Living the Prequel to Logan's Run

There are things going on today that simply seem unreal.  Dream-like, or nightmarish depending on your view.  Maybe, as some have noted, like a movie.  Something with a great catastrophe that changes the way man thinks and lives.  In most of those catastrophe movies, it is something terrible that man does that forces him to realize the error of his ways and how it is better to have returned to a "state of grace", like Adam and Eve living in the Garden of Eden, without knowledge or technology.  Except for the knowledge that, if humanity survives, they must learn to live within the bounds of nature, lest man finally, once and for all, brings about humanity's final destruction having finally messed with nature one too many times.  


Those movies are interesting, but, for all of the modern movie's great explosions, heart stopping images of giant tsunamis and sky scrapers falling into the sea, the moral of the story is usually short, sweet and without a scrap of agency that makes the viewer think.  

You, mankind, are bad.  You messed with mother nature and now a tsunami must wipe you out.  End of story.  It is the pet theory of every global warming enthusiast and end of mankind prophet.


One of my favorite movies, slightly campy and cheaply made, is Logan's Run.  The movie is different than the book, but stays with the premise: what if all those young people marching in the streets, demanding peace, living in communes, going to concerts, drinking, drugging, etc, got their wish and got rid of all the "old men" they thought were driving them towards the brink of disaster?  What would their world look like? 

Logan's Run is set in that post apocalyptic world.  SOMETHING TERRIBLE HAS HAPPENED.  We don't know what it is, man made nuclear war or natural catastrophe, but it was bad enough that the survivors had to flee to the underground.  There they built a great city, covered in a dome.  The air is filtered and purified.  Resources are scarce so everyone is fed at the communal mess just exactly what they need to live a healthy life.  

To maintain those resources, the population must be controlled.  The founders of the city had instituted cult like religion that claimed that anyone reaching the age of thirty must join "the carousel" and be ritually killed in order to insure the survival of the rest.  Not that the people believe they are being killed.  It is all made glamorous and acceptable by telling them they will be "renewed."  

Everyone would know their time was up by a small, red crystal in their palm that would start to blink when when it was their "last days".  Most submit, but there are those who try to run to a place that people call "sanctuary".  If they run, they are hunted down and terminated with prejudice by special police who are called "sandmen" because they put the runners into the "deep sleep".  


In the mean time, everyone is free to enjoy anything else they might take a hankering too.  Drugs, multiple sex partners, music, you name it.  They can order it up via remote on their "television" and have it delivered to their rooms.  They are all extremely healthy, with no defects, provided by free medical care and careful cloning of the best citizens.  Any perceived defects are fixed through free modification surgery with lasers.  


Life, death, population replacement, food, entertainment and even drugs and sexual partners are provided by the BIG COMPUTER that selects all through complicated algorithms without an ounce of human input or compassion.  Of course, everyone accepts it because it is how it has always been and hasn't it kept them safe all these years from the "SOMETHING TERRIBLE" that happened in the outside world.  


Then one day a "sandman" is assigned to catch a runner.  He hunts him down, but discovers that there is an entire underground that helps runners get to this mysterious place called "sanctuary".  When he reports it's existence, the computer orders him to find this "sanctuary" and destroy it because it will destroy their way of life and, according to the all knowing, destroy man kind.  Logan 5, a sandman, is assigned the task.  


To help him accomplish the task, Logan's crystal is made to blink four years ahead of his scheduled thirty year "deep  sleep".  He infiltrates the underground railroad and tries to find "sanctuary", but nobody actually knows where it is because everybody who seeks it does not return.  Of course, Logan meets a girl and falls in love.  This is unacceptable, so the computer puts him on the "list" to be terminated and sends other sandmen after him.


He decides to try to escape, taking Jessica 6 with him as they try to find their way out of the city and into "sanctuary".  After many twists and turns, they end up in a cave where they discover that all of those who tried to escape before were lined up like frozen slabs of beef.  The creators of the city had created a robot that patrolled the caves shooting the runners with his freeze ray, insuring no one makes it outside to "sanctuary".  


After some more action and a bizarre battle with the robot, Logan and Jessica finally make it outside where they see the sun for the first time though they don't really know what it is.  Except, it is warm.  The computer is not ready to concede defeat.  Neither is Logan's once best friend and Sandman who is so ideologically invested in their "way of life" and the "new religion", that he is willing to even go outside of the city and risk "contamination" in order to kill his friend and save their world.


Jessica and Logan see a city in the distance and run all the way, only to discover the city in ruins.  They see the statue of Abraham Lincoln and read it's words.  They marvel at such construction.  However, the sandman is still after them and they need to find sanctuary so they run into a great building where they find cats and an old man.  Neither things they had ever seen before.  


The man tells them what the place used to be and they begin to read the books and papers.  One of them is the Declaration of Independence. 

All men are created equal...endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights...among these are the right to "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness".  


Life.  An old man.  Air to breath, a sunset to see, running water and all manner of creatures.  They didn't have to die.  There was plenty of room for everyone to live, work, eat and grow old.  Men used to live by other rules that made them free.  

They ask the old man what happened.  He didn't really know, but he had been living there for over sixty years after everybody abandoned the place.  Free, but lonely.  Except for his cats.  That is when reality sets in.  There was no TERRIBLE SOMETHING that forced them all into the underground commune.  Just the dream of utopia to save mankind from something that everyone feared, but had as yet to occur.

That is the point in the movie when you realize that this isn't your typical rant against government trying to take over everybody's lives, but what happens when that government falls into the hands of those who want to "save the world" by isolating themselves from all things "terrible", regulating everything from birth to death, creating utopia.  What good is all that free medical care that keeps you healthy if some great unknown bureaucracy decides you've lived long enough?  When it decides who is a burden on society?  

They've been eating fish, plankton and seaweed because that is what was good for them when there was all this bounty on the outside. For all their "freedom" to enjoy all of these once societal taboos, they were more restricted than their predecessors.

Of course, the movie was created in the 70's at the height of the Cold War so most could be forgiven if they thought it was simply a low budget, futuristic movie about the perils of Communism and the dangers of the Free World disappearing.  Instead, it is a libertarian's dream/nightmare of the future.


In the end, Logan kills the Sandman pursuing them after trying hard to convince him that there is no sanctuary, just this outside world, this "freedom", that those in the city didn't want them to know about.  He and Jessica run back to the city to tell the others, shouting to the latest batch of 29.99 somethings that the carousel is a lie and they don't have to die; there is no "renewal".


They are captured and Logan is sent to be interrogated by THE COMPUTER.  The program is like a giant, futuristic lie detector (why a completely controlled, happy populace needs this police force of "sandmen" to make them comply to the rules or this lie detector, is left for the viewer to comprehend).  The computer keeps asking Logan, "Where is Sanctuary?" His reply, "There is no Sanctuary" it's just a bunch of ruins, an old man and some words about freedom.  The computer cannot accept this answer, going further and further until the computer self-implodes.  


In the end, the city collapses and all of the residents are forced to run outside.  A world that is full of threats and no longer supplies their every need, but a world where they are all now free.  Free to grow old, free to be who they want to be.  It's a savage world where they will now have to work to survive, but no one will be able to say that today they die.  For the greater good or whatever other nonsense the Great Computer has been telling them. 

Now we return to our present, the future after this movie was produced, the "past" according to the dates in the movie.  We discover that all those students marching in the streets in the early seventies, wanting to live in communes allegedly free, throw off the constraints of morality and overthrow their government to install their version have all grown up now.  

They have written the books and told the stories over and over again.   At every turn they have pronounced some new TERRIBLE SOMETHING that they insist demands we sacrifice freedom for the greater good.  Nuclear war, global warming, take your pick.  If neither of these come to pass, it will be something new, and, even if it did, are either of those or any other future TERRIBLE SOMETHING, reason enough to sacrifice freedom?


Today I woke up and thought: I'm living the prequel to Logan's Run.  That time before the TERRIBLE SOMETHING that turns out to be the EMPTY NOTHING, but which is supposed to make us all forget that there is NOTHING worth giving up FREEDOM.  Not free food, free health care, free shelter, free love or free from any sense of morality.  None of those things makes us free, they make us slaves.
 

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The Hated West, Freedom, Democracy, Iraq and the Middle East: Irony

Maysoon Shaladi (ex-pat, living in UK tweeting about Libyan uprising, angry with lack of western coverage or pressure on the situation, paraphrasing Lincoln)

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves

If there was any irony to be had from the current multiple situations in the Middle East, it is the continuing reviling of the dratted "West", demands for western interference in the name of obtaining democracy, damning the west for supporting dictators, denigrating the "late" coming of western governments to supporting their cause even as they scream for them to stay out now, using twitter and facebook (a western invention only available due to the freedom to think and create) to stoke their revolutionary fire, all under the guise of democratic aspirations (arguably a western Greco-Humanist-Christian concept though I am certain I have had an argument with an Islamic acquaintance in the past who insisted it was an Islamic invention).

I have to say that with some of my own irony even as I support their democratic aspirations with the full knowledge that some of my friends may not get exactly what they expected without another fight, as other alleged democratic uprisings are likely to result in some unfriendly and dangerous situations coming to fruition (Yemen comes to mind immediately) without true democracy.

Neither can I forget the absolute reviling of the West over Iraq and the final institution of democracy (yes, at gun point) that did exactly what it was supposed to do: give an Arab people their own government and the Middle East the idea that people CAN rule themselves democratically, regardless of race or religion. That it was the dreaded Neo-Con (alleged Jewish conspiracy still being bruted about in reputed and allegedly non-partisan ME news sites) that expressed that idea and pushed leaders in the ME to institute some form of liberality and representation in their governments.

While it cannot be said that the Neo-Cons started the idea brewing in the minds of people in the ME (it has been there for awhile, considering their long interaction with western democracies and various attempts at establishing representative governments), it was the dreaded head Neo-Con, president Bush, that pushed, prodded and pulled these governments to let off some of the levers of oppression in the recent past. The Domino Theory of Democracy. How ironic is it that some writer for an ME news organization actually says that the Neo-Cons did not believe that Arab, Islamic people were ready for democracy.

Bush left, the Neo-Cons went out of power and the realpolitik folks took over and were left holding the bag. Apparently crossing their fingers on both hands that that little sortie into meddling had little effect or could be contained. Dictators sighed with relief and tried to go back to business as usual.

Freedom is the fire in the minds of men. Now it's a conflagration.

Of course, the ME is all abounding with fears that the west (new friends) is trying to "steal" Egypt's revolution by rushing in with assistance post mortem. That is ironic and extremely humorous in a gallows sort of way. Sorry, but we've been there all along and in the way of all friends, not everything we did seemed in our friends' best interests as, with all friends, there is always some kind of ego and self interest apparent.

Case in point, even as a "late comer", had the western nations not warned off Mubarek, the Egyptian Military and now the Bahrain government from smashing freedom of expression, the blood shed in these nations would have been so much more worse (for sure, the Bahraini's would not have pulled back their military and allowed the people to occupy the square again after the last few days of attempted violent suppression). We don't have the same power in Yemen or Libya, nor am I sure we want to exercise it in light of who might be demanding the overthrow of the government.

I know...ironic. Or, to our ME friends, hypocritical. I can't wait until they have to make their own decisions about which way their country goes and how often they must compromise in the name of their own security. It is, ironically, easier to blame outsiders and some dictator for the things we are not directly responsible for. Not so easy when we have no one to blame but ourselves.

On the other hand, it wasn't American blood being spilled and we certainly did not occupy Tahrir or Pearl Square in the name of the people. It is their revolutions after all. We are merely interested by standers, pushing and pulling, praying for the best even as we look on with extreme trepidation and the sure knowledge that we can do little to help or hinder in either direction, but expending great political capital and possible future security to do. So that, in the end, we are doing as people have so ironically screamed that we are not: standing by our basic principles of freedom and democracy.

One can't give too much credit to the Neo-Con faction I suppose. The idea that freedom and democracy would counter any despotic and oppressive idea was imagined a long time ago by people much more thoughtful and intelligent than we poor substitutes. It was brought forth as a foreign policy by Truman and nursed throughout the Cold War in various forms with much back and forth on its support and many, many mis-steps along the way. Even the Great Liberator Reagan was not adverse to supporting despotism in the short run while pushing freedom some place else.

The entire idea was that short of actual military interference, people would naturally come to that conclusion by simple interaction with western democracy through social, political and economic means. Hence, the fall of the USSR and the eastern block. It has been and continues to be a very long, slow road with plenty of twists and turns that prevent a reliable predictor of the future, but it is the long view of democratic nations.

And, the irony of all ironies is that, with every creation of a democracy, with every inch forward of freedom, the US and other nations will see their power diminish as new competition arrives in the form of newly freed minds and economies with states working towards their own interests. Shooting ourselves in the foot and destroying the idea of American Exceptionalism for the basic principle:

"all men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness"

Yes, ALL MEN (and women, too). There was never such a grand idea with the such a potential, inherent self-destruct mechanism.

It is, of course, bad form to expect any gratitude for a supposedly selfless gift (more irony as it isn't exactly selfless; the hoped for purpose is to expand alliances, open markets and create over arching security, but that is another post). We are ever humble in the face of Liberty (yes, yes, I said "humble") and the sure knowledge that it is the Free Will and a thinking brain given by our common Creator that provides us the basis democratic government (more irony as my atheist friends would insist that mind was created through eons of natural evolution, but that, as I said before, is another post).

So, with all of the irony that is inherent in this rambling post, I leave the (paraphrased) words of a great western actress, Betty Davis, instead of "your welcome" or even "congratulations" (as in a previous post) to our newly liberated friends and those struggling for something similar.

"Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy ride."

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No Respect

This story comes on the heels of a local report that people were stealing flags from a patriotic display in Shawnee Mission, Kansas. But, this is even worse:

Brass Panels stolen from WWII memorial just days before Guam celebrates its liberation from Japan:

HAGATNA, Guam - Thieves stole dozens of brass panels from a World War II memorial that were etched with the names of thousands of Guam residents and U.S. military members tortured or killed during the war, officials said Thursday.

Thirty-four of the 99 panels at the Asan Bay Overlook in the War of the Pacific National Park have been pried off their concrete base.

"These thieves did more than commit a despicable crime, they dishonored our people who suffered and died in the struggle for the freedoms we all enjoy today," acting Gov. Mike Cruz said.

The memorial wall features the names of more than 16,000 Chamorros, the indigenous people of Guam, who were tortured or killed during the Japanese occupation of the island. It also honors more than 2,500 U.S. servicemen who died in Guam's liberation

.

We have also had a number of local incidents regarding copper. People have stolen statues, urns and even cemetery markers made of copper to sell for scrap. That is pretty low, not only for the thieves, but for the criminal scrappers who take these things and never ask how or where they came from.

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Funny Little Story From the VA Stand Down: When You Feel Really Old

I got hit on by a 13 year old boy at the VA stand down. If I hadn't felt so damn old and so damn tired and sweaty right that moment, I might have been more amused and gratified to know I still "got it". LOL

His dad had dropped him off to do community service. He is preparing early for college. I was impressed when he told me he already had 300 hours logged (that's three gold presidential awards for people 14 and under). We chatted a little bit to pass the time between the waves of people. He asked me if I was married. He asked me if I had a boyfriend. A little while later, out of the blue, he asked me if I had every been kissed before (that was a little cute). I laughed, "yes, once or twice". He said, "What's it like?". And I am supposed to say WHAT exactly to some kid I never met before? I said, "Well, it was nice". Then we went back to work.

A little later, at quitting time, he was going to walk up front to wait for his dad to pick him up. I have to tell you that this stand down was in a bad part of Kansas City. The parts of the city you hear on the news at night. So, I decided that I should walk him to the front and stay there until his dad came to get him. (Frankly, I was a little shocked his dad had just dropped him off on the way to work without adult supervision. Maybe I am getting old and cynical, but even with all these volunteers and security around, it didn't seem like a good idea).

So, we are sitting out front under a tree. I was being a bad example smoking a cigarette. He starts to lecture me about giving them up (that was funny, too). He says, "You should just throw them away." Kids. I asked him what he was doing community service for. He said, "College. My dad wants me to." He asked why I was volunteering. I told him, "To serve those who have served us." A few more minutes of silence go by and, out of the blue, he turns to me and says, "Can I kiss you?"

I just about spit out my water!!! LOL

I said, "Nope." He said, "Okay. I just thought I'd ask." Wow was it hard not to laugh. I was thinking the kid must be desperate for his first kiss because I was hot, sweaty, hair falling out of my pony tail and, frankly, felt like road kill. Definitely not the catch of the season. Not to mention, during some earlier conversation he asked how old I was and when I said, "XX". He was like, "Wow. You're older." He was too young for me to give him tips about how to impress a woman.

His dad finally shows up. We chat for a few seconds and his dad asked me, "So, how was he today? I wanted him to volunteer so he could learn to be more outgoing and talk with people." LOL Well, I was hard pressed not to tell him how NOT outgoing his boy was. I just told him that he did okay. He thanked me for watching out for his son and they drove off.

And that was my funny little story of the day. The rest of the day was kind of mixed sad and inspiring. Price Waters Cooper had about 30 people volunteering (they all had t-shirts: 30,000 strong). The number of people who volunteered was impressive. The number of vets we served and their conditions was extremely heart wrenching.

I'll have more on that and what I learned while I was there later this weekend.

Please donate to Soldiers' Angels. We have a lot of work to do.

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Best of the Middle Ground: Philosophy

Because I am extremely busy right now supporting our troops in harms way, I don't have much time to write anything original or new. So, I hope you won't mind if I reprise what I consider some of my best works to date:

Freedom: Priceless

Broken Chains

Blood and Treasure

When should we abandon freedom?

September 11: A Personal War

What's in a Word?

Pray for Peace, Prepare for War

The New Revolution: Libertine Vs. Classic Liberal

New Revolution: Revolution and Counter Revolution

The Lone Idealist

My America: Letters to the Wolrd

My America: Growing up American

Fire in the Minds of Men

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Love/Hate Relationship With War (Rated: Mature)

I found this over at Blonde Sagacity: I Miss Iraq. I Miss My Gun. I Miss My War.

I've been home from Iraq for more than a year, long enough for my time there to become a memory best forgotten for those who worried every day that I was gone. I could see their relief when I returned. Life could continue, with futures not so uncertain. But in quiet moments, their relief brought me guilt. Maybe they assume I was as overjoyed to be home as they were to have me home. Maybe they assume if I could do it over, I never would have gone. And maybe I wouldn't have. But I miss Iraq. I miss the war. I miss war. And I have a very hard time understanding why.

I'm glad to be home, to have put away my uniforms, to wake up next to my wife each morning. I worry about my friends who are in Iraq now, and I wish they weren't. Often I hated being there, when the frustrations and lack of control over my life were complete and mind-bending. I questioned my role in the occupation and whether good could come of it. I wondered if it was worth dying or killing for. The suffering and ugliness I saw disgusted me. But war twists and shifts the landmarks by which we navigate our lives, casting light on darkened areas that for many people remain forever unexplored. And once those darkened spaces are lit, they become part of us. At a party several years ago, long before the Army, I listened to a friend who had served several years in the Marines tell a woman that if she carried a pistol for a day, just tucked in her waistband and out of sight, she would feel different. She would see the world differently, for better or worse. Guns empower. She disagreed and he shrugged. No use arguing the point; he was just offering a little piece of truth. He was right, of course. And that's just the beginning.

Which got me thinking as I read it about my own thoughts on the war and how often I think about it. How much it consumes me even when I try to do "other things". I wrote a comment at Ala's:

You know, about "I miss war", it was really strange but I almost couldn't read it at the same time I HAD to read it.

Kind of like how he misses war. It's crazy like that. I actually feel like I am just on the edge of that "junkie" feeling because I have to spend hours looking at the war and trying to analyze where we are and what is going on. even to the point of sleep deprevation sometimes.

I think I need a psychiatrist.

On the other hand, I know I am looking for that "tipping point" that says "its all over but the shouting". I don't know if I'll actually recognize it, but I can't seem to stop looking for it, even when I tell myself that could be years away.

A part of this is 9/11. I know that people are right about the effects of the images. I haven't looked since the last anniversary, even then I was more looking at people's stories, not the images. because it keeps cutting the wound over and over. Still, I feel like that isn't over until everything else is over. I think that is how people feel when their loved one dies from violent crime and, even when they bury them, there is no "closure". Even when they catch the bad guy, there is no "closure", just that big empty hole that will need something else to fill it up once this alleged culturaly denoted "closure" occurs because you have spent so much time being angry and searching for that closure, you have nothing else.

I wasn't there. I just watched it on my TV and it is still a big empty hole, not just in the ground, but in my mind and in my soul.

And it is worse because I think I should be doing something. Me. I am supposed to do something about it and I am not, or not enough or can't do what I think I should be doing.

Somedays, I wish the war would just fade away to nothing and we would all go back to our "normal" lives. LIke that "9/10" world everyone talks about. In the 9/10 world, I thought I knew where I was, who I was and where I was going. The 9/11 world is much more confusing and angry. I am lost somedays and depressed because it doesn't appear to be clearing. Where I thought I wanted to "go" with my life no longer holds the same appeal. I think I should be doing something else, but I don't know what.

Other days, I am so angry, I wish I could fly to where ever bin Laden or Zawahiri or any of those other assholes were and shoot them dead. Probably stomp and kick their dead and dying bodies. then I would toss them from a helicopter into the center of the biggest center of Salafist followers I could find so they would know my anger and how I feel about them.

Does that sound terrible?

Even wanting that, then I sit back and stew knowing that I could kill bin Laden and Zawahiri and it would still not be over. I know that their ideology will go on and on until we either attrit it to zero in a very long war (G_d, how did people live with the threat of Nukes from the USSR for so long or with the uncertainty of WWII?) or, in a fit of sincere madness, we just go Nagasaki on the entire region.

Still, I think, however it ends, when it ends, if I am still alive, I will have that empty place. I hate them. I hate this fucking war and I love it all the same because I want it to give me what I don't think I will ever get: closure.

And now I consider deleting this message in a purely open thread because it is too raw, maybe even crazy. But, like this guy in "I miss my war", I don't think I'm alone. At least, I hope not because, if I am, I am lost.

So, it stays.

I think it came on me, not just from reading that story, though it made me think about my own view of the war (not rather it is right or wrong or whether we are winning or losing, but how I react to it on a personal level and how it has changed me), but because every day, not only do I hear about this war, it's good and bad, it's ups and down like Schindler's List, but because I feel constantly assailed by hypocritic, condescending, smarmy mouth assholes who think that the only way you can support the war is to be some chest pounding, reich-wing, warmongering, viking that purely loves to pillage and rape. Because, of course, if you do not believe as they do, if you do not denounce this war on the some simplistic idealism of a clear "conscience", you are no more complicated or intelligent than a snail.

You're supposed to pretend nothing happened. You're supposed to pretend it doesn't matter. You're supposed to pretend that tomorrow will be a better day where no Wahabi, Salafist asshole wants to kill you, yours and those around you.

I'd like to say that I don't "pretend" to anything, but that is a lie, because I wrote something more on this post and then I took it down because I belong to an organization that I support through a related website and I would not have my raw thoughts on Republicans, Democrats or the great disinterested masses that only want the world to be quiet again, to reflect upon the organization or the people that we support. So I will pretend that I am not angry and that I will quietly go about what I have been doing, supporting our men and women in uniform until they all come home, however that goes.

But, deep down, I want to scream obscenities and kick people's asses.

Today, al Qaida announced impending victory in Iraq.

Today, Nancy Pelosi learned what it was like to be hated by everyone.

Today, thousands of Iraqis and Afghans will be cared for and protected by our men and women.

Today, the Taliban related al Qaida leader, Dadullah, announced that there will be no negotiating with the United States.

Today, the Democrats supplant the Republicans at the trough and continue to swill at the expense of our men and women.

Today, the war goes on.

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The President's Fading Voice

The president appeared to be pleading, not leading. Where are the convictions of conscience, the soaring rhetoric, the broad vision and the dire warnings of failure? Did these go out the door with the departure of Michael Gerson, his best speechwriter?

The president can be persuasive in the content of his speeches and eloquent in his delivery. We saw a different man after 9/11 than we saw before, or see now. The loss of eloquence has given his political opponents new opportunities, not only to make his life miserable, but also to encourage the enemy in their perception of a divided nation. His weekly radio addresses are lifeless and delivered in a monotonous cadence, as if he wishes he were someplace else.

I imagine that he does. Wish he was some place else. War tends to do that after years and year.

Winston Churchill is dead.

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Hanson on the "300"

Finally, some have suggested that "300" is juvenile in its black-and-white depiction - and glorification - of free Greeks versus imperious Persians. The film has actually been banned in Iran as hurtful American propaganda, as the theocracy suddenly is reclaiming its "infidel" ancient past.

But that good/bad contrast comes not from the director or Frank Miller, but is based on accounts from the Greeks themselves, who saw their own society as antithetical to the monarchy of imperial Persia.

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Thomas Sowell Wrote This and I Agree

Random Thoughts

"Women's Liberation" and the "sexual revolution" have not liberated women. They have liberated the sort of man who is a "love and leave 'em" kind of guy, who lets the woman deal with the consequences, including pregnancy.

A man wrote this and I agree. It's why I once wrote about "Feminist Against Abortion", number three on the "hit list" of my stats and #4 on Google. Real "liberation" is not about whether you can suddenly run wild all over the place. It's about having opportunities and reponsibilities that you take as your personal responsibility, not because someone told you, you should or shouldn't, but because you make that personal choice and take responsibility and accountability for all parts, good and bad.

Because we women still haven't figured that out. A t least 30% of the entire adult female population by stats regarding divorces, single parent pregnancies and the outrageous climb of STDs and AIDS among women. If women actually had to see the stats up close and personal, say, on a news station every night for two weeks, my bet would be that many, many men would suddenly be going home from the night club cold and lonely, or long term "boyfriends" that don't commit would suddenly be told to "buy or fly" and divorces would either drop out or fly sky high as women decided it was just too risky to hang out with some guy that they can't trust.

I think, in the long run, divorces would go down because, once the "free love" was cut off, men would still be trying to get it and they would have to start paying the traditional way: a ring, marriage vows and "till death do we part".



- May no soldier go unloved

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"300" Review: Jingoistic Goodness

Are you a fan of Japanese or Chinese martial arts films? Watch this movie.

Do you like the slow motion buttkicking in "Matrix"? Watch this movie.

Do you like your heroes to be straightforward and uncomplicated? Watch this movie.

Are you tired of the drugged out, down and out anti-hero who swims through all his own guilt trying to figure out the right thing to do, knowing all his choices are "bad", acting on his best instincts and walking away knowing that he did the "least bad thing" and still feeling like he slaughtered a church full of women and children? Watch this movie.

Do you like your "bad guys" to look like "bad guys", deformed and debouched by all their ugliness, greed and lechery? Watch this movie.

Do you like your issues, simplistic and defined in black and white? Watch this movie.

Are you tired of trying to delve through the morass of mystery on mystery on mystery wrapped up in the duality of man, his pradoxic yearning for peace while struggling with his inner beast? Watch this movie.

It may seem strange to say, but "Sands of Iwo Jima" was less "jingoistic" than this movie. But, for all its jingoism, I liked it. It got past all my "barriers". It was so over the top, straight in your face, "fight and die like men or hide in your hole and become a slave".

Now you know why all the reviewers hated it. It was not complicated. It was not artsy. It didn't make you "think" (or, maybe it did if you aren't used to that "straight in your face" idealism). It did state the position of the Spartans very clearly: we will not surrender; we will not become slaves; we will fight to the last man; you cannot buy me.

The dialogue said all the simplistic right phrases:

Freedom is not free (straight quote)
Come back with your shield or come back on it (Queen to Leonidas)

When the Persian emissary threatened them with arrows that would "blot out the sun", the reply?

Then we will fight in the shade.

But my favorite parts were probably the least mentioned among all the dialogue:

When Xerxes (overly stylized and appearing somewhat like an ancient version of RuPaul) talks to Leonidas about the huge army that he still has set to anhilate the Spartans and tells him that his parents, his wife and his sons will be his slaves, Leonidas laughs at the "best that you've got" as they had just slaughtered a large number of the "immortals" and says - "I might as well have marched our women up here."

Xerxes continues to elaborate on his status as a "god on earth", demanding that Leonidas kneel and have his life spared. Leonidas? "Sorry, I've been killing your men all day and have a severe cramp in my leg that prevents me from kneeling."

While Leonidas and his 300 fight, his queen is back at the "homefront" trying to get support to send more troops and support the fight against the Persians. She is trying to talk to the "senators" and get an audience so her "voice will be heard". She has to make some deals and talk behind closed doors because no one wants to hear. It's too uncomfortable. One senator tells her she must win the support of the senator leading the fight against sending Leonidas support (who actually wants to bring Leonidas down, is in cahoots with the enemy and is hoping to take his place once Xerxes has taken over). When she asks him what he wants, he tells her she "knows". She drops her dress. There is no complicating "almost" love scene. No tenderness of even a "love/hate" relationship. It is straight on rape as she endures in silence and he says, "This will not be over quickly. You will not enjoy this."

Afterwards, he intimates he will support her speaking in front of the council.

Of course, you know what happens. When she comes before the council, having just molested the queen, this cunning fellow (who is made up to look "cunning", no confusion as to his motives) denounces her as an adulteress who attempted to "bribe" him. He waves guards in ostensibly to arrest her for her "crime". She grabs one of the centurians swords, turns towards the traitorous senator and stabs him in the stomach, leaning in close, she whispers in his ear, "This will not be over quickly." Stabbing him again, "You will not enjoy this."

What can I say? I always like to see the bad guy get it in the end, particularly in the way they dished it out.

If you want this movie to represent your point of view on "freedom", "something worth dying for", "backstabbing, raping politicians", the "slackness" of an over-indulged populace and straight out "heroic", "duty", "honor", "integrity" (Leonidas would have made a good marine), you can find it here. Not necessarily because it was the intent of the producers, directors or actors, but because it was so straight forward and simplistic, it just speaks to the basic idealism of many. Those of us who were raised up on John Wayne movies recognize the tenor that had us watching them in the first place.

I could make all sorts of comparisons out of this movie. I'll try to refrain as much as possible. However, I think one of the comparisons that not even the critics who think its all a "bushie" movie in disguise did not hit on was the "media" as the "oracle".

The "oracle" is bought off to say what the cunning, anti-Leonidas senator and his Persian associate want them to say. It is blasphemy to go to war during the sacred festival and those that do will be breaking "Spartan law" since, when the oracle speaks, Spartans are to follow their directives.

The "oracle" is not worried about delivering the Spartans into the hands of the enemy because the oracle is wealthy from all the payments they have received in the past. Plus, the Persians guarantee that they will be richly rewarded for their assistance. They aren't worried because history and culture of Sparta have made them "indispensable", a part of the fabric of Spartan life. They do not imagine a time when Xerxes, god on earth, will not have need of them to keep the "masses" in line.

Oracles = Main Stream Media.


Cross referenced at the Castle

Summary only...

Referrers: Should I Be Worried...

...when a referring link to this sight comes from a search for "camouflage hijab"?

Hopefully, it is a liberated middle east woman who is looking for the appropriate uniform to kick down terrorist doors.

Probably not.

On the other hand, my highest referral link (beyond the castle) are for searches regarding the Second Amendment and the right to bare arms. Let us hope I've educated a few people on the purpose and scope including the amendment that make it impossible for Congress to actually abolish that right. (now I can't find my own post on the subject - but it is very popular in google search engines).

My other favorite referral is for the search of "feminists against abortion". Probably one of my best principled stands for why feminists like me think abortion and Roe v. Wade is the worst thing that every happened to women. Far from protecting them, it may actually be leading to their deaths and serious illness because we have not put enough emphasis on "responsibility" of sexual freedom and spent too much time on giving women a way out of being accountable.

Summary only...