As The Republicans Are Learning After Romney: Add A Cult To The Mix And You Have No Idea Where It's Going

And with the addition of V/H/S 2., The Big 'C' keeps on rockin' the cineplex:

There are five segments in “V/H/S 2.” As the only segment to bring up the theme of a religious cult and featuring an Indonesian cast, Timo and Evans’ “Safe Haven” appears different from the rest. Their story follows a news crew reporting on a controversial Indonesian cult allegedly brainwashing and sexually abusing underage children. What starts as an attempt to do in-depth coverage turns into a nightmare when the Father (Epy), the head of the cult, instructs his followers to kill the crew (Fachry, Oka Antara and Hannah) and commit suicide. The members of the crew must find a way to help each other survive. 

Both Timo and Evans were approached separately for “V/H/S 2” but they decided to work together. Despite a different style, Timo said he enjoyed making “Safe Haven” with Evans, as both had different expertise to offer. The story of a cult, Timo said, was his idea, as he always wanted to do a documentary about a religious cult. Evans contributed to the supernatural, apocalyptic feel of the film-within-a-film. 

“I’m interested in systems of belief and how they can corrupt people,” Timo said. “I also like to explore the values of Christianity because I’m a Christian.”

I'd like to see where those Christian explorations go as well because, from what I've seen, in real life they're not much of a help:

From his house on Pear Tree Lane, Moses managed to closely monitor and control his five “wives.” The women called one another sisters, studied the Bible together and shared chores. They would periodically share Moses’ bed. 

The women handed any money they earned over to their leader, while Moses sat at home and brooded over his theology. 

In YouTube videos shown in court, Moses revealed the pillars of his faith. He preaches from the Bible and looks forward to an end time when he will be surrounded by servile women. He is certain that the black race will rise over all others. 

“A lot of you hate order, you hate instruction, and that’s why the Lord’s going to kill a lot of you,” he said in a video obtained by WRAL. 

He kept his wives in line by feeding them his twisted doctrine. 

"You were cursed to serve. You are our possession,” Moses said about women. “Get that through your head." 

All of the children in the household were fathered by Moses — everyone except little Higganbothan. 

Moses was convinced that the 4-year-old boy’s father was gay. When Higganbothan struck another child in the buttocks, Moses took it as proof of the child’s homosexuality, prosecutors said. 

Higganbothan was dragged to a garage and shot in the head while a recording of the Lord’s Prayer in Hebrew blasted in the background. 

When McKoy attempted to leave the group, she was allegedly dragged into the house by her sister wives, beaten and then shot.

That's the thing about the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - and I've seen a lot of each - but Good always seems to be outnumbered, you know?

"Yes, Mujahedin al-Khalq Is a Dishonest Cult"

The Bad and the Ugly are everywhere, like a swarm of locusts:

"Joyce Carol Oates’s Islamophobic tweets 

On Twitter, the writer suggests that religious beliefs contribute to the prevalence of rape in Egypt"

Coming at us from all sides, and in any way they can:

"I don’t want to have my awareness raised, thanks"

Over time, it might become difficult to tell them apart:

"How alien conspiracists are just like creationists"

Which means they can kinda start to look like what's normal:

"A very hot hop! Ukranian revellers leap over campfire to celebrate pagan holiday"

And Ladies - if I may say so myself - that's the hint that you're in trouble,...

 

It's The Little Things

This is a photo of an aborted child. Why am I showing you a photo of an aborted child? Because we never see one, do we? We're forced to talk about them all-the-time, but we never see what we're talking about. Is this that "clump of cells" I hear so much about - or a dead baby? 

Looks like a dead kid to me.

So - along with my truck conking out - I'm in about as much pain as a man can be. But I don't feel any of it, because of pain killers. They're not only masking my physical pain (and putting me somewhere between "Whee!" and wanting to vomit) but, emotionally, I'd be hard pressed to have ever been more ambivalent. Political activists, especially, will get nowhere with me right now - not that they ever have:

"Those who set themselves up to raise the public’s awareness are not just providing information; they’re also making a statement about themselves, about who they are. They, unlike those who require their support, are aware. Awareness is presented as a state of being all of us should aspire to attain. In its common usage today, the term awareness resists any clear definitions. It is not simply about knowing or understanding. So AIDS awareness, for example, is not reducible to knowledge of that disease; rather, it implies the adoption of the values of safe sex and the lifestyle associated with its values. People who are aware are likely to demonstrate this fact publicly, by wearing the right-coloured ribbon or bracelet or T-shirt and using the appropriate language. To be aware is to be on the morally superior side: not eating meat; not practising unprotected sex; not smoking; exercising regularly; riding a bicycle; recycling… these are just some of the rituals that signal that a person is aware."

Isn't there something ethically wrong with appointing yourself as morally superior? So aren't, say, Whole Foods and NPR actually citadels to evil? They certainly seem like it. That's why they both spend so much time and effort, smoothing over the edges, trying to make the ugly attractive:

"Recycling does sometimes makes sense -- for some materials in some places at some times. But the simplest and cheapest option is usually to bury garbage in an environmentally safe landfill. And since there's no shortage of landfill space,...there's no reason to make recycling a legal or moral imperative. Mandatory recycling programs aren't good for posterity. They offer mainly short-term benefits to a few groups -- politicians, public relations consultants, environmental organizations, waste-handling corporations -- while diverting money from genuine social and environmental problems. Recycling may be the most wasteful activity in modern America: a waste of time and money, a waste of human and natural resources."

I like the idea of the self-appointed morally superior NewAge hippies, working in cahoots with the politicians they claim to loathe, only to screw the rest of us.

To an artist, that symmetry is practically a pain killer all by itself,...

 

Theory: JFK And MLK Were Shot By Jealous Husbands

"If only everyone were nonviolent, wouldn't that be nice?" -- Ann Althouse 

Ask Charlie Manson, Oh Great Baby Boomer who vowed to stay married and couldn't even pull off that individual commitment to simply loving one of your fellow men. 

 Boomers are amazing sometimes - always demanding, nudging, and/or wishing others would create the well-run society they were always too frisky to participate in. How they ever expected a non-violent world out of the disasters they "left" us (political pun, intended) is anybody's guess.

They high-jacked the Civil Rights Movement to suck dick.

After they're gone (and we're finally done with them polishing their own knobs) it'll be divorce and all it's real-world ramifications for others - the destruction, hatred, confusion, abandonment, poverty, death, etc. - that will be their ultimate legacy.

America's destruction was NOT "Have A Nice Day". 

 It'll take generations to fix what they've done to us - and won't that be really (not superficially) "nice"? 

All the hippies/NewAgers/feminists/gays, etc., taught us is whores love everybody - and they could create them faster than any other generation in history.

"Love the one you're with,..."

 

How To Fight Terrorism: Wear Top Hats - Not Fedoras

 

Yes - I'm reusing a photo - and, alright, I know this already, too:

I always make a mistake by starting my intentional reading with Glenn Reynolds. 

Today he quotes his boss, Roger Simon, but that stupid hat's making Simon's brain hot:

"The Obama administration and most of those working for it have taken Islamic terrorism about as seriously as I am taking the Memphis Grizzlies/L.A. Clippers game currently on my TV — in other words, at best mildly interested. Not being a fan of either team, I could watch — I could switch to something else."

 

 It's nice to see Simon's got some perspective on sports, but on terrorism, the man's throwing BS at us and it stinks. Every day - that we hadn't been attacked since 911 - is a day Roger Simon wasn't praising anybody for being alive and well. How many plots have the FBI foiled? Now two brothers pull something off and he's all about why didn't they catch somebody acting weird?

I got news for you, Roger Ol' Buddy:

   

 There's 300 million of us and, from where I sit, we're all pretty fucking weird.

   

 Kinda hard for anybody to stand out, you know what I mean? 

But they try.

   

Now, it's not a secret I'm no fan of the Obama Administration. And it's also no secret I'm a bit disenchanted with my own "side" at the moment. And part of that disenchantment springs from the wrongheaded, unnecessary sniping that goes on, rain or shine, as though there's nothing more important for us to attend to. 

"Not good" Glenn Reynolds said, endorsing Simon's recap of the Bengahzi conspiracy theory currently running through the Right. Look in the mirror, guys. Roger Simon is sitting at home, taking his kicks at this administration, just as casually as his Memphis Grizzlies/L.A. Clippers game. 

I won't deny the Obama administration is taking a different approach to terrorism than I'm comfortable with (our previous discussion of drone strikes, alone, should tell the tale) but I certainly won't deny their effort. The FBI, especially, deserves that. 

   

I also agree too much slips through the fingers of regulators, but in a country silly enough to keep homeopathy in it's pharmacology - and it's selling nationwide - I think there's more-than-enough blame to go around. Simon says:

"Tamerlan, evidently , left quite a trail, from domestic violence to reportedly attacking an imam for holding up MLK as someone to emulate. Not exactly subtle. They were even warned about Tamerlan by the Russians apparently. 

The Feds must have been pretty clueless to ignore all this."

 

 So "must have" Tamerlan's friends and family. Hell, they were a lot closer to the situation than Russia and, somehow, were able to "ignore all this." Or not. They were probably dealing with it in the same manner, I'm sure, the FBI does from time-to-time: 

 The best they can. 

 

Sure, domestic violence is troubling, but hardly a terrorist act - or trigger for a terrorist investigation. And if you're not sick of the MLK whitewash this country indoctrinates us with (along with all the other BS it's intent on doing so) then I question your sanity. 

That leaves the FBI with the damning oversight of a single phone call.

Whoopdefuckingdoo.

 

 If you ask me, compared to everything the Right overlooked in Mitt Romney - and all the smoke Glen Reynolds blew for him - it's not the Obama Administration that's actually looking "pretty clueless" right now,...