Stan Winston has passed away

Ain't It Cool News seems to be the first place breaking the sad news that Stan Winston died last night of cancer...

Stan Winston was the special effects and makeup genius responsible for some of the most iconic images to burst out of the movie screen of the past thirty years. Winston was the man who made the Terminator function across three films, unleashed the Aliens (and then Predator), brought dinosaurs back to life in Jurassic Park and its sequels, made us believe the mecha of A.I., and scores of other films over the years. Most recently he created the armor and other effects for the hit movie Iron Man.

Along with Aliens, you wanna know what my personal favorite example of Stan Winston's work is? It's The Thing from 1982. It could only have been Stan Winston who could turn someone like Wilford Brimley into one of the most sickeningly horrific creatures ever shown in a film. Or the scene where Norris has his heart attack (as in: his heart attacks and bites right through Copper's arms).

Think I'll pop The Thing in the DVD player tonight after our rehearsal for Children of Eden, and toast Winston's memory.

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"We are arrant knaves all; believe none of us."

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"Forest of the Dead" is the BEST episode of revived DOCTOR WHO yet, maybe best EVER and should make everyone feel warm and happy!!!

Last Saturday the BBC transmitted "Forest of the Dead", the newest episode of Doctor Who (until tomorrow night anyway, when "Midnight" premieres). I watched it on Tuesday.

And it's taken me this long just to get my thoughts together about it...

"Donna?"

"You said 'river', and suddenly we're feeding ducks."

"The only story you'll ever tell... if you survive here."

"Yo... WHO ARE YOU?!?"

"I'm going to prove it to you, and I'm sorry. I'm really, very sorry."

"LOOK AT THAT! I'm VERY GOOD!!!"

And that is as far as I dare go with the usual choice quotes from a new Doctor Who episode.

A few weeks ago I finally figured out what the "Media Extender" capability of our Xbox 360 is. So now it's configured into our home network and now I can watch those wonderful Doctor Who episodes (uploaded onto BitTorrent courtesy of our Brittish brethren) on a 42-inch high-definition television set, instead of an LCD computer monitor. Not fully high-def, but it looks amazing.

And that is how I watched "Forest of the Dead": far and away the best episode yet of the revived run of Doctor Who, and I think it could even be said that this would be in the running for the best episode of the entire 45-year history of the show.

"Wait, Chris... it's even better than "The Girl in the Fireplace"?!"

Oh yeah. Which Steven Moffat also wrote, incidentally.

This will be the episode by which all others will be judged. I feel as if after watching "Forest of the Dead" that in the words of Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor "I have dipped into the future." If this is a taste of what is to come when Moffat begins helming Doctor Who in 2010, then we are potentially headed for the richest and most epic storytelling ever done with an already grand mythology.

"Forest of the Dead" begins where "Silence in the Library" left off, with the Doctor and Professor River Song's expedition trapped by the Vashta Nerada. We find out what happened to Donna, and the Doctor is determined to discover how does River Song know so much about him. The moment that he does is going to be the source of endless speculation between now and at least 2010. If you thought Lost was maddening, "Forest of the Dead" might be worth at least an entire season of that series' questions.

And that ending: if you choked back tears watching "The Girl in the Fireplace", keep the Kleenex handy for the last several minutes of "Forest of the Dead". Please folks: that's not a mild suggestion. It's beautiful and hopeful and uplifting... and after some of the nonsense I've gone through during the past week, it sure cheered me up! Murray Gold's score alone is enough to have your spirit soaring. I'll buy the DVD of this season's soundtrack just for the music when the Doctor is running back to the data core.

If you are an American fan who has only been watching this season on the Sci-Fi Channel, I cannot begin to tell you what is in store for you with "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead". Clear some space on your DVR if you need to: this one's a keeper. And I'll give it the full 5 Sonic Screwdrivers out of 5!

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Frank Darabont's script for INDIANA JONES 4 is online... somewhere!

So if you are diligent enough with Google, right now you should have no problem at all finding an Adobe Acrobat file of Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods: Frank Darabont's now-legendary script for the fourth Indiana Jones movie. G4's Mike D'Alonzo wrote a review of it a few days ago and Moriarty at Ain't It Cool News confirmed that it's legit. It took me about two minutes of looking around to snag a copy for myself.

Thoughts?

Darabont's draft is so much like what became Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull that until I know why, it's going to be an eternal question in my mind as to why he never received a writing credit for the final product. It's the same basic story: Jones gets involved with a quest for a seemingly-mystical crystal skull and the adventure winds up in Peru. The space aliens angle is still here. So is the rocket sled, the mushroom cloud, and the refrigerator (but those all date back to Jeb Stuart's Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men from Mars script in 1995 anyway). Mutt is not in Darabont's script, but Marion returns here too... and I have to say that Darabont's script might have captured the spirit of her character more than what we saw in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. There are many references to the previous entries in the series: some pronounced and others very sly (especially one thing that hearkens back to the first time we see Indy and Belloq meet in Raiders of the Lost Ark). Sallah and Henry Jones Sr. have some fun cameos in Darabont's script, too. Oxley also figures in Darabont's story and doesn't feel as tacked-on as he did in the actual movie.

Now please don't get me wrong here: I loved and still love Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. There are numerous elements in Darabont's draft that I wish had made it over to the finished work, however. I liked the new character Yuri and the dialogue he shares with Indy and I could easily picture Ray Winstone in the role, too. The aliens are a much bigger threat and per Darabont's pen feel very... well, "alien", in a Lovecraftian way. And Indy himself comes across as more happy-go-lucky and whimsical: a sign of the growth that he has undergone as a character after so many adventures.

Anyhoo, it's out there, if you want to read it for yourself. Good luck! :-)

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Ron Paul ends campaign for President... and what this means

Ron Paul has ended his campaign for the Republican nomination for President. Instead of conceding however, Paul has shifted gears and is channeling the resources of his political aspiration into the Campaign for Liberty.

Most readers here know that I've been an enthusiastic supporter of Dr. Paul, what with the pictures of him that I did in Photoshop and the video that was posted on YouTube. Heck, I even made a Ron Paul Jack-o'-Lantern for this past Halloween! And last month I finally got to meet him.

So now, he's winding-down his drive for the Oval Office. What do I make of this?

Personally, I think that in years to come the Ron Paul presidential campaign is going to be one of the most appreciated things to have happened in the era of modern American politics. But that's not going to happen before some very rough times we'll have to go through.

Here is why I am inclined to call Ron Paul's campaign a success: it demonstrated that there is a complete absence of principles and honor in the current American political system. And if one demands further proof, he need look no further than the "two major candidates" that our system has wound up producing, with the demand that we must "choose" one of the two.

I think Ron Paul's campaign has given ample evidence that there exists between the two major parties, the corporate media, and government in general an unwritten rule that the status quo must be preserved at all costs. Those who might threaten The Way Things Are, are effectively quashed. We saw this happen numerous times during this past year to Ron Paul, especially how he was prevented from participating in numerous "debates" and when he was allowed, the "objective" moderators from Fox News or whatever made it their mission to openly question Dr. Paul's viability as a candidate. They never did that to Romney, or Huckabee, or McCain, or anyone else.

Maybe the biggest lesson we can take from the Ron Paul presidential campaign is that: "You cannot beat the system".

Maybe we don't have to try to beat it, either.

Because the system that is modern American politics is crashing and burning quite well on its own, without any help from us.

Look at what's happening around us: soaring gas prices and even higher kerosene prices (which will soon make trucking goods a much less attractive career for those who this country depends on for shipping). Skyrocketing cost of food. Illegal migrants flooding into the country. Flagrant use of illegal labor (which has led to many recent problems involving food production). Plummeting value of the dollar. Increasing taxes. Government continually stripping rights away. Wars without end, hallelujah, amen...

Those "stimulus" checks that we all got? I made a sound investment with mine (which is all that I'm going to say about that). If there had to be a sign that ours is a broken and defeated country, that was it. "Stimulus" was socialism. It was crumbs thrown to us from the table, and we gobbled it up without thinking about it. I understand that retail buying was up last month. "Stimulus worked," some will tell Chris.

Okay, fine. But now the stimulus money has run out and the economy is grinding to a halt again. Are we supposed to expect another stimulus? Believe it or not, I have heard that this is seriously under consideration. Which will pump more money into the supply, making the dollar worth even less...

I don't even want to begin to speculate on what's been going on with the weather lately, and how this has already caused the price of corn to shoot through the roof. A number of people have suggested that if there is anything like a severe hurricane season this year, the cost of commodities like oil and food will become unconscionable. Granted, there's not much we can do about acts of God. But there has been plenty that we could have already done about managing what's been granted our purview.

Except not one of the "leading contenders" for President has a damned clue about what to do about any of this. Heck, we've pretty much been promised higher taxes, no matter who is elected.

It can't be said that we didn't have a choice. Ron Paul and a very few others who took a stab at this wanted to bring legitimate concerns and solutions to the table. They never stood a chance. They were derided as "joke candidates", "also-rans" while we were supposed to believe that people like McCain and Clinton and Obama were... what, serious?!

Can anyone tell me that any of those three have been out for anything other than the power and the opportunity to stamp their names in the history books?

I don't know what that's a worse commentary on: the ones who perpetuate this system or the American people who continually buy into it.

But hey, this system already gave us George W. Bush: bar none the worst President in American history. Why should we expect any better from it?

So it is that I'm sticking with the vow that I made over a year ago: I am voting for Ron Paul for President, or I am voting for no one at all. And if I have to go to the poll and not mark down anyone for President, so be it. I've no problem with that. My conscience will be clean. Because the sad fact of the matter is, it's not going to matter one whit who among the candidates of the two major parties is elected President.

The inertia has become too great. The timbers have become too rotted. It is the acme of either foolishness or insanity to put faith in either party, or the present system at all, to stop what was already in motion long ago.

Trust me, having done the politics game already: this is not something to stock your hopes in.

But even so, I can't help but believe that Ron Paul's campaign was not only a success, it had a divine hand behind it. Maybe it was just one of the ways that God let the American people have a chance to turn back from the brink.

But we didn't take it. Now we've got two childish punks, drunk on power, fighting for control of the steering while while the car of state speeds full-tilt toward the cliff...

Hang on tight, friends and neighbors: it's a long way down.

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The last, best thing I know to say about recent events

If certain people (who I have it on record are still constantly visiting this blog looking for... whatever) cannot watch this all the way through without the slightest twitch of conscience, then there is nothing more than I know to say. Because those people really will have had no soul. The main antagonist in the little drama of the past several days has already given us a glimpse into a very dark abyss, what with his proclaiming that it is his divine mission to "defeat (and) destroy" his fellow Christians.

Let me present to you now, if nothing else will convince, why it is that I have felt led to confront these people with the evil that they are doing.

From 1955, here is Good Will To Men.

My original idea was to use Peace on Earth. Good Will To Men is a remake of that, and was produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The reason that I chose to use this one instead of the original is because I think the ultimate message of Good Will To Men is the more clearly stated...

"Love thy neighbor as thyself. On these words, depend the future."

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Thoughts and prayers for fellow Boy Scouts in Iowa

As you might have heard by now, four Boy Scouts were killed yesterday when a tornado tore through the Little Sioux Scout Ranch in Iowa.

When I did the Boy Scout camp thing years ago, at Cherokee Scout Reservation, we had a tornado alarm. I think that I only heard it used once during a drill. I don't think any of us ever expected that there'd be a reason why it would be used for real.

I've come to have a whole new appreciation for that alarm having been there now.

To our friends and brothers in the Mid-America Council and their families who are going through this right now, please know that our thoughts and prayers are with you, from here in the Old North State Council and beyond.

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Charles Roark offers FREE airtime on WGSR to Johnny Robertson for commercial defaming Yours Truly using my likeness

He did. It's true. I've got it documented.

And in Charles Roark's words: "I don't care... Take me on."

Just thought y'all should know.

So how is this different than what happened the other night? I never used Robertson's image.

Am glad that I didn't, now.

EDIT 5:08 p.m. EST: Roark talked about this on his "warm-up show" on WGSR this afternoon at 4:30. He's trying to spin it as if...

- I called Robertson out first.

- I told WGSR not to use my likeness at all.

Both are false. In fact, both are pretty much blatant lies.

Robertson wanted to debate me first. My only thing so far as "instigation" goes was to ask a theological question. He answered it. I was satisfied. Then Robertson announced that he was going to talk about me on his show that week and that I wouldn't debate him.

So I took him at his word, met him at the station with my video camera and let him have his opportunity. He quickly reneged.

So far as any reasonable human being is concerned, Johnny Robertson was the one who brought this to the television arena. Not I.

And so far as what I've told WGSR goes, I made it clear that my likeness could not be used in promos paid for by Johnny Robertson and his so-called "Church of Christ". Instead, Roark spun it so as to sound as if I was telling WGSR that it could not use my likeness at all.

So I called into the show. And told Roark that. I also accused him of very low journalism. He spat back that "this station is the most successful in the region" and then tried to make it sound as if I was "bitter", having worked there before.

Sure Charles, whatever.

Folks, some of you have been leaving some... not too polite... comments on this post, about Charles Roark. I don't really care to see those but I admit that the lesser angels of my nature are in resounding agreement. My last shred of respect for the man evaporated this afternoon, and I don't know if I'll ever tune in to WGSR again because of it.

He was right when he said one thing: once upon a time, I believed in that station. I thought it was good and I wanted to do my part to make it into something better. But I don't know if it will ever be anything more than it already is.

If Charles Roark is happy with that, fine. But if Roark is throwing his objectivity out the window for sake of a wealthy, paying client - and so far as I know Johnny Robertson and his "Church of Christ" are the biggest things keeping WGSR afloat at all - then I can't support WGSR anymore. Not as a matter of conscience. And the idea that I'm somehow "bitter" has nothing to do with it.

I can't help but think that I doubt Charles Roark will ever understand that.

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Walter E. Williams asks: Are Americans slaves?

I've always appreciated Dr. Walter E. Williams's perspective and candor. There have been times when I didn't necessarily agree with him, but whenever he writes or speaks it's apparent that it only comes after investing considerable thought into the matter. For that reason alone, I would recommend Dr. Williams as someone far above and removed from the rest of the "talking heads" out there.

Over at Townhall.com Williams has posed the question: "Are Americans pro-slavery?". It's a fairly short but rich piece that should have everyone reading it question whether they are really free or not.

Personally, I don't believe that the state of condition in America fosters anything but captivity to the current system. That we aren't "owned" in terms of there existing a title deed with one's name on it doesn't change the fact that most of the product of our own labor does go to bigger government. And can it be said that we are becoming "more free" at all, in this day of increasing taxes and mandates on the citizenry?

Yeah, we're slaves all right, just like Williams describes in his piece. Now the question is: What are we going to do about it?

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Johnny Robertson sez: "We are here to DESTROY you" (plus: why this blog can't take this loon seriously anymore)

The Lord works in mysterious ways...

I'm content to believe that the strange drama of what has gone on between Yours Truly and Johnny Robertson of "Martinsville Church of Christ" - part of what I call the "Church Of Christ In Name Only" - has finally drawn to a close. It came with this brazen admission by Robertson on the Answering the Church of Christ blog...

"we are here to defeat destroy you and uplift truth"

- Johnny Robertson, June 11, 2008

Johnny Robertson, supposed preacher and "Church of Christ" television broadcaster, has said that it is the mission of he and his followers "to defeat (and) destroy you".

I don't have to say anything else or make another video, folks. Robertson has shot himself not in the foot but straight in the chest with this statement.

No doubt that the effort I went through in order to ask Robertson a simple question, about "How is what you are doing showing the love of Christ?", has been wasted. Or maybe not. Because this is how Johnny Robertson of the Martinsville Church of Christ shows love of Christ for others: by actively trying to "destroy" them.

Didn't Charles Manson preach the same thing to his "Family"?

And now, I must apologize to the readers of The Knight Shift, that I spent even one moment concerned with this loon. Because so far as I'm concerned, Johnny Robertson had already demonstrated his lack of credibility even before he said that it was his Christ-ordained mandate to "destroy" his enemies. It happened here, when he referenced someone who is apparently a member of a legitimate Church of Christ...

"Corey does not represent the church of Christ ya'll he is a liberal"

Longtime readers of this blog will know what that means and just how bad Robertson has screwed-up here.

And now I cannot believe that I made such a business out of this guy. Because now I have to wonder if he is really an "evil" person after all.

Instead, Johnny Robertson is just... a blithering idiot!

And sad to say, I'm not sorry for having to observe that, either.

"He is a liberal"? Is that the best you can come up with?!

PPPPHHHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Folks, seriously, I am now regretting that I spent any time at all countering this, God forgive me for saying it, poor lost soul.

"Liberal"? That word, along with "conservative", has been used so bloody often that it's completely lost all meaning!

If you've ever read my blog, you already know that this is a long-standing belief of mine. A person can have "conservative" or "liberal" leanings on issues. But to blanketly damn a person as a "liberal" or a "conservative" is symptomatic of a very petty, shallow, spiteful mind.

And thats all Robertson really has, isn't it?

Oh yeah, he knows the words of the Bible. But he doesn't know the meaning and spirit of the Bible and now I have to wonder if he possibly can know that at all!

I'm sorry folks. You see, Johnny Robertson, he puts on a good show of it. But he's not really evil. He just can't see the world with anything other than the mentality of professional wrestling.

The moment he described someone as a "liberal", I knew: Johnny Robertson was not an important man at all. Certainly not worth having a theological battle with.

This is too good. This makes my day! This is, very much, a gift from God.

(And yes, I do admit that the lesser angels of my nature are rather mirthful at the moment. But I like to think that God has sufficient grace to forgive me for that :-P)

Oh well, at least I got to make good on my promise to the cast and crew to show Schrodinger's Bedroom on broadcast television. And word has reached me that at least one other well-known person is "furious" that I didn't provide the show that had been expected on Sunday night.

Johnny Robertson, you're not worth another moment of my time. With one word, you demonstrated that.

I would even say that it's a waste of time for anyone to be concerned about Robertson and James Oldfield and Norm Fields any more. It really is the spiritual equivalent of wrestling with a pig: you only get dirty and the pig likes it.

And that's all Robertson, Oldfield and Fields really are, aren't they? They are spiritual pigs.

Johnny Robertson, ladies and gentlemen: All hat and no cattle. On a mission from God to "defeat destroy you".

I'm wondering what kind of Photoshop fun I can work with this...

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Hide behind the sofa: Davros IS coming!

This has got to be the worst-kept secret in the history of television. But with three weeks left before the two-part finale begins for this season's Doctor Who, the BBC is still refusing to confirm that the big baddie this year is Davros. How could it not be? Season 1 of the revived series ended with a plot by the Dalek Emperor. The following year gave us the first-ever clash between the Daleks and the Cybermen. 2007 hailed the return of The Master (who last menaced The Doctor in the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie). The show will be on hiatus for one season so that David Tennant can fulfill stage obligations in London, and for that reason alone I doubt Russell T Davies is going to leave us hanging with The Rani or The Valeyard.

Gotta admire the BBC though for keeping a tight ship. Until possibly yesterday, when RichardWho.com snagged the following...

Real deal? My gut says yes.

Davros, possibly the single greatest villain in all of fiction, is returning.

And if that pic is legit, he looks great! We just gotta see if he can still scream and rave like the Davros of old :-)

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Answering Johnny Robertson: "What Does the Bible REALLY Say?" (The DVD that didn't air)

In the wake of my "extending the opportunity" to "Martinsville Church of Christ" cultist Johnny Robertson on June 1st, WGSR general manager Charles Roark offered me 25 minutes of free airtime on Sunday night in response to Robertson. I took up the offer, even though 25 minutes is not nearly long enough to counter everything that Robertson, James Oldfield and Norm Fields spend thousands of dollars to broadcast for about a dozen and a half hours a week.

And I already knew that it would have been futile to have even tried to counter everything they preach, too. But I never believed that I had to try to, either.

"Christianity is not a competition", as I said on Sunday night. And I was never out to "beat" Johnny Robertson at anything. All of this began with a simple question...

"Johnny, how is what you are doing showing devotion to Christ, and demonstrating His love for others?"

That was almost three months ago. To this date, Johnny Robertson has not provided an answer. He has only dodged and run away.

I spent some time this past week putting together a presentation on DVD that would run on Sunday night. And up 'til the last half-hour or so, this was going to be what people would have seen on Sunday night. A friend came over and we prayed about it and in the end, I felt led to just "be me" and let the chips fall where they may.

If you watched WGSR on Sunday night, you know that I did not run this presentation. That instead I got on live television for about 13 minutes, and just... spoke from the heart about what God had been showing me from scripture this past week.

A lot of it had to do with what we are told in Galatians 5 is the "Fruit of the Spirit". Those being...

- love
- joy
- peace
- patience
- kindness
- goodness
- faithfulness
- gentleness
- self control

Robertson, Olfield and Fields cannot show that they have produced the Fruit of the Spirit with what they preach. They only present "...hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy."

Can it be said that Robertson, Oldfield and Fields can demonstrate to us that they do produce the Fruit of the Spirit in the least bit with what they are doing?

Does that alone indicate that they preach "another Christ", are perhaps even of the "spirit of Antichrist" as the Apostle John wrote?

I won't speculate. But I will certainly observe that their evidence demands a verdict.

A number of people have passed along similar thoughts, after watching Robertson for the first time on Sunday night: that Johnny Robertson is "demon possessed", "evil", and "ungodly". As much as I would like to offer a defense on behalf of Robertson, I'm hard-pressed to find any rationale for one, parse that as you will.

And as I said on Sunday night, this is partly why I'm not going to pursue the matter any further. Because I do want my own life to produce the Fruit of the Spirit. Because I do not want to be like Johnny Robertson and his bunch. What they preach isn't the freedom and joy that comes with a life in Christ. And as I said on camera the other night: "I pity Johnny Robertson." He probably will never know what it means to be free by the grace of God.

After I finished in front of the camera, I had a DVD of Schrodinger's Bedroom which ran. That was included in the DVD that I'd prepared too. Again, because I knew that 25 minutes wasn't long enough to fully counter all the harm these men have done and continue to do... and also because I'd promised the cast and crew of the film that I'd get it broadcast on television somehow. Lo and behold, God let me uphold that promise. So on that note alone, I'll consider Sunday night a success.

I didn't watch Robertson's show, which came on after mine. I do understand that he said something about how I wouldn't speak to him as he was entering the building. Which is a lie: I didn't even see Robertson at all. I saw his car, but did not happen to notice him. And he was nowhere in the WGSR studio as my friend and I were leaving, either. So he was either invisible to the naked eye, or he broadcast an outright falsehood.

I did happen to catch him on the "warm up show" yesterday afternoon. The gist of what he was saying was: "Chris was an idiot to think he could take us on. He can't do it. We won! He threw in the towel! Yay for us! We are better than he is! We are better than ANYONE!"

Can anyone imagine Peter, or Paul, or the Apostle John, or any other follower of Christ of the first century, carrying on like this?

As I said on Sunday night, Christianity is not a competition. I wasn't out to "beat" Robertson anyway. That's never what this has been all about. It's Robertson and his bunch that insists on framing this as an "us versus them" situation. As if there is some tangible prize that is up for grabs.

All of this started with a question that I asked Johnny Robertson. Almost 3 months later, he still cannot answer it.

I'm going to assume at this point that for all the power and authority that he claims, that he cannot do so simple a thing as give us an answer.

If Robertson insists that this be a contest, and if he cannot even attempt to tell us how what he is doing is giving the glory to God and showing Christ's love to others...

...if Johnny Robertson can only run and hide behind Shirley Phelps Roper's skirt...

...then I suppose that I've beaten Johnny Robertson by default.

There is nothing that Robertson can do about that. And for years to come, the permanent record that people will be able to find on their own is going to reflect that: that in the arena of ideas, Chris Knight did beat Johnny Robertson.

I would rather have the long-term victory than be able to "brag" like Robertson did yesterday.

As I said on Sunday night, I'm not going to spend any more time on Johnny Robertson. I asked him a question, he can't answer it. It can't ever be said that I didn't try. The real reason I came to him with my question to begin with is to give him a choice. Who am I to think that I would succeed where so many others have failed? But he had to be given a choice all the same. That's done. I can't do anything else.

Here it is: What Does the Bible REALLY Say?, the presentation that I had made, but did not run, on Sunday night...

If certain technical issues can be resolved, I will post the live broadcast here also.

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Dr. Jim Austin passes away

A friend let me know a short while ago that Dr. Jim Austin of Eden, one of the at-large members of the Rockingham County Board of Education, passed away yesterday morning at his home. He leaves a wife and two daughters.

The photo on the right is when he was sworn in on December 11, 2006.

And right now, on top of everything else that's happened over the past few days, my heart's a wreck after hearing this news.

From the moment Jim and I met during the election in 2006, I liked him immediately. We had a long conversation following a school board meeting a few months before election day, and I thought then that he was going to be a fine addition to the board. It came as no surprise that he not only won a seat, but came in first place.

And when he began his term of office, Jim brought the same warm demeanor and affirming logic to his post. Whether you agreed with him on everything or not (and admittedly there were times when we disagreed) no one ever doubted that wherever Jim stood on a position, it was only because he sincerely believed in it for the good of the people he was serving.

Personally, I think that Jim's definitive hour on the board happened last July, during the meeting about the school uniforms in the Reidsville schools. Austin had voted for the uniforms a few months prior to the meeting. But then he wound up as one of those who voted to rescind the original vote. "People change their minds," he observed. So simple and yet something so far beyond the ken of too many elected officials these days. Jim not only voted to rescind, but he was the one who made the motion to vote on the matter. If he didn't have it already, Jim gained a lot of respect across the county for how he handled the issue that night.

There wasn't a meeting that I attended where Jim and I didn't get a chance to talk. And we wound up talking about an awful lot. I'm going to miss those moments.

J. Brian Ewing has written a story for the News & Record with more information about the life of Dr. Jim Austin.

EDIT 11:12 p.m. EST: Heather Smith has written a VERY good article about Dr. Austin for the Media General newspapers.

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To whom it may concern ...

"... something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told."

-- Habakuk 1:5

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"Silence in the Library": Chris finally reviews last week's DOCTOR WHO!

What, you think that helping with a musical production, coining a new phrase and even an encounter with evil incarnate would keep me from doing a review of "Silence in the Library", this past week's new episode of Doctor Who?! The action never stops on this blog, bay-bee!

"We're near the equator... so this must be BIOGRAPHIES!"

"Without death they would be only comedies."

"A million million lifeforms... and silence in the library."

"Message follows: Run. For God's sake run."

"It's the Fifty-First Century. That's like donating a park bench."

"It's moved."

"I'm a time-traveler. I point and laugh at archaeologists."

"Almost every species in the universe has an irrational fear of the dark. But they're wrong. Because it's not irrational."

"Doctor. Please tell me you know who I am."

"Hello. Are you in my television?"

"My grandfather lasted a day. He kept talking about his shoelaces."

"Yeah. You gave it to me."

"Donna Noble has been saved."

"Hey, who turned out the lights?"

Steven Moffat has already written three of my favorite episodes of the revived Doctor Who series: the two-parter consisting of "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances" for Christopher Eccleston's season as the Doctor, and 2006's stunning "The Girl in the Fireplace" (and I haven't seen it yet but I've heard his "Blink" last year was absolutely amazing). He's also set to take over production of the show beginning in the 2010 season (after the hiatus next season so that David Tennant can fulfill a commitment to star in Hamlet for the London stage) and if "Silence in the Library" is any indication, we can expect great things from Moffat in the future.

The episode begins with a cerebral scene involving a little girl (Eve Newton) floating across a very Coruscant-ish city landscape, before she opens her eyes and finds herself facing her father and a psychiatrist. The next moment, the Doctor (Tennant) and Donna (Catherine Tate) are bursting through the doors on The Library: the largest library in existence and so large, it covers an entire planet and needs no other proper name. All well and good, except that the Library is quiet... too quiet. Other than the Doctor and Donna, there's not a single living being in sight, though the Library's computer declares that there is a vast number of lifeforms on the planet. Then a team of archaeologists arrives, led by Professor River Song (Alex Kingston): a woman who hints very strongly throughout the episode that she and the Doctor have met before.

"Silence in the Library" is a downright spooky and jarring episode: something that Moffat has demonstrated he can pull off extremely well. The one negative critique that I would have about the episode is that there's a bit too much re-use of the "catchphrase cacophony" to elicit fright: Moffat did it with "The Empty Child" and he does it again here. But after everything else that is strong about this episode, this is a very minor thing. I thought that the Nodes were a chilling concept, but even those pale next to the idea of the Data Ghosts. Something about that is sincerely unnerving to think about, almost as if it might someday become a very real phenomenon. I mean, when you think about it, the Data Ghosts are just an after-effect of neurologically-enhanced blogging. Scary stuff...

The story concludes in "Forest of the Dead", which should be airing on the BBC for our British friends any moment now, and will no doubt be made available for download later this evening. I'll try to do a review of that one soon, too!

"Silence in the Library" gets 4 and 1/2 Sonic Screwdrivers out of 5.

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Two people I know are getting married today

First there's Roger Weber, who I've known for literally all my life. He ties the knot today here in Reidsville, North Carolina.

And then there's the lovely and effervescent Abby Prince of WebProNews, who I came to know this past year. According to our sources she's getting hitched somewhere in Kentucky.

Congratulations to Roger and to Abby and their respective spouses-to-be! May God bless you today, and it is our prayer that you and your loved ones have a long and happy life together :-)

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CHILDREN OF EDEN Update: 14 Days to Opening Night

Two weeks from tonight, we will all be in makeup and costume, and about to take to the stage with the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of Children of Eden.

We have come a very long way in a short time. But there's still plenty more to do.

The past few nights have been spent on cleaning up the choreography for the bigger numbers. Last night it was work on "In The Beginning" and "The Naming", and that one was especially fun to watch. The two that I'm working on most in my spare time have been the dances for "Generations" and "Ain't It Good". I've written about it before here and I have to admit again: "Ain't It Good" might be the most difficult song of the show... but I absolutely think it's going to rock the house when we get to perform it. It might get easier to practice when we get everything so far as the stage floor put in place.

In case anyone's wondering why there aren't pictures to go along with these reports: I've been taking some, but have been asked not to post them here. I might be able to post a pic of me in costume sometime next week though. And I'll be getting a scan of the production's poster up soon too :-)

Best part of doing this has been getting to know a lot of new and interesting people. I don't think it's possible to work on a show like Children of Eden and put your heart into it, without bonding with each other somehow. Everything about Children of Eden contributes to a camaraderie that I think is going to go with us for the rest of our lives.

Just one more reason why I'm very thankful for the opportunity to be in this production.

Oh yeah, last night I wore one of the t-shirts that I made for Forcery. Most other people have been wearing shirts from productions they've been in. I didn't have one of those, so I thought "Okay, I'll just wear a shirt from the movie that I made!" Got a lot of people asking about it, 'specially the kids. I'm already thinking that I've wound up with a huge pool of talent that I could ask to help me out with my projects down the road.

Another update sometime next week!

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STAR WARS BLUEPRINTS: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION coming in August

This has to be the gnarliest cover for a printed Star Wars product that I've ever seen. Behold the box for Star Wars Blueprints: The Ultimate Collection...

That pic alone reinforces something that's taken me awhile to really grasp: that for all his dreaded reputation, Darth Vader is a pretty pitiful character. Imagine being a scorched torso with no arms or legs, not even able to breathe on your own, being surrounded by all of that intrusive technology just to keep you alive. Never mind about also having to use it to enforce the will of your dark master. Last week I was able to finally score - after months of looking - the Battle Damaged Darth Vader action figure from The Force Unleashed line. The girl at the checkout counter saw what she was ringing up and said "Oh God that's sick!" And then she said that she could no longer hate Vader as a character either, that it was "so sad" what happened to him.

Funny how our perception of things changes over time, eh?

Anyhoo, Star Wars Blueprints: The Ultimate Collection is scheduled to come out August 4th with a list price of $19.99, and will also include details plans of the Millennium Falcon (the current accepted version of the layout anyway), the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, the Death Star, and lightsabers and blasters.

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YouTube adds Video Annotations feature

Yesterday YouTube rolled out a new feature called Video Annotations. It's a way to add interactive content to YouTube videos and after playing around with it some, I think this might be one of the best things that YouTube has done yet for its users. You can include commentary, add dialogue balloons, even link to other YouTube videos. Lots of possibilities here. During a break this morning I gave The Baritones the "Pop-Up Video" treatment...

I'm thinking, whenever I get the time, to include annotations for Forcery and Schrodinger's Bedroom as well. By the way, right now Video Annotations is a beta feature and doesn't support embedded videos (so you'll have to click on The Baritones link above to check it out). It's also automatically on by default, but you can toggle the feature with a new button that's to the right of the "full screen" one (it's the button that's pointing upward in the lower-right of the above pic).

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LOST: Deleted fence scene from "The Economist"

Hey gang: still reeling from the events of "There's No Place Like Home", the season finale of Lost that aired last week? Not looking forward to eight months of withdrawal from one of the greatest television shows ever? Well, here's something that maybe will help ease the suffering. Notorious Lost blogger DocArzt and his bunch have scored the video of a deleted scene from the episode "The Economist". It depicts Kate, Sayid and Miles arriving at the security fence surrounding the Barracks. A bit of revelation here about Miles, who of all the new characters this season was among the most intriguing and we still don't know much about him. Anyhoo, he has a great scene here. Enjoy!

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WARGAMES and the Great Hacking Scare of 1983

Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the release of WarGames, starring Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy. AMC was running it last night and I wound up watching a good part of it.

In case you've never seen it before, WarGames is about David Lightman, a high school student who's an unmotivated slacker in class but a first-rate computer hacker at home. David's real talent is running automated searches for systems that can be dialed into via phone modem, and then cracking their security. While trying to locate a new video game company's system so he can do his own brand of beta-testing, David unknowingly winds up accessing a computer at NORAD and nearly starts World War III from his bedroom.

A quarter-century later, WarGames still holds up extremely well. Practically all of the technology depicted is now horribly dated (look at the size of those floppies that David is using!) but in spite of that, and perhaps even because of it, WarGames has become a curiously good snapshot of both Cold War bunker mentality and the introduction of computers into civilian life. It is also, I believe, one of the more successful morality tales about the fear of nuclear war: WarGames is not a "political" film as many of the time were. And neither does it make anyone out to be "the good guys" and "the bad guys". The genius of WarGames's longevity is that it wisely adheres to its own lesson: that to win the game, sometimes you have to choose not to play the game at all.

I thought that WarGames also merited mentioning (in addition to it being a terrific film) because of the reaction that it engendered upon its release. With its depiction of teens hacking into school systems to change their own grades, and then breaking into military-grade mainframes and coming a hair's-breadth from nuking the whole planet, WarGames initiated unusual paranoia in the mainstream press about the power of computers. I remember one CBS Evening News report at the time that seriously questioned whether parents should allow their children to access the outside world via their personal computers at home. A magazine article suggested that computer modems be "locked up" just like firearms, to keep them out of the reach of teenagers. I even heard one pundit proclaim that there was no need for regular people to be able to log in to a remote system: that if you need to access your bank account, a friendly teller was just a short drive away.

And Bill Gates once declared that the average person would never have a need for more than 640 kilobytes of memory in a personal computer, too.

Such news stories were very fashionable in 1983, and looking back I think the corporate media unwittingly demonstrated the moral of WarGames. It was an unfounded fear but the press played on it, and it wound up embedding itself into the popular conscience. I know of one friend whose parents were so horrified at the prospect of "accidentally" breaking into an unauthorized computer system, that they didn't buy a computer at all until 1998! After their fears were allayed, they eventually got on the Internet and found that it was a fine thing.

Now to be fair, WarGames was not the first movie about computers going awry and driving mankind toward nuclear apocalypse. 1970's Colossus: The Forbin Project might have been the first to explore the theme, and of course there as also The Terminator. Many will convincingly argue that Dr. Strangelove had them all beat.

But WarGames was different: it wasn't only a computer glitch in a far-removed system or a demented military officer which we had to fear could doom all mankind. After WarGames, we were told that Jack D. Ripper could be anybody.

I don't know if the paranoia was completely without merit, though, but only because of one funny incident that happened to me. In the fall of 1994 I was using my first real computer to dial into various bulletin board systems, and there was one that had just started up in Eden. I tried to dial into it but instead of a computer I heard a voice telling me that "This number is not in service". I changed one digit in the prefix, thinking that maybe it was just the wrong number that I had been given. This time the modem did connect to another one, but the terminal window filled with gibberish. I changed the modem protocol, tried it again... and found that I had dialed into the computer system for the Eden branch of NationsBank (now Bank of America)! What was the first thing that popped into mind? Yup: WarGames. I hit the disconnect button so fast that I can still remember my heart pounding against my rib cage.

A few months after WarGames came out CBS began airing Whiz Kids, about a group of teenagers who built their own supercomputers and used it to solve crimes, and by that time the Great Hacking Scare of 1983 was in full swing. CBS execs were quick to emphasize that what the Whiz Kids characters did could not easily be pulled off in real life (which might have backfired: Whiz Kids had great potential but it was canceled after one season). The fear had pretty much diminished by 1987 when ABC's Max Headroom (a groundbreaking show that I've long thought has never been fully appreciated) came out, but it would still rear its head in the years to come, particularly with movies like 1992's Sneakers and Hackers in 1995. And then the success of Independence Day in 1996 finally turned the tables on the mistrust of computers as a tool. Suddenly hacking was not something that we worried would destroy the world: it could even save the world if it had to.

But for a long time, beginning in those strange days of 1983, there was a hesitancy to reach out and harness the computer: just as early man no doubt originally feared the flame. WarGames clearly announced that the digital fire, originally the province of the technology gods, was now a boon to mere mortals. And with it came a choice: we could use it to build, or to burn.

I like to believe that we have generally chosen the former.

EDIT 4:42 p.m. EST: This post has been Slashdotted! That's three times since this past August that this blog has been featured on Slashdot...

We're also getting lots of visitors today via the post about the DHARMA Initiative snacks, presumably from countries that are either about to start watching Lost Season 4 or are already at the season finale. Welcome to everyone who's found their way to this blog, however it is ya got here :-)

And it has been brought to my attention that Bill Gates apparently did NOT make the statement famously attributed to him about 640K of memory. Which is news to me 'cuz I was hearing that ever since taking C++ programming in college years ago. So I happily stand corrected.

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Review of INDIANA JONES: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE

Yesterday I bought a copy of Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide. I've long been a fan of DK Publishing's Star Wars books, which have been in the format of visual dictionaries and beautifully illustrated cutaways of locations and vehicles in the Star Wars saga.

Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide continues DK's tradition in providing lush eye candy and detailed information, this time about a certain globe-trotting archaeologist. Written by James Luceno (who has been praised on this blog numerous times for his Star Wars work), the book covers most of the span of what we know about the life and times of Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr, beginning with the birth of his father in Scotland in 1872. Indy himself is born in 1899 and considerable space is devoted to his early exploits (which were documented in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series). The book pics up the pace with the events of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1935, on through Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, while also covering material that was introduced in various novels, comics and video games. And being that this is the season of (finally!) a new Indiana Jones movie, it's only fitting that there is sumptuous information regarding Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, including more about Mac, Mutt, and Spalko. The book concludes with a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Indiana Jones movies, and some of the merchandise and marketing that has been done for the franchise over the years.

This book is going to be one that I will certainly appreciate having on my shelf for many years to come. However, it's not absolutely complete in my opinion. There is nothing at all about "Older Indy", the 93-year old version played by George Hall in the bookends for ABC's original run of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. In addition to how those aren't in the DVD sets and haven't been shown in the occasional reruns on television for some time, it's enough to make me wonder if George Lucas now considers those not "canon". Which would be a darn tragedy 'cuz the bookends with George Hall as Indy were awesome! And strangely, the events of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, considered by many to be the finest Indiana Jones video game ever and one of the best of the entire graphic adventure genre, are not mentioned at all (although Sophia Hapgood is referenced, as is the Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine game).

But in light of what else is in this book, Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide is still a must-have for fans of Indy. I particularly enjoy the cut-away illustrations for the buried city of Tanis, Pankot Palace and the Thuggee mines, and the Grail Temple (along with the catacombs beneath Venice: it turns out that St. Mark is buried down there too).

I was expecting nothing but goodness to come from Luceno and DK with their treatment of the Indiana Jones saga, and they have certainly delivered fortune and glory with Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide. Heartily recommended!

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Ballard: Titanic search was cover-up for U.S. Government mission

Robert Ballard has come forward with something very interesting: his successful 1985 search for the Titanic was only a cover story for a mission from the United States Government.

The deal was: Ballard would assist the U.S. Navy in examining the wreckage of two American nuclear submarines - the Thresher and the Scorpion - that were lost at sea in the Atlantic during the 1960s. At the time, there was concern that the Soviet Union might somehow find and exploit the sunken subs. The expedition was funded by the government and upon completion, Ballard would be free to continue his quest for the Titanic. All fine and dandy... except few people expected him to find the thing! Some in the Navy were alarmed that Ballard's discovery might arouse suspicion, but because of all the publicity about the Titanic itself nobody dared question the purpose of Ballard's mission.

Head over to the National Geographic website for more on the story.

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THE KNIGHT SHIFT: In Color! Live on WGSR this Sunday night

Yesterday afternoon WGSR Star 39 General Manager Charles Roark devoted the 4:30 "warm-up show" to what happened on Sunday night on the street in front of the station, when I gave Johnny Robertson of the "Church Of Christ In Name Only" the opportunity to debate me on live television. Since Robertson had already declared he was going to talk about me and this blog on his show anyway, and had strongly stated that I wouldn't debate him, I took him at his word and showed up at the station with my Bible and video camera and gave him the chance to take me on during a live broadcast. He refused, and he couldn't answer the questions I was asking him either.

Long story short: Charles Roark has offered me 25 minutes of free airtime this coming Sunday night at 8 p.m.

I'm taking him up on it.

All I'm prepared to say right now is that it won't be a live debate between myself and Johnny Robertson. He had that chance on Sunday night. Charles Roark is graciously letting me have this valuable time to present another perspective, and I'm going to use it as best that I can. Neither will it be an interview. I've something in mind and I'm sticking to it.

Besides, Robertson will have an hour and a half after I'm on the air all to himself, to do whatever he likes. I'm going to respect the time alloted to him as he will no doubt respect the time alloted to me.

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Man threatened with arrest for wearing TRANSFORMERS t-shirt

Brad Jayokody, pictured below, was threatened by security personnel at London's Heathrow Airport because his t-shirt depicting Optimus Prime from the movie Transformers was considered offensive.

So much for "Freedom is the right of ALL sentient beings!" ...

Read the rest of the story here.

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CONFRONTING JOHNNY ROBERTSON: YouTube videos of encounter with "Church of Christ" preacher

As I reported earlier, last night I gave Johnny Robertson of the Martinsville Church of Christ (which I call the "Church Of Christ In Name Only" because it has NOTHING to do with the traditional Churches of Christ) the opportunity to debate me on live television, since he's apparently been wanting me to mix it up with him over a matter of theology. You can read what I wrote about what happened at the above link.

Here at last is the video of what happened.

Part 1 is up already. I'm working on Part 2 now and it might even go to a Part 3. But in the meantime, have at it...

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Tonight I confronted Johnny Robertson with questions and a video camera

Yup, I sure did.

Went down to the WGSR studio at 7 p.m. last night (now 7 hours ago) and waited until Johnny Robertson - of the "Church of Christ in Name Only", the hyper-legalist cult in these parts that is demonstrating so much hatred toward others, all in the name of Jesus Christ - showed up for his weekly live television broadcast.

Robertson got there just before 8:30 on his way to do his show. And I didn't hesitate to ask Robertson three big questions:

(1) How is what he is doing showing devotion to Jesus Christ, and showing Christ's love to the lost of this world?

(2) Where in the Bible does it say that if you are not baptized that you are going to Hell?

(3) "I'm here Johnny... so will you debate me live on the air tonight?"

Robertson never answered the first question, could not answer the second (apart from some saying that baptism is "a command" but he still could not demonstrate how the unbaptized person will go to Hell) and he adamantly REFUSED to debate me, saying that he already had "an agenda" and later on in the evening he seemed to imply that I'm "small potatoes" (my words) and that he much more prefers to debate well-known Baptist, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, etc. He kept citing that I don't have enough "knowledge of scripture". Although he denied it, I have to wonder if that means I have to have a doctorate of divinity degree in order for him to be interested. He also said that debating me would be "boring".

I videotaped it, folks. He videotaped me videotaping him too. I'll have it up later in the morning.

Oh yah, and Johnny Robertson also said that I'm not saved at all, because I was baptized in a Baptist church (even though I am not denominational at all, I was baptized while in college because I became a believer in Christ there and I wanted to do this before I graduated) and something to the effect that my baptism did not come because of repentance. Uhhhh...

I'm going to post the video on YouTube and then stick it on this blog, but after that I'm pretty much through with Johnny Robertson. My offer to debate on live television still stands though: he won't take it. In my sincere opinion, he's too genuinely afraid to take me up on it. Much of the time during two videotaped meetings (before and after the show) he kept trying to badger out of me which "denomination" I was. And it must have flustered him that I just consider myself a "follower of Christ" who worships with other believers. Robertson accused me of being a "renegade", something that he reiterated during his live show tonight also (and there's gonna be some really hilarious footage of that, friends and neighbors!).

Like I said, I'll have the video up later this morning. Trust me: it's a hoot!

EDIT 1:44 p.m. EST: Here's the link to the video.

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Johnny Robertson threatens to mention this blog on his TV show tonight!!!

A bit of an update on Dianne Odell, who passed away this past week after living 60 of her 61 years in an iron lung and was reported to have been a devout Christian woman. In considering her situation a question arose in my mind that I felt led to ask aloud to Johnny Robertson, James Oldfield and Norm Fields of the local "Church of Christ" (which has nothing at all to do with the Church of Christ that most people know of): the three cultists who appear on WGSR several times a week and among other things teach that there is no salvation without baptism.

It turns out that Dianne Odell HAD been baptized, in her family's bathtub, when she was 13 years old. She was taken out of her iron lung just long enough to accomplish it, against her doctor's recommendation. It's something that she very much wanted to do and thankfully, she got to do it.

My contention remains unchanged, as well as my question to Robertson, Oldfield and Fields: If someone is incapable of being baptized, does that mean that they are not saved?

How can a physical act possibly be connected to the salvation of one's soul? Is this not adding a "work" to the already finished work that Jesus did when He went to die for us?

Well, now Robertson is threatening to bring up how "wrong" I was on baptism on his show What Does the Bible Say? (which if truth in advertising laws prevailed should be renamed "What Does Johnny Robertson Say?") airing on WGSR Star 39 tonight. Robertson is apparently determined to make hay of this, and will no doubt gleefully point out that the lady in question was baptized. And Robertson spent almost three hours on my blog yesterday (I've got the records to prove it), looking for "dirt" no doubt.

Here are some of the remarks that Johnny Robertson has made in the past 24 hours...

Happy hunting obe one
you will have to try harder than this
are you still going to call in?
If not Corey will get you (he lied Corey)

are you all still searching for some instance where a person cannot be baptized?
it must be really tough on you all to be proved WRONG all the time.
I tell you this is fast becoming my favorite site.
Chris you are the best
our youtube going out to praise Diane (since you brought her up) is a great shout out to how the Devil really is stupid.
Diane was the # one google name yesterday. How well do you think you question being read on my show will do?
It may get you in the New York times again as the most unkind person alive.

God’s word will be upheld.
Did yu think we would take a hit from the likes of Chris Knight when we teach the glorious gospel of the King.
You are hurting the cause

chris are you still calling in and debating on Sunday nite?
or did your little plan back fire

you reject the counsel of God when you refuse to be baptized and if you die
having done this all your days
then dont expect mercy as “rejecter”
I do say this with malice.
but it is the truth

Chris
you may won’t to go back and reread your comments
it was much stronger than this
and when I show it on TV it will be in quotes

Oh what has changed?
You don’t have a an emotional story to try and use to subvert people into taking your position?
Ok I am moving on. There is no truth here today.
Nice try Chris
I am still posting you tomorrow night.
Your comments are good to show how desperate folks are to defeat us.

Chris
not so fast New Yorker (Chris),
I m not going to publish your blog boyee
just your latest blunder

And you don't think people know already where to find this blog, Johnny?

Your attitude points all the way back to my original question from March: How is what you are doing giving glory to Christ?

Here is when I called into his show to ask him that, folks...

This is why what Robertson, Oldfield and Fields are doing is so terribly wrong, folks: they are using Jesus Christ as an excuse for how they like to swagger and bully people.

Johnny Robertson, I said that if you didn't respond with an answer to my question, that I was going to call in and ask. Lo and behold, you did respond. You have made it very clear that you believe that a person who is not baptized, is going to Hell.

So there was going to be no need for me to call in tonight anyway. You responded, and I'm content with that. Are you going to use that on your show tonight as well? Because that is all that I said that I wanted: an answer from you about this. And you provided one, whether you realize it or not.

But if you want a debate, Johnny... then yeah, I'm up for one. It's not going to be stilted in your favor though. We're not going to have your finger hovering over the "mute" button as it is all the time whenever someone calls into your show. You're going to have to face the fire as much as I would be facing it also.

So yeah: I'm challenging you to a real debate, live on WGSR Star 39, with a moderator. If you want to use the footage from it however you like afterward, it won't bother me at all if you do.

Let's have a real discussion on your demand for legalism, weighed against the simple sufficiency of the grace of God.

As we are told in Romans 3:22-28...

"This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

"Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law."

You would impose a law on us, Johnny Robertson. A law that is not mandated at all in scripture.

And nothing you are doing, is giving glory to God. Which is what is supposed to be the primary motivation for us as followers of Christ.

I'm as yet undecided as to what I'm going to do this evening, folks. I might watch this show, and I might not. If I just watch it, I'll probably be in a giggle-fit of laughter the entire time. If I'm feeling pokey, I might do some live blogging about it. There are some possibilities that enter my mind. We'll just have to wait and see.

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Johnny Robertson ("Church of Christ in Name Only") attacks me... because I'm a Star Wars fan?!?

Okay, now it's getting into the territory of the downright nutty...

About two months ago I called into Johnny Robertson's show What Does the Bible Say? on WGSR Star 39. Johnny Robertson (shown at right) is considered the chief ringleader of what I've come to call the "Church of Christ in Name Only" (COCINO for short), a very vindictive, mean-spirited cult working around Reidsville, North Carolina and Martinsville and Danville in Virginia. These guys have about three hours of programming on WGSR each week and they do nothing but attack anyone who isn't "their" brand of Christianity. Namely, they believe that if you are not part of what they call the "Church of Christ" (which is nothing like the Church of Christ that most people know) that you are damned and going to Hell. They also believe that a person must be baptized in order to be saved.

And they have an extremely ugly attitude toward anyone who disagrees with them.

So I called up Robertson's show one night to ask a simple question: "How is what you guys are doing giving glory to Christ?" And more to the point, I wanted to know how is what they are doing showing Christ's love and grace to a world that is lost without Him. How is what Robertson (along with James Oldfield and Norm Fields) doing, in any way, able to persuade those who don't know Christ about Christ at all? Because I can't see how their hatred toward others can do anything but drive people away from wanting to consider Christ at all.

Robertson and his cohorts are ultra-legalists of the highest order. It's all about following rules and regulations so far as they are concerned: which is exactly what Christ's sacrifice did away with for all time. I think it could even be argued that Johnny Robertson is trying to crucify Christ all over again. But I digress...

Robertson had no answer for me. Instead he told me to "go listen to Benny Hinn!" Here's the video again if you want to see what happened for yourself.

Then a few days ago I heard about a very sad story out of Tennessee, involving a woman who was by all accounts a devout follower of Christ, who passed away after a lifetime of unusual circumstance that did not allow for her to be water baptized as Robertson and the Church of Christ in Name Only demands. So I asked a question on this blog directed to Robertson, Oldfield, and Fields: "Is this woman now lost because she was not baptized?"

It got picked up by the Answering the Church of Christ blog and it's led to a rather heated discussion. There are currently 134 comments, including a few that I've made.

Well, none other than Johnny Robertson himself has chimed in. And according to my meter's records he spent about a half-hour on The Knight Shift earlier this morning, looking at a lot of stuff (including my post about how The New York Times had reported on the crazy TV commercials that some of us school board candidates did in 2006). Apparently he was looking for dirt on me.

This is what Johnny Robertson fired back with on Answering the Church of Christ...

On May 31, 2008 at 10:22 am johnny Said:

Knight said

In the end, that faith in Him is something that must transcend earthly terminology. To say that we are saved because we are "Christian" or "Church of Christ" is to deny the new creation that we are called to be in Him.

transcends earthly terminology"

talking about a gnostic!
Col 2:18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

you kinda got beyond yourself there chris star Wars New York posted ....I've a part in Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of "Children of Eden"(look at me everyone I am an actor toooooo!)

Let me try to understand this: Johnny Robertson cannot confidently tell us that what he and the others in the Church of Christ in Name Only are doing is showing the love of Christ to others. So instead he chooses to attack me because I dared asked him that question... by mocking my being a Star Wars fan and because I'm involved in a production of Children of Eden?!?!?

Star Wars, Johnny? Star Wars?! And Children of Eden?!?

I responded to Johnny Robertson thusly...

On May 31, 2008 at 11:24 am Chris Knight Said:

Dear Johnny Robertson,
So now that I have your attention, might I ask you again...

How IS what you are doing possibly showing others the love of Christ?

You still haven't answered that.

And now you are attacking me because I’m a Star Wars fan, of all things?!

You're acting pretty infantile, dude.

I know it's you, by the way. I saw where you visited my blog earlier this morning, and spent quite a bit of time looking around on it.

So Johnny, once again: HOW is what you, and Oldfield, and Fields, doing, illustrating the love and grace of Jesus Christ to those who don't know Him? WHY should the lost of this world look at you guys and be persuaded at all?

You have nothing to show for your work, because it is not motivated in love. You are too enamored with your sense of power and leadership... but if you have not love, then these things are utterly worthless.

Why do you make yourself so big and God so very small, Johnny?

A few minutes later I added...

On May 31, 2008 at 11:28 am Chris Knight Said:

By the way Johnny, you're invited to come see the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of "Children of Eden". Performances are June 20-22 and June 27-29 at Rockingham Community College. Tickets are $10 for adults. More information is on the Guild's website at tgrc-nc.com

Among the themes of "Children of Eden" are love and forgiveness. Maybe you could learn something from it.

Yes Johnny, I am a Star Wars fan. And it's something that I've never been ashamed of, or have ever felt it encroached upon my faith in God. You would no doubt be surprised at how many followers of Christ are also fans of this story. And it would probably blow your mind at how quite a few have found opportunities of ministry with it. As Paul wrote in 1st Corinthians 9:22,

"To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some."

Johnny, has it ever occurred to you and your bunch that maybe instead of puffing yourselves up and lording over other people, that if you humbled yourselves and brought yourselves lower, that God might actually bless your ministry?

I mean, is this really about you or is it about Him?

As it is now, Johnny Robertson - along with James Oldfield and Norm Fields - is a false preacher. He comes preaching another Christ: a Christ that would bind us in legalism all over again, instead of being free by His mercy and grace and love. The Jesus Christ of the Bible is not the Jesus Christ that Robertson and Oldfield and Fields preach on WGSR.

(Or as Mama Reyes said on Lost: "Jesus Christ is not a weapon!")

Johnny Robertson, again I am compelled to ask you publicly: How is what you are doing showing love of Christ and demonstrating Christ's love toward others?

I would very much like to know this.

EDIT 4:51 p.m. EST: Johnny Robertson spent two and a half hours visiting my blog today, on at least two separate visits. He was quite the busy bee, taking screenshots etc.

Wonder what he's up to...

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A cool (and free) technical idea for the Nintendo Wii

This morning I was having a workout on Wii Fit (here's my initial review). My personal regimen right now is some strength training, some yoga and a lot of hard aerobic activity, followed by the "fun" stuff like the Ski Jump. That and the Ski Slalom might be the most addictive activities of the entire package... but Lisa swears that Bubble River will have you just as hooked.

Part of the aerobics that I'm doing right now is Jogging the long distance. It's really clever how this works: you don't use the Wii Balance Board at all. You just put the Wii Remote in your pocket (or if your pants lack pockets you can just hold the Remote in your hand) and then you start jogging in place. If you keep a brisk pace while swinging your arms in good wide circles you can work up a serious sweat. And all the while, the Wii is picking up your relative speed by how much the Remote in your pocket or hand jiggles about.

It's this use of the Wii's sensing technology that got me thinking...

Imagine a first-person shooter game like Doom or Halo for the Wii. Imagine having one Wii Remote that you use to aim like a gun at whatever it is on screen that you intend to shoot at. Now imagine two other Wii Remotes, one in each side pocket of a pair of pants that you are wearing. And to play the game you have to literally run through the map shooting at whatever bad guys there are while running and possibly even ducking for cover. The Wii will be picking up all of this movement as you play, including changes in body position and change of direction/speed (your velocity) as you run through the map. It would be like putting yourself directly in a game such as Gears of War... but instead of using a standard hand-held controller, your entire body - from your toes to your trigger finger - would control your in-game persona.

Can you imagine how much fun that would be? To say nothing of the workout that a person would be getting while probably not even realizing it.

There would be a few minor drawbacks for such a system though, but I think those might be fairly negligible. The most obvious is that to work like this the player must own three Wii Remotes. And there could be no multiplayer per this system. But with some minor tweaking, Nintendo programmers or whatever other company that makes this game could add the option of playing with only one Wii Remote along with a gun accessory and the Nunchuk add-on, and then possibly four players could do this at the same time. Or one Wii Remote could be placed in a pocket and pick up running while the Nunchuk controls movement and the Wii Remote operates aiming and firing, in which case two friends really could be running around shooting at each other.

That might even rival Boxing on Wii Sports for two-player fun on the Nintendo Wii!

If anyone at Nintendo or some other video game studio reads this and wants to play with it, feel free to do so. I'm not looking for any compensation for the idea. It just seemed like too neat a concept to not put out there and see if somebody could work with it. If this ever does become a Wii game, I would absolutely be the first in line to buy a copy (provided that everything else in the game was well-designed too, like the engine and graphics and sound and the story, etc. :-).

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Here it is: Ben moving the Island from the LOST Season 4 finale!

You know what haunts me most about this scene? It's that Ben is crying. This is the last thing that he's about to do for the Island, the final gesture of his duties as the previous chosen one. And for the first time, we are seeing fear in the face of this master manipulator.

Just before the white light cascades over everything, I can't help thinking that what's going through Ben's mind is, "I'm going to die. Please forgive me." He knows he's going to be banished from the Island... and he doesn't know where he'll be sent to. He could wind up anywhere in the world, or anywhere above it or inside it. The next moment could find him on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, for all the good that it would do him. I like to believe that this was a "leap of faith" moment for Ben, and that when we see him materialize in the Tunisian desert that it was Jacob's doing.

Everything is orchestrated flawlessly in this scene, from Michael Emerson's performance, to the sets, to how we see the affect that Ben's action has throughout the area of the Island. And Michael Giacchino's music here: I will buy the Lost Season 4 soundtrack just for this, if/when it comes out.

In the two and a half seasons that he's been a character on Lost, this was the definitive moment for Benjamin Linus. And it's being widely agreed that this was the most amazing single scene of this television season.

So here it is courtesy of YouTube: Benjamin Linus working the frozen donkey wheel, and using it to move the Island...

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Brazilian tribe with no outside contact is photographed by airplane

Eric Wilson sent this story over to me late last night. Look at these photos: they're of a tribe of people near the border of Brazil and Peru, that so far as we know has had no contact at all with the outside world. They are reported to have fired arrows at the airplane that flew over them as these photographs were taken...

Read more here at the BBC's website.

Kinda humbling to know that in 2008, in spite of all our technology and how we've thought that the entire Earth has been mapped, that there are still corners of it that "civilized" humanity has not been able to reach... and that there are people there.

I say, leave these folks alone. Let them be. If they ever decide for themselves that they want to go beyond their present borders, that's their choice to make.

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Courage, Earle, and Korman: Three of entertaiment's greats have left us

Three classic figures from the world of music, television and film have passed away in the past few days. I don't think there is one of us who at some time or another was not entertained by the work of these gentlemen, their influence was so prolific...

Alexander Courage died at the age of 88 on May 15th, it was announced yesterday. He composed music for many movies and television series. But the one he will be most remembered for is the legendary theme from the original Star Trek.

Earlier this week, also passing away at age 88, was Earle H. Hagen. His composing career stretched back into the 1940s and he eventually moved to work in television. Among his credits are the themes for The Dick Van Dyke Show, I Spy and Mike Hammer. But it was a whistling little ditty that he did for The Andy Griffith Show that will forever be perhaps his greatest legacy.

And then yesterday came word that Harvey Korman has died at 81. Korman earned four Emmys and a Golden Globe for his work on The Carol Burnett Show. Korman was also a terrific voice actor and performed The Great Gazoo on The Flintstones. But personally, I think that Korman will be foremost remembered for his over-the-top performance as Hedley Lamarr in the already over-the-top Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles...

"You will be risking your lives, whilst I will be risking an almost-certain Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor."

Think I'll watch some classic episodes of The Andy Griffith Show,Star Trek and then Blazing Saddles this weekend, to honor their memory.

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