How Appropriate

Isn't it great how this is just more proof of how like Christianity (both Catholicism and Evangelical Protestantism) has been infected with child molestors, rapists and all-together wackos? Of course, you have to remember that Utah is Mormon-country (read Mitt Romney). Isn't it great how all they can pin on us Muslims is that we uh...

beatourwomenoppressourpeoplekillcivilianshateJewscensorourpressactlikedicksinpublic

*call us terrorists?

Yeah:

"Clean" Movie Maven Arrested For Teen Sex

Utah Man Who Sold R-Rated Films Shorn of Skin Arrested For Sex With 14-Year-Old Girls

A Utah retailer of family-friendly tapes and DVDs - Hollywood films with the "dirty parts" cut out of them - has been arrested for trading sex with two 14-year-old girls.

Orem police say Flix Club owner Daniel Dean Thompson, 31, and Issac Lifferth, 24, were booked into the Utah County jail on charges of sexual abuse and unlawful sexual activity with a 14-year-old.

CBS Station KUTV in Salt Lake City reports that the shocking discovery came when a mother found a $20 bill in her daughter’s room last week and questioned her about where the money came from.

The girl confessed that she and a friend had been paid for sexual favors by an older male. Lifferth was additionally charged with patronizing a prostitute and was also in possession of a prescription drug medication without a prescription.

Thompson's Flix Club was one of several Utah-based video outlets that traded in edited versions of R- and PG-13-rated films, catering to clientele who wanted to watch hit movies without nudity, sex, language or graphic violence.

Such video editing operations came under the gun of Hollywood studios and the Directors Guild of America. In a case brought by the DGA, a federal judge ruled in 2006 that editing out material (such as Kate Winslet's bare breasts in "Titanic") violated copyright laws. The decision was against a Utah company called Clean Flicks.

Thompson, who was a franchise operator for Clean Flicks, opened Flix Club last year, similarly trading in edited videos but claiming that such editing was for "educational use."

Threats of lawsuits from the Hollywood studios forced him to agree to shut down on December 31.

Link at :

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/25/national/main3753682.shtml

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"Ay-rab run electronics bodegas"

Just wanted to share some kind words of wisdom and droll observations from my man The Last Real New Yorker over at NiggaKnow.com

Here's a taste:

Now its been a motherfucking minute since i copped some technological grip or even thought about grabbing one of them shits when i was passing one of them Ay-rab run electronics bodegas they got all over Times square, where they is pushing them overpriced refurbished goods on obese red faced motherfuckers named Llewelyn from South Dakota, or some Hiroshi Toshi Katakashi samurai niggas and they twelve friends who feel like they gonna fucking die if they don’t take a fucking photo of the Empire State Building from the same angle that forty-five million other Lo Pai Wang oriental niggas done did the other day. But that don’t mean this nigga ignoring technology like peoples ignoring the fact that Obama used to be all about the fucking snow.

Read more socio-political observations right here.

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Gaza on edge of catastrophe

The Israeli blockade and embargo on the Gaza Strip has brought its one and a half million residents to the edge of catastrophe. At the time of this writing, Palestinians living in Gaza have been without power for four days. Hospitals and clinics are on their last supplies of electricity. Gaza’s meagre infrastructure, already crippled from months of inter-factional conflict and Israeli air raids, is on the verge of collapse. The spectre of a humanitarian crisis looms over the tiny territory. The U.N. Security Council has called for an emergency meeting to be held on Tuesday to discuss the situation. How have things in the region gotten so awful when only a few months ago there was renewed talk of peace at Annapolis?

Let’s start with a little background. Two and a half years ago, the nation of Israel conducted a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip after 38 years of occupation. The move was initiated by former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and seen by most international observers as progress for peace. However, for those living in Gaza and Israel, the withdrawal was met with equal parts suspicion and outright opposition. Israeli settlers, some of whom had been living there for decades, believed that Israel was essentially abandoning them and their interests and that they were surrendering to the Palestinians. They maintained that any land handed over would inevitably be used by the Palestinians to launch further rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli cities like Ashkelon and Sderot.

Palestinians on the other hand had mixed reactions. Some saw any return of land and disengagement on the part of Israel as a good thing and an important step towards the greater overall objective of complete withdrawal from all Palestinian land. It was also seen as an admission that even well-established settlements built on Palestinian land were not wholly legitimate nor viable. Others believed however that because the withdrawal had been initiated by Sharon, one of the Palestinians’ most reviled and mistrusted opponents, that there had to be some sinister motivation to it all. As the old proverb goes: “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.”

Ironically, sceptics on both sides were proven partially right. Qassam rocket attacks from Gaza did not cease, despite promises of ceasefires by the PLO. Hamas, the political party designated a terrorist organization by several Western countries including Canada, won parliamentary elections in January 2006. This lead almost immediately to terrible clashes with losing party Fatah and the impression that the whole of Palestine was in chaos. For their part though, Israeli military activity against targets in Gaza continued as well, including numerous aerial strikes and even tank sorties.

In any case, the developments over the course of the last week have shown that even supposedly full military disengagement by the Israelis cannot disentangle the two neighbours from each other so easily. Perhaps the biggest factor leading to the current gloomy state has been the absence of U.S. pressure on the two sides to come together and work out an agreement. A single high-profile trip and summit is just not enough.

The real tragedy though is that observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict do not even see this development as anything surprising. Extreme hardship, human suffering and conflict of the most savage degree are all ordinary facets of this struggle. If, as President Bush and others refer to it, this is the Holy Land, I ask: What’s so damned holy about it?

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There Will Be Blood

I've never done this on this blog before, written a movie review that is, but what the fuck, I want to share and organize my thoughts about what I consider to be not only the best film of the year, but one of the true greats I've seen in my lifetime. That being said, I'm not sure if I could stomach seeing it again anytime soon, but whatever.

THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Dillon Freasier, Ciaran Hinds & Kevin J. O'Connor
Written & Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

The quick and the narrow: Worth seeing in theatres.

American cinema over the past eight or nine years has fallen off...hard. The true gems are few and far in between and the rest of the while, one finds oneself having dug through a pile of dirt and filth, empty-handed and feeling rather hustled. I came of age just in time to experience that magical year of 1999, the last great year, where film fans were treated to a string of dazzling, brilliant, daring films one after the other all year long. Just recounting some of them brings feelings of incredulity: Eyes Wide Shut, Fight Club, Three Kings, Being John Malkovich, American Beauty, Sleepy Hollow, Toy Story 2, The Insider, The South Park movie, Angela's Ashes... These came out in the same year? I could go on. The Phantom Menace anyone? How about the original Matrix?

Maybe 1999 spoiled me. Maybe we can only get those sorts of years once every decade, if that. Maybe the vast majority of films can simply never be as great as the ones I listed above. Maybe I should just lower my expectations from now on.

Then again, we come across years like 2007. While the barrage of instant classics last year wasn't as relentless as 1999, the quality of the seldom few classics released was enough to forever implant fond memories for 2007 in me. Chief amongst these films, which include must-sees like Zodiac, No Country for Old Men, Lake of Fire, Hot Fuzz, Michael Clayton and Sicko will undoubtedly stand There Will Be Blood.

In that lovely year of 1999, Paul Thomas Anderson delivered Magnolia, a messy, rambling indie art saga that, while certainly worth a watch, was too weighed down by self-conscious stylishness and heavy indulgences into melodrama and sentimentality. There Will Be Blood has none of that film's flaws. In fact, it doesn't even have very many of Magnolia's strengths. The two films seem as if they've been made by totally different people. One might ask oneself after witnessing the awesome spectacle that is this film and its staggering ending: "When he wrote this, what was he thinking?"

On the surface, Blood seems to tell the story of a vicious, sociopathic oilman named Daniel Plainview who strives to find his fortune amongst the desolate wastelands of turn-of-the-century California. Plainview is a bitter, tightly-wound man who keeps to himself until he absolutely requires the services of someone else. Then he discards the person as soon as their usefulness dwindles, as if disposing of a Kleenex. He is more isolated and alone than any Cast Away figure on a desert island. As Plainview reveals during one chilling scene: "I hate most people...there are times when I look at people and see nothing worth liking."

Clearly he carries personal demons. But there is the first sign that Blood is not your average Hollywood epic. Nearly every film of this style, the much-maligned "biopic," tries to explain or excuse the flaws of its main character. It's usually the bad childhood reason, or that he's under control of a ruthless slavemaster or fueled by ill-minded political ideology. Either way, the point is to explain how the villain became the way he is and why he makes the choices that he does. This film doesn't. It shows, but it doesn't tell. And the fact that there is no clear motivation offered, aside from perhaps "greed," opens the door in our minds to wonder why evil men act the way they do.

Day-Lewis gives one of the most indelible, unshakable and unsettling performances I've ever seen. He is in virtually every scene, oftentimes shot in close-up or forced to act totally on his own. Sometimes he speaks in whispers, other times growling and roaring with the ferocity of an uncaged lion, yet always singularly in character. It's a transformative role, and afterwards one can scarcely imagine meeting in person Day-Lewis the actor rather than Daniel Plainview the oilman.

Paul Dano, the flipside of Plainview's capitalist, as Christian preacher Eli Sunday holds his own against Day-Lewis. Dano is given some of the more difficult scenes, some of which would collapse into outright farce if they were performed by a lesser actor. His innocent, doe-eyed face evolves into frothing, apocalyptic prophet mode so naturally during one scene early on that we as the audience can barely look at the character, or any ranting man-of-God for that matter, the same way again.

Which leads us to the themes and ideas that Anderson brings up during the film. Unfettered capitalism, modern organized religion, the American dream, ties of kinship, family and blood, fatherhood, physical disability, misanthropy, nihilism, the mythology of the Old West, the simply joys of rural living and the environmental impact of humans all filter through one's mind while watching Blood.

Did I mention oil? No? Well that's okay. Oil is the McGuffin here, the slick black lubricant that flows through the crevices of Anderson's film and the brains of his characters. Dreams of oil wealth give birth to the fevered looks in the characters' eyes, the stench of raw greed one can sense emanating from their clothes, greasing the story's sprockets. Can something as primal as oil, or say, in the case of the Coen's No Country for Old Men, money, really cause otherwise decent men to turn evil?

The answer Anderson gives is assuredly yes. We humans are, sadly enough, crude creatures driven by the pursuit of worldly, materialistic things. The question of whether or not we would slit our fellow human's throats over a chunk of gold or, in worse times, a scrap of bread, we don't really want to have to answer.

The story There Will Be Blood tells is what happens to a selfish man when he encounters the thirst of oil, the sin of greed and the promise of absolute power. What it asks of us the audience though is what separates us from him. And there is no easy answer for that.

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Iran Again

Iran, here we go again. This is from an article published in Harper's Magazine. The link is here:

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/02/sb-war-with-ir-1171457451

Anonymous Former CIA Official #1

A former CIA official, who asked to remain unnamed. He was stationed in the Persian Gulf during the first Gulf War and served in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.

I don't think the administration is about to carry out military action. The military does not want to do this. We will lose planes if there is a massive air strike over Iran, we'll have pilots killed and captured. Iran has a lot of ways to hurt us. If they decide to come after uniformed personnel in Iraq, or more easily, civilians and contractors, things could quickly get out of hand. You could have kidnappings or a mass casualty attack—they drove us out of Lebanon in the 1980s; a mass casualty attack like the Marine barracks bombing would likely be the end in Iraq.

But the administration's actions are increasing the chances for an accidental confrontation. People don't realize how small and narrow the Gulf is, especially as you approach the Straits of Hormuz. The tanker/container and related commerce traffic is incredible and it goes on twenty-four hours a day. We've already got one carrier battle group there and now we're going to put in another one, which will add a huge footprint. When you have, on both sides, nineteen-year-olds manning weapons, it's a formula for an accident that could spin out of control.

Here's an example: Every night, members of the Revolutionary Guard pack up their speed boats with rugs and crafts, really pricey stuff. They weave their way through all the traffic on the Gulf and sell the stuff on remote areas of beach just north of Sharjah, Ajman, and Umm al Qaywayn. They off-load and sell their goods and then load up with Jack Daniels, porn, CDs, electronics, satellite receivers, and computers, and weave their way back through traffic to Iran. At 3 a.m. on a moonless night, one of those boats speeding across the Gulf could easily cross the defensive radar signature of a U.S. frigate, and it's going to get shot up. So you have a situation that is essentially an accident, and all of a sudden you have a crisis.

Military action is not the best option. This is not like Iraq's Osirak reactor, which Israel destroyed in 1981. In that case, there was a single target. Iran's nuclear program is dispersed and our intelligence picture is thin because we don't have enough well-placed spies. It would take a massive air strike package with consecutive strikes to hit all the targets. You could hurt them and complicate their activities, but I don't think you could turn off their program.

The way to pressure the Iranian government is through pressure inside Iran and inside Iraq. There's a thirst for information in Iran and we should be bombarding them with accurate information via conventional and unconventional means. We could be using TV and radio broadcasts, the Internet, Wi-Fi networks in Iraq, and underground newspapers to reach Iranians. There are about 60,000 Iranians in the Los Angeles area, many with daily contact with family and colleagues in Iran. Los Angeles is the headquarters for the American media/movie/television apparatus—and yet we're not broadcasting into Iran. Turn them loose! They can produce soap operas, talk shows, news programs, entertainment shows, all in Farsi.

Propagandizing is part of the CIA's mission charter, but the current leadership has decided against it. (They've also decided against covert action, direct action, covert influence, and other active measures.) The agency did it for years in Eastern Europe, Africa, Central and South America, and other parts of the world during the Cold War, with huge impact. With advances in technology, it's so much easier to do now.

When I started in this business, there was only TV, radio, and print, and it was very hard to influence what was shown on TV. Now you can plant a story on the Internet in a couple of minutes. You want to make Ahmadinejad react to stories—create the perception of a rift between him and the religious leadership and cast it as a problem in the country. The rumor mill works overtime in that part of the world. You'd want nuggets of truth in these stories, aimed at Iranian youth. We should be emphasizing the huge unemployment in Iran, the staleness of the revolution, the age of the mullahs, and how they live very well—their pious lifestyle is all baloney. But doing it requires too much effort, and careers could be risked.

* * *

In other words, it's all W's fault.

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Post Iowa, Pre New Hampshire (pt. 1)

Having predicted Iowa pretty much accurately, I finally feel compelled to let loose about this U.S. Presidential campaign, now that's it's somewhat sane to actually talk about it.

First of all, the amount of coverage and focus over the last 6-12 months has been totally overblown and sort of disconcerting. The fact that there were grown women and men arguing passionately on live TV over an election that was two years away is a testament to the broken media in the States.

In any case, I'll start with the results and follow with brief comments about both the winners.

Iowa Caucus 2008 Results

Democrats:

1,781 of 1,781 districts reporting

Obama 37.58
Edwards 29.75
Clinton 29.47
Richardson 2.11
Biden 0.93
Uncommitted 0.14
Dodd 0.02

Republicans:

1,546 of 1,781 districts reporting

Huckabee 34
Romney 25
Thomspon 13
McCain 13
Paul 10
Giuliani 3

History in the Making

Look, I like Barack Obama. If I were to vote on November 4 for one person, it would be him. His policies are not 100% great (whose are?). His experience is scant. Heck, I'm one of the people who agree that he should have waited another four to eight years. His wife is a big target for GOP hit squads wanting to stir up sideshow controversies and distract from the issues. And he has other little vulnerabilities to media attacks. So why the support?

Because he's a good man.

Not that he looks like one, not that he seems nice. He is good. Mr. Obama doesn't have an ounce of wicked manipulative politician in him and that contrast becomes especially obvious when compared to Ms. Clinton.

If Mr. Obama ever did win the whole thing one day, he would make a fine President for the United States and indeed be able to follow up on his promise to offer real change for not only the Executive Office, but for the overall direction and character of the country.

Now having said that, I have very real doubts about his chances in this primary season, let alone in the general. The United States has, as everyone knows, a long, sordid history with the subject of race and with the majority's treatment of persons of African descent. Blacks in the States, though legally "freed" in 1865 by President Lincoln, have continued to suffer incredible discrimination, persecution and downright contempt for decades.

Travel to any major American city and you too will see the absolute reality of what I call
"covert discrimination." Inexorably, the white population will dominate the suburbs, commuter towns and upper-class neighborhoods with their 5-bedroom and two-car garages. Take a stroll in the inner city and downtown areas and suddenly colour reenters the equation. A subway ride on the 2 Line in New York from the Bronx to Lower Manhattan reveals this phenomenon most glaringly. One could describe it as if traveling to a whole new country.

The point is, racism exists in America, and elsewhere, even if no-one wants to admit to it. There are larger forces at work that seek to shape the election. And that simple, bigoted line; "a black man can never become President," tragically, may be the one thing that stops the DNC and the United States at large from electing Barack Obama.

To put it to a sharper point, consider that the last time someone with that sort of genuine human quality became President was 1960, and J.F.K. And he was a white man.

The Evangelical President

On the flip-side of the democratic divide, we have Governor Mike Huckabee. Though I know too little about him as of yet, a feeling I imagine I share with many Americans, watching some of his interviews, this man shares that same key quality of decency and genuine humanity that Obama has.

Mr. Huckabee brings with him some interesting commonalities with, of all people, Bill Clinton. He's from Hope, Arkansas, Mr. Clinton's hometown, first of all. Secondly, they were both two-term governors of the great state of Arkansas. Thirdly, they both play musical instruments (Clinton with his famous sax, Huckabee a bassist). And finally, the two have also shared friendly relations with political strategist Dick Morris, with whom though Mr. Clinton has since severed ties.

His ace in the hole against his opponents though, aside from his astute, "aw-shucks" public persona, is his career as a Southern Baptist pastor. These irrefutable religious credentials are in marked contrast to the pseudo-evangelism of President Bush, as well as the still thorny issue of Mr. Romney's Mormonism. His years as a pastor also hold much water for grassroots Republican voters, as well as the enormous amount of Evangelical Christians who swept Mr. Bush into power in 2004. Their potential power was displayed back then, and now again in Iowa.

The significance of this common denominator is best understood when juxtaposed with the sort of ruthless, win-at-any-cost establishment campaigns run by Mr. Romney and Ms. Clinton. As I see it, Americans are finished with the Rove/Carville politics of the 90s where elections became battles, personal attacks commonly accepted, and any tactic that produced a surge in the polls celebrated. Furthermore, average American voters, especially in the middle-class, feel more disconnected with their government than at any time since the Nixon era thirty-five years ago. They yearn for a leader in whom they can trust. They demand competence, wisdom and righteousness after eight years of their absence.

Ms. Clinton and Mr. Romney can certainly provide the competence and the leadership, no doubt about it. But can they provide the vessel in to which American voters can pour their hopes, dreams and faith? That is their biggest weakness, and both Obama and Huckabee are smart enough to exploit that. This answer to this question is sure to be illuminated a little more in a few days time with the New Hampshire primary. Until then, I will try to follow up with some more analysis and speculation in a second part.

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Top 5

Forget top 10 lists. These were the only films you needed to see this year:

7. Sicko

6. Ratatouille

5. Superbad / Knocked Up

4. Transformers

3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

2. Control

1. tie: No Country for Old Men / There Will Be Blood / Zodiac

* Honourable Mention: Grindhouse, Hot Fuzz


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