Chicom government deports US citizen accused of spying, after a court session on Saturday - a secret court hearing, on a day the justice system is normally closed. The Chinese accuse him of spying for Taiwan, claiming "large number of evidences" that prove his guilt. Our boy was tried, convicted, and sentenced in less than 5 hours over there. If he gets sent back to the US, then things might actually be looking up - because this case would possibly affect the other US citizens on trial there.

The Pentagon will be reforming the US military in a BIG way now. Instead of retaining the ability to fight two wars and a minor crisis elsewhere, there is now a 4-point plan for the following:

Defend the United States.
Deter potential adversaries in Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia by forward deployment of forces.
Decisively win one major war.
Concurrently conduct a number of smaller operations in other areas of the world.

I will comment that Jane (who did not get an action figure, shame on Square/Bandai!) totally looked like Ferro, the dropship pilot from Aliens...and that the submachineguns they are carrying in the scenes at the Barrier Generator were Masamune Shirow "Seburo" rifles, which was a neat touch.

Crayola, I DID like his comments...they were most amusing. A fine way to learn an important political rule - every microphone is always on. Rather similar to firearms safety rule #1.

Prometheus, I am most impressed by and completely agree with your review of the FF movie, except in one wee thing - Hein wasn't so much a villain as an idiot. He thought he was doing what needed to be done - a direct assault with unstoppable firepower against the core enemy target. He was way the hell wrong, and f*cked up big for it, but he was still doing that which he thought was the right way to save earth. And I liked the ending too, there wasn't an ubercheese moment in the elevator like I was fearing (even though I read the book already). And yes, I'm getting the artbook.

Kristi: *screams* NO! you have seen what that game did to Ragabash! (and still is!) It's a virus, it takes up 3 GIGABYTES of Ragabash's HD now. Save yourself!

Ragabash, tomorrow, 7:30-8:00ish, anime at Waliel's? He's house-sitting for his dad, same place, so we'll be able to have DVD and such. If not, that's fine, we'll still kidnap you Sunday for the other fun time. Let us know.

Sam, I'll admit to the same thing, examining skirts and legs, though I would gather for far different reasons than you do. ^_~

Y'know, I REALLY hate those ads that shake or wiggle when you're trying not to look at them. Especially me, drawn to sudden fast movement.

Many say Toronto would have been a better choice for staging the events, but there were other Olympics in North America recently. So why Beijing? There was political discussion recently (which prompts my lead in) that if Beijing were given the 2008 Olympics, perhaps it might come in line with the rest of the world. A sort of, if we give you a gift, please be nice approach that damn near gave Adolf Hitler control of Europe, until Churchill laid the British Smackdown on him.

Am I saying China is Nazi Germany? Not totally. But there are major parallels between the two, and giving the Beast what it wants to appease it only means that it'll make demands and noone will tell it no. Hopefully this won't continue.

In something NOT dealing with politics or ethics (wow, I can hear the cheering already), BMW unveils new hydrogen-powered cars in Los Angeles. The 12-cylinder cars are powerful enough to reach over 140 mph, and yet the emissions are 99.5% lower than modern cars - hell, the byproduct of the hydrogen reaction is water. I'm all for hydrogen powered cars, as long as we can get a good solid infrastructure set up (auto repair, hydrogen stations, etc) and as long as it's affordable. BMW thinks it will be, their new machines have 80,000 miles of life and are still going. Hopefully, this will bear fruit.

So far, all seven of the septuplets born in Washington DC are still in good condition. Hopefully, they'll all survive...

Tech news today is pretty interesting. Napster sends letter of apology to Metallica (and gets BOHICAed), and to show the courts they really can keep people from trading copyrighted material, shuts down.

American media monster AOL-Time Warner is most likely going to buy Euro magazine mogul IPC. IPC, along with Emap, pretty much control the UK magazine market, there's not much out there that's not from one of those two companies. The Register goes on to mention that the new AOL run tech magazines will probably have alllll kinds of ads and glowing reviews of new AOL software/hardware, as well as other companies under the chain. And I would not be surprised to see a lot of anti-MS articles, especially since the Mighty M is trying to expand into England as well. Could AOL simply be out to control the media there, and rag on windows?

I would.

One way to fight internet porn - ban it. Not the porn, but the internet itself. Afghanistan has, because it doesn't like the things that are on the internet that are against Islamic law, or are immoral, corrupt, or whatnot. Sure, fine, all well and good. Anyone remember what I said about the first rule in dictatorships? And how the Tian An Men revolution failed? Lack of communication and lack of free press. Excise the internet, does a damn fine job of that.

Alan, good speech, and much points made with the random craziness going on.

Carolyn, about the FF movie...have you seen much of Ghibli works? Ragabash made a great point - the Final Fantasy movie was like Ghibli doing a sci-fi film.

Pam, glad your wrist is better (although now MINE is rattlecracking and hurts, how did you give it to me?), and I liked Neil too! He did have the best lines in the whole show. Gray was voiced by Alec Baldwin. Nuff said...

Catsy, thanks dude. As you saw, I lit into that one, and the rather bald-faced misrepresentation of the facts Slate put out.

Dini, I'm GLAD to see someone agrees with me. It wasn't the best movie ever made, even if it has the Oscar for best FX sewn up (if Pearl Harbor wins, it's rigged!) but it was good. I enjoyed and will see again to celebrate Ragabash's birthday.

Fae, good reply. *nods* Can we stand proud, claiming our triumphs, when beneath our feet like the bodies of those sacrificed for a cause? And the idea of the flesh-farms - mass producing stem cells to be grown into replacement body parts is horrifying - what value does ANY life, even a "mature" human, have then? Who wants immortality in a world where life is worthless? I like the Hikaru pic. ^_^ And, well, it depends on how far you're going. Fieldstripping an M-16's not that difficult - complete action takedown for a THOROUGH scrubbing's a b*tch.

Firefly, I'm kinda sorry you got fired, but if there was a lot of crap going on, I'm glad you're not still stuck there. ^^ Good luck...

Gen-chan, I liked Hein too - he may have been a cold, manipulative b*stard, but y'know what? He thought he was doing the right thing, because it looked like an alien invasion. He was blinded by revenge...and what's funny, is that poor Jane - who was likeable and fun - doesn't get an action figure. Ryan, Neil, and Gray do. Kristi, glad to hear your car is fixed. ^_^ Have fun at Anime Iowa! And, in Japan, I was more referring to the legal system over there as in needing to protect the suspect's civil rights (who at the time hadn't even been charged, haven't checked lately) and not specifically the police themselves, sorry.

Hut the sack!

And definitely quote of the day from Waliel, about the FF movie: Review on FF:TSW. DAMN. I left the theater, and suddenly I wasn't sure if the world was real or CGI...

The benefits from using stem cell research would be relatively obvious - with the ability of the cells to generate any required tissue, and to grow a fairly large amount of it (a 180 pound human specifically) from a small collection of them, there's possibilities of using them for genetic diseases, alzheimers, and all kinds of other maladies that affect the humans. It could, depending on how they are applied, even be possible to tap stem cells to even study regeneration - if the cell can divide repeatedly and then become various tissues, perhaps they could be used to replace lost limbs or ones that were never there. It's possible that genetic diseases or transplants could be easily taken care of with sample tissue of various types waiting in "organ banks" that were created specifically for that purpose.

The question is...what is it exactly that we are getting these stem cells from? By itself, a single sperm cell or a single egg cell will pretty much just sit there and do nothing. Once they are joined, and the cell begins to divide, what is it then? Is it alive? It definitely grows, consumes fuel, uses the energy to continue growing, and 3 years after the zygote (the fertilized egg) is formed, it has grown into a walking, babbling, 40 pound mammal with two legs, two arms, a head, and a brain. At the time, it may not have a brain or any of its own limbs - it's still in the early stages of life. But it's not going to become anything else.

Studies of other animals are often shown as proof of evolution, that while in the embryo stage nearly all mammals look alike. When you're dealing with an item smaller than your finger, that has just been created, it's not going to look that different. But, no matter what - a cow zygote will become a cow blastocyst will become a cow fetus will become a cow. It won't change into anything else. And a human zygote will become a human blastocyst will be destroyed for stem cell research. The big question is...are we killing humans by doing this? Again, they may not have a brain, they may not have eyes or a nose or a mouth or hair or limbs, and it probably can be classified as a parasitic organism because it does have to live off of the parent directly for nine months - but pretty soon, even while it's in the womb - before it's even breathing air - , it's going to have the same number of eyes you or I do, the same number of limbs you or I do, it'll have hair, it'll have a nose...it will be a human being.

Since these stem cells have the DNA pattern of a human being, based on one man's sperm cell and one woman's egg cell, and it will grow into a fusion of their two DNA maps, and it will look like them...are we killing humans for this research? Is the destruction of a 6-day-old blastocyst, 300 cells that will divide again and again into the countless number of cells in a human infant's body, actually murder? It can't think, it can't move, it can't do anything but grow. And it doesn't have any specialized tissue yet, it doesn't have any real form beyond a microscopic soccer ball. And if we do use the cells from the embryos, we stand a good chance at making life better for others. There are benefits to the use of the stem cells - but there's really only one place to get it. And that's the destruction of a 6-day-old fetus, which is technically what it is.

It's a question to be considered...are we killing a human before it even has a chance to be one? Cutting out whatever possibility it may have? But looking at how bad things can be for the currently-grown, with various genetic malfunctions, parkinsons, alzheimers, etc...is the tradeoff for the benefits worth the eventual mass-production and destruction of human blastocysts that could be perfectly normal, even far above average people?

On a far, far lighter note - while randomly searching a Robotech page (at yesterdayland.com) due to boredom, I found that the voice actor for Zor Prime was Ardwight Chamberlain. That's right, the voice of Kosh. He had one other run-in with anime, being the director for Unico: Mahou no shima e (Unico: To the magic island) - a Tezuka film that holds a 9.5/10 rating on IMDB. The strange things you find in the morning...

And, in a future rant tomorrow morning, I give this. Human embryos being created in labs and then dismantled for stem cells. Specifically, they fertilize an egg with sperm, get it to grow about a week until the blastocyst reaches around 100-300 cells, then extract the individual cells, in effect tearing the 1-week-old human embryo to pieces.

The benefits? Possible cures for genetic diseases, cancers, alzheimer's, quite a lot.

The drawbacks? Are we mass producing humans, bringing them to an intitial stage of development, and then murdering them?

More on all sides tomorrow morning, it's 1:20 and I'm braindead.

One other thing to mention - the founders of our nation consistently refer to the right of peaceful, law abiding citizens to own firearms. Not everyone, not people with criminal records, but always the citizens - they with the moral fortitude to follow law, maintain Civilization, and carry on the traditions of their country. Felons lose the right to carry - yet, they often continue to break the law and get their firearms illegally, and continue poisoning the issue.

Ah well, I've ranted enough for now on the gun rights issue. Ragabash, apologies for the post, I started to address it to you, then I got mad at Slate and kept going. I do that, you know me. I couldn't poke the bunny, it broke IE.

Okay, Cellblock D - here's the final list of showtimes.

Regal Colonnade 14 - 8800 S Eastern Ave - 9:50
Regal Boulder Station - 4111 Boulder Highway - 9:50, 10:20
Century Suncoast 16 - 9090 Alta Drive - 9:30, 10:05
Century Orleans 12 - 4500 W Tropicana - 9:50
Rainbow Promenade - 2321 N Rainbow - 10:20
Green Valley Cinemas 8 - 4500 East Sunset - 10:30

You mention John Ashcroft's letter. Well, let's bring him on and let him have his say. Ashcroft wrote another letter to the NRA (published in the July issue of First Freedom) and mentioned case law and other legal precedents in which the courts actually DID find that the Second Amendment is applicable to the individual and not the "collective". Specifically:

Logan v United States, 144 U.S. 263, 276 (1892)
Miller v Texas, 153 U.S. 535, 538 (1893)
Robertson v Baldwin, 165 U.S. 275, 281-82 (1897)
Maxwell v Dow, 176 U.S. 581, 597 (1900)

Want more? Ashcroft goes on. William van Alstyne, The Second Amendment and the Personal Right To Arms, 34 Duke L.J. 1236 (1994), Akhil Reed Amar, The Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment, 101 Yale L.J. 1193 (1992), Sanford Levinson, The Embarassing Second Amendment, 99 Yale L.J. 637 (1989), and Don Kates, Handgun Prohibition and the Original Meaning of the Second Amendment, 82 Mich. L. Rev 204.

Hmm. But those are all interpretations of the document, without the original flavor. So let us nail the coffin closed and examine the words of the original writers once more. George Mason: "I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except a few public officers...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them." Said at the 1788 Constitution Ratification Convention. Sure doesn't say much about the right only applying to the still rather nebulously-defined "states". Also go study the Federalist Papers. Federalist 46 eliminates the idea the the "militia" are the state- and federally-controlled organizations, the "militia" is given as a preferable alternative to the "standing army" - specifically being AGAINST the idea of Federal troops!

Federalist 29 is quite prophetic, and deserves a quote from Alexander Hamilton here: The adversaries of the Constitution seem to have lost sight of the people altogether in their reasonings on this subject; and to have viewed these different establishments, not only as mutual rivals and enemies, but as uncontrolled by any common superior in their efforts to usurp the authorities of each other. These gentlemen must here be reminded of their error. They must be told that the ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the people alone...

The Slate goes on to mention that the idea of the Second Amendment being interpreted as belonging to the individual, and the fact that a majority of the people believe such, merely makes the people victims of a hoax and "false consciousness". And then they go on to contradict themselves, and say that people believe the the right has come and gone, and that it's time for the courts to catch up with "public opinion" and ban the guns. According to you, Slate, you just said public opinion is really that firearms are to be owned by the people! You can't have Schroedinger's Population, believing two different things at the same time that fundamentally cancel each other out. But, let's for the sake of argument, say that you're right and that all the previous quotes and commentary is pure malarkey. That the Second Amendment really does not apply to the individual.

That means the rest do not as well. So you don't have a right against the censure of free speech by the government, only the states do. You don't have a right to face your accuser in court, and your home may be The ban on slavery would not apply to you - a tenth of this nation, or more, would still be in chains. You yourself would never see a jury trial, no matter what you did. Why, the Ninth Amendment - The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. - would, along with the Tenth Amendment - The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. - only apply to the state governments, making you little more than serfs of an elected government. You would not even have the RIGHT TO VOTE - which makes the government not quite so elected! Can you truly believe that any part of the Bill Of Rights is NOT a shield for the individual against the tyranny of the empowered, both just and evil?

And it didn't hurt that there were a bunch of tourists renting machineguns next to me. It was like dueling banjos, with SMGs on full auto. Let's see, they had the MP5, the Thompson, and the suppressed MAC-10 (which is weird to hear with earmuffs and a closed room) constantly going.

Ah well, a little news commentary. Some time back a government intern went missing, noone's seen hide nor hair of her. Congressman Gary Condit denied any relationship and told investigators he barely new her. Well, now things have come out that he'd been having a romantic affair with the intern (whose name escapes me at the moment). Now Congressman Condit's getting a severe legal anal probe because he lied to protect his own image, and he even failed in the attempt to protect his image.

Folks, if you don't want people to know about what dirty things you have done or will do...don't bother trying to lie about them. Truth has an ugly habit of coming out, wherever and whenever it can. If you want to be seen as having a pristine, happy life...then DON'T SCREW AROUND. Anyone ever heard dirt on Tom Hanks? Nope. Why? He keeps himself and his life spotless. Even if Condit's innocent of anything to do with her disappearance, he still lied to investigators and has been dragged deep through the mud because he tried to protect himself.

Moral of the story: Lies are fabrications, and like all fabrications, they eventually break. If you want to be seen as a good person with a clean life...then BE that way. Don't fake it.

The United Nations claims that the "gun culture" that we have today is responsible for crime and violence. I would beg to differ. Before guns even existed, there was violence in the world and there were murders. I would point to the history of Europe from 1000 AD to 1600 AD - a safe period to say that the continent was all but free of firearms. Can anyone tell me who did NOT walk around with at least one knife or dagger with them to ward off thieves or muggers of the day? Perhaps not the clergy, nor the rich lords and ladies who could afford bruisers to guard them, but quite a few did. Self-protection.

Humans are a violent species. We always will be. We are envious, jealous, cruel, and capable of all kinds of bad things. There are many out there who do not act upon these desires. There are many who do. The humans who do decide to rape, rob, kill, steal, all choose to do so and will do so with whatever is at hand - gun, knife, pipe, chain, or even simple "brute" strength. Even among the very socially domesticated, these incidents do occur. Let's take Japan, often held up as a model for the anti-gun crowd because of its quite solid social structure and its effectively total ban on civilian firearms ownership. Yes, Japan has a lot going for it - solid family structures, solid societal hierarchy, a sort of national mental security. Yet where did this come from? Carryovers from the ancient histories through pre-Meiji days of feudal Japan - where many were armed in various ways to protect themselves. And even still today, this model society has its flaws - stabbings are still going up, and the rape incidents are getting to the point where women have separate rail cars and travel in packs to hunt rapists or molestors for extortion. So it can't be the guns that are at fault. It must be the human psyche itself.

As such, let's take a close look at the UN's claims. Yes, small arms are the "weapon of choice" for conflicts - which is a rather mindless statement when analyzed. What is the most common, numerically, component of any armed service? The dogface grunt infantryman. What does he carry? A rifle or a handgun most often. Wars are fought around the infantry - the armor are there for point-assault agaist defense lines or hard targets, and the infantry follows to take the land. The air is there to provide high-speed, wide ranging support - to the infantryman. So yes, there are far more Joe Troopers than there are tanks and aircraft - especially in the poorer countries, where an air force can be counted on ONE hand. In effect, their statement is rather like saying cars are the vehicle of choice for drivers. Pointless and circular.

The UN wishes to describe small arms - the Ruger Blackhawk your uncle goes hunting with, the lever-action rifle and single-action revolvers your cousin participates in Cowboy Shooting with, the compact Glock your sister has to protect herself, the shotgun your father shoots trap and skeet with, the AR-15 your friend does target shooting with, the bolt-action rifle your son bagged his first deer with - as "weapons of mass destruction" because they kill more people on most years than did the Hiroshima bombing. Then, by those rights, would not knives, again? Or vehicles, since drunk driving is often touted as the number-one cause of death for teens? Or if firearms are supposed to be "weapons of mass destruction", does this mean that a country may respond with its own weapoms of mass destruction and launch nuclear assaults in response to firefight border incursions?

Absurdity, yes, but I'm simply going down the path the original statment creates.

Why is the United Nations so agitated and hell bent for leather on how "evil" guns are? Why are they so dead-set on stripping them away from you and all your fellow countrymen and humans? The UN declares a summit on the "illicit trade of firearms" and then makes scarily blanket statements like referring to a worldwide total of five hundred million small arms worldwide while discussing "the problem". Does the UN want to eliminate all firearm ownership? And let's remember one more number - just who are they targeting? Out of all 500,000,000 firearms, including all police- and military-owned guns...free US citizens legally own over 140 million. That's no small chunk of the world's guns, at all - and with those 140 million plus firearms, just who is the UN aiming itself at?

And again...WHY? It's not the safety issue - or else, America with 280 million people and 140 million guns would literally be depopulated. It's not the crime issue, look at countries without guns and tell me you're perfectly safe. Is there some political agenda at work here, that the UN wants to get rid of "the teeth of liberty" in America?

Like I said before, we are the last true bastion of freedom and firearms ownership - and they go hand ni hand, in no small way. Lose one, like many many other countries, and you lose the other. And let us hope that America retains her teeth too, along with the spine this country has suddenly shown, and continues to stare down the United Nations in whatever political scheme they are working on.

Three cheers for LIBERTY!
Hip Hip! Hurrah!
Hip Hip! Hurrah!
Hip Hip! Hurrah!

Update on Final Fantasy premiere: 12:10 at the Showcase on the strip, 10:20 at the United Artists Rainbow Promenade, 10:20 for Regal Boulder Station, 10:00 at the UA Green Valley cinema, and no other info just yet. Do we want to get together for the midnight showing on the strip, or the Boulder Station at 10:20, or what? If/when times change, I'll post it up.

The Gun Show out here seemed to suck, from what I hear. They jacked up the price 2 bucks to get in and it was only half the size it usually is. Glad I didn't go afterall. Last night there was a body found at the bank across the fence from my apartment complex, found beaten to death. Earlier yesterday the residents here heard an enormous fight, but wrote it off...now we're all wondering. Either way, I'm glad I have my Para-Ord back.

Sighisoara, Romania, birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, will be building a Dracula themepark and beat out other Romanian cities for it. Citing its history with the genesis of the Dracula legend, and its rather close proximity to an airport, it was selected as the site for the new park. As a historical note, the Dracula park would not have been possible during the communist reign of Nikolai Ceausescu, apparently named Vampirescu for his economic blood-sucking.