Happy Halloween!

Pat Robertson Believes In Silver Shamrock

On Pat's website, a very disturbed woman wrote about Halloween:

"[M]ost of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches,” Daniels wrote. “I do not buy candy during the Halloween season. Curses are sent through the tricks and treats of the innocent whether they get it by going door to door or by purchasing it from the local grocery store. The demons cannot tell the difference."

So to Pat and his flock, the following is real:

Beware the magic pumpkin!

The Greatest Exhibits I've Ever Seen

Chicago's Field Museum: Evolving Planet.

Go there if you can.

Alabama's LCS May Just Get Picked

Just replace the mast with a stealthy column to support SPY-1F radars

With a new focus on ballistic missile defense, the Navy needs Aegis frigates. The problem is, the Littoral Combat Ships it's trying out are not the frigates it needs: they are multi-purpose pirate chasers and mine hunters. For half their cost, that would be fine. But they are turning out to be insufferably expensive, and we'll likely only need a handful for the mine-hunting, pirate-deterring role.

However, with a few modifications, the General Dynamics version may just work. It could be modified to an Aegis frigate. All that is needed is for the light radar SPY-1F to be amped up enough to detect in-coming ballistic missiles. That may take some money and time, but it would save the class and spare the US from having to start a new frigate class. And a cost of roughly $800 million would be a bargain. The GD competitor, however, could not support the SM-3, the Navy's anti-ballistic missile missile. So we may just be building frigates here after all...

Speaking Of JJ

Thanks to the Frank DeCaro Show, I'm addicted to Fringe. Of course, now it is in danger of being canceled.

Watch it. DVR it. It is X-Files meets Altered States. With some Twin Peeks thrown in.

JJ's Klingons F'n Rock

JJ Abrams' Star Trek originally had scenes with Klingons. Those scenes will be extras on the DVD. IO9 posted a clip of it.

Gladiator-masked, Number 2-like interrogator Klingons kick ass!

Jesus versus Gandalf Smack Down in the Village

I am, as usual, skeptical of "updates"of iconic tv & movies; but I'm willing to give this a chance.

Be seeing you.

Cinematic Truth

These Homophobes And Their Demons

Jonathan Methany of Gainesville, FL was an active opponent of a measure by the city that banned discrimination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. One of the main arguments was that the measure would allow men to dress as women and go spy on unsuspecting ladies in restrooms. It's an absurd assertion, and it didn't work: the measure passed.

Methany has been caught spying on women with his cell phone camera in the restroom of the CVS he manages.

"When I Win The Lottery"

318 Forrest Ave, Oak Park, Chicago, IL

So Ahead Of Its Time

Flying cars never came to be, but I would still love to live here:

Chicago's Marina City

When building something actually meant something.

because I like you people

Latest cool science-y T-shirts - at io9 and TopatoCo.

I Finally Got My Favorite Pixies Cover

"I said this can't be me, it must be my double."

Way back when I was a teenager in high school, my best friend got a CD called I'm Your Fan: The Songs of Leonard Cohen. I loved Leonard Cohen, and I dubbed a copy of this tribute CD on a tape. Every morning of my high school senior year, I had an alarm clock with a tape deck that played the Pixies' cover of "I Can't Forget" to wake me up.

iTunes doesn't have the album, and none of the Pixies' compilations have this song. So I bought the CD off of Amazon. Sixteen years after I first heard it, "I Can't Forget" is still my favorite Pixies cover, and it remains one of the top ten songs they ever did. In addition, most of the other covers remain brilliant, including REM's "First We Take Manhattan" and Nick Cave's "Tower of Song."



"I'll be there today with a big bouquet of cactus."

Hard to Explain

Clyde and I both love the horror that is the movie The Salton Sea. Val Kilmer is the whacked out hero, but it's Vincent D'Onofrio as the incredibly frightening Pooh Bear meth dealer who makes the movie..

Now he got it for me for my birthday. Incredible! Never again will we wonder which of our thousands of hours of DVD's to watch.

I HAVE to.

I'm required to read Alister McGrath. Yes, THAT Alister McGrath. On the Reformation. I HAVE to. For my 500-level history class. Jiminy Cricket, what I have to go through to teach history to crazy teeners.