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):

[sarcasm] I'm sure pulling a 58-year old cop off the streets of New Jersey and shipping them to Iraq to die is a great plan. Yeah, that's just what America needs. [/sarcasm]

Meanwhile, Iraq is still on fire with insurgents continuing to bomb pipelines (more), and, even though Bush predicted zero US casualties (more), current US casualties from the war are approaching 10,000 (more), with the “non-combat injuries” number being almost double that. To be clear; these are not people with scraped legs. These are people who are now missing their legs. No wonder increasing numbers are saying “better mutiny than suicide” (more).

Bush, recently endorsed by Iran for his pro-Iran trade policies and anti-Israel stance (more) accuses Kerry of playing “scare tactics” by fabricating the story that seniors are facing a backdoor draft (more). Now, I know you just read the story above, but hey, Bush says you shouldn't watch the news. Meanwhile, Cheney warns Americans that they should expect a US city to be nuked soon (more). I'd hoped those were just “scare tactics”, but since the Bush team opposes “scare tactics”, I guess you can kiss NYC goodbye for good.

Other than that, Bush has said that he'll accept Iraq becoming a fundamentalist Islamic state (more). Let's be real fucking clear about something: Saddam Hussein's government was better than a fundamentalist Islamic government would be.

If you want something good to type into Google News, let me recommend the following search terms:

A government that operates in secret is, by definition, not a democracy.