“The Book of Daniel” 1/6/06-1/24/06–R.I.P.


“…take a deep breath, relax and vote with your remote rather than play the protest game. Do that, and “The Book of Daniel” and its desperate priest will be dead on the vine within the month.”

I wrote those words on January 7th. Not that I’m a prophet or anything (who, after all, didn’t see this coming?), but just remember, I told ya so!

If you haven’t heard, NBC has pulled the plug on the desperately lacking and controversial show “The Book of Daniel” after only four episodes. The folks at Focus on the Family and the American Family Association are already taking credit for forcing the network’s hand on this, and others are whining and complaining about all those drunk-on-religion Red State right-wing nut cases who have struck once again and spoiled everyone’s fun.… Read the rest

Watching J.J.

As someone who bleeds Blue Devil Blue, it should come as no surpise that I’m a J.J. Redick watcher. I enjoy watching J.J. pull up just past the center court circle and rain down outrageously long distance rainbows while a bewildered bevy of slack-jawed defenders looks on in wide-eyed awe and disbelief. I like to watch exhausted opponents chase him from sideline to sideline only to have him slip away and knock down yet another twisting, fall-away jumper.

I like watching the newest addition to his repertoire–slashing, cutting drives in the paint resulting in unexpected, acrobatic buckets amid flailing giants who are no match for his feline reflexes and instincts.… Read the rest

“Glory Road”–A Little Too Glorified?

While we’re on the subject of “teetering on the edge of falsehood,” I thought I would point out George Will’s latest column in which he critiques the recently released film “Glory Road.” The film relates the story of Coach Don Haskins and his five black starters on the Texas Western basketball team and their victory over the all-white, Adolph Rupp-coached Kentucky Wildcats in the 1966 NCAA Final. Will takes issue with the impression left by the movie that the Texas Western team was the first to feature black players and that the game with Kentucky was a classic “David and Goliath” confrontation (Texas Western was 27-1 and ranked third in the nation going into the final game).… Read the rest

Teetering on the Edge of Falsehood

Probably by now most of you have heard about the controversy surrounding James Frey’s number one bestseller, “A Million Little Pieces.” It turns out that Mr. Frey’s book, purported to be a memoir detailing his colorful drug and alcohol-addicted past, has been exposed by The Smoking Gun as being more fiction than fact.

Oprah Winfrey, who featured the book in her Book Club and conducted an emotional interview with Frey on her show, has come to his defense. Calling in while Frey was being interviewed by Larry King, Oprah said fabrications notwithstanding that the story still “resonates” with her and her legions of fans.… Read the rest

My Guru Rocks!

My guru, Professor Ed, is holding forth again over at Albedo 0.39 with Part 2 of “Practicing Safe Surfing.” In Part 1, Ed focused on routers and hardware. This time around he’s dishing up some practical information on how your choice of web browsers affects your chances of contracting one of those nasty malware and spyware infections that are going around these days.

Like Ed, I’m using Firefox as my browser of choice since Microsoft IE has more holes than a third-world airport security gate. Now if I can just convince other family members who shall remain nameless (although he is often referred to in this blog as NUMBER TWO SON) to make the switch as well, maybe I could totally avoid the kind of nasty infection that I had a couple of weeks ago.… Read the rest

Hey Nike, I’m Your Man!

You may not walk on water with the latest and greatest Nike running shoe, but you will be running on a cushion of pure, 100% air. But if you want a pair of the new Nike Air Max 360s set to debut this week, be prepared for some sticker shock–at $160 per pair, pure air doesn’t come cheap.

According to a Nike researcher who developed the shoe, “This is about trying to get people to run faster, better and longer and about minimizing the risk of injuries.” That sounds good to me, because as I have pointed out before, fast is good.… Read the rest

A Word Fitly Spoken

“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.” Proverbs 25:11

Huntsville resident and author Homer Hickam, Jr. (Rocket Boys, The Coalwood Way) spoke yesterday at the public memorial for the West Virginia coal miners killed in the recent explosion at the Sago Mine. His words “fitly spoken” will no doubt be cherished in the years to come by the family and friends of the fallen miners. The following is an excerpt:

“There are no better men than coal miners. The American economy rests on the back of our coal miners. We could not prosper without them.”

… Read the rest

Desperate Priests–An Update

The fallout over The Book of Daniel continues over at NBC. After a week of tepid reviews and further protests, the show appears destined for that place where bad TV shows go to die–the trashbin. As I pointed out last week, I can handle a little “edge” if it’s for a good cause. But in my opinion (and that of some secular critics as well), the show is a flop both artistically and morally and I felt that even without the firestorm of protest ignited by the American Family Association that it would probably die on the vine anyway.

Despite the fact even more affiliates are choosing not to air the controversial show, NBC recently issued the following statement:

“The Book of Daniel is a quality fictional drama about an Episcopalian priest’s family and the contemporary issues with which they must grapple.

… Read the rest

The Problem With Pat–An Update

For those who need to update their scorecards, Pat Robertson officially apologized to Ariel Sharon’s son Omri recently after Robertson’s strong suggestion that the Israeli Prime Minister’s recent stroke was divine retribution for giving up the Gaza Strip. Both video of the apology and copies of the letter are available at the CBN website. Also, Israel has officially accepted Robertson’s apology. However, Robertson’s involvment in the development of the Christian Heritage Center, a multi-million-dollar Sea of Galilee tourism project, remains endangered.

Robertson deserves some credit for searching his soul and coming clean on this one. Whether or not this latest incident will have any effect on the quantity and quality of future “prophecies” remains to be seen.… Read the rest

Meet My Guru

For the past few days, I’ve been battling a virus and bronchitis which has caused me to miss a few days of work and slowed my usual frenetic pace to a near crawl. Last week this time, I was battling a different kind of virus—W32.Spybot.Worm to be specific. That little bugger, along with a few other strains of various and sundry spyware, malware, adware and trojans which infected my laptop January 2nd had slowed it to a near crawl as well. Frankly, I’m not sure which is worse, bronchitis or computer viruses.

Now I do the best that my feeble non-technoweenie mind can manage when it comes to practicing “safe-surfing” on the web.… Read the rest

The Problem With Pat

Probably by now, most of you have your minds made up about Pat Robertson–you’re either “fer him or agin’ him!” Is there any other alternative?

Maybe. If you dare to have your minds stretched and your notions challenged, then check out this post written by Bill Gnade at Contratimes. Bill is certainly no 700 Club shill, but in his trademark methodical and lucid fashion, he stakes out some sober and reasonable middle ground from which to view the current uproar over Robertson’s remarks regarding “God’s judgement” of Ariel Sharon and his recent stroke.

Bill is one of my favorite commentators in the blogosphere and once again he slams one home off the fast break (we are in the middle of college hoops after all, not baseball season!).… Read the rest

Desperate Priests

What do you get when you cross a decent TV show like Joan of Arcadia with Desperate Housewives? Well, you get a train wreck of a show called The Book of Daniel featuring a desperate, mealy-mouthed, pill-popping Episcopal priest named Daniel Webster and a cast of characters who are no doubt one of the most despicable assemblages of sad sacks to ever disgrace the airwaves. I know that life is hard, that Christians are far from perfect and I like a little “edge” as much as the next guy, but this one went tumbling over the cliff like a pack of demon-possessed swine.… Read the rest

A Coal Miner’s Son

Dr. Ernie Bowling is a fine optometrist and one of my best friends in the world. He is also a coal miner’s son. Like his father and grandfather before him, Ernie headed to the coal mines after high school probably convinced that he would spend the rest of his life breathing lungfuls of black dust and wandering the dimly-lit, coal-filled catacombs carved deep into the hills of West Virginia and Alabama. He labored in the mines for several years, and once he even spent time serving under the stern and watchful eye of a famous foreman, Homer Hickam, Sr.–father of Homer, Jr.… Read the rest

It’s Ugly…It’s Good!

So which do you think Alabama Crimson Tide place kicker Jamie Christensen would have preferred–a picturesque, high-arching, 60 plus yarder which sailed just inches outside the left upright, or a twisted, ugly-as-sin, 45 yard knuckleball job which squeaked through the left lower 90 by the hair of it’s “chinny chin chin?” Well, duh! For Christensen, his teammates and the longsuffering Bama Nation, the answer is a no-brainer–“ugly is as ugly does!”

Christensen’s winning field goal with 5 seconds left in the 4th quarter gave the Crimson Tide a 13-10 win over the hard-fighting Red Raiders from Texas Tech in Monday’s Cotton Bowl.… Read the rest