Shirley Phelps-Roper arrested for letting son stomp on American flag

Remember this lady? It's Shirley Phelps-Roper. It will be a year ago next week that she and her family - the infamous Westboro Baptist Church - visited the TV station that I worked at. This is that "God hates fags church" that does those rabid anti-homosexual protests... most of them quite bizarre and all of them crossing the boundary of good taste. If you missed that...

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He's got as good a chance as anyone else ...

One can only wonder about what kind of America we would have today if he had been elected in 19...

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WARNING: The following blog post may trigger seizures and nausea

They unveiled the logo for the 2012 London Olympics earlier this week and it's so magnificently malformed that some are claiming that it could trigger seizures in people with epilepsy...It reminded me of something that happened almost ten years ago. On December 17th 1997, Japanese television broadcast an episode of the popular Pokemon show. During the episode there is one...

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They are re-making CONAN THE BARBARIAN

That's it. Hollywood is officially a depleted sow. The field has been plowed and planted so many times that nothing fresh is growing in it. It's dead, Jim.Find out about it here, in a story primarily about another remake (of Brian De Palma's Dressed to Kill).Incidentally, I watched last year's remake of The Omen a few days ago on HBO. That was another classic movie that never warranted a remake, at all. The same is true for Conan the Barbarian...

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VIDEO: Giuliani staff uses police to arrest independent journalist

If only YouTube had existed in 2000...In October of 2000 I was a reporter with an independent newspaper. And - through legitimate channels mind ya - I had been given an invitation to attend a rally for George W. Bush during the presidential debate at Wake Forest University. I was hoping to get a chance to ask Bush a few questions: nothing rude mind ya, but I was gonna try to make the most of the opportunity.Bush staff found out that some "non-corporate"...

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Need an extra-large version of the Ron Paul/Matrix graphic?

Since last night I have received numerous requests for a much larger version of the Ron Paul graphic that apes the poster for The Matrix (which also features some not-so-subtle commentary). Seems that some folks are wanting to make full-size posters of this...If you need (or just plain lust for) a far larger version of this graphic, e-mail me at theknightshift@gmail.com with...

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Giuiliani said WHAT...?!

I missed this the first time but it's been confirmed: during tonight's debate (actually last night's debate since it's now way early Wednesday morning) Rudolph Giuliani said that we need to use the American military for more "nation building".Seven years ago George W. Bush said that we shouldn't engage in "nation-building". He went ahead and did it anyway. It didn't work....

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Why isn't Matt Drudge running a poll for THIS debate?

Tonight's debate in New Hampshire among the Republican candidates has been over for almost an hour and a half. For every other debate in the past month or so Matt Drudge has posted on his Drudge Report site a readers' poll on who they thought won the debate.So far, one for tonight's hasn't appeared.Could it be that Drudge is afraid that his poll will show what a lot of others (heck, most others) are showing: intense support for Ron Paul?I'm going...

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CNN Republican candidates debate: What a joke!

So far McCain has spoken for more than 6 minutes. Guiliani for almost 5. Romney for a little over 5. They're being asked just about all the questions.Ron Paul has been given two questions and has only spoken for 2 minutes.The other "non-front runners" are being given fewer questions and camera time, too.This "debate" is a farce. It's protecting the ones the "mainstream"...

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65th anniversary of the Battle of Midway

From June 4th through the 7th in 1942, the Battle of Midway was fought. This is considered by most historians to have been the beginning of the real offensive by the United States in the Pacific theat...

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25 years ago today: "KHAAAAAAAAAN!!!"

Twenty-five years ago today, on June 4th 1982, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan premiered.Still the best Star Trek story ever! If only the rest of the franchise had been this good...

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Waste of Mythology: The peril of ignoring our modern fables

The History Channel re-broadcast Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed last night. It's a two-hour documentary about the film saga, its mythic roots, and the timeless values that it's tried to share with the modern audience.As the program was winding down I thought, and not for the first time lately: after all of these years of being a devout Star Wars fan ... well, what is the...

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Republican official: America needs more 9/11 attacks so that Bush will be appreciated

Dennis Milligan, the head of the Republican Party in Arkansas, says that America needs to be attacked more times like it was on 9/11 so that people will appreciate President George W. Bush.From the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:He said he's "150 percent" behind Bush on the war in Iraq."At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001...

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About this latest terror plot to blow up JFK Airport ...

... which you've probably heard on the news by now:It seems like the attempt to "blow up" that much jet fuel would actually cause a lot less damage than what we're being told. I mean, without a ready supply of an oxidizing agent, stuff just doesn't explode on it's own. It would be a fairly localized event.Doesn't sound like these guys really knew what they were doing. Or maybe they did, and we just haven't heard the details yet. In any case,...

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For whatever it's worth...

Just some musings to close out this past week on:- Andrew Speaker might have spread a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis among thousands of people during his plane trips across Europe and into America. That's one guy carrying TB who got caught. Has anyone noticed all the stories coming out lately about cases of TB breaking out in the southwestern states?- Speaking of the border situation, I've heard from people in Mexico during the past few...

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The electrician is still scratchin' his head ...

This brings whole new meaning to "squirrel power". And no, he did not survive...Good friend Matt Smith works on a bulletin board and found this posted by a radio engineer in Tennessee. Thanks for forwarding it this way Ma...

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Happy Birthday Deborah!

Here's wishing a very Happy Birthday to Deborah Wilson (this is Deborah and I together at Star Wars Celebration III two years ago in Indianapolis).Deborah is from Texas, and she is one of the most talented people I've ever known. She's a genius at creating costumes, she does amazing work with silver in making jewelry, and word on the street is that she's a pretty good fighter...

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