I de-published a post. Here's why...

A few months ago I was accused of being a bigot, by a very disturbed individual from England named Connor Heggie.  You can find out more about him if you do a search on this blog.  Heggie went around the Internet claiming that I was a bigot because, as he is apparently a homosexual person, my mere disagreeing with the LGBT lifestyle means that I hate those kinds of people.

It seems not to dawn on Heggie that HE is the real bigot, against anyone who does not meet his standards.  So rife with hate is Heggie, that he has stalked people online and had them fired from their jobs because they disagreed with him.

Last week I was sent information from someone who had been watching Heggie's Facebook group, The SW Geek Hub.  And whatever doubts about Heggie being a person of hate were dispelled.  Heggie is among those who believes that the people of Israel are guilty of genocide.  Only a fool would believe such a thing.

Antisemitism is something I take very seriously.  I've had Jewish friends for most of my life.  I've met survivors of the Holocaust.  I see a lot of the same hatred now that happened too many times in history.  It's something that has led to too much misery and suffering.  Why have the Jews been so persecuted throughout history?  I think the answer was provided in an essay I read this morning: the Jewish people have always been a mirror for the rest of humanity.  Their success and integrity and love makes others look bad.  Too many decide that instead of emulating that, they have to destroy it.  And that is what those who claim that the Jewish people are evil and committing genocide are trying to do.

Well, I made a post about Heggie claiming that Israel is engaged in genocide against the Palestinians.  And it got around.  It generated some controversy (not the first time this blog has done that).

I decided to take it down this morning.  No one asked me to or gave me an ultimatum.  I did it on my own.

It served its purpose.  It spotlighted an evil thing.  It called it out by name and announced it to the world.

Thats all that needed to be done.

I don't think that Heggie is going to be so brazen about accusing others of bigotry anymore.  Not with this hanging over him.  If he does, he'll be an enormous fool.  But that's something he'll have to answer for in due time.  I don't need to punish him.

But I think the real reason why I took down the post is this: Heggie and those like him are boring.  They are people of rage and lust.  They aren't worth being concerned with.  As a commenter said on the post before I unpublished it said, there are much better people to involve myself with.  Greater opportunities and achievements to be had.  Heggie and his cronies have reached the end of their growth cycle.  They will never get further than where they are now.  They will never make a movie or publish a book, will never perform in a musical or spend a year exploring the world behind their window.  They will never know true love.  They are each going to die someday and leave this world no poorer.

I vowed to myself a long time ago that that would never be my fate.  I think I've done pretty good by that promise.

So I've said what needs to be said.  The truth is there, for anyone to find.  If someone is ever again accused of being a hater and a bigot, they can be assured that the accuser is far more a bigot than they could ever be.

I think that's a win.

EDIT 10/10/2026: Okay sure, why not?  Here is the original post that preceded this one,

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Got the new iPhone 18 Pro Max (and a challenge to myself)

Two weeks ago I upgraded my telephony gear to the new iPhone 18 Pro Max (shown at right, displaying the Amazon Kindle app with my book Keeping the Tryst: pretty cool aye?).  The last time I bought a smartphone, it was early winter 2021 when I got the iPhone 12.  I had been mighty pleased with that one, with the exception that from the start it seemed to get low on battery too quickly.

(The previous phone replaces the iPhone 6 that I got a month before me and my dog's epic adventure across America that kicked off in late spring of 2016.  I guess getting a new phone every five years or so is a good pattern to have.)

Battery life is not a problem with the 18.  I'm using it regularly at my new job, for taking photos and filing reports etc.  The battery charge on the new phone is insanely good.  Color me impressed.

There is something else that impresses me about the iPhone 18.  Something that I've been hoping might make it into a smartphone design someday and now Apple has done it...

The iPhone 18 Pro has a camera (one of three) with an adjustable aperture and focal length.  Meaning it can capture true depth of field.  I've been playing around with that feature and have been astounded at how good it is.  This is many leagues beyond the traditional camcorder that I did a lot of my early cinematography with.  When I get some good subject matter I'll post a clip demonstrating the depth of field.

So this has given me  an idea.

It's been ages since I've produced a film.  The last time I did anything cinematically was around 2018 or so, when I was collaborating on a daily in-house news show with a group in Greenville.  It was an opportunity to really stretch myself creatively and the results were amazing.  I worked with a great crew there and when I left for other opportunities it was a sad thing to have to leave them behind.  But we did a lot of terrific work: some serious, a lot of funny stuff, reports from the field, informative clips, short films... we did everything but a full-length feature.

It's a feature film that I want to tackle next.  I haven't done anything like that since Forcery and that was in 2005 (what can I say? I've been very busy in the past twenty years).  Now Forcery was a lot of fun.  But for quite awhile now I've wanted to do some more mature storytelling.

I'm setting down a challenge to myself then.  I'm going to endeavor to make a full-length film - at least an hour and 20 minutes - shooting it with my new iPhone.  I absolutely believe it's possible to produce a serious motion picture with a minimum of equipment and have it be good enough to shop around for distribution, or at least enter it into a film festival.  The technology has progressed enough to the point where it's definitely feasible to be minimalist and still create a great looking film.

In addition to the iPhone, I already have other equipment on hand: tripods, the previous iPhone can be used to capture audio separate from the main phone, lighting... heck if need be we can recreate the "nine-dollar dolly" we used on Forcery.

It might be possible to edit the entire movie on the iPhone.  For that however I'm going to use my iPad Pro.  It's already loaded with various video editing apps that I'm adept with.

That's my challenge to myself: shoot an entire serious movie with my iPhone.  I believe it is doable.  And hey, if nothing else it will be an opportunity to bring the band back together!  The KWerky Productions gang has remained close all this time, I think they'll up up for it.

Now, as George Lucas said when he finally sat down to write Star Wars Episode I: "All I need is an idea."  My brain is trying to think of something useful.  Maybe one will hit me while I'm at my job.  I've already come up with a few ideas for the historical romance novel I've set about writing.  Perhaps one for a new movie will present itself too.

As always, I'll keep y'all posted on what develops.  Just as I did with Forcery.  

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It's the Star Wars/Hellraiser crossover we never knew we wanted

A very clever chap has put together something quite clever: a video (mix of AI and traditional footage) depicting a contest between Star Wars baddie Darth Vader and Pinhead from the Hellraiser series.  Who wins: the Dark Lord of the Sith or the leader of the Cenobites?

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The Final Hour of Christa Pike: Some thoughts about capital punishment

Many years ago, during a particularly dark period of my life,  I wrote a one-scene play.  It was one of a number of works that I felt inspired to create.  Thankfully I seem to have come out of that melancholy for good, but there will forever be a mark on my soul from that time.  I like to think that what I've done since has been, for lack of a better term, "happier".

So, about this play...

It's a single scene.  Involving a man and a woman.  And they come to have a heated discussion involving another woman.  All throughout the play you're wondering "who are these people?  What are they talking about?  Does this involve an affair that he's been caught in?"

Finally, in the last moments of the play, comes the big reveal.  The object of their conversation is a woman who is about to be executed and the man - who is the governor of the state - has rejected all requests for clemency.  The life of this woman has fallen into his hands and he has the power to grant mercy or to let justice run its course.

There was never an agenda when I wrote this play.  It was simply a scenario that had crossed my mind and I felt like it would make an interesting dramatic presentation.  And so I wrote it.  So far very few people have read it.  Who knows?  Maybe someday I'll get to see it produced.  That would indeed be a fine arrow in the quiver of my skills and accomplishments.

I'm thinking of my play this morning, mostly because of what is about to happen in the state of Tennessee in another hour.  At 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, Christa Pike is going to be executed by lethal injection.  It will be the final act of a chain of events stretching back to January of 1995, when Pike and two other people brutally murdered a young woman.  I'll spare you the details.  It was as heinous an act as there is likely to be.  Among other things Pike carved a pentagram into her victim's body.

And so it has come to this: all the appeals have been exhausted and the governor refuses to yield and the United States Supreme Court has chosen to not intervene.  In a short while Christa Pike will be brought into this room and strapped down to the gurney and have a needle inserted into her arm.  At the appointed time a series of substances will be injected into her: starting with a powerful anesthetic that will drop her into a sleep almost like death.  And then a "drug" that will stop her heart and breathing.

The death chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution
in Tennessee

Once upon a time, I was adamantly against the death penalty.  I thought it was barbaric, and beneath the level of civilized humanity.  We were supposed to be better than that, I believed.  A person who committed an act of murder should be imprisoned for life without parole.  There couldn't be anything worse than that.  It's what a people who have arisen above their impulses for revenge should do.

I'm older now.  Hopefully not too jaded.  I still believe that people are capable of great things, that they are not necessarily creatures of inherent cruelty.  However, I am also a realist.  And I do know that for as long as man will be upon the earth, there will also be the capacity for terrible acts of violence and bloodshed.

I used to be against the death penalty.  And now?  I believe that it should not only be legal, but that there are times when it is warranted and even necessary.

Human life is a precious and sacred thing.  There can be no taking from that without dire repercussion.  Acting to murder someone diminishes that sanctity.  It takes away from the priceless value of life.  We like to believe that a civilized society regards all human life as, for lack of a different term, holy. And I could say something about other issues regarding innocent life, but I shall save that for another time.

It's not left to anyone to decide that another person should die.  That is something left to higher power above mankind.  To assume that power is to violate the natural order of things.  Are there occasions where taking of human life is justifiable?  Yes, there are.  Acts of self-defense or defense of loved ones, those especially come to mind.  And again, I could say something about another matter pertaining to self-defense, but I won't for now.

An act of heartless and soulless murder, however, inflicts a horrific wound upon the body of the human condition as agreed upon by a people of law.  And it is something that requires an act to bring it back into balance.

That act is at least a penalty of time in prison.  And at its worst, it calls for the forfeiture of the life of the offender.  It has to be this way.  For life to remain of value, a life must be exacted in kind.

That is what Christa Pike is going to do this morning.  She is going to pay the price for taking a life in the manner that she did it.

"But Chris, she can be forgiven for what she did!"  Yes, she can.  I'm of the belief that forgiveness is always available for us, no matter our transgressions.  I believe that God is ever ready to forgive those who believe upon His love and redemptive nature and finished work.  What a person has done, no matter how terrible, it doesn't matter in God's economy.

People like Christa Pike can find forgiveness.  They can not find escape from the temporal penalty however. That remains to be paid.  And I believe that a person who truly is remorseful is going to accept that as being their fate.

That's a harsh thing to believe, but there it is.  If Pike has remorse for what she did, her soul can be saved.  But ultimately that is not the prerogative of the government to grant.  It's up to her.  I hope that she does feel remorse for her actions.  I like to think that as long as they live no one is beyond redemption.

That's something between her and God however.  Or whoever or whatever the higher power it is that she chooses to believe in.

So there it is: I once considered the death penalty to be a cruel and heartless thing.  I now believe that for a culture to continue to value the sacredness and priceless value of human life, it must also be prepared to take life that violates the natural order in the worst way.  We can choose to mete out the final act of justice in a way that is solemn and dignified, and I think that is morally required for a noble people.

I pray that Christa Pike, and anyone else facing execution, will be at a place of enormous peace when they come to the last moments.  And I pray that the rest of us will find a sense of completion.  The deed will have been done.  Life will continue, and perhaps with a bit more regard for innocence.

Which, is what this is all about to begin with.

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Does Connor Heggie of SW Geek Hub hate the Jews?

EDIT  10/09/2026 12:55 AM EST:  Why not?

I think that taking a stand against antisemitism certainly counts toward doing good.

Here is the post that I had taken down a few days ago:

---

I debated about whether to post this.  Truth be told apart from some mad comment left on a previous post I'd forgotten about Connor Heggie, the owner of Facebook group The SW Geek Hub and the extremist LGBT stalker who accused me of bigotry because of my convictions about the homosexual lifestyle and how it is not only wrong, but it's dangerous.

There have been too many great things in my life lately than to be concerned about a twit and his fellow goons on Facebook.  Things like new friendship, well-paying new job, new car, my book selling well and I've begun writing another... God has been very good to me in the past few months.  I'm extremely thankful for what has been happening in my life.  More than I can possibly convey.

There are far better blessings to appreciate than to let cowards on Facebook come into mind.  There have been others like he and his cohorts before and I've largely forgotten about them too.  They can stay in their own little realm, isolated from the rest of the world.  Nobody serious cares about their circle-jerk (if I might be allowed to use crude language).

But when it comes to antisemitism, that's where matters do become too severe than to not address.

A reader of this blog who has been watching Heggie's "SW Geek Hub" Facebook page (I blocked Hegggie so I can't see his activity anymore, and I don't care to either) sent along the following screenshot of a recent post that our least favorite loon made:

Ed Sheeran is the singer-songwriter who kicked Macklemore off his current tour because the rapper expressed political opinions during a recent show.  Something that no responsible musical artist should do with people who paid for him to perform, not to insult his audience (as Michael Jordan said when asked why he didn't use his stardom to promote political agendas, "Republicans buy shoes too.")

Macklemore used his platform to express his longstanding belief that the Palestinians are the victims of a "genocide" by the Israelis.  It is a notion that is shared by many who are against Israel.  Who are against the Jewish people and their right to occupy a homeland that they have had for four thousand years.  To claim to be pro-Palestinian is far less a statement of solidarity with an ethnicity that only came about in the past century or so, than it does with being antisemitic: harboring a hatred of the Jewish people and everything about them.

I know something about anti-Judaism.  I've studied history for most of my life.  It's led to a lot of understanding about what the Jews have been through over the millennia.  I've also met too many survivors of the Holocaust than to not be bothered by the kind of hatred that led six million innocent people to the "showers" of places like Auschwitz and Treblinka.

That is the kind of hatred that is now in our present day.  "From the river to the sea" is the chant of many in the Middle East and abroad who want to wipe out the Jews and their country.  It is the madness that has resulted in the very real atrocities against modern Israelis for going on eighty years.

Atrocities like what happened on October 7th, 2023.  When the Palestinian group Hamas massacred more than a thousand innocent Israelis, wounded many thousands more and took captive hundreds of Jews who were attending an outdoor concert.

The Israeli government has reciprocated against Hamas, including targeting those lunatics' infrastructure and ability to wage further war and commit more acts of deadly violence.

The Israeli government has also gone out of its way to not involve non-combatants.  Indeed, what they are doing in this conflict is perhaps the most cautious that any armed force in the history of the world has been to not bring harm to those who are not with the belligerents.

And despite all of this, many if not most of the leaders of countries of the world dare to claim that Israel is engaged in genocide against Palestinians.

What Israel is doing is not genocide.  It is self-defense.  It is breaking the ability of an enemy to make sure that it never hurts the Jews and Christians, and even some Muslims living within Israel's borders, ever again.

Yet the claims of genocide continue.  Perpetuated by antisemitic leaders and celebrities and the media.

And people like Connor Heggie fall for it.

Show me a person who is "pro Palestine" and against "genocide" of Palestinians, and I will show you a person who is not only anti-Israel, but is strongly anti-Jewish.  They'll deny it up and down but in their hearts they can barely contain their loathing of the race and religion of Judaism.

These people are but a few steps removed from the Nazi mentality that almost completely wiped out the Jewish people from the European continent.  The people who saw Jews as vermin "life unworthy of life".

That is what I see when I look at Heggie's pro-Palestinian remarks, however brief they are.  It also dovetails too much with the hatred of Christianity that he has expressed on numerous occasions.

Antisemitism is something that can't go unaddressed.  And for all of Heggie's ravings that others are bigoted, he is demonstrating to the world that HE is a far greater and more true bigot than is anyone who expresses disagreement about a lifestyle that is physically and spiritually self-destructive.

When Heggie aligns himself with those who claim that Israel is committing genocide, he is aligning himself with the very worst of racists.  Oh, he's concerned with genocide all right.  Genocide against the Jewish people, that is.

He is not a good example of what alleges to be a decent human being.  He is certainly a poor example of an alleged Star Wars fan.

For all his calling other people he doesn’t like “bigots”, Connor Heggie is apparently a bigot in general and an antisemite in particular.

And he should be called out on it.

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Sunday morning political shows ZZZZZZzzz...

Right now at this moment I am doing something that I have not done in many years: watching Sunday morning political talk shows.

And I am shaking my head in disbelief at how little these people are actually saying.

These are partisan hacks, every single one of them, including the hosts.  They are not saying anything at all that is really enlightening or mind-broadening.  They are parroting their party’s agenda, without any legitimate thought processes at all.  There is nothing original they are speaking aloud that I have not heard before.

They are soooooo boring.

I'm reminded of an episode of The Cosby Show that I saw many years ago.  Claire is invited to go on one such Sunday morning show.  Including the hosts there is also a conservative commentator and a liberal scholar and they were PERFECTLY cast and acted.  They were total parodies of real conservatives and liberals.  Claire is the only one at the table who is acting like a mature intelligent adult.  She's smart.  She comes knowing what she believes and she runs circles around everyone else.  It was a hilarious episode.  And even as a kid watching it, I wanted to be like Claire if it ever came to me being in a situation like that also.

These real-life political shows couldn't handle someone like Claire Huxtable.  They can't handle ANYONE who really thinks for themself.

I actually feel dumber for watching these shows.  I'm tuning off.  There's the live stream of a church I really appreciate that is starting in a few minutes (it's the church I attended when I was in college).  MUCH more uplifting and thought provoking than Meet The Press or any other of these programs.

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9/11: What I saw from Asheville

Yesterday I shared an excerpt from my memoir Keeping the Tryst, from the end of chapter 37.  That excerpt dealt with my life on September 10th, 2001.  And the last thing that I did before falling asleep late that night was to thank God for all of the good that He had brought into my life.  If the previous several months could have been that good, I had no doubt that the rest of my life could be just as amazing.  I was 27 years old, with everything ahead of him.  I was in love, I had a good job, I was writing for publication on a daily basis.  And on the night of September 10th I had started writing the script for my very first movie.

My eyes closed, and I was looking forward to another day of being grateful.

Here is another excerpt.  The final part of chapter 37 and all of chapter 38.

---------------

The phone rang sometime later during the morning.

I picked it up, and it was Mom.

“Are you watching the TV?”

I told her I was just waking up.  I asked her what was going on.

“A plane hit the World Trade Center!”

The first thought that went through my bleary head was that a plane had once crashed into the Empire State Building.  Maybe this was pilot error, like that had been.

“Yeah and a few minutes later another plane hit the other tower!”

~

Within minutes of turning on the television to see the World Trade Center, I called Lisa and made sure she was okay.  Then I went online and went to the news forum I frequented.  There was the shock and terror, giving rise to rawest anger, now being immortalized in real time as an online monument to the evil that men do and their victims.

I cranked up AOL Instant Messenger and found Ed was on.  Everyone in his office was watching the live coverage.

I was in the middle of replying to his previous message when the first tower fell.

~

What was supposed to have been a wonderful day for TheForce.net turned into a real-time reflection of the horror.  Josh posted a prayer.  The site’s forums within hours became a clearinghouse of information for those in the New York and D.C. areas, as users reported that they were okay while others were looking for fellow fans who had been in the vicinity of the towers and Washington.

We couldn’t locate some members of our staff who had been in New York.  Lisa and I had dinner with one of them the first night of Dragon Con, a week and a half before.  When we finally located Alena she told us that she had been on the street in front of the north tower, directly below where the first plane hit.  Alena saw it all happen.  She had then run for cover into a subway entrance and heard the debris crashing onto the street above her.

~

Maggi and Helen were enraged.  Maggi said things that one dares not share in polite company.  In her words were well reflected the wrath inflaming all good people of conscience.

~

I watched the coverage all day, up to being time to go to work.  I arrived at 4.  Only five potential customers came into the Best Buy that evening.  They shuffled in, looked around, and walked out.  Each of them had that “thousand-yard stare” in his eyes.  They appeared dazed and confused.  Like they had only come in to keep their minds off the wretchedness of the outside world.

Not a single item was sold in our store all night.

~

I returned home a little after 9.  Lisa and I talked for a long time.  I couldn’t remember the last time I had been so thankful to hear the voice of a loved one.

~

Chad was at his desk in the CNN Building.  There was nothing to post to the Sports Illustrated site that night.  Up until almost 1 A.M., it was Chad and I over Instant Messenger talking about what had happened.  We shared a lot of images we had found.  Like the San Francisco Examiner special edition headline that screamed out “BASTARDS!"

"I love you, brother," Chad said as he signed out for the night.

"I love you too, man."

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