Southern Poverty Law Center, or: How NOT to respect a news outlet!

I've a number of criteria for judging whether a news agency is reputable or not. Usually it's a long-term process of determination but lately it's become much, much easier for me.

Wanna know why?

It's real simple: any news outlet that cites the Southern Poverty Law Center as a reputable source of information, gets a honkin' HUGE demerit and damn near an unforgivable one.

I first heard of ethnic warfare whore Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center fifteen years ago, in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. Dees was pimpin' himself on most of the news channels, claiming his Southern Poverty Law Center was warning the feds way in advance about "the militias movement". 'Twas enough to make me wonder who this twit was. Since then I've discovered that he's not much more than the worst sort of perpetual pest: the kind that demands everyone see a "crisis" to justify his own pathetic self-imposed purpose. In the case of Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center this entails claiming that everyone who is against their wacko socialist agenda is automatically a racist on par with Hitler himself.

So it is that I have also come to sincerely believe that any so-called "journalist" who even remotely considers Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center to be creditable, should be fired automatically if not outright dragged out into the town square and locked up in the pillory for a well-earned mocking.

But don't take my word for it, dear readers! The Southern Poverty Law Center has just published a "hit list" of forty "patriots" that the organization has deemed to be a threat to American society. On the list are columnist Chuck Baldwin (he ranked #1, and that's his response at the link), Representative Ron Paul of Texas, Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily, and Glenn Beck (somebody that I have never listened to and have no plans to, but to the very best of my knowledge has done nothing inordinately wrong). There are also a number of outspoken critics of the federal government, and especially of the income tax and the IRS.

Curiously, there is not one person on the list who could be considered an avowed "liberal". Every person denounced by the Southern Poverty Law Center is regarded by conventional wisdom as being a "conservative" or a "libertarian".

Darn. I wish that I could be on that list! Guess I'm not a big-league enough blogger yet.

Maybe if I pointed out that Morris Dees is a sexual pervert and child molester who was once caught exploiting his step-daughter, and that his Southern "Poverty" Law Center has by many accounts raked in more than a hundred million dollars by scaring the gullible with rumors of the Third Reich rising again, that maybe he would put me on his enemies list?

Or maybe putting it in larger font would mark me as a worthy adversary...

MORRIS DEES
OF THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER

IS A SEXUAL PERVERT, CHILD MOLESTER,

ETHNIC WARFARE WHORE,

PIMP OF THE PERPETUAL CRISIS,

AND MONEY-GRABBING HUCKSTER

OF THE UTMOST DEGREE!!!

Dear Lord, I hope that will do the trick.

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Oh yeah, a few more photos from ActionFest!

Filmmaking partner "Weird" Ed Woody and I outside the Carolina Cinemas in Asheville, North Carolina at ActionFest this past weekend. Look at those nifty ActionFest t-shirts! On the back of the shirts has Chuck Norris' classic line from Code of Silence: "When I want your opinion, I'll beat it out of you."

And here is... oh Lord, why didn't I shower and shave that morning?! I look positively hideous here. But I would prolly look hideous anyway :-P Especially compared to such a beautiful lass: none other than Sheree J. Wilson, who among other roles was Alex on Walker, Texas Ranger:

For more about ActionFest and what went down there, punch here!

(By the way, Chuck Norris landed in Asheville on Sunday... and leveled all the mountains surrounding the city!)

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Chris finally files his ACTIONFEST after-carnage report!

I've more than a gut feeling that this past weekend was but the first of many, many years for ActionFest: the first ever film festival devoted to action movies.

It all went down at Carolina Cinemas in Asheville, North Carolina. And your friend and humble blogger was there for most of the spectacle!

Several weeks ago my filmmaking partner (and old college roomie) "Weird" Ed Woody told me about ActionFest, being that it was happening in his neck of the woods. My calendar was empty for the weekend save for a friend's wedding on Sunday, so we ordered our badges and I lodged at Ed's inner sanctum somewhere between Asheville and the dark territory known to the locals as "Little Canada" (note to revenuers: do not go in there). On Thursday morning I headed out to Asheville, spent a few hours seeing my old adopted hometown again and even hooking up with some people that were a big part of my life then, and that afternoon hooked up with Ed at his pad. We took off for town and following a dinner at Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company - which still has some of the best pizza I've ever ate - we headed to Carolina Cinemas and ActionFest

ActionFest is founded by Bill Banowsky, Dennis Berman, and Aaron Norris. Aaron is the brother of action film legend Chuck Norris, who on the last night of the festival became the recipient of ActionFest's inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award. As such there were a number of Chuck Norris films programmed for the festival. The official ActionFest poster depicts Chuck Norris from Invasion U.S.A. standing in front of a mushroom cloud hanging over downtown Asheville.

And even the local sponsors got into the spirit of the event. Check out this theatrical one-sheet ad for the Grove Park Inn!

At 7:30 on Thursday night came the first film of ActionFest: the world premiere of Neil Marshall's Centurion!

Starring Michael Fassbender and featuring a number of fairly familiar faces including Noel Clarke (who played Mickey for the past few years on Doctor Who), Centurion is a grim 'n bloody telling of the tale of the legendary Ninth Legion of Rome, which went missing while trying to civilize ancient Britain. Set in 117 A.D., Centurion focuses on Quintus Dias (Fassbender) who gets captured by the Picts north of Hadrian's Wall, escapes and is then re-assigned to destroy a particularly troublesome bunch of primeval Scottish in retribution. But the Picts don't play nice and the Romans are soon whittled down to seven soldiers from across the breadth of the Empire, now struggling to survive. Hot on their trail is Etain (Olga Kurylenko): a treacherous Terminator-ish tracker who won't stop until her tribe is avenged (and she's also feeling more than a bit pokey after the Romans cut out her tongue).

If you loved HBO's Rome but wanted it to ratchet up the brutality, then Centurion is for you. I imagine this is going to do some handsome business when it opens wide. I enjoyed it tremendously!

The next afternoon Ed and I took in Kick-Ass, which wasn't part of the festival but we were both curious enough about it to check it out (and I'll be posting a review of it soon). After we caught that, it was time for ActionFest proper.

Up next it was 1985's Code of Silence:

Starring Chuck Norris and directed by Andrew Davis (who also directed The Fugitive, including much of it in the nearby town of Sylva and the legendary train wreck in Dillsboro), Code of Silence is regarded as the most critically acclaimed of Norris' many films. Eddie Cusack is an incorruptible cop on the mean streets of Chicago, set against both a brewing drug war and bad cops within his own department. We got to enjoy Code of Silence via a beautiful, practically virgin 35mm print and it was gorgeous! Nothing like seeing Chuck Norris going to town against the bad guys with his fists, his guns and one kick-butt battle robot.

Up next was a film that I'd been eager to see for a month or so now ever since first hearing about it: Harry Brown.

Harry Brown is the movie where those old guys from A Clockwork Orange get mad as hell and break bad on the asses of Alex and all his droogs. It is also the closest I imagine we will ever get to a film adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns. Directed by Daniel Barber, Harry Brown stars Michael Caine as the titular character: a recently widowed pensioner who despairs at the violent crime getting worse daily outside his window. When his only friend and drinking buddy is killed one night by a bunch of hoodlums, Harry - a former British marine - begins a one-man war as much against apathy as it is against the much-younger miscreants who are plaguing his neighborhood.

I think it's next week when Harry Brown gets a wide release here in the states, and I can easily imagine it striking up some dialogue on this side of the pond: about self-defense, about how our society has grown inured to cruelty, about how far one might be willing to go in order to have a peaceful life. Michael Caine is bloody brilliant as Harry Brown: we see the legendary man of action that he was in the original Get Carter and the Harry Palmer films, but also as the more gentle and tender presence that he has become in more recent years. In short: Harry Brown shows Caine at his most full-bore caliber. Can't wait to see it again.

At 10 p.m. on Friday night Ed and I decided to check out the world premiere of Operation: Endgame.

Originally titled Rogue's Gallery (a title which I like more as I think about it), Operation: Endgame is a film that I think has potential. What we saw wasn't the final film: there were still some unfinished effects and a bit of color work in a number of places that needs to be completed, so I'm looking forward to seeing it in the more polished and slicked-up form. As I said, there's some promise here. Operation: Endgame is like one of those Eighties "cloak and dagger spy" movies as envisioned by Dilbert creator Scott Adams: about two competing groups of secret agents who do battle with each other in a facility deep underground after their boss is found murdered in his office. Joe Anderson plays "Fool", the newest recruit among a body of agents all named after Tarot cards (like Lost's Emilie de Ravin as Hierophant, Ving Rhames as Judgement and Odette Yustman as Temperance). Also look for Zach Galifianakis as Hermit and Ellen Barkin as Empress. I think that with finished effects, a bit more editing and by changing the title back to the original if at all possible, this movie could prove to be a box-office winner. We were entertained by it anyway.

And next up, at midnight, came the film that we had become bigtime stoked about ever since reading about it in the festival's program. And it did not disappoint.

It was time to watch Tucker & Dale vs. Evil.

GOOD LORD I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!! Please SOMEBODY get this film distributed and into as honkin' wide a release as is all humanly possible! Sometime this summer would be terrific. Yes, I can definitely see Tucker & Dale vs. Evil as being the sleeper hit of Summer 2010.

Ed and I agreed: this was our most favorite film of ActionFest. Starring Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine and directed by Eli Craig (from a script co-written with Morgan Jurgenson), the best I can describe Tucker & Dale vs. Evil in brief is if I told you that it's "Clerks meets Deliverance". It takes the whole "lusty kids going into the woods and getting slaughtered by hillbillies" motif of slasher films and turns it on its head in hilarious fashion. 'Cuz you see in this case the hillbillies in question - Tucker (Tudyk) and Dale (Labine) - are really a couple of nice fellas! They're just two good ol' boys, never meaning no harm. All they want is to fix up a shack in the deep West Virginia woods to have as their dream vacation place while they hunt 'n fish and drink beer. Unfortunately they cross paths with a group of college students who have obviously seen way, way too many horror movies for their own good.

I don't know how much more plainer to put it than this: I not only want to see Tucker & Dale vs. Evil in the theaters immediately, I want to see at least six more Tucker & Dale movies! Not to mention how neat it would be to have some Tucker & Dale action figures. Maybe the most fun start to a potential franchise that I've ever seen. Everyone in the theater was laughing 'til it hurt! Ed saw it again on Saturday night and reported an even bigger crowd that was just as entertained and wanting more. I can't wait to watch this with more friends when it hits wide release.

The next day, with Tucker & Dale vs. Evil still on our brains, Ed and I headed back to ActionFest to catch what unfortunately had to be the last film of the festival that I was able to see: Je-Woon Kim's 2008 action spectacle from South Korea, it's The Good, The Bad, The Weird:

Clearly inspired by the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, The Good, The Bad, The Weird is the mad story of bandits, bounty hunters and assassins (along with a good helping of the Japanese army) crossing paths in Manchuria circa 1930 in pursuit of a treasure map. Rife with gunplay, motorcycles, heavy artillery, opium dens, one of the kewlest train heists I've ever seen in a film for an opening gambit, and an even crazier chase across the Chinese desert toward the end (along with one helluva plot twist), The Good, The Bad, The Weird was the perfect movie for a Saturday afternoon. I wouldn't mind owning this one on Blu-ray.

ActionFest was such a well-programmed festival, that there really was no way to be able to catch all of the movies scheduled. I'd wanted to see Power Kids (at least I know such a movie does exist out there somewhere :-), Merantau (ditto) and Valhalla Rising, but wasn't able too. 'Course that my own schedule required me to head back on Saturday night didn't help things. I'd also love to catch Golden Blade III: Return of the Monkey's Uncle at some point, which was filmed entirely in the Asheville area and as you can tell its poster promises all sorts of outrageous good humor...

Following The Good, The Bad, The Weird at 3 p.m. there was The Amazing ActionFest Stunt Show, featuring something I've never heard of being done at a film festival before: real stunts by Hollywood stunt legends! Jeff Habberstad arrived in true fashion: by bailing out of a passing airplane and parachuting down...

(Okay, that high-flying jet is not the plane that Habberstad jumped out of, it just happened to have been in the field of vision from where we were standing. Had to clarify that :-)

And then Kinnie "the Rocket Man" Gibson arrived on his jetpack, coming in over the Carolina Cinema building and landing in the parking lot...

At 5 p.m. that afternoon Drew McWeeny of HitFix.com moderated a panel discussion about "The Art of the Second Unit"...

Ed and I found this discussion to be educational, enlightening... and very entertaining. And it gave me an entirely new appreciation for the second unit's role in film production. As several of the panelists noted, it's the second unit which has the real fun on a movie or television project, because they're the ones that aren't necessarily stuck inside listening to "talking heads" as one person put it. But it is also in some ways one of the most demanding of a project's many aspects: not only making sure that the second unit's footage "jibes" with that of the first unit, but also the sheer planning and logistics. Paul Weston (who did stunts for many of the James Bond movies as well as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Superman) shared one story about how he was supposed to be filmed crawling along the outside of a building and how it almost didn't work out. And we also heard about how stunt people really do have to be able to say "no" to a director if something is going to be more dangerous than it's worth. After all, as was noted: there wasn't a single person up on that stage who hadn't lost a friend to doing a stunt that had gone wrong.

And if there is one thing that I would wish to convey that I learned from ActionFest, it is this: that the men and women who put themselves to such extremes for sake of a few seconds of footage, in order to create an illusion of danger... folks, I have a completely new respect for these people now. Having the chance to meet several of them and talk with them and hear them speak of their craft, and hearing the very sincere humbleness that they bring to their trade... well if you ask me, professional stunt people are in the same class of admiration as that afforded to firefighters. There's a mutual sense of brotherhood and respect for each other among those in this profession, and having seen that firsthand I can certainly say that it's high time that these people and the genre that lets them shine the most have a film festival celebrating their talent and their passion.

And that is what ActionFest was most to me: a festival not just of good films, but of the very best of the human spirit. I am already looking forward to next year's event, and here's praying that it will only get bigger and better from here on out.

Thanks to everyone behind ActionFest for such an amazing event! Y'all succeeded wildly :-)

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Radical Muslim declares SOUTH PARK un-bear-able, implies violence against show's creators

Many readers know that I have a very strongly held personal belief that each person has an absolute right to seek after and worship God as best he or she understands Him, or even to not believe in God at all. The one caveat is that a person's right to that ends where another's right to do likewise begins. I don't believe that what the South Park guys have done (or have ever done) violates that notion.

The same can not be said of many adherents of the "religion of peace pieces"...

So now it's Trey Parker and Matt Stone who have drawn the ire of a wacko Islamic website. What's the sacrilege this time? A depiction of the prophet Muhammad, shown above with South Park characters Stan and Kyle.

In case you can't see him, Muhammad is hiding inside the bear suit.

From the Fox News story...

A radical Islamic website is warning the creators of "South Park" that they could face violent retribution for depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit during an episode broadcast on Comedy Central last week.

RevolutionMuslim.com posted the warning following the 200th episode of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's "South Park," which included a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad disguised in a bear suit. The Web posting also included a graphic photo of Theo van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who was murdered in 2004 after making a documentary on violence against Muslim women.

"We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show," the posting reads. "This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them."

Reaching by phone early Tuesday, Abu Talhah al Amrikee, the author of the post, said he wrote the entry to "raise awareness." He said the grisly photograph of van Gogh was meant to "explain the severity" of what Parker and Stone did by mocking Muhammad.

"It's not a threat, but it really is a likely outcome," al Amrikee said, referring to the possibility that Parker and Stone could be murdered for mocking Muhammad. "They're going to be basically on a list in the back of the minds of a large number of Muslims. It's just the reality."

Wait a sec: so Muhammad was not actually shown. We only saw a guy in a bear costume. But that the South Park kids pointed at him and called him "Muhammad" was enough to get Parker and Stone targeted for death?!

I have to wonder if the same thing would happen to me if I were to, say, post a photo of Cap'n Crunch and write "this is Muhammad". Would some Islamic yahoo send me a threatening e-mail if I were to say that Yoda was really Muhammad? How about if I use an image of a pile of steaming dog excrement: "there is one god and this steaming pile of dog excrement is Muhammad his prophet!"

Mind ya, I'm not poking fun at Islam itself. But I darn well am saying that this is an example of some of Islam's followers acting like a pack of bloodthirsty thugs.

What I said earlier about everyone has the right to worship God up until that right impinges on others' right to do the same? I sincerely believe that. And if it takes vigorous self-defense (read into that what you will) to deter followers of Islam or even of Christianity or any other religious adherent who refuses to respect the rights of others, then so be it.

And as for Abu Talhah al Amrikee, I think Mr. Frank Miller came up with the perfect retort against that sort of nuttiness in the pages of The Dark Knight Strikes Again...

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"The Last Recruit": Post-episode reaction to this week's LOST

Depending on who you are, tonight's Lost either confirmed or imploded a whole lotta theories that have been building up over the past six years. While at the same time going off the tracks with all kinds of crazy goodness!

"The Last Recruit" felt like an episode and a half, if not more even. The answers keep coming hard, even if they aren't explicitly "spelled out". That dialogue between Jack and the Man in Black toward the beginning of the episode? And a bit of what Claire said? When you think about it all that's maybe two or three longstanding mysteries that were laid bare. I love how this show makes the viewers work things out on their own. And in that respect Lost stands tall as some of the most intelligent storytelling for the television medium in history.

I am soooo not spilling the beans on what was the best moment of an episode abundantly blessed with excellent moments, for sake of those on the west coast who won't be seeing it for another two and a half hours.

The flashsideways timeline: whatever the heck this is headed to, I am totally digging it now. And I think that there might have been a clue here as to the identities of "Adam and Eve". Hint: apple. 'Course I might just have been seeing too much there.

Must. Watch. Again. And I hope y'all DVR'ed it anyway 'cuz there's no new Lost next week: instead we get a repeat airing of "Ab Aeterno", which was the episode that gave us Richard's backstory, so it's all good. The next week though will bring us "The Candidate". And after that "Across the Sea", which I know nothing about other than word is rampant that this is going to be a massively major episode (one rumor is that it will give us the story of Jacob and the Man in Black).

Five more hours of Lost left. And I'll give "The Last Recruit" a full 10 out of 10!

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Mother Teresa's 7 Steps to a Holier Life

Matthew Warner is the thinkin' dude behind Fallible Blogma: his journal of faith, politics and fatherhood from a Catholic perspective. I have been rather enjoying Matthew's insights, and one item in particular is well worth passing along to all two of my own blog's regular readers. It's a list of seven steps to take for a holier life, as observed and articulated by Mother Teresa (in the photo). You'll have to visit the link to see Matthew's compilation in earnest, but they're seven measures that I'm gonna commit to trying to keep in mind on a daily basis...

1. Slow down
2. Make some room
3. Open your eyes
4. Put great love into the small things
5. Do not tire
6. Remember: It's faithfulness, not success
6. Leave the rest to Jesus

Good things to remember, whether or not you are Catholic. And I very much appreciate Matthew for putting this together :-)

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HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS gets its first teaser poster

Hmmm... not too jazzed by this one. Maybe it has to do with it being that I've yet to see the movie version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? More likely the fact that as much as I love the Harry Potter books, I've grown weary of the film adaptations. They've diverted so much from the original novels that I for one would welcome a new attempt to make a movie franchise of this series ten or so years from now (ideally one movie a year for seven years, with the same cast). 'Twould definitely benefit from being produced in hindsight.

Anyways, there's yer first teaser poster for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the first part of which is due out later this year.

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Disaffection made simple

I love the Constitution of the United States. I hate the government of the United States. The government of the United States is so unlike the Constitution of the United States.

(Shamelessly paraphrasing M.K. Gandhi.)

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Wiiiiiii!!!

A lady named Amanda Flowers in Great Britain is, errr... blaming Nintendo's Wii Fit for causing her to have persistent orgasms.

From the article at the Daily Star...

A WOMAN has gone from Nintendo to nympho after a fall from her Wii Fit board turned her into a sex addict.

Randy Amanda Flowers needs 10 sex sessions a day after the slip-up.

And now the slightest of vibrations, from mobile phones to food processors, turns her on.

The catering worker said: "It began as a twinge down below before surging through my body. Sometimes it built up into a trembling orgasm."

A doctor diagnosed her with persistent sexual arousal syndrome due to a damaged nerve.

Probably a million-to-one thing that happened to Amanda Flowers and likely not easily replicated (no matter how many people will attempt it, no doubt). I found this interesting enough to post 'cuz I've some fascination with video gaming and human biology.

This just happens to be the first time that I've heard of a video game affecting one's sex life (apart from some examples that will readily come to mind :-P)

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Photos of Eyjafjallajökull eruption

In case you're wondering, I've heard from an authority on the subject that the name of that volcano in Iceland that is currently plaguing air travel in Europe (and elsewhere?) should be pronounced "AY-uh-fyat-luh-YOE-kuutl-uh".

The Reykjavík Grapevine has published - and will probably publish many more now that Eyjafjallajökull's activity is apparently intensifying and may even trigger the eruption of a bigger volcano nearby - several photos of Eyjafjallajökull wrecking havoc.

Anyone else think it's kinda funny that this is all happening on the same week as Earth Day?

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I'm thinking of breaking one of my most cardinal rules

That being the one about how I never, ever adopt new technology right out of the gate.

Take the Xbox 360, f'rinstance. I love mine like all get out. Not just as a gamin' machine but as a media extender: movies and such that are kept on my computer can be viewed on my high-def television set. Right handy, that. But it was two years after the Xbox 360 debuted before I even considered getting one. Just made good sense to me, and it's not about it being a Microsoft product either: any piece of high-tech gadgetry is bound to have some issues that only get found and worked out after it's been released into the wild.

So as a result I've never been an early adopter. And I figure that I'm being a wise consumer for having that policy.

But then, late last week on my trip to Asheville, I went into the Best Buy there. And for the first time beheld and then played with an iPad.

Whoa...

One of the things that I don't have is a laptop computer and people often ask me why don't I own one. The most outstanding reason in my mind is how gosh-darned fragile they have been in my estimation. Having worked in more computer repair joints than I care to remember, laptops still have that "whole 'nother beast than a laptop" thing going on with me.

But the iPad?

It really might be my mobile device dream come true. I gave typing on it a shot and had no problems with my usual 150+ words a minute or so.

Darn you Steve Jobs! You and Apple might have finally made me break down from one of my most sincerely-held personal beliefs!!

So will I actually spring for one?

Stay tuned.

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I just blew back into town...

...did I miss anything?! :-P

Have a friend's wedding on the morrow, but between now and Monday after I get good and refreshed from the past few days I'll share all the awesome good stuff that went down at ActionFest - the first ever film festival devoted to action movies - during the past few days in Asheville.

(BTW, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil ROCKS!!! Can't wait to talk more about it :-)

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Gone for the next 72 hours

However it might be a neat idea to follow me on Twitter for the next few days if you aren't already doing so.

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Most disturbing Star Wars image I've seen... ever!

"Dawn of Maul", an oil on canvas piece by artist Wil Wilson. Set to appear in the upcoming Star Wars: Visions collection due in stores this fall...

I do try to keep the Star Wars-ish posts on this blog kept to a minimum, but this thing was screaming to be shared with y'all.

(Click here for original link.)

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When law enforcement legally steals from people

It's bothered me for years that in the name of the "war on drugs" that some (emphasis on that) law enforcement agencies have engaged in what can only be described as theft of property from many innocent people. Chances are good that's going to continue to get worse as agencies are faced with budget crunches (along with the trend of hiring more and more individuals who have no business wearing a badge to begin with).

The Kingsport Times-News has an article on its website about "How police profit by seizing private property"...

Police and prosecutors’ offices seize private property—often without ever charging the owners with a crime — then keep or sell what they’ve taken and use the profits to fund their budgets. And considering law enforcement officials in most states don’t report the value of what they collect or how that bounty is spent, the issue raises serious questions about both government transparency and accountability.

Under state and federal civil asset forfeiture laws, law enforcement agencies can seize and keep property suspected of involvement in criminal activity. Unlike criminal asset forfeiture, however, with civil forfeiture, a property owner need not be found guilty of a crime—or even charged—to permanently lose her cash, car, home or other property.

According to the Institute for Justice civil asset forfeiture is one of the worst abuses of property rights today. The Institute has released a national study on civil forfeiture abuse. The report—Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture - is the most comprehensive national study to examine the use and abuse of civil asset forfeiture and the first study to grade the civil forfeiture laws of all 50 states and the federal government. The report finds that by giving law enforcement a direct financial incentive in pursuing forfeitures and stacking the legal deck against property owners, most state and federal laws encourage policing for profit rather than seeking the neutral administration of justice.

This is one of the biggest reasons why I've come to be against the "war on drugs", and now the "war on terror". When government can declare a cause against something and demand all possible power and authority to wield against it, it is inevitable that the rights and liberties of individuals will suffer. And there's very rarely any going back.

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Apple may enter 3-D market with funky glasses to hold your iPod

Daily Mail has found a patent application made by Apple for some weird eyewear - nicknamed the "iSpecs" by some - that would turn an iPod or iPhone into a portable 3-D movie experience. From the filed application...

Alright, so... who wants to be the first person to walk around the neighborhood with an iPod covering up their eyes?

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"Everybody Loves Hugo": Post-episode reaction to this week's LOST

I am officially saving up all hyperbole for whatever Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof have schemed up for the final six hours of Lost. Good thing too 'cuz I would have shot the whole wad on "Everybody Loves Hugo" tonight.

WOW!!! Okay, along with "Numbers" from Season 1 this has to rank as the all-time greatest episode focusing on Hurley. This felt like an episode and a half and all those 'splosions didn't hurt at all (bye-bye Ilana, but I saw that caked-on nitro on the dynamite sticks and knew then this was gonna end badly). Hurley's destroying the Black Rock: is it just me or did y'all also think that signified this series' finality? The Black Rock had been one of the most long-standing mysteries of the show, and now that we know everything about it and to see it go "boom" like that...

It was one of the best visual effects I've seen in television history. A foreshadowing, no doubt, of things still to come before "The End".

I thoroughly approve of how Michael was brought back to the story... and bringing the long-sought answer about the whispers with him. But it was Libby's return that I most appreciated of "Everybody Loves Hugo". I'm almost sorry for saying this but Libby never really "clicked" for me during her appearances during Season 2. But now after seeing this episode, and thinking back to how she was in Santa Rosa with Hurley in the "main" timeline well, can't help but wonder if there was "method to the madness" all this time and we're just now realizing the extent of it.

Speaking of timelines, I am now totally digging what is going on in the alternate universe and how the two realities are interacting. That revelation has come pretty late, and I was worried for awhile that it was going to be delved into at all. But now the answers are coming as hard and fast as alt-Desmond's leadfoot on the pedal (you'll understand when you see the episode, y'all on the west coast :-)

"Everybody Loves Hugo" gets a 15 out of 10 from this fan.

Six more hours of Lost remaining. "The Last Recruit" is found next week.

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Johnny Robertson jeopardizes son's criminal trial (Plus: REGISTER & BEE's shoddy "journalism")

I'm going to begin calling Johnny Robertson and his "Church of Christ" cult out for what they really are: domestic terrorists.

They just haven't killed anybody (yet). However in the name of "God" Robertson and his followers have and continue to conspire to deprive others of their right to religion, to peaceable assembly and to free speech.

So are Johnny Robertson, James Oldfield, Mark McMinnis, Micah Robertson and the rest of their ilk enemies of the Constitution of the United States? Yup. And I suppose that means others might also be considered willing collaborators, regardless of whether they are "true believers". Make of that what you may.

What precipitates this latest report about the goings-on of the Martinsville Taliban? A few things. The previous post seems to have had some effect, because several people noted that Mark McMinnis was struggling to subdue his silly grin during his broadcast this past Thursday night. But what is more intriguing is that Micah Robertson - son of "Church of Christ" tin-god Johnny Robertson - was conspicuously absent from the live broadcast! The official word: "He has the night off."

Yah right.

Because earlier that day out of the Martinsville feed the two-hour block that Johnny Robertson uses for his inane babbling was filled up with the "debate" between he and Shirley Phelps-Roper from 2005. Yup, that Shirley Phelps-Roper that I also referenced in my previous post! What was the reason for the replay? The two Robertsons had to meet with their attorney about the criminal trespassing charges pending against Micah Robertson, stemming from Micah's repeated attempts to interfere with the services at Westover Baptist Church in Danville, Virginia.

(Several people also noted that the replay of the 2005 "debate" also featured an appearance by Jason Hairston, who was once with Robertson's cult and even had his own hour-long live weekly broadcast until he became a dissident from the movement and was subsequently damned by Johnny Robertson. To this day Robertson the Mad refuses to address the issue but apparently has no problem with continuing to use Hairston to prop-up his cult.)

So Johnny and Micah went to a lawyer, because Micah is looking at a year in jail if he's convicted. And no doubt the attorney has strongly recommended if not outright forbid Micah Robertson from doing any more television appearances or live confrontations until his trial date. However that has not stopped Johnny Robertson from running his mouth without ceasing about it! Robertson devoted the entirety of his two-hour Friday morning show and then 90 minutes on Sunday night's broadcast trying to make his son out to be the victim of persecution.

I can hear the Robertsons' attorney now, the veins in his neck bulging out as he screams "DAMMIT JOHNNY SHUT UP YOU'RE BLOWING OUR CASE!!!"

Does Johnny Robertson want his son to go to jail? Does Johnny hope that Micah will become a "martyr for the cause"? Is this how far Johnny is willing to go in order to somehow "validate" his insane belief system? Is Micah ready to fall on the proverbial sword? Since this cult believes in salvation by human works, is Micah seriously considering this the price he'll pay to get into Heaven?

Robertson the Lesser's court date is May 7th.

Incidentally, The Danville Register & Bee has a report about Micah Robertson's arrest warrant on its GoDanRiver.com website... and in all honesty it's one of the most piss-poor news articles I've seen in the history of anything. "Journalist" Matt Tomsic turned in a story that apart from what's gleaned from the official warrant itself, is nothing but regurgitation from Johnny Robertson! From the article...

Micah Robertson works with his father, Johnny Robertson, for Religious Review Media, a group that tries to bring accountability to religion and to increase dialogue between different religious organizations, according to Johnny Robertson.

He said two Religious Review reporters went to the church event to speak with Elmer Towns, co-founder of Liberty University. One reporter pulled a video camera to record Micah Robertson speaking to Towns, Johnny Robertson said. As he did, church officials asked him to leave. Micah Robertson then pulled his video camera to film the confrontation, and officials told him to leave also.

Religious Review reporters travel with video cameras to document their interactions with others in case they’re accused of anything.

“We are very controversial in the sense that our message is that we should all be together,” Johnny Robertson said.

But Micah Robertson didn’t capture any video Feb. 28 because church officials grabbed his camera as he turned it on, Johnny Robertson said.

Hey, Matt Tomsic: There is no such thing as "Religious Review"! Religious Review is a sham operation that Johnny Robertson pulled out of his butt to give his harassment an air of legitimacy. Religious Review has no website, no printed publication, nothing but a YouTube channel that consists entirely of footage of Robertson and his minions stalking innocent people in the privacy of their homes, in churches and shopping malls, etc.

If I have no other purpose for writing this post, then it is because I am compelled to point out Matt Tomsic's atrocious reporting of this matter and to call out GoDanRiver.com, the Danville Register and Bee, and Media General for allowing this story to run at all.

(And as some have jokingly noted lately, this blog does seem to get more traffic than, ahem, some online outlets that have been referenced lately. Parse that as you will...)

What do I think is gonna happen? Honestly?

If Micah Robertson is found guilty, he will either go to jail for the minimum amount allowed by law (I don't believe the judge will give him a year, but who knows) or given suspended sentence. It'll still be a mark on his record. I like to think that he might even be ordered to remain 500 feet away from religious institutions that he is not personally affiliated with, much like how convicted sex offenders cannot be near schools or daycare centers.

If Micah Robertson is found not guilty, then Johnny Robertson will assume that this means he and his cult now have legal carte blanche to do all the harassment that they want, wherever and whenever they so desire. They will go crazy with their newfound sense of power. And then they will go too far and one or more of them will be hurt or worse.

I hate to say that, but I'm not usually wrong about this sort of thing. Call it nothing more than being a longtime student of human nature.

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GEARS OF WAR 3 gets official announcement and tragic trailer!

Epic Games' Cliff Blezinski on Last Night with Jimmy Fallon in the wee hours of this morning let the world in on what we already knew: that Gears of War 3 was coming in April 2011. An official press release from Epic and Microsoft gives a firmer date: April 5th, 2011 for the concluding chapter of the Gears of War trilogy.

Personally I've no doubt we'll be seeing more games from this series though. It might - or might not - be the end of humanity's war with the Locust Horde but there are plenty more tales to tell in the Gears saga. Such as the earlier Pendulum Wars, and the events surrounding E-Day.

But 'nuff with speculation. Take a looksee at "Ashes to Ashes", the first trailer for Gears of War 3!

The song is "Heron Blue" by folk rock group Sun Kil Moon. Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.

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THE KING AND I and... me!

After a weekend of what one cast member has called "the most fun audition experience I've ever had" the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County has got the cast for its production of The King and I a little more than two months from now.

And... I'm playing Phra Alack! He's the secretary to the King, and gets to throw his authority around a lot. Unless the King is in the room, and then Phra Alack throws himself down on the floor a lot. Gonna be a fun lil' role! That's also a terrific cast playing the characters... and given that I personally know many of the cast are complete characters, is gonna make it that much more of a hoot of a show :-)

The King and I runs from June 18th through June 20th at Rockingham County Senior High School. Click on the Theatre Guild's website for more information. Hope to see you there!

And as always happens whenever I get involved in something like this, I'll be posting about the experience from here on out :-)

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And on a more serious note...

Two great tragedies have I observed in life: unrequited love and unrequited repentance.

I harbor no doubt as to which is the more miserable, if also the less celebrated.

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First photo from the set of THE THING prequel

The guys at /Film have come through with the first pic of the set for the as-yet-untitled prequel to The Thing: John Carpenter's classic 1982 science-fiction horror movie...

That's the Antarctic research camp that the SwedesNorwegians have, before they make their icy discovery and all hell breaks loose. The prequel (scripted by Ronald D. Moore, the mastermind behind the revamped Battlestar Galactica) is gonna show us what happened at the SwedishNorwegian base that made it as bad as MacReady and Copper found it (i.e. mass suicide, burnt corpses, etc.)

As John Carpenter's The Thing is on my personal short list of all-time greatest movies I am going to remain cautiously optimistic about this prequel project, but optimistic all the same. I trust Ronald D. Moore and his respect for the material, I like how the CGI is going to be kept to a minimum and I very much appreciate how they're getting authentic SwedesNorwegians for most of the roles. And now looking at this photo, my hopes have gone up even more.

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Report: U.S. Navy sub crashed 'cuz navigator was listening to iPod

Awright, let's be clear about something: the navigator was not listening to his iPod while at his station. But he was in his cabin listening to his iPod when he was supposed to have been at his station. Which in some ways is indicative of plenty more that was wrong on this sub.

"iPranged a submarine" screams the The Sun in the United Kingdom (gotta love those wacky British headlines). It's now come to light that the collision between the United States Navy's nuclear submarine USS Hartford and the transport ship USS New Orleans in the Persian Gulf a year ago was caused by the Hartford's navigational officer off on his own "revising for an exam" while listening to tunes from his iPod when he should have been uhhh... navigating.

But wait, that's not all! Crewmen had also set up loudspeakers so that they could listen to music (presumably from their iPods) while on duty! Which as anyone who has even seen The Hunt for Red October (or better yet read the original novel) could tell you, is an act of insanity aboard a submarine dependent on multi-million dollar sonar arrays that can pick out opera singing from clear across the Pacific Ocean. The report also said that "sonar operators and radio men were missing from their posts. Others drove the attack sub while 'with one hand on the controls and their shoes off'". The Hartford's captain, Commander Ryan Brookhart, has now been relieved of duty after investigators cited more than 30 infractions which led to "an informal atmosphere" and "a weak command".

Anyone else hearing the Village People singing "In The Navy" after reading this story?

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New hope for cancer patients: Drug chokes off energy to tumors

On the medical side of things, researchers at Ohio State University have hit upon a promising new lead in the fight against cancer: an experimental drug that kills cancerous cells by cutting off their supply of sugar.

From the article at the university's website...

Researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute have designed an experimental drug that chokes off that sugar supply, causing the cells to self destruct.

The agent, called OSU-CG12, is an example of a new class of anticancer drugs called energy-restriction mimetic agents. It is described in a paper published recently in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

"Energy restriction may offer a powerful new strategy for treating cancer because it targets a survival mechanism used by many types of cancer," says principal investigator Ching-Shih Chen, professor of medicinal chemistry, of internal medicine and of urology.

"Our study proves that this new agent kills cancer cells through energy restriction. This is important because it shows that it is possible to design drugs that target energy restriction, and it is exciting because energy-restricting mimetic agents may also be useful for other diseases, including metabolic syndromes, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity," Chen adds.

Energy-restricting mimetic agents cause changes in cancer cells that are similar to those that occur in cancer cells deprived of their main energy source, the sugar glucose.

Plenty more info at the link above for those of you technically-minded, or otherwise have a strong interest in this sort of thing.

I tend to no longer be the sort that jumps headfirst with enthusiasm at news of this nature. But the fact is there's been lots of new research getting published lately from the realm of biochemistry holding the potential for great strides against cancer, with much of it having to do with selectively targeting cancerous cells while leaving the healthy tissue untouched.

The day that Lord willing we get to say that we have got cancer licked, I for one am going to go positivalutely bonkers with celebration. Mayhap that day not be too far off after all...

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Saturn's weird hexagon replicated in a lab

Here's something that's intrigued me for quite a few years. Saturn - the second biggest planet in the solar system - has an odd feature and it ain't them purty rings: there's a huuuuuge hexagon-shaped cloud formation, thousands of miles to a side, surrounding its north pole. It's a persistent phenomenon that has mystified astronomers ever since it was first discovered.

So if you've been baffled about Saturn's mystery hexagon, be bebaffled no further 'cuz Ana Claudia Barbosa Aguiar and Peter Read of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom have recreated the mechanism in their lab with little more than a bucket of water and some green dye, and set it a'spinning on a variable-speed turntable. And fun was had by all!

From the article at ScienceNow...

The faster the ring rotated, the less circular the green jet stream became. Small eddies formed along its edges, which slowly became larger and stronger and forced the fluid within the ring into the shape of a polygon. By altering the rate at which the ring spun, the scientists could generate various shapes. "We could create ovals, triangles, squares, almost anything you like," says Read. The bigger the difference in the rotation between the planet and the jet steam—that is the cylinder and the ring—the fewer sides the polygon had, the team reports in this month's issue of Icarus. Barbosa Aguiar and Read suggest that Saturn’s north polar jet stream spins at a rate relative to the rest of the atmosphere that favors a six-sided figure, hence the hexagon.

I bet some entrepreneur could make a tidy sum selling this thing as a science project to middle-school students :-)

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Tiger Woods! Sarah Palin! Barack Obama! Jesse James! iPad!

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz...

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GEARS OF WAR 3: Video gaming's worst-kept secret EVER!

If you can't hear the hair-rending going on right now at Epic Games' studios in Cary not far away from here, I'd bet good money that Cliff Bleszinski's Twitter feed is about to go pure apoplectic.

For more than a week Bleszinski - the creator of Epic's Gears of War series - had been hinting heavily that his appearance on Jimmy Fallon's show on NBC late night would herald the announcement of Gears of War 3. That was supposed to have been last night, but something got messed up behind the scenes and Bleszinski's appearance was postponed.

Unfortunately nobody got around to telling the management of Microsoft's Xbox Live service about it. Here's what greeted Xbox 360 players this morning when their consoles logged in...

Personally, I'd be sweating bullets right now. I mean, it can't possibly pay to honk off a man who's wedded a chainsaw to an assault rifle.

Still, good to know that Gears of War 3 is on its way (as if we already weren't expecting it :-)

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The temporal battle of Want vs. Need

Lindsey Nobles - Christian blogger extraordinaire - has posted some thoughts on her struggle with her wants and her needs as part of her ongoing series on life goals and motivations...

I grew up surrounded by affluence. I grew up in a community where success was too often measured by the title on your business card, the size of your bank account, the car you drove, the places you had traveled, and the street you lived on. And oh, how I loved love the privilege that came comes with my affluence.

Truth be told, I am a spoiled brat by all practical standards. I have a hard time differentiating between want and need. I have a hard time understanding how much is enough. I have a hard time giving extravagantly because I am too busy living extravagantly.

Don't get me wrong... I give. I sponsor two children. I tithe. I step out in faith (or in reasonable faith) when my pastor asks us to think about how we can help expand the vision of our church.

But what I still haven't managed to do, with any success, is sacrifice. I haven't managed to stop indulging in my long list of wants – eating out, extravagant vacations, a new pair of shoes. I haven't realized that just because I WANT something doesn't mean that I NEED it.

That Lindsey is asking this of herself - indeed, that that anyone would ask this of himself or herself - demonstrates that she is far more along on the path of wisdom than most people ever get to appreciate.

Want vs. Need. It seems like it should be all too easy to decide that one is good and one is bad... but it's never going to be a cut and dried issue which can be resolved in terms of black and white. It is a contest we are bound to fight for as long as we are in this world.

However, within that battle there is the potential for massive personal and spiritual growth.

I realized years ago that before addressing whether I "want" a thing or "need" it, or even what God would have me to do, I ask: "What did God MAKE of me? What is my identity? What are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? How would a thing change me?"

Because most people seek what they "want" without even trying to understand what it entails to them as a person. And as a result, more often than not, a person will ask for something that they want but in the end will corrupt and destroy them. It might not do it immediately, but over time it will wear them down and utterly corrupt them.

The wise person however knows and asks for what they NEED. Realizing that they can ask and seek for something that will make them stronger, wiser, and better equipped to handle the life and challenges that God has presented before them. They they know how to steer clear of that which would ruin them.

I'm not saying there is something inherently "evil" with the concept of want. There are many things that I want also. But I've also learned (sometimes very painfully) that I should never ask for them on my own terms. Instead it is better to ask God to prepare me with what I need, and having faith that in time He will give me those things that I want... and that He will do so when I am at last prepared for them as He understands me, not as Chris understands me (because Chris messes up a lot ...)

So then Dear Readers, the moral of the story is: Ask to know what you need. And He will give you what you want :-)

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I love rain

Especially when it washed away all of this pollen that has plagued too many of us this week.

I've also a newfound appreciation for Zyrtec (thanks to longtime friend Kelly Hart for suggesting it, and your results may vary).

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I hate pollen

Couldn't God in His infinite wisdom have come up with a better way for plants and trees to have sex?

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Lucasfilm developing animated Star Wars sitcom

Yes, April Fools Day was a week ago. But no, it's not a joke.

A quarter century ago, on Saturday morning cartoons gone far, far away...

That's the title sequence from the short-lived Star Wars: Droids animated series on ABC. The theme song "In Trouble Again" was co-written and performed by Stewart Copeland of The Police. Anthony Daniels again provided the voice of C-3PO.

Twenty-five years later and with Star Wars: Clone Wars a certifiable success for Lucasfilm and Cartoon Network, an animated Star Wars situation comedy is now in the works. Among those involved with the project are Seth Green and Matthew Senreich: the creators and executive producers of Robot Chicken (which has a long history of lampooning the saga).

Ehhhhh... hmmm... don't know what exactly to say about this one. I knew that Lucasfilm was working on an animated Star Was series aimed at pre-schoolers and for most of the week I thought people were referring to that show. I now stand corrected (and befuddled).

Star Wars and comedy. Well, I guess it could work. We've already seen Star Wars do blood-curdling horror recently (the novel Death Troopers). And Kevin J. Anderson's book Darksaber was in my opinion slapstick humor (Darksaber is also in my opinion Anderson's best work of Star Wars narrative, make of that what you will). I suppose this might be something worth taking a stab at.

But what's this show going to be called? Two and a Half Jawas? The Fresh Prince of Cloud City? Sithfeld? Cantina (filmed before a live studio audience)? Everybody Loves Jar-Jar? R*A*S*H (short for Rebel Army Surgical Hospital)? Tatooine Junction?

Or how about the show focuses on Luke Skywalker and his kinfolk? It could be called All In The Family.

Okay, I'm stopping while I'm ahead...

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LOST Season 5 soundtrack CD gets a release date!

A little more than a month from now on May 11th, you and me and all the other Lost fanatics will finally get to buy the soundtrack from Season 5. Click here to pre-order it from Amazon. It'll street for $17.98 but you're likely to find it for less depending on where you look.

Lost is the only television series that I've ever gone to the trouble of buying the soundtrack CDs, and I'm looking forward to putting more of Michael Giacchino's beautiful work on my iPod. And Season 5 had some of the best music of the show's run. What I'm eager for most: getting that theme that we first heard during the Lamppost scene in "The Lie", and what most fans are calling "Jacob's Theme" that was introduced in "The Incident, Part 1".

(Incidentally Mr. Giacchino, if you ever read this: I would love to have a bunch of the score from "Happily Ever After" on the Season 6 soundtrack when it comes out next year. Especially everything from Desmond and Daniel's dialogue on through the end when Desmond asks for the manifest :-)

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First animals discovered that live without oxygen

Meet Loricifera, a group of tiny aquatic multi-cellular animals. And they are now the first form of animal found to be completely absent of the need for oxygen for its metabolism.

Quite exotic and interesting, yes? Perhaps this means that other, maybe even more complex, organisms might be found in other environments that do no require oxygen.

More info at the link.

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My DVR has gone mentyl

If this is a technical issue, it's darn just about the weirdest one that I've ever seen in a lifetime filled with playing with gadgets.

And I'm also reminded of Auric Goldfinger's classic line to James Bond: "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action." If this happens a third time, I'm going to have the whole thing stripped down and examined, psychoanalyzed and possibly exorcised. Or perhaps it's some subliminal cue from my own superego that is trying to tell me something?

This morning while rewatching last night's episode of Lost from my DVR, I did a search back through previous recordings from the past weekend, 'cuz there were a bunch of good movies that I wanted to catch for the first time.

Somehow, my DVR also recorded a movie that I have seen before, but didn't have schedule to record.

The really crazy thing is, this has happened before. And involving to the exact same movie.

So for the second time my DVR, without me asking it to, has caught Yentl: the 1983 film directed, co-written by and starring Barbra Streisand.

If you've never seen it before, Yentl is about a Jewish girl living in Poland at the turn of the twentieth century who more than anything else in life wants an education in Talmudic law. But alas! This is a time and place where only men are allowed to study such things. So after her father (a respected rabbi who has been teaching her in secret) died, Yentl disguises herself as a man and as "Anshel" goes off to study in a yeshiva. As usually happens in this kind of story, complications ensue: namely when Yentl - as Anshel - winds up engaged to the former fiancee of her/his friend Avigdor (played by Mandy Patinkin, in what might be his finest role alongside that of Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride).

Now, I have absolutely nothing at all against Yentl. It's a delightful little movie and rather different from typical film fare. It's a drama with music, not really a traditional "musical" since Yentl is the only one singing in it and it's more of an "empathic device" to convey Yentl's inner turmoils. The story, based on a play by Isaac Bashevis Singer, is a clever one and the cinematography (Yentl was filmed partly in Prague and Liverpool) is gorgeous.

I'd just like to know WHY THE HECK IS MY DVR BOUND AND DETERMINED TO RECORD YENTL!!!

I said it the last time my DVR did this and I'll say it again: Oy vey!

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"Happily Ever After": Post-episode reaction to this week's LOST

Before uttering a word about Lost, I just wanna say that Buzz Aldrin was all kinds of kewlness on Dancing With The Stars and even though he's gone from competition, his was a presence that truly moonwalked on the dance floor. Looked like he had a heck of a fun time!

Now, on to "Happily Ever After"...

The episodes of Lost that center on Desmond Hume have been some of the very best of the show's entire run: witness "Flashes Before Your Eyes" and "The Constant". "Happily Ever After" is likely the last time we'll see an entire episode devoted to Desmond and the Lost showrunners went all out to make this an electrifying episode (yes I'm being quite punny tonight :-).

(Part of me wants to say that maybe this episodes should have been titled "Flashes Between Your Eyes", in keeping with the names of some of this season's episodes and how they're a play on words of past seasons' episodes. 'Twould make heaps o' sense, but at this late in the game I can understand it.)

So apart from the prologue (featuring Desmond breaking bad on Charles Widmore's ass and didn't EVERYONE holler "GO DESMOND!!" when we saw that?) and the extreme beginning and end of the episode, "Flashes Before Your Eyes" was all about Desmond in the flashsideways timeline: a universe where he's seemingly a happy globetrotter who gets treated at last to Charles Widmore's 'spensive bottle of booze. As such the more longstanding mysteries of Lost were barely addressed at all, which with seven hours left for this show to wrap up everything is ordinarily a bit troubling. But "Happily Ever After" did give us hard answers at last to this season's biggest quirk: the flashsideways-es showing us what the world would have been like had Oceanic 815 landed in Los Angeles.

I thought this was a brilliant episode. And it would be destined to be a fan favorite even if it hadn't seen the return of so many familiar faces, like Charlie Pace and Daniel and Eloise (who just as in the regular timeline apparently knows more than most) and even George Minkowski. And then there's Penny: anyone else catch how without stating as much, that she is Desmond's constant even here in the alternate reality? Is that related in some way to why Widmore had Desmond brought back to the Island?

Can you tell I've watched this episode a few more times since it aired yesterday evening? :-)

I'm gonna say that "Happily Ever After", when all is said and done, is going to prove to be one of the most pivotal episodes of Lost's entire run. And for that alone, it gets the full 10 out of 10 from this viewer.

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A libertarian thought for a Tuesday morning

To live for the satisfaction of a government of men is the most seductive and evil slavery of all.

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Congrats Duke Blue Devils: 2010 NCAA Men's Basketball Champions!

And to the team and student body of Butler University: Congratulations to you for being one of the classiest and best-playing teams that I've ever seen in the history of this tournament! Y'all made a new fan in me... and quite a lot of other people too.

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Hilarious Irony: Why Johnny Robertson MUST side with Fred Phelps before the U.S. Supreme Court!

If the local cult calling itself the "Church of Christ" (which as I've stated before has nothing to do with the mainstream Churches of Christ that most people respectfully acknowledge) has any sense at all, then its leader Johnny Robertson had better direct those mysterious attorneys of his to begin filing amicus curiae briefs with the United States Supreme Court on behalf of Shirley Phelps-Roper: his longtime nemesis (among many others) and spokesthing for the infamous Westboro Baptist Church run by her father Fred Phelps.

(Having been in the same room with both of these soulless wretches and witnessed them screeching at each other, I can only begin to imagine what the reaction of either Robertson or Phelps-Roper to that assertion would be like...)

But it's true: if Johnny Robertson and his followers want to continue harassing innocent people in what should be the comforting environments of their places of worship and even in their own homes, then Robertson's "Church of Christ" cult had better make nice with the Phelps clan and like right now.

To your right you see Micah Robertson - the sooo very booooring son of "Church of Christ" head magus Johnny Robertson - during the live broadcast this past Thursday evening of what many people in the Reidsville, Martinsville and Danville area refer to as "The Martinsville Taliban Show" on WGSR. See that sheet of paper that Micah Robertson is holding? That's the arrest warrant he was served from the Danville Police Department stemming from his criminal trespassing on the grounds of Westover Baptist Church in Danville earlier this year. Robertson the Lesser and Mark McMinnis (right side of photo, wearing what more than one person has called "that sh*t-eating grin") have stepped up their campaign of terror on local churches in the past several weeks, all the while trying to make themselves out to be harmless and non-threatening and only interested in "discussing". They haven't the nerve to understand that normal people don't want to discuss anything with these loons. I guess it just bothers Robertson's cult that real congregations don't want to play with them, and so their desperation is getting more and more noticeable.

But anyway, Micah Robertson now has to appear in court later this month, and could go to jail: a possibility that he claims to have gratitude for because this somehow marks him even more as a "real Christian". Strange: I never read in the Bible where the world knows us as followers of Christ because of how much we break the law and common decency. I thought the world knows we follow Him because we demonstrate love for one another. But maybe that's just my interpretation...

Would Micah Robertson's imprisonment deter Johnny Robertson, James Oldfield and the rest of their nutty enclave from bothering innocent people? I doubt it. However, THIS might put a stop to their antics once and for all: the case of Snyder v. Phelps, which the U.S. Supreme Court is to hear arguments about this coming fall.

This is the lawsuit that Albert Snyder filed against Rev. Fred Phelps, the founder and leader of Westboro Baptist Church: the bunch of inbred hooligans that go around with "GOD HATES FAGS" signs and in the past few years have been picketing at funerals of soldiers who have died in wars overseas. Mr. Snyder's son Matthew Snyder, a United States Marine Corp corporal, was laid to rest in 2006 after being killed in Iraq. The Westboro Baptist gang came to the ceremony and began acting in their typical asshole fashion. Albert Snyder sued Fred Phelps in federal court in Maryland for "defamation, invasion of privacy (intrusion on seclusion and publicity given to private life) and intentional infliction of emotional distress".

Last month the court went against all semblance of sanity by ruling for Phelps and the Westboro Baptist members! From the UPI article...

In pretrial orders, the judge found for Phelps on the defamation and publicity given to private life claims, saying the extreme comments were meant in terms of religious opinion. The jury heard the remaining privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims and awarded Snyder $10.9 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The judge cut the award in half.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the verdict and threw out the case on First Amendment grounds. Unlike the trial court, the appellate court looked solely to the nature of the speech and not to the status of the parties as public or private figures. (A private figure has an easier time proving speech-related harm.)

The 4th circuit characterized the Phelps picketers' speech as "hyperbolic rhetoric" for the purpose of igniting public debate. The appellate court said: "A distasteful protest sign regarding hotly debated matters of public concern, such as homosexuality or religion, is not the medium through which a reasonable reader would expect a speaker to communicate objectively verifiable facts. In addition, the words on these signs were rude, figurative, and incapable of being objectively proven or disproven. Given the context and tenor of these two signs, a reasonable reader would not interpret them as asserting actual facts about either Snyder or his son."

Phelps's picket signs, therefore, were protected by the First Amendment because they were found to have been a series of generalized -- albeit obnoxious -- rantings not specifically directed at Snyder or any other particular individual, they didn't disrupt the funeral and they pertained to matters of public concern, such as controversial issues like gay rights and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Albert Snyder isn't paying a nickel. He's now taking this before the U.S. Supreme Court.

So here's how I think it should play out, if there's any sense left to this world: the Supreme Court will overturn the federal court's earlier decision and rule in favor of Albert Snyder. The "free speech" argument, per the strictest interpretation of the Constitution, will be addressed as being about protection against government suppressing the right to freedom of expression. Given that no one is free to yell "fire" in a crowded theater, there is precedent for this kind of decision. At the same time the Supremes will bolster the rights to freedom of religion and religious practice: that these also are not subject to intervention by any party (per the understanding that such freedom goes as far as the rights of others to enjoy them also). As such, although the Westboro Baptist Church members will in effect be told that they can do whatever the hell they want in their own "place of worship" (which is pretty much a fortified compound in Kansas City) and traditional public venues, they have no right to inflict their "religion" on others who are seeking out of good conscience their own appeal to a higher power as best they understand it.

Yes, I do believe that would be protecting the freedoms of speech, freedom, and assembly. Regardless of how much the Westboro Baptist idiots cry foul.

But if the Supreme Court does rule in this fashion, it will also mean that Johnny Robertson's "Church of Christ" - which has in many ways been acting worse than the Westboro Baptist Church - will be even more curtailed by the Supreme Court's ruling than Fred Phelps and his own church. Robertson and his followers will have no legal pretense for their antics at all... unless Robertson wants more of his followers to be sitting in gaol.

So he really has no choice in the matter: Johnny Robertson must support Shirley Phelps-Roper and her father Fred Phelps. Either by praying for them, or by doing everything possible to lend them legal support in what is very much their mutual crusade for the rights of insane cultists across the fruited plain.

Would Robertson overcome his hatred for Shirley Phelps-Roper by coming to the aid of her family, on principle and because he himself has much to lose if Fred Phelps gets turned down by the Supreme Court? I doubt it. But this is gonna be a downright interesting and fun thing to watch from my perspective, no doubt!

In the meantime: If a couple of cult members begin to harass you at your home, use 9-1-1. And if that fails, use 9mm.

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NCAA Basketball Championship tonight: Butler vs. Duke

As much as I have to be cheering for Duke, I would not mind it at all to see Butler win the whole thing.

Maybe that has a bit to do with the fact that I'm feeling tonight's game is going to be eerily reminiscent of the 1983 NCAA Championship between "invincible" slam-dunk powerhouse Houston and a scrappy little team from North Carolina State coached by an Italian kid from Queens named Jim Valvano.

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Yay! Lent is over!

And y'all know what that means, right? It means that my fast from pleasure reading is finished with also!

Yah, I didn't read any books except my Bible since Ash Wednesday well over a month ago. It was a very fulfilling experience. But I'm compelled to confess that I have missed the occasional novel or comic book. And I must also confess that I have had A Thousand Sons, the latest novel of The Horus Heresy series, still sitting in the bag from when I bought it earlier last month. Factoring in the withdrawal symptoms, I should have it devoured within a couple'a days :-)

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He is risen...

The Garden Tomb in Jerusalem
Thought by many to be the site of the burial and resurrection of Jesus

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " Then they remembered his words.

When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

-- from the Book of Luke
Chapter 24, verses 1-12

Happy Easter from The Knight Shift!

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