103 AMERICAN SOLIDERS DEAD IN OCTOBER

IRAQ--From my October 22nd post of 78-dead, we have reached 103. Notice we're not hearing-about 'casualties', which means counting the hundreds of wounded too. We can assume the death-toll for Iraqis is significantly-higher, a crime. This is ending, only why can't it end faster? What's wrong with Americans? Pedophilia is worse? Are we mad? Fossil-fuels are over, but we just won't accept-it, making for what will likely be a horrible transition to cleaner-fuels. When we hit the wall, it will all have been avoidable, and it will be too-late. One-year-ago, Karl Rove was asked about the anti-war movement. He replied, 'What anti-war movment?' and chuckled. He was right.

THE NEXT GREAT DEPRESSION IS COMING, AND IT'S OUR FAULT

The United States--This is an unbelievable story. The GAO's Comptroller General--David M. Walker-- is saying we are facing an inevitable economic disaster based on Washington's borrow-and-spend policies under the Bush administration and the GOP controlled Congress.

Who's he? Nobody important, just the nation's accountant.

One of the BIG problems is that our currency bonds are being bought-up by the People's Republic of China and other "economic allies" like Japan to pay for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. What? You didn't know this? Yes, because Americans are stupid enough to want it both ways: out-of-control defense spending, but with lower-taxes with social services only for themselves. Wouldn't you?

Americans are almost singularly insane on this point: they won't elect anyone who will tell them the truth. The truth? If you want government services of any kind you have to raise taxes. Of course, this unprecedented borrowing is fallout from Bush's ending of progressive taxation. Progressive taxation? What's that? Nothing much, it just made the American middle class possible at all. But their wacky economics have been common currency since before the 2000 elections, and Americans have demanded this of them. It took a lot of dumbing-down to achieve this mentality.

The one who dies with the most toys is uh...is dead.

The baby boomers are retiring in the face of all this debt, which will likely lead to a demographic-disaster that we've never seen. Well, yes, if we keep borrowing like this for another 30 years, which is unthinkable anyway. The political costs are already too high to maintain this reckless fiscal policy, so it's unlikely to continue for even ten more years. But we would deserve it by the end 30 years, but who wouldn't?

Walker is practically advocating a social revolution to avoid this mess, calling for a groundswell, but I think maybe it's too late. Our deficit is $8.5 trillion, which would make any REAL conservative nervous (and angry) as hell.

When the bulk of the Boomers start using their Medicade, Medicare and Social Security entitlements, without adequate progressive taxation there to fund it as it did for decades...wow, watch-out! The public won't have it, we don't want to pay higher taxes, especially the richer we get. Walker isn't very optimistic, and neither am I, Americans are pretty stupid. Just look at Iraq and the dozen permanent military bases we have there. How much did they cost? How many social programs did it take to do it?

Where are the billions of our tax-dollars that have gone-missing in Iraq? Prove me wrong America. You won't, you're too stupid and greedy. We're going to get what we deserve, so maybe there is justice on this rock called Earth. It's going to be entertaining watching people dressed down in this country, seeing the cocksure idiots blame themselves (an accurate assessment) because their hollow ideologies have failed them. I'll be laughing all the way to Canada or Sweden, but somewhere that's civilized.

OAXACA IN FLAMES, AMERICAN JOURNALIST DEAD, FOX DISPATCHES MORE PARAMILITARY TROOPS

OAXACA--In the old Indian towns and villages that were once the victims of the Aztecs, leftist protestors have been erecting barricades and fighting pitched-battles with local officials and what they describe as 'hired-thugs' and goons. This began, ironically, as a teacher's strike, but has grown with the sense that recent state elections were not secure. The AP is reporting that 'leftists have blocked streets for months demanding the ouster of Oaxaca state Gov. Ulises Ruiz. They claim the state government has sent gunmen and thugs to provoke them.' The story that Fox has just sent Police troops into Oaxaca is untrue, Federales have been spotted in a number of acts of unprovoked-violence against citizens of the city, and protestors.

An American journalist has also been killed in shootouts, and it appears our ambassador to Mexico is conceding it was by Mexican Police from Oaxaca. Local leftists want the PRI-governor to resign based on what they claim was a fixed-election in 2004, and have seized TV and Radio stations, as well as running-out the local Police. It doesn't take a genius to understand that most Mexican states are run by corrupt, incompetant modern-day campesinos who brutalize their mostly-impoverished subjects through the corrupt Policia. People can only take so much, and it resulted in the situation we have today. But, the job of the press is to make you forget or ignore the context that led to all this. People have to be pushed to this, remember that much.

Ruiz has been appealing to President Vincente Fox (also PRI) for months to send Police paramilitary-units, and the President has only now responded. It appears Mexican-elections have something in-common with American ones, and that there is a stronger-desire for direct democracy in Mexico than in the USA. With indigenous leaders rising in other Latin American states, we are witness to a major-shift in the politics of the Western Hemisphere. Expect more insurrections by our neighbors, uprisings that should be supported by working-class North Americans--that means you, AFL-CIO, and all North American unions. The protestors have been holding the center of the city for months now. It will be interesting to see what this event's effect on the other contentious-election (this year's Presidential election) will be. We could be seeing the disintegration of Mexico as a modern nation state, into zones of indigenous-control and autonomy.

Expect more of the same misinformation--the cops attack the protestors, then the violence is blamed on the victims by the mainstream media.

http://oaxaca-travel.com/

http://www.oaxacatimes.com/

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10769

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g150801-i459-k805969-Oaxaca_Violence_Continues_U_S_Government_Extends-Oaxaca_Central_Mexico_and_Gulf_Coast.html

http://www.workers.org/2006/world/oaxaca-0629/

WARNER BROTHERS STILL DRAGGING FEET ON DVD OF KEN RUSSELL'S 'THE DEVILS' (1971)

Here's a link to the online petition. It is a film that must be seen by anyone who values the separation of Church and State. The true story behind the film is the best argument for it. It's a film that is very resonant with the religious-political climate in America today, which is probably part of the reason why Warners is suppressing it. 

[Ed.-Search 'The Devils' on this site for more content.]

http://www.petitiononline.com/Grandier/petition.html

LET'S PLAY SEMANTICS, KIDS: WHITE HOUSE DENIES CHENEY ADVOCATES TORTURE

THE ELDRITCH WHITE HOUSE--Yes, you did advocate torture Mr. Co-President, and you are a criminal for doing-so. Semantics-games won't save you if your party loses the elections--or is unable to steal-them. We're not stopping with the GOP, the Democrats had better watch-their-asses too. It's a time of scoundrels, and all you can do is hope they undo-themselves, spiralling-downwards into-the-muck. Change-or-die. Ah, but here's Richard Cheney advocating-torture:

Q Would you agree a dunk in water [Ed.-considered torture by the Hague and under the Geneva convention] is a no-brainer if it can save lives?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: It's a no-brainer for me, but for a while there, I was criticized as being the Vice President "for torture." We don't torture. [Ed.-Yes, you do.] That's not what we're involved in. [Ed.-You have repeatedly ordered torture-sessions.] We live up to our obligations in international treaties [Ed.-Yet, you really don't.] that we're party to and so forth. But the fact is, you can have a fairly robust interrogation program without torture, and we need to be able to do that. And thanks to the leadership of the President now, and the action of the Congress, we have that authority, and we are able to continue to program. (www.whitehouse.gov)
But you have advocated torture several-times, Mr. Co-President. Tony Snow's head might just explode over this one, you just advocated torture in the offending-excerpt. I know, you just let your paid-shill say it for you, then you gave a statement that could give you a marginal-out. It's call bait-and-switch, from baseball--the primary neocon approach. We're not supposed to know he's really your employee on-the-take, and that the reaction isn't the one you wanted. Now the gaggle in your echo-chamber are going to try to put Humpty together again, but it will achieve the same-results. It's a no-brainer.

Getting Your Feet Wet

MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY--Our Priestly-President, Richard Cheney, hath spake yesterday with a journalist/admirer about thee War on Terrorisme (sin), and let us know he still doesn't believe water-boarding is torture. After all, if George W. Bush and the President say it is so, then it is so. If they reject something, that's it, no-further-discussion. There's the rub: journalistic-access to the bosses. Scott Hennen should lay-off the brown-lipstick, it looks like shite. Great, Scott (great Scott!), you got your coveted interview with the President--but at what cost? Your very soul, naturally. You feed him leading-questions like in this exchange:

Q: I've heard from a lot of listeners -- that's what we do for a living [Ed.-as well as draw a paycheck from the Bush administration], talk to good folks in the Heartland every day -- and I've talked to as many who want an increased military presence in Iraq as want us out, which seems to be the larger debate, at least coming from the left -- cut and run [Ed.-since they can't say it anymore, we'll have our press-shills say it], get out of there. One fax said, when you talk to the Vice President, ask him when shock and awe is coming back to Iraq. Let's finish the job once and for all. And terrorist interrogations and that debate is another example. And I've had people [Ed.-How about some names?] call and say, please, let the Vice President know that if it takes dunking a terrorist in water, we're all for it, if it saves American lives. Again, this debate seems a little silly given the threat we face, would you agree?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I do agree. ... [Ed.-Yeah, I bet that was hard.]

Scott's job was easy since all of his questions were prepared in-advance for him. Man, what a gig! He didn't have to do anything bu show-up, and it looks great on his resume! The whole inteview is like the above-excerpt, and an insult to even the lowest-intellect (George W. Bush). Waterboarding is considered torture by virtually everyone on Earth, excepet by the Bush adminstration and their Middle Eastern and Asian allies (and the red-haired step-children, North Korea, Russia, China & Turkey). Basically, the worst human-rights violators think water-torture is acceptable and that the Geneva convention and other international treaties can be ignored. Or acceptable in 1600s colonial-America under the Winthrops, or during the Middle Ages (or the Ottoman Empire). If you spoke-out in church in Massachusetts Bay, or if you were a woman who spoke out-of-turn to their husbands, you could be 'dunked' in water, simulating a drowning-sensation (often a real one). It was like drowning, and we know it was also applied to accused-witches. If you didn't fit-in with the Puritan-ideal, you could be next. Falling-asleep in church could earn one corporal-punishment, like floggings on the stocks, whippings and even dunkings. Adultery--or simply sleeping-around--was punishable-by-death. Winthrop notes in his diaries the outcome in the case of a Mary Latham, 18-years-old, who slept with a married-man:

And yet some of the magistrates thought the evidence not sufficient against her, because there were not two direct witnesses; but the jury cast her, and then she confessed the fact, and accused twelve others, whereof two were married men. Five of these were apprehended and committed, (the rest were gone,) but denying it, and there being no other witness against them than the testimony of a condemned person, there could be no proceeding against them. ...They were both executed, they both died very penitently, especially the woman, who had some comfortable hope of pardon of her sin, and gave good exhortation to all young maids to be obedient to their parents, and to take heed of evil company.

(http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/adultery.htm)

For the accused-witch, the alternatives were death...and death. If you didn't answer the Puritan authorities' questions, they just kept dunking you, over-and-over. If you answered their questions, they executed you. This was all to enforce the Old World concept of religious-uniformity, a time when Church and State were joined. The Bush administration has made it patently-clear they are at war with the division of Church and State, so waterboarding should be no-surprise after that. Eventually, they'll run-out of foreign-victims and come for the rest-of-us. The Patriarch's appetites must be sated, but so must the crowd's. One important-feature of this kind of power is that the leaders rarely reflect the values they are inflicting on others, so consider the obvious-examples. When Reagan referred-to America as the 'City on the Hill' (a new Jerusalem), he was quoting Winthrop's speech of the same-title. How rampant-consumerism and defense-spending keeps us pure from the evils of the world is beyond-my-ken. Like Winthrop, Reagan's ilk probably sincerely believe that America has been chosen for a mission in the world by deity, a refuge from the aforementioned-evils--excepting pedophilia, it seems. It's ironic that people like Anne Hutchinson & Roger Williams were expelled from the colony, as they merely founded a new one that was religiously-tolerant--Rhode Island.

But, at least Winthrop provided for the early Masschusetts Bay colony--he even sold a manor to feed-them during the first-winters. It should be noted that this charity had a temporal-price, and it was control of colonial governance. Through the colonial-juries, most accused-adulterers, sinners and interlopers were tried and executed, and the jurors knew whose hand was feeding-them. It was Winthrop. Winthrop was not an aberration in his use of torture to enforce a Puritan order, the first Governor of the Bay colony--John Endicott--went so far as to advocte the torturing and execution of Quaker-interlopers. Endicott also insisted on religious-conformity, and was actually worse than Winthrop. Accusing others had its rewards, often a kind of empowerment and a rising-through-the-ranks once an opponent had been accused and executed. Their property was frequently forfeited to their accusers and the courts, a wonderful facet of the Reagan & Bush years that we still have with us from the War on Drugs (really a domestic war on Americans). If a Puritan is interested in anything, it's what everyone is doing behind closed doors, a thread that has continued throughout our history--J. Edgar Hoover being the finest-example of this impulse.

There is an entire-generation of religious fanatics in America today who would love to populate a new-spate of these religious-juries and general pogroms. Some these individuals prefer enslavement under a father-figure who can decide things for them, rather than genuine liberty and the responsibility that comes with it. The first responsibility if tolerance. Underneath the canopy of modernism, technology and hype, America is still a primitive-culture. It's a small-wonder that the puritanical Bush dynasty finds so much in-common with the medieval House of Saud, as their religious-laws mirror those of Massachusetts Bay in the early-1600s. They must be jealous of the theocratic-powers they wield in Arabia, just like John Winthrop did over 300-years-ago (only-worse), and they haven't bothered to hide this lust. Coupled with this is Winthrop's delusion that America was somehow the 'last-stand' for Anglo-culture, a mirage that continues to haunt our foreign and domestic-policies. Oddly, even freaks like George W. Bush believe the United States is the more than just the 'policeman of the world', we're supposed to be its salvation. It is an incredibly wrongheaded notion that is dying a slow-death in the dust of Iraq, but it is dying:

The signal illusion from which America has to awake in Iraq and everywhere else is that it serves God's providence or (for those with more secular beliefs) that it s the engine of history. In Iraq, America is not the maker of history but its plaything. In the region at large, America is not the hegemon but the hesitant shaper of forces it barely understands. (Ignatieff, 06/27/2004)

The 'Interview' With a Puritan Vampire:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061024-7.html

John Winthrop (most bios whitewash his life):

http://chi.gospelcom.net/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps022.shtml

http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/winthrop/section4.rhtml

http://grove.ship.edu/ubf/winthrop.htm

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1644winthrop-govt.html

http://www.mass.gov/statehouse/massgovs/jendecott.htm

Thee National Delusione:

http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/news/opeds/2004/ignatieff_iraq_nyt_062704.htm

An Article By a Descendent of John Winthrop:

http://www.masshist.org/about/news.cfm?newsitem=09

219 US SOLDIERS PETITION FOR IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWL FROM IRAQ

http://www.appealforredress.org/index.php

THE RAT LINES

THE VATICAN--It has been known for a long-time that the Vatican helped Nazi war-criminals escape Europe with phoney Red Cross-passports and Church papers after WWII. Granted, it was a Croatian Priest who did the dirty-work, but who would have the capability of gaining high-grade forgeries, safe-houses, and the resources to spirit these criminals to the Middle East and South America? Klaus Barbie--the Butcher of Lyon--entered the Port of Bunos Aires dressed as a Catholic Priest (or was it as Catholic Priest, dressed as Klaus Barbie?). The CIA is the most-likely demiurge in all of this, while the Vatican's role is shrouded in some mystery.

Nobody's being forthcoming, but it seems likely that the American State Department had the Vatican run these lines for Nazis who were seen as useful in the emerging Cold War. We don't know all of the details because the majority of these 40-60-year-old documents are still classified. But who said these networks ever ended? It seems likely that there really is a web of pedophiles within the Church that ferries these molestors to other parishes, often to very posh-locales swimming with fresh-bait. This can only occur with the aid of Bishops, who can shield others under them from Vatican-scrutiny and authority--in American politics, it's known as 'plausible-deniability.'

Expect some startling-revelations about this, I suspect a pedophile-network is being uncovered. If the Vatican found it acceptable to ferry Nazis across the world for the aims of power, why would it be such a stretch for them to have a network for hiding pedophiles if they were individuals useful to the Church's temporal-influence? Look at the place Merceica lives--the Maltese islands--and you tell me there isn't something sneaky about his connection to Mark Foley, and his posh-existence after being a serial-pedophile. These priests are being-rewarded for something, and we should be inquiring about their other extracurricular-interests. Some of them might include espionage of every-kind, probably in the service of American Empire.

The Rat Lines:
http://experts.about.com/e/c/cl/Class_action_suit_against_the_Vatican_Bank_and_others.htm
http://www.archives.gov/iwg/research-papers/weitzman-remarks-june-1999.html
http://english.people.com.cn/english/200010/03/eng20001003_51790.html
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sher052098.html
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Operation_Paperclip_file.html

BUSH'S PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY ON IRAQ

THE WHITE HOUSE--Ever watched an actor forget their lines, or simply lose their character onstage? I'm watching it happen right-now, watching Bush's speech live. It's pathetic and almost unbearable--like his tenure in-office. His tone is fearful--for himself--and extremely defensive and pleading. At the same time, it's vindictive and accusatory, which is comical. He wanted the war, and President Cheney, so why is it everyone else's fault that he botched-it? OK, he was in the 'corporate-sector', so he could fire everyone who disagreed-with-him (too-late), but no-dice as Vice President under Cheney. I understand a Vice President feels they're in-the-shadow of the President, but this George W. Bush has got to go, what an upstart. He talks-badly, too, somebody must have told him some bad-news...then he fired them, but it didn't matter. His day had been ruined, and this couldn't be undone. The pathos, the horror, and nobody left to fire! He must be the worst Vice President we've ever had, I believe this.

Sydney Greenstreet, An Appreciation

There are character-actors, and then there is Sydney Greenstreet. Who? The Fat Man. Greenstreet was a big-man, weighing-in at 300 lbs. when he made his screen-debut in the Maltese Falcon in 1941. Greenstreet had been on the stage since before WWI, but this was his introduction to the movie-going public. He was 62 in his screen-debut, something that will likely never happen again in Hollywood. His fame wouldn't last very-long, either, he was dead by 1954 (his last-role being in 1949--he was suffering from diabetes his entire film-career). But one-thing makes him great: he was constantly called 'fat', or 'the Fat Man', yet he never flipped-out over it. He never even acknowledged the fat-comments, he never lost-his-cool, and he was a brilliant actor who played villains better than almost anybody. Here's a toast to the Fat Man, may he be remembered forever as a great actor. The best actors are character-actors.

DEMS-DEMS-DEMS-DEMS: TIME FOR GOP-NICKNAME

BIZARROWORLD--I'm a registered-Democrat, and I apologize. The reality is, my politics are Socialist, I believe that nobody should go to bed hungry, have decent-pay, yadda-yadda. I know, how radical and insane. But I've really gotten tired of the shorthand for Democrats...'Dems.' It's annoying doublespeak that would make Orwell vomit-blood, which he was known to do. I hate-it-hate-it-hate-it-hate-it-hate-it-hate-it-hate-it-hate-it-hate-it-hate-it-hate-it-hate-it-hate-it-hate-it-hate-it-hate-it-hate-it-hate-it-hate-it. I don't even like the candidates, they all suck, with some minor-exceptions. Those 'minor-exceptions' didn't win in our local-primaries, they didn't have the money.

The Democratic Party has only delivered when the public had their back-to-the-wall, which should tell the American voter everything they need-to-know--they don't represent our interests. But, at least they respond to this pressure, and that's what makes them marginally-better than the GOP. The Republicans have been the whores of Big business since the end of WWI, and the Democrats have played both sides of the fence, appealing to the wealthy while currying-favor with the working-class. This is because many of them are rich too. 'Dems' just irritates-me, it's more of the great American stupidity in-action, and it's time for new-monikers for the GOP. I've dropped a few, but this one is the best: PEDS. Time to spread the love.

NOT SINCE SHAY'S REBELLION: 65 US TROOPS FILE SEALED PETITIONS OF REDRESS IMPLORING CONGRESS TO END ILLEGAL WAR

WASHINGTON--65 active-duty US soldiers have petitioned Congress to end the war as part of a privilege that allows them to do-so confidentially. All have sent Appeals of Redress to their respective-representatives. There have been some comparisons about the revolt in our military, to the revolt of the officers in Algeria in 1961--they are false. The French officers in Algeria revolted against the civilian-leadership in Paris because they thought the war could be won. We know now they were wrong, just as the Joint Chiefs warned against inadequate troop-levels in the run-up to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. What did most of them do? They revolted by resigning so they could criticize the Bush administration as civilians, ex-soldiers. We all know Iraq has been a disaster from day-one, but it helps when a gauntlet of retired-Generals do too. But this has not been the tradition, this is new to criticize a standing-President for these men. They aren't comfortable with it.

It's kind of like the Roman-tradition of the 'citizen-soldier' who worked his famland, but was called-to-duty when his country was in-danger. You weren't supposed to covet any political-ambitions after an emergency had passed. You went-back to tilling your land. If leadership fears anything in the modern world, it's returning-troops. That's why military intelligence exists, to watch them when they've been decommissioned. They start demanding-things, which is reasonable. Troops during WWII were told they would be given free medical-care for the rest-of-their-lives. It didn't happen, the GOP derailed this during their Red scares. they quashed it. This doesn't mean the Democrats wanted to deliver it!

An interesting-example: Herbert Hoover (GOP) had the Bonus Expedition marchers tear-gassed in 1932, and there was a real fear that many WWI veterans were ripe for an uprising over benefits. In fact, some had been approached by Wall Street to do this very-thing, but it was reported to the Senate by USMC General Smedley Butler. Seasoned-veterans have faced death, they aren't so afraid of the bosses when they return stateside. Their bullshit-tolerance has basically evaporated, and they have an enormous potential for being radical agents of change, a powerful social-force. Do a search on Shay's rebellion, it's another interesting-example of dissatisfied-veterans who had had enough. It's a hopeful-sign that an unprecedented-number of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are entering-politics as anti-war candidates. It means they understand the traditions that are good in our unique history--or at least that's my hope.

But, to criticize the commander-in-chief while an officer on active-duty is considered poor-decorum by the High Command, a move by a Command General into the realms of the political. This is a serious-development. In some specific-contexts, it can be defined as an act of treason. However, retired-Generals have been breaking their long-held tradition of not criticizing policy-moves at the White House in public-statements. These guys have been holding press-conferences to expound on the obvious wrong-headedness of Bush administration foreign-policy, including the problems they've created with Iran, North Korean and Pakistan. Shortly after 9/11, the Bush administration threatened to hit North Korea with a nuclear-strike during six-party negotiations.

Pakistan has hardly been cooperative in rooting-out Al-Qaeda and other extremist-elements fostered by their intelligence-community, and Bush has offered nothing to coax-them with. Like Clinton, he's had to provide North Korea with food and fuel everytime the regime throws-a-fit (China provides food and fuel too). Frankly, I see no legacy, no accomplishments save-one: he has worsened the situation in the Middle East, possibly dragging the world to the brink of a global-conflagaration. He has also undermined the Bill of Rights in a six-year assault, and recently ended Habeus Corpus (the right to know why you are being imprisoned).

WHY HASN'T OHIO REP. BOB NEY RESIGNED YET?

Washington D.C.--That's a rhetorical question.

The answer is obvious: the GOP will do anything, and I mean anything to keep their majority. Why? To continue shielding the Bush administration. The Democrats don't really want a genuine house-cleaning either because most of them are dirty too.

They are all basically complicit with the Bush administration, and bipartisan goof on their part. Cold busted. The Bush years will be remembered in history for being the time when the public finally had the scales fall from its collective-eyes, and discovered that their political system needed an overhaul.

Ney isn't resigning because Bush and Cheney need him for that margin majority. They have to have to avoid prison, and the fear is becoming palpable throughout the political culture. Even the pundits and ideologues like Bill O'Reilly seem more restrained lately. That's because they had better shut-up. Washington DC's culture has always been one of blackmail, and this whole affair with Foley is a cream dream for politics junkies. Why it didn't occur during Clinton is beyond me, but who cares? It's happening now.

EBOLA SYNDROME (1996) review

'A gangster Chick [Ed.-WTF is a 'gangster Chick'?!] smuggled into South Africa to avoid being caught. One day, he rapes and murders a black girl who is infected with a terrible Ebola virus. He has no idea that he becomes the carrier of the disease [Ed.-actually, he does). Later he kills his boss couple [?!] and minces their bodies into the hamburgers. To escape from arrest, he flies back to Hong Kong and continues to spread the Ebola virus.....'

--from the back-panel notes of the Ebola Syndrome DVD

Damn the People's Republic of China for annexing Hong Kong, because we will never see a film quite as insane, hilarious and absurd as Ebola Syndrome. I have to assume that these movies (and this one in-particular) were made for geeky Asian-guys, or maybe to entertain members of the Tongs. This is for guys, not women, and sure to be turned-off by wives and girlfriends across North America, if-not most of the civilized world. Naturally, this is what makes the film so good, heh-heh. So guys, pop-open a brewskie, kick-off your socks, and enjoy. Just be prepared for a hernia from laughing harder than you ever have in your entire life, this is the real-deal for you lovers of genre-movies. I am 100% certain that Quentin Tarantino has watched this and called it one of his many "all-time favorites", it is that good. It's very juvenile, stupid, absurd, idiotic, racist, sexist, homophobic, more xenophobic than the Japanese, and completely indefensible...but also a real laugh-riot because of this.

OK, so not much plot here, just lots of violence, hilarious-cussing and maybe some of the most-absurd moments in HK cinema. The only other movie that could be more ridiculous would be 'The Story of Ricky', which is a classic. Kai is a screw-up worker at a Tong-owned restaurant in HK, and the boss's squeeze has been forcing-sex on him (I know, what horrible-thing, but what do you do besides chew bubble-gum and kick-some-ass?). The Chinese mafia-boss discovers Kai and his woman bonking, and decides to castrate him. Unimaginably, things get worse. Kai offers to do-it-himself as a fake-out-ploy, and instead, murders everybody with a kitchen-utensil. Nice. He has to flee to somewhere-else, and hey, the title is Ebola Syndrome after-all. He goes to South Africa, since there are cities to shoot in, as well as the African plains and jungle (and cheap, South African extras).

Kai is there for 10-years, working-for the people who smuggled him there. The husband-and-wife restaurateurs make him do everything at this lousy-job, including chopping the meat for their 'frog-rice' specialty, which sounds profoundly-disgusting. You see a LOT of grue and gore in this film, and most of it is animals (vegetarian porn). Even a mouse is run-over by a car later in the film. Yeah, this is one the ASPCA probably have on their shit-list. Kai stumbles from one hilarious (and unsettling and violent) scenario to-another throughout the film, eventually returning to HK and spreading the virus everywhere he can. The rest is about the hilarious-scenery, the ride. It's possibly the funniest movie I own, and I'm not-kidding about this. You have to see this before you die, it's THAT funny, a (real) punk/existentialist spit-in-the-face of the world by the filmmakers, a hilarious protest against an absurd human-condition. It's deeply-misanthropic, which I can relate to. ;0) Yes ladies, horrible-things happen to women in this movie, but even-worse happens to the male-characters. If there is a line, the makers of Ebola cross-it, which is admirable.

If William S. Burroughs were alive today, he would likely say he wished he had written this--I wonder if he ever saw it? It's sure reminiscent of his routines, isn't it (think the most vile-parts of Naked Lunch)? I sure hope he saw it. Own it, watch it, cherish it. The DVD is superb-in-quality, and it's cheap. Films like Ebola Syndrome are why there are HK-fans, it's vile and bizarre but very entertaining stuff. You could NEVER do this in Hollywood, not even in most American indies. The taboo-breaking is too-much for our culture to withstand, which makes this a counterculture film to-be-sure. It even boasts a pretty good cinematography for such a cheap movie, and that's another thing to like about HK cinema, it has some great frame-composition and cinematography. Outside of a Miike's or Seijun Suzuki's, HK cinema just has the deepest-hues.

IT'S NOVEMBER 8TH, AND THEY'VE STOLEN THE ELECTION AGAIN...WHAT DO YOU DO?

THE NEAR-FUTURE--This time, we know it's going to be attempted, they have no-choice. If the GOP loses the House and the Senate, they're going to be under-investigation for two-years (maybe more). The mess is so-tangled, it might take a decade to drain this cesspool, and virtually an entire political-generation of Republican politicians could be gone forever. But even if they do win both Houses of Congress back (which they won't), the GOP as it has been is no more. So, what are you going to do? Sitting at home or at work, and cowering is the wrong-answer. Americans and veterans need to lawfully hit-the-streets in a color-revolution, just like in the former Soviet Republics, like the Ukraine and Georgia. The elections will have to be hotly-contested in acts of civil-disobedience, or at least in any self-respecting nation. ;0) The job will have just begun. Act like you got some. History has arrived, and there won't be anywhere to run.

COME ON HUFFINGTON POST: GOOGLE DONATES PALTRY-SUMS TO GOP CANDIDATES

THE BLOGOSPHERE--Yesterday, Huffingtonpost.com did a minor-piece in their 'Eat the Press' section that Google has donated $1,000 to these GOP Candidates: 'Heather Wilson of New Mexico, Deborah Pryce of Ohio, and James Sensenbrenner, head of the House Judiciary Committee...At least two of the candidates, Wilson and Sensenbrenner, have porfolios that implicate the use and regulation of the Internet. ' Yes? $1,000 from a corporation that is worth $150 Billion? They're flexing their muscle--well, barely, the amounts are symbolic at best. Yes, they're also hiring former GOP lobbyists.

Oh, and by-the-way states the fluff-piece, they gave $1,000 to two Democrats. Nevermind that yahoo has turned-in Chinese-dissidents, and nevermind that Google refused to turn-over the search-lists of users to the Bush administration without-a-warrant--Google is BIG, therefore EVIL. What crap. What a non-story that originated as tiny San Jose Mercury article. Then, Huffington Post tacks-on a misleading byline, and voila! Crap. Arianna shows some very poor-judgement sometimes, but we on the outside are here to balance her. I want to like her and her co-bloggers (Harry Shearer will never let me down), but they're making it difficult sometimes. It's about trust, Arianna.

The Original irritant:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eat-the-press/2006/10/21/googles-new-pac-skews-re_e_32222.html

Why did Patrick Tillman die?

"While there was no one specific finding of fault, the investigation results indicate that Corporal Tillman probably died as a result of friendly fire while his unit was engaged in combat with enemy forces." --LT. GEN. PHILIP R. KENSINGER JR, May 2004

"The war in Iraq is so fucking illegal!"

--Pat Tillman, 2003

The United States of America--Pat Tillman was an extraordinary individual. As an accomplished athlete--and a student--he was the best and the brightest America had to offer. To his fans, he was an all-American, and friends and family have all stated that he really loved his country and its people.

Football players are part of the central iconography of this country--regardless of our feelings about "the game"--and the sport is often used as a metaphor for America's past-role in the world.

But, football is also used to stir-up a mindless super patriotism and an unthinking obedience to business, the State, and a competitiveness that is uniquely-American. It can contribute to a mindset of life being only 'winners-and-losers', but Pat Tillman wasn't a believer in all of this. He was a true believer in decency and what is right, and by all indications, he was a wonderful guy who genuinely wanted to protect his nation in the wake of the attacks of September 11th, 2001.

In 2002, he and his brother enlisted for a three year tour with the Army Rangers. There are more than 2,000-pages of testimony in the account of his 2004 killing in Afghanistan by fratricide ('friendly fire'). There are many contradictions in the testimony, and it was a full five weeks before his family was even notified of his death by the US Army. This fact alone is deeply-troubling, and doesn't serve the football iconography well for Statists. Neither did the real Pat Tillman--he was practically a closet-Leftist, and a critic of the War in Iraq.

Tillman's family was only told of his "friendly fire" death a few days before his burial (they were previously lied-to and told he was killed by enemy fire). It's unfortunate that his family thought John McCain would get any results for them, because he hasn't and won't. Entire sections of the reports on Tillman's death are still classified, and McCain hasn't delivered any major goods, just some belated consolation that earns him political points in Arizona.

A 2005 San Francisco Chronicle piece highlights Tillman's persona a bit:

Interviews also show a side of Pat Tillman not widely known — a fiercely independent thinker who enlisted, fought and died in service to his country yet was critical of President Bush and opposed the war in Iraq, where he served a tour of duty. He was an avid reader whose interests ranged from history books on World War II and Winston Churchill to works of leftist Noam Chomsky, a favorite author. (SFC, 9/25/2005)

It doesn't sound like your typical football-player, does it? My hunch is that Tillman saw something that night he wasn't supposed to, and had been pretty opinionated about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan around his fellow-solidiers.

I believe he went to Afghanistan to bear-witness as nobody in civilian life could. He was well-equipped to be a fighter for truth when he got back, and he was a very intelligent man who had graduated from college Summa Cum Laude. How many football players study to get a degree in history while playing professional football?

What's so disheartening is that immediately following his death, the Bush administration and their allies in the media seized-upon the icons, using a dead man who disagreed with them. This wasn't new to them as they used the bodies of 2,700 9/11 victims for political capital, until recently.

More disgusting epitaphs were the social Darwinist prose vomited by people like Ann Coulter [who] described Tillman as "an American original -- virtuous, pure and masculine like only an American male can be."' Right, there are no people anywhere else like this. Pat Tillman would have disagreed strenuously and he respected the underdog. Imagine if he had survived, and gotten to meet Dr. Chomsky as he had planned. Coulter and her ilk would have dragged him through-the-mud, or ignored him entirely.

It is possible that one-or-more of his comrades in A Company, 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment wanted him dead? We'll probably never know, since their stories keep-changing. It could easily be gross-negligence, but why wait five weeks? Why classify so much? Why was all of SPC Tillman's uniform and flak-jacket burned under orders? One investigating officer suggested some of the troops present at Tillman's death should be charged with "criminal intent." Why?

The questions are all troubling ones. Tillman also had a habit of keeping a journal all the time. What happened to his journal from Afghanistan? The Army began a criminal investigation in March of this-year. The prospects for human-survival are dimming, made-possible by your inaction.

Lightly Revised, 09.19.2008

Tillman Timeline:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?id=2517567

Related:
http://www.edgeofsports.com/2006-03-07-179/index.html
http://www.iraqwarheroes.com/tillman.htm
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/25/MNGD7ETMNM1.DTL

A good blogpiece on the Diary:
http://the-wrecking-machine.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_the-wrecking-machine_archive.html

Dr. Chomsky:
http://www.chomsky.info/

AMERICAN DEATH-TOLL REACHES 78 IN OCTOBER

IRAQ-Just thought I'd remind you that there is NO CIVIL WAR IN IRAQ. Or that the city of Amarah was temporarily-taken by Shia militiamen--never happened, forget-it. Like we have to tell you. We won't need any exit-strategy, we'll have to retreat. Yes, I told-you-so. Kids, if you ever wondered what the Vietnam war was like, you're getting your chance to witness the same idiocy (minus the draft, but that's going to return eventually). November 7th: you'll be apathetic when the GOP steals another election, too. We have the President we deserve, that's clear.


PS: Those militiamen are backed by Iran, another fine-accomplishment by the Bush administration and your apathy. Cracking-down on them was effective. Thanks America.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/10/20/iraq-amarah.html

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=7370

http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/iraq/articles/20060630.aspx

http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2005/09/shia_militia_fi.html

Techno Animal's 'Re-entry' (1995): The Best Album of the 1990s?

There are albums that impact the fabric of popular music in a way that is lasting, and this was one of them. Nobody ever caught on to JK Flesh's (Justin Broadrick of Napalm Death, Godflesh & Jesu) and KMart's (Kevin Martin, GOD, ICE) albums, and they were missing-out. After hearing their first CD, "Ghosts" (1991), I was terrified!

There are no words for the sonic assault they had on that album, it was very sample-based, and very industrial-sounding (like Throbbing Gristle or Faust). Re-entry has the same feeling that "Bitches Brew" gave me on that first listen--there was a newness that felt like they were looking into the future, and it was exciting. There is a strange trippy utopianism to the electric period of Miles, but Re-entry is dystopian and menacing. Yet, there are aspects of Techno Animal's oeuvre that can even sound elegiac and dreamy, a kind of "flowers in the ruins" quality that's beggars description. Most of the material was done with samplers and computers and is best described as electro-acoustic studio compositions with some live elements thrown-in.

Most of Re-entry has a kind of "noirish"quality that would fit well into the world of Blade Runner. Broadrick and Martin's music has a strange way of making the end of everything seem beautiful and poetic, like the writings of Thomas Pynchon. For this reason, it is very spiritual in an existentialist sense, a kind of musical raging against the abyss that I enjoy. Re-entry has some excellent hip-hop beats and electronics over an ambient soundscape, but you could imagine this stuff blaring over the destruction of Baghdad too. It has the quality of music one would imagine the imperial courts of the Mandarins or the Rajahs had. It's very psychedelic--like a fever dream--a haze of intoxication, often conveying a sense of the pastoral and the arboreal. Some tracks miss-the-mark, but it's an amazing 2+ hours for trainspotters and music addicts. You don't need drugs here, this music is drugs. But if you ever really want to scare-the-shit out of rap fans who play their bass too loud on their rigs, play this very-very loudly around them. The white-noise and subharmonic-frequencies alone will force them leave its proximity.

In the spirit of fairness, I have to mention the other CD of 1995 that is its coequal--Scorn's "Gyral" (Mick Harris, formerly of Napalm Death), an artist who definitely influenced the creation of Re-entry. If I was to describe the Scorn of the mid-1990s, it would be a dub sound with hip-hop beats and sampled-textures (often ambient), and very dark, even Apocalyptic. That's the kind of music that seems to emanate from Birmingham, England. But Re-entry has the same approach to that electric-period Miles, and even a few players who worked with him during that the 1960s-70s. Complimenting this is the legendary Jon Hassell who created his own "4th world music" (a hybrid of electronics, free-jazz, serialism, minimalism, and more). Hassell came out of the "no wave" scene of the 1980s along with Bill Laswell and others.

It's funny how I finally got a copy of Re-entry: it came by-way of Mick Harris himself in 1999. We were trading music through the mails at the time, and Reentry was part of a trade. You couldn't find this album at the time, it just vanished in the US after 1995 just barely making its release through Caroline. Yes, Justin had given the CD to him through the mails--that's how difficult it was for me to find it. Two former members of Napalm Death owned it. I'll never sell it, never! I assume it did much better in Europe, but it wasn't a big commercial success. Again, Virgin records didn't even bother releasing it widely in America even though it was part of an ambient series that included Brian Eno, Hassell, the Orb, and many others. The Wire magazine listed Re-entry in their Top 50 albums of 1995, but musical tastes are more educated and eclectic in the UK than they are here in the US. The UK edition to the Soundtrack to "The Acid House" (an Irvine Welsh story, the author of Trainspotters) has a Techno Animal cut, while the US edition omitted it altogether! That says it all, doesn't it? Artists like Broadrick and Martin are anathema to an industry that has tried to compartmentalize music into genres, and the public also prefers this. With the advent of the Internet, it just seems inevitable that the genres will break down eventually since they're ultimately artificial, and when the original commercial and emotional reasons for them no longer exist, they'll be gone.

The invention of genres and the cult of personality have held music back for a very long time. Music itself has to be organic and ever-changing for it to survive, like life itself, its source. Music cannot stop moving, or it has already died. Like art hanging in a gallery, it has lost its edge and its dangerousness and has been tamed. Something old, something new...I want to hear Jon Hassell cutting-loose over an ambient beatscape with his trumpet some more! These guys are innovators, and they therefore defy categorization which is problematic to lazy music journalists and mainstream labels (the ones that have survived!). Techno Animal folded in early 2004 after a number of failed-attempts at capturing some kind of access to the mainstream, the most notable being their hybrid rap opus "Brotherhood of the Bomb"(Matador records, 2001), which featured heavily mutated hip-hop tracks with seasoned underground MCs. The results weren't that great and neither was the reaction.

Some cuts work, but most of it just didn't click with most rap fans and the North American tour had a very mixed-response. Ironically, the tracks that worked best were instrumentals. Yet, you have to have people like them to achieve any innovations and the music industry knows this very well. Without some form of forward movement, people begin to lose interest (too late!). With no cutting-edge artists being put out there, they start downloading Eminem and copying it to a CDr or an iPod. Or, they finally break down and start making it themselves.

Before you download that album or track, just be sure to pay artists like Justin & Kevin, they've earned that right. At least they're experiencing some success of late--Justin with Jesu and Martin with The Bug (HARD dancehall techno). Someone has to write the soundtrack to the Apocalypse. If not them, why not YOU?

Revised, 08.01.2009

NEW GOP TAGLINE (Plus: No-love for Academe)

'We at the GOP aren't just doing it for the children, we're doing it to them.'



The Fuhrer alone is the present and future German reality and its law. Learn to know ever more deeply: from now on every single thing demands decision, and every action responsibility. --Martin Heidegger

I know, too-mean...tough-shit. To the rest of the Left: you are doddering, worthless-puds who think 'fair-play' applies to the most ruthless cutthroats we've ever seen in American-politics. You are dead-wrong, and impotent. 'Fair-play' would have left Hitler in-power, the game has changed again.Most of you think you're not authoritarian, but--surprise--you're wrong again. Most of you are too-timid to risk losing your petty-privileges, fuck-you assholes. 'My mortgage is more-important than the future of our children and grandchildren.' Be honest and just say it.

But you're wrong, you should be homeless for even thinking this way, and I'd be the first to kick-your-ass into the streets. Like the people in the streets of the Middle East, I'm hardly-alone in wanting you in-prison or dead. You are cowards, so why not waste- yourselves, or change? Ever wonder why Bush still has 30% support? It's the functionaries, like the pond-scum commisars in the Soviet Union. This 20% is the backbone that needs to be gutted and replaced with human-beings. We really should just fire all of you, and take-away your citizenship rights-to-protection (along with CEOs and the political-aristocracy), then ostracize most of you. The discomfort you all fear is coming sooner, rather than later.

And we'll remove you legally, too. You've left a detailed paper-trail, so there won't be anywhere to run.This isn't directed-at working-stiffs, it's aimed at the 20% who service the establishment--professionals, middle-management, bureaucrats, small-businessmen (petit-bourgeois), technocrats and academics. If our lives are worthless, so are yours, as this will be borne-out as conditions worsen for American families. You'll be wiped-out in the social-disaster you could have prevented, just like the aristocracy basically was in Europe. The lynchpin for justifying any modern system is with the intelligensia. Before this, it was the Church and her clerics (now 'clerks'!).

YES, academics. Noam Chomsky or Ward Churchill are statistical-anomalies in American universities, as most professors are shills and apologists for American imperialism. Education does NOT equal a better-individual. Being consistently-logical, credible and decent is what matters. But this wouldn't mean benefiting from our system of rewards, would it? Over half of the the SS-Einsatzgruppen Kommandants (roving death-squads) in the Nazi-invasion of the Soviet Union held a Doctorate. The vast-majority of concentration camp Kommandants had Doctorates, because they were the keepers-of-the-keys to the justifications of power. So are you.

Really, change or kill-yourselves, you know you're shit. The majority of German academics brazenly-supported Hitler and NSDAP, and you're doing the same-thing. Ernst Roehm's SA (Brown Shirts) were almost entirely homosexuals, and who stopped the SS from prostituting young German girls into the the 'lebensborn' birthing-brothels? It's all about power, nothing-else. Americans will accept this, just as they accept almost anything, especially the higher-up they reach. Academic-opportunists: You are pathetic, only caring-about your precious careers, and you are animals. You underscore the specific-failures of the Enlightenment and classical-liberalism. You could rationalize anything. Small-wonder the public hates you and what you really are, which is primarily a gaggle of deluded-elitists. The irony: most of you expect us working-stiffs to go out and save America, when you're tenured in your dumbass jobs--you would keep that job, while we would lose ours. Yes, you can afford to miss-a-day, while we would be fired. We need academics, just not ones who worship power like you do. (A)pathetic.

For Republicans and Priests (but mostly, Bishops):
www.nambla.org

For Lovers of Academe:

http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/racism.htm

http://www.plp.org/books/Stalin/node72.html

http://www.counterpunch.org/boyle11012004.html

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/arendt.html

http://heidegger.biography.ms/

GOP FOLEY REVEALS NAME OF PEDOPHILE-PRIEST

SARASOTA, FLORIDA--The name please: Rev. Anthony Mercieca, a 72-year-old Brazilian (or 69, depending on which wire service you read), now living in a posh Italian-home on an island in the Mediterranean (like a Pagan philosopher). It seems he must not bea Franciscan. Great time to be a Catholic, eh? I was baptised a Catholic, but I'm lapsed--apparently, the only route to heaven is to be fondled by a priest, go-figure. The Church has nada, nothing. You die and that's it. Maybe your lifeforce enters nature to be recycled, and maybe reincarnation is real. Why not? We keep making the same stupid-mistakes over-and-over as a species, so reincarnation may-as-well be real. The biggest-mistake is trusting authority of any-kind, especially religious. They have true no-authority vested in them, and no more answers to the big 'whys' then that old-lady you saw waiting for a bus yesterday on the corner. If there is a divine-spark within us, nobody has a monopoly on it. Priests: get a real-job, be one of us, be normal and human. Leave the Church, it's poison as an institution. People are the only thing that matters, so leave and be one of us.

I was raised by Grandparents and a mother who had open-minds. My Grandparents were from Arkansas and Kansas, a hotbed of oldtime, prarie-Populism. Somehow, the best-parts of that tradition rubbed-off on them, because they always told us, 'Never trust the Preacherman, they're all crooks who should get a real-job. They just want your money. Trust-yourself.' There is no-better message I can think-of than that, and we have been a family of non-conformists, and will continue to be however this nation goes. If you are not being yourself, you may-as-well be dead. There are a lot of walking-dead in America, and they've chosen to be stiffs. And where do women fit into all of this? Exactly, nowhere, most of them are being victimized or trying to protect their children from these predators, and they have such a minor-role in the Church that it's just dowdy and anachronistic in the 21st Century. But there is a disturbing sub-trend of female-teachers molesting students, and the causes should be investigated. We'll likely find-out what is beginning to dawn on us--that molestation is deeply-rooted in American culture (we won't mention the Dutch this-time). All the Churches' assets in the West should be taken by the State and spent on the poor, period. Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Jew, Hindus, Unitarians, and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. No tax-breaks, no Church-owned businesses, nada.

The most pathetic-aspect of the Foley scandal is that Mercieca seems to have no-comprehension of what he did, and even ascribes one of the episodes to 'tranquilizers', and that he 'can't remember.' The best-one: 'I was having a nervous-breakdown.' What was it about? Somehow, I think he's being cadgey. Maybe, but why do we keep-hearing 'the Devil-made-me-do-it' defense, finished by, 'But I don't use it as an excuse.' Right, then why mention it? Because you're a liar who has never told the truth about who and what you really are. Even when you've been caught red-handed, you lie, which reveals that you are truly an animal who should be caged in some way. Hopefully, some Italian Policeman, or a band of young Sicilian-toughs finds this ex-priest and tap-dances on his head. He's genuinely earned-it with his comments of 'we didn't have a sexual-relationship, but we did swin-nude together alot.' It's a half-assed confession that is barely an admission of anything: 'I merely thought about doing it.' There shouldn't be any statue of limitations on pedophilia, and there should be victim-restitution, particularly in cases where the victims were abused the powerful.

His denial that much happened is typical of a pedophile, but we can assume a lot did happen, since the episodes caused Foley to become a pedohile himself. They would have to be intense (penetration) and protracted, probably going-on for years. What is it that attracts such men to the Church--or does the institution make them that way? Is it a combination of both? I cannot imagine why: forced-celibacy that even the apostle Paul would have found bizarre, segregation of the sexes, and no-marriages to keep property (land) in the Church. Go ask Mercieca on the Island of Gozo, pay him a visit, but be nice (or not). Just watch-out for the Knights of Malta, that Alexander Haig is good with a bastard-sword.

For your Next-vacation (don't take the kids!):
http://www.islandofgozo.org/map.htm

A Worthwhile Religion:

http://www.venganza.org/

"I think I'd just commit suicide" : SEN JOHN MCCAIN ON IF THE DEMOCRATS TAKE THE SENATE

WASHINGTON--You promise Johnny? We don't want to promise what we cannot-deliver--or do we? You've prostrated-yourself to the Bush administration so-many times it seems your North Vietnamese captors broke you long-ago. You've been dead-inside since that time, so why not bite the cyanide-ampule like a good Nazi? You let your boss pass a torture-bill...yes, what was done to you in Hanoi, you pathetic-simp. You are a coward, and a traitor, and history will not look-kindly on you. It would be better not to be remembered at-all, safe in the anonymity of the masses like the rest-of-us. Nobody is gonna want you as President after all the times you kissed the Devil's ass, so why bother?

Why did Bob Dole, when it was obvious he had no-charisma or support? Why did he constantly refer to himself in the third-person? Because he's an asshole with a Napoleon complex like you, that's why. And what is most pathetic is that you either didn't learn the lessons of Vietnam, or you don't want to. John Kerry is equally-pathetic, finally revealing he looks more like the Joker than Katherine Harris. Maybe we're going to find-out things about you all soon, and that it won't be pretty, but I believe we know enough. They named a boat after you, Johnny, just like Reagan and George H.W. Bush--I hope they're all sunk by a $100.00 smoke-grenade or a gold-tipped RPG (no rebuilds). You and your ilk's days are numbered. If we have to fight your goons in the streets with rocks and pipes, we will take you out of the capitol. You seem to want things to be pushed that far, which is queer. So mote it be.

The Ruling Class (1972) review

Could there be a film crazier than Marat/Sade (1966)? Yes, it is the O'Toole/Medak/Barnes collaboration from 1972, 'The Ruling Class.' One could be forgiven in thinking this was a Ken Russell film, but it isn't like he was alone in making blistering-cinema during the late 1960s, early 1970s. We will probably never see an era in movies like this again, it was so free and unfettered by the studio system that it pushed the envelope forever (only to have what is acceptable in commercial cinema recede again). Many viewers would say this kind of film is overindulgent, but that is entirely the point. The Ruling Class was originally given an 'X' rating in the UK in the 154-minute cut, but was released with 20-minutes removed in the American PG-version.

The 2001 Criterion edition is the first time the film has been widely-available in this original cut as it was shown at Cannes. There is no better edition, it is perfect, and a must-own for anyone who loves serious cinema.

The story began as a successful 1968 play by Peter Barnes, and it was considered bizarre for its anti-naturalism, as well as the comments on the English aristocracy. If I describe much of it, the effect will be ruined, but there are musical numbers in a movie that is not a musical (similar to Brecht here). Similar to Artuad's 'theater of cruelty', the approach is to alienate the audience in particular moments--sometimes throughout the entire piece! This was common in the cutting-edge cinema of the time, just watch A Clockwork Orange (1971), Ken Russell's The Devils, or even Midnight Cowboy (1970). Barnes rewrote the screenplay with very few changes, but don't think that the O'Toole/Medak version is simply a filmed play. It is not, it is much more than that.

At once, a parable on the folly of belief systems, it has much to say about the flimsy glue that is the ruling-class anywhere. Some hierarchy is inevitable in this life, but do we want crazy imbeciles running the developed world? And what of psychiatry or academia? Both are beholden to their own class assumptions, as The Ruling Class amply illustrates. Oddly, it is all about the end of all belief, a hallmark of the time it was made in.

The story is pretty strange, yet plausible: the 13th Earl of Gurney (Harry Andrews) has accidentally hung himself in an act of autoerotic asphyxiation, a monologue/prologue scene that lasts over 15-minutes! It's riveting, nonetheless. With the old Earl dead, there is only one heir left for the Lordship of the Gurneys: the Earl's crazy son, Jack (O'Toole). Jack is completely insane, and thinks he is Jesus Christ, messiah and savior of the human race. The would-be Lord is a paranoid-schizophrenic. He is so insane, his speech patterns betray him immediately. He has constant tics, and flights of fancy that defy words, and make this the finest performance by Peter O'Toole in any film (it's his favorite of all of his film performances). 

The performance was nominated for numerous awards in 1972. He really is a sweet character in the first half of the film, and shows some wonderful humanism that is lacking in the rest of his kin. His only conscience is the butler (James Villiers), a closet anarchist! His character recedes as Jack becomes...even more oddly different.

With Jack insane, his uncle Sir Charles (William Mervyn) sets-out to get him declared by a German-psychiatrist he has hand-picked...or has he? It appears that his sister, the Lady Claire Gurney has had an affair with the analyst, and has other-plans for Jack and the whole situation. But Charles has decided he can control Jack through a call-girl he has groomed as the heir's wife, a Grace Shelly (played by the super hot Carolyn Seymour). They are eventually-married by the very reluctant Bishop Lampton (the legendary Alastair Sim!), a distant relative in the Church of England. In such an environment of intrigue, being a paranoid-schizophrenic would be a natural reaction, so one is struck by the fact that being one of the 'ruling class' means to be eventually driven mad. The jokes are biting in this one, with some of the best retorts I have ever heard! To sum it up, the factions are battling for control of the estate through Jack, who is 'J.C.' in the first half of the film. The German psychiatrist finally decides he can cure the would-be Lord with a radical-approach: he finds another madman (the 'High-voltage Messiah', an insane Scot played unforgettably by Nigel Green) who thinks he is God, and puts them in the same room together. It should be noted that Green died after the end of shooting from a barbituate overdose.

This approach of 'two gods in one room' actually has been attempted in psychiatry before, but it usually doesn't work; the delusions are impenetrable. The problem is, the High-voltage Messiah thinks he's the Old Testament God of Wrath and destruction, and it causes a crisis in Jack's version of Jesus, destroying it utterly. You could say that both characters embody the Manichean mythos, and that they hold a heretical view of religion. The High-Voltage Messiah represents the 'demiurge', the blind idiot god of gnosticism, while Jack represents gnostics who believe in the Christ within. Previously, Jack has denied his name as part of his illness and just wanted to be someone else. This is interesting, since early Christians often were given a new name upon entering the cult. Unfortunately, this warmer Christ personality is gone after the treatment, and all that is left is the Old Testament God, and so, Jack takes on the role he was destined to all along. 'I'm Jack, I'm Jack,' says the future Lord, and the psychiatrist and the family think a cure has occurred. 'I'm Jack, alright...Jack the Ripper,' states O'Toole in a moment of hilarity and horror. Instead of the Prince of Peace, he's begun advocating bringing the 'noose back to England', and nobody in the ruling circles notices him as odd anymore. It's really sums up the tone of the film. Most unsettling is the image of the German psychiatrist carrying a cardboard-cutout of the murdered Lady Claire around, yelling 'Cock-a-doodle-doo!'

It becomes clear that Jack is going to be the quintessential 'Lord of Old', a murderer and a punisher, a warlord and an ancient patriarch who kills his children to feed the bloodlust that is at the heart of the will to power. Nobody will be controlling Jack: the butler is off to prison, Charles and the Bishop are off to a nursing home, and the rest had better watch their backs. He dispatches a few of them forthwith. There are a number of scenes that are expressionist: we see some of Jack's hallucinations, such as when he murders Lady Claire in an 1888 Whitechappel-setting, or when he comes to the House of Lords for the first-time--he sees all of his peers as rotted, animated corpses, intercut with what we see. Jack views reality through a poetic lens, nonetheless. 

This latter scene speaks volumes of the undead nature of ruling institutions, and used to be applied to the Catholic Church; it is a Medieval notion. But, it could apply to the aristocracy of Great Britain, which seems to be eternal. It should be noted that the film is a great technical achievement in cinematography and composition. There are also very creative applications of sound elements that aren't related to the images, which are very effective, and are reminiscent of similar techniques in Midnight Cowboy. Bizarre, sexy, unsettling, entertaining, thought-provoking, and classic. The ending? There is no end to this story.

WHY A LOW-YIELD NUKE TEST ISN'T POSSIBLE FOR NORTH KOREA

PYONGYANG--Don't believe the stories--North Korea didn't necessarily detonate anything of a nuclear-nature in their tests. Why? We were fooled about WMDs before, weren't we? Yes, you were. But why not? Because, if it was under 1-kilotonne (about 200-tonnes of tnt), it might mean a level of sophistication that the North Koreans simply could not posess. Some nuclear physicists--many on the government's pay--are saying it might be the 'geology' of the test-site. Ok. Others are saying...a lot of bullshit they were told to by the Bush administration. Look closely at who these scientists are, and who they have to answer-to. It might mean they're lying to save their mortgages. Yes, the world is completely out-of-control. Only a nation state like America, China, France--basically the original family of nuclear-powers--can achieve a low-yield nuclear warhead. What would happen to Bush's ability to get loans for the war in Iraq if the world found-out China supplied North korea with everything they needed for a low-yield bomb? The tide of nationalism in America would end those loans, and the money would stop. Things would get much-uglier in Iraq after that.

CLEAR THIS UP FOR ME: RUMOR HAS IT GEORGE W. BUSH IS BUYING A 98,000 ACRE RANCH IN PARAGUAY--TRUE?

PARAGUAY--It puts him right on the border of one of the allies of Hugo Chavez, namely Bolivia. President Evo Morales is very-friendly with Hugo, and even Fidel. Socialism is on the march! So, riddle-me-this, Batman: is the rumor true? Does Paraguay have an extradition treaty with the United States and the Hague? Will Chavez, Morales and FARC send in shock-troops to retrieve-him like Eichmann? Bush might want to pardon-himself, but it won't matter if an international body is after him, Cheney and Rumsfeld. He's the anti-Nixon in many-respects, because at least Nixon was smart enough to know when it was time to resign. For Bush, that time came long-ago. It began in March of 2003.

CANADIAN TROOPS BATTLE 10-FOOT MARIJUANA-FOREST, PLANTS WIN

AFGHANISTAN--Our indefatiguable allies, the Canadians, are encountering a new enemy (or and 'old-friend'). The enemy is marijuana, and Taliban forces are using vast forests of the plant as cover. Thermal imaging-devices won't work, and as we know, smoking-them-out won't either. At one-point, the troops considered rolling an entire forest in a giant-paper, but Stephen Harper showed-up and ruined-everything. Straight-edge, I know. The troops considered fragging-his-ass, but decided to have a party instead. 'He's not worth killing, eh,' said a Technical Sergeant who requested his identity be withheld. As of this-week, the entire force in Afghanistan was stoned, even the officers. Many were pining for a jaunt to Second City, or even the Hot Box in Kensington Market, Toronto. No-dice, these boys signed-on with the Harper-administration, and George Bush must be mollified, eh?

I love Canada, I really do. They wouldn't have started a war like this, that's certain. Considering the progress we've made, Saddam Hussein will escape-custody, joining the insurgency with a promise of liberation and order. In Afghanistan, the Taliban will be back-in-power again, only this-time they'll allow the exportation of drugs to infidel-nations to supply terrorism. Hopefully, Mr. Harper will go the way of Silvio Berlusconi. In 22-days, Canada's future will be clearer. If the Bush administration can be taken-down by Congress with a Democratic majority, it should weaken Harper. You think he's holding?

Stay-Maple, Canada, Stay-true:
http://www.notacolony.ca/

An Image for the Ages: WELCOME TO SNYDERVILLE

MICHIANA-Roseland is a troubled-community. Last-week, the Snyders (who control the town council 2-to-1) passed an ordinance whereby nobody can make-comments during a council-meeting--they get a fine of $200.00. This-year, the Snyders fined a member of the Roseland community for saying 'Amen' after ending-comments at a meeting. You have to wonder what the real reasons are for the hatred directed-at the Snyders, there must be a subtext here. Oh yeah, a plane landed on the strip there not-long-ago.

Gemini (2004) review

Shinya Tsukamoto's take on a Meiji era "Cask of Amantillado", and the parable of Cain and Abel, is possibly one of the best Japanese horror-films ever lensed. There are no supernatural-elements, only the landscape of tormented human-souls. This was a for-hire film for Tsukamoto, and was released through Toho studios. For a director who has often expressed his love for the Toho monster films, it was a dream-come-true, and it did well in Japan. The film was originally slated to be less than feature-length, but because of the director's resourcefulness, it was lengthened to a running-time of 83-minutes. I originally thought the film was a little short, but there-it-is. More amazing is the fact that Tsukamototo was director, editor, writer and cinematographer! Perfection is achieved in all-areas.

While based on a story by the noted Japanese author, Edogawa Rampo, Tsukamoto has made a tale that is more his own. First, he changed the setting of the period-piece from the Showa era (1920s), to the late Meiji era when poverty was more-obvious in Japanese society. He also changed a major plot-point: in Edogawa's original, the doppleganger-brother (Sutekichi) murders his brother, throws him into a disused-well, and steals his identity permanently. Tsukamoto's revisions allow-for much more by the survival of the brother (Yukio), and is more realist since the Sutekichi would have to learn all the medical-knowledge Yukio knows. This would push the story into the realms of the supernatural or the absurd. But, the truth is, this is the oldest-story told. The real trick is making it one's own, and the director achieves this with his running-theme of the love-triangle, and a feminine-wisdom that teaches the male-protagonists something they could never learn otherwise. As-usual, there are also the themes of class and one's standing and honor in Japanese society.

It should be noted that the Japanese have been very-obsessed with an aesthetic for purity and order (like Germans?), and this extends to people. Even today, survivors and the children of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are discriminated-against for being "contaminated" and "impure". In the late Meiji era, it was much-worse. The children of the wealthy would be abandoned, just as the brother, Sutekichi. His serpentine-birthmark causes his removal by his purity-obsessed parents, and he is the "bad-seed" to them. The story isn't a long-stretch, and one has to imagine how the real outcasts reacted. And yet, this is still a parable about Japanese society, which has a strangely universal-appeal. Gemini has a tension to it that resembles Poe's stories, and it is also about the psychology between people.

Sutekichi is the monster of this tale, but he was created-by his parents who abandoned-him near the slums. Sutekichi is raised, and taught by a thief to survive, much like an animal. His visage, covered in filth and rat-pelts, is terrifying. He scarcely looks human, a shadow-image of the successful doctor, Yukio. Sutekichi represents the oppression of Japan's violent, disordered-past from the eras of the Shogun and the Samurai. Yukio represents the emergence of a modern Japan, with his work as a doctor and his bourgeois life with his new-wife, Rin. He toils helping cure the rich and the poor alike, and is a hero as a field-doctor in the Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905). This is important: it was the war that ushered-in Japan as a modern nation, and was the first time that a Western power was defeated by an Asian one. This is about a new Japan.

And yet, the story is creepy. Sutekichi murders his mother and father dressed as a shaman or ghost from traditional Japanese-lore. Also, Yukio and Sutekichi are identical-in-appearance. He is an apparition of the past. Also, the doppelganger is universal as an occult-symbol of death and the unknown, and this is perhaps why the film has a wider-appeal. By the end, it's clear that Yukio must absorb his brother to become whole. In killing his brother, there is a union of the past and present. He has understood the depravity of the slums by festering in the well, and he has understood the crimes of his parents. Rin also plays her part in educating Yukio what it is to be poor and desperate--to live like an animal. The doctor will return to his practice a full-man, but there is an ambivalence, as he also looks menacing striding towards the camera. It is very-much like the ending of Scanners, and so, the connection with Cronenberg remains.