posted without comment

the military commissions act
one of my myspace friends posted about this and it occurred to me to post something also, just to be sure more people see it (different circle of friends and all)

under the new act, signed by president bush yesterday:

If the government chooses to bring a prosecution against the detainee, a military commission is convened for this purpose. The following rules are some of those established for trying unlawful enemy combatants who are not citizens of the United States. [Sec.948b (a)] The Act does exclude these rules from being applied when trying unlawful enemy combatants who are American citizens, per sections 948b(a) and 948c.

Certain sections of the Uniform Code of Military Justice are deemed inapplicable - including some relating to a speedy trial [Sec.948b (d)(1)(A)], compulsory self-incrimination [Sec.948b (d)(1)(B)], and pre-trial investigation [Sec.948b (d)(1)(C)].

A civilian defense attorney may not be used unless they have clearance to view materials classified Secret. [Sec.949c(b)(3)(D)]

Based on his findings, the judge may introduce hearsay evidence [Sec.949a(b)(2)(E)(i)], evidence obtained without a search warrant [Sec.949a(b)(2)(B)], evidence obtained when the degree of coercion is disputed [Sec.948r (d)], or classified evidence not made available to the defense [Sec.949d(f)(2)(B)].

A finding of Guilty requires only a 2/3 majority [Sec.949m(a)]

No defendant may invoke the Geneva Conventions in legal proceedings on their behalf. [Section 5(a)]

The President determines “the meaning and application” of the Geneva Conventions banning the torture of prisoners. [Sec.6 (a)(3)(A)]

The accused may be tried for the same offense a second time “with his consent” [Sec.949h(a)].

If the military commission returns a finding of Not Guilty, its convening authority is not required to take action on the findings. [Sec.950b(c)(3)]

no, you (or anyone) can be arrested and held indefinitely. you're attorney, if you are allowed to have one, won't necessarily be shown the evidence against you. you may be tortured if you aren't cooperative enough (or if the guard is in a bad mood, i suppose). and if, by some fluke of fate and luck, you are found not guilty, that doesn't mean anyone has to actually let you go free

good times, these we're living in, eh?

when the dragon stomps the rabbit
was pointed to this birthday calculator this morning. you put in your birthday and it tells you stuff like your astrological sign (which most people know anyway even if they don't believe in them meaning anything), your life path number (which i'd be most people don't know even if they think it means something), the amount of years and months and days (and hours and seconds, but those woiuld likely be inaccurate since the site doesn't ask what time you were born) you've been alive, your native american sign, your egyptian and hebrew birth months, celebrities that share your birthday, the top songs the year of your birth, and, well, numerous other things

much to my surprise, i learned this morning that the year of the dragon began two days after i was born, and for three decades i've thought myself a pathetic dragon when in fact i'm a rather impressive bunny rabbit

actually, my first impulse was to tell my wife my worldview had been shattered, taking it all as a negative, but now i have decided to take it as a positive. like mulder wanting his pegleg, i've got my handicap now, a fuzzy little tail that makes all my cynicism and sarcasm and pessimism worthwhile

The role of leader is the only one the Dragon wants, the better from which to give orders and be king of the hill

but, that's not me anymore. now i am "timid and attractive," and while i can "lapse into pessimism and may seem stuck in life," i can enjoy my "contemplative pace" with life and hop over all the dragons fighting for leadership roles

just don't burn my tail, please

being robert black
robert c black (usually just called bob black) was...

one of the earliest to advocate what is now called Post-left anarchy. His writing style is vociferously confrontational, criticizing many of the perceived sacred cows of leftist, anarchist, and activist thought. An unaffiliated New Leftist in his college years, Black became dissatisfied with authoritarian socialist ideology and after discovering anarchism he spent much of his energy analyzing authoritarian tendencies within ostensibly "anti-authoritarian" groups. In his essay "My Anarchism Problem" he writes: "To call yourself an anarchist is to invite identification with an unpredictable array of associations, an ensemble which is unlikely to mean the same thing to any two people, including any two anarchists.".

he argues that "the only way for humans to be free is to reclaim their time from jobs and employment, instead turning necessary subsistence tasks into free play done voluntarily" and "no-one should ever work" because work, defined as compulsory productive activity enforced by economic or political means, is the source of most of the misery in the world."

there's more, but let's move on to another

this robert black was a serial killer and paedophile in scotland. he kidnapped, raped and murdered 3 girls during the 1980s, kidnapped a 4th he didnt' kill, tried to kidnap a 5th, and is suspected of a number of unsolved child murders dating back to the 70s and is currently behind bars.

robert black is also edinburgh university's professor of Scots Law. has been since january 1981. "Between 1983 and 1999 he served as Head of the Department of Scots (later Private) Law. From 1984 to 2003 he was a member of every Dean's Council of the Faculty of Advocates (the Scottish Bar)." now semi-retired, he's notable for his "close personal and professional interest" in the pan am flight 103 bombing in 1988.

robert black is also a double bass player, who "presents recitals throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Japan, appearing at major festivals..., on radio and television broadcasts... and as artist-in-residence."

robert black is also a web designer/engineer in australia; a producer of films like "1,001 Ways to Eat My Jizz;" a university of nottingham professor with interests in "the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of probability, practical reason, necessity and possibility, and the philosophy of physics;" an apparently gay model/actor/massage therapist, into "leather, bondage, and other kinks;" an army ranger who served in korea and vietnam and wrote books about his experiences; a doctor "currently engaged in randomized trials and effectiveness evaluations of rotavirus, Hemophilus influenzae type B, pneumococcal and shigella vaccines; zinc and iron supplementation in children; nutritional counseling; and the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness approach;" an actor/director with bits parts in "so i married and axe murderer" and "sweet home alabama;" and a college in hong kong.

and then there's me, an unsuccessful writer steeped in bitterness and cynicism, a bit obsessive compulsive, an avid tv watcher and failed student of film... who, as you can see, enjoys insulting himself to a level beyond self deprecation, enjoys connecting himself to the likes of pedophilic serial killers and pornographers and anarchists despite being relatively content and happy with his life

the new tv shows
been busy, what with the new fall season of tv (details and opinions to follow) and working part time again (a few hours a few nights a week plus daytime on saturday) and all the rest of life's stuff still going on

the job is easy enough, though it is a weird schedule for me, tv obsessive that i am. i get home a little after 8 weeknights and am taking advantage of the dvr for just about every show...

and, as for those shows:

• heroes - premiered last night and, while i was looking forward to this one, i just couldn't be bothered to care. it started boring and continued boring and i would have turned it off after less than 20 minutes if i'd been more decisive about what i wanted to watch instead... actually, it didn't start boring; it started annoying and pretentious and pathetic and pissed me off with its stupid text scrawl about an epic beginning and i was NOT in the mood to care. and, what followed thereafter bored me into giving up completely
• runaway - and this was where i went after i turned off the broing heroes, and i regretted it (for a while, anyway, as i ended up watched the latest episode of the wire on demand instead). writing was trying to be clever for a pilot, joining the plot already in progress, leaving the audience in the dark as to what's going on even though the premise is obvious. the line about the dead grandma was hilarious, but this show is not a comedy and i turned it off a short time after that
• vanished - aka the bad abduction show of the season, but probably the one that will last, cause fox seems like it will put up with this crap. they couldn't be bothered to put up with firefly a few years back, but now, i think they will let this shit linger
• kidnapped - aka the good abduction show of the season, and the one most likely to be cancelled. nbc is not the network to let a serial like this last, methinks. but, i hope they will cause this one had a strong cast and a fantastic pilot
• standoff - a great balance between crisis drama and romantic comedy and a nice cast, if they can just keep the crisises from being too repetitive. this is one of the shows this season that would work better as a movie plot than a series plot, but i like it so far
• shark - and, as for shows that would work better as movie plots, there's this one, which, without james woods, would probably suck. as it is, though, with woods in the lead, it should be entertaining for a while, though i don't see the series having far to go. i did like that woods' character was just as horrible a person when he's doing "good" things as when he's doing "bad" but i wish they a) hadn't bothered showing us the case that broke him or b) made it better, spent more time on it. but, his dealings with his new underlings were entertaining and his daughter's choice to live with him because he's obviously still a seriously flawed guy could make for an interesting plot... for a little while. i don't see my interest in this show lasting more than a few episodes, even if the daughter's a little cute
• justice - and this lawyer show had something great going for it, but only one "something": the jury manipulation stuff. that stuff was great in the first few episodes, but the overall style of the show, the ending gimick (which hadn't really revealed anything too shocking or even interesting yet) and the dialogue, not to mention the annoying computer displays or the notion of the tv-universe lawfirm of four people doing everything, just couldn't sustain any of my interest. give me a show about jury manipulation, a straight drama, and i could watch that, but not this
• jericho - started well enough, but i don't think it will last long. too potentially dark combined with a little too much potential schmaltz (even if mcraney can pull off cheesy speeches fairly well). ulrich was good, but some beats along the way in the pilot could have been left out, notably the prison bus, an easy plot for a later episode, even the second episode, that did NOT need to be set up ahead of time
• six degrees - didn't expect to like this show at all, but the first episode was enjoyable enough, although i don't give a shit about christenson's past. the photographer's story was great and i almost wish it (and that of the woman he's got his eye on) wouldn't be stuck in this high concept, ensemble show
• brothers & sisters - the problem with this show's pilot is it didn't set up what this show is. there were hints at political content, but that seemed like it could just be subtext for family problems, there were shady business dealings but no real detail to those either... again, i think they serve more as subtext for family problems. but, if this show is just about the family problems, why bother hinting at politics and business? or, if you will be bothering with them, get into more detail, damn it. a nice cast (though i should look into the changes, since i heard a bit about pilot reshoots and cast changes and whatnot) and some great acting out of them along the way, but i still gotta wonder what this show will do with itself over time
• studio 60 on the sunset strip - and aaron sorkin is back, and he hasn't changed much, but i'm ok with that. the big tv names will have their styles and, though they may change it a bit sometimes (see deadwood or rome for examples), it's comforting when they give you exactly what you expect (and exactly what you wish they'd been giving you for years now, if only certain shows hadn't been cancelled). still not sure how well this show will pull off the show within the show--really, a pirates of penzance musical number?--but i think, like sports night, it can focus plenty on the behind the scenes drama enough to not have to bother with the sketch comedy... like early west wing could confine itself easily to the office stuff

and i'm still planning to check out the nine and 30 rock and maybe friday night lights and already watched the pilot for showtime's dexter online and enjoyed it a lot

as for not so new shows, brotherhood just finished its first season and went out strongly, the wire is back for season four and is probably the best show on television... at least until battlestar galactica comes back in a couple weeks. house is still house, lost and veronica mars return next week, grey's anatomy had a mediocre start to the new season. survivor's been boring so far, but it (and amazing race, also recently returned) have trouble early on with too many "characters"

and in non tv news, i finally edited clubhouse blues and should be putting together a cover soon and getting the book onto cafepress, and i have two chapters left to write in on the slopes of stanjantuwel, but i'm still not keeping up with that as regularly as i should

instead, i've been watching some dvds of late, notably the production diaries for king kong (pre and post), and space above and beyond (about halfway through the show, i think)

and my most recent movies were the last kiss in the theater saturday night--went out for japanese food and to the movie with sarah, kids with my dad for the night, and it was a great date and a pretty good movie (it made me want to watch other things, though (garden state and huff) which isn't often a good sign)--and the great new wonderful, which was nice to watch but ultimately didn't amount to much

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how evil am i?

You Are 54% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side. Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

the crocodile hunter... leave it to me to disagree
that is, not that i'll disagree about how a great a guy he was or how enjoyable his show(s) could be, cause he seemed a truly great guy and his show was fairly enjoyable, but one little detail regarding his death keeps bugging me

see, they keep calling it a "freak accident" or a "freak encounter" like the stinger on a stingray isn't actually there specifically to sting things that invade its space. sure, there are only 17 human fatalities resulting from stingray stings on record, but come on, being stung by something that stings is NOT a "freak" anything. it's what happens

personality disorder test
apparently, i'm nuts

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid Personality Disorder:	Very High
Schizoid Personality Disorder:	High
Schizotypal Personality Disorder:	High
Antisocial Personality Disorder:	High
Borderline Personality Disorder:	Very High
Histrionic Personality Disorder:	High
Narcissistic Personality Disorder:	High
Avoidant Personality Disorder:	Very High
Dependent Personality Disorder:	High
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder:	High
-- Take the Personality Disorder Test -- -- Personality Disorder Info --

let's get naked

• contacted frank darabont yesterday
• put together a new font for the titles on clubhouse blues
• wrote a blog entry about work opportunities and whatnot
• watched mythbusters, life on mars from monday, the premiere of justice (which i rather liked, despite an eratic camera in the early scenes), and the finale of 30 days (and was confused in that one cause there was some spoiler going about (that i avoided) that seemed to involve something major happening, so i expected violence or something, but the episode was good)
• DID NOT write any fiction

but, that's not one i'm intending to be on about this morning. i wanted to discuss prudery. see, i put a picture of someone's naked back on the cover of my cafepress book, seeing her naked, and two of my sisters recently bought the book, but not before freaking out about the cover and the model and a whole bunch of silliness, like seeing someone without clothes is the most horrible evil that could ever be. of course, they grew up with the same mother i had, who would cover eyes or tell you to turn your head if a frickin sec scene came on the tv or in a movie. violence, of course, was fine. this is america, afterall. watch all the violence you want, but don't you dare look at anyone's naughty bits, even if there's nothing pornographic going on. and, when you're getting dressed or undressed, you better hide in a closet or the bathroom so no one can see you, cause, duh, didn't adam and eve cover themselves after they sinned, and didn't god say that was the way it should be?

not that i tend to listen to god anymore, of course, but all of that biblical shit is in my head forever--helps on the religion category over at funtrivia.com, which is nice--and i suppose i understand the inability to fight it, deeply ingrained prudery and whatnot. but, come on. is a little flesh on display so bad?

even when i was young, i wondered about a lot of the religious stuff, but specifically this one i remember. i liked the idea of living a life that didn't require clothes, where clothes were more decoration than necessity. i've since then toyed with the notion of visiting a nude beach, or something like that--though, my prude side combined with my layers of fat combined with what people i know might think of me after have always stopped me--but to no avail. keep the clothes on and everything is well, i guess. the world goes on, people get slaughtered over political, economic and militaristic ideals and people still fucking freak out over a little skin

hurricanes destroy whole cities (and not just new orleans), levees break and people die while the government sits by the wayside, wars are waged in the name of freedom but instead oppress a few nonwhites on the other side of the world, and all for control of oil, even as gas prices rise and gas guzzling suvs get more popular, criminals rot in prison, with no hope of rehabilitation or help, and the world goes on, as long as we all keep our clothes on

it's pathetic

found this anonymous quote in the wikipedia entry for nudism:

The best thing to do would be to designate everywhere as clothing optional, and we could leave little fenced in areas for the prudes to prance around in. Call them "Prudist Camps". They could peer out of their fences and indulge in their offensive "I'm offended" behaviour whenever they saw a natural person walk by, without bothering the rest of us.

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bold moves, so to speak; captions; and writing in general
i recently in this blog mentioned the notion of sending a screenplay of mine to a couple people, (directly or indirectly) kevin bacon and atom egoyan, and i was barely willing to do it, risk of rejection and all that, but more recently i figured, what the fuck? and i sent it. and, just this morning, i did something else i mentioned in that same blog entry, i contacted frank darabont about a story to which he owns the film rights. don't know if anything will come of any of those things, but i think it's worth noting that i did them, even if just for my own sense of... not being such a fuck-up that i can't bother to put my stuff out there from time to time. there should be a word for that, and probably is, but i don't know it

my job, part time for a website that dealt in ads for dog breeders and dog supplies (treats, grooming supplies and even clothes), recently relocated, so i'm unemployed currently. i've interviewed for a couple jobs already, applied for a few more. notable among the interviews was one at a place that does closed captions. part of the testing process after the interview was to add captions to a bit of an episode of rome from last season, which was cool, and not just cause it's my first interview to involve a sex scene, but cause i think doing the caption thing would be fun (as long as i get to sit and just watch the show first if it's something i watch anyway, that is). but, the hours might not work, busy family schedule and me being the only driver of the only car and all that. it's possible to turn that job into an at home thing later, but i don't know how much later. i would be working in hollywood (literally and in that much more important way as well)

i still want to write, though

it's weird. i'm constantly giving up on that, thinking ok, no more writing, just gonna let it slide away and be done. but, then i find myself writing again (a half dozen or so pages of on the slopes of stanjantuwel yesterday, for example). i find it hard, considering all the other things in life i have to do (and choose to do in the spare moments), to get back to old writings of mine, doing rewrites and new edits and sending them out. but, maybe that will change, now that i've gotten those crazy moves mentioned above out of my system. maybe i can finally finish editing clubhouse blues and get it sent out to an agent. maybe i can finally do a rewrite of the man with the holes in his hands, even if i just end up selfpublishing through cafepress, like i did with seeing her naked, which has sold a few copies already

of course, here i am writing a blog entry instead of doing any of that editing. not sure if that's a problem or not

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