Missing no more: King Richard III found at last!

They paved Plantagenet and put up a parking lot.

Richard III of England, in better days

I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

-- Richard III
Act I, Scene 1, by William Shakespeare

The realms of history and archaeology are run amok with chatter this day with the news that the remains of King Richard III, the last of the Plantagenet monarchs, have been positively identified. The bones were discovered last year beneath, of all places, a parking lot in Leicester.

(Does this renew hope that Jimmy Hoffa will yet be found, or what?)

Richard III ruled England from 1483 to 1485... and what wild years they were! It was the War of the Roses between the houses of York and Lancaster. And then that upstart Henry Tudor crashed the party. Richard III and his army fought the Tudor boys at the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485. It did not go well: Henry Tudor won the day (before going on to become King Henry VII) and Richard III was killed in manner most foul!

So history tells us that afterward some Franciscan monks took poor Richard's body to their church in Leicester and buried him there. And then decades later in 1538 that bastitch Henry VIII was hellbent on destroying many churches and monasteries throughout his lands. The site of the church - and Richard III's resting place - wound up neglected and ultimately forgotten. It might have remained so, were it not for a group of researchers from the University of Leicester who last year, working through "map regression" of recent geography back through to the Middle Ages, rediscovered the site. In the process they came across this skeleton...

Regardless of the nasty propaganda that the Tudors disseminated about him (and which Shakespeare unwittingly helped to perpetuate) it can't be denied: Richard III had a severe case of scoliosis.

Anyhoo, it's really him! The wounds found on the skull correspond with reports of those Richard received at Bosworth Field. And analysis of mitochondrial DNA from the bones and those of Michael Ibsen - a descendant of Richard's sister, Anne of York - have confirmed it.

And where has Richard III been for many of the past 528 years? Buried beneath a modern parking lot in Leicester.

It's been announced that Richard III will be re-buried - this time with a coffin and proper honors - at Leicester Cathedral. But I'm certainly not alone in the desire that some day Richard III will be given the resting place due him in Westminster Abbey.

Wheverever it is he winds up now, it's awesome news that Richard III has been found at last. The king is dead. Long live the king!

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February 3rd, 1943: The Four Chaplains

It was cold as it gets, that early February morning on the North Atlantic. The USAT Dorchester was en route to Greenland, carrying nearly nine hundred U.S. soldiers on their way to the European theater. The Dorchester was part of a convoy of Navy and Coast Guard vessels: necessity for the grim threat of the German U-boats.

The Dorchester was struck by torpedo just before 1 in the morning. The ship began to take on water fast, and a frantic chaos ensued in the desperation to escape.

Among those aboard were four United States Army chaplains. George L. Fox was a Methodist minister. Alexander D. Goode was a Jewish rabbi. Carl V. Poling had served as a Baptist and Church of Christ minister before being ordained in the Reformed Church of America. John P. Washington was a Roman Catholic priest.

As the Dorchester descended into the frigid waters, the four chaplains - Fox, Goode, Poling, and Washington - did what they could to evacuate the men in a calm and orderly fashion. Unfortunately there were not enough life jackets immediately available.

The four chaplains each gave up his own life jacket. The four continued to help soldiers and sailors into the lifeboats. Of the 903 personnel aboard the Dorchester, 230 were rescued.

Fox, Goode, Poling, and Washington remained aboard the ship.

The last that anyone saw of the Four Chaplains, they had joined arms with each other. Those in the lifeboats heard the singing of hymns and joyous praise from the four men. In the final moments of the Dorchester those who made it off the doomed ship reported hearing prayers - in English and in Hebrew - from where the Four Chaplains stood.

Moments later, the Dorchester disappeared below the waves. The Four Chaplains went down with her.

The Four Chaplains, depicted in a stained-glass window of Memorial Chapel, United States Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

And that was seventy years ago today: February 3rd, 1943.

In 1988, this day was recognized by Congress as Four Chaplains Day. The bravery, honor, and filial love across the bounds of mere "religion" that Fox, Goode, Poling, and Washington demonstrated on the decks of the Dorchester would be remembered always. As well it should.

You can read more about the Four Chaplains, their lives and their story at The Four Chaplains Memorial Foundation website.

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Damnable 100th Anniversary to the federal income tax!

Today officially marks one century of extortion at the point of a gun by the Internal Revenue Service!

It was on this day, February 3rd 1913, that the 16th Amendment was allegedly ratified (there exists substantial evidence that the amendment was not passed per due process by enough states, that and then-Secretary of State Philander Knox's declaration that the amendment was "in effect").

The 16th reads...

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

We do not need the income tax and never have. This country did fine for more than a century with tariffs. And it would do just as fine now... or better.

It is far past time that the American citizens call the income tax for what it is: a shackle holding us down. Just think about the countless billions of man-hours of lost productivity during the past hundred years, wasted on simply adhering to the increasingly byzantine tax code. Think about how much better this country could have been had We The People had more of our own money to spend as we saw fit. Think about the outrageous gall that the government has, that it has believed (and had upheld within its own courts) for so long that it can take our hard-earned money from us at the point of a gun (figuratively and literally).

What has come to bother me most about the income tax? That it has created a mentality of class warfare in America, when there had been none before. Not really, at least not enough to significantly matter. But don't raise your hopes on politicians seeing that. If anything too many of them love the income tax for that very reason. It keeps the constituents divided, confused, angry at each other... and easier to play on emotion and exploit for votes.

The United States will not see true prosperity until the income tax is not just revoked, but thoroughly eradicated. Shredded. Burned. The ashes dumped in the desert and the ground sown with salt. And a pox upon the houses of those who have imposed it upon us!

Someday, in the not-too-distant future, mayhap my children will read the words I write this afternoon, and ask me "Daddy, what was an 'income tax'?" If that happens, I will be able to die a happier man.

An America where our children will not know an income tax.

If it's not for us to see better days in our time, then it's damned well worth it to fight now so that they can see them tomorrow.

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Obama gets DOOMed

I couldn't help myself. You might say the "id" within me was irresistible.

You know that photo the White House released of President Obama "skeet-shooting" at Camp David? Yeah: the one the White House also warned us peons against "manipulating" a'la Photoshop.

It was begging to be done though. Here is Barack Obama fighting off the legions of Hell...

"Gun-free zones" are no deterrence to Imps, Cacodemons and Former Human Sergeants.

And in place of Doom-guy's face I put Dianne Feinstein. Hey, she has to have her gun too, right?

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Very late-night ponderance about the Bible

The Word of God is perhaps a sword, but never should be a weapon.

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In memory of the crew of STS-107

The crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia,

who perished in re-entry from Mission STS-107

ten years ago today

February 1, 2003

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U.S. soldier gets double-arm transplant (WOW!)

Whatever faults there might be with American healthcare, you have to admit: it still kicks ass like nobody else!

Retired U.S. Army Sergeant Brendan Marrocco (right) lost all four limbs to a roadside bomb attack while serving in Iraq in 2009. It's nothing short of miraculous that Marrocco is the most severely-injured American service member to have survived such an ordeal.

It's also nothing short of amazing that nine weeks ago Marrocco received a double-arm transplant at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. It will take a few more years of his nervous system getting acclimated - to say nothing of the physical therapy that'll be involved - but in the end Brendan Marrocco will have two fully-functioning arms and hands again.

From The Guardian article...

Sergeant Brendan Marrocco, 26, of Staten Island, New York, said he was anxious to return to an active life after the successful bilateral arm transplant surgery six weeks ago at the renowned Baltimore hospital.

"I feel like I'm getting a second chance to start over," he said at a news conference. "I'm just looking forward to everything I would have wanted to do over the last four years." Driving, swimming and hand cycling top his list, he added.

He lost his arms and legs in a roadside bomb attack in Iraq in 2009. "I hated having no arms," Marrocco said. "I was all right with having no legs."

Something that also astounds me: both arms were transplanted onto Marrocco at the same time. The surgery only took 13 hours to accomplish. That sounds like a very long time until one considers the complexity of this procedure. When I first heard about it, I thought it would have taken at least a full day to pull off.

Just over half a day to give a wounded soldier two new arms. A new lease on life.

Like I said: does American healthcare kick ass, or what?

(Tip o' the hat to Kristen Bradford for a terrific find! :-)

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Dung beetles use Milky Way to move poop

That's odd. I've eaten lots of Milky Way bars at my girlfriend's house...

...and I didn't know the stuff was a laxative.

*rimshot* "Yes ladies and gentlemen I'll be here all week!!"

Actually I speak of the Milky Way Galaxy, which is most visible in the Southern Hemisphere and which the humble dung beetle of sub-Saharan Africa uses for stellar navigation, scientist have recently discovered.

It's like this: dung beetles roll around balls of... ummm, "Number Two". They need to do it fast and in a straight line away from the source so that other natural predators of poo won't swipe it first. During the nighttime hours the dung beetles use the Moon to guide them. But on nights when there is no lunar light, something else is required.

So these researchers conducted a series of experiments and found that in the absence of the Moon, the Milky Way (the most concentrated visible part of it anyway, the brightest part being the galactic center in the direction of Sagittarius) suffices for the dung beetle's navigational needs

Pretty cool. So not only is the dung beetle the strongest animal on the planet in terms of weight ratios, it's also the first insect found to use the stars to guide their way.

Sorta "stinks to high heaven" in a perverse sort of way, huh?

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Homeland Security sez: Fight mass shooters with scissors!

Shear-ly they can't be serious.

Just when you'd think that the Department of Homeland Security could not possibly prove it's the most useless U.S. government agency in the history of anything... they release this:

So if a carbine-wielding madman bursts into your office or school and starts shooting up the place, fend him off with a pair of scissors! Unless he also has a rock because, you know, rock beats scissors.

Taking this video to its logical extreme, the safest elementary school in America is whichever one gets to have this guy as its School Resource Officer...

No mention in the video about protecting yourself against a gunman with, y'know, a gun.

The New York Post has a great write-up about this latest waste of taxpayer money.

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Ed Koch, former mayor of New York City, has passed away

The sad news broke this morning that Ed Koch, mayor of New York City for twelve years and certainly one of the most colorful characters in American political history, died earlier today. He was 88.

Disagree with him on some things though one might, it must be agreed by all that Koch gave his gal-darned best for his city. Koch managed his town instead of trying to manage his town's people (yeah I'm looking at you Michael Bloomberg).

Thoughts and prayers going out to Hizzoner's family.

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Mellow Mushroom goes the extra mile for U.S. soldier's family

There is a Mellow Mushroom that opened up not long ago in nearby Burlington. I've yet to eat at that one but now I'm feeling led to. For one thing the pizza is insanely delicious. For another, after reading this next story y'all will agree: this company rocks!

The tale begins with Army National Guard Major Shawn Fulker, who lives in Jacksonville, Florida. At the moment Fulker is deployed thousands of miles from home in Afghanistan. His wife's birthday was coming up and in spite of the distance he wanted to do something nice for her. Josephine Fulker really loves the pizza at Mellow Mushroom, so Shawn e-mailed the company's corporate office and asked if one of their Jacksonville restaurants could deliver a pizza and a $50 gift card to his wife. Shawn let them know that he would gladly call the store and pay for it by credit card.

Good story so far, aye? But wait: it gets better...

Mellow Mushroom's headquarters forwarded the e-mail to the company's Fleming Island location, which went above and beyond the call of duty. First they made a special heart-shaped crust for the pizza.

Then the store manager and another employee drove out with it, stopped at a supermarket to buy balloons and a vase of flowers, and proceeded on to the Fulker home.

They delivered it all - including the $50 gift card - to Josephine.

And the store didn't charge Shawn Fulker a thing! From the story at ABC News...

John Valentino, the Mellow Mushroom franchisee who owns that location and others in Jacksonville, said his store was happy to have made the day special for the couple.

"Of course we weren't going to charge him for anything," Valentino told ABC. "Him being a serviceman and his wife being home. … Hopefully in her husband's absence we were able to help her have a great birthday while he's over in Afghanistan serving our country."

Josephine Fulker had just finished Skyping with her husband when the doorbell rang and she saw the two Mellow Mushroom employees at her door on Thursday.

"I don't know their names exactly, but they had a pizza and a big butterfly balloon and a vase of flowers with a gift card for $50 and they told me that it was from my husband. I said 'Oh my goodness.' I was surprised and excited and overwhelmed and all of that. It was so nice," she said.

It was especially nice because Shawn Fulker had already sent his wife flowers and candy earlier that day. Since he hadn't been able to check his email for a while, he had no idea that Mellow Mushroom had been working on his initial request.

The Facebook page for Mellow Mushroom at Fleming Island has gone bonkers with gratitude about their efforts for the Fulkers. Which was a very, very cool thing to have done.

And hey, Fulker and his unit also showed their thanks, all the way from Afghanistan!

It's stuff like this that renews my faith in humanity. Way to go Mellow Mushroom :-)

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70 degrees Fahrenheit at quarter 'til 5 p.m.

This is in north-central North Carolina, mind ya, and ordinarily at this time in the midst of winter the temperature should be about 40 degrees colder.

I went to Greensboro yesterday evening. It was much the same, with people wearing shorts, t-shirts etc. at 8 at night. I wore my "Weird Al" Yankovic Alpocalypse Tour shirt and if I didn't know any better could have sworn it was late spring.

But I've already seen snow four times this winter so far, most recently this past weekend (the girlfriend and I found ourselves looking at about 2 inches of the white stuff falling at her house in Roanoke). There's another cold front about to hit us in the worst way (read as: severe storms, high winds and possible tornadoes) this evening and given the way the trends work out we're apt to have snow later next week.

Expect a bunch more posts soon. In the meantime I gotta go unplug the 'spensive stuff. All of y'all getting hit by this storm system (which The Weather Channel has decided to dub "Magnus") and all of you folks in the path of it, batten down and good luck!

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Bias in mainstream press? WHAT bias?! (anti-gun vs. pro-life)

The apparently big story right now is about the estimated fewer than 1,000 who marched in Washington D.C. today against the Second Amendment. I understand that this has made all of the major evening new broadcasts: CBS, NBC, CNN etc.

To the very best of my understanding, there was NO such coverage at all of yesterday's March for Life, which many have calculated drew more than 500,000 to the Mall to protest abortion -the premeditated murder of unborn children - on the fortieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Now, applying some logic here, you would think that a story regarding half a million people would dwarf that of an event which drew, at most, several hundred.

But I suppose when it comes to stories and their coverage from big media, some of them just don't fit the expected narrative...

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Winter Storm Khan is giving us snow today

Dear management and staff of The Weather Channel:

You probably thought this was something "cute", didn't you?

Next year, just drop the whole "names for winter storms" thing, okay? "Gandalf" was pushing it already. But not like this...

"Khaaaaaaan!!"

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Gun control lunacy: Feinstein would take YOUR weapon but keep hers, and the modern cost of saving a life

Senator Dianne Feinstein - a person who exemplifies the absolute worst that an elected official could possibly be - is trying to ram through another gun control bill on Capitol Hill. It would take away dang nearly every firearm that We The People have as articulated in the Second Amendment... EXCEPT for her own and those of other government officials.

So lemme get this straight: Feinstein, who owns a pistol or two herself, wants legislation that will prohibit the "little people" from having guns but also wants to keep her own.

I am trying to be a man of polite society so I will refrain from using the word that many will be tempted to use in describing Feinstein. I can at least say with no small degree of accuracy "rank hypocrisy".

And then from the D.C. area there is the story of a man who several days ago came across a pack of pit bulls trying to maul a little boy to death.

The man fired his handgun at the dogs, saving his young neighbor's life.

And for his valiant act of courage the man is now facing an "illegal weapon" charge because of Washington D.C.'s insane gun control laws. He faces a year in prison and $1000 in fines.

Let's get this straight: the D.C. prosecutors would rather this guy not have a gun at the cost of a dead eleven-year old. Am I getting that right?

If a jury convicts this dude, I will have lost most of the hope that's still there for America.

But not all hope, if more local sheriffs vow to refuse to comply with federal gun laws that would deprive citizens of their Second Amendment rights. Read the new piece by Chuck Baldwin at the link for the encouraging words from people across the fruited plain to those inside the Beltway.

And the words are: "Hell no."

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Crazy new data storage: DNA and quartz crystals (for 300 million years)

Because I don't want to go to bed with two consecutive posts pertaining to Star Wars staring me in the face (no matter how good, or how nutty)...

A strand of DNA containing the digital data of all of Shakespeare's sonnets, a half-minute sound clip of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, a photo and a science paper was announced a few days ago in an article from the journal Nature. So you could pretty much take everything information-wise accumulated during the course of your entire life - photos, videos, music, writings, financial information, medical files, an entire Blu-ray collection of movies and TV shows, computer games and porno - and put it inside a test tube. The DNA used in the research took two weeks to extract data from, but the read times are supposed to get shorter as the tech develops.

And earlier this month a group of researchers in Japan announced they've turned quartz crystal into a storage medium that will last 300 million years. Currently it has the capacity of a standard CD, but it's thought that it can be expanded with more layers of crystal. It probably won't have the size-to-data ration of the DNA gimmick but in time it'll still hold a lot of your videos, finances, movies, porno TV shows and other stuff.

If the technology ever produces practical quantum computing and nano-scale laser diodes, there could be some wildly cool applications with this. Never mind that iPhone silliness: gimme a real Mother Box!

(Can't recall if I've ever used a Fourth World/New Gods reference on this blog before, but I have now :-)

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And STAR WARS EPISODE VII will be directed by... J.J. Abrams!

Get ready for it peeps...

My head hurts just thinking about what a lightsaber battle is going to look like after Abrams gets finished with all his lens flare plug-ins.

The biggest news of this hour is that J.J. Abrams will be directing Star Wars Episode VII. This will be his next project after the upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness.

Hmmmm... Star Wars and Star Trek together at last. Sorta like those old commercials for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, when you think about it...

Seriously though, this is abundawonderfully great news!! Star Wars is in very, very good hands :-)

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Turkish group claims LEGO Jabba's Palace is racist, offensive to religion

Let's compare some fiction and fact...

- Jabba's Palace was first built by the B'omarr Monks, who continued to live within it and practice their religion long after after Jabba the Hutt took over and made it his headquarters.

- The Hagia Sophia was a Christian basilica until 1453 when Ottoman Turks forced their way inside, slaughtering thousands of innocent people whose blood poured into the streets of Constantinople. From that time on Christians were forbidden from worshiping within their own building.

Got that? Good. Because it only makes the claim by a group of Turkish Austrians that LEGO's new Jabba's Palace set from its Star Wars line is "racist" and an affront to religion all the more ridiculous.

LEGO version of Jabba's Palace (left) and Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (right)
One is a place that has known murder, slavery and intolerance toward others. The other is a children's toy.

From The Telegraph article...

Austria’s Turkish community said the model was based on Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul and that the accompanying figures depicted Asians and Orientals as people with “deceitful and criminal personalities.”

The Turkish Cultural Community of Austria released a statement calling for Lego to apologise for affronting religious and cultural feelings.

The anger was provoked by “Jabba’s Palace”, a model of the home of Jabba the Hutt from Lego’s Star Wars product range based on the blockbusting series of science fiction films.

Jabba is the large slug-like creature who holds Han Solo captive in the film Return of the Jedi, and his palace is the setting for several crucial scenes, including using Princess Leia as his slave.

Jabba’s domed home and accompanying watchtower bare, according to the statement, an unwanted resemblance to Istanbul’s great Hagia Sophia, and another mosque in Beirut

...

The Jabba case came to light after an Austrian Turk complained to the organisation after his sister had bought his son the box set.

Austria’s Turkish community also took issue with the figures that went with the palace, including Jabba.

“The terrorist Jabba the Hutt likes to smoke a hookah and have his victims killed,” said the statement posted on the organisation’s website.

“It is clear that the ugly figure of Jabba and the whole scene smacks of racial prejudice and vulgar insinuations against Asians and Orientals as people with deceitful and criminal personalities.”

The crimes associated with the figures, the statements adds, include terrorism, slavery, murder and human sacrifice.

Taking into account that many of the Lego figures carry weapons, the Turkish organisation also urged parents “not to buy toys of war or toys of discrimination” as the model goes against the “peaceful coexistence of different cultures in Europe”.

As an indication of the anger felt over Jabba’s Palace, the organisation said it was considering taking legal action against Lego for inciting racial hatred and insulting human dignity.

Hit the link for plenty more of this ludicrous story, including a statement LEGO released in response to what the Turks are insisting.

How about some more comparison? Like, how the Turks in Austria are claiming that "The crimes associated with the figures... include terrorism, slavery, murder and human sacrifice."

There are numerous accounts written by those who survived the conquest of Constantinople about how Sultan Mehmet II allowed his soldiers to plunder the city for three days: butchering anyone who got in their way, stealing from homes and separating families. Mehmet II took the city's most beautiful young women - and men - to be in his private harem (those who resisted were beheaded). Many boys were pressed into the service of the Janissary corps. Not long after the conquest, the Ottoman Turkish sultan sent several thousands of children to each of the major potentates of the Muslim world to be slaves.

So far as we know, the only criminal activities that Jabba the Hutt and his gang engaged in were spice-smuggling and gun-running.

Nor do I ever recall Jabba employing suicide bombers, declaring jihad against anyone or even declaring that Luke's announcing himself as a Jedi as being "blasphemy". Come to think of it, Jabba tolerated a lot of "coexistence of different cultures" at his court.

Yup, Jabba the Hutt and his palace are insulting to certain cultures and religions, no doubt about it...

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Yes, it can really be like this...

Bipolar Bear, whose entire appearance in the animated series The Tick was for a whopping 8 seconds (series premiere The Tick vs. The Idea Men, 1994):

Heh-heh, love it! I've thought since the beginning that The Tick was one of the most intelligent, cerebral and funny shows to ever come out of animation. Nothing of the past decade and a half comes even close. The Nineties seriously was the height of the animated series as an art form and The Tick embodies everything that was good and pure about that era.

Speaking of bipolar disorder, I currently have three new pieces for Being Bipolar on the burner... and I can't figure out which one to run with next. Recent events complicated matters in terms of issue appropriateness, if anyone's curious. I'm hoping to have a new one up real soon.

And no, I don't mind laughing about my own mental illness. Not at all. When you're in a spot like me, you have to. But even so, I'm thankful for The Tick to have made it funny as only it could :-)

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Hu Songwen: Kept alive for 13 years by his self-made dialysis machine!

This man is hardcore. HARD-CORE, no two ways about it. MacGuyver ain't got nuthin' on this dude...

Hu Songwen was diagnosed with early kidney failure in 1993. A college student at the time, Hu went to a regular hospital for the next six years on a routine basis to have dialysis scrub his blood of the waste material that a healthy metabolism has no problem with passing out of the body.

But then the money ran out. And Hu could no longer afford those hospital visits.

So left with what he deemed no choice, Hu put together a homemade dialysis machine.

And his self-crafted dialysis has kept him alive for the past thirteen years!

Mail Online has plenty on the story of Hu Songwen, including a bunch more pictures and the technical details of how his machine works.

Gotta love ingenuity and initiative like that. Whenever I find a story like this, it renews my hope in humanity. Here's wishing Hu all the best in a long and prosperous life :-)

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Forty years of silent screaming

The moment is still seared into my memory. Indeed, I can still feel the revulsion that was far too much for a little child to have to grasp.

It was this day in 1983. I had seen on the news about something called "abortion". Seems that it was the tenth anniversary of it being allowed. So I asked Mom what "abortion" means.

"It means a mother kills her baby before it's born."

A chunk of my childhood died that day. There are some who would think of it as "no big deal". But to me it was the beginning of a loss of innocence. The first bricks of the wall of naivety that had secured this small child away from the madness of man's own making, come crumbling down to Earth.

"It means a mother kills her baby before it's born."

My God.

And then some years later as a foolish teenager who thought himself wise, I was stupidly defending abortion. It seemed the "enlightened" thing to do, I thought. Thankfully that phase didn't survive my high school years. I'm hoping that twenty years of writing in opposition of abortion has helped me atone for it.

I made an attempt to do it as a columnist on our student newspaper at Elon, the first spring that I was a student there. My first piece as a columnist was about abortion: how it was destroying our culture, our sense of morality.

One week later while walking around with the flu and a 104-degree temperature (what an idiot) a female student walked up to me and said into my ear "You stupid pro-life fucking piece of shit."

I received some death threats too. I took a pro-life position and people claimed to want me dead for it. I'll always take perverse pride in knowing that at least a few people read my premiere essay and took it seriously...

And now, here we are: the fortieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court decision that established a "right" to terminate an unborn child.

Funny thing: we admit that human life ends when the heartbeat stops. Why then shouldn't human life begin when a heartbeat starts?

And there is a heartbeat there. In fact, there have been roughly fifty-five million hearts that have stopped beating since this day in 1973.

See those photos on the right? Ultrasound imaging has been refined to the point where high-definition 3D pictures can be made of the unborn child within the womb of his or her mother. We can now chronicle in stark detail the development of a baby for practically its entire nine months of gestation.

Look at those pictures.

Do any of those look like "unviable tissue mass" to you?

Does a mere clump of cells within the body possess a face? Fingers? Toes?

Can a benign tumor yawn? Can it smile?

Does an appendix scream in pain when it is ripped open during a "medical procedure"?

Yes, there are screams. The first of many. There have been abortionists who halted their "practice" at once when they heard the sound of an unborn baby's agony. Too often there are other screams too. The screams of those who realize sooner or later "Dear God, have mercy on me for what I have done..."

Fifty-five million hearts silenced. Fifty-five million people. Killed without being allowed to draw breath beyond the comforting warmth of their mothers' wombs.

Now think about what we have lost in those forty years...

We have lost great scientists.

We have lost great physicians.

We have lost great artists.

We have lost great athletes.

We have lost great leaders, great statesmen.

I've been dabbling in filmmaking for several years now. How many directors, writers, actors, cinematographers have we been robbed of? Their gifts never to see the light of day, the flicker of the big screen.

Fifty-five million people, dead before they were born. The Nazi regime murdered 12 million.

And yet some dare to wonder why there is such violent in our streets. In our homes. In our schools.

How the hell can we possibly claim to value the preciousness of human life we see every day, when we don't give a damn about the preciousness of human life when it is at its most vulnerable?

I... don't see how that is possible at all.

"But Chris, it's a woman's body."

Bullshit.

Yeah, I said "bullshit".

It's not a "woman's body". It's the body of a whole another person. A person with his or her own chromosomes and brain activity. If a woman doesn't want to be bound to one body, she shouldn't be reckless with her own. If she is, then there are alternatives. There are thousands of barren couples in this country who are desperate to have a child in their life. Let them have that opportunity.

Fifty-five million children dead. Across the span of forty years.

Forty is the biblical number of completion. God made the children of Israel wander in the wilderness for forty years. From that weak and timid band of refugees came a strong and hardened people who took back the land promised their fathers. Forty is the age of full maturity, in body and mind and spirit.

What have we come to, in the forty years that God has mercifully allowed us since this day in 1973?

Can we say honestly proclaim that four full decades of abortion have nurtured within us a better heart and soul?

Or maybe it is that we no longer have that soul. Perhaps, we don't deserve it. Forty years is an awful long time to look back upon an error and repent of it. For one individual or for a people entire.

More laws will not restore the soul of our culture. Taking guns away won't replenish it. Not all of the politicians and psychologists and pop culture icons put together will bring back a thing that God has given us but we have chosen to let fall away.

President Barack Obama surrounded himself with children last week when he signed his executive orders pertaining to gun laws. Imagine how many more could have been there if he and those like him and allowed those children to live.

Don't talk to me about the violence on the evening news when we let the greatest violence of all happen in the clinical sterility of a "clinic".

Forty years.

How far we have come.

I don't know of any better way to wrap this up than to defer to the wisdom of one of the most beloved people of the modern era...

"The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion, because if a mother can kill her own child what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between." -- Mother Teresa

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LOST as a Nintendo-style role-playing game

It's been ages since anything Lost-related has appeared on this site. Someday I'll try to write up an essay that's been percolating for a year or two: how the answers to everything we'd been looking for really, honestly were revealed or explained by the time of "The End" in 2012. Including how the Island could move (there's a scientific theory for that!).

Until then, it's nice to see that Lost still resonates. Enough so that CollegeHumor.com explored the notion: "What if Lost was a computerized role-playing game?" Sorta in the style of Dragon Warrior running on a Super Nintendo...

CollegeHumor's Favorite Funny Videos

There may be spoilers if you haven't watched Lost, so viewer beware. For those who held on to the very end, this is a pretty hilarious video.

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Look: A real X-rated movie! (more about DJANGO UNCHAINED)

Yes, I realize that this post might bother some people. But I'm going to say it anyway...

A few minutes ago I published my review of Django Unchained. A movie that some have condemned as being "insensitive", "racist", "offensive", and too many other epithets that are wildly, wildly wrong.

I will not only stand by what I've written about Django Unchained - that it's not a film about slavery or even race at all but instead an epic quest to find one's lost love - but I dare say that those who want to be upset about this movie... well, they don't know what the hell they're talking about.

I thought we as a people were beyond this already. Apparently not and Django Unchained is proving it. That there are some who apparently can't be happy unless they've something to unfairly harp-on about being "racist" or whatever. Spike Lee comes to mind (he said he'd never watch Django Unchained because of how he claims it portrays people of African descent).

These are the kind of people that Booker T. Washington, that venerable educator and orator, wrote about...

"There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs. There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don't want the patient to get well."

I'll eagerly contend that Quentin Tarantino has produced the most poignant, the most endearing and the most accurate film portraying slavery in the South in an unwholesomely long time. Heck, I could even see this movie shown in high school history classes.

This is a movie that is NOT defined along racial lines. It is a film that defies those. And I absolutely believe that this is at the heart of why some people want to be offended by it.

You wanna know how a movie about slavery can truly be disturbing, even downright sickening to watch? Because what you're about to see (if you've the patience and the stomach for the next two hours) makes Django Unchained seem downright puny so far as human bondage goes. I've been thinking about Goodbye Uncle Tom since coming out of seeing Django Unchained and what have I realized from the juxtaposition?

Again: that those condemning Django Unchained don't know what the hell they're talking about.

So here it is, from 1971, a movie that I first saw at Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9 a little over five years ago. The movie that to date is still the only X-rated film that I've watched in my entire life: Goodbye Uncle Tom...

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Review of DJANGO UNCHAINED

My biggest regret so far as movies go right now is that I've yet to see Les Misérables, because everyone I know who's watched it has been raving about how spectacular and downright beautiful it is. So that's currently on my short list, along with Hitchcock and Zero Dark Thirty.

Last weekend however, we made time to catch Django Unchained: the first Quentin Tarantino film that I've seen during its theatrical run. Not even Inglourious Basterds got that honor. I first saw that on premium cable and went numb with disbelief during the final scene. As the credits rolled my jaw was still drooping and my reaction went like "Uhhhh... that's not how I remember reading about it..."

So going in to Django Unchained, I couldn't imagine what to be braced for. I've known since the beginning that it's about a slave getting revenge while searching for his wife: all kinds of possible permutations could come from that setup. I mean, would Tarantino be above a Nat Turner-ish figure leading tens of thousand of freed slaves to the streets of Atlanta, slaughtering and burning every white person they come across in a red red orgy of blades, bullets and blood?

After Inglourious Basterds, I was afraid to speculate about his latest movie.

But that's not what we saw in Django Unchained. Instead we watched what in this writer's opinion ranks high among the most historically accurate and unapologetic films ever produced about slavery and the antebellum South.

It's 1858, somewhere in Texas. A convoy of slaves are being walked to market by two brothers. Among the "cargo" is Django (Jamie Foxx, in easily his best role since Ray). During one night of the trip a very odd dentist comes out of the darkness, looking for Django. Seems that he's the only one who can identify on sight the fugitives known as the Brittle Brothers... and there's a big fat reward on each of their heads. So it is that our hero falls in with bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), who proceeds to teach Django the tricks of the trade.

But in exchange for helping Schultz find the Brittles, Django has terms of his own: to locate Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), the wife who he was separated from by their previous owners. It's a long and winding road of tracking down murders and miscreants that leads Django and Schultz to Candyland: the notoriously brutal plantation reigned over by the sadistic Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Now there were a few things that weren't right for the period in Django Unchained. The existence of dynamite for one thing (something that Alfred Nobel wouldn't invent until six years later). I also have to question the treatment of the slaves in the very first scene: contrary to widespread belief, harsh treatment of slaves in transport and on the plantations was not something that happened on a regular basis. The disfiguring and sometimes deadly abuse was also not as prevalent as many might think, if for no other reason than because slaves were deemed to be valuable property. If the Speck Brothers had made their slaves walk across Texas in real life, barefoot and barely clothed, some if not most of them would have died from exposure and malnutrition: hardly a thoughtful way to transport one's "products". There is no record of "mandingo fighting" and it would be after the Civil War before anything like the Klan came about.

But then there are the details - some insanely minute - that Tarantino poured into Django Unchained that I have to appreciate, even applaud as a historian. The "bell collars" worn by some slaves was accurate (they were usually placed on slaves with a history of trying to escape), as well as the practice of branding some slaves with an "R" on the cheek if they had run away and been returned. Tarantino often puts a scene of exposition in his films. This time it's Calvin Candie educating Schultz and Django about phrenology: a long-held eugenics theory pertaining to skull size and capacity (even at the time it was being called a pseudoscience... and yet many "civilized" people held it in serious regard as proof of racial superiority).

For all of that however, nothing in Django Unchained is perhaps as startling as Stephen: Candie's servant, played by Samuel L. Jackson. This seems to be the biggest item of controversy about the movie: that black slaves would be that unflinchingly faithful to their masters. To the very land they were property on, even.

Folks, that's not wild fiction at all. That kind of behavior was extremely common, especially among the more wealthy plantations. Slaves like Stephen had such a fierce and unflinching devotion to their masters that it was nigh-on inconceivable to them to be otherwise. Indeed, there are many records about how after the Civil War, many newly-emancipated slaves chose to remain on their former masters' lands as free men and tenant farmers. That wasn't a habit that disappeared overnight after the Confederacy surrendered, but to the best of my knowledge Django Unchained is the very first time that a movie has portrayed slavery's "Stockholm Syndrome" with such uncompromising accuracy.

But this isn't a movie about slavery. This isn't even really a movie about revenge, I thought. Instead, Django Unchained is a story of love and devotion between husband and wife. This is a quest movie: Django not giving up until he finds Broomhilda. Having to endure unspeakable hardship and pain and despair, not relenting until he can at long last be reunited with his wife. This is a love story decorated with guns and explosives... not to mention crime, cruelty and castration.

It's not Homer's The Odyssey. But I will say that with Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino has crafted a uniquely American epic. One that will certainly pass the test of time.

I'm gonna give Django Unchained my highest recommendation. Meaning that if I'm eager to have it on my Blu-ray shelf, it's worth people seeing at least once in the theaters.

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"It's not a free-speech zone when we did it!"

I did not watch President Obama's inauguration today. There is nothing particularly interesting about a leader with no real vision. Sadly that's a trait that has been shared by every president since Reagan. But I digress...

It does interest me this afternoon however that President Obama continued the tradition established by former president George W. Bush of having a "free speech zone" marked off for the event...

Freedom Plaza is the site of one of the only authorized demonstration zones, where a strip of the plaza is designated a free speech zone.

The "free speech zones" were a routine and chronic practice of George W. Bush. Nobody who protested his policies was allowed anywhere close to him when he was president and out in public. There were many instances when protestors were limited to an area nearly a mile away from Bush.

The "free speech zones" were wrong then. They are just as wrong now on Obama's watch.

But that seems to be going clean over the heads of a lot of self-professed "conservatives" today, judging by how many at the above link on Politico.com are feigning outrage that Obama is keeping those who disagree with him out of sight and out of mind.

Here is what I wrote this past October about Obama continuing Bush's practice.

Now, I defy anyone to argue that it was any more right when Bush had the "free speech zones" than it is for Obama to do precisely the same.

This is but one reason why I have become so disgusted with politics. I like to think of myself as an honest person... and honest people have a problem with sullying their hands with such blatant hypocrisy.

That and as I said earlier: there is no leadership with clear and bold vision in America.

Sometimes I wonder if that might be on purpose. Or even if that's what we the people have come to embrace.

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Back from the break

I needed to unplug from some things for the past couple of weeks. Including this blog.

Nothing traumatic or crazy happened. 'Cept I chose to focus on a few things and getting other things re-focused that had been lingering too much for too long.

This blog has been around for nine years now (wow!). In that time it has become quite a chronicle, a collection of documentation, about the evolution and development of that strange and bizarre creature that God created in Robert Christopher Knight. And that's what it will continue to be, until whatever point if and when I decide that it's time to retire from blogging.

But sometimes, that evolution and development appreciates the time to rest and reflect. And I'm still reflecting now. There might not be the frequency of posts that many readers (gauging from the amount of e-mails that came in) seem to enjoy, at least not off the bat.

In terms of Doctor Who, I'm regenerating. Becoming a different person.

But then, aren't we all? Isn't that what every one of us has been doing since the day each of us came into this world?

And besides, my girlfriend thinks it's time to write some more here. She has me well trained already. So I'd better get to work :-)

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It had to happen: BACK TO THE FUTURE and DOCTOR WHO mash-up!

A friend in our community theater guild is fond of wearing a t-shirt with this graphic on it...

So what would happen if Doctor Emmet Brown's DeLorean crashed head-on with the Doctor's TARDIS in a game of chicken?

Probably something like this...

Props to Kristen for coming across this uberkewl video by James Farr!

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Aaron Goins Jr.'s 2012 in Review

For me personally, the best part about this New Year's Day is that I made it through the rest of 2012 without getting any more speeding tickets! Having three in the past twelve months really was going too far even for me, but at least I'll have that "defensive drivers class" coming up to write about :-)

Which one is Honey and
which one is Boo Boo?

Anyhoo, there was plenty of good about 2012... and too many things that were quite a mess. If that Psy guy doesn't make good on his promise to put an end to "Gangnam Style", I swear that I'll be reaching for a glass of whiskey, a revolver and two bullets. The country remains without any real vision or leadership. And I could have lived the rest of my life and died happy without ever being told that such a thing as Honey Boo Boo (right) exists.

But on the plus side of the ledger: 2012 saw the announcement that we ARE getting Star Wars Episodes 7-9 at last, and many more Star Wars movies afterwards.  For that alone I will say that 2012 was a terrific year!

Reviewing the previous year's pop-culture, sports, entertainment and pro-wrestling scenes (especially the pro-wrestling) really isn't my forte however. But rest assured that in his own inimitable style, Aaron Goins Jr. is on the case! Over on his blog The Highlight Reel, Aaron has composed a monstrous (and hella fun) compilation of the year that was 2012. Even if you know more about Taylor Swift than you do about Vince McMahon, you won't be at a loss for something good here. Part 1 covers professional wrestling and sports, Part 2 goes over entertainment and music and Part 3 is about anything and everything in between including more pro wrestling (are we seeing a trend in our boy Aaron's blogging?).

But I think the best part is how Aaron chose to wrap up his look back...

There were so many good times that, even outnumbered by the bad, I cannot help but smile when I think back on 2012. I hope that 2013 will be a better year for me. I hope it is a better year for us all. I hope that we can find more time to smile, more time to think, and more time to cry tears of joy and not sorrow or pain. 2013 is a year full of hope. In conclusion, I hope 2012 was great for you and that 2013 will be even better.

God bless.

Hear hear! May we all have a better year in 2013 :-)

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One last photo from 2012 Holiday Season

Kristen and me on Christmas Day at her parents' house...

Despite everything she says, I still insist that she is far too sweet, fun and beautiful for a guy like me to be blessed with :-)

I am feeling led to say something here. That this Christmas was, for more reasons than I can possibly count, THE best Christmas that I have been able to enjoy in a very long, long time.

It was the first Christmas that I have had without Mom. In fact, it was a year ago today that we had her funeral. And in a lot of ways this was a trying and difficult year in other aspects as well.

But when I see the person I was a year ago, the time that I was going through then... and then now, how far God has brought me in that time, how He has blessed me more than I possibly deserve. And then how Kristen had promised that this was going to be a wonderful Christmas...

It was. It really was.

And Lord willing, next Christmas will be even better ;-)

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Out-of-whack priorities

Good friend, Baptist minister and wise Christian brother (he's certainly wiser than I shall ever be) James Hodges made an observation earlier today. I'm sharing it here, because in so few words it speaks volumes...

Why should we worry about the 'fiscal cliff' when we have already fallen over the 'moral cliff.'

Unfortunately, all too true.

Perhaps there would be no concern of a "fiscal cliff" at all if we had chosen to long ago steer away from the moral cliff.

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Truly scarier than the Sith...

For as long as we've been watching Star Wars movies, I can't recall anyone drawing attention to this one fleeting but horrifying image from Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...

Ewoks. With blaster rifles.

For the good of the galaxy, let us hope the triumphant Rebels never allow them to leave Endor.

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THE WALKING DEAD set to Adele's "Skyfall"

Massive spoilers in this video, 'cuz it covers everything from the start of the first season on up to the third year's mid-season finale.

If you're caught up on The Walking Dead, you still won't be ready for the abundawundawesomeness of Jonathan Wong's video. He's masterfully edited together clips from The Walking Dead and set it to Adele's hit song "Skyfall", the theme from the latest James Bond movie.

If you only watch one YouTube video this week, watch this one. If you only watch ten, watch this one ten times!

AMC oughtta hire Jonathan, this vid is so dang cool!!

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"Taps" for a true soldier and statesman

General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

"Stormin' Norman"

1934 - 2012

 

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"The Snowmen" is blowing every DOCTOR WHO fan's mind right now!!

HOLY &#@$!!!

I was prepared to write up a review of 2012's edition of what has become a much-anticipated holiday tradition: the Doctor Who Christmas special. And then showrunner/writer Steven Moffat louses it up by making everyone's job at writing about it ridiculously almost impossibly hardcore crazy difficult.

So on this side of the pond "The Snowmen" just finished transmitting on BBC America.

Good. Lord...

"The Snowmen" has done what no other Christmas special before has done: it has sent Doctor Who COMPLETELY off the rails like a highballing freight train. The lever is broken and the brakes are GONE, bay-bee!!

Halfway through the story I was already set to declare "The Snowmen" to be not only the best Christmas special we have yet seen, but to be one of the best Doctor Who stories ever. This was a Doctor (Matt Smith) we have never witnessed before in any incarnation: tired, world-weary... and dare I say apathetic? Smith has steadily been turning the Eleventh Doctor into a far darker character than we've become comfortable with. The tragic events seen in "The Angels Take Manhattan" have taken their toll on the man who was once savior of worlds.

It also didn't hurt that we got to see the return of Madame Vastra and her associate/wife Jenny, and Strax (who had such wonderful wacky and trigger-happy lines in this special that many on Twitter are demanding that he be the next companion for the Doctor).

Then there were the Snowmen: perhaps the most nightmarish and twisted villains we have seen in any Doctor Who story in recent memory. And there could have been no better actor to give them life and a voice than Ian McKellen. Richard Grant also brought a sinister presence as Doctor Simeon.

So let's get down to brass tacks: "The Snowmen" as a story all its own blew the minds of everyone watching tonight. But then there was that last half or so hinting at something else amiss.

And then came the last few minutes...

JEEBUS CRIPES CRISPIES WITH MILK AND BROCCOLI!!!

Doctor Who is now totally off the chain. And so begins the era of Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara: perhaps more than any other companion in nigh-on fifty years of Doctor Who, set to be a major enigma in the already-enigmatic life of the Doctor.

This will go down in history as the Christmas Night that melted the gray matter of Doctor Who fans across the globe. And there will be NO end to speculation between now and when the show returns in April for the second half of the current season.

"The Snowmen" gets an unprecedented FIFTEEN Sonic Screwdrivers out of a possible five from this reviewer. Yes, it's that good.

Best. Doctor Who. Christmas. Special. Ever. Must. Watch. Again.

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To a very many people...

To friends in far places,

To friends not forgotten,

To friends never to be seen again within the circles of the Earth,

To friends who will ever be cherished across the the years, until we meet again at last on that distant shore,

To friends who will be loved always, though they may never know it...

Merry Christmas.

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"It wasn't us Protestants, honest!"

This evening I had the opportunity to do something that I've wanted to do for most of my life: attend the Christmas Eve Mass at a Roman Catholic Church.

I am very happy to report that it was as beautiful as I had long expected it to be. Although I am not Catholic, nonetheless I came away from the experience feeling that God had ministered to my spirit in a way that I have needed Him to these past few days especially.

That, and it was a pleasure to celebrate the birth of Christ with my Catholic brethren. Turns out that just about all the Christmas hymns were those that I had already grown up with :-)

Here's a photo I shot just before the Eucharist tonight at St. Veronica's...


The church was packed solid! We had to sit in one of these three adjoining hallways that had been furnished with extra chairs. St. Veronica's has, I think four Christmas Eve services in order to accommodate everyone.

And then there's what happened later, which at least one person described as the "most thrilling Mass ever!"

As the Eucharist was nearing its end (this one little kid gave me a REALLY crazy look when he saw that I was still sitting down and not getting up at all to take part in the Eucharist)... that is when the fire alarms went on all over the church!! So the priests had to administer the Host to the last few parishioners with loud noise and flashing lights all over the sanctuary. The alarm could be delayed for a few seconds before going full-blast again, so some poor deacon was in the back of the building frantically deactivating the fire alarm every few seconds, trying hard to not miss a beat.

A group of parishioners were coming back to where we were sitting after having the Eucharist. And... I tried, Lord knows I tried to hold back folks, but I just couldn't help myself...

I blurted out "It wasn't us Protestants, honest!"

Turns out that in the narthex at the entrance of the church, where some of the overflow crowd was sitting, a baby accidentally pulled a fire alarm lever.

So this is how my first Christmas Eve Mass at a Roman Catholic Church ended: with two fire engines arriving at the scene...





Not quite how I always envisioned a Christmas Eve Mass to wind down, but exciting all the same :-)

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It's Christmas Eve and the snow is falling

Awright, so it's hard to make out in the pic... but trust me, it is snowing at my location. And at a pretty good clip too! Maybe we'll get a White Christmas. There was one in Reidsville two years ago. Where I am now, perhaps a chance for an even bigger one.

Oh yeah, no traditional Christmas post this time as in years past. May be some pretty neat stuff that I'll be putting on the blog the next few days :-)

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Tammy's first Christmas

Don't ever let it be said that anybody in this wacky family lacks for gifts on Christmas!

This pic is actually a few days old, but I wanted her to go ahead and start enjoying it. Here is Tammy - now a very psycho eight-months old - with her new doggie bed :-)




She's come a long way from the bed she made on her first day with us...

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"Astoria!!"

After dinner tonight (which may or may not have been in celebration of today being the Festivus holiday) Kristen's sister-in-law Melissa presented me with a gift: her rendering of one of the many memorable moments from our trip to Oregon this past June...



That's Uncle Bob and yours truly, when I suggested we drive from our rental house in Hood River all the way to the Pacific coast. Because that was when Astoria was having its annual Goonies Weekend and I always wanted to see the house from that movie.

Alas, we did not make it that far. Maybe we'll be there in 2015 for the big party they're already planning for The Goonies 30th anniversary :-)

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Raggin' on Rudolph

Two thoughts about the reindeer who went down in hist-o-REEEEEE...

1. If Rudolph's nose is THAT bright, and also such high-energy because of its intense red hue, assuming it's radiating out the lumens of at least the running lights of a commercial airliner and that it's shining right at his face...

...Rudolph should be totally blind by now!! Even one trip around the world would have been more than enough to burn out his retinas.

I hope Santa sleeps easy with this on his conscience.

2. Johnny Marks wrote "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" in 1949 as part of a publicity campaign for the Montgomery Ward's department store chain.

Just think: if the company had insisted upon royalties every time that song was played or performed or sung in public by school choirs and Brownie troops, Montgomery Ward's would still be in business!

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"Who are we to You?"

Ever since I first saw this movie in February, it has lingered on the edges of my consciousness like no film before has.

And of all the wonder that is to be found in Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, this is the scene that has most entranced and enchanted me.

As I wrote after watching it then, this is a movie that dares to ask God "Why?", before providing the same reply that God gave to Job.

Now that the thought occurs to me, I might even suggest watching The Tree of Life after studying the Book of Job from the Old Testament. Yeah: read everything from the beginning, on through Job losing all but his life and then to the monologues by his friends (some help they were!) and exactly before hitting the point where God comes in to answer Job, go to this scene in The Tree of Life and let that paraphrase what God says.

What God has said to Job and to every one of us who has demanded of Him, "Answer me."

The music is "Lacrimosa" by composer Zbigniew Preisner. And as soon as I find the CD of it I am absolutely putting it on my iPod.

Just felt like posting something beautiful at this late hour...

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When firearm magazines are outlawed...

Handgun and rifle magazines are selling out at Wal-Mart and other retailers and the prices for them are soaring on eBay and other sites. One gun shop in Charlotte did more than $1 million in sales yesterday: the most it's had in over half a century of business. With the increasing likelihood that the Obama Administration and too much of Congress are going to attempt restrictions on guns and magazines, people are gettin' it while the gettin's good.

So I can't help but think: a magazine isn't much more than a metal box with a spring. Come to think of it, that's all a magazine is. I could very easily manufacture a rough but working magazine - holding as much ammo as I wish - in a machine shop. Apart from the spring, EVERYTHING that I'd need to produce a magazine in an hour or so's time is within ready reach of me.

Hey, I've made knives. Making parts for guns would be the next logical step. And there are many with far greater skills who could produce not just the magazines but full-working guns, and possibly mass-produce them at that.

Not to mention that rapid-prototyping - AKA "3D printing" - is already allowing for production of magazines and other gun parts on your desktop. Before very long if you want a gun, you'll be able to download one from the Internet. Literally.

I'm guessing that if government restrictions are placed on firearms and magazines, that there will be a vast underground market for those produced in home shops etc. And every one of them will be unregistered and untraceable.

I'm just sayin', is all...

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The Doctor is getting a new TARDIS console!

In six days "The Snowmen" cometh. And it's just been announced that they'll be voiced by Ian McKellen (yup, Gandalf himself).

And the Doctor will be waiting for them. Not just in new threads but a whole new control room for the TARDIS...

The Doctor Who Christmas specials have been very hit-or-miss for me. One one hand we've had "The Next Doctor", "The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe" and the beautiful tale that was "A Christmas Carol"... and then there have been turkeys like "Voyage of the Damned" (right up there with "Love & Monsters" as one of the all-time low points of Doctor Who history). But I've a ridiculously good feeling about "The Snowmen".

Anyhoo, the more I look at this redesign of the TARDIS console/control room, the more I'm digging it. And apparently that really IS a whole new costume for the Eleventh Doctor! Matt Smith describes it as "a bit Artful Dodger meets the Doctor." Some pics have him wearing a top hat with the new ensemble. And he's still wearing the bow tie. Bow ties are cool.

(What? Y'all think I wouldn't find a way to work that in? :-P )

"The Snowmen" premieres on Christmas Day: on BBC One for our Brittish brethren across the pond and on BBC America for us colonists.

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Robert Bork has passed away

Look, I know about the guy's role in the Saturday Night Massacre. There were a number of beliefs that he held to which I do now and always will vehemently disagree with, particularly with his stance on jury nullification. He also was way off about the Second Amendment, holding to the notion that it was intended for participating in government-sanctioned militias.

But I've also long believed that in spite of those and many more qualms about the man, Robert Bork truly - as best he understood - adhered to the highest principles in respect to law and the Constitution.

And claims from petty politicians (like Ted Kennedy) aside, it must be agreed by all: Bork was a brilliant jurist in every sense.

Judge Robert H. Bork passed away this morning at the age of 85.

Thoughts and prayers going out to his family.

And I have to wonder today - as I have many times over the years - what the United States Supreme Court would have been like if Bork had been on the bench.

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It's the REAL first trailer for STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS!

Eleven days ago J.J. Abrams' boys at Bad Robot let loose their teaser for Star Trek Into Darkness. Paramount is officially calling that one an "announcement" for the upcoming movie.

Then this afternoon they release what they're claiming is the actual first trailer for it.

Confused? Yeah me too kinda.

But I think most will agree: this could be, so far, the most intense and poignant trailer for a Star Trek movie ever:

You're gonna have to watch it in Quicktime if you wanna see it 'cuz at the moment the Paramount lawyers are having it wiped like crazy from YouTube. Besides, you REALLY want to watch this in full beautiful Quicktime anyway. Trust me :-)

Still no word on whether or not Benedict Cumberbatch will be playing Khan. But right now the confidence is pretty high that Alice Eve's character will be Carol Marcus. And then there's that final shot from this trailer that will remind everyone of a certain famous scene from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan...

Gotta love a good mystery!

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Victoria Soto, 1985 - 2012

Victoria Soto, teacher of first graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School. She had just turned 27. Bright, beautiful, with a love of teaching and her whole life ahead of her...

She was killed during Friday's massacre after hiding her students in a closet, then using her body to shield them against the bullets.

"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."

-- John 15:13 (New International Version)

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