It's a 2007 update to the "Transformers" theme song (MP3 file in .zip format) on the Sector Seven promo website for Transformers.
This doesn't raise my hopes any about the movie, y'all...
Ronald D. Moore, the guy who re-created Battlestar Galactica for the Sci-Fi Channel (and did an amazing job of it from the looks of things), is now working on a remake of The Thing...
...which might not be an altogether bad thing. John Carpenter's 1982 The Thing was already a remake, and Moore is a pretty capable guy. But it's going to be darn awful hard to top what we saw in the 1982 movie. 25 yeas later (what was it about 1982 that made it a great year for this kind of movie genre?) and it's still holding up very strong.
Then comes word that Warner Bros. is making a movie of Orson Scott Card's Empire. Which will probably be as big a box office smash as Battlefield Earth was. As I said in my review back in December, Empire is a bad, bad book! Usually I devour an Orson Scott Card novel. With Empire I had to struggle to overcome it like a man constipated. And I really do like Card a lot! I think he's one of the few legitimately leading intellectual lights of our age. He just struck out with Empire, the same way that Steven Spielberg struck out with 1941: they can't all be winners, right? Just the same, this is one project that should be quietly shelved.
Remember this lady? It's Shirley Phelps-Roper. It will be a year ago next week that she and her family - the infamous Westboro Baptist Church - visited the TV station that I worked at. This is that "God hates fags church" that does those rabid anti-homosexual protests... most of them quite bizarre and all of them crossing the boundary of good taste. If you missed that report when it was filed last year, mash that link down for some truly disturbing photos along with my account of what happened that night during my close encounter with "the Phelps family".Well, Shirley Phelps-Roper has been arrested in Bellevue, Nebraska: charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor after her 8-year old son stomped on an American flag during a soldier's funeral.
Boy Stomps Flag At Funeral, Mom ArrestedI've said it before and I'll say it again: someday, the Phelps family is going to go way too far in front of the way wrong people... and some of them are going to be hurt or worse because of their antics. They won't have anyone to blame but themselves.Pair Are Part Of Anti-Gay Church That Protests Funerals
POSTED: 1:44 pm EDT June 6, 2007
OMAHA, Neb. -- A woman was arrested in Bellevue, Neb., on Tuesday during the funeral for a fallen soldier.
Shirley Phelps-Roper was arrested on suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for allegedly allowing her 8-year-old son to stomp on an American flag.
Phelps-Roper is a member of a Topeka, Kan., church that conducts anti-homosexual picketing at funeral services for U.S. soldiers.
Hundreds of people packed Bellevue streets Tuesday morning to pay tribute to a firefighter and soldier. Spc. Bill Bailey was serving in the National Guard in Iraq when he was killed by a roadside bomb.
Police said the group to which Phelps-Roper belongs had a permit to protest 300 feet from Bailey's funeral.
Bellevue Officer Joe Gray, who made the arrest, said that at first the group brought out a couple of members' own American flags.
"The arrestee, Ms. Phelps-Roper, put one around her waist. The second one was given to a 10-year-old, who put it on the ground and started kicking it in the area they were protesting," Gray said.
Nebraska law states that it is a Class 3 misdemeanor when a person "intentionally casts contempt or ridicule upon a flag by mutilating, defacing, defiling, burning or trampling upon such flag." The law was passed in 1977.
"It appears the adults weren't stepping on the flag because they knew it was a violation of the law. But they allowed the children to go ahead and do that," Gray said.
Phelps-Roper said she believes she has the right to use the flag as a symbol, and said Nebraska's law is outdated.
"We're going to challenge that statute," she said. "That statue should have been repealed."
Gray said the arrest wasn't personal and has nothing to do with his beliefs. He said he's simply doing his job.
"It's state law, so we were enforcing the laws of Nebraska," the officer said.
Sarpy County Attorney Lee Polikov said the words from the group are fighting words, which are not protected speech.
One can only wonder about what kind of America we would have today if he had been elected in 1992.
It reminded me of something that happened almost ten years ago. On December 17th 1997, Japanese television broadcast an episode of the popular Pokemon show. During the episode there is one scene that has intense rapid red/blue blinking. In the minutes and hours following that scene, hundreds of Japanese children were rushed to hospitals because that sequence caused those kids to suffer seizures, convulsions, fainting, extreme headaches and nausea! The flashing was taken out of subsequent airings of the episode.
So... wanna see it? Here it is, with the original video unedited. If this link goes bad just do a search on YouTube for "pokemon" and "seizures" or "epilepsy". But I'm seriously warning you: I watched this thing, and it did give me a headache. I'm just posting this as an example that the fears about the new Olympics symbol aren't necessarily frivolous.
Here it is: the banned Pokemon "seizures" sequence. Remember, you watch this at your own risk...
Find out about it here, in a story primarily about another remake (of Brian De Palma's Dressed to Kill).
Incidentally, I watched last year's remake of The Omen a few days ago on HBO. That was another classic movie that never warranted a remake, at all. The same is true for Conan the Barbarian (can you believe a few weeks ago was the 25th anniversary of it's premiere?).
In my opinion, Conan the Barbarian is about as perfect a movie as you can find. So many great elements all working together in that film... The soundtrack by Basil Poledouris is easily one of the most listened-to things on my MP3 player whenever I'm driving (I love all the tracks but I'm especially fond of "Anvil of Crom" and "Atlantean Sword"). Poledouris is now gone from us. As is Mako: it would not be a Conan movie without Mako, I hate to say. Look, this was the movie that brought Oliver Stone and John Milius to work together: if that doesn't speak volumes about this film's power, I don't know what will.
Conan the Barbarian had something going for it, that can never be replicated. And this remake will suck donkeys balls to no end for trying (yes I actually said that, which is the worst insult I ever give to anything or anyone). Don't do this, Hollywood: you're skating on thin ice as it is...
"And if you do not listen, then to HELL with you!"
In October of 2000 I was a reporter with an independent newspaper. And - through legitimate channels mind ya - I had been given an invitation to attend a rally for George W. Bush during the presidential debate at Wake Forest University. I was hoping to get a chance to ask Bush a few questions: nothing rude mind ya, but I was gonna try to make the most of the opportunity.
Bush staff found out that some "non-corporate" journalists were there and sent Winston-Salem police to track us down. One of them demanded to see my driver's license and I asked why. About then a Bush staffer with a bullhorn came over and told me that I should do what she says "because whenever someone in a uniform tells you something you're supposed to obey."
This guy demanded to see my invitation. He snatched it out of my hands and said that I wasn't going to be attending this function. When I demanded to know why he threatened me with physical violence.
The cops escorted another reporter and myself to "the protest area" (this was the first time I'd ever heard of this little Bush concept) and told us if we tried to return to our vehicles through the fair grounds that we would be arrested.
A few years later I heard - and I've not found any reason to doubt this - that we were rounded up and sent packing on Bush's orders, after he heard that there were non-corporate media present and he told his staff to "haul those assholes out of here".
That night I saw the true side of the George W. Bush mindset. I'm not bitter about it now though: I'm just thankful that God showed me what a loser Bush really is, before I ever had a chance to vote for him (never have).
Almost the exact same thing happened last night to journalist Matt Lepacek following the Republican debate in New Hampshire, except Lepacek actually got ask Rudolph Guiliani some questions. Or tried to anyway. Giuliani's staff had police arrest Lepacek. Here's the video:
Y'know, the only thing that kept me from standing up to those goons that night any more than I did was the fact that my best friend was coming in from way out of town to spend a few days at my apartment, and if I was in jail then I couldn't be there when he arrived. If that hadn't already been on my schedule, I think years later that it would be with a lot of pride that I could look back at being arrested on orders from Bush.
I hope that Matt Lepacek will feel proud about what he did tonight too: he stood his ground against an evil man. And he didn't back down.
That's something that nobody will ever be able to take away from him.
Seven years ago George W. Bush said that we shouldn't engage in "nation-building". He went ahead and did it anyway. It didn't work. And now tonight Giuliani said he wants to do more of it.
If this guy does get nominated and then winds up actually elected President, then... I don't know what else to say, except that we will be screwed as a nation and we will probably have deserved it.
Like I said last month: when the "front runner" of the Republican party is a pro-abortion, anti-Second Amendment, pro-amnesty for illegals, pro-"nation building", pro-big government in every way, drag queen...
...there is something very, very wrong with the world.
So far, one for tonight's hasn't appeared.
Could it be that Drudge is afraid that his poll will show what a lot of others (heck, most others) are showing: intense support for Ron Paul?
I'm going to wait for awhile tonight, and see if he does run one. If he doesn't, I'll have some more thoughts about what this means Drudge has become.
EDIT 11:04 p.m. EST: Okay, here's what I think...
For all the hooplah ever since Drudge burst on the scene about ten years about being "alternative media", Matt Drudge has... well, become too much like mainstream media.
Let me put it another way: the "new media" that Drudge represents has turned out to be old media with slicker tactics.
"Alternative media" was supposed (we were told so anyway) to be an empowering of ideas that had never been given their fair share of exposure, because of a near-monopoly on the airwaves, the press etc. that the "liberal media" enjoyed for so long. Rush Limbaugh declared himself a spokesman for the unrepresented (Limbaugh would say mis-represented) "conservative" Americans. Fox News Channel boldly proclaimed that it would be "fair and balanced".
It's ten years and more later. And "alternative media" stands as corrupted and of foul purpose as the "liberal mainstream media" it's supplanting. Because it has the very same goal as old media: the pursuit of power over people... especially their minds.
Matt Drudge is trying to control people's perception of things as much as CBS or CNN or any other "mainstream" press outlet, by refusing to be consistent and running a post-debate poll that he knows would most likely have Ron Paul winning handily.
And this being the Internet, I and anyone else get to call him out on it.
EDIT 11:32 p.m. EST: Want another example? Here's Fox News' story about the debate. It doesn't mention Paul or a few other candidates that were on stage tonight.
Ron Paul has been given two questions and has only spoken for 2 minutes.
The other "non-front runners" are being given fewer questions and camera time, too.
This "debate" is a farce. It's protecting the ones the "mainstream" press wants to impress into people's minds are the only ones "worth considering".
For some reason, the last week or so I've gone back to reading Nineteen Eighty-Four. I don't know what's happened in the years since I last picked up that book, but it's like I can see this book coming to pass a lot more than I ever had before. This kind of consciously playing with people's perceptions is one example.
Whatever happened with giving everyone their chance to make their case, regardless of how much cash they have on hand or some kind of favoritism, and let the people decide on their own?
EDIT 9:02 p.m. EST: The only two that impressed me the least bit were Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo. And they barely got any time at all, especially in the second round (the one that had questions from the public).
Maybe it's time to post this again...
Fight the Matrix! Ron Paul is the One!
Still the best Star Trek story ever! If only the rest of the franchise had been this good...
As the program was winding down I thought, and not for the first time lately: after all of these years of being a devout Star Wars fan ... well, what is the point of it? What has been the point of any of the loyalty that we as fans have shown these movies?
Guess what I'm wondering is: in spite of the multitude of morals and lessons that this movie series has given us, what have we actually done with them, at all?
F'rinstance, George Lucas intended for the recent Star Wars prequels to be a parable about the decline of republican government: that democracies invariably become dictatorships. The final step toward tyranny usually happens when an elected leader assumes wide-ranging powers in the face of some emergency, "for the good of the people". Palpatine took over after blaming the Jedi, just as Hitler had to "protect" the Germans from the Communists following the Reichstag fire.
In the past few weeks President George W. Bush has signed a directive that would establish himself as a veritable autocrat. All he has to do is declare an emergency and seize power over everything and voila: America will have an emperor, in fact if not in name. And even if Bush does nothing on his own to seize unprecedented power in the United States, he has done far more than his share of setting the stage in this country for a predecessor to push that button ... and probably sooner than later. It's not the tendency of human nature to shy away from such a temptation.
This is one thing from the Star Wars movies that we should very much have taken to heart, especially in light of the violent history of the Twentieth Century. This is something that should earnestly bother us, and move us to make our stand. By showing the powers-that-be the line in the sand and telling them "to this point and no further".
That is how tyranny is stemmed before it has a chance to blossom. And you would think that in light of this move by Bush and others by legislators (such as the ill-named PATRIOT Act), that armed with the metaphoric wisdom of these stories we would do whatever we could to stop this slide toward an all-powerful state.
Instead, the biggest thing that Star Wars fans in general have been thrown in tumult over is the matter of whether or not Han shot first. We vent more white-hot hatred on Jar Jar Binks than we do on high taxes, or on the governor of Texas when he tries to enforce an un-thoroughly tested vaccine on children, or on the most foolish-conceived war in American history.
It's not a new phenomenon. Scripture tells us that the people of Israel flocked to hear the prophet Ezekiel cry out his warnings ... but they did not heed his words. To them, Ezekiel was nothing but mere entertainment (Ezekiel 33:30-32). I'll bet the people of Troy considered Cassandra to be quite a spectacle. Too bad they didn't believe her when she told them there were Greek soldiers rattling around in that wooden horse.
What is new is the sheer volume of fiction – and with it so much wisdom – that we are inundated with ... and how little we seem to have taken from it.
We should consider ourselves blessed to live in a time of such rich and vibrant storytelling. No other era in human history has been gifted with so many tales along with so much raw knowledge, from the entire breadth of civilization. And we should be the most enlightened culture that has ever existed in recorded time because of it: Maslow's "self-actualization" realized across the vast scope of an entire society.
Cast me melancholy, but I have to ask: what good have any of these stories been? They weren't just meant to be "great entertainment", were they?
Belgium declared its independence from the Netherlands in 1830. Do you know what pulled the trigger and moved the Belgian people to war? It was a performance one night of the opera La Muette de Portici. It stirred the people of Brussels to riot and take over the ruling regime's buildings. From there the fight spread across the country.
Consider that for a moment: one performance of an opera ignited an entire country to revolt against its masters ...
... and we have had countless movies, playing to audiences of millions, to stir our souls. And still we've yet to do anything like what those Belgians did after watching one opera.
I've been a Star Wars fan from one wild extreme of the spectrum to the other. And it's been a heckuva lot of fun, no doubt. But when it comes to taking Star Wars seriously, as an epic that has conveyed age-old wisdom that we can apply to our world, it really saddens me that we as fans (and there are plenty of us) haven't played this to the hilt. And we've had thirty years to do it, too.
If my generation, having grown up watching the Star Wars movies and the Matrix trilogy and The Lord of the Rings and everything else, has been literally assaulted with the theme of good against evil and still has done nothing with it ... then what does that say of us, compared to those who have come before?
George Lucas might as well have saved hundreds of millions of dollars and not made the Star Wars movies at all, for all the good that we have made of them.
Consider the Matrix trilogy. This is one movie series that I absolutely believe has been nowhere nearly as appreciated as it should be. I can think of no more effective metaphor from the movies than the Matrix series for the system that we seldom dare admit to having become enslaved to.
How many Americans are capable of even considering the fact that they don't have to choose only between the Democrat and Republican parties? You know the answer to that as well as I do: not that many. Their minds are not free. Their thinking is still imprisoned by a machine that defines for them the parameters of what is possible and what is not possible. If the machine expects them to believe that there really is no other choice because other candidates are "unelectable" or otherwise illegitimate, then these people believe it without question. You see it even now, with the mainstream press establishing it in the minds of most Americans that there are, at most, three "serious" presidential candidates from either of the two major parties.
I thought that The Matrix was a two-hour package of everything that we would need to know to start fighting our own matrix. Some people seriously predicted that when the V for Vendetta film came out that it would result in mobs of thousands taking to the streets in a bid to confront "them".
In a sane world, these stories would have motivated us so. Even though things should have never come to the point where we would need those to spur us to action, anyway. But that didn't happen. It was like millions of people were confronted with the very ugly truth of the world around them ... and decided to do nothing at all about it.
And then, think about the novel and movie series The Lord of the Rings. I don't know anything else to say other than Tolkien's story is the finest parable about the danger and self-destruction that comes with seeking power, that has ever been produced in modern English literature. Tolkien laid it all out, in terms that anyone could understand. And yet, our mad pursuit of power and influence over others continues unabated.
The one great modern story that I can see signs that its message is being sought and cherished by many is the Harry Potter series. What message is there in that? I believe it's the most profound of all: that death is not something to be feared. That in being fearful of death, we allow death to have a power over us that we should never yield to it. Voldemort has sought to be all-powerful because to him, death is something petty and ignoble: it's for the weak, not the strong. His "flight from death" (the literal French meaning of the word "Voldemort" by the way) has made him enthralled to power, instead of being its master. On the other hand, Harry Potter has let go his fear of death, and is not controlled by it. He is the one with the freedom and real choice. And not being bound to fear of death, Harry is spiritually free to live a full and abundant life: one that Voldemort can never know or understand. In fact, I've thought that the Harry Potter books do a far better job at teaching a lot of Christian virtues than have many modern preachers and theologians. But I digress ...
Why are the Harry Potter books working where movies such as Star Wars aren't? It's likely because Harry Potter is still a story primarily of written literature. To read a Harry Potter novel or any other book demands that the reader think about what it is he or she is. Reading a book actively engages the mind. Watching a movie or television show presents those thoughts ready-packaged for consumption. There are very few stories in the visual medium that do strive to be "thinking man's entertainment" (I would count Lost as being one of them). Otherwise, it seems that part of the mind turns off and accepts whatever the eyes see without question ... or critically thinking about. At least the Harry Potter books can exercise the mind to think about things like not having to fear mortality, and about having the strength and will to stand up and fight (something that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix did beautifully). For that much, we can be thankful that our young people will be wiser for the time they have invested in such entertainment.
It's not a guarantee though. The Chronicles of Narnia are founded on the deeper tenets of the Bible ... but on such a basic level that even a small child can grasp them. Yet it's hard to see them put into practice by many of the "grown-up" Christians that I see every day. Indeed, the belief system that I profess to share has had its own rich collection of history and proverbs for going on two millennia now ... and I can only lament at how many of my fellows do not seem to care enough to pursue sincere appreciation and understanding of it.
And if we are to discuss how even literature has failed to enlighten our generation, then we must mention George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. It's twenty-three years too late, and bedecked with more color to be sure ...
... But how is America not so far removed from the superstate of Oceania? We even have much the same order of society: the "Inner Party" of an entrenched elite – you can pick any number of "political families" and "favored" individuals – who sit at the top of the heap in this country and play with Senate seats and the Oval Office like title deeds in a Monopoly game. They will never let anyone from the "Outer Party" (the traditional middle class) ascend to their level. Think about it: when was the last time that Mr. Smith really could go to Washington? It sure hasn't been anytime lately. And then there is only what with trepidation I think of as the real-life analogy to Orwell's Proles: the too many Americans well enough engaged in drinking beer and pursuit of sex than to educate themselves about the surrounding world past what the TV is telling them.
What enforces this rigid structure? A "mainstream press" that long ago lost its independence and is now just part of "the system" spouting approved propaganda. A military-industrial complex that has engaged the nation in meaningless war that saps away our youth and vitality. Government surveillance of nearly all our communications and finances and movements. Even our own "Two Minutes Hate" used to expend what passions we might turn toward overcoming our lot, instead wasting them against propped-up straw-men both here and abroad.
All of this at work on a people expected to believe whatever is told them, however contradictory, and consider it true: "doublethink", as Orwell called it. Individual deviancy from the mindset means consignment as a "fringe thinker" or "moonbat" or whatever is the current jargon. And when people like Charles Krauthammer earnestly declare that to disagree with "The Leader" is an indication of mental illness, how is that different from the "derangement" that had Winston Smith dragged to Room 101?
We have, at last, arrived on the shores of Oceania.
No sense complaining about our destination now: we've had almost sixty years to try to change the course of the ship.
Growing up, I was taught that there was such a thing as right and wrong, and that it wasn't hard to tell the difference between the two. Then I saw how real life works: and that too many of the people in this world don't act like they care about doing the good thing. Stories like Star Wars may not have necessarily been real, but the values within them were certainly ideal, and virtuous enough to put into practice. Enough so that I gained courage from them to persist in seeking out good. Years later, I still don't see any reason why we shouldn't strive to adhere to them, in spite of the callousness and corruption everywhere we look.
Maybe these stories aren't meant for us at all. Perhaps they are the inheritance of those who will come after us: the ones who will follow our own generation and the mess that we have made of things. It's not a pleasant thing to wonder about how much we are like Rome before that empire fell, and that if there is a collapse then a much more terrible dark age might ensue. But if there is any shred of hope, it is that a better and nobler people might arise from the ruins of our age.
They will be the ones to whom Star Wars and The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings and every other tale of our era will be more than something to make "fan fiction" of and dress up as characters from.
I'm sure they will also be asking about what we did with these stories. "How did they tolerate so much wasted mythology?" "Didn't they learn anything from all those movies and books?"
Look, it's really very simple: bad things are happening around us. They aren't going to simply "go away" no matter how hard we try to wish them to vanish.
Stories don't become eternal classics solely on the virtue of their entertainment value. They stand the test of time because they are founded on something imperishable and true, that no tyrant or army or even the ignorance of ages can destroy. But they only have meaning if we take what they are teaching us to heart and act upon those values.
We have every reason possible to stand. And to fight. And to dare rebel against the things that are wrong without shame or apology. We have every right to make the empire tremble.
We've been shown the way, may times over. Now we just have to start boldly walking it.
From the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:
He said he's "150 percent" behind Bush on the war in Iraq.I hate to speculate, but it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of these people actively pray to God every day for another attack to happen, so that it will somehow "justify" Bush and their support of him. That's certainly the vibe that Milligan is showing us here."At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001 ], and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country," Milligan said.
But wait, there's more...
He declined to take a stance on President Bush's latest immigration bill."I can't figure it out for myself, I need the President and Congress to think for me!" Milligan is practically telling us."That is between the president and Congress, and I am just going to let them hash it out and work it out," Milligan said. "I just think that is something for probably smarter people than me to figure out. It is a tough situation either way, but something definitely needs to be done."
And this guy is the boss of a major political party for an entire state. And he can't comprehend that Bush and Congress are betraying the American people and selling them out with amnesty for illegals.
Where the Hell do fools like this come from, and who let them have way too much power for anyone's good?
It seems like the attempt to "blow up" that much jet fuel would actually cause a lot less damage than what we're being told. I mean, without a ready supply of an oxidizing agent, stuff just doesn't explode on it's own. It would be a fairly localized event.
Doesn't sound like these guys really knew what they were doing. Or maybe they did, and we just haven't heard the details yet. In any case, I'm curious to know.
