Monthly Archives: October 2004

October 20th

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Getting some interesting feedback on the Uvatiarru trailer (more) below. Like the criticism that Keith faced when helping with Strangeland (more), a number of folks seem very concerned that the movie could paint the modified community here in a negative light. First of all I'll point out that never in the last ten years have I done anything that I believed would be anything but positive for this community. But second, let me frame that clip so you can an insight into where it fits.

The plotline of the film follows an arc which moves through four parts; first depression (which you see in this trailer), then into madness, redemption, and finally salvation. It's a cycle that a lot of us have moved through, and what I'm trying to capture with this movie. The narration in the trailer is from the movie, after a real ritual that took place on the beach in Tortola. It is not scripted. It's life.

Stories about people in the adult industry being abused are nothing new (more), but I'm somewhat disturbed by what's going on in Utah right now. They've said that they believe that criminals enjoy pornography, so the police have been instructed to catalog the adult materials they can link to people they're investigating (more)… a rather frightening version of profiling!

This is very dangerous.

You all have seen the highly misleading stats claiming that tattooed and pierced people are losers, drug addicts, sluts, and so on. You know how easy it is to twist numbers into damning (but false) statistics. What will happen if the government decides that an interest in pornography (or being a “liberal”, or whatever), is an indicator that you're socially undesirable?

Let's talk about the draft while we still can — although I should mention that people who do talk about the draft too loudly are being threatened with lawsuits by the Republican Party (more). Now, as I've said before, I think it's more likely that we'll see an increase in high-cost mercenaries than an actual draft of the general population. However, the back door draft just gets worse and worse. Even here on IAM we have disabled people being drafted to fight in Iraq (more), and even soldiers age 50 and older are currently being back-door drafted (more):

Sometime in the next few weeks, the 58-year-old Army National Guard command sergeant major will leave his wife, Jeanette, their 11-year-old Maltese, Pebbles, walk through the door of his Old Bridge home one final time and head to Iraq.

“I don't want to leave my wife, but I have to go,” Thomas said during an interview last week at his house, which the couple is selling. “I made her a deal. I promised her this is my last tour of duty, and she gets a new house.”

At a time in life when most people are looking forward to retirement or eyeing Florida real estate, these soldiers are leaving behind corporate jobs and grandkids. “The hardest part about going,” Thomas said, “is when my granddaughter asks me why I'm not going to be home for Christmas.”

[sarcasm] I'm sure pulling a 58-year old cop off the streets of New Jersey and shipping them to Iraq to die is a great plan. Yeah, that's just what America needs. [/sarcasm]

Meanwhile, Iraq is still on fire with insurgents continuing to bomb pipelines (more), and, even though Bush predicted zero US casualties (more), current US casualties from the war are approaching 10,000 (more), with the “non-combat injuries” number being almost double that. To be clear; these are not people with scraped legs. These are people who are now missing their legs. No wonder increasing numbers are saying “better mutiny than suicide” (more).

Bush, recently endorsed by Iran for his pro-Iran trade policies and anti-Israel stance (more) accuses Kerry of playing “scare tactics” by fabricating the story that seniors are facing a backdoor draft (more). Now, I know you just read the story above, but hey, Bush says you shouldn't watch the news. Meanwhile, Cheney warns Americans that they should expect a US city to be nuked soon (more). I'd hoped those were just “scare tactics”, but since the Bush team opposes “scare tactics”, I guess you can kiss NYC goodbye for good.

Other than that, Bush has said that he'll accept Iraq becoming a fundamentalist Islamic state (more). Let's be real fucking clear about something: Saddam Hussein's government was better than a fundamentalist Islamic government would be.

If you want something good to type into Google News, let me recommend the following search terms:

“until after the election” bush

You can come up with similar phrases to expand the results. But look at the growing number of reports, government studies, policy changes, and so on that are being delayed until “after the election” for fear that they'll make people turn on Bush. It's the most shallow of deception and manipulation, and I hope everyone can see it clearly. Pass these stories on to everyone you know.

A government that operates in secret is, by definition, not a democracy.

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It's about time

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

There are some editing and rendering errors but I'm still learning the software… I admit there's not a lot of meat in this trailer but it should give you an idea of where the movie is going in general terms. This is the first of four trailers. Again, sorry about the glitches, they're not in the final product.

Watch the first trailer; 1:32, about 9 meg

Format:   Windows Media Video   Apple Quicktime

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"The World According To Bush"

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

This documentary was on the news a few nights ago. Since I highly doubt it will broadcast inside the United States, I am temporarily posting my PVR capture of it for IAM members. I probably won't leave these video files on my server so please save it to your computer. It is a damning documentary about the Bush family's corruption and alliances with evil. Click here for a review.

The film is an hour and twenty minutes long, so I've captured it in two qualities; both are watchable but if you have the bandwidth I recommend the larger of the two files. They are both WMV files.

Pass it on to friends that need to see it.

Clarification: While this is a French documentary, it is overdubbed in English. It's interesting to note by the way which US diplomats are fluent in French (and thus dubbed), and which are speaking in English.

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Oops! Should I tell him?

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Those of you on the experience review team can probably guess why I'm posting this.

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I endorse this movie for President

Monday, October 18, 2004

Rachel and I went to see The Motorcycle Diaries tonight (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you can click the picture below for a trailer). I'm very glad it made it all the way up here to our snowy land; it's rare enough to get Mexican movies, let alone films from farther South.

Along with The Good Life (by Helen and Scott Nearing), reading The Motorcycle Diaries is one of those “it changed my life” sort of books (although I admit that I only read it for the first time five years ago). I wasn't sure if the movie would be able to capture both the humor of the journey and also be able to give the insight into the class struggle that Che saw on the trip, but I think it did.

Anyway, I know that's a lame review, but you really should go see it, or better yet, read it (link is to the translation I read, one of many). Consider reading Chasing Che at the same time; I read them at about the same time and it really helped me understand the journey better. Most of all though, I think unless you read the book it's hard to really understand what it is to be American. And if you haven't read the book (or at least seen the movie), that sentence probably doesn't make much sense…

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EFF

Monday, October 18, 2004

I'm sick of writing about the US taking the most liberal of Middle Eastern states and turning it into the happiest haven for terrorists since Saudi Arabia blew up the World Trade Center. But this conversation was one that I think is worth reading, purely for it's rare no-BS reality check nature.

In previous entries I've broken down the numbers a bit and explained I think in fairly clear terms why a “draft” or some equivalent is going to be needed in order to sustain current US military loads — stretched thin doesn't begin to describe the problem. About a quarter of the US population supports a draft, but still, I think it's a not-so-unreasonable assumption that bringing back a draft could push the US population to the brink of revolt. John Perry Barlow recently shared a flight to Baghdad with the CEO of a “corporate security” firm (ie. mercenary) and this quote caught my eye:

Moreover, the “Coalition of the Willing” is increasingly less so. Many of our allies will be withdrawing after the elections in January. And even our own troops are becoming mutinous. The only way we will be able to maintain current force levels, already too thin by most accounts, will be through massive recruitment into the Army and Marines and, of course, hiring more rent-a-soldiers.

Massive recruitment isn't going to happen — applications to the US military are down by something like 30%. People don't want to be in the military. Rent-a-soldiers on the other hand are paid five to ten times as much as regular troops, put money into the corporate sponsors, and don't become the PR nightmare than thousands of dead and maimed lower income Americans is turning out to be.

So by having a “mercenary draft”, all the immediate problems get solved, and the right pockets get lined with cash in the process. Of course, the big loser is the American taxpayer, who's got to fund this whole mess. How long will it take?

Finally he pointed out that history provides a gloomy prognosis. “I can't think of a single case where a popular local guerrilla movement failed to defeat a conventional foreign occupying force,” he said. “From the American Revolution through Viet Nam, the guerrillas always win. Usually, it takes them a long time and they suffer most of the casualties, but they win.”

Well that's wonderful news for those of you who have invested in the defense sector; this war can keep on going as long as you can afford to pay for it. And guess what? There's no good exit strategy — the population is, by something like an 80% majority, leaning toward an Iranian-style theocracy… deeply opposed to the US and highly positive toward terrorists with targets lined up on the continental United States. And let me remind you — Iran may well have nukes soon.

What can you do about it? I've posted my solution here before, and have been laughed out the door, but the idea is starting to pick up some steam:

“Look,” he said, “Saddam's been the only bastard mean enough to govern Iraq for any length of time. I'd hold him to a few conditions - no WMD's, no rewards to the families of suicide bombers, right of first refusal on Iraqi oil - then I'd tell him to go back to doing what he knows how to do. I mean, if you want a stable Iraq, he's a lot more likely to produce one than we are.“

As he says, you got a better idea?

The above photo is from a friend in Russia. I'd say it pretty well sums up the future if we don't get over war, and get over it soon.
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Traumatic

Monday, October 18, 2004

Have I mentioned lately how much I hate doing development work on a live server when construction has been going on five feet over our apartment now for going on two months? Doesn't help that I'm just getting over influenza either (ok, the flu, thanks a lot daycare)… In any case, in a moment of cosmic timing, two years to the day after implementing a hit counter mine just got zero'd because of a test account occupying and then unoccupying my user slot. The counter was at two and a half million hits, but I think my ego is going to be ok without having to manually reset it. Ok, that's not true. RESET.


With an “office” like this, is it any wonder that
I occasionally accidentally lose my own user file?

I want to take this opportunity to again remind people about the backup tool which can give you a text printout of your entire diary. While I do my best to keep your data safe — it's on a nice RAID array — there are no guarantees, and everything you have stored here could vanish overnight. So I strongly encourage people to keep local copies of the writing!
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