Jessica Watson is 3/4ths of the way home

So you might be asking "Who is Jessica Watson?"

I've been following Jessica Watson's journey with great interest since it began this past October. At 16, this young lass from Sydney, Australia is endeavouring to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe in a sailboat, alone and unaided. She left the harbor in Sydney on October 17th 2009, headed on an easterly track that went north and back across the Equator. On January 14th Jessica rounded Cape Horn (her first sighting of land since taking off) at the southernmost tip of South America and began the Atlantic Ocean leg of her 23,000 nautical mile journey.

Sometime today - if she hasn't already - Jessica Watson should be conquering Cape Agulhas on the southern tip of Africa and enter the Indian Ocean. Then once she gets to Australia she merely has to sail around Down Under and get back to Sydney.

Visit Jessica Watson's official website for more information about her amazing odyssey, including a blog that she's maintaining on the trip and a page that uses Google Earth with GPS tracking that shows her present location and the track of her voyage thus far.

And Jessica: You go girl!! :-)

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Two reasons why tonight's LOST episode could be more important than most

Reason #1: it's airing on February 23rd.

Reason #2: this will be the 108th hour of Lost since the show first began airing in fall of 2004.

With 23 being one of "the numbers" and 108 being the sum of the numbers, good money is on tonight's episode - titled "Lighthouse" - will wind up being rather monumental. Many keen Lost fans noted that last week's "The Substitute" aired on the eve of Ash Wednesday.

Lost at 9 tonight. Expect the usual post-episode reaction and thoughts afterward on this space :-)

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Have you ever noticed...

...that everyone in the Bible who found "favor with God", without a single exception, encountered severe trials and troubles?

(Credit goes to friend and fellow blogger Kevin Bussey for that observation. One that I have been led to meditate much upon in the past several days.)

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Keynes and Hayek rap "Fear the Boom and Bust"

If all lessons about economics were this entertaining, I might not have slept through most of those classes years ago...

From creative director John Papola and creative economist Russ Roberts comes "Fear the Boom and Bust", a rap song in which legendary economists John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek come back to life and attend a modern-day conference on the economic crisis, but first have a night of wild party.

Here 'tis! And I was laughing pretty hard at this...

Incidentally, that video was passed along this way by good friend and fellow blogger Danny de Garcia II from the Big Island of Hawaii. And he asked me to reprint an e-mail that he sent to all of his state's legislators...

Greetings Hawaii State Legislators,

As one of the major issues facing the Legislature this session is the question of economic recovery and how to connect the dots on falling revenues, I would like to submit for your review a video which explains in a rather simple to understand and humorous fashion two different schools of economic theory, Keynes; which supports big government and big spending to "stimulate" the economy and F.A. Hayek who won the 1974 Nobel Prize for his discussion on how government manipulation/intervention affects the economy. Please take a look at this 7-minute video, I think it will be very educational as well as self explanatory ......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk

Very Respectfully,

Danny de Gracia

Okay Danny, done! And as you noted: "Now they have absolutely NO EXCUSE to say 'I didn't know that we impact the market' :D"

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Time for my weekly dose of ARE YOU BEING SERVED? on PBS

Just for fun, let's count how many times Mrs. Slocombe talks about her pussy!!!

EDIT 12:59 a.m. 02/22/2009: I am very disappointed! In two episodes tonight, Mrs. Slocombe mentioned her pussy only once! But Mr. Humphries more than made up for it :-)

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REAL Church of Christ member discusses Johnny Robertson

First things first: Earlier this week somebody suggested that we should begin referring to local cult leader Johnny Robertson as "He Who Stalks Behind the Pews".

It was too good an idea not to go into Photoshop with it...

(click to drastically embiggen)

Heh-heh. Haven't done one of those in awhile :-P

Speaking of video cameras, a number of people have informed me that during his four hours of "Religious Review" this past week that Johnny Robertson put the word out to all(?) of his viewers that he wants them to begin covertly video recording all the churches in this area with video cameras, cellphones, iPhones etc. and to send the footage to him.

Between his obsession with Martinsville-based television station BTW, his constant scheming to destroy Baptists and Pentecostals and Methodists (especially Baptists), his harassing innocent people in their own homes and churches and store parking lots, his monitoring both feeds of WGSR to watch for dissenters, and now trying to amass an army of spies, does Johnny Robertson ever, like... you know, minister to the members of his own church? Doesn't seem right, somehow.

Yet another blog has popped up to counter Johnny Robertson and his so-called "Church of Christ". Whoever is behind it is already asking hard questions about the hyper-legalist doctrine of the cult as well as the lingering enigma regarding Jason Hairston's departure from the cult.

Finally, there is this that was posted on another forum by a mainstream Church of Christ member in the Martinsville, Virginia area. I thought it pertinent enough to repost here...

Word on the street, is supporters of John are starting to see through him, meetings have transpired as to a solution.

Even the Preaching School was created on lies and deceit via pictures, names of attendees. Funds were raised via a list of names and pictures of those who were supposedly enrolled. After some dropped from the program, funds were still being raised as if the program still had the same enrollees. It is quite clear that the purpose of the training school, was not to make “Gospel Preachers” but created solely to make clones – clones of John. John knows he has lost support and also realizes that his negative popularity is hurting his cause, rather than furthering his agenda. In desperation, he has tried to push more air time, as if this will help.

Watching a few shows one can quickly see that the show revolves around his ego. Seldom is Jesus referenced on his shows. He is more interested in picking apart the flaws of others than he is in reaching lost souls. And, NEVER do you hear him discussing the many problems within the Church of Christ. Why not? Well, simply put, it would show him to be like the rest of us – IMPERFECT. He falls short with morality and doctrinally, just as everyone else. But, pride comes before the fall and he dare not acknowledge his short-comings nor will he disclose information regarding the many disagreements within the Church of Christ; and folks these are not just some minor disagreements, they involve doctrine.

The “Doctrine of Christ” becomes whatever each sect within the Church of Christ deems it to be. Also, there is so much disagreement over “the gospel”-- not the Gospel about Jesus, but the gospel of scriptural interpretation. If you teach something like one cup MUST be used during communion, the multiple cuppers are labeled preaching “another gospel.” Many splits have occurred because one group says the other church of Christ sect is preaching “another gospel.” In both cases, Johns teaching on the “Doctrine of Christ” and Paul’s teaching to the Galatians are twisted and ripped from context and then used to divide the Church – a sin that Paul condemned strongly. John is a master at such misapplication of scripture, often ripping a verse from it's context and giving his own private interpretation which we are warned not to do.

Cults are masters of scripture manipulation and this brings me to the million dollar question: Is John Robertson a cult leader? YES!! Is the Church of Christ a cult? NO!! Many conservative Church of Christ are loving people, teaching the truth in love, not wanting to control peoples minds, but lead them to Christ. John wants his cultish ego fed and many afar off are staring to see this.

If you are reading this, and desire to stay in the Church of Christ, there are others in town who know John is a cult leader and they will gladly accept you and will do so in love and not attempt to control your minds.

Interesting. Very interesting.

Last night during my personal Bible study (so far that's all I'm reading this Lenten season, having vowed to give up reading for pleasure :-) I did some study in 2nd Corinthians. Beginning in the eleventh chapter, Paul has a lot to say about as he puts it the "super-apostles" who were puffing themselves up with legalism. They thought that by following "the rules" that this would give them more merit than other Christians. Paul rails against them and not just because they were trying to destroy Paul's ministry either. These people were bringing back the same rule of law that Christ's substitutionary death had put an end to. In effect, these people were undoing the finished work of Christ at Calvary.

It's not by any work of our own, lest we should boast! We are saved by the grace of God, and not by the grace of other men.

I cannot put it any more plain than this: to insist otherwise, is a very evil thing. Perhaps the most evil thing possible in this world. Christ came to free us. Men like Johnny Robertson and his followers lust to enslave others... and in the name of Christ, no less!

And I'm going to keep stating the obvious for however much I have to, regardless of any intimidation or threats from Johnny Robertson and his lackeys.

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Some thoughts on Joseph Stack and the IRS

The subject of Joseph Stack - the man who did a kamikaze attack with his private plane on an IRS office in Austin, Texas this past week - came up last night while a friend and I were getting a bite to eat after seeing Shutter Island (an excellent movie, incidentally).

For whatever it's worth ('cuz hey, I'm just a blogger on the Intertubes) I think that Mr. Stack was a very troubled individual, and I would no doubt hold to that assessment even if I had not read his bizarre and rambling screed that he posted on a website before burning down his own house and then flying off the brink of madness.

I also think that it's very, very inappropriate for anyone to ascribe Stack as being typical of a political ideology. In the past few days I've seen self-professed liberals claim that Stack echoed the sentiments of conservatives and the Tea Partiers, and I've seen self-professed conservatives insist that Stack was a liberal.

I saw much the same happen in the days and weeks following the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. That was wrong then and trying to score political points off of a senseless act is just as wrong now.

That said, I am inclined to ponder what it was that drove Mr. Stack to such extreme behavior, and as with everything else I believe such curiosity can be meditated upon without examination in that darklyiest mirror of temporal politics. A better mind than my own for this sort of thing - namely, that of Chuck Baldwin - has articulated some thoughts about Stack and his anger. Baldwin doesn't excuse Joseph Stack or make him out to be "a martyr for the cause"... but he does address the increasingly growing frustration that many Americans are having with a government that they are compelled to believe no longer represents them or derives from our consent.

Finally, in his pre-mortem manifesto Joseph Stack referenced Section 1706 of the 1986 tax act: a bit of legislation that Stack claimed declared him to be a "criminal and non-citizen slave" and drove his programming career into financial ruin. A 1998 article in The New York Times addressed the very same problem that apparently so provoked Stack, and tax attorney Harvey J. Shulman discusses Section 1706 further in light of recent days. Reading it, I must profess that it's hard not to have some sympathy toward Joseph Stack (and I can have that without condoning his actions of this past week) as well as toward anyone else who is trying to make it as an independent computer programmer or technical consultant. The IRS has enforced such an inordinately burdensome tax liability on these people that I cannot but believe that it has led to a stifling not only of personal wealth, but of innovation and creativity in this country.

Kinda makes you wonder if Steve Jobs or Bill Gates would have ever started Apple or Microsoft after 1986... or if they would have just given up their dreams because the government mandated too much money from them to have ever made it worthwhile.

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The Knight Shift celebrates ONE MILLION VISITS!!!

As of tonight, February 20th 2010, The Knight Shift has officially hit seven figures...

...because this evening this blog received its ONE MILLIONTH VISITOR!

WOO-HOO!!!

Took just over six years, nearly 4,000 individual posts about everything from Star Wars to me running for office to restaurant reviews to crazy cult leaders to legal battle with media giants to exploits in filmmaking to travel to religion to cutting-edge science to...

What hasn't this blog and its eclectic proprietor covered in all that time?

Well, it's been a heck of a fun ride. And one million separate visits to what is, admittedly, a personal blog is quite a significant accomplishment. I'm thankful to have had such an audience, and I sincerely mean it when I say that I hope to continue delivering the goods - whatever they happen to be - for a long time to come.

In the meantime, y'all buy a candy bar and pretend I got it for you. And the drinks are on me too :-)

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Bumper sticker that I made for my car

My political philosophy
can't fit on a bumper sticker.

Neither should YOURS!

Says what it means. Means what it says.

I came up with the slogan about two weeks ago, designed it in Photoshop and had CafePress print it and ship it to me. It replaces the "Ron Paul for President" sticker that has been on my bumper for almost two years. Which that one wound up striking up lots of good conversation with folks who saw it decorating my car, and hopefully this new one will stir up even more.

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Alexander Haig, 40.2nd President of the United States, has passed away

"As of now, I am in control here, in the White House, pending the return of the vice president." Those were the words of Alexander Haig on March 30th, 1981. President Ronald Reagan had just been shot and rushed to the hospital and Vice President George Bush was en route from Texas. As the Secretary of State, Haig made his now-(in)famous statement in an effort to assure Americans that there was no vacuum of authority per the presidential line of succession.

Haig was wildly wrong, of course (the next in line after Vice President is the Speaker of the House, followed by the President pro tempore of the Senate and then the Secretary of State) but it was merely a colorful moment in a life of decorated military service to his country, followed by assisting three presidents and even having a try for the office himself.

The sad news broke this morning that Alexander Haig has passed away at the age of 85.

Thoughts and prayers going out to his family.

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Terry Gilliam's BRAZIL released 25 years ago today

American audiences didn't get to see it until ten months later (and only then, after one of the most legendary "word of mouth" campaigns in cinema history).

But all the same, on this day we celebrate a quarter-century since the release of Brazil: thought by many to be not only Terry Gilliam's masterpiece, but also a film that was extremely far ahead of its time in so many ways...

In case you've never seen it before, this movie has nothing to do with the country of Brazil (apart from the theme song ""Aquarela do Brasil"). Set "Somewhere in the 20th Century", Brazil is the tale of Sam Lowry (played by Jonathan Pryce), an employee in the lower tier of a government so overly-bureaucritized that it's been called everything from satirical to prophetic. Lowry seeks escape from the tedium of his existence in wild daydreams of rescuing a beautiful maiden. And then his fantasies begin to intersect with waking life after a paperwork snafu at the Ministry of Information sets in motion a series of chaotic events that leads him to the very real Jill (Kim Greist). Also thrown into the mix is Archibald "Harry" Tuttle, a renegade heating and air conditioning repairman (played by Robert De Niro, in what has been praised as one of the finest roles of his career).

One could spend way too much time writing about Brazil and its many themes. Gilliam's desire to convey desperation to escape from modern life (along with Time Bandits and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Gilliam considers Brazil to be part of his "Trilogy of the Imagination"), government power run amok, people too fixated on materialism and vanity ("Consumers for Christ"? There's gads of commentary in just those three words), the list goes on.

It's a very difficult movie to describe, if you haven't watched it yet. Twenty-five years later and Brazil has not only gotten better with age, it's now more relevant than most films in recent memory. And indeed, it's one of the rare films that seems to get better with each new viewing.

So happy twenty-fifth anniversary to Brazil! And no offense meant, but here's to praying that the next twenty-five years don't bring this movie any closer to reality.

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Attention: Charles Roark

To: Charles Roark, general manager of WGSR Star 47

I have significantly more substantiation for my report than you had when you allowed your biggest-paying client to accuse First Christian Church in Kernersville of child pornography without challenging him on it, or when you personally claimed on live television that the same church was "full of perverts".

sincerely,
Chris Knight

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Lawsuit alleges school officials spied on students at home via webcams

If true, this is worse than George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. At least in that book the people of Oceania knew that the telescreens were everywhere watching them.

What I'd love to know is: how does a public school system - any public system mind ya - have enough money in these dire economic times to give a laptop computer to each and every student?

According to a lawsuit filed in federal court, administrators of the Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania could and were using the built-in webcams on laptops given to students of Harriton High School to watch them in the privacy of the students' homes (and obviously without knowledge or consent of the students or their parents). The revelation about the webcams came to light when Harriton High School Assistant Principal Lindy Matsko told student Blake J. Robbins that Robbins was "was engaged in improper behavior in his home" and showed him a photograph taken from Robbins' laptop webcam. Robbins' father confronted Matkso and received confirmation: school officials can remotely access the webcams even if the students aren't using the computers at all.

Lower Merion administrators claim it's an anti-theft security feature. But "Occasionally a green light would go on on your computer which would kind of give you the feeling that somebody’s watching you," Harriton High School student Drew Scheier told an NBC affiliate in Philadelphia.

Let's see due process run its course on this folks. And if it is determined in a court of law that Lower Merion officials and faculty were spying on students with the webcams, then the whole sorry lot of 'em need to be dragged out into the street and hung from the nearest telephone poles by their circular reproductive units. With piano wire.

(And here's the full text of the lawsuit, if you are so interested.)

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Remember that woman who accused the Duke lacrosse players of rape?

Crystal Mangum is now sitting in the Durham County Jail under a $1 million bond. She has been charged with attempted murder after assaulting her boyfriend, setting his clothes on fire in a bathtub and then trying to stab him.

Slash here for the story.

About a week or so ago a friend brought up the Duke lacrosse case during a conversation, talking about how those players were innocent but even so the notoriety of the case would always hang over them. And he didn't shy away from expressing his disgust about how Crystal Mangum got away unpunished. "Don't worry," I told him. "I saw it happen with O.J. Simpson and too many others. Maybe in ways we'll never even see, she'll get hers eventually."

Nothing else needs to be said...

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LEGO robot solves Rubik's cube in less than 12 seconds

Mike Dobson - AKA Robotic Solutions - is known far and wide for his genius at cooking up contraptions with LEGO bricks and the LEGO Mindstorms robotics packages. Dobson has now applied his mad skillz toward his latest creation: the CubeStormer.

This thing looks scary. Sorta intimidating like the Voight-Kampff machine from Blade Runner. But set your faces to stunned y'all: the CubeStormer can solve any Rubik's cube puzzle on its own in twelve seconds or less, and sometimes even in less than five seconds!

Check it out...

Read more about the CubeStormer here.

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In loving memory of Uncle Wayne

A lot of people keep telling me that I should take whatever talent God might have given me and strike out for greater fame and fortune. About as many of them ask me why am I still in Reidsville. And it's a fair question. There's only so much opportunity here for someone like me. I mean, if you're going to do filmmaking and writing, then you should be in Raleigh or Charlotte at the very least.

What's been holding me back? Guess for one thing, I've been trying to wait patiently on God to show me what He wants of me. I've been striving to trust in Him rather than trust in myself. And it so happens that maybe that patience has begun to pay off, as some considerable opportunity has arisen and the more I think and pray about it, the more I'm feeling led to follow it however far away it might be.

The other thing that's been keeping me here are the people that I love and care about the most.

In spite of how rough the past good many years have been, I can't help but feel like the luckiest guy on this Earth, for all of the people that God has blessed my life with. He has given me the best friends that I can possibly imagine. And I am extremely thankful to have a family that is so... well... unique! And I like to think that wherever I am preparing to go to, that I will be taking with me all the good things that they have shown me.

But it's going to be hard, to be that far away from the people that I love so much. The people who have given me so much more encouragement, inspiration, and wisdom than I could possibly convey how grateful I am for having them in my life.

People like Uncle Wayne...

John Wayne Roberts was one of the first people that I can remember knowing about. Guess it has to do with how close Mom's family has always been, and how she and Wayne pretty much grew up together. And also how Uncle Wayne's daughter and I were the closest in age to each other among everyone in the extended Roberts clan.

But I also think that it has to do with the fact that Uncle Wayne seemed to be everywhere. He was definitely the "go-to guy" in the family, for good reason. His talents ran the gamut from accounting, to managing, to cooking (and I even vaguely remember him working as a meat slicer at a local grocery store). Whenever anyone had a problem, Uncle Wayne was the ever reliable fount of intellect and experience that could be drawn from.

Uncle Wayne was the first person in the entire family to own a personal computer... and a modem! Think it ran at 300 baud blazing speed, or something. Guess you could say that he was a real technophile. Uncle Wayne was also the one who first got my grandmother hooked up with cable television: for all the movies that it brought into her living room that she enjoyed watching, I will always be grateful for his doing that for her.

Uncle Wayne was a man who followed Christ. And he walked the walk as best as anyone has that I've ever known. There was a quality about him that spoke volumes of his grace-filled life. In his younger years Uncle Wayne went on a number of mission trips, including one to build a church in Haiti. He was an active member of his congregation. But it was his day to day demeanor that was his greatest testimony. Uncle Wayne was a kind, gentle and humble man who saw each person as worth loving. Uncle Wayne fought many hard battles over the course of his life... but he never complained about them. I've no doubt that it was because he was too busy praying for those who were fighting even harder battles than he.

We didn't know that he was fighting one last struggle. He kept it quietly to himself. The last time I saw him was a month ago, and if anyone had told me that he was in such ill health, I would never have believed it. Uncle Wayne was doing even then what I had always seen him do most: being there for others.

Two weeks ago, Uncle Wayne passed away.

He leaves behind his wonderful wife Deborah and two daughters, Heather and Meggan. And many people - both family and friends - who loved him so very much.

And I cannot but thank God for putting Uncle Wayne into my life, because I am a far better person for having him as not only an uncle, but a mentor and close friend.

The last time that I saw him, I shared with Uncle Wayne about the opportunity that had been put before me. He counseled me to go for it. I told him that I didn't want to leave behind people like my family. People like him. Uncle Wayne reminded me not to be afraid, because the Lord has directed us and would be with me no matter what.

It's the strangest thing, but as saddened as I've been about losing Uncle Wayne, I've found it hard to shed a tear for his passing. Maybe it's because I know more than ever before that this world isn't all there is. And that the Lord was with Uncle Wayne and that he is in a far better place now.

This isn't goodbye. Not at all. This is just "so long" for now.

And now it's time to remember Uncle Wayne in the best way that I know how: to share the best things that he gave me with others in the scope of the larger world.

When you think about it, there's not many better memorials to those that we love than that!

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Something that should be obvious

We should stop putting people in government who can't even govern themselves.

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