ABC News: Va. Man Who Killed 4 Had Mental Problems

ABC News: Va. Man Who Killed 4 Had Mental Problems

Yeah he had mental problems! He had this thing - this rare mental condition where he thought it'd be alright to kill four people and then himself. That's one of the most incurable mental disorders a dude could have.

Boy it would be refreshing to see someone be held accountable for their own actions instead of scapegoating some mysterious mental disorder. The old "the devil made me do it" excuse or the not-as-old, but much more nefarious, "the twinkies made me do it" excuse really shouldn't cut it anymore in today's increasingly sinister world.

Van Zandt Associates, Inc.

If you are ever in a hostage situation; need to fire a volatile, highly-trained Army-Ranger-turned-security-consultant; have received threatening letters; suspect you are being surveiled or stalked, I guess these are the guys to call.

You watch movies and it seems like these guys are a dime a dozen but you never think that they are REAL!

Check this out: Van Zandt Associates, Inc.

The media, the NSA and the Patriot Act - Profiler's Perspective - MSNBC.com

The media, the NSA and the Patriot Act - Profiler's Perspective - MSNBC.com
Does the National Security Agency (NSA), also known as "No Such Agency," listen in on your every telephone call and track you every time you use the Internet? Does the FBI use the Patriot Act to find out what library books you check out? Both of these allegations could not be further from the truth. But were you to get your news from only certain elements of the media, you might believe them.
In the world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. And in the world of media, who gets it out first gets to spin it any which way they want. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) accused The New York Times, a newspaper that's had its share of problems lately, with timing the release of accusations about the Bush administration's use of the NSA to spy on the communications of U.S. citizens with the release of a book related to this topic by one of its reporters. Further, Cornyn suggested that the NYT might be trying to sabotage hearings by Congress concerning the renewal of certain provisions of the Patriot Act.The Patriot ActThe Patriot Act was enacted by Congress after the 9/11/2001 attack on America. Its intent was to provide the FBI and other law enforcement agencies with expanded investigative powers to root out and stop future acts of terrorism on U.S. soil and against U.S. interests. Section 215 of this Act expanded the scope of records that could be obtained by such agencies. Organizations such as the ACLU may speculate that the FBI would use this power to spy on people who criticize the current or future administrations in a manner that somehow offends either the FBI or the seated administration. Further, they argue, Section 215 could be used to allow its FBI Agents to look over the shoulder of anyone checking out a library book to see what they're reading. The ACLU thinks that the government would perhaps use such information to somehow attack an innocent person going about their constitutionally protected daily activities who had no overt intent to harm our country.

First and foremost, know that there are specific prohibitions that will not allow such investigations to identify critics of this or any other administration by virtue of any such investigation. But do terrorists actually sneak into public libraries to use the local Internet connection to conduct their nefarious activities? No, they simply walk in, sit down, and use library computers without even looking over their shoulder, as they have learned this is a way to reach other terrorists without a direct connection to their own computer or home address. Does the FBI care if you are accessing, for example, adult pornographic Internet sites from your local library? No. Does it care if you're a suspected terrorist attempting to communicate to another known or suspected terrorist by defeating our government's electronic surveillance techniques while hiding behind the Internet computer desk in a library? Of course it does. What media and other critics have conveniently forgotten to tell the American public is that since the enactment of the Patriot Act none of the 35 or so Section 215 orders have been directed at libraries. So if there has been judicious use of this Act to date, and if only one section of the Act pertains to libraries, and if it has been proven that terrorists use the library to conduct criminal activities against the U.S., why not extend this provision of the Act?
I'm the first to admit that any law or act can be subverted by those who are sworn to uphold the law. Are there overzealous federal investigators or even rogue agents that could use this Act or any law illegally? Possibly. They are human, and subject to human frailty. Take the issue of "sneak and peep" searches, secret searches conducted by federal agents authorized by equally secret court orders that allow such agents to legally search your property and not tell you about the search. Are federal agents likely to use this law to break into the homes of ordinary law abiding Americans because they for some reason just what to "get us?" Or will they use the law selectively to find and stop terrorists without giving the terrorist and terroristic organizations an edge by revealing that they're actively looking at them? Remember, the search must still be authorized by a court upon the law enforcement agency providing probable cause that there is a legitimate reason, first to conduct a search, and, second, to keep it secret for at least 30 days before telling the person whose property was searched about it. If they're wrong or if they use this power indiscriminately, sue them, charge them criminally, indict them and convict them, just like any other person who violates the law. But don't allow today's devastating partisan politics or a newspaper's desire to be first with a story or sell books to be used as a weapon against the American people, a weapon that aids and supports those who would kill us were we to give them the chance. Any information you give your enemy about how you investigate them will be used against you and your fellow citizens. That's the one "law" that terrorists will always respect.NSAThe NSA has been in business since the early 1950's, first signed off on by then President Harry "the buck stops here" Truman. It finds it roots in the code breakers of WWII that broke the Japanese and the German codes, thereby saving thousands of lives and probably insuring our victory in World War II. It is one of the more secretive organizations in the world. With a budget larger than either the FBI or CIA and with thousands of employees in the U.S. and overseas, the NSA is charged with collecting and analyzing signals intelligence, spy talk for telephone, radio, Internet, and other means of communications from around the world. NSA is rumored to have more Ph.D. mathematicians than any other agency in the world, with their employees working with supercomputers that would make the CIA or NASA drool. Many of our closest allies, including Britain, Australia, Canada, and other countries around the world have similar agencies in their countries that perform similar duties, and, in fact, that may share information with the NSA. For years it was understood that the CIA collected intelligence outside the U.S. and the FBI performed a similar task within the U.S. 9/11 changed all that. These two, and other, intelligence agencies have been forced to share the same bed, and to share their toys and their information, in order to prevent another 9/11. NSA is prohibited from intercepting or collecting information about U.S. persons, companies, or organizations without legal permission from the U.S. Attorney General. In a recent media disclosure, it was reported that in support of the war on terrorism, the President had authorized, with the knowledge of some in both political parities, NSA to conduct warrantless phone taps on people in America placing calls to people outside the U.S., to places like Afghanistan.
In its articles criticizing Bush's use of the NSA, the Times patted itself on the back by stating that "'some' information [from the Times article] that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists had been omitted)." (What about the rest?) The Times confirmed what most terrorists and supporters of such individuals suspected anyway, that the FBI, CIA, NSA, and other similar three letter organizations were taking a serious look at them in every way they could. Congress and many in the media took it upon themselves to criticize these same agencies for allowing 9/11 to happen in the first place.
For example, what about those Middle Eastern men taking flying lessons in the U.S. Why weren't the feds all over them at the time? These agencies are left to protest that to have conducted such investigations on such men prior to 9/11 would have brought criticism from these same officials for discriminating against our Middle Eastern brethren who were then simply Saudis learning to fly 727s.

Well, it's four years and three-plus months since 9/11. Although al-Qaida and other of its murdering offshoots have attempted to mount a successful attack in this country, none have succeeded to date, much to the credit of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies across all levels of government. A federal agent on the U.S.-Canadian border caught a terrorist coming across into America who planned to attack a west coast city. Iyman Faris, a naturalized U.S. citizen, plead guilty to planning an attack on the Brooklyn Bridge. Faris' activities were identified through investigations which included electronic monitoring of communications, i.e., the type of work the NSA does, and on and on - many identified by electronic monitoring, most of which we'll never hear about.
The newspaper report also suggests that in 2002 the President authorized the NSA to review calls and other communications made from the U.S. to persons outside the U.S. as part of ongoing anti-terror investigations. The President defends his actions as part of his mandate to prevent a reoccurrence of the events of 9/11, something that most citizens apparently want him to prevent. The balance is protecting us without taking away our constitutional rights and protections.
It's like the 1,000 pound flower pots in front of many buildings in Washington, D.C. and across the country. They are there to prevent suicide truck bombers from driving into the lobbies of such buildings and bringing these buildings to the ground. To protect the buildings and their occupants, we've had to give up the ease of access that we once enjoyed. The public is left to judge if the increased security is worth the increased restrictions that such laws and protections require.

In the case of the Patriot Act, 16 provisions of this Act will expire on Dec. 31. Most people believe that our government, including the FBI and the CIA, was not up to the task of fighting terrorism prior to 9/11. We had holes in our security, holes that the Patriot Act helped to plug. The Patriot Act allowed the wall between law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies to be torn down. Now information in the possession of the CIA concerning a suspected terrorist can be shared with the FBI to prevent an act of terrorism in this country. This makes sense to me. I remember as an FBI Agent when I was forbidden from keeping a copy of a newspaper article in an FBI file - it was against the rules.
With the rolling wire tap provision of the Patriot Act, the FBI can now keep up with the technology of terrorists, potential killers who change phones constantly to avoid detection. We've provided similar legal assistance to the investigation of drug violations and organized crime; why not apply these same tools to (organized) terrorism? Note that there has not been one, not one substantiated allegation of abuse of this Act to date, notwithstanding the many attacks on the Act by some in the media and others in this country.
It's the 21st century and America and its law enforcement and intelligence agencies must use every tool at their disposal to legally fight against those who would willingly destroy our citizens and our very way of life. As a Sergeant with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division serving in Iraq recently wrote home in a letter, "Freedom. One word but yet countless words could never capture its true meaning or power. For those who have fought for it, freedom has a taste the protected will never know. The biggest outcries of opposition to our cause are from those who have had no military experience and have not had to fight for freedom." This young soldier and patriot knows what it is to lay it all on the line to protect the freedoms so many of us take for granted. We get this same level of dedication and protection from our law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the war on terrorism.
There is no massive conspiracy against the American people by the men and women of these agencies, no black helicopters circling overhead waiting to pounce on the innocent to tear our freedoms from our hands. We live in a dangerous world and as the soldier from the 101st Airborne writes, we must fight to keep our freedoms. The continued balance is between what's necessary and what's excessive, and this shouldn't be decided by a newspaper article. That is a decision for our citizens to make as we ponder what level of safety and security we want balanced against the level of intrusion that we will allow in our lives and activities. And no, unfortunately there's not an FBI or CIA Agent behind every mailbox or in every library. They're too busy trying to stop another 9/11. Let's give them the tools they need to do their job while not violating the view of Benjamin Franklin when he said, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." I wonder what old Ben would have said about today's "ben," Osama ben Laden, and his murderous organization. How would Franklin have us obtain safety from this new type of threat while still protecting our liberty?
Email Clint at
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Clint Van Zandt is an MSNBC analyst. He is the founder and president of Van Zandt Associates Inc. Van Zandt and his associates also developed LiveSecure.org, a Website dedicated "to develop, evaluate, and disseminate information to help prepare and inform individuals concerning personal and family security issues." During his 25-year career in the FBI, Van Zandt was a supervisor in the FBI's internationally renowned Behavioral Science Unit at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. He was also the FBI's Chief Hostage Negotiator and was the leader of the analytical team tasked with identifying the "Unabomber."

Morning Star Finale

I just shot my last wedding of 2005!

Hooray for me! What a year this has been. My bookings nearly doubled (from 18 gigs in 2004 to 32 gigs in 2005!) and I have nine bookings for 2006 already. Additionally, there are two or three inquiries that have not been booked yet.

God has been good!

Putting the 'Christ' back into 'Christmas'

What is Christmas?

Everyone knows that the traditional Christmas holiday revolves around the story of the Baby Jesus who was born in a manger in Bethlehem so many years ago. But not everyone knows the significance of this historical event. We generally think of malls, gift-wrapping, and festive Christmas trees.

Christmas time, as celebrated by most, is a time of family dinners, the shopping for and giving and receiving of gifts. Both giving and receiving gifts, as you can all attest to, are immensely enjoyable. Those of us who secretly enjoy receiving gifts a teeny bit more than giving gifts know that receiving a gift costs nothing (hence the term "gift"!) And those of you who are a little more philanthropic and enjoy giving gifts best, you know that a little of your own sacrifice can bring so much joy to others. Well, the first Christmas was very much the same way.

Jesus Christ, humbled Himself and came to earth in the form of a human baby (Philippians 2:5-7) in order to bridge the chasm between mankind and God that was created when sin was introduced into the world; indeed, to redeem us from our sins (I John 1:7).
And not unlike our gift-giving traditions, God's gift of salvation costs us nothing to receive but cost Him the sacrifice of His own Son.

Not too many people mind allusions of Baby Jesus during Christmas time, but when the discussion turns to the "full-grown Jesus", many take offense. The Bible teaches that Jesus came to earth to help those who need help – not to condemn the world, but to save it (John 3:17). You may not feel like you "need help" or have never asked "to be saved", but when the time comes; none of us can claim innocence before a perfect God (Romans 3:23).

Sure, many of you have already heard these things in passing and some of you may have even spent hours of philosophical contemplation on these things, but wherever you are in your belief about Jesus Christ, suppose it is all true. Suppose everything you've heard from evangelicals about heaven and hell and sin and redemption are all true. Ask yourself: What will you lose by accepting His gift of salvation? What will you lose if you don't?

If you have further questions regarding these things or would just like to chat, please contact me via email at andrew@morningstarvideography.com and I will be more than happy to share with you.

Switching to Decaf from the Phat Phree

I'm Switching to Decaf

"Because I can’t wait for the coffee to cool, and I burn my tongue every morning, and this is why I have not tasted actual food since 1997."

rated PG13 - profanity, crude humor

The Brick Testament

The Brick Testament

Sunday School Teaching is a Crime

Christian women were sentenced to jail on a losing appeal to a judge in Indonesia when Muslims threaten to kill the judge if he ruled in favor of the three Sunday School teachers and acquitts them of the charge of "Christianizing" or "coercing youth to change their religion."

A rabble outside the courthouse demanded that two of the women be killed and even brought two coffins to the courthouse as visual aids.

"Hang them! Hang them! Hang Rebekkah!" the crowd shouted.

"If Rebekkah asks forgiveness and enters Islam, will you forgive her?" a protest leader asked while shouting through a megaphone.

"No! No! Punish her! Kill Rebekkah! Hang her!" the crowd responded.

Are these crowds what the media likes to label as a tiny minority of a generally peace-loving religious people? I thought the "extremists" were all busy hiding and planning their next Jihadist bombing. I didn't realize they attend "peaceful demonstrations". I suppose this is better than bombing the courthouse, but the fact that they didn't bomb the courthouse or kidnap and behead the women on trial tells me that these are NOT the extremists, rather the mainstream.

You can see the video here.

The entire article is here.

What is it about Muslims that make them prefer to kill those who don't belive what they believe than to convert "non-believers"? Is their religion one of unity and love, as they claim, or is it one of sectarianism and hate? Under what guise to they pretend to be a religion of peace? If this is the mainstream Muslim community or even the slightly right-of-center Muslim community, why do they claim to be a religion of peace?

Oh yeah, I forgot. They didn't bomb the courthouse like their extremist brothers in arms would have. (They'd rather have the women killed "legally" as to not bloody their freshly-cleaned machettes, I guess.)

The Australian: The big black book of horrors [December 03, 2005]

The Australian: The big black book of horrors [December 03, 2005]: "Between February and September 1988, 100,000 to 180,000 Kurds died or disappeared. The bombing of the Kurdish village of Halabja with chemical weapons including mustard gas, tabun, sarin and VX on March 16, 1988, which killed 3000 to 5000 civilians, was the most publicised of these atrocities because it occurred near the Iranian "

Misdirected Muslim Protest

This just in!

Muslims demonstrate against a 13-year old event!

"Some Muslims activist organisations today staged protest demonstrations in different parts of the country against the demolition of Babri Mosque in Ayodhya in 1992.

Activists of All India Muslim Unity Front staged a demonstration in New Delhi demanding the reconstruction of the mosque. They also raised slogans against the Hindutva leaders allegedly responsible for the demolition.

"By demolishing the mosque on 6th December 1992 the BJP, VHP and Bajrang Dal, have violated the Constitution. And we believe rebuilding of the Babri mosque at its original site it is necessary and according to the Constitution," said Mohammed Younuns Siddiqui, All India Muslim Unity Front President."

Meanwhile, current events draw no attention from Muslims and no protests have been reported.

- Baghdad Bombers Kill at Least 27 at Police Academy
- Saddam trial hears of abuse; blasts kill 36

Hasad, Salat, and the N.Y. Football Giants

Khalid Hasan, the Washington correspondent of Daily Times and the special correspondent of Associated Press of Pakistan in Washington D.C., had written an article regarding the travestied mishandling of the Muslim Prayer Room situation at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.

If you're not familiar with the story, the gist of it is that there were five Muslim men loitering around an air duct at Giants Stadium and they were arrested because of their suspicious behavior during the second quarter of the Saints/Giants match-up. The men claimed to be praying. They were eventually released and now they are crying racial profiling.

Anyway, Hasan wrote this article in response to the events:

"WASHINGTON: Praying in public may have become a high-risk activity for a Muslim in America, going by what happened in New York recently.

Halfway through the second quarter of a football game between the New York Giants and New Orleans Saints, FBI agents swooped on five Muslims who were offering namaz near a ventilation duct in the Giants Stadium, handcuffed them and took them away. The FBI had been alerted by stadium security guards who felt that the five men may be engaged in some illegal or suspicious activity. The men were taken in custody but later released without charge – but no apology – when the FBI realised that all they were doing was offering their prayers at the time due.
Twenty-seven year old Sami Shaban, a law student, told the New York Daily News: “No matter where we are, we stop and pray.” He and four of his friends, all Giants fans, complained that they had been racially profiled. An FBI spokesman denied the allegation, saying, “It was where they were, not what they were doing.”

The story has had a happy ending in the sense that authorities at Giants Stadium have decided to create special prayer areas."

There are so many things wrong with Hasan's article I don't even know where to start.

Firstly, the headline reads, "Praying in public high risk activity for Muslims". I wonder if Hasan would rather not write a more accurate article entitled "Not being Muslim high risk activity for non-Muslims". I don't even need to start in with references of beheadings, car bombs, wedding explosions, suicide bombers, mosque explosions and airliners as projectiles for people to know it's a much riskier thing to be American and oppose Muslim extremists than it is for a Muslim to pray in America.

Secondly, what's so happy about an ending that appeases the very people who are hell bent on destroying our way of life? Why did the Giants Organization feel pressured to offer prayer rooms to Muslims when they did nothing wrong? I wonder if there is a chapel on site for Christians to do their devotions. Maybe there are a set of confessionals and an onsite priest to receive those devout Catholics who feel bad for eating two too many bratwursts from the concession stand.

So why is Hasan's take on the situation off base? Because Hasan painted a picture of the stadium security as the guilty party, and of the five Muslims as the victims. Let's take a look at the facts to examine whether the authorities acted correctly in this case.

• President Bush Senior was in attendance at the game that night. You had better believe that security was heightened. I would hope that security officers would detain ANYBODY doing ANYTHING suspicious in these areas. Imagine if there really were terrorists introducing a toxic agent into the food and air supply and dozens of people died and hundreds were hospitalized including President Bush Sr.. How much ire would the security guards receive if it came out that they didn't stop the folks that they saw hanging around the air ducts because they were afraid to be labeled racial profilers?


• The men were in a sensitive area where there was a central air intake duct and near where food preparations take place. Isn't this case the very definition of heightened security? When security is tightened or security awareness heightened, many innocent people will get inconvenienced. That's just the way it is and in the world we live in today, these inconveniences will continue to expand.


• The men claim to be practicing their Salat (prayer). Muslims are required to pray five times a day; at waking, at noon, at mid afternoon, at sundown and when they retire.) Twenty-seven year old Sami Shaban, a law student, told the New York Daily News: “No matter where we are, we stop and pray.” That seems real devout. It seems like convenience is not a luxury they provide themselves and that they will exercise namaz (prayer) whenever it is time. The problem is, depending on which report you read, the men were praying early in the first quarter, during the second quarter or at halftime for a game that started at 7:30pm. According to the Five Pillars of Faith, the Salat is to be performed five times a day at waking, at noon, at mid-afternoon, at sundown, and before retiring. So which prayer were they performing at 8-9pm? I thought they were so devout they "pray everywhere"


• They were not profiled because of their nationality or because of their appearance as Mostafa Khalifa, one of the men detained, claims. "Let's be real here, if anybody with my description even scratches their ear, people get nervous," said Khalifa, 27, who, like Shaban, wears a long beard. The truth is, if it were an African American man doing the same thing at the same place, he would also have been detained. If it were an Asian man doing the same thing at the same place, he would also have been detained. If it were a WHITE MAN doing the same thing at the same place, he would also have been detained. There was no racial profiling going on unless you want to call the recognition of high-risk behavior profiling. (As if a security guard who stops a man wearing a ski mask from entering the bank would be called a facial-wear profiler.)


• They were not religiously profiled as another article says that the men claimed they were. As I said, the incident had nothing to do with race or religious behavior. The men were detained because they were doing suspicious things in a sensitive area. Period. It could have been a group of Japanese women with suitcases and toolboxes and they would have been detained as well. Japanese women don't fit any particular terrorist profile, but the combination of their suspicious activity and the area in which they were performing these activities make them subject to detention.


• At any rate, it wasn’t security that spotted them and detained them, it was people who saw the suspicious behavior and reported it. I thought we have all been called to report suspicious behavior for the safety of everyone around us. That's what we've been told over and over again at BART stations, airports, and anyplace else that large numbers of people congregate. Steven Siegel, spokesman for the FBI said, "This was a routine, precautionary law enforcement action. The number one priority of the FBI is to prevent future terrorist attacks, and we ask people to report what they consider to be suspicious behavior when they see it. It turned out to be just a group of gentlemen congregating in an area where the public doesn't normally go," The five Muslim men were confronted back at their seats after they had left the air duct area and were taken for questioning.

The bottom line about profiling is, we all have to do get inconvenienced because of security concerns. (Just think of the airports, for example.) It's just that when the rest of us get inconvenienced, we don't cry, "racial profiling!" because we don't fit the profile. Eventually, someone who does fit the profile will get inconvenienced and then they complain of getting profiled. What should we do? Do some sort of reverse profiling where anyone that fits the profile gets an automatic pass? That wouldn't work either because by profiling those you want to give a free pass to by seeing if they fit the profile, you have just racially profiled again!

And as far as the Giants Organization is concerned, I think they've made a big mistake by bowing to the pressures of various Rights Groups. What happened was an issue of safety and security. A better response would have been to install security cameras and to further restrict sensitive areas from fans. (The area where the five men were praying has already been fenced off.) To respond by installing prayer rooms, in effect, admits fault on some level regarding religious or racial profiling.

Light Field Photography

When I was in Junior High I thought about various types of cool 'future technologies'. Technologies like guns that can shoot controllable bullets—allowing soldiers to hit their mark in one shot every time; microchips with the worlds music database implanted directly to the part of your brain that hears sound this technology—allowing people to hear any song they want at any time without really "hearing" anything at all; and other fantastic technologies.

I also wondered if there was a way to take a single photograph and still be able to change the depth of field after the photo has already been taken. It was more of a science fiction idea at the time but now, it's a reality.

Stanford University Computer Science students have come up with a new technology that will surely change the way still photography is taken in the future.

Light field photography allows you to create REFOCUSABLE PHOTOGRAPHY. That's right. Take a picture of an in-focus plant in the foreground and buildings and people out-of-focus in the background. Then manipulate the image to focus on the people and then later focus on the buildings.

It's amazing and has to be seen to be believed.

Click here to see the article.

The Four Word Film Review

If you are like me, you love movies. If you are like me, you don't like movies being ruined for you by wordy reviews.

Well, here is a website that I found where users summarize movies for you with a four-word review and an icon depicting how good they thought the movie was.

Check it out at The Four Word Film Review

NBC's Act of Sedition

An episode of NBC's action drama series "E-Ring". This episode, which aired last Wednesday, November 23, 2005, portrayed a "radical Christian group' taking over a mosque and holding its members hostage. Here is the official episode summary from NBC.com

Delta Does Detroit

JT AND HIS TEAM FACE TERRORISM ON OUR OWN SOIL - JT (Benjamin Bratt) and a Special Ops team are dispatched to Detroit where a radical Christian group takes over a mosque and keeps its members hostage. JT must balance how much he is able to assist in saving lives with the law which requires that the FBI deal with the situation on their own. Also starring Dennis Hopper, Aunjanue Ellis, Kelly Rutherford. TV-14

Here is an excerpt from The Religion of Peace website:

In the real world, of course, Muslims are the ones staging deadly attacks not only on churches and synagogues, but also rival mosques. On the very day that the NBC episode aired - November 16th - Islamic terrorists managed to kill Buddhists, shiites, Sunnis, Christians and Hindus in separate terror attacks - and it wasn't even a particularly eventful day (other than the fact that they somehow overlooked the Jews).

As for the "Christian radicals"…(deep yawn)… we did a Web search for the whole year and couldn't find even a single fatality linked to such an extremist group on the entire planet. An American mosque apparently has about the same chance of suffering a deadly invasion by "Christian radicals" as it does being swallowed by a giant lizard - which might make for a more credible E-ring scenario the next time around.

(Read the Full Article Here)

I have to ask the question; without backsliding into the negative aspects of what we consider the a "dark chapter of American history", the McCarthy Era, would something like this episode of E-Ring ever seen the light of day back in the Cold War when Americans united against a common enemy? Would a radio show aimed at creating fictional characters who killed German babies have aired back in World War II?

What is it about today's media that not only allows such incisive, blatantly misleading, Anti-American drivel to hit the airwaves but also inspires producers to create it in the first place? If I had my way, the producers of this episode of E-Ring would be brought up on charges of sedition for causing aid and comfort to the enemy.

The Sedition Act of 1918 has a distinct relevance for today's War in Iraq as well as our global War on Terror. Doesn't this excerpt from the Sedition Act seem apt for our friends over at NBC?

Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to...promote the success of its enemies, or shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements,...and whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of any country with which the United States is at war or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or the imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both...

Read the full text here.

It's my estimation that there is a culture of Hate America as distinct as the stench of rotting meat emanating from Hollywood and the leftist media at large and that these types of shows and the message contained therein will only grow more and more prolific until the Anti-American sentiment fills every courtroom, classroom, television, radio and news article and our great Nation, founded on the principles enumerated in the Christian Bible, is reduced to a heap of Socialist reformers bent on the homogenization of cultures and religions and the obliteration of Christian faith and American values.

Backlog Blog (Part IV)

I'm staying up late tonight to finish the Woo/Tsui Wedding. It's been going really well so far. I zipped through editing the bridal prep, then bridal "door games", then tea ceremony, then other tea ceremony, then lunch, then bridal prep again, then pre-ceremony, and then ceremony.

Now I must finish the post-ceremony, photo shoot, cocktails, and then reception. The reception will entail (in no particular order): cake cutting, first dance, games, slideshow, bouquet/garter toss, father/daughter dance, mother/son dance, and open dance floor.

Hopefully the rest will go smoothly. I would really like to finish this edit tonight since I'm pretty much out of the house all day and night Sunday and won't be home 'til late. I promised my clients that I would drop off their DVDs on Monday.

Wish me luck! (Better yet; pray for me!)

Stuff+Cats=Awesome

Do you love cats?
I would venture to say that ALL cat owners love cats…( love to torture cats, that is.)

Check out this hilarious website.
Stuff On My Cat

Enjoy.

To Be Seen by Men

In Matthew 6:4-6, Jesus said, "And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly."

White Christmas

On November 12 I went to watch my brother perform in Irving Berlin's White Christmas at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco.

My brother, Alex Hsu—you can see his White Christmas Blog here—was quite good. As an ensemble cast member, he has to know way more dance numbers than any of the stars of the show and it seems the ensemble generally has to go through a much more grueling routine from curtain to encore than the headliners and yet the stars get the acclaim.

The musical was quite enjoyable though the script seemed a little flat with only a handful of minor "blips" of good humor and the musical dance numbers to carry the audience through the show. Character development was about what you would expect in a production like this and in general there were more scene-stealers than usual (Ezekiel, Martha Watson, the Dance Captain, and Susan Waverly all come to mind), which makes for a livelier show, I think.

One oddity was the fact that my brother was the only minority in the entire cast. The story, set in 1954 Vermont, precludes the casting of an inordinate amount of minorities but it was somewhat strange to see a singular "Chinaman" prancing about on stage when even the very title of the musical evokes images of total "paysage blanc". On the same topic, I think my brother was better than some of the other members of the ensemble but was relegated to the back row (traditionally reserved for those dancers good enough to make the troupe but not good enough for "front and center".) I don't think it's because he's a minority in the sense that the director or dance captain is racist, but I do think it's because he's a minority in a play that takes place in the whitest of white settings.

Anyway, if you are looking for a good night out (or in our case late-afternoon-matinee out) on the town, please do check out White Christmas!

By the bye, does anyone know if the phrase "front and center" originated from theater or from the military? I'd like to know.

Backlog Blog (Part III)

Well, I finally finished what I consider the Bane of My Editorial Existence: The Castillo/Paras Wedding.

Monica is a vocalist for the girl voice group OneVo1ce and Ray met her when he used to work security for the band. Monica and Ray have been nothing but pleasant and Monica would easily be one of the most beautiful brides that I have shot—but that's the thing—I didn't shoot this wedding and that's why it's been so difficult to edit!

This wedding represents the first double-booking that I've ever arranged and I sent two shooters up to Vallejo to cover the event while I was shooting another. The footage was decent. Very workable and for the most part—about 90%--technically sound. But the lead cameraman on that shoot (who has since become my best shooter) lacked a certain artistic flare that made the footage I received somewhat bland.

There was also an audio glitch from one of the two Sony VX2000s that they used. It's the same error that I first encountered with another Sony camcorder (TRV-11) years ago on my friends Kerman and Michelle's wedding. Something is up with Sony's camcorder audio.

At any rate, I've finally finished the edit and I am excited to show the final product. I think it is actually pretty good for what I had to work with but I'll know for sure when I get feedback from my clients!

Now I'm on to edit the Woo/Tsui wedding as well as re-encoding the Windom/Rowley wedding and making a short highlight memorial video for one dearly departed Jason Liao, the best man for the Yeh/Suh wedding.

Do Not Call

Yesterday, November 10, cell phone numbers were released to telemarketers, allowing them to call your cell phone and use up your minutes on telemarketing sales calls!

Register your cell phone and any other phone number you do not want to get sales calls on at the National Do Not Call Registration website.

Simply go to http://www.donotcall.gov/ to have your number registered. Click on the "register a phone number" on the left-hand column. It takes two minutes and lasts five years.

Hell is Too Good

Ah, the Religion of Peace!

Sometimes I read about car bombs and suicide bombings and juxtapose those deplorable acts of hatred and violence and the cowardly men responsible for them with the moniker assigned to their religion—"Religion of Peace"—and the irony is so blunt I have contusions on my forehead just from thinking about it!

Sometimes I have to just laugh to keep my head from spinning.

But not this time. No laughing here. Hell is too good for these sickos.

Here is an excerpt from an article from the BBC. (This is stuff America's leftist mainstream media doesn't report):

Three girls have been beheaded and another badly injured as they walked to a Christian school in Indonesia.

They were walking through a cocoa plantation near the city of Poso in central Sulawesi province when they were attacked.

This is an area that has a long history of religious violence between Muslims and Christians.

A government-brokered truce has only partially succeeded in reducing the number of incidents in recent years.

Police say the heads were found some distance from the bodies. It is unclear what was behind the attack, but the girls attended a private Christian school and one of the heads was left outside a church leading to speculation that it might have had a religious motive.

Read the rest here

The good news is that the men responsible seem to have been caught.
Click here for the update on the perpetrators.

EXTREME CAUTION
Here is a GRAPHIC picture of one of the poor victims of this senseless crime.
Click here to know what your enemy is capable of.

Song Writer

Here is a song that I wrote with my kids on the way home from picking them up from school today. Click here to hear the tune and sing along to the verses:

Verse 1
I like to play with my slinky
I like the garbage 'cuz it's stinky
When I close one eye I get winky
And then I close my head.

Verse 2
I parked my car on mommy's side
Because her car is real wide
When I got in trouble I cried
And then I close my head

[The music was quickly and simply composed with Fruity Loops 3.4]

Estoy Soy Boy

In 1988, two French-Vietnamese black guys, Roger and Stewart Nguyen visited the California State Capital to denounce the misuse of various soy sauces on steamed white rice in the state's "Chinese" restaurants.

The two men, brothers by marriage and by blood, happened to be identical twins with distinguishing features: Roger had a patch over his left eye, Stewart, a patch over his right. "Ol' Lefty," as Roger, the brother with the patch over his left eye was aptly named, was, naturally, left behind in a hotel-turned-bunker when their parents evacuated Ho Chi Minh City in 1976 when the Communist Party ousted the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

How the two brothers became reunited is a heart-warming tale involving an American Marine, a dozen fragrant nosegays, and a down-and-out vampire/bat. It is also a tale to be told at another time. Specifically, when there are no sharp objects in the immediate vicinity.

The Nguyen Bros. (that's "bruthas" not "brothers") petitioned for an opportunity to address the State Assembly in an upcoming general meeting but their petitions were consistently filibustered and filed to the bottom of the stack. This went on until the summer of 1993, the same year that foreign soy sauces were banned from import into California and a new social movement whose slogan was "foreign soy sauce brings no joy, boss" and backed largely by California's agricultural workers was taking place.

The coincidence was not lost on the Nguyen Bros. It was clear that the Assembly took this opportunity to hear the Nguyen Bros. because their message would sound impotent and downright anti-Californian in light of the fact that only California-grown soy sauces were being used in the state. But this did not deter the Nguyen Bros. from speaking their mind because California soy sauce trees produce sauces that are notoriously light in flavor and always require thawing before use – also not good for steamed rice.

When the Nguyen Bros. were finally invited to the General Assembly to make their proposition on August 9, 1993 they were greeted with stern boos and hisses and not a trace of a mildly enthusiastic hazzah was to be heard within 20 miles. Although the American Society for International Chants Hazzah and More was holding their bi-monthly potluck in the nearby southwardly city, Stockton, just 21 miles away and their shouts of hazzah could be heard and ironically served as a distraction more than a spirit-lifting encouragement.

It is well-documented history, what happened to the Nguyen Bros. after the speech they gave that fateful Monday and it would be redundant to repeat it here. Obviously, the results of the Assembly meeting and subsequent Proposition 789 have affected every Californian's life since the legislation was penned. Soy sauce trees and vampires/bats have never been viewed in the same way since.

I suppose we can all look high into the heavens and reflect on the Nguyen Bros. and their absence from said heavens every time we eat soy sauce on anything other than the bitterest of bitter melon and exclaim the sweetest of Sweet Jeezus's! from now on until the passage of eternity.

Andrew_Hsu@Budweiser.com

How many email addresses is too many? How many is not enough? I think I have the answer. Read on.

I currently have… let's see… (gmail, yahoo!, aol, work) a total of four email addresses. I only use two.

So, is this too many or is it not enough? Well, here's my answer:

I signed myself up for a new email account: Andrew_Hsu@Budweiser.com
If you have a Budweiser.com email address you have too many email addresses.
If you don’t have a Budweiser.com email address you don’t have enough and you need to get one!

Click here to register for your own.

By the way, don't ever email me anything you intend for me to read to the Budweiser.com address. I just got it for novelty's sake and I will never, ever check it.

French Riot Control - Andrew's Way

Why can the French officials not put a stop to the ridiculous riots? It took them eleven nights of continuous rioting to declare a curfew.

As far as I can tell, even the most basic riot control methods haven't been used yet. That is, the use of dogs, horseback riot police, high-pressure water cannons, salt-pellet guns, rubber-bullet shotguns, teargas, and good-ol' fashioned billy clubs or nightsticks.

Somewhere in here there is a joke about the French and their cowardly ways, but it's just too obvious.

I don't know what the delay to take action has been, but just off the top of my uneducated mind, here's what I would have done:

Night one: Establish sundown curfew. Anyone caught loitering after sundown will be arrested and detained for 48 hours. Offer rewards to those who will turn over rioters and law-breakers. This will cause instability amongst the groups themselves. If this proved ineffective, then…

Night two: Cordon off the troublesome neighborhoods then send in Gendarmie Nationale to guard the streets in armored vehicles. Shut off electricity and gas to the troublesome neighborhoods. Use loudspeakers to re-enforce the curfew as well as any other "soothing" propaganda message such as, "Pour vos propres sans risque, restez dans vos maisons. Votre conformité sera recompense. Le manque de conformité sera rencontré la force mortelle." ("For your own safely, please stay in your homes. Your compliance will be rewarded. Non-compliance will be met with lethal force.")

Make it clear that electricity and gas will only be restored after the rioting stops.

Meanwhile, drop leaflets or use loudspeakers to give notice that if rioting continues, there will be a door-to-door sweep to arrest all men ages 16-40. If this proved ineffective, then…

Night three: Sweep the neighborhoods. Detain anyone all males aged 16-40 for a period of no less than 48 hours. Release them in groups of 40-50 at intervals of 6-10 hours at a time.

Maybe I've read too many comic books or have watched too many movies and that's why I think something like this would work, but what I do know is waiting until Riots: Day Eleven to announce a curfew is just plain "sitting-on-your-hands".

Flu

I had some sort of stomach flu starting Friday until now. I'm feeling a little better and am about to eat something for the first time in about 30 hours.
I've been vomiting and have had… err… the runs (other terms for diarrhea.).

There's a scene in Zoolander where Maury Ballstein said "it stings more than an anal fissure." Well, I can't remember what he was referring to but whatever it was, I only have one thing to say in response: I doubt it.

T.A.O.M.E. (Part I)

Well, as promised, I ran out and bought a copy of The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman. I've yet to crack open the cover, though. In part because I haven't had the time today to read for an extended period of time and in part because the jacket sleeve enveloping the hard-cover book was pretty good reading already. This bloke is so random. Here's a sampling (just from the jacket!)

"The almanac that contains no weather information and, once placed on your shelf, will secretly replace all the neighboring books with its own text"

What?!
And…

"I say 'good evening', though of course I don't know what time it is where you are. This is one of the defining sorrows of books; that we cannot see one another.
Of course it might have been different had my Publisher inserted the camera I designed to fit snugly in the spine of this book and spy on you. But this was determined to be 'too expensive' and 'too illegal' and so we are left once again to our imagination."

What the heck?
And…

"Our best wishes to you for bringing more laughter into the world." – peter H. Gilmore, High Priest, Church of Satan

Yikes!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the complete randomness that this tome will assuredly bring.

I will keep you posted.

I Don't Even Know Him, But...

The work new articles written by Sebastian Rotella of the Los Angeles Times based in the French bureau is a prime example of what I call "journalistic activism."

In the wake of so much protest against "judicial activism" where supposedly impartial judges defer the task of interpreting law from a politically neutral position to pursue indoctrination of their own political and moral agendas through rulings from the bench.

I will not get into a debate regarding Right and the Left on the issue of judicial activism, but point out that our countries "journalists" are committing the same misapplication of their duties.
Sebastian Rotella, in an article covering the Paris riots, all but declares himself an Islamic sympathizer by using ridiculously soft euphemisms to describe the criminals who are perpetrating riots.

Rotella: "With clashes ongoing in largely Muslim suburbs of Paris, officials deploy 1,000 police in hopes of reining in restive Arab and African youths."

"Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin held emergency meetings aimed at avoiding a crisis that the French have feared for years: large-scale disturbances in restive slums where youths of African and Arab descent feel rage against society."

"Restive" youths? "Restive" slums? As if somehow these rioters are not the instigators of the violence that has gone on in massive scale for eight days. Oh yes, they are the oppressed, the righteously indignant! They have a right to rebel and burn down shops in their own neighborhood. That's the spirit of independence taking hold in France, not insurrection and anarchy.

Rotella: "Nonetheless, police said there were not as many violent clashes as the previous night, when hundreds of young men rampaged in 20 working-class
communities that are a few miles north of the Paris city limits but a world away from the capital's glittering tourist attractions."

Sebastian, please just report the news. We don't need your smug, "working class" moral superiority injected into every paragraph you write. What do you mean "a world away form the capital's glittering tourist attractions"? Is this journalism or poetry? As if "a world away" was some sort of measurable distance. Well, I suppose the measure you are trying to imply is that the snooty Parisians are benevolently unaware of the riots in some revisionist Marie Antoinette sort of way. Please just report the facts and save the social commentary for the Op-Ed columns.

Rotella: "Violent disturbances are nothing new in the bleak public housing projects on the urban periphery, where intelligence officials say that the two most powerful social forces are the drug underworld and Islamic activism. Even minor incidents pitting police against youths periodically set off arson attacks on cars and assaults on symbols of the state: postal workers, firefighters, day-care centers."

"Islamic activism"? Is that the new and catchy politically correct terminology for terrorism? Somehow the "bleak public housing" and the "drug underworld" are the culprits here: because they youth are surrounded by hopelessness and bleakness, they have an increased propensity toward "violent disturbances". It's liberal socialist policy sneaking its way into reporting. Who are the drug lords and Islamo-fascists? The bleak buildings or the violent, unruly youth, I wonder?

Rotella: "Although Islamic extremism is seen as a serious problem in some of the affected neighborhoods, there is no indication that fundamentalist leaders have encouraged the unrest…"

In other words, if they don't encourage it, they're not condoning it, right? Just like if I don't encourage my son to be violent toward his sister and he smashes her face with a soda can it's not my responsibility. I didn't tell him to do it but I didn't tell him to stop either. I'm just an innocent bystander with no responsibility whatsoever. The Muslim community and its leaders haven't "encouraged the unrest" so they've done their part, I guess.

Rotella: "Despite France's extensive social welfare programs and emphasis on civil rights, the weeklong tumult reiterates the persistent difficulties of integrating a predominantly Muslim minority beset by unemployment, crime and identity crisis.'There's a gap between what the politicians say and reality,' said Abd al Malik, a writer and rap artist who grew up in a housing project after his parents emigrated from the Republic of Congo. 'Even the most banal incident can be a trigger because people are so frustrated. They are told this is their home, but they don't feel it is their home. 'The government has to convince them that the Republic accepts them, that they are French. There has to be a real profound effort, because this has the potential to become really dramatic.'"

Wait a minute. Don't the immigrants have a responsibility to uphold the laws of the republic they have chosen to reside in? Where is their sense of social responsibility and their sense of community? Is it any wonder that the government has a hard time opening their arms if there is constant anti-government undertones to all of the violence that takes place? Didn't the thugs just burn down 20 townships? Why would I welcome someone into my home if after they enter my house they burn all my furniture? Why doesn't Rotella report on the fault that lies on the shoulders of the terrorists who are torching the friggin' city?

In another article dating back to March of 2002, Rotella outlines a supposed wiretap of Al Qaeda operatives that could have revealed the plans to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11. But in this article, Rotella consistently reports on the alleged transcripts of the wiretaps and the resulting failings of our intelligence gathering communities as factual events. But when it comes to the subject matter of the intelligence gathered (i.e., names of terrorists, their whereabouts and their illicit actions), Rotella keeps using the term "allegedly".

Rotella: "...he allegedly commanded a network that specialized in providing forged documents."

"He allegedly had close ties to Ayman Zawahiri, the Egyptian considered Bin Laden's second in command..."

"Abdulrahman allegedly has ties to Al Qaeda and 'was identified by nowledgeable foreign sources as chief of a Yemeni political security organization, which provided ogistical assistance and intelligence to the Egyptian terrorist group Al Jihad,...'"

Why is Rotella constantly deflecting blame from the terrorists for their illegal, murderous acts?

It is interesting that a third-party, non-partisan website whose purpose is to give an avenue for political and journalistic figures to voice their position on the War in Iraq called, "U.S.-Iraq ProCon" rates Rotella as a "one star" on their credibility scale. A two-star is defined as "national and international mainstream publications which present unbiased reporting, such as media news (television, radio, internet) and non-profits whose reporting can generally be considered unbiased" and Rotella didn't make the cut.

And even after Rotella has published a book outlining his investigative journalism into Mexican/U.S. border politics and the illegal underworld thereabouts? Surely after publishing a book he would gain some semblance of credibility. No? What about after winning the Columbia School of Journalism's Cabot Award for Excellence in Latin American reporting? Not even then?

Rotella reports from his politics instead of from the facts. In describing Jean-Marie Le Pen, a conservative French presidential candidate, for an article he wrote for the Times in 2002, Rotella wrote "Le Pen, pugnacious 73-year-old ex-paratrooper…" Since when did pugnacity become a political platform upon which you could unequivocally report? How is this responsible journalism?

Look, I don’t even know this guy. I just read an article in the Google news headlines and red flags starting going up all over the place. Then I searched the web a little to find out more about this guy's politics and it became clear that he is a textbook case of Journalistic Activism.

Report the news, Sebastian, not your opinions. If you want to report on your opinions, book yourself on Oprah. Or better yet, find a job at the L.A. Times. Oh,… right. My bad.

Comic Genius, no, not me.

There's this humorist named John Hodgman who is brilliant at cracking people up. People with a particular sense of humor, that is.

I saw his work first in last month's Gentleman's Quarterly (October 2005; pages 212-215 where two pages are ads) in an article excerpting and, in effect, advertising his new book, "The Areas of My Expertise" which should already be on the bookstands. (I will soon hereafter drive to the nearest bookseller conglomerate superstore slash coffee house and purchase a copy, read it cover to cover, and report on it for your pleasure.)

In the article in question, he lists a series of 44 hobo names, of which, it is supposed, there is one suitable for naming your next child. Some of the names had me furrowing my brow, many others have elicited a hearty guffaw.

Here are a few for your enjoyment.

Boxcar Ted
Boxcar Mick
Dr. Bill the Boxcar Medic
Boxcar Jones, the Boxcar Benjamin Disraeli
Boxcar Aldous Huxley
JR Lintstockings
Cleats Onionpocket
Deformed Abe
Commodore 64
Nick Nolte
Manny Stillwaggon, the Man with the Handlebar Eybrows
49-State Apthorp, the Alaska-phobe

and many more!

Visit this site for more hilarity and fun. You can play the part of the straight-man while Hodgman plays the part of comic genius.

Will the Real (smart) Andrew Hsu Please Stand Up?

There's this Chinese child prodigy nerd named Andrew Hsu that makes me so mad. (And when I say "mad" I mean "jealous".)

From what I can tell, he seems like kind of a dork so that makes me feel a little better, but apparently this kid got his BA at age 14 and a PhD before he was 18. Anyway, here's his site: http://www.andrewhsu.com/

(friggin' kid stole my url… rr)

Caf-fiend

A woman recently called me on my work phone and asked to speak to me. I replied that I was indeed he whom she sought.

After the initial pleasantries, she revealed that she was a buyer (or was it seller?) at a winery up in Napa some place and that she had heard I was interested in purchasing excellent vintage wines. She hinted at my purchasing a few cases.

I asked her where she got my name and she insisted on being vague. "Someone told me that you were a wine connoisseur and that you would be interested in buying some excellent wine, " she remarked. Strange.

When I told her she was way off base and that I don't even drink wine she seemed a little incredulous. As if her mysterious source was more reliable when it came to information about my drinking habits than I.

"So what DO you drink then?" she asked sarcastically.
"Rockstar"
"[laughter] Oh I guess there's been some mistake"
"I'll say," I didn't say.

So, as I thought about the amount of Rockstar I actually drink (about 4-5 cans a week) I felt as I might be engaging in a habit or ritual that was categorically bad for my health. I haven't read any nutritional labels or anything, but I doubt there are very many redeeming ingredients in Rockstar that I could name to justify the rate of consumption.

Anyway, I found this website which is pretty cool. It lets you index the exact quantity of a particular caffeinated soft drink you would need to consume before you died from it. Not necessarily the most useful information one can find on the 'Net, but hey, if every website was Wikipedia, you'd be bored to tears of the Internet.

Here are some of my results (based on my 165 lbs body weight.)

Amount of Andrew's favorite drinks required to kill him:
22.52 cups of Starbucks Grande Drip (with room, please)
75.08 cans of Rockstar
79.87 cans of Full Throttle
140.77 cans of Red Bull
160.88 cups of Starbucks Grande Soy Almond No Foam Latte
207.75 cans of Mountain Dew
250.25 cans of Diet Coke
281.53 bottles of Arizona Green Tea
296.35 cans of Pepsi or Wild Cherry Pepsi
331.21 cans of Cherry Coke
511.88 cans of Barq's Root Beer

Apparently, Rockstar has only 6.25mg of caffeine per liquid ounce. That's not too bad if you compare it to a Starbucks Grande Coffee that has 31.25mg/oz in a 16oz serving. Espresso is up to 50mg/oz in a typically 2-ounce serving. That's 100mg of caffeine straight up!

Backlog Blog (Part II)

I've just completed another wedding video and printed up the discs and DVD sleeves and so forth. That's usually the part I hate the most besides editing the toasts and speeches. Luckily this wedding's speech, given by the FOG (father of the groom) was light on the alcohol and heavy on the brevity.

Anyway, now that I'm only eight backlogged*—down from the previous nine—and since I didn't have a wedding to add to my list this weekend, I feel like I'm actually making progress.

*I define "backlog" differently than other videogs. I'm mainly referring to movies that are past their promised delivery date and not videos that are in the queue. If I were to reference the queue, the previously stated number "8" would more than double to "19".

Here is a picture of what the new printed disc looks like versus the old. I think the new one denies me the opportunity to establish a brand consciousness amongst my brides' families and friends, but hopefully they'll just plain like it better. (And subsequently brag about it more.)

Salon Selective

If you are looking for a place to get your hair cut or styled, avoid salons that have names or policies that use any of these 12 phrases.

1. Flamethrower


2. Zyclone B


3. Eyeless Smitty's


4. Do not feed the animals


5. Scalpless


6. and Tattos


7. 18 years and older


8. Do-It-Yourself


9. Tetanus shots


10. 80's


11. Colored Folks


12. Happy Hour

When is New Year's?

It's 12:09am, November 1, 2005. That means it's the Celtic New Year or something or other. That's all well and good but if you're going to celebrate that New Year day by getting a day off, like some modern-day witches are getting, then you should not be getting January First off also.

Likewise, if you are getting Chinese New Year off, you shouldn't be getting January 1st. Rosh Hashanah? Cool. No January 1st for you. Pick a New Year's day and stick with it. You don't get to play the field.

That's my opinion.

Bane: Photographers (Part II)

I know it's Halloween and everyone else's blog has something to do with costumes or séances or the perils of trick or treating and so forth.

My entry has to do with some of the scariest things that I know of. I know this may seem redundant since I've mentioned this topic before, but get used to it because I will, inevitably write/vent about it again.

Here is visible evidence of what I was referring to in my last post entitled "Bane: Photographers": wedding photogs that have no sense of where I am and how to avoid blocking my shot. I'm generally not hard to find. I'm usually the only guy with a big ol' shoulder-mounted video camera with wireless accessories that push my camera upwards of 13 lbs. I'm not hard to miss.

Anyway, check out this picture of a beautiful candle-lighting ceremony. It's self-explanatory.

Backlog Blog (part I)

As of today, I am about nine wedding videos behind schedule. I am backlogged like most wedding videographers are but since this is my first experience with such a big post-wedding-season backlog I am a little stressed out.

Recently I have changed my contracts to allow for the possibility of delay without bad repercussions but most of the weddings I am behind on right now are not from contracts that have such protections. My clients have all been very cool and very understanding but I just feel bad on a personal level.

Luckily for me (and them) I don't ask for the final payment from them until my product is delivered. This helps them feel better about the delay. It helps them know I haven't run off to the Ozarks with all of their money.

Anyway, suffice it to say I am very behind and swamped with work until at least Thanksgiving. So I probably shouldn’t be blogging right now. Back to the editing bay I go!

Horn Blower Cruisers

I came across this video while on a videographers' forum (yes, I know I'm a geek. I've never tried to deny it.) The video is pretty funny. It's of some pranksters who startle the bejeezers out of people with drive-by "honking".

I didn't know what category this post/topic should go under so I put it under "music" which made sense to me because there are "woodwind" instruments involved. But really there's no music in this video at all. Unless shrieking constitutes music or singing of some kind. I digress...

I laughed out loud while watching this. Enjoy the video! (Windows Media Format. Mac users, do whatcha gotta do.) Click here.

DARPA Chief

Remember the DARPA Chief from Metal Gear Solid? Remember how he accompanied Snake on his mission as technological and strategic support? Well, the real life DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has invented a new device to support our troops in the field.

The Boomerang, a device created to triangulate the sound of gunfire and pinpoint the location of snipers, can be mounted on Humvees to be a techno-watchdog for our troops.

It costs $10,000 per unit and can point out sniper fire in echoey city streets and while in motion—both features not previously available in older units like this one. The price tag seems steep, but the lives of our soldiers are worth infinitely more.

Solid Snake would have been jazzed to have a device like this while on his sneaking missions.

"Hand's Free"

My old Sony Ericsson phone measured four inches from tip to toe. From the speakers to the mic was 3.5". My ear is at least 6" from my mouth. You do the math.

I found a new device that you can attach to your cell phone that will not only make talking on your cell with your wife more like the days when you were courting her in high school--spending hours on the phone while your mom yelled in the background for you to get off so she could coordinate the church potluck.

An excertp from the "WHY?" page of Hulger.com reads:

Why is new always better? Why is smaller more desirable? Why is technology so soulless?
Why should it not be fun & beautiful & individual? Why must it always look forwards, never backwards?

Amen!

Click here to see Hulger products.

Chinese Restaurant Names

Have you noticed how utterly fatuous most Chinese restaurant names are?

Well, I've created a Chinese Restaurant Name Maker. Take any word from Section A and add it to a word in Section B to come up with your restaurant name. Repeating words is not recommended. (Section C can be added as an option.)

Section A
Golden
Purple
Lucky
Szechuan
Harbor
Happy
Jade
Shanghai
Hong Kong
Hunan

Section B
Tiger
Dragon
Phoenix
Seafood
Garden
Palace
Emperor
China
Lantern
Joy
Fortune

Section C
Restaurant
Café
Palace
Seafood Restaurant
Donuts and Chinese Food
Cuisine

And as a bonus, you can add any Chinese fellow's name just before the restaurant name begins (e.g., "Ching Chong Chay's Golden Phoenix Seafood Restaurant")

Did I forget any words? Leave me a comment.

Website Rankings

Do you ever wonder how well your website ranks in the world of online portals and search pages?

Well, I found a website that will help you answer that question in mere seconds.

Cool SEO Tool is an online tool that will determine whether or not your site ranks in Google's top 100 links for a given inquiry. You simply enter your site name and then a querry, For example, you can enter: morningstarvideography.com and then enter the query: "high end wedding videography" and you will see that my site ranks nowhere near the top 100 responses from Google. Yay for me! :-( I suck.

(I should note that I come up as number 5 in a Yahoo! search with the same query.) Oh, yeah -- I forgot to mention -- Cool SEO Tool will search other sites like Yahoo! and MSN as well.

Lastly, in case you were wondering, "SEO" stands for Search Engine Optimization.

Enjoy!

Crispy Taliban

American soldiers bravely fighting in the front lines of Afghanistan cremated two corpses of Taliban terrorists. They were filmed reading a prepared message to Taliban terrorists while the corpses burned.

Part of their psy-op message, which was to be distributed in hopes of luring terrorists out of hiding, read like this:

"Attention Taliban: You are cowardly dogs. You allowed your fighters to be laid
down facing west and burned. You are too scared to retrieve the bodies. This
just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be. You attack and
run away like women. You call yourself Talibs, but you are a disgrace to the
Muslim religion, and you bring shame upon your family. Come and fight like men
instead of the cowardly dogs you are."

Allegations are being brought out that their behavior might be contrary to the Geneva Convention.

The soldiers say that the bodies have to be burned for hygiene reasons and saw an opportunity to attack the enemy psychologically with by mocking them and trying to lure them out.

Personally, I don't see a big problem with this. At worst, it's done in bad taste, but more likely it is a good strategy to gain advantage over an enemy that does not follow the rules of engagement. At least two of the soldiers filmed in this incident are trained psychological operations specialists whose purpose in the field is to demoralize the enemy with propaganda and "mind games". I'd say they did their jobs pretty well.

Does the Taliban care about or abide by the Geneva Convention? I don't think cutting off the head of a living non-combatant contract worker is specifically prohibited in the Geneva Convention, but I haven't read the whole document so what do I know? Perhaps making fun of people and calling them cowards is on par with beheading them*. Maybe my moral compass is off and the two are actually comparable.

And since when has taunting your enemy considered grounds for an investigation anyway? I thought all victors—in war and in sports—earned the right to taunt the enemy with impunity. At least until the battle is engaged.

Frankly, I don’t care what kind of mean things our soldiers say to the enemy. Are we afraid it will hurt their feelings? Maybe the fear is that once they get their feelings hurt they will hate us more. It's hard for me to imagine hating people more than you already them if you hated them so much you flew an airplane into building and killed 5,000 of them.

Know your enemy a little better and perhaps you will stop complaining about these "incidents".

*WARNING: THIS VIDEO IS EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY GRAPHIC. DO NOT WATCH IT IF YOU ARE NOT PREPARED TO BE SICKENED TO THE CORE OF YOUR BEING.
*Click here to see video of our enemy in action.

Carver, who art thou?

Did you watch Nip/Tuck last night?
~~POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT~~
~~DO NOT READ ON IF YOU WATCH NIP/TUCK~~
I think Kimber is the Carver.
That's all.

Poker Highlights

I was watching the World Series of Poker on ESPN yesterday was simply amazed at just how cruel the evil Mistress of Poker can be.

Actor Oliver Hudson--son of Goldie Hawn, brother to Kate Hudson—entered this year's World Series of Poker with great optimism but terrible luck.

In the very first hand of the very first game on the very first day of the Main Event held at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas, Oliver Hudson became the very personification of the notion that "luck beats skill" in poker. Of course, as Sam Farha proved, it's even better to be skilled AND lucky.

Here's how the hand played out for Hudson:
- Hudson was dealt pocket 10s in a game that the blinds are 25 and 50. He raises to 450.
- Farha calls. Perhaps Hudson was thinking Farha also had a pocket pair.
- The flop comes out Ace, Ace, 10. WOW! Hudson flops a full house!
- Thinking Farha probably has an Ace or a Ten in his hole for a set or two pair which his own full boat can still easily beat, Hudson goes and bets $300 more to slow play Farha into wasting more money.
- Sam Farha raised another $1000!
- Hudson was delighted. He goes ALL IN to force Farha into a tough situation. That's $10,000 of his starting stack on the first hand! Hudson figures he will double-up on the first hand while eliminating past champion Sammy Farha.
- Farha calls and flips his cards.

Oh, Mistress of Poker, you are cruel indeed.
Farha shows an Ace 10 for a full house; Aces over 10s to beat Hudsons 10s over Aces!

FEMA: Louisiana State Lotto Racist

Slidell, Louisiana (AP)-- A winning Wheel of Fortune Lotto check worth over $1.6 million dollars was accused of being racist by FEMA officials Wednesday.

The Wheel of Fortune Mega Bucks Lotto rewarded Jacquelyn Sherman, an African American, a price of $1,636,429.00 when she picked 8 correct numbers and letters out of a possible 10 digit puzzle that spelled "K-A-T-R-I-N-A-S-U-X". FEMA Officials were concerned that only her "black family members" seemed to be benefiting from the reward and that Jacquelyn only has two "token whities" in her circle of friends.

FEMA, recently criticized for there lack of support for the vastly African American population of the hardest hit areas of Lousiana when hurricane Katrina hit in August. Critics allege racism as a key factor in the Bush Administration's lackadaisical attitude toward immediate relief.

FEMA Spokesman, Roger Rogerstein, in a televised news conference, accused the Louisiana Lotto of discriminatory activities because 87%-96% of people who purchase their lottery tickets from 2003 to 2005 were all African Americans. "The evidence is clear to see--the winner of this [jackpot] is 100% African American. What about the over 80% of White America who didn't get a sniff of the jackpot? What of them?" Rogerstein demanded.

Sherman was not available for comment but was seen rejoicing in her winnings, the blatant racism of the Louisiana State Lotto completely lost on her as she drove off in her nephew's Ford Taurus.

At print, Hurrican Katrina has been subpoenaed by Louisian Supreme Court on charges filed by the ACLU to explain why she targeted mostly black neighborhoods. Katrina was not available for comment.

Bane: Photographers

WTF is up with wedding photographers?

In my line of work, I've worked with many, many photographers and the vast majority (that is to say, about 80%) of them range from being pretty cool to very cool people.

Every once in a while I get a real stinger. I'm talking about photogs that constantly ruin my video by way of ignorance or malice or just plain selfishness. At one end of the spectrum is the oblivious photog that will wander into my shot because he simply doesn't know where I am or have a good sense of his surrounding. (I say "he" because most—with the exception of one—female photographers are all pretty conscientious) At the other end of the spectrum is the prima donna that thinks he is the reason the bride and groom are getting married. Like they are getting married so they can have an excuse to work with this clown and they're throwing a party to celebrate his hiring. What egomaniacs!

This last weekend I shot a wedding in Sacramento where the photographer (I think he leans toward the shallow end of the spectrum) who was a pleasant guy but kept walking in front of the bride and groom in between the Reverend's sentences. What normal thinking person with even an ounce of respect for circumstance and an iota of proper decorum would think it is OK to across the front of an ongoing ceremony of this caliber? Would you stand at the foot of a movie screen at your local Cineplex? Would you saunter between two people talking to each other in a hotel lobby? Who does this sort of thing? It's socially retarded is what it is!

And during the sand-pouring ceremony the guy goes in for the kill shot and blocks not only my camera but the eyes of half of the attending guests. I had no choice but to dismount my camera from its tripod and sneak in between his size 64 waist and the gazebo's entrance for the shot.

Sometimes I want to leave the footage of the photog's back in the final edited movie so the bride can see what I had to contend with and earn justification for any shots I might have missed because of it. "Perhaps", I yearn, "the bride will call up the photog after seeing the footage and give him a piece of her mind." Alas, it is too passive aggressive to punish the bride with sub-par footage in her video for me to actually leave that stuff in.

Inevitably, I am forced to spend extra time editing around this clod so that I can purposely hide from the bride the notion that her photographer was the single most influential factor in preventing me from getting the best possible shot!

Dissident Arab Gets the Treatment

Excerpt of "Dissident Arab Gets the Treatment" from FrontPageMagazine.com, January 6, 2005
By Ahmad Al-Qloushi

I am a 17-year-old Kuwaiti Arab Muslim and a college freshman studying in the USA. I was three years of age when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. My parents still remember what it was like for us during the invasion. Waiting for long hours in line for a few pieces of bread. We had darkness 24 hours a day from the burning oil wells. My two uncles are still traumatized from being kidnapped and tortured in Iraqi prisons. Most of all we remember our one-week-old baby cousin who died while the Iraqi invaders were stealing incubators from hospitals to sell them for profit. The Americans by contrast came in to liberate us and asked for nothing in return. I love this country for the freedom it provides and for rescuing Kuwait’s liberty in the first Gulf War. 12 Years later, America once again has selflessly protected my country and my people by removing Saddam Hussein.

I enrolled in Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California and immediately registered for “Introduction to American Government and Politics." I was shocked by my Professor’s singularly one-sided presentation. Week after week, I encountered a lack of intellectual and political diversity that I would have more commonly expected to have heard on the streets of pre-liberation Iraq. In this particular class I heard only one consistent refrain: America is bad.
A week before thanksgiving Professor Woolcock assigned us a take home final exam. The final exam consisted solely of one required essay: “Dye and Zeigler contend that the Constitution of the United States was not ‘ordained and established’ by ‘the people’ as we have so often been led to believe. They contend instead that it was written by a small educated and wealthy elite in America who were representative of powerful economic and political interests. Analyze the US constitution (original document), and show how its formulation excluded the majority of the people living in America at that time, and how it was dominated by America's elite interest.”

When I read the assignment I remembered back to my high school in Kuwait. Many of my teachers were Palestinian; they hated America, they hated my worldview, and they did their best to brainwash me. I did not leave my country and my family to come to the United States to receive further brainwashing. I disagreed completely with Dye and Zeigler’s thesis. I wrote an essay defending America’s Founding Fathers and upholding the US constitution as a pioneering document, which has contributed to extraordinary freedoms in America and other corners of the world - including my corner, the Middle East.

Professor Woolcock didn’t grade my essay. Instead he told me to come to see him in his office the following morning. I was surprised the next morning when instead of giving me a grade, Professor Woolcock verbally attacked me and my essay. He told me, “Your views are irrational.” He called me naïve for believing in the greatness of this country, and told me "America is not God's gift to the world." Then he upped the stakes and said "You need regular psychotherapy." Apparently, if you are an Arab Muslim who loves America you must be deranged. Professor Woolcock went as far as to threaten me by stating that he would visit the Dean of International Admissions (who has the power to take away student visas) to make sure I received regular psychological treatment.

Read the rest of the article by clicking here.

Ahmad Al-Qloushi was born and raised in Al-Shaab, Kuwait where he attended English language school. He recently became President of Foothill’s College Republicans. He is a Political-Science major at Foothill College. Please e-mail Ahmad at ahmadalqloushi@sbcglobal.net.

Back to Burkhas!

Why is it that liberals are so unified in their defense of Islam and consistently expound its virtues while bashing and limiting the spread of Christianity?
Here are a few reasons why liberals are insensitive, at best, but more likely inconsistent, incomprehensible, and perhaps even a little insane.

1. Liberals love women's rights. A steady, unfaltering mantra echoing from the Left for decades has been women's rights to vote, women's rights to hold jobs/earn pay equal to men, and women's rights to choose. But Islam prohibits a great number of women's rights. Religious prohibitions regarding marital rights, divorce rights, inheritance rights, and women's equality in general still abound in Islamic Governments throughout the Middle East. Honor killings, the murder or women who have 'dishonored' their families with premarital sex are still happening today Women, without permission from their father or husband are not allowed to drive, enroll in universities. German courts recently started a trial where a Turkish man is being accused of shooting his sister who lives a "Western lifestyle" and was learning to become an electrician. Are liberals really able to defend a religion that allows things like this to happen?
2. Liberals protect gay rights. Well, guess what? According to many Imams, their interpretation of Shari'ah law demands the death penalty for homosexuals. Even conservative Evangelical Christian communities who believe homosexuality is a sin will never demand death to a gay man or woman! Why don't the Cindy Sheehans of the world protest this violently homophobic ideology instead of the war in Iraq (that will bring a democracy that will most likely, directly or indirectly, put a stop to this kind of radical homophobic thinking)?
3. Liberals who espouse hatred toward the American government—if Radical Islam didn't view them as allies—would most likely be beheaded by "insurgents" (I prefer the term, "terrorists" because it far more accurately describes their singular purpose for existing) for their liberal thinking if they had their 'druthers. Are these guys kidding? Do you think Hillary Clinton would be allowed to speak the way she does and hold high offices the way does if she were under Shari'ah law? In an Islamic world, Hillary would be wearing a burkha, denied the right to speak in public, given a clitorectomy and then executed if she complained about it!

Ah, yes, the virtues of the Great Religion of Peace!

Why endorse a set of ideals that will put women a thousand years back in time? Why bring democracy to a nation and place only ballot measures that will deny the voter the right to vote? Why lovingly invite a gay couple into a room and lovingly leave them alone with 30 armed and a violent homophobes? It makes no sense!

Liberals, for some reason, cannot wrap their small minds around the concept that the use of freedom of speech to espouse hatred against the very Nation that provides you with the freedom to securely to speak against said Nation and to endorse and protect a religion and a religious people who are the very antithesis of the freedoms that you enjoy is categorically illogical and borderline insanity.