Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

Getting some interesting feedback on the Uvatiarru trailer (more) below. Like the criticism that Keith faced when helping with Strangeland (more), a number of folks seem very concerned that the movie could paint the modified community here in a negative light. First of all I'll point out that never in the last ten years have I done anything that I believed would be anything but positive for this community. But second, let me frame that clip so you can an insight into where it fits.

The plotline of the film follows an arc which moves through four parts; first depression (which you see in this trailer), then into madness, redemption, and finally salvation. It's a cycle that a lot of us have moved through, and what I'm trying to capture with this movie. The narration in the trailer is from the movie, after a real ritual that took place on the beach in Tortola. It is not scripted. It's life.

Stories about people in the adult industry being abused are nothing new (more), but I'm somewhat disturbed by what's going on in Utah right now. They've said that they believe that criminals enjoy pornography, so the police have been instructed to catalog the adult materials they can link to people they're investigating (more)… a rather frightening version of profiling!

This is very dangerous.

You all have seen the highly misleading stats claiming that tattooed and pierced people are losers, drug addicts, sluts, and so on. You know how easy it is to twist numbers into damning (but false) statistics. What will happen if the government decides that an interest in pornography (or being a “liberal”, or whatever), is an indicator that you're socially undesirable?

Let's talk about the draft while we still can — although I should mention that people who do talk about the draft too loudly are being threatened with lawsuits by the Republican Party (more). Now, as I've said before, I think it's more likely that we'll see an increase in high-cost mercenaries than an actual draft of the general population. However, the back door draft just gets worse and worse. Even here on IAM we have disabled people being drafted to fight in Iraq (more), and even soldiers age 50 and older are currently being back-door drafted (more):

Sometime in the next few weeks, the 58-year-old Army National Guard command sergeant major will leave his wife, Jeanette, their 11-year-old Maltese, Pebbles, walk through the door of his Old Bridge home one final time and head to Iraq.

"I don't want to leave my wife, but I have to go," Thomas said during an interview last week at his house, which the couple is selling. "I made her a deal. I promised her this is my last tour of duty, and she gets a new house."

At a time in life when most people are looking forward to retirement or eyeing Florida real estate, these soldiers are leaving behind corporate jobs and grandkids. "The hardest part about going," Thomas said, "is when my granddaughter asks me why I'm not going to be home for Christmas."