And God Said to Cain..."Buy This Movie!"
The other shtick...

Why is it that the first thing that every group that protests a movie bravely posits that it hasn't actually seen what it's protesting?

Seriously.

I mean I could come out and vehemntly deny the applicabilty of Einsteinian physics on the motions of the universe. Something along the line of "They're wrong, wrong, wrong..." But apart from only knowing of the existence of Einsteinian physics and maybe an inkling of what they say, I know nothing about them. It'd be an empty argument.

Once upon a time, books used to be released and read before they got banned. At least those censors could say "This book is objectionable because on page 120...well, just read what he does...and with a melon...my God, the humanity." So wrong or not, they had proof at their fingertips.

Now of course, apart from the occasional school textbook issue, no one seems to really care about the contents of books.

I hate to say it, but it makes sense. Nobody reads books, but everyone goes to see the movies. I go to a lot of movies to obviously, but I'm more like the annoying guy who can point out the historical innaccuracies since I read quite a bit as well. I'm probably most concerned about this new movie based on the life of Alexander the Great.

Anyhow, God forbid you should make a religious movie...uh, correction, a movie about Christianity. Ok, sure, people get strung up for making religious movies in other countries, but you could make the most blaphemous Islamic, Hindu, Voodoo, etc. movie in the world here in the States and no one would blink an eye.

I've said a number of times that I would've been burned as a heretic years ago for my beliefs. In the end, I'm of the opinion that you should see what someone has to say on the subject. If you don't like it, then dismiss it. And of course, I think you should let people decide for themselves what they think. In any event, if you have enemies, you should know your enemies, know where they're coming from and no what they think.

Of course what made me think about this had nothing to do with religion, but rather war and politics.

Why can't anyone understand the notion that you can love the troops and not support the war? I imagine that it's mostly Viet Nam's fault, with the dippy hippies spitting on soldier's returning home from the war. They were of course just as deluded. Like most folks, if the draft notice showed up, then you went regardless of your personal politics. In any event, I think times are a little different now. I can dislike the soldiers above a certain rank who are entangled in politics, but I can't hold that agains the grunts.

I don't want to see any of them die....and that includes the ones I don't like so much.

Besides, it's not that I don't agree that your average Iraqi wouldn't be better off with Saddam Hussein. I believe they will be better off. I just don't think that had much of anything to do with why this all got started. It was a convenient excuse.

I don't think it was all about oil either. Not all of it.

I think it was about Starbucks. The Gap. McDonald's. Outsourcing.

Seriously. Why did we let the Afghans fight their own war? Why did we leave pretty soon thereafter? We personally fought against Hussein's regime, and we're still hanging out there.

Bringing the two together, I should say that I don't know enough about the politics of President Bush to argue one way or the other. (Also, I should mention that I do think the president is often the victim of a lot interests who've been allowed to become too powerful.) But I was bothered when someone said they support President Bush because he prays. Well, most everyone I know would agree that Moses was a pretty devoutly religious guy, but after 40 years of leading his people around the desert, he wasn't allowed in the Promised Land because of bad decisions. Get my point?

I think it's also all about having another friendly foothold in the Middle East since the Saudis are kinda touch-and-go and Israel is the antithesis of stability.

Anyhow, in this media-drenched day and age, if you make a decision, especially something like going to war, for whatever reason, you can't expect that people aren't going to find out. Hell, any decision...think Moncia Lewinsky...

I'm sure I've mentioned my feeling on conspiracy theories. On one end, I don't think it's as bad or nefarious as many people think. On the other, I think there's some stuff going on in the world that would keep you from sleeping at night if you knew about it.

You ever noticed how every president ages like twenty years after being in office for a couple of nanoseconds? I think they know a lot of that stuff.

Ultimately, my point is the following. Don't try and ban or block dissenting views especially if they come from reasonably educated sources. And just as importantly, if you're going to argue against something the least you can do is make sure you know what you're talking about. Take care of your teeth. Don't believe the world is out to get you, because seven-eighths of it or so couldn't care less about you.

Unless of course, you're the only living being on earth, and the everything else is all a fabricated conspiracy against just you....It's highly improbable. But not impossible.

D@mmit, the title for this was actually in reference to a spaghetti western I watched. Guess I'll have to save it for another time.

Cheers.