Charlton Heston, the gun toting, NRA representing curmudgeon died today at the age of 84 in his Beverly Hills home. He ruled in the original Planet of the Apes movie and appeared in over 60 films throughout his career.

From Sky News in the UK:

The actor - who starred in epic roles from Moses to Michelangelo - had been battling Alzheimer’s disease in recent years.

His family said in a statement: “To his loving friends, colleagues and fans, we appreciate your heartfelt prayers and support.

“Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life.
“He was known for his chiseled jaw, broad shoulders and resonating voice, and, of course, for the roles he played. “Indeed, he committed himself to every role with passion, and pursued every cause with unmatched enthusiasm and integrity. “We knew him as an adoring husband, a kind and devoted father, and a gentle grandfather, with an infectious sense of humor.
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Though this post is under my name, I did not write it. I wish I had. This is written by Synthesis Weekly Contributer Bob Howard, to be published on Monday. I think your ear (or eyes) deserve to be bent for a second.
– S

Winter Soldier
By Bob Howard

War on Truth: In totalitarian countries, what people can say is controlled by the government. Here we have the flag-waving nationalistic “patriotic” mob and a complacent media casually conspiring to censor unpopular speech.

I am frustrated by the backlash levied against Senator Barack Obama’s pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright for speaking truth. America is a country that was founded on racism. We came to this country, slaughtered and imprisoned the native population, then kidnapped people from Africa in order to do the dirty work. In this manner we accumulated more wealth and power than any nation in the world. It’s ugly but it is truth. We are still practicing imperialism under the code name “globalism.” We still pay dark-skinned people pennies per day to do the work Americans refuse.
Reverend Wright says we bought the events of 911 on ourselves. There is accuracy in that statement. Our foreign policy has serious flaws. Things are being done in our names of which we have only vague awareness. This is the crux of democracy. Unlike a monarchy or a dictatorship, America is meant to work as a “bottom-up” system of representation. We can’t shrug off the decisions of our leaders and claim we have nothing to do with them. We are the ones who put those people into a position of power and gave them the authority to represent us. So when our foreign policy is flawed it is valid for people to hold the American population accountable. Like it or not, that’s the responsibility that comes with a democratic system of power. As such our duty does not stop at the voting box. We need to carefully follow the actions of our leaders and take them to task when they act irresponsibly in our names.
I’m not ashamed of America – but there are shameful episodes throughout our history. If we ignore them or deny them we will never be able to reconcile them.

Winter Soldier: A phenomenal conference was recently held called “Winter Soldier.” The first winter soldier took place during the Vietnam War when soldiers came forward to tell of what they did and witnessed while serving. Atrocities were exposed. Now we have a similar coming out with hundreds of veterans of the Iraq War coming forward to describe their experiences. I’ve been following some of the testimony and it is horrifying. The most disturbing thing is the callousness of our military command. As in any war the enemy is framed as sub-human, and similar to Vietnam the drag-net term “enemy” is essentially expanded to include anyone we capture or kill. Soldiers testified of unloading hundreds of rounds into cars on the roads, being given order to take out any and all taxi cabs, and detaining Iraqi men even when they knew they were not the suspects they were looking for. It’s brutal, awful stuff. We can use all the clinical sounding terms we like: “enhanced interrogation,” “non-lawful combatant,” “counter-insurgency.” Terms obscure the bloody truth on the ground — the truth that we have invaded a country, killed hundreds of thousands of its citizens, and driven anyone with means out of the country. The truth is blood and body parts litter the streets and our soldiers are going to come back from this conflict all screwed up in their heads from killing civilians in a half-baked conflict dreamed up by ideologues in Washington DC.
How many times do we have to enter into the same follies before we rise up as a people and say “ENOUGH?” Obviously someone is benefiting from these impossible conflicts but it isn’t you and I. There is an oligarchy in place, a small powerful group of incredibly wealthy people who are cynically using nationalism, religion and racism to pit regular working people against one another. They are using fear to keep us complacent. Fear of war, fear of economic woe, fear of the other, the alien, the end. They keep our heads spinning so fast from one crisis to another that we never have the ability to unify and rise.

The Rising of the Moon: On Saint Patrick’s Day I sat on a barstool and drank Guinness with a woman from Northern Ireland. She talked about growing up in the sights of British guns. The Irish know how it feels to be on the receiving end of imperialism all too well. The Irish rose up.
It won’t happen of its own accord. If change is going to come about in this entrenched system that favors those who set it up, it is going to take activism on the part of the many. It is going to take awareness and a conscious spirit of social revolution.

Here’s to the rebels.

Revolutionary ideas? E-mail me at madbob@madbob.com.

[ed note: I added the pictures to Bob's piece without his consent. I take the Iraqi Rebel flag to mean rebellion against the occupation of Iraq, not in any way as an excuse or encouragement for Iraqi insurgents to harm our American soldiers fighting abroad. Also, the confederate design ties in well with the racism earlier mentioned in the piece. See, I'm kinda deep like that...man. It's a thin red line, I know... Either way, we need to GTFO of Iraq and begin to feed and then lead the world to harmony and unity so that we can unite as one human race and explore the universe in peace together, FOREVER. Special thanks as always to Bill Hicks.]

William Morva, smiled after hearing he would be sent to death. As the familys of the vitims wept, William padded his lawyer on the back. “He seemed to be acting like he won the lottery,”. This scum was already in Jail when they took him in for a hospital visit; that’s when he grabbed an officers gun and shot an unarmed security guard. He would later shoot a 40 year old Sheriff that was searching for him. His defense Attorney said he was happy because he was afraid of prison. I think from now on, if a killer reacts in a happy way after being sentenced to death they should put him in a dirt hole and place a porta potty above it.

Automated robots programmed to terminate human life are already in use, in the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as on the borders on many of the more powerful western nations. Thankfully, they still require an actual human to pull the trigger, but this is merely a technicality. US military leaders have already expressed their desire to have fully automated robot death squads, and are ready to put their money where their mouth is:

Washington plans to spend four billion dollars by 2010 on unmanned technology systems, with total spending expected rise to 24 billion, according to the Department of Defense’s Unmanned Systems Roadmap 2007-2032, released in December. James Canton, an expert on technology innovation and CEO of the Institute for Global Futures, predicts that deployment within a decade of detachments that will include 150 soldiers and 2,000 robots.

However, like every other technological innovation of war, designed to be used against the “enemy”, its only a matter of time before that technology is turned against us. And when you’re talking about killer robots, things get dicey real fast:

Captured robots would not be difficult to reverse engineer, and could easily replace suicide bombers as the weapon-of-choice. “I don’t know why that has not happened already,” he said.

But even more worrisome, he continued, is the subtle progression from the semi-autonomous military robots deployed today to fully independent killing machines. “I have worked in artificial intelligence for decades, and the idea of a robot making decisions about human termination terrifies me,” Sharkey said.

Scary shit man. 2029 isn’t all that far away. Hopefully John Connor’s still kicking it somewhere.

Since 1995, at least 82 kids have died playing the good old Choking Game:

An unknown number of youths, mostly boys, are taking part in the practice in which they strangle themselves with their hands or a noose or have someone else strangle them, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report.”They hope to get a cool and dreamy feeling, as they’ve described it,” said Robin Toblin of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, who led the report. The report, the first effort to track this nationwide, identified the deaths of 82 people ages 6 to 19 from 1995 to 2007 that appear to have been caused by the choking game. The CDC said the report likely underestimates the toll.

Back at good old Willows Elementary we called this the Fainting Game, but since I’m not a dumbfuck I never tried it. However, there are plenty of kids on YouTube stupid enough to do it, so you can ask them if its worth it or not.

While we would NEVER, EVER discount the importance of celerity death news, jewelry designs and new albums being released, here are a few things going on in the world RIGHT NOW.

Burmese pro-democracy activists are being charged for the demonstrations that occurred last August.

This includes: being charged for making illegal statements (the government is declining to state what they supposedly said); not being able to meet with their lawyers; the trial will be held at a Rangoon prison where they ave been held since capture (convenient, innit?); 700 people are still being held by Burma’s government; at least 31 peaceful protesters were murdered by government troops.

Syrian pro-democracy dissident and former MP Riad Seif is being charged for harming Syria’s image.

This includes: attending a meeting for pro-democratic reform; he is the 11th person to be arrested who attended the pro-democracy meeting in December; Seif had already been banned from leaving the country to treat his prostrate cancer; one of the charges is “belonging to a secret organisation seeking to alter the social and economic base of the state”.

Temporary housing used to shelter Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims may pose health risks.
This includes: tens of thousands of hurricane victims still in temporary housing; FEMA ignored documents on dangers of prolonged exposure to formaldehyde; FEMA supressed warnings from its field workers about the future risks and current health problems being experienced by the victims; over 40,000 trailers are still being used as housing.

yay. now go about yoru business. I hear that Gwen Stefani is preggers, and Britney is crying and hanging out with her paparazzi buddies…