DVD Review of SOPHIE SCHOLL: THE FINAL DAYS

This may be the most shocking historical drama that has ever been produced. You wouldn't believe what they did to make Sophie Scholl: The Final Days as authentic as it could possibly be. More on why that is in just a little bit...

Three months ago, I posted on this blog a review of the movie Sophie Scholl: The Final Days. Ever since I heard about this movie earlier this year (it's actually a German-produced film originally titled Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage) I had been looking for any chance at all to watch it. Sophie Scholl: The Final Days is the story of Sophie Scholl, a 21-year old university student in Munich, Germany in 1943. At the height of the Nazi regime, Sophie, her brother Hans, their friend Christoph Probst, and a few other conspirators produced "The White Rose" pamphlets: a series of six leaflets condemning Nazism and calling for an end to the war. On February 18 1943, Sophie and Hans were arrested after being caught disseminating the pamphlets at the University of Munich. Shortly thereafter Christoph was taken into custody. The three were given a "show trial" a few days later and a few hours after that on February 21st, the three friends were guillotined.

In the decades since World War II, the members of the White Rose have become a symbol of courage and resistance to the young people of Germany and others throughout the world. Especially Sophie Scholl, who is seen by many to not only be a hero, but a Christian martyr who laid down her life for her beliefs.

The story of the White Rose has haunted and fascinated me ever since I first read about them when I was working on my history degree. There have been other movies about the White Rose produced over the years. But when I heard that Sophie Scholl: The Final Days was not only focusing on Sophie and her Christian faith, but also that it was using recently-uncovered official documents from the arrests and trial of the White Rose members, I became hellbent on seeing it one way or another. Alas, no theater around here ever showed it. But someone heard about my plight and arranged for a bootleg DVD to be sent to me. I finally got to watch Sophie Scholl: The Final Days and you can read my initial thoughts here. But it was a less-than-stellar version of the film in terms of image quality... to say nothing of how mangled the English subtitling was (I'm still laughing at how the three friends were on trial for "sabotaging nuclear power plants" in 1943 Germany). I told Lisa in September that I wanted her to watch this movie, but only after we had the official DVD release.

Well, the week before last a package from Amazon.com came and among other things, there was the DVD of Sophie Scholl: The Final Days. Lisa and I watched it together Sunday night before last. She had never heard of the White Rose or Sophie Scholl before then. The movie haunted her: "It's been stuck in my head" she told me a few days later. Seeing it again was no less powerful for me either: this is an excellent DVD and the transfer is incredibly beautiful, even being a standard-def DVD playing on a high-definition set.Side 1 is the actual movie, presented in 16:9 aspect ratio. You have the option of watching it with or without English subtitles (since neither one of us speak German, we thought it a good idea to turn subtitles on :-) Here you see Julia Jentsch in the role of Sophie Scholl, as she's on trial. This is the scene that pits the two real powerhouse performances of Sophie Scholl: The Final Days against each other: Jentsch as Sophie, and André Hennicke as presiding judge Roland Freisler... also known as "the Blood Judge". Every word of the exchange between Freisler and the three defendants is taken from the actual trial transcripts that just came to see the light of day in the past few years: nothing you see in this scene was made up. The scenes of Sophie sharing her prison cell with Else Gebel (played by Johanna Gastdorf) were taken from recollections given by Gebel after the war. So too were the interrogations of Sophie by Gestapo agent Robert Mohr (Gerald Alexander Held) based on the actual notes of the debriefing sessions. In fact, I would say it's safe to say that of all the movies I've ever seen about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days may be the one that went to the most painstaking lengths to be as accurate as possible to what really happened.

Side 2 of the disc is the extra features, and if you are a history buff then you will be absolutely stunned at the material that's been brought together for this added content. "The Making of Sophie Scholl" is an hour-long documentary about the movie's production, covering various aspects and scenes and how the producers labored to make the film as close to historical fact as it could possibly be. There are thirteen deleted scenes on the Sophie Scholl: The Final Days DVD, which is considerably more than how many are on the DVDs of most American movies. Several of these scenes are extended sequences during the trial, showing a lot more of the time when Hans, Christoph and Sophie were on the stand before Freisler. There is also quite a lot more of Hans and Sophie's parents as they tried to get into the trial to protest for their children's lives. And then there is the historical material: interviews with Mohr's son, Hans and Sophie's sister, and one with Sophie's cell-mate Else Gebel herself. The really scary material is actual footage - with sound - of a trial being presided over by "Blood Judge" Roland Freisler. This may be the first DVD I've ever owned that had the voice of absolute evil recorded on it.

But there's one other thing that I am compelled to talk about regarding Sophie Scholl: The Final Days. The thing that chilled me to the bone when I realized what it was that they were actually saying...

For almost ten years I've read and studied everything that I possibly could about the White Rose. I'm pretty sure that I've seen almost every photograph related to the conspirators and their eventual capture and executions. After their trial Hans, Sophie and Christoph were taken to Munich-Stadelheim Prison and a few hours later they were executed on the fallbeil (the German version of the guillotine: it featured a much heavier blade that made up for the shorter distance that it fell as opposed to the traditional French version). I've seen photographs of the execution room at Munich-Stadelheim, which showed the guillotine and the rod hanging from the ceiling from which some victims were hanged (their deaths being caught on motion picture cameras so that Hitler could later watch the footage of them squirming in agony).

Take a look at this shot from toward the end of Sophie Scholl: The Final Days:The man standing next to the guillotine is meant to be Johann Reichhart, who carried out more than 3,000 executions during his long career. Toward the right is the ceiling rod using in hangings. And then there is the guillotine itself, dominating the shot.

When I first saw this I was absolutely shocked, because I thought to myself "Dear Lord... that looks EXACTLY like the real guillotine that was at Munich-Stadelheim".

Well, it turns out that there is a reason why the guillotine in Sophie Scholl: The Final Days looks so much like the guillotine that was actually used at Munich-Stadelheim...

...Because it IS the guillotine that was actually used at Munich-Stadelheim!

This comes out during the entire section devoted to the guillotine that is in the making-of documentary on Side 2. At one point Julia Jentsch comments about how this is the same bucket she is looking into when she's on the guillotine that was the last thing that the real Sophie Scholl saw before she was killed. Jentsch talks about how overwhelming an experience it was to be in that machine, knowing this is the very one that beheaded Sophie and Hans and Christoph and hundreds more when it was in use. So when you see this scene right at the end......bear in mind that this is where the REAL Sophie Scholl's head was before the blade fell.

Even if I had never known that, I would still be in awe at this movie: at the powerful story of courage and bold faith that it depicts and to the lengths that the filmmakers went to in making it as honest to what really happened as could possibly be expected from a movie. I said this in my original review: Sophie Scholl: The Final Days is a movie that should be seen by high school history classes and church youth groups everywhere. There is so much to be conveyed from this wonderful film to people, and especially to young people. Teachers should definitely consider getting this for class viewing and discussion. It may not be available at your local Best Buy or Circuit City, but Sophie Scholl: The Final Days is a DVD wonderful enough to be well worth tracking down either on Amazon or elsewhere. I cannot begin to describe how much I would suggest this DVD to others. Highly recommended!

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ROCKY BALBOA and retconning movie series

Apparently Rocky Balboa - which premieres in theaters tomorrow - references ever single previous Rocky movie... except Rocky V. Sylvester Stallone is now being quoted in a few places as saying the reason he wanted to make Rocky Balboa was to make people forget about how bad Rocky V was.

In other words, as of this week, it's possible that Rocky V should no longer be considered part of Rocky continuity at all.

Remember a few months back when Superman Returns came out, and how it "wiped out" the third and fourth Superman movies from "really" happening? Now the same thing is happening to the Rocky saga: the biggest mistakes are being erased. They're being eliminated by "retroactive continuity", AKA "retconning". And I think it's terrific!

In hindsight, there are a lot of movie series, that were otherwise brilliant before getting tarnished by mediocre sequels, that could be getting this treatment. F'rinstance: Burt Reynolds should play the Bandit one more time... and play him throughout the movie this time... in one final installment that makes us forget that the series ended with Smokey and the Bandit Part 3...Then there's this possibility that comes to mind...King Conan: Crown of Iron was an actual movie project about five years ago. John Milius had written the script and was set to direct it, with production by the Wachowski Brothers (of The Matrix fame). I was able to read the script in 2003 and it was one of the most beautiful and brutal screenplays I've ever found... and it ties in perfectly with the original Conan the Barbarian, like the scene where he's again praying to Crom. Had it been produced, King Conan: Crown of Iron would have made us all forget that Conan the Destroyer ever happened. Sadly, with Arnold Schwarzenegger now in politics (with no signs of returning to acting), and now that both Mako and Basil Poledouris have passed away, this one doesn't stand much chance of ever getting made. But it would have been a wonderful thing to have been able to behold.

And then, there is this: the movie series that I think most deserves, if not outright screaming for, a chance for a make-over...Alien 3 went through something like 40 writers: that should tell you how big a mess the movie was even if you've never seen it. Alien Resurrection had moments of pure genius, like when the queen is giving birth with a human reproductive system (and it didn't hurt to have Ron Perlman in it either). Otherwise, it really didn't resonate along with the first two entries in the Alien series. In my mind at least, the last thing we saw of canon story from the Alien saga was Ripley and Newt and Hicks and Bishop turning-in for the long journey back home. I believe they're still en route to Earth and whatever happened in Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection are just bad dreams that Ripley is having while in hypersleep... if even that. There needs to be a new Alien movie: one that completely repudiates the events of the third and fourth installments. Heck, William Gibson wrote an awesome script for Alien 3 almost twenty years ago and it was never used: why not just adapt that and set the story 20 years later after the Sulaco returned to Earth? Actually, I would love to see the alien be brought to Earth and start multiplying, and an older/more world-weary Ripley get called back to help eliminate the creatures. Even if Sigourney Weaver wouldn't agree to return to the role of Ripley, I think a top-quality Alien story that picks up the story from the end of Aliens would definitely be appreciated, so long as it does away with Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection.

There's probably more movie series that would benefit from the treatment that the Superman, and now Rocky sagas are getting. In the long term scheme of things, this might be the one strategy that will ensure that these movie series would still be discovered and enjoyed by future generations, instead of writing them off wholesale because of lackluster sequels.

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A CLOCKWORK ORANGE is 35 years old today

On December 19th 1971, filmmaker Stanley Kubrick unleashed what – I believe so anyway – is the greatest movie he ever made. So let's hoist our glasses and raise a toast to the 35th anniversary of A Clockwork Orange!

This is definitely my most favorite movie that Kubrick made: even more so than 2001: A Space Odyssey and Dr. Strangelove (although I love those also quite a bit). But none of his other works have had the influence on my life as A Clockwork Orange has.

So how did I wind up coming across it? I'd heard of A Clockwork Orange for years and thought it an oddball title but didn't have any inclination toward watching it, until one day in English class during my high school senior year a classmate talked about seeing it the previous weekend. "That's the most torn-up movie ever made," Joel told us. That was all it took: not long after I went into Action Video and rented it.

To a seventeen-year old mind that had wound up staying fairly pure so far as cinema brutality went, A Clockwork Orange was like being splashed in the face with a bucket of warm blood. To say that I was "shocked" would be a vast understatement.

Since then I've probably watched A Clockwork Orange two or three dozen times over the years. Sometimes alone and sometimes, it's been watching it with other people just to see their reaction to it and what they think it's about. My first year at Elon, I kept telling my friends Gary and "Weird" Ed that they should check this movie out. So one Thursday night they came over to the apartment for pizza and I put A Clockwork Orange in the VCR. It had a strange effect on Gary: the entire time we drove back to campus he kept repeating the word "kill" over and over again. After watching it with another friend, he found himself addicted to speaking "Nadsat" (the weird mixture of Russian and English that Alex and his gang uses when they talk). I showed it to Lisa a few months after we'd started dating... which probably wasn't the smartest thing in the world considering I was trying to keep this girl, not scare her off. She didn't think I was a pervert for liking this movie, but I don't think she's ever wanted to see it again either. But that's understandable: Even after all this time, A Clockwork Orange still barrages my own senses every time I see it.

I don't think that "torn-up" is really the right adjective to describe A Clockwork Orange anymore though. "Torn-up" would be a movie that's bizarrely violent for violence's sake, and that's not A Clockwork Orange at all. Neither is it a very complex tale: it's actually a pretty simple story. Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) is the young leader of a gang of remorseless hoodlums in an England sometime in the future (we are never told when exactly this story takes place). Life for Alex and his gang means drinking milk laced with drugs before heading out into the night for "a bit of the old ultra-violence". This usually means stealing cars, kicking the crap out of defenseless old men and forcing a husband to watch as his wife is gang-raped. One night one of Alex's pranks on innocent people results in the death of a woman and he's left wounded at the scene after being betrayed by his gang members. He's arrested, put on trial and sentenced to prison. He spends a few years behind bars and then comes to the attention of the government. Alex, it seems, is the perfect subject on whom to test "the Ludovico technique": a psychological procedure that renders the person incapable of wanting to commit acts of violence. I won't say anymore than that, to keep the story from being "spoiled" for those who haven't seen it yet. But in spite of the unbridled violence that permeates A Clockwork Orange, I've never found that to be the focus of the film. The story of Alex, and what he goes through and what is done to him, vastly outweighs and even justifies the visual trauma that is inflicted upon the viewer of this movie. And from the very beginning, every time I finish watching A Clockwork Orange it's not the violence that occupies my mind... but a sense of sympathy for Alex and what he's gone through.

What A Clockwork Orange has meant to me has changed considerably over the years. When I first saw it, I saw it simply as a movie about youth out of control, and then youth wasted without purpose. Today my understanding of it is much more profound.

The most central theme of A Clockwork Orange is moral choice: Can a person be made to be good, or is being good something that he or she must choose on their own? In that regard, A Clockwork Orange stands as an indictment against those who believe that it is the role of the State to create morality. A conscience is something that a person must want to have. It cannot be initiated or even nurtured by government if it's already there, because that would either corrupt a man at best or completely destroy him at worst. As we see in A Clockwork Orange, the government's meddling in things best left to God almost results in Alex being killed.

In recent years I've come to see a theme in A Clockwork Orange about how in spite of the "morality" it tries to enforce, that government – no matter who is running it – really doesn't care about the life of the individual. To the state, individuals are mere tools to be used at whim to maintain the state's hold on power. The government in A Clockwork Orange does not really care about what happens to Alex in the long run: they want results now that will impress the voters enough to keep their party in office. Which it doesn't matter if that party is "liberal" or "conservative": to either, Alex would be an expendable asset. I think this kind of commentary about the dehumanizing of the individual for sake of the political party was way ahead of its time in 1971... and something we would do wise to consider today.

As a Christian, I have also come to see A Clockwork Orange as being about what the world is like without the virtues of grace and forgiveness. Alex finds that out after he's released from prison and discovers that though the state may have forgiven him on paper, his victims did not. Alex's sins come back to haunt him and when they catch up with him, they are unrelentingly cruel and vicious... just as Alex had been before being sent to prison. I can't help but think to myself "This is how the world really is without the willingness to return love for hate". If you want to get a glimpse of what a world devoid of God is really like, go watch A Clockwork Orange. And I don't think that I'm seeing too much in this story so far as Christian metaphor goes either considering that Anthony Burgess, the author of the original novel, was a devout Christian himself.

Well, I could go on, but to do a really full analysis of A Clockwork Orange would take probably another fifteen pages, so I'm just going to leave it at this. So in honor of this, the 35th birthday of Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, I suggest that a celebration is in order: Either watching the DVD of the movie or if there's no time for that, at least listening to a bit of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

However it is that one chooses to commemorate it: happy anniversary A Clockwork Orange!

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Lots of stuff coming the next few days

A book review, a DVD review, maybe a movie review, another humor piece, possibly more YouTube videos, a holiday tradition, and an announcement. All of this before the week is out.

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THE LOBO PARAMILITARY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

And now, the most twisted and ultra-violent movie you'll ever see this or any other holiday season...

The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special! This 2002 short film was for awhile the most sought-after comic book-related movie on the Internet... but now it's on YouTube! In this torn-up holiday classic, DC Comics' galactic bounty hunter Lobo (click here for more info about "The Main Man") is hired by the Easter Bunny to kill Santa Claus. Seems that Christmas has become too big a holiday so a consortium of competing mythic figures has put a death mark on "Jolly Saint Prick". Lobo takes the job and mayhem ensues at the North Pole! BE WARNED: Although uproariously funny this film is not suitable for small children because of occasional profanity and lots of on-screen death and mangling. That said, The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special is a must-see if you're a fan of DC Comics and especially if you're a "fraggin' bastitch" who digs Lobo... or if you're someone who just wants to see what would happen if somebody tried to "off" Santa.

Click here to watch The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special on YouTube

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Review of ERAGON

"I liked the part where Darth Vader rides the Balrog."

A long time ago and far, far away, there was an empire ruled by a cruel tyrant. It had been a realm that was originally looked after and protected by an order of mystical warriors, until they were betrayed and wiped out years before by the dark lord. The emperor ruled with an iron fist... but an alliance of rebels threatened his power. As the story begins, a beautiful princess is attempting to deliver something important out of the grasp of the evil forces. She is captured by a malevolent henchman, but not before sending what she is carrying out of harm's way. Her package falls into the possession of a young farm boy who lives with his uncle on a remote homestead. And then the young man is told by a wise hermit that he is destined to be a great warrior, and that a magic force flows through him...

The point where I started giggling during the movie Eragon was when the namesake character (Edward Speleers) is standing outside the farmhouse at dusk and wistfully looking at the setting sun. They should have just went ahead and made it a dual sunset and gotten it over with, because Eragon is not just kinda like Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope... IT IS STAR WARS EPISODE IV!

I'm sorry... I just can't get that thought out of my head. Lisa and I saw Eragon at the Carousel Grande in Greensboro this afternoon and from the very first moments of the movie, the parallels to Star Wars Episode IV were blaringly obvious. Let's see: evil empire, check. Princess on a mission, check. Farm boy dreaming of adventure, check. Evil right-hand lackey to the emperor who can choke people without touching them, check. Rebel alliance, check. Grizzled warrior who has been living the life of an exile while waiting for a new hope, check...

...It was so bad that when Eragon is trying to rescue Lei... I mean Arya (Sienna Guillory) I was almost expecting him to plop on an Imperial Stormtrooper helmet before walking into the place.

Oh yeah, the burning homestead with the dead uncle: that's in Eragon too. So is the trip into – and daring escape out of – Mos Eisley.

The plot may have been ripped-off from Star Wars Episode IV but a lot of the visual elements seem to have been at least partly inspired by The Lord of the Rings movies. There are these guys, I think they're called Ogres in the movie – there are also evil beings called Rajas and Urkels – but they look too much like the Orcs from Peter Jackson's trilogy. There's also this entire horde of big bald guys, I don't know what they’re supposed to be. And then there's that thing that Darza (who's something called a "Shade" and is played by Robert Carlyle made up to look like the moldering corpse of Lucius Malfoy from the Harry Potter movies) is riding on. It looks so much like the Balrog from The Fellowship of the Ring that all that was missing was Gandalf screaming "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"

The effects were great. Not the best I've seen though. So far as onscreen dragons go the Hungarian Horntail from last year's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire felt more convincing than Saphira (voiced by Rachel Weisz... which to me sounded way too sweet for a dragon) does here.

The thing that I liked most about Eragon was Jeremy Irons. Which Jeremy Irons is one of my all-time favorite actors anyway, so maybe I'm being biased. But here in Eragon Irons is doing his darned bloody best to convince us that not only is his character Brom real, but so is this world around him. Brom was my very favorite character in Eragon. And Jeremy Irons is really good here, even when he's forced to speak dialogue that sounds more like something out of Krull or Yor: Hunter from the Future or one of those other Eighties-era fantasy flicks than from a best-selling novel of the early 21st Century.

No, I haven't actually read the novel, although plenty of people – including Lisa and "Weird" Ed – have told me that I should. I did start reading Christopher Paolini's book several months ago but couldn't get past the first few chapters: think I only got as far as Eragon getting tutored by Brom about the history of the Dragon Riders. I was so occupied with the school board campaign the past few months that time for pleasurable reading was very hard to come by. At the time I really did find it to be a pretty hard book to find very appealing... but maybe I'll give Eragon the book another chance. And perhaps after that the movie will be a lot more fun to watch.

So... did I actually like Eragon the movie?

It was an okay way to spend a Sunday afternoon. But I wasn't overwhelmed nearly as much as I would have hoped. I'm not going to say I was completely "underwhelmed" by Eragon either, though. It was nothing like a Star Wars or Harry Potter movie, but I don't regret seeing it, even though I just wish that I could have enjoyed it more and especially for feeling like there was something here that I hadn't already seen before. Unfortunately, Eragon was way too predictable.

But for a movie that I was constantly snickering at, I have to say that I'm compelled to give Eragon another chance to win me over. Which is something that I normally wouldn't do for a movie like this. And the only reason I'm going to give that much grace to Eragon is because of that very last scene in the movie, when Galbatorix the evil king (played by John Malkovich) slashes the giant map with his sword and what we see behind it. That final scene shows a LOT of promise. For that reason alone would I not only try to watch Eragon again, but I would even say that I hope this merits a sequel.

It would have to be one heckuva good second chapter though, to make this adaptation of the first installment from Paolini's "Inheritance Trilogy" worth watching again in the years to come. I sincerely hope that the producers of this film can pull that off.

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Elon University lit up for the holidays

Late Thursday night/early Friday morning Lisa and I were driving back home from Raleigh after seeing Trans-Siberian Orchestra in concert. We wound up going through Elon University, where I went to college. I stopped and took a few pictures, although they really can't do any justice to how beautiful the campus is lit up every Christmas season.

These photos of Elon University were taken around 12:40 a.m. EST on December 15th, 2006.

On the main road, looking across the "grassy knoll" toward Belk Library:

The front of Mosely Center:

Looking toward the main campus from Young Commons:

The front of Belk Library:

The Alamance Building, driving by on Haggard Avenue:

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Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the RBC Center in Raleigh

Last night Lisa and I hooked up with Chad and my sister Anita at Chad's apartment in Raleigh. We headed out a little after 6, had a bite to eat at a nearby Quizno's and then headed to the RBC Center for a live concert by Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

This was by far one of the most unique musical experiences I've ever had... to say nothing about it being the most lively Christmas concert I've ever attended! Trans-Siberian Orchestra does an amazing job doing a live concert along with various lights and sound effects (we were sitting toward the back and I still feel partially blinded by those huge flames). The first half of the show was the "story" part, where Trans-Siberian Orchestra uses music along with live narration to tell a story: in this case, it's about an angel and these other characters who converge in a bar in New York City one night at Christmas (this tale reminded me a lot about "World's End", the story from toward the end of The Sandman comic's run). The music accompanying this story was from Trans-Siberian Orchestra's The Lost Christmas Eve album. It was a VERY beautiful little show... but that was just the first half. Without any real intermission, Trans-Siberian Orchestra went into the second part of the show after some quick introductions of band members. This time they did stuff like "Carmina Burana" (the COOLEST rendition of that piece I've ever heard), their take on "Layla" by Eric Clapton, and "Christmas Canon" which has sort of become their signature piece in the past few years though this one had no children singing in but that was okay. Toward the end of the show they had a "dueling keyboards" thing between two of their keyboardists and the whole crowd went nuts when one of them started playing the "Linus and Lucy" theme from A Charlie Brown Christmas, before the band wrapped up the show with a spectacular medley of stuff.

All told it was an AWESOME two and a half hours! Trans-Siberian Orchestra is definitely worth seeing if they ever do a show near you (but do your best to get tickets early 'cuz they go fast).

When we were at Chad's apartment I took some pics of him and Anita. Anita took one of me and Lisa together with her camera but she hasn't sent it yet. Here's Anita from last night...

And here's Chad...

I'll let Chad tell the story (if he's so inclined) about how he and Anita went into this convenience store after the show to get Anita a bottle of Mello-Yello but instead wound up with Miller Lite :-P

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Bushido in America

Long but compelling read by Robert L. Kocher called "Bushido, Class, and Governance" about the principles of Bushido (the guiding philosophies of the samurai). One of the things this article talks about is how people like George W. Bush, Ted Kennedy, Al Gore etc. would never have succeeded on their own in the real world had it not been for family name and connections: their "nobility" so to speak, when in truth none of them possess any redeeming qualities which makes them fit to be in a position of authority...

Were the average person to walk into a bank, declare he had no money, prospects, or experience, then ask to be put on the bank's board of directors at $80,000 a year since he was down on his luck, he would be ushered out the door in short order. But when your name is Bush, your granddaddy was senator from Connecticut, your Father is Vice President or president, "somebody," people in the class structure will work to find a soft spot for you. In Bush's case he was rescued from virtual backruptcy and from a slide into lower-class obscurity by being given a series of such positions until the class structure could install him as governor and eventually president on the basis of family name and class group membership. From the standpoint of outside objective reality, there was no basis in experience or qualifications other than the name Bush, and class union membership, to put him into office as anything --either in business or government.

The Bush case is illustrative of principle, not exhaustive. Close examanation of many high level people in politics/goverment reveals a similar path which has a death grip on the American political/administrative system and which often does not incorporate serious employment or evidence of ability along the line. Al Gore is basically an unemployable ludicrous figure saved by inheritance of the Gore family name and state power structure. The same is true of any Kennedy. The list of such people reveals they have no personal investment in anything other than a diamyo class power system and political power mediated by a vacuous loquaciousness that could be found in any high school debate team along with equivalent high school experience and other qualifications.

While there may be some jostling between class members for specific positions, as long as the contests are primarily restricted to being among class members, the class system dominence is protected and perpetuated.

As I said it's a long read, but one well worth recommending to others.

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"The 12 Days of Christmas" by the YouTube Community Choir

This is AWESOME!!Look for my favorite YouTuber Geriatric1927 (AKA Peter the British pensioner) sporting a nifty Santa hat!

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Jack Chick and Stan Lee present: GALACTUS IS COMING!

What if Jack Chick worked with Stan Lee on a religious tract?

Behold: Galactus Is Coming!

I've a horrible desire now to print up a bunch of these and plant them around our church sanctuary before service on Sunday morning.

Special thanks to Shane Thacker at The Phantom City - a blog that I'm going to be visiting quite a bit from now on - for finding this :-)

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Disgusted

I shouldn't have looked. I knew what to expect. But I looked anyway.

Senator Tim Johnson, a Democrat from South Dakota, may have suffered a stroke earlier today (although his spokesman is now saying that's not the case). If Johnson can't fulfill his term, it would apparently go to the governor of South Dakota to appoint someone to fill the seat. The governor of South Dakota happens to be a Republican. So one more Republican in the Senate would tilt control of it away from the Democrats.

So more than enough jackals over at Free Republic are now licking their chops over the opportunity they have to "regain" the Senate because of this.

Here's one page of their comments: I'll leave it up to the reader to decide which ones cross the line of good taste. I could also say something about the losers on Democratic Underground: a lot of them have suggested that this is some kind of Bush/Rove plot to take back the Senate. Which I think Karl Rove is one of the most evil, un-Christian men on the political scene (and that's saying something) but I don't know how anyone could seriously entertain such a notion that Johnson's illness is a Republican plot.

But it's the ones at Free Republic - you know, the "conservative" forum, the one that is supposed to take "the high road" - that I find particularly loathsome at this hour.

There really is no difference between the Republicans and Democrats, is it? For both of them it's all about acquiring raw, naked power and then using it to beat others into submission.

If you are a member of either party, or even any party at all, you as an individual are of no use to it. Your unique soul does not matter. Only what you contribute to "the party" for sole sake of "the party" gaining power. You have made yourself an asset to be used at the will of "the party" and it is "the party" - not you or God - that will determine your identity. And when one is completely bereft of any identity of their own, that is when they lose any sense of appreciation for the value and sanctity of other individuals.

The behaviour at both Free Republic and Democratic Underground regarding this matter illustrates that point perfectly.

America will not survive people who are like this.

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Fight for the future

This is why some things are worth fighting...

According to a story from Media General, Rockingham County schools exceed the state average when it comes to school violence. For the school year 2005-06 there were "64 reports of possession of a controlled substance, 43 reports of possession of a weapon, 20 reports of possession of alcoholic beverages, 13 reports of assault on personnel, three reports of assault resulting in serious injury, three reports of bomb threats, and one report each of possession of a firearm, sexual offense and assault involving use of a weapon."

Meanwhile, the News & Record is reporting that given a typical group of 10 students from Rockingham County, "half have had sex, three have smoked pot and, within the previous two weeks, two have gotten drunk. At least three have beaten another person, two have carried a weapon for protection, two smoked cigarettes, one has considered suicide and one has been a victim of sexual abuse."

Young people need to know what the limits are. They want that, even. They anticipate those of us who are older than they are to show them what is right and what is wrong, what will give them strength and what will destroy them. If we expect the best out of them, they will in turn expect only the best out of themselves. We owe them that much at the very least.

In light of all this, I defy anyone to tell me how having an admitted thief on the school board is going to be a suitable role model for young people to emulate.

Well, Ron Price is on there now. Some of us did our best to convince him that he was going to be doing a lot more harm than good if he insisted on being seated. But there was really nothing we could do to persuade him. And now Ron Price is setting the example to the children of Rockingham County that they can get away with breaking the law and not have to worry about the consequences for what they do.

"Not having to worry about the consequences for what you do..."

This is how the Roman Empire came to fall.

And people like Ron Price are slouching us ever so gradually toward Gomorrah.

The fight ultimately belongs to God. But He has certainly called us to occupy as best we can in the meantime.

I realize that in all likelihood, Ron Price is going to "win" this situation in the eyes of the world...

...but since when did temporal victory ever really matter to those seeking justice in the eyes of God?

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Christmas Tree 2006 and the first presents

Well, here is our Christmas tree, all decked-out for 2006...I put it together last Wednesday night and Lisa did the decorations over the weekend. Yeah it's an artificial one that we've had for a few years now, which I know that some people swear by getting a real one for the holidays... and let's face it, no fake tree will ever have that wonderful scent that effuses through the living room from a real natural pine. But this one does have the advantage of being a pre-lit tree! And as you can see there are already presents underneath. Those would be from Lisa, 'cuz I always do my wrapping in the last day or so before Christmas. Maybe when the time comes I'll post some pics and you can see the ummm... "beautiful" job that I usually do with wrapping gifts.

Speaking of gifts, a package arrived in yesterday's mail. It was from "Weird" Ed and his lovely bride Olivia and their kid Tristan. Inside was a lovely angel Christmas ornament for Lisa, and they sent me this:Star Wars Trivial Pursuit DVD Game! It's such a beautiful thing that I still haven't taken the shrink-wrap off the box (which is a nifty decorative tin). It was terrific enough to make a blog post about. The tragedy of the thing is that Lisa and I agree that we can't play this game together 'cuz I would be nigh-invulnerable and the obvious runaway winner. Maybe I'll get together a lil' group of fellow Star Wars uber-geeks (like Darth Larry) and we can have a real cutthroat game of this. That might even be something worth videotaping and sticking on YouTube. Anyway, what a great first gift for this holiday season!

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Comprehend THIS! Something cool for teachers and students (and anyone else)

Found some really neat stuff that I can imagine being a great lesson for science and math teachers to use in their classrooms.

First of all, have you ever wondered about just how big our solar system is? Well, here is a scale drawing of the Earth's solar system: the first one that I've ever seen. There are some physical scale models of the solar system around the world that usually portray the Sun as being the size of a basketball and the Earth as not much bigger than a pinhead several football stadiums away. This is the first one I've seen that could (conceivably) be used for an afternoon's class activity without having to go outside. Remember: the graphics are to-scale representations of the Sun and planets, along with the distances in between them. See how many mouse-clicks it takes you just to get to Mercury... to say nothing about Saturn!

But even that one is dwarfed by this scale depiction of a hydrogen atom, which is also the very first scale picture of an atom I've seen anywhere. In chemistry or physics classes we always see a hydrogen atom being one proton with one electron and no neutrons: one big dot with a little dot going around it in circles. Until finding this page I had no idea just how inaccurate those drawings are when it comes to the distance between the proton and electron. This page advertises itself as being "the largest web page on the entire internet" and I can believe it: if your monitor size is 72 pixels to an inch, that makes this page eleven miles in length from one end of the scroll bar to the other.

These pages tell me a few things. One: that gravity is a lot stronger force than we usually realize if the Sun is keeping objects that far away from it still going in their orbits. Two: that the forces between a proton and a neutron are incredibly powerful given the distance between them and how they interact with other atoms. Three: that most of everything we know about the universe is... just empty space.

And Four: that thinking too much about stuff like this is enough to drive you completely and utterly bonkers :-)

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AFTER-ACTION REPORT: School board members sworn in, new chair elected... and Chris makes a lil' speech

Even though I didn't win a seat, I'm still going to the school board meetings. As I told someone tonight who asked about it, "I'm already in deep". Besides, I believe that the people who got elected... well, four of them anyway... deserve my full support, and I wanted to be there for them. But I also had something else in mind, even though I indicated otherwise a few days ago. But the idea to do this hit last night and it seemed like too good a thing not to do.

So I got to the Rockingham County Schools office about 5:30 this evening. Here's what the school board meeting room looks like after three weeks of renovation to accommodate five additional members:

About 6 o'clock a lot more people started showing up. Here's incoming school board member Reida Drum, looking resplendent in high attire as usual:

And here is Steve Smith, another new school board member, with his daughter:

After a brief reception, 7 o'clock hit and the meeting convened. One of the first items on the agenda was swearing in the new members. Here are Reida Drum, Lori McKinney and Dr. James Austin taking the oath:

Another shot of Dr. Austin and here's Steve Smith getting sworn in:

Ahhh yes, there he is: Ron Price. The man who broke the law by stealing campaign signs then said everything was cool because "I was elected". Here he is, swearing an oath to uphold the policies of the Rockingham County School System, the laws of the state of North Carolina and the Constitution of the United States of America:

Quite a few people noted that of all the candidates, Price is the only one who did not have a family member holding the Bible as he was sworn in. At least one person commented that his wife is perhaps too ashamed of Price for what he's done to show up in public alongside him. Who knows what the deal was - that's school board attorney Jill Wilson holding the Bible that Price is using - but it was certainly a conspicuous absence of support for Ron Price.

I think one of three things is going to happen to Price: he's going to be forced out at some point because of the board being legally obligated to vacate his seat (provided he is found guilty and state law is adhered to). Or this whole mess has emasculated him from being anywhere near an effective school board member, if he winds up staying. Or... nah, I'm not going to say aloud what the third one is. Possibility #3 would be the fun one to watch happen. I don't want to stifle that from probably occurring.

The meeting continued. This was the end of Wayne Kirkman's and Tim Scales' terms as board chair and vice-chair, respectively. Nominations were taken for those two positions and when all was said and done, Elaine McCollum was elected new board chair and Amanda Bell as vice-chair:There were no new reports to hear from, so the meeting then went into public comments. And here is where Yours Truly took part in tonight's drama, ladies and gentlemen. I was the first one to sign up to speak during this portion of the meeting. So I went to the podium and read aloud the following:

One day in Germany, Martin Luther came across a group of villagers who were raiding the town's storehouse. Luther asked them what they were doing.

"We're taking food!" they said to him.

Luther told them that they should stop.

"Why should we?" said one of the villagers, "God wants us to eat!"

"No," Martin Luther replied. "I don't know that God wants you to eat. But I do know that God wants you to be honest."

Chris gives it short and sweet

And that's everything that I said. I made sure to wink at Ron Price after I delivered this lil' history lesson. Did he "get" it? Probably not. But that wasn't going to stop me from driving home the point - in my own way - that there are more important things in this world than winning elections... like the simple matter of doing what is right.

Following my speech, Richard Moore got to the podium and essentially read out the police report from the night Price was found with the stolen signs. Board member Celeste DePriest attempted to stop him, citing that it was a "personnel matter". Moore deferred the matter to the school board attorney and Jill Wilson said that legally school board members are not school system personnel. Moore continued with his remarks.

One way or another, I don't believe Ron Price's term is going to be anywhere near smooth sailing.

The meeting continued with a few other agenda items, reports from the superintendent, etc. Then the public portion of the meeting ended and the board went into closed session. While we were leaving quite a few people told me that they "understood" the point I was making with my brief remarks. One person told me it was one of the more powerful speeches they'd heard in one of these board meetings.

And that was it. And who knows: maybe in two years that'll be me getting sworn in as a member of the school board. I'm definitely considering another run, in light of how good I did and how many people have told me in the past month that I need to run again. But that's still a ways off: Lord only knows what's going to happen between now and then.

In the meantime, the long twilight struggle goes on...

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I hate TV Christmas specials

There are so many Christmas specials on TV about the true meaning of Christmas that the true meaning of Christmas has lost all meaning.

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But if they outright must be part of the season, we might as well have the greatest Christmas special of all time, celebrating its 41st anniversary on the air this year...

A Charlie Brown Christmas will never get old. Between the quirky animation and the classic "Linus and Lucy" tune and funky dance scene and Linus's heart-touching "that's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown" scene, it's no wonder this was a classic from the very first time it aired in 1965.

By the way, according to the guys at X-Entertainment, you can now buy a replica of Charlie Brown's pathetic Christmas tree from UrbanOutfitters.com:For $24 it can be yours. I might get one of these for next year, just to see how many presents we can fit under it.

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Last year I posted the Top Ten Worst Christmas Songs Ever (which appropriately enough was post #666 for this blog). I'm currently working on a feature called "The Worst Christmas Specials Ever". I'll try to have it posted in the next several days.

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