Letting My Geek Flag Fly. . .The Star Wars post

First, allow the Lost One to apologize for what is really a rather self indulgent little piece of fluff. On the other hand...It is his blog so...

So the Lost One recently read Star Wars on Trial, which was an interesting piece of (semi) academic discourse on the impact of 40 plus years of *Star Wars* on our world and culture.
What was most fascinating (besides the reams, and reams of actual Venom that was produced against *Star Wars*[Who knew that many hated it, that much?]) was the "testimony" of defense counsel, Matthew Stover (Yes, yes, procedure Monkeys, the Lost One knows Counsel is not supposed to give testimony. However, the Lost One has reason to believe...wait for it...it wasn't an actual trial.) Mr. Stover was hired by Lucas Arts Limited to do the novelization of *Revenge of the Sith* which apparently required many, long conversations about George Lucas' vision of what the *Star Wars* saga should have been. Huh.

Jedi Prophesies, Or "was Anakin chosen to do that?!!??!!!"

Turns out, the answer is yes, yes he was. The interesting thing about the prophesy in *Star Wars* was that it was actually kind of obviously bad, if you just looked at it with clear eyes. "The chosen one will be born of the Force, and bring balance to the Force." The first part of the prophesy is easily dispelled. Virgin birth, boom, done. It's the second part that's interesting. Balance to the Force. Did it never occur to any of the Jedi, that when the Jedi outnumber the Sith Hundreds to 2, balance is the last thing you want?

Of course, the actual reason behind the epic fail with the prophesy had to do with the whole Eastern Philosophy that pervades the films. It is this belief that life is to be a balance of both good and evil forces that so puzzles, and confuses those of us with a Christian worldview. See, in the Christian world view evil is to be avoided, we call it sin. But in the Eastern world view, good and evil must be balanced in one person. This leads to some obvious contradictions (like when Obi-wan says only a Sith speaks in absolutes...Well, I guess he hasn't been trying to kill every Sith he came into contact with since the first film...), but it also leads to an unexpected out come: the Jedi are evil.

Overly good = bad, or "Why I learned to stop worrying and love the pain."

Well, not evil, just too good. As the series intimates, the Jedi have been losing their power for centuries. The implication that Lucas wanted to create was that the Jedi's very attempt to resist the dark side, by cutting themselves off from the lives of family and permanent relationships, has left them de-powered and vulnerable to the dark side. They are so weakened that the Force needed to create Anakin, to kill them, kill the most powerful Sith, and leave his son a clean field to restart the Jedi.

Which is interesting. If you look back at the films, some strange things begin to pop out. First, is the character of Qui-gon Jin, a character that sees the potential in Anakin, but is a bit of a trouble maker. The first to see the danger and the potential of Anakin, but his rebellion from Jedi Orthodoxy has left him outside the group's power structure. The only one who sees clearly is the bad boy of the Order. In the second, we have the very creation of the Clone army, though the Republic has never needed a standing army to maintain peace, the loss of Jedi power have necessitated its creation. (On a side note, isn't their an argument to be made that had the Republic had a standing army, when Order 66 came down, a non-clone trooper would have told the chancellor were to go and what to do upon arriving, rather then gun down his general, but I digress. . .)

Seeing the films from Lucas point of view actually makes them better. *Phantom Menace* becomes a watchable film, "Attack of the Clones" becomes a decent movie, and "Revenge of the Sith" is a crime against nature. Still, that's up from a crime against God, so...

Until next time friends.

Oh, the Horror, the Horror, of the *Bar News*

The Lost One has read his first exhilarating issue of his local Bar news' notification of punishments, and he is officially scared witless. It's not so much the extraordinary nature of the mistakes that get lawyers disbarred that terrifies him, as it is the ordinariness of the acts. Sure in the end the violations are HUGE, but you can almost always see the tiny point where a compromise was made, and the dark side took over, and then the lawyer started chasing it and...you get the picture. Scary. Still, the Lost One will just have to stay on the straight and narrow, eh? Until next time kids.

Monopoly, greatest spy gadget of WWII?

So the Lost One was at work, being all, productive and such when the whistle blew for lunch,(figuratively). So the Lost breaks out his brown bag and begins perusing the web. This story was just awesome. (Also love the title, *Get Out of Jail Free*)

Turns out the British (Ultimate spy stuff, you know it's an MI product) used Monopoly games as spy kits, complete with real bank notes for the spending pretty cool.
Later.

Adam Baldwin ≠ Jane Cobb

The *Firefly* and *Chuck* alumn, who has a habit of playing the kinda thick guy proves he's any thing but thick. The Lost One nearly cried at the lawyer like precision with which federal regulations were disected. But the best part: "as Jonah Goldberg once profoundly wrote:
'Unity Is Overrated: What’s so bad about partisanship?' " Darn Straight. Until next time folks.

Batman on Racism

So the LA Times has it's undies in the proverbial knot over a picture of The Messiah in chief as the Joker from *The Dark Knight*. Allegations of racism soon fly and well...this gets made. Heh. Worth it.

Why the nanny state sucks: A case study

From the civilization that used to rule the world, comes this story " 'I'll go abroad to keep my baby': Pregnant again mother of 13 vows to save new baby as sister calls for her to be sterilised":

A pregnant woman who has had all 13 of her previous children taken into care has vowed to flee abroad to prevent social workers taking away her 14th.

Okay, you're no doubt saying, any country can have a crazy person or two. But wait it gets so much worse:

Miss Winters, a heavy smoker who was herself taken into care as a teenager,
accused social workers of failing to help her achieve her deepest wish of having
a family and she would keep giving birth until she is allowed to keep one.

Read the article and you will see just how bad it is.

Did you catch it? Here is the Lost in the World's patened Crazy Cam (patent pending) for those who missed it:

[She]accused social workers of failing to help her achieve her deepest wish of having a family...

That's right crazy mccrazerton, thinks it's the government's job to make sure she has a child. But wait, there's more!

Turns out, the Brits haven't learned their lesson, Nanny State Ho!

The Children’s Secretary set out £400million plans to put 20,000 problem
families under 24-hour CCTV super-vision in their own homes. They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals. Private security guards will also be sent round to carry out home checks, while parents will be given help to combat drug and alcohol addiction.

How positively Orwellian of them. But there is hope, let's see what the opposition party has to say!

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said: “This is all much too little,
much too late."

Now that my friends, is some weapons grade crazy.

Man kills 300lb Bear with stick. Awesome? Not so fast.

Turns out the guy was a Marine back in the day. So in order to have a fair fight, he should have had one hand tied behind his back or wore an eye patch over his right eye, whilst agreeing not to turn left, or their should have been a knife. For the bear to use.

From the Article:

For Everhart, the 300-pound bear that attacked his sons was almost a problem too
big to handle.
"This one got a little too aggressive for me," he said. "If
the bear had gotten near my kids, I would have just jumped on it. Knowing me,
that's what I would have done..."

"...Then I would have ripped its heart from its chest, and ate it. Raw." Well, the Lost One is sure he meant to say it anyways.

Still, the Lost One supposes he will say well done to former (as if their is such a thing when one speaks of Devil Dogs) marine Chris Everhart. One toss, one kill, bet the ol' gunny is grunting, "Satisfactory". Via Ace (AAAE).