Murderwreker

Dear son, you ask my opinion of draft-card burners and I will answer this way:
All past wars have been dirty, unfair, immoral, bloody and second guessed. However history has shown them to be necessary. If you doubt that our free enterprise system in the United States is worth protecting, if you doubt the principles on which this country was founded; that we remain free to choose our religion, our individualism, our methods of government... If you doubt that each free individual in this great country should reap the rewards commissioned only with his own efforts then it is doubtful you belong here. And I would remind you that your mother will love you no matter what you do, because she is a woman. And I love you too, son. But I also love our country and the principles for which we stand. If you decide to burn your draft card and burn your draft certificate at the same time... Then I have no son.

I'm not exactly sure where that quote was taken from, but it is the opening speech to the piece Murderwreker by dark ambient artist Lustmord. I think that it embodies perfectly the general consensus of the American public during Vietnam. The love for country coupled with the blind patriotism that makes certain people so dangerous... We're living in a different era, where people can afford to be more critical of the government without being locked up and labeled a suspected Communist. We should be thankful for the liberties we are given, regardless of how hard the Government tries to fuck it up.

Think about that.
Till next time,
James

In Six Words

Shiv over at Shiv's Brain tagged me with the following même. Normally I don't do mêmes, but this time I thought the idea was pretty smart. It goes like this:

Write your memoir in six words.

So, without further ado;

"Trying hard to find my place"

Not too profound, but it'll do. Since I hit adolescence, I've been trying to find out exactly who I am. While I still haven't figured it out, it makes for a good mindfuck.
Anyhoo, I'll only tag a couple of blogs with this, if they don't wanna do it, 'tis fine by me. It's a free country after all ;)

1.El Sid's 'You are not special'
2.Plunger Girl

Till next time,

James

Blank Generation

So here's to our collagen lips and saline tits
To our growth hormones and antibiotics
To the Hollywood world we made out of Barbie-doll hearts
After we melted them down so we could make a new start
Here's to a generation scared and always wondering why
Instead of playing doctor
We play 'shoot each other and die',
Instead of ring around the rosie we play hide from mommy
Because mommy's been drinking again and we don't wanna get beat
Even with all our tattoos, and all of our cheap thrills
There's still a hole inside of us that will never get filled
So we give back a little bit of what the world's given us
Giving back a bit of never giving a fuck.

Machine Head,
Blank Generation

We're sitting in class at the end of the year, and we're at the end of our History syllabus: The Second World War.
"I feel that watching the footage from Concentration Camps is a sort of voyeurism," said my history teacher when asked why she didn't want to show us any of the footage. I myself have seen hundreds of images and several video clips, not to mention read several accounts of the horrors that went on inside those camps in the 30s and 40s. Therefore, I had an idea of the images we would be watching. She started the tape.

Even I was not prepared for the horror that was developing on the television screen. Prisoners of war so thin that they were merely walking skeletons; devoid of all individuality, conformed to the image the Nazis wanted to give them: something other than human. Bodies of emaciated prisoners flung into ditches like rag-dolls, the look of pure despair and horror on their faces. Tears welled in my eyes (and indeed they still do at the thought of it, merely half an hour after viewing the video in question), but I did not weep. I merely sat there, showing a blank expression on my face, watching the images. The video ended.

They had clamored to watch the video; as soon as they started nagging the teacher, I knew they had no idea of what they were letting themselves into. I expected a few people to be teary, but a general stunned silence to envelop the class. It did not. Five minutes later, they were giggling, laughing and chatting amongst each other.

This is the day my hope for human empathy dies. We are no longer Generation X, we are the Blank Generation. A generation of youth so desensitized by violence that it does not affect us, does not provoke a strong emotion. Violence is glamorized on the Idiot-Box and in Holy-Wood, imposing the idea upon th
e young child that violence is the norm as long as you're killing the bad guys. The lines are very obviously drawn on the TV as to who the "good guys" are and who "the bad guys are". We're creating a generation of young soldiers.

In the United Kingdom, the army recruitment adverts are becoming all the more blatant in the fact that they market themselves toward teenagers. I know that one army recruitment advert shows a soldier piloting a spy plane with an X-Box controller. "Come and join the army, it'll be just like a video-game, just without a reset button!".

Television isn't the only medium we desensitize children to violence, either. In one of his spoken-word pieces, former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra shows the audience his collection of Desert Storm bubblegum cards (sold without any bubblegum), which features well-known weapons and generals complete with 'batting average'.

So why haven't I gotten to video games? I thought I'd leave them till last in order to transmit this message:

VIDEO GAMES DO NOT KILL PEOPLE.

Sorry, what was that? Maybe you'd like to hear it again.

VIDEO GAMES DO NOT KILL PEOPLE.

"So what does kill people, James?" I hear you ask. Well, I must admit, I kind of left out the other half of the message. And this is the important part.

VIDEO GAMES DO NOT KILL PEOPLE. PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE.

Regardless of what various parents and government officials say, a video game does not make someone go out and kill another person. They desensitize us to violence, but only to a certain extent. I am the proud owner of around seventy PS2 video games including Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil and Max Payne, yet I have never had the urge to walk into my school and start shooting people.
I always find it amazing how the blame for such incidents is never placed on the parents, and family life is never scrutinized. Is the father beating him? Are his parents getting a divorce? Who the hell cares?! As long as we've got video games and Marilyn Manson to blame, we don't need to look for other explanations. And this, my friends is possibly the worst type of desensitizing out there: the desensitizing of global scrutiny and investigation. People are no longer willing to do a little detective work if they can simply find a scapegoat at the snap of a finger. We are being taught by Fox News pundits such as Hannity and Colmes to center our attention on violent video-games, in order to brainwash us into the pseudo-conservative ideal of "You are free to do and think what we tell you". They are creating generation after Blank Generation by discouraging independent inquiry, urging us to leave it to (fanfare)

THE PROFESSIONALS.

Glory, Glory, Hallelujah.



So think about that the next time you see Mr. White-Collared Conservative on the television. Also, try to teach your children to feel a little empathy, try to avoid another Blank Generation popping out like champagne corks.

As an afterword, I would like to go back to my original reason for writing this. While profoundly shocked by what I witnessed amongst my classmates this morning, I still stand beside my strong conviction that we
should
show students as much of this footage as possible; in order for them to better understand the horrors of human will. The question is; will this desensitize future generations even more? Something to think about when you have a spare moment.



Signing off for now,

James.

Nineteen-Eighty-Four and the Idiot Box

Over a dozen hidden cameras document the every move of several ex-members of the general public, each of whom passes each day locked in a house being forced to perform menial and pointless tasks for the amusement of several million viewers, all sitting around the television each night with square eyes and closed minds.
No, this is not the basis for a science-fiction movie, or even an Orwellian novel. The new series of Big Brother has hit the British airwaves.
First, let this be made clear: I HATE Big Brother with a passion. To me it represents everything that is wrong with Television, especially reality TV. A dozen morons competing against each other for the amusement of the sheeple on the outside world. What could be worse? The people who watch BB (one of which, I'm afraid to say is a member of my family) seem to be able to conjure up a plethora of excuses as to how watching this show doesn't make them idiots. The most laughable one I have heard recently was something along the lines of "Oh no, you don't understand! Big Brother teaches us to value our privacy and be more aware of the surveillance we're subjected to daily by the government!" Or how about "It's a tribute to George Orwell!"? Bull. Fucking. Shit. Orwell would be spinning in his grave if he knew the ideas from his dystopian novel were being adapted (perhaps even stolen) in order to create... well... that. I somehow doubt that the Channel Four executives had actually read 1984 before ideologically raping it's main concept.
But does Big Brother have more serious implications hidden behind the gaudy interior decorating and the shit-for-brains contestants? Think about it for a second, Channel Four are effectively marketing this as a program that combines voyeurism and entertainment. The constestants are filmed all day, every day by hidden cameras. Notice anything familiar?
A recent survey found that there is on average one CCTV camera for every five British citizens in the UK at the moment, constantly filming our every move. The question is, is Big Brother trying to teach us that this blatant invasion of privacy on behalf of the government is an acceptable part of every-day life by repackaging it and glamourizing it? Could we be spawning a new generation who have a pre-programmed indifference to the fact that they're being watched by the government every day of their lives, because they've seen the same thing on TV, and they say it's OK? And perhaps the most important question to ask would be: is Channel Four aware of the implications their sub-standard programming is providing?
I think I'll just switch over to Channel Five. At least they flaunt the rampant soft-porn without trying to find any excuses. Coming soon: a documentary about a man who has sex with cars! Yay!

Signing out,
James

I Pledge Allegiance...

Yargh. I've been out of teh internetz for a whole month now and I've finally detoxed... Sorta. Anyways, I'm currently in the process of moving, so I won't have a stable connection for at least another couple of months. I'll do my best to keep this place updated as regularily as possible, though.
And thanks to everybody who left me blog comments, you guys rule.

---

In America, the flag has replaced the need for religion. Indeed, we are finding ourselves in a new dictatorship that is not all unsimilar to the Mussolini and Hitler-esque cult of personality. But instead of a man embodying the ideological representations of a country, he has been replaced by a rectangular piece of cloth featuring fifty stars and twelve red and white stripes.
Whereas in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy school-children were required to pledge allegiance to Il Duce or Der Führer, a more chilling battle-cry emerges from their fragile eggshell minds:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America".

The American Flag has replaced the President as the new ideological catalyst that guides the most powerful nation on earth. No more will people ask themselves "WWJD?" (What Would Jesus Do?) but instead will base their daily decisions and actions according to what the American Flag would do.
Flash forward to twenty-odd years and the Orwellian nightmare has become complete. The World Trade Organization, the PMRC and the corrupt law-enforcement institutions employ the television networks to keep the sheeple in line. It is eight 'o' clock in the evening; Prime Time. The American Nuclear Family sit around their idiot-box and the courageous bugle of the United States Military pours out of the speakers.
"At nine PM, Jay Leno speaks to Joey Lawrence about his upcoming film, but first a PSA from the Provider"
Fade in to the American flag. A Big-Brother-esque figure appears from nowhere. The family stand up and place their right hands over their hearts. Simultaneously, and throughout the country; a single, brainwashed cry emerges from the mouths of each American:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America."

The battle for hearts and minds has been won by extracting the hearts and minds of the People and replacing them with pre-programmed microchips set to one directive: obey, buy and fear. The American flag must be obeyed. Do not desecrate the American flag, lest ye be punished. Stand up like a proud American and shout out your submission to a rectangular piece of fabric swaying in the artificial wind. Men have died for this flag. To hell with ideals. The concept of fighting for democracy and freedom was shunted. Men have fought and died for this rectangular piece of fabric; all the while reciting the same fundamentalist chant in their heads:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America."

What next? "I pledge allegiance to Nike, and their kick-ass basketball shoes that helped Kobe win the Playoffs"? Or how about "I pledge allegiance to Ronald McDonald"? Nevermind Ronald Reagan; he's long gone. How long until the American flag becomes a trademark? How long until every American is required to own an American flag, disregarding the fact it was made in Korea similar to in Nazi Germany, where every German citizen was required to own a copy of Mein Kampf? How long until the Orwellian nightmare described above becomes true?
We already had the scandal over burning the American Flag during the eighties and nineties. Throughout the country, people were asking each other 'is it okay to burn the flag'? Nevermind serious ethical and moral issues, nevermind foreign relations and poverty; we need to know whether or not burning a rectangular piece of cloth is legal or not. This is the ideological dictatorship Americans are living in, where a deliberate campaign of ignorance is issued through the Idiot-boxes in order to keep the People planted in front of the TV, drooling.
Welcome to 1984, the next generation. You are free... to do what they tell you.
I pledge allegiance. Not to the American Flag, but what it stands for: freedom; not to do what they tell you, but freedom of choice.

Stay sane,
James

The Fallacy of Hypocrisy

Fuck it. No, seriously. While I won't name names, I've gotta rant here about a girl in my class.
I fucking hate hypocrisy. I think that it's the vice of mankind. The problem is, we're all guilty of being hypocrites at one time or another, regardless of who we are. Some people take it to extremes though.
The worst part is that the girl in particular chose to represent our class at the student body this year, therefore she assumes that this gives her the authority to criticize anyone for any reason at all. She's also repeated the year, so she assumes this gives her the right to tell us how to go about studying etcetera.
Anyways, we're in a class of about twenty people. As you could expect from a bunch of kids in their late teens, we talk in class, chat to each other and generally make a small cacophany which occasionally annoys the teachers. This girl takes it upon herself to tell people to shut up and pay attention to the teacher. Then what does she do? She starts talking to her friend next to her.
In history class the other day, we were studying the 2nd World War, and the teacher asked a few questions. My friend Florian doesn't have a great history grade, but he decided to try and answer the question, and to his credit he got it right! We all gave an encouraging thumbs-up to him, but behind me what did I chance to hear? "Putain, il fait chier!" To save the time of putting all that through Google, it basically means "damn, that's not fair!", because the girl in question (let's call her C) tried shouting out the answer instead of putting her hand up. Flo answered several other questions to the same reply from C. I mean, Jesus, shouldn't she be encouraging him? it's great that he's making progress in class.
Friday in maths, our teacher asked us if we had any questions on what we had studied over the year. I was bored so I jokingly asked 'yeah, what's two plus two?'. It got a few laughs, but C shouted out "Don't be such a fucking moron!". Stupid bitch.

It angers me, because all she does is criticize people. I think being able to take a 3rd person view and look outside yourself and see your faults is an important virtue, because it means you recognize you're not perfect. Remember, it's always easier to criticize others.
Of course, having written this rant, I do admit I'm a hypocrite. Here I am going on about criticizing people, when that's pretty much all I do on this blog. Lol. I guess it's hard to live up to the standards you set for other people. Having said that, at least I am able to recognize that I have faults. Think about that.

So my message for today? Worry about what other people think of you. I generally try to bend over backwards to please people, because I want them to like me. Maybe this makes me weak, but I'd rather people liked me instead of thinking I was an asshole.

Piss! Piss in my ass!

It's no secret that I swear like a docker. But one of the best things I love about the English language is it's affinity for inventing some of the most outrageous insults out there. So here is my top-ten list of my favorite invented curses/insults out there.

10.Cockknocking Sodsplit
9.Fucking Minger (popularized by Jean-Marie)
8.Three Menzies Campbells short of a party cabinet
7.Crapslinging Nun-tickler
6.Spelunking crickerhead
5.Codfondler (popularized by my grandfather)
4.Bloody Goose-cacker
3.Fuck!
2.Balls!
1.Socialist worker


Believe it. Yar.

Terry Bozzio isn't gay.

You gotta admit, Punky Meadows does look like a woman.

In today's rapidly changing world
Rock groups appear every fifteen minutes,
Utilising some new promotional device.
Some of these devices have been known
To leave irreparable scars
On the minds of foolish young consumers.
One such case is seated before you:
Little skinny terry 'ted' bozzio,
That cute little drummer!
That's right!
Terry recently fell in love
With a publicity-photo of a boy named punky meadows...
(oh punky!)...
Lead guitar player from a group called angel.
In the photograph,
Punky was seen with a beautiful shiny hairdo
In a semi-profile which emphasized the pootched out succulence
Of his insolent pouting rictus,
The sight of which drove the helpless young drummer mad with desire!

I can't stand the way he pouts
'cause he might not be pouting for me!
Punky meadows, pouting for you?
Ha! you bet sailor!
You mean,
You mean he's not...he's not pouting...
He's not pouting for me?
His hair's so shiny and it's done real nice
'til I squirm with ecstasy

Punky, punky, give me your lips to die on!

Oh punky, isn't it romantic?

Punky, punky, give me your lips
To die on...i promise not to come in your mouth
Punky, punky, your album's the shits!
It's all wrong!

I ain't really queer
But if he ever got near
Steven tyler would pay to see!
Pay to see!

Punky's lips, punky's lips
His hair's so shiny,
I love his hips!
I love his teeth and his gums and such!
Punky
(what is it? you come home!)
You're an angel!
You're too much
(oh god!)

The boys of my thoughts in my lonely teenage room!

He's been havin' a rash
(no shit!)
That keeps the girls away
(it's true)
Skin doom
(skin doom)
Is what the doctors say
And that makes me wonder
I wonder what punky is rehearsing today
I'll just go over, and hear him play
His hair is so pretty...i'd like to bite his neck
I've heard a rumor he's more fluid than jeff beck
But I ain't queer
I ain't gay
(he's a little fond of chiffon in a wrist array-ee-ay-ee-ay)
A wrist array-ee-ay
(that's all that is, I swear!)

Punky's lips, punky's lips!
Oh! I love his hair while eatin' dunk-y chips
Yeah! I love his blink and his blank-blank-blank
Why, maybe he'd like to yank my crank?
Yank it punky!
Yank it faster!
Yank it harder!
Yank it all nite long!
Come on punky!
Get funky!

I ain't queer
No no no no!
I ain't gay
No no no no!
(he's a little fond of chiffon in a wrist array-ee-ay-ee-ay)
Wrist array-ee-ay
And then he told me now:
I ain't queer!
(hey!)
I ain't gay!
(hey! hey!)
(he's a little fond of chiffon in a wrist array-ee-ay-ee-ay)

I-i, lord,
I'm fo-o-o-ond of chiffo-on
In a wrist array-ee-ay
Oh oh oh oh!
I-i, I said I'm fo-o-ond of chiffo-on
In a wri-i-i-i-ist array
Come on punky!
Give me your lips!
Ride on my venus-trip!

And life plods on...

T'has been a while since any updates, but I have a good excuse. No, honestly.
See, I recently had the misfortune of falling upon the shitlist of both my internet service provider and the electricity company, finding my leccy and internet cut off within days of each other. Oh, and how we had fun...
See, when the power went I pretty much flipped and went on a Rambo-esque crusade to try and get it back on. My grandmother very generously lent us the money (some 200 euros) to pay it back. But was it that easy? Was it bollocks.
I went into the EDF building, only to find that EDF didn't live there anymore and I had to pay the bill by phone. But they told me I had to send verification of payment by fax, meaning I had to plod around for an hour trying to find a place that does fucking faxes.... ehn.
But power is back on and Internets will soon be back on.
This morning I have a pounding headache. We celebrated Liam's 18th birthday last night at the Korrigan. The beer was... shit, to be honest, but we had a good time. I also learned of a little revelation, which (if it turns out to be true) could be the best thing that has happened to me. It involves a certain girl. Basically, last night I was told that she has a thing for me, whereas I thought we were just friends. Problem is she already has a boyfriend, and as much as I try to dislike him; he's just too damn nice. But I need to make some inquiries to find out whether or not I'm being bullshot or not. We shall see.

My last week of school is on the way. I finish my exams on the 24th. Wish meh luck.