by JJ Epic | Sep 9, 2008 |
This past weekend I went to the theater to see the newest Batman movie, The Dark Knight. The movie was pretty good, very dark but good. The Joker was played by the late Heath Ledger and I must say he did a great job of getting across the psychosis and madness of the character without going all campy. One metaphor I took from the movie is the fact that government could not solve the problems plaguing the city. It took a private entity, The Batman, to get the job done.
This blog post isn’t about the movie or my weekend but rather something I saw before the movie that I just had to comment on. Call me jaded or cynical but I am always looking for the hidden meaning/agenda behind advertisements and messages in general; it can be quite interesting once you get past the high gloss façade. Most of the time these messages are very obvious and other times, more sinister.
During the preview roll an advertisement came on for the National Guard in the form of a Kid Rock song, co-starting Dale Earnhardt Jr. The song is called Warrior and can be found on Youtube. What follows is my unapologetic critique.
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by JJ Epic | Jul 29, 2008 |
An Olympic caliber haze has China looking to enact more drastic measures to clean up the cloud of pollution in Beijing’s skies. This article goes on to say, “Pollution has been a pressing concern for the Games, as local organizers have promised to hold a ‘Green Olympics,’ despite the air that often ranks among the most polluted in the world.”
I hope that the conditions remain as bad as they are to show the world the truth of everyday Beijing.
I am aware this has little to do with Keene but it speaks to a larger point about how this one current distraction being pawned off on the vapid TV viewing masses is so utterly absurd.
Don’t worry about the wars in the Mideast, we need to fix the planet first.
The environment strikes back.
“The tornado that hit central New Hampshire Thursday traveled 40 miles through 11 towns, creating a swath of destruction a third of a mile wide in some areas, and lifting off the ground to skip over others, …”
“Tropical Storm Dolly continued to strengthen slightly early Tuesday as it moved over the warm waters of the western Gulf of Mexico towards the Texas-Mexico border… “
by JJ Epic | Jul 3, 2008 |
The Presidential Primary season has concluded. This amazing process has yielded the two finest, upstanding citizens this country has to offer. On one hand we have a old grizzled war veteran who would see us in Iraq for a 100 years if need be. On the other hand we have a smooth talking inexperienced young man who speaks of change. One of these two people will go on to be President of the most powerful country in the world. Given the damage that the current President has done to this Country, it’s guiding law the Constitution and the many dead in the Middle East, what can we expect from either of these men?
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by Nick Ryder | May 4, 2008 |
On Friday, April 18th, I was told by a Keene Police Officer that I was committing theft by plugging my computer into one of the outlets that stick out of the ground along Main Street. These outlets have places to be locked or turned off, but they were neither locked, turned off, or marked with something saying they weren’t for public use. The officer told me “You can ask the City if you can use their electricity, but for now you’re stealing it.” I obliged and moved on with my night.
Tuesday, April 22nd, I went into City Hall and asked the Clerk’s Office about these outlets. Were they outlawed to the public? If so, why isn’t it marked, since they look as public as the public trash cans? How do I get permission to use them? Some of the workers were unaware that such plugs even existed, but they promised to call Keene Park & Rec and give me a call when they got the answer for me.
Tuesday, April 29th, I still had not heard from them, so I followed up with a personal contact I have in the same building. Perhaps he, being an employee on the inside, could push someone to find an answer for me. Today, May 4th, I followed up with him, and they told him the same thing they told me: “We’ll get back to you.”‘
***Update: Tuesday, May 6th, I finally got a call from Ms. Little in the City Clerk’s office. She said that the outlets are not for public use, and are for event use only. The city manager told her that if someone wanted to make some of them public, I could submit a written request to the city council. Sounds like fun…
This still does not answer the question as to why they are not marked, or how any person should know that an outlet on public property is not for public use.
by Ian | Apr 28, 2008 |
The Libertarian Party (LP) had, after the late, great Harry Browne‘s campaigns, been falling further and further from it’s original principles. In the early portion of this decade, when the LP removed from the party platform their calls for the abolishment of the CIA and FBI, I wrote their newspaper to say I’d not send them another dime of money until they got back to their founding principle: the non-initiation of force.
As I drifted away from the LP and politics and toward market-based action, I paid less and less attention to the LP. I even said on the air recently on “Free Talk Live“, my talk show, that the only reason I was still a member is because I bought a life membership and it hadn’t been worth my while to cancel it. (more…)
by Ian | Apr 23, 2008 |
WTPL’s Gardner Goldsmith interviews Free Keene’s Ian about Saturday’s public gambling event involving Free Keene’s bloggers. We also discuss marijuana prohibition.
Download the MP3.
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