McCain v. Bush--the Clash of the Conservative TitansThe more I hear about the confrontation between John McCain and George Bush, the more respect I have for McCain. It's refreshing to hear that there's at least one person in Washington that is willing to make the tough call even when it's going to cost him political support (yeah, I know it will soften liberal resistance to him, but you don't generally win politics by softening your opponent, but rather by solidifying your own voter base.) I could maybe even bring myself to set aside my general disdain for politicians, in this case...
I find it very illuminating that pretty much every Republican senator that has joined McCain's cause on the issue of POW treatment has a military background...when a pair of military lawyers, not to mention a former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and several others with distinguished military backgrounds, are looking at an issue like this and saying, "Wow, that's just not right..." C'mon, only a moron would not stop and look at that (of course, I should keep in mind that we ARE talking about George Bush...)
Seems like the only people that ARE supporting the Bush side of things, outside the White House, are in the CIA. Big surprise, they wouldn't have much concern for issues of retribution (spying isn't protected in the Geneva Convention)--and the CIA has an unfortunate track record of being willing to sacrifice military lives in the interest of what's expedient for them (nearly every major military catastrophe that's happened since Vietnam has ultimately been attributed to 'poor intelligence'--boy, the levels on which that statement could be taken...)
The thing that just floors me, every time I read one of these articles, is the extremely specious nature of the argument FOR the proposed legislation...the Geneva Convention is vaguely worded and leaves doubt as to what interrogation methods may or may not be legal. Huh? The answer is pretty simple...if you think it MIGHT be illegal, DON'T DO IT. For Hell's sake, we're SUPPOSED to be the good guys, right? I was utterly amazed to hear Bill Maher saying the same thing earlier tonight--I don't normally agree with much of anything he has to say, and don't generally appreciate much his way of saying it, either. But on this one, I'm in total accord.
The political pundits are having a hey-day, predicting that John McCain is effectively excising his conservative support by breaking ranks with the President. Y'know, he's just gained huge strides in my book for the fact that he DID break ranks, and he did it to do what he feels is right. I would have thought that kind of dedication to principle would be bread and butter for the conservative side of the tracks (not claiming they've got an exclusive claim to it, just that in my mind, I tend to equate doing what is 'right', regardless of costs, with the conservative mindset...maybe it's all the Sunday School lessons from my childhood or something.)
There's a lot of speculation, some of it by McCain himself, that he may seek the Presidency in 2008. Columnists nationwide have been writing on his defiance of the President in that light, some scathingly accusing him of selling out his country, some predicting that he will lose all the ground he's gained in the last two years with the extreme right, some praising him for standing his ground on what he feels is a moral issue. They pretty much all label him as a maverick.
Maybe that's what we need. Someone who's willing to defy traditional political positions in order to make sure the job gets done more effectively. Someone who has already demonstrated their ability to work outside partisan lines, who has even managed to get key leaders of the opposing party to sing their praises a time or two. Someone willing to do what is right, regardless of what is popular.
Because, goodness knows, the status quo has sure been a let-down.
Random Musings, round--uh---(I've lost count...)So, apparently, George Bush has finally decided that maybe it would be a good idea to come to a compromise with the senators in his own party that disagree with his proposed re-definition of the Geneva Convention. About damn time...I mean, it you're going to talk about treatment of POWs, most people in Congress really have no idea. But John McCain WAS a POW, knows first-hand how it feels--and if he's opposed to legislation regarding POWs, you damn well better give him a little respect on the subject. He's actually one of the few people in Congress I have any respect for...
I loved Erica's video clip of Keith Olberman lambasting the administration for their conduct of the War on Terror. If you haven't watched it yet, go check it out.
Anyone else feel a little less than impressed with the Pope's latest 'apology'? He's sorry that Muslims are upset by what he said. He also says that he was quoting a medieval text that doesn't reflect his thinking. Ummmm...if it doesn't reflect your thinking, then why quote it? I mean, if he'd quoted it, and then pointed out how narrow-minded it was, or even said that we need to move beyond that kind of entrenched orthodoxy in judging the world's religions, that would be different. I can see why Muslims are upset. I don't think they need to be THAT upset (I mean, if you're pissed at someone and want to get back at them, break their stuff, not their neighbors' stuff...a lot of Muslims still think that Christian equals Catholic and vice versa)--but I understand their ire.
Israel FINALLY decided that, yes, it would be a good idea to have someone investigate the way the recent Lebanese military operations were carried out (they're calling it a war...I still think of war in grander terms than that...guess it's kind of conditioned. I mean, it wasn't even 40 days. Operation Desert Storm was short, too...but we still call it by that name most of the time, I hear very few people talk about the 'First Persian Gulf War'...) Even in that admission, they're hedging their bets--because they've limited the authority of the commission. They could have selected a commission empowered to dismiss people from government or military service, but they chose to set up an advisory committee instead. Guess Olmert's stalling to see which way the wind blows...this way, HE gets the credit for firing someone, or for keeping them in place despite recommendations. Nice to know politics is politics, regardless of where in the world they are or the religious/ethnic background of the people involved. At least some things in the world are consistent.
I recently spent a lot of time commenting on someone's blog (on another site, sorry guys) about whether love was selfish or selfless. As with many other things, that's all relative...why are you doing what you're doing is often as important, or more important, than what you are actually doing. If money is the root of all evil, then why are so many philanthropists hailed as such wonderful people? Atomic weapons are bad...but atomic energy, used correctly, could be such a boon (unfortunately, because we're cheap, impatient creatures, we tried to tap into the energy source before we learned all the safety lessons, and so people will forever think of places like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl when anyone discusses atomic power plants). In the end, only we can determine, ourselves, why we do something...and while we can make educated guesses, none of us can truly know the motives behind anything anyone else does.
Which doesn't excuse George Bush from being a bad president. If you're going to be didactic, imperious, judgemental, pushy, and impetuous, at least try to be competent about it. And if you're not, then stop acting surprised when people call you on it.
More Random musings...So, why is it that the moment the weather changes for the worse, people suddenly lose the ability to drive? I had to go up to Park City today to help with the set for the upcoming show at the Egyptian, and spent at least a third of the drive behind some moron who wasn't even doing the speed limit...and that was in the fast lane...
I ran into an old almost-flame tonight...hadn't heard anything from her since last November. I was surprised how fast a lot of those old feelings came back to just beneath the surface for me...I mean, this is a girl I quit calling because I believe relationships are supposed to be give-and-take, but I was seeing an awful lot of take and not much give from her end...finally just got to the point where I figured it wasn't worth even trying any more. We were never actually dating (as I told people, claiming to date someone typically involves having gone on dates--something for which she never had time).
I'm not one to carry a grudge, and I also believe people can change...and it's entirely possible that such thoughts are needless because even though we talked, that's no guarantee that it will ever happen again (she said she'd come see me at the park during Frightmares...I suppose, if that happens, then I'll start wondering...) But at what point do you start telling yourself, "Uh-uh...been down that road before and didn't like the potholes..."?
The truly ironic thing is, this happened just a couple of days after I started exchanging emails with a woman who seems quite taken with me (thus far). Given my track record, that's almost enough to make me gun-shy right there...because it seems that every eligible woman that had the nerve to show open interest in me, romantically, has had some serious emotional issues she was (or, more often, was NOT) dealing with. Thus far, no signs of similar symptoms...but I'm taking it slow, just in case (and if you read this, Deb, please don't get freaked out on me about writing here...look at it as a free peek behind my mask, something not very many people get.)
But it always does seem to be feast or famine for me, socially...I never meet just one girl, I always meet four or five within days of each other...and being an old-fashioned gent at heart (it's part of that geek thing I so proudly display from time to time), I feel really bad dating ALL of them...and by the time I decide which one I really want to devote my heart to, they've all met someone else and I'm left alone again. That, or else I meet married/engaged women who tell me how they'd love to date me...if they were still unattached. Bad timing--the story of my social life.
The House of Representatives passed the ban on horse slaughter I mentioned in an earlier post. I'm still baffled that they would even think such legislation necessary...I mean, really...who does this help? The horses? Well, a select few, perhaps. It doesn't help any of the owners, it doesn't help the rendering plants that often processed laughter animals...it doesn't help any of the hundreds of wild horses the BLM rounds up each year yet cannot find homes for. Speaking as Joe Average, Horse Owner, it now means that if I find myself in a situation of financial hardship, where I've got to choose between feeding my horse or feeding myself, my horse is doomed to a slow, starvation death because my best option for a quick end has been banned. It also means that landfills will get a lot more horse corpses because it's no longer legal to put your horse down and then have a rendering company retrieve the carcass. And if you think it's heart-rending to put a horse down, try putting one down and then leaving it at the dump for burial in the trash. Believe me...it sucks.
Yeah...on THAT cheery note...it's been a long week, I'm not normally THIS solemn at this time of night. So I'm gonna go get some sleep. Peace out, all...
Those who do not learn from history... I was reading earlier today and saw references to a report issued by the Marine detachment in Iraq, basically conceding that they have lost any semblance of control in the Anbar province. And that got me thinking about parallels between Iraq and America's other Great Military Fiasco--Vietnam. I know a lot of people said, going into the Iraq War, that it was going to be another Vietnam for us...I hoped we had learned the lessons. We haven't.
First off, I want to state for the record that I support the troops. I have friends and family who either have been or are now in the military, even have one very close friend who's currently serving in Iraq. In my eyes, they are doing the best they can given the circumstances under which they must operate. This is the first frightening parallel to Vietnam.
I've read a few books about the war in Southeast Asia...almost all of which stated, unequivocally, from both sides, that the U.S COULD HAVE WON the war in 'Nam, and was winning...until the politicians decided they knew how to fight the war better than the soldiers did.
Donald Rumsfeld, who's never been in direct command of military troops to the best of my knowledge, ignored the advice of several generals in regards to the number of troops sent to Iraq in the first place. Regardless of the moral underpinnings of the war (I'll hit those next), when people who do not know how to fight a war decide they know more than people who have spent their entire lifetimes studying the subject, you've got problems guaranteed to follow. Not only did we not have enough troops on the ground to maintain stability (a shaky proposition at best, anyway), we had no strategy for how to deal with the situation AFTER Iraq's defeat outside of the sunny proposition that we would be hailed as liberators of an oppressed society--which lasted for about two days.
Moving onward--the dubious moral prospects of both. Vietnam actually comes out stronger in this case--I mean, we DID go in there to support a government against overthrow. It was even a democracy already. Unfortunately, it was a blatantly corrupt democracy and we did nothing to leverage it into cleaning up its act. This cost us a lot of indigenous support, because people saw us as only coming to maintain their miserable status quo. That turned into the best recruiting tool the Viet Cong could ever ask for.
Amongst my readings earlier, I also came across an article out of the Christian Science Monitor (I know, what a hotbed of journalistic fervor, right?)--they interviewed three different specialists in Muslim society, asking them if the actions of the United States in the last five years had actually done anything to disrupt al Qaeda. One was Middle Eastern, one was American, and one was European (if I recall correctly)...and, surprisingly, they were in complete accord with each other--The United States was doing everything right...UNTIL they invaded Iraq. It is hard to imagine an action that would have played better into al Qaeda's hands, sort of actually nuking a target in the Muslim World. The repeated insistence that there WERE WMD's in Iraq (never proven), and that Saddam Hussein had ties with al Qaeda (still unproven, and according to most sources, even disproven), which grudgingly evolved to "We did the right thing because it just had to be done" has won us no friends in the world at large, and a lot of enemies in the Middle East.
(For the record, I do believe that we would have had to face down Saddam Hussein at SOME point. I also believe that it would have been far better to wait until the world demanded that we do it in some fit of moral outrage, because I have no doubt he would have given us the excuse. Apparently, the Powers-That-Be in Washington don't believe in the adage of 'give a man enough rope...')
The conduct of the war is yet another parallel. Vietnam had a slew of reported war atrocities (the most infamous being, perhaps, the single photograph of a RVN officer shooting a civilian in the head, execution-style)--and while they were not typical of how most people conducted the war there, they were widespread enough to cause outrage among allies and on the homefront. War is naturally an unpopular proposition--trying to conduct war without internal support is nigh impossible and a recipe for disaster.
Iraq has had Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, CIA black-bag operations illegally spiriting captives across borders, dubious methods with even more dubious results, and regularly contradictory messages from the military personnel in-country and their leadership at home.
Y'know, looking at the equation, I'm hard-pressed to say where we learned a damned thing from Vietnam...except maybe to put the blame where it belongs. Support the troops, yes...but to hell with their leaders.
The Return of the Geek... Why, yes, Frank, I am a geek (c'mon, man, I had written as many or more posts than you to your 'geekdom' site...which reminds me, I should do another one...although paintball is a little active for your average geek). I had a good time...I'm stiff and sore in places that I'd forgotten were part of my body, but I only got two tender spots from paintballs. I'll put a pic of the one on my collarbone up later, maybe (although it's far from the most atrocious hit I've ever taken...but I rarely bruise, and the best bruises I get from paintball are always when I get shot right on a bone. Usually, it's a rib...)
I don't think I actually had anyone swear at me this year...I did have one guy flip me off after I shot him in the back (and then, as he was walking back to his dead zone, he told three of his team-mates where I was hiding so they came looking for me--sore loser...) I REALLY love the rule they started the second year we had Predators in this game...after having to let so many people go the first year, out of not wanting to shoot them in the back from three feet away when they dropped for cover behind the bush I was hiding in, they made the rule that Predators can call a person out if they are within ten feet or so of where we're hiding. That's actually how I got most of my 'kills' this year.
The best was a string of three guys. I was tucked into the scrub trees at the top of a small ridge, just off a little path that went up over the top of the ridge. The Mercenary team had a couple of guys nestled in under a tree on one side of the ridge, and the Marine team had a whole string of guys that came up from the other side of the ridge. When the Mercs started shooting, the Marines started fanning out, looking for a good angle of fire.
The first guy I saw coming up 'my' path was a given, but I figured I'd be leaving after I got him, because there were five other guys at the base of the trail...once he walked out, surely they'd know I was there. On the other hand, I couldn't just let him go, because once he realized I was there, he'd most likely panic and turn around and start shooting from two feet away (I know, it's happened to me). So I figured I'd get the one and move on...levelled my marker at him and waited for him to come into the clear.
"Player, I'm a Predator. You're out."
He turned, looked at me for a second, then picked up his marker and walked off the field. Unlike another player previously mentioned, this one was a good sport...didn't say a word, just kept going right past his teammates. Now, I thought, surely...a man just walked past them, marker in the air, and had not called himself 'hit'...someone will do the math...
No. Thirty seconds later, another guy came up the trail. I repeated the routine, calling him out...and he, too, walked away cleanly.
Now, certainly, someone had to figure...
Forty-five seconds later (give or take), ANOTHER guy came up the path. Once again, I covered him with the marker and waited for him to come cleanly into my sights, then called him out.
This guy gave me one of the best laughs I've had all week. For a second, it was like he couldn't believe what had happened. He just turned and looked at me...or what he could see of me behind my marker, since the muzzle was only about a foot away from his mask...for about five seconds or so. Then he just said, "Okay," and walked off.
At that point, I figured the Marines needed the trail more than I did. Besides, my mask was starting to fog up, and eventually, someone was going to realize that guys kept walking out of that trail with no paint on them...and when they did, if they went par for the realization, there would be five guys come up the trail with paint flying in advance, and I just didn't want to be part of that. I got up, climbed out of the bushes, and walked off the field to go clean my mask.
I'd have to say, for each guy I actually shot out of the game, there were two that I just called out. I've got a trick I want to try next year...almost tried it this year, but I wasn't feeling quite that reckless--wait in the bushes until a squad passes me, then get out and follow them and tag individuals out with either my hand or gun barrel...
Yeah, I'm a little cocky sometimes. Playing Predator is one of the few places where I indulge myself.
In other events, the film premiere was pretty good. Our spoof was far from the best film of the night (and I didn't even stay for the whole thing)...but for what it was intended to be, it was pretty good (as the director explained it, this was his point of highlighting all the ridiculous stuff George Lucas did with the prequels, that just killed them as far as his enjoying them--things like multi-bladed lightsabers, droids that serve no recognizable function, characters that exist only for comic relief, etc...) It was also paced like the majority of the prequels...a little on the slow and expository side...
But I still enjoyed it...both watching it and having done it. I'm hoping to work with the same director again...we did a short fantasy film (my first opportunity working with him, and a MUCH better film than the spoof), which he wants to expand into a feature-length story. We've started bouncing some ideas around, and we'll see what happens (he's having to massively revise his story idea, because our lead actor had some health issues and lost a LOT of weight and a few teeth--he wasn't a particularly large guy in the first place, built kind of like me--tall, lanky, wiry...so I can only imagine what he looks like now.) I'm hoping to actually have a part (a significant part) in the expansion of the story, as opposed to having to watch the short and say, "Okay, see the Marauder with the bow right there? That's me...and this clip right here of the monster, that's me...and that's my hand..."
But, y'know, even if it wasn't a great acting gig, it was a great costume and prop gig (I made two scabbards, a bunch of arrows, decorated several bows, and chased down and modified a lot of the armor). And the short actually got specifically designated for the costuming at the Hollywood DV Festival--considering the fact that there were dozens of shorts entered, that's nothing to scoff at. I'm still waiting to get my copy of the DVD (our cinematographer was putting it together...on top of being a perfectionist, he's also ridiculously over-booked, so DVD production has been languishing in limbo for two years or so, now...)
Yep, I'm a geek...but it suits me. Being a geek is actually kinda fun, y'know? I know a lot of non-geeks who don't have as much fun as I do...
Shhhhhh...be vewy vewy quiet...
So, tomorrow I make my annual paintball excursion. It's the one game I make it to every year, simply because it gives me a license to play paintball the way I like to play it.
For those who know nothing about paintball, or only know of it from news reports about stupid kids using paintball guns to harrass random people, it is, in many ways, a high-tech game of tag. When I was little, we played a game called Deerhunter, where one guy was the hunter, the rest of us were deer...the hunter tried to hit you with a Nerf football, and if you got hit, you became the hunter.
When you're eight years old, playing a game like that with neighbor kids that are fifteen or so, that ball can be REALLY painful...which may be why getting hit by paintballs doesn't really faze me much. I mean, yeah, they're flying faster...but I've never had a paintball lift me off my feet and tumble me head over heels.
The game, though--THIS game--is a scenario-based game, meaning there's kind of a storyline running through it. This one is called Aliens in the Rockies, the story being that one team is the Colonial Marines from the movie Aliens (not THOSE exact Marines...I mean, they all died) that have been dispatched to another planet that has reported the same situation as the settlement in Aliens. The other team is Corporate Security, trying to get in there and salvage what they can for their Bioweapons Division before the Marines capture/sterilize the area.
There is a third team...if you've done Role Playing Games before, the third team is NPCs. Basically, we are there to keep things lively for the other two teams. The third team consists of Aliens, Predators, and mercenaries that can be hired by either side. Aliens have some funky body armor and are really hard to kill. Predators have ghillie suits, and basically play sniper. And the mercs just go out and encourage people to shoot a lot of paint at them...;)
I'm a Predator. And apparently I'm good at it, because the guys in charge of the game keeping making jokes about how they WON'T see me on the field at the game. I've always played paintball with a 'skill is more important than firepower' mentality, which has served me pretty well, except for those occasions when I'm the last man left facing seven or eight people on the other team. But it's funny, and gratifying in a way, that a guy who only plays paintball once a year, using a gun so old that my roommate left it behind when he moved out TEN YEARS AGO, can induce such panic in a swarm of die-hard paintball players who spend significant portions of their annual income on keeping their gear up to date.
How does the saying go? Age and deception will overcome youth and energy every time? We'll find out tomorrow...
For your viewing pleasure...
One of the film projects I worked on earlier this year is finally making its premiere this week...a Star Wars spoof, and I not only did a lot of the costumes, but I also actually got some screen time (the director told me my part is one of the funniest moments, even though I don't have a single line--was, in fact, just kind of thrown in at the last moment). I'm looking forward to seeing it...it's not the first film I've been in, and it's not the largest film I've been in, but I'm as excited to see this one as any of them. The trailer for it is here...
http://www.wishplay.com/rehash/
Sorry, I stink at html coding, so if the link doesn't work directly, it's my fault. Also, there's apparently something wrong with the WMV download at the site, because I keep getting a text file...but the quicktime version works just fine (no, you don't see me in the trailer...well, you don't see my face.)
It's showing at the Gangrene Film Festival in Layton...who knew Layton had a film festival? There's actually a fairly active independent film community in the SLC area, I've learned, and I've enjoyed working with them. Most of the projects don't pay, and there have been a few that I looked at and said, "Y'know, thanks anyway..." because I just didn't want my name associated with that particular project. But there have also been a few that I've seen and said, "Man, I wish I'd heard about that one earlier..." And the one's I've been involved in have all turned out to be projects I'd love to show anybody...work I can be proud of. It's been a fun new direction to look, and I hope it leads to further opportunities. At least one project I've done has a very real chance of turning into a feature-length production...not holding my breath, but I am crossing my fingers.
Oh, yeah...if you make it to the showing (ha ha ha!) and are looking for my face in the film, you won't see it. I'm in a prosthetic (imagine that!). But, since there's only two characters in the film with prosthetics (not including the Sith with the mask), and the other one talks a lot, you'll be able to figure out who I am...
More on this later...gonna be a busy week! Wrapping up two shows at Lagoon, got a huge paintball game next weekend, the film premiere Friday night, and I'm up to my eyeballs in costume projects for Frightmares. Yep, this is my life, and I'm enjoying it...;)
The Modest Proposal Revisited...So, I was sitting around and shooting the breeze with some friends tonight, and we got on the topic of stand-up comics and the whole War on Terror thing...and a thought occurred to me.
We've been dealing with the insurgency issue all wrong. We are dealing with a group of people who feel their territory has been violated and their authority to hold that territory has been challenged. We don't need soldiers to handle this issue. We need gangs.
This would be a win-win situation for us. Clearing the gangs out of the city would provide a chance to renew and renovate great amounts of urban space, without the additional challenges of upsetting the local warlords of our own back alleys. And it would provide them with an opportunity to truly serve their country. I'm certain, for the amount we're paying the military, the gangs would be willing to take on this task.
They are ideally suited to this type of operation. They are used to hit-and-run tactics (granted, they often use the drive-by shooting, as opposed to the Improvised Explosive Device--), they are accustomed to defending urban neighborhoods against encroachment by 'unwelcome elements ' (those outside their own groups, at least), and they think in the same terms of 'you hurt me, I kill you' that the insurgents all seem to uphold. They are also largely composed of individuals outside the traditional American ideal of the clean-cut, bright-eyed young man (so, if the indigenous populations get tired of them, our soldiers might seem like a welcome replacement).
The only real drawback I can see would be the enormous expense of pimping out all the Humvees...(DISCLAIMER: the author intends this strictly in a sense of the ridiculous. If this post in any way creates a desire for a drive-by shooting of his residence, please keep in mind that this is only a joke...)
