Tents on wheels give homeless people roof and pride – CNN.com.
Here’s a very cool little invention developed under leadership from the producer of The Revenge of the Nerds.
I hate to admit that a lot of what I put on here is random criticism. I decided to share this under the auspices of positive support. I’m sure I can find more things to be happy about again soon.
I would write more but I’m sure it would only lead to finding things wrong with this… in fact I know it would, because I’m thinking of them as I type this.
Filed under: Film review, international affairs | Tags: Jeremy Renner, Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Dr. Col. Cambridge talking to Specialist Eldrige about why he needs to suck it up and be a man... tuck that lip in son, war is fun, can't you see?
“Going to war is a once in a lifetime experience. It can be fun.” – Dr. Col. Cambridge
(This interaction between Cambridge and Eldrige is about as out of place in the context of the film as it is at the beginning of this article… Read on for more poignant and misspent criticism)
When I noticed that “The Hurt Locker” and “Avatar” were high on the list of Oscar nominations (nine apiece), I knew I had to see “The Hurt Locker.” Not because the title enticed me or because I knew what “the hurt locker” was. I had to see it because I hadn’t heard people talking about it. How does a movie with so much acclaim get under my radar (I don’t watch T.V. mind you, so it’s not that surprising)? I was insulted, to say the least; apparently it doesn’t stop there either.
I’d hate to think that the writer (Mark Boal) for this film was entirely responsible for its propagandistic nature. But, for all of it’s realism, the lead character (played by Jeremy Renner; Dahmer) was, to say the least, an improbable hero fighting the ubiquitous and sinister forces of evil like some contemporary Beowulf. In the spirit of others before him (Martin Riggs, et al.) the character Sergeant First Class William James did well in taking on some very serious issues facing active duty soldiers and veterans alike, while completely bastardizing reality in order to satisfy some desire we have to justify our own emotions and actions without actually having to be there. Apparently, Sgt. James is a composite character (according to wikipedia; I know, whatever). All I have to say to that is, don’t composite 15 people and expect that you’ve come up with a character who comes to represent an actual human being.
Suffice it to say, while I enjoyed the movie, I was disappointed by the end. I felt as though I was watching the end of Dahmer again (also starring Renner), silently being encouraged to take pity, somehow, on a character which is in one way or another undeserving of such regard. I blame my inability to sympathize with Sgt. James, however, on Boal and not Renner. Jeremy Renner delivers a beautiful performance, fictional albeit, while acting within the confines of one man’s reductive account.
Nine nominations for “The Hurt Locker” and “Avatar.”
The 82nd Annual Oscar Nominations – Carpetbagger Blog – NYTimes.com.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1676793/board/nest/156417008
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1676793/board/nest/132629646
http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2975
http://thehurtlocker-movie.com/
Filed under: international affairs, Israel, Palestine, racism, religion | Tags: Breaking the Silence, veteran stories
- Graffiti on a wall in Hebron: “ARABS TO THE GAS CHAMBERS” (The irony is killing me)
While reading this article on the NYT website about Israel’s rebuttal to the Goldstone Report (an investigation conducted by the United Nations Human Rights Council on alleged war crimes during the Israeli invasion into Gaza; Dec. 2008 and Jan. 2009) I noticed a link to Breaking The Silence in the final paragraphs.
This is an independent website managed by veteran Israeli soldiers who feel the need to speak out about their experiences in the Israeli military. The identity of each participant is withheld save their rank, unit, and sometimes the location of an incident. Some testimonies are told by people who may have perpetrated an act while others are witnesses. Their mission statement does well at summing up their intentions:
“We demand accountability regarding Israel’s military actions in the Occupied territories perpetrated by us and in our name.”
The overall credibility of the testimonies can only be bolstered further by reading the roughly edited transcripts of their interviews. I have included three which I found to be striking for my own reasons; they are in no way the worst accounts. However, before I leave you to read these interviews I want to express my desire to conduct the same types of interviews with U.S. military personnel (active or not; any military conflict; any nature of incident positive or negative).
I know there are those of you out there who need an outlet of this sort to make your stories known. I know this because I have met some of you, and I have heard your stories; I have come to know your frustration and loneliness. Please, feel free to contact me by email at huntermblackburn@gmail.com if you’re interested in helping me put together a similar collection of testimonies.
“You feel like an infantile little kid with a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them.”
Palestinian kid feeding pigeons on a roof in the West-Casba. Photo taken through a sniper’s rifle si
Rank: Staff Sergeant
Unit: Nachal 931
Place of incident: Nablus
Description: We sit and rest in one of the Arabs’ houses – sit on a couch – and in front of us there is this old woman. Really old, probably scratching 80-90, or so. She is giving us this look… that says, I imagine: “You came into my house, blew it up, now you’re on my couch. What are you waiting for – for me to serve you something to drink?” And the two guys sitting next to me – guys from the engineering platoon – were paying this game of… I don’t remember [what they called it] on the old woman. So I say: “Come on guys, get a life… to role up paper-balls from papers that were laid there, and throw them on her – have some respect.” And they say: “respect for whom? For a Shahid’s [suicide bomber] mother?” –“it doesn’t matter, a Shahid’s mother or not, this is an old woman in front of you – an old person in front of you. It doesn’t matter what this person’s repertoire is.” And I remember their looking at me with this amazed look of “Where have you come from? Where have you landed on us from? Are you with us? Where were you born? Where…” Their gaze just told me: “It is not that we… Where did you grow up?” such a horrified look of: “What?! What does this mean – throwing papers on a person… We are throwing papers on an Arab. There is a big difference.” I can’t tell you that I saw people who just molested others – if I ever saw it, for at the Nahal it is a bit different – among other things because the little difference I [my presence] would make at this checkpoint, that arrest, that patrol… I tried to prevent this kind of things from happening, but I came home for the weekend – after that time in Nablus – that weekend I went to the ‘prayers-road’, and I remember getting back home and feeling so dirty, so defiled. I am not sure if I remember correctly, I think I got home on the verge of tears, or even crying for those three days in Nablus – just going from one house to the next, and blowing house after house.
Rank: Staff Sergeant
Unit: Charuv battalion
Place of incident: Beit Ilma refugee camp
Description: I’m telling you, during Operation Determined Road, which took place in August, there were families who were thrown out of their homes because there was a TV there, and people wanted to watch Argentina vs. Nigeria [a World Cup soccer game].
Same thing happened where we were, in Ramallah and Bethlehem. What’s the dynamics? What does “thrown out” mean?
You have a really cool division commander, you belong in an experienced company, this one is not a beret, a second-lieutenant rank on the shoulder, and a ‘keep-your-distance’ kind of commander. It’s a man you go out with on Friday night. He’s one of the crowd; we had some laughs together. There’s this commander authority … cool. Now he too happens to be an Argentina fan; he too wants to watch the game. So you say to him: “Listen, man … here and there … this house and that house, they’re all the same, but here they have a TV, man”. He simply chucked out a family so he can watch Argentina-Nigeria. You see, I’m not even talking to you about the small things.
Rank: First Sergeant
Unit: Battalion 50 , Nahal brigade
Place of incident: Rammala, Bitonia
Description:April 2002
During Operation “Homat Magen” [Defensive Shield], our unit ended up going through and staying in various houses of Palestinians who had been temporarily removed to another place. In just about every place we entered, we did so with good intentions of not taking advantage or destroying, but over the course of a couple or three days, soldiers found themselves resting on the sofas watching television, the furniture was broken. People would wipe their asses with towels from the bathroom, making use of personal computers in the house. It is impossible to point out only one house because this happened to everyone in every house.
Filed under: atheism, existentialism, international affairs, Nigeria, religion
Nigeria military personnel clash with militant youths in Onitsha, southeastern Nigeria February 22, 2006.
If this post comes across as being insensitive then I apologize in advance (I may simply be in one of those moods). However, people have been killing each other by the thousands in Nigeria over archaic ideas and figments of their imagination; all the while we’re arguing with creationists about the “fact” that Darwinism and/or Atheism (apparently they’re interchangeable) has led to fascism, racism, and every other horrible philosophy in the history of mankind.
Anyone who has seen The Triumph of the Will could tell you that even Nazis invoked the spirit of a single creator (Aka God) during their rallies (the speech at 50 minutes; specific line delivered at 59 minutes). Who or what else, other than religion, would have had the authority to knight them as the single most important group of people ever to walk the earth?
Without further apology, it is all absolute bullshit!
Nigeria along with several other regions in the world have had an ongoing problem with people killing each other over their beliefs since I can remember first picking up a newspaper and then actually reading it.
It’s this perpetuity that’s sort of the point though isn’t it? The fact that conflicts of this nature continue and no major celebrity picks it up as their cause to end; that says something. It’s not Darfur. It’s not baby seals, or even the dolphins. No, it’s not the domestic animals being skinned alive in China and elsewhere to make your precious “faux fur” collars and cuffs. These are grown adult human beings with the capacity for reason like anyone else and they choose to act absolutely fucking ridiculous.
These countries are full of people who willfully choose to delude themselves to the point of carrying on thousand year old conflicts and the rest of us either don’t say anything for fear of appearing insensitive to religious belief, or because doing so would call attention to the fact that religion is fucked (if you actually happen to subscribe to one then I suppose it’s understandable), or because they wouldn’t have anything meaningful to say about it anyways.
The point is that so long as stories like this are reported on there is only one sensible thing to say, “It’s time we brought an end to religion.” And this is why I’ll never be one of your conventional journalists out looking for the story and simply telling it through the eyes of a pentecostal reverend:
“The Rev. Emmanuel Joel of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria said, “Personally, I have seen over 100 bodies.”
A woman looked through the ruins of her apartment, which was torched by Islamic militants in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, on Monday. Aug. 3rd, 2009.
How do these people sleep at night when all they can do is comment on the horror? Wake up!
We all know what needs to be said. This is bullshit. Religion is bullshit. A man named Emmanuel Joel living in Nigeria to teach people how to speak in tongues is bullshit. A reporter who would go to a pentecostal reverend to get some kind of impartial (or even significant) quote from him, is bullshit (I respect your trade Mr. Nossiter and I am thankful; but the Pentecost? Wasn’t anyone else available? I’m just giving you a hard time, hahaha 
).
Somebody has to say it.
I once met an Agnostic who talked as if he wasn’t sure about religion because of “all of those people who have been killed in the name of it.” And all I could say to him was that people continue to die in the name of it. It’s not as if the Spanish Inquisition was the last time a person died because of religion. This is an on going ubiquitous state of being in the world.
For as long as religion continues to plague the minds of humanity people will continue to die for it, and it’s bullshit, and so is Agnosticism.
I suppose it’s possible that they could eventually kill each other off. But, unfortunately, that’s not likely to happen. The more intense religious conflicts become the more fervent their resolve and the faster their numbers grow. There’s strength in numbers, and no other endeavor demonstrates to be as self-aware of this simple truth more so than religion.
If religion is to continue, it’s not unlikely that the last people on Earth would be oblivious to life without God.
I’m not advocating violence against religious people or anything like that. I’m simply providing my thoughts and explicitly advocating that people feel free to speak out against religion. Part of accepting that God does not exist in the “conventional” sense (not to mention that pursuing these questions is a waste of time in this life) is in taking responsibility for one’s own actions and thereby accepting a certain kind of responsibility for humanity. It’s called existentialism, and, as I’ve said before, it’s a functional philosophy.
Filed under: Amreeka, Film review, international affairs, Israel, Palestine, prejudice, racism
I was attending Western Nevada Community College, in Carson City during 2003, at the time of the Iraq invasion. I remember slowly taking the time to piece together information about the Middle East. I had hated politics and the idea of international relations was right up there with the stock market in my mind; anytime the Dow Jones, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 were reported my mind shut off. It wasn’t necessarily that I didn’t care. I simply didn’t have the biological brain space to concentrate on anything more than my sphere of influence.
Amreeka (watch instantly on Netfix) is a film which does well in addressing this prevalent state of mind. It brings human beings into focus living in the West Bank and then in Illinois; it provides a perspective which has been almost entirely silenced in the U.S. This being the antithesis to the idea that Palestinians are all Islamic terrorists, or that every man woman and child is taught to make bombs and fire weapons. In fact, I recall having two students from Israel come to my middle school back in the 90′s to propagate this belief. I remember being in agreement with the rest of my class; that they ought to just wipe Palestine out and be done with it.
I remember feeling anger after 9/11, not towards Arabic people specifically, but towards my ignorance of them. It frustrated me to no end that I couldn’t understand their motives. It only angered me further when we were told by G. W. Bush that these people hated freedom; thereby implicating entire nations and sects of people with different perspectives as all being anti-American, in a matter of a couple sentences.
I’m pained to admit that back then I had no idea where any of these countries were in relation to each other, let alone had I even considered the vast diversity of the region we know simply as the Middle East.
If you can relate to any of the things I laid out above then I highly recommend watching this movie. It’s based on real life memories of the writer/director Cherien Dabis. It’s obviously fictionalized to a degree and is most likely based on events that took place during the first invasion of Iraq twenty years ago. It’s not bogged down with politics (except for a couple brief scenes in a classroom), and it tries its best not to come off too preachy. It’s an independent film and some of the scenes can tend to feel a bit misplaced or even forced, but either way this movie is honest and compelling in it’s own raw composure.
I plan on purchasing it to show my son when he’s old enough to start thinking more about the world.
Other links of interest:
Brush up on your Map Skills… I studied for a map test with this game and came to learn the location of every single country, almost (islands are a bitch!).
The story of how Israel became a state is an interesting one. I especially like this version told by Ami Isseroff on mideastweb.org. It gives a lot of insight into former President Truman’s struggle with the situation.
I’ve also been curious to read this book, Why Do You Kill, Zaid?, by Jürgen Todenhöfer. He published his ten theses in a two page ad in the NYT back in 2008. I remember finding his ideas refreshing as well as his accounts of historical record appalling.
Also, here is an interview with Todenhöfer.
A Brief Introduction
After reading an article which featured Jaron Lanier yesterday I started rethinking the sense of entitlement listeners seem to have about music these days and the effect this has had on the musicians themselves.
“It’s as if culture froze just before it became digitally open, and all we can do now is mine the past like salvagers picking over a garbage dump,” Mr. Lanier writes. Or, to use another of his grim metaphors: “Creative people — the new peasants — come to resemble animals converging on shrinking oases of old media in a depleted desert.” ( Tierny, John – NYT - The Madness of Crowds and the Internet Delusion; January 11th, 2010)
It was increasingly apparent that artists have been focusing more on the design and self-image aspects of stardom. Artists are given more artistic license these days, I suppose, but is it actually inspiring creativity? They’re just as much clothing designers as they are musicians and I can’t be certain I’ve completely embraced it. Both pursuits are creative, I guess.
Either way, the article led me to scrutinize the music I had laying around in my neglected collection. I decided I’d pay closer attention and record my findings here to help me justify my feelings.
________________________________
The 1900′s are a group of 6 (or is it 7) musicians playing what’s self-described as “stoner pop.” Not being a “stoner” myself I suppose it’s easy to understand my reservations to jump for joy over Plume Delivery. The lyrics, while being well sung and at times evocative, aren’t much more than disjointed and vague ramblings from the “patron saint of mediocre.” But I suppose that’s just the way things go.
Take for example this stanza from “Bring the Good Boys Home:”
If they can turn a river around
Let’s run the ship aground
Bring the good boys home
Wrap them in licorice and tie them to stones
String them up to planes in the sky
There’s no need to wonder why
We bring the good boys home
Tell all the secrets and call them my own
I like creative lyrics as much as the next person, and this isn’t a bad song, but what exactly is being expressed here? I suppose it can be summed up in the line, “There’s no need to wonder why.” Well, bring the good boys home definitely sounds like a call to end a war, but how do the rest of these lyrics relate to that? At the risk of sounding bitter and estranging myself from people who get these lyrics, I’m going to say that I could do without it.
If you have something to say then say it but don’t tempt me into thinking you have some esoteric message. It’s either cornbread or it’s a cupcake! Don’t fuck with me.
And perhaps I’m misguided in this appraisal; perhaps the images are meant to evoke an emotional state which I’m overlooking; perhaps there’s a certain degree of femininity which I lack. I can accept that.
Either way, I’m torn. I want to like the 1900′s and if I hadn’t taken the time to look at their lyrics I probably could have gone on listening with a subconscious ear telling me that “what you’re hearing probably fits together in a coherent whole, but don’t fret because it’s not like they stand out in a way which asks to be scrutinized anyhow.” And the unfortunate mess is that music today tends not to live up to my scrutiny, so why bother?
There’s so many great musicians and lyricists but they don’t always come together in one band, and it’s probably too much for me to ask that every band measure up to my standards. Shit! Of course it is… it’s egotistical madness, but I don’t subscribe to the “Patron Saint of Mediocre!” I can’t help but be an asshole I guess.
In the end I can still hold the 1900′s in nostalgic regard for their creative use of square and round synths in the spirit of The Doors and The Cars. They are strong song writers with decent variation from track to track and a unique style dipped in an eclectic 60′s and 70′s idiosyncrasy. But I can’t fully understand this abstract hippy shit and to be honest I wouldn’t put this on around other people as a representation of my tastes. That is all.
Dan de Vaul
A NYT article about ranch owner, Dan de Vaul, who has opened his ranch to providing homeless people with a place to live and work, caught my eye today. This story has to be one of the more inspiring things I’ve seen lately, and I don’t mean heart-warming inspiration, this is more of an “oh, look at this guy’s half baked idea which could be improved upon to significantly impact the way we understand homelessness. Hmmm, interesting.”
Granted, not everything he’s doing is kosher. In fact, the article written about him is titled “Fighter For Homeless Runs Afoul of the Law.” Even so that isn’t to say the more general idea behind De Vaul’s ranch isn’t worth considering.
The system he has in place, while flawed, is potentially self-sustaining as well as self-rehabilitating. He charges participants $300 a month in rent, which of course they cannot pay as they are homeless, which in turn means they work around the ranch doing anything from splitting wood to working on an old tractor. This I suppose could be put on a resume to start a job somewhere else. Unfortunately, the specifics of the ranch’s inner workings are not entirely clear to me and it’s not stated whether or not participants are given an opportunity to find a job elsewhere (are they being paid minimum wage? And if they work enough to pay their rent and then some are they receiving a check?). But, as I said before, the basics of this model are very important. Especially the requirement for participants to attend regular meetings of Alcoholics/Narcotics Anonymous. While I can’t attest to nor entirely agree with AA and NA, I like the idea of making it a requirement. It’s not like they’re being forced to quit their substance abuse, they’re simply forced to face it.
As it seems, the way we deal with homelessness now is to say, “Okay, you don’t have a job or a place to live so we’ll give you this bed to sleep in, and some food to eat, and then send you back on your way… to roaming the streets, panhandling for change to buy beer, sleeping in the park, and/or contemplating a crime so that you can at least get in out of the cold for a night or two,” when obviously this is a waste of resources, time, and money.
I won’t pretend to be an expert on policies toward vagrancy, but I do have firsthand experience around Reno and the general tactic tends to be to remove them from the public eye and nothing more. I watched as police officers removed an old woman from a coffee shop and sent her down the sidewalk despite her obvious incoherence and psychological impairment. I listened as a judge asked a middle aged man carrying his personal effects in a black plastic bag how long he intended to stay in Reno. The judge dropped his charges after he agreed to leave Reno and never return.
This ranch in San Luis Obispo is by far one of the more realistic and effective solutions to homelessness.Yet as it is, the county and De Vaul’s neighbors are doing everything they can to hassle De Vaul rather than to embrace his intentions (according to the article this actually might not be entirely true). Imagine, though, if we took what De Vaul is doing in principle and applied it through the state to be more effective.
For example, one of the things the ranch has tried in the past was to build small cabins where people could sleep. Apparently, treating the wood with a flammable oil, among whatever else they did wrong because of improper building code knowledge, caused the cabins to be condemned. But what if this were a state project which not only gave participants an opportunity to build their own small home but valuable experience as well?
Of course there’s a lot to this and not every homeless person would desire an opportunity to start anew in this type of institution, but at least something like this could reduce the number of people on the streets, perhaps even erradicating pan handling altogether. At least we could feel more certain that the guy we’re giving money to is almost definitely going to spend it on alcohol.
Filed under: atheism, existentialism, homeless, homelessness, public policy
RGJ Article which this post is referencing.
I’m not sure how to feel about this. I mean, I think it’s great that people are paying attention to the fact homeless people are dying (whether they freeze and starve to death or they’re stomped and beaten by some sick twisted juvenile). However, I’m not sure I can agree with allowing a church to provide a service for them. This should be a community function with a little more attention paid by those who don’t see it as an “every person has worth to God” issue.
So, if it’s not an “every person has worth to God” issue, then what is it? I’m actually interested in figuring this out myself. Is it a human rights issue? Well, certainly it is, but does it stop there? This holds implications for society as a whole. This is an issue of concern for our fellow man, and apparently the First United Methodist Church is the only institution capable of showing us the way.
I say this is ridiculous. I realize, “Hey, it’s just a church doing a job that churches have done forever,” but only 40 people showed up to this service. A service which is part of a national initiative and not more than 40 people knew about it. It’s pitiful.
But, what’s more pitiful? That we’ve entrusted a church to delegate our concern for humanity through an imaginary man in the sky, thereby releasing ourselves of any responsibility for those of us who end up in the unfortunate state of being homeless? Or is it more pitiful that had most of us known there probably wouldn’t have been much of a difference in attendance anyhow?
Self-titled 2007
I discovered this album during the Winter of 2008. I was writing short stories during my last semester at the University of Nevada, Reno, and this album, along with Mogwai’s The Hawk is Howling, were on constant repeat in my basement apartment.
I was wrapped in blankets with a single-busted-window covered in flapping plastic while I allowed myself the distraction of following the throbbing melodies of Beast, Please Be Still. I had no idea what to write and was slowly coming to the conclusion that creative writing (A.k.a, Fiction) was not in my blood.
After scrapping several ideas and procrastinating for weeks, I had a dream. The dream was an amazing premise for a splendid short story which I promptly started to write. All the while my headphones kept my ears warm, a bottomless cup of coffee kept my hands warm, and the sounds from Beast kept me inspired.
I wish I had a copy of the story to share right now, but unfortunately it’s on a laptop with a shitted battery/power supply. However, I intend to share a lot of my writing with this blog. Creative fiction and non, for the sake of sharing interesting ideas and whatever else… good music, philosophy… I welcome you, thanks for reading.
