Johnny Robertson jeopardizes son's criminal trial (Plus: REGISTER & BEE's shoddy "journalism")

I'm going to begin calling Johnny Robertson and his "Church of Christ" cult out for what they really are: domestic terrorists.

They just haven't killed anybody (yet). However in the name of "God" Robertson and his followers have and continue to conspire to deprive others of their right to religion, to peaceable assembly and to free speech.

So are Johnny Robertson, James Oldfield, Mark McMinnis, Micah Robertson and the rest of their ilk enemies of the Constitution of the United States? Yup. And I suppose that means others might also be considered willing collaborators, regardless of whether they are "true believers". Make of that what you may.

What precipitates this latest report about the goings-on of the Martinsville Taliban? A few things. The previous post seems to have had some effect, because several people noted that Mark McMinnis was struggling to subdue his silly grin during his broadcast this past Thursday night. But what is more intriguing is that Micah Robertson - son of "Church of Christ" tin-god Johnny Robertson - was conspicuously absent from the live broadcast! The official word: "He has the night off."

Yah right.

Because earlier that day out of the Martinsville feed the two-hour block that Johnny Robertson uses for his inane babbling was filled up with the "debate" between he and Shirley Phelps-Roper from 2005. Yup, that Shirley Phelps-Roper that I also referenced in my previous post! What was the reason for the replay? The two Robertsons had to meet with their attorney about the criminal trespassing charges pending against Micah Robertson, stemming from Micah's repeated attempts to interfere with the services at Westover Baptist Church in Danville, Virginia.

(Several people also noted that the replay of the 2005 "debate" also featured an appearance by Jason Hairston, who was once with Robertson's cult and even had his own hour-long live weekly broadcast until he became a dissident from the movement and was subsequently damned by Johnny Robertson. To this day Robertson the Mad refuses to address the issue but apparently has no problem with continuing to use Hairston to prop-up his cult.)

So Johnny and Micah went to a lawyer, because Micah is looking at a year in jail if he's convicted. And no doubt the attorney has strongly recommended if not outright forbid Micah Robertson from doing any more television appearances or live confrontations until his trial date. However that has not stopped Johnny Robertson from running his mouth without ceasing about it! Robertson devoted the entirety of his two-hour Friday morning show and then 90 minutes on Sunday night's broadcast trying to make his son out to be the victim of persecution.

I can hear the Robertsons' attorney now, the veins in his neck bulging out as he screams "DAMMIT JOHNNY SHUT UP YOU'RE BLOWING OUR CASE!!!"

Does Johnny Robertson want his son to go to jail? Does Johnny hope that Micah will become a "martyr for the cause"? Is this how far Johnny is willing to go in order to somehow "validate" his insane belief system? Is Micah ready to fall on the proverbial sword? Since this cult believes in salvation by human works, is Micah seriously considering this the price he'll pay to get into Heaven?

Robertson the Lesser's court date is May 7th.

Incidentally, The Danville Register & Bee has a report about Micah Robertson's arrest warrant on its GoDanRiver.com website... and in all honesty it's one of the most piss-poor news articles I've seen in the history of anything. "Journalist" Matt Tomsic turned in a story that apart from what's gleaned from the official warrant itself, is nothing but regurgitation from Johnny Robertson! From the article...

Micah Robertson works with his father, Johnny Robertson, for Religious Review Media, a group that tries to bring accountability to religion and to increase dialogue between different religious organizations, according to Johnny Robertson.

He said two Religious Review reporters went to the church event to speak with Elmer Towns, co-founder of Liberty University. One reporter pulled a video camera to record Micah Robertson speaking to Towns, Johnny Robertson said. As he did, church officials asked him to leave. Micah Robertson then pulled his video camera to film the confrontation, and officials told him to leave also.

Religious Review reporters travel with video cameras to document their interactions with others in case they’re accused of anything.

“We are very controversial in the sense that our message is that we should all be together,” Johnny Robertson said.

But Micah Robertson didn’t capture any video Feb. 28 because church officials grabbed his camera as he turned it on, Johnny Robertson said.

Hey, Matt Tomsic: There is no such thing as "Religious Review"! Religious Review is a sham operation that Johnny Robertson pulled out of his butt to give his harassment an air of legitimacy. Religious Review has no website, no printed publication, nothing but a YouTube channel that consists entirely of footage of Robertson and his minions stalking innocent people in the privacy of their homes, in churches and shopping malls, etc.

If I have no other purpose for writing this post, then it is because I am compelled to point out Matt Tomsic's atrocious reporting of this matter and to call out GoDanRiver.com, the Danville Register and Bee, and Media General for allowing this story to run at all.

(And as some have jokingly noted lately, this blog does seem to get more traffic than, ahem, some online outlets that have been referenced lately. Parse that as you will...)

What do I think is gonna happen? Honestly?

If Micah Robertson is found guilty, he will either go to jail for the minimum amount allowed by law (I don't believe the judge will give him a year, but who knows) or given suspended sentence. It'll still be a mark on his record. I like to think that he might even be ordered to remain 500 feet away from religious institutions that he is not personally affiliated with, much like how convicted sex offenders cannot be near schools or daycare centers.

If Micah Robertson is found not guilty, then Johnny Robertson will assume that this means he and his cult now have legal carte blanche to do all the harassment that they want, wherever and whenever they so desire. They will go crazy with their newfound sense of power. And then they will go too far and one or more of them will be hurt or worse.

I hate to say that, but I'm not usually wrong about this sort of thing. Call it nothing more than being a longtime student of human nature.

Read More

GEARS OF WAR 3 gets official announcement and tragic trailer!

Epic Games' Cliff Blezinski on Last Night with Jimmy Fallon in the wee hours of this morning let the world in on what we already knew: that Gears of War 3 was coming in April 2011. An official press release from Epic and Microsoft gives a firmer date: April 5th, 2011 for the concluding chapter of the Gears of War trilogy.

Personally I've no doubt we'll be seeing more games from this series though. It might - or might not - be the end of humanity's war with the Locust Horde but there are plenty more tales to tell in the Gears saga. Such as the earlier Pendulum Wars, and the events surrounding E-Day.

But 'nuff with speculation. Take a looksee at "Ashes to Ashes", the first trailer for Gears of War 3!

The song is "Heron Blue" by folk rock group Sun Kil Moon. Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.

Read More

THE KING AND I and... me!

After a weekend of what one cast member has called "the most fun audition experience I've ever had" the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County has got the cast for its production of The King and I a little more than two months from now.

And... I'm playing Phra Alack! He's the secretary to the King, and gets to throw his authority around a lot. Unless the King is in the room, and then Phra Alack throws himself down on the floor a lot. Gonna be a fun lil' role! That's also a terrific cast playing the characters... and given that I personally know many of the cast are complete characters, is gonna make it that much more of a hoot of a show :-)

The King and I runs from June 18th through June 20th at Rockingham County Senior High School. Click on the Theatre Guild's website for more information. Hope to see you there!

And as always happens whenever I get involved in something like this, I'll be posting about the experience from here on out :-)

Read More

And on a more serious note...

Two great tragedies have I observed in life: unrequited love and unrequited repentance.

I harbor no doubt as to which is the more miserable, if also the less celebrated.

Read More

First photo from the set of THE THING prequel

The guys at /Film have come through with the first pic of the set for the as-yet-untitled prequel to The Thing: John Carpenter's classic 1982 science-fiction horror movie...

That's the Antarctic research camp that the SwedesNorwegians have, before they make their icy discovery and all hell breaks loose. The prequel (scripted by Ronald D. Moore, the mastermind behind the revamped Battlestar Galactica) is gonna show us what happened at the SwedishNorwegian base that made it as bad as MacReady and Copper found it (i.e. mass suicide, burnt corpses, etc.)

As John Carpenter's The Thing is on my personal short list of all-time greatest movies I am going to remain cautiously optimistic about this prequel project, but optimistic all the same. I trust Ronald D. Moore and his respect for the material, I like how the CGI is going to be kept to a minimum and I very much appreciate how they're getting authentic SwedesNorwegians for most of the roles. And now looking at this photo, my hopes have gone up even more.

Read More

Report: U.S. Navy sub crashed 'cuz navigator was listening to iPod

Awright, let's be clear about something: the navigator was not listening to his iPod while at his station. But he was in his cabin listening to his iPod when he was supposed to have been at his station. Which in some ways is indicative of plenty more that was wrong on this sub.

"iPranged a submarine" screams the The Sun in the United Kingdom (gotta love those wacky British headlines). It's now come to light that the collision between the United States Navy's nuclear submarine USS Hartford and the transport ship USS New Orleans in the Persian Gulf a year ago was caused by the Hartford's navigational officer off on his own "revising for an exam" while listening to tunes from his iPod when he should have been uhhh... navigating.

But wait, that's not all! Crewmen had also set up loudspeakers so that they could listen to music (presumably from their iPods) while on duty! Which as anyone who has even seen The Hunt for Red October (or better yet read the original novel) could tell you, is an act of insanity aboard a submarine dependent on multi-million dollar sonar arrays that can pick out opera singing from clear across the Pacific Ocean. The report also said that "sonar operators and radio men were missing from their posts. Others drove the attack sub while 'with one hand on the controls and their shoes off'". The Hartford's captain, Commander Ryan Brookhart, has now been relieved of duty after investigators cited more than 30 infractions which led to "an informal atmosphere" and "a weak command".

Anyone else hearing the Village People singing "In The Navy" after reading this story?

Read More

New hope for cancer patients: Drug chokes off energy to tumors

On the medical side of things, researchers at Ohio State University have hit upon a promising new lead in the fight against cancer: an experimental drug that kills cancerous cells by cutting off their supply of sugar.

From the article at the university's website...

Researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute have designed an experimental drug that chokes off that sugar supply, causing the cells to self destruct.

The agent, called OSU-CG12, is an example of a new class of anticancer drugs called energy-restriction mimetic agents. It is described in a paper published recently in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

"Energy restriction may offer a powerful new strategy for treating cancer because it targets a survival mechanism used by many types of cancer," says principal investigator Ching-Shih Chen, professor of medicinal chemistry, of internal medicine and of urology.

"Our study proves that this new agent kills cancer cells through energy restriction. This is important because it shows that it is possible to design drugs that target energy restriction, and it is exciting because energy-restricting mimetic agents may also be useful for other diseases, including metabolic syndromes, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity," Chen adds.

Energy-restricting mimetic agents cause changes in cancer cells that are similar to those that occur in cancer cells deprived of their main energy source, the sugar glucose.

Plenty more info at the link above for those of you technically-minded, or otherwise have a strong interest in this sort of thing.

I tend to no longer be the sort that jumps headfirst with enthusiasm at news of this nature. But the fact is there's been lots of new research getting published lately from the realm of biochemistry holding the potential for great strides against cancer, with much of it having to do with selectively targeting cancerous cells while leaving the healthy tissue untouched.

The day that Lord willing we get to say that we have got cancer licked, I for one am going to go positivalutely bonkers with celebration. Mayhap that day not be too far off after all...

Read More

Saturn's weird hexagon replicated in a lab

Here's something that's intrigued me for quite a few years. Saturn - the second biggest planet in the solar system - has an odd feature and it ain't them purty rings: there's a huuuuuge hexagon-shaped cloud formation, thousands of miles to a side, surrounding its north pole. It's a persistent phenomenon that has mystified astronomers ever since it was first discovered.

So if you've been baffled about Saturn's mystery hexagon, be bebaffled no further 'cuz Ana Claudia Barbosa Aguiar and Peter Read of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom have recreated the mechanism in their lab with little more than a bucket of water and some green dye, and set it a'spinning on a variable-speed turntable. And fun was had by all!

From the article at ScienceNow...

The faster the ring rotated, the less circular the green jet stream became. Small eddies formed along its edges, which slowly became larger and stronger and forced the fluid within the ring into the shape of a polygon. By altering the rate at which the ring spun, the scientists could generate various shapes. "We could create ovals, triangles, squares, almost anything you like," says Read. The bigger the difference in the rotation between the planet and the jet steam—that is the cylinder and the ring—the fewer sides the polygon had, the team reports in this month's issue of Icarus. Barbosa Aguiar and Read suggest that Saturn’s north polar jet stream spins at a rate relative to the rest of the atmosphere that favors a six-sided figure, hence the hexagon.

I bet some entrepreneur could make a tidy sum selling this thing as a science project to middle-school students :-)

Read More

Tiger Woods! Sarah Palin! Barack Obama! Jesse James! iPad!

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz...

Read More

GEARS OF WAR 3: Video gaming's worst-kept secret EVER!

If you can't hear the hair-rending going on right now at Epic Games' studios in Cary not far away from here, I'd bet good money that Cliff Bleszinski's Twitter feed is about to go pure apoplectic.

For more than a week Bleszinski - the creator of Epic's Gears of War series - had been hinting heavily that his appearance on Jimmy Fallon's show on NBC late night would herald the announcement of Gears of War 3. That was supposed to have been last night, but something got messed up behind the scenes and Bleszinski's appearance was postponed.

Unfortunately nobody got around to telling the management of Microsoft's Xbox Live service about it. Here's what greeted Xbox 360 players this morning when their consoles logged in...

Personally, I'd be sweating bullets right now. I mean, it can't possibly pay to honk off a man who's wedded a chainsaw to an assault rifle.

Still, good to know that Gears of War 3 is on its way (as if we already weren't expecting it :-)

Read More

The temporal battle of Want vs. Need

Lindsey Nobles - Christian blogger extraordinaire - has posted some thoughts on her struggle with her wants and her needs as part of her ongoing series on life goals and motivations...

I grew up surrounded by affluence. I grew up in a community where success was too often measured by the title on your business card, the size of your bank account, the car you drove, the places you had traveled, and the street you lived on. And oh, how I loved love the privilege that came comes with my affluence.

Truth be told, I am a spoiled brat by all practical standards. I have a hard time differentiating between want and need. I have a hard time understanding how much is enough. I have a hard time giving extravagantly because I am too busy living extravagantly.

Don't get me wrong... I give. I sponsor two children. I tithe. I step out in faith (or in reasonable faith) when my pastor asks us to think about how we can help expand the vision of our church.

But what I still haven't managed to do, with any success, is sacrifice. I haven't managed to stop indulging in my long list of wants – eating out, extravagant vacations, a new pair of shoes. I haven't realized that just because I WANT something doesn't mean that I NEED it.

That Lindsey is asking this of herself - indeed, that that anyone would ask this of himself or herself - demonstrates that she is far more along on the path of wisdom than most people ever get to appreciate.

Want vs. Need. It seems like it should be all too easy to decide that one is good and one is bad... but it's never going to be a cut and dried issue which can be resolved in terms of black and white. It is a contest we are bound to fight for as long as we are in this world.

However, within that battle there is the potential for massive personal and spiritual growth.

I realized years ago that before addressing whether I "want" a thing or "need" it, or even what God would have me to do, I ask: "What did God MAKE of me? What is my identity? What are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? How would a thing change me?"

Because most people seek what they "want" without even trying to understand what it entails to them as a person. And as a result, more often than not, a person will ask for something that they want but in the end will corrupt and destroy them. It might not do it immediately, but over time it will wear them down and utterly corrupt them.

The wise person however knows and asks for what they NEED. Realizing that they can ask and seek for something that will make them stronger, wiser, and better equipped to handle the life and challenges that God has presented before them. They they know how to steer clear of that which would ruin them.

I'm not saying there is something inherently "evil" with the concept of want. There are many things that I want also. But I've also learned (sometimes very painfully) that I should never ask for them on my own terms. Instead it is better to ask God to prepare me with what I need, and having faith that in time He will give me those things that I want... and that He will do so when I am at last prepared for them as He understands me, not as Chris understands me (because Chris messes up a lot ...)

So then Dear Readers, the moral of the story is: Ask to know what you need. And He will give you what you want :-)

Read More

I love rain

Especially when it washed away all of this pollen that has plagued too many of us this week.

I've also a newfound appreciation for Zyrtec (thanks to longtime friend Kelly Hart for suggesting it, and your results may vary).

Read More

I hate pollen

Couldn't God in His infinite wisdom have come up with a better way for plants and trees to have sex?

Read More

Lucasfilm developing animated Star Wars sitcom

Yes, April Fools Day was a week ago. But no, it's not a joke.

A quarter century ago, on Saturday morning cartoons gone far, far away...

That's the title sequence from the short-lived Star Wars: Droids animated series on ABC. The theme song "In Trouble Again" was co-written and performed by Stewart Copeland of The Police. Anthony Daniels again provided the voice of C-3PO.

Twenty-five years later and with Star Wars: Clone Wars a certifiable success for Lucasfilm and Cartoon Network, an animated Star Wars situation comedy is now in the works. Among those involved with the project are Seth Green and Matthew Senreich: the creators and executive producers of Robot Chicken (which has a long history of lampooning the saga).

Ehhhhh... hmmm... don't know what exactly to say about this one. I knew that Lucasfilm was working on an animated Star Was series aimed at pre-schoolers and for most of the week I thought people were referring to that show. I now stand corrected (and befuddled).

Star Wars and comedy. Well, I guess it could work. We've already seen Star Wars do blood-curdling horror recently (the novel Death Troopers). And Kevin J. Anderson's book Darksaber was in my opinion slapstick humor (Darksaber is also in my opinion Anderson's best work of Star Wars narrative, make of that what you will). I suppose this might be something worth taking a stab at.

But what's this show going to be called? Two and a Half Jawas? The Fresh Prince of Cloud City? Sithfeld? Cantina (filmed before a live studio audience)? Everybody Loves Jar-Jar? R*A*S*H (short for Rebel Army Surgical Hospital)? Tatooine Junction?

Or how about the show focuses on Luke Skywalker and his kinfolk? It could be called All In The Family.

Okay, I'm stopping while I'm ahead...

Read More

LOST Season 5 soundtrack CD gets a release date!

A little more than a month from now on May 11th, you and me and all the other Lost fanatics will finally get to buy the soundtrack from Season 5. Click here to pre-order it from Amazon. It'll street for $17.98 but you're likely to find it for less depending on where you look.

Lost is the only television series that I've ever gone to the trouble of buying the soundtrack CDs, and I'm looking forward to putting more of Michael Giacchino's beautiful work on my iPod. And Season 5 had some of the best music of the show's run. What I'm eager for most: getting that theme that we first heard during the Lamppost scene in "The Lie", and what most fans are calling "Jacob's Theme" that was introduced in "The Incident, Part 1".

(Incidentally Mr. Giacchino, if you ever read this: I would love to have a bunch of the score from "Happily Ever After" on the Season 6 soundtrack when it comes out next year. Especially everything from Desmond and Daniel's dialogue on through the end when Desmond asks for the manifest :-)

Read More

First animals discovered that live without oxygen

Meet Loricifera, a group of tiny aquatic multi-cellular animals. And they are now the first form of animal found to be completely absent of the need for oxygen for its metabolism.

Quite exotic and interesting, yes? Perhaps this means that other, maybe even more complex, organisms might be found in other environments that do no require oxygen.

More info at the link.

Read More

My DVR has gone mentyl

If this is a technical issue, it's darn just about the weirdest one that I've ever seen in a lifetime filled with playing with gadgets.

And I'm also reminded of Auric Goldfinger's classic line to James Bond: "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action." If this happens a third time, I'm going to have the whole thing stripped down and examined, psychoanalyzed and possibly exorcised. Or perhaps it's some subliminal cue from my own superego that is trying to tell me something?

This morning while rewatching last night's episode of Lost from my DVR, I did a search back through previous recordings from the past weekend, 'cuz there were a bunch of good movies that I wanted to catch for the first time.

Somehow, my DVR also recorded a movie that I have seen before, but didn't have schedule to record.

The really crazy thing is, this has happened before. And involving to the exact same movie.

So for the second time my DVR, without me asking it to, has caught Yentl: the 1983 film directed, co-written by and starring Barbra Streisand.

If you've never seen it before, Yentl is about a Jewish girl living in Poland at the turn of the twentieth century who more than anything else in life wants an education in Talmudic law. But alas! This is a time and place where only men are allowed to study such things. So after her father (a respected rabbi who has been teaching her in secret) died, Yentl disguises herself as a man and as "Anshel" goes off to study in a yeshiva. As usually happens in this kind of story, complications ensue: namely when Yentl - as Anshel - winds up engaged to the former fiancee of her/his friend Avigdor (played by Mandy Patinkin, in what might be his finest role alongside that of Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride).

Now, I have absolutely nothing at all against Yentl. It's a delightful little movie and rather different from typical film fare. It's a drama with music, not really a traditional "musical" since Yentl is the only one singing in it and it's more of an "empathic device" to convey Yentl's inner turmoils. The story, based on a play by Isaac Bashevis Singer, is a clever one and the cinematography (Yentl was filmed partly in Prague and Liverpool) is gorgeous.

I'd just like to know WHY THE HECK IS MY DVR BOUND AND DETERMINED TO RECORD YENTL!!!

I said it the last time my DVR did this and I'll say it again: Oy vey!

Read More