 made sense in 1983, but it's too era-specific today. And no doubt that if the Visitors first came to a world circa-2007, they would take active measures to clamp down on the Internet. Heck, they would probably have their own website set up with all of that cool Visitor propaganda.

But the biggest impetus to entirely relaunch V is this: can you imagine how that same premise could be executed today, with the same technology that makes shows like the current Battlestar Galactica possible? V would finally stand to be a true depiction of global war, instead of just seeing it through the eyes of folks in Los Angeles (yah that did get tiring after awhile).

Anyhoo, problems that eventually plagued the franchise aside, I'll eagerly be watching for V: The Second Generation when it hits shelves in another month or so :-)

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Something I never, EVER thought that I would find myself writing

Okay so... what would be a good Mac to buy?

Specifically, one for high-def video editing.

(This is why you should be careful about what you say, folks. All those years of calling them "Macincraps" might finally be coming back to haunt me.)

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TRANSFORMERS: THE SCORE continues to do well!

I just checked the Amazon page for Transformers: The Score. Almost two months since it came out and it's continuing to rack-up impressive sales: right now the overall Amazon music rank is #257, which isn't bad given all the other releases that have come out since then. In the category of Orchestral Pop it's at #6 and its #10 in both Classical and Movie Scores!

Where it's really shining though is the Amazon customer reviews: Transformers: The Score has been given a consistent average of 4 and 1/2 stars. And out of 52 ratings so far, 41 of them have given the CD the full 5 stars!

Okay, I'll share a lil' story about the CD. A few weeks ago, Lisa and I went down to Georgia for her cousin's wedding and then we stayed on through Thanksgiving (that's where we did the deep-fried turkey at). After the wedding, a whole bunch of Lisa's extended family came by her parents' house and we were hanging out for a bit and Lisa told her cousin the story about the whole thing to get Steve Jablonsky's Transformers score released: the petition, how we auctioned off on eBay the copy that Steve signed to help buy some music instruments for the schools here, etc. Lisa's cousin's girlfriend said that she didn't know the CD of that was out and she liked the score too when they saw the movie in the theater. Soooo long story short: I had the copy in our car that we found at Best Buy a week or so earlier (I haven't had my signed copy framed yet but I will soon :-) and I wound up giving it to her. So now that's another happy owner of Transformers: The Score.

The thing that I didn't realize though is that I had brought that copy to Georgia to be the accompanying soundtrack for this Thanksgiving's turkey-frying!

Well, it's like this: either I have the right music to fry to, or I don't fry at all. It's that important to The Ritual. It's part of what gives each turkey its own distinct history and personality. So a few days later, while Lisa was out shopping with her mom and her dad was off on an errand, I drove our rental car (yah still looking for a permanent one after the Corolla was totaled) to Marietta, got a few things (including more marinade for the turkey) and at the Border's there I bought another copy of Transformers: The Score. So now that's five copies of this one CD that have been in our possession since the beginning of October!

But at least it's pretty easy to find now :-P

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Truck adorned with pics of aborted babies lands man in jail

This Associated Press story comes from Buford, Georgia, where the Mall of Georgia is located (one of the best-designed shopping malls that I've ever been too)...

Man arrested for truck showing images of aborted fetuses near Atlanta area mall

The Associated Press

BUFORD, Ga. -- Police have arrested a Missouri man for driving near the Mall of Georgia with a truck that showed large, graphic photos of aborted fetuses.

Gwinnett County police arrested Robert Roethlisberger Jr., 44, for disorderly conduct Friday. He was released from jail Monday on $1,200 bond.

Police went to the area after a caller reported seeing a panel truck displaying "bloody" and "gory" images. The truck had two large banners on each side and a banner on the rear of the truck, police said.

The images on the banners included the headless and bloody torso of an aborted fetus and the partially crushed head of an aborted fetus being held in forceps, police said.

An officer told Roethlisberger the banners were being displayed in an area full of shoppers and children. He was arrested after refusing to display less graphic banners instead, police said.

Police also impounded the truck and removed the banners from it. The truck was released from impound Monday, but the banners are being kept as evidence, Gwinnett County police Cpl. Illana Spellman said.

Roethlisberger is a driver for Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group.

The group called Roethlisberger's arrest "an egregious abuse of power."

Operation Rescue's president, Troy Newman, said the arrest was unconstitutional because the truck's display was protected under the First Amendment.

"We intend to vigorously fight these unjust charges and will seek a remedy for our property loss," Newman said. "We cannot allow the illegal use of police authority to bully us into silence."

I believe abortion is wrong... but this is not the right way to fight it. In fact, a stunt like this is perhaps more likely to galvanize indifference toward abortion as it is to impassion people to be against it.

And after watching the Operation Rescue people in action over the years, I have to wonder if they are doing things like this out of sincere concern for abortion. It could be just as likely that they do stunts like this because they want to be arrested. Because that gives them grounds to claim persecution. If they can project the notion that they are persecuted, then that - in their minds anyway - bestows upon them the status of being "legitimate". Legitimacy brings with it the quality of purpose. Take away the supposed rationale for persecution, and the assumed purpose likewise vanishes.

You see, I also have to wonder if people like the Operation Rescue folks are not secretly grateful that there is abortion: because it gives them something that they can use to assume importance and affluence.

All too often in affairs of human nature, there comes a point when the fight is no longer about a real cause, and it becomes a fight for sake of the fight itself. That's the surest sign of purpose gone astray. And there are also plenty of unscrupulous people out there who don't think twice about exploiting others' misplaced passion. It already happened a long time ago with the civil rights movement. It's also happened with the anti-abortion and "pro-family" movements, too.

In any case, the police were right to stop this guy. Mall of Georgia, especially at this time of year, is packed with families and small children. This sort of display is completely inappropriate for that kind of public venue.

EDIT 7:41 a.m. EST: If you can stomach it, here's a picture of Operation Rescue's "Truth Truck". This is something much larger than I had imagined it would be... and I'm downright horrified that something like that was driving around the Mall of Georgia on the day after Thanksgiving! Click if you must, but be warned: it's rather gruesome.

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"Nature Trail to Hell" live on stage!

Right now I'm averaging just one blog post a day. Which means that behind the scenes, I'm up to something.

But whenever I'm not on sabbatical from blogging (boy did that one go SNAFU or what?) I like to keep a little activity going so that the site doesn't stagnate.

Here's something that I found tonight that's well worth sharing: from a 1994 variety show at a New York high school, it's a live-action on-stage performance of "Weird Al" Yankovic's classic song "Nature Trail to Hell"!

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Some INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL pics!

Look at what Phillip Arthur has found: three sweet new pics from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! They all feature Harrison Ford as Indy and one of them has Shia LaBeouf as Indy's sidekick. Look closely at LaBeouf's leather jacket and it seems like the word "Mutt" is inscribed on the left side. Is that his character's name? Are the rumors true that LaBeouf is playing Indy's son? If so, "Mutt" would be kinda fitting, since Indy took his nickname after the family dog anyway :-P

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WATCHMEN official set photos!

Hey hey! Taking a bit of a break from getting my U.S. House campaign website up and running. Okay, at this point it's an "exploratory committee" and the website is going to reflect that. But it's still looking pretty good.

Anyhoo, I wouldn't normally break in from doing something serious like that (and it is a serious endeavor) unless it was pretty massively major and/or immensely cool. If you've been following this project for the 20 years that it's been attempted, then you'll understand that this certainly qualifies as both.

It's about Watchmen. Namely, the first officially released photos from the set.

I don't know what else to say but... "HOLY COW!!"

Zack Snyder and his crew have nailed it. So help me, they have actually nailed it. This is really going to happen.

Let's take a look, courtesy of this blog post on the official Watchmen site.

This first photo alone is enough to make me believe that this is finally going to work. If you've read Watchmen then you already know why this picture is a big deal...

A seemingly more innocuous pic but close inspection will reveal some more Watchmen eye candy...

Here's the Gunga Diner itself. See the taxi going past it? I'm assuming that this is being driven by the same female cabbie that we see a lot in the graphic novel. Look really close and you can see that she's even wearing the same hat!

And finally there is this one: a big re-election poster for President Nixon (this is taking place in the 1985 of an alternate-history Earth). And that's none other than Rorschach himself walking past it! Looks like he's headed toward the bar on the left. That can't possibly be a good thing...

So there ya have it: our first official glimpses of Rorschach, Bernie the newsstand vendor, the comic book kid, the Gunga Diner, the cabbie, the Nixon poster, "Who Watches The Watchmen?" graffiti, the Tales of the Black Freighter comic...

This could be to comic book movies what Gone With The Wind was to Civil War epics.

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The 50 greatest fictional weapons ever

ToyFare and Wizard Universe have compiled their list of the 50 greatest weapons throughout all of fiction. Lightsabers make the list twice (the standard design and Darth Maul's two-bladed terror) and I was glad to see that the BFG9000 from the videogame Doom also made the cut. There are also some things mentioned here that I'd never heard of before, like Hitler's Handgun (exactly what it sounds like, from Marvel Comics' Doctor Strange: The Oath miniseries) and some that are surprisingly obscure in this day and age (like the Target Seeking Bullet Gun from the movie Runaway). And the Tall Man's homicidal Christmas tree balls from Phantasm (left) came in at #24. A great fun read and I'm particularly glad to see what came in at #1 :-)

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My decision on running for U.S. House

I'll do it.

Meaning: I am going to run for the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina's 13th District. As a lot of people have been suggesting over the past year. And it will be as a Republican.

I am absolutely serious about this.

But I'm not entirely happy with what I'm going to have to do in order for this to be a legitimate thing. You see, per the twisted myriad of Catch-22s that is federal election law, it's not feasible to have that amount of signatures on a petition just to see if you "should" run. Because in order to seriously consider running at all, you have to say that you are running... even though you don't count as a real candidate until you've raised enough money.

I need to make that clear: I'm going to run but at the present time I am not a candidate. I only become a candidate if my exploratory committee raises $5000. Then I become a candidate. In the meantime I'm "just running". Even though in my mind I'm still just "exploring" the possibility of running. But according to the rules I have to say that I am running, so I am running. And the only way to really gauge whether or not there is the support for this is to start raising money. And I don't know for sure if there really is enough support of that kind out there for this.

So basically we have a guy who's ran for school board, and didn't win that, and has since had a lot of people telling him that he should "set your sights higher", is already having to capitulate on an earlier statement, and is now declaring that he will run for United States Congress. My assets include 1 blog, 2 computers, 2 video cameras, a YouTube account, a few friends and family members (including 1 wife who is shaking her head in disbelief but has told me that if there is enough support that I should go for it), and not much else. And with this I am soon going to be asking people to contribute money - and hopefully lots of it - to my campaign.

Oh yeah and I will be running as a Republican who is against the Iraq war, does not believe that America should become an empire, has long thought that too many "Christian leaders" care more about having political power than earnestly seeking Christ and so I won't be seeking their endorsement, believes that the current presidential administration is the worst in American history because of things like the PATRIOT Act and No Child Left Behind and its refusal to do anything serious about illegal immigration, and will be running my own campaign without any "handlers" or "image consultants".

Are there any details that we are missing here?

So why am I doing this? Well, there are two reasons that have occupied my mind, for motivating me to take a shot at this...

First, I want to write. I want to make my movies. I want to get my masters degree. I want to be creative and productive. I want to have a full life of growing into whatever person it is that God wants me to grow into.

Most of all I want to be a father.

And it scares me, to think of what this country is becoming. What it has become already in a very short period of time. It scares me to think about what my children will be growing up in and what they will eventually inherit.

In the Boy Scouts we learned to always leave a campsite better than how it is that you found it. I've always thought that's a great philosophy for living your life. And as much as I want to do some things for myself personally right now, I would also like to know someday that I had done my best to leave this world not just a little better for my own children, but for everyone else.

So that's why, if people will have me, I'll sacrifice a few years of my time and do my best to serve others toward that end.

And the second reason why I've decided to run (and be a real candidate if the support is there): I'm just an ordinary citizen. But you know: why shouldn't regular Americans run for high office?

The beautiful thing about the Constitution is that the Founders wrote it so that anyone could understand it and the government it establishes. They never intended for it to be the sole province of a group of "professionals" or "elites". Quite frankly, I think Washington, Jefferson and Franklin would have been horrified to see what modern American government has turned into: politicians picked by party bosses, young men and women wasting the best years of their lives being little more than cogs in a merciless machine obsessed with power. And these so-called "experts", who have conned us into believing that they are somehow our "betters", have done nothing but waste our freedoms, our money, and even innocent lives while they continue to play their games.

People like that don't really see how the rest of us have to live with their mistakes. They don't know what it's like to make ends meet out here in the real world. It's cost them understanding, it's costing us our liberty and livelihood, and it's costing America whatever vitality she has left to her.

It's time for the "professional politicians" to go. And it's time for regular Americans to take hold of the destiny that the Founders intended for them to have for themselves.

That's the other reason why I'm going to run for United States House of Representatives: because I want a lot more people to see this guy running, against all odds, and think "hey, I could do that. I can do that. Maybe I will do that!" If I don't get in this time, then next time maybe there will be dozens more people out there who will try this too. I'll do my darndest to help them along the way. And I've no doubt that some of them will go all the way to the House, wherever they live.

I'm doing this because I want to see that entire House of Representatives filled with regular Americans, who are loyal to something other than political power or the fastest buck. And I'll do whatever it takes to see that happen.

I do not want to be a career politician. My earlier stipulation is still in effect: if in spite of everything set against me I were to wind up winning this seat, I would be there for no more than three terms. And I don't know if I would even want to be there that long. Lord only knows: I might get there and serve out one full term and then decide that I'm sick and tired of the corruption and that I want out. Besides, I don't believe that this is something that the Founders wanted to be a "lifetime career" anyway: I'd go and serve a few years and then get out and let the next guy start serving.

And by the way: there are a lot of things going against me, since I'm doing this.

I won't lie to anyone about my chances, because I understand them all too well.

I'm 33, plenty enough old to run but still very young compared to most people already there. Again, I have to emphasize that I am not "well off": I'm just now getting a business started - after trying to do that for a year - and although I'm very optimistic about it in light of how well some things are lining up for it, that's a far thing from saying that I'm "successful" with it yet.

I am not a perfect human being by any stretch. There are a lot of flaws that I've got to admit that I have. I like to think that I've overcome and grown past a lot of those. That's only come about because of the grace of God and a lot of patience. But all the same: there are lesser angels of my own nature that I still struggle with, and will continue to struggle with for the rest of my life. I won't shy away from admitting that.

Last week I changed my voter registration to Republican. That doesn't really mean anything to me though. I only did it because the way the election laws have been written over the years, you only stand a real chance at all of getting elected if you are a member of one of the two major parties.

Truth be known, I don't care much for political parties anymore. They are one of the bigger problems that are destroying this country.

So I'll be a Republican on the ballot, if it comes to that. But I'm not "running as a Republican". I'm running as Chris Knight. Stand or fall, I can't compromise on that. I do realize that because I've got "Republican" next to my name, that alone will disqualify me in many people's minds. And that I'm not a life-long, lock-step committed member of the GOP (and don't want to be either) will have some calling me a "Republican In Name Only".

Fine, I'm a RINO. As if "Republican" even means anything anymore. I believe in the values that the Republican party used to hold to: limited government, personal responsibility, individual freedom. I believe that abortion is wrong and that we have the right to self defense per the Second Amendment (and I don't believe elected officials should be playing games with things like that just to keep persuading the voters).

But I do not believe that the Republican party as a whole can claim to have the market cornered on those virtues any longer. If I run as a Republican and if anyone demands that I be labeled, I guess you could say that I'm going to be a "paleo-conservative"... and that is not a popular thing these days with the current Republican leadership. I'm not counting on any support from that quarter. But I wasn't hoping for it from them either.

I'll be listed on the ballot as a Republican, if things get that far. But I'll be running as I live my life: as an individual. Because that's how I see the world: as individual people, not groups of people to "trick" and manipulate and lie to.

That first commercial from my school board campaign? Better get ready for more like that, if TV commercials start getting made. Because if there's one thing that I will absolutely try not to do, it's insult your intelligence as a voter. Heck, you and I both know that you can think on your own. I'm not gonna be the candidate who tries to fool you. I may entertain you some but I'll also do my best to tell it like it is. Because I know that you can handle it.

My original declaration has not changed at all: there will be no negative advertising coming out of my campaign. If I run a single negative commercial, I won't run for office again, anywhere, for as long as I live.

I don't even want it to be said that I'm "running against" anyone. I'm simply running for a seat. That means I'll be presenting myself and my beliefs to the voters and will offer to serve them. If they don't want to take me up on that offer, there'll be no hard feelings and I go on and will still get to have that productive life (Lord willing with lots of kiddies) and I'll be happy.

I also want to reiterate something else that I said earlier: that I will not accept political action committee (PAC) money in my campaign. This has to be something that individuals must contribute to.

And I'm still not going to refer to anyone else running in this race as either a "liberal" or a "conservative". Other people need more respect than to have some silly label slapped on them for sake of our own convenience.

If you're thinking this is a joke, put that notion aside. Within the limits that I've set and have been established by circumstance, I am bound and determined to give this the best effort that I can. And if people really want me to do this, I'm going to serve them to the utmost of my ability.

This will be a very hard thing to attempt.

The odds are against me.

But it's worth taking a shot at.

And it has the added incentive of quite possibly being a lot of fun.

I'll say it again: if you thought my school board commercials were great, you ain't seen nuthin' yet!

Much more coming next week, including the launch of the exploratory committee website. And possibly a video or two as well.

Not much else to say right now except...

"Here we go, fast and furious!"

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Women who won't have babies "for the good of the planet"

This may be one of the most screwball things that I've ever read. And I've read plenty of screwball in my short time in this world...

There's a story at the Daily Mail website about women who refuse to get pregnant. Who have gone so far as to choose to be sterilized. Because to them, babies are "not eco friendly". They have rendered themselves incapable of having babies to "protect the planet".

So in order to preserve the beauty of the Earth, it now becomes morally righteous to wipe out people who can enjoy and appreciate that beauty. Ooh-kaaaaaay...

I long ago came to distrust Radical Environmentalism (which I capitalize because it really has become a religion as much as Christianity or Buddhism or what have you). Radical Environmentalism is the "observer effect" taken to an ecclesiastical extreme and turned into a weird cult of neo-flagellants. I have never understood why some people believe that the possession of conscious thought is grounds for ecological segregation. Man is not a thing apart from the environment: man is an active component of the environment.

And the idea that man must be diminished or even banished entirely from that environment in order to "preserve" it is absolutely insane. Even on a strictly "environmentalist" level it makes no sense, because for radical environmentalism of this sort to be valid, it must be true that Earth's environment exists in a pristine, static state without flux or change. We know that this is not true at all: Earth's environment is constantly changing, caused by factors well beyond our control and influence. Those include solar radiation, magma displacement far underground, genetic mutation (such as the periodic shifting of the flu virus), many other things. So the rabid environmentalist mindset is already something wildly illogical.

Here is where Radical Environmentalism differs from conservation, which is a good thing. Conservation does embrace the fact that man is part of the environment, and maintains that we are to be stewards of the land as best we can. Conservation has us as participants in the world, while extreme Environmentalism makes us a disease to be cut out.

But let's cut to the real problem with Radical Environmentalism: as happens all too often with religion, it's purpose has become that of power and control over other people. And apparently, it is a religion much like that of Molech in the time of the Old Testament, where the highest sign of devotion was to sacrifice your own child. Now we have women sacrificing their own wombs to demonstrate fealty to their idol. Would these women have done such a thing, had they not wanted a sense of empowerment and decided that it was worth sacrificing their identities and their flesh for that measure of power? Probably not. But such is the allure of the collective mind.

Sad. Just very, very sad...

Kinda makes you wonder if watching Children of Men should be required in high school biology classrooms. Hey if An Inconvenient Truth can be mandatory viewing , why not a movie about what happens when there are no more babies being born?

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