I had wanted to write about Man of Steel once and once only, but just last Thursday director Zack Snyder had an interview with The Japan Times in which he had the following to say in regard to the massive collateral damage that takes place during the latter part of the film:
“I wanted the movie to have a mythological feeling. In ancient mythology, mass deaths are used to symbolize disasters. In other countries like Greece and Japan, myths were recounted through the generations, partly to answer unanswerable questions about death and violence. In America, we don’t have that legacy of ancient mythology. Superman (who first appeared in ‘Action Comics’ in 1938) is probably the closest we get. It’s a way of recounting the myth.”
That having been said, let’s talk about mythology. Continue reading →
Posted in America, comics, film, religion, writing
Tagged 9/11, Action Comics, American folklore, ancient mythology, death, disaster, Greek mythology, John Henry, Man of Steel, mass deaths, myth, Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, superheroes, Superman, Violence, Zack Snyder
I grew up in Syria.
I was born in the US, but the vast majority of my life was spent in the Middle East. In spite of the civil war that’s been raging in my adopted homeland for the past couple of years, I’ve remained largely silent on the issue here on the blog. More than anything else, I’ve done so because I know that there’s really no happy ending to anything I can say. For all my raging and foaming at the mouth, I really and truly don’t enjoy having to lambaste things- more than anytime else when there’s really and truly no light I can see at the end of the tunnel. Nevertheless, with American warships closing in on the Syrian coast and a mountain of evidence growing for the regime having unleashed a chemical attack on its own people, there’s really no keeping quiet at this point.
So here it goes.
I. There Is No Free Syrian Army
If you’ve been watching the situation or if you listen to the news, you may hear the term “Free Syrian Army” or “FSA” thrown around. While initially formed out of deserting Syrian soldiers and officers in the early stages of the conflict, there never really was- and still isn’t- any kind of centralized command. There’s a myriad of different militias and cells in Syria all operating under the banner of the FSA, but there’s really no connection between any of them, militarily, ideologically, or demographically. There’s also no connection, as is otherwise sometimes portrayed, between the self-declared opposition government operating out of Turkey and the FSA- they’re two completely different groups. It’s important to understand this to keep from being led into the false assumption that there’s only two sides to the conflict- the dictatorial regime and the pro-democracy rebels. There’s going to be a temptation to grossly oversimplify the situation- don’t let it happen more than it already has.
Continue reading →
Posted in America, Islam, media, money, morality, news, politics
Tagged aid, Arms, Assad, Camp, Camps, Civil War, conflict, democracy, Free Syrian Army, FSA, Hezbollah, Humanitarian Aid, Iran, Islamic, israel, Military Intervetion, Pro-West, rebels, Refugee, Syria, Syrians, Tent, US, weapons, west, Winter
Not too long ago, Evan did a Shame Day about 4chan’s semi-joking attempt to wreck a Taylor Swift radio contest by getting some random 39-year-old voted rated as Swifts “biggest fan”. The original post declaring 4Chan’s intentions stated that “Charles Z.” was only in it for a chance to “sniff Swift’s hair” (I can’t speculate on whether or not that’s meant to be a joke) and that it was a chance to crush the dreams of thousands of “whiny teeny boppers.” The campaign was overwhelmingly successful. Charles Z. shot to the first place with a mile-wide margin and the radio station wound up cancelling the whole event.
In spite of Evan’s comments that this was generally a lousy move and a tacit endorsement of sexual harassment, I’m going to have to disagree with him. Firstly, I’m not taking the whole “hair-sniffing” thing as being all that serious, and secondly, I don’t think this really had much of anything to do with Charles Z. or even Taylor Swift for that matter.
It was about sincerity. Continue reading →
Posted in advertisement, advertising, America, media, morality
Tagged #exilepitbull, 4chan, alaska, bs, Charles Z., contest, corporate, dub the dew, hitler did nothing wrong, justgirlythings, kodiak, marketing, media, parody, pitbull, PR, public relations, satire, social media, something awful, Taylor Swift, Walmart
Plastic. I really hate it. I really didn’t realize how much I hated plastic until I went to Niger and saw this.
There were several mini-dumps like this in neighbourhoods near where I lived.
Continue reading →
Posted in Africa, America, environmentalism, Shame Day
Tagged addicted to plastic, Akinori Ito, America, Basumara, biomagnification, Canada, chemical contaminants, DARE, environmentalism, Ghana, goats, my plastic free life, Niger, Nigeria, plastic, pollution, pop bottle house, recycling, shame day, up-cycling
I’ve mentioned on more than a few occasions that Europe is grappling with issues of racism, which is something of a euphemism for “full fledged white supremacy movements.” What with my repeated references and the major role that this obviously plays on a cultural and political field, I figured it’s high time I actually break it down for ya.
The UK
You’d think that a nation that’s invaded all but 22 countries, maintained the largest empire of all time, and started multiple wars with underdeveloped nations to force them to buy drugs would be a bit more understanding when the people from those countries tried moving to the UK to build better lives for themselves. Instead, the flow of immigrants into Britain has resulted in a massive backlash from the “native” English (you know- the ones descended from Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Norman immigrants). United under the fear that the empty house next door might be rented out by a family with brown skin and funny accents instead of a family with white skin and funny accents, Britain has seen the rise of bigoted groups in both the forms of political parties, such as the “British Nationalist Party” [BNP], to straight up gangs of violent racist thugs, such as the self-proclaimed “English Defense League” or “EDL”. But hey- we’ve got similar problems across the pond- what’s the big deal (other than, you know, the attempts to turn Britain into a whites-only nation, through violence and intimidation if necessary)? Continue reading →
Posted in America, Europe, Islam, morality, politics, race, religion
Tagged Anders Brevik, Angela Merkel, anti-semite, anti-semitic, apartheid, Arabs, ban, bigotry, BNP, Britain, British Nationalist Party, burka, Csanad Szgedi, EDL, English Defense League, european parliament, European Parliment, Expulsion, Fascism, Fascist, France, Great Britain, Holocaust, holocaust denier, Hungary, Immigrants, Islam, Islamization, Jobbik, KKK, Klu Klux Klan, law, Marine Le Pen, Minaret Ban, multiculturalism, Multiculturalism has failed, Muslims, nazi, neo-nazi, Nick Griffin, Norway, prejudice, refugees, Roma, segregation, Switzerland, Turks, UK, Utoya, Veil, white supremacist groups, white supremacy
Readers, I do what I can to keep my fame days contemporary, but with Switzerland pretty much legalizing apartheid, bloody crackdowns in Egypt, and network giant Cisco cutting 5% of it’s workforce, finding something positive today just isn’t happening. So I figured I’d reach back a bit and pull out a shining beacon of hope from days gone by- my favorite music artist of all time, Johnny Cash.
Yes, he is looking at your soul.
Continue reading →
Posted in America, Fame Day, morality, music
Tagged Carter Cash, cash, country, drugs, Hurt, Johnny Cash, June Cash, man in black, Metallica, music, native americans, NIN, nine inch nails, nixon, prison, San Quentin, social justice, song, Trent Reznor, Vietnam, vietnam war
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