"No One Expects The Spanish Inquisition...."

OK, where'd that line come from??

Normally, I am a great fan of the horror genre. Nobody gets more out of a good horror movie than I. “Good,” however, is something of a subjective term when it comes to horror. I hate pure gore in a movie. That grosses me out. It's not scary; grossed-out and scared are two different visceral reactions altogether.

I had the misfortune to watch SILENT HILL earlier today. I left WAY less than impressed, to say the least.

SILENT HILL tells the story of a young mother who has adopted a child who sleepwalks, draws strange and disturbing pictures, and cries about a place called SILENT HILL in her dreams. Mom figures the only way to deal with this problem is to take her back to Silent Hill. Real smart, in my opinion. The place was obviously bad enough to cause all sorts of trauma to this girl. Mom does some research, and finds out the place is a big ghost town, rumored to be haunted, which is usually another helpful hint that maybe this might be a nice place to stay the heck away from.

These things would be good hints, for anyone with the brain of processed tuna. But Mom apparently doesn’t have that much mental acuity. She sure didn’t pack for a supernatural adventure. Mom sets off with not even a flashlight, much less good stuff like a handy-dandy Glock with about 50 extra rounds of ammunition, fire, high explosives, and the A-Team. Mom doesn’t even have a backpack with water, or anything else one might find handy in dealing with supernatural monsters. To top it off, everything she’s read indicates the town is full of poison fumes, and Mom doesn’t even back along a gas mask.

Mom, in short, is an idiot. She flees the cops for no apparent reason, then proceeds to get her daughter lost in the ghost town. Hilarity ensues.

One critical comment is that the script was horrible. Mom does some really stupid stuff, that just doesn’t make any sense. For another, the and major plot points are pretty awful. I’m smart enough to see what they were trying to do with the so-called twists, but I don’t think they were well-done at all in the script.

This was also poorly directed. There were very few parts in the movie that made you jump. It was a horror movie with no scares in it. I’ve griped before about the lack of suspense in horror movies. Hollywood goes for the gross-out, as opposed to actually scaring you any more. The exception would be M. Night Shmalyan, of course. That guy is in a class by himself, deserving a full post and dissertation some other time.

There was a small bit with a Sig-Sauer that was actually used correctly in the movie. That’s a small plus, I suppose.

For those of you who actually want to see the movie: read no further. I am about to attack a major plot point of the movie and ruin it for you. Ok, you were warned.

This movie attacks Christianity in a big way. It’s not even all that subtle of an attack. Here’s where I am pretty bothered. Basically, the evil that was inflicted on this town is the result of a fanatical Christian cult that seriously injured a young girl. Her pain was so great it attracted a demon, who enabled her to exact her revenge on the townspeople, who could avoid her wrath only by hiding in a church. Mom actually allows herself to be possessed by the demon so it can exact its revenge. In other words, the DEMON IS THE GOOD GUY IN THIS MOVIE. Anybody else have a problem with that?

The so-called Christians in this movie perform human sacrifices, dress weird, and are the cause of all the problems this town has faced. They’re very cultishly portrayed. It appears to be that Hollywood has an image in their mind as to what a Christian is supposed to be like. Intolerant, bigoted, cruel, ignorant, practitioners of human sacrifice. I could go on. Personally, I haven’t performed a human sacrifice in church for YEARS.

Every negative thing one could say about Christianity got worked into this movie somehow. By far the most troubling portion of the movie was making the demon out to be the aggrieved party in this deal. The greatest trick the devil pulled was convincing people that he doesn’t exist. The second one is convincing people that he’s not the bad guy in the whole deal. Whoever wrote this movie sure seems convinced of that.

I’m not going to rant and rave, or tell you not to see this movie. I’m just not like that. I’m not going to preach to you, or try and convert you if you don’t happen to believe what I believe. Just understand this movie has a very negative portrayal of Christianity. Understand that if you feel this movie is on target in its portrayal of faith, I think you’ve been misled. Something probably convinced you that the whole Christ thing is a crock. You either went to a bad church, you got really burned by a professed “Christian” and your stomach turned at the hypocrisy of it all, somebody tried to force-feed you some weird, un-truthful stuff, or something along those lines. If you feel that way about a church that you went to, you have good reasons for feeling negative about it. Trust those feelings, because that’s not what it’s all supposed to be about.

Hollywood is the bastion of the Left. The Left can’t pass themselves off as people of faith, because Christian faith is the antithesis of everything they believe in. So they try and convince those who might be on the fence that Christianity is intolerant, stupid, and dangerous. They do this through movies that portray religion in as poor a light as possible. This is just another example of it. So anyway, I’m not going to tell you to boycott the movie or anything. I’m simply observing and commenting on a few things, here. Christians may have messed up the whole religion thing quite nicely, but the devil is STILL the bad guy in the whole grand scheme of things.

The Dog Thinks I'm Crazy....

...But I laughed my rear off at this post.

Guns ain't for playtime, kiddies.....

Sorry the posting has been light. I've had the uncontrollable urge to sleep over the last few nights. How weird.

Maybe the rain tomorrow will keep me indoors, where I can blog to my heart's content. Until the PGA Tour comes on in the afternoon, that is. David Duval, my personal golf idol, actually made the cut to play on the weekend. I watched him a few years ago at the Byron Nelson Classic, the year after winning the British Open. And I don't think he's made a cut on the Tour ever since. Let's hope this will be a resurgence of his career. I hate to see him Ian Baker-Finch his way into obscurity. You'd have to be somewhat of a golf geek to understand this paragraph, I suppose.

My problem is that I have more hobbies than I have actual time. Golf, shooting, etc. All of it takes time, and that is the most precious resource that I have anymore. How to allocate it? That's probably the toughest issue I have to deal with, and it doesn't get any easier as the years keep rushing on.

"No. There is another....."

Just when I think George Lucas can't possibly debase himself any worse than the late shift in a Filipino brothel, he manages to exceed my low expectations yet again.

Unfortunately, I find myself happy about this new ploy. He's going to release more special editions of the original STAR WARS trilogy. These will contain the original versions of STAR WARS, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, and RETURN OF THE JEDI. That's what I've been waiting for. I thought Lucas was going to completely ignore his core fan base, and forever claim those putrid special editions were the "real thing." It was like changing the formula of Coca-Cola. Boy, I really dated myself with that reference, didn't I?

I vowed the fuzzy-faced egomaniac wasn't going to get any more of my money, but he's found a way to sucker me in one more time. Apparently the mortgage is due on the new Lucasarts facility in the old Presidio.

For the generation that has now grown up watching the horrible special editions, this will really be a big deal. It will change their whole tiny worlds. I will go on record right now as saying this is as big as the Zapruder film.

We can now prove definitively that Han Solo shot FIRST to these little punks.

"1 Sucka Dead, L.A. Times Front Page"

I bet there's a few of you out there who can name the tune the title of this post has been lifted from, as well as the artist and album. It's somewhat obscure, but I have no doubt my intrepid readership will figure it out.

Anyway, the title seemed appropriate, having found this website on self-defense shootings in America.

These guys are doing a great job here. I've mentioned on this blog before that guns are used an estimated 1.7 MILLION times per year by law-abiding citizens to defend themselves and their families from the bad things in the world. Firearms are simply the backbone of democracy, no two ways about it.

A Fun New Website

I found this cool website linked by Reasonablenut.

It's called Random Nuclear Strikes. The title alone makes it worth checking out. But when it proves itself through sheer genius like this joke, well, I'll be stopping back by.

It may not be your kind of humor, but I laughed. Hard. So sue me.....

Stuff You Oughta Know

Again, from Michelle Malkin's blog, which is one of the best on the web, in my opinion.

This Jihad stuff is nothing new, it's been ongoing for centuries. The left can't understand it or sympathize with it to make it go away.

I hate being right all the time....

Sinking Faster Than The Titanic?

This is a day of bothers. Driving back from the big city got downright depressing. There were several stations that just were not carrying regular unleaded. They didn’t have it. Sold out. On the other hand, a Randall’s store was carrying nothing BUT regular unleaded fuel. Smart folks. They’ll get more of my business, I think.

Fuel was right around $3.00 per gallon just about everywhere. It is really getting to the point to where I won’t travel outside the city limits unless I have to. We just can’t afford it.

I shudder to think what is going to happen this summer. I predict the economy is going to take a sharp smack upside the nose. People won’t travel as much this summer, unless they booked flights well in advance. The average American family won’t drive anywhere long distance this summer because of fuel costs. I don’t think the average family will be able to travel unless the place they are going to is within 100 miles of their home. That’s my prediction, anyway. It’s worth what you paid for it.

Have you noticed the price of your everyday items creeping up a little? I have. Think it’s not a fuel cost issue? Think again.

Possible solutions to the fuel dilemma:

1. Reduce dependence on foreign oil: Sounds logical, but how? The eco-weenies won’t let us drill in Alaska, despite the fact our economy is sucking worse than Britney Spears at an ice cream buffet. Hybrid cars? No way, not until they make one that looks and runs like a Ford F-250 and will pull a trailer. So start drilling ANWAR, you morons....

2. Take it from Iraq and Afghanistan: I’m all for this one. No, we didn’t go to war for oil. It’s a darn nice fringe benefit, though. To the victor go the spoils. They made us come over there, the least they can do is foot the bill.

2b. Take it from Mexico. Ok, fine. Keep aiding and abetting your people sneaking over here, we’ll start taking your oil. Fair trade, I would think. Our resources are dwindling, you’re allowing people to come here illegally, we don’t have the resources to support them, etc. Guess what? Time to pay the bills, pendejos.....

3. Cut the gas tax: Another great idea that our gutless politicians won’t even consider. Which is why it’s time to run ALL our politicians out of office, and start over with real people who work real jobs. I’m to the point that you probably shouldn’t be allowed to run if you’re a lawyer, either. That’s like putting terrorists in charge of airport security......

4. Harpoon Rosie O’Donnell and render her down for kerosene.

5. Go nuclear: Again, eco-weenies would hate it, but if it keeps the lights on safely, why not?

6. Figure out how to use self-satisfied smugness to generate energy: Tom Cruise and George Clooney could probably end our energy crisis by themselves. Put Hollywood to doing something beneficial, for a change.

At any rate, that’s the way I see the whole ridiculous situation.

DID YOU NOTICE....

The illegal alien/Hispanic/whatever they are walk-out today? Me neither. Maybe they aren’t as important as they like to think they are in terms of productivity. Now in terms of costs to the taxpayer, they are right there at the top.

Every one of the miserable wretches that DID walk out should get fired, unless they took a legitimate vacation day.