In the wake of the Iowa Caucus, I am responding to my daughter's tagging with a list of Ten Things I Believe. Please note that I believe these things for better or for worse; they aren't value judgements so much as resignations.
1. I believe Barack Obama is our next president, and what's more, he's the president America deserves.
2. I believe Hillary Clinton is a talking-point-dispensing robot sent to Earth by Neptunians. So is Mitt Romney. They must be stopped, or we are all doomed.
3. I believe Ron Paul should run as a Libertarian. America needs to have more than two choices, and I would love to see him in a three-way debate with Obama and Huckabee. Hell, I'd watch that on pay-per-view...
The arrival of Blade Runner: the Final Cut is not just a great moment for sci-fi fans, but an opportunity to talk about the consequences of our 21st Century biotechnology revolution, and the ways in which it may change the very meaning of "human."
The movie doesn't seem so far-fetched anymore. In the quarter-century since it hit the screen, we have seen the first successful cloning experiments on mammals – with consequences not unlike those in the movie. While science fiction has a way of becoming science fact, lawmakers are always surprised by the issues that new technologies create, and laws consistently remain decades behind the abilities of science. So many future technologies have already been imagined in fiction, film, and entertainment, but have not been dealt with in by laws or lawmakers. Maybe it's time we gave our speculative authors and filmmakers a little more attention.
That Will Smith Movie (SPOILER WARNING)
Current mood: argumentative
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
NOTE: This essay contains plot spoilers. You have been warned.
A plague has wiped out every human on the planet except Will Smith. But the disease doesn't just kill everyone – some of its victims turn into vampires. Every day, Smith hunts monsters, gathers food and supplies, and gives the audience flashback exposition. His wife and child are dead, victims of the pandemic. His own immunity has mysterious origins, but his blood may hold the key to humanity's resurrection – because it turns out he isn't really alone, after all! (Cue dramatic music…DUH duh duh DUUUHH)
If you think you've seen this movie before, you have. But I'll get to that in a minute. First, let me ask you this: When a movie is based on a book, how faithful does it have to be?
Babylon is HERE
Current mood: indescribable
Category: News and Politics
My fellow Americans, the troops are never coming home. The permanent occupation of Iraq is here, dressed up as a happy "relationship" between Iraq and the United States.
Don't say nobody warned you, that no one wanted it, or that no one tried to stop it. This was the master plan from the beginning. The architects of this permanent war have lied to us at every turn.
"We have no intention, at the present time, of putting permanent bases in Iraq," Donald Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2005. But even as he said it, fourteen massive, permanent bases were already being completed.
Americans weren't the only ones being lied to; Iraqis have yet to hear anything like the truth. In 2006, our ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad appeard on Iraqi television to say the US had "No goal of establishing permanent bases in Iraq" at the same time the Pentagon was expanding the 14-square mile Balad Air Base.
Of course, there won't be anyone to man these bases unless the United States keeps up its troop levels. Which is why the next step is to make the "temporary" surge permanent. The White House marketing department has been pushing the "surge is working" meme, with the usual lapdogsbarking in unison.
Of course, the "success" of the surge is mostly spin,based on happy numbers with little grounding in reality. But facts don't make good headlines; beatified generals do. Any day now, Saint Petraeus will start telling us that 144,000 troops are needed on a full-time basis to continue the surge's "success."
But why keep American troops in Iraq? Three reasons: We get our bases out of Saudi Arabia, we maintain pressure on Iran, and (of course) we keep our military on top of the oil. Yeah, it's about the oil. In a surprisingly honest turn, General Abizaid actually admitted as much.
Which brings me back to my flash fiction story "Babylon," in which a future soldier and his army are stuck in a foreign land. Fiction is set to become fact.
Pornographic! NSFW
Current mood: indescribable
Category: News and Politics
The website Digg.com has declared Fox News "porn" according to its policy. I am NOT making this up.
Here's how it happened: Brave New Films took a number of racy clips from the wingnut news channel and edited them together in a satirical video on the website foxnewsporn.com:
When someone posted the video over at Digg.com, however, the social networking site yanked it -- saying that it was pornographic: "That submission had Adult Content included within it and is not allowed on Digg." Far from being upset, the creators of the video were excited:
Digg won't allow content that FOX News will air? Seriously? Please double check the web site...and please confirm that Digg doesn't allow content that is broadcast on FOX News. That's all I ask.
Digg responded later:
Yes, that submission was Adult content. Yes, it was against our TOS, even though it was broadcast on FOX. Unfortunately the domain will not be unbanned.
Of course, Digg.com has been a subject of buyout speculation by Murdoch's media empire for quitesometime. It's possible that Digg.com's owners are looking out for their prospective meal ticket, but if so, their effortsappeartobebackfiring.
Digg'ers are threatening to leave the website for its rival Reddit, foxnewsporn.com reports high traffic as a result of the controversy, and Digg.com has officially declared Fox News Channel to be "Adult content."
You can't make this crap up.
In other news, the War on Drugs hit close to home for me yesterday, as a close friend was arrested for being part of a nonexistenet drug gang. To read all about it, click my ink:
That’s ’Sir Red Mouth’ to You, Sir (music blog)
Current mood: indescribable
Category: Music
The incredible diversity of American popular music grew from a single root. Speed up a blues lick, you have rock'n'roll; slow it down, you have country. You'll hear the whole spectrum on Eric 'Red Mouth' Gebhardt's new CD, Sir Red Mouth.
Gebhardt may be from a white, suburban, middle-class background, but his version of the blues has straight-from-the-heart authenticity, no matter which variant of the blues he happens to be performing. Even when he isn't playing 12-bar blues, it's clear that he somehow got there from the 12-bar blues...
3. I believe Ron Paul should run as a Libertarian. America needs to have more than two choices, and I would love to see him in a three-way debate with Obama and Huckabee. Hell, I'd watch that on pay-per-view...
animated
The arrival of Blade Runner: the Final Cut is not just a great moment for sci-fi fans, but an opportunity to talk about the consequences of our 21st Century biotechnology revolution, and the ways in which it may change the very meaning of "human."
contemplative
cooky/wacky
distractable
argumentative
NOTE: This essay contains plot spoilers. You have been warned.
indescribable
My fellow Americans, the troops are never coming home. The 
The incredible diversity of American popular music grew from a single root. Speed up a blues lick, you have rock'n'roll; slow it down, you have country. You'll hear the whole spectrum on Eric 'Red Mouth' Gebhardt's new CD, Sir Red Mouth. 
bouncy
