Dad's hand-made knives, including Damascus blades, on sale this weekend at church festival

This Saturday, April 12th 2008, Midway United Methodist Church on US 158 a few miles west of Reidsville, North Carolina will be having its "Old Timer Festival", showing off a bunch of traditional crafts, vintage vehicles and farm equipment, stuff like that.

My father Robert Knight will be there too. He's been busy the past several months in his knife shop making several new blades for this event and he'll be set up at a table. Here's some of his handiwork that will be on display and for sale...

In addition to a number of Damascus (multi-layered steel) knives, Dad also has some horseshoe-made knives and several of what might be his specialty: railroad-spike knives!

By the way, the fancier knives that you see in the top photo each come with a custom-made leather sheathe.

I'll be at the festival too, shooting some video of the event. Y'all come see us, hear? :-)

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Teachers suffering unfairness in government's loan forgiveness

My wife Lisa has posted her account of applying for the government's Teacher Loan Forgiveness program. She's been teaching for a few years now and by all measure has done an exemplary job both in her profession and in managing her post-graduate finances (and I'm not just saying that 'cuz I'm her husband). She should have qualified for this. Unfortunately she was deemed "not eligible" apparently to do some very odd terms in the program. And also she's far from the only teacher who this has happened to. Here's the story in Lisa's own words.

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Pastor Chuck Baldwin slams Christian idolatry

Chuck Baldwin, Baptist minister and brilliant commentator, writes in his latest piece that Christians are far more guilty of the sin of idolatry than they care to admit. It's a mean essay, and unrelentingly brutal toward many who would consider themselves "conservative Christians"... but it needs to be brutal.

In his article Baldwin argues what a lot of us have been saying for awhile: that too many Christians in America worship the Republican party and the power of government more than they give devotion to God, just as the children of Israel bowed to Baal. Baldwin chastises those who have supported George W. Bush and has harsh words toward any who might consider voting for John McCain...

I will say it straight out: any Christian or conservative who supports John McCain has no principles left worth defending! (emphasis mine)

Can anyone remember when George W. Bush ran for the White House in 2000, promising the American people that he would pursue a non-interventionist foreign policy? So much for that promise.

George W. Bush has orchestrated the most meddlesome, interventionist, and nation-building foreign policy of any President in modern memory. And Christians became his most vocal supporters. Now, John McCain gets in front of international television and jokes about bombing Iran, and once again, Christians stand up and cheer.

Christians have swallowed the Bush/McCain Kool-Aid as surely as did the followers of Jim Jones. They are drunk with denial and deception.

Bush promised the American people that he would promote less government spending. He then turned around and led the U.S. government to borrow and spend more taxpayer dollars than any President since Lyndon Johnson. And, again, Christians looked the other way.

Some Christians would say they are supporting President Bush because he is "one of us." Of course, this reasoning betrays logic. If George W. Bush is truly "one of us," he should be held to a higher--not lower--standard. That we would be willing to look the other way because Bush is "one of us" is repulsive to true Christian principles. Plus, it brings Christianity as a whole into disrepute with unbelievers. And this is exactly what has happened. Instead of unbelievers being attracted to Christ and His Word, George W. Bush--and the Christians who follow him--have turned unbelievers away from Christ. Bush and Company have made it harder--not easier--to present Christ to a lost and dying world. And that goes for people in foreign countries as well as people in America.

However, I am convinced that the reason Christians support President Bush is not because he is a professing born-again Christian. I say that because these same people are now also supporting John McCain, a man who has never professed a born-again relationship with Jesus Christ. Oh, he claims to be a "Christian" in a general sense, but what politician doesn't?

McCain is also a man who has consistently betrayed conservative principles throughout his political career. He has even lampooned and denigrated Christian people, calling them "agents of intolerance." Yet, today Christians are supporting John McCain. Why? It is not because of his religious profession. It is not because of a conservative track record. Why are they supporting him, then? Why are they willing to surrender their convictions? There is only one reason: John McCain (like George W. Bush) is a REPUBLICAN.

There it is: countless millions of professing Christians will eagerly abandon their commitment to constitutional government and Biblical principles in order to accommodate a Republican Presidential candidate. In the minds of many Christians, the Republican Party is more important than the U.S. Constitution. It is more important than conservative principles or even Biblical injunctions. In essence, the Republican Party has become an IDOL in the hearts and minds of many professing believers.

So, how can we ask God to bless America when God's children have set up the groves of idolatry in their hearts? How can we expect God to heal our land when Christian pastors, Sunday School teachers, deacons, ushers, and faithful church members place more loyalty and allegiance in a political party than they do in the very Word and principles of God?

As surely as the pagans of the Old Testament worshipped before the gods of Baal and Ashteroth, many Christians worship before the GOP. They are willing to sacrifice their children to the policies and practices of unscrupulous, evil politicians--as long as they have an "R" behind their names. They will turn their back on their pastors, their churches, their friends, and their commitments before they will turn their backs on the Republican Party.

To many Christians, God cannot work in America outside the Republican Party. God cannot bless America, except through the Republican Party. There is no success, no help, no assistance, and no redemption except through the Republican Party. If this is not idolatry, I do not know what is!

There's plenty more at the link. I don't usually copy and paste this much from another's article, but in this case I thought it's something that needed to be shouted from the rooftops.

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TV Guide's Ausiello: LOST may get an extra hour!

ABC's smash-hit Lost - in my opinion among the best and most thoughtful storytelling ever done for the television medium - may be getting an extra hour for its fourth season, reports TV Guide's Michael Ausiello.

Lost was originally slated to have 16 episodes this season and for each of the remaining two of its run. The Writer's Guild of America strike caused producers to scale back this season after 8 episodes were already finished, so that this season would have 13 (presumably with the remaining episodes to be carried-over into Season 5). An extra hour, whether as its own episode or tacked-on to the season finale, would be much more room to still properly bring Season 4 to wherever it was planned to end at... which right now the rumor is that we will finally see how the Oceanic Six get off the Island.

I hope this is true. 'Cuz if there's anything this world needs, it's more Lost! Well, anything that I need anyway...

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The absolutely LAST thing I'll post about that game between UNC and Kansas in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament semifinal

Here's the reaction from my friend Tilly Gokbudak when he saw that the Tarheels were down by 28 points...

"I would have sooner expected to see Uma Thurman (naked) in my bed! I was that surprised."

I'd better stop while I'm ahead :-P

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INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL soundtrack CD cover and track listing revealed

If the reveal of the artwork and track listing for a new Indiana Jones score composed and conducted by John Williams is not occasion enough to merit a post, then I don't know what is. Here's the CD's cover...

And courtesy of Amazon...

1. Raiders March
2. Call of the Crystal
3. The Adventures of Mutt
4. Irina's Theme
5. The Snake Pit
6. The Spell of the Skull
7. A Whirl Through Academe
8. The Journey to Akator
9. "Return"
10. The Jungle Chase
11. Orellana's Cradle
12. Grave Robbers
13. Hidden Treasure and the City of Gold
14. Secret Doors and Scorpions
15. Oxley's Dilemma
16. Ants!
17. Temple Ruins and the Secret Revealed
18. The Departure
19. Finale

I've no idea what these track titles mean apart from "Raiders March", and I love it! So much wonderful teasing but without giving too much away already (some people still can't forgive being told from the CD that Qui-Gonn Jinn died in Star Wars Episode I, way before the actual movie came out).

The score CD for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystall Skull comes out on May 20th.

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podBible makes the Word of God just a thumbclick away

A few weeks ago while visiting a church this crazy idea struck: put the Bible on an iPod! I'm not talking about MP3s of spoken passages from the scriptures. You can find those all over the place. What I wanted to know is: was there any software that puts the text of the Bible itself on an iPod, that can be taken with you and read anywhere?

It took awhile but last night I found podBible, a neat (and free!) application created by a fellow named Brendan Ross. Using the Notes feature of the iPod, podBible puts the entire New Testament of the English Standard Version along with Psalms and Proverbs from the Old Testament on the iPod with an easy-to-navigate interface. Here you see podBible running on my own 80-gig iPod classic, displaying 1st Corinthians chapter 1 starting with verse 26 (however that is not Corinthian leather on my snazzy new iPod case...).

The one thing that I wish could have been better with podBible is if the complete Bible were possible. Apart from Psalms and Proverbs the rest of the Old Testament is not included, but that's only because of a firmware limitation within the iPod itself: the iPod allows for about a thousand notes and podBible takes up 450 of them according to the software's website. Brendan suggests that future iPods will overcome that obstacle.

In the meantime, if you're a casual to serious student of the Bible and want to have at least one testament for on the go, give podBible a looksee. I for one am glad to have it on my iPod: it's a rather good counter-balance to all those Elvis songs, Lost episodes, Beastie Boys music videos, Warner Brothers cartoons and Star Wars movies that hog up the rest of the thing :-P

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"Partners in Crime" best season premiere yet of new DOCTOR WHO

"Don't you ever change?!"

"Just like old times!"

"That's him! That's him! YEEEEEHAAAAA!! That's him!"

I didn't get to see much of Season 3 (or Season 29, depending on how we're counting it) of Doctor Who, apart from its premiere episode, and the ending triptych of episodes that saw the return of the Master. Catching-up is on my short list of things to do, especially the three-part story about the Daleks. Meanwhile, Season 4 of the revived Doctor Who series began this past weekend. Many thanks to our Brittish brethren across the pond for putting it on the torrents for download...

So I just got finished watching "Partners in Crime" and if this is any indication then Season 4 is bound for greatness, because this was the absolutely best season premiere yet of Doctor Who's new run. "Partners in Crime" has the Doctor (David Tennant) investigating Adipose Industries: supposedly a pharmaceutical firm that is marketing a revolutionary diet drug. But the Doctor isn't the only one trying to get behind Adipose: Donna Noble (once again played by Catherine Tate) from the 2006 Doctor Who Christmas special is also lurking around. We find out later on that ever since the events of "The Runaway Bride" that Donna has been out looking for trouble... because wherever trouble is, the Doctor is sure to follow.

I thought this episode was the perfect mixture of classic Doctor Who sci-fi, horror, and slapstick comedy. So far as the humor goes it works much better than what happened in the abominable "Love & Monsters" from two seasons ago. The scene where the Doctor and Donna finally discover each other is extremely fun to watch. The one thing that kinda leaves a bad taste in my mouth is the Adipose themselves: yech! Talk about your fat babies! Then I think about "Love & Monsters", and realize it could have been much worse...

There is a lot of reference to previous Doctor Who episodes in "Partners in Crime", but it's never so much that a newcomer to the show could watch this one and feel lost or confused. For the most part anyway. Because there is a moment toward the end of "Partners in Crime" - if you've been watching this show you'll know it when you see it - that dropped my jaw right on the desk and made me holler "What the...?!" loud enough for my wife to hear two rooms away. Let me just say: a very familiar and much-beloved face appears right after Donna goes running off to join the Doctor. And it's enough to wonderfully tantalize about whatever is in store for this new season of Doctor Who.

I'll give "Partners in Crime" 3 and 1/2 Sonic Screwdrivers out of 5. Next week: the Doctor and Donna in Pompeii, on a certain day in 79 A.D.

EDIT 10:10 p.m.: I forgot to mention, there is a new orchestral score for the main Doctor Who theme in this episode! Sounds very good. It reminds me a lot of the one from the 1996 Doctor Who television movie.

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Time for a fresh look

It was about a year ago that I re-did the design of this blog. And it's one that I've grown rather fond of. But all the same, I'm feeling like changing some things with it.

So I'm going to be "tweaking" the look of it some during the next few days and weeks. The changes might be negligible. And then again this whole place might get a complete overhaul. Anyhoo, as always whenever this happens, if something seems out-of-whack or off-kilter around here, it's probably just me playing around behind the scenes :-)

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LOST, for what it's worth

A two-minute long recap of Lost seasons 1 through 3, using only one word...

Thanks to Phillip Arthur for finding this hilarious video!

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Taxpayer-funded segregation? Indianapolis airport to give Muslims their own sinks

Indianapolis International Airport is going to install floor sinks by this fall - at the cost of $750 each - for Muslims to wash their feet before praying.

There is certainly a question here about the constitutionality of such a thing. I mean, these are public funds that are being used to support an establishment of religion: a notion that some people in this country have spent their entire lives toward stamping out, sometimes with dedication bordering on paranoia.

So yeah that's a concern. But what I want to know is: What's going to happen if a Christian or a Jew uses these same sinks, too?

I suppose it's possible that someone other than a Muslim could receive an injury to the foot that requires immediate flushing. Would an "infidel" be "desecrating" the Muslims' floor sink by using it? Are we going to see airport security personnel - i.e. taxpayer-funded "religious police" much like those of Saudi Arabia - patrolling around the floor sinks, making sure that nobody apart from the Islamic creed is using them?

Isn't this the very definition of "segregation"?

I grew up listening to stories about how black people were once not allowed to use the same facilities as whites... such as water fountains. In some places it was even punishable by law for a black to drink from the same fountain that had been designated for whites. So how is installing a floor sink that purportedly is only meant to be used by Muslims different from installing a water fountain that is only supposed to be used by whites?

Jim Crow was supposed to be dead and buried. But this move to accommodate Muslims at Indianapolis International Airport by giving them bathroom fixtures verboten to others threatens to not only dig Jim Crow back up, but to also dust him off and put him to work.

I don't care that this isn't a "white and black" thing. It's still a return to segregation, if not in active practice yet. And if violence ever occurs because someone other than a Muslim uses the floor sinks, there will be demands for even more concessions in the name of being "tolerant toward religion".

On a related note, what would happen if someone dumped strips of uncooked bacon into these floor sinks. Would they become so spiritually unclean that they would have to be ripped-out and replaced with new ones?

Just wonderin'...

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Fred Reed exposes hypocrisy regarding illegals

In his latest column, Fred Reed mocks the American government's schizo policy toward illegal immigration, in his own perverse style...

To grasp American immigration policy, to the extent that it can be grasped, one need only remember that the United States forbids smoking while subsidizing tobacco growers.

We say to impoverished Mexicans, "See this river? Don't cross it. If you do, we'll give you good jobs, a drivers license, citizenship for your kids born here and eventually for you, school for said kids, public assistance, governmental documents in Spanish for your convenience, and a much better future. There is no penalty for getting caught. Now, don't cross this river, hear?"

How smart is that? We're baiting them. It's like putting out a salt lick and then complaining when deer come. As parents, the immigrants would be irresponsible not to cross.

There's way more at the above link for you to read and enjoy.

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The one blogger who'll defend Uwe Boll

Are people really this hostile toward their fellow man, without caring about how cruel they are?

Please don't answer that, 'kay?

So earlier this evening I read about filmmaker Uwe Boll, director of House of the Dead, BloodRayne, Dungeon Siege and other movies that have endured lackluster performance at the box office. Boll has said that in light of how ill-received his work is, that he will retire from filmmaking if a petition calling for him to quit garners 1 million signatures.

So this being the Internet there is now a massive drive to do exactly that, in order to compel Uwe Boll to make good on his word.

I took a look in the past little while at the animosity toward Boll in this petition drive. And even though I've never really cared much for Boll's work, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy after seeing all the scorn and loathing directed at him.

This "one million signatures to stop Uwe Boll" petition is a petty and shallow thing. If you don't like his movies, then just don't go watch them! You still have enough freedom to choose not to pay to see movies that you don't want to see. Nobody is being strapped into a chair in a theater with their eyes pried open like Alex in A Clockwork Orange and forced to watch Postal.

But what bothers me most is how little regard so many people in this world seem to have for others. It almost borders on passing a judgment on another's entire life, without regard for anything or anyone beyond our own narcissism. Even if you don't like Uwe Boll's movies, that should not deduct all all from appreciation of the fact that this is still an individual we are talking about, who apparently does love his work and wants to find satisfaction in it.

Well, who are you or me or anyone else to try to deny him that?

Think about it: Would you appreciate it at all if a million people told you to stop doing something that you enjoyed, if it wasn't seriously hurting you or anyone else to do it? Would you want a mob of people telling you that you don't deserve to pursue your own happiness?

That's what Uwe Boll is doing, folks: following his dream. Whether his movies make a handsome profit or not, at least he's taking more initiative than most people do in this day and age. I like to think that's what he's doing, anyway: just trying to do the best he can with a craft that he loves. And if it's not "commercially successful" in our eyes... so what? Does it impinge on your own happiness? 'Cuz if it does, you've got far bigger problems than any online petition will remedy.

I'm of the school that believes that each person has the right to make the most of his or her time on this Earth, which includes the right to do everything in their power, if they so wish, to leave behind something - be it art or invention or whatever - that will endure after they have left this life.Everyone deserves that chance, including those that we don't necessarily agree with. So long as that other person is not trying to stifle others from their own happiness, we should let them be. Hell, we should encourage them, even. Just as we would want to be encouraged.

This is why I believe that all legitimate films (and as I've said before, I don't include porno flicks in that reckoning) deserve to be preserved for posterity, because each film does represent the vision and passion of our fellow man (and woman). At Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9 this past December, we saw movies that were real stinkers. But the very last thing I would want is either for those movies to be taken away forever, or for their creators to stop making movies at all.

Because when we do that, we are imposing a judgment on that filmmaker that he or she cannot grow and improve in their trade. And again, who are any of us to make that kind of call against anyone?

So Uwe Boll, if you ever read this: Maybe your movies so far have been bombs. And that's okay! If you believe in yourself enough to keep making your movies, and if this is a source of happiness for you... then dude, seriously, stick with it! Don't let a million people tell you to quit. Don't let ten million people tell you to quit! You shouldn't feel obligated to have to answer to them, anyway.

You deserve to answer to your own happiness, Mr. Boll. And that goes for everyone else who might read this, too.

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Congrats to Kansas: 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Champs!

Mario Chalmers (now and forever a Kansas folk hero after his 3-pointer that sent the game into overtime) and Darrell Arthur of the Jayhawks have their one shining moment...

Kansas 75, Memphis 68 in overtime. That was the most thrilling and pure crazy NCAA Men's Basketball Championship I've seen in a way long time! Kudos to Bill Self and his team on a spectacular win.

Congrats also to the Tigers of Memphis for coming this far and driving to deliver what will go down in history as one of the all-time greatest NCAA finals ever played.

And after that game I think we all need a good drink...

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Christian radio attacks harmless student dress-up day

Wasn't there an episode of King of the Hill about this?

An elementary school in Wisconsin is under fire by a Christian radio network - the head of which seems to have nothing better to do with his time - because it hosted an event that encouraged students to dress as members of the opposite gender.

As part of Wacky Week at Pineview Elementary in Reedsburg, students were encouraged to dress as either senior citizens or members of the opposite sex. Which was all good and fine... until some busybody told the Voice of Christian Youth America about it. The radio network's director and host of nationally-syndicated show "Crosstalk" Jim Schneider promptly took to grandstanding. He said that "Our station is one that promotes traditional family values. It concerns us when a school district strikes at the heart and core of the Biblical values. To promote this to elementary-school students is a great error."

This move by Schneider was a cheap stunt that (a) demonstrates his ignorance and (b) makes Christians out to be a bunch of loons. What does it show the world when followers of Christ get this kind of honked-off angry about elementary students having some innocent fun?

Because in spite of what Schneider is claiming, this kind of thing has been going on since time immemorial. And with no ill effects, I might add. There has never been any "deviant agenda" in mind behind it. It's just a way for students to have fun and share in some camaraderie. I even remember it happening at my high school back in the day...

Johnny Yow, in drag for "Turn About Day" as part of Spirit Week at Rockingham County Senior High, circa 1991

(By the way, Johnny is one of the strongest and most sincere Christians that I've ever known.)

Between this, and the un-Christlike hatred one program on a "conservative Christian" radio station I found last week had for Barack Obama, I cannot but be convinced even more that too much of the Christianity around us is too obsessed with earthly matters. It is just as C.S. Lewis noted that some people go warning against "hobgoblins" that aren't really there, just to scare others into doing what they're told.

Well, if Christianity and western civilization is going to topple, I can assure you it won't be because some second-graders played "powder puff". And if some Christians are seriously afraid of that, then there was something very wrong with their faith to begin with.

(And there's something wrong with believing that unless we elect the "right politician" that Christianity is going to be destroyed, too. Yeah I'm looking at y'all over at WPIP, now that I know y'all are reading this blog...).

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College student builds working half-sized Panzer tank

As clever as Erwin Rommel was, I can't remember him ever pulling off what Will Foster of Flint, Michigan has done: build a working Panzer tank (albeit one-half sized) from scratch...

The Kettering University engineering student's mini-Panzer can go up to 20 miles per hour with its three-cylinder diesel engine, is quite maneuverable and the turret can rotate 360 degrees to fire empty Red Bull cans from its air-compressed cannon powered by a SCUBA tank. Foster said that he built the tank to use in paintball competitions, after seeing some people drive "tanks" that were really golf carts.

Aim your targeting reticle here to read more about Foster's creation. And here's a YouTube video of the tank in action...

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More Star Wars in education: English teacher uses Original Trilogy to instruct about epic literature

A high school English teacher and football coach in Alabama is using the first three Star Wars movies in his classroom to teach students about the aspects of epic literature.

Luke Skywalker is not just a character in a series of films to David Golden, an English teacher and football coach at Hazel Green High School. The Jedi knight is an epic hero, whose rise, fall and redemption are part of a story rife with classic archetypes we all know through our collective unconscious as described by the psychologist Carl Jung.

Seriously.

Each semester, Golden's ninth-grade students watch the original trilogy of the Star Wars movies, with Golden pointing out the situational, character and symbolic archetypes as well as literary elements.

n the cave scene in "Return of the Jedi," Luke faces off against Darth Vader (which means dark knight in German, Golden told his students).

"It's foggy, dense," Golden said, pausing the scene. "What's the main color?" Gray, his students said. That's symbolic for confusion, which is what Luke feels at this point as he tries to learn to control "the Force."

The cave itself is also symbolic - "think back to 'Tom Sawyer,' Golden said - a place where the character undergoes change, emerging a different person than the one who went in.

It's also where Luke first sees that his connection to Darth Vader is more than just as an enemy.

"What literary element is that," Golden said before resuming the DVD. "Foreshadowing."

Ninth-graders study the epic, which usually means reading Homer's "The Odyssey." Golden, however, "fell asleep when I studied 'The Odyssey.' I don't remember much about it."

Golden, a self-professed "Star Wars nut," first got the idea of teaching the epic through Star Wars at a seminar at Western Kentucky University. He was teaching in Tennessee at the time, and attended a program to certify him as advanced placement English teacher...

There's plenty more at the above link.

Stuff like this, I gotta love! Years ago when we were co-workers at TheForce.net, head editor Josh Griffin and I would talk a lot about the educational opportunities represented by the Star Wars movies. And how we should be "playing these to the hilt" (as Josh put it) so far as relating lessons go. I know Josh does stuff like that with his ministry and last week while filling-in as a teacher for a middle school English class studying Greek mythology, I got to "tie in" how George Lucas was inspired to use the divine parentage of Perseus and Hercules when it came time to delving into Anakin's origins.

The kids automatically lit up when I started talking about the Star Wars movies. This is something that they understand and when you relate the classic in those terms, the students can't get enough of it.

There seems to be an awful lot of stories about Star Wars and education happening lately. Maybe this is a sign that the saga, at last, is growing into its own and becoming not just recognized as classic literature but utilized as such, as well.

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