Argument is to me the air I breathe. Given any proposition, I cannot help believing the other side and defending it. Gertrude Stein

 

Fall Fest Harvest Homecoming

 

 

 

Magician and alchemist Jeff McBride’s Fall Fest Harvest Homecoming is being held Thursday, October 23rd to Sunday, October 26th, 2008. Four days and nights of Mystery, Magic, Music and Fire! And it’s free! Sign up for this astonishing celebration at http://www.vegasvortex.com.

 

On Thursday October 23rd, Jeff McBride is inviting everyone for a community potluck Harvest Feast of Friends at his home, the McBride House of Mystery, at 7pm. Please RSVP to Jeff at 702-450-0021 or sign up at registrar@vegasvortex.com.

 

 

Friday evening, October 24th, begins at the Sound Traxx show room at Palace Station, to see Jeff McBride: Magic At The Edge show followed by The Witches and Wizard’s Ball. Doors open at 7pm. Jeff has special two for one tickets to his show and entrance to the Ball will be free with your ticket stub! There will be a special midnight ritual. Creative and festive costumes and masks are encouraged. There will be a $10 donation accepted at the door.

 

Saturday, October 25th from Dusk til Sunrise. The celebrants will gather at the Goddess Temple in Cactus Springs, forty minutes away from Las Vegas. http://www.sekhmettemple.com/drivingpage.htm. The evening will commence with the Desert Moon Circle opening ritual, a ceremony of honoring the shifting seasons of the year and honoring the intentions for the rest of the night's magick. After the ceremony, celebrants will go straight on to the all-night sacred fire circle, drumming, dancing and singing up the sun.

 

Bonedance is an Alchemical Firecircle Ritual, of drumming, dance, voice and sound honoring the ancestors with a special Samhain ceremony. Together the participants will turn the Great Wheel. 

 

Sunday evening, October 26th, starting at 7pm, everyone will gather at Jeff’s House of Mystery, for an enchanted evening of Community Relaxation and Re- Integration.

 

Modesty Patrols & Stoning Returns! 

 

In Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, zealots are on the warpath to stamp out behavior they consider unchaste. They hurl stones at women for such "sins" as wearing a red blouse, and attack stores selling devices that can access the Internet. Most of the attacks are against women who are seen talking to men or wearing an item that offends their take on modesty laws.

 

Religious vigilantes operate in a society that has granted their community influence well beyond its numbers, partly out of a commitment to revive the great centers of Jewish scholarship destroyed in the Holocaust, but also because the Orthodox are perennial king-makers in Israeli politics.

 

Public transport is grounded for the Jewish Sabbath each Saturday and more than 30,000 Orthodox yeshiva students are exempt from compulsory military service.

 

Israel's ultra-Orthodox community is a growing minority, around 13% of the total population, but it is particularly strong in Jerusalem and is having an increasing influence throughout the country.

 

After we get rid of the Taliban and their harsh treatment of women in Afghanistan, end female genital mutilation in Muslim Africa, will we stamp out the mistreatment of women by ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel?

 

When we toured Israel, we went to a Jewish shopping area in Jerusalem. To enter the street, everybody passes through armed-guard security and bags were checked (even at McDonald’s and shopping malls). Police were everywhere. (Photo: collecting water at the Jordan River)

 

The Center for Strategic Analysis (CSA)

 

On Thursday I went to a secret location to hear Robert Spencer talk. The 2-day seminar (October 8th & 9th) was on Homeland Security and Terrorism. This was the 4th seminar arranged by The Center for Strategic Analysis. www.centerforstrategicanalysis.org/pub/pjb.htm).

 

I’ve heard Robert Spencer speak before and he is shockingly outspoken and extremely brave. Spencer is the director of jihadwatch.com and a fascinating speaker. He quotes chapter and verse of the Koran with the expert knowledge that can easily best any Islamic scholar. http://jihadwatch.org/

 

Very briefly, Spencer spoke for 2 hours on how Islam is going about their intended objective, to convert, by any means, the world to Islam. They are using our right to freedom of religion to change our laws to accommodate Muslims in the workplace. Instead of terrorism, this is the soft approach to conversion! They are making small but significant leeway in this regard. Spencer said two controversial things: (1) There is information that Osama bin Laden was not the architect of 9/11, and (2) Islam considers Barack Obama a Muslim since he attended a Muslim school for two years while living in Indonesia as a child. Spencer does not consider Obama a Muslim “apostate”.

 

However, The Christian Science Monitor does: “Barack Obama – Muslim apostate? For Al Qaeda, the answer – and the implication – is clear.” By Shireen K. Burki

(from the May 19, 2008 edition). In brief, the article says:

 “After all, the 2008 campaign could very well give Al Qaeda the ultimate propaganda tool: President Barack Hussein Obama, Muslim apostate.

 

“The fact that Senator Obama – the son of a Muslim father – insists he was never a Muslim before becoming Christian is irrelevant to bin Laden. In bin Laden's eyes, Obama is a murtad fitri, the worst type of apostate, because he was blessed by Allah to be born into the true faith of Islam.

 

“There are two types of apostates according to sharia (Islamic law) and the Hadith (sayings of the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him).

 

“The first type is murtad milli, one who converted to Islam and later renounced the faith. The second, and most egregious, type is murtad fitri. It refers to a person born of a Muslim father who renounces his birthright.

 

“According to Islamic jurisprudence, children of a Muslim father – even an apparently nonpracticing one, such as Obama's father, and irrespective of the mother's faith – are automatically Muslims. Most Muslims around the world agree: A child of a Muslim father is a Muslim. Period.

 

“Should Obama become US commander in chief, there is a strong likelihood that Al Qaeda's media arm, As-Sahab, will exploit his background to argue that an apostate is leading the global war on terror (read: attacks against fellow Muslims). This perception would be leveraged to galvanize sympathizers into action.

 

“Remember: Al Qaeda's ultimate goal is to restore the caliphate (the Islamic form of government that would preside over the community of believers) and expand Dar al Islam ("Abode of Islam"). Reaching it requires a long war against all – Muslim and non-Muslim – who don't share its extremist Wahhabi worldview.

 

“But an apostate as head of the United States could change this equation. It would be a propaganda boost for Al Qaeda's mission. All one has to do is read Al Qaeda's public statements to recognize how frequently it makes baseless apostasy accusations against fellow Muslims who challenge its message or actions.”

 

If you would like to be placed on the CSA mailing list, email Patrick Boylan at pboylan@centerforstrategicanalysis.org. I highly recommend that, if you have a group or organization interested in homeland security, you invite Patrick to speak.

 

Movies This Week

 

Body of Lies (NO)

 

 

 

Zack and Miri Make A Porno (YES)

 

 

 

The Secret Lives of Bees (NO)

 

 

 

 

Body of Lies

 

DiCaprio works hard while Crowe does chores at home and eats. Getting fat for a role is necessary when you are playing a real-life fat man. Diego Diego Rivera was obese (Alfred Molina in “Frida”) and the older Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro in “Raging Bull”) had gone to seed. But let’s face facts, Russell Crowe is fat, so why claim he was told by “Body of Lies” director Ridley Scott to put on an extra 63 pounds? Crowe says Scott told him:  “Now, mate, would you mind putting on a significant amount of weight? I see him (the character) as an ex-athlete who has let himself go.”

 

This is the 4th movie Crowe has made with Scott (with “Nottingham” number 5 opening next year). Does anyone believe Crowe did what Scott asked him to do and force-fed himself Twinkies all day long?

 

Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a CIA agent working in the Middle East being stage-managed by a spy satellite (that everyone on the ground can clearly see) that is directed by god-like, omnipresent Ed Hoffman (Crowe) who is really a house-husband. While manipulating world events as he sees fit in the Middle East, Hoffman does chores such as driving his children to school, making breakfast, and doing laundry. Attached 24/7 to an ear phone to the agents on the ground in the hotbed Middle East, he’s also likely to be his son’s nursery school aide every Monday.   

 

I needed a War On Terror manual to follow this jumble of picturesque intrigue. Ferris is a fluent Arabic-speaking operative doing and going exactly where Hoffman directs him. Hey, maybe that’s what Crowe liked about the role! He’s telling a big star to heel, stay, and roll over and kill.

 

Ferris’s mission is to find a secretive terrorist operating out of Jordan. This brings Ferris from Iraq to Jordan and an uneasy alliance with the bespoke-wearing head of Jordanian intelligence, Hani. Ferris also has a local tour-guide and contact, Bassam, a one-man computer genius, and a nurse-love interest, Aisha.

 

Ferris decides on a scheme to flush out the targeted terrorist by setting up a bogus rival terrorist group. His reasoning is that this terrorist is really interested in his own hagiographic legacy and will be jealous of an interloper carrying out non-sanctioned, rogue bombings. 

 

There’s a few mano-a-mano scenes between Ferris and Hoffman to show off DiCaprio’s acting skills. And, to be honest, DiCaprio is picking his roles wisely, choosing projects that are tough and give him lots of dimensions. The romance between Ferris and Aisha is not only unnecessary but awkward. Shouldn’t Ferris be smart enough not be give his enemies and his overseer Hoffman an emotional target to get at him?

 

This spy thriller gets muddled then murky and ends as all spy thrillers must, as another day at the office. Nothing gets resolved and Hoffman has to wrap things up quickly since he has to take his kids to see “The Lion King” while his wife leads a black-op group in Pakistan hunting OBL.

 

Crowe is a sexy fat man and he is always seductive with his male co-stars. It’s his way of getting the upper-hand in scene-stealing. Now I know the Sheriff of Nottingham liked banquets so he could be well-fed villain, but are we going to see a hefty Robin Hood flirting with Friar Tuck?

 

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

 

Kevin Smith finally has a hit with Rogen and porn stars. Smith got the Ben Affleck curse lifted.

 

Have you seen Seth Rogen on late night TV talk shows? He’s getting the Hollywood re-do for “The Green Hornet”. Will the re-mastering of Rogen as a sex symbol work? It hasn’t worked for Will Ferrell and Adam Sandler.

 

Kevin Smith needs a hit, so he’s orchestrated one with a formula that can’t lose. Seth Rogen and porn stars! Throw in Smith fan favorite Jason Mewes as a sex maniac (full frontal on display) and lots of dirty language about anal sex, a title that explains the movie, and you have got a hit.

 

Then ruin it by making it a standard, Hollywood redemption sweet romance.

 

Everyone with a cell phone camera is taking nude photos of friends and making home porn movies. With trailblazer and talent-free Paris Hilton creating her mega- celebrity status with a sex tape, and sex tape runner-up Kim Kardashian’s spot on Dancing With the Stars and a reality TV show (her mother is her manager!), it’s the gold standard for launching a career.

 

There are two things I learned about Kevin Smith: He’s either unhappily married (I know, his wife Jennifer Schwalback Smith is in the movie!) or he thinks everyone else is, and men and women cannot be life-long friends without having sex.

 

Seth Rogen is incredibly likeable with an original movie persona. He’s got a wounded frustration that is clearly present in his voice. This will certainly be lost as he sheds the weight, glasses, and his hair is straightened and tamed. But in “Zack and Miri” he is at his hopeless loser best.

 

You know the story from the title. Childhood friends and school outcasts, Zack (Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) live in a rundown apartment in freezing cold, snowy Pittsburgh. With no goals and each affirming that the other’s life is miserable and they are comrades in Gulag poverty, they have knowingly ignored being responsible adults. They are dead broke, even though they both have entry-level, minimum wage jobs at the local mall.

 

When the electricity and water are turned off, Zack suggests they make a sex tape and sell it to the 800 people who they went to high school with. Miri finally agrees even though it’s weird. They put out a casting call and that’s when real life porn star Katie Morgan, playing a stripper, and retired porn alumni Traci Lords, playing a porn star, turn up and embrace the project.  With funding from an unhappily-married employee at Zack’s coffee shop, they begin pre-production. 

 

That’s when the sex hilarity begins and so does the jealousy. You know the ending.

 

I’ve seen Katie Morgan’s HBO series. I tried and failed to find out how Katie became a breakout porn star cross-over. I don’t watch porn, so education on this matter will be appreciated. Could it be she’s not perfect, has huge fake breasts, and has the ability to be totally un-self-conscious being naked while behaving as if she is being interviewed by Barbara Walters on The View? Appearing flaky and non-threatening must be another plus.

 

Traci Lords, on the other hand, has never been able to drop her anger and fury written all over her face. If she can’t forget her past, how can we?

 

The director and writer, Kevin Smith, gives Superman Return's Brandon Routh and Justin Long hilarious cameos. Routh will recover from “Superman Returns”. And let’s not deny we all love foul-mouthed, angry old East Indian guys. These caricatures are so popular, why doesn’t someone make a movie about them?