That Old Time Propaganda

Remember that riiiddiiiicuulous piece of propaganda they used to air during 2001 that said that 'if you buy drugs you are funding terrorism'? Holly shit, that commercial was ridiculous. And we all knew it. Especially because the random white teenage kids on the commercial didn't look like your average heroin addicts (the only drug that possibly could come from the middle east). They were IMPLYING that if you buy marijuana that comes from the US and Mexico, it somehow was ending up in Osama Bin Laden's pocket. Anyways, that commercial was wac then, and it's even more wac after I found out some information about heroin and afganistan.
Well, apparently Afghanistan WAS a large exporter of opiates, because the government, or lack of, was such a wreck and didn't have a control on the industry there. But then the Taliban took control and banned the growing of poppy seeds in the country*. How do you like that shit? The fucking Taliban ended over 90% of poppy seed growing. Pretty much the opposite of what we are told here at home. Not that the Taliban is some great organization, but credit is due when deserved. Eventually the Taliban lost their control and it was opium growing time again: It was realized that the opiate industry in Afghanistan was so large and apart of the economy, Afghanistan needed it to function.
Another thing I learned was that when there WAS heroin being produced there, it was rarely ever found in the USA. The heroin they produced was mainly marketed to Europe. Those are facts, but it also helps to use simple logic when evaluating our day to day propaganda. If the Islamic terrorists were such a huge drug cartel focused on smuggling heroin into the united states, why the FUCK would they commit a large scale terrorist attack that would obviously highten the fuck out of border security? Why would they purposely commit actions that would make it harder and riskier to run their alledged drug businuess?
Come on. We give the government a LOT of tax dollars, they can surely come up with some more believable propaganda to keep us all ignorant. Jeez, what do we pay them for!? Fucking slackers.

* Opium was not illegal under Taliban rule. Only the growing of poppies was banned, which began to take it's toll on the opium industry late in Taliban rule when opium exporters' stashes were running dry. Fortunately for the opium industry, was revived when the Taliban was forced to leave and the new regime lifted the ban on growing poppy fields.

Book Review: Geek Love

'Geek Love' is truely an amazing and original book written by Katherine Dunn. It is written in the form of a letter (350 pg long letter) from a woman to her daughter. Some chapters arn't the letter, but news articles and files from a reporter's information he's gathered on the family. The story is about the life of a traveling circus family called 'Fabulon'. My favorite character is a 26 pound baby named Mumpo. He gets his name because when he was first born he said something that sounded like 'mumpo'. The story has so many other interesting characters though. It is very creative and believable. It's not really about Geeks or Love at all, actually. It is about love in the sense of love for a family... a really twisted family. Anyways it's a really good novel. When I was reading it in San Francisco, different people came up to me to tell me it was a great book on SIX different occasions. Actually, one of the times I went up to THEM, because THEY were reading it also. Well, I'd recomend reading it, although some parts at the end are a little wac and rushed (in my opinion) but it's worth reading.
9/10 stars

NEW ESSAY On Democrats

"A Vote For Nader Is A Vote For Bush" And Other Right Wing Propaganda

Read my newest essay. It will knock your socks off.
PS: Keep in mind that it isn't a completely finished version, as I have not yet read it all the way through. I wrote it, and by the time I was done I didn't feel like reading it all.

Killing Hope

I just got home from San Francisco. I got a number of used books, but one of the coolest is 'Killing Hope' by William Blum. It's subject is 'Military and CIA interventions since WWII'. I've read some Chomsky books on the subject, which are great, but (from the little I've read so far) I like 'Killing Hope' better somehow. I think it's because of how it's more raw information as opposed to Chomsky who, being a Lingustics professor, is more artful with his words. For FREE, you can read a surprisingly large amount of 'Killing Hope' here.

"Everyone's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: Stop participating in it." - Noam Chomsky

First chapter of a short story

I am trying to write a short story called "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness". I just finished the rough first chapter (out of 3 chapters) and you can read it here. Comment on it if you want to. Remember, it's only the first chapter. You might be thinking to yourself, "How can it go anywhere from there?" Oh, it can go much farther than there...... 2 more chapters farther to be exact.

Leaving to SF

Tomorrow, I leave for a week to go to San Francisco.
PS: I still need to write about my last trip to California and upload my pictures!

Silk Screen

This weekend, my dad helped me make a silk screen and I have paints and stuff to print out some shirts now too. I need to think of a good idea that I want to put onto some shirts, but it also has to be an idea people will like enough to buy some of the shirts. Here is my first idea. I also have this idea for an uncle sam type shirt. The back of this one will read:

"see exotic vietnam, the jewel
of southeast asia. meet
interesting and stimulating
people of an ancient culture
... and kill them"

Movie/Book Review: Apocalypse Now/Heart of Darkness

I finally watched Apocalypse Now Redux and boy was it ever! I liked it so much in fact, that I read the book it was based on: Heart of Darkness. Apocalypse Now adapts the book's plot to fit into the Vietnam war. This was because Joseph Conrad wrote the book in 1899; before the advent of the Vietnam war. Originally, the story took place in the Congo on a steamship. There are, however, some major differences between the movie and the book. The main character was not sent to kill Kurtz, for one, and the ending is completely different between the two. Conrad's writing style was perticuarly annoying to me, because of the combined effects of his unique style and the fact that it was written in the late 19th century. This made it hard to stay focused for me and continue reading without trailing off mindlessly. I have read other books of around this time period, but Conrad's style was more different than the others. On the other hand, it was a very interesting book when I got focused and into it. Apocalypse Now was easy to stay focused on altogether. Some might say this is because it is a movie, and you don't really have to do any work to stay focused. It's hard to believe that Francis Coppola's Apocalypse Now was made in 79'. The movie has a look to it that makes it appear to be extremely recent; much better looking than nearly every movie today even. Everything about the movie was top notch and it's obvious that it required a massive budjet. I'm glad they went through the effor though, because we are now left with a classic.

Apocalypse Now: 4 1/2 stars out of 5*.
Heart of Darkness: 7 stars out of 10**.

*I couldn't decide between 4 1/2 stars or 5. It was tough.
** Because most books I read are of good quality, I rate them on a more percise scale. If I used the 5 star method, they would all be about 4 or 5s and that would be annoying.

Movie Review: Intermission

Thanks to the all mighty IFC, we are now given Intermission staring Colin Farrel and the rising actor Cillian Murphey (28 Days Later). You may be asking: "Why is it called 'intermission'? Do you walk around and mingle during the whole movie or what?" Well, I'll tell you.. The plot revolves around, and takes place upon, the intermission between one couple's relationship when they decide to go on a 'break'. Living up to it's claim, the movie has many unrelated characters of whoms' sub stories end up crossing paths and effecting one another. Although the plot is really easy to understand, there are way more intertwining lives and stories than that of Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, or an episode of Seinfeld. Intermission is the "Guy Ritchie movie" of 2004... although it's directed by a new independant Irish director named John Crowley. In my expert opinion, Intermission is better than Snatch and, dare I say, on par with Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels*. If you haven't gotten the gist of what I'm trying to convey in my review, I'll spell it out for you. Intermission is hella TYTE. Intermission is so good in fact, that it would go well with just about anything, such as burgers, steak or even coffee! Holly shit, would you look at that, I'm giving it Five stars.
5 Stars (see)

*Because of the fact that LS2SB is such a good film, I have not made up my mind as to if Intermission is as good. But, if it isn't, it certainly comes close.

Movie Review: Reefer Madness (New Colorized)

'Reefer Madness' is the cult classic film from the 30s about the dangers of Marihuana. A few teens get sucked into the crazy madness world of reefers and their world is turned upside down! This movie is a very good example of our society's fear of Marijuana. Not much has really changed since this movie, when you really think about it. In one scene, the movie depicts teens unconrollably ending up having sex when they smoke the reefer... it reminds me of that one commercial that had the pregnant girl pacing around and in the background there was a joint roach. Dun Dun Dun! Yep, our society still thinks that the devil's harvest can make you pregnant. Also, one of the characters runs over somebody because they are franticly driving around running through red lights without a care in the world. Indeed, this is what we are told will happen in current 'drug facts' pamphlets they hand out to kids. I think the DEA and the police need to just cut the crap with all their clever commercials and whatever and just send everybody a copy of reefer madness. All the lies they want to permeate through our cultures' mind are right there in that handy movie! The climax of the movie: In order to avoid being investigated, the main drug dealer frames a harmless kid while the kid is on the reefer. The kid thinks he killed his girlfriend, when actually the drug dealer did. Although this has nothing to do with marijuana, it somehow is the main moral of the story and 'proves' the evils of marijuana. "Kids. Don't do Marijuana, you're likely to be framed with murder!"
I just got the new remastered and colorized dvd complete with commentary by Mike Nelson of MST3K. Oh man, if you were expecting the Marihuana smoke to be grey in this movie, think again! That's right, they colorized the movie so much that everytime somebody smokes a reefer, the smoke is a crazy color like blue or even... pink! Mike's commentary is pretty funny at a lot of points, although not quite to the standard of MST3K jokes. Rent this movie and show it to your son, or your daughter, or yours... or yours... or yours...
4 Stars

Salam Pax Movie?

Apparently, a movie is being made based on the Salam Pax Iraqi blogger.

DVD Coincidence

I've had coincidences since the last post, of course, but I havn't posted any. Well, since this last one happened while I was online just now, I will post it right now: I bought some new dvds this week. It's not that often that I buy them, but I bought 3 this week. I got the Invader Zim dvd, Triplets of Belleville and the new colorized Reefer Madness. Today, Ben was trying to convince of us one of his old lies about how MST3K is still on TV. Anyways, even though I'm already sure he is wrong, I decided to go to the website to further see just how wrong he was. Yep, MST3K sure doesn't air anymore. But what else did I notice at the site? Here's the coincidence... If you scroll down about 3/4 of the way down the news on the site, it mentions the Invader Zim DVD! (Frank, one of the old cast members, worked on Invader Zim for the first season, which is that dvd). Is that a coincidence or what? Well, not satisfied enough? How about this... The next article in the news directly after that is about the new colorized Reefer Madness. Check it out.

Movie Review: Deer Hunter

For some reason, I couldn't really hear what the people were saying during a lot of parts of the Deer Hunter. Also, the scenes were severly drawn out and they were usually really mundane. These two elements, and the fact that it's a long ass movie, caused me to not pay as much attention as I would to some other movies. I say that I havn't payed attention because that's the only explanation as to what I saw in the movie. It didn't seem like that great of a movie, yet everybody says it's the greatest. This is why I say I must have missed something. I did, however, see the 15 minute long scene of a bunch of people dancing at a Jewish wedding. For the most part, I didn't really like this movie. I thought the Vietnam parts were good, but aside from that, I was pretty bored. Maybe I'll see it again in the distant future and give it a better rating, but for now it gets 3 1/2 stars.

The H-Bomb

Mr. Harrison, or the H-Bomb (me and Luis are trying to get this nickname out and used by the general population) is always bashing on Nader and staring at the computer screen all class period long (probably ogling naked pictures of John Kerry). I always have to step up and argue with him, and in the latest arguement he said something like "if Nader was really liberal, he would drop out this year. He isn't doing anybody any good taking votes against the Democrats." Also, keep it in mind that, like most Democrats I know (all of them actually), he says "yeah in a perfect world Nader would have a chance" and "of course I agree with Nader, but it's throwing your vote away". Too bad it wasn't until today that I really thought of a good comeback to his anicdote about Nader being "really liberal and dropping out". Now check this shit out: "Yeah, well if the Democrats were 'really liberal', they would drop out. They aren't doing anybody any good taking votes away from Nader." Damn! I bet that knocked you out of your seat. There hasn't been a more clever and enlightening saying like that since Emerson and Throu or some shit. Clever sayings like this mixed with the indignation caused by "liberals" who bash on the only progressive politician of our time prompt me to write a short essay on Nader and how he is hella tyte and the Democrats suck ass and have no spine. I have been meaning to write this for quite some time. I also think it would be best if I wrote it after I read this book I just bought by Nader... but AH! What's this? I have to read 2 books for school? Well, Nader will have to wait. Safety first.

Drugged Spiders

Check out what happens when spiders party

Movie Review: Menace II Society

'Menace II Society' is a film by the Hughes brothers that depicts the life of a couple of small time gangsters. The movie opens with a couple of friends buying some alcohol at the local convieniant store... little do they know that this will effect them later in life. Samuel Jackson has a cameo appearence as the main character/narrator's dad who died when he was young, in a drug deal. Jackson's character looks and acts a lot like Jules, from Pulp Fiction. The afro and sideburns and everything. Needless to say, this movie is hella tyte. On top of all that, it even has crackheads and pregnant women.
4 1/2 stars, damn!

Movie Review: Raising Arizona

'Raising Arizona' probably has the longest sequence of scenes before revealing the movie name/opening credits, that I can think of. The movie stars a young Nicolas Cage and John Goodman. Cage and his wife try to have a baby, but can't, so they do the next best thing and steal one from the town furniture dealer. Throughout the movie, everybody is trying to get ahold of the baby for different reasons. Such as the 'man-hunter', who looks similarly like horse-rider kid, who want's the baby so he can sell it. Overall, it's a pretty weird movie, but it's probably one you should see. I can't decide rating it between 3 1/2 or 4 stars.

Movie Review: Training Day

Ethan Hawk debutes his first time in a PCP smoking role, as Luis accurately stated. He is a 'rookie' cop that has to spend a day with a corrupt cop so that the cop might promote him to his team. At this point, Mr. Hawk doesn't know that his partner of the day is corrupt... but he soon does... oh how he does. 'Training Day' was entertaining, but I doubt I'd want to try and see it again. Overall, it was a pretty good movie, although a lot of it was very unbelievable.
3 1/2 stars

Nacho Workout

It was funny. Today my mom was dissappointed that she was too late and couldn't go to the gym, so she did the next best thing and called her friend and went to go eat nachos.

Iraqi Prisoners Humiliated

Personally, I don't see the big deal about this whole "scandal" of US soldiers humiliating the Iraqis by taking nude pictures of them. People are acting like they thought that US soldiers were over there to give them candy or something. "What!?? They are taking advantage of their 'enemies' that they have complete control over! I would have never assumed something like this would be possible during war!". (I say war, because when a country invades another country with their military, despite heavy resistance of the invaded country leading to violence on both sides, I would qualify that as war.) And then of course our fearless President gives a little speech to give the impression that he gives a shit. He said something like "I am sorry for the humility experienced by the Iraqis and the humility experienced by their families." It seems to me that if he, or any other US official, is going to apoligize for Iraqi humility, they should have done it way earlier. In fact, this whole 'scandal' of tying up the naked Iraqi prisoners and taking pictures of them seems like just a metaphor for the whole war on the middle east. But again, the main thing that bugs me is that people act like they are surprised and appalled. "I can't believe our US soldiers would do such a thing as humiliate the Iraqi people." I remember seeing this for the first time and thinking to myself, "yeah, and what's that other thing that soldiers have been doing over there... jeez I can't remember... Oh, yeah, KILLING people." In fact, that is pretty much what a soldier does. Everybody is like "What the hell are those soldiers doing! This is disgusting of them! How can they do such a terrible crime! They are straying away from their purpose, which is to.. um.. kill them." Yes, I know that US soldiers aren't sent out there to kill the prisoners; they only kill the resisting Iraqis that are 'out in the wild'. But is that so much better? Seems the same to me. Now, the only arguement for thinking that killing people out in the open is OK because it could be in defense, well that is bullshit. You can't go invade another country and then when the people start resisting, you kill them and say "hey man, defense"... BUT, if you still do somehow think that killing a prisoner is much worse than killing somebody out in the open, well just look to Jewish America, aka Israel. You'll find torturing and all kinds of other things they do to their prisoners on the American dime... but at least they aren't humiliating them. There is talk about how the misbehaving soldiers will be severly punished or something. Well, in my opinion, when you kill somebody, you should punished too. Punished MORESO than if you humiliate somebody with nudie pictures. Call me crazy, but that's how I see it. I mean, when you look at the big picture, Iraqis that have been humiliated are lucky compared to the much larger numbers of Iraqis that have been... you know... KILLED. So, to recap: If you take naked pictures of Iraqis=BAD.... Killing Iraqis before you capture them=GOOD, here's a medal.... Getting drunk and drowning Iraqis=FROWNED UPON, but obviously not as bad as humiliating them, as the "humiliation" story is played out way more than the drowning one.*

*Actually, I haven't even seen this story even played once on the news (nor been able to find it searching the Nexis for mainstream media sources)