Southern Poverty Law Center, or: How NOT to respect a news outlet!

I've a number of criteria for judging whether a news agency is reputable or not. Usually it's a long-term process of determination but lately it's become much, much easier for me.

Wanna know why?

It's real simple: any news outlet that cites the Southern Poverty Law Center as a reputable source of information, gets a honkin' HUGE demerit and damn near an unforgivable one.

I first heard of ethnic warfare whore Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center fifteen years ago, in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. Dees was pimpin' himself on most of the news channels, claiming his Southern Poverty Law Center was warning the feds way in advance about "the militias movement". 'Twas enough to make me wonder who this twit was. Since then I've discovered that he's not much more than the worst sort of perpetual pest: the kind that demands everyone see a "crisis" to justify his own pathetic self-imposed purpose. In the case of Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center this entails claiming that everyone who is against their wacko socialist agenda is automatically a racist on par with Hitler himself.

So it is that I have also come to sincerely believe that any so-called "journalist" who even remotely considers Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center to be creditable, should be fired automatically if not outright dragged out into the town square and locked up in the pillory for a well-earned mocking.

But don't take my word for it, dear readers! The Southern Poverty Law Center has just published a "hit list" of forty "patriots" that the organization has deemed to be a threat to American society. On the list are columnist Chuck Baldwin (he ranked #1, and that's his response at the link), Representative Ron Paul of Texas, Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily, and Glenn Beck (somebody that I have never listened to and have no plans to, but to the very best of my knowledge has done nothing inordinately wrong). There are also a number of outspoken critics of the federal government, and especially of the income tax and the IRS.

Curiously, there is not one person on the list who could be considered an avowed "liberal". Every person denounced by the Southern Poverty Law Center is regarded by conventional wisdom as being a "conservative" or a "libertarian".

Darn. I wish that I could be on that list! Guess I'm not a big-league enough blogger yet.

Maybe if I pointed out that Morris Dees is a sexual pervert and child molester who was once caught exploiting his step-daughter, and that his Southern "Poverty" Law Center has by many accounts raked in more than a hundred million dollars by scaring the gullible with rumors of the Third Reich rising again, that maybe he would put me on his enemies list?

Or maybe putting it in larger font would mark me as a worthy adversary...

MORRIS DEES
OF THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER

IS A SEXUAL PERVERT, CHILD MOLESTER,

ETHNIC WARFARE WHORE,

PIMP OF THE PERPETUAL CRISIS,

AND MONEY-GRABBING HUCKSTER

OF THE UTMOST DEGREE!!!

Dear Lord, I hope that will do the trick.

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Oh yeah, a few more photos from ActionFest!

Filmmaking partner "Weird" Ed Woody and I outside the Carolina Cinemas in Asheville, North Carolina at ActionFest this past weekend. Look at those nifty ActionFest t-shirts! On the back of the shirts has Chuck Norris' classic line from Code of Silence: "When I want your opinion, I'll beat it out of you."

And here is... oh Lord, why didn't I shower and shave that morning?! I look positively hideous here. But I would prolly look hideous anyway :-P Especially compared to such a beautiful lass: none other than Sheree J. Wilson, who among other roles was Alex on Walker, Texas Ranger:

For more about ActionFest and what went down there, punch here!

(By the way, Chuck Norris landed in Asheville on Sunday... and leveled all the mountains surrounding the city!)

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Chris finally files his ACTIONFEST after-carnage report!

I've more than a gut feeling that this past weekend was but the first of many, many years for ActionFest: the first ever film festival devoted to action movies.

It all went down at Carolina Cinemas in Asheville, North Carolina. And your friend and humble blogger was there for most of the spectacle!

Several weeks ago my filmmaking partner (and old college roomie) "Weird" Ed Woody told me about ActionFest, being that it was happening in his neck of the woods. My calendar was empty for the weekend save for a friend's wedding on Sunday, so we ordered our badges and I lodged at Ed's inner sanctum somewhere between Asheville and the dark territory known to the locals as "Little Canada" (note to revenuers: do not go in there). On Thursday morning I headed out to Asheville, spent a few hours seeing my old adopted hometown again and even hooking up with some people that were a big part of my life then, and that afternoon hooked up with Ed at his pad. We took off for town and following a dinner at Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company - which still has some of the best pizza I've ever ate - we headed to Carolina Cinemas and ActionFest

ActionFest is founded by Bill Banowsky, Dennis Berman, and Aaron Norris. Aaron is the brother of action film legend Chuck Norris, who on the last night of the festival became the recipient of ActionFest's inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award. As such there were a number of Chuck Norris films programmed for the festival. The official ActionFest poster depicts Chuck Norris from Invasion U.S.A. standing in front of a mushroom cloud hanging over downtown Asheville.

And even the local sponsors got into the spirit of the event. Check out this theatrical one-sheet ad for the Grove Park Inn!

At 7:30 on Thursday night came the first film of ActionFest: the world premiere of Neil Marshall's Centurion!

Starring Michael Fassbender and featuring a number of fairly familiar faces including Noel Clarke (who played Mickey for the past few years on Doctor Who), Centurion is a grim 'n bloody telling of the tale of the legendary Ninth Legion of Rome, which went missing while trying to civilize ancient Britain. Set in 117 A.D., Centurion focuses on Quintus Dias (Fassbender) who gets captured by the Picts north of Hadrian's Wall, escapes and is then re-assigned to destroy a particularly troublesome bunch of primeval Scottish in retribution. But the Picts don't play nice and the Romans are soon whittled down to seven soldiers from across the breadth of the Empire, now struggling to survive. Hot on their trail is Etain (Olga Kurylenko): a treacherous Terminator-ish tracker who won't stop until her tribe is avenged (and she's also feeling more than a bit pokey after the Romans cut out her tongue).

If you loved HBO's Rome but wanted it to ratchet up the brutality, then Centurion is for you. I imagine this is going to do some handsome business when it opens wide. I enjoyed it tremendously!

The next afternoon Ed and I took in Kick-Ass, which wasn't part of the festival but we were both curious enough about it to check it out (and I'll be posting a review of it soon). After we caught that, it was time for ActionFest proper.

Up next it was 1985's Code of Silence:

Starring Chuck Norris and directed by Andrew Davis (who also directed The Fugitive, including much of it in the nearby town of Sylva and the legendary train wreck in Dillsboro), Code of Silence is regarded as the most critically acclaimed of Norris' many films. Eddie Cusack is an incorruptible cop on the mean streets of Chicago, set against both a brewing drug war and bad cops within his own department. We got to enjoy Code of Silence via a beautiful, practically virgin 35mm print and it was gorgeous! Nothing like seeing Chuck Norris going to town against the bad guys with his fists, his guns and one kick-butt battle robot.

Up next was a film that I'd been eager to see for a month or so now ever since first hearing about it: Harry Brown.

Harry Brown is the movie where those old guys from A Clockwork Orange get mad as hell and break bad on the asses of Alex and all his droogs. It is also the closest I imagine we will ever get to a film adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns. Directed by Daniel Barber, Harry Brown stars Michael Caine as the titular character: a recently widowed pensioner who despairs at the violent crime getting worse daily outside his window. When his only friend and drinking buddy is killed one night by a bunch of hoodlums, Harry - a former British marine - begins a one-man war as much against apathy as it is against the much-younger miscreants who are plaguing his neighborhood.

I think it's next week when Harry Brown gets a wide release here in the states, and I can easily imagine it striking up some dialogue on this side of the pond: about self-defense, about how our society has grown inured to cruelty, about how far one might be willing to go in order to have a peaceful life. Michael Caine is bloody brilliant as Harry Brown: we see the legendary man of action that he was in the original Get Carter and the Harry Palmer films, but also as the more gentle and tender presence that he has become in more recent years. In short: Harry Brown shows Caine at his most full-bore caliber. Can't wait to see it again.

At 10 p.m. on Friday night Ed and I decided to check out the world premiere of Operation: Endgame.

Originally titled Rogue's Gallery (a title which I like more as I think about it), Operation: Endgame is a film that I think has potential. What we saw wasn't the final film: there were still some unfinished effects and a bit of color work in a number of places that needs to be completed, so I'm looking forward to seeing it in the more polished and slicked-up form. As I said, there's some promise here. Operation: Endgame is like one of those Eighties "cloak and dagger spy" movies as envisioned by Dilbert creator Scott Adams: about two competing groups of secret agents who do battle with each other in a facility deep underground after their boss is found murdered in his office. Joe Anderson plays "Fool", the newest recruit among a body of agents all named after Tarot cards (like Lost's Emilie de Ravin as Hierophant, Ving Rhames as Judgement and Odette Yustman as Temperance). Also look for Zach Galifianakis as Hermit and Ellen Barkin as Empress. I think that with finished effects, a bit more editing and by changing the title back to the original if at all possible, this movie could prove to be a box-office winner. We were entertained by it anyway.

And next up, at midnight, came the film that we had become bigtime stoked about ever since reading about it in the festival's program. And it did not disappoint.

It was time to watch Tucker & Dale vs. Evil.

GOOD LORD I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!! Please SOMEBODY get this film distributed and into as honkin' wide a release as is all humanly possible! Sometime this summer would be terrific. Yes, I can definitely see Tucker & Dale vs. Evil as being the sleeper hit of Summer 2010.

Ed and I agreed: this was our most favorite film of ActionFest. Starring Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine and directed by Eli Craig (from a script co-written with Morgan Jurgenson), the best I can describe Tucker & Dale vs. Evil in brief is if I told you that it's "Clerks meets Deliverance". It takes the whole "lusty kids going into the woods and getting slaughtered by hillbillies" motif of slasher films and turns it on its head in hilarious fashion. 'Cuz you see in this case the hillbillies in question - Tucker (Tudyk) and Dale (Labine) - are really a couple of nice fellas! They're just two good ol' boys, never meaning no harm. All they want is to fix up a shack in the deep West Virginia woods to have as their dream vacation place while they hunt 'n fish and drink beer. Unfortunately they cross paths with a group of college students who have obviously seen way, way too many horror movies for their own good.

I don't know how much more plainer to put it than this: I not only want to see Tucker & Dale vs. Evil in the theaters immediately, I want to see at least six more Tucker & Dale movies! Not to mention how neat it would be to have some Tucker & Dale action figures. Maybe the most fun start to a potential franchise that I've ever seen. Everyone in the theater was laughing 'til it hurt! Ed saw it again on Saturday night and reported an even bigger crowd that was just as entertained and wanting more. I can't wait to watch this with more friends when it hits wide release.

The next day, with Tucker & Dale vs. Evil still on our brains, Ed and I headed back to ActionFest to catch what unfortunately had to be the last film of the festival that I was able to see: Je-Woon Kim's 2008 action spectacle from South Korea, it's The Good, The Bad, The Weird:

Clearly inspired by the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, The Good, The Bad, The Weird is the mad story of bandits, bounty hunters and assassins (along with a good helping of the Japanese army) crossing paths in Manchuria circa 1930 in pursuit of a treasure map. Rife with gunplay, motorcycles, heavy artillery, opium dens, one of the kewlest train heists I've ever seen in a film for an opening gambit, and an even crazier chase across the Chinese desert toward the end (along with one helluva plot twist), The Good, The Bad, The Weird was the perfect movie for a Saturday afternoon. I wouldn't mind owning this one on Blu-ray.

ActionFest was such a well-programmed festival, that there really was no way to be able to catch all of the movies scheduled. I'd wanted to see Power Kids (at least I know such a movie does exist out there somewhere :-), Merantau (ditto) and Valhalla Rising, but wasn't able too. 'Course that my own schedule required me to head back on Saturday night didn't help things. I'd also love to catch Golden Blade III: Return of the Monkey's Uncle at some point, which was filmed entirely in the Asheville area and as you can tell its poster promises all sorts of outrageous good humor...

Following The Good, The Bad, The Weird at 3 p.m. there was The Amazing ActionFest Stunt Show, featuring something I've never heard of being done at a film festival before: real stunts by Hollywood stunt legends! Jeff Habberstad arrived in true fashion: by bailing out of a passing airplane and parachuting down...

(Okay, that high-flying jet is not the plane that Habberstad jumped out of, it just happened to have been in the field of vision from where we were standing. Had to clarify that :-)

And then Kinnie "the Rocket Man" Gibson arrived on his jetpack, coming in over the Carolina Cinema building and landing in the parking lot...

At 5 p.m. that afternoon Drew McWeeny of HitFix.com moderated a panel discussion about "The Art of the Second Unit"...

Ed and I found this discussion to be educational, enlightening... and very entertaining. And it gave me an entirely new appreciation for the second unit's role in film production. As several of the panelists noted, it's the second unit which has the real fun on a movie or television project, because they're the ones that aren't necessarily stuck inside listening to "talking heads" as one person put it. But it is also in some ways one of the most demanding of a project's many aspects: not only making sure that the second unit's footage "jibes" with that of the first unit, but also the sheer planning and logistics. Paul Weston (who did stunts for many of the James Bond movies as well as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Superman) shared one story about how he was supposed to be filmed crawling along the outside of a building and how it almost didn't work out. And we also heard about how stunt people really do have to be able to say "no" to a director if something is going to be more dangerous than it's worth. After all, as was noted: there wasn't a single person up on that stage who hadn't lost a friend to doing a stunt that had gone wrong.

And if there is one thing that I would wish to convey that I learned from ActionFest, it is this: that the men and women who put themselves to such extremes for sake of a few seconds of footage, in order to create an illusion of danger... folks, I have a completely new respect for these people now. Having the chance to meet several of them and talk with them and hear them speak of their craft, and hearing the very sincere humbleness that they bring to their trade... well if you ask me, professional stunt people are in the same class of admiration as that afforded to firefighters. There's a mutual sense of brotherhood and respect for each other among those in this profession, and having seen that firsthand I can certainly say that it's high time that these people and the genre that lets them shine the most have a film festival celebrating their talent and their passion.

And that is what ActionFest was most to me: a festival not just of good films, but of the very best of the human spirit. I am already looking forward to next year's event, and here's praying that it will only get bigger and better from here on out.

Thanks to everyone behind ActionFest for such an amazing event! Y'all succeeded wildly :-)

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Radical Muslim declares SOUTH PARK un-bear-able, implies violence against show's creators

Many readers know that I have a very strongly held personal belief that each person has an absolute right to seek after and worship God as best he or she understands Him, or even to not believe in God at all. The one caveat is that a person's right to that ends where another's right to do likewise begins. I don't believe that what the South Park guys have done (or have ever done) violates that notion.

The same can not be said of many adherents of the "religion of peace pieces"...

So now it's Trey Parker and Matt Stone who have drawn the ire of a wacko Islamic website. What's the sacrilege this time? A depiction of the prophet Muhammad, shown above with South Park characters Stan and Kyle.

In case you can't see him, Muhammad is hiding inside the bear suit.

From the Fox News story...

A radical Islamic website is warning the creators of "South Park" that they could face violent retribution for depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit during an episode broadcast on Comedy Central last week.

RevolutionMuslim.com posted the warning following the 200th episode of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's "South Park," which included a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad disguised in a bear suit. The Web posting also included a graphic photo of Theo van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who was murdered in 2004 after making a documentary on violence against Muslim women.

"We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show," the posting reads. "This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them."

Reaching by phone early Tuesday, Abu Talhah al Amrikee, the author of the post, said he wrote the entry to "raise awareness." He said the grisly photograph of van Gogh was meant to "explain the severity" of what Parker and Stone did by mocking Muhammad.

"It's not a threat, but it really is a likely outcome," al Amrikee said, referring to the possibility that Parker and Stone could be murdered for mocking Muhammad. "They're going to be basically on a list in the back of the minds of a large number of Muslims. It's just the reality."

Wait a sec: so Muhammad was not actually shown. We only saw a guy in a bear costume. But that the South Park kids pointed at him and called him "Muhammad" was enough to get Parker and Stone targeted for death?!

I have to wonder if the same thing would happen to me if I were to, say, post a photo of Cap'n Crunch and write "this is Muhammad". Would some Islamic yahoo send me a threatening e-mail if I were to say that Yoda was really Muhammad? How about if I use an image of a pile of steaming dog excrement: "there is one god and this steaming pile of dog excrement is Muhammad his prophet!"

Mind ya, I'm not poking fun at Islam itself. But I darn well am saying that this is an example of some of Islam's followers acting like a pack of bloodthirsty thugs.

What I said earlier about everyone has the right to worship God up until that right impinges on others' right to do the same? I sincerely believe that. And if it takes vigorous self-defense (read into that what you will) to deter followers of Islam or even of Christianity or any other religious adherent who refuses to respect the rights of others, then so be it.

And as for Abu Talhah al Amrikee, I think Mr. Frank Miller came up with the perfect retort against that sort of nuttiness in the pages of The Dark Knight Strikes Again...

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"The Last Recruit": Post-episode reaction to this week's LOST

Depending on who you are, tonight's Lost either confirmed or imploded a whole lotta theories that have been building up over the past six years. While at the same time going off the tracks with all kinds of crazy goodness!

"The Last Recruit" felt like an episode and a half, if not more even. The answers keep coming hard, even if they aren't explicitly "spelled out". That dialogue between Jack and the Man in Black toward the beginning of the episode? And a bit of what Claire said? When you think about it all that's maybe two or three longstanding mysteries that were laid bare. I love how this show makes the viewers work things out on their own. And in that respect Lost stands tall as some of the most intelligent storytelling for the television medium in history.

I am soooo not spilling the beans on what was the best moment of an episode abundantly blessed with excellent moments, for sake of those on the west coast who won't be seeing it for another two and a half hours.

The flashsideways timeline: whatever the heck this is headed to, I am totally digging it now. And I think that there might have been a clue here as to the identities of "Adam and Eve". Hint: apple. 'Course I might just have been seeing too much there.

Must. Watch. Again. And I hope y'all DVR'ed it anyway 'cuz there's no new Lost next week: instead we get a repeat airing of "Ab Aeterno", which was the episode that gave us Richard's backstory, so it's all good. The next week though will bring us "The Candidate". And after that "Across the Sea", which I know nothing about other than word is rampant that this is going to be a massively major episode (one rumor is that it will give us the story of Jacob and the Man in Black).

Five more hours of Lost left. And I'll give "The Last Recruit" a full 10 out of 10!

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Mother Teresa's 7 Steps to a Holier Life

Matthew Warner is the thinkin' dude behind Fallible Blogma: his journal of faith, politics and fatherhood from a Catholic perspective. I have been rather enjoying Matthew's insights, and one item in particular is well worth passing along to all two of my own blog's regular readers. It's a list of seven steps to take for a holier life, as observed and articulated by Mother Teresa (in the photo). You'll have to visit the link to see Matthew's compilation in earnest, but they're seven measures that I'm gonna commit to trying to keep in mind on a daily basis...

1. Slow down
2. Make some room
3. Open your eyes
4. Put great love into the small things
5. Do not tire
6. Remember: It's faithfulness, not success
6. Leave the rest to Jesus

Good things to remember, whether or not you are Catholic. And I very much appreciate Matthew for putting this together :-)

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HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS gets its first teaser poster

Hmmm... not too jazzed by this one. Maybe it has to do with it being that I've yet to see the movie version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? More likely the fact that as much as I love the Harry Potter books, I've grown weary of the film adaptations. They've diverted so much from the original novels that I for one would welcome a new attempt to make a movie franchise of this series ten or so years from now (ideally one movie a year for seven years, with the same cast). 'Twould definitely benefit from being produced in hindsight.

Anyways, there's yer first teaser poster for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the first part of which is due out later this year.

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Disaffection made simple

I love the Constitution of the United States. I hate the government of the United States. The government of the United States is so unlike the Constitution of the United States.

(Shamelessly paraphrasing M.K. Gandhi.)

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Wiiiiiii!!!

A lady named Amanda Flowers in Great Britain is, errr... blaming Nintendo's Wii Fit for causing her to have persistent orgasms.

From the article at the Daily Star...

A WOMAN has gone from Nintendo to nympho after a fall from her Wii Fit board turned her into a sex addict.

Randy Amanda Flowers needs 10 sex sessions a day after the slip-up.

And now the slightest of vibrations, from mobile phones to food processors, turns her on.

The catering worker said: "It began as a twinge down below before surging through my body. Sometimes it built up into a trembling orgasm."

A doctor diagnosed her with persistent sexual arousal syndrome due to a damaged nerve.

Probably a million-to-one thing that happened to Amanda Flowers and likely not easily replicated (no matter how many people will attempt it, no doubt). I found this interesting enough to post 'cuz I've some fascination with video gaming and human biology.

This just happens to be the first time that I've heard of a video game affecting one's sex life (apart from some examples that will readily come to mind :-P)

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Photos of Eyjafjallajökull eruption

In case you're wondering, I've heard from an authority on the subject that the name of that volcano in Iceland that is currently plaguing air travel in Europe (and elsewhere?) should be pronounced "AY-uh-fyat-luh-YOE-kuutl-uh".

The Reykjavík Grapevine has published - and will probably publish many more now that Eyjafjallajökull's activity is apparently intensifying and may even trigger the eruption of a bigger volcano nearby - several photos of Eyjafjallajökull wrecking havoc.

Anyone else think it's kinda funny that this is all happening on the same week as Earth Day?

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I'm thinking of breaking one of my most cardinal rules

That being the one about how I never, ever adopt new technology right out of the gate.

Take the Xbox 360, f'rinstance. I love mine like all get out. Not just as a gamin' machine but as a media extender: movies and such that are kept on my computer can be viewed on my high-def television set. Right handy, that. But it was two years after the Xbox 360 debuted before I even considered getting one. Just made good sense to me, and it's not about it being a Microsoft product either: any piece of high-tech gadgetry is bound to have some issues that only get found and worked out after it's been released into the wild.

So as a result I've never been an early adopter. And I figure that I'm being a wise consumer for having that policy.

But then, late last week on my trip to Asheville, I went into the Best Buy there. And for the first time beheld and then played with an iPad.

Whoa...

One of the things that I don't have is a laptop computer and people often ask me why don't I own one. The most outstanding reason in my mind is how gosh-darned fragile they have been in my estimation. Having worked in more computer repair joints than I care to remember, laptops still have that "whole 'nother beast than a laptop" thing going on with me.

But the iPad?

It really might be my mobile device dream come true. I gave typing on it a shot and had no problems with my usual 150+ words a minute or so.

Darn you Steve Jobs! You and Apple might have finally made me break down from one of my most sincerely-held personal beliefs!!

So will I actually spring for one?

Stay tuned.

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I just blew back into town...

...did I miss anything?! :-P

Have a friend's wedding on the morrow, but between now and Monday after I get good and refreshed from the past few days I'll share all the awesome good stuff that went down at ActionFest - the first ever film festival devoted to action movies - during the past few days in Asheville.

(BTW, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil ROCKS!!! Can't wait to talk more about it :-)

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Gone for the next 72 hours

However it might be a neat idea to follow me on Twitter for the next few days if you aren't already doing so.

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Most disturbing Star Wars image I've seen... ever!

"Dawn of Maul", an oil on canvas piece by artist Wil Wilson. Set to appear in the upcoming Star Wars: Visions collection due in stores this fall...

I do try to keep the Star Wars-ish posts on this blog kept to a minimum, but this thing was screaming to be shared with y'all.

(Click here for original link.)

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When law enforcement legally steals from people

It's bothered me for years that in the name of the "war on drugs" that some (emphasis on that) law enforcement agencies have engaged in what can only be described as theft of property from many innocent people. Chances are good that's going to continue to get worse as agencies are faced with budget crunches (along with the trend of hiring more and more individuals who have no business wearing a badge to begin with).

The Kingsport Times-News has an article on its website about "How police profit by seizing private property"...

Police and prosecutors’ offices seize private property—often without ever charging the owners with a crime — then keep or sell what they’ve taken and use the profits to fund their budgets. And considering law enforcement officials in most states don’t report the value of what they collect or how that bounty is spent, the issue raises serious questions about both government transparency and accountability.

Under state and federal civil asset forfeiture laws, law enforcement agencies can seize and keep property suspected of involvement in criminal activity. Unlike criminal asset forfeiture, however, with civil forfeiture, a property owner need not be found guilty of a crime—or even charged—to permanently lose her cash, car, home or other property.

According to the Institute for Justice civil asset forfeiture is one of the worst abuses of property rights today. The Institute has released a national study on civil forfeiture abuse. The report—Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture - is the most comprehensive national study to examine the use and abuse of civil asset forfeiture and the first study to grade the civil forfeiture laws of all 50 states and the federal government. The report finds that by giving law enforcement a direct financial incentive in pursuing forfeitures and stacking the legal deck against property owners, most state and federal laws encourage policing for profit rather than seeking the neutral administration of justice.

This is one of the biggest reasons why I've come to be against the "war on drugs", and now the "war on terror". When government can declare a cause against something and demand all possible power and authority to wield against it, it is inevitable that the rights and liberties of individuals will suffer. And there's very rarely any going back.

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Apple may enter 3-D market with funky glasses to hold your iPod

Daily Mail has found a patent application made by Apple for some weird eyewear - nicknamed the "iSpecs" by some - that would turn an iPod or iPhone into a portable 3-D movie experience. From the filed application...

Alright, so... who wants to be the first person to walk around the neighborhood with an iPod covering up their eyes?

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"Everybody Loves Hugo": Post-episode reaction to this week's LOST

I am officially saving up all hyperbole for whatever Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof have schemed up for the final six hours of Lost. Good thing too 'cuz I would have shot the whole wad on "Everybody Loves Hugo" tonight.

WOW!!! Okay, along with "Numbers" from Season 1 this has to rank as the all-time greatest episode focusing on Hurley. This felt like an episode and a half and all those 'splosions didn't hurt at all (bye-bye Ilana, but I saw that caked-on nitro on the dynamite sticks and knew then this was gonna end badly). Hurley's destroying the Black Rock: is it just me or did y'all also think that signified this series' finality? The Black Rock had been one of the most long-standing mysteries of the show, and now that we know everything about it and to see it go "boom" like that...

It was one of the best visual effects I've seen in television history. A foreshadowing, no doubt, of things still to come before "The End".

I thoroughly approve of how Michael was brought back to the story... and bringing the long-sought answer about the whispers with him. But it was Libby's return that I most appreciated of "Everybody Loves Hugo". I'm almost sorry for saying this but Libby never really "clicked" for me during her appearances during Season 2. But now after seeing this episode, and thinking back to how she was in Santa Rosa with Hurley in the "main" timeline well, can't help but wonder if there was "method to the madness" all this time and we're just now realizing the extent of it.

Speaking of timelines, I am now totally digging what is going on in the alternate universe and how the two realities are interacting. That revelation has come pretty late, and I was worried for awhile that it was going to be delved into at all. But now the answers are coming as hard and fast as alt-Desmond's leadfoot on the pedal (you'll understand when you see the episode, y'all on the west coast :-)

"Everybody Loves Hugo" gets a 15 out of 10 from this fan.

Six more hours of Lost remaining. "The Last Recruit" is found next week.

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