Shortest Horror Movie/Novel/Game Ever

Villager: "No! Turn back now before it's too late!"

Protagonist: "Ok, time to go home, obviously we don't want to be here!"

*fade to black as the hero rides home safely*

Suggestions sought

So - I'm in the mood for some spooky movies. Not "horror" as currently defined by "how much blood & guts can we fit on the screen per second," something more along the lines of classic X-Files, Fallen, or maybe even a hint of The Sixth Sense. Cthulhu type influences would be nice too... Just that suspenseful, skin-crawling, spooky kind of movie.

Any thoughts from the blogosphere?

Moments from another DUI hunt

Have to love when 5 hour overtime specials turn into almost that... it will help with the family vacation money at least! Plus, I always love the fun of people realizing that yes, that big white marked truck will stop you and arrest you when need be.

- You're really hurting the defense against your arrest when the very first part of my testimony has to do with watching you drink the beer as you drive slowly right in front of me.

- Even if you suddenly lose the ability to speak English once we start down the DUI road, trust me I'm still going to get enough to convict you.

- Just about 100% of the time people who say any variation of "You can't arrest me!" during a stop are about to be unpleasantly surprised.

- Your decision to refuse to take the breath test isn't really going to break my heart. I get another charge out of it, and the joy of seeing you lose your license for a year.

Finally - while I'm as open-minded as the next guy, who in the hell decided keeping a nine-inch sex toy in their glove box was a good idea? The purse I could at least comprehend - but just sitting there in the car 24/7 getting dirty? And people wonder why I wear gloves during searches...

It's "ask" not "axe" - supposedly educated people should know the difference.

Inspiration of the day

The title of the clip is "Dancing Auschwitz: I Will Survive"

A survivor of the Holocaust, his daughter, and granddaughters visited several of the camps and memorials throughout Europe, in a reminder of the ability of the human spirit to survive even the darkest of evils.

For those who find such things strange - remember, darkness is not defeated when we cower from the memory and fear to speak its name; it is defeated when we mock and laugh at it, when we bring it into the light and show that it has lost the power to terrify us.

Never again.

Innocence preserved

Jacob and I were having one of the near-endless conversations about Star Wars (his favorite movies of all time TYVM) during Kyleigh's naptime. During which he asked why Darth Vader's ship had looked different, along with some related question. My simple response being "Well, that's because he was the bad guy."

With the utter seriousness and conviction only a toddler can manage Jacob looked at me and replied "No, he was a daddy. And daddies are good guys, not bad guys." as he turned back to his play, having set me straight.

Someday my son will unfortunately learn that not all fathers are good, and that none of us are perfect. But for now I'm going to be happy with his innocence, and feel a bit better about the job I'm doing raising my kids.

Remembrance

Peter at Bayou Renaissance Man has a post up discussing the Srebrenica massacre which started 15 years ago on the 11th. I won't take the space to re-type the details of the event, or the facts before and after - far more educated people than I have done so.

But I will take a moment to remember the victims - and to feel the sorrow and shame of being unable to do anything about it. Writing this the best I can given the limits of memory & sworn responsibilities.

During this period of time I spent numerous tours in and around the zip-codes in question, working with various units. We gathered intelligence, knew who all the players were, and had plenty of information on what was going on between the various factions of the former Yugoslavia - anyone who tries to say otherwise is either deluding themselves or full of crap. All of this was reported up the chain daily - to regional and national (and in some cases international) players. 99.9% of the time for nothing.

You see, this was the Clinton-era post-Somalia military. Troops didn't go in on the ground, we didn't do anything that would put folks in danger of being in a news story, and heaven forbid we take a preemptive approach to anything. Air strikes (as long as the bad guys said it was ok) and an occasional cruise missile launch were ok, but we all knew nothing else was going to happen. For the regular units the frustration was even worse - we at least got training funds, they just spent more time cleaning, painting and doing busy work.

Add to that the intelligence sinkhole & leaks. Anything that got forwarded to the French we might as well have just sent straight to the Serbs. Things that went up through our channels were subject to interpretation, multiple layers of filtering, and sometimes blatant editing to match the agenda of the week. I can recall witnessing events first-hand, which were then listed as "suspected" or "non-existent" because someone a thousand miles away didn't like what the front-line folks saw.

So we sat. We watched. We reported. We begged for permission in many cases - whether to go in and capture a known bad guy, or to go in and protect those who were helpless. All for nothing.

The Kurds. Srebrenica. Rwanda. The Congo. Sudan.

Every one of these campaigns, massacres, and genocides the United Nations and the United States knew or knows clearly about. And I guarantee you that, just like we felt 15 years ago, any one of which the military would enthusiastically solve if given the chance.

I am all for civilian control of our military - I've seen the alternative, and it isn't fun. But this is the downside. If the mission doesn't fit the political agenda, public opinion or whatever else, even the best troops in the world can do nothing.

I gave up hope on the U.N. after Srebrenica - coalitions are important, but I will never again have faith in that organization. Somehow I still retain hope that the U.S. as a nation will learn from the past and prevent such events in the future, but for now that appears futile.

Be that as it may... for now, let us remember the victims of Srebrenica. Let us pray that someday we can mean it when we say "never again."

Love wandering the college/art district with my son, wearing an old military shirt and watching the sheeple twitch....

Trifling

Today I had a county employee try to call in a complaint because I left my truck running - you know, that whole "100 degrees out, dog inside" thing is apparently difficult to comprehend... The boss & I laughed about that one for a while.

So glad it was my last day of the week.

Hot

You know it's a warm day out when you let the wonderdog out of the truck for a break, and he heads right back to it when he's done, instead of the normal "can we play, please? I get bored in there!" game we usually go through. Instead, my partner's little doggy eyes were clearly saying "Dude, it's hot as heck out here, the AC is in there... open the gorram door!"