Issue 40

News: Whither Immigration?
One major issue in the past month or so was the issue of Immigration and how Bush is stopping it. The big issue in my mind is Why in the world (pun unintended) people would want to come to America at this point in our lives. After 9/11, we have been on the fast track to evolving into the superstate depicted in Orwell's 1984, with a fundementalist twist. We have been arresting people and putting them in prison in Cuba with no possibility for release in their lifetime all due to the fact that they worship the wrong God or have the wrong tone of skin. We have also started a war in a country across the globe and laid its capital to waste and abused its prisoners in ways which would have any other country discredited for life. Either way, any person who wants to go live in a country so bent on proving that one can successfully combine WoodyAllen-like neuroticism and Drunken jingo-ness of most people in Middle America (The Red states) is either insane or stupid. If anything, citizens should be trying to follow Bobby Fisher's lead (minus the self-hating jewishness that has enveloped him in recent years) and expatriate; particularly to Canada, or better yet, France.

Band Name of the Day: Hellton. It comes from the movie The Dead Poet's Society. It is a parody by the students of their real school Welton. Its pillars are Travesty, Horror, Decadence, and Excrement. All of these four would work

Film Idea of the Day: Three cuckholded brothers leave their wives and land in a black and white noirish landscape with surreal characters, two of whom recite ginsberg constantly while playing bass guitar, and another who thinks synching up Madonna to Anton laVey is a viable synch.

Review of the Day: Equus. The play by Paul Schaffer about a boy who blinds horses is a brilliant triumph and a very interesting read. My favorite part is where he actually rides one of the horses who he worships as a God because his father leaves him out of Religion and horses.

Quote of the Day: "I don't want to William Hurt you, I just want your Tango and Cash, so just Pay it forward, and we'll all be Happy Gilmore"
__________Gene Shalit, Family Guy.

Link of the Day: Watch this Stephen Colbert video.

Issue 39

News: Pennsylvania christians fave 47 years in prison for reading the Bible in Public. Kind of.
(To be filled in later)

What would the first thing in your mind be when you heard the subject line to this issue's essay? A man sitting on a park bench having a sandwich while quietly partaking in a reading of the "Good Book" when all of a sudden, The Man puts handcuffs on him? Well, there is an email going around on the internet claiming that 4 men handed out Anti-Homosexuality pamphlets and preaching while a Gay activist group interrupted them and then the preachers are arrested, the writer lamenting that the activists were not arrested. The letter goes on to claim that the four were charged with eight crimes including inciting a riot, posession of instruments of crime (a bullhorn), and ethnic intimidation (tell me how homophobia counts as ethnic intimidation, please). The truth, however wasn't even close to that. First of all there were 11 men, not 4. They acted in a manner that fateful October 10, 2004 more disorderly than the letter claims, resisting arrest and blocking a public street, criminal conspiracy, and disorderly conduct, among other crimes put on some specific members. Ultimately in February 2005, a Philedelphia judge threw the case out of court due to the Philadelphia 11's (their common nickname) first amendment rights. The crime had nothing whatsoever to do with bible reading, but rather the preplanned disruption of a peaceful gathering by a group known as Repent america, to preach to Homosexuals by claiming that they are hellbound sinners commiting a sin right up there with eating shellfish. The security of the event (the gay activists of the letter) decided to block them from view with pink styrofoam squares.

Band Name: The First church of Feline Leukemia. Don't even ask me how it came about because it just did.

Review of the Day: Drop Dead Gorgeous. The best mockumentary based in small town america since True Stories, The movie is about the 50th Annual Sarah Rose Cosmetics American Teen Princess Awards, specifically the effect on the Mount Rose, MN division of the contest on a girl who finds herself targeted, among other contestants in the pageant, for murder. Based on the novel by absurdist author C.D. Payne. Any more would be a giveaway of the actions, but I can tell you it is very good.

Film Idea of the day: I have no idea today, but i will release the title I have decided upon for the film about the radio DJ and ex-sectist taking on the sect, based around Bijou University. The Title is called The Fighting 78th. The title should recall one Biblical verse from Matthew 18:22. Of course, there is also a military division with that name, so I guess it could reach a new market of veterans who have no idea of the plot.

Quote of the day: "URIIIIIIIIIIINEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"
"I think you mean 'Wee'"
"No, because I am a big boy now."
__________Chutney, a toon by Weebl.

Link of the Day: A site which mainly panders to gearheads like me, but here's hoping that other gearheads visit my site.

Issue 38

NEWS: Ann Coulter.
Here's one person I have wanted to write about for a long time, but I must have hesitated for some reason with all the other news: Ann Coulter. She wrote several books, including two books Lies and Treason, which effectively reveal more about the content of the books than most other titles. Al Franken dedicated Two Chapters in his book Lies and The Lying Liars who tell them, to her. She has frequently criticised Muslims and Arabs,claiming that they are all "savages" and terrorists, and I know this is untrue becauseone of the guys on my academic team is Muslim, and so is one of my favorite musicians (Cat Stevens), who is becoming an outspoken activist for social justice. Her criticism probably stems from their role in 9/11, which I believe was equal parts Bush and co. looking for something to increase his polularity and Religious Fanaticism, which leads me on to my next criticism of her, she dedicated an entire chapter of one of her books to debunking the existence of the Religious Right. Any person who has read any previous edition of my blog knows that it is Very Real and very much desiring controlling the USA. Also, she has claimed that the 19th Amendment (allowing women the right to vote), should be repealed to help the Republicans consistently win, which they sadly, would have except in 1964. Another quote regarding 9/11 stated that we should have invaded all muslim countries and converted them to christianity, which, sadly, is even more extreme than the Koran and has led to more atrocities than the Koran. She also claims that liberals hate america, which we don't (we just hate its current state). I would like to use this time to point out my definition of patriotism, which I shared with Mark twain, which is remaining loyal to the principles the country was founded under, and being loyal to the government when it follows those principles only. Conservatives view it as being loyal to the principles the country was founded under, as interpreted by the Government. She has also been known to criticize the New York Times for its left wing bias, but I don't give a damn about a paper's political bias as long as it carries Doonesbury. For some odd reason, she has also said that Sweaters are a sin against God, which makes no sense. She also criticized JFK in her book Treason, whom I believe to be the last truly great president we have ever had, as well as the film Good Night and Good Luck, in several recent columns. Another thing to note is that she has been quoted as saying that we as a people underestimate the power of fascism and should embrace it, and related is a quote saying "Frankly, I'm not a big fan of the First Amendment." Sieg Heil.

Band Name of the Day: Anime Comatose Sharon. It was the most absurd name I can think of, and the image of a far-right comatose PM of Israel on some bizarre quest seems like a likely TV show idea, un Japan at least.

Film idea of the Day: WOT??!!?&,:;%${}: The Series. A TV series (probably direct to DVD), continuing the adventures of the DeMinnow Family, Schrader, and The Pyro, in varying styles.

Film Review of the Day: Blast From the Past. This is a fish out of water story of a man who lived in a fallout shelter since the sixties and emerges in the Present day. I personally found it to be very funny in showing the culture shock, and one particularly memorable scene shows him with having a conversation with his father in different languages, including French, German, and Latin.

Quote of the Day: We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men— not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.
This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.

____Edward Murrow.

Link of the Day: A review of the Dissertation of Kent Hovind, Chick Collaborator.

Tract Reviews: The Star: A star named Douglas Ford (portmonteau of Michael Douglas and Harrison Ford) is saved in a hospital by a nurse who tells him about the eternal damnation his unbelief and the fact that he is payed $22 mill. for a nude scene.

Also, there are new Afrocentric versions of Classic Tracts:
It's Your Life- That was your life.
Hard Times- Somebody Loves You.