Updated
05/27/09
Updated
05/27/09
Copyright May 27, 2009, by T. G. Browning.
All Rights Reserved.
Please feel to quote any of the definitions, laws or aphorisms, as
long as proper attribution is given.
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Greetings all,
I should apologize I suspect, for
the deafening silence of RDD lately, but would like to plead a lack of free
time. I've been working on a Doris Preston/Toledo novel (called
Strange Brew) and haven't
had much time for either essays or definitions. However, there are a couple of
things I thought might be of interest to you all, which is why you're getting
this issue now.
First up, I've stumbled across a movie that was delightful. It's dark comedy and
not only clever and original, but damn funny. The title is
Wristcutters (A Love Story) and if you liked
Shaun of the Dead,
Dead Like Me or
Dr. Strangelove, you'll
enjoy this film as well. I won't spoil the plot if I tell you this much. A kid
gets distraught over losing his girlfriend and decides to off himself
(the term they use throughout the movie), slashes his wrists and then finds
himself in the afterlife. (The actual suicide is very tastefully done, by the
way. Not played sensationally at all)
He discovers that the afterlife is just like the world he left, only shabbier
and even more boring. The second lead is a Russian rocker, by the way, that
killed himself by pouring beer on the electric guitar he was playing at a gig
when the audience starts booing the group.
See it. It's thoughtful, very tasteful and surprising to the end. And,
if you've ever wondered about Inuit throat-singing, this movie could get you
started.
[-:-]
Next up, I confess to wanting to see the Speaker of the House
waterboarded, just to
clarify the Speaker's memory regarding CIA briefings she attended, skipped,
slept through or that confused her. My big objection to Pelosi's verbal
I know nothing remarks (Sergeant Schultz
of Hogan's Heroes has
been reincarnated, it seems), is that it's plain as a pikestaff that Pelosi has
no real moral objections to torture, only political ones. That angers and
disgusts me beyond the telling of it.
Look, folks. I don't give a tinker's damn if torture is effective (and it
isn't, don't kid yourself), a society that uses
torture is a sick, evil society in my book. Such actions are toxic as hell to
society in general and those who either witness it or indulge in it. I despise
Cheney, Gonzales and Rove and suggest that you ought to as well. Instead of
protecting freedom in America, such practices whittle away any vestiges of
freedom, honor, decency and dignity a society must
have if it is to be worthy of the ideals put forth in the Bill of Rights.
Oh, excuse me. I forgot. Cheney and company (throw in Limbaugh and Colter, et
al) figure the Bill of Rights is nothing but a formality.
Officially sanctioned torture is as corrosive to society as slavery. Does that
put it into perspective? I do not want to be part of any society that permits
slaves, sanctions rape, torture or vigilante justice of any kind. Do
you?
*********
This particular outing is probably best described as . . .
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bold
adj. In most circles, damn foolish and possibly reckless. In political
circles, nitwitted and possibly brain-damaged. See descriptions of US foreign
policy by the House Majority leader.
holy adj. The most
deceptive, blatantly dishonest adjective in the English language. Means
personal.
Jacob's Joke maxim A
cursory inspection of the world indicates that God or the gods should not be
worshiped so much as blamed.
monotheism n. The belief
that one supreme malign thug of a god beats a full house of malign thug gods.
Muslim adj. A person who
believes an Arab merchant was the last messenger from god with a capital G.
Muslims believe the Koran
is perfect, having been carefully brought down, piece by piece, from Heaven via
the archangel Gabriel, to Mohammad in what was probably the definitive example
of overnight delivery. One should note that those places in
Koran that contradict
each other are not mistakes, just amendments (the invention of white-out being
centuries in the future), even if they are total reversals of policy.
Some salient points of Islam are: Women are worth exactly half of a man, which
most likely came about do to a rounding
error, Marids and Jinn have real existence and large black stones are holy
particularly if cubic in form and bigger than a breadbox.
myth n. Any historic fact
at variance with one's tenderly held misconceptions or prejudices. See Galileo.
See mythology.
mythology n. 1. The Bush
administration's justification of invading Iraq. 2. A group or connected series
of tales that provide a convenient hook for derision. Post-modernists often
deride science as being nothing more than a mythology cobbled together over
time. This is a strange argument to employ, considering that post-modernists
believe everything is a myth, there being no such thing as objective truth which
makes post-modernist thought not objective truth either.
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We have a really great serial
newspaper report going down right now as well. Seems some guy who is very well
known as a journalist
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Please consider checking out my novel, Red Tide, a dark fantasy set in
the wilds of the Oregon coast.
www.revisedevilsdictionary.com
or www.booklocker.com
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the revised devil's dictionary has no fixed schedule and comes out
twice or three times a month
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