Issue 109

News: Roe v. Wade XXXV.
Today marks the 35th anniversary of the famous court decision legalizing (or more accurately declared unconstitutional all laws regulating) abortion. As a student in a Catholic high school, I knew that people in there would have made a big brouhaha about the anniversary. One thing was that in the morning prayers (which I tend to not participate in), there was a call for an end to abortion by the overturning of Roe v. Wade. However, overturning Roe v. Wade would not even come close to ending abortion. First off, despite what some members of the religious right, neither the existence nor even the legality of abortion in America is not even close to contingent upon the upholding of the decision (since it was legal in some states even before it, and there were still over a million illegal incidents per year in the years prior). Even if it did mean that abortion would be made illegal country-wide, it would mean that the state would still have to require that the state be able to provide for the surplus of infants. Since most pro-lifers in congress are against anything that would actually help children from birth until military age, and the large numbers required to illegalize abortion would also be needed to pass any bill for anything which helped them. One other huger thing which would lower the number of abortions would be lessening unwanted pregnancies. These can be stopped by being abstinent. Of course, since choosing to be chaste until marriage is like choosing to not get hit by a car by staying at home, the number can best be lowered by using efficient forms of birth control regularly until they are ready to have children. Of course, this is likely to be opposed by the largest "Pro-life" organization: The Roman Catholic Church. Of course, virtually all major spokesmen for the church throughout history have been virgins, but still insist on making sexual decisions for over a billion people over the globe, lest said people be excommunicated or sent to hell for their deeds, as if a God, with more or less constant war in the Middle East, famine and genocide in Africa, and AIDS everywhere, actually cares about what happens between two consenting adults in a bedroom.

Band Name of the Day: Toes of Oblivion, a band name suggested by my dad when he read that I was written in this section of the last issue.

Film Idea of the Day: A man develops an inoperable brain tumor and ends up retreating into his high school years (specifically 1986-7), ending up with him completely retreating into his high school years after switching back and forth from the present day and 1987.

Film Review of the Day: Citizen Ruth. A poor, idiotic druggie (played by Laura Dern, presaging the rise and fall of Britney Spears 10 years later), who's had all of her previous kids taken from her finds that she is pregnant again after she breaks up with her boyfriend, and she finds herself in a major debate over the right to choose. Does she keep it? Does she get rid of it? Does Neither happen? Watch and see.

Quotes of the Day: "How come when it's us, it's an abortion, and when it's a chicken, it's an omelette? Are we so much better than chickens all of a sudden? When did this happen, that we passed chickens in goodness. Name 6 ways we're better than chickens. See, nobody can do it! You know why? ‘Cause chickens are decent people."
________________George Carlin.

Link of the Day: The Home of a list of the 1000 Greatest Films Ever.

Issue 108

News: Notes on the draft.
I recently turned 18. I can now legally go clubbing, and smoke (even though the odds I will are nil at this point.) One unfortunate thing about this birthday is that I have to register with Selective Services, especially with the very unnecessary quagmire that is Iraq going on after five years, even longer than most of the other wars we've gone through. My viewing of films like Tigerland and Casualties of War in recent weeks have made my worries about the draft more acute. Sure, it's unlikely that there will, in fact, be a draft, since the economy is so bad that the resources which would require the draft would be way too expensive even with all the absurd amount of money that the military recieves and that the public opinion is very much against the draft by now. One major problem with failing to register is, as the military states, in theory, that failure to register can add up to 5 years in prison and a fine of a quarter million dollars. Fortunately, the last time they actually tried to enforce that law, enlistment rates actually went down, so they most likely won't be trying that again. Hopefully, my physical fitness should be bad enough that the army wouldn't want me. Of course, my willingness to pretend to be a cross-dresser (although the days of Don't Ask Don't Tell appear to be numbered, thus making it unlikely to be an option for long) or severely mentally ill (which, considering that abnormal psychology is a minor obsession of mine, shouldn't be that hard) should also hamper my desirability in the military. I hope that one day this will not be an issue and that some future president has the sense to abolish Selective Services.

Band Name of the Day: The Casualties- From the film I mentioned in the essay and will review later. I am officially running low on ideas.

Film Idea of the Day: Cool School. A TV Series best described as Wayside School and Oz meets The Naked Lunch and Saved by the Bell. A teenager moves to a new town and has to go to one high school with an extremely surreal atmosphere and more bizarre faculty, including the psychotic principal who is prone to making bizarre rules (like creating school uniforms out of cheerleader outfits, skirt and all, for both males and females), a Heroin-addicted ex-carny History teacher, and an old, predatory, large, androgynous hermaphrodite of a gym teacher. All characters appearing in this paragraph are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely a disproof of any loving or sane god.

Film Review of the Day: Casualties of War. Michael J. Fox stars as a young private in 'Nam. When his troop captures a girl to be used as a sex slave, he faces a moral dilemma: Should he go along with it and lose all morality, or should he decline and risk being court-martialed for insubordination? Why am I asking you these questions? Why aren't you getting this movie?

Quote of the Day: "Here's how I feel about gays in the military: Anyone … dumb enough … to want to be in the military … should be allowed in. End of story. That should be the only requirement. I don't care how many push-ups you can do – put on a helmet, go wait in that fox hole. We'll tell you when we need you to kill somebody. I've been watching all these Congressional hearings and all these military guys and all the pundits going, "The esprit de corps will be affected, and we are such a moral …" Excuse me, but aren't you all a bunch of hired killers? Shut up! You are thugs, and when we need you to go blow the hell out of a nation of little brown people, we'll let you know. Until then … And don't tell me this is the military that protects our freedom – hey, ladies and gentlemen, there ain't no one out there who's a threat to us. They don't exist. Oh – I'm talking now only of countries we don't arm first. All right, if you want to split hairs, you got a point. "Bill, what about the nations we sell arms to and then blow the hell out of?" Okay, they might be scary for about a day!"
______Bill Hicks, Rant in E Minor

Link of the Day: A Site for both those of us who want to join the military and those of us who want to avoid it.

Tract Review: Poor Little Lamb. Jack tries to connect the 10th Plague with the Passion of Jesus.

Issue 107

This issue is the darkest one yet, it's practically to the rest of the Blog what Life is Worth Losing was to the rest of George Carlin's corpus. You have been warned.

News: The Death Penalty Revisited vs. The Ian Brady Bunch
In case you don't know, Ian Brady was a serial killer who killed at least five children in Britain in the early 60s. If you didn't know, now you do. The reason I bring him up is because he is now suing the state to allow him to be sent to a prison where he will be allowed to starve himself to death. Brady and his partner Myra Hindley both narrowly escaped the death penalty due to its abolition a month before sentencing. For the last 8 years at least, he has been suicidal due to the fact that he will never be released and knows he no longer serves any purpose in life, and as a child-killer knows that at least some people want him dead. I personally have a nuanced view towards the death penalty, since there remains the possibility that a person is being killed for a crime he (or possibly she) did not commit. However, there are still many prisoners like Brady, who eagerly await the hand of the Reaper coming upon them and do not want to wait for a natural death. With Brady's story in mind, I wonder about a system of compromise between the Pro- and Anti- death Penalty sides. In the system, prisoners (for practical reasons, limited only to those who are either in life sentences with no parole in sight, or in unrealistically long sentences, like a 50-year old man in a 120-year sentence, up for parole in 70) who wish to die will be authorized by prison staff to be euthanized on a strictly voluntary basis (differing it from the involuntary nature of the Death Penalty) either directly or indirectly. They would not strictly be killed for their crimes, but because of their lack of both desire and reason to continue living. Admittedly, this would necessitate some serious review of the morality of euthanasia, but then again, the question would have to boil down to: You have a man who has no will to live and no discernible reason that others would truly want him alive. Which is more cruel: To let him die or to let him live?

Band Name of the Day: Godless Piece of Fluff: "Baa Baa Black Sheep, Have You Any Wool?/No sir, no sir, I'm a Godless Piece of Fluff."_Colbert.

Film Reviews of the Day: Two films will be reviewed, one of which is a movie already out, and one which is available on youtube.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. This movie is a film adaptation of one of the goriest musicals ever written, so yes, there will be much singing, and there will be much gore, although much of it looks clearly fake, most notably in the final scene (but I won't give it away until you watch it or read about it on Wikipedia).

Apaches. This is technically an educational film from Britain (in their terms a "Public Information Film" or PIF). The title comes from the game of Cowboys and Indians that is played for most of the film, although one sequence has them playing Starksy and Hutch. In essence, the film is about how a group of six kids manage to cause their own demises on a farm one-by-one by various means (from relatively mundane things as accidentally poisoning oneself to falling into a huge pit apparently full of animal waste). This is one of the more notorious PIFs due to its content. One wonders what was worse: The fact that they decided to film this kind of thing at all or the fact that kids as young as six were shown this film in schools.

Quote of the Day: "Some inmates say that violence is the worst thing we gotta face. For me, the worst thing is the great yawn. How do you fill day after day? We got these routines that are supposed to give our lives order and meaning. But I'm here to testify that I'm less afraid of getting shanked in my back than the routine. Cause the routine, man, the routine'll kill you."
_____Augustus Hill.

Quote of the Day: Apaches, for your viewing pleasure, if you dare. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
And here's a recut version for those not ready to see the real thing.