Man gets over 50 traffic citations... in one day!

Elvis Alonzo Barrett of Boynton Beach, Florida has learned the hard way: real life is not like Grand Theft Auto IV.

This past week Barrett fled police who were already trying to ticket him for one traffic violation. He led authorities on a high-speed chase that had him running through red lights, crashing into another car and then a fence. When he was finally caught, he was also found in possession of a quantity of crack cocaine.

When the final tally came in, Barrett had racked up more than FIFTY traffic citations in a single day, including one for not wearing a seat belt. He was also driving with a suspended license.

I wonder if the cops missed any. I mean, after thirty or forty citations it's hard to keep up...

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Les Misérables: Gold teeth for sale in New Orleans

From Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis...

The person who submitted the photo writes...

"Got the photo from a friend. The white sign that has been blacked out used to be the Toy Center. The biggest & best toy store in New Orleans in the late 50's early 60's. The Coca Cola bottling plant & Tulane Shirt Company were just to the left on S. Jefferson Davis Parkway. Times have changed."

I remember back in the early Nineties when Haiti was being torn apart following the military coup that overthrew Aristide. People there became so hard-up for money, that they had resorted to looting cemeteries: digging up graves to steal jewelry, gold teeth and even silk casket linings to sell. That's the kind of desperation that whenever I see a picture like this or hear somesuch else so similar, I have to wonder how far we really are from the edge of that abyss.

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Joshua Ortega hints at GEARS OF WAR prequel (and teases about single-player DLC)

All kinds of good stuff coming out of New York Comic-Con tonight for Gears of War fans. Joshua Ortega, the writer of Gears of War 2, heavily suggested that a PREQUEL to the original game is in the works: one that would deal with the events of E-Day. That was the day, 14 years before the first game takes place, when the Locust Horde burst out of the underworld and began their genocidal war against the humans of Sera. So that's potentially ten years worth of story that players might be able to experience and fight through. And if we're able to play as Marcus Fenix then I guess that could mean his tale as a COG soldier right up to the day he chose to abandon his post and try to rescue his father: the action that ultimately sent Marcus to prison.

"You will not be disappointed in the next ten years," Ortega said. "It's a ten-year plan. Gears is long-term. The lancer is the new lightsaber."

If you played through Gears of War 2 then you know there's all kinds of dangling threads waiting to be exploited. If Epic Games plays their cards right, they could wind up with the video game equivalent of Lost in terms of high-brow storytelling.

Ortega was also asked about single-player centric downloadable content for Gears of War 2. "Keep watching," Ortega said. "You won't be disappointed." Which as one who is primarily a single player, makes me happy :-)

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Broke states turn to exploiting seat belts for fast cash

I've never liked mandatory seat belt laws. For one thing, it should be a matter of personal preference whether one chooses to wear a seat belt or not. In my mind such legislation embodies all the worst aspects of the "nanny state". I understand that statistically, seat belts do tend to save lives. But I have also known plenty of people for whom seat belts are physically uncomfortable, because of medical conditions or something similar. My grandmother, f'rinstance. Whenever she got into a car she simply looped the belt around her shoulder and rode like that (something that I'll admit to doing every so often as well :-)

And then there are those who have argued that seat belt laws have nothing to do with safety at all: that they are designed to be reliable revenue streams for the states that have them. That case is certainly bolstered by the number of states that want to empower law enforcement officers to pull over drivers simply for not wearing seat belts. And this time the various governors and other officials are admitting that it's because their states "don't have enough money".

(If this is going on in the state of Washington I suppose that if you don't buckle up the state can also take your DNA as a consequence.)

The only other observation that I know to make from this, is that government at all levels is running out of funding. The entire system is beginning to buckle beneath its own weight and simply spending and looking for ways to maintain that spending, isn't going to maintain it for much longer. Sooner than later, it's gonna come crashing down.

Maybe it'll be a good thing. We can start fresh and clean again. And do away with so many of these laws that have nothing at all to do with protecting us and our rights. Scrapping the seat belt laws would be a good start...

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James Whitmore has passed away

Veteran actor James Whitmore, probably one of the most well-recognized and beloved faces to have ever graced the American stage and screen, passed away today after a struggle with lung cancer. He was 87.

The folks of my generation probably best remember Whitmore from The Shawshank Redemption. He played Brooks in that film: the "institutionalized" prison librarian who is released into a world that he no longer recognizes. Director Frank Darabont liked him so much that he also put Whitmore in The Majestic a few years later.

Whitmore's remarkable career went all the way back to the World War II era. He won a Tony in 1948 for his lead role in Command Decision (also his first Broadway performance). A year later he made his first movie, The Undercover Man. And for the next half-century he was a fixture in film and television. But he still returned to the stage on occasion, especially with his one-man shows in which Whitmore portrayed Harry Truman, Teddy Roosevelt, and Will Rogers. Most of those were eventually adapted to screen, with Whitmore again assuming the roles. Many people will also remember that Whitmore was the orangutan that presided over Taylor's "trial" in the original Planet of the Apes. And there was that terrific performance that he turned in for The Twilight Zone episode "On Thursday We Leave For Home", among many other things.

But for some reason, along with The Shawshank Redemption, I most remember James Whitmore for all of those television commercials that he did for Miracle-Gro. I did not know for certain that he was such an avid gardener until I read his obituary, but just from watching him in the ads, I got the sense that he was sincere and definitely knew what he was talking about. The man was apparently gifted with a green thumb along with his extraordinary theatrical presence.

Frank Darabont has written a wonderful tribute to James Whitmore on Ain't It Cool News.

He will be missed.

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Bend over, here it comes again: "Stimulus" deal reached

Awright, I'm prepared to go ahead and say it: the Obama Presidency is already a disaster. And this legislation is gonna be about as successful as the Smoot-Hawley Act.

Word out of D.C. tonight is that a tentative agreement on the "stimulus" package has been reached in the Senate. It's probably going to be enacted law over the weekend or soon afterward.

Said "stimulus" is going to cost me and you, Fellow Taxpayer...

$780,000,000,000

According to one senator, James Inhofe out of Oklahoma, the bill is only 7% stimulating and the rest of it is just more spending.

I remember the big budget battle in 1993. It's what really started opening my eyes on all the waste that goes on in the federal government. And I never thought that I would see anything that outrageous again.

If the phone lines to Washington D.C. don't burn up with angry calls starting tonight and into the next several days, if this thing passes, well... I can't help but wonder if this might even eclipse Smoot-Hawley in terms of economic destruction.

But on the bright side of things, at least Matthew Lesko will have plenty of new government money to stay happy for a good looooong time...

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New WATCHMEN video journal stares into abyss of Rorschach's mask

Exactly one month from today we'll finally get to see the Watchmen movie. And I think it's safe to say: the biggest anticipation of the past twenty years has been for how well Rorschach will translate to the big screen. Empire has the exclusive premiere of this latest video journal, which focuses on Rorschach's background and that very neat mask that he wears.

And if you've read the book, perhaps it will interest you to know that this clip has a fleeting glimpse of our favorite antihero in a certain pose wielding a meat cleaver...

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FANBOYS opens in limited release today

It starts playing on 44 screens. But you know what? Even if it were to open on just one screen, that would still be cause for applause and celebration. Ernie Cline has tried to make this movie since 1998 (the year the film is set in) and more than a tenacious decade later, he gets to see his hard work pay off as his tale of friends who attempt to break into Skywalker Ranch so that a terminally ill pal can see Star Wars Episode I flickers to life at last.

Ain't It Cool News has a list of cities and theaters that are showing Fanboys. Unfortunately the closest city to my own location that's playing it is Philadelphia, and doesn't look like my schedule is gonna allow for a trip up this weekend. But to those of you who are lucky enough to catch it: feel free to post a comment about what you thought of it, 'cuz we're eager to hear the word!

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Where's the hope?! Obama evokes fear if "stimulus" isn't passed

Remember all that talk of "hope and change" during the past election cycle? What happened to it? Because now President Barack Obama is sounding like the dire opposite of Franklin Roosevelt, warning that if the "stimulus" bill isn't passed...

"This recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse."

Not even three weeks into the job and the man's already done did a "malaise speech".

Dear President Obama: if you seriously want to stimulate the economy across the board, you cannot do it with more spending! That might seem to buy some time in the short term, but what is really needed is to cut taxes and CUT SPENDING!

That may not win Obama any early accolades, but posterity would ultimately judge him to be a wise president if he were to adopt such a sober-minded fiscal policy.

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State of Washington considers swabbing DNA from EVERYONE who gets arrested

It's like Barney Fife gone zealous with a genetics lab: legislators in the state of Washington are mulling the idea of getting DNA samples from everyone who is stopped by law enforcement for anything at all, even something so minor as a traffic infraction. And no, they don't wanna wait until a conviction in court either: everybody arrested would have to yield over their personal deoxyribonucleic acid. Although supposedly the DNA would be destroyed if there is no conviction (yeah right).

Y'all in Washington, you need to fight this as hard as you can. This is a huge intrusion of personal rights and screw what the "bigger government" types are saying about how this is "needed" to be "safe". It's not a question of "will this be abused?" because history has proven that if a thing such as this is tolerated, it will be abused!

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Bad WATCHMEN costumes

No wonder Alan Moore is so hesitant to see his work become major motion pictures...

I agree with Matthew Federico: the guy on the right in what's supposed to be the Comedian outfit, looks more like the third Mario Brother. But that's still much better than what we're expected to believe is a convincing Ozymandias getup (left).

Find this pic and those of the Rorschach, Nite Owl and Silk Spectre duds at WatchmenComicMovie.com.

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Digital television switch moved to June 12

Those annoying "There are ## days left until digital television" bumpers that run during your favorite TV shows have suddenly vanished, and for good reason: instead of having until February 17th to make sure your television is compatible, you now have until June 12th. Both the U.S. House and Senate approved the DTV Delay Act, and President Obama has vowed to sign it once it reaches his desk.

Anyhoo, you now have four more months to buy that shiny new HDTV that you've been lusting for. Maybe by then there'll be some more "stimulus checks" coming our way that'll help you get it :-P

(DISCLAIMER: The Knight Shift blog and its author are against so-called "stimulus" programs)

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Bill Gates pours out plague of mosquitoes on captive audience

This has been one of the most hyperactive days for crazy news. First it was the "Klingon convenience store robberies", then the zombie street signs. Now this...

At some kind of pretentious pow-wow called TED, Bill Gates spoke to the audience about the efforts his foundation is undertaking to wipe out malaria. But being not content to deliver a simple speech, Gates engaged in some rather disturbing performance art... and unleashed a swarm of mosquitoes on the assembly of technocrats. "Not only poor people should experience this!", Gates declared, as he released his airborne vector of blood-sucking insects at the crowd.

Doesn't this come awfully close to being an act of biological terrorism? I mean, it's not too far a stretch from this stupid stunt by Gates, to purposefully introducing mosquitoes laden with weapon-grade pathogens into a major metropolitan area.

And then again, some people will say that Bill Gates has been disseminating bugs all his career, so why should this be any different...

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Reaction to tonight's LOST: "The Little Prince"

That sound and probable accompanying seismic activity you might have sensed in the past ten minutes was millions of Lost fans bellowing out a collective "Whoa!!!"

Four episodes into Season 5, and if anything Lost is gaining momentum, not losing it. I thought "The Little Prince" was even better than last week's "Jughead". It seemed perfectly balanced with everything that makes this show, perhaps the best on television right now. It had action, it had humor, it had the depth of character (I especially liked Locke's line about how he didn't want to undo the pain in his life, that the pain is what made him who he was). And it had an abundance of new mystery.

And yeah: he's back and he's alive!

"The Little Prince" might be the best episode of the new season so far. Up next week: "This Place is Death".

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Hacked electronic road signs warn motorists of Nazi zombies, velociraptors

High-tech practical jokers in three states have declared war on those electronic road signs that DMVs put out to relay information to drivers. Here's what one sign in Austin, Texas alerted motorists to...

But these weren't ordinary zombies, mind you. They were "Nazi zombies", from which people were urged to flee toward cooler climates. While Texas and Illinois got plagued with zombies, Indiana roadways suddenly became flooded with raptors from Jurassic Park.

Mash down here for the story and video about the highway highjinks!

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Klingon wannabe robs Denver 7-Elevens with real bat'leth

Just when you think there are enough aliens lurking around 7-Eleven...

Police in Denver, Colorado are looking for a man who committed armed robbery at two of the convenience stores. The weapon of choice for the assailant? A "bat'leth": the customary sword of Klingon warriors in the Star Trek universe (modeled here by Worf), first forged by Kahless the Unforgettable during the Earth's Ninth Century.

At least he wasn't a Doctor Who fan trying to hold up stores with a toilet plunger...

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AMC has first look at THE PRISONER remake!

I must say: this is really starting to intrigue me a lot.

AMC's website has posted a video with the first sneak peak of The Prisoner: its six-hour miniseries starring Jim Caviezel (aka Jesus from The Passion of the Christ) and Sir Ian McKellan (aka Gandalf and Magneto). It's a re-imagining of the classic British television series from the late Sixties created by and starring Patrick McGoohan. I've heard that before he passed away a few weeks ago, McGoohan had given his enthusiastic approval for whatever direction AMC has planned to take his concept. Just going by this video: it looks like there's a lot of respect for the original material being given here.

The Prisoner will broadcast on AMC later this year.

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Trailer for BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM (and about that review of THE DARK KNIGHT...)

It's the old joke: "The inmates have take over the asylum". But when the inmates are the rogues gallery of the Caped Crusader, turned loose inside the non-Euclidean former manse of Amadeus Arkham, and the only thing their sickened minds can fixate on is Batcave-ing in your Batskull, in a game being likened to BioShock well... that's the kind of maniacal mayhem that Batman: Arkham Asylum promises to deliver. The game's story is written by Paul Dini and will feature Kevin Conroy returning as the voice of Batman and Mark Hamill reprising that of the Joker...

Batman: Arkham Asylum is due out May 1st from Rocksteady Studios and Eidos Interactive, and is being built with the Unreal Engine 3.

And speaking of all things Batman...

A lot of people have still been wondering why I didn't write a review of The Dark Knight.

Well folks, in the end... it was just too big a movie, and something so gosh-darned perfect, that there really wasn't anything left that I could possibly have said about it that hadn't been said already. But for what it's worth: I definitely consider The Dark Knight to be the finest comic book movie that has been produced to date. Christopher Nolan and his team delved into the heart and substance of Batman and his world better than any other production has done in the now seventy-year history of the character.

I thought that The Dark Knight was not only a tremendous and flawless follow-up to Batman Begins, but it built up and further explored the themes that the first movie had introduced. I think that Heath Ledger's turn as the Joker might be one of the most - if not the most - insidious and powerful portrayals of a villain in motion picture history, and in my mind he certainly deserves to posthumously win that Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars in a few weeks. The Dark Knight was my favorite movie from this past year, and I am very eager to see how the story of Nolan's Batman continues to play out (and I can definitely think of a few ways that it can, not just for one movie but for several more to come).

But while we're waiting for that third Batman flick, at least we'll have plenty of good times with what is already looking to be the best Batman-inspired video game made so far. Hey, "Batman meets BioShock in Arkham Asylum"?! I'm sooo there :-)

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Iran launches first satellite

Just six months after initial tests of the delivery vehicle, Iran has launched its first satellite into space. Early this morning a Safir-2 rocket lifted off from a launch facility somewhere in Iran, and shortly afterward successfully inserted the Omid satellite into low-Earth orbit.

Naturally, some folks on this side of the pond are worrying about Iran using its newfound spaceborne capability to rain nuclear fire down on Washington D.C. or Tel Aviv. But I don't see too much to fret about... yet, anyway. What Iran did today is much more in the league of what the Soviets did with Sputnik. It's a few magnitudes order of greater sophistication to build a working ICBM.

That said, as someone with a life-long interest in aerospace efforts - no matter who it is who's doing the effortin' - I shall be keeping an interested eye on Iran in the near future.

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Chuck Baldwin sez: Too many Christians are lazy 'cuz of prophecy

Chuck Baldwin, Baptist minister and brilliant writer, argues in his latest piece that prophecy has driven far too many Christians into a state of apathy. But where Paul wrote in humble reproval to his fellow believers at Thessalonica, Baldwin's is a thunderous condemnation (and in my opinion, rightfully so) aimed especially at those in America who profess to follow Christ. He writes...

In the first place, no one knows when Christ will return, no matter how many books or tapes they have produced to say they do. In Acts chapter 1, Jesus was asked by His disciples if He would, at that time, set up His kingdom. The first words out of His mouth were, "It is not for you to know." Oh, we can speculate, surmise, and make educated guesses, but that's the best we can do. It's time we were honest enough to admit it: only God knows when Christ will return. In fact, Jesus said, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only" (Matthew 24:36).

In the meantime, millions of Christians across America are trying to play God. They talk as if they know when Christ will come. It's actually worse than that. They have the attitude that they have no personal responsibility to defend freedom and resist despotism. They seem to look at God as some kind of glorified fireman, who is obligated to rush in at the last minute to rescue them from a burning fire--a fire that they helped ignite, or at least, refused to put out themselves when they had the opportunity to do so. It's the old, "God would not let that happen in America" syndrome...

And later on Baldwin adds this...

I believe the real reason why so many professing Christians are so apathetic and indifferent to what is happening has nothing to do with the teachings of Scripture, Bible doctrine, eschatology, or anything of the like. It has everything to do with old-fashioned laziness. Today's average Christian just flat does not want to be bothered. He has a comfortable house, an easy chair, television, and a set of golf clubs in the closet. He takes two or three weeks' vacation every year, goes to church on Sunday (a church that does not intrude on his comfort zone, of course), pays taxes, and votes for his favorite "pro-life" Republican candidate every two years, and assumes that he is a "good" Christian and "patriotic" American. He is neither!

Hit here for the rest of Baldwin's essay.

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Fifty years ago today...

...was "The Day the Music Died".

It was on this date in 1959, just after 1 a.m., that the small plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, along with their pilot Roger Peterson, crashed into a field near Clear Lake, Iowa.

There were no survivors.

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New Republican head Steele: GOP should embrace pro-choice views, "gay marriage"

The only reason I'm really posting this is to illustrate something that I and many others have screamed ourselves hoarse about during the past several years: that there is no damned difference at all between the Republican and the Democrat parties in the United States.

In an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, new Republican National Committee chairman Micheal Steele said that it was "important" for the Republican Party to "reach out" and embrace candidates who are pro-abortion and pro-"gay marriage".

(Incidentally, I have my own thoughts about that and I might articulate them someday in the near future, suffice it to say it's a perspective that's neither "conservative" or "liberal"... and a lot of my fellow Christians might find it a bit surprising.)

I think that this elicits a lot of questions. Obviously, how is what Steele suggesting for his own party, any different at all from the Democrat party? Why should anyone who is, say, very much pro-life believe that his or her stance is going to be represented by the Republican Party anymore, if it is willing to compromise itself on this issue? How does this demonstrate that the Republicans are out for anything other than political capital?

And I for one would like to pose a question to certain "conservative Christians" who I know are reading this blog (yeah I'm looking at you Ron Baity, Jeff Baity and the others from Berean Baptist in Winston-Salem): how in the world, in light of this, do you still maintain that you have to owe loyalty to the Republican Party, when it clearly no longer cares at all about you and other "evangelicals" or what values you hold to?

Maybe the United States owes the old Soviet Union an apology. At least communist Russia was honest about being run by a single political party. In America, most rubes are convinced that there are two parties and that somehow, they're "making a difference" by belonging to one or the other.

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More WATCHMEN photos and stuff

"So this blue guy walks into a bar..."

If you've read the book, you know what the above image is about. Looks like instead of toning down the brutality - and let's face it, two decades later Watchmen is still one of the most brutal graphic novels ever - Zack Snyder is gonna ratchet it up even worse.

(I'm warning y'all who aren't "in the know" here and now: if Snyder is at all consistent with the book, during the part of the movie when Rorschach starts talking about what made him stop "pretending", I hope and pray that you have a strong stomach.)

Click here for more new pics from Watchmen, including the one on the left depicting a certain "prophet of doom" who spends his days walking the streets of New York. And if you mash down here you can read an article from a 1973 issue of the Wall Street Post reporting on the deaths of journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

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Hatred and stupidity are a terrible combination

The photo on the right was taken during a protest in New York City in late December 2008.

Not as unintentionally funny as Sesame Street's Bert colluding with Osama Bin Laden, but still a somewhat hilarious peek into a heart of darkness.

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Universe is a giant hologram, evidence indicates

So... does the world really exist? Do you exist? Do I exist for that matter? Believe it or not, according to bleeding-edge quantum physics our reality may be a massive illusion. Physicists have discovered that the entire cosmos is structured like a hologram at its most basic level.

Then again, to those who are students of the Bible, this probably comes as no surprise anyway...

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

-- Genesis 1:3

Einstein established a long time ago that matter was frozen energy (i.e. light). So I could see how that would perfectly jibe with the "universe as hologram" theory.

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Google Earth going under the sea

After already putting practically every square meter of the Earth's land surface (sometimes hilariously so) at anyone's fingertips, Google is now turning its attention to the next-to-last frontier. The company is set to announce that its Google Earth will soon include mapping of the world's ocean floor.

I can imagine all kinds of fun that will be had with this. From the comfort of home users will now be able to search for Atlantis, zoom in on Rapture, and even take a peek at R'lyeh without having to disturb great Cthulhu's slumber.

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Obama keeping controversial "rendition" practice

Even though he has pledged to end outright torture (no matter what its supporters have tried to brand it as), is closing the CIA secret prisons and has vowed to empty the camp at Guantanamo Bay, President Barack Obama is going to continue the policy of "foreign renditions" started by his predecessor George W. Bush.

Rendition means that the United States can secretly abduct a "suspect", and have him or her covertly transferred to another country that doesn't have the same official policies against torture. But it's not the United States that will be doing the torture or whatever, see? Officially, our government gets to keep its hands clean.

Some will call that "plausible deniability". I call it "using the letter of the law to defeat the spirit of the law" at its most grandiose.

Still waiting for that "change" that I was hearing so much about...

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Congrats Pittsburgh Steelers!

One of the best Super Bowls ever. And wasn't that an amazing 100-yard touchdown by James Harrison? Don't know if I've ever seen anything like that.

Congrats also to the Arizona Cardinals on a hard-fought game and season!

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Pale horse, pale rider

A Cody, Wyoming man has been cited for "drunk driving" of sorts. Benjamin Daniels was stopped by police for "public intoxication" while riding a white horse on a busy thoroughfare during a blinding snowstorm last week. Apparently the color of his horse, combined with Daniels' lack of sobriety, the heavy traffic and the harsh weather conditions made for a potentially hazardous combination.

Ya just can't make stuff like this up, folks! :-)

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A commercial you won't see during the Super Bowl tonight

CatholicVote.org attempted to buy airtime to run this thought-provoking spot during the Super Bowl tonight. But NBC refused, on grounds that the commercial time isn't for "political advocacy or issues". CatholicVote.org is quick to point out that People for Ethical Treatment of Animals already received approval for a racy and suggestive promo it created.

Here's the spot that CatholicVote.org came up with. I find it to be exceptionally powerful, and well within the bounds of good taste. And in my mind, there is no reason at all why NBC should have refused to run it...

Thanks to Geoff Gentry for the heads-up.

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The Super Bowl spots for UP, STAR TREK, LAND OF THE LOST, G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA, and TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN!

Today is the Super Bowl, which means that big entertainment studios (among many other companies) will be dropping unconscionable amounts of coin on measly 30-second spots to shill for movies, some of which won't even be coming out 'til August. And thanks to the glorious wonder of the Internet, we can take a gander at them several hours before they air.

This first spot is for Disney and Pixar's Up. I know some folks who have seen advance footage of this one, and they cannot stop raving about how good it's already looking. Go to Disney's website to see the commercial in much higher resolution. This will definitely be on my "must see" list this summer...

The next one is for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, due out in May. Another one that I'm eagerly anticipating, for one reason because this looks totally unlike anything that has been done in the forty-some years of the Star Trek franchise. And because I trust Abrams to deliver the goods...

This next one is for Land of the Lost, starring Will Ferrell. A movie that so far I am remaining very cautiously optimistic for. I must admit though: visually at least, this spot is hitting on all the right chords. Love the shot of the "time/space junkyard", the multiple moons and the Sleestack of course. The music has a great vibe to it also. We'll see this spring how this one fares...

The Super Bowl commercial for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Color me "meh". I'm just not getting this one yet. It comes perilously close to making me understand the whole "raped my childhood" thing that a lot of Star Wars fans have cried out over the past decade. That's supposed to be Destro that Christopher Eccleston is playing (sans the mandatory beryllium steel mask Destro always wears). Looks as outrageous and loud as any Stephen Sommers flick. I doubt I'll be there opening day for it but if word is good, I'll probably check it out, if only out of curiosity. ComingSoon.net has the commercial in multiple high-res Quicktime versions...

And finally, here's the Super Bowl ad for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. A movie that I am extremely looking forward to but until now I have somehow remained blissfully unaware of what it's going to be about. And if this spot is any indication, the sequel to 2007's Transformers is going to completely pour on the crazy!

Oh yeah: Go Steelers! :-P

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Yup, more WATCHMEN goodness!

Five weeks from today Watchmen opens in theaters. It's taken more than twenty years for a movie of this book to happen. And from the looks of things so far, it's gonna be done absolutely right (which had long been considered an impossible task).

Check out this new pic of some of the bad guys from the Minutemen era...

TotalFilm.com has even MORE new photos from Watchmen, including Dan's Arctic-conditions costume, the photo of Jon and Janey at the amusement park, and Billy Crudup in a very TRON-like motion capture suit during filming of the destroyed city scene.

And Movienewz.com has up some portraits of several of the characters, including Big Figure and his henchmen, Rorschach's psychiatrist and even one of Seymour! And yeah, Seymour is wearing just what you think he should be wearing.

So... does anyone know where a guy can find one of those cool Operation: Wrath of God patches?

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A friend's intriguing LOST theory

Geoff Gentry is one of the coolest people that I've had the honor of calling not just a friend, but a brother in the Lord. He is also a fellow Lost geek. And Geoff has come up with some very fascinating ideas about what's going on with the island (including the meaning of the Four-Toed Statue that has tantalized fans since the end of Season 2). Click here to read Geoff's "Island Mythology Theory". Of particular interest - and it's one of the more original notions that I've seen floating around - is what Geoff thinks is Richard Alpert's purpose with the island.

Don't stop now Geoff: we want to read more!! :-P

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"National car crushing" sought for inclusion in stimulus plan

You see, this is part of what's screwy with the United States right now. We've got too many politicians like Diane Feinstein and Henry Waxman, sitting on their publicly-funded derrieres all day and doing nothing but coming up with crap like this. As part of the "economic stimulus" now being debated, some in Congress are looking at it as an opportunity to completely gut the domestic industry manufacturing trucks and SUVs. Part of the scheme involves giving cash vouchers - out of the federal treasury - to people in order to help them buy "more fuel-efficient" vehicles.

So as if this country's economy wasn't in shambles enough, Feinstein and Waxman not only want to waste even more of our money, they want to destroy much of what little industrial infrastructure we have left to us.

It's almost enough to make one wonder if some elected officials are not actually the proverbial "Manchurian candidates", if ya know what I mean. They certainly seem hellbent enough on wrecking havoc to this country.

Thanks to John Seilback for the heads-up.

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RED DWARF is returning!

Dang... now there is a headline that I never thought I would ever be writing!

It will have been ten years since they were last seen, but Lister, Rimmer, Kryten and the Cat will be returning at last to television this spring. Red Dwarf: Back to Earth will be a two-part special broadcasting in Great Britain during the upcoming Easter weekend (and will no doubt soon afterward find its way to The Pirate Bay, Demonoid and many other torrent-trackin' sites). As the title indicates, the story involves Lister and his fellow crew members finally returning to Earth (and I smell a lot of fun to be had with Battlestar Galactica when they get there).

Slam this smeggin' link for more info on what many have raved is the best sci-fi comedy series ever.

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Handcuffed crooks run right into pole

Two criminals in New Zealand, handcuffed together by the local constabulary, make a dash for it. Too bad for them, they didn't coordinate their escape attempt very well. Even more bad news: a nearby security camera recorded what happened...

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Standard Mode of Dress rearing its ugly head in Forsyth County

Remember the crazy fight that a lot of good folks here in Rockingham County, North Carolina fought in 2007 (at right) against Standard Mode of Dress: the euphemistic term for what are really school uniforms? It took about four months and the Board of Education had previously approved of the policy... but in the end, with a lot of passion and a little creativity, the board then reversed its decision and the school uniforms went down in flames.

Now comes word that much the same is happening to some of our friends a few counties over in Forsyth. Janet Marsh, the mother of a student at Wiley Middle School, alerts us to this story at the Winston-Salem Journal website. The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Board of Education unanimously voted to implement Standard Mode of Dress at Wiley Middle during its January 13th meeting. But opponents of the policy contend that many parents felt too "intimidated" to rise in opposition because of how the information on those wishing to address the board was being recorded at the meeting and because of this, several parents feared retaliation against their children. There was also a sense of "restless urgency" regarding how fast the board pursued the policy, Marsh said. And in an e-mail to The Knight Shift she shared more of her concerns...

"I am a NOSMOD mom at Wiley Middle School and the administration is trying every trick in the book to push this measure through before anyone can really object. I was denied a request for an open forum for discussion and ended up having to stand outside the school for three days in the pouring rain trying to hand out my "Ten Good Reasons to Oppose SMOD" flier before the final ballot was issued. I won't bore you with all the gory details, but many of the parents at our school who would like to object won't come out as we had to put our names on the ballots and they feared repercussions."

Janet Marsh has asked me to pass along the link at the Winston-Salem Journal to the readers of this blog, and even if she hadn't asked I would have gladly shared it with y'all anyway.

And on behalf of those who have fought this kind of thing before, we wish our brethren in Forsyth County all the best in their own struggle against school uniforms! :-)

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Standard post-LOST episode reaction: "Jughead"

Awright, before I say anything else, I gotta get this off my chest...

That was the cheesiest-looking hydrogen bomb prop that I have ever seen.

It wasn't the device itself that bugged me. That actually looked the right size and shape of the first Teller-Ulam "gadgets". But to have it suspended from that tower, hanging off the ground nose-downward (and test bombs do not look like deliverable warheads, guys) by those cables, as if it were one bad drop away from blowing Lost Island to Kingdom Come...

Lost hasn't done hokey all that much. But that was the hokiest thing on this show to date.

But with that out of the way...

"Jughead" was definitely one of the best episodes of the series yet! Early word was that we would get answers to some hard questions about the show's mythology. So let's see: possibly the origin of the Others, Daniel's mom, a ton of background on Charles Widmore (who had a whiff of sympathy for once), Richard and how he knew to be in Tustin, California in 1956...

Did I miss anything?

One thing I can't help but think: that the young female Other who took Daniel out to the bomb... might her name turn out to be Eloise?

And I'm wondering if sometime later this season or next, after all the time-twisting settles down, if a certain long-buried nuke is gonna be found. Hey, Anton Chekov's rule of drama is: "If a gun is shown on the wall in Act 2 it must be fired in Act 3, if a gun is fired in Act 3 it must be shown on the wall in Act 2".

Jughead is certainly one honking big gun on the wall, yah? :-P

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Final WATCHMEN poster hits the Intertubes (along with more goodies... like Rorschach's mugshot photo!)

I soooooo want this hanging on my wall right now...

And the Warner Bros. marketing department is being very clever indeed. Check out this mugshot photo of Walter Joseph Kovacs AKA Rorschach (played by Jackie Earle Haley) that's just been released. And if you head over to the Flickr account for that radical right-wing fringe magazine The New Frontiersman you can find some "vintage" news photos of Dr. Manhattan during Operation Wrath of God, which took place in Vietnam in 1970. In the world of Watchmen, anyway...

The movie comes out March 6th.

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Tonight's episode of LOST, titled "Jughead"...

...is, not to put too fine a point on it, said to be "a powerhouse" of a show. That's the word from some folks who've told me they've seen it already. One person said that if you want answers to questions, they'll be coming in spades tonight.

That's all I know at this point. Neither do I understand why this episode bears the name of an Archie Comics character for a title. Maybe there's a DHARMA station in Riverdale?

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Why has Old Dutch Galaxy Food Center apparently pulled out as an advertiser on WGSR Star 39?

Could it possibly be because of a certain anti-Barack Obama sign that WGSR general manager Charles Roark devoted obscene amounts of airplay and screentime to this past Friday afternoon, and then again on Monday?

The answer to that question is, evidently, "yes".

Old Dutch Galaxy had been a major advertiser for WGSR. A chain of four grocery stores around the Danville and Chatham area in Virginia, Old Dutch Galaxy had been running updated commercials every week (on a station that was still running spots for the Reidsville Christmas parade last week, mind ya...).

But the word from our friends around south-central Virginia, is that Roark's constant harping about a sign calling Obama a "bastard" and his mother a "slut" was way over the top and into the realm of completely inappropriate behavior.

I doubt that this lesson will be anything but lost on Charles Roark, who has abandoned responsible broadcasting ethics for tabloid-style trash that caters to the least common denominator.

Except now, WGSR has lost one of its bigger clients because of Roark's reckless behavior.

But I'm pretty confident that Roark won't care, and he probably even told the Old Dutch Galaxy guys as much when they pulled out, since cult leader Johnny Robertson can always be relied upon to make up for the loss via all those thousands of dollars coming in from "the Mysterious Texans"(tm).

Seriously though: I've been arguing for awhile that the image conveyed by WGSR's management is a detriment to the commerce of this area. Does anyone now doubt the veracity of that contention?

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Some random musings on things...

A few months ago George W. Bush proposed wasting hundreds of billions of dollars of our money and it was called "bailout" and some politicians approved it. Today Barack Obama is proposing wasting hundreds of billions of dollars of our money and it's being called "stimulus" and those same politicians deride it as unacceptable.

I would like to quote "Oceania is at war with Eurasia, Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia" to the Powers That Be, but sad to say, they most likely wouldn't get it.

And now that he's President, doesn't Obama have better things to do than to get into the proverbial "pissing contest" with a radio commentator who is nothing more than a shameless shill for the "other side"?

Don't we have better things to do than to even care about such a non-story involving two men with apparently arrested development?

Pat Buchanan is right: we have become an unserious people in a serious time.

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ABC greenlights V remake pilot... and Hollywood threatens to make THE A-TEAM movie

The long, long, long-attempted effort to relaunch V - yeah, the 1980s sci-fi franchise about the humanoid lizards come to steal our water, rape our wimmunfolk and eat us for lunch (literally) - is finally getting off the ground at ABC. The network has commissioned a pilot episode, presumably that will premiere this coming fall.

If handled right, this could be a terrific show that might pick up the same fans who are currently hooked on Lost (which will see its final season next year). Unfortunately, V creator Kenneth Johnson is not aboard for this go-round... and I've long thought that if he had been given complete control over his original concept, that NBC could have had one of the greatest television series of the Eighties. Alas! Too many suits ruined that...

And speaking of NBC television shows from two decades ago, June 11, 2010 is the penciled-in date for the big-screen adaptation of The A-Team, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Unless this movie uses the original Vietnam War concept to springboard the plot with, and utilizes a convincing computer-rendered B.A. Baracus (with Mr. T's voice), this will bomb bigtime. Pity the fool who thinks he can tamper with The A-Team and get away with it.

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Neal Hutcheson reports from courtroom: Prosecution was "petty and vindictive" against Popcorn Sutton, sought to put "sick and broken" man in prison

Yesterday this blog conveyed the news about famed moonshiner Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton (shown at right along with public defender Tim Moore) getting sentenced to 18 months in prison during a federal court hearing in Greeneville, Tennessee.

In the past 24 hours I have seen some positively unbridled fury from supporters of Popcorn Sutton, including on sites like Facebook (home to no less than three groups for people who believe the government should have left him alone to ply his trade in peace). The general consensus is that Popcorn wasn't harming anyone, and that the federal government has set out to "make an example" out of him, lest anyone else think that they should assert some liberty on their own. There are even some individuals who are publicly suggesting that perhaps a "storming the Bastille" is in order. I'm not gonna endorse or condemn such thoughts... but I am gonna pass along something that is no doubt going to make a lot of people even madder than they already are!

Neal Hutcheson is a well-known name not just across North Carolina, but throughout the southeastern United States and the rest of the country. He's a documentary filmmaker based out of the Raleigh area. Among his many credits are Mountain Talk and Voices of North Carolina, which have both featured appearances by Popcorn Sutton. More recently Hutcheson dedicated an entire film to Sutton and his art in The Last One. I've come to know him lately ever since he sent over a DVD of The Last One (and I just got it back last week, 'cuz everyone that I know practically has been wanting to borrow and see it for themselves!). Hutcheson has built up a solid reputation among the folks in this region and if he reports on something, I'm more than inclined to say that his word will be held as bond.

Well, Neal Hutcheson was in the courtroom yesterday when Popcorn Sutton had his sentence handed down. And earlier today Neal sent along the following report. I asked him if I could share it here for this blog's readers and Neal said "please do". So here it is, in his own words...

"You should know that the prosecution used a video clip made twenty years ago (of him capping a still) to make the case that Popcorn was strong enough to continue making liquor. The judge made it explicitly clear that the idea that he would resume operations if he was let out on probation was behind the rationale that he needed a prison term to stop him. The prosecution knew of course that the clip wasn't made last week, and that his health plus house-arrest & monitoring would be more than enough to prevent him from doing anything prohibited, as the past ten months of house arrest has proved. So, if you leave aside the debate about whether moonshining is a serious offense or not, and take the government's case at face value, the public would have been 'protected' & served without putting a sick man in prison. What the prosecution did was petty and vindictive: The sick and broken man they saw in that trial wasn't putting on an act; I had been with him for three days and that was the best he had looked in all that time.

"I just think people should know what happened there. The litmus test here is for people to substitute moonshining for something else they don't sympathize with, you know just lay all that aside, and ask if it was necessary, as the prosecution insisted, to lay prison time on him. Obviously it wasn't. He's been under house arrest and monitoring for ten months and, along with his health, its kept him from doing anything prohibited.

"The judge did question the age of the video, so that thought came up. But the prosecution was directly implying that the video demonstrated he was capable and because of that could not be deterred from making moonshine without a prison term. And that was disingenuous. And they knew it. The fact is that Popcorn had embarrassed them for a long time."

So... apparently the prosecutors used "evidence" that didn't pertain at all to this particular case in order to malign Sutton, and they convinced the judge to deliver a harsh sentence even knowing that Sutton is not currently in the best of health.

Does anybody else think that there is something horribly out of kilter with the "justice" of this situation?

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Report and photos from the orchestral scoring for WATCHMEN

Good friend Marco van Bergen directs our attention to this story at ScoringSessions.com, showing us composer Tyler Bates and an 87-member orchestra recording the music for Watchmen. Gobs of photos at the link, some of which depict scenes from the movie. According to the report, the Watchmen soundtrack will be released by Reprise Records on March 3rd 2009, three days before the movie comes out in theaters.

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A glimpse of what's coming to America?

Riots erupt in Reykjavik, Iceland after the citizens of that country, feeling more than a little ticked-off now that their country has gone bankrupt, vent their rage against their government (which has now collapsed)...

Mash down here for more about what's going down over there.

I've never been to Iceland, but I've met enough folks who have visited the place to know that the people there are a pretty hardy and patient lot: it takes a lot to get 'em riled up, especially this bad. The country's banks have failed miserably, and its coalition government has now finger-pointed itself into oblivion.

Gotta wonder if we might see this same sorta thing happening on our own side of the pond in the not-too-distant future...

(Thanks to Phillip Arthur for passing along the link.)

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Cover art for Star Wars horror novel DEATHTROOPERS

Awright, who else is seeing this, and thought that we must be getting a Star Wars/Hellraiser crossover...?

StarWars.com revealed the image earlier today. Deathtroopers by Joe Schreiber is the first ever true horror story set in the galaxy far, far away (no, I'm not counting the "Galaxy of Fear" books either). The novel is scheduled for release later this year, fittingly enough just before Halloween.

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DAMNED REVENUERS! American legend Popcorn Sutton sentenced to 18 months in prison (FREE POPCORN!)

Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton, the legendary moonshiner and genuinely unique American character, was sentenced today in federal court in Tennessee to a prison term of 18 months, after earlier pleading guilty to the charges stemming from the raid on his still last year.

And adding insult to injury, Sutton "agreed to allow his moonshining photos and videos and criminal history to be used to further the education and deterrence goals of Project Safe Neighborhoods."

In other words, rather than praising Popcorn Sutton as the living cultural resource that he is, the sons of bastitches from the government are going to force Popcorn to go fully against his unique sense of identity. The lesson here could not be more obvious: "Conform to the state or we will hurt you."

No, I don't have any sympathy for those assholes. If you want to see what is destroying America, look at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents, the judges, and everyone else who has conspired, against an overwhelming tide of public sympathy with Popcorn, to quash him good.

Grrrrrr...

Well, I'm gonna keep the "Free Popcorn Sutton!" icon in the margin of this blog, as ongoing testament against how our own government is all too often the enemy of freedom and liberty. "Change"? My ass!

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Cult leader Johnny Robertson: In his own words

Longtime readers of this blog already know about cultist Johnny Robertson and his self-proclaimed "Church of Christ" (which is nothing like the mainstream Churches of Christ that most people know and respect). About how Robertson, flunky/second cousin James Oldfield and their "Religious Review" charade go around the area accosting the decent (and in my mind, legitimate) churches, and then televise their harassment on WGSR... which is now widely acknowledged, Robertson is the de facto owner of.

Robertson, and what he represents, is not real Christianity. There is no love, no humility, no thankfulness for the grace of God that comes out of what they have been doing. All that Johnny Robertson has ever demonstrated that he is capable of producing is hate, and spite, and division, and... dare I say it? Yeah, I will: evil.

But... why should you have to take my word for that?

During his show tonight I recorded what Robertson was saying. I'm going to post some of the more notable comments that he made, and let you, Dear Reader, decide for yourself what to make of this. If you are like most people, I would guess that you would ascertain that what you are about to read is a disturbing glimpse into a very dark soul, indeed.

Remember: I didn't have to make anything up for this post. Everything you are about to read are Johnny Robertson's own words, spoken during his What Does The Bible Say? broadcast tonight, January 25th 2009, out of WGSR Star 39 in Reidsville, North Carolina...

"I would wrap that stuff around their necks!"

"Why are we so strong in this area?!?"

"We are the most morally well-behaved people in this area!"
(Editors note: does "morally well-behaved" mean confronting people in their homes, having dissidents followed by fellow cult members, and outright lying about another church in the area by accusing it of child pornography?)

"I will tie that around their necks and they will never say it again!"

"I will make him look so bad...!"

"Sir you've never seen me mad!"

"He is all mouth! That is what all of them are!"

"I spend THOUSANDS of dollars to open the phone lines up!"
(Editor's note: earlier Robertson boasted that his self-styled "Church of Christ" takes up no offering... but he didn't care to mention that he gets practically all of his funding from wealthy cult members in Texas and other places far west of this area.)

"Because what you believe is not in the Bible!" (talking about Baptists)

"There is not a preacher in this town that knows as much Bible as I do!"

"They are all afraid of me!"

"I'm presenting myself just like Jesus did! Nobody could answer Him. That's what I'm doing. These guys can't answer me!"

"I believe the way I demonstrate that is the case is by answering all of these people that their doctrines are all too weak to shut me up!"

"There's no such thing as a Baptist!"

"THIS (referring to his cult) is the church that Paul was in!"

"There is a church that is determined to preach the truth and only the truth and that is the church that I represent, and that is why everyone is afraid of me!"

As Rod Serling might put it...

"Submitted for your approval."

It certainly does seem like something out of The Twilight Zone, does it not?

If anyone can tell me how Robertson is reflecting the love of Christ, the mind of Christ, or the grace of Christ with his words and his actions - and then daring to insinuate that only he comes with the truth of God - then I would certainly welcome such exposition in the comments for this blog entry.

And if you are a member of the Martinsville Church of Christ: are you really that proud to be represented by such a man who brags of being your minister?

Would any congregation be proud, for that matter?

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Scientists claim: Tycho Brahe was murdered!

Tycho Brahe was one of the most accomplished astronomers in history. He was also quite the eccentric: for most of his life he wore a metal nose to replace the real one that he lost in a duel, he kept a dwarf human as something of a pet, and supposedly he died in 1601 from straining his bladder. The story goes that Tycho was at a party, had too much wine to drink and thought it would be the acme of "bad manners" if he did the sensible thing by going out to "drain the main vein" (as my old Bible study partner once put it).

Now a group of scientists are preparing to exhume the body of Tycho Brahe, more than 400 years after his death in Prague. Their motive for disturbing the great scholar's remains: investigating the possibility that Brahe was poisoned as part of a contract killing. The alleged mastermind of what may be a plot of murder most foul: Christian IV, the King of Denmark, using a count from the royal court as the hitman. Adding to the intrigue: scholars have apparently found the diary in which the murderer confesses to the crime.

Meanwhile, so far as we know, Zachary Taylor is still dead from ice cream gone bad...

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