Ron Price lawsuit abuse shows North Carolina need for anti-SLAPP legislation

The more I think about how disgraced school board member/admitted sign stealer Ron Price's lawsuit against the Moores ended (click here for more info, including links to the sworn depositions that the Moores, Price, and Yours Truly gave), the more I'm feeling honked-off to no end about it.

The man is certainly living up to his county-wide nickname of "Ron the Con" (one that I have heard bandied about everywhere from church to the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Eden). Ladies and gentlemen, I posit that the whole sordid drama of this past year has been a massive charade perpetrated by Price and his attorney Douglas Hux. Because this lawsuit had nothing to do with seeking damages for legitimate libel. But it did have everything to do with an elected official using the law to intimidate and silence those who disagree with him.

Does anyone believe that Ron Price would have given up so easily, if he knew beyond all doubt that he possessed such a strong case against Richard and Debbie Moore?

Okay, let me ask this out loud: did Ron Price himself seriously believe that he could sincerely expect a judgment of a quarter-million dollars to be granted in his favor by a jury in a court of law, based on what was said about him in The Neely Chronicle and on WGSR?

I don't believe that Price was out for the money at all. But he was out to make Richard and Debbie Moore spend lots and lots of theirs.

Heck, Price practically admitted as much to The Reidsville Review: "I think we reached our goal", he told the newspaper. For once he wasn't lying, folks. The goal was never to achieve a quarter-million dollars judgment. But the goal was to keep the sword of veritable bankruptcy poised over the Moores' heads by compelling them to spend money on legal defense.

There is something very, very wrong with a system that allows a politician, a corporation, or any other entity to effectively shut-down critics by using a frivolous lawsuit to force those of lesser means into giving up their fight. In that regard, Ron Price did win: Political Soup, one of WGSR's most-watched shows, is no longer on the air (that alone has earned Price more loathing from people in Rockingham County than he would like to know).

Think about that for a moment: a government official - and one who admitted to taking something that wasn't his for the purpose of manipulating an election - has successfully abused the law in order to silence his critics and punish them for speaking out against him.

If that is not an example of tyranny, however localized, then I don't know what is. This kind of thing is supposed to happen in fourth-world banana republics, not Rockingham County.

I doubt that Ron Price feels any guilt or grief about it however. He's certainly of the "neo-conservative" stripe that believes he can get away with anything because God has supposedly "anointed" him, or as he put it "but I was elected."

This was the first time that to my knowledge a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) has happened in Rockingham County. I've never liked the idea of a SLAPP action and now that I've seen it firsthand, my hatred for the concept has grown immensely.

Currently, North Carolina does not have anti-SLAPP legislation on the books. Richard Moore is reporting on his website that in the wake of the Price lawsuit winding-down, that he is contacting members of the North Carolina state legislature about the matter. Since Richard does not believe much in archiving his own website (sigh), it falls to me to publish his salient points for posterity...

SPEECH IS ONLY FREE TO THOSE WHO CAN AFFORD ITThe final total is not in yet, but it looks like Price's vindictive lawsuit is going to end up costing us between $7,500 and $8,000. Contrary to the mythology, freedom of speech is only available to those who can afford it. It is now apparent that Debbie and I are not people who can afford freedom of speech, which is why Political Soup and the Neely Chronicle will not be returning.

Ron Price lost his lawsuit, but he has accomplished his mission ("I think we reached our goal"), and I have learned a painful lesson about being involved in political and governmental matters.

If Price had won his lawsuit, however unlikely, Debbie and I would have been stripped of everything we own - no money, no home. no cars, no furniture, no appliances, no clothes - nothing. For calling an elected official who stole campaign signs a thief, we would have been left standing naked on the side of the road without even a tin cup.

If the lawsuit had gone to trial and we had won, the cost of successfully defending ourselves would have left us financially ruined. Due to Price's magnanimous decision to dismiss the lawsuit, our finances are merely seriously mangled. Ron Price can now do a victory lap around the Rockingham County School Board dais. Maybe drink some champagne and drape himself in roses while Celeste and Wayne anoint his feet with oil.

Ron Price has defeated me, even though he lost his lawsuit. The newcomer has managed to do what many old-timers have tried and failed. W.L. Pryor, Don Moss, Wink Hoover, Jeff Sykes, Jeff Eanes, George Fleetwood, David Wise, James Festerman, John Henderson, Celeste DePriest, and many others were unable to budge me from my pompous little political pulpit. But the dark and handsome stranger from Florida figured out a way to hand me my head in short order. Reckless Ron dared go where no one else would.

Hail to Mr. Ronald Filer Price. I am a beaten man. I surrender unto Caesar.

Despite the fact that Ron Price will be hailed as a conquering hero by some folks, particularly those on the Rockingham County School Board and in local government, something is very wrong with a legal system that makes such things possible. In most states, this sort of lawsuit would not be filed because it would be too financially risky for a plaintiff to roll the dice on such a weak case.

The majority of states now have what are called "anti-SLAPP" laws. SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. A SLAPP lawsuit is typically filed by a public official, sometimes by a land developer or someone seeking approval for a project, who uses a SLAPP to silence his critics. In states with "anti-SLAPP" laws, a plaintiff in a civil lawsuit has to assume the risk of paying the defendant's legal fees if the defendant is found not guilty. Thanks to mass communications, most people think that's the way it works everywhere.

Unfortunately, in North Carolina, there are no "anti-SLAPP" laws. If someone, like a school board member, doesn't like what you are saying, he can sue you without taking any risk. If the case makes it to trial and you are found not guilty because there never was any merit to the lawsuit, you are still saddled with paying for your defense. The plaintiff simply has to find an attorney who will work on contingency - it only costs the plaintiff a third of whatever he wins in the lawsuit. If the plaintiff's attorney doesn't win the case, then the plaintiff owes nothing. If the plaintiff does win, then he and his lawyer could both strike it rich. The defendant's ass is financially busted either way it goes.

North Carolina is one of only a few states where it is possible for an elected official to use the legal system to silence his critics without taking any financial risk. The First Amendment doesn't shield you from the financial punishment that North Carolina's legal system and a vindictive public official can dish out.

The conventional wisdom has long been "anyone can sue you for anything, but that doesn't mean they will win or be able to collect if they do win." The conventional wisdom, which was probably meant to bolster the confidence of people who would dare criticize a public official, left out a very important detail. It fails to take into account what it will cost you to defend yourself against a frivolous lawsuit filed in North Carolina. Conventional wisdom does not apply in North Carolina.

It is ironic that a confessed thief can skate right through our legal system, but his accusers end up paying a heavy fine. Excuse me if I look the other way the next time I see someone committing a crime, but I don't want to lose my home and I'm sure you don't want to see me standing naked on the side of the highway. I now completely understand why people say "I don't want to get involved" or "Please don't use my name."

Take my advice - don't get involved, mind your own business, let our public officials do whatever they want, and keep your mouth shut about it. My advice to you is now my personal policy.

Ron Price lost his lawsuit, but there is no victor in the suit. Debbie and I are certainly not victors. We are not crowing about beating "ol' Ron", as "ol' Ron" said we would. We have nothing to crow about. We've had the shite kicked out of us by "ol' Ron" and we're tired, very tired.

We are not ashamed of what we did, nor do we fear the truth, but we'll never again complain about a public official, or government employee stealing campaign signs, or embezzling money, or dong anything wrong again. "Ol' Ron" and the North Carolina legal system have taught us a lesson we'll not ever forget.

Freedom has taken a much worse beating than Ron Price and our wallets. Our lawmakers should be ashamed for allowing this threat to liberty to exist and thrive in our state. But, our lawmakers are probably glad to have the right to do some SLAPPing of their own should it become necessary to shut someone up. SLAPPING is a convenient and effective way to get around the First Amendment.

The above commentary has been sent to our state legislators in hopes of bringing some much needed reform to our state's legal system. I will let you know if any of them bother to respond.

So far, Richard is reporting that Representative Nelson Cole and Representative Bryan Holloway have responded and are "exploring new laws to prevent vindictive public officials from violating the First Amendment by filing frivolous lawsuits to silence their critics".

They really need to push for this. Because if it could happen to Richard and Debbie Moore, it could happen to you. It could happen to me. Actually it's probably happening to me already: I'm expecting a knock on the door any day now and a deputy sheriff serving me with a lawsuit. Or maybe Price will do the smart thing and forget about it... 'cuz you don't mess with a man crazy enough to blow up a schoolhouse in order to run for board of education.

All I'll say for now is: if Ron Price does hit me with a lawsuit, there's a whole new video already hosted on YouTube - that no one from the public can see yet - that is just waiting to be unleashed. And it's all about Ron Price. And it will have everyone EVERYWHERE laughing at him for all eternity.

That's my own perverse "insurance" against more legal abuse like what Price has already done against the Moores. But in the meantime, if you live in North Carolina, do the right thing: contact your state representatives and senators and tell them that frivolous lawsuit abuse must end. Because it costs regular people a lot more than money: it also costs them their rights... which we only have because many people fought and even died so that we might have them to begin with.

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The lost STAR WARS Tosche Station scene

Hot on the heels of the deleted Harrison Ford cameo in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial showing up on YouTube, an anonymous commenter points us to the mental_floss Blog, which discovered that the long-lost and rather legendary "Tosche Station scene" from the first Star Wars movie (now known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is also on YouTube. Here it is...

This is the scene where in the original script we first see Luke talking to his lifelong best friend Biggs Darklighter. In the Special Edition of A New Hope that came out in 1997, Luke and Biggs are reunited just before they fly off along with the other Rebels to take on the Death Star. This deleted scene puts that re-introduced bit into proper context. But otherwise, it does tend to drag the story down... had it made it into the final cut. And it must be said: Luke's dialogue with the droid at the beginning of the scene is awfully clumsy.

This scene never made it into any publicly-viewed cut of Star Wars. But strangely, for years there were many people who swore that they at least saw Luke and Biggs having this conversation when they watched Star Wars at the theater. The first time I ever heard of it (including pictures) was from the Star Wars illustrate storybook that came out around the same time as the movie, and the speculation is that a lot of people saw those pictures and somehow "grafted" them into their memories of the movie itself. I know: that sounds a bit wacky. But I've personally met folks who to this day swear that they witnessed this scene firsthand in a theater. And there have been a few rare cases where a film's print got out with material that was supposed to have been excised. So who knows...?

In addition to Biggs, we also see Fixer, Camie, Windy, and Deak. Camie was played by Koo Stark, who wound up being an actress in what some consider to be "soft porno" and later on had a relationship with Prince Andrew. Here's a better pic of Stark as Camie...

If only George Lucas hadn't taken this scene out, 'cuz Koo was this close to being the hottest babe ever made into a Star Wars action figure...

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As if I have to even try to spread the news ...

The seventh season of American Idol begins tonight on Fox.

I still haven't decided whether or not I'm going to watch this time. Last season was so flat, I can't even remember who it was who won the thing. The two best seasons to me are still 2 (when it came down to Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard) and 5 (the one that gave us Taylor Hicks and Chris Daughtry, among others).

But I'll probably check out the audition stage anyway. So much good comedy to be found from the American cult of celebrity and those who'll do anything to get theirs...

8:58 p.m. EST: Whatever novelty that there's been to this show, is gone now. I'm not finding this particularly interesting at all. And there are better things that I can be doing with my time.

Somebody let me know if any talent on part with Aiken or Hicks or Daughtry turns up. I might pay some mild attention then. In the meantime, I'm gonna go read a book.

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The long-lost deleted scene from E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL with Harrison Ford as Elliott's principal!

Shortly after E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial came out in 1982, I heard something very interesting: that among numerous scenes that were filmed but deleted from the final print, there was a cameo appearance by Harrison Ford. He plays Elliott's principal, in a scene that takes place after Elliott goes nuts in the science lab. When Steven Spielberg re-released the movie in 2002 he re-incorporated a lot of the previously deleted material, but Ford's appearance wasn't among the additions. The story is that Spielberg wanted E.T. to be a movie about the children, and the principal's office scene lingered too long on the adults.

So for a quarter-century, I've always been intrigued by this scene. I never thought I'd ever get to see it. And then this morning word reaches me that the deleted Harrison Ford cameo from E.T. the Extra-Terrstrial is on YouTube!

Here it is...

Some thoughts here: I find this to be a fascinating sequence! No audience would fail to recognize Harrison Ford's voice and gestures in this scene. But did you notice how not once do we actually see Ford's face? The focus is still on Elliott and how he's perceiving his predicament. The principal is handled much like how Charles Schulz treated the adults in the Peanuts cartoons (minus the "wah-wah-wah-wah" sound effect).

Whatever Spielberg believed about this scene taking the focus away from the children, I couldn't help but think that it emphasized Elliott's conflict with the adult world that much more. The way this scene is shot, the principal - by taking away what identifies him most as a human, instead becomes an impersonal presence of authority - however soothing his words are - that reinforces this adult mindset that Elliott and the other children are coming to be set against.

Take note also of the very beginning of this clip, as the school nurses apprehend Elliott. Maybe you're wondering: "What's Elliott doing here?" I've seen photos of this over the years but again, this is the first that I've actually seen real footage of it. If you look at the board and the walls, Elliott is drawing what looks to be a diagram of circuitry. This is more of E.T.'s mental influence on Elliott: E.T. had taken apart Gertie's Speak & Spell and he was sending his thoughts about the electrical workings to Elliott, who responded by drawing them on the school walls.

I'd love to see this stuff implemented in a new edition of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at some point.

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SCHRODINGER'S BEDROOM ... now with full credits!

Over the weekend I finally, finally, found time to do an "updated" version of Schrodinger's Bedroom. This was the short film that I made last year as an entry for the short-lived Fox "reality" show On The Lot. It had already been uploaded to YouTube, but that was the version that was submitted for the competition, and unfortunately because of the limit on length that was in the rules I didn't have time to put proper credits in this film. That's always bugged me. So now I get to fix this and let it be, in my mind, a true and proper film that gives a nod toward everybody who helped make it.

So without further ado, here is Schrodinger's Bedroom starring Dawn Swartz, Chris Otto, Selassie Amana, Ed Woody, Olivia Woody, Doug Smith, Tyler Richardson, Melody Hallman Daniel, Chad Austin, Veronica Jones, and a cameo appearance by the director :-)

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Bush Administration claims public is "threatened" by gun ownership

So says U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement, speaking on behalf of the Bush White House, which is supporting the District of Columbia's ban on personal ownership of handguns.

Clement also claims that the Second Amendment supports "reasonable regulation" on gun ownership.

They do all of this in the name of the "public".

But let's get real here...

Anytime the government takes more power unto itself, it will always excuse it by saying it's "for the good of the people". But it always, always, does it for itself.

American government long ago ceased being something of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Government in America... and I believe that the Bush Administration and the current Congress have exemplified this more so than at any other time in this nation's history... has long been about raw, naked, unforgiving power for sake of power. Government in America is now unbridled force without moral authority. It does what it will, without worry of retribution or consequence.

Of course this government will not want the people of this country to be armed!

I've said this before, and I will say it again, and I don't care if it does land my name in a database somewhere (which it probably will): the Founding Fathers showed profound wisdom in writing the Second Amendment. They knew fully well that human nature was corrupt and that human nature coupled with collective might was the worst element of our long history. And so there is the Second Amendment, as a last-ditch measure against that...

The Second Amendment is there so that the common American citizen will be empowered to overthrow his or her government, if and when that government becomes a tyranny... as all human government eventually does.

Let me put it another way: the Second Amendment is there to scare those in government with the fact that there really might be someone out there ready to shoot them, if they ever get out of line.

I know that there are no doubt a lot of people who are uncomfortable with that notion, but it's not my own, my friends. That was the belief of the Founders. And they weren't so arrogant as to believe that the government they were establishing was a perfect one by any stretch. They knew that someday, it too would become the very thing that they had already fought and even died fighting against.

Is that time, indeed, drawing near to us?

When government begins telling the people that they are to be limited in how they can defend themselves, then you have to wonder.

I don't think it's the American citizenry who should feel threatened at all. I do believe that the politicians and lackeys in this government should feel threatened, however. That's not too unreasonable a price to expect of them, if they truly wish to be entrusted with the power that comes with government.

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THE STAR WARS VAULT

One of the niftier gifts that I got for Christmas came from my wife Lisa: a copy of The Star Wars Vault.

If you consider yourself a serious student of the saga's production lore, this book is a must-have for your shelf. It's not merely a written tome: it supplements the chronicle of the development and marketing of the Star Wars movies with reproductions of several official documents (including the prospective audience members' questionnaire for the first screening of Star Wars, George Lucas's handwritten notes about The Empire Strikes Back and a copy of John Williams's original composition for the first movie's ending theme). There are also two CDs with audio material, and among them is what might be the closest thing there will ever be toward acknowledging The Star Wars Holiday Special's right to exist: the track of Carrie Fisher singing as Princess Leia!

2007 was the thirtieth anniversary year of the Star Wars saga. It saw a lot of tie-in products, but The Star Wars Vault might be the definitive book that encapsulates the effort and passion that went into crafting this story. I would exceptionally recommend it.

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DEATHLY HALLOWS to be a two-part movie?

In a move that will have many thinking back to how Quentin Tarantino handled Kill Bill, word is that the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be told across two full-length movies.

And no, making more money out of this final chapter of the Harry Potter saga is said to have nothing to do with it. The problem is something that most fans of the books have noticed in the film series: that with each new chapter in the movie version of the story, whole chunks of pertinent details from the books are getting cut out. This was especially a problem with this past summer's movie of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Not to mention the fact that Deathly Hallows is an incredibly dense book that ties up every thread that's been left dangling across the previous six books. There's no way that all of that could be wrapped up in a single two-plus hour movie. So doing Deathly Hallows as two installments makes some sense.

I think that someday, there's going to be another film adaptation of the entire Harry Potter saga. It'll be done with the entire scope of the books in mind, now that they have all been published, instead of what has really amounted to a lot of guesswork by the various directors with input by J.K. Rowling... who naturally couldn't lay all her cards down on the table for the films' sake. But ten or twenty years from now... I think the time will be ripe then for a cinematic treatment that will be able to do the Harry Potter saga its fullest justice. That's not to slam the current batch of movies, 'cuz I absolutely do love them quite a bit. It's just that later on there'll be the proper hindsight to handle them better. And maybe by then, the groundwork will have been prepared so that Deathly Hallows could still be a single movie.

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Harry Potter "Sabotage" video with Beavis and Butthead

This is one of the most insane and amazing mash-ups that I have ever seen! Some guy took the classic commentary of the Beastie Boys "Sabotage" video by Beavis and Butt-head, and combined it with footage from the Harry Potter movies. How did it come out? You've got to see it to believe it...

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Ron Price lawsuit: The depositions. Price plays Clinton-esque games with signs. Uses lawsuit to squelch free speech. Chickens-out but claims victory!?

See that pic of Ron Price? That's when he was sworn in on the Rockingham County Board of Education a little over a year ago. Nobody from his family wanted to come and hold the Bible for him, so school board attorney Jill Wilson had to fill in. This pic was taken by Richard Moore, and we'll get back to it in just a little bit...

A few days ago Ron Price dropped his lawsuit against Richard and Debbie Moore. There's a story about it in The Reidsville Review, but based on what I've heard from a number of sources, the Review story is... shall we put it... "wildly inaccurate". There was no settlement at all, and certainly no conditions imposed. Ron Price cried "Uncle!" on his own.

Yet in spite of giving up, Price is delusional enough to claim a victory out of this...

Price said he was pleased with the outcome of the case.

"I think we reached our goal," he said.

What was Ron Price's goal? Well, now that I've come in possession of all of them, I'm going to present y'all with the full texts of the depositions that took place on November 15th, 2007 at the office of Douglas Hux (Price's attorney) in Eden. These are the depositions of Richard and Debbie Moore, my own, and Ron Price. And in case anyone's wondering: I don't mind posting my own here either. It's public record anyway, and looking over it I don't think that there's anything to be bashful about (here's my original report after I was deposed). I'll admit that my employment history is, let's just say, a bit "colorful"... but that's okay. I'm self-employed and working toward my own goals now, which is all that matters. Besides, I think that my 'tude on the stand and the snappy answers that I gave to Hux might be classic in their own right :-)

So here are the depositions...

Debbie and Richard Moore deposition

Chris Knight deposition

Ron Price deposition

Update 9:41 p.m. EST: I received the Ron Price deposition from an anonymous source. Meaning that I don't know who sent it or how they came into possession of it to begin with. I do know that it has been verified as being the actual sworn deposition that Ron Price gave on November 15th, 2007. After some consulting and deliberation, and in light of it being a document in the public record and that it pertains to an issue of local interest, I am reposting it here. Richard Moore had asked me to remove Ron Price's deposition. I have declined to do so due to the important public interest in Price's testimony.

It's Ron Price's deposition that is long, but chock-full of goodies. The most obvious thing is: Price does admit to illegally taking the signs. Price doesn't want to say that he "stole" the signs though, in an exhibition of semantical gymnastics that hasn't been seen since then-President Bill Clinton said that "it depends on what the meaning of 'is' is." In this deposition, you can see for yourself that Ron Price, as was reported in November, claimed that the campaign signs that he stole were "fair game" and that anybody could take them. It's really quite a merry chase to read this deposition, and see how the Moores' attorney Seth Cohen made Price run around in circles.

Even more crazy: Price admits to taking the Brad Miller signs and leaving the Vernon Robinson (who Price supported in the U.S. House race) signs, even though the Robinson signs were just as wrongfully placed as the Miller signs! If you want to see Seth "The Saw" Cohen at his finest, watch how he has Price doing backflips on this particular point.

In his deposition, Price claims that the Moores' alleged harassment because of the "sign incident", as he's referred to it before, has cost him business (though Price can't specifically point out to a single instance where this has led to any financial loss).

Ron Price also stated that he believed Richard Moore was pursuing this because as the next-highest vote-getter in the school board election, that Moore would have received the at-large seat if Price had stepped aside. This is, of course, not true: had Price done the honorable thing and turned down the seat, it would have been up to the Board of Commissioners to appoint someone to fill the seat.

Price also said in his deposition that his grandchildren have been asking him if he stole the signs. And Price suggests that the "sign incident" has caused problems toward his possibly becoming a deacon at the Baptist church that he's a member of.

(By the way Ron, have you had a chance to read 1st Corinthians, chapter 6, verses 1 through 8 yet?)

But so far as reaching some "goal" with this case goes, if you read through the later parts of his deposition, and based on what I've heard about the letter that Price's attorney Doug Hux sent the Moores, I think it's safe to conclude that the whole point of this lawsuit was to intimidate and "punish" Richard and Debbie Moore - two average citizens - for their attempt to hold an elected official accountable for his actions. In the words of Richard Moore via his website...

The letter also explained Constitutional rights are "not absolute", and the press is only allowed to criticize a public official for a "fair amount of time". During his deposition, Price indicated he sued us because the Neely Chronicle and Political Soup exceeded the allowable limit on criticism. It was not what we said, but how many times we said it. As best we could understand Price's law, the media is permitted to criticize a public official not more than three times.

Constitutional rights are "not absolute"? Limits on free speech and the press? And this is being said on behalf of an elected public official?

No wonder America is going down the tubes.

I understand completely that by being involved in this, and by even reporting on this issue in my own characteristic way, that I am opening myself up to a similar lawsuit from Ron Price just as he did with the Moores. Indeed, I've got it on good authority from one very reliable source that Price is "incensed" and "outraged" at the various depictions of him that I've posted on this blog (hey, I can't help it if the man has never learned how to use Adobe Photoshop).

But that's not going to stop me from reporting the truth about Ron Price to the community. And elected officials should expect to be held to a higher standard. The moment they begin to act as if they are above and beyond reproach from the rest of us, as Ron Price is now doing, then there becomes an end to any moral relationship between the constituents and that official.

Let's put it this way: Ron Price is still on the school board. But he no longer has any moral authority from the position. And as of now, everyone in the community knows this.

And so far as Price trying to shut down any criticism of him on this blog goes...

"Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, their is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back!"

-- Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
by J.K. Rowling

Feel free to read the depositions if you want to find out a lot more about what goes on inside the head of one Ronald Filer Price, who has now stated for the record that it's okay to take campaign signs if you see them on the side of the road.

Finally, regarding that photo of Ron "The Con" getting sworn in: Richard Moore is now reporting that he is getting "harassment" from Price about that pic. Price wants it permanently removed from Moore's website.

Naturally, I am wondering if I will be getting hit with a "cease and desist" from Price (signed by Doug Hux) ordering me to stop using Price's visage in any more of my reports and Photoshop mash-ups.

I've got enough things to worry about in my life. And as much as I enjoy using my Photoshop skills at mocking a miscreant such as Price, I have to balance that out against everything else that's going on.

So from now on, whenever I talk about Ron Price, I think it'll be a safer thing instead to use a picture of Charles Nelson Reilly, who Ron Price greatly resembles (especially compared to photos of Reilly's later years, although this one is from when Reilly played Hoodoo on Sid and Marty Krofft's psychedelic Lidsville show in the early 1970s). So there ya go: if you see a photograph of Charles Nelson Reilly on this blog, you'll know that it's supposed to be Ron Price instead.

So come on Ron, how about it: do you want to take me to court now? 'Cuz I won't settle either. And if you thought my theatrics in deposition were outrageous, you ain't seen nuthin' yet.

Do you really believe you can be so smug and claim a victory against the guy who, almost single-handedly, took on a multi-billion dollar corporation... and won?

"Are you feeling lucky?"

(P.S.: I made "Buddy Ron". Deal with it.)

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Putting video on an iPod (if you're a Windows user)

Late last night I succeeded in finally putting every episode of Lost on my new iPod. And I didn't buy them through iTunes and load 'em on the iPod either: instead I chose to rip them straight from my DVD sets.

This took a lot of work. And when I was starting it off with Season 3, I wound up encoding most of those episodes, then found a much better way to do it and so I started the whole process all over again. But in the end, they were all done (and I might buy the Season 4 episodes over iTunes to add them to my iPod's inventory starting next month when Lost returns).

So how'd I do it, on a computer running Windows Vista? The first thing I did was use HandBrake, which is a free program for most platforms (Mac, Windows, Linux) that converts DVDs into iPod-portable MP4 files. You install HandBrake, load a DVD into it, and from there you can pick which individual episodes (or a single movie) you want to encode. If there are multiple episodes on a single DVD, you can batch encode each episode in a single session. I used the "iPod Low-Rez" preset, with Auto Crop and 2-Pass Encoding unchecked in the Video Settings menu, and the Lost episodes came out looking great!

HandBrake does have its problems though, and maybe it's just the fact that I'm doing this on my new Vista machine: every time I want to encode a new DVD, I have to actually re-install HandBrake. Otherwise it just keeps using the profile of the previous DVD for the new one (meaning you'll probably miss stuff getting encoded). But if you don't mind this minor hassle and want a free iPod video encoder that does a fantastic job, HandBrake is the way to go.

(But you'll also want to install AnyDVD - at least if you're using a Windows system - and have it running in the background. This is a codec that decrypts the DVD on the fly. Otherwise, HandBrake won't be able to do anything on most DVDs.)

After the episodes are ripped from the DVD and converted to MP4 files, you need to edit the metadata so that you can have them nicely organized on your iPod. There are many programs for Mac that do this admirably (Lostify seems to be among the best that I found) but if you're using Windows, there is an amazing dearth of metadata-editing utilities. The best one for Windows that I've found (so far) is Tagger. It lets you change just about everything on the metadata for your video files, including importing artwork. But if you use Tagger (and probably any other metadata software) to organize your episodic TV series, make sure that the Release Date field is in yyyy-mm-dd format, especially if these are files destined for loading on a newer iPod. Otherwise your episodes will probably be in reverse order or in no order at all (the Lost episodes from Season 3 were reversed when I first put them on my iPod, and unfortunately you can't edit the Release Date from iTunes: you need to use an external meta editor to fix this manually).

After doing all of this, it's just a matter of adding the episodes to your iTunes library, and then sending them to your iPod. So now I can watch Lost wherever I happen to be. Pretty cool, eh? :-)

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Review of I AM LEGEND

They changed the ending.

And for that, I cannot forgive.

For the first two-thirds of the film, I Am Legend with Will Smith is pretty faithful to the spirit of Richard Matheson's original novel. I think that Akiva Goldsman (and whatever made it into this final draft from Mark Protosevich's original script) was hitting on the right cylinders so far as portraying Neville's loneliness and despair went. The scenes of Smith in the video store, where he's talking to the mannequins and trying hard not to gaze upon the adult DVD section, seemed especially inspired by the book.

And when we see Neville going to the dock every day at noon, waiting in vain for anybody who might have heard his signal: even though that was never something we saw in the book, it was a nice touch. It's something that I could see Matheson's Neville doing.

I don't even mind how the nature of the plague was changed from bacterial epidemic to a genetically-engineered virus that got loose (shades of The Stand). Part of me is even willing to overlook how this new film's Neville is already a scientist who was trying to fight the contagion, instead of being the average Joe from the book who struggles to grasp scientific methods out of dire necessity.

Heck, a tiny part of me is even okay with letting slide how the vampires of this new I Am Legend movie are mindless pack-animals instead of intelligent and well-coordinated former humans. I couldn't resist, however, saying aloud "Come out, Neville!" during the first nighttime scene.

But whatever good there is in this movie... which could have become something much more magnificent and haunting... is totally undone by the final minutes. Which not only brings the entire work to an anticlimactic halt, it completely undermines the very meaning of the title itself. If you've read the novel you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't then here's a chance to find out, but since this is major spoiler material, I'm going to have to do this in "inviso-text":

SPOILERS (click mouse and swipe over to highlight and read): By the end of the novel, a new race of humans - who are infected by the virus but are not truly "undead" - has gradually taken over. Neville has been going around during daylight killing the still-living, and to them he has become a terror. In the final pages of the story it dawns on Robert Neville that just as the vampire had been a myth preying on human fear, so too has he now become a myth to the new society that has arisen from the ashes of the plague. As Neville takes the suicide pills, he reflects in the very last words of the book that "I am legend." END SPOILERS

Why couldn't they have used that ending? Were Goldman and company too intimidated by Matheson's original conclusion? Did the possibility of sequels blind them on how to give this story the respect it deserves?

The novel I Am Legend is about loneliness and despair, but it's also a story rife with irony and, in my opinion anyway, about obsession and where that can take anyone. I think that too much emphasis was made on Neville's solitude and how he copes with it, to the detriment of everything else that made I Am Legend a classic horror novel. Unfortunately, I think this reflects a long-time trend on how Neville's character is handled. I saw this with my lifelong friend Chad Austin and his friend Aaron from church. On our way back to his home Chad said that he thought Smith's Neville was like a "Christ figure" in this movie. And he's right. Neville even gives his own blood so that others might live. And that's what Charlton Heston did in his take on Robert Neville in 1971's The Omega Man, too. The weird thing is, the Robert Neville of the original novel is not a Messiah-type character at all. By the end of the story, in his own way he's become a non-Christian (but not "anti-Christian") figure.

I would have loved to have seen that happen in this movie, and how during the story there's been this process at work, in spite of whatever Neville intended, that has made him into this kind of legend. But instead of being strong enough to give us that, we're shown another Neville: one that we've seen before, that comes as a result of lacking courage enough to tackle the book's ending. I didn't mind this in The Omega Man... but it's four decades later and Hollywood should have matured enough to take on the challenge this time. And it didn't.

This is a project that I've been following since 1997, all the way back when Ridley Scott was supposed to film this with Arnold Schwarzenegger with the original screenplay by Mark Protosevich. And in the minutes after watching I Am Legend 2007, I was immediately thinking back - with a lot of regret - on Scott's unfilmed version and how we'll never get to see it. That adaptation was going to be extremely faithful to the novel, right down to the end. I've still got the concept art for the Scott version's vampires somewhere, and trust me: his version would have rocked the house and given everybody bad dreams for days to come. When Matheson's story was first adapted for the screen as The Last Man on Earth (with Vincent Price in the lead), that was probably the closest anyone's come yet to the book's ending and ultimate meaning.

I was really hoping... and expecting even... that I Am Legend with Will Smith as Neville was going to be the definitive movie version of this story. Sadly, it's not. It's been a long time since I've looked forward to a movie, only to meet with such frustration...

I Am Legend does shine throughout most of the movie though. The scenes where Neville is going around a desolate New York City certainly outweigh what was technically feasible when Heston was driving around in his convertible in The Omega Man almost forty years ago. And the fate of Neville's dog will break the hearts of anyone who still cries when Travis puts down Old Yeller. Will Smith also puts his heart into this version's Robert Neville. I can believe in Smith as Neville, even if I can't buy into what becomes of Neville at the end of this movie.

Ultimately, I Am Legend is a very good technical movie that is wrecked by a failure to follow the production wizardry with adequate courage in the writing. For that reason, I would recommend I Am Legend as a study on how not to be too timid with how one tells a story. Get it through Netflix if you have a burning desire to see this new I Am Legend, but otherwise your money is probably going to be better spent this coming week when Cloverfield comes out (of which I am hearing nothing but crazy good news about).

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Sir Edmund Hillary, first man to climb Everest, has passed away

Edmund Hillary and guide Tenzing Norgay

Sir Edmund Hillary, who accompanied by Nepalese guide Tenzing Norgay became the first man to ascend to the peak of the world's highest mountain, has passed away at the age of 88.

It was in 1953 that Hillary, a beekeeper from New Zealand, pulled off what many had attempted for years and about as many said could never be done: reaching the summit of Mount Everest. He was knighted not long afterward by Queen Elizabeth II (it so happened that Hillary and Tenzing arrived at the summit on the same day as Elizabeth's coronation).

A few years later Hillary became the first person to reach the South Pole by vehicle. He was also very active in supporting education and other causes among the people of Nepal.

What an amazing life that he led. Sad to say, they're not making very many high adventurers like that anymore.

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So I'm "watching" this Presidential "debate" from Myrtle Beach...

But when I say "watch", I mean that I'm paying attention in my own fashion: only listening to it, with my back to the television screen, so that my mind tunes-in to what the candidates are actually saying, without any distraction from visuals.

And it must be said: in spite of Fox News doing its damndest to manipulate things, Ron Paul is kickin' tail and takin' names!

He just nailed something that I haven't seen anyone touch: the fact that people like Saddam and Osama were at one time allies of the United States. We trained them, supplied them... and then they turned on us. And maybe, just maybe, if we did as Dr. Paul suggests and stop taking sides all over the world, this kind of thing wouldn't be coming back to haunt us as often as it does.

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Ron Price GIVES UP! Admitted thief drops lawsuit against Moores

Ron Price (full name Ronald Filer Price), disgraced at-large member of the Rockingham County Board of Education and confessed campaign sign thief, couldn't go the distance with his lawsuit against Richard and Debbie Moore, so he's thrown in the towel.

Price and his attorney Douglas Hux dropped the lawsuit yesterday. You can click on the graphic on the right to see the dismissal. It was done "with prejudice" and voluntarily... meaning that Price can't bring this same lawsuit up again.

There was no settlement. Price simply gave up.

(much bigger version of "Sir Ronald" graphic here)

Ron Price was suing the Moores for trying to hold Price accountable for his stealing campaign signs on the night before the 2006 general election. Among other things Price describes in his lawsuit how Richard Moore wore a t-shirt that said "If this shirt is missing look in Ron Price's trunk" during a school board meeting, and how the Moores helped circulate a petition around the county to have Price removed from office (Price came in fifth place in the election, the last one to get a seat on the board). For this, Price was seeking a quarter-million dollars in damages from the Moores.

According to what I've been able to learn, it was the deposition that did Price in. And based on what I've heard about the deposition (remember that I was also deposed in this fiasco) if this had come to a full-blown courtroom trial, Price would have already perjured himself six times over (at least) with his sworn testimony during the deposition.

(Here's the complete lawsuit that Price filed against the Moores, in case you're interested.)

By default, this means that Richard Moore has won. Furthermore, it also means that by virtue of not having principle enough to follow through on this, Ron Price has admitted defeat.

Unfortunately, under North Carolina law there is no way for the Moores to seek recovery of what they have lost because of this nonsense. Ron Price has gotten away with wasting a lot of the Moores' time and money. I've no doubt that deep down, Price is secretly proud of the fact that he was able to cause so much grief for the Moores over the past several months...

...But it's a hollow victory all the same. Ron Price should never have started something that he couldn't finish. And by turning tail and running away, Price has done nothing other than show everyone that he lacks character and consistency. In fact, I would dare say that Ron Price has shown his true self far more in his failure to follow through on his actions to the end in this, than he showed his lack of principles when he stole the campaign signs.

Ron Price, yer a coward. And now everybody knows it.

But look on the bright side Ron: now that the "pending litigation" is over with, you can now give everyone "the complete and factual account of the sign incident" on your blog, just as you promised to do over a year ago...

"Ron Price: He won the election, but lost the game."

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"And we'll bring it back no matter what it takes..."

Remember how Smokey and the Bandit was about smuggling a lot of Coors beer from Texas to Atlanta, because at the time it was illegal for Coors to be shipped anywhere east of Texas? Well, right now I feel a bit like "Big Enos" Burdette 'cuz even though I don't drink beer, I do now have something that is still as hard to get outside of Texas today as Coors was thirty years ago...

It's a six-pack of Dublin Dr. Pepper. Last month when I went to Texas, I got to visit the Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco. That part of Texas is the only place that you can find what is called "Dublin Dr. Pepper", which is Dr. Pepper made with real cane sugar as opposed to corn syrup. They were selling the Dublin Dr. Pepper at the gift shop there, but since I was going back on a plane and didn't have much room in luggage, I had to pass on getting any to bring home to North Carolina. Fortunately my bro-in-law Jonathan (who's in seminary at Waco) bought some, then drove it from Texas to Georgia (how is this not like Smokey and the Bandit, exactly?) and then gave it to us to drive back to North Carolina when we went to Lisa's parents' home for Christmas.

We haven't opened any yet. As hard to find as this stuff is, we're more or less saving it for special occasions. But if you're desperate to try Dr. Pepper the way it was originally made, head over to Old Doc's Soda Shop and you can buy Dublin Dr. Pepper over the Internet for shipping to just about anywhere.

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Wii are family: The things I do for the women in my life

It's now almost 2 weeks since Christmas, and Lisa is happily playing her new Nintendo Wii.

Yes folks, we have a Wii. And my sister does too!

How did it happen? The Thursday night before Christmas, I went to a GameStop store in Greensboro, where they were due to begin selling vouchers the next day for the Wii (which might have been the hottest item of Christmas 2007). The plan was that you buy the voucher, and your Wii comes in on January 25th. I figured hey, if it's 4 weeks after Christmas that's still okay.

So I got to the store, and lo and behold the nice associates told me that they had some Wiis in stock, that they were going to start selling the next morning.

"I'm not going anywhere," I told them. "I'm gonna be camping outside all night until you guys open tomorrow morning, if that's okay." They said it was fine, and after they left for the night they told me to stay warm and dry (it wasn't quite freezing, but it was cold and due to rain as the night progressed).

I was alone until about 1 a.m. that Friday morning, when another dude who'd come into the store that night arrived to also camp out so that he could get a Wii for his 9-year old son. A few hours later we were joined by two ladies (including one who was getting a Wii for her 67-year old father). Over the course of the next several hours, a few others arrived. The last on the scene before the store opened was a guy from Eden who told us that he and his wife had hit every store between Winston-Salem and Raleigh trying to find a Wii for his grandson.

Just after 8:30 a.m., the GameStop associate who had come to open the store told us that he could start taking us one at at a time, and that they had 11 Wiis that they could sell. And it just so happened that there were exactly 11 people waiting to buy a Wii in line. I was the first through the door, bought the Wii, and exited amid much cheering from my fellow campers! The grandfather from Eden bought the last one.

As soon as I had Lisa's Wii in my car trunk, I got back in line to get a voucher for my sister (they were limiting Wii purchases to one per person, the same with the vouchers). Even these were limited in number. I bought the voucher, and a few days later put it in a small box, wrapped that, and then put it in a series of several other wrapped boxes. When Anita finally got them all open on Christmas morning, there was a Wii voucher for her. But she didn't have to wait so long for it to be redeemed. A few days later, her Wii had already arrived. I delivered it to her during this past weekend.

So how is it? I haven't had much chance to use it so far, 'cuz I've been so busy with other things. But the Nintendo Wii might be the most immersive, challenging and fun video game system that I've ever played with. Lisa is absolutely loving Super Mario Galaxy, and I'm having a ball with Wii Sports (the Boxing game really gives you a strenuous workout!). The Wii also connects to the Internet via our wireless router, and you can check out news and weather when it's on, and even buy new games (that are saved on an SD flash card) through an online Nintendo store. I think Anita was really looking forward to playing with her Wii too: she's a physical therapy doctor, and she's been reading a lot of material about how the Wii is an excellent therapeutic tool.

The Wii wasn't the only video game system we ended up with for Christmas: through circumstances beyond my control (though I'm not regretting it at all), we also received an Xbox 360. So now I can finally play Halo 3 and see how that story wraps up (the ending of Halo 2 is still one of the most frustrating things I've ever seen in any video game). It also came with the Xbox 360 version of Marvel Ultimate Alliance, which I played on the original Xbox last year and it became one of my favorite video games ever. I think Lisa wants us to get Rock Band sometime so that we can jam in our living room, especially when we have friends over.

Now if I can only figure out which system I want to play Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on when it comes out in a few months. Gotta admit: the Wii's ability to swing a lightsaber makes that version pretty tempting... :-)

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