2008

Chris Knight's avatar

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

— Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities

No “end of year” review this time. I wouldn’t know where to begin… or where to end it for that matter....

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As is the usual custom here at The Knight Shift blog, I am going to take the next few days off to celebrate Christmas. That’s not to say there won’t be blogging. If something obscenely crazy and dire comes up that demands writing about, I’ll get back behind the keyboard and do my best to report about it. And let’s not forget that there’s the annual Doctor Who Christmas special that I’ll no doubt be downloading, watching and then reviewing as soon as our Brittish brethren have it online 🙂

But for the most part, I’m taking a break. And this is one Christmas that it hasn’t been more needed.

The past few months have been one of the worst of my life. A lot of things have happened behind the scenes that I haven’t touched on here. In many ways this is already set to be a Christmas that ...

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Tonight I set to work on carving a Ron Paul Jack-o’-Lantern, using the pattern that I came up with a few days ago. I’ve been a longtime admirer of Dr. Paul and I am definitely supporting him for President in next year’s election (as I’ve said here before: I’m voting for Ron Paul or I’m voting for nobody at all). So I thought it would be fun to do something in keeping with the spirit of the holiday for when the trickster-treatsters in the neighborhood come around for candy on Halloween tomorrow night, and do my part in promoting Dr. Paul.

(Here’s Ron Paul’s official campaign website and I’ll also recommend the Ron Paul Forums, where I hang out a lot.)

I started carving it a little before 7 p.m. tonight, and finished just before 9:30. Like the Jack-o’-Lantern I made of local politician and admitted ...

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Okay, this will be the last post I make before getting back to my much-needed break from blogging! Because after making and publishing the Ron Price Jack-o’-Lantern pattern, I couldn’t in good conscience leave things dangling with something that scary.

So here’s a Jack-o’-Lantern pattern of the candidate for President that I’m backing: Ron Paul. Same basic instructions as the original: Click on the image to get it full-sized and print it out. Use pins or tape to secure it to the side of a pumpkin. Then use a Pumpkin Carving Kit from Pumpkin Masters, and do with this as you would do with any other pumpkin pattern.

Happy Halloween! 🙂...

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Fred Thompson has said he’ll announce his presidential candidacy on September 6th.

Ummmm… isn’t the announcement of an announcement the logical equivalent of the announcement itself?

This is part of the reason why I’m so disgusted with modern politics: it’s become too much about pomp and pageantry and public bravura, and so very little about substance.

It’s like this: the President of the United States is a position of service. Those who fully comprehend that won’t play games with even candidacy for it. A real leader would simply say “Yes I’m a candidate”, without being a protracted prima donna about the matter....

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Here, read his latest essay, “The Fear Factor”.

When was the last time we had the opportunity to elect a man with an intellect on par with that of the Founding Fathers?

You’ll never see this kind of thought and eloquence from Hillary Clinton, Rudolph Giuliani, Fred Thompson, or any other empty suit that the party bigwigs and the mainstream press would rather you vote for. You certainly can’t say that you’ve ever seen this level of articulation from George W. Bush.

Just one more reason why in 2008 I’m voting for Ron Paul, or I’m voting for nobody....

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Gadzooks, check this out!

Tonight, via satellite hookup, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford revealed to those attending Comic-Con in San Diego that Karen Allen would be returning as Marion Ravenwood in the as-yet-not-properly-titled Indiana Jones 4. There’s more pics at the link. Doesn’t Allen look simply amazing?! I can’t tell any difference between her in 2007 and how she looked circa 1981 in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Now, the return of Marion Ravenwood, well … adds considerably to the melange of mystery that I’m seeing coming out of this project. I’ve heard all kinds of things about what the next Indiana Jones movie entails. One rumor I heard a few weeks ago, when I first came across it I thought “that’s the STUPIDEST thing I’ve ever heard about an Indiana Jones movie”, and now I can’t help but think “that’s the most BRILLIANTLY CLEVER thing that I’ve ...

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This is the “unabashed conservative” with the “great conservative record” that is supposed to be the only legitimate candidate for President?

(I’m not going to say here who exactly described Fred Thompson as that, only that the person in question is, well… the biggest sell-out and loon that I’ve ever seen on the Internet.)

From ABC News…

Fred Thompson, a likely Republican presidential candidate, on Tuesday defended his work as a Washington lobbyist, telling The Associated Press that lobbying is an important part of life because “government’s got their hands in everything.”

This is precisely the reason why a lot of us aren’t being fooled into supporting Fred Thompson and are instead backing Ron Paul for President: because government really does have its hands in everything. Paul has a record for doing his best to remedy that situation. Fred Thompson just rolls over and lets it happen (and makes ...

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Fred Thompson is supposed to officially announce he’s running for President next week. Right now he’s the darling of the Republican head honchos, and of a mainstream press that, as I have noted many times on this blog, is too lazy and more interested in maintaining the status quo than doing anything that might jeopardize that. And if you were to listen to them, you would believe that there is this “massive groundswell” of support for Fred Thompson out in the public.

Okay well…

Credit denvervoipguru on the Ron Paul Forums for finding this. It’s the current number of people using the website Meetup to “meet up” and coordinate activities promoting their favorite candidates.

Here are Fred Thompson’s “meetups”:

And here are Ron Paul’s “meetups”:

Fred Thompson has 72 Members. Ron Paul has 14,673. Fred Thompson has 5 cities represented on Meetup… whereas Ron Paul has 323. There ...

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