Or before he appeared as Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man, either. Or as Fu Manchu or Scaramanga or the Mummy… and before The Lord of the Rings was anything but scribblings in Tolkien’s notebook. Five years before George Lucas was born, his future Count Dooku made an appearance in one of the most unique – and gruesome – photographic records of the twentieth century.

This ain’t quite “exclusive” to this blog, since I posted the same discovery two days ago on TheForce.net’s Episode 3 Spoilers forum. But you have to be a registered member of the board and explicitly ask for access to that particular forum (it’s TheForce.net‘s way of protecting Those Who Will Not Be Spoiled, along with HIGHLIGHT TO READ: the Amazing Inviso-Text!(tm)) so it’s not available for just anyone to read. ...

Geez, I’m kicking myself hard about this. When this picture first broke on the ‘net I looked at it and the first thought was “That doesn’t look like a real person… it looks more like a doll.” But that got dismissed fast. It seemed too silly, only ‘cuz I knew that these terrorists, as evil as they are, surely couldn’t be THAT dumb, right?

Right?!?

Web Site Claims GI Captured in Iraq

Feb 1, 3:03 PM (ET)
By ROBERT H. REID

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – Iraqi militants claimed in a Web statement Tuesday to have taken an American soldier hostage and threatened to behead him in 72 hours unless the Americans release Iraqi prisoners. The U.S. military said it was investigating, but the claim’s authenticity could not be immediately confirmed.

The posting, on a Web site that frequently carried militants’ statements, included a photo of

The Left Behind books have become a literary trainwreck for me: I know I shouldn’t look because it’s going to be awful, but since I’ve read all of them over the past six years anyway I feel compelled to turn and stare, just in case I’ve “missed” something that will make so much of the previous time in the series worth it. Book #8, The Mark was the last time there was a thrill here, and even with the Glorious Appearing of Jesus Himself coming into the fray of what was supposed to have been the final installment, it was a letdown. Part of it is that I think Jerry Jenkins wanted to be respectful toward the subject matter and play some things safe, but toward the end he began playing it too safe. In all brutal honesty, the entrance of Jesus Christ was about as exciting as a pro ...

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end

Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I’ll never look into your eyes…

again…

And in the end, not even Mister T was powerful enough to keep a good thing going forever.

Maybe this is the way it should be: “That is the way of things,” the wise Yoda told us. I mean, life is good. But a life without end is meaningless. And having all the time in the universe won’t make it any more rich. No, a measure of mortality is required, lest we be condemned to an eternity of pointless debate.

But still… man, this takes all the hot air out of a balloon that took a lot of us to situations we never thought possible, and even ...

Halo, the original, I bought at the Target down the street just before they closed for Christmas Eve. “Weird” Ed and me located an Xbox for Lisa (and prolly the LAST Xbox on sale to be found in the state of North Carolina before Christmas) and since Ed, and Josh, and Kyle, and everybody else on Earth that’s got an Xbox has been raving about how good it was, I got Halo just to see what the hulabaloo was about. We were in Georgia a day or so later when I finally put the disc in and started playing.

This ain’t a videogame. This is art. And I’m kicking myself HARD in the butt for putting it off as “just another first-person shooter” all this time. It’s beautiful. It’s VERY deep in plot. It’s the first videogame that intelligently implements the concept of religion. It’s funny, especially the stuff ...

Most places reporting that there’s a 72-74% turnout of voters. If only we could see that kind of interest in our own elections here in America.

Am hearing that there’s some dispute about the figures though: is that a percentage of ALL eligible Iraqis, or a percentage of those Iraqis that registered to vote? If it’s the latter, some are suggesting it’s only 7-10% of the eligible population that registered at all.

There’s been a massive turnout at the polls from the Kurds. Gotta wonder if they’ll get enough political pull to demand a separate homeland. They were easily the #1 domestic enemy that Saddam Hussein had when he was in power. And the ones with brass ones enough to FIGHT the guy on a regular basis. If any group has earned the right to vote in a free election, it’s the Kurds. Said it before and will say it ...

You know why I post stuff like this?

It’s ‘cuz when things get REALLY bad, I’ll never have the guilt of knowing that I didn’t do anything to stop it on my conscience. And however bad things might get, I can either live a long and happy life or die a slow and painful death knowing that I didn’t capitulate and that I tried my damndest to get others to say “no” just one more time than these bastitches said “yes”.

More proof that we’re becoming a fascist state, courtesy of the Washington Post (free website registration required to read full article):

…I had arrived early to get a head start on mingling among the roughly 6,000 people eating and dancing to celebrate the president’s reelection. Unaware of the new escort policy (it wasn’t in place during the official parties following the 2001 inauguration), I blithely assumed that in the

“Letter to Congress on Increasing U.S. Ground Forces”, written to several members of Congress by Project for the New American Century.

Ooh-boy…

“The United States military is too small for the responsibilities we are asking it to assume.”

“The United States will not and should not become less engaged in the world in the years to come.”

“…the defense and promotion of freedom in the post-9/11 world require a larger military force than we have today.”

“So we write to ask you and your colleagues in the legislative branch to take the steps necessary to increase substantially the size of the active duty Army and Marine Corps.”

“There is abundant evidence that the demands of the ongoing missions in the greater Middle East, along with our continuing defense and alliance commitments elsewhere in the world, are close to exhausting current U.S. ground forces.”

“The only way to fulfill the ...

Is there anything that it CAN’T do? 🙂...

…but when it comes to our own borders…

Read. Just read, ‘kay?

The man’s a traitor. Plain and simple. Too bad he’s protected by a Republican majority in the House and Senate… but that says a lot about a man’s character that he needs that kind of seeming immunity from whatever evil he thinks he can get away with.

Anyone who posts a comment defending this in the slightest bit, or alludes that Bush is still a great President despite his VIOLATING THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION IN A MORE GROSS FASHION THAN BUBBA CLINTON EVER DID, is not just a traitor but a damned idiot.

A history professor in college once told us how a nation’s leadership does deserve any punishment met out to it, if that leadership is so ignorant and uninterested in serving his own people. Especially if that ignorance results from the leader’s desire for ...