QoTD: Will You See United 93 ?

OK, so read the review first. Then continue reading this post.

...Short pause to read review...

Good. So let's start with the basics. Paul Greengrass is a very talented director. Bloody Sunday is possibly one of the better movies I've seen, and I thoroughly enjoyed The Bourne Supremacy. And no, I categorically do not think it is too soon for a movie about September 11. But I am not going to see this movie. Part of it is because this is still a really difficult subject for me to talk about, and the other part was kind of nebulous -- like a knee jerk "No Way".

This review made me think though. What is the point of this movie? It's all but completely devoid of any historical conext, background, motivation, message. It's sheer terror for terror's sake. I have thought many times, long and painfully, about what it must have been like to be aboard one of those four planes. Do I really want to see those thoughts played in in lush Technicolor? Not really. Is seeing a re-enactment going to make those thoughts any easier to bear? Certainly not -- perhaps even worse.

So no, I'm not going to see United 93, though I hold no ill will toward it -- I hope it does well. I am holding out for mighty Oliver's World Trade Center, which given his past will hopefully be a bit more in-depth. However, I do admit that it will be quite difficult to make a movie about this subject that has some sort of message without being bashed as partisan garbage. C'est la vie, I guess -- welcome to America, 2006.

Hey, I ain't never comin' home/
Hey, I'll just wander my own road/
Hey, I can't meet you here tomorrow, no/
Say Goodbye...Don't follow

More from Capitol Hill

Your voted peers have returned from their off-shore oil-boat cruises and are back to work. Working hard to protect America against home-owners from recording movies, I mean against terrorism. A new copyright act, I mean anti-terrorism act is going to be proposed. It really irks me that they are proposing something more restrictive than the DMCA, but covering it up as if it is needed to fight terrorism. It even includes a section for creating a 20M unit in the FBI for 'creating "advanced tools of forensic science to investigate" copyright crimes.' Fuck that. No wonder the liberal and young don't want to vote. It's the same shit every year. They are taking away the most basic things because of the fact that they are all bought out. It all comes down to one thing. They need to stop all the special interest financing. No more money "donations" from corporations. I feel like I need to leave my home and my country to go live in a place where I can watch TV (should I ever get a TV again), without thinking that someone is keeping an eye on what I watch. It's my damn house. Let me do what I want. I want to watch MY DVD's and listen to MY CD's and it's MY choice to do whatever I want with them, and NONE of this supports terrorism. Sod off Rep. Lamar Smith.

Good Show!

Wow...My jaw dropped when I heard this. The following are Bob Scheiffer's closing comments from this past Sunday's Face The Nation. Very well put, if I do say so myself.

Well, here we go again, another legislative deal, this time it was the immigration bill that has
collapsed. But as senators ran for the door on another two-week vacation, they promised to try to
work something out when they got back to town. How many times on how many issues have we heard
that? What happened in the Senate last week wasn't about immigration, it was about what's gone
wrong with Congress, which can't do much of anything anymore. Here is the main reason:
Our elected officials have lost the ability to compromise. In order to raise the money needed to get elected, they have to sign off with so many special interest groups before they get to Washington that their positions are set in stone long before they arrive at the Capitol. You don't get special interest money by promising to give the special interest
ideas a fair hearing and your best judgment, you get the money by promising to take their side
come hell or high water. So most of the debate is just time-wasting talk; no one's mind is
changed. Congress just nibbles around the edges of most issues, and nothing of significance gets done. Tomorrow, millions of people across America will take to the streets to demand
immigration reform, but don't expect Congress to do much on immigration. Don't expect it to do
much on anything. Our political system is so badly broken there's no longer very much that
Congress can do.

Bullshit!

Note to self: after committing a heinous crime, cook up some bizzare story involving religion. Be acquitted several weeks later by reason of insanity.

WTF? Is this legal proof that religion causes insanity, and that religious zealots are, in fact, insane? FUCK YEA!

Scapegoat

There are lots of things I don't agree with. Most of all, I really try to be rational in the face of highly charged, emotional issues. Why do I seem to be the only one who even gives a damn about trying?

This whole trial is a fucking sham. Remove yourself from the horror and magnitude of what happened and think about it. I know it's hard -- I was there folks -- but continuing down the blind reactionary course isn't going to solve a damn thing (we've seen that, haven't we?) But I digress. So consider this: the dude was in jail the day it happened. He has pledged allegiance to al-qaeda, but is he on trial for that? Nope. He says he knew of a plot, but didn't know when it was going to happen. Let's consider an analogue: if my buddy tells me he's gonna off his old lady and I don't do anything to stop it, I'm complicit. If a company ignores safety issues and people die as a result of their negligence (possibly willful negligence, as exposing a flaw would mean loss of profit) they are guilty of gross negligence. But do they get the death penalty? I would love for a legal scholar to tell me if this has ever happened in the course of documented legal history.

My point is this: we are placing the culpability for those 19 guys on the planes and those several guys in the desert (the most important of which, if you'll remember, our commander in chief isn't that concerned about) on this moron. They're going to parade family members of Semptember 11th victims up there, make them dig up their pain, and cry in front of those impressionable jurors, and once again turn our beloved justice system into a soap opera. Please -- spare me. Throw him in jail, or at least treat him in line with what he's been charged with. It sets a dangerous precedent when we bend the rules for bad guys; when do we start bedning them for people like you and me?

An Open Letter to Tom "The Hammer" DeLay

Dear 'Hammer',

I was saddened to hear that you were dropping your bid for re-election. In a public statement, you mentioned that the decision was motivated by a "refus[al] to allow liberal Democrats an opportunity to steal this seat with a negative personal campaign". Interestingly enough, you make no mention of the total embarassment of having your ass handed to you by your enraged constituents who refuse to be represented by a petty thief, or the ensuing party-busting scandal of having their highest-ranking legislative official removed from office in shackles and an orange jumpsuit. Perhaps this was a calculated move in order to shift the headlines away from the real story (two-bit criminal decides to rot in hell, let the Rest of the World live in Peace) to your made up story (left-wing conspiracy); however, I tend to think that such a slimy underhanded move would make someone of your high moral standing shudder. Rather, I prefer to think this was just an innocent omission on your part. Accordingly, I'll be waiting for your public amendment.

Yours in conspiracy lunacy greed lugubrity Jesus Satan Comraderie,

Dr. Duke Nukem, Ph.D.