Earlier this week I alluded that it has been growing in my mind to post to this blog my account of an incident regarding George W. Bush from four years ago. It’s something that wouldn’t reflect well on his character, from my perspective anyway. And it’s the only firsthand knowledge I really have of the man and that’s certainly added to some hesitations I’ve had about finally venting about some things. That and, as I’ve said before, it matters a lot to me that my heart is right on why I would do this: I do not want my motives to be borne out of anger or hatred or a lust for revenge. And as much as the angels of my lesser nature might want to entice me to do such a thing, I really don’t know if I could be at peace with myself if I actively sought ...

For all its intensity as a Category 4 storm, Ivan could have been a lot worse. It’s still holding together now 17 hours inland, and our family in northern Georgia told us a while ago that they’re starting to get pounded by the thing. We’ll probably begin getting it sometime tomorrow. Meanwhile Jeanne weakens over Hispaniola but looks to strengthen once back over water: it may hit the eastern seaboard in another few days. And the twelfth tropical depression of the season is now firming-up way out in the Atlantic, in that spot off of West Africa that usually spawns the ones that come this way.

My own journalism career has never been more than a fraction of the years that most senior CBS correspondents have racked up, but even I know better than to accept at face value – and with remarkably little reservation – a news source that’s ...

Depending on who you listen to, there are three events that top the list of possible natural disasters in the United States: a “big one” earthquake along the Pacific coast (although an eruption of the Yellowstone caldera is coming to eclipse the prominence of that threat), another quake along the New Madrid faultline similar to what happened in 1811, and a major hurricane making landfall at or near the city of New Orleans. It has been estimated that any one of the three, should they occur, would cause destruction and loss of life beyond anything that we’ve been prepared for.

In a few brief hours, there may be only two disasters waiting to happen left on that list.

It’s a little before 11 PM on September 15th and as I write this, the outer eyewall of Ivan is approaching Mobile, Alabama. The hurricane has enveloped the entire Gulf from west ...

People have been asking me if I’m going to be getting the Classic Star Wars Trilogy when it finally comes out on DVD next week. As much as I’d love to I’m probably going to pass on it for awhile: next weekend we hope to shoot the last few bits of “Forcery”. Then it’s a mad scramble to get that ready for release by the end of October: pretty ironic to give up REAL Star Wars movies for one that we’re making ourselves. I need to button myself down on things and practice some self-discipline, get this and other projects out of the way before letting myself enjoy what I and hordes of fans have been waiting for going on six year now.

It’s definitely not going to please everyone though: seems that George Lucas couldn’t stop fiddling around with the original movies even after the Special Editions in 1997. ...

I’m looking over a few things at this insanely late hour (‘cuz I’ve been a night-owl since college) and happened to notice that right now AMC is showing Escape From New York: so very dated by today’s standards, but still gotta love Kurt Russell’s character Snake Plissken. And the haunting theme music. I know it’s just wishful thinking but John Carpenter should consider remaking this someday: set it a vague number of years after today’s New York City (i.e. no World Trade Center) so that it holds up to age better. Most of the actors from the original would prolly not be interested but Isaac Hayes looks WAY buff: I bet he could still kick major butt as The Duke of New York, A-Number One!

But anyway, I haven’t really had time to address it as much as I’d wished, but the way this blog looks… could use some ...

It’s been years since Oprah Winfrey’s show really interested me (then again it’s been years since most television really interested me). Back in the day she could find something that would grab anyone’s attention at least one day out of the week. But that was before “The Oprah Winfrey Show” became about… well, Oprah. Her magazine and book club always struck me as self-serving gimmicks and I understand that there’s an entire show on Oxygen or Nitrogen or whatever that women’s cable network is that covers nothing but what happens behind the scenes of her other show. Go figure.

But I had to smile yesterday when I heard that to kick off the 19th season of her show, Winfrey gave a new car to each person in her 276-member studio audience. The massive giveaway of the new Pontiac G6 sedans was part of a plot hatched by Winfrey and ...

Y’know, I like to think that in the course of writing stuff in this lil’ space (for whoever might find it, all two of them at least for certain) that people will get the impression that, at heart, I’m a pretty nice guy. Not a perfect guy mind ya (my lovely spousal overunit, God bless her, would be the first to tell anyone that much 🙂 because I do have weaknesses of human nature that I contend with on a daily basis. But overall, I try to convey that you’re reading the words of a guy who’s a big kid at heart, loves things like collecting Star Wars figures and making short movies with his friends, will talk with you about anything and everything from why the black and white episodes of The Andy Griffith Show were better than the color ones to the history of the Soviet space program, ...

Dr. Kelly Hollowell is another writer over at World Net Daily that I enjoy reading from time to time. I appreciate that, admittedly, she’s got a better mind for some things than I do: there’s no way I could wrap my noggin around the stuff that a Ph.D in Molecular and Cellular Biology demands. And that she’s got a tremendous working knowledge of the legal system. And that she’s a fellow Christian. And going by the pictures I’ve found of her that she’s a very beautiful young lass with a sincere smile and eyes that seem to radiate a pure love of God.

But in regards to her new column “Your vote: a terrible thing to waste” she’s wrong. She’s HORRIBLY wrong! She’s so wrong on this that “wrong” doesn’t even begin to describe it: I would go so far as to describe it as “spiritually lukewarm”. And as much ...

It was a little before 9 AM, three years ago this morning, when the phone rang.

I’d been asleep on the sofa in the living room of my apartment, still groggy from the night before: September 11th was the day Lucasfilm was lifting the media embargo on their upcoming DVD release of Star Wars Episode I. The whole staff of TheForce.net had been up ’til about 3 that morning (US Eastern Time… TFN’s staff was spread all over the world) getting stories and graphics ready to publish for the big day, including editor Joshua Griffin’s report from Skywalker Ranch (he got to see George Lucas in person… lucky guy 🙂 With that work behind me and only going into work at Best Buy that afternoon to really look forward to, I was contentedly crashed until getting up to answer the phone.

It was Mom.

“Are you watching television?” I told ...

I love Kyle Williams, for a whole heckuva lotta reasons. And I really love pointing others toward his work as a columnist. In this week’s piece over at World Net Daily “the young master Kyle” as I like to call him sends up a brilliant piece to Americans twice his age and more and for all intents and purposes asks aloud “why are you being such idiots?!” Kyle, yer hitting on all the right cylinders here so I won’t steal your thunder by discussing it any in this space… but here’s a preview:

Entertainment and politics in the modern society of America has created a deadly mix and a blow to the integrity of our national debate. In this election cycle, think of the severe case of P. Diddy and his entourage crashing a Young Republicans meeting in New York City, shouting his shallow views through a megaphone and broadcasting