The Lion's Den

The Chronic of Narnia

2005-12-28T07:40:00.000-05:00

I saw this SNL digital short film a weekend or two ago when it was broadcast, and I liked it; I found it online, and thought I'd share. Enjoy!

[EDIT:Had to update this since NBC's made it available on their own website and requested it deleted from YouTube.com!] - Lazy Sunday

Merry Christmas To All

2005-12-25T10:27:00.000-05:00

And a lovely Christmas morning I'm waking up to - temperatures in the upper 40s, expected to get up to the low 70s today. Just about right for Christmas Day, although I could probably go for it being a little colder. Coffee and cocoa tastes better when there's a chill in the air. Jo-Ann's up in Marshall at her sister's with Kandra and Quentin; Tina & Melvin are (supposedly) over in Lake Charles and maybe Marxville doing the casinos, but I'll stop over by their place and see if Carla and the kids are around; I want to get a few more photos if I can (I don't have any of Carla or her kids yet, except for Kayla). I sent Rika and Chris some of the photos I took before, like I'd promised them; hope they like 'em, not sure if I'll see either of them though. I wonder if Kenny'll be around or if he went to his folks' place (or worse, is working). I'm not expecting much; should be a pretty quiet day, actually.

Ohh-wee-ohh! Yohhh-oh!

2005-12-18T21:28:00.000-05:00

Is it just coincidence that Bush's address to the nation happened to be on the 4 major networks at the same time as the WB's presentation of The Wizard of Oz?

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain", indeed.

Say, is he telling us how many brain cells he has left in that picture?

Scientists find a DNA change that accounts for white skin

2005-12-17T08:54:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post (and most of the newswire services) carried an OUTSTANDING story this week that states that scientists have discovered a tiny genetic mutation that accounts for white skin in humans.

Just go read it. It's long, but you NEED to read it. All of it. Entirely. Take your time. It's important to read.

Me, my honky ass is tickled pink to hear about it.

Is 'King Kong' Racist?

2005-12-15T14:00:00.000-05:00

Matt Drudge, of all people, asks a rather intriguing question, one I hadn't really considered before and would have laughed off, but which I now have to admit is very thought-provoking and probably accurate, whether intentional or not: Is King Kong Racist?

I don't think it's one of those questions that, once thoughtfully considered, can really be answered with any real certainty one way or the other. I think that the story is certainly a product of its time, a time which was deeply imbued with racism, not that today isn't, but one in which racist ideas were given much more validity by the mainstream than they are today.

Angela Davis Speaks on Stan 'Tookie' Williams' Execution - The Democracy Now Interview

2005-12-15T11:51:00.000-05:00

Haven't been listening to Democracy Now as much as I was a few months ago, but I happened to check it this morning and noticed Tuesday's show had an interview with prison activist, professor, and former Black Panther Angela Davis, who I'm kind of a fan of.

As far as Stan "Tookie" Williams' execution, I wasn't in support of it. I'm less and less in agreement with the notion of the state carrying out executions overall, because it doesn't really solve anything and it's hypocritical of the state to claim the moral high ground by making murder illegal but state murder legal. Killing's still killing. Death is still death. Sure, heinous crimes must be punished in order to have justice, but I just don't agree with the notion of the state carrying out executions. Killing Stan Williams (he preferred not to be called "Tookie" in his final years) doesn't really satisfy anything - it doesn't bring the victims of the crimes he was convicted of back (crimes that he went to his grave denying he carried out, which may or may not have been true - I don't really know, but it's certainly possible) , it's not really a deterrent to crime, and in this particular case, it silenced a voice that advocated nonviolence and turning away from gangs.

Clearly, Schwarzenegger and his Republican masters don't WANT young people, particularly young Black and Hispanic males, turning away from gangs and living nonviolent, productive lives, because if they do that in large enough numbers, pretty soon the corrections industry will have nobody left to process, cage, make money off, and then terminate when they're no longer useful to them.

Anyway, Angela Davis, like always, nails it spot-on. The interview with her is definitely worth listening to.

Bush says Iraq invasion was his responsibility

2005-12-15T09:34:00.000-05:00

Well this was an interesting surprise to read.

Of course, he had to temper it all by cluttering it up with his tired old bullshit, but I guess that's to be expected. Just unbelievable that he actually thinks he's actually got any face left to save. In the category of "President Who Has Caused the Most Eyes to Roll Around in American History", ol' Smirky wins by a landslide.

Paramount buying DreamWorks SKG - End of a Brief Dream

2005-12-11T19:07:00.000-05:00

From Reuters -

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures on Sunday said it has agreed to buy DreamWorks SKG Inc., the movie studio co-founded by director Steven Spielberg, for $1.6 billion, including debt assumption.

Paramount said the deal gives it DreamWorks' current projects, including Spielberg movie "Munich," part of future films from the iconic director, and worldwide distribution rights for movies from DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., maker of computer animated movies like smash hit "Shrek."

Paramount further said it is in "advanced discussions" to sell off DreamWorks' 59-title film library shortly after it closes the deal to buy Glendale, California-based DreamWorks.

The deal marks the end of independence for one of Hollywood's major film studios, DreamWorks, which was founded 11 years ago by Spielberg, music mogul David Geffen and movie executive Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Apparently the massive failure of Michael Bay's The Island is a big reason why the studio had to go on the auction block, at least financially speaking. I'm sure that Bay is pretty much persona non grata in many circles in Tinseltown now.

Newsweek spreads the blame around, though, and actually in a very sensible manner. Considering that Spielberg has gotten his calls returned lickity-split by just about everyone in the business for pretty much the last quarter century, I always wondered why he opted to start his own studio in the first place. Katzenberg, I can understand, TOTALLY (especially after reading Kim Masters' Keys to the Kingdom), and I always sorta figured Geffen was just along for the ride. I kinda have a feeling that none of the three are really too broken up over this turn of events.

Still, I wonder if Paramount will still keep the Dreamworks name and logo as is, or just incorporate Dreamworks films into the Paramount fold. I'm hoping that Dreamworks becomes to Paramount what UA became to MGM (and what MGM has become now to Sony), rather than becoming the Cannon or Orion of the 90s and 00s.

New Hariri Report Implicates Syria in Assassination

2005-12-11T18:54:00.000-05:00

More joy in the Middle East -

New Hariri report 'blames Syria'

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has received the second report into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The report is said to detail Syria's alleged role in the murder.

It comes days after United Nations investigator Detlev Mehlis's team questioned five Syrian officials.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad vowed again on Sunday that he would punish any Syrian involved in the murder plot.

Damascus has strongly denied involvement in the car bomb which killed Hariri in February.
But an interim UN report in December has already implicated Syrian officials.

Greaaaaat. Any guess as to where the troops will go next? It's like a parlor game - will they go to Iran next, or Syria? Keep your eye on the ball, ladies and gentlemen, the hand is quicker than the eye! Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!

RIP Richard Pryor, 1940-2005

2005-12-11T10:05:00.000-05:00

Richard Pryor, who'd been suffering from multiple sclerosis for many years, died late Friday or early Saturday of a heart attack. So now one of the true kings of comedy, and a genuine pioneer, has passed into greatness. And he'd just had a birthday, too. What a bummer.

I called over to Tina's yesterday with the news; Carla answered, and she gasped. I called Jo-Ann shortly after that, and she was a bit bummed hearing about it, but didn't seem very surprised. Besides, her grandson Phat-Phat was driving her nuts as usual, playing with some candle and getting into the cat's food dish. It was funny to hear her chat with me and then suddenly shout out to the kid to stop doing something. What really made me laugh was when she said her son Quentin had dropped the phone into the toilet a few days before and she had to get a new one. I mean, what the hell is Quentin doing with the phone around the toilet that he's dropping it in?

Been making a lot of updates here....

2005-12-11T05:49:00.000-05:00

For those of you who actually read my blog (and you're out there), you may notice a number of changes, particularly the Google search bar and the various ads and blog tracker doodads on the right hand side, as well as the reformatting of my many links. I also updated the subtitle of the blog, since the previous one wasn't really all that descriptive.

Well, now I got something to be thankful for.....

2005-11-23T16:10:00.000-05:00

I had to go to the nearby county court for jury duty today at 1 pm, which I wasn't really looking forward to (especially the day before Thanksgiving), and I lucked out. Not only did I not get picked - nobody who showed up got picked. Turns out that this morning there were 246 cases that could have gone to a jury trial, but apparently they all knew we were coming at 1, and none - NONE - of them chose to go to trial. So we all got sent home, all of us who showed up will get paid our $6 check in the mail (not bad for 5 minutes of sitting), and to top it all off, none of us had to pay for parking like we would at one of the municipal courts downtown.

WHEW. That takes care of that! I'm just jazzed I didn't have to serve. Yippee!

Pork Chops Hawaiian recipe

2005-11-20T20:05:00.000-05:00

Found this online and thought I'd repost it here. Nothing like a classic old school recipe from a soup can.

Pork Chops Hawaiian

Pork Chops Hawaiian appeared on the back of a can of Campbell's Beef Broth around 1973, or at least that is when I found it. Our family instantly loved it served over rice. It is really easy to prepare and enjoy any night of the week; however, it seems like a special occasion! What better for your family!

4 pork chops, about 1 pound
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can beef broth, Campbell's
1/2 cup pineapple tidbits, drained
1/4 cup green bell peppers, chopped
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon cornstarch

4 servings
55 minutes 10 mins prep

1. In skillet, brown chops; pour off fat.
2. Add remaining ingredients expect the water and cornstarch.
3. Cover; simmer 45 minutes.
4. Stir now and then.
5. Mix 2 T. water and 1 T. cornstarch.
6. Stir into sauce, cooking and stirring until thickened.

DIMPers are such whiny babies

2005-11-20T15:34:00.000-05:00

On all the internet message boards I post on, if I post long articles or editorials, nobody complains about the fact that I'm posting a long article or editorial, with the exception of two - MousePad (which is notoriously tight-assed about posting everything from large photo files and hotlinks to even off-site smilies, although they certainly make enough money to afford tons of server space and the hotlinking issue can be resolved by using free image hosting sites) and DVDInMyPants.com , a site spawned from dissatisfaction with the enforcement of civility at DVDFile.com . DIMP, as it's called, is a site populated predominantly by a bunch of self-congratulatory smarmy white fratboy-types who routinely cackle with delight over "breaking the rules" (such as referring to each other as "nigger" and "fag"), yet who effeminately have hissy fits every time I break one of their arbitrarily-contrived "rules", such as posting anything from an off-site source, particularly in their political forum. Like Superman reacting to Kryptonite, they shudder with dread anytime I do a copy-and-paste job there in the hopes of stirring the discussion pot, as if nobody else on the net ever does copy-and-paste jobs to spur message board conversation, as if none of them ever do copy-and-paste jobs themselves at DIMP. More predictably than a Hollywood formula flick, their response to any political post I make is to completely ignore the topic and concentrate more on the messenger and the manner of the message's relay than on the message itself. The mods on that board have got to be some of the most self-important sons of bitches I have ever come across. Like Walter Sobchak says, they're nothing but a bunch of fucking amateurs. Instead of just ignoring my posts entirely, or commenting on the subject, they want their editorial content spoonfed to them in bite-size amounts, mostly because they're so conditioned by the mainstream media to only accept information a little bit at a time. Large amounts of reading intimidate them, particularly if it's about a serious topic.

Sad, really. They're a major pain in the ass to deal with. Unfortunately for them, they can't ban me, otherwise they'd prove themselves to be the hypocritical assholes they accuse me of being. After all, their whole reason for existing is because they didn't want to play by DVDFile's rules and some of them got themselves banned from there. Funny how that shit works.

A little bit of cinematic intelligentsia on the Yahoo boards

2005-11-14T12:55:00.000-05:00

On one of the Yahoo message boards, normally a den of internet idiocy and racism that I try to stay away from, I happened to come across a rather intelligent post by one "bibliocinephile", and I responded to it. OK, call me narcissistic, but I'm actually kind of proud of my response, and thought I'd repost it here, because, well, I like it, so nyaah.

First, the original post, which was in response to the latest box office report at Yahoo Entertainment News, and to the various posts that replied to the topic with brain fart knee-jerk reactions like "The movies suck and too many Hollyweirdos hate America!" -

"The enemy is us"
by: bibliocinephile

It seems we've been busy pointing fingers at Hollywood for the box office slump. And, granted, Hollywood has been doing quite a lot of things wrong. I understand the irritation with high box office prices, commercials, and rude fellow movie patrons who chat on cell phones during the show. I concur completely. I'll also agree that the quality of most films is not what it ought to be; 70% of the movies released to theaters do indeed "suck." And "Chicken Little" itself is not as charming or funny as it ought to have been. But if we're looking around for ALL the reasons why so many Hollywood movies suck, maybe we ought to take a look in the mirror.

This year has seen some good films. "Cinderella Man," for example, was a well-written, well-acted film, intriguing and emotionally involving. It took moviegoers to a place our everyday experience can't take us; it offered us characters we could care about. And guess what -- we stayed away. The movie tanked. Thanks to its poor showing, according to Entertainment Weekly, moviegoers "can say good-bye to those kinds of films" (i.e. serious dramas set in the past) for the foreseeable future, whereas we'll have plenty of opportunities to see dozens of puerile clones of "Wedding Crashers." Thanks a lot, moviegoing public.

The best-reviewed animated film of the year so far has been "Howl's Moving Castle." It tanked, too.

Right now, the best film in release is "Capote," with an outstanding performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman (once you get used to his voice). "Capote" is a gripping and thought-provoking film that doesn't settle for easy answers; at the same time, it's emotionally involving, drawing the thoughtful moviegoer in and not letting go. If there is any justice in the Oscars (and let's face it, their track record's not too good), "Capote" and Hoffman's performance will be remembered come Oscar time. But where is the public? Going to "Chicken Little" and "Zathura."

Given this, is it any wonder that "Hollow-wood" doesn't give us more absorbing and challenging films? It would, after all, if it actually thought people would go to see them.

This is not to say that some box-office successes don't deserve that success. (Unlike almost everyone else here, I loved "Wallace and Gromit.") But I can't help feeling that we, the public as a whole, get the kind of entertainment we deserve. If we really wanted something better, after all, we'd have the good sense to patronize it when it does appear. Yes, Hollywood sucks -- but we let it happen.

And here's my response:

Most of the whiners here are not intelligent cinephiles like you and me. Most of the whiners are middle class Joe Sixpack types who think they're not Joe Sixpack, who whine because the only things they see on TV are the big name releases that are being hyped, who dutifully go to these films, thinking they'll be moved in ways they never have before, and who find themselves not nearly as enchanted as they were when they were 10 years old (if that ever actually happened). They hopelessly long for the 80s (which, looking back, was actually a pretty silly decade, and terribly pretentious in many respects) to "return", as if anyone has ever been successful in turning back time en toto. Because of this, they've turned bitter and cynical, and go overboard in expressing their disappointment with getting older by declaring that "all films today" are somehow worse than films of yesterday were. This is utter hogwash. Films of all levels of quality have always been produced - every single moviegoing generation has its classics, its popular hits, its middling successes, and its laughable duds. Every single generation has its underseen gems, its bloated-but-empty spectacles, and its popular masterpieces. Although the styles, costs, and manner of popular filmmaking have changed continually over the years, the combination of critical success, popular success, and box office success have always been a crapshoot. Every time there has been an original hit, the industry starts emulating it, trying to reproduce the success of the first hit. This is where we get the "formula" film. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Various film genres come and go in popularity. Sequels, remakes, and what we today call "film franchises" have ALWAYS existed.

What's really different is that since the 70s and 80s, the public reporting of the financial news of the Hollywood studios, which has only come about because of the fact that the studios were all corporatized (they either were bought by larger publically-owned corporations, many of which were not also in the film business, or they merged with other large entertainment corporations, as Disney did), has altered public perception of Hollywood. The notion that box office results week-to-week, quarter-to-quarter, year-to-year, are necessarily "better" or "worse" is something that previously would only be a concern within the industry itself. Plus, it's skewed. Sometimes the studios have an exceptional year at the box office, and then the next couple of years don't turn out to be quite as high as that one banner year - the way it's reported makes it seem as though something terrible is happening and that the industry is mired in red tape. This is part of the problem of the corporatization of the film industry - the idea that every year and every quarter bring ever greater return-on-investment, and nothing but sustained growth. This is ludicrous to expect of any business enterprise as it is, but to expect it of something as historically fickle as motion picture entertainment is absolutely insane.

Unfortunately, the Joe Sixpack types read these articles (they never would have 30 or 40 years ago, because that info would have been limited to Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, and other industry publications), and they combine them with the fact that they had a lousy time going to see such-and-such a movie at such-and-such a multiplex the last time they went (another aspect of film entertainment that has become insanely overcorporatized - film exhibition), and when you combine the deplorable state of the modern multiplex and the increasing lack of civility in many film patrons, one comes away with the impression that everything coming out in theaters these days somehow "sucks". It doesn't. There are still PLENTY of good and great films being made, every single year. There are still plenty of quality movie theaters around the country that don't tolerate abusive patrons, cell phones inside the auditorium, or loud talking during the film. Just because Joe Sixpack had a bad experience at the Superplex when he went to see "Blow 'Em Up Again Part 3" in DTS doesn't mean that it's impossible to find a good and comparatively inexpensive place to see a quality movie these days.

Although I sort of glossed over it, much can also be said for the state of modern film exhibition as well, as this ties into the fact that audiences aren't flocking to theaters as they once were. A lot of it does have to do with the rise of DVD and home theater systems as well as the increase in the ubiquity of cable and satellite TV systems, and to some degree, the internet - the studios cannot expect to provide content for all these various revenue streams and not have it affect the initial stream. One reason why the home video revolution (i.e, VHS/Beta) didn't affect film attendance in the 70s, 80s, and 90s as adversely as the DVD/home theater/cable/satellite/PPV revolution has in the 00s has to do with 1. quality of image and sound, which didn't even come close to that which could be achieved theatrically and 2. price and ubiquitousness. Personally, given the fact that the major studios are so heavily involved in the DVD market, I think they're unreasonable to demand that first-run theaters charge no less than $5 per ticket, since it is they who went amuck in greenlighting so many big ticket films and $20 million name stars in the 80s and 90s (which was only possible because of the immense financial successes at the box office during the 80s and 90s). One reason that laserdisc (which was certainly part of the video market in the 80s and 90s) never got the toehold on the home entertainment market that DVD has isn't so much related to its physical size or the fact that DVDs can be played on computers (although both of those aspects certainly help it in comparison), as it is because laserdisc was never priced as low as DVD is - you NEVER had laserdiscs priced to sell as pre-recorded VHS tapes were, and as most DVDs are, and there was NEVER a Wal-mart $5.50 bin for older or lesser titles. Same goes for the players - in their prime, most laserdisc players tended to stay above $100, whereas DVD players, and more recently even some home theater systems, have gotten ubiquitous partly because they are so comparatively inexpensive (even less expensive than VHS players were in their heyday).

As it is, DVD took off like wildfire in the late 90s, partly due to the fact that it was cheaper overall compared to laserdisc, partly because it was smaller, but also largely because it was able to provide such things as audio commentary and additional features, as well as the entire movie, on one side of one disc, whereas laserdisc usually required, at least, two sides of one disc to do this. Simply put, DVD is pretty much the more advanced technology. That's fine, but the various aspects surrounding its popularity are what have adversely affected box office attendance. Combine that with the unfortunate fact that far too many of the major theater chains overexpanded themselves in the 90s (never having expected something like DVD to come along and take away much of their customer base, as they were still mired in a "go-go 80s" growth-and-expansion mindset), which resulted in the closing of hundreds of existing theaters (many of them single-screeners), as well as further stagnation and deterioration of customer service, as so many chains were eaten up by larger competitors (and such massive mergers and acquisitions usually result in a decrease in the quality of customer service), and you wind up with the present state of moviegoing today.

This is where the cinematic entrepreneur and digital cinema come into play. But I'll leave my thoughts on that for another time.

Confessions of a Marine

2005-11-03T05:57:00.000-05:00

I caught this in a post over at DVDFile.com's forum, and apparently it was obtained from truthout.org, but I think it was originally published on a French news website. Anyway, I thought it significant enough to share here.

Confessions of a Marine
By Jean-Paul Mari
Le Nouvel Observateur

Thursday 27 October 2005 edition

Iraq: The story no American publisher wanted.

In a just-published book, Master-Sergeant Jimmy Massey tells about his mission to recruit for, then fight in, the war in Iraq. He tells why he killed. And cracked.

Jimmy Massey is 34 years old. He's originally a Texas boy, raised as a good Southern Baptist who loves squirrel hunting with his air rifle. After 12 years in the Marines, Jim is a broken man, a veteran afflicted with Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, a depressive hooked on his medications, haunted by the nightmare images in which he massacres innocent civilians, scenes experienced in Iraq when he was nothing but a killing machine. Jim has cracked, has withdrawn from the service for medical reasons, and has written a raw and brutal book. Telling the life of a Marine of today, revealing "how he talks, how he thinks, how he fucks, and how he kills." The army denies the facts and his former comrades have insulted, rejected, and threatened him. His testimony ulcerates Neo-Conservative America and shocks the politically correct. In the United States, no publishing house has dared to publish his manuscript. Extracts follow.

The Recruiter

When you're a recruiter, you have to learn fast. And I rapidly learned that if I wanted to keep my job, I couldn't allow myself to have any scruples.

I went to public schools every day where I was able to contact young people easily. I had already been given a list of all the students, with their phone numbers. So I really didn't need the 2002 law - the No Child Left Behind Act 1 - which stipulates that any high school receiving federal funds must furnish military recruitment officers with the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of its students. [...] As usual, I said to myself, "I'm going to get them, those fuckheads," since, you must understand, a recruiter has only one thing in his head if he wants to pay his rent: landing contracts. [...]

One day in 2000, I was with my warrant officer in the cafeteria of a little local university. Chief Warrant Officer Dalhouse rushed over to me, saying "Hey! Chief-Sergeant, I'd like to introduce you to Timmy." I lifted my head towards Timmy to discover ... a retard! Two hundred and ten pounds of muscles, the features and the speech of a retard. Upset, I looked at my new boss and asked him: "Are you shitting me?" He firmly replied: "No, Chief-Sergeant, you are going to interview this guy. He is seriously thinking about joining the Marines."

[...] Timmy was short and massive; he wore blue jeans, work boots, and a T-shirt in the Andrews High School football team colors. He reminded me of the Lenny character from Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." He seriously wanted to sign up with the Marines; it was obvious. [...] "Now, let's talk about your handicap. I know it's been harder for you than the average person and you've already shown a lot of self-confidence by overcoming your disability." Timmy lowered his eyes; I saw he was a little embarrassed. Then he raised his head, his eyes glistening with tears, and in a trembling voice, answered: "You're right, Sergeant, it's been really hard for me. Once, when I was new, the other guys locked me in a closet. They shoved me around and insulted me. I was so angry I knocked down the closet door." "- Timmy, no one will ever bother you again. The Corps will help you acquire all the self-confidence you'll need to overcome the obstacles you could encounter in the course of your life." He sent me a look full of gratitude. [...]

When a kid told me he had taken Ecstasy, here's the sort of conversation we'd have: "Listen, guy, are you sure it was really Ecstasy? Maybe it was Doliprane." When I said that, I'd nod my head up and down. "Yeah, I'm not sure, in fact." "So you think it was Doliprane?" still nodding my head. "Yeah, it was Doliprane." [...]

The War in Iraq

"You call that pacification? I've got a problem with it," I said in a nauseated voice. "My friend, you've gotta get a grip. If you keep making waves, they'll judge you as a war criminal."

We had reached the military site Al-Rashid on an overcast, dark and sinister day. [...] When we stopped, I saw ten Iraqis, about 150 yards away. They were under forty years old, clean and dressed in the traditional white garment. They stayed on the side of the road waving signs and screaming anti-American slogans. [...] That's when I heard a shot pass just over our heads, from right to left. I ran into the middle of the street to see what was happening. I had barely rejoined Schutz when my guys unloaded their weapons on the demonstrators. It only took me three seconds to take aim. I aimed my sights on the center of a demonstrator's body. I breathed in deeply and, as I exhaled, I gently opened my right eye and fired. I watched the bullets hit the demonstrator right in the middle of his chest. My Marines barked: "Come on, little girls! You wanna fight?"

I acquired a new target right away, a demonstrator on all fours who was trying to run away as fast as possible. I quickly aimed for the head; I breathed in deeply, breathed out, and I fired again. One head: boom! Another: boom! The center of a mass in the bull's eye: boom! Another: boom! I kept on until the moment when I saw no more movement from the demonstrators. There was no answering fire. I must have fired at least a dozen times. It all lasted no longer than two and a half minutes.

I know that they had also been shot in the back; some of them were crawling and their white clothes turned red. The M-16's 5.56 is a nasty bullet: it doesn't kill all at once. For example, it can enter the chest and come out at the knee, tearing all the internal organs on the way through. My guys were jumping around in every direction. Taylor and Gaumont hollered: "Come back, babies!" "They don't know how to fight, those cocksuckers! Fucking cowards!" They slapped one another on the back, exchanging "Good job!," but they were frustrated because some demonstrators had succeeded in getting away. I wanted to keep on firing, I kept telling myself: "Good God, there must be more of them." It was like eating the first spoonful of your favorite ice cream. You want more. [...]

Those demonstrators were the first people I killed. [...] That had a hell of an effect on me. What an adrenaline, rush, fuck! Fear becomes a motor. It pushes you. It had more of an impact on me than the best grass I ever smoked. It was as though all those I had ever hated, all the anger that was accumulated in me was there in that being; you feel like you're absorbing life like a cannibal. You're really happy with yourself; you feel really powerful and everything becomes clear. You reach nirvana, like a white luminous space. But after a few hours, you come down from nirvana and find yourself in dark waters; you swim in a pool of mud and the only way to go back to that other feeling is to kill again. [...]

After pulling out at dusk, we heard shots, at least a hundred. Lima Company had opened fire on a vehicle. I learned later that there were three women and a child inside. As far as I know, there was never any inquiry. [...]

Forty-five minutes later, a red Kia Spectra came towards us at around 35 mph. It penetrated the green zone; a few of my Marines let loose a warning round and the sniper fired on the engine, but the damage didn't keep the car from continuing into the red zone. The vehicles installed in the rear immediately opened fire with their 240 Gulfs; we joined in with our M-16s, targeting the car and firing at least 200 rounds at high speed. The KIA stopped in a grating around 25 yards from my Humvee, and my Marines pounced on the vehicle and began to extract the four wounded Iraqis. The occupants, young men tastefully dressed, were bleeding profusely. [...] Six stretcher bearers arrived with stretchers and took them away. The survivor came towards me groaning, a tortured expression covering his face. He looked in the air, his hands raised: "Why did you kill my brother? We didn't do anything to you. We're not terrorists."

I walked away without saying anything to him and sat down inside my vehicle, devastated. I got out when I heard the Marines and the stretcher-bearers bringing the Kia's occupants back to the car. "Fuck, what are you bringing them back for?" "Chief-Sergeant, the chief Medical Officer said he couldn't do anything for them." I looked at the Iraqis, containing my anger with difficulty. They were twisting and groaning, dying by inches and in pain. [...] I couldn't speak. I looked inside the car. Obviously, there were neither weapons nor explosives there. I was more and more disgusted.

The Last Straw

[...] Captain Schmitt came towards me and asked me, very calmly: "Are you OK, Chief-Sergeant? [...]" "- No, Captain. I'm not OK." "- Why not?" I answered without hesitation: "It's a bad day. We killed a lot of innocent civilians." "- No. It's a good day," he retorted in an authoritarian tone. Before I had time to answer, he had already moved away from me with a confident tread.

Today, Jimmy Massey is no longer a Marine. He lives in a little village in North Carolina, spends his time making anti-recruitment visits to schools and militating against the war in the association he founded with five other soldiers: Veterans Against the War.

----

(*)Kill! Kill! Kill! by Jimmy Massey (with Natasha Saulnier), published by Editions du Panama, 390 p., 22 Euros.

Pretty compelling stuff. I Googled Jimmy Massey's name, and read his interview with the Sacramento Bee from last year (as published at Alternet). Strange that one newspaper would publish an interview with him, yet he couldn't find a publisher for his book. Hopefully that will change soon.

Back from a Long Break

2005-10-31T08:05:00.000-05:00

OK, so I'm still figuring out this whole blogging thing. I was never very good at keeping journals or diaries. Last time I actually kept a diary I was, like, 11 or 12, and that lasted only about a year, maybe less. After a while it's like "what the fuck is there to write about?", y'know? Anyway, I changed the template on this blog, and because of that my links all got deleted (thanks, Blogger programmers), so I updated them. I figure once I get a little more established with my online presence (one I'm comfortable with anyway), I'll post more often. This long break was exacerbated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, though, and then all that shit with the old PC going on the blink and stuff. Been updating my bookmarks on this new computer also. I don't know why I don't drag the old PC into the bedroom to try to boot it up and connect it to the new one yet. Oh that's right, no Ethernet cable, I keep forgetting to get one. Well, eventually, hopefully.

Today all the network news shows are talking about the recently-deceased Rosa Parks' casket being viewed in the Capitol Rotunda. I think that's just such an awesome honor to give to any civilian, particularly a Black woman (yeah, even today), and it really says something about the impact the Civil Rights Movement had on so many people. Rick Chamberlain has an interesting piece on her at Common Dreams today.

I gotta figure out some hustle to get some cash coming my way. These affiliate programs sound intriguing, and apparently they do bring in a decent amount. I guess I just need to figure out what to have for a site, add the message board, link this blog and others I might do to it, and put the affiliate stuff on the main site. Hmm. Might be able to do something with a mix of DVD/movie stuff, music, politics & commentary, adult/booty/babes, maybe a financial section if I want, maybe a Disney section....all my general interests. Start off that way and see if there's a need to add other topic sections. I suppose it could fly. Some of the blogs are doing well and some of them are a mess, and not always half as interesting. We'll see how it goes.

Considering Africa.....

2005-07-14T21:23:00.000-05:00

What you do today that is worthwhile, inspires others to act at some future time.
Marcus Garvey

I like this statement. I've been listening to BBC World Service's Network Africa program and reading some of the news of goings-on in Africa, and through there I found a link to anti-slavery.org . On one of the pages there I saw the quote from Marcus Garvey, and I thought I'd keep it here to remember. I've also been impressed with their section called Breaking the Silence: Learning About the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Really intriguing.

And so it begins.....

2005-07-09T06:06:00.000-05:00

My first blog....and I join the ranks of bloggers worldwide! This should prove interesting.