Dispatches From the Front Lines of the Culture War
Hmm... Amnesty International’s report calling the Guantanamo Bay prison “the gulag of our times” would appear to have pissed off both the vice-cyborg and little George (who came up with this little doozy: “...people that have been trained in some instances to disassemble, that means not tell the truth.” Jesus, what a fucking moron).
Seems to me like the report must have hit a little close to the mark to get ’em all riled up like this.
Why is it that only the political marginalia (i.e., Ralph Nader et al.) are screaming for impeachment? Obviously, with the fascist party in firm control of the Congress, an impeachment trial wouldn’t get off the ground — but that doesn’t mean we should stop demanding that it at least be discussed. It would sure go one hell of a long way toward making us believe there’s somebody with a shred of ethical backbone left on Capitol Hill.
I neglected to report on this last week, but the American people have won a minor victory in the battle to rid ourselves of one of the vilest leeches on the planet. Namely Tom DeLay —a.k.a. the “Six of Clubs in the “52 Most Wanted War Criminals” deck of cards (of which I just received my long-overdue copy).
No, it’s not — yet — a conviction of the architect of the Texas coup, but it’s a start. (And bravo to Howard Dean for having the balls to come out and say, a week prior, what anybody with a brain already knows — DeLay is a corrupt villain who deserves to be rotting in a prison cell.)
Thanks to my old roomate Andrew, I’ve finally found the answer.
“Defending Windows over Mac a sign of mental illness.”
It all makes sense now...
| American Military Deaths in Iraq | |||
| Total | In combat | ||
| Since 5/1/2003: | 1524 | 1192 | |
| Since war began: | 1661 | 1300 | |
| Total wounded: | 12350 | ||
So the White House goes ape shit over Newsweek’s report that the Koran was defiled at Gitmo, launching, as E.J. Dionne puts it, a “furious assault” against Newsweek. And, by extension, the very notion of a free press.
“How dare they even suggest that we would ever do such a thing? And, no, a retraction of the story’s not enough — dammit, you have to come out and say the story’s totally without merit, and you just made up the whole thing! In fact, you should start writing what we say you should write from now on. You know, make us look good.”
Whoops.
Looks like the accusations were at least substantively true, if not the specifics. Hmm... more anti-U.S. demonstrations today... Shocker!
You start a self-described “crusade,” and refuse to denounce people like William Boykin who come out and say that it’s a war against Islam. You explicitly authorize the torture of prisoners — hell, you appoint the author of your torture policy Attorney General — and when you need more forceful torture methods, you conveniently “render” your charges to less squeamish nations. You establish policies specifically designed to offend Muslim sensibilities, such as the use of dogs. And you honestly expect that Muslim nations are going to rally behind us, taking up the cause of all-powerful democracy?
What the hell are you smoking, George?
Gee, is it a surprise to anyone that the UN conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty collapsed? Hmm, let’s see. We have the big, bad, U.S. of A. reneging on its pledge to disarm, claiming that since 9/11 (“everything changed,” remember?), it just shouldn’t be a priority anymore. We should instead be focusing on preventing proliferation (as if the two were somehow mutually exclusive). And demonstrating — proudly — that it’s more than willing to wage war on other nations based on fabricated pretexts. I suppose the rationale there is that well, we’re the good guys. (After all, it’s not like we lock people up without due process and torture them or anything.)
And the capper is that we actually have the gall to act shocked when other nations decide to ignore the treaty as well. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not justifying North Korea’s and Iran’s violations. But come on. What moron thinks that we can go in there and say, “Okay, we’re not going to obey the treaty, but we damn well expect you to.”
The implicit threat couldn’t be clearer: We’ll invade you if you don’t appease us, and we’re hanging on to all of our nukes, so watch out — ’cause you know what comes next...
Yeah, that’s an attitude that makes for great diplomacy. Who the hell needs John Bolton? We’re doing just fine in the asshole department without him.
Well, the official roster of teams for the Baltimore 48 Hour Film Project has been posted (though, oddly, I have not yet received any notificiation via email), and alas, Tohubohu Productions is nowhere to be seen.
Given the fact that there are only 26 teams in the actual competition (which means only 16 were selected from the random-drawing pool), I can’t really complain. But it’s still disappointing.
I suppose this gives us an excuse to work on prepping Some Kind of Hero (the script we were going to shoot before we got our last-minute slot in the D.C. contest) for shooting. Which is probably just as well, since that script’s generated a lot of enthusiasm. And if we take our time, we can really make that one a top-notch production.
Well, this past weekend’s Tohubohu birthday party project was a hoot — although the biggest lesson the girls learned was that moviemaking isn’t nearly as glamorous and exciting as TV makes it look. For the most part, you’re sitting around and waiting. Or doing the same thing repeatedly (though we certainly tried to minimize that for this group). We’ll see how it looks once I edit it all together (we did do a couple of pickup shots with my daughters on Sunday, just to cover ourselves a bit).
As for the Baltimore edition of the 48 Hour Film Project, still no word as to whether we’re in or not. We did end up signing up for the random entry drawing, though at first it looked like they’d closed the signups a bit early (according to Mark Ruppert, it was due to a website glitch, and he assured me we’d be placed in the drawing). So now we’re just waiting. And unfortunately, I have to jet off to Atlanta for another video shoot in about 20 minutes, so I may not know for a while.
I’ll try to post notice as soon as I hear, but no promises as to the timeliness (though if anyone else is watching, you could post a comment here as well).
Well whaddaya know? Turns out the so-called “engineering grenade” was nothing of the sort, but part of a genuine, bona-fide assassination attempt.
But, of course, Duh-bya was never in danger, you understand.
And here I thought Cheney was the indestructible cyborg...
How Sinful Are You?
(Thanks to Penda for the link.)
Your Deadly Sins
Pride: 60%
Wrath: 60%
Gluttony: 40%
Lust: 40%
Envy: 20%
Greed: 20%
Sloth: 20%
Chance You’ll Go to Hell: 37%
You will die from a faulty botox injection.
Come on. I have got to have a better than 37 percent chance of going to hell — at least if you evaluate it on the basis of most Americans’ assessment of the getting-into-heaven requirements, where I fail pretty much all of them.
And frankly, I’d much rather spend eternity in hell than in a heaven with the likes of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Albert Mohler, Fred Phelps, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, William Donohue, and the like. Any “heaven” in which they shared the slightest part truly would be hell.
Let me see if I’m understanding this correctly.
The White House is all upset about the Newsweek story? According to spokespuppet Scot McClellan, “People lost their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged. It will take work to undo what can be undone.”
Okay, so let’s see. The allegations Newsweek brought up — allegations they did not make up out of whole cloth, but were based on what appears to be faulty information — led to the deaths of (at last count) 16 people and damaged the “image” of the United States.
Yet this same White House did the exact same thing, only leading to the deaths of thousands of people, and has yet to offer anything remotely approaching an apology, retraction, or the slightest indication of wrongdoing.
I said before that the Pentagon’s denial of these allegations didn’t matter in the slightest; military denials are just standard operating procedure — always have been, probably always will be. The White House’s denials, on the other hand, actually lend one hell of a lot of credence to the stories. After all, they couldn’t tell the truth to save their lives.
Usually, listening to Cal Thomas on WTOP just gets me upset, and this morning was no exception. But today, instead of being mad at him (and his ilk), I found myself largely in agreement with him (true, he went off on his usual rants about the “liberal media,” but hey, he is a wingnut, and he wasn’t as nutty as usual). Specifically, he was going off about the now-somewhat-discredited Newsweek article that led to riots in the Muslim world.
I say somewhat discredited because it’s worth noting that the allegations — that inquisitors at the Guantanamo gulag flushed a copy (or copies) of the Koran down a toilet — haven’t been disproven by any stretch of the imagination. And it certainly seems perfectly in keeping with the Bush regime’s standard policy of overtly encouraging any means necessary against those it arbitrarily designates “enemies,” coupled with an overwhelmingly arrogant (if “willfully ignorant”) contempt for the beliefs of the Muslim world.
I am not saying that the allegations are true; in fact, the latest reports smack of the mindless repetition of urban legend. But at this point, the truth of the allegations is largely irrelevant. Newsweek had no story to report. These same allegations had come up without evidence before; the only story here would have been if some evidence had in fact been uncovered. Such evidence may in fact exist (the original story alleged that such documentation could be found in a governmental investigation report), but Newsweek certainly didn’t find it — they just fell into the way-too-common trap of quoting another “anonymous source.” The anonymous source — the most potent tool by which a corrupt government takes advantage of a complacent media system. And here, yet again, it’s come back to bite them in the ass — and incidentally killing people in the process.
(The Pentagon, of course, is denying the story, but this constitutes no evidence whatsoever. They deny everything as a matter of policy.)
Yes, the duty of any news organization is to uncover the truth, particularly as a counter to the excesses of our own government — a duty which has never been more critical than now, with unprecedented power being wielded by the most secretive, corrupt and unethical government in U.S. history. But as Thomas readily pointed out by citing the most famous exposure of Repubican corruption in memory — the Watergate investigation — it is incumbent upon those news organization to be absolutely sure of their stories before going to print.
I’m reminded of an Astro City story (yes, I’m pulling out my geek credentials here) in which a new reporter witnesses an extradimensional battle between superheroes and supervillains, in which the fate of the world hangs in the balance — but the story that ends up being printed is an innocuous little blurb about a commuter train being delayed. Why? Because that’s the only part of the reporter’s story — true though it may be — that can be independently verified.
Truth is a noble and necessary goal. But the goal of our news media is to report fact. History is written by the victors, true, but verifiable facts are the only counter to deliberate misinformation on the part of those victors. Doing anything less dramatically undermines the ability of the fourth estate to fulfill its goal, and plays right into this regime’s hands.
A regime, incidentally, that is probably unsure how to feel right now. Sure, they’ve just gained more ammunition in their battle against any media that would dare to question their benevolent leadership, but at the same time, their efforts to build a stable government in Afghanistan have suffered a serious blow. Then again, since they no longer really give a rat’s ass about Afghanistan — having moved on to more news-bite-friendly targets like Iraq — perhaps they’re enjoying a celebratory cigar after all.
Cal Thomas didn’t say anything about that last part, but I’m sure it was implied.
I don’t usually just post links without several paragraphs of background information (what, me long-winded?), but Tiffany’s got a pretty thoughtful examination of how the music industry’s killing itself by clinging desperately to a soon-to-be-obsolete business model.
On a related topic, there was an interesting article in yesterday’s Post about the ascendance of the “on-demand” consumer market, and the implications for over-the-air radio programming.
Well, the official lineup for the “Best of the 48 Hour Film Project” has been announced, and it looks like neither Tohubohu film made it. Still, there are some really good films in the lineup, so I’d still wholeheartedly recommend attending the screening this Thursday evening.
I’m still trying to decide if we should enter the Baltimore contest — I’ve gotten a few enthusiatic participants, some more definite “nos” — and a whole lot of “no responses.” I’ve theoretically got until Friday to decide, but it’d be nice if I had a more confident feeling about it at this point.
As for Chicago, I assume I’ve got a little time, though they haven’t published an entry deadline date yet.
Of course, both our movies are up on our website — and very shortly (as soon as I get around to updating the site), our latest offerings will be available in stunning new Quicktime 7 format! Sorry to all of you PC people out there (for whom QuickTime 7 is not available — yet), but the quality improvement in the new H.264 codec is just too good to pass up (but don’t worry, we’re not taking down the older versions right away either). So check the site soon (and regularly), then sit back, grab some corn, and... it’s movie time!
Apparently throwing away any possibility of a peaceful resolution, the Fascist party has decided to go ahead and declare war, eagerly awaiting its chance, led by the wingnut-pandering scumbag Bill Frist, to exercise the self-described “nuclear option.”
Well guess what, assholes? You’re going to have to “nuke” us to get us to shut up. We are positively sick of rolling over for you sleazebags. You want a war? You got it. And we’ll be taking down as many of you as we possibly can in the process.
No more compromise. No more appeasement. Consider this battle joined.
Given a choice between continual kotowing to über-right-wing lunacy and Mutually Assured Destruction, I’ll gladly take the latter.
Fortunately, I just learned that Patton Oswalt will be returning to his home state of Virginia for a show at the State Theatre on July 1st. I’ll have to clear my calendar.
Unfortunately, it looks like neither The Big Lie That Solves Everything nor Quite Contrary won their respective “audience award” honors. I can’t say I’m surprised, but I am disappointed, particularly in the case of the latter. Big Lie lost out to DC WIT’s entry, which is completely understandable, but Quite Contrary lost out to team “Digital Tronics,” which is affiliated with local video production powerhouse Henninger Video. Don’t get me wrong — their submission was really good (and technically impeccable), but I didn’t think it had quite the response of Quite Contrary. Still, I’m clearly biased (and their was actually in competition, a psychological if not a technical advantage).
Okay, all griping aside, congrats to all the audience award winners, and I look forward to hearing the lineup for next Thursday’s “best of” show.
I just ran across 48 Hour film Project producer Liz Langston’s old diary chronicling the very first project — way back in ancient times: 2001.
Hard to believe it’s grown from just eleven teams here in D.C. to hundreds of teams in dozens of cities around the world in a mere four years.
(In surfing around, I also learned what 2004 Best-of-DC winner Team GTTOTFD’s name stands for: “Get The Tape Out The F**king Door.” Cute.)
Still no word on the winners of the audience awards for the 48 Hour Film Project, theoretically due to be announced “early” this week. (The final lineup for the “best of” screening is due “late” this week — so I’m not holding my breath on that one just yet.)
But I did notice that some photos of the kickoff and dropoff events for the D.C. competition have been posted, and you can actually catch yours truly along with producer Geoff Long dropping off the completed copy of The Big Lie That Solves Everything in photo number 4137. (You can also catch me — looking particularly scruffy — to the side of photo 4134.)
In the meantime, while Baltimore’s looking like more and more of a possibility, I’ve managed to line up a couple of other projects to keep us busy. The first is a simple slideshow-set-to-music DVD for the wife of an old acquaintance. And the second — inspired both by the 48 Hour Film Project and by more performance-based events like the Neutrino Video Project — is a movie-making birthday party. Basically, we’ll shoot elements of a movie with the party attendees (and screen the raw footage there), then fold that footage into a larger story.
That one’s also being done for an old acquaintance. Specifically, an about-to-turn-nine-years-old acquaintance. More specifically, my daughter.
The first project’s pretty straightforward; don’t need any help there. But if any of the old Tohubohu contributors — or, frankly, any other folks — want to help out with the second one (the party will be on the 21st), drop me a line!
First of all, I think it prudent to note that somebody hates little George one hell of a lot more than I do. (For the record. You Carnivore folks listening out there?)
What I find more interesting in the article is the spin that Georgian officials are already taking, saying that “there was no danger whatsoever for the presidents” (i.e., Duh-bya and Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili), and that “it was not possible to detonate it there.”
Um, excuse me? Someone managed to get a grenade — even if an inactive one — within 100 feet of the president and you’re trying to convince us that nobody could have really detonated a grenade there? Well, unless your security is actively working to catch offensive grenades while deliberately letting engineering grenades through freely, then I’m sorry, but you’ll never be able to convince me — or anyone — that your cover story is anything but utter horseshit. Not even worthy to scrape the boots of old Soviet-era propaganda. You oughtta be ashamed. Give ol’ Karl Rove a call — he’ll set you straight.
In eerily related news, they just evacuated the Capitol building and White House. They’ve since sounded the all-clear, but I’m curious to see what develops. It looks like it was just another unidentified airplane straying into restricted airspace, but the bit about immediately ordering reporters off the White House grounds has me wondering if there’s more to it.
Sorry I haven’t been writing lately — once the competition wound up, I found myself in the none-too-enviable position of having to catch up on all the work I’d put off. I’m still pretty well buried, but I thought I’d at least check in with a couple of quick updates.
The screenings for the two films went well, though the crowd wasn’t as enthusiastic as last year, particularly for the Thursday evening screening for The Big Lie That Solves Everything. Still, both films got a fairly strong audience response, and I think at least Quite Contrary has a good chance of winning the “audience award.”
Which, unfortunately, is the only award for which it’s eligible. See, one week ago today, Nello (the director) got a call from the competition organizers — the tape they’d submitted had recorded nothing but timecode. No video, no audio. Which, in effect, meant no movie. We ran up to their production facility (well, the house in which they were cutting the tapes together) over lunch, but weren’t able to salvage anything; the content just wasn’t there.
We gave them a new tape, so they would screen the film, but it was unfortunately designated a “late submission,” and therefore ineligible for any of the judged awards.
Major disappointment.
Still, we know we (well, really more they, but I’m still clinging to my “executive producer” contribution) made the movie in the allotted time, and made one hell of a picture besides. Which, really, is more the point than the competition itself.
Both films are up for viewing at the Tohubohu website, so you can judge for yourself.
And coming up? Well, it turns out that they’re doing a competition in Baltimore. Yeah, it’s a little soon after finishing this contest — June 17th through the 19th, to be specific — but if people are interested, who am I to deny them?
And after that, Chicago (July 8–10) is still beckoning...
What bugs me the most about this whole new creationism debate is the insistence that “intelligent design” is a theory.
It’s not. Not even close. Calling it a theory is a flagrant attempt to appeal to the stupidity of the American people.
A theory — by definition — must be based in observable evidence and subject to scientific testing. I’m not saying there isn’t a “creator” behind things; there very well could be. But there’s no way to prove the assertion, one way or another. It cannot be considered a “theory.” It would be more accurate to call it a “wild guess.”
But I suppose that doesn’t sound as weighty as “theory.”
I can understand the proponents using the word. After all, they’s deliberately trying to deceive people. But when newspapers, magazines, and other media start throwing it around, I lose whatever faith I had left in the fourth estate.
Update: On WTOP this morning, the “CBS News Roundup” at least got it right — refusing to dignify this crusade with the word “theory,” instead calling it what it is: a “notion.” So all is not lost.
Well, it’s in. The latest Tohubohu offering — excuse me, offerings — have been turned in.
We made it. Both teams.
Tohubohu “Kaplan” drew comedy, and their resulting piece was (assuming they didn’t change it since last I spoke with them) entitled “Quite Contrary.” I’m anxious to see it, but since they’ve all gone off to recover, I suppose I’ll have to wait.
Team “Thornhill” drew fantasy, and we did a little movie called “The Big Lie That Solves Everything,” (which takes its name from a song by Scott Andrew and the Walkingbirds) starring Tohubohu regular Stuart Scotten and newcomer Tim Randall. It’s about a genie who’s grown tired of the lack of truly epic wishes in the modern world, and has opted to drop out and work in a hardware store (you know those people — the only ones on Earth who know exactly what obscure little part you need — are just a little bit magical). That is, until a corporate headhunter from a “rival employer” decides to try and recruit him back into the business...
Kaplan’s movie will screen at the AFI Silver Theatre this coming Wednesday at 7:15 p.m.; Thornhill’s will screen this Thursday at 9:30. You can get tickets online — and I would recommend doing so immediately if you plan on attending. Tickets sell out quickly (although the relatively short turnaround between completion and screening this year may mean a lower turnout).
But for now, it’s sleepy time...
(Correction: I originally said that Kaplan’s film would screen on Tuesday, when in fact they’ll be on Wednesday night; I’ve corrected it herein. Thornhill’s screening date was correct. Kaplan’re part of Group C, while Thornhill is part of Group F. I apologize, and hope this didn’t cause anyone to get tickets for the wrong night — chalk it up to lack of sleep.)
William R. Coughlan is one of the founders of Tohubohu Productions (so even on pictures he doesn’t direct, he can squeeze in an Executive Producer credit) and in-house video producer for The Advisory Board Company. He dabbles in screenwriting, acting, 3-D animation, and writing autobiographical comments in the third person. He is also a published illustrator, has provided schematic graphics for several HBS case studies, designed the acclaimed Protégé clay poker chip line, wrote for the (now-dormant) online literary magazine Inkblots, and acts as editor for the MotherReader weblog (which is not-so-coincidentally written by his wife). He currently resides at a secret compound in Burke, Virginia, with his wife Pam and their two daughters.
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