Episode III Midnight Madness After-Action Report

Stop me before I do this again.

Oh yeah, that's right: there's no way this can be done again, 'cuz this is the last movie.

Well then, might as well go out in a blaze of glory...

MIDNIGHT
MADNESS
Saturday April 2nd 2005

12:01 AM on April 2nd was the earliest that the REAL loot from Star Wars Episode III went on sale. There'd been the standard "teaser" stuff over the past few months like a coupl'a LEGO sets and some preview action figures, but this was the real deluge. Some of us had to be the first to behold a virgin, unsoiled, unblemished stack of new Star Wars merchandise and if not now then it would be never again, 'cuz this is the last Star Wars movie after all. So a few days before my good friend Brian and I started laying out our plans for Friday night. He came by the apartment about 9:30 and we headed out soon thereafter, he in his Revenge of the Sith t-shirt and me in my full Jedi garb (including lightsaber). We scoped out the scene at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Greensboro then went to Toys R Us and decided this is where we needed to be for first strike of the evening. Y'see, Toys R Us had an exclusive Holographic Yoda action figure that was only going out to first 12 people in the door and we wanted to take a stab at that. Wal-Mart had some other exclusive but it wasn't an action figure one. Target had the "Flaming Lava Darth Vader" that we wanted to take a crack at later that morning, but we had to go for Yoda right now. We got in line about 10:30 at Toys R Us and by 11:30 here's what it looked like...

The guy in this next photo, his name's Fonzo and we remembered each other instantly 'cuz both of us were the VERY FIRST to be in line at this same Toys R Us when they had Midnight Madness for Episode I six years ago! I was first to arrive then and this time he got the sacred honor. So from now on you can know that a guy named Fonzo was the first to get his hands on new stuff from the last Star Wars movie...

And here is Fonzo and me, together again (and Fonzo is holding one of the tickets that went to the first twelve people who arrived, so that we were guaranteed to get a Yoda figure):

That's Brian on the left and the dude in the green jacket is Scott. They also hold the coveted tickets...

And just to let everyone know that I got one legitly...

Finally, Magic Hour hit and the clerks opened the doors at 12:01 on the dot. We swarmed in like Visigoths raping Rome, grabbed the nearest buggies and tore a path of destruction through the Tele-tubbies and Harry Potter stuff.

And there it was...

The action figures were the first to go. The store clerks kept a steady barrage of them coming, like so much heroin flowing into the veins of a crazed junky...

There's a reason why Brian and I went together this night. You see, his wife was out-of-state and just before leaving that morning her last words to Brian were "don't buy too many toys tonight!" That's what Lisa told me that evening too. So Brian and I were like "accountability partners" to each other: we were going to make sure that neither one of us went back home to his wife and have to explain ALL these Star Wars toys littering the living room.

But of course it being the LAST Midnight Madness, we had to go hogwild a little bit...

That's the toy Yoda doll that Brian found to be insanely cute. He's also holding the Holographic Yoda figure. Then I got to check out mine...

...but the REAL prize of the night HAD to be the "Darth Tater" Mr. Potato Head:

I think we kept the night's haul pretty modest. Some people though wanted to relish it just a little bit more...

We lasted about 30 minutes at Toys R Us then hit the road for the Wal-Mart Supercenter. Not as much hooplah there as Toys R Us had but even close to 1 AM there were some devoted parents who had brought their kids in to oggle the goods. Here's Brian again (who seems to have had a curious fixation on Yoda that evening):

We got back to my apartment about 1:30 AM and Brian went home. I don't think either one of us slept that night so we wouldn't miss Target's opening a few hours later at 8 AM. So it was that Brian and Scott and me were among the first twenty through the door that got tickets for the "Flaming Vader" figure. And I got even MORE loot from the place.

By the time Lisa woke up at quarter 'til 9, here's the sad, sordid state that she found her husband in after a night of incessant Starwargasms:

It was not a pretty picture.

The haul was more than glorious, however...

It wasn't TOO much, just enough to savor the moments. At Toys R Us I got the Holographic Yoda figure, two of the Emperor Palpatine with lightsaber figures (including one that I opened just to pose on my desk), the new Darth Vader figure and the LEGO "Darth Vader Transformation" set 'cuz the evening wouldn't be complete without at least one thing of LEGO, and the "Darth Tater" Mr. Potato Head. Didn't get anything from Wal-Mart but later that morning in addition to the Target exclusive Vader figure I bought the standard Yoda figure, the new General Grievous and Chewbacca figures, and the deluxe Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious figure that has the "Force lighting" effect and switching-faces feature. That also got posed on my desk so now I've a "Shrine to Sidious" going on with the original figure from The Phantom Menace

Here's a better picture of the Vader Mr. Potato Head (and new Emperor Palpatine figure):

Later that day after we saw The Ring Two we hit the other Wal-Mart and I wound up getting the Episode III novelization and the Episode III Visual Dictionary. Oh yeah and the action figure that I've come to call "Pregnant Padme".

And that was how I celebrated Midnight Madness for the last Star Wars film ever (or at least until 90-year old George Lucas decides that he wants to make six more movies after all :-)

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My bet with Chad: if UNC wins tonight...

...I told my best friend that if they beat Illinois tonight I'll stick the biggest, baddest Tarheels graphic I can squeeze into this space on the blog.

Just wanted to let everyone know that well in advance, to prove that I'm a man of my word.

(BTW, I'm one of those "ABC fans": "Anybody But Carolina" :-)

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Some thoughts on John Paul II's passing

Have never been Catholic, but the departure from this world of Pope John Paul II has left a much bigger absence in my mind than I ever expected.

Maybe it's because I was only four years old when Karol Wojtyla became "the pope" in 1978, which I didn't know what exactly the "pope" was but I remember it came very soon after this other guy had been named pope before he died. Anyway, that's all of my real waking life that John Paul II has been in office, and it wasn't until years later that I started to understand that he was a MUCH more important figure in the scheme of things than I'd ever realized. From a non-Catholic perspective, it's safe to say that he was probably even the most important figure in the history of the papacy (I got personal doubts as to whether Peter should be considered as the first pope, but those don't figure into the present proceedings).

But even from the strictest secular thinking, this pope was one of the three people who most affected the world during the past quarter-century: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher. Now only Thatcher is still with us and when she's gone... well, I fear that the age of statesmanship will have drawn to a close. Leaving us with only petty and vicious politians to fill their void.

The thing of it is, John Paul II never really was a "political" figure at all: he merely tried to interpret scripture as best as he understood it and apply that to the church that he headed. I don't think it was ever his intention that there would be the kind of worldly interest in the power that came to surround him... and yet, there it was.

Which is why I made this sad prediction more than ten years ago: that all hell would break loose when the next pope was chosen.

The next two weeks or so, until the papal enclave meets at the Vatican to elect a new pope, are going to be mad as all get out. There'll be some quiet now in respect and deference to the man and moreso than because of his office. But after that... well, if you thought the Reagan funeral was something, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

See, this is an entirely different world than it was when John Paul II was coronated in 1978. Less than a hundred people on the planet had full access (whatever that entailed) to something called the "Internet" and a good slice of them still lived under communism. Things like "gay rights" were a laughable joke. The average person really didn't have that much sway over the world around him, for good or ill.

No more. But it won't be the average person I'm worried about.

I'm willing to lay down good money that a few days from now, after John Paul II has been interred, they'll be descending on Saint Peters' Square like flies on a cow: homosexuals, Catholic feminists demanding that women become priests, the pro-abortion crowd, socialists and then capitalists to meet them, the "safe sex" gang that wants condoms for every man woman child and dumb animal on the planet, animal rights activists and radical environmentalists... in short, just about every possible "special interest group" on the planet is going to have some kind of representation at the Vatican during the next few weeks.

And each of them is going to claim having a "say-so" in who it is that will be the next pope.

That's the way it is in today's world of media-empowered "you can have it your way and right now". We've been made to think that we can do anything, so long as we have two or more gathered in our name with us. That if we have just a little more faith and strength in numbers, that even the mountain millennia-long traditions would cast itself into the sea at our command. And if not merely the twain but the multitude should meet to coalesce that belief... well, what is there left on Earth that is not within our reach?

To put it bluntly: there's gonna be a lot of bullies outside the Sistine Chapel trying to push their way to a seat at the table. It's going to be the most politically-charged papal election in history, and a lot of people are setting themselves up for a disappointment when they discover that none of their group efforts mattered at all. I just wonder what their reaction is going to be then.

That's the serious side of things. On the more whimsical, I'm betting that no less than a hundred video cameras tied into the Internet get pointed at that little chimney at the Vatican that the black or white smoke will come from as the scrutinies are burned during the voting process. Maybe someone will even figure out a way to make the cameras pick up on chroma of the smoke so that if it's white enough it'll automatically flash on the site "WE HAVE A POPE!"

Call it "Pope Smoke Cam" :-)

Anyway, a good man has gone on to his eternal reward, leaving the rest of us a little more poor for the absence of his spirit. So dear God, even though I'll never be a Catholic, thanks for letting John Paul II be among us for a short while here on Earth.

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Eerie scheduling

Just finished a bit of The Matrix Online (HUGE article I wanna write up about this soon) and happened to turn on the TV.

It's now 1:47 AM EST on April 1st, 2005. The time and date should be taken into account for the next thing I'd like to make note of...

...that right now, HBO East is showing The Godfather Part III.

Knowing that these TV schedules are pretty much established several weeks ahead, if you've seen the movie you'll already know why that's an unsettling coincidence.

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I'm tired of this. It's why I don't fit into this world anymore...

...I'm talking about the factionalism.

It occurred to me during my extended absence that nobody "matters" in this world unless they belong to a faction of some kind or another. A person isn't supposed to be their own unique individual being anymore. In fact, "individualism" is a vastly scorned and ridiculed concept: you are either "with US" or "with THEM"... or you don't exist at all.

I said in my last post that it hit me that there are three kinds of people in this world: Those that Want to Control, Those that Want to Be Controlled, and Those that Are Out of Control. The first two are the vast majority of this world... well, of America and the western world anyway. They're for people that either want a sense of being part of something bigger than they are, or they want to exploit the desire for that sense. But invariably it comes back to people who are too scared to stand - alone if need be - on their own two legs for their own identity.

Inevitably, without fail, factionalism arises from this.

And it never occurs to these people - it's downright ALIEN to their concept of the universe even - that they have no idea why it is that they fall so obligingly in lock-step with their faction... or even why it is that they should hate "the opposing faction".

Think about it: Democrats hate Republicans. Republicans hate Democrats. Conservatives hate Liberals and Liberals hate Conservatives. Christians hate non-Christians... yes they do, I've seen it: too many claim to "love their enemies" but listen to how they talk about "those evil Liberals". By politicizing it they make the hatred excusable. And non-Christians hate Christians in kind. Protestants hate Catholics and Catholics hate Protestants: what, you think the fighting in Northern Ireland is really about interpretation of scripture and not a thing about power and dominance?! Israelis and Palestinians hate each other because their leaders tell them to hate and it never dawns on either of them that minus some very STUPID and regularly INSANE "leadership" on both sides that they wouldn't be hating each other at all.

Damn it, people hate other people and they don't even ask themselves why? They just do it and don't give a flying rat's ass that they hate without purpose or even real focus.

I'm not like that anymore. Some things happened that opened my eyes to all of this and, there's no going back. It's impossible now. I thought I knew the way things were and for the most part I did. Then I saw a little bit more and understood that we've all been fools. And I count myself among the most foolish for spending too much time and energy on things stemming from this factionalism. I couldn't go back now even if I wanted to... and I don't really care to anyway.

You see, I'm now under no man's control. And I do not seek to have control over others. I am one of those that exist outside of control.

So will anyone fault me if I say that the burning engine of rage in my heart is now focused on bringing as many people as I can out of control also?

Yes, I know that could be considered a kind of control too. But I think it's more a matter of causing as much chaos and mischief as one's sense of morality would allow and let things settle from there. Things are too balanced in this world: maybe someone should unbalance them. Send everything toppling to the ground and hopelessly irretrievable by the factionalists, and the wardogs, and the hatemongers, and the soothsayers, and the purveyors of meaningless pageantry that passes for enlightened culture.

I am now more free than I've ever been before, in my life.

People like this usually get targetted by those that lack the courage to reach out with only the same strength we had to break free, and do likewise. Maybe it comes from the presence of Those Free being a threat to their mild "comfort zones" but I'm inclined to believe it's more a matter of jealousy: we did what they can not do for themselves. And they will hate us for that.

Like I said last time, those of us that are out of control are going to have to figure out what we are supposed to do with the rest: with those under control but especially with those that want to control. I think those that LIKE having power over other people are long overdue for a serious kick in the ass...

...don't you?

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"Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated"

It was brought to my attention this morning that people on some websites are saying that I'm dead.

One place is even saying that I committed suicide. Didn't know I was the kind of guy whose extended absence elicited that kind of concern.

I'm still here. Had to leave for awhile and look into some things that warranted an extended departure from any online activity. Didn't intend on spending forty days in the wilderness... but there you have it.

I was away. And discovered some things. Lots of things. Including one that has had immense ramifications on my personal life and some of the responsibilities that, though they aren't demanded by this circumstance it does leave me morally compelled to figure out how to use this selflessly. There's no need to say anything more about that for now: sometimes the better part of chivalry is knowing when NOT to raise the sword.

And I've come back maybe a little more wiser.

There are only three types of people in this world: those who want to control, and those who want to be controlled.

So it's left to those of us who are out of control to figure out just what exactly we are supposed to do with them.

I'm not going to write here anymore about George W. Bush. Or at least focus any of my time on him unless he does something REALLY outrageously criminal. He's not the problem. He's merely a symptom of the problem, and there would be another symptom to replace him were he to be removed. Besides, who am I to condemn the moral lapses of one branch of the family? We made our choice, just as his made theirs. Let God judge which among us was the truer - and more noble - servant.

Y'all should look into your own family history sometime. There's no telling what you might find.

More later...

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Apocalypse Soon? Theorizing method to the madness of pre-trib politics

This is only a notion that entered my mind. But it's one that all too greatly suggested itself.

Just reading where the United States is recalling its ambassador to Syria. This comes in the wake of the bomb assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minster Rafik Hariri yesterday.

And more people than you might want to know are right now cackling and grinning and rubbing their hands with anticipation over this news.

I've already written on a few occassions about the end-times beliefs that drive most of the supporters of the current administration in the White House. It can be safely said that those who consider themselves "Christians" and fall into line behind Bush can be divided into two categories: those that want to take over the world before Christ comes, and those who want Christ to destroy the world so that "if we can't have, nobody can!" The pre-tribulation Rapture folks are this latter group. They're the ones that buy the Left Behind novels in droves and keep that franchise's masters milking it for everything they can get out 'cuz they know the pre-tribbers will just come on back for more. Rabid Pre-Tribbers are the Judeo-Christian version of the Trekkies, when you think about it. But they're also the ones that, I tend to believe anyway, will vote for any candidate, nod approval for any policy, and refuse to stand against anything that actually violates the teachings of scripture, if they believe that these thing will hasten the onset of Armageddon. I heard one Christian tell me recently that George W. Bush was God's chosen instrument to trigger the events that will lead up to the Second Coming.

She was serious.

And there are millions more like her in America. That don't give a flip about the apostle Paul's teachings to the Thesselonians about occupying themselves with the work of Christ, and let Him worry about how and when He'll come. If redemption draweth nigh, doesn't it make sense as a Christian to try to love one another even more so that others will find that redemption too?

But that's not the mindset at work here with too many professing Christians. They want the supreme pleasure of knowing that their name will forevermore be stamped upon the peak of human history, because there will be no more human history at all: the ultimate mode of narcissism.

As a Christian I know that someday the Lord does come back. But as one without divine knowledge and understanding, I have no idea how exactly that will take place. I can see some evidence for their being a pre-trib Rapture... but I can see just as many indictations that it will be a post-trib Rapture too, where everyone has to endure the terror of the Antichrist. Might be a good thing too, 'specially for Christians in industrialized nations: we've gotten too soft and comfortable in our belief that we die, He comes, end of worry and that's it... so we don't do anything in the here and now. It's about time we start knowing the pain and persecution that most believers have had to endure for these two thousand years. You don't see any "Christian Epicureans" described in scripture, y'know.

So here's where I'm getting with all this: one of the chief tenets of Pre-Tribulation Rapture is that the city of Damascus is to be utterly destroyed. The timing of this is important: most Pre-Trib adherents teach that this comes before the Rapture, based on several other prophecies and mentions of countries that are found in Isaiah and Daniel and a few other books of the Old Testament (and Revelation in the New one 'course). Isaiah 17:1 is the chief source of the Damascus prophecy:

The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

Damascus is the oldest city in the world. It has never been laid waste or otherwise made inhabitable. So this means its a prophecy that has not been fulfilled yet.

Its fulfillment will be taken to mean that the Second Coming is soon.

Don't you think it would be within human nature of some people to try to destroy it - or at least hasten its destruction - so that their unique perspective of a religion will be the one that wins out over all the others that have ever existed in human existence? Doesn't having that capability suggest the temptation to use it, at least?

Don't think for a moment that at least one of the more prominent "Christian leaders" hasn't whispered this into the ears of President Bush: that God wants him to be the one to turn Damascus into a ruinous heap. Doesn't even matter if that's Bush himself or not they're whispering to: this is something that's been practically openly desired for the past quarter-century. Why shouldn't we believe that they wouldn't want to act on this kind of opportunity?

Just posing the possibility out there.

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Watch the ball and behold the future

Two bits of news that caught my eye. The title of one immediately brought all kinds of cultural references to mind and the other was just plain weird enough to pique my curiosity.

From the London Daily Mail via RedNova.com:

Posted on: Friday, 11 February 2005, 00:00 CST
Can This Black Box See Into the Future?

DEEP in the basement of a dusty university library in Edinburgh lies a small black box, roughly the size of two cigarette packets side by side, that churns out random numbers in an endless stream.

At first glance it is an unremarkable piece of equipment. Encased in metal, it contains at its heart a microchip no more complex than the ones found in modern pocket calculators.

But, according to a growing band of top scientists, this box has quite extraordinary powers. It is, they claim, the 'eye' of a machine that appears capable of peering into the future and predicting major world events.

The machine apparently sensed the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre four hours before they happened - but in the fevered mood of conspiracy theories of the time, the claims were swiftly knocked back by sceptics. But last December, it also appeared to forewarn of the Asian tsunami just before the deep sea earthquake that precipitated the epic tragedy.

Now, even the doubters are acknowledging that here is a small box with apparently inexplicable powers.

'It's Earth-shattering stuff,' says Dr Roger Nelson, emeritus researcher at Princeton University in the United States, who is heading the research project behind the 'black box' phenomenon.

'We're very early on in the process of trying to figure out what's going on here. At the moment we're stabbing in the dark.' Dr Nelson's investigations, called the Global Consciousness Project, were originally hosted by Princeton University and are centred on one of the most extraordinary experiments of all time. Its aim is to detect whether all of humanity shares a single subconscious mind that we can all tap into without realising.

And machines like the Edinburgh black box have thrown up a tantalising possibility: that scientists may have unwittingly discovered a way of predicting the future... (Click here for rest of article).

I went to the website for the Global Consciousness Project and skimmed over their procedures and data. Interestingly enough it does look like some pretty serious and thorough research going on here: the procedure for each step - from numerical generation to graphing - is documented at length. The data is made freely available for anyone to study on their own. And links and abstracts regarding similar research (wait a sec: our tax dollars are funding more of this?!) can be found. Some of them DO sound pretty oddball: like The RetroPsychoKinesis Project, which among other things sponsored an attempt by martial artists to alter past events with their minds. Ummmmm wasn't that the central storyline of at least five or six episodes of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues?

By the way, if you ever hear about how some sociologist named James D.L. Staunton did a study in 1958 on train and airplane disasters dating back to the 1920s and after sifting the data found that fully-loaded planes and trains rarely crash and that passengers who intended to travel on them skipped-off 'cuz they "felt sick" or something, thus implying that there's some kinda mass psychic ability going on here: don't believe it. That one got mentioned a few times in college and have seen it come up on the 'net over the years, but I did a Google search and couldn't find anyone in real life named "James D.L. Staunton" or even a "James Staunton" who was a sociologist studying train wrecks. You will find James D.L. Staunton on page 536 in the paperback edition of Stephen King's The Stand, however: looks like Staunton was just a plot device by King. But if I'm "getting" the technobabble right, the Global Consciousness Project does at least sound an awful lot like how the precogs in the Department of Pre-Crime worked together to detect an "incoming" future murder in Steven Spielberg's movie version of Minority Report...

Y'know, there's an idea right there: let's recruit all the Xbox modding hotshots to work on a honkin' humongously BIG network of Xboxes (hey they're way cheap as PCs) that'll crunch even more numbers and churn out results in HDTV. With that kind of power we'll be able to see EVERYTHING in the next thousand years: from the Second Coming of Christ to the First Coming of "Duke Nukem Forever"! Seriously though, coincidence or not, that is a pretty neat correlation that this project is finding.

Anyhoo, the next lil' item comes courtesy of the London Daily Telegraph:

Robotic ball that chases burglars
By David Millward
(Filed: 14/02/2005)

A large black ball, originally designed by Swedish scientists for use on Mars, could be the latest weapon in the war against burglars.

The device, developed at the University of Uppsala, acts as a high-tech security guard capable of detecting an intruder thanks to either radar or infra-red sensors. Once alerted, it can summon help, sound an alarm or pursue the intruders, taking pictures.

It is capable of travelling at 20mph, somewhat faster than a human being. Even worse for intruders, the robot ball can still give chase over mud, snow and water.

The ball relies on an internal pendulum to control its motion which, when shifted, changes the centre of gravity and starts it rolling.

Other devices, including microphones, cameras, heat sensors and smoke detectors are mounted on its central axis.

Nils Hulth, co-founder of Rotundus, the company which is marketing the ball, said it was especially well-suited to patrolling perimeter fences.

The prototype, just under 2ft in diameter, weighs about 10lb. "It is extremely light, which is why it moves so fast," Mr Hulth said.

While the current version can only raise the alarm, it could be adapted to corner an intruder if the customer wanted, Mr Hulth added...

Bold words were my emphasis, 'cuz after reading this I was laughing so hard that the Coke I was drinking literally came out of my nose! Now there's all kinds of dangerous balls that we know of (no Rollerball doesn't count 'cuz people chase the ball not vice-versa). There's that classic toy from yesteryear Happy Fun Ball:

And who could forget that boulder that tried to squish Indiana Jones? I almost didn't want to mention it because it did miss its target and to date Deadly Amazon Idol Temple Boulder of Death(tm) can only boast a 1-1 record... but since it did wind up killing "Weird Al" Yankovic we'll make note of it:

For some reason, the very first things that popped in my head when I read this article's title were those delightful shiny flying Christmas tree ball ornaments that Angus Scrimm always sends after Reggie the Ice-Cream Man and crew during the big showdown in whatever abandoned funeral parlor they wind up in during those wonderful Phantasm movies:

But that still wasn't it. The thing that darned nearly destroyed my nasal tissue with Coke - no not that coke - was because Rotundus' ball sounds WAY too much like this (Rotundus should pitch this in commercials with the tagline "Who is Number One?"):

I wonder if Rotundus is giving Patrick McGoohan any royalties from this gimmick. They oughtta 'cuz it's Rover, that ball-thingy that relentlessly chased after you - on land or water - if you tried to escape The Village in McGoohan's old 1967 TV show The Prisoner! Of all the crazy ideas that television ever gave us, a homicidal weather balloon was the absolute last thing I expected to become an even remote actuality. Other than it being that the Rotundus ball doesn't suffocate an escapee like the Rover did (thankfully), this sounds exactly like Rover.

Ooh-boy... this could be a lot of fun. Can you imagine having one of these and then needing to call Rotundus Tech Support?

CUSTOMER: Okay, it seems to be working now. Thanks for walking me through this!

ROTUNDUS TECH: You're perfectly welcome sir, and we do appreciate that you chose to purchase our product. If you have any more problems or questions please call this same technical support line. Do you have something to write with?

CUSTOMER: Yes, have a pen right here.

ROTUNDUS TECH: Okay sir, you are ticket number...

CUSTOMER: I AM NOT A NUMBER!!!

"You are, Number Six."

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About "that website story"...

For the record, 'cuz plenty of mail has been coming in about this, given my earlier relationship with the subject matter:

- Yes, I've heard about what's gone down the past 48 hours or so.

- Yes, I've read the open letter.

- No, I haven't read the message thread.

- No, I haven't read any comments about it anywhere.

- Yes, I'm aware some things I've written here have been posted to another website.

- No, I do not post to that other website.

- No, I do not even regularly visit that other website.

- No, I do not presently post messages to ANY websites (other than TheForce.net forums as "Chris Knight", and not as much as before).

- Yes, I'm aware that a few things about the years I spent there have been discussed very recently.

- Yes, I'm aware that at least one thing that I wrote a year ago has been brought up.

- No, I don't regret saying THAT a year ago, because if the person it was directed at didn't desire to understand it then that's not my problem.

- No, I'm not going to "check it out" because "I don't care".

- No, I'm no longer angry about what happened, because if this letter is accurate then I'm more than happy to no longer have any association at all with the subject.

- Yes, I could say an awful lot about the situation.

- Yes, some of it might be very damaging.

- No, I won't.

- Yes, I promise that I won't.

- No, I don't even care to mention them by name, because if this is indeed "the shot heard around the net" then there's no need for me to bring any more attention than this thing deserves (a Google search had it coming up at least 400 times anyway).

- No, I don't regret my time there. Regarding anything. I stayed as true to myself as I could be and that's all I knew how to do.

- Yes, it's regrettable that what happened there, has.

- No, I'm not gloating. There's no gloating at what has become a very sad state of being for too many people.

- No, I won't even gloat at what's happened to him.

- So no, I don't want to be involved with this. At all. Ever. Leave me out of it. Please don't even ask me to get involved in any way.

Yes, that's all I intend to say on the subject.

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Screamin' Dean has no meanin': Why Democrat and Republican loyalists are fools

Did a quick look through all the major news sites and #1 story today is Howard Dean getting elected to be chairman of the Democratic Party.

Why should we care?

This'll be a big deal to a lot of people. The Dems will praise their new leader and the Pubs will hate him more. That's all.

This "news" has no intrinsic value whatsoever. But it has the intended effect: trick a lot of people into thinking that this "really matters" so they can be even more faithful Democrats or spiteful Republicans and not have to bother to think for themselves about the things that ARE important. So they can be used by Those With Power(tm).

All of you Democrats who believe this news is critically important: you're wrong. And you do precisely what's expected of you when you become such tools to your party's masters. Same to you Republicans: you'll focus anger on Dean just like you did when he was running for President, and you won't even bother to stop and consider why it is that you are angry with him. Just as you were led to hate Kerry for no reason. Which is just as many Democrats hate Bush for no reason other than because he's a Republican: whatever legitimate issues you might raise against the man, you corrupted your message into self-destruction.

But that's okay, because you - regardless of whether you are Democrat or Republican - will have behaved just as they knew you would. But you can't become one of "them": you know, the Bushes, the Kerrys, the Gores, the Kennedys, the Doles, the ones that dangle the carrot and tease you with power, make you believe that you really are important to them. You want the kind of power that they have... but they will never allow you to have it. They'll trick you into believing that you have it, but you hold no sway whatsoever over those that cut the deals and anoint their chosen candidates. And yet you still cling to the notion that because you belong to The Party, your place within it is priceless beyond negotiation.

You're just cannon fodder to The Party, whichever one you belong to. And after you are gone there will be more that are willing to take your place. Whatever "good" you believed you did for The Party, you will not be missed. Or even remembered. And you are still too afraid to stop clinging to them.

In short: you are all fools. Because you choose to be fools.

Perhaps none of you deserve that power at all. You are getting precisely what you deserve, then. And when your children and grandchildren become slaves, you can blame no one but the person staring at you from the mirror.

The two major parties in this country are a control mechanism on the American people designed to stifle independent thought and observation, and then action. So too are any third parties a kind of control: that they arise primarily as a reaction against one or both of the Democrats and Republicans means that they are an extension of that dominant control, and nothing more. It's true that no one from the Libertarians, the Constitutionalists, the Greens, or the Reform parties will ever win the office of Presidency: they won't be allowed a serious opportunity. Although the parties themselves are not only allowed, they are required by the Democrats and Republicans to perpetuate the belief that to accomplish good, that one must first possess power. And that power can only be effectively wielded if it is more powerful than opposing powers.

That's why the Libertarian Party - though it has some good ideas - hardly ever wins even the most minor of electoral races. They are more determined to keep enough power just to stay on the next ballot than they are with actually doing something substantial. But they're never going to have enough power to do that, at all. That's not their role. They and the others are there to keep the "malcontents" happy in the conviction that they are doing "something that matters", and that is all that they can do.

To wit: the news that your TV sets bring you every night, the politicians you are expected to vote for, the passions that arise from sound bites and petty insults and empty rhetoric, the anger and hatred that you somehow justify having toward your fellow man... are all a means of control.

You are under control.

Which means that those of us that are out of control are going to have to figure out what exactly it is that we are supposed to do with you. And if it were up to me, that would mean bringing you out of control, too.

But it's not really up to me. It's up to you.

Life is so much more liberating and fulfilling when you choose to "take the red pill".

Think about it.

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Theological wunderkind Kyle Williams is at it again

This time he's talking about what happens "When Christians worship man". Go read it. Now.

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The cradle will rock when the stars are right...

So a little while ago my wife and I are talking about how things will be if/when we start having children, and how I've always dreamed of being the kind of Daddy who reads bedtime stories to the kids before they go to sleep for the night.

"But I don't wanna read 'em stuff like 'The Little Red Hen' a zillion times over and over," I told her. "That got old fast. By the time they're five or six I'm thinking something like tucking them into bed and then reading The Call of Cthulhu to them."

I'm not kidding.

She's never read Lovecraft so she's got NO idea what I'm talking about. And she would probably have a restraining order to keep me away from Baby if she did know. But she didn't say "no" so guess that's a de facto "yes" right?

Telling y'all here and now: our kids are gonna grow up in a house that's something else...

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More qualified than Gannon: I'm a blogger, a REAL journalist... and now a PORN STAR!

The funniest thing about this Jeff Gannon story, for me at least, is that someone with two days of journalism training during a weekend seminar becomes a credentialed reporter from a website - that was maybe a week-old at the time - and then given regular access to the White House press briefing room. Despite having an obvious agenda to promote a political party, his meteoric rise was duly noted as he not only received the coveted assignment of asking questions at a Presidential press conference, but got called on by first name from President Bush. So the official statement from the White House about this is that they effectively don't care. Whether he was who he said he was, or was a serious reporter, or apparently whether he was distributing gay pornography and prostituting himself over the Internet: none of that matters. He was still considered trusty enough to be acquainted chums with their boss.

Whereas some reporters who've spent countless hours studying and training in journalism during college and a few real-life situations, have beaten serious pavement and driven into the middle of God-knows-where to cover an event, who DO care about turning in an objective, honest and well-written story to their editor, would not only NOT get within a half-mile of this same press room, but get called an "asshole" by that very President, who then orders the same staff that let Gannon in to tell this reporter to "GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!"... some consistency, huh?

Or maybe it's just that I didn't have all the bases covered. I mean, I've never posted a photo anywhere of myself wearing anything less than shorts and a t-shirt. And I've only had one girlfriend in my entire life: the girl who's now my wife. Obviously I haven't been "playing the field" enough to hack it as a REAL reporter per the standards of President George W. Bush and his staff.

Well, time to fix that. Ladies, remember that I'm already a happily taken man: I'm only doing this because of career demands. Wish it hadn't come to this, but I've got a wife and some Sea Monkeys(tm) to keep fed. Seeing as how I've got much more training and experience (as a journalist, mind ya) than Jeff Gannon/James Guckert ever had...

Be sure to catch my new special, "Hot Days and Hotter Knight", premiering this May on HBO.

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"Most of all, you've got to hide it from the kids"

Dustin Hoffman admits that he thinks about sex every seven seconds.

Hey Dustin, "We'd like to know a little bit about you for our files", but that's waaay too much info, buddy! :-P

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For all those fans of the Tar Heels after last night's game...

...one of the most renowned among you is "feeling blue" too. But he's got some sage words of wisdom that'll surely pick you right up!!

(P.S.: And Chad, as much as I've always rooted for Duke or N.C. State or whoever over UNC, I must say this with all sincerest conviction: despite this one loss it is a most wonderful thing to behold than I ever thought possible to see the Tar Heels back on top of their - and I mean THEIR - game again :-)

(P.P.S.: Yeah I've come to respect Dean Smith more as the years go by too... but I still struggle over forgiving him for coming up with the "four corners play" :-P)

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Was Jeff Gannon a "PsyOps" by the Bush Admin?

It's not "major league" news in most of the press right now: in fact it wouldn't be surprising if you haven't heard about this at all. But it's gotten pretty big among a lot of bloggers so Lord only knows where this thing is gonna end up.

The Boston Globe broke the story last week that Jeff Gannon, a reporter with a website called TalonNews.com, was enjoying regular access to the White House press briefings and even getting to ask questions to President Bush despite the fact that he was NOT a credentialed journalist... and possibly had no experience or training in journalism prior to coming aboard TalonNews.com.

While a member of the press pool, Gannon became well-known for asking "soft" questions that could only be described as subjective and pro-Republican. Some of these wouldn't even pass muster with a high school journalism teacher: "You've said you're going to reach out to (Senate Democrats). How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?" Gannon asked President Bush during a press conference last week. Some have observed that much of the text in Gannon's stories have been lifted verbatim from White House and Republican party documents while passing it off as his own work (oops... possible plagurism there).

Although it proclaims itself to be "committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news coverage to our readers", TalonNews.com has something in common with pro-conservative website GOPUSA.com: both are owned and operated by a Texas Republican activist named Bobby Eberle.

It also now looks like Jeff Gannon is possibly a provider of gay porn and an "escort service". But that's not what this post is about.

This is about how it looks like Jeff Gannon has been a reporter with an agenda all this time.

I gotta wonder how much this was already known, and by whom?

Someone (you don't have to know who this person is, but they have a lot of knowledge on some "things", 'kay) told me years ago how it is that the government - elected or no - can influence the opinions and activities of the general public. This person said that the CIA has long practiced this method, going back at least to the Vietnam War. The resources became plenty available then: they're even moreso now. And most of them probably don't even know that they're being used in this manner.

It's really very simple: an agent of the government contacts a minor media outlet somewhere. Say, a small-town newspaper or low-watt television station... or a low-traffic website. He tells the editor or producer that he's got a "hot tip" for a story. Usually this means that the potential story is intended to sow distrust and suspicion against a particular person or group (my source said that this was regular practice against anti-war activists and others during Vietnam) or in favor of a certain side in a policy debate... such as whatever's going on with Social Security. The small media outlet publishes or broadcasts a story. If it's been "cultivated" well enough then it can be decided that it needs more attention. A larger media outlet receives a phone call or e-mail telling them to "hey check out this issue of the Springfield Shopper there's this story you should check out". So the bigger newspaper or TV station takes a look, figures it's a legitimate story and THEY run with it, referring back to the initial source that first aired or published the news item. Ya see, that "establishes credibility that this is a real story", my source told me.

If played correctly, what started out as practically a filler story in the bi-weekly newspaper down in Lizard Lick, Georgia will go up the food chain, right into ears - and out the mouths - of Fox News and CNN. And it will have the effect of swaying public opinion either for something (or someone) or against.

This is how the government has long had tremendous control over the American people's perceptions of issues and ideology, the source told me: "It's psychological operations against the public."

Here's how one military information website defines "psychological operations", or "PsyOps":

'Psychological Operations: Planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals. The purpose of psychological operations is to induce or reinforce foreign attitudes and behavior favorable to the originator's objectives. Also called PSYOP. See also consolidation psychological operations; overt peacetime psychological operations programs; perception management. ' US Department of Defense

So I gotta wonder: is a PsyOps operation being run on us by members of this administration in the White House? Was Jeff Gannon a "reporter" specially selected and placed so that a "credible news agency" would ask questions - intended to convey certain biases and beliefs that would favor the Bush administration - which would then be picked up and disseminated to a much vaster audience by the big dogs of the nation's press?

Someone had to know that he was there, in the White House press briefings. And that he and Talon News were routinely being sourced as "legitimate" news agencies. Didn't any of this raise some questions about validity or intent? Doesn't this at least bring a security issue to mind?

I'm starting to be inclined toward the belief that Jeff Gannon was a deliberate means by members of this current Presidential administration to influence the emotions and convictions of countless (millions?) American citizens. Hey if they can pay op-ed columnists to shill for them without informing the public about that lil' fact, why shouldn't we believe them to be incapable of inserting a fictitious reporter from a dubious "news website" into their own press briefings, so as to ask questions that will reflect favorably on them?

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"But did he leave a tip for that drink?"

Officials fear baby acquired herpes during a Jewish circumcision, apparently after the attending rabbi drew its blood with his mouth.

Ummmmm...

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