Zero Dark Thirty - Nothing

My brain is still reeling from Zero Dark 30. Here are some highlights:

At least a half hour of torture porn that somehow managed to be boring and repetitive, followed by rapid-fire spitting of Arabic names I had likely read before, but could not place (nor did any of them get explained much).

The propagandistic propping up of the old saw that torture got any useful information, let alone being the key unlocking the hiding place of Osama.

A pasty mushroom-woman neurotic central character who took down the world's most wanted with a series of tics, spasms, and outbursts of hissy fits interrupting her otherwise cold, clammy, affectless demeanor.

A fairly good video game version (complete with dirty-screen overlay) of the actual raid in Pakistan. Worth the ticket? No, but I cared much more about the Navy Seal team than I did about the careerist, torture-loving wanks at the CIA the film massaged so lovingly.

So, we have, overall, a stew of nastiness that the critics love. I walked away muttering, "I'll never trust the critics again." Which only confirmed what I was muttering when I left The Master. More than that, this movie had dialog your average 15-year-old could have written. The Master at least felt like a 17-year-old wrote it.

I rate it: Zero, zilch, nada.

More: Senators write angry letters about the movie's central point, and the CIA's playing footsie with the picture people. 

Zero Dark Thirty - The Central Lie?

The story gets curiouser and curiouser. Senators Feinsten, McCain, and Levin have been writing letters hotly disputing the movie's central premise: that the CIA tortured the name of the courier out of a detainee, who they followed to Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.

They want to know what the CIA told the Zero Dark Thirty people, who they are also asking to set the record straight. In communication to both they throw in these interesting bullet points about the torture program:

• The CIA did not first learn about the existence of the UBL courier from CIA detainees subjected to coercive interrogation techniques. Nor did the CIA discover the courier's identity from CIA detainees subjected to coercive techniques. No CIA detainee reported on the courier’s full name or specific whereabouts, and no detainee identified the compound in which UBL was hidden. Instead, the CIA learned of the existence of the courier, his true name, and location through means unrelated to the CIA detention and interrogation program. 

• Information to support the UBL operation was obtained from a wide variety of intelligence sources and methods. CIA officers and their colleagues throughout the Intelligence Community sifted through massive amounts of information, identified possible leads, tracked them down, and made considered judgments based on all of the available intelligence. 

• The CIA detainee who provided the most accurate information about the courier provided the information prior to being subjected to coercive interrogation techniques.

Gee, it looks like someone gave them some kind of information about the courier (after the identity was known?), but then they tortured the guy anyway. Nice.

The letters also point to a bit of coyness on the part of the CIA, and tries to pin the agency down on the details. Stay tuned.

Again, Zero Dark Thirty's central point is that torture works, torture is glorious, torture is what we should do. Take that away and the movie's story falls apart.

See my thrilling review of this dreadful movie.

KANSAS PREACHER-CREATURE CURTIS KNAPP: GOVERNMENT SHOULD KILL GAYS

Murder-lover Curtis Knapp

Good as You tracked down this new lovely antigay screed (audio at link).

Curtis Knapp, pastor of Seneca, Kansas' New Hope Baptist Church:

"Oh, so you're saying we should go out and start killing them? No, I'm saying the government should. They won't, but they should."

Another call for government-run genocide.

And I thought Conservatives thought government couldn't do anything right. A sudden change of ideology when it serves their vampiric cravings for blood.

Related:
TODDLER'S NO-HOMOS-IN-HEAVEN RAP
PROTEST OF CREATURE PREACHER WORLEY
NIGHTMARE NC PREACHER SEAN HARRIS

PROTEST OF KILL-THE-GAYS PREACHER WORLEY

Evil preacher-creature Worley, who advocates death camps for gay and lesbian people, got a little bit of big protest thrown at him.

I think the worst part of this video may not be this unholy wreck of a man, but the counter-demonstrators who support him. Yikes. They've had time to mull it over, and they're just fine with the idea.






Related: BRAINWASHED TODDLER ANTIGAY SONG IN CHURCH
See also "Kansas Pastor Wants Government to Kill Gay People"

SCARY STUFF: ATLANTA ANTI-CHOICE FIRES, POSSIBLE DOMESTIC TERROR (UPDATE: ANOTHER IN N.O.?)

Atlanta area fires and burglaries are hitting pro-choice advocates, and seem to target speech as well as clinics:

Federal agents are investigating two fires in the past week at women's clinics in metro Atlanta, authorities said. ...

The two fires, along with several burglaries that struck women's clinics in recent months, have raised concerns that the clinics are being targeted by vigilantes.

The physicians who were victims of the burglaries and Sunday's fire did not perform abortions but they had all visited the statehouse this session to discuss the impact of abortion-related legislation, said Dr. David Byck, president of the Georgia Obstetrical and Gynecological Society.

"We are concerned that each of these physicians spoke with lawmakers during the session and that each then became targets of felony crimes," Byck said in a statement.

This looks like either one person or a group at work to silence these doctors. That does constitute terrorism, by definition, no?

UPDATE: Here's another case of arson at a Women's education, advocacy, and community center in New Orleans. Again, this one is deliberate, going after the information materials (speech). I am not saying they are directly connected, but it's worth exploring the angle, while the feds are at it. This group seems to have overturned a law that made prostitutes subject to sex-offender registry, somehow based on a 205-year-old statute. FBI, please get on this.

Related: TN'S ANTI-CHOICE SCARLET LETTER BILL
CHICAGO CLUB 'VELVET ROPE' FIRE IS ARSON

NC NIGHTMARE PREACHER SEAN HARRIS

This just in:

Get Pastor Harris's tweet: "Even my apology is being judged by those who are supposed to be the most tolerant as insincere. At this point nothing seems sufficient."

Oh my gawwwd, how he's being pilloried by the mean homosekshuls of the world! What bullies they are.

The story so far:

Homophobe of the week Sean Harris preached a sermon that advocated breaking the wrist of any male toddler caught seeming to be effeminate, audio via GoodAsYou.

Can I make it any clearer? Dads, the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. Man up. Give him a good punch. Ok? You are not going to act like that. You were made by God to be a male and you are going to be a male. And when your daughter starts acting to Butch you reign her in. [Transcript excerpt, errors included, from that site.]

The words spread out from Berean Baptist Church in Fayetteville, NC, like an oil spill, and the church staff and preacher spent a day saying it was all a joke, or maybe just an exaggeration for effect, or whatever. Anything to get the phones to stop ringing. And the retraction has come in, via his blog. Oh, but wait!

However, I do not apologize for the manner in which the Word of God articulates sexual immorality, including homosexuality and effeminacy, as a behavior that is an abomination to God. Nothing in this official statement of retraction should be perceived as an apology for the overarching intent and message of the sermon and the need to define marriage as one man and one woman and to maintain the gender distinctions that God created from the beginning when He made them male and female (Genesis 1). I recognize that there are those in the LGBT community who believe that their sexual behavior is not sin. I do not agree with them and this official retraction should not be misunderstood as an apology for the gospel of Jesus Christ or the Word of God.

I do not apologize for the manner in which I emphasized the importance of one man and one woman getting married and staying married for the benefit of their children and society.

My bold. So we have a non-retraction retraction. What was the "manner in which [he] emphasized"? Precisely to tell parents to break and beat their kids for the least wavering from beer-commercial gender roles. The man cannot help himself. Someone needs a rainbow intervention. Where's a bubble machine and a busload of drag queens? Time to show up in front of the place next Sunday.

Scarier still is that the church runs a school. Via The Advocate, it's K-12. Hello child protective services? Care for a casual swing by?

I just noticed his Linked in profile. Twenty years in the army? I'm sure he knows a few effective wrist-snapping techniques. The man has violent fantasies that he loves to express. That doesn't mean he's acted on them.

Cory Booker Saves Neighbor From Burning Building

Local hero of the week, Newark's mayor.

Only Kryptonite can stop him.

From the Daily News:

A detective in the mayor’s security detail grabbed Booker by the belt in an effort to keep him from heading into the second-floor blaze in Newark’s South Ward.

But Booker won the forceful debate by turning to Det. Alex Rodriguez and declaring, “If I don’t go in, this lady is going to die.”

The Holy Beatings Will Continue Until the Marriage Improves

In terms of the War on Women, it looks like we're falling behind. Via the Toronto Sun.

A local bookstore has “sold out” of a controversial marriage guide that advises Muslim men on how to beat their wives.
The 160-page book, published by Idara Impex in New Delhi, India, is written by Hazrat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, who’s described in the book’s foreword as a “prolific writer on almost every topic of Islamic learning.”
...
In terms of physical punishment, the book advises that a husband may scold her, “beat by hand or stick,” withhold money from her or “pull (her) by the ears,” but should “refrain from beating her excessively.”

The story goes on to cite a horrendous honor killing, without providing more than a fuzzy linkage. I don't think that's fair journalism. The question is also put whether such a book should be sold in Canadian bookstores. They don't seem to have that freedom-of-the-press burden the U.S. has.

At least the beatings should not be "excessive."

Romney: Russia Our Biggest Foe

This does not look good. Romney seems to hanker for the good old days of the Cold War. Via CNN's Blitzer's interview:

What he did both on nuclear weaponry already in the - in the new START treaty, as well as his decision to withdraw missile defense sites from - from Poland and then reduce our missile defense sites in Alaska from the original plan, I mean these are very unfortunate developments.  And if he's planning on doing more and suggests to Russia that - that he has things he's willing to do with them, he's not willing to tell the American people - this is to Russia, this is, without question, our number one geopolitical foe.  They - they fight every cause for the world's worst actors. The I - the idea that he has some more flexibility in mind for Russia is very, very troubling, indeed. - CNN

Russia looks out for its own interests. The U.S. does ... about the same. With any luck we back the good guys more than the bad, but there have been quite a few bad guys on our payroll. Anyone remember Noriega? Hands? I thought not.

Who wouldn't want the Cold War back? Hiding under nuclear-blast-proof school desks, stocking the bomb shelter with crackers and Twinkies, the tense spy movies - it was a truly romantic era. P'shaw on disarmament.

Keep shaking, Romney. You're fading fast.

Related: Romney the Erasable

Belvedere Vodka's Very, Ahem, Tasteful Sexual Assault Ad

Scrubbed from the Web site,
but the innertubes are forever.

That's keeping it classy, Belvedere.

You just know it's a bad day when the Daily News prints:

The company later released another apology.

I guess they were aiming for that hard-to-target date-rapist market.

When your image is high style, luxury, and a finely etched bottle, do not offend 99.99% of the people who might see this ad.

How did the wheels fall off the cart? Is this yet another sign of the Maya Apocalypse?

They're donating to anti-violence assistance, which is a somewhat helpful outcome, but seriously?

I remember recently they won big in a taste test. Odd, since vodka is supposed to have no flavor. Flavorless fine, tasteless not good!

Don't walk past corporate HQ on Monday, unless you want to trip over heads rolling out the door. Remember, something of this order usually needs approval. People inside the company, and where the ad was created, had to sign off. How did no one raise a hand and say, "Hold on. There might be a slight wrinkle in the plans?" Some brave soul might have spared everyone a lot of pain.

I thought I was getting this instead:

See. Nice, glowing bottles, shimmering crystal ceiling.
And it's vodka.