Is this really higher intelligence?

nomad
Just went back and read that section of Exodus. It’s amazing how capricious Yahweh can be (if that is indeed his name). Right after he painstakingly recruits Moses for this vital mission, he becomes offended that Moses hasn’t circumcised his son. How does he react? Calmly, reflectively, explaining the nature of his transgression. Trying to come to a mutual understanding with some commensurate penalty. No. In an apparent fit of rage he decides to kill Moses. Kill the figure charged with carrying out your master plan. Is this really higher intelligence?

Paul who Linked to my Mars Flag Post

A guy named Paul linked to my post detailing my proposed flag of Mars. He was linking from a blog post wherein he had aggregated links to other various proposed Mars flags from across the web. If anyone knows the url to this post, please leave me a link, I wanted to comment on some of the other flags people have proposed (and why mine’s better ).

Review of 300

I was really looking forward to this movie, but was extremely disapointed. For one thing, the film is little more than a far-right screed. Normally I’m pretty non-judgemental about this sort of thing, I don’t mind authors who disagree with me and I don’t interpret every movie I see in terms of ideology. Yet, I take issue with 300 because the message is so heavy handed, and so contrary to American constitutional values and even basic decency.

The Spartan “heroes” spout right wing and fascist sentiments one after the other throughout the film; the weak and unfortunate don’t deserve to be cared for, war and death in battle are inherantly good, diplomacy is only an option for traitors, all other countries are inferior to ours, rule of law is an unnecessary burden. Hell, even fervant anti-intellectualism makes it in. At one point, Leonidas bashes Athenians as being “philosophers and boy-lovers.” In right-wing Sparta, intellectuals are considered as “effeminate” as homosexuals and depraved as child molesters, apparently.

Women are also denigrated to being entirely subservient to men, even the queen herself, is constantly put in her place and dismissed as a mere woman. She addresses her husband as her king in the same way a much lower ranking subject might. The only meaningful role women play in the film seems to be as fodder for childish “Our women could beat up your men” jokes. All this woman-subjection fits well with the tendancy of fascist societies to construct rigid gender roles. Speaking of which, why are you reading my blog, whore, when you could be fixing me a sandwich?

Don’t get me wrong, the movie sometimes deviates from right wing sloganeering. For example, when a Persian leader commanded the Spartans to “Lay down your spears,” Leonidas didn’t say “You’ll have to pry them from our cold, dead hands,” he said “You’ll have to take them from us!” See? The subtle differences are what prove that 300 obviously isn’t nationalistic violence porn for fascist rednecks.

It’s not just the details of 300 that are of a conservative bent, the entire premise of the movie sounds reads like the backstory for a LARPing event at a Fox News Channel TEA Party Protest^TM:

TEA Party LARPing event plot Plot of 300
The authoritarian ruler of a country of White hyper-masculine ubermenschen obsessed with liberty is approached by a foreign messanger on behalf of a capital-E evil Arab army. The messenger tells King Leonidas that Xerxes, the effeminate piercing-addled leader of the Persians wants some of their land, water, and an acknowledgement of his authority.

If they don’t pay up, he’ll take their land by force. Leonidas seeks, by means of an oracle, the approval of the gods to go to battle, in accordance with Spartan law. When the oracle denies him the right to go to war, he decides to go anyway, regardless of the law. He takes the titular 300 soldiers and marches to battle. On the way he is criticized by some other Spartan politicians for the way he is bucking the rule of law, the critics are portrayed as traitors who want the Persians to win.

When the fighting begins, the Spartans slaughter thousands and thousands with next to no difficulty. Soldiers from other Greek societies join them, but are not nearly as tough as the Spartans. Eventually, despite their god-like invincibility, the Spartans are overcome, and all of them except the narrator dies. But since death in battle is sooo glorious, it’s still a happy ending anyway.

Lets see, a bunch of homophobic white people menaced by Arabs following their authoritarian leader who’s above the law into an unwinnable fight. Yeah, I don’t see any parallels with recent events either.

The politics isn’t *all* that’s horrible about this movie. There’s little plot and what little is present is so manichaean that it makes the Book of Revelation look intricate with shades of gray. And just in case a hypersimplistic black and white plot goes over your mulleted flag-waving head, there’s an obnoxious narrator constantly expositing the happenings by means of explicitly expository expositionary expositionalism.

That means that he’s annoying and explains everything in great detail because the screenwriter thought the audience wouldn’t be able to get what’s going on, but he was too lazy and incompetant to go for something subtler. I’m trying to say that the narrative is very heavy handed. I’m being clear enough for you stupid mulletheads, right?!

Yeah, when I said the narration was heavy handed, think heavy handed like being punched in the face by one of the 300 Spartans. Now I’ve gotta go put some ice on my jaw. Later.

Iraq War Military Propaganda?

I have a cousin in the military who just missed going to Iraq because of a knee injury. He recently visited unexpectedly and in the course of talking about his military career he made some dubious sounding claims which are listed below.

Homosexuality is so common in either Iraq or Afghanistan, (I forgot which one he said) that “the entire country is a hypocrite.”

More people die in Iraq and Afghanistan due to car accidents than combat.

Jessica Lynch was a coward who froze up when her unit was attacked and hid while her comrades were slaughtered.

The army has more troops than it needs and has been operating at 104% capacity.

CNN does not accurately report about the Iraq War.

CNN could more accurately be called the “Communist news network.”

To me, these claims sound not only inaccurate, but like the kind of thing you would expect to hear in military propaganda. The homosexuality claim dehumanizes the enemy by accusing them of being part of a group unpopular in America at this time.

The remaining claims sound like attempts to dispel fear from among the troops; “Combat isn’t so dangerous, it’s peoples’ stupidity that gets them killed,” “Don’t worry about ending up in Jessica Lynch’s situation; she brought it on her self,” “Shortage of back up? Nonsense, we have too many soldiers,” “Don’t worry about the bad things you see in the news, CNN is run by traitors and iditots,” and so on.

So, I was wondering if any of these claims are true. If they’re not, are they just urban legends traveling around military circles or are these beliefs deliberately propagated by military or other government officials?

More Deserving

I was watching the news the other day when the anchor reported that some piece of property belonging to a local Christian private school had been vandalized. Then the network cut to some interviews with a few of the school’s students. Most of the students expressed understandable sadness at the vandalism of the school’s property.

The last student, however, expressed outrage at the attack. The student demanded; “Who would do something like this to a Christian school?” I’ve heard similar sentiments expressed every single time someone robs, burns, attacks, or vandalizes a church, but this is the first time I finally said “Say what?!”

What makes Christians so special? Why is there more outrage when a Christian institution is victimized than other kinds? Why do you guys feel more entitled to comfort, safety and property than the rest of us?

Uh

Uh, yeah, my fractal shit’s pretty much the exact opposite of the stuff in this manifesto.

Playing with Fire

Dr. Brian, on gay conservatives being outed by the media
It’s really unfortunate that politicians’ private lives have become matters of public concern, but those who seek to advance their careers by fomenting hatred of others based on private, consensual sexual behavior are playing with fire, and many eventually get burned.