"The Incident": LOST Season 5 ends tonight... with a bang?!

The situation as things stand now on Lost...

- Still trapped in 1977, Jack is hellbent on following through with the now-dead Daniel's plan to change the future and make it so that Oceanic Flight 815 never crashes in 2004.

- Daniel's plan to alter history, incidentally, hinges on detonating the Jughead hydrogen bomb before the drilling at the Swan Station releases the energy in what the Swan orientation film called "the incident".

- Sawyer, Juliet and Kate are on the DHARMA Initiative submarine that has left the Island.

- Dr. Chang now knows that Miles is his son, and that Hurley and his friends are from the future.

- Meanwhile in 2007, Locke has taken charge of the Others. He has decided to lead them all on a little hike into the jungle to find Jacob: the unseen "great man" who supposedly calls all the shots for the Others.

- What Locke hasn't told anyone yet... except an obviously horrified Ben... is that he intends to kill Jacob when they finally meet him.

- And there is still the little matter of Ilana, Bram and the rest of the Ajira Flight 316 survivors who have taken Frank hostage and are presumably headed toward whatever "lies in the shadow of the statue".

The penultimate season of Lost comes down to a two-hour finale tonight at 9 p.m. on ABC. And "The Incident" threatens to be the most explosive (literally) cliffhanger episode in television history. Will Jack explode the Jughead? Will we finally get to see Jacob? What does lie in the shadow of the statue? And will we ever discover why Richard Alpert never ages a day?!

The DHARMA Initiative munchies are being prepared even now. I might try to Twitter spontaneous reaction during commercial breaks. Otherwise, expect the post-episode commentary later this evening.

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BIOSHOCK 2 to include multiplayer PREQUEL game (and why I don't like the sound of it)

I'll admit that right now there's not a whole lot of information about this to yet pass final judgment. But I sure hope that 2K Games has taken some things into consideration with this move...

BioShock 2, the upcoming sequel to 2007's haunting and intellect-jarring first-person shooter, will have a multiplayer aspect: something that was absent from the original BioShock. 2K has hired Digital Extremes - a company that has worked on successful titles such as Unreal Tournament and Dark Sector - to concentrate on BioShock 2's multiplayer component. However it has become clear that what Digital Extremes will be doing is not so much a mere "complement" to BioShock 2 as it will be an entire beast of a gaming experience in its own right.

In multiplayer mode you'll have access to "weapons, plasmid and tonic unlocks, so that you'll ultimately be able to kit out your player with hundreds of combinations to compete to earn online experience points."

Sounds good so far. But wait! Here's what's popping up a huge red flag...

The mode will act as a prequel, and it is shaping up to be something of a must-play, as gamers will become test subjects for the plasmids made by Sinclair Solutions, and will have to explore the world of Rapture and see it fall into decadence and, ultimately, into ruin. The wide variety of plasmids and tonics are certain to give birth to a lot of interesting combinations...

Players will step into the shoes of Rapture citizens and learn more about the fall of Rapture as they progress through the experience...

Experience Rapture before it was reclaimed by the ocean and engage in combat over iconic environments in locations such as Kashmir Restaurant and Mercury Suites, all of which have been reworked from the ground up to deliver a fast-paced multiplayer experience.

So multiplayer BioShock 2 is going to provide our first-ever look at what Rapture was like before the cataclysmic events of New Years Eve 1958, when the underwater utopian metropolis finally succumbed to the dark side of human nature and erupted into civil war. As one who loves the lore of BioShock, I can dig that much.

But what about the BioShock fans out there who either can't get in on multiplayer for various reasons, or who simply don't care for this kind of game play?

Are they going to be cheated out of some delicious BioShock history? Will they be punished for their geography or their preference for solo play, and locked out of getting a look at pre-fall Mercury Suites and the Kashmir?

Because I'm one of those myself. I've done online multiplayer "shoot 'em ups" before and yeah they're fun for awhile, but personally I find engaging story and characters in a game like BioShock and Gears of War to be more intriguing. I'd much rather explore the worlds of those games at my own pace, instead of having to constantly worry about some 15-year old hormone machine calling himself "Lance" all the way in Minneapolis sniping me from the shadows so he can up his Xbox Live gamer score.

So are solitary players like myself going to become a segregated class in the social order of Rapture? Are 2K Games and Digital Extremes going to dictate that individuality is undesirable, that we must be collective in our game play?

Somehow I don't think Andrew Ryan would approve of that going on in his city.

And I can't believe that there are many solo-oriented BioShock fans who are going to enjoy that very much either.

I'm not going to ask for multiplayer to be stripped out of BioShock 2. For those who thrive on that sort of video gaming, I will sincerely hope that BioShock 2's will set a whole new standard for multiplaying excellence. But I am going to be anticipating that 2K Games and Digital Extremes have taken "the rest of us" into account, and will give lone players a chance to also fully explore Rapture at the height of its glory.

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One small kiss for a teen, one giant slap in the face to "Christian" legalism

Tyler Frost, who was suspended and kept from graduating by the principal of Heritage Christian School in Findlay, Ohio for the "sin" of taking his girlfriend to her prom, is shown here giving Rebecca Smoody a kiss that in the immortal words of Andy Griffith was "right smack-dab on the MOUTH!"

Said kiss also took place within ready eyesight of Heritage Christian School, which has ridiculously banned its students from dancing, hand holding, kissing, "rock music" and other things... both on campus and off.

I hope and pray that the windows of that school were filled with the gazes of curious students who beheld Tyler's act of rebellion against "the rules".

Does this mean that Heritage Christian principal Tim England will have Frost expelled?

Well, like I've said already (maybe too much at that): Tyler Frost did nothing wrong as a follower of Christ. This is all about Heritage Christian School and Calvary Baptist Church that runs it, throwing its own legalistic weight around. The school and church are a pack of Pharisees: setting up stumbling blocks that keep people from knowing the real love and grace of Jesus Christ. And so far as this blogger is concerned, Tyler Frost is being way more a sincere follower of Christ than Tim England and Gordon Dickson, who have placed worship of their church's doctrine above that of serving Christ in loving humility.

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Hyper-inflation, here we come!

The United States government will be borrowing 46 cents for ever dollar that it spends for the current fiscal year.

This country is now on the fast track to joining Zimbabwe. Or maybe the Weimar Republic is a better comparison...

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Republicans trying to hijack the "Tea Party" movement

Politico.com is reporting that GOP governors Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Rick Perry of Texas are attempting to pull off what is being called "Tea Party 2.0".

But a lot of people are seeing this as an effort by the Republican Party's leadership and elected officials to "hitch their wagons" to the grassroots "Tea Party" movement that has taken place over the past couple of months in protest of Washington's runaway taxing and spending.

And I'm inclined to more than slightly agree with that sentiment.

Look at what is happening to the Republicans of late: as a party they aren't even pretending anymore that their purpose is about anything but regaining political power. And damned few average Americans are taking them seriously as a result.

(And I write this as one who is still currently registered as a Republican, for whatever the hell worth that's supposed to have...)

So let me be succinct: the Tea Party drive is the one marginally successful movement that we have seen in American politics of late. In its purest, most unadulterated form it is something that is not a product of any political party, and should remain above and beyond partisan influence if it is to achieve its greatest potency.

And the Republicans, with nothing to show for themselves (neither do the Democrats but I digress), are now seeing the Tea Parties not as a thing to emulate but as a thing to exploit.

So to those who have been active in the Tea Party movement, I would like to suggest the following and ask that you take it to heart...

KEEP THE REPUBLICAN PARTY LEADERSHIP AS FAR THE HELL AWAY FROM THE TEA PARTIES AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN!

Do whatever the #*@& is necessary to maintain this as a movement driven by the average citizen. If you ever hold a rally, only allow private individuals the opportunity to take to the podium and voice their concerns. Don't give the elected officials a chance to grandstand and steal the momentum that your passion and energy has produced. You aren't doing this to hear "them": you are doing this to make damned sure that "they" hear YOU!

There is no reason at all to put any faith in either the Republicans or the Democrats. When the two major "parties" are more infatuated with the antics of Rush Limbaugh and Wanda Sykes than they are with being about solid principles and responsible government, something is very wrong. They sure as hell aren't going to do anything about their own mess.

And you shouldn't give them a chance to make a mess of your own efforts either.

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Venetia Phair, namer of Pluto, has passed away

The sad news has arrived that Venetia Phair has passed away in her native England at the age of 90.

It was her idea to give the solar system's ninth planet (or first "Trans-Neptunian object" if you're some kind of wacko liberal astronomer... just kidding :-) the name "Pluto". Nine years old at the time in 1930 and born Venetia Burney, she was already quite knowledgeable about astronomy and classical mythology when "Planet X" was discovered.

Click on the link above for the entire fascinating story of how one little girl's breakfast-time suggestion became enthusiastically embraced by not just the scientific community, but also by the entire world.

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A question for my fellow Christians

If we are commanded to "test the spirits" (1st John 4:1)...

...then how much more so should we boldly question the motivations of mere men?

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