The Un-American Way
In case you haven't noticed, Mark Millar, the writer of comic titles like The Authority and The Ultimates, is one of best in the biz, in my opinion. This spring, DC Comics is releasing what may be his masterpiece:

What if the small spacecraft carrying the last survivor of the planet Krypton, instead of touching down in Kansas, the breadbasket of Ameroca, crash landed in Stalinist Ukraine?

Purveyors of Smut
Back in October of 2000, The New York Times did an article that, among other things, included a map that illustrated the percentage of pornography consumption on a state by state basis. Oddly enough, the states with the highest consumption rates map almost exactly to the states that would vote for Al Gore as President the following month. Someone at The Atlantic monthly believes that this is more than a coincidence.

New Age Battle Dress
Here's an article from the Washington Post that details military research at MIT to develop "smart" uniforms for the army, to combine GPS technology, biotoxin detection & relief, performance enhancement, and all other sorts of goodies, through the wonders of nanotechnology.

The Longest Walk
Here's a Time article about "The Passion", Mel Gibson's directorial follow-up to Braveheart, that details the day of the Crucifixtion. The big conceit in this film is that it's all in Aramaic & Latin, the languages of the time, with NO SUBTITLES, because he wants to be as authentic as possible and force the audience to focus on the visuals.

Just a minor suggestion: if you want to be authentic, cast an Arab as Jesus, instead of the VERY-anglo James Caviezel.

Our Very Own Monster
Remember when everyone was afraid that the Japanese were going to buy the entire United States of America, back in the late 80s, because they were making just that much money? You want to know why that never happened? Because they're economy was artificially inflated due to a massive speculative market for investors who made investments in places that didn't have sound financial fundamentals but sounded REALLY cool. In other words, they had a bubble economy. And, like all bubbles, it burst back in the early 90's, plunging Japan into an economic recession that has not ended to this day, despite the efforts of their government and their central banking authorities.

You do realize, of course, that the technology boom in the American economy of the mid to late 90's was also, in fact, a bubble economy that burst at the end of 2000. This article from CNNfn.com talks about why we may be in the same mess that the Japanese are in, and that there may be nothing the government or the Federal Reserve Bank can do about it.

Why Not?
In probably the most shameless example of making lemonade out of lemons in recent memory, Nicole Brown Simpson's sister Denise is considering a run for the United States Senate because, in her words, "I just like Washington, D.C.".

God help us.

Sleepless Knight
Christopher Nolan has just signed to direct a new "Batman" movie.

For those of you who don't know, Mr. Nolan is the writer/director of Memento and the grotesquely underrated Insomnia. And there's a nasty rumor going around about Guy Piece (Leonard Shelby in Memento, as well as Lt. Exley from L.A. Confidential) playing Bruce Wayne.

One word:
Nerd-gasm!

"On the trail of the midnight ride..."
Biker Boyz, the new movie by Reggie Rock-Blythewood (writer of Get on the Bus and writer/director of Dancing In September), starring Messrs. Fishburne & Luke (along with a personal, lost favorite, Larenz "O-Dog" Tate), may seem to be just a motorcycle repeat of The Fast and the Furious. But, beyond the need for speed, it also gets into the lifes of a bunch of affluent, Black professionals who use the motorcycle subculture as an outlet and release for the pressures they endure in the corporate jungle. It's MUCH smarter than the ads let on. Check it out this weekend.

Emmett Till
In 1955, while visiting relatives in the South, a young black boy named Emmett Till supposedly whistled at a white woman as he exited a grocery store. That night, that woman's husband and another white man proceeded to abduct, beat, mutilate, and then shoot Emmett in the head. As you can see from the before & after pictures above, the only way his mother could identify his body was because of a ring she'd given him just before he went on that trip. An all-white jury acquitted the two assailants, and they've subsequently died quietly of old age after a long, peaceful life as racist child murderers.
PBS just aired a documentary detailing the whole sordid affair and the efforts by Emmett's mother, also recently deceased, to find some justice in the world.
As I think about James Tate down in Texas, I'm reminded that, in some places, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

At Least Powell Hasn't Forgotten
Here, Colin Powell seems to be on the other side of the Affirmative Action debate from Dr. Rice & the President. Thank goodness for small wonders.

Fire From the Gods
The White House appears ready to approve the Prometheus project, a NASA nitiative to develop and build the next generation of reusable spaceflight vessels with nuclear-powered engines capable of interplanetary flight (i.e. trips to Mars). Now, ordinarily, I'd be jumping for joy about anything that helps us boldly go where no man or woman has gone before, but the two words "Bush" and "Nuke" in the same sentence makes me a little edgy. And, since our commander-in-chief isn't known for being much of a futurist, it makes me wonder if this has any relationship to our rejection of the ABM treaty, that specifically calls for a ban on space-based weapons.

A Great Role Model
Here's an article from the Washington Post that suggests that Condelezza Rice was one of the strongest voices in President Bush's ear to get him to denounce the affirmative action policy at the University of Michigan. Which, once again, illustrates my long-held point: tokenism only benefits tokens when the people picked as our pioneers close the doors behind the rest of the community. It's great that Dr. Rice is the first Black National Security Advisor, but, in this case, she went out of her way and out of her job description to effect policy that hurts every other person of color and every other woman (i.e. the largest beneficiaries of affirmative action, I might add) in the country.

Thanks alot.

The Family Business
So, what do you think will happen to the price of oil if a war starts in Iraq? Consequently, what will happen to the profit margins & stock prices of America's major oil companies? How many of those companies might pay dividends, which, if the President has his way, would be tax-free income for anyone who owns stock in those companies? Why is it that the words "conflict of interest" suddenly come to mind, when I remember that G.W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Evans, and the godfather himself, George Herbert Walker Bush, all have had enormous financial stakes in the oil industry? Did you know there's an oil tanker out there somewhere named the Condelezza?

Ponder that as you check out this L.A. Times article that shows constructing tax shelters to protect deep-pocket investors has been printed on the Bush D.N.A. for nearly 100 years. Still think they're serving the public good?

Whither the Juggernauts?
This has got to be the most asinine sports editorial I've ever read, which is why I'm posting it. Frank Deford of Sports Illustrated is complaining that, now that there's parity in the NFL (i.e. "Any Given Sunday"), there are no dominant teams who can steamroll the entire league for years on end so that the rest of us little peons can grovel at their glorious feet. Is it me? I thought the rest of the country was sick and tired of watching the Yankees win every single year. I know I was sick and tired of watching grown men genuflect to Michael Jordan like he was Emperor Hirohito instead of trying their hardest to dunk on his neck like eternal Macroscope hero, John Starks. The fact of the matter is, I have watched more football this season than I ever have in my entire life, and it's because every single game has the potential to be a heart-stopper. Unfortunately, when everybody has a chance, it does put the professional sports prognosticators out of business, doesn't it? I mean, if there's no dominant team, you, as a sports writer, can't compose reams of paper lauding how superhuman Shaq is. Word of advice - instead of pepetuating the idolatry of celebrities, maybe they should stick to their job description: write about the freakin' games and shut up.

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree..."
Tomorrow, George W. Bush is going to issue a "friend of the court" brief to the Supreme Court regarding the pending case to review the University of Michigan's affirmative action policy. In tha brief, the President will state that achieving racial diversity is not a compelling reason to justify race-based quotas, i.e. affirmative action is bad.

And for all you naive little Black Republicans out there, who believed this man was your friend (see below), I'd like to quote a line from Kevin Costner in JFK:

"What did you expect from a pig but a grunt."

While the Moderates Were Sleeping...
Your President declared January 19, 2003 to be "National Sanctity of Human Life Day". Of course, next week is also the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, just so everyone is clear what issue we're talking about here.

So, let's have the discussion that apparently everyone in Washington is afraid of: Personally, I'm morally horrified by the idea of abortion. One might argue that, at the other end of the age spectrum, it's the moral equivalent of mercy-killing a sick, old relative who's nursing and care needs have far exceeded the family member's capacity to support them. The difference being that you have to look Uncle Jethro in the eye when you pull the plug on his respirator. Do fetuses even have eyes?

Of course, that's because I'm presuming that life begins at conception. Others don't. And, at this point, I don't think we're ever going to find a happy medium between those two beliefs. But, there's a difference between what I believe and how you govern a country.

IF the government makes abortion illegal because they feel it is morally and ethically wrong, then they must, in turn, provide an adequate support network for unwanted or unintended pregnancies, such as universal prenatal care and eliminating the atrocities that are committed in the foster care system. Otherwise, to insist that this child be born to a mother who won't keep or support it and then release it into the jaws of the failed child care system is tantamount to condemning it to a long, slow, painfully abusive life, with potentially dire consequences for anyone who comes into contact with this person in their later life.

So, since governing a nation ultimately boils down to issues of human calculus, abortion should really be looked at in these terms: the life of one unwanted, uncared-for unborn vs. the lives of countless others who could be irreparably damaged through contact with the emotionally & physically scared person that said unborn has a high probability of growing into.

In the end, until the child support system is fixed, legal abortion is the civically expedient and, ultimately, politically ethical choice to make.

Which is why I'm pro-choice.

And human calculus like what I just described above is why I will NEVER run for public office.

G.W. says "Where are The Plumbers when I need them?!?!?!"
Paul O'Neill gained some serious credibility in my eyes last year when he took a trip to Africa with Bono of U2 and actually seemed to understand the issue of 3rd World debt enough that he might actually do something about it.

Then, of course, President Bush fired him because he didn't believe in trickle-down economics.

Well, O'Neill STILL doesn't believe in trickle-down economics, even though it's going under the alias of "dividend tax elimination". See what he has to say.

The Party of Lincoln
Here's a New York Times article, talking about the little group hug the Republican party leadership held with Black conservatives and Black Republicans to show that the party is really concerned about their issues in light of the whole Trent Lott debacle.

Favorite quote: "When you withstand the things we do as black Republicans, and you still stand firm with the party, that's commitment." from Shannon Reeves, secretary of the California State party and chairman of the Oakland, CA NAACP.

Point of clarification: No, Mr. Reeves, that's not commitment. It's blind devotion, bordering on foolishness. After all, isn't this the same reason why Black Republicans say they rejected the Democratic Party in the first place?

Moreover, if the GOP were really serious about demonstrating their commitment to the Black community, where was their REAL leader, President Bush?

Lastly, let me say this: I'll believe that the GOP is serious about including Black Americans when the President starts doing things like publicly denouncing places like Bob Jones University and other institutions that support discriminatory policies, or publicly renouncing campaign contributions from thinly-veiled white supremacist organizations, or publicly stating that the Confederate States of America was an outlaw organization that brought shame to the American ideals by instigating a war to preserve the state's rights to hold slaves.

Then we can start talking turkey. Or, maybe they should just take a hint from the folks at "Black People Love Us". They seem to have figured it out.

The 3rd Degree
A federal judge just ruled that the government could continue to deny Jose Padilla, the so-called "dirty bomber", access to his lawyers indefinitely because it would jeopardize the interrogation process, as long as the President has declared him an enemy combatant and has provided a "minimal" showing to justify the declaration.

Let me restate this, just so we're all clear on it.

Mr. Padilla is an American citizen who was arrested in Chicago O'Hare Airport. In other words, he's an American taken on American soil. By declaring him an enemy combatant, they're basically saying that O'Hare Airport was a battlefield at the time of his seizure. Since no one even knew that he'd been arrested until John Ashcroft's spectacular announcement from Russia a month later, I seriously doubt that battefield conditions have ever existed at O'Hare. So, this means the government can seize anyone, anywhere, at anytime, and deny you the rights guaranteed to you in the Bill of Rights, if they can provide "minimal justification".

So, for all intents and purposes, The Bill of Rights has been suspended under President Bush.

And, the answer to your question is "Yes, that should scare the Hell out of you."

The Dark Horse
Months ago, I remember hearing that exactly one person other than George Bush had officially declared himself as a candidate in the 2004 Presidential campaign. And that was Howard Dean, the outgoing governor of Vermont.

And I laughed. I mean, the same way I laughed when I heard Senator Bob Smith of New Hamphire was quitting the Republican party after ripping it on the Senate floor before running for President as an independent in 2000. You'll notice that Senator Bob Smith is now Bob Smith, the guy who got his ass handed to him in the campaign, came crawling back to the Republican party, only to get run out of office by John Sununu. In other words, Howard Dean was a joke and was only going to embarass himself.

But, then, that was before the entire population of Washington D.C. opened an exploratory committe to run for President in 2004. It's starting to sound a bit like Wil Smith on that old Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince track, "I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson", with everybody and their cock-eyed grandmothers waking up in the morning saying "I can beat 'em!!!!"

And, as much as I like John Edwards (see below), I do worry that he may be a one-trick pony. So, I started looking at all the people who I thought were jokes in this race, just in case there was something I was overlooking.

Newsflash: after careful consideration, I've come to the conclusion that Dick Gephardt is still, in fact, a joke.

Howard Dean, on the other hand, is a different story.

Or, perhaps I should say Doctor Howard Dean, the longest serving Democratic governor in the country (11 years), who is pro-choice, wants to unto the entire Bush tax cut, runs the 1st state to legalize same-sex marriages, but still has an A-rating from the NRA and thinks the world is a mess right now because our foreign policy and trade policy do not support each other from a common vision.

Did I mention that 4 of our last 5 Presidents (G.W. Bush, Slick Willie, Reagan, & Jimmy Carter), covering 26 years of electoral seasons, were governors, and the last sitting senator to win the White House was JFK?

Howard Dean is NOT a joke. Read. Because the brother needs your money.
Bad.

When Xerox Rules All
And now, a nerd-gasm moment.

This article from The New Scientist talks about the current drive in circuit board research to combine 3-D printers (i.e. machines that create 3-D objects buy spitting out molded layers that eventually stack up to create a 3-D object) with embedded electronics, where the material itself is capable of carrying a current in a directed fashion without the need to manually add copper wiring to its surface. The end result would be something like a printer that can spontaneously generate disposable light bulbs or remote controls. One of the scientists interviewed said he's really looking forward to printable robots.

My mind is suddenly filled with images of those old cartoons where characters would turn on a faucet and, instead of water, a car would pour out.

Down from the Mountain Top
Here's a series of articles the New York Times published recently, following ten individuals whose lives are modern day reflections on the Ten Commandments. They include stories like the child of an adulterous affair who grew up in abusive foster homes and is now struggling to be a responsible father on his own with no role models, a girl who obsessively idolized the rock band Phish so much that she basically lived as a nomadic hermit as she followed their tours around the country, and a Vietnam vet who led ambuses where he and his team personally killed hundreds of people who is now trying to find absolution as a priest & chaplain for the Army. Beyond the fact that this is some of the best journalistic writing I've seen in recent memory, it's also an interesting treatise on how how these Biblical edicts illustrate issues that remain at the center of human existance, despite the passage of time.

As I side note, I'd heard somewhere that the actual 10 commandments where really single words or characters in Hebrew or Yiddish or whatever it is they wrote in those days, so something like "I am the Lord your God" is represented as a single character etched in stone. Assuming this is true, this is a stark contrast to the 2nd set of commandments that the Hebrews received, now contained in Deuteronomy & Leviticus, which are much more legalistic and, clearly, culturally specific. Makes me wonder if they were all really written by the same hand. I mean, really, why would God issue an appendix? It's not like that whole Red Tent thing just slipped his mind the first time around.

Bush Fears Edwards
24 hours after Sen. John Edwards (D-North Carolina) announced he was running for President of the United States, the Republican National Committee issued this statement, clocked in at around 10 pages, ripping the freshman legislator.

Notice, that, when John Kerry, John Dean, or Dick Gephardt announced their candidacy, there were no such statements of this kind or magnitude. If this guy is such a lightweight, as suggested by this annotated press release that can be found at the very top of the RNC's webpage, above the announcement about Bush's economic stimulus package, why is he drawing so much fire?

Fear has such a distinctive smell.

Look for Bush to pull a Gray Davis in the Democratic Presidential Primary, i.e. since he's presumably running unopposed for the Republican nomination, El Presidente will drop a ton of money into the Democratic Primary states aimed directly at Edwards in hopes of knocking him out in favor of a weaker opponent (someone like Gephardt). It's a tactic that, to my knowledge, originated with Richard Nixon and his under-the-table efforts to support Hubert Humphreys instead of groovy peacenik Eugene McCarthy. Governor Davis just raised the shamelessness quotient to Olympian levels last year, which is why he was sworn in for a 2nd term yesterday instead of Richard Riordan.

But I digress.

You think that guy Edwards might be onto something?

Manhattan was just the beginning...
After the United States government crushed and basically enslaved the various Native American nations of this country in the late 19th Century, they cut a deal with them where the Department of the Interior would manage the captured lands on behalf of the Indians and provide them with the proceeds of any profits gained from business and real estate transactions on the land.

Is anyone surprised to hear that our government has since spent the last 120 years cheating the Native Americans out of nearly $140 BILLION (yes, that's right. BILLION, with a "B")?

This New York Times article talks about the noble lawsuit that the Native Americans have brought against the Department of the Interior. But, in a way, suing the government is alot like David asking Goliath to stab himself. The day G.W. Bush OKs any kind of equitable settlement for this dispute is the day, quite frankly, that I might have to change my tune and vote for that dude.

Exactly. It's NEVER going to happen. But, at least the truth is out.

Getting Medieval Again
When I grow up, I want to be Quentin Tarantino.

And it's not just because of my inherent love for megalomaniacs.

He, probably more than any other artist, single-handedly defined filmmaking in the 90's. I mean, people use words like "Tarantino-esque", in the same way that others use the term "Hitchcockian". Without Reservoir Dogs & Pulp Fiction, there probably is no Scream, no Seven, no Usual Suspects, no Trainspotting, no Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, etc. And, let's not forget that Quentin's pen is responsible for the original script for Natural Born Killers, which Oliver Stone used to dissect the entire universe of films that Tarantino had spawned.

A storyteller first. He just traded MS Word for an Arriflex camera. My kind of guy.

Having said that, his latest, upcoming film, Kill Bill, where Uma Thurman becomes a bad-girl cross between Charles Bronson & Bruce Lee, is HIGH on my list for 2003. Plus, it's soundtrack marks the first ever collaboration between The Wu-Tang Clan and Metallica.

What's not to love?

A Tale of Two Articles
The Iraqi foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, accused the United States of planning to invade Iraq, whether the UN Inspectors find any hidden weapons or not. Here's an article talking about this from CNN.

Now, here's another article talking about the same statement from Tariq Aziz from the BBC.

What you may notice is that, in the BBC article, they quote Aziz as stating that the US wants to invade Iraq to control it's oil reserves to appease the imperialist intentions of the American business community. CNN makes no mention of such a statement, at all. Odd, considering that CNN is owned by AOL/Time-Warner, one of the largest members of said imperialist business comunity.

See, it's things like this that really demonstrate just how transparent Bush's goals are. Sadly, it also shows how narrow, uninformed, and easily swayed the POV of the average American citizen is, too.

What They Really Think
Here's a nifty little website that actually compiles the voting records of virtually every elected government official and comes up with an issues profile. Just something to help you separate their legislative substance from the everyday B.S.