2012 Thanksgiving: What I am thankful for

It's not Thanksgiving Day right now. It's the day after: often called "Black Friday". Which as some astute observers have noted, we spend one day being thankful for the things we have by spending the next day trampling all over and killing each other trying to get the things we don't have.

Admittedly, there are some things which I do not have at the moment, that I have been in constant prayer about. But I must also acknowledge that I have been far, far more blessed than I would have ever thought possible. During this past year and a half, this has honestly been the happiest that I have been during the course of my entire life. In fact, I feel like my real life is just now getting started...

...and I've a feeling that God might have plenty more good in store yet to come.

So in what I hope is going to be a continuing tradition of The Knight Shift, here is what I am thankful for this year...

I am thankful to finally have a female miniature dachshund puppy, who at times is a lot of aggravation but has still won my heart since the first moment I held her.

I am thankful to have come a long way in managing my bipolar disorder. It has taken the better part of a decade to arrive at this place. And I am exceedingly thankful that publicly chronicling my struggle with this illness has apparently become an encouragement to others. If even one person comes away stronger from reading about my having bipolar, then that alone makes writing about it worth it.

I am thankful for Dad, who has been a true encouragement for me during this past year.

I am thankful for friendships which have endured and for those friendships which have been made since last Thanksgiving.

I am thankful to be getting my creative mojo back. Something which had been missing for the past number of years, for a variety of reasons. I am now back to working on some video projects as well as something else, which Lord willing I will be able to announce sooner than later.

I am thankful to have read many more books in these last several months than I have read in a long, long time! I should finish A Dance with Dragons sometime next week, which will make me caught up finally on the entire Game of Thrones series (well that's what I'm calling it anyway...)

I am thankful to have traveled to Oregon this past June. To have driven through the Columbia River Gorge and to have stood a mile or so away from Mount St. Helens: truly one of the most humbling experiences of my entire life.

I am thankful for Doctor Who and The Walking Dead, which I enjoy watching with my girlfriend.

I am thankful for ballroom dancing, which I am getting better and better at (I can now do the cha-cha, the foxtrot and the swing in addition to rumba and waltz!)

I am thankful to have not gone to jail yet for having a perverse sense of humor.

I am thankful for root beer.

I am thankful for finally playing Diablo II, even though it only took me twelve years to get around to doing so.

I am thankful for this blog, which is about to hit nine years old. And that it seems to have gained even more regular readers and I will endeavor to keep them entertained, enlightened and generally enthralled for a long time still to come.

I am thankful that yes, there WILL be more Star Wars movies! I am thankful for knowing that I will get to take my children to see a new Star Wars trilogy. That Lord willing, I will get to see new Star Wars movies with their children. What a time to be alive.

I am thankful for second chances.

I am thankful for Kristen, who is a far better girlfriend than I could ever deserve to have. I had never thought that I could be this happy, but God certainly has when He put Kristen into my life. There is not a day that goes by that I don't thank Him for the honor of being her boyfriend... and there is not a day that goes by that I don't tell her that I thank God for her.

Most of all, I do thank God for all that He has done, and that I do now see how He has been working across my entire life. To my shame, I had doubted for awhile that He was listening to me, that He cared at all. Now, I know better.

There are more things that I could probably come up with, but those are some of the bigger ones. And Kristen, her parents and I are about to go see Skyfall, so I should wrap this up anyway.

And no doubt next year, there will be even greater things to be thankful for :-)

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Deep-fried turkey, Thanksgiving 2012 Edition

Another Thanksgiving has come... and with it, once again, another round of Yours Truly doin' up some deep-fried turkey!

This year's Thanksgiving was special, in a number of ways. For one, I'm spending it with Kristen and her family. For another, this marks my tenth anniversary of deep-frying turkey! So for those reasons and more, I wanted this one to be extra special.

Here's the turkey chosen to be sacrificed to the flames and the oil. I found one weighing-in at just under 15 pounds: the perfect mass to feed a gang of six! What you see here is the turkey on the spit ready to be fried, after spending thirty-three hours of being marinaded and rubbed down with Cajun seasoning.

In this next photo the oil is almost hot enough to lower the turkey in. The cooking temperature is 350 Fahrenheit. I heat it up to 375 though to begin with, because the temperature is going to drop precipitously when the turkey goes in. Of course, the bird has been patted down good and dry on the outside to keep nasty hot oil from spattering out. Looking at the pot with much interest and anticipation is Kristen's father...

Here we go, (not so) fast and (plenty) furious!! Kristen's brother Scott is shown taking photos, albeit from a considerably safe distance...

Awright, this next picture requires some explanation. The oil was in the pot and I had just turned on the burner when I realized to much horror... my thermometer was broken!!! The trusty instrument that had seen ten years and many, many fried turkeys had died. And at the WORST possible moment too!
No time to panic though. Not as one working with hazardous materials. Certainly not as an Eagle Scout. Kristen's mom and brother made a quick jaunt to Wal-Mart and found two thermometers, neither one of them built with deep-frying safety in mind but hey, ya gotta takes what ya can.

So here is me in what Kristen calls the "fisherman pose": lowering a candy thermometer into the oil with a wire coat hanger!

But, the new thermometer came through with flying colors. And 45 minutes later...

...the culinary masterpiece was ready to be admired for its beauty and its juicy, delicious flavor!

I'm always looking for new ways to improve my turkey-frying technique. There were a couple of tricks that I employed this time for both product quality and personal safety. With the exception of the thermometer emergency, the entire process was by far the smoothest and cleanest that I've ever had.

'Twas a most excellent Thanksgiving dinner! The turkey came out great, and there was the terrific desserts made by Kristen's mom and sister-in-law (Melissa makes the most potent chocolate cupcakes in the history of anything).

And now, I get to enjoy a few weeks' respite before doing this all over again for Christmas. For which I've already been threatened with getting chained to the burner until I make enough fried turkey for everyone who's been demanding it this past year :-P

Update 7:19 pm EST: D'oh!! I forgot to document the music that I chose to fry too! That's also an important part of the ritual.There were a number of albums which came to mind. I think up to a few weeks ago the obvious choice would have been the Game of Thrones Season 1 soundtrack. But then there came the big news of October 30th...

So in celebration of the imminent return we shall be making to that galaxy far, far away, I had Disc 2 of The Empire Strikes Back: Special Edtion playing from my iPod. Not just John Williams' finest composition for a Star Wars movie, but in my opinion the definitive Star Wars orchestral score album!

It was released in February of 1997. And in spite of being the most vintage album to be used during my rituals, it was spot-on perfect for the task. And just after telling friends that this would be the music of the hour, the news broke that Lawrence Kasdan will be returning to the gang and he's writing Episodes VIII and IX! Truly a good omen :-)

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Kristen's Love-ly haircut

I'm spending Thanksgiving with Kristen at her house, along with her family. And as all two of this blog's regular readers well know I go crazy with deep-frying turkey every year for this holiday (and usually Christmas also). That means starting about a day and a half before time to fry, getting the bird all juiced-up with marinade.

So yesterday afternoon, after the third round of injection and putting Cajun rub all over the turkey, I decided to take a little nap. Kristen had gone out to do "some errands" after work. I was still asleep when she returned.

She woke me up. And that's when I saw her shocking new hairdo...

She's never had it that short before! But it was all for a great cause: Locks of Love. It's a nonprofit group devoted to making hairpieces for children who have lost their natural hair due to disease, chemotherapy etc. So Kristen not only got a stylish new 'do, she is making some good kids really happy.

It's still gonna take me awhile to get used to it though... :-P

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Stop Christmas, I want to get off

Let's dispense with the floridity and get to the point:

The holiday season has been damn near ruined by commercial madness.

I'm hearing that some families are having their Thanksgiving gatherings destroyed by Wal-Mart and other retailers mandating their employees be working on Thursday morning. Yeah you read that right: a number of stores are opening at noon on Thanksgiving when everyone else will be gorging on turkey and watching football.

I got a bad vibe when stores like Wal-Mart and Target began putting the Christmas stuff out before Halloween. That's two full months of holiday marketing. One-sixth of the entire year devoted to holiday spending.

Now the radio stations are following suit. 99.5 out of Greensboro - which has traditionally not begun playing Christmas songs until the day after Thanksgiving - is already blaring out 24 hours round the clock of holiday music.

Gad-dommit, STOP IT ALREADY!! I'm bipolar dammit! It's already hard enough for me to slow down my mind. I don't need the year to go by any faster! Neither do most other people. But that's what is happening as a result of the extended holiday season: the year is going by faster. Too fast. The holidays should come at us bursting with joy, not creeping upon us like so much unstoppable kudzu.

I'm this close to just calling off Christmas entirely this year. Not only not giving presents but demanding that I don't receive presents either. This ain't what Christmas is meant to be about. It's supposed to be about family, friends, good times, being thankful for what God has blessed us with...

Did we not learn anything from all those years of A Charlie Brown Christmas?

This is going to be the first Christmas that I spend without my mother. A few friends during the year also lost parents. For some, they know that this will be the last time they will have the holidays with a loved one.

Not all the money in the world, no amount of dollars spent, will ever fill the vacuum left by a beloved friend or family member.

Call me sentimental, but it seems like this is a time to be appreciative of what we have now, instead of accumulating mere material "things". I for one would certainly like to have Mom for another Thanksgiving and Christmas. For the rest of my life I will be haunted by old hurts between us that never really got resolved. It would have been nice to have the time to reconcile those and have just a little more time to share. That will never happen. But I refuse to let that be with anyone else that I care for.

This Thanksgiving, I choose to be thankful. This Christmas, if I don't receive anything at all, that's not going to keep me from enjoying the company of those that I love.

When I consider the madness that will no doubt ensue in a few days' time, it makes me almost wish that this country would have a hard crash. Perhaps then it would bring us to our senses. Compel us to get our priorities back in order. Don't get me wrong: I enjoy getting some Christmas presents: it just isn't perfect unless I get a new pair of sweatpants, some LEGOs and at least one Star Wars toy. But is any of that the focal point of my holidays? More like a nice cherry on top.

Anyhoo, Jennifer Waters at MarketWatch has a considerably recommendable story about retailers ruining Thanksgiving in their war for "Black Friday" bucks. You might have already read it 'cuz it's making the rounds quite a lot already. It's enough to make one pause, and forsake heading to the stores at all on Thanksgiving Day.

Who knows: if enough people stay home, maybe the retailers will come to figure out that it's not worth the money to open the doors earlier than sanity allows.

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No more Twinkies: Labor union destroys Hostess

I hope the idiots in the photo on the right are happy.  Those are some of the members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union who went on strike against their employer: Hostess Brands, Inc.

The union has about 5,000 people working at Hostess. As of this morning, their months-long strike has put themselves and thirteen thousand others out of work.

The big news at the time of this writing is Hostess going out of business and liquidating its assets. The company could no longer afford to be in business as a result of the strike. More than 18,500 people are now unemployed.

What a colossal committing of ass-hattery.

But hey, at least the employees responsible can rely on the union bosses to back them up. Not to mention getting government unemployment checks. All out of spite for a measly 2% decrease in pension that Hostess put on the bargaining table. Yeah, win the fight for a tiny amount of pension but put nearly 20,000 people out of work and destroy a favorite snack food for everyone.

Like they say on the basketball court: "Smooth move Ex-lax!"

Labor unions are worse than useless. If this doesn't demonstrate that, I don't know what possibly could.

Better stock up on your favorite Hostess-brand goodies, folks...

 

...'cuz they're about to be gone. Forever.

(I can't imagine any other company right now wanting to buy out Hostess and putting their goodies back into production: it'd cost too much to relocate factories to right-to-work states, and would anyone in their right mind in this economic environment want to go through the hassle anyway?)

It is the end of an era, my friends. A darn shame too, seeing as how Hostess snacks helped to end the reign of terror of so many supervillains back in the day.

Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho-Hos, Fruit Pies, Wonder Bread: get 'em now, friends and neighbors. Their value will be greater than gold as barter items on the underground market when the sh-t hits the fan. Probably sooner than later.

But if I were the CEO of Hostess, I wouldn't have put out a press release or called a news conference about what has been done to his company.

This is how I would have delivered the message...

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TWILIGHT: BREAKING DAWN PART 2 premiered 30 minutes ago in theaters across America

"Our long national nightmare is over."

Until my dying day, I will deny that those are real vampires.

Not afraid of sunlight? Not repelled by crucifixes or holy water or garlic? Casting shadows and appearing in mirrors? Not sleeping in coffins? Being "sparkly"? No fangs at all?!?

"Vampires" my butt. Those are, at most, people with severe eating disorders.

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What does the Bible say? Homosexuality and marijuana use are legal!

And not just legal but apparently endorsed.

Found this on Facebook and it was too good not to share...

Just more proof that if you study the Bible hard enough, if you want to find something, you can find sanctioning for just about ANYTHING in it!

Okay, in all seriousness: I know and would dare say most everyone else knows that the Bible does not condone sexual immorality or drug abuse. But scriptures can... and indeed have... been twisted by selectively choosing out of context and inane literalism to create beliefs and doctrines that have no merit and indeed do not exist from study of the Bible as a whole.

No matter where you're coming from though, that graphic is still funny :-)

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Bob Buckley turns in a BEAUTIFUL story about tobacco barns

When it comes to North Carolina architecture, there is no more ubiquitous an example than the humble tobacco barn. You can barely drive half a mile in the rural farming areas without seeing at least one or two dotting the landscape. With some of them dating back a century and more, they once exemplified this state's agricultural acumen like nothing else could.

And it is not without some sadness that in the modern era, most of them have fallen into disuse. Once they hummed with hard work and a handsome payoff. Now, no more. But the barns still stand: a testimony to times gone by and a tradition that many families maintained for generations.

For those reasons and more (not the least of which is the gorgeous cinematography and editing by Stewart Pittman) I can't recommend enough that y'all check out this Buckley Report story by WGHP Fox 8 reporter Bob Buckley. Buckley and Pittman deserve an Emmy for this, easily...

Special thanks to good friend Mark Childrey for being the first to spot this and passing it along!

(Along with props to historian extraordinaire Bob Carter for a great exposition about tobacco farming :-)

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Just back from SKYFALL

Go see it. Now. Trust Chris. And trust Chris's girlfriend too.

Let's just say this: I loved Casino Royale. I enjoyed Quantum of Solace. BUT...

Skyfall is what those first two movies were building up to. Daniel Craig has been James Bond for the better part of a decade. And now with Skyfall his James Bond is at last, now and forever, 007.

If you've seen it already then you understand. If you haven't yet well... you are in for a hella wild and 'splosive ride!!

Best. Bond. Movie. Ever. I have to see it again!!

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37 years ago tonight came "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"

It was on November 10th, 1975 that the Edmund Fitzgerald, the largest ship on the Great Lakes, sank into the depths of Superior. She carried twenty-nine men down with her.

The following year, Gordon Lightfoot recorded what is almost certainly his best-known song. It's also one of my personal favorites, and when I found this on YouTube I had to post it here too.

Accompanied by video and photos from her construction on through her tragic end and beyond, here is "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"...

You can read more about the Edmund Fitzgerald at its Wikipedia entry.

And some years ago, on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the disater, I wrote a retrospective about the ship and its good crew.

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And on the day after...

...we still woke up. The sun rose again. There was a new morning. Life did go on.

In fact, it couldn't sincerely be said that much of anything changed at all.

This country, this world even, is not made by the grace of a single man or woman. An individual can render it grievous harm however.

But in the end, America - and every other country for that matter - is the result of the diligence of her entire people. And I tend to believe she is only as good as the lengths her people will go to admit that they are not wise enough to govern this land with mere human reasoning.

Acknowledging that much is the beginning of the enlightenment that the Founders prayed we might have. We've lost sight of that, and that has to be said regardless of what "party" we might belong to.

I'm going to have more to say about this election in the coming days. Including some things that may not be very popular, but I think they need to be said anyway.

In the meantime, congratulations to everyone who won his or her respective election.

---

I wrote that four years ago, on the morning after the last presidential election. Thought it was worth sharing again this morning.

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Somebody voted for me for President!

Hey, I got a write-in vote from Florida for the office of President of the United States!

Not a joke: that is a real ballot a friend turned in this afternoon. I doubt I'll win but hey, at least someone thinks I'm more qualified for the job than Roseanne Barr. That's... something, I suppose!

As for my own vote for President:

There it is. That's it. The space on my ballot for President was left unmarked. Untouched. Unsoiled. As virgin as the wind-driven snow.

I had thought of writing in "Rufus T. Firefly". Until a wise friend convinced me today that a write-in vote for a fictitious character or anything like that would have been just as waste of a vote as those who blindly vote straight-ticket. That a much more morally powerful vote would be to choose not to participate in that particular madness at all.

Wanna know what most led me to not vote for anyone at all?

I believe in the sanctity and preciousness of human life. I believe that nothing has done more irreparable damage to our value of the soul than abortion. It is as Mother Teresa of Calcutta said: "The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion... And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?" and "Any country that accepts abortion, is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what it wants."

I cannot vote for Barack Obama because of his steadfast belief that innocent human life can be destroyed out of "choice".

Nor could I vote for Mitt Romney because he has gone on record many, MANY times as likewise believing that abortion should be upheld and even protected. Enough times in fact that I can not and do not trust his very convenient "conversion" on the issue prior to running for President. "Pro-life" George W. Bush had a "pro-life" Congress to work with... and they did NOTHING about abortion but token gestures!

I brook no doubt that Romney will/would be doing just as much.

And I am not entirely comfortable with Gary Johnson's position on the matter either.

So this afternoon, since were no candidates who I could feel confident enough about trusting my vote with, voted for no one for President.

My hands are clean and tonight my conscience is absolutely clear.

It can not be said that I "wasted" my vote.

And neither can it be said that I lent my consent toward this country's being apparently hellbent toward colossal ruin.

But I'm still honored that in the state of Florida, however miniscule it might be, that someone was willing to put their faith in me as President :-)

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This week's THE WALKING DEAD was the darkest yet

And that's sayin' something about this show...

Congratulations producers of The Walking Dead: you finally brought television its most gruesome and disturbing birth scene since Robin's delivery in V: The Final Battle all the way back in 1984:

Yeah. It was sicker than that even.

"Killer Within" raised the stakes. Dropped jaws. And most of all, broke our hearts.

Due to peculiar circumstances at the moment I'm not catching The Walking Dead until the day after it airs (well I could if I wanted to, but I'm an honorable boyfriend who can only experience this story together with his girlfriend :-) and when Facebook and Twitter went berzerk about this episode last night, well... it was a long 20 hours to wait. But that was a hella thing to be patient for. I'm gonna be numb all night after watching that.

Anyone else wanna argue that The Walking Dead is not the best show on television right now? Let's hear about something else. 'Cuz if there is, I wanna watch it too.

In the meantime, so looking forward to next week's episode! And speaking of The Walking Dead and my girlfriend: Kristen and I applied to attend this year's Butt-Numb-A-Thon film festival next month in Austin, Texas. I went to the ninth one in 2007 and we were hoping that this could be an "ultimate movie date night" for us, but we didn't get on the attendance list (with 170 being picked out of 3000+ it was gonna be tough no matter what). Anyhoo, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News and the founder/emcee of the festival gave applicants the option of making a video: their interpretation of a scene from their favorite movie. Kristen came up with a crazy awesome idea and we filmed it two weeks ago. I thought it'd be fun to share it here :-)

So here is Kristen and her spin on a well-known scene from Love Actually:

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American politics: How to level the playing field

The game is rigged. We all know it.

So why do we tolerate it?

America owes the old Soviet Union an apology. At least the Soviets had one party rule and were honest about it.

Tomorrow is the national election day in the United States. But nothing will substantially change as a result of it. The two major parties, corporate interests and the mainstream media have perpetrated a massive con on the American people: making us believe that there are only two parties that count when in truth they are much the same.

I will not be voting for either one of the two major candidates for President. Neither of them has done anything to earn my trust. I will vote for another. Some may call that "throwing your vote away". I disagree.

Any vote from one's earnest conscience is a valid one. As I see it, it is the straight-ticket vote which is the real wasted vote. Anybody who blindly and without question votes straight down a party ticket is wasting their vote. Worse: they are shirking the responsibility of freedom that too many men and women fought and died so that they might have said freedom.

I won't go back to being a slave of the system. Long ago I saw it for what it really is: a machine keeping most Americans intellectually hostage, when every one of us can choose liberation over captivity.

It is not easy. But it is worth it.

The system is broken. The system has no vitality left to it. All that is left is stagnation. America is a nation of political and philosophical vacuum among its leadership. The damn system has been made to keep out people with new and refreshing thoughts and ideas.

I'm going to have to answer to my children someday about why this country is the way that it is. I'll be damned if I have to tell them that I didn't do my best to leave them a world just a little bit better than how it was when I came into it.

So what would I suggest that could reinvigorate the United States and make this a land of true freedom and place of ideas and opportunity again?

Pass a new amendment to the Constitution. It could even be considered an amendment to Amendment One. It would read thusly...

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of political party.
In one fell swoop, partisan politics would be eliminated. There would be no more favoritism toward one party or toward two parties or toward any other.

Come to think of it, Amendment One might already outlaw favoritism toward political parties. I've seen plenty enough Christians who think that voting Republican is a God-ordained ordinance. The same with a lot who vote Democrat with theistic zeal. Political parties are the only religion a lot of people seem to have. But all the same, clarifying the point would not be a bad thing.

Keep in mind that this amendment does not outlaw political parties. Parties would and should exist, if people want them as a coalescence of common notion. They would be de-fanged. But as organs of nomination, they would be even welcome, because...

Candidate party affiliation will be removed from the ballot.  No more "D"s and "R"s on the ticket.  No more "I"s either, because they simply wouldn't be needed. If a candidate meets the criteria to be put on a state's ballot (which should be reasonable for all prospective candidates), then he or she is on the ballot... but as himself or herself, and not as a representative of a party. It would make straight-ticket voting impossible. It would also force a lot of people who haven't done it nearly enough to be informed and think critically before casting a ballot.

And when it comes to Presidential elections...

The Commission on Presidential Debates will no longer be the sponsor of Presidential debates.  The debates used to be the province of the League of Women Voters. Then the Democrats and Republicans colluded in 1988 to create the Commission on Presidential Debates. It was the proverbial wolves guarding the henhouse. The commission is controlled solely by Democrats and Republicans as a "bipartisan" organization, with funding (most of it secret) from a number of major corporations. Of course these are the only Presidential debates that the major news media choose to cover.

So, disband the commission. And let every candidate who has been qualified to appear on the ballot in each of the fifty states take part. That means that candidates nominated from the Libertarian, the Constitution and other significant parties would be welcomed on the same stage as the Democrats and Republicans... while the truly radical parties with agendas running counter to democracy and capitalism (such as the Communist Party USA) would in all likelihood never appear. I mean, they could theoretically with enough support... but it is not a fair and honest battleground of ideas when only two parties collude to lock out all legitimate competition.

Don't think that will work? Believe that more than two parties would only bring on confusion and discord?

Abraham Lincoln was one of four candidates who were listed on the ballot in the 1860 election. Lincoln only received just shy of 40% of the vote.

Do I believe that this is a country with thoughtful leadership that would seek to implement such measures?

I believe that it could be.

But I am realist enough to know that it is next to impossible. Corruption looks after itself, after all.

But as for myself, I can still choose to think for myself. To follow my own conscience. And if I am so led, to cast a vote against the demands of those around me.

I can't put it any better than how Captain America did when he spoke to Spider-Man during Marvel's Civil War arc...

Click to enlarge

Here I am.

"No. You move."

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1956 TV appearance by Samuel Seymour

Good friend "lowbridge" informed me about this a few years ago, so I've got to credit him with the find. It's a story that's gained renewed interest because of a certain upcoming movie.

So who was Samuel Seymour? He was the last surviving witness of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

And Mr. Seymour lived long enough to talk about it on national television (sharing a stage with Lucille Ball, among others).

From February 9 1956, here is Samuel Seymour's appearance on I've Got a Secret:

Pause for a moment, and consider: Samuel Seymour was five years old when he heard the gunshot in Ford's Theater and saw John Wilkes Booth jump down to the stage after shooting Lincoln in the back of the head. Seymour was 96 when he passed away two months after being on I've Got a Secret.

No doubt there are many still living today who watched Samuel Seymour tell his story on television.

A century and a half seems such a long time... until we consider how few lifetimes fit within it.

There are photographs existing today of veterans of the Revolutionary War, posing in their uniforms. Photography was invented in 1826: the same year that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams passed away. It was within the realm of possibility (though it never happened) that we could have had real pictures of either or both men before they died.

A relative of mine passed away ten years ago this month. He witnessed the Hindenburg explode. I got to hear him tell me about it from his own lips.

On the scale of history a hundred years is nothing. A thousand years is nothing. Between now and the time of Christ, there have been a mere twenty lifetimes.

Think about that. I certainly do.

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Bold prophecy about Election Day

You know what's going to happen to America after Tuesday?

Nothing. Not a damned frazzling thing.

We will still be taxed too much.

Abortion will still go on.

TSA will still be molesting children and elderly people.

We will continue to be over-extended militarily.

Companies will keep relocating their production overseas.

Children in our schools will continue to be taught to obey and not question instead of encouraged to think for themselves.

Government power over us will continue to increase instead of diminishing.

Our economy won't stop being based around fiat currency.

The Constitution will continue to be ignored by lawmakers and the judiciary and the White House.

NOTHING will change after Tuesday... except perhaps a different set of faces upon which we'll blame for the folly that we ourselves allowed to happen. Because we didn't want to buck the status quo.

Some call that "being comfortable". I call that "being enslaved".

All we'll be doing on Tuesday so far as higher offices go is choosing a new overseer for the plantation. The funny thing is: we can choose to walk off of it any damned time we want.

So why aren't we?

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The Top Ten Greatest Fictional Statesmen

We deserve better.  We should have demanded better.  We should have had higher expectations from those who asked to be entrusted with crafting laws, with the public treasury, with judicial integrity, with command of the military.

Let's stop the bullcrap and be honest.  I mean, SERIOUSLY honest.  With an election looming in the next few days here in the United States, we have been incrementally conned and conditioned to have practically nobody to cast a vote for other than smooth-talkers and snake-oil salesmen.  Incumbents and challengers ready willing and able to sell their soul for a little scrap of power... and fools that we are, we seem only too willing to give it to them.  Sometimes I wonder if most of us like being treated with such contempt by those who allege to serve we the people.

In short: we have a surplus of politicians and too damned few statesmen.

What is a statesman?  Someone, man or woman, who puts the good of those they serve above his or her own desires and ambitions.  True statesmen are not politicians.  Politicians care only for the trappings of office and don't care how they get it.

For the past several years I have had a rule by which I abide when it comes to casting a ballot.  It is very simple: if a candidate's campaign creates or sanctions even one negative ad aimed at an opponent, I do not vote for that candidate.  To me it indicates that the candidate is a politician, not a statesman.  Statesmen will hold up under scrutiny per their own virtues.  They don't want or even need to attack the virtues of others, even if said virtues are lacking.

Right now, my ballot for next week has some pretty wide open spaces.

How has it come to this?  Could it be that... we as citizens have forgotten what a statesman is supposed to be?  That we can no longer recognize the qualities that make them leaders and not mere "politicians"?

Maybe.  In fact, I would dare say, unfortunately... yes, we have.

So if sincere and selfless and capable leadership cannot be found in our real world, perhaps a look toward movies, books and television is in order.  Assembled here are the top ten men, women, and other beings from fiction who best exemplify the various aspects of statesmanship, along with the qualities for which they are best known.

Who are they?  Find out after the jump!

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Shumate revs up the spiritual engine with CARS AND CHRISTIANITY

Awright, disclaimer time ('cuz I believe in that sort of thing): I've known Stephen Shumate for most of my life, though it's been the better part of twenty years since we've corresponded at all. But as is such these days we wound up hooking up again through Facebook. I've always thought Stephen as being one of the wisest and coolest people I've ever met (not to mention adventurous: he used to do crazy dangerous whitewater kayaking and probably still does).

When it caught my eye that Stephen had written a book, well... that certainly piqued my attention. Especially when the title of it is Cars and Christianity.

When I saw that title I was honestly expecting something very different. Like, maybe a book about the physical nuts 'n bolts of automobiles as much as contemplation upon spiritual life. Technical geek though I be, the inner workings of cars and trucks continue to mystify me (though that hasn't stopped me from getting three speeding tickets so far this year, but I digress...) and I was anticipating that Cars and Christianity would provide multi-disciplinary education across two disparate fields of interest. Alas! It did not.

But Cars and Christianity is, however, a very thoughtful lil' tome of reflections upon the grace of God and the seeking after Him for guidance and wisdom. One that will be readily accessible and enjoyable to anyone.

Cars and Christianity presents the walk with Christ as an auto restoration project (much like the one Shumate undertook with his '73 Corvette shown on the cover). The life of the believer is one that begins as a banged-up embarrassment of rusted chrome and Bondo-filled panels: one that MAACO wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. Yet the Master Mechanic that is Christ is more than sufficient to repair "every single dent and scratch", as Shumate puts it. So it is that in the beginning, the Christian's car is made better than sparkling new.

And yet, as Shumate notes, far too many Christians are content to leave their cars sitting in the garage: accumulating dust and quietly rotting under the hood. And that's not what our spiritual vehicles are intended to be! Our cars are supposed to be driven hard and fast on God's highway, trusting Him to guide us even amidst smoke, snow and any other adverse condition. No life should be left idly in park. Indeed, that isn't much of life at all. But to hit the road as a believer in Christ is to have a more action-packed adventure than possibly anything depicted in Easy Rider or Thelma and Louise. All we have to do is be willing to put the key into the ignition.

Wonderfully laden with insight and humor, Cars and Christianity invokes everything from NASCAR racing to the quirks of GPS. My only complaint about it is that I was left wanting more. But as a first-time book, it is a terrific work of analogies and applications for long-time Christians and new believers alike. I certainly came away from reading it feeling that it was time well spent... and time leading to deeper reflection upon my own faith.

Cars and Christianity is available as softcover printed book and one of those new-fangled Kindle readers (and it can also be used on an iPad with the free Kindle app). BUT READERS OF THIS BLOG are getting the book for just $5.00! Simply head on over to this page that Stephen has set up for you nice folks and enter B7NY3ZL8 as the discount code. So you're getting a fun and edifying book, putting money into Stephen's pocket AND saving some coin for yourself all at the same time! Is that a great deal or what?!

Anyhoo however you get it, Cars and Christianity gets this blogger's seal of approval. And I hope that this is only the first of many, many books still to come from Stephen Shumate :-)

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Penka Kouneva's A WARRIOR'S ODYSSEY: a journey across emotion under fire

In the almost nine years of writing on this blog and not a few write-ups about music, I can't recall doing any review of an original orchestral composition. Mostly it has been soundtracks and albums by "Weird Al" Yankovic.

So it is that when a copy of A Warrior's Odyssey - the new album from film composer Penka Kouneva - arrived for review, I made the approach with more than a little trepidation. Composing a review for a movie score or studio album is one thing. Writing it for a more classical work is a whole new thing for me (and my iPod is loaded with everything from Wagner to The Three Tenors in Concert 1994, believe it or not.)

And now, after listening to A Warrior's Odyssey a bunch of times... I can't honestly claim that I have skill enough to write about how magnificent an album this is!

Kouneva is no stranger to dramatic composition. She has previously collaborated with other artists, including Steve Jablonsky on the soundtracks for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Gears of War 3, as well as contributing to The Matrix Revolutions and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. With A Warrior's Odyssey however, Kouneva is relying on the music itself to convey a sense of experience of - and very personal evolution ensuing from - the brutal realm of modern battle. There are no visuals playing on the screen or in your head to juxtapose this album with.

And it doesn't need them, either. A Warrior's Odyssey is a flowing work of eighteen tracks making up a triptych of movements. They beautifully convey drama in all its buildup and resolution, without a typically requisite plot to steer it with. But Kouneva arouses emotion with such skill and thoughtfulness with A Warrior's Odyssey that it stands beautifully as a work unto itself, without needing a commercial story behind it.

And really, music like this can evoke thoughts and images better than any soundtrack could. "Waiting for Dawn to Break" brings to mind the fleeting night and anticipation of the combat to come. The next several tracks take us quickly into the fray of battle, interspersed with moments of personal conflict, with Track 4 - also titled "A Warrior's Odyssey" - the masterpiece of the tapestry's first part.

It's onward from "Forgotten Steeples", the eighth track, that A Warrior's Odyssey really takes off from a glorious opening round. These are the moments of introspection: all-too-brief and desperately grasped moments of reflection, doubt, wonder.

The individual focus is washed away again in the deluge of war with the album's third section. And here is where Kouneva flexes all her considerable talent, masterfully interweaving the album's previous forays into both personal emotion and the brutality of battle. I found my three favorite tracks from this part to be "Fading Fortitude/The Battle Must Go On" and "Pilot Bombardier and Dogfights" (each of which has been nominated for industry awards) and "Airplane Bound for the Skies": the album's grand finale.

Penka Kouneva has enjoyed an already stellar career in Hollywood, but I have a strong feeling that A Warrior's Odyssey will prove to be her real breakout album. One that will put her in high demand as both a commercial composer and originator of the highest caliber of classical style. So it is that A Warrior's Odyssey gets this blogger's highest recommendation for your music library! Click here to find it at Amazon.com. Or head on over to iTunes and purchase it there if you can't wait for a nice shiny disc. However it is that you buy it, you won't regret that you did!

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Congratulations Jerel and Grace!

Awright, so it comes almost three weeks too late. I've had a lot going on here and it just kinda slipped my mind.

But a wedding is always a good thing to celebrate!

So to great friends Jerel and Grace: congratulations on your nuptials! You guys had a beautiful ceremony and I am thankful to have been there to see the two of you off on your adventure through life together.

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Today's ultra-scary BLONDIE comic strip

Out of the mouths of babes...

Click to enlarge

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Too dangerous to make a video out of it...

My Facebook status at 9:03 p.m. EST this evening:

ITS FINALLY SINKING IN THAT WE ARE GETTING NEW STAR WARS MOVIES!!! A WHOLE NEW STAR WARS TRILOGY OF 7 8 AND 9 AND MORE NEW MOVIES AFTER THAT!!! MORE STAR WARS IS COMING PEOPLE!!! I DON'T GIVE A FLYING RAT'S ASS WHO WINS THAT DAMN ELECTION NEXT WEEK!!! WHO THE HELL CARES ABOUT THAT F-CKING ELECTION??!!?? THE UNITED STATES POLITICAL SYSTEM CAN GO TO SH-T NEXT WEEK AND I DON'T GIVE A DAMN BECAUSE WE'RE GETTING NEW STAR WARS MOVIES!!!!! STAR WARS BAY-BEEE!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

STAR WARS!! STAR WARS!! STAR WARS!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS, I DON'T CARE!!!!!!!!!! STAR WARS FOREVER BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A few years from now, Lord willing, Kristen and I will get to take our first child to see a new Star Wars movie. I will get to see all of our children see new Star Wars movies. If God is kind enough, I will get to see my grandchildren seeing new Star Wars movies.

And I will be right there with them, enjoying every moment of it.

What a time to be alive :-)

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Star Wars fans building a full-sized Millennium Falcon

Because there simply is no such thing as too much Star Wars...

A dude named Chris Lee has assembled a crack team of volunteers to bring their collective hydrospanners together to build... a full-sized model of the Millennium Falcon from the Star Wars movies.

From FullScaleFalcon.com, the official site of The Full Scale Millennium Falcon Project: "This is a quest to build the ultimate Star Wars prop: a 1:1 scale ESB/ANH hybrid Millennium Falcon with complete, correctly scaled interior. Yes, I have completely lost my mind, just like most of my friends and family say. Except for my close Star Wars fan friends, who say 'cool, can I help?'."

Yes, the interior as well! Does that mean they've figured out what a "fresher" is supposed to look like?! We've already gotten to see the bathrooms in the Star Trek and Babylon 5 franchises: surely they have water closets in a galaxy far, far away too.

Click on the link above for much more about this grand endeavor... which apparently, judging by the photos on the site, is already very well along!

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Dear Disney:

Please hire this guy...

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No Jedi mind trick: Disney buying Lucasfilm for $4 billion, STAR WARS EPISODE VII coming in 2015!

Call it "Walt Disney Galaxy".

What's not widely known among even die-hard fans of the saga is that around 1990, Michael Eisner was seriously putting a bug into George Lucas’ ear about Disney being the distributor of any future Star Wars movies.  Especially the prequels.  Which would have been an absolute perfect storm of FUBAR.  But then, that was when Eisner was running Disney...

Today?  I'm thinking... this might be the best thing that has happened to Star Wars in a long, long time.

The news busting the Intertubes wide open this afternoon is that Disney is purchasing Lucasfilm!  The deal is for $4 billion.

But that's NOT all.  Because along with the acqusition... 2015 will see the release of Star Wars Episode VII!

Feel free to pick your jaw from the floor after reading that.  When I was sent the news of it a short while ago, my immediate reaction was "Is this a joke?!?"

It's not.  A new Star Wars trilogy is seriously going to happen.  There really will be the nine movies that we were told for more than two decades would be made.  One new Star Wars movie a year beginning in 2015... and quite possibly many more to come down the line as well.

Look!  Official Press Release!

Burbank, CA and San Francisco, CA, October 30, 2012 – Continuing its strategy of delivering exceptional creative content to audiences around the world, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) has agreed to acquire Lucasfilm Ltd. in a stock and cash transaction. Lucasfilm is 100% owned by Lucasfilm Chairman and Founder, George Lucas.

Under the terms of the agreement and based on the closing price of Disney stock on October 26, 2012, the transaction value is $4.05 billion, with Disney paying approximately half of the consideration in cash and issuing approximately 40 million shares at closing. The final consideration will be subject to customary post-closing balance sheet adjustments.

"Lucasfilm reflects the extraordinary passion, vision, and storytelling of its founder, George Lucas," said Robert A. Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. "This transaction combines a world-class portfolio of content including Star Wars, one of the greatest family entertainment franchises of all time, with Disney's unique and unparalleled creativity across multiple platforms, businesses, and markets to generate sustained growth and drive significant long-term value."

"For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next," said George Lucas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm. "It's now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I've always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. I'm confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come. Disney's reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment, and consumer products."

Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Lucasfilm, a leader in entertainment, innovation and technology, including its massively popular and "evergreen" Star Wars franchise and its operating businesses in live action film production, consumer products, animation, visual effects, and audio post production. Disney will also acquire the substantial portfolio of cutting-edge entertainment technologies that have kept audiences enthralled for many years. Lucasfilm, headquartered in San Francisco, operates under the names Lucasfilm Ltd., LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic, and Skywalker Sound, and the present intent is for Lucasfilm employees to remain in their current locations.

Kathleen Kennedy, current Co-Chairman of Lucasfilm, will become President of Lucasfilm, reporting to Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn. Additionally she will serve as the brand manager for Star Wars, working directly with Disney's global lines of business to build, further integrate, and maximize the value of this global franchise. Ms. Kennedy will serve as executive producer on new Star Wars feature films, with George Lucas serving as creative consultant. Star Wars Episode 7 is targeted for release in 2015, with more feature films expected to continue the Star Wars saga and grow the franchise well into the future.

The acquisition combines two highly compatible family entertainment brands, and strengthens the long-standing beneficial relationship between them that already includes successful integration of Star Wars content into Disney theme parks in Anaheim, Orlando, Paris and Tokyo.

Driven by a tremendously talented creative team, Lucasfilm's legendary Star Wars franchise has flourished for more than 35 years, and offers a virtually limitless universe of characters and stories to drive continued feature film releases and franchise growth over the long term. Star Wars resonates with consumers around the world and creates extensive opportunities for Disney to deliver the content across its diverse portfolio of businesses including movies, television, consumer products, games and theme parks. Star Wars feature films have earned a total of $4.4 billion in global box to date, and continued global demand has made Star Wars one of the world's top product brands, and Lucasfilm a leading product licensor in the United States in 2011. The franchise provides a sustainable source of high quality, branded content with global appeal and is well suited for new business models including digital platforms, putting the acquisition in strong alignment with Disney's strategic priorities for continued long-term growth.

The Lucasfilm acquisition follows Disney's very successful acquisitions of Pixar and Marvel, which demonstrated the company's unique ability to fully develop and expand the financial potential of high quality creative content with compelling characters and storytelling through the application of innovative technology and multiplatform distribution on a truly global basis to create maximum value. Adding Lucasfilm to Disney's portfolio of world class brands significantly enhances the company's ability to serve consumers with a broad variety of the world's highest-quality content and to create additional long-term value for our shareholders.

The Boards of Directors of Disney and Lucasfilm have approved the transaction, which is subject to clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, certain non-United States merger control regulations, and other customary closing conditions. The agreement has been approved by the sole shareholder of Lucasfilm.

Personally, I believe this to be a very wise and commendable decision by George Lucas.  It means that the universe he created will not be forever restricted to the six movies he produced, but will instead be nurtured and tended to and allowed to flourish for generations to come.  Sometimes, it takes a fresh approach to keep things going.  J.J. Abrams did that beautifully with 2009's Star Trek, and that certainly was faithful to the spirit and meaning of the original franchise.  I think the same potential is there for Star Wars as well.

There will be a new Star Wars trilogy.

Now, that's something I sure as heck never thought for a moment I would ever be writing on this blog! :-)

UPDATE 6:21 p.m. EST: It is HIGHLY suggested that y'all read Steve Sansweet's blog post about the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm. In it he reveals a bunch of intriguing stuff about what's been going on behind the scenes of Star Wars for these past several years: including how George Lucas has been quietly developing a third trilogy - set after Return of the Jedi - all along!

Looks like I'll be wearing my Jedi Knight costume for many, many more years to come. Incidentally, I discovered this past weekend that it's excellent for ballroom dancing in :-)

UPDATE 6:32 p.m. EST: A whole heap more was discussed during the Disney investors' conference call this afternoon. Among other things: an "extensive and detailed" treatment for the 7-9 trilogy was purchased and Disney is feeling "very good" about it. Indiana Jones is also part of the deal. George Lucas will serve as creative consultant for the new Star Wars movies. And there exists a great possibility that the Star Wars movies will eventually encompass the entire 20,000-years of the saga's mythology.

Dare we dream of a trilogy set during the Old Republic era?!?

"Hello, Mr. Iger? Where do I audition for the part of Darth Malgus?" :-P

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Dear friends in the Northeast...

Good night, and good luck.

October 29 2012: Hurricane Sandy floods the site of the World Trade Center in New York City

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The Governor! Review of this week's THE WALKING DEAD

Does this guy have the most gruesome man-cave ever, or what?

"Walk With Me", last night's episode of AMC's smash series The Walking Dead, at long last brought us the much-anticipated appearance of The Governor: a character voted a few years ago as one of the greatest villains in comic book history.

Okay, so David Morrisey doesn't resemble his graphic novel incarnation that much. But nonetheless Morrisey's Governor has finally brought this show something that's been a long time coming: a true breathing nemesis. For two seasons we've watched Rick and his group - unseen this week but presumably still holding their ground at the prison - fight off the walkers and not much else. But here comes The Governor. Mindless walkers and rogue survivors have been one thing. The head of a whole town and his very own well-munitioned army is gonna quite another.

"Walk With Me" picks up Andrea and Michonne's tale, with the ladies (and Michonne's ummm... "pets on a leash") coming across a crashed helicopter. The Governor and his boys arrive and in short order the girls are found... by a very much still-alive Merle (Michael Rooker), not seen since cutting off his right hand with a hacksaw in Season One. But no worries, 'cuz Merle has been fitted with a well-armed prosthetic.

And then we get to Woodbury: AKA "Mayberry Among the Living Dead". Complete with its very own town drunk. Maybe there's an Ernest T. Bass somewhere who'll throw rocks at the walkers.

Only two real action sequences in this episode. But even so, "Walk With Me" laid down a lot of new ground for no doubt quite a long time to come. The seemingly benign Governor hides the fact that he's a hard-boiled badass as well as he does his "living room". Given what last night's episode portends for his character, it wouldn't surprise me if Morrisey got an Emmy nomination.

Quite a solid episode. Quieter than the previous two episodes, but a hella appetizer for more.

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This is the pastor of the church I'm going to

Meet "Hobo Joe"!

That's the pastor of the church I've been going to, in his clown/hobo getup at the beginning of yesterday's worship service. I forget what "H.O.B.O" is an acronym for but it's something to do with kicking off the annual general fund drive.

Joe is quite a cool fella! Incidentally, I offered him the use of my Jedi Knight costume if he ever wanted to use it. A sermon preached by "Jedi Joe"? I bet a wazoo of people would dig that :-)

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You know who you are!

I'm gonna say something here and I don't care who reads it or what the hell they're gonna think of me...

ANY man who throws away a beautiful wife and some of the most amazing children that I have ever seen God bless ANYONE with, who mistreats the woman that he had been married to for so long, is a TOTAL BASTARD.

I admit that my bout with bipolar made me make life a living hell for those closest to me, especially my former wife and I'll always regret that... but even in the darkest times of that abyss I was NOT the asshole that some men seem determined to be. Men who even seem PROUD to be such assholes!

Guys, if God has given you a wonderful wife and such beautiful and smart children and you not only throw that away but treat them THAT bad, well... you not only NEVER deserved to be so blessed to begin with, you SHOULD be made to spend the rest of your miserable pathetic excuse of a life ALONE and REJECTED... because you brought it upon yourself, you f-cking piece of maggot-ridden garbage!!!

(And that's honestly the nicest epithet that I can come up with for a certain someone who I know is a regular reader of this blog.)

Awright... "Beast Mode" off.

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Two small musings on politics

Voting in America has devolved into middle-school immaturity: dominated by petty cliques, peer pressure and lots of masturbation (figuratively, thank goodness...).

Allow me to remark that I know lots of real middle-schoolers, mostly from community theater... and they ALL act more mature than the voting adults are right now!

Then I have to observe that the vast majority of political news, indeed news that passes for "top stories" among the television/print/major online media, are polls. Nothing but polls. Polls, polls, polls...

That's what American politics has become: a popularity contest. We aren't even pretending that it's not anymore.

We're supposed to be better than this.

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North Korean army official executed... by mortar round

"Yup, he blowed up real good!!"

A vice-minister of the North Korean military has been put to death for "drinking and carousing" during the official mourning for that country's late despot Kim Jong-il.

And to emphasize the point, the poor dude was executed by mortar fire...

Kim Chol, vice minister of the army, was taken into custody earlier this year on the orders of Kim Jong-un, who assumed the leadership after the death of his father in December.

On the orders of Kim Jong-un to leave "no trace of him behind, down to his hair," according to South Korean media, Kim Chol was forced to stand on a spot that had been zeroed in for a mortar round and "obliterated."

The execution of Kim Chol is just one example of a purge of members of the North Korean military or party who threatened the fledgling regime of Kim Jong-un.

Sheeeesh... Talk about overkill.

Read the rest of this explosive story at The Telegraph here.

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Brilliant essays by Chuck Baldwin: Christian warmongers and American comfort

Chuck Baldwin, Christian writer and thinker extraordinaire, is always a treat to read. But his two most recent columns, I found to be especially illuminating.

First there is this one from last week: "They Prefer Caviar, Even If It Comes With Chains", in which Baldwin articulates why too many Americans... including far too many American Christians... have given up the risks of liberty for the comfort of security and in doing so have ended up as slaves. To amplify the point he uses a story from the Book of Acts...

There is an Old Testament story that parallels with what is going on in America today. The story is found in Numbers chapter 11. God had delivered His people from great bondage. They witnessed His mighty hand of power and deliverance in defeating their oppressors and leading them toward a land of promise and liberty. He even dropped “angels’ food” (called manna) from Heaven to sustain them. But after being delivered from bondage, they began to yearn for a return to Egypt. In verse 5 of that chapter, the people are recorded as complaining, “We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick.” (KJV)

Can you believe it? After hundreds of years of floggings, imprisonments, beatings, chains, and slavery, they remember FISH? I don’t know if caviar was considered a delicacy back in those days. If it wasn’t, I suppose it’s possible that slaves ate fish eggs also. But can you believe it? After being delivered from the worst possible slavery, all they remembered was the fish? Holy Creepers, Batman!

Now, to understand what’s going on here, we have to read verse 4, “And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also.”

I have heard countless sermons on this passage, and in all honesty I cannot remember one that identified what they were lusting after. Lust here means “to covet greatly.” So, what were they coveting? Was it food? Was it the fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic? No! What they coveted, what they lusted after, was SECURITY!

In the wilderness, there was risk, uncertainty, and potential failure. They had to depend totally on divine Providence. They could not see what the morrow would hold. There were no guarantees, no entitlements, and no assurances. And even though God had delivered them with great power, sustained them daily with manna, and promised them a land of freedom of their very own, they lusted after security. To them, security was more important than liberty.

If this story does not parallel with what is happening in America right now, nothing does! God delivered the American people out of great bondage. He proved His power and might on our behalf. He gave us a land of liberty of our very own. And now all Americans seem to be able to think about are the fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic of bondage. They lust for, and greatly covet, SECURITY.

It seems that there is no usurpation of liberty so egregious that the American people, both churched and un-churched, will not gladly accept, as long as it is presented to them as a way to make them feel more secure. In truth, so many Americans–especially so many of those who call themselves Christians–are practicing idolaters. They are worshipping at the altar of safety and security. Big Government politicians and bureaucrats are the priests, the Department of Homeland Security is the temple, and the taxes, fees, and assessments are the tithes and offerings. Hallelujah!

There is much more that Baldwin writes, and It's all well worth the time to read it.

And this week, Baldwin is asking "How Did Christians Become Warmongers?"

And I realize that right now the vast majority of evangelicals eat, breathe, and sleep only one mantra: “Get rid of Obama!” They would vote for anybody to beat Obama. Well, anybody except Ron Paul, that is. Evangelicals might hate Ron Paul more than they do Barack Obama. And after Mitt Romney is elected on November 6, these same “Christians” will go into a state of extended hibernation, ignoring every unconstitutional big-government decision that Romney makes. Not only that, buckle your seat belts boys and girls, because Romney is going to expand America’s foreign wars (and the emerging police state at home) like nobody’s business. And when he does, guess what? Evangelicals will be the ones who clap and cheer the most.

Let me ask my Christian brethren some questions: does God give governmental leaders a pass on obeying His moral laws? If God will hold you and me accountable to His command to not murder, for example, will He not hold our civil magistrates accountable to His command to not murder? Or do you really believe that murder is justified on the word of a king? If so, had you been alive in Hitler’s Germany, you would have supported his atrocities, too, right? And is that whom you think occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: a king? Is murder justified simply because a magistrate orders it? And if that’s true, is it then justified that government forces pillage, plunder, and rape? If not, why not? After all, if it’s lawful for men to murder on the command of a magistrate, why can they not pillage, plunder, and rape? What’s the difference?

Accordingly, I personally believe that evangelicals owe Bill Clinton an apology. They excoriated him when it came to light that he had committed adultery. They then turned around and supported G.W. Bush’s unconstitutional, unprovoked, preemptive wars of aggression, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents. Pray tell, if a President is exempt from the moral law against shedding innocent blood (Genesis 9:6; Proverbs 6:17) why should he not be exempt from the moral law against adultery?

Believe it or not, a local pastor here in the Flathead Valley of Montana recently preached a message to his congregation on Romans 13 with the typical erroneous “obey-the-government-no-matter-what” claptrap. When a member of his congregation later asked him personally to explain himself, he told the parishioner, “If government agents or troops came to my house and laid my wife on the kitchen table and raped her, Romans 13 tells me I cannot resist.” That’s what he said, folks. I’m not making it up.

Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark!

Read the rest of this most fine article here.

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NYPD cop arrested for plot to kidnap, cook, and eat women

Read all the unsavory details here.

I suppose they were all out of donuts at the local shop, huh?

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TSA removing cancer machines? Really?

I haven't heard Mitt Romney say a single nary thing about eliminating the Department of Homeland Security and completely scrapping the Transportation Security Administration. That he hasn't and apparently approves of those governmental monstrosities is just one more reason why the Romney/Ryan ticket won't get my vote next month. Neither will Obama/Biden, but that's a post for next week.

But just in time for the election, The TSA is removing those cancer machines it euphemistically calls "body scanners" from major airports. The official line is that the cancer machines are being relocated to smaller airports in an effort to "speed things up" across the board.

But there are serious reasons to consider that rather than completely giving up on Nude-o-vision(tm), the TSA may in fact be gearing up to implement even WORSE technology: namely scanners with much finer resolution and stronger abilities at detecting small objects on a person (what objects those are is an exercise for the reader). In other words, the government-mandated radiation risk may not be going away at all and might be set to get worse.

(Many of us are still waiting for Janet Napolitano, the head of Homeland Security, to go through one of those machines herself. Alas! She adamantly refuses.)

In the meantime, the Transportation Security Administration thugs continue to sexually grope people with terminal cancer, strand U.S. citizens in Hawaii because of the nebulous and unconstitutional "no-fly list", steal iPads from passengers just for the hell of it, steal money from passengers because said passengers weren't "obedient" enough and complained about TSA abuse, refuse to allow passengers to board because of "bad attitude", and habitually grope and harass little children and elderly citizens.

Had enough of this crap, Mr. and Mrs. America? Is it gonna take getting tumors all over your body to say "enough"?

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By Crom! Schwarzenegger making a new Conan movie!

(And just to be clear, Ah-nuldt is not playing Conan O'Brien.)

Personally, I think this is ten years too late. Wanna know why? Because sometime before 9/11 happened there was serious work afoot to make a true sequel to 1982's Conan the Barbarian: one that would forget that Conan the Destroyer ever happened. King Conan: Crown of Iron had a script written by John Milius and was going to be produced by the Wachowski Brothers (back when the Wachowskis were still brothers, that's all I'm gonna say).

I was able to read the King Conan: Crown of Iron script several years ago. It was spot-on perfect as a follow-up to Conan the Barbarian. It even had Conan saying another prayer to Conan. My favorite part though took place at the beginning of the story: a scene paralleling the one from the original of Conan's father speaking to Conan about the riddle of steel. This script had Conan talking to his son about steel, and how Junior would one day have to break Conan's sword, just as Conan broke his father's sword in the first movie.

Brilliant stuff. And it would have made a hella good movie... had Arnold Schwarzenegger not going off to be Governor of California.

I don't know if this is gonna atone for King Conan: Crown of Iron not getting produced. But it's something anyway: Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to return as Conan in the just-announced The Legend of Conan, set for release in 2014. This is meant to be the proper sequel to Conan the Barbarian, which ended with a lingering scene several years later of Conan sitting on a throne and Mako's voice promising us that "this story shall also be told."

(Hey, better thirty-two years late than never, huh?)

Slash here for more at GeekTyrant.com.

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Well...

...that was a crazy past 72 or so hours!!

Got a lot accomplished though. More than I've been able to do in a long long time.

So I remembered that I have a blog. Guess I should post some stuff and try to get caught up, huh?

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Finally watched this week's THE WALKING DEAD...

...and it would be "Sick" even if that wasn't the episode title.

This week's episode focused solely on Rick's group at the prison, and picked right up from the end of last week: with Hershel's severed leg bleeding-out and the Rick's posse finding a small group of still-living inmates.

That was plenty enough to launch a solid hour of some of the most intense and gruesome television I've ever witnessed. We got a lot in "Sick": an idea of how long it's been since the outbreak began (almost an entire year), some notion of how fast the infection works (given what happened to Hershel), and most of all how far Rick will go to keep the group safe. Can't say that I blame him: my girlfriend remarked that Tomas is "Shane 2.0".

Two bits of highlighted action in this episode: obviously one is the prisoners forgetting everything that Rick and his team had told them about how to take down the walkers (I was screaming "YOU IDIOTS!" at my TV screen). Then there's Carl, come back nonchalant from the task he took upon himself to accomplish. The kid is growing up fast and hard in a world gone to hell... so for better or for worse we'll prolly be asking "Where is Carl?" for a long time to come.

Next week on The Walking Dead heralds the arrival of a character that fans of the comic book have eagerly waited two years for. The Governor is coming. And I have to wonder just how far AMC is willing to go with him...

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Antoni Dobrowolski, the oldest survivor of Auschwitz, has passed away

During my lifetime, I have met six survivors of the Nazi concentration camps. Each of them Jewish. Some were at Treblinka. Some at Bergen-Belsen. Some at Auschwitz.

Hearing only them tell his or her story would remain as one of the most humbling and heartbreaking and in the end most inspirational tale of human hope that I have ever listened to. To hear the tales of six such people leaves a far greater impression upon one's mind of the sacredness of even one human life. These people and many more went through Hell on Earth... but not one of them came out of it with affirmation that in spite of the evil that mankind is capable of, there is also a far greater potential for good. Every single survivor of the camps is, has been and forever will be a victory against those who sought their extermination. For all that was done to them, they yet lived to see their children and their children's children be born.

Born in 1904 in Wolborz, Poland, Antoni Dobrowolski saw more of that unbridled evil and final triumph than most could ever claim. A teacher by trade, he was 38 when he was arrested by the Nazis for educating the children of Poland.

That's all that he had to do to be arrested and sent to a concentration camp. He taught children. The Nazis believed that the Poles were a sub-human race regardless of whether they were Jew or Gentile. For this "crime", Dobrowolski was sent to Auschwitz: the very worst of the German death camps.

Dobrowoloski was one of the lucky few: chosen to live and work and not to perish in "the showers". He held onto life in a place "worse than Dante's hell", until the Allies liberated the camp in 1945.

After the war, Dobrowolski returned to the career that was his passion: teaching young minds. He eventually became a principal at an elementary school and then a high school. Teaching about his experience in the Holocaust as much as about the Polish language to children.

I think it can be said that many, many generations were taught and encouraged and influenced for the better by this man, who courageously defied the edicts of his nation's conquerors and then defied them again in a place of ultimate darkness.

Antoni Dobrowolski, the oldest survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp, passed away yesterday.

He was 108 years old.

Rest in peace, Mr. Dobrowolski. You taught well that most important lesson of the human condition: you taught hope.

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Off doing filmmaking!

Come back Monday. I promise I won't be too inflammatory. Maybe.

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