It's All About Me, Man

I've finally achieved consistency in my life. Any person of average or above intelligence can predict what I will say next with unerring accuracy. And what I say will always be wrong.

Friday, January 30, 2009

[ItsAllAboutMeMan] Re: [progressive] Palast - Obama is a two-faced liar. Aw-RIGHT!

Well, this is what many so-called progressives have been calling for - we need somebody, as tough, bad-ass, dishonest and ruthless and the republicans. If Palast is right, for about the first time (other than his persecution of George Galloway, which he never proved to my satisfaction) I have to disagree with him. 

So Obama strong arms people and pushes his agenda (which may or may not be our agenda at any given time) - it lasts until they get get back in power, and they push it harder the other way.  The pendelum swings wider and wider, when what we need is a weakened presidency.

And the famous Obama ego, unchecked, will bring him down in classic, tragic fashion. He thinks he can do anything he wants anywhere, any time. Well, Afghanistan is going to break him, like Vietnam did to Lyndon Johnson.

And his FBI is still despicably lying about Maher Arar, saying that he was meeting with Omar Khadr in safehouses in Afghanistan, a fantastic lie/fabrication/accusation extracted under torture.  Arar's alibi is ironclad, and even the dispicably compliant lapdog Canadian government has admitted their wrongdoing in Arar's abduction and torture, and paid him $10,000,000.

The US government won't let go because Amar is suing them, and their case against Khadr is in tatters.  Those of you that feel like you're pals of Obama - tell him to just let it go, apologize, consider charges of purgery against his lying employees, pay up, and go after the Bush / Cheney crime families and make them repay the damages.

Go Maher, don't let the lies get to you, we know you are in the right, don't give up!


On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 10:29 AM, <rita@rgpproductions.net> wrote:

 
Obama is a two-faced liar. Aw-RIGHT!
by Greg Palast
 
January 29, 2009
 
Republicans are right. President Barack Obama treated them like dirt, didn't give a damn what they thought about his stimulus package, loaded it with a bunch of programs that will last for years and will never leave the budget, is giving away money disguised as "tax refunds," and is sneaking in huge changes in policy, from schools to health care, using the pretext of an economic emergency.
 
Way to go, Mr. O! Mr. Down-and-Dirty Chicago pol. Street-fightin' man. Covering over his break-your-face power play with a "we're all post-partisan friends" BS.
 
And it's about time.
 
Frankly, I was worried about this guy. Obama's appointing Clinton-droids to the Cabinet, bloated incompetents like Larry Summers as "Economics Czar," made me fear for my country, that we'd gotten another Democrat who wished he were a Republican.
 
Then came Obama's money bomb. The House bill included $125 billion for schools (TRIPLING federal spending on education), expanding insurance coverage to the unemployed, making the most progressive change in the tax code in four decades by creating a $500 credit against social security payroll deductions, and so on.
 
It's as if Obama dug up Ronald Reagan's carcass and put a stake through The Gipper's anti-government heart. Aw-RIGHT!
 
About the only concession Obama threw to the right-wing trogs was to remove the subsidy for condoms, leaving hooker-happy GOP Senators, like David Vitter, to pay for their own protection. S'OK with me.
 
And here's the proof that Bam is The Man: Not one single Republican congressman voted for the bill. And that means that Obama didn't compromise, the way Clinton and Carter would have, to win the love of these condom-less jerks.
 
And we didn't need'm. Nyah! Nyah! Nyah!
 
Now I understand Obama's weird moves: dinner with those creepy conservative columnists, earnest meetings at the White House with the Republican leaders, a dramatic begging foray into Senate offices. Just as the Republicans say, it was all a fraud. Obama was pure Chicago, Boss Daley in a slim skin, putting his arms around his enemies, pretending to listen and care and compromise, then slowly, quietly, slipping in the knife. All while the media praises Obama's "post-partisanship." Heh heh heh.
 
Love it. Now we know why Obama picked that vindictive little viper Rahm Emanuel as staff chief: everyone visiting the Oval office will be greeted by the Windy City hit man who would hack up your grandma if you mess with the Godfather-in-Chief.
 
I don't know about you, but THIS is the change I've been waiting for.
 
Will it last? We'll see if Obama caves in to more tax cuts to investment bankers. We'll see if he stops the sub-prime scum-bags from foreclosing on frightened families. We'll see if he stands up to the whining, gormless generals who don't know how to get our troops out of Iraq. (In SHIPS, you doofusses!)
 
Look, don't get your hopes up. But it may turn out the new President's ... a Democrat!
 
******
Greg Palast's investigative reports for BBC and Rolling Stone can be seen at www.GregPalast.com. Palast is the author of New York Times bestsellers The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Armed Madhouse.
 
Please subscribe to our reports at www.GregPalast.com.
 
Join us on MySpace, friend us on facebook and follow us on Twitter. You can also watch our latest BBC and Democracy Now! Reports by subscribing to our YouTube
channel.
Love is all there is




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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

[ItsAllAboutMeMan] Fwd: Robby's Night: A True Story Worth Reading !!!

darn.  make that
http://soundclick.com/themysticknightsoftheoogachakka

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: matt love <mattlove1@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 1:42 PM
Subject: Robby's Night: A True Story Worth Reading !!!
To: bizarro_ultrazine@yahoogroups.com



Robby's Night
True Story Worth Reading !!! Please read it all the way through to the end. I guarantee you will get a lump in your head if you do.




At the prodding of my friends, I am writing this story. My name is Mildred Hondorf. I am a former elementary school music teacher from Des Moines , Iowa . I've always supplemented my income by teaching piano lessons-something I've done for over 30 years. Over the years I found that children have many levels of musical ability.. I've never had the pleasure of having a prodigy though I have taught some talented students.

However I've also had my share of what I call 'musically challenged' pupils. One such student was Robby. Robby was 11 years old when his mother (a single Mom) dropped him off for his first piano lesson. I prefer that students (especially boys!) begin at an earlier age, which I explained to Robby.

But Robby said that it had always been his mother's dream to hear him play the piano. So I took him as a student. Well, Robby began with his piano lessons and from the beginning I thought it was a hopeless endeavor. As much as Robby tried, he lacked the sense of tone and basic rhythm needed to excel but he dutifully reviewed his scales and some elementary pieces that I require all my students to learn.

Over the months he tried and tried while I listened and cringed and tried to encourage him. At the end of each weekly lesson he'd always say, 'My mom's going to hear me play someday.'  But it seemed hopeless. He just did not have any inborn ability. I only knew his mother from a distance as she dropped Robby off or waited in her aged car to pick him up. She always waved and smiled but never stopped in.


Then one day Robby stopped coming to our lessons.

I thought about calling him but assumed because of his lack of ability, that he had decided to pursue something else. I also was glad that he stopped coming. He was a bad advertisement for my teaching!

Several weeks later I mailed to the student's homes a flyer on the upcoming recital.. To my surprise Robby (who received a flyer) asked me if he could be in the recital.. I told him that the recital was for current pupils and because he had dropped out he really did not qualify. He said that his mother had been sick and unable to take him to piano lessons but he was still practicing 'Miss Hondorf, I've just got to play!' he insisted.

I don't know what led me to allow him to play in the recital. Maybe it was his persistence or maybe it was something inside of me saying that it would be all right. The night for the recital came. The high school gymnasium was packed with parents, friends and relatives. I put Robby up last in the program before I was to come up and thank all the students and play a finishing piece. I thought that any damage he would do would come at the end of the program and I could always salvage his poor performance through my 'curtain closer.'

Well, the recital went off without a hitch. The students had been practicing and it showed, then Robby came up on stage. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair looked like he'd run an eggbeater through it. 'Why didn't he dress up like the other students?' I thought. 'Why didn't his mother at least make him comb his hair for this special night?'

Robby pulled out the piano bench and he began. I was surprised when he announced that he had chosen O Fortuna, from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. I was not prepared for what I heard next. His fingers were light on the keys, they even danced nimbly on the ivories. He went from pianissimo to fortissimo. From allegro to virtuoso.. His suspended chords that Orff demands were magnificent! Never had I heard Orff played so well by people his age. After six and a half minutes he ended in a grand crescendo and everyone was on their feet in wild applause.

Overcome and in tears I ran up on stage and put my arms around Robby in joy. 'I've never heard you play like that Robby! How'd you do it? '


Through the microphone Robby explained: 'Well, Miss Hondorf, Remember I told you my Mom was sick? Well, some men came to the house.  They said they were members of the Mystic Knights of the Ooga Chakka, and they said they could make her better… and they did!'

There wasn't a dry eye in the house that evening. Then Robbie pulled a long knife from the waistband of his pants.  He had a weird gleam in his eye as he started chanting… "ooga chakka… ooga ooga ooga chakka… ooga ooga ooga chakka…" he raised the blade menacingly as he slowly advanced towards me, and I screamed.  "Help, me, please, for God sake, somebody help me!" but nobody in the audience or backstage budged. The sound was low at first, then it grew louder and louder, as they joined in the chant…

" ooga ooga ooga chakka… ooga ooga ooga chakka…"

http://soundclick.com/mysticknightsoftheoogachakka


After Robby's senseless murder of Mrs. Hondorf, he went on to become one of the leading legal minds in the Bush Administration, helping to develop the rationale for torture, domestic surveillance, and extraordinary rendition. And now, a footnote to the story.

If you are thinking about forwarding this message, you are probably thinking about which people on your address list aren't the 'appropriate' ones to receive this type of message. The person who sent this to you believes that we can all make a difference. So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: Do we act with compassion or do we pass up that opportunity and leave the world a bit colder in the process?

'If you haven't the strength to impose your own terms upon life then you must accept the terms life imposes on you!' - T. S. Eliot



Let ninemsn property help! Need a new place to rent, share or buy?


hi matt.
i was aware of some of this, but what a wonderfully written letter and
i was also hoping to watch Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.  i did
watch part of a Jack Benny holiday show.  i'm sorta-kinda settled in
chicago, kinda have the winter blahs, but i'm working out alot
inside,and during the job hunt i'm serving at a very large club
downtown. it's an okay job but not as fun or rewarding as it sounds.
everything else is great. not exciting, but great.





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[ItsAllAboutMeMan] Fwd: FW: Robby's Night True Story Worth Reading !!!


From: michael01@live.com.au
Subject: Fw: Robby's Night True Story Worth Reading !!!
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2009 22:03:32 +1000
 
 

Robby's Night
True Story Worth Reading !!! Please read it all the way through to the end. I guarantee you will get a lump in your head if you do.


At the prodding of my friends, I am writing this story. My name is Mildred Hondorf. I am a former elementary school music teacher from Des Moines , Iowa . I've always supplemented my income by teaching piano lessons-something I've done for over 30 years. Over the years I found that children have many levels of musical ability.. I've never had the pleasure of having a prodigy though I have taught some talented students.

However I've also had my share of what I call 'musically challenged' pupils. One such student was Robby. Robby was 11 years old when his mother (a single Mom) dropped him off for his first piano lesson. I prefer that students (especially boys!) begin at an earlier age, which I explained to Robby.

But Robby said that it had always been his mother's dream to hear him play the piano. So I took him as a student. Well, Robby began with his piano lessons and from the beginning I thought it was a hopeless endeavor. As much as Robby tried, he lacked the sense of tone and basic rhythm needed to excel but he dutifully reviewed his scales and some elementary pieces that I require all my students to learn.

Over the months he tried and tried while I listened and cringed and tried to encourage him. At the end of each weekly lesson he'd always say, 'My mom's going to hear me play someday.'  But it seemed hopeless. He just did not have any inborn ability. I only knew his mother from a distance as she dropped Robby off or waited in her aged car to pick him up. She always waved and smiled but never stopped in.

Then one day Robby stopped coming to our lessons.

I thought about calling him but assumed because of his lack of ability, that he had decided to pursue something else. I also was glad that he stopped coming. He was a bad advertisement for my teaching!

Several weeks later I mailed to the student's homes a flyer on the upcoming recital.. To my surprise Robby (who received a flyer) asked me if he could be in the recital.. I told him that the recital was for current pupils and because he had dropped out he really did not qualify. He said that his mother had been sick and unable to take him to piano lessons but he was still practicing 'Miss Hondorf, I've just got to play!' he insisted.

I don't know what led me to allow him to play in the recital. Maybe it was his persistence or maybe it was something inside of me saying that it would be all right. The night for the recital came. The high school gymnasium was packed with parents, friends and relatives. I put Robby up last in the program before I was to come up and thank all the students and play a finishing piece. I thought that any damage he would do would come at the end of the program and I could always salvage his poor performance through my 'curtain closer.'

Well, the recital went off without a hitch. The students had been practicing and it showed, then Robby came up on stage. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair looked like he'd run an eggbeater through it. 'Why didn't he dress up like the other students?' I thought. 'Why didn't his mother at least make him comb his hair for this special night?'

Robby pulled out the piano bench and he began. I was surprised when he announced that he had chosen O Fortuna, from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. I was not prepared for what I heard next. His fingers were light on the keys, they even danced nimbly on the ivories. He went from pianissimo to fortissimo. From allegro to virtuoso.. His suspended chords that Orff demands were magnificent! Never had I heard Orff played so well by people his age. After six and a half minutes he ended in a grand crescendo and everyone was on their feet in wild applause.

Overcome and in tears I ran up on stage and put my arms around Robby in joy. 'I've never heard you play like that Robby! How'd you do it? '

Through the microphone Robby explained: 'Well, Miss Hondorf, Remember I told you my Mom was sick? Well, some men came to the house.  They said they were members of the Mystic Knights of the Ooga Chakka, and they said they could make her better… and they did!'

There wasn't a dry eye in the house that evening. Then Robbie pulled a long knife from the waistband of his pants.  He had a weird gleam in his eye as he started chanting… "ooga chakka… ooga ooga ooga chakka… ooga ooga ooga chakka…" he raised the blade menacingly as he slowly advanced towards me. and I screamed.  Help, me, please, for God sake, somebody help me!" but nobody in the audience or backstage budged. The sound was low at first, then it grew louder and louder, as they joined in the chant…

" ooga ooga ooga chakka… ooga ooga ooga chakka…"

http://soundclick.com/mysticknightsoftheoogachakka


And now, a footnote to the story.

If you are thinking about forwarding this message, you are probably thinking about which people on your address list aren't the 'appropriate' ones to receive this type of message. The person who sent this to you believes that we can all make a difference. So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: Do we act with compassion or do we pass up that opportunity and leave the world a bit colder in the process?




'If you haven't the strength to impose your own terms upon life then you must accept the terms life imposes on you!' - T. S. Eliot



Let ninemsn property help! Need a new place to rent, share or buy?



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Monday, January 26, 2009

[ItsAllAboutMeMan] Re: Thank you

Dear John,

I am gravely concerned about the fate of Muntazer al-Zaidi, the courageous Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at George W Bush.  The current claim by the Iraqi government is that they are keeping him in protective custody... that they fear he wil be assassinated if he's released back into Iraqi society. I don't know if that's true - I would imagine he's the most popular man in Iraq... he's certainly one of the more popular men on facebook - he has 200,000 fans (admittedly only 1/20th the size of the largest Barach Obama group, but still impressive).

The Iraqi government has protected him from the rabble, breaking his arm and ribs in the process, but protecting free speech is a bit like making an omelette, isn't it?  You have to break a few arms in the process. 

His family is seeking asylum for him in Switzerland, but I have an alternative proposal. I propose that Team Obama hire him as the administration's press secretary!  How perfect would that be?  Who wasn't stirred by al-Zaidi refreshing candor when he had a chance to confront one of the biggest enemies of democracy and mankind?

There was no equivocation - "This is a farewell kiss, you dog," the Iraqi TV journalist shouted. "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq."

I could quibble about how unfair it is to dogs, but I still find the gesture beautiful, affirming, uplifting, vastly preferable to peaceful transitions, praise for war mongers, taking prosecution for criminal behavior off the table and so on.

It would be nice to have stirring words like this coming out of the White House press room instead of the bland fare we are getting now.

I hope you will carefully consider my idea.


On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 4:09 PM, John D. Podesta, Obama-Biden Transition Project <info@change.gov> wrote:
Obama-Biden Transition Team
 

Dear Matt,

Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States tomorrow, marking the beginning of a new era.

It also marks the end of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition, which you have helped make the most transparent, accessible, and effective in history.

Thousands of you hosted health care discussions in communities across the country, gathering and providing feedback that will guide the Obama-Biden Administration efforts to overhaul the current system. You've participated online like never before, sharing your stories, collaborating on fresh ideas, and asking important questions.  

The Transition has also been the most open in history. Transition staff published meeting information and thousands of documents received from outside groups through our "Seat at the Table" program, and published the name of every one of our donors.

We couldn't have done it without your active participation -- and as President Barack Obama will need your help more than ever, join his new online community at the White House and stay involved:

http://change.gov/joinus

Your participation in this Transition has been truly inspiring -- thank you.

John

John Podesta
Co-chair
Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Project

---
Please note that replies to this email will not be answered.

 

Copyright policy

This email was sent to: valis2001us@gmail.com

To unsubscribe, go to: http://www.change.gov/unsubscribe

 




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Sunday, January 25, 2009

[ItsAllAboutMeMan] Fwd: [progressive] Palast - Why an A**Hole is Always in Charge

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Monday, January 05, 2009

[ItsAllAboutMeMan] Not So Dumb Blonde

On New Year's Eve, Marilyn stood up in the local pub
 
and said that it was time to get ready.
 
At the stroke of midnight, she wanted EVERY husband
 
to be standing next to the one person
 
who made his life worth living.
 

Well, it was kind of embarrassing. 

 

As the clock struck - the bartender was almost crushed to death.

 

BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
Let This Happen To You:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Sunday, January 04, 2009

[ItsAllAboutMeMan] Fwd: fasten your seatbelts, it's gonna be a bumpy bumpy



--- In Let-This-Happen-To-You@yahoogroups.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/let-this-happen-to-you

Fred geeseandgeesers2007@yahoo.com
wrote:

By Annalee NewitzSunday,

January 4, 2009; Page B01


When the present promises only economic hardship and political
upheaval, what does the future look like?

In 2009, it looks like a world of gleaming spaceships filled with
enlightened people who have emerged with their humanity intact after
a terrible war.

They have entered the 23rd century, shed racism, no longer use money,
possess seemingly magical technologies and are devoted to peaceful
exploration.

I refer of course to "Star Trek" and its powerful story of a better
tomorrow, which has been mesmerizing audiences for almost half a
century and returns to movie theaters this coming May with an eagerly
anticipated 11th full-length feature.

But wait.

The future also looks like this: a dark, violent world where a
horrific war between humans and cyborgs leads to the near-
extermination of humanity.

This vision, in the latest "Terminator" movie, is also arriving at
your nearest mutiplex in May.


We imagine the future in places other than the movie theater, of
course.

Still, these two familiar franchises underscore the conflicting
stories we tell ourselves in uncertain times about what lies ahead:

Either we're bound for a techno-utopia of adventure, or a grim,
Orwellian dystopia where humanity is on the brink of implosion.


We've seen this dichotomy before.

Nearly a century ago, Europe was headed toward war on an
unprecedented scale.

Traditional alliances evaporated, shocking new weapons ripped apart
bodies and countries, and a generation of artists such as Picasso
responded with paintings that showed reality reduced to unsettling,
jagged abstraction.

Meanwhile, a pulp writer from Chicago named Edgar Rice Burroughs was
concocting stories about a soldier who wakes up one morning in a
miraculous, futuristic world full of lost cities, advanced
technologies and little green men.

"A Princess of Mars," serialized in 1912, was the first in a long
line of swashbuckling adventure tales Burroughs wrote about his
hero,  John Carter, sword-fighting and ray-gunning his way across
Barsoom -- the natives' name for Mars. Carter and his new Barsoomian
companions fought wars like the one the United States itself would
soon be fighting.

But they were winnable wars, against comprehensible, easy-to-vanquish
alien enemies.

Burroughs, who also went on to publish the Tarzan novels, supplied
escapist fantasies of the future to a public weary of the grim,
terrifying present.

It's clear that hard times make audiences yearn for fantastical tales
of a better tomorrow.

During the paranoid heights of the Cold War, they thronged movie
theaters to see Leslie Nielsen conquer the alien technology
of "Forbidden Planet."

But in between the escapist fantasies of tomorrow, audiences also
tuned in to grim tales of techno-fascist futures such as "Brave New
World" and "1984."

The best example of our polarized dreams of tomorrow came during the
Great Depression.

During this period, Americans couldn't get enough of Buck Rogers, a
20th-century soldier who falls into a coma and miraculously awakes in
the 25th century.

The story of his adventures, originally published as two novellas,
became a long-running radio and movie serial and a newspaper comic
strip that ran through most of the 1930s.


Like John Carter on Barsoom, Buck and his comrades are fighting a
war -- in this case, against the Mongols.

But war isn't hell; it's a backdrop for awesome adventures and
astonishing inventions.

Later, the Flash Gordon comics and radio show competed with Buck
Rogers for audiences craving escapism.

Flash found himself on the Barsoom-esque planet Mongo, fighting
the "Han" and swashbuckling his way through weird places filled with
strange natives and sexy queens.


But while Buck and Flash crossed swords on the radio, a very
different idea of the future was being prophesied by British writer
Aldous Huxley, who published "Brave New World" in 1932.

The novel takes place in a 26th century where strife has been
eliminated by means of state-controlled eugenics, mental
conditioning, drugs and various technological niceties.

Like a Buck Rogers in reverse, our hero Bernard finds himself
alienated from the urban world of perfect plenty and promiscuity and
repulsed by the "savage reservations" where unmodified humans live.

In "Brave New World," Buck's shiny future is revealed as an
insidious, high-tech fascism.


The basic question raised by Buck Rogers and "Brave New World" is
whether humans would be more prosperous in the far future than in the
1930s.

The answer?

Humans in both tales live in worlds of seemingly unlimited wealth.
Whether that represents an improvement is a matter of debate.


In the post-World War II period, it seemed as if the wealthier future
had arrived, at least for many in America.

A more bountiful tomorrow was no longer a source of moral ambiguity,
especially in Robert Heinlein's wildly popular young adult novels of
the 1940s and '50s, including "Space Cadet," "The Rolling Stones"
and "Have Space Suit -- Will Travel."

In these stories, nice kids and adventurous families, blessed with a
seemingly endless supply of rocket ships and fuel, romp through the
sprawling offworld colonies of the solar system.


Films such as "Forbidden Planet" splashed this vision of the future
across hundreds of movie screens.

A heroic space captain (played by an earnest Leslie Nielsen) leads
his intrepid crew to a planet where a lone scientist and his nubile
daughter bask in a world of endless riches.

But the astronauts are menaced by an amorphous, deadly creature
which, it turns out, is created by powerful alien technology, buried
beneath the planet's surface, that "manifests" aspects of the
scientist's "unconscious mind" -- savage, invisible monsters that
strive to protect his daughter from the Nielsen character's advances.


In these futures of plenty, the one problem that dogs our heroes
again and again is the power of technology.

In the best-case scenarios, deadly technologies are easily defeated
or are put in the hands of right-thinking people who won't abuse them.

Will the high-tech fruits of the Cold War quest for knowledge destroy
us? These stories say no.


But darker views from the Cold War offer authoritarian futures where
technology wipes humans out entirely (as in the nuclear wasteland
of "On the Beach") or is used to brainwash populations into
submission.

Televisions are among the most insidious technologies depicted in
Cold War dystopias.

The book-burning masses in Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451," first
published in 1953, are addicted to interactive, wall-size TVs.

And in Orwell's "1984," published in 1949, the population is both
pacified and monitored by the omnipresent telescreens in every home
and workplace.

While Orwell and Bradbury were writing, the menace of the near future
came from atomics.

But the threat of the far future seemed to emanate from a technology
that destroyed populations by controlling their minds rather than
blasting apart their atoms.


The first wave of the Cold War was temporarily stilled in the wake of
the political and social upheavals of the 1960s.

While previous generations had worried about future prosperity and
scientific progress, far-future stories of this new era asked a
single stark question:

In a world of scarce resources and constant war, would Homo sapiens
survive at all?


Partial answers came in movies such as "Soylent Green," in which
overpopulation and food shortages have forced the world into
cannibalism.

And the far future series "Planet of the Apes" depicts humans as the
new wild animals in a world ruled by hyper-intelligent simians.

These films, and many others like them, blamed humanity's demise on
its abuse of nature.


But this era also marked the beginning of the utopian Star Trek
franchise, which spawned spinoffs, movies, comics, conventions,
subcultures, costume contests and books that are still ragingly
popular today.


Like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, Star Trek has its easy-to-
understand enemies, the alien Klingons and the Romulans.


But wars against them don't undermine the basic message of the story,
which is that humanity has evolved into something better.


Of course, this year Star Trek will do battle at the box office with
Terminator's human-destroying cyborg carnage.

Though their visions of the future are dramatically different, both
movies share one basic premise: Despite hardship, humanity will
survive. Whether that's a good thing remains to be seen.



Annalee Newitz is the author of

"Pretend We're Dead: Capitalist Monsters in American Pop Culture,"

--- End forwarded message ---


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