Reagan Conveniently Dies for the Bush re-election campaign

Now, I hate to be the wet blanket at America's patriotic wake celebrating the "hero" Ronald Reagan, but here are somethings you might have forgotten about Ronald Reagan: $640 Pentagon toilet seats; ketchup as a vegetable; trees cause pollution; union busting; firing striking air traffic controllers; Iran-Contra; selling arms to terrorist nations; trading arms for hostages; retreating from terrorists in Beirut; lying to Congress; financing an illegal war in Nicaragua; visiting Bitburg cemetery; A cozy relationship with Saddam Hussein; shredding documents; Ed Meese; Fawn Hall, Oliver North; James Watt; apartheid apologia; the saving and loan scandal; voodoo economics; record budget deficits; double-digit unemployment; farm bankruptcies; trade deficits; astrologers in the White House; Star Wars; and influence peddling. Also, here are some great Reagan quotes from the past. Read them and weep:

"If there has to be a bloodbath, then let's get it over with."
- RR, on what to do about student protests at UC Berkeley. Quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, May 15, 1969.

"A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not."
- RR, in testimony to the Tower Commission, March 1987 [2]

"Facts are stupid things."
- RR

"I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting."
- RR

O.K.,so this is all common knowledge, so why the glossing over of history with crap like Katie Couric getting all misty eyed on the Today show about what a great president Reagan was and Gov. Arnold declaring Reagan was a great American hero? I'll tell what it's all about: APPROVAL RATINGS!

Somehow Bush has managed to get Reagan to die in a most timely manner in order to deflect any real attention on any real topic having to do with the rest of us Americans who are still Alive! So what about this shit:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings last night introduced the Universal National Service Act of 2003, a bill to reinstate the military draft and mandate either military or civilian service for all Americans, aged 18-26. The Hollings legislation is the Senate companion to a bill recently introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.).

Specifically, the bill mandates a national service obligation for every U.S. citizen and permanent resident, aged 18-26. To that end, the legislation authorizes the President to establish both the number of people to be selected for military service and the means of selection. Additionally, the measure requires those not selected specifically for military service to perform their national service obligation in a civilian capacity for at least two years. Under the bill, deferments for education will be permitted only through high school graduation.
And these are the goddamned DEMOCRATS FOR CHRIST'S SAKE! And notice, all you gung ho fuckers out there who support Bush's personal agenda, I mean war on terrorism, the bill says ALL AMERICANS. That includes you all you prissy ass bitches in sororities
who don't think about, well hell, you just don't think period. And know college deferment either! Heil Hitler motherfucker! In the mean time Bush hopes all you jackasses will ignore all this and vote with your heart! Bush doesn't want the draft, but Kerry will! Watch that fucker! Watch him very closely. He's a creep and he looks just like Herman Munster except that Herman Munster had a personality!

Some soothing thoughts in stressful times

Sometimes there is a strange tendency in Western Civilization (and perhaps others as well) to combat unsavory reality with escapism. In my case, I enjoy all sorts of entertainment from movies to television to music to whatever. Now, to defend certain choices. While there is a certain allure and enjoyment to had from what some would call high-brow art, at times there is a need for more esoteric art forms. In the instance of movies (or if you must films) I really like the works of John Ford for his expansive and breathtaking glimpse into the American West. The French New Wave films of Goddard and Coucteau (especially the latter's Orpheus)are very exciting. But at other times, I need a fix of what I call escapist crap. For instance, the Streetfighter series of movies starring Sonny Chiba as Terry Tsugury are just what the doctor ordered when I feel particularly stressed by the likes of Herr Bush and his amoral cronies.So why escape from the brutal realities of what America is perpertrating on the Islamic world with mindless, senseless violence? Well, quite frankly because the Streetfighter is cool! Of course, that's not much of a response, but somehow that's all that can be said. The Streetfighter movies are not technically good by any stretch of the imagination, but that's not the point. They are entertainingly inept. The violence in these movies is legendary. In the 1970's when these movies were made, the first installment of this trilogy ( the fourth Sister Streetfighter doesn't count) received the first X-rating because of the altogether gruesome, purient violence level. O.K. there is some overboard brutality in these movies. The Streetfighter does rip out a man's genitals and throw them on the floor (He was a rapist by the way). Then the Streetfighter gropes the woman he just rescued. But this violence is very cartoonish in execution and it would be hard to take very seriously. In a strange way, what makes the Streetfighter so cool is his very amorality. He is not a good guy or a bad guy. To paraphrase Tarantino's True Romance script, the Streetfighter is just a BADDASS. Naturally, this all seems rather juvenile, and perhaps it is, but it's my way of fighting the complacent slide into adulthood that seems to suck the life out of most people. Why do most honest, hardworking, responsible adults forget what motivated them in their younger years and become automatons who don't recognize, or even worse, chose to ignore the crazy, upside-down, emotionally-starved, morally-bankrupt nation in which they live? Maybe because they have lost touch with, or even never possessed, the ability to see the absurdity of life. If you can see and appreciate the ridiculous quality of a Streetfighter movie, then you should be able to recognize the same quality in real life and therefore be urged to do something about the situation. Take up arms! Move out of your parent's basement! Graduate from college for christ's sake! You can either laugh or cry in this world, and one of them's more fun! That doesn't mean you ignore the world and sit around smoking dope and watching t.v. all day. It means you get all you can out of life and do so in a positive manner.
More on this later (Sonny Chiba's appeal can never be exhaustively discussed, and if you didn't know already, he's in Kill Bill, vol. 1).