Memorandum

I wish I was able to say that I’ve been working on other projects, like the screenplay I said I’d write in April, or the follow-up to my Myst story. It’s been my firm belief that a poet’s worst enemy is happiness. Or at the very least, a lack of misery. and in this case, it’s completely true. Without a source to draw from, an object of unrequited desire or romantic bitterness, my poetic effectiveness loses potency; indeed, it becomes impotent.

Fortunately, something new has been uncovered to fill the void and become a focal point for scrutiny: The world as we know it.

Gentle readers, I want you all to watch this movie. I can’t say you’ll agree with its claims and themes; I’m not sure I even do. That is why I want to spread the word about this movie: So I can talk about it, see it from your point of view, and draw a better-rounded conclusion about what it claims.

The film itself is called Zeitgeist, and it is a documentary (in the sense that Loose Change was a documentary, anyway) that has something to say about Christianity, the 9/11 attack, and the Federal Reserve & international banks, respectively. The films claims seem rational enough, but I a withholding judgment barring further communal discussion.

Admittedly, the film is two hours long, and slow getting started for the first few minutes. But I urge you to watch at least the first half-hour. I promise you will be enticed to watch the rest.

Words are all I have.

I’m by no means an idealist.

I believe that in the real world, compromises and concessions must be made in order to progress and evolve as a society.

But if there was one intangible that I could say I wave the flag for, it’s freedom. Freedom of expression. Freedom of speech. Freedom to think and say anything, and the freedom to disagree with anything anyone else might say. I believe that, above all else, is what I love about the nation of my home. Sometimes I am infuriated by what I hear or read, and think that nothing could be further from true or correct than what i have just hard or read, but I will defend the right to make that statement to the death.

Tragically, the powers that be do not seem to share my passion for this freedom.

According to a recent article on Ars Technica, a new bill has passed through Senate committee and is on its way to full Senate that will give the FCC the right to fine broadcasters over “fleeting” swears. What’s a fleeting swear? Imagine someone accidentally says “Fuck” on live TV, or a camera catches a t-shirt with something “inappropriate” on it; this bill would give the FCC the right to levy fines for such accidental occurrences. The bill is titled (I love this) the “Protecting Children from Indecent Programming Act.” So, apparently if you’re against this bill, you’re against protecting children? Way to box them in, assholes. Is this how our representatives spend their time?

Now, the FCC is a body that I have nothing but the utmost disdain and abhorration for. The FCC decided, all on its own, that radio and television were the only two parts of American life not protected by the free speech provisions of the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Go back and read that again; it seems… vaguely important.

They are appointed, not elected, but appointed, answerable only to the President, and get to decide, based on their own personal beliefs, what is and what is not appropriate for mass intellectual consumption. Why? Who are they to decide that kind of thing? Isn’t that a tenet of something we fought for decades against? And I’m sure this is all because some minister in Mississippi heard something on the radio back in the 60’s that he didn’t like and demanded that the government do something about it. Instead of, y’know, turning off the radio or something radical like that.

Unfortunately, my rage has only just escalated. In a much grander, much scarier move, President Bush has issued one of his wacky “Executive Orders” (those things that don’t require congressional approval and are subverting the god damned Constitution ) entitled “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq,” and basically, it criminalizes the Anti-war movement.

I’m going to let the article from the Intelligence Daily explain it better than I could; just keep a receptacle handy for when you inevitably vomit in disgust.

Pray for freedom. Apparently its days are numbered.