So tonight I had some free time while laying over in Minneapolis and decided to go and the new Transformers movie. Im going to not be a typical fan and trash everything wrong with the movie that stuck out like sore thumbs ie. so many important details ommitted, changed or otherwise bastardized and the fact thats its a 144 mintue General Motors commercial. These things I an gladly overlook in light of a great action packed movie that actually made me get warm fuzzy's remembering all the great memories of the original cartoon comic books and toys. Tonight my true inner nerd and sci fi geek almost got the best of me in the scene where Optimus Prime is shown for the first time and you here the voice of Peter Cullen who is the same person who did the voice work for the original cartoon and work on just about every cartoon in the 80's and early 90's. We are talking goose bumps kids. I almost got up and shouted out loud. I realize that if your not a fan of this kind of stuff I probably sound like the unibomber or an equivalent but well you can bite it. I actually sat on the edge of my seat for 2 1/2 hour and ate a whole bag of popcorn ala Cassie and I dont even like popcorn ?
Well I realize I haven't been keeping up with posting as I would have liked to and I could make all kinds of excuses until Jesus comes back about as to why but I wont except that I have recently started working for a new company about a month ago and things have been very crazy and the verdict is still out as to wether I will be staying with them or not. More to come on that subject in the near future.
Today is my birthday and as I sit here in some some little town on the edge of North Dakota and Timbuktu drinking my celebratory bottle of wine and watching a modest small town fireworks display, I sit and think of a few nice words and phone calls today from friends and for a moment everything seems good in the world. Only for a moment though. On a day like today people maybe don't take the time anymore to appriciate this country and what maybe it stood for at some point in its history and the ideals behind it. This is where I stop with the patriotic rah rah speech and in light of the state of things in the world I leave you with some words from one of the greats who is no longer with us.
....... I had a vision of a way we could all have no enemies ever again, if you're interested in this. Anybody interested in hearing this? It's kind of an interesting theory, and all we have to do is make one decisive act and we can rid the world of all our enemies at once. Here's what we do. You know all that money we spend on nuclear weapons and defense every year? Trillions of dollars.
Instead, if we spent that money feeding and clothing the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded...not ONE... we could as one race explore outer space together in peace, for ever.
Bill Hicks
Far fetched? Maybe. Maybe not. But beats the shit out of what were doing now.
Arkansas Cop Attacks and Chokes Skaters Last week, June 21st, we celebrated Go Skateboarding Day. In Hot Springs, Arkansas, a resort town, a group of friends were skateboarding through town, when an officer named Joey Williams attacked them. You can watch the whole video on YouTube - it's pretty shocking. The video shows everything in painful detail. A group of 5 or 7 skaters (one being a girl) are skateboarding along with a buddy filming them. It's against the rules in this part of town, but it's Go Skateboarding Day, so they were out. Officer Joey Williams tackles one guy, forces him to the ground and begins to handcuff him - for skateboarding. The same treatment you would get for assaulting someone, and the kid being handcuffed isn't even fighting back. But it doesn't end there - I wish it did. One of the skaters watching starts to walk away, when the officer chases him down and attacks him. The people watching (there are many of them) are yelling, and the officer grabs a girl and starts to choke her - then he grabs another kid and starts to choke him as well. It's ridiculous, shocking, and painful to see. This is the kind of stuff we hear about, but this time a video camera captures the whole thing (of course, the kid with the video camera gets forced to the ground as well). Another officer is involved - he doesn't choke any kids or anything, but he also doesn't stop officer Williams' vicious attacks. So far, the mayor of Hot Springs, Mike Bush, has suspended officer Williams (with pay) while they look into what happened. The mayor does acknowledge that the footage shows everything. On the other hand, McCrary Means, a police spokesman, is still charging two of the skaters that were arrested with some pretty serious crimes, like McCormack who is being charged with misdemeanor battery. In the video, McCormack is the guy who pulls on Officer William's arm after the girl gets put into a choke hold. Yes, that's right. He pulled on the cop's arm, trying to defend a girl who was being choked, and he's now being charged with battery. Sound fair? HE is being charged with battery, not the cop who was chocking the girl. What ever happened to the police being there to serve and protect? I don't see either of these things happening in the town of Hot Springs, Arkansas. So what can you do about this? Well, you shouldn't go out and take it out on the first cop you find. That won't help anything. There are good cops out there, who became police officers because they wanted to help people. On the other hand, there are cops out there like Joey Williams, who obviously has some power issues, and who doesn't understand the slightest part of what it means to serve and protect. One thing you can do is contact Bobby Southard, the Chief of Police for Hot Springs. You can e-mail him at bsouthard@cityhs.net, or write a letter to him at 641 Malvern Avenue Hot Springs, Arkansas 71901. I would like to encourage you to not write and tell him that he sucks, or write him threats, or anything like that. That sort of stuff won't help, and it will just make skaters look stupid. Instead, think through what you want to say, and say it passionately and politely. Another thing you can do, if you live in Arkansas, is contact Hot Springs city officials, and state officials. If you are a kid, then ask your parents to. This could have easily been you being attacked by a cop. Help the people in charge to understand that skaters aren't all criminals, that no one should be treated this way, and that police can't be allowed to get away with stuff like this without being charged themselves.
