The Chronicles of Riddick

Last night the wife and myself went to see the Chronicles of Riddick. I had been told that the effects were great and the story was pretty good. I'm a Vin Diesel fan, so how could I go wrong? This isn't a movie review blog, but I have to say couldn't help being very uncomfortable during the first few scenes. I often wonder if some of these writers don't surf the web just to get ideas. I know that this story was written before TMG (I wouldn't know, I haven't read it). But I have seen a number of TMG themes come up in entertainment over the last few years. Even our name was swiped by the Xfiles folk when they debuted the show named Millennium and had a few story lines that sounded very very familiar. It happens. I'm not one to be proprietary as our friends over at the HST.
Anyway, back to Riddick. Those first few scenes came on the screen. Loud and powerful. It was an invasion of a world. It was overwhelming. The invaders came in a comet and they came in incredible numbers. There was a religious thing going on - "either convert or die". The countless intruders walked through the streets killing everyone. I couldn't help but to think of Ezekiel chapter nine - The "Slaughter Weapons!" You don't find that... those exact words used anywhere else in the Bible. Frightening. Especially if you're on the wrong end of a slaughter weapon. There are numerous references to the army that will come from the "Northern gate"... from the "Ends of Heaven." Is there a question here as to what we're being told is going to happen???? So when I saw the beginning of this movie, it was all I could do to stay in my seat and not run out of the theater and search the starry skies - even in the bright light of the parking lot. But I stayed. Good movie. But start thinking about the future. I believe - the near future. Well... gotta go. Gotta get out in the garage and make up my sandwich board --- "THE END IS NEAR - THE END IS NEAR!" But it doesn't feel very funny for some reason...

Harper's Velikovsky

IMHO, one of the most influential men or women of all time. I know that there were other catastrophists, but Velikovsky was at the right palce at the right time. The response to his ideas was violent and intentional. The reaction to him is typical of the culture that now exists in science. You're in or you're out. If you're not in, you don't publish, you don't get a fair hearing, and then sometime in the future, the status quo comes back on you, "re"discovering your ideas and then publishing them as their own. How do I personally deal with the bitterness and the anger? I have an understanding of the truth. I don't believe that there is much more time for those that oppress and attempt to manipulate the truth for their own gain. This day has been predicted for millennia. When you read the book that Velikovky's daughter recently wrote you will see the cruelty and anger that exists, where it is claimed that they are impartial and just. This just is not the case. He is one of my most admired heroes. And I do not know how he withstood the outright attack upon his person. A gunshot or a stab from a knife would've been easier to take. When I hear the name Carl Sagan, it's all that I can do to not wretch and curse. But there were others, this was not the campaign of just one man. It was a planned and mounted assault on an innocent man simply expressing truths that he discovered. I believe in a life here after. And I look forward to the day when I can shake his hand and say thank you, it was worth it all.

Please post your opinions. I look forward to reading them. And if you can pick up the book and read it you will gain some real insight to the torture that "they" put him through.

Thank you