Review of STAR WARS: DARTH PLAGUEIS: Luceno's latest well worth seven year wait!

"Did you ever hear the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? It's a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise that he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create life. He had such a knowledge of the dark side that he could even stop the ones he cared about from dying."

-- Supreme Chancellor Palpatine,
talking to Anakin Skywalker
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

If you are a fan of Star Wars to whatsoever degree at all, leave your chair right now and IMMEDIATELY go to your nearest bookstore and buy a copy of James Luceno's Star Wars: Darth Plagueis. Or go to Amazon.com and order a copy from there. However the heck you must, well... you must! Because Star Wars: Darth Plagueis wildly exceeded my ridiculously high expectations for this novel: a tome that many of us have been waiting nigh on seven years for!

There are two massive reasons why I've been stoked about Darth Plagueis. That it's about the eponymous Dark Lord of the Sith who - if you read between the lines - you already know was the mentor of Darth Sidious, AKA Palpatine: the future Emperor and master of Darth Vader. All we've solidly understood about Plagueis until now is from that "ghost story" which Palpatine shares with Anakin in Revenge of the Sith: how Plagueis discovered a path to physical immortality. It becomes the most tantalizing lure that soon brings Anakin to embrace the dark side. But between that and how eventually he was murdered by his disciple, Darth Plagueis has been a massively black question mark: one that legions of fans of the saga have wanted to be addressed for most of the past decade.

The other big reason why I've been looking forward to Star Wars: Darth Plagueis is that it's author is James Luceno: easily among the top tier of Star Wars writers today. And this is a novel that he's been on record as wanting to write since 2005, just before Revenge of the Sith came out. At the time Luceno wanted to pen a tale about how Darth Plagueis and Qui-Gon Jinn in their own unique ways pursued immortality, but how Jinn found the "right" path to it. And for a time it looked like we were going to get that book, along with the backstory of Darth Plagueis.

Then about five years ago the word came down from on high at Lucasfilm that Luceno's Darth Plagueis book had been cancelled. The official rationale given was that it was "decided that this was not the right time to delve into Palpatine's back story and Plagueis's beginnings..." I figured that Plagueis and Palpatine was a subject that was going to forever be a gray area ripe for fan speculation. But then about a year and a half ago it was announced that Darth Plagueis WOULD be published after all.

So here we are in January 2012. Getting my copy of Darth Plagueis was the first thing that I did when I had time on Tuesday morning. I took my own sweet time reading this book and finished it yesterday afternoon.

So was it worth waiting seven years for? Do we finally get definitive answers about the shadowy history of the future Emperor Palpatine and his own Sith Master?

Ohhhhhhh yeah bay-bee!

Heck, I was authentically shocked at how much previously-hidden lore gets exposed in Star Wars: Darth Plagueis. This might be the most revelation-packed Star Wars novel in the history of anything. Luceno went for broke with this and apparently he had loads of input from George Lucas himself about Plagueis and Palpatine, and in my mind there is no question that this might be the most canonical piece of Star Wars literature in many a great moon. And in the hands of accomplished saga storyteller James Luceno - who previously delved into the history of that galaxy far, far away with Millennium Falcon and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader - Darth Plagueis is a masterful work of personal drama, political intrigue and philosophical treatise... all at once!

Darth Plagueis begins 67 years before the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and the entire book is essentially a "trilogy", with each third covering a two-year span of time. It's a lot of chronological ground to cover in what amounts to 368 pages of narrative, but Luceno's tactic is extremely effective. When the story begins we find that Plagueis, a Muun, has been apprenticed for many decades to Darth Tenebrous: a Bith Sith (who'da thought a race of jazz artists could produce such a dastardly Dark Lord?). Being of the line of Darth Bane, Plagueis soon dispatches Tenebrous in true Sith fashion. He then makes his way back home to Muunlinst where he enjoys public power and authority as Hego Damask, Magister of the InterGalactic Banking Clan. Among other things, Damask runs his own Bohemian Grove-style yearly retreat for the galaxy's top businessbeings and politicians, complete with drunken debauchery and ultra-violent mayhem. But his real passion is for his secret lab: a place where Plagueis is doing all sorts of nasty experiments on living organisms and the midi-chlorians residing within their cells. You see, Plagueis is hellbent on stopping the Rule of Two for all time... by finding a way to be the very last Sith Master: one who will never die. His quest to accrue and consolidate his power behind the scenes soon brings him to Naboo, where Plagueis intercedes in a planetary political crisis. It is on Naboo that Plageuis comes to notice the son of a nobleman: a young man seething with ambition... and possibly something more.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, it is Palpatine. And we learn more about the future Emperor in Darth Plagueis than we have ever learned before. We come to find out about Palpatine's family, his formal education and the beginnings of his political career. We discover how Palpatine came to be a Sith Lord under Darth Plagueis (just as Plagueis also reflects upon how he became a Sith under Tenebrous). We are shown Palpatine taking his first Force-ful steps down the path of the dark side, and we are there as he is given a new name by his tutor: "Sidious".

Palpatine's rise to power and secret Sith education comprise much of the second part of Darth Plageuis, as Plagueis continues his dark experiments in midi-chlorian alchemy. One notable event which happens during this period is when Palpatine is given a Zabrak infant: the future Darth Maul (bigtime props to Luceno for tying The Clone Wars series on Cartoon Network in and how it gets reconciled with previous Maul-y material!). And gradually we begin to see other pieces of the larger game come onto the board: Jedi Master Dooku's growing dissatisfaction with the Jedi and the Republic they are sworn to serve, the cloners of Kamino, the corruption in the Senate, and the rise to prominence of gangsters like Jabba the Hutt and factions such as the Trade Federation.

And behind all of these disparate threads are the fingers of Darth Plagueis, who is secretly weaving them into the culmination of a thousand years of the Sith's plan to take control of the galaxy for the greater good. But things begin to go awry just as Plagueis learns that the Jedi have discovered a young boy on Tatooine with the highest midi-chlorian count ever recorded: something that leads Plagueis to wonder...

This is a dense book. I think even the font size might be smaller than normal for a Star Wars novel. And Luceno has packed it with lore gathered from the length and breadth of the Star Wars mythos. Expect lots of pleasurable nuggets to be found if you're a serious Star Wars enthusiast, but even if you aren't this is a rollickin' dark, violent, fun and at times even a funny read. In short: everything that a Star Wars story should be... and with Darth Plagueis, James Luceno has not only raised the bar but also put it on top of the whole heapin' mountain.

Star Wars: Darth Plagueis gets my absolutely highest recommendation. It may not have turned into what James Luceno had originally envisioned, but in my opinion what it has become at last is something far more accessible and enjoyable. And if the Flanneled One is wise, he will now let Luceno be turned loose on that tale about Qui-Gon Jinn and the Whills that we know is also out there somewhere.

In the meantime, go get Star Wars: Darth Plagueis. Do it now. Or, perish in flame. It's your choice, but not really.

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Obama's recess appointments: I smell hypocrisy

So it's coming out that a bunch of Republicans, including senators Orrin Hatch and Mitch McConnell, are expressing concern about President Obama making recess appointments when the Senate was not in session. Former U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese is saying that Obama is committing "a breathtaking violation of the separation of powers."

Oh please...

The Justice Department headed by Eric Holder is defending the appointments as legal. Y'know, just like the Justice Department under President George W. Bush defended his firing of the United States attorneys as being legal. Just like John Yoo went out of his way to argue why his boss Bush should be given powers of a dictator in everything but name. Just like Samuel Alito sought to increase the power of the President by means of redefining so-called "signing statements".

But now the shoe is on the other foot. It's a Democrat in the White House. It's a Democrat running the United States Department of Justice. And right on cue, the Republicans are feigning righteous indignation when we all know that they would have been totally down with helping "their own kind" get away with crap like this.

Just another reason why I cannot in any good conscience support either the Democrat or Republican parties.

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The end of general-purpose computing?

It's a bit of a long read, but Corey Doctorow has published an exceptionally well-written piece at Boing Boing about the direction that general-purpose computers are going in regard to SOPA (the "Stop Online Piracy Act") and other dubious legislation. Doctorow recounts the history of digital rights management measures, how they have all ultimately failed and will continue to fail, and how it is driving information as we know and enjoy it to become way too specialized.

Here's a snippet...

...Ultimately, the question is whether every PC should be locked, so that their programs could be strictly regulated by central authorities.

Even this is a shadow of what is to come. After all, this was the year in which we saw the debut of open source shape files for converting AR-15 rifles to full-automatic. This was the year of crowd-funded open-sourced hardware for genetic sequencing. And while 3D printing will give rise to plenty of trivial complaints, there will be judges in the American South and mullahs in Iran who will lose their minds over people in their jurisdictions printing out sex toys. The trajectory of 3D printing will raise real grievances, from solid-state meth labs to ceramic knives...

Regardless of whether you think these are real problems or hysterical fears, they are, nevertheless, the political currency of lobbies and interest groups far more influential than Hollywood and big content. Every one of them will arrive at the same place: "Can't you just make us a general-purpose computer that runs all the programs, except the ones that scare and anger us? Can't you just make us an Internet that transmits any message over any protocol between any two points, unless it upsets us?"

Anyone else having visions of the future that William Gibson gave us in Neuromancer, with its black market computer shops and software dealers?

"When PCs are outlawed, only outlaws will have PCs!"

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Dude's BRILLIANT poem about why following Christ means rejecting religion

Wow.

Just... wow.

"So for religion, I hate it. In fact I literally resent it. Because when Jesus said 'It is finished', I believe He meant it."

I can think of any number of people who I would love to tie down and make them watch this video. This dude, well... he gets what it means to follow Christ.

Legalists, don't watch this if you hate squirming!

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I need to laugh. Heck, we ALL need to laugh...

Trying to move forward on some things, after the events of the past few weeks. Our family is still dealing with Mom's passing, and all of the matters pertaining to that.

I'm gonna try to resume blogging in earnest during the next few days, 'cuz a lot of y'all have been sending some really nice compliments and condolences, and apparently this lil' site is a pleasurable pastime for more people than I had realized. That means more than I can possibly convey. So for sake of this site's regular readers as much as my own, I need to get back into the swing of things.

I can share the news that my first real film project in quite a long time is in the very early stages right now. It's something that Kristen and I had the idea for together so we're writing it together! Lord willing we'll start shooting it in the spring. The hard part is finding the right props, though I'm pretty sure the cigarettes and sweaters will be easy to score...

Okay well, we could all probably use a good chuckle, and I know I could. So here's something that I've always found hysterically funny for some reason or another. From 1941 it's Tex Avery's last black and white animated short: "Porky's Preview"!

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Popcorn Sutton's Tennessee White Whiskey: Where to buy it!!

This has been one of the crazier past few days in this blog's history. Ever since Discovery Channel aired the final episode of its hit series Moonshiners a few nights ago the traffic to The Knight Shift has been ginormous! Seems that all the writing I've been doing over the years about Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton has put me on the radar of likker lovers across the Intertubes. Since the Moonshiners finale aired many of those - and quite a lot of new readers - have been coming here with but one question above all others...

"How can I get some of that Popcorn Sutton moonshine???"

Here's the post that I made back in October when Popcorn Sutton's Tennessee White Whiskey first went on sale. Look at all those comments that have been left since the other night. That ain't even half of the correspondence that's been coming in to my e-mail address (one reader shared a rather interesting story about getting caught making 'shine in Saudi Arabia).

Okay well folks: I can't directly help procure Popcorn Sutton's moonshine white whiskey for you. But I can now point you to a resource that'll help you locate it for legal sale!

The OFFICIAL website for Popcorn Sutton's Tennessee White Whiskey went full-blown LIVE yesterday. When you get past the age-gate you can find plenty more information about Popcorn's life, his trade, aaaaaaand a page with locations of places now selling Popcorn's legal likker! Right now there are only three places listed, each of them in Tennessee (one in Knoxville, one in Nashville and the remaining vendor in Memphis). I am also receiving unverified reports that it has been spotted elsewhere as well (including one possible location in Charlotte, North Carolina). Anyhoo if you're hellbent on getting some of Popcorn Sutton's good stuff, your best bet is gonna be with visiting the website and going from there.

And in case anyone is wondering, I have not yet been able to treat myself to any of Popcorn Sutton's moonshine (regardless of what it's called). I'm not a drinking man by any stretch but for this, I do plan to make an exception. I figure I can't very well write as much about the man as I have and not sample his craft. I'm hoping to fix that soon however. Expect a write-up about it soon. And if y'all are really good there might even be some accompanying video :-)

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Separated at birth?

Something I noticed a short while ago...

On the left is Paul Krugman, columnist for The New York Times. On the right is The Most Interesting Man in the World, spokesman for Dos Equis beer.

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Watch MOONSHINERS on Discovery Channel tonight! So sayeth Popcorn Sutton's widow!

Recent events in my personal life have kept me from watching Discovery Channel's new hit series Moonshiners, but many have told me that it's a most excellent reality series about those free souls who make likker in true Appalachian style!

I shall however be tuned in tonight (as well as having my DVR set to record) as I have just received word straight from Pam Sutton, the lovely and vivacious widow of moonshining legend Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton, that tonight's episode is supposed to feature Popcorn rather heavily.

I can attest that interest in Popcorn Sutton is soaring of late, as this blog is getting slammed with visits from people Google-ing about Popcorn and his trade. But I should also note that nowhere on The Knight Shift (so far that I know of) can there be found plans to build a moonshine still of one's own. And trust me: people are looking around here :-P

Incidentally, I have also received word that the Third Annual Popcorn Sutton Tribute is set for the first weekend of this coming August! I was able to attend the one this past summer and... well let's just say if last year's second one is any indication, the town of Maggie Valley has a huge, huge thing on its hands that is primed to become a major regular regional event. Will post more as we get closer to summer.

In the meantime, Moonshiners runs at 10 p.m. tonight on Discovery Channel!

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We can go no further on this side of Jordan...

The array of flowers that were placed atop Mom's casket. The two pink ones are meant to represent her two children...

The teddy bear that my sister Anita placed inside Mom's casket on the morning of the funeral. I enclosed a letter: the last piece of writing that I ever did for my mother.

The casket at the graveside, immediately following the service...

The final resting place of Mom's earthly body, after the grave had been filled...

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Southern hospitality

A representative sample of all the food that friends and family brought to our house last week following Mom's death. I swear, we had enough fried chicken alone to run the Colonel out of business!

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Mom's memorial video from the funeral service

Three days ago we laid Mom's body to rest. I keep saying "Mom's body" because that wasn't Mom at all, not really. Everything that made Ruby Knight the wonderful, amazing and deeply beautiful woman that she was, God brought into His presence last Wednesday morning and out of that room at the hospice. All that we did two days later was to commit her earthly remains to the cemetery. It was as far as we are able to go in this world.

I am still recovering from it, although I'm sincerely shocked at how well I've been able to maintain myself through it all. Have there been tears? Absolutely. But... my girlfriend keeps telling me that I'm stronger than I was a year or so ago, when this would have completely devastated me. Probably to the point of needing severe medication. But this past week has seen me the furthest thing from that. Maybe the most composed in the face of tragedy that I've ever been. And I really don't know how that could come to be, except by the grace of God.

I am going to be writing a more fitting memorial to Mom on this blog in the next few days, as my thoughts are able to more clearly coalesce. But until then, thought I'd share this with all two of The Knight Shift's faithful readers. Wilkerson Funeral Service was extremely helpful to our family in this time of need, going above and beyond the call of a mortuary firm. But then, it's Wilkerson: I would have expected no less from such a fine, established company. I wish we could have had time to find more photos, but they did a terrific job in assembling the following video which played in the chapel during visitation. I just uploaded it to YouTube a short while ago, mostly so that family who couldn't make it to the funeral can get to view it. Thought I'd share it with this blog's readership as well...

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"Every one I know goes away in the end..."

Maybe the greatest music video ever made. Filmed shortly before June's passing and Johnny's a few months later. Trent Reznor wrote the song, but Cash made it all his own.

And also the song most on my mind this night.

Here is Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt"...

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It's a new year!

Here's praying that 2012 will be a better one for each of us.

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Mom is gone

At 8:26 a.m. this morning, my mother, Ruby Roberts Knight, went Home.

Thank you to everyone who has been keeping our family in thoughts and prayers.

I'm going to be away for awhile. Will try to return to this blog sometime soon.

EDIT 1:21 a.m. 12/29/2011: This has been the longest day that I can remember, from Tuesday evening on through the phone call early yesterday morning asking me to return to the hospice and then, less than an hour and a half later, Mom's passing. Between then and now have been our family making arrangements at the funeral home, a stream of visitors to our home, and many many phone calls and text messages (my sister Anita swears that her iPhone is going to explode from all the traffic!).

Some will no doubt be wondering how I'm doing in light of my disclosure on this blog that I have bipolar disorder. To be honest: better than I thought I would be. But I couldn't have gone through this were I still the person that I was a year ago. What happened that made the difference? I can only say this: in our tribulations, God makes us stronger. This morning Dad and I held Mom's hands as she passed away, not letting go for some time after the nurse called the time and told us that Mom had gone. And, well... I just can't imagine being able to do that before.

I'm only taking my regular medication for bipolar right now. There are some stronger meds available within my grasp, but I didn't want to go on them. Not for this. Just, had to be there, all there, for her. For my family. I'll write more about that later though.

But if I'm strong at all through this, it's only because God does grant peace. It is to Him that I cling right now. Just as I cling to the promise that this is not the end. That I will see Mom again someday.

As soon as I came back home from the hospice I began to write Mom's obituary. It was something I told Dad the morning before that I wanted to do, for her. Didn't have much time to compose it before it was due, and it came during the most exhaustive stretch that I've yet experienced (have had not more than 10 hours of solid sleep during the past two weeks).

Here it is.

Ruby Roberts Knight

REIDSVILLE — At 8:26 on the morning of December 28 2011, surrounded by family and with her husband and son holding her hands, Ruby Roberts Knight was let slip from the circles of this broken world, away at last from her pain and suffering and into the comforting presence of her Lord.

Funeral services will be held 3 p.m. Friday, December 30, 2011 at Midway United Methodist Church with Rev. Larry Scott, Rev. George Roberson and Rev. Sandy Brown. The burial will follow in the church cemetery. Pallbearers at her funeral: Craig Roberts of Clemmons, Kenneth Roberts of Reidsville, Jesse Roberts of Reidsville, Frankie Stiers of Palm Bay, Florida, Walter Joyce of Reidsville, and Chad Austin of Raleigh. Honorary pallbearers: Richard Wright of Reidsville, John Ashe of Reidsville, Lee Patterson of Reidsville, and Ed Woody of Waynesville.

Born on December 3, 1937, Ruby was the daughter of Elsie Wimbush Roberts and James "Duck" Roberts. In addition to her parents, Ruby grew up in a rambunctious household with six brothers and one sister. From her family she learned the value of love, of laughter, of devotion to those cared for and of faithfulness to God. She was a woman of great generosity, of formidable temerity when roiled to stand for good cause, and always a figure of inspiring courage. Ruby did not complete high school but was later proud of achieving her G.E.D. In 1970 she married and in the years following gave birth to two children: each of whom she encouraged to pursue education and to never stop learning. In 1977 Ruby was one of the first to be employed at the new Miller Brewery in Eden: she worked as a labeler operator until her retirement in 2001. In her spare time Ruby enjoyed traveling, hosting visitors (many of which over the years came to her house from distant countries), sewing, sharpening her keen mind with crossword puzzles, and especially cooking: a skill that she inherited from her mother. She was a member of Midway United Methodist Church and maintained strong ties with Evangelical Methodist Church, both in Reidsville. She was preceded in death by her mother, her father, her brother Franklin Stiers, her brother Michael Stiers, her brother Wayne Roberts, and many others who had gone on before into the presence of the Lord.

She is survived by husband of 41 years Robert Rankin Knight of the home, son Robert Christopher Knight of the home, and daughter Anita Christine Knight of Dunn, North Carolina. She is also survived by sister Glendora Roberts, brother Kenneth "Nub" Roberts, brother R.A. "Snooks" Roberts, and brother Jesse James Roberts, all of Reidsville. Ruby is also survived by a very special friend of the immediate family, Kristen Lee Bradford of Roanoke, Virginia. She is also survived by many, many nephews and nieces, several cousins, and a lifetime's worth of friends and co-workers, many of whom lovingly referred to her with the childhood nickname that she carried throughout her life: "Sister".

The family will receive friends Thursday, December 29 at Wilkerson Funeral Home from 7 to 9 p.m. and other times at the residence.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Hospice of Rockingham County, PO Box 281, Wentworth, North Carolina 27375.

Condolences may be sent to the family at www.wilkersonfuneral.com

Published in News Record on December 29, 2011

There will be more but for now, I need to take care of my family. Expect some new blogging after we have finished doing what we need to do. And again, for all who have sent condolences, on behalf of Dad and Anita and the rest of our family, I thank you.

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Our first Christmas together

Still on my traditional holiday break but I couldn't resist sharing this photo from yesterday of Kristen and I on our first Christmas as boyfriend/girlfriend! :-)

Incidentally, plans had to be changed and so we weren't able to watch this year's Doctor Who Christmas special, "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" together. But since we'll be together again tomorrow (for our six-month anniversary, yay!!) we're gonna catch it from DVR then and I'll post a review soon after.

In the meantime, hope y'all are still enjoying some Christmas :-)

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Merry Christmas 2011!

Since the Muppets have roared back in style, here's this immortal rendition of them singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" with John Denver!

I think that's like thirty years old, but timeless as ever. I figured it would be good to depart from blogging for the time being with something we could all smile about.

Longtime readers know that there is a tradition on The Knight Shift but last year there was a break from it, for reasons which were beyond my control. I had been looking forward to continuing that tradition again this holiday season but with each passing hour, well...

I am going to take a break from blogging for the next several days, as has been my usual custom at this time of year. There might be a review of this year's Doctor Who Christmas special (which if I get to watch it, will be in far better circumstance than I have seen any of the previous ones). But along with everything else, that is something very much up in the air at the moment.

There is more that I could say about the situation in my personal life right now. The best I can say for now is: we have given it to God. But if last Christmas was the very best one of my life to date (as I wrote about in Part 1 of Being Bipolar earlier this year) then what I am facing now, I am able to do so with an incredible peace in my heart... and that peace is only because of the One this holiday celebrates the birth of.

This could be the last time that I get to write on this blog for a good while. But until then, whenever I can return, I wish you and yours only the very best this Christmas! And also a very Happy Hanukkah for our Jewish friends and brethren :-)

And now, as always happens whenever I leave for the holidays, there is something that I wrote when I was a columnist for our student newspaper at Elon. Thirteen years later, it's still one of my all-time favorite pieces. I always look forward to re-posting this, so here 'tis once again.

---

Originally published in The Pendulum, Elon University, 12/03/1998

Celebrating the Christmas season means celebrating the memories
Chris Knight
Columnist

     Some of the best memories that we take through life are about the times we cherish the most. And sometimes, it doesn’t take much to bring back the joy.
     Last Friday as I was driving around Greensboro, the all-time coolest Christmas song ever came over the speakers.
     Who knows what this genius recording artist’s name is? Does it really matter? Whoever he is, he’ll forever be remembered as giving us the immortal sound of “Dogs Singing Jingle Bells”:

Arf arf arf,
Arf arf arf,
Arf Arf Whoof Whoof Whuf…

     Ahh... you know how it goes.
     And there’s the ever-beuh-beuh-beauh-beautiful rendition of Porky Pig singing “Blue Christmas” and the Chipmunks and of course “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “Christmas at Ground Zero,” but hearing those dogs singing “Jingle Bells...” ahhhhh.
     It brought me back to the very first time I heard that: on the radio coming back from school just before Christmas in 1982. I was in third grade at the time. And it brought back memories of the Christmas we had.
     It was cold and very cloudy. I remember that because Santa had brought me a telescope and I didn’t get to use it that night. Which wasn’t too big a worry, ‘cause me and my sister had our brand-new Atari 2600 to play with!
     Another Christmas memory: To this day, I’ll never forgive Anita for the pounding she gave me in “Combat.” I don’t care how fancy Sega or the Playstation get... they’ll never touch the 4-bit pleasures of the Atari!
     There have been many a Christmas since then, and I remember each one well, for all the little things they had with them.
     I’ll never forget Mom and Dad taking me and my sister to see Santa Claus at the mall in ‘84. That morning Dad asked if I’d come with him to cut firewood, so we rode the tractor into the woods. There had been snow earlier in the week, which lay around us in the crisp, cold morning.
     Dad also brought his 30-30 rifle, why I still don’t know. After we had the wood loaded, Dad asked if I wanted to try shootin’ the gun.
     There I was, a ten-year old kid, holding what looked like an anti-aircraft cannon in my tiny hands. Well, I aimed at this tree like Dad told me to, and pulled the trigger.
     To this day I cannot describe the colors that flashed before my eyes, or the sound in my ears. When my existence finally returned, I was flat on my back in the snow, and blood was gushing from between my eyes where the scope had hit my nose from the backfire.
     That night Santa saw the bandages and said “Ho ho hoooo, and what happened to you, little fellow?”
     “I got shot, Santa,” was the only thing I knew to say.
     Hey, was I gonna lie to the Big Man? Uh-uh, no way was I gonna lose all that loot!
     The following year’s Christmas I remember for many things, but especially feeding the young calves on our farm. It would be the last year our family would be running a dairy farm, and I had started helping with some of the work around the barn.
     Dad set up a Christmas tree in the milking room, with wrapped-up boxes beneath it.
     Tinsel hung from the front doors of the barn. And there was something about the feel of the place there, that has always held a special place in my heart, as if we knew that there would not be another Christmas like this one.
     I wish there had been another Christmas on the farm, because there’s something I wish I could have seen. And as silly as some people might find this, I really believe that it happens.
     You see, if you go out at midnight on Christmas Eve, you will see all the animals in the farmyard, and in the fields, and in the forests, and wherever else they may be, stop where they are.
     And then they kneel.
     They kneel in remembrance for another night, long ago. It was Christmas, but how many people could know it then?
     Nothing remarkable, to be sure: Caesar had decreed a census through the land, and each man went with his family to his town.
     One man in particular took his wife, a young woman quick with child. But there was no room for them at the inn. So that night, in a dirty and filthy stable and surrounded by animals, a child was born.
     You see, it’s easy for us to forget. At this time of the year, we are too overwhelmed by the consumption and the material and the glitter /and all the customs that come with Christmas.
     And it’s too easy for us to forget that Christmas is, before everything else, a birthday.
     But the animals, who watched over Him as He lay as a newborn babe, two millenia ago... the animals have not forgotten.
     And so they kneel every Christmas and give glory to the newborn king, and in awe that God would send His Son to live among us in the greatest act of love.
     And to teach us many things, but especially to “love one another”. And to bridge the gap between man and God.
     The birth of Jesus Christ: the greatest Christmas present there will ever be. His birth, which would give mankind the greatest present it could ever ask for.
     Who in the world on that night could know the price that this present would someday have?
     Heaven and Earth sang praises to His glory on that night. The animals have always remembered that night. And Heaven and Earth still praise and sing unto Him.
     And if you only take a little time out from how busy things become at this part of the year, you can hear the singing, too. And it is a great temptation to join in that chorus.
     And perhaps in hearing, we will not forget the real meaning of Christmas, either.
     This Christmas Eve night I plan to be outside, with the same telescope that I got for Christmas all those years ago, and trying to envision a bright star over Bethlehem. Around midnight, I’m going to take a walk over to my aunt’s farm.
     Merry Christmas. Peace on Earth, and goodwill toward men.

Dedicated to the memory of W.C. “Mutt” Burton, for whom Christmas was always “In My Bones.”

---

From our house to yours, Merry Christmas! y'all! :-)

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"Peace on Earth" and "Good Will to Men"

The 1939 classic and still heartbreaking animated short, "Peace on Earth"...

The 1955 "remake" produced by none other than William Hana and Joseph Barbera, "Good Will to Men"...

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Do the Georgia mountains harbor Mayan ruins?

Found this curious lil' article by one Richard Thornton at Examiner.com, as it was cited a number of times throughout this past day. If there's anything of merit to this thesis, there exists the possibility that the Maya civilization once stretched from the Yucatan as far north as Blairsville, Georgia!

From the article...

Archaeological zone 9UN367 at Track Rock Gap, near Georgia’s highest mountain, Brasstown Bald, is a half mile (800 m) square and rises 700 feet (213 m) in elevation up a steep mountainside. Visible are at least 154 stone masonry walls for agricultural terraces, plus evidence of a sophisticated irrigation system and ruins of several other stone structures. Much more may be hidden underground. It is possibly the site of the fabled city of Yupaha, which Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto failed to find in 1540, and certainly one of the most important archaeological discoveries in recent times.

According to the theory presented here, the age of these structures discovered in the Georgia wilderness corresponds to the sharp drop in the Mayan population of Mexico and Central America. Given how the Georgia sites bear striking similarities to Mayan irrigation canals and other constructs, along with some cultural and lingual evidence, it is the belief of some that there could have been a migration of Maya to the southern Appalachian region.

Wow!! VERY interesting, if there's any substance at all to this. It would go neatly hand-in-hand with a lot of the other stories that pervade this part of the country, like the massive Stonehenge-like megalith circle that once sat atop Stone Mountain (the Ku Klux Klan got ride of 'em about a hundred years ago when the likenesses of the Confederate generals were being carved into the rock face) and the local Native Americans said they had no idea who erected those boulders to begin with. Then there are the odd mounds and carvings here and there from South Carolina on up to the Ohio Valley.

Gonna be keeping a keen eye on this one. Stuff like this, it's practically like porn to me! :-P

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First trailer for Ridley Scott's PROMETHEUS

Did you know that next year will be thirty years since Blade Runner: the last time that Ridley Scott gave us a science-fiction movie?

Based on this much-awaited first trailer for Prometheus, I'm praying that it won't be another thirty years before Scott delves into the genre again!

So if you don't know already, Prometheus is sort-of a prequel to Ridley's 1979 Alien (and by extension also a prequel to James Cameron's Aliens from 1986). It just won't have those chest-bursting xenomorphs, allegedly. Ummmm confused by that? Yeah me too, a bit. Still gonna see this on opening day though :-)

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Time for some classic Christmas music

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Looks at the first THE HOBBIT trailer, my Precious!

It was ten years ago this week that The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring came out and last night on the way out of town for the evening I had that movie's score soundtrack playin' good and epicly loud from my car's stereo... and I found myself thinking then "I wonder when we'll see that first trailer for The Hobbit?".

Lookee what was already several hours online when I got home a few hours ago!

Ohmigoshohmigoshohmigosh...!!!!!!!!!!!!

That. Is. One. Hell. Of. A. Toad-strangler. Of. A. Trailer.

Heck, it is insanely better looking than anything I had expected of The Hobbit movie, now a decade after Peter Jackson and his crew delivered The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Yeah I didn't know if The Hobbit was gonna work at all...

Color me persuaded with extra portions of giddy!

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey comes out next Christmas season, with Part 2 of the story following in 2013.

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Iraq: Well, THAT didn't take long...

I hate to say "I told you so" buuuuuuut...

For quite a long time now and most recently five days ago, I have argued that going to war in Iraq would have disastrous long-term consequences and chief among those is that without a "strongman" to hold that country together, Iraq will tear itself apart into sectarian strife. The classic model for my thesis is Yugoslavia: a "nation" that much like Iraq was cobbled together from leftover realms in the aftermath of World War I. And just as Marshal Tito kept the various factions like the Croats, the Bosnians, the Serbs etc. from killing each other, so did Saddam Hussein put a lid on the Sunnis, the Shiites, the Kurds and everyone else from destroying Iraq from within.

That's NOT any justification for Saddam Hussein, mind you. The man was an evil bastard. It's just the peculiar dynamic of any artificial nation like Iraq that it has to have a powerful central figure wielding exorbitant military force to keep the peace among the various ethnic and religious factions. That central figure was Saddam but when the United States deposed him, we took responsibility for Iraq!

(Okay, not the American people per se, but our government certainly did... and for the moment I'll let it remain an exercise for the reader as to whether our government is beholden to We the People anymore. But I digress...)

So with the United States military not even 24 hours departed from Iraq, that country's Shiite-controlled government has put out an arrest warrant for Iraq's vice-president, Tariq al-Hashemi, who is a Sunni.

Expect this sort of thing to continue to happen.

Incidentally, it was former president George W. Bush who had the "genius" idea of putting the Shiites in charge of Iraq. Some will try to blame Barack Obama for that, but there's no basis for it. And I ain't an Obama supporter by any means either. I'm just an American citizen who expects better of his elected representatives. Including a greater than basic grasp of history and culture of the places we muck ourselves up in.

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THE DARK KNIGHT RISES first real trailer is out right now!!

"When Gotham is ashes, you have my permission to die."

Click here to visit the official site for The Dark Knight Rises and watch Bane unleash unholy terror on Gotham City.

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North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-Il has died

Breaking news right now...

And in related news...

"Generalissimo Francisco Franco is STILL dead!"

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Vaclav Havel, a true leader among men, has passed away

Vaclav Havel, who was born poor, became a pundit, then turned playwright, wound up a political prisoner, and ended up president of the newly-free Czech Republic following the Velvet Revolution that precipitated the fall of the Soviet Empire, has passed away at the age of 75.

Havel lived the kind of life that would have been hard to believe, had it not really happened. Yet for all of it he maintained an intense sense of humility. I've heard stories about how when he was president (a job he did not want at all) that he would often show up unescorted at pubs to discuss matters with his fellow Czechs, as well as popping up unannounced at historic sites to serve coffee to tourists.

Havel did not like being a politician. And I'll dare not sully his memory by referring to him as such. He was, instead, a sincere statesman in every possible sense of the word.

Thoughts and prayers going out to the family of one of the greatest leaders of the past half century.

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A response to a challenge on baptism

A few days ago the following e-mail arrived...

"Chris you are WRONG. Baptism is required for salvation! Acts 2:38 has Peter commanding that we be baptized FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS. Mark 16:16 commands baptism and without it we are damned."

There was more to it but that's the heartmeat of this individual's contention. I don't know what precipitated this correspondence. Maybe it was the "Meditation on Baptism" post nearly three years ago. Maybe it was one of the numerous posts I've had to make about a certain cult operating in this area: a group that has among other things harassed others who have met to worship in peace.

Okay, fine. I'll respond to it.

Here is Acts 2:38, as translated in the 1611 Authorized Version (AKA the King James Bible):

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

For all the beauty of the King James Version, it is rife with problems. Those stem from two primary factors: that the Authorized Version was a project that King James used to placate the Puritan faction of the Church of England (i.e. it was a political stunt, plain and simple) and the fact that the primary source material of Greek manuscript for the Authorized Version was apparently the Textus Receptus of Desiderius Erasmus. Now, Erasmus was otherwise a brilliant scholar, no doubt about it. But the Textus Receptus was hands-down his sloppiest piece of work ever (he was rushing to win a contest... and he didn't have that many manuscripts to draw from to begin with). Combined with the aforementioned purpose of affirming in approved canon the doctrines and ordinances of the Church of England over all others and you get the idea of what is wrong with the King James Version (though I still love the overall beauty of its language).

But anyhoo, let's look at the passage that this reader (and others) have attempted to use to insist that water baptism is necessary for salvation: "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins..." I emphasized the word "for" because in the Greek the original word is "eis". And "eis" does NOT easily translate into "in order to receive..." Rather, the more accurate rendition is "because of".

So let's translate Peter's statement again, this time with "eis" correctly translated...

"Then Peter said unto them: Repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ because your sins have been remitted."

That makes much more sense. It also reconciles that bit of scripture with the story of Cornelius, the first Gentile to become a Christian (recorded in Acts 10) who along with his household had already believed in Christ. That Peter baptized them was outward affirmation that Christ came for all nations, and not merely the Jewish people (per the vision that he received as recorded earlier in the chapter). Here also, we find that baptism is not for salvation, but is rather for all of those who are already in Christ and His church.

That might seem a small matter today, but in those heated days of the early church the issue of non-Jewish converts to the Way (as Christianity was called in the beginning) was a serious controversy. Peter baptizing Cornelius and his family was a threshold moment for Christianity. They were baptized because they had faith in Christ and because of that faith, their sins were already forgiven. Hence, they were fully entitled to baptism, without any regard whatsoever for their nationality.

So that takes care of Acts 2:38. But what about Mark 16:16? Here is what that passage has Jesus telling His followers...

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Y'all want the "nice" reason first why this verse doesn't mean that baptism is a requisite for salvation, or do you want the "nasty" reason?

Fine. I'll start off polite. Here it is: this verse does not say at all that the absence of baptism equals damnation. It only states that "whoever does not believe will be condemned". Downright obvious, actually.

But here's the biggest reason why Mark 16:16 can not be used to claim that baptism is a requirement for salvation...

Mark 16:16 doesn't belong in the Bible to begin with.

Feel free to read that again after you've come down from the initial shock.

The Gospel of Mark is apparently the oldest of the four gospels, perhaps composed only about 35 years or so after General Titus and his boys laid waste to Jerusalem and the Temple there. But of all the oldest manuscripts that we have for Mark's book, none of them contain verses 9 through 20 of Chapter 16! The last thing that can credibly be ascribed to the Gospel of Mark is that "...the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid." And if you only have the King James Version to go on, it jumps from there to a sudden re-introduction of Jesus and an ending that is wildly different from the context of the rest of Mark's writing.

Long story short: Mark 16:16 and everything else from 16:9 onward is a later addition. Much later. Perhaps by a century or so. I've tried to find anything that demands why these verses do belong in Mark but as of yet, such justification has eluded me. If anyone has something that I might have missed, leave a comment here or shoot me an e-mail at theknightshift@gmail.com.

Does that mean that your friend and humble blogger is committing sacrilege by ignoring part of the Bible? Nope, not at all. Indeed it is quite the opposite: I am striving for nothing more and nothing less than to understand what the Word of God does teach, in spite of all that man has inevitably attempted to do with it during these two millenia out of either well-meaning or malicious intent.

And however one chooses to adhere to the matter of baptism, it must be acknowledged by all that the endurance of the Word of God - the Truth of God, of which the verbiage of scripture can be but a rough covering - is in and of itself nothing short of a miracle.

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MAD TV presents: TERMINATOR 3: THE GREATEST ACTION STORY EVER TOLD

Y'know, the sad thing is: this sketch from Fox's MAD TV is soooooo much better than the actual Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator: Salvation, combined!

I think this was first broadcast before Christmas 1998. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 Terminator is sent back in time to protect Jesus of Nazareth in... The Greatest Action Story Ever Told!

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Christopher Hitchens has passed away. And some words for more than a few fellow Christians...

The sad news broke early this morning that Christopher Hitchens, the celebrated, provocative and brilliant journalist/essayist, has passed away at the age of 62 following a battle for the past year and a half with cancer of the esophagus.

Even when I disagreed with Hitchens - and those times were numerous - I had to have grudging respect for the man, because it can't be said that he lacked consistency. He was one of the rare writers in this day and age who strove in his craft not for sake of political or ideological favor, but instead for nothing more or less than understanding of the human condition and its derivative culture.

Here is Hitchens' final essay for Vanity Fair, appearing in next month's issue. In it he wrestles with thoughts of his own mortality and determination of spirit.

And now, there is something that I feel led to say to too many of those who, like myself, profess to follow Jesus Christ...

To be blunt: I am very disappointed with a lot of you.

Yes, Christopher Hitchens was an avowed atheist. But even so: I'm not going to judge the man. And neither should anyone else. Yeah that means YOU too!

What is it about Christianity that seems to bring out the smugness and arrogance in some people? Especially when the choice to follow Christ at all is supposed to stem from an acknowledgement that we ourselves are not worthy of being in His kingdom... nay, of being anywhere within His sight, even!

Yet God loves us so and through Christ has adopted us into His realm. That should be cause enough for joy unceasing. And yet there are far too many Christians for whom that is not enough. For them, Heaven isn't sweet unless they know with absolute certainty that there is at least one poor miserable soul roasting in Hell for eternity. Based on what I've been seeing around the Intertubes since this morning, that particular soul of the day is Christopher Hitchens.

I honestly don't know who to feel more sorry for: a man who wrote that he did not believe in God, or a person who claims belief in God while literally gloating that someone else chose to be separated from that very God for all time.

I am in no position to judge the soul of Christopher Hitchens. But I can assert that based on what I have read of him and found in his writings, that he was an individual who not only struggled with the idea of God, but perhaps had more reasons than most to endure that struggle at all. That he chose to be open and even brazen about it does not befit one who is necessarily comfortable with the notion of there being no God. Rather it seems more that Hitchens was searching for a rationale for God's existence. And indeed, in recent months he had even begun to question his atheism within his essays.

I can't believe that God can't honor that. As our Lord Himself declared...

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."

-- Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 7, Verse 7

And we should be thankful that the matter of our own salvation is not dependent upon the understanding of other men!

Because in the end, Christopher Hitchens was a frail man who did not possess fulness of wisdom and understanding. He was a person who was imperfect and had fallen short of the glory of God.

Aren't we all?

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New poster for THE HUNGER GAMES movie adaptation

I know practically nothing about The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, apart from this book being everywhere when I go into any of the local bookstores. In fact, the synopsis for the upcoming film adaptation - which I just read a short while ago - is all that I know about it at all...

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the evil Capitol of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which "Tributes" must fight with one another until one survivor remains. Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she's ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love. THE HUNGER GAMES is directed by Gary Ross, and produced by Nina Jacobson's Color Force in tandem with producer Jon Kilik. Suzanne Collins' best-selling novel, the first in a trilogy published by Scholastic that has over 16 million copies in print in the United States alone, has developed a massive global following.

What sayeth y'all who might have read this book: any good?

Here's the just-released poster for it, which has officially colored me intrigued...

Okay, I just found that there's also this trailer for it too...

Looks pretty solid. I may have to make time to read this book before the movie comes out :-)

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The Iraq War is officially over

On this day, the Iraq War has officially drawn to a close. It began in March of 2003, lasting nearly nine years (more than twice as long as the United States took to fight and win World War II across both the Pacific and European theaters).

The Iraq war cost our own country nearly one trillion dollars. It also cost the lives of more than 4,500 American military personnel and more than 100,000 Iraqis (many of whom were innocent civilians not attached to Saddam Hussein's army).

Now... can anyone finally tell me why it is that we went to war in Iraq in the first place? "Enforcing sanctions" won't cut it. We lost too many lives and wasted way too much money on this fiasco. What has come of it? An Iraq which will sooner than later tear itself apart across ethnic and religious lines (specifically Sunni, Shiite and Kurd) and a wide-open corridor from its western border for Iran to get pokey with Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

In short: we took an already unstable world region and primed the fuse for even worse potential for globe-rattling mayhem.

The only reason we honestly went into Iraq to begin with is because we had, at the time, a small-minded narcissist in the Oval Office. A man who only got there because of his friendships and his family connections. A control freak who was too used to getting his own way. A simpleton who had no grasp of history and yet wanted to be remembered as a "war president". An individual detached from sympathy, empathy and sincerity. A man who thought himself and was allowed to think of himself as "favored of God" and that all others as such were expendable according to the whims of his divine right to rule.

Yes, George W. Bush and all of his kind... by all means, "Take a Bow".

Future generations will look upon this conflict - and what it will eventually spawn - and accordingly rank our own era as being among the most foolish in American history.

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Time for... THE LOBO PARAMILITARY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL!

This was posted on the blog a number of years ago, minus an embeddable video. That's since been fixed and hey, it is too good not to share once again!

It's The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special! Adapted from the eponymous one-shot special published in the early Nineties, DC Comics' resident badass and intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo (one of Superman's more colorful enemies) is hired by the Easter Bunny to kill Santa Claus. A bit of warning: there's some pretty harsh language in this film... but it's oh so very funny!

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Newt Gingrich: The GOP's John Kerry in waiting

I once met Newt Gingrich. He's a strong writer and speaker. I think he's got a very good mind for history. I also happen to share many of the views that he holds.

Nonetheless, I've got to say it...

Newt Gingrich is poised to become for the Republican Party in 2012 what John Kerry was for the Democrat Party in 2004.

Meaning that if Gingrich is the GOP's nominee for President, that will most likely assure that Obama will be re-elected.

Part of me is wondering if that might have been the plan from the start, although by whom and for what purpose, I could only speculate.

Can anybody provide evidence strong enough to compel me that there is any significant difference between the "two major parties" running the show in the United States? And that's all this really is: a show. Albeit one that has cost us billionstrillions of dollars, a wasted economy, individual liberty and even more than a few lives.

We, the American citizenry, will never be free until we make the conscious and conscientious choice to turn away from these petty illusions of political grandeur and at long last accept the responsibilities that God has entrusted with we the people.

(Just my .02 that I felt led to share after reading this morning's news...)

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17-year old creates cancer-destroying nanoparticle (and wins lots of $$$ to boot!)

Angela Zhang (left) is probably like the vast majority of other teenagers in most respects. But how many other teens out there are also developing radical new therapies for cancer that might very well lead to a veritable cure?

That's what Zhang has been doing for the past two years, spending over a thousand hours researching and creating a microscopic means of destroying tumors. And for her efforts she has just been awarded the $100,000 Grand Prize in the Individual category of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology!

The title of Zhang's project is "Design of Image-guided, Photo-thermal Controlled Drug Releasing Multifunctional Nanosystem for the Treatment of Cancer Stem Cells". In layman's terms, it means that she developed a nanoparticle that, when delivered to the tumor site via the drug salinomycin, destroys the cancerous stem cells. Not only that but she smartly utilized gold and iron-oxide so that the particles could also be picked up on MRI and photoacoustics. Meaning that Zhang's method can overcome cancer resistance and be monitored in real time without any extra special equipment.

Clever lass, this one is!

Geek.com has more about Angela Zhang and her very cool work. Wouldn't surprise me if this product of her ingenuity sees routine use within the next ten years (if not sooner).

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One reader's tale of incompetence at the Internal Revenue Service

Way, waaaaay back when this blog was just getting started, I posted an essay titled "People who should be shot when the revolution comes". It was a tongue-in-cheek (kinda) piece about who in our society should be the first ones to be thrown against the wall if and when the citizens of this country finally get their fill and overthrow those who have gotten too uppity for anyone's good.

That this particular post should come to mind more than seven years after writing it, might clue y'all in on the kind of rage that I feel when I read the e-mail that one of The Knight Shift's viewers sent me recently.

I can't put it any more plain than this: the income tax is a means of economic and personal slavery. Think about how much time and energy gets wasted by millions of honest people in this country every year. Seriously folks: ever think about about what could be done productively, if all those billions of aggregate man-hours that we spend preparing tax returns were done away with?

Then there is how decent people do their best to adhere to a mountain of burdensome legislation that not even the finest tax attorneys in the land can agree on what it's supposed to mean. It's just not possible. I guarantee that if the government wanted, that it could find grounds for criminal indictment against every single taxpayer in America... only because it's impossible to meet each and every single condition of a tax code that is ridiculously volumnious!

And then there are the heartless bastitches of the Internal Revenue Service. Heck, let's name some names here: like Robert W. Nordlander, the IRS "special agent" who prosecuted a cold and cruel vendetta against ultra-marathoner Charlie Engle. Click on that link and just see if that story doesn't get your blood boiling.

I bet what I'm about to share will resonate with too many good people as well. It's what one individual submitted and asked me to pass along to this site's readers...

Waiting for me when I arrived home this evening was an "important" message from the I.R.S., saying it was "important" that I return their call by close of business today (which surprisingly to me was 8 p.m.). I was also asked to reference a "case number" when I returned the call.

After confirming the number appeared to be legitimate from the IRS web site I returned the call, despite my concerns (who wants to get harassed by the IRS?) and suspicions (that this was a scam.)

I decided in advance that I WAS NOT going to give out any personal information, so I bypassed the prompt asking me to enter my Social Security Number. After a 10-minute wait, a "Mrs. C***, ID# [deleted]" answered the phone. She asks for my SSN, and I inform her I'm not giving out any personal information. "Well, we're not going to get very far," she replied. I told her the message I received instructed me to give a case number and that I would give that, which I did.

Little good giving the case number did though, as "Mrs. C***" said she couldn't give me any information unless I gave her my name and "verified" that she was talking to the right person. I told her why not give me the name of the person your trying to reach, and I'll verify if I'm that person or not. No good.

I then mention that I find it peculiar that the IRS would try to contact me by phone rather than mail about a tax issue. (Let me say here that I've been contacted about errors on my federal tax returns before, and each of those few occasions, I was contacted by mail.)

Her explanation was that the IRS does try to make initial contact with individuals by mail based on the address that's on file with their tax return. Only afterwards, do they try to contact an individual by phone.

So I mention that the address they have for me is good because I haven't moved since I filed my taxes. And since since I haven't received a letter prior to this phone call, I must not be the person they're trying to reach. She says, "No! What did I say?"

I responded, "You said that the IRS tries to first contact individuals by mail based on the address filed with their tax return if there are issues. Then you try to contact them by phone." She says that's correct.

So, I ask again, since I HAVE NOT received anything in the mail from the IRS, may I deduce I'm not the individual this case number involves?

"Mrs C***" tells me no, that she can't give me any information unless I give her my personal info, accuses me of arguing with her, says she has other calls she needs to take and that I need to go my local tax office for information.

I could see this wasn't getting anywhere (and wasn't going to) so I ended the call. This drives me crazy and makes me mad on so many levels I gave them the case number they referenced on the message. That's all they asked me to give, and that's all I was going to give. I've "rendered unto Caesar" and filed my taxes on time every year.

Perhaps what made me the most angry was "Mrs. C***'s" comment that she "had other calls to take." Last time I checked, the federal taxes I pay (and we all pay) pay "Mrs. C***'s" salary. The least she could do was do the job I help pay her to do and be a little more helpful.

This is the kind of bureaucratic crap that was symptomatic of the Soviet Union. And the late Roman Empire.

I defy anyone to tell me that the above example is something that should be tolerated by a free people who enjoy the liberty that God has given us and that so many fought... and died... so that we might continue to have.

And I was woefully shortsighted when I came up with that list in 2004. Perhaps we should make room for soulless cretins like Mrs. C*** and Robert Nordlander. I can hear it now...

"But we were only following orders! We were ONLY FOLLOWING ORDERS!!"

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Has the Dan Cooper skyjacking case finally been solved?!

Two weeks after the fortieth anniversary of his dastardly deed, it looks like the mystery of Dan Cooper might have been cracked at last.

And if true, it means that Cooper did survive his crazy stunt after all!

In the image above, you see one Lynn Doyle Cooper on the left and on the right, one of the sketches of Dan Cooper (or "D.B. Cooper" as he was erroneously referred to be by early press reports) made from descriptions given by passengers and crew of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305: the flight that Cooper hijacked on Thanksgiving 1971.

Marla Cooper, niece of Lynn Doyle Cooper, has come forward to tell the FBI that her uncle arrived at her home on the day after the skyjacking. He was severely injured and claimed that he had been in a car crash.

But what's more, the FBI is apparently close to matching a fingerprint from Lynn Cooper with one found on a cheap clip-on tie that Dan Cooper wore (and left behind) on the plane before the scoundrel bailed out with a parachute and $200,000 into the frigid night of the Pacific Northwest somewhere over the state of Washington.

Lynn Cooper died in 1999. Meaning that if he was Dan Cooper, he got away and was likely laughing about it for almost three decades!

Mash down here for more of this story.

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The one who voted against war with Japan

Yesterday was the seventieth anniversary of the Empire of Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor: the event that catapulted the United States into World War II. On the following day President Franklin Roosevelt delivered the famous "Infamy Speech" before a Joint Session of Congress. Less than an hour after Roosevelt's address, Congress passed an official declaration of war against Japan.

And it was almost unanimous. The final tally was 388 for war, and 1 against...

Jeannette Rankin, member of the House of Representatives from the state of Montana, was the sole vote against the declaration of war. Rankin was also the first woman elected to Congress. During her previous term in Congress she had also voted against the United States entering what became known as World War I. And in case you're wondering, she was a Republican.

As you can probably imagine, Rankin's stance was roundly unpopular: not just with her constituents back home but all across America. She didn't even bother to run for re-election. She passed away in 1973 at the age of 92.

But as for why Miss Rankin did not vote for the war declaration, I can't but find her rationale to be intriguing...

"As a woman, I can't go to war and I refuse to send anyone else."

I must admit: as much as a military response was mandated by the horrific nature of the Pearl Harbor attack, I have to appreciate Jeannette Rankin's rationale. Had women been allowed to serve on the front lines or more to the point, had Rankin been a male... I can't imagine that she would have cast a vote against war. But neither of those happened to have been the case.

I believe that Congress did the right thing by voting for the declaration of war. But I also have to believe that Miss Rankin was acting according to the best of her principles by not voting for that same declaration. That may have conflicted with the demands of those she was elected and sworn to represent... but there I am reminded that ours is a democratically-elected republic and not a pure democracy. It's not perfect, but it's the best that man in his limited wisdom has been able to come up with so far as governing himself goes.

Jeannette Rankin's vote against declaring war with Japan is a most curious example of that.

And all of this was seventy years ago today, December the 8th 1941.

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George Burns presents CHRISTMAS CAROL II: THE SEQUEL!

AMC has been doing multiple broadcasts of A Christmas Carol, the 1984 television movie adaptation with George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge, for the past few nights. It's easily my favorite version of Charles Dickens' timeless potboiler (no really, he only wrote it to sell and pay some bills) although Patrick Stewart's one-man performance runs a very close second.

But have you ever wondered what happened after Scrooge changed his ways at the end of that story?

Well wonder no more! Back in 1985 there was a short-lived show called George Burns Comedy Week. It was a comedy anthology series hosted by Burns: sorta The Twilight Zone but all about the laughs. And just before that Christmas, Burns and company produced a follow-up to A Christmas Carol.

So without further ado, here is Roddy McDowall, Ed Begley Jr., Carolyn Seymour, Paul Benedict, and the one and only James Whitmore himself as Scrooge in... "Christmas Carol II: The Sequel"!

Part 1

Part 2

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Harry Morgan has passed away

The sad news is coming out this afternoon that Harry Morgan, the already prolific actor before finding eternal fame on two of television's most classic series - as Bill Gannon on Dragnet and then Col. Sherman Potter on M*A*S*H - has passed away at the age of 96.

This guy shined in everything that he was in, during a career that stretched all the way back to 1942. The following year he appeared in The Ox-Bow Incident, quite a controversial film for its time. Morgan followed that up with roles in The Glenn Miller Story and Inherit the Wind. In 1962's How the West Was Won he played General Ulysses Grant. And those were just a few of movies that Morgan appeared in (along with quite a few comedies).

It was a Bill Gannon, alongside Jack Webb in Dragnet, that would have most cemented Morgan's place in entertainment history. But then he did Col. Potter in M*A*S*H: a role for which he earned an Emmy. And yeah I grew up watching M*A*S*H and I liked Hawkeye and Klinger and the rest... but for some reason Potter was even more the heart and soul of that show. A model Army officer and field surgeon, but with crack wit and profound wisdom. Not to mention some of the best lines of the entire show: "Horse feathers!" etc. And I also remember him in that series of "Incident" television movies that he made with Walter Matthau.

Rest in peace, Mr. Morgan. And thanks for the many years of good drama and great laughs.

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Seventieth Anniversary of the Day of Infamy

Perhaps the most iconic photograph from the attack on Pearl Harbor: the battleship U.S.S. Arizona suffers a hit to her magazine by a Japanese torpedo.

1,177 sailors and officers perished aboard the Arizona. To this day, most of them are still there.

Today, seventy years later, there are approximately six thousand who survived the Pearl Harbor attack who are still among us.

Remembering them on this 70th anniversary, as well as those who died that day and those who have passed on since.

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MUSIC FROM THE TRANSFORMERS TRILOGY (Look! Real physical CD!)

First things first: I have yet to hear any news about a CD release of the score from Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which was once again masterfully composed and orchestrated by Steve Jablonsky. A bunch of readers have been asking me about this for the past several months (and quite often more than once!). No word either on the rumored box set that would have Jablonsky's complete score from all three Transformers movies, which I would gladly plunk down serious coin for and based on the enthusiasm I've been observing, so would many others out there.

Until we have something more substantial to go on (and I tend to believe that it will be coming sooner than later) here's something ya might wanna check out: Music from the Transformers Trilogy!

Performed by London Music Works, this CD includes 16 tracks from the three movies: six tracks each for Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and four tracks from Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Some great stuff here (though I'm a bit disappointed that "Decepticons" from the first movie didn't make the cut). I don't own this yet but based on the samples on the Amazon.com page this is an amazing composition and definitely well worth investing in! I was especially impressed with the recording of "Arrival to Earth" (a track so beautiful that it has been used at weddings!). It's currently going for $14.08 at Amazon and I'm certainly ordering a copy right now :-)

And if you're feelin' lucky punk, ScoreKeeper at Ain't It Cool News is giving away five copies of this sweet album! Deadline for the contest is this coming Sunday, so click on the link and give it a try :-)

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Zoe and Wally are in the first ever I Can Has Cheezburger? daily calendar!

Awright you're probably wondering: Chris who the heck are Zoe and Wally?!

They're my girlfriend's two cats. And two years ago she submitted this wacky photo of the two of them laying on her futon to the popular humor site I Can Has Cheezburger?...

Zoe is the black and white and orange one sitting at the far end, and Wally is the orange dude screaming (or whatever the heck he's doing). And they are now the January 10th featured photo from the I Can Has Cheezburger? 2012 Calendar!

Now available at fine retailers, bookstores and online outlets everywhere!

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