I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know shooting a crazy fuck in the head will be cause to have a rager at the site of a great tragedy

http://youtu.be/prE4Z9G7CTE

This horrifies me.

Yes, Osama Bin Laden is dead. Yes, he was a despicable, insect of a human being responsible for the deaths of over 3,000 people and even more physical and emotional damage that I can ever write about.

But treating this event in history like a sporting event? Going to Ground Zero and chanting ‘USA’ and singing ‘Proud To Be An American’ and taking YOUTUBE VIDEOS? That is beyond disturbing, not to mention completely disrespectful to the victims and the victim’s families. And what ‘justice’ has been served exactly, Obama? A crazy fuck was shot in the head. Pull the troops out of Iraq, then talk to me.

Let’s not forget that Bin Laden’s death changes NOTHING. We are still at war. 9/11 still happened. His followers are NOT going to stop. If anything, killing him was just about the dumbest move we could’ve done. I personally don’t believe in the death penalty for moral reasons, but regardless of what you believe, that man got off easy. He deserved to rot in a cage. That is the punishment that twisted, evil man deserved.

And I don’t care who you are, but throwing a fucking rager over the death of a human being is just ugly. We should not be celebrating Osama’s death. If we must celebrate, we should celebrate the hope of a brighter future. This ‘Rot in hell’ ‘FUCK YEAH, WE GOT HIM, GOOD JOB AMERICA!’ mentality is ridiculous.

What are we teaching our children by this? That killing is good? That peace is achieved by firing a gun?

Wake up, America. You’re a bunch of hypocrites, tricking yourselves into believing that we’re coming together as a country just because it’s suddenly trendy to fist pump and scream ‘USA!’ and capitalize on other people’s tragedies. Celebrate when the war is over and the killing has stopped.

‎”Today is a day for sober and mature reflection, not glee. Mindless celebration is both spiritually inappropriate and politically naive.” ~Marianne Williamson

‎”I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate, adding deeper darkness to a night that is already void of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” - Martin Luther King

WARNING: Dumbassery is closer than it appears.

It has been brought to my attention as of very late that I am oversensitive. This comes as a shock to me, because I happen to have a pretty raunchy sense of humor. I'm just constantly taken aback by the consistent lack of tact people present on their public websites like facebook and twitter.

Here are a list of things that I believe are not, and never will be funny.

-The Holocaust

-Rape

-Insinuating that people should be murdered/tortured

-Gay jokes

-Sexual and physical abuse

-Terrorism

-Racial slurs

Lately I've noticed a lot of off-color 'jokes' posted by individuals that seem to lack the common sense to realize not only are they being incredibly inappropriate, disrespectful and offensive-but NOTHING on the internet is private. You can take the high road and admit that you've said something without thinking, or you can play the 'It's my site, I can do what I want' card. But in fact, no one's facebook is theirs. Facebook owns your ass. Mark Zuckerberg and his minions have ownership of every little thing you post. So you can try to defend calling people niggers and faggots all you want. You can say that when you wrote, "OMG, she just totally RAPED my facebook wall" was just a joke (try making that joke to a rape victim. I'm sure they'll find it hilarious). Or callously telling someone to go die a horrible death, 'jokingly'. If you're not going to be tactful for the sake of other people, at least be aware that you can at the very least be fired for the idiotic things you write online. I know people who have been fired for even less because of their lack of sense and etiquette online. People have been arrested for the things they write online. I mean come on, has no one learned anything from Mel Gibson? Who, on the eve of my being disgusted by reading someone's distasteful twitter status and comparing them to Mel Gibson, was exposed again for not watching his mouth and the dirty utterings that fall out of it.

You can read this and either agree, or call me oversensitive. This isn't meant to target any individual or comment on anyone's lifestyle. It's just the freaking internet. Truth be told, I don't really give a shit if you think rape is hilarious because it's 'surprise sex' or if someone gets called a homo because they were late to a concert. It's your life. If you want to behave like an imbecile, that's your prerogative. But if you insist on being a moron, be smart about it. I'm just looking out for you. You're welcome!

Sincerely,

Jan (or, that bitchy Jew).

P.S, a shout out to my sickly mono-ridden best friend Michey for reminding me that I have this thing to bitch on at my own risk :)

To-do list.

Pull the plug, cut the cord, break bad habits, yip out all the bad vibrations, lose your vices, break the chains, break the cycle, break away, know your limits, save yourself, take care of yourself, live your life.

Blechh.

Every time I hear an ice cream truck, I get sad. It sounds like my youth slipping further and further away. I want to go chase it but then I remember I'm not 5 anymore.

In other news, alcohol poisoning is a sure way to become acquainted with your own mortality.

First day of school blues

Tomorrow is my first day of junior year in college. I am so over first days of school. It's taken me 20 years to officially become immune to the back-to-school excitement; the school supplies/clothes shopping, etc. Each first day of school is supposed to mark a fresh start. I always remember fussing over what I would wear and the kind first impression I would make, especially on my first day of school at college-which is embarassing to think about now. My sophomore year was a little better. I just wanted to appear cool, collect, and confident. It's all about faking it. I've been through a hell of a lot in the past year, and this semester I just want to concentrate on getting through all of my work and classes alive. I'm too tired to try and be the outgoing, friendly girl that I normally am. I just want to survive. I guess I'm officially jaded. School is just work. I need to maintain my strength and health as much as possible to last for as long as I need it to.

Inglourious Basterds

Disclaimer: I am not, nor do I claim to be, superior to the average audience-goer. I can't say my intelligence is any higher than the people who take the time to read this, either. On the contrary, I admit to being a bit of a horror enthusiast myself, and have seen my share of disgusting 'torture porn' films, and have been long desensitized to watching extreme gore onscreen; a result of my brother and I watching Stephen King films and 'slasher' movies when we were nine. I have always admired Quentin Tarantino, and although I admittedly bought my ticket to Inglourious Basterds knowing that it was some kind of Jewish/Nazi revenge film, I wasn't expecting to be as disturbed and revolted by the film as I was.

The following rant contains SPOILERS, though I don't think any of them would come to a shock if you know what the film is about.

Here's my problem. The premise of this film is pretty simple. It's 1940s German-invaded France. The Germans hate the Jews, and vice versa. The 'Bastards' hate Germans, and want to deform/humiliate/kill/destroy them all. And so they do, and by the end of the film they've blown a cinema full of Germans (including Adolf Hitler) to high hell. Disturbing, yes, of course. Do most people have an aversion to silently cheer for the 'Basterds' to avenge all that were horrifically murdered in The Holocaust? Of course. We've been ingrained to despise any people that would attempt a mass genocide, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, et cetera.

So why is it that during the scene when about three hundred Germans are locked in a movie theater that is on fire, the audience is laughing and cheering? How come at the very last scene, when Brad Pitt's character brands a swastika into the forehead of a German soldier, everyone whoops and hollers? It's one thing to be amused by outrageous, absurd violence (take Tarantino's Deathproof, which is paired with Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, for instance. Both are extremely gory and violent, but neither are rooted in American History, so unless you're a zombie, it's hard to really take offense to them). Anyone with an education above middle school (or anyone that reads, or watches television, for that matter), knows the extent of the atrocities committed against the Jews. No one would dare make The Holocaust into a comedy. Does that make it okay to fight fire with fire? If we are responding to violence with violence and torture with torture, who are we really 'avenging'? It's not so much as revenge, as a drainage of dignity. In one of the final scenes of the movie, the Germans are laughing at the film that depicts a German soldier shooting hundreds of soldiers. It is piggish and revolting, to see an image of Adolf Hitler laughing at his own genocide. But what does it say about any generic audience that hysterically laughs and applauds in the next scene where all of the Germans are slaughter/ burned alive in a theater? It only makes us hypocrites. The Jews were incinerated in gas chambers. No one is laughing about that. How are we any different than the 'evil' German characters portrayed onscreen if we are doing exactly what they are doing-taking pleasure in the slaughter of a people? Have we become so desensitized that even a film that actually takes root in no doubt one of the most horrific events in human history cannot shock us? It's disturbing to me, to be surrounded by audience members that are in hysterics and clapping when a German soldier gets his head obliterated by a baseball bat.

All of this being said, it doesn't take away from the fact that Tarantino is a brilliant director, and in my opinion the film was wonderfully shot, the casting was perfect, and the soundtrack was outstanding. However, I can't imagine how at one point someone proposed a film about Jews killing Nazis, and someone else thought it was marketable. The film is simply two and a half hours of hypocritical, nonsensical violence and humiliation whacked back and forth between two equally enraged and vengeful groups of people.

Let's jump a head from World War Two for a second and take a look at the current war in Iraq. Does anyone remember when these photos were posted in The New York Times?

Was anyone laughing when these photos were published? On the contrary, these pictures were met with revolt and disgust, and the soldiers responsible for the rape, sodomy, and humiliation of these Iraqi prisoners were tried for them. I don't know about all of you, but I think that it's pretty darn similar to the intent of this:

It's one thing to laugh at the past. It's quite another to insult it. But then again, I'm just a twenty something college student who loves cinema. You make draw your own conclusions...but I dare anyone to tell me that I'm simply overreacting and shouldn't be disturbed by an audience's reaction to this film.

Why people should be more like dogs and sniff each other's butts

I spent some quality time with me, myself & I in the dog park today. I think I'm the equivalent of a child molester at a dog park, except I don't want to molest the dogs, I just want to be in their presence. I love when some dogs are clearly not into the other dogs and they randomly seek out strangers. This one dog came up to me and just sat next to me smiling, and he was clearly uninterested in the gang-rape of a Shitzu that was going on. He just smiled at me and tried to stick his nose in my bag. This shitzu must've sprayed on some Axe or something before he left the house, because nearly every dog his size in the park was trying to get it on with him. At some point a terrier was humping his FACE. His owners just kept yelling 'Run, Charlie, run!' like he was Forest Gimp Dog or something. I know to dogs, licking each other's balls is really no big deal, but this poor guy was seriously being sexually assaulted. This french bulldog was the lead horndog. Obviously he wasn't neutered, and was literally air-humping as he strutted around the park. No one would come forward to claim him, probably because no one wanted to admit that their dog was a serial rapist. The owner ended up being this quiet young girl. She kept apologizing to Charlie's owners and scolded her bulldog for assaulting every small animal in sight.

You know that scene in '101 Dalmatians' when Pongo is looking out the window and sees that all of the dogs look just like their owners? Well sometimes that's true. Sometimes I see Puggles that resemble their human parents. And sometimes I think that tiny little Nicole Ritchie-types look just like their neurotic Yorkies that they keep in those stupid little pocketbooks. I get it, I mean if I go more than a day without shaving I sometimes look like my Cairn Terrier. But you don't expect the dog rapist to belong to a tiny little girl in a dress. I rather expected to see some unassuming Jeffrey Dahmer-type come forward to claim him.



















Sometimes I envy the way dogs socialize. They see each other, sniff each other's assholes, and within minutes, it's like they've known each other for years. There are some people I've known my whole life that I'm not THAT comfortable with. Dogs don't discriminate. (Let's disregard the scene in '101 Dalmatians' where the puppies are in blackface. The purebred doesn't ignore the Puggle just because it's biracial. And have you ever known a dog to be homophobic? I don't think so.

Going to the dog park is like zen for me. It's like reading a book that drools on you and occasionally humps your leg. Seeing all these poor city dogs let loose makes me so happy. It reminds me why I prefer animals to people.