Masters Of War

It doesn't matter whether you're selling Jesus or Buddha or civil rights or 'How to Make Money in Real Estate With No Money Down.' That doesn't make you a human being; it makes you a marketing rep. If you want to talk to somebody honestly, as a human being, ask him about his kids. Find out what his dreams are - just to find out, for no other reason. Because as soon as you lay your hands on a conversation to steer it, it's not a conversation anymore; it's a pitch. And you're not a human being; you're a marketing rep.

Roger Rueff
from The Big Kahuna (1999)

11/14/2005

On Friday, Veterans Day, I received an e-mail from a friend that I thought was quite good. Although it is not the actual letter, below this text I have reproduced it as best I could, verbatim. Please take a moment to look at it, I feel it is very important.

***************************************************************

Pictures From Iraq That Are Too Shocking & Graphic for the Mainstream Media






















Photos that will never make the news.....

Please pass the pictures on. Sometimes in our everyday lives we tend to forget what's going on elsewhere in the world and that the brave men and women of the service are just like you and me. They have family and friends back home who love them very much and are praying for their safe return.

PLEASE KEEP THIS GOING EVEN IF YOU HAVE PASSED IT ON BEFORE

When you receive this, please stop for a moment and say a prayer for our troops (land, air, and sea) in Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq, and around the world. There is nothing attached.. . This can be very powerful. . Just send this to people in your address book. Do not stop the wheel, please.

Of all the gifts you could give the US Military, Prayer is the very best one.

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This is a very heart touching e-mail and I agree with pretty much everything in it. Yes, these men and woman serving overseas are just like you and me. Yes, in our everyday tranquil lives, we sometimes forget that many good people are in a radically different situation halfway around the globe, not enjoying the materialistic bliss we, at home, are enjoying. And, yes, I believe the power of pray, or at least any positive mental energy, directed towards a pain or sorrow has the possibility of being effective. It certainly couldn't hurt.

So why mar such a great message with the "biased media" bit?

I'm assuming that the originator of this e-mail believes that "The Media," whatever the hell he/she thinks that means, is pro-actively conspiratorial against...what? The War? The Troops? Children? I believe that is the only conclusion you can come up with if you look at the heading above some of these truly beautiful photographs. As far as "The Media" (again, I have no idea what that phrase means) not printing or showing any of these pictures, I will take their word for it, because I do not really want to argue.

But I do remember this picture:

And this is the way it appeared on TV:

Rumsfeld actually called the whole scene "breathtaking."

But was it reality:

I'm not even mentioning "The Media's" (Does ANYONE know what that means?) total and utter complicity in the whole fabricated Jessica Lynch "Rambina" storyline.

I mentioned at the top of my post that I received this e-mail on November 11, Veterans Day. How many of you out there knew that that holiday was originally called Armistice Day? The reason for that was "on the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918," the guns on the Western Front in WW I ceased firing. The generation of men in the trenches, the ones who "might have survived the shells but were still destroyed by the war," who had not known peace or quiet for 4 straight years, were finally going home. Millions had died and it was altogether proper to make a national day honoring those who served.

Needless to say that after WW II claimed another 600,000 plus American lives on many of the same fields the earlier generation perished on, the observance changed to honor all veterans and the military in general.

In fact, in the 87 years after "The War To End All Wars" ended, there have been, off the top of my head, at least five wars that we have officially fought: WW II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War I and II. And then, of course, there was Grenada, Panama, Kosovo and Cuba. I am sure I am missing a whole bunch of others.

It's like we can't get enough.

So, The New York Daily News, in honor of Veterans Day, ran the following editorial:

I know the print is rather small so I would like to reprint a direct quote:

"This struggle is a pivotal one, an epic clash of civilizations, one of history's great shuddering paroxysms. It was already brewing 87 years ago today, when the guns fell silent in Europe and Armistice was declared and so many good-hearted souls truly believed humankind would war no more, Pretty it was to think so, but destiny had other plans.

"There are many who choose to believe that these soldiers died for nothing - for lies, for fraud, for some vast swindle. It would be a shameful thing if that were true, but it is not, and it honors neither the dead nor the living to cheapen the sacrifices already made and those still to come. It can be said this war has not always been waged wisely and it can be understood that more and more Americans are disheartened. But the cauldron of the Middle east is already more promisingly stable than it was not so very long ago, thanks to this U.S.-led war effort and to those who have fought and fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan."

If you agree with that portion of the editorial or not, I think we can all agree that it is certainly not "liberal." I would go as far as to say that the very idea that the Television Networks and Newspaper Syndicates, mostly owned by HUGE Conglomerates like G.E., Disney and Viacom are liberally biased is completely absurd and is a fabricated myth that has been hammered into the American psyche for the last 25 years.

And I didn't even mention the "all-news" station that is run by Roger Ailes who, before becoming a truth seeker, worked for those crazy hippies Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush.

I have been told over the past two weeks, by a couple of different people, who have bought into this "liberal media" myth, that it isn't anywhere near as bad over there as "The Media" (There's that word again!!!) is making it out to be. I believe the e-mail I reproduced in this post avers the same position. That is what makes printing this terribly sad roll call of the fallen so much more apropos.

In other words, I will grant that the situation in Iraq might not be as bad as I think it is, but if 58 soldiers from New York State alone have died there in one year's time, how good can it possibly be?

But what deeply affected me about this article were those pictures. As I scanned the images of the 58 New Yorkers who were killed last year, I saw every race, religion and ethnicity represented. Proud, strong faces, of both genders, looking like a true representation of the American populace. A cross section of our society who were asked to pay the ultimate price. And as I consider the true cost of our government policies, I find myself coming back to the same question over and over again.

Why?

By not being able to dismiss and ignore that fundamental question make me unpatriotic? Absolutely not. Am I supporting the troops less if I don't ask that burning question? Not in the slightest. Does it make me a traitor when I do not believe or agree with any of the answers given to me when I ask this question to my elected officials? Not even close.

I love this country...I despise who is running it.

I once again turn to Rueff's script for The Big Kahuna (1999). The scene is between two salesmen, one older and one younger, who have apparently blown a big deal. I have changed the names of the characters to make it more relevant.

George W Bush: So, you're saying I have to do some things I regret before I can have CHARACTER?!?

An Adult: No. I'm saying you've already done plenty of things to regret, you just don't know what they are. It's when you discover them, when you see the folly in something you've done, and you wish that you had it do over, but you know you can't, because it's too late. So you pick that thing up, and carry it with you to remind you that life goes on, the world will spin without you, you really don't matter in the end. Then you will gain character, because honesty will reach out from inside and tattoo itself across your face.

NOBODY in the current administration has any CHARACTER at all.

Larry

Isn't That The Stuff They Give To Junkies?

11/10/2005

That’s what I thought too, after I first heard someone say the name John Corzine a few years ago. As it turns out. I was wrong…but only partially.

Far from being some man-made powerful narcotic primarily used to create zombified human beings, multi-millionaire Democratic Senator John Corzine won the great state of New Jersey’s gubernatorial election yesterday, beating a stuffed shirt millionaire windbag named Doug Forrester.

After making an obscene amount of money off the backs of working men and women on Wall Street and then buying his way into the US Senate where he did absolutely nothing of consequence for the last four years except line his pockets with large sums of corporate money, this is what an exuberant Mr. Corzine had to say last night after he "closed the deal" on his latest acquisition, the Governorship of the State of New Jersey:

I'm gonna turn
this mutha out!!

"Together we will restore the simple truth that public service is about serving the public - nothing else, nothing more, not our party, not our friends, not our contributors, just the people of the state of New Jersey. And I want to be very clear our government should not and will not be about economic opportunities for politicians or anyone else, but a partnership that's built with the citizens of New Jersey."

Is he fucking kidding me or what?

Call me a cynic, but I would bet dollars to doughnuts that absolutely nothing changes in Trenton over the course of this guy’s administration accept the names.

He also claimed he is going to "end insider and back door deals." What the fuck was he doing on Wall Street all those years when he was putting those dirty stacks of hard currency into his private vaults scattered all up and down Bergen County? Was he getting his tips from CNN and Lou Dobbs at noon on Wednesday? Playing hunches? Give me a break.

This is the kind of thing that turns people off to anything political.

Maybe that's the goal.

The tired old scene of a man, usually super-rich and white, making promises, assurances and forceful declarations that his candidacy was about "the people" and finally "WE" have "taken back" control of the government as if it was EVER controlled by the populace in the first place, has really overstayed its welcome.

How could anyone possibly think that "the people" are going to even remotely factor into this guy’s decisions for the next four years? The only thing this guy is going to care about in his thought process is the proverbial, "Gas, Grass or Ass…Nobody Rides For Free" axiom. Any benefit to the population at large will be purely coincidental.

Doesn’t anyone ever ask WHY, in the 21st century, a period of time when incredible amounts of information and remarkable technology are readily available to the overwhelming majority of our population, do the political parties continue to trot out such dreadful candidates, whose imaginations and leadership qualities rate so average that their sustained mediocrity almost borders on grandeur?

Ladies and gentleman...Mr. Fernando Ferrer.

And if we do have the capability of asking, why do we continue to accept this scenario year after year?

I am starting to feel I know the answer to that one.

But enough of that. What really caught my eye about this race was the downright nastiness of it all. What we had were two mega-rich people, probably still smarting from boyhood humiliations, funneling all of their massive resources into a full frontal assault upon their opponent's trenches. Personal attack ads saturated the Tri-state area for months.

According to the commercials, and since I live in New York they were my only exposure, each of these candidates, depending on whose ad you were viewing at the time, were not only bad decision makers, but they were totally unfit to govern at all. If these commercials were to be believed, Forrester and Corzine were downright revolting human beings who you would not trust with seven dollars to buy you a pack of cigarettes. A steady stream of words like, LIAR, TAXES, CRIME, CHEAT and UNTRUSTWORTHY were superimposed over the candidate’s faces in bold, hammering home the undeniable fact that this man was a scumbag. The repetition was mind boggling.

It was the Battle of Verdun of sleaze.

The best of this bunch, released by Forrester two weeks before Election Day, utilized quotes from Corzine’s ex-wife who was, naturally, pretty bitter about their divorce because he left for another woman. I think her exact words were

If he is elected, he will let New Jersey down…the way he let me down.

So Forrester, in his ad, played up the fact that he has been married for thirty years to the same woman. Lines like, ‘Corzine walked out on his family…He’ll walk out on New Jersey too" were voiced over images of him stoically standing dutifully next to his wife.

And just to show the country that the Great State of New Jersey, a place once nick-named “The Garden State” now known officially as “The Binge Drinking Tit-Bar State,” is not only the leaders in corruption and moral malaise, (Former Senator Robert Torricelli and Former Governor Jim McGreevy both recently were ran out of office in complete disgrace for bribery, corporate kickbacks, influence peddling and ass-fucking) but with this new found respect for “the sanctity of Marriage,” is also on the cutting edge of social evolution. Outraged by Corzine’s marital status, the electorate’s support for him began to waver for the multi-millionaire “Man of the People.” Corzine’s poll numbers immediately started to plummet.

After my laughter subsided, my first thoughts, I have to admit, were purely selfish. I contemplated what MY angry ex-girlfriends would say after I announced my candidacy for whatever elected office I will try to run for. (My sole platform and issue being the passing of legislation to force the current copyright owners of the brilliant 1970 film "Let It Be" to finally release it on DVD.)

Needless to say, I don’t think it would be too flattering.

It wouldn’t be relevant either.

Have our politics, and our sense of completely unrealistic piety, become so ridiculous that the concept of a divorcee running for office is beyond our understanding?

What fucking year is this 1922?

Afterall, if divorce immediately disqualified a person from running for office, Ronald Wilson Reagan would never have been the "It’s Morning in America" man. That is because one morning in 1949, Mr. Reagan sat at his breakfast table, ate bacon and eggs that his wife, Jane Wyman, woke up early and cooked for him, while leafing through the morning newspaper. After he was finished dipping his toast with trimmed crusts in the broken yolks, he washed his hands, kissed his kids goodbye, gently caressed his wife’s arm, smiled, walked out of his house…and never returned.

He had Nancy, probably dressed in a red laced Teddy, waiting for him.

He left it for his soon to be ex-wife, Jane Wyman, to explain to his first set of kids why daddy didn’t love them anymore.

That act of uncommon heroism doesn’t stop Republicans…like Doug Forrester, the architect of the shameless "divorce" campaign against Corzine… from considering Ronald Reagan to be one of our most trusted and greatest Presidents of all time. It didn’t stop Republicans…like Doug Forrester…during that 24/7 week long funeral dirge on Fox News from completely forgetting about Jane Wyman as they sang the praises of the "Fairy-Tale Love Story" of Ron and Nancy as if they were the inspiration for Romeo and Juliet. And it still doesn’t stop Republicans…like Doug Forrester…from pining orgasmically for a non-existent "morally clearer time when people understood the difference between Right and Wrong."

He even wants to put that two-timing womanizer on our money!!!

In fact, out of all the people who were ever elected President, Reagan was the only one that ever "walked out on his family."

Hmm, now that I think about it, maybe the Forrester smear-machine was right about Corzine.

I never trusted that son-bitch Reagan either.

I think I need another hit.
Larry

The Berg Is Back In Town

11/9/2005

So the election results are in: Bloomberg buys a landslide!!!

There was no real surprise in this outcome. Most people look at Bloomberg as a no-nonsense guy who is not doing a bad job so why change horses? Certainly, nobody gave the voters any reason to.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg

I, personally, was resigned to another four years of Shit-Berg once the Democrats put up that meat-puppet Ferrer a man the party machine bosses had the audacity to call a viable candidate. Maybe Ferrer is popular in the back rooms of smoky “social clubs” where the only civic things going on are sleazy pay-offs to bought-and-paid-for local councilmen, “No-Limit Hold-Um” tournaments involving bosses with their bank rolls made up of union pension fund money and, of course, robust cock fights. But to the general electorate who don’t have fancy “no-show” or “show/no-work” jobs, he was a complete bust out.

But yet, about three in the morning, I found myself laying in bed, staring at the shadow play dancing upon my ceiling with the only sounds in the room being the garbled nonsensical static of late night all-sports-talk radio crackling out of my antiquated clock/tuner…and my inconsolable weeping.

I was trying to figure out just exactly how I fucked up my life.

I kept asking myself, over and over again, when was that precise moment, what was that specific decision or indecision that I made or didn’t make that produced results like this? How could I have avoided the fate that finds me in a cube, financially decimated, completely enslaved by The Man, socially alienated from a society that makes little or no sense to me and, most importantly, feeling there are no prospects on the horizon that would make me believe that the situation will ever change? My night was, yet again, devolving into a paralyzing introspective nightmare, complete with large doses of guilt, shame and anger. In these bouts, too frequent as of late, with insomnia, helpless and hopeless are recurring themes. One I am trying to unsuccessfully avoid.

In between the loud bawling, the uncontrollable shaking and the serious dissertations on the New York Football Giants, I, for some reason, began to smile. Against all odds, all of a sudden, something became very clear to me. I stopped feeling sorry for myself and realized that there is at least one thing I can feel hopeful about. That one thing is the role of Religion in modern day society.

WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!

That's right. Religion.

No, I did not find Jesus in my despair and despondencynor have I met Allah, Jehovah, Odin or Zeus either. And, before you jump to any conclussions, I have not lost my sanity.

So get them panties out of your crack and listen up and let me explain.

Although this Mayoral election was a sick twisted joke, a mock-fest to anybody who has any sense of what a Democracy could and should be, there is one thing that I can look at with a great deal of pride. Not once did the subject of belief in Jesus Christ as our Savior come up. Not once was Bloomberg asked to expound on his “personal relationship” with the Son of God or how he believes “faith” has to be factored into civic duty.

BRAVO!!!

And this has nothing to do with the fact that Bloomy is Jewish so obviously has no relationship with the carpenter who died 2000 years ago because Ferrer, a Roman Catholic, did not make it a theme either. No big deal, right?

Wrong.

Think about any election campaign that has any kind of national significance. Think about how much wheel spinning and placating to religious nuts and fanatics goes on. Clowns like John Kerry, an obviously intelligent man, feels as if he had to be in a Church photo-op while he discussed foreign policy and gun control. Both the Democratic and Republican conventions were loaded with speeches peppered with slogans like “With God’s help,” “God on our side,” and “God Bless America.”

If it is a national election, we have to witness the ridiculous spectacle of a hateful, misanthropic, misogynistic little man like Pat Robertson being treated like a statesman and a “Man of God” instead of the straight-up asshole that he really is.

In a national election, we have to actually debate and discuss the idea of teaching Creationism over Evolution seriously instead of pointing out that the “controversy” is completely ridiculous and that anyone wanting to teach Creationism as Science is truly stupid just because we don’t want to offend anyone.

And before you start saying that the rest of the country is more religious than New York City I say think again Kemosabe. I believe the actual “faith” in these religious beliefs has absolutely nothing to do with the character of our local elections as compared to the local elections in Bubble-Slam, Tennessee. I believe it is New York’s cosmopolitan tradition that makes our elections usually devoid of crass religious piety.

To say that this city is not religious is a fantasy. There are HUGE pockets of hardcore faithful of every major religion on this planet living in the five boroughs. I personally know at least three Bush type born agains, two Mel Gibson strict Roman Catholics, three “got to get home before sun down” Jews, two reincarnation Buddhists and one Koran reading Muslim. And I don’t even get out much!

What do all these New Yorkers I mention have in common?

Their FAITH, a word thrown around in this nation pretty damn regularly by people who usually want to fuck you over, is actually strong and internal. They have no need to convince you of anything. They seek validation of their beliefs from within and not through others. Their FAITH goes beyond telling others whose cock they can suck or what movies they can or can not see or what books are allowed or disallowed.

In other words, they truly understand the the core American principle of the Separation of Church and State.

So what I am grateful for is the fact that I live in New York City. A place that is loaded with corruption, graft and slime but a place that is also a beacon of hope, an example of enlightenment in a rapidly dimming land. A land being enveloped by hatred, willful ignorance and fear. A city that exemplifies the simple truth:

Religous freedom of worship will thrive under a secular government and can not exist under a religious one.

Hell...Just trying to be positive.


Larry

Information About My Free Video.

If you have been reading the posts on this blog and enjoy the tone of the content please let me send you a tape I put together of orignal short subjects. Just contact me and leave a mailing address and I will gladly send you a VHS copy ABSOLUTELY FREE! All I ask is if you enjoy the material, show it around to your friends and if they want a copy just have them give me an address.

I AM NOT ASKING FOR ANY MONEY, CREDIT CARD INFORMATION, etc. I WILL NOT SELL YOUR INFORMATION TO ANYBODY OR ANY BLOODSUCKING CORPORATION. I WILL DISCARD YOUR ADDRESS AS SOON AS I MAIL THE TAPE OUT.

I simply have made a tape and want people to see it. I just need an address to mail it to.

If you still have a shred of faith in Man and leave an address, this is what you will be receiving:

Sixth Army Productions

Short Subjects (Vol 1)

WHY?

Using stunning visuals and beautiful sounds, "Why?" attempts to abstractly answer the question that has haunted Man since the dawn of civiliztion.

2005 - Running Time 9:15 - Color/b&w

PAID IN FULL

Filmed on location at and around the World Trade Center prior to 9/11, "Paid In Full" stands as a harsh reminder that "the grass is always greener" and a poignant statement on the true meaning of the word "success."

2001 - Running Time 4:45 - Color

CLUB 360*

Shot at a Hip/Hop club in Mid-Town Manhattan,"Club 360" is an intense documentary that captures the raw energy and anger of an Open-Mike Night on the "hottest day of the year" in June of 2000. It offers a glimpse into a world that most people do not know even exists.

2000 - Running Time 14:45 - Color
*Contains graphic and offensive language. Not suitable for all audiences.