On Liberals and Torture

The liberal population of the U. S., led by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, continues to characterize the use of waterboarding as “torture.” To any sane person, this is ludicrous: waterboarding is a practice used to train our own military pilots to survive water landings. Further, the technique itself consists of nothing more untoward than pouring water in the recipient’s face for a period not to exceed 40 seconds.
While any other country would consider the allegations that this constitutes torture ridiculous, in America it simply confirms what conservatives have known about liberals for years: liberals don’t shower.

Update: If Nancy Pelosi truly believes that waterboarding is, in itself, torture, then why isn’t she calling for its removal from U. S. military training? Torture is illegal under the UCMJ, training or no. And why isn’t she moving to close down BDSM clubs–especially all of the ones in the San Francisco area?
Finally, if waterboarding is defined as “torture” simply because it’s painful–regardless of the magnitude of pain (cf. al Qaeda interrogation manual), then what is her position on bikini waxing?

Movie Reviews

I’ve started posting movie reviews at IMDB.com; in order to save space, rather than post the same reviews here, I’ve just put up a link to my reviews page at the right. So far, my review of Wolverine is up (and very unpopular!), and my review of S Darko is pending. One of the few things that people actually ask me about here is my movie reviews, so I hope you all enjoy my new venue.

Star Trek and Wolverine: Origins

Let’s start with Star Trek. Honestly, I haven’t been a fan of the Star Trek franchise since I was in high school. The constant utopianism is grating, and since Scientology (in The Undiscovered Country) and Communism (in First Contact) were officially adopted into the Utopia of the Federation, well… I just threw up a little bit in my mouth. Nor, in fact, am I a huge fan of J.J. Abrams. So, I went into this movie with fairly low expectations.
And wound up enjoying it. There are weaknesses–the Vulcan dialogue was obviously written by someone trying to write dialogue above his own IQ level by simply using a thesaurus on every other word (never a good idea), and the actor playing Spock couldn’t pull of Spock with Spock there to coach him. Plus, Abrams does a really hoaky homage to his own work with the “red matter.” Those things being said, I really liked the direction that the series went: there were homages to Star Trek as well (don’t be the guy in the red suit… and don’t let Kirk near a green woman), there are alien monsters that really LOOK like alien monsters, and some other things that there are more qualified Trekophiles than myself to comment on. Personally, I hope to see this cast grow into its own through several more movies.

Now, for Wolverine. I called this one as soon as the first trailer came out, and no one believed me. An entire movie with the U. S. Army as the bad guy, doing NOTHING EXCEPT kidnapping, torturing and murdering civilians. Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves. Don’t watch it, don’t take your kids to it.
The only worthwhile thing about this movie, for me, is the opportunity for movie reviewers like Roger Ebert to show what true morons they are. All of these psuedo-intellectual critics like to pick apart superhero movies–as if they are somehow “beneath” any other form of cinematic drivel–so they harp on the fact that the movie begins in “Northwest Territories, Canada, 1845.” It didn’t exist, and I’m fairly certain that only one film critic actually knew that. The rest are just parroting it so as not to look less intelligent than all of their colleagues. None of them, however–NOT ONE–noticed that the U. S. Army was using M-4 carbines in Viet Nam. But then, what do you expect from a group of people who thought that “Rendition” was a really intelligent movie, and it just didn’t do well because the “common folk” weren’t ready for it?

On Theism and Atheism

The theism vs. atheism debate continues to be a popular one on many internet fora that I visit. Still, I have encountered very few people who really understand the issue well enough to make a coherent argument for either side. Here is analysis of the debate itself:

The Western world today is as theologically illiterate today as it was mathematically illiterate two thousand years ago. On one side, you have people reading books of religious instruction like they’re history texts. To use the mathematical analogy, this is like adding 2 + 2 and getting 22. They’ve got a vague idea that something called “addition” is going on, but they really don’t understand the nature or intent operation they’re attempting. On the other side, you’ve got people who say, “I know how much two is, and I know how much twenty-two is. It makes no sense that 2 + 2 could equal 22; therefore, the entire idea of arithmetic should be abandoned.”
Meanwhile, neither side has even a clue that something like algebra could be possible, never mind geometry or calculus.

About the Tea Party

On April 15th, I attended the Tea Party at the Capitol Building of Jefferson City, MO. There had been some confusion regarding the event–apparently the larger event was on the 14th–but a sizable and robust crowd showed up anyway. I’ve got over an hour of video clips, both from actual speakers at the event, and of attendees that I managed to interview. (Turns out there’s a technique to it!)

Some of the videos are posted below, but Blogger takes too long to load videos–so I’ve posted everything on a new YouTube Channel.

The Tea Party was a great experience, and I’m looking forward to attending another one in July. I met some great people, and heard some great ideas. That having been said, I have some thoughts for my fellow attendees:

There are two reasons that you might have attended such an event. The first is ask the government to give you back a few dollars on your paycheck. This is certainly a valid reason to have gone, but it isn’t why I was there. I went to take back my freedom from a government that is ignoring the Constitution. If you also went there because you believe that the taxes are just a symptom, then you need to keep in mind other people’s First Amendment rights:

The Freedom of Religion: I won’t say that your politics shouldn’t be informed by your religion. That is an idiotic statement made by people who have no idea what religion is. However, at the rally we had several Muslims and Native Americans who were there to support our fight for freedom… and several others that wanted to make the entire movement about Christianity.
Christianity is the greatest force for good that world has ever seen; Christianity can speak for itself. Freedom, however, cannot. Our Constitution does not establish Christianity as the American religion, nor does it establish us as a secular nation. We are a freely religious nation, and when you try to make this movement a statement of Christianity, you drive away many good people who could be our allies.

The Freedom of Speech: Do we need to hear from the opposition? No. We hear from the opposition everywhere, all the time. But remember, the whole purpose of Freedom of Speech is to protect speech you don’t like. Standing in front of a Democrat to block his face, rushing up and pounding the podium, trying to shout him down–these are not the tactics of people who want freedom. These are the tactics–the VERY tactics–of Communists. They don’t help us; they don’t protect anyone from suddenly converting to liberalism. All they do is provide the media with a video clip of us being hateful to play rather than playing our ideas.

I went to the Tea Party to support freedom. I hope in the future, everyone else will remember that that’s why they are there, as well.