We Are NOT a Christian Nation

Every now and again, I see on social media, something about how this nation was founded on Christian principles and it makes me laugh. When this nation was founded, slavery was rampant all over the colonies, even in the north. Nothing Christian about owning other people and forcing them to do manual labor for no pay or pension. We are not a Christian nation and we never have been. We are intolerant of other people, based on their skin color, race, creed, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. We don't love our enemies. We hate them. We went to war with the British twice, ourselves once, the Spanish once, the Germans twice, the Italians, the Japanese, the Vietnamese, the Koreans, the Iraqis and Afghanistan. We have Presidents who swear an oath on the Bible, then drop bombs on other nations. We don't turn the other cheek. We kill each other with guns, knives, poison and anything else. We care more about putting people in prison for smoking marijuana than we do for molesting children and raping women. We don't honor our mother and father. We stick them in retirement homes or assisted living residences and we don't call them, don't write to them and wait for them to die. We believe the best way to teach our children is to beat them with belts and paddles when they make mistakes or are ignorant of things. We hit them with our hands and we call it child-rearing. Then, we wonder why they're angry later in life. We pass by people broke down on the side of the road, regardless of the weather conditions. We tell people to "Get a job!" when they ask for some help but we make sure everyone sees a $20 or a $50 we put in the collection plate at church, a place that pays no taxes but rulers are able to criticize the government anyway they see fit. We also think that going to church once a week will absolve us of all the sins so we can commit sinful acts on weekend nights and treat people badly during the work week. People volunteer their time to make things better for others and we mock them for not making enough money. We criticize the way people look, talk, dress, but then praise Jesus who told us not to judge. We are NOT a Christian nation. We have never been a Christian nation. If we were a Christian nation, people wouldn't starve. All churches would work together rather than against each other. Women and children wouldn't have to live in fear. Senior citizens wouldn't have to make a decision on whether they were going to eat or take their medication. People wouldn't work for low wages. A lot of things would be different. But most important, people would be friendlier with each other. We would have to worry about locking our doors or carrying guns and knives to protect ourselves. We wouldn't judge each other but pray and hope the best for each other. This still happens in small circle of people, but that isn't the majority. And this country is about majority rule and right now, the majority consists of greedy, hypocritical, prejudice bigots who think the best way to solve a problem is through violence and it's survival of the fittest, which is Darwinism and that isn't what Christians want to be associated with. So, it's time to make some changes all you true Christians out there.

Forrest Dump

It was 20 years ago today, July 6, 1994 that the movie Forrest Gump was released and the movie business hasn't been the same since. I never did like this movie. I mean, it had its moments, but there was just something about it, I didn't like. Since then, the movie has been called one of the most conservative movies to come out of Hollywood. People have also liked Forrest's carefree attitude and said it accounts for all of his fortune in the movie. However, this isn't true. First, calling this movie a politically conservative movie is like calling David Lynch a Hollywood hack. Tom Hanks plays the titular character to the best of his abilities, but it's a Simple Jack performance and the character of Forrest is poorly conceived. Forrest is an slow-witted person who starts out as being physically disabled to the point he has to wear leg braces. When his mother, played by Sally Fields, tries to get him enrolled in public school, the sleazey principal agrees to it as long as Mrs. Gump opens up her legs. It would have been easier for Mrs. Gump. She could've appealed to the local school board or the state level. Even by suggesting a quid pro quo act of sex, she could have even gone to the police. But it doesn't matter. Mrs. Gump whores herself out while her son listens to the principal have an orgasm and we're supposed to laugh at this. It's actually very horrible the trauma, especially for a young boy who doesn't understand. That's very conservative for you. Next, Forrest finds himself shunned by the school kids. Only one person, Jenny, wants to be his friend and they go together like "peas and carrots." Unfortunately, the filmmakers have to make Jenny the victim of sexual and physical abuse and worse, they decide to make her into somewhat of a whore too, even though she leaves the redneck Alabama town with the bad memories behind. No one can blame Jenny for wanting to leave and pursue dreams of being a singer and modeling. Instead, she has to become a junkie hippie who hangs out with Black Panthers and a violent hippie boyfriend. Worse, Jenny contracts the AIDS virus and dies. Maybe this is where the conservative part comes in. Try following your dreams, even though you had an awful childhood, and you'll die. The sad fact of the matter is that Jenny is basically Forrest's only friend until he enlists in the Army after playing football for five years for the University of Alabama. The movie makes light of how the college exploited Forrest's abilities to run fast, even though many other college age men his age didn't get the opportunity to go to college and then were drafted. In the book by Winston Groom, Forrest flunked out of college and was drafted. Also, the only reason Jenny liked him in the book was that he was built like John Holmes. In the Army, he meets his second friend, Bubba (Mykelti Williamson) who dreams of becoming a shrimp boat entrepreneur. Because he is also slow-witted and black, Bubba has to die. But not before he is almost saved by Forrest, who receives the Medal of Honor while rescuing others in his platoon, including Lt. Dan (Gary Sinise), who was willing to die for his country. Lt. Dan is the only character who brings some three-dimension to the movie thanks to Sinise's performance as he decides to act instead of ham it up for the camera like the rest of the cast. But the scenes in the VA hospital would make conservatives mad if it was filmed today as Forrest makes light of how he has all the ice cream he can eat in the hospital. Yes, all the ice cream he can eat. While other people are missing limbs and other body parts, Forrest gets to eat ice cream and learn how to play ping pong. This is conservative? But still it doesn't matter because Forrest is allowed to make a fool of himself while receiving the medal and then there is a silly scene on the Washington Mall that makes fun of both hippies and the military as Forrest is asked to speak about what it is like in Vietnam. What makes this scene suck is that a military official pulls out the wires of speakers so we don't hear Forrest's speech which is straight and to the point about losing your fellow soldiers. This is so Abby Hoffman can say that's beautiful as Forrest looks dumbfounded and the rest of the ground can't hear him. For the rest of the movie, Forrest plays ping pong for America (really?) against China and then goes into to the shrimp boat business for himself. By luck and force of nature, he is able to capitalize on the business after a hurricane destroys his competitors' boats. What makes it so bad is that Forrest's good fortune are by accident and really at the misfortune of others. He gets the medal for going back into the jungle to get Bubba. If he had left Lt. Dan, who was injured, to still fight, Dan could have won the medal. Bubba was dead anyway. And the shrimping business is on the misfortune of others. Then, Lt. Dan invests in some "fruit company" Apple Computers, which even at the time in the movie, wouldn't really have amounted to much since Apple was relatively small at the time. But it doesn't matter. Forrest's doesn't have any risk versus reward investments other people make. Everything seems to always turn out good for him. Yes, he loses a friend but people always lose friends. His mother dies, but that happens to a lot of people. The sad part is that the movie asks us to want Forrest and Jenny to get together even though we know we agree with Jenny for not wanting to hook up with him. He's a millionaire, but like I Am Sam, he doesn't have the abilities to be a parent. Worse, since he is slow-witted, Forrest would be easy to take advantage of. This movie hints at it as Forrest is hired to cut grass. But unlike his character in the book, Forrest's gullibility doesn't get him into trouble. Instead, we're asked to embrace his gullibility. No. In real life, it doesn't work that way. Finally, the movie asks us to actually believe that Forrest could run back and forth across the country creating a following, who think he is doing it for a cause. It's at this point, the movie has reached a point of absurdity, that we're asked to believe that Forrest help inspire other entrepreneurs, who create the "Shit Happens" bumper stickers and the "Have a Nice Day" smiley face T-shirts. Lastly, the movie has Forrest finally hooking up with Jenny, who is working as a waitress in a diner in Savannah, and rather than give us a happily ever after ending as Forrest meets his son, a young Haley Joel Osment, Jenny dies. Bravo, filmmakers, you've had the audience watch a man and a woman go through many ups and downs for almost two and a half hours. Then, you get them a deus ex machina by turning this into a "We Didn't Start the Fire" version of Love Story. Forrest Gump made a lot of money and critics, such as Siskel and Ebert, liked it, but looking back, the other movies released in the summer of 1994, Speed and The Lion King, are more memorable. And Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption which both lost Best Picture Oscar nominations to Gump are still remembered. Young filmmakers aren't watching Gump the way they are Pulp Fiction . And I like Tom Hanks, but the quintessential bromance of Shawshank is what makes the movie a fan favorite. At least, the filmmakers of Shawshank knew how to give us a happy ending as we see Andy and Red in a platonic hug embrace on the beach at the end. Gump really exposed the shaddy side of Hollywood as even though it made a lot of money, officials said it lost money and stiffed Grooms on profits. This angered him so much he immediately wrote Gump and Co., a slap in the face of all that the movie version of his book was. Having read the Gump novel that inspired filmmakers, I realized that they didn't want to stay true because the public didn't want to see a movie about a tall lumbering dunce go into outer space and then live with headhunters in the jungle. Forrest Gump is a movie that toys with our emotions for money. Watching the movie, you realize how awful of a movie it is as it makes light of racial segregation, the Vietnam War, AIDS, and natural disasters. Why would anyone want to embrace a movie like this. Looking back, Forrest Gump is one of the worst movies ever to win a Best Picture Oscar and Hanks has moved on to better things.

Futbol, Football, Foosball, Fool's Ball

Call it soccer or futbol, World Cup mania has awoken in the last month and like the cicadas who pop up during summer time every now and again, there is a lot of noise everywhere. My love/hate with the sport goes back to the early days of P.E. class when I was hit in the groin with a soccer ball flying about 30 miles per hour. During another P.E. class on one Fall morning, half of my class stood around on one half of the field watching all the action on the other half, because it never came in our general direction. I've never been into the sport, but as a teenager, I began to support it for the sole purpose that everyone at my school, Calhoun High School, in Calhoun, Ga. loved football, basketball and baseball. There were many sports to go around but the soccer team was treated like shit. Needless to say, the soccer field was near the wastewater treatment plant, so every time there was a heavy rain in the Spring, it would cause the field to flood with excrement. Soccer was the red-headed stepchild of the sports program. So, I was sick and tired of a football program that only won half its games per season, but was still doted on as if it was a championship team. During college, I had many friends who played the sport and even had their own intramural team, the Screaming Beagles, and they were good, damn good at the sport. But as I moved out of the college world into the real world, I realized that the attitude of soccer was very strange. Let's face it, in other sports, this sport produces crazy riots between teams. People get outrageously drunk at games, pubs, etc. and fight. Not just simple shoving and a few fist fights, battles between people that belong in Braveheart. The sport gives us soccer punks, who can go from very pleasant to very violent. Football players may act like douchebags but at least they know their limits and outside of little league football, you never hear of these violent scuffles happening. Here in this country, you got your typical, red blooded all-American alpha males who despise the sport. They're the same people who still haven't gotten the memo that moustaches aren't cool. Imagine the guys who talk about how they are pro-conservative and pro-Christian but still tell sexist jokes and think God's last name is Dammit. These type of people love football because it's a "man's sport." They're just like the man Hank Hill was a parody of, but they're the real deal. While these guys can be total jerks, their bizarro versions are even worse. These are the guys whose scrawny children have been playing the sport even since they got out of their training pants and they've made the assumption that everyone is out to make sure their child and their child's team gets absolutely NO notice anyway. And they may be right, but typically, the child is a terrible soccer or futbol player and the team is awful. But it's not their fault, it's the American public's perception of the sport that is the fault. Their child could be the next Pele but they just don't get enough attention. These are the people who harass the local media for exposure. I've dealt with these people before. They are the ones who demand that the newspapers come out to cover these games and have the paper needs to give the games the same amount of photos published as they do for the other sports. But pardon me for saying this, the sport is very boring. And it's very boring to cover. When I used to go cover the games, I was amazed at how long the game was. You have two 40-minutes halves and a 20-minute halftime. And usually, in those 80 minutes, there is hardly a goal. Most soccer games are like that. Even baseball is more exciting. It's just people running up and down a field playing a game similar to "kick the can." Then, to add some pizazz to the sport, players do silly things like bouncing the ball off their heads (why?) and then bouncing it off their chest (why?!). The goalie can use their hands, but usually they have to do some acrobatic move to throw the ball back in play. And just for fun, players will alternate bouncing the ball on their knees. Now, some of you might be saying, I'm basing my criticism on the sport based on the area in which I covered it and you're right. Maybe in other areas, a community rallies behind the sport, but in my experience, there's almost this feeling that people like the sport because other people hate it. The coaches have a pissy attitude and the players have this cocky attitude. And the parents have a snotty attitude that their children are not getting the attention they really don't deserve. And that's why everyone is so ecstatic over the World Cup. It's the only time every four years, the athletes who never got the glory growing up get their moment in the sun. And they play the sport on a world level, so when Team USA wins, it's a win for 'Murica, fuck yeah! The cockiness is amplified by the fact that the "They took our jobs" Middle-American tea partiers go out of their way to show a displeasure for a sport that no one is forcing them to like. So, there is the second game going on off the field where those that love it fight with those that don't. But like I said, some of the people who like it, only like it because others don't. So, therefore, main America will probably never really rally around the sport on a regular basis, because like a spoiled brat kid, we only want the toy because another kid has it. I think participation would fall if the small town newspapers would shower attention on the sport the way most do football. So, that's why it's kept as the Fredo Corleone of the sports world. Every four years, we rally and all those that played the sport get to act like the experts they are commenting on social media and drinking in sports bars and backyard barbecues. It's a sport we hate to love and love to hate.

How They Built The Bomb

On June 18, 1993, one of the most infamous movie bombs premiered. Last Action Hero had everything going for it. It was an Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie. It was being released during the summer. It had a lot of hype surrounding it. And that was the problem. There had been issues with the hype before the movie premiered. Word spread that scenes were having to be reshot or re-edited well into May of that year. When a colossal and inflatable Schwarzenegger (or Hero’s Jack Slater) was erected in New York City, it was after the World Trade Center bombing and many people took offense to a piece of dynamite being held one of the hands. That was changed to a police badge. An Entertainment Weekly article on the movie more or less hinted to the movie being a disaster as it focused on the negative buzz surrounded it. But when the movie premiered, there was still hope. Until the receipts came in. It didn’t help that the movie was released the week after Jurassic Park, even though Park’s opening had been moved up from July to June. It also didn’t help that one major theater reportedly sold out on one screening of Park and then decided to screen Park in another theater where Hero was supposed to show. Apparently, Hero was playing on two screens but they hadn’t sold tickets for that second screen, so they used both tickets and a screen to show a print of Park, leading people to believe when they showed up that Hero had been sold out. Whether this is true or not, it shows that there was a force out to stop the movie from being successful. But Hero isn’t that bad, it’s just not that good. In a pre-Michael Bay era, Hero may have been terrible, but today, despite the negative reviews, it still would have grossed about $200 million. The plot tells the story of a young boy, probably aged 12-14, named Danny Madigan (Austin O’Brien), who loves the movies of Jack Slater and we presume Schwarzenegger. Danny is a fan of action movies or all movies, we’re never really sure. He skips school to watch movies. His only friend is Nick (Robert Profsky), an aging projectionist, at a run-down movie theater in New York City. Nick tells Danny that the theater, which is going to be shut down, is going to be showing an advanced print of Jack Slater IV. Why if it’s going to be shut down, we never know. Nick also presents Danny with a ticket given to him by Harry Houdini. Rather than hand it to him, he tears off half and makes it like it’s an actual ticket. This is a McGuffin for a plot point that happens later in the movie. The ticket has magical powers as Danny finds himself inside the movie. At this point, you’d think Danny would marvel in the fact that he’s in an action movie. But that isn’t the case. Danny and Slater seem to argue for the first hour or so about whether they are in a movie or not, which is terrible, because there is a nice parody of high-speed chases following a overblown (no pun intended) explosion that has the aging black police officer to say, “Just two days from retirement” before dying. The chase sequence is loaded with a lot of over the top cliches that would later permeate action movies. A car drives off a bridge, breaking the guardrail and landing on a moving truck trailer and then onto the ground, even though, this vehicle would have been very damaged if not operational. This was also the case in A Good Day to Die Hard, except here it's for exaggeration. Slater fires a Desert Eagle repeatedly without reloading, even though Eagles only have space for about seven bullets in the magazine. A bad guy with dynamite goes flying into an ice-cream truck and explodes with a frozen ice-cream cone hitting another bad guy in the back of the head, killing him too as Slater badly quips, “Iced that guy. Coned the phrase.” There is a lot of great satire happening within the first hour. There’s the stunt casting of Tina Turner as the mayor of Los Angeles, Anthony Quinn as a Mafia boss, F. Murray Abraham as the friend who ends up being the betrayer, Art Carney as the aging veteran actor who also dies in the first reel setting up the rest of the movie. Then you have Charles Dance playing the Eurotrash villain, a madman named Benedict with glass eyes he keeps changing and he’s a excellent marksman with a gun. Unfortunately, none of this is enough to carry the film, because the filmmakers don’t know what is going on. The problem is that even though Schwarzenegger is the star, he’s the sidekick. This is Danny’s story and Danny's story is boring. There's a reference to him having no friends but Nick. But then again, he gains no other friends at the end. Also, Danny never has the moment of clarity where he learns to live in the real world and not the fake world. There's a nice small role by Mercedes Ruehl that makes us wish we had more of her flirting with Slater. Unfortunately, she is only in three scenes and that's it. Schwarzenegger and O’Brien have little chemistry together because O’Brien is too cocky and Slater is too arrogant. In the second hour, Danny and Slater go back to New York City in the real world. Then, the movie seems to parody more of Hollywood with cameos by famous people and the movie continues to portray Danny and Slater bickering. I think the filmmakers intended for the movie to be a buddy film, but in the end, it turns out more like being stuck in a room with an arguing couple and you're unable to do say anything. You just have two options: Either get up and walk out or stay and wait for it to end. Hero’s biggest problem was that the Hollywood machine couldn’t keep it from becoming what it was. Originally penned as a satire by college buddies Zak Penn and Adam Leff of the movies being made by writer Shane Black and director John McTiernan, the script was bought and rewritten by Black and directed McTiernan. Also, the casting of Schwarzenegger was meant to be self-parody, but it fails. We never get to see who Jack Slater really is. Slater wears the faded blue jeans, the alligator boots, the red shirt, the brown leather jacket, but it's just an appearance rather than a performance. After roles in Total Recall and Terminator 2: Judgment Day where Schwarzenegger was allowed to do some acting, he basically phones it in as Slater. Instead, the premiere scenes of Schwarzenegger are what stand out. We see him getting out of a Hummer and talking with his then-wife Maria Shriver, who obviously looks annoyed to be there, and that's funny. Some of the best scenes are the in-joke cameos of Jim Belushi, Schwarzenegger’s costar in Red Heat, and Jean-Claude Van Damme, who briefly worked on Predator before leaving. There is the great scene of Tom Noonan as Tom Noonan looking like a normal guy, even though he is playing the murderous Ripper. The biggest part of Hero was that it didn’t know what it wanted to be, a parody, a satire, an action movie, or buddy movie. Unfortunately, it only partially works as an action movie and parody. Still, the harsh criticism heaped upon the movie when it was released was unjust. Entertainment Weekly called it the worst movie of 1993 and even mentioned the movie's weak box office return. Many people viewed it as the turning point in Schwarzenegger’s career, where he was no longer profitable. No, that was Batman and Robin. Schwarzenegger still found success in movies like Eraser, True Lies, which was what Hero tried to be, and even Jingle All the Way. Hero was basically the end of Schwarzenegger’s “I’ll be back” line as it wasn’t said in any movies after for a while. Hero actually helped breathe new life into the action film genre that would later be prevalent in the 1990s. Looking at Hero, you can see the beginnings of Speed, Bad Boys, The Rock and Con Air emerging. Con Air would have more meta in-jokes than Hero. Looking at the movies Schwarzenegger has made since returning to movies after a brief career as the Governator of California, you have to ask yourself, was Hero really that bad?

Bungling Bronco

It was 20 years ago this evening, a nation turned on the television and watched the infamous white Bronco chase as media reported that O.J. Simpson, who until then was being questioned as a person of interest, into the homicide of his estranged wife, Nicole Brown, and an aspiring actor and waiter, Ron Goldman, who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I've always suspected that what happened was that Ron Goldman dropped off the glasses on his way home and O.J. showed up and he suspected that Goldman was a boyfriend of Nicole Brown. Not knowing of O.J.'s temper, O.J. allegedly went after him stabbing him. This added fuel to his rage and he allegedly attacked Nicole with just anger and fury that he nearly cut her head off. That takes a lot of anger and it doesn't come from attempted robberies. Watching this chase was interesting because people had lined up and down the roads in the Los Angeles area cheering O.J. on. But why? Simpson was suspected of double murder and as the details emerged, it was revealed that Nicole Brown was nearly decapitated. I've often wondered if the people videotaped cheering and high-fiving each other have ever regretted their decisions. Granted, we really didn't know much back then on June 17, 1994. But if we knew then what we now down, would some of us really have been so happy. For the most part, the chase was an attempt, I think, in fleeing as O.J. had said he would surrender to authorities earlier that day. He was found in possession of his passport, a disguise and of course, a .357 handgun, which he said he was going to shoot himself with. In retrospect, he should have. It would have saved the California taxpayers a lot of money. We may have not have had "Keeping Up With The Kardashians," as Robert Kardashian was O.J.'s close friend and attorney. Also, the details of that O.J.'s life may have not become public. People may still have seen him as this great football hero, rather than a philandering spousal abuser. The court of public opinion is worse than the court of law. And while the court of law found O.J. not guilty, civil court found him responsible for his deaths and eventually, the State of Nevada convicted him on burglary charges. O.J. is back behind bars, where I and many others feel, he rightfully belongs. His reputation is tarnished. O.J. can't make another dollar without having to turn it over to the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown. This is why I haven't bought the "Naked Gun" movies on DVD. I like them. But I shudder to think he will receive any residuals. When he wrote that book, "If I Did It," he tried to set up illegally channel the money into an account where the Goldman and Brown family couldn't touch. That was until it was uncovered and the families now own the rights. I bought the book. It's terrible and it only makes O.J. look worse. O.J. was the poor victim and Nicole was the golddigger. That is basically the book. But things have changed. Reportedly, relations between the Los Angeles Police Department and the public is better. Better protocol is done at crime scenes in obtaining evidence. And if O.J. ever walks out of prison a free man, he will never be an innocent man. Looking back on that Bronco chase, O.J. again cared only for himself and not the safety of the people around him. Many things could have happened. Vigilantes may have tried to stop the vehicle leading to violence. A car crash could have happened. Or there could have been a shootout with the LAPD, and so quick after the Rodney King incident and the L.A. riots, it could have went from bad to a lot worse literally overnight. But let's not dwell on the past. What happened happened. Both the prosecution and defense wanted to make the trial about race and that was that. There are some people, and I'm one of them, feel O.J. still face another court down the road and there will be only one juror to decide his fate and no Dream Team of lawyers will defend him.

A Town Without Pity

In the past month, national news has fallen on the town of Calhoun, Ga. The town, which is a suburb between the Chattanooga area and the Atlanta area, has had its history of national attention. Jack Carter, the son of President Jimmy Carter lived there. It is the birthplace of Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jason Carter. In 2002, some woman at the Shoney’s Restaurant overheard what she thought was a terrorist plot which ended up being some people of Middle Eastern decent making a terrible joke about 9/11. Yet people forget that in the 24/7 news era. But not this time. No, this time, there is a rape case story that people say is either the next Duke lacrosse scandal or the next Stuebenville, Ohio rape scandal, depending on who you talk to. Those two previous incidents may be why this case is being handled differently. In the Duke case, the district attorney knowingly falsified and withheld evidence to make a case of hate-crime rape in an attempt to gain re-election. In the Stuebenville case, law enforcement and school officials decided that in the best interest of the school that “boys will be boys.” In the Calhoun case, three recent graduates Fields Chapman, Andrew Haynes and Avery Johnson are charged with sexually assaulting a fellow classmate at a post-prom party on or about May 10-11. Allegations circulating are that they gave the woman a drink that knocked her unconscious. Worse, allegations have circulated that everyone at the party knew what was happening and one person didn’t actually participate in the sexual assault but made sure no one else would walk in the room and interfere with what was allegedly happening. The post-prom party didn’t happen in Calhoun. It happened in neighboring Gilmer County in a gated community. The house belonged to the parents of the party goers. It was just supposed to be about half a dozen teen girls doing a slumber party. But there is word that by the time prom had ended on May 10, about half a dozen people were ready to have an American Pie-style end of prom party. So, how did this happen? Well, easily. Someone finds out about it and they tell some people. Next thing you know, the cool kids, a.k.a. the Alphas, at the prom have more or less invited themselves along and they’re telling others to spread the word on social media. More or less, the student with the keys to the party is left helpless. She has two options: Put her foot down and risk being shunned and ostracized by people who are her own world or let things happen as they go. And the latter seems to be the way people have acted in Calhoun. I should know. I used to lived there for almost 20 years. I graduated from Calhoun High School in 1997. I had heard of similar events such as this one happen to people when I went there. But how do you tell the difference from locker-room posturing and the real deal? A lot of people have question about the party and who supplied the alcohol and blah-blah-blah. It’s pointless. It doesn’t matter if they were drinking Budweiser or YooHoo, there have been allegations of a sexual assault and worse, there have been allegations of an attempt to cover it up. The homeowners in Gilmer County allegedly at first denied their daughter was there and reports circulate that the residence had rented. But this wasn’t the case. Then, there were talk that the girl wasn’t even at the party and she was making a false report because she wasn’t invited to the party. Then, reports of the GPS of the vehicle indicate that she was there at the time of the alleged assault. Initial media reports also seemed to point the finger at the school district as a story in the Calhoun Times devoted as most column space to the superintendent talking about the alleged incident than the incident itself. If it happened after a prom, away from a school-sanctioned event and in another county, there’s no point even having the superintendent even mentioned in the story. There were also media stories questioning why the alleged victim went to the hospital in Calhoun to be examined and why the Calhoun Police Department was investigating the case. Since the victim was from Calhoun, she probably thought of going there. Remember, she’s only 18. And it’s standard procedure in sexual assault cases for hospital staff to notify authorities, thus contacting the Calhoun Police. Upon initial investigation, the police department realized that the Gilmer County Sheriff’s Department needed to investigate it. Now, it’s left to our judicial system to see what happens next. Will any of those charged cop a plea deal to testify against the others? In cases like this, I’ve seen one person turn on the others. I’ve been a reporter for years, covering crime stories similar to this. I also know that the “lookout” fourth person doesn’t need to tilt his chair back and breathe a sigh of relief yet. This person may be the “fink.” If that is the case, he’ll be charged with an accessory or conspiracy charge, which is later amended or reduced to a misdemeanor charge, plead no contest, receive six months or a year probation, pay a fine, have to do community service and at the end of it all, his record will be expunged as nothing has happened. Unfortunately in a case like this, it can’t be expunged so easily. If the charges are dismissed or if any or all the accused are found not guilty, they will fight a hell of a legal battle to get their record expunged. I’ve seen it happen before and it can take years. Also, the credibility of the victim will be left in question. Calhoun is small town and it doesn’t forgive as easily even though it has an abundance of churches. The eternal guilt of people getting away with this crime will linger. Chapman and Haynes are football players. Chapman was the quarterback and Johnson was a baseball player who had received a scholarship but the college has since dropped it as it is school policy in the event of a student faces criminal charges. Even before charges were filed, people were afraid that there would no charges and this case would be swept under the rug. It doesn’t help that Chapman, Haynes and Johnson spent less than two hours in custody after surrendering to law enforcement before they were released on bond. Haynes and Chapman also face underage drinking charges in an unrelated case. The Calhoun case so damn near resemble a case I had covered for two years, it’s freaking eerie. In January of 2012, two Wagoner High School students, Beau Barton and Jimmy Carter, both star football players on the State Championship team, were arrested in a neighboring county on allegations of sexually assaulting a woman, who also told authorities she had been unconscious and couldn’t remember much. They had also been charged on unrelated theft cases. I didn’t know about it until someone sent me a link to tahlequahmugs.com and at first, I didn’t see what was the big deal, until I recognized the names on the link and the mug shots. Then, the charges were filed and I had the information detailing what had allegedly happened which included ejaculating on her face and leaving her disoriented and naked on the street. The charges lingered for the next two years. The football team was going to be honored at the annual Chamber of Commerce banquet for their win, but Barton and Carter, weren’t present, just as Chapman, Haynes and Johnson were not allowing to participate in the graduation commencement ceremony. Barton got in trouble with the law again on unrelated charges, but Carter didn’t and the charges were dismissed on him. Barton pleaded to an amended assault charge. I feel it was because the authorities didn’t want to pursue the case and there were reports the woman was lying. She may have been. Or that after time, testimony loses its initial thrill and prosecutors feel that there wasn’t enough evidence to proceed. I’ve written several cases in which the charges were dropped because the testimony of the alleged victim changed. One case I covered in which a former football quarterback was charged with terrorizing a woman, the case was dismissed and the prosecutor told me that they no longer believed her story and I quoted him on that. But the damage is already done. If the Calhoun case goes to trial or the accused plead guilty, it will remain a black eye on the town and the school for years to come. The accused weren’t allowed to participate and this was a good call by the administration. Something could have happened. Someone could have assaulted one of the accused. Having the accused and the alleged victim in close proximity might have resulted in a fight breaking out among the students. Or, as my mother had some, someone may have brought a gun to the ceremony and shot one of the accused. Reports indicate that when the victim’s name was said, people cheered. I’m sure the administrators were worried about someone screaming, “Whore ” “Slut ” or “Liar ” I heard there was a lot of media there covering the case. And people were worried about this attention on the victim. But what about the other graduates? This was their commencement ceremony too. Instead, it was overshadowed by these events. There are students at Calhoun who worked hard, just to graduate. Out of the 180 seniors, I can tell you there was at least one parent who had to either request a day off from work or switch shifts to see their son or daughter graduate. This was supposed to a happy event. It was for me when I graduated from CHS. Back then, the administrators were worried about people doing silly things like screaming loudly when they hear their child’s or friend’s name. In 1993, a graduate did a cartwheel and the administration went nuts over it. But that was harmless fun. In this case, the entire Class of 2014 has this stigmata attached to it and depending on the outcome, this will be the next Duke case or Stuebenville case. And my hometown of Calhoun, Ga. will never be the same again.

30 Things You Might Not Know About Ghostbusters

1. The original concept of the movie was a futuristic tale of people traveling through time battling ghosts. 2. Dan Aykroyd, co-writer and co-star of the movie, was inspired to write the script after having reportedly buying and living in a haunted house after the success of Saturday Night Live. 3. The part of Dr. Peter Venkman was originally written for John Belushi who died during the scriptwriting process. 4. Bill Murray didn’t want to make Ghostbusters, but Columbia Pictures who made the movie agreed to finance Murray’s pet project The Razor’s Edge, which he co-wrote and starred in, on the condition he make Ghostbusters. He agreed and filmed all of his scenes for Edge first and then immediately began filming his scenes on Ghostbusters. He actually had to leave the set when his final scene of Edge filmed and board a plane and then go to begin filming Ghostbusters the same day. The Razor’s Edge, even though it was shot, prior to Ghostbusters, wasn’t released until months later and was a box office disappointment with negative criticism. The whole experience soured Murray on Hollywood that he left America and lived in France for four years, watching foreign films, almost daily at the Cinematheque in Paris, and studied history and philosophy at the Sorbonne. 5. Most of Murray’s lines were ad-libbed. He would look over the script and ad-lib depending on how the scene was written. Murray even tried to get a co-writing credit. 6. Eddie Murphy was wanted to be cast as Winston Zeddemore, who would have been a highly intelligent person, the most academically accomplished of all the Ghostbusters. However, Murphy couldn’t get away to film. Thus, the some of Zeddemore’s lines earlier in the script were scrapped or delivered by the other ghostbusters. Then, Ernie Hudson was hired to play the “everyman” ghostbuster. Incidentally, Arsenio Hall was later cast to voice Zeddemore in the Real Ghostbusters cartoon series. 7. Louis Tully was originally written as a conservative Wall Street yuppie and was going to be played by John Candy. However, Candy couldn’t work it into his schedule and Rick Moranis was cast and Louis Tully became a little geeky character. 8. Sigourney Weaver’s line “You more like a game show host” to Venkman was ad-libbed. 9. Porn star Ron Jeremy appears in one scene as an extra during a crowd scene. 10. Production began before the legal team had been able to see if the term “Ghostbusters” had been trademarked. There was a 1970s Saturday morning TV show called The Ghost Busters produced by Filmation. However, because the TV show was almost forgotten, the rights only referred to the TV show. But Filmation produced the show Ghostbusters, as they still had the TV legal rights, which was unrelated to the movie and when a cartoon show was produced on the movie, the title The Real Ghostbusters was used. 11. Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters” was a hit, but Huey Lewis and the News felt the music sounded a lot like their hit song, “I Want a New Drug” and sued. The matter was settled out of court with both parties not allowed to discuss the outcome. 12. At the beginning of the movie, Venkman is conducting an experiment on college students where he is testing the effects of negative reinforcement on ESP and telepathy. This was inspired by a true experiment in which testers gave electric shocks to people being asked questions. Each time a subject got an answer wrong, the wattage was increased. But, what the test REALLY was about was to see how far people would go under orders to cause harm on other people as the people being asked questions were told to act like they were being hurt as they were never really being administered electric shocks. 13. The green glob later called “Slimer” was originally called “Onionhead” in the script. The cartoon series led to the character’s name and popularity. Aykroyd later said Slimer or Onionhead is actually the ghost of John Belushi apparent by the gluttony and disgusting nature of the character. 14.Even though the movie is set in New York City, many of the exterior scenes were filmed in Los Angeles. 15. Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler were originally professors at Columbia University, even though the college is never named. 16. The bank where they get a mortgage loan is fictitious. 17. Ray Stanz’s Revelation quote is incorrectly referenced by chapter and verse. 18. A scene mostly cut had the ghostbusters go on a call at an antique house where Stanz dresses in Civil War attire and falls unconscious while drinking a liquid only to wake up and see an female apparition hovering over him while he is lying in bed. This was later cut to be a dream sequence. 19. The scene where Louis Tully can’t get any help from a Central Park restaurant is a reference to how New York City is perceived as unfriendly and the people uncaring as the patrons go back to their meals and conversations after he passes out from seeing the demon dog. 20. William Atherton, who plays the smug EPA bureaucrat Walter Peck, said the role caused him to be typecast for a while as he would only be considered for similar characters such as in movies such as Real Genius and the first two Die Hard movies. Prior to Ghostbuster, he had been cast in leading roles in the 1970s in movies like The Sugarland Express, The Day of the Locust and Looking for Mr. Goodbar. 21. Bill Murray’s line about Peck, “This man has no dick” was later parodied in Wayne’s World as Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) holds up a cue card with the phrase, “This man has no penis” when talking with to Noah Vanderhoff, who is played by Murray’s older brother, Brian Doyle-Murray. 22. Lorenzo Music, who famously voiced Garfield in the 1980s and 1990s, was cast to voice Peter Venkman in The Real Ghostbusters. However, Murray didn’t like that and since he and the rest of the film cast had control over how their cartoon characters were portrayed, Murray asked for a different voice actor to be cast. Thus Dave Couiler, aka Uncle Joey from Full House was cast for the remainder of the cartoon series’ run. Incidentally, Music died before the first two Garfield movies were filmed and Murray was cast as Garfield. 23. The filmmakers originally intended for romance to bloom between the characters of Spengler and secretary Janine Melnitz, played by Annie Potts. Thus scenes were written specifically with just Harold Ramis and Potts. However, because of production and time, some scenes were cut or not filmed at all. At the end, it is implied there is something between Janine and Spengler when she runs up and hugs him as he exits the apartment building. 24. The cartoon series The Real Ghostbusters contains many meta references to the movie. In fact, the events of the movie are based on the “real life” exploits of the cartoon characters. There’s even references to the movie’s cast in an episode where the cartoon ghostbusters attend the premiere of the movie Ghostbusters with live-action footage from the movie. Famed writer of comic books and producer of TV shows J. Michael Straczynski helped develop the cartoon series and wrote many episodes. 25. Even though Murray was the king of ad-libbing on the set, Ramis was able to say a few that were well remembered. When Venkman tells Spengler that “This reminds me of the time you decided to drill a hole through your head,” Ramis quickly responded, “That would have worked if you hadn’t stopped me.” The scene was supposed to end with Murray’s line, but Ramis got the final laugh because he knew there was some time before Ivan Reitman, the director, could say cut. His other line, “I feel like the floor of a taxi” at the end was also ad-libbed. 26. When Zeddemore and Stanz have their talk about God, Jesus Christ and the end of the world, they are supposed to be on the way to a call, but when it was cut, people thought they were returning from a call. This explains why we see the sun beginning to rise but it takes them so long to get back to the station at which time, all the spirits have been released from the containment unit. 27. Special effects were still be completed up until the opening of the movie. Test audiences were shown a rough cut of the movie with half of the special effects missing. Regardless, the audience’s response was so overwhelming positive, it gave the filmmakers and studio the confidence they had a huge blockbuster on their hands. 28. Even though it is joked that he doesn’t have many lines and appears later in the movie, many audiences initially said they like the Winston Zeddemore character the most of all the ghostbusters. The movie was an early role for Ernie Hudson who has admitted that along with Aykroyd, he has had many real-life paranormal activity happen to him and his family. 29. Harold Ramis is credited with giving the script to Ghostbusters more of its contemporary structure and jokes as what Aykroyd had initially envisioned would have been relatively expensive and somewhat impossible with the special effects technology at the time. 30. Paul Reubens, aka Pee Wee Herman, was originally going to appear as Gozer at the end of the movie, but Reubens was unavailable, so Yugoslav model Slavita Jovan was cast and Paddi Edwards provided the demonic voice.

Who Are You Going to Call?

Thirty years ago around this time, Ghostbusters was released. Since then, there has been a sequel, two cartoon shows, video games, and many fans. But there is one thing there hasn't been - Ghostbusters 3. With the death of Harold Ramis, aka Dr. Egon Spengler, in February, it seemed to be another nail in the coffin of Ghostbusters 3. Rick Moranis hasn't appeared on screen since 1997. Bill Murray has no interest in doing a second sequel. Here's a novel idea. Why not reintroduce the movie to a new generation, which has happened. But let's stop making sequels to movies that Generation Xers liked. There's talk of a new Mad Max movie almost 30 years after the last one. Why? Why just released the original trilogy and let the audience rediscover them? If we've learned anything by Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skulls and the Star Wars prequel, it's that sometimes, we expect too much of a good thing. Also, let's not forget that now, there is a push for things to be bigger and better. We have four Transformers movies and the first three of them suck. The fourth one is still undetermined. Ghostbusters was a perfect mixture of comedy, action and special effects. But it was a comedy first and the action and special effects added to the laughter rather than distracted for it. Most movies can't do that now. Most movies, like R.I.P.D., focus too much on the action and special effects and leave us wanting more comedy. Ghostbusters was like a Three Stooges or Marx Brothers movie and I think that's part of its appeal. It's an ensemble movie. Even though Murray is the star, he shares the laughter and jokes with Dan Aykroyd, Ramis, Moranis, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts and Sigourney Weaver. But a movie like Ghostbusters wouldn't work today. It would either be too intense in action, thus necessitating a PG-13 rating, or too vulgar in context to have a PG rating. Rather than wanting a third Ghostbusters, just go back and watch the first one and even the second one. You don't ask Michelangelo to add on to the Sistene Chapel. Harper Lee didn't make a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird. I hope there is never a Ghostbusters 3.

Rest in peace, Walter Cronkite

The death of Walter Cronkite may just be the death of respectable journalism as we know it. He was called "the most trusted man in America." Archie Bunker called him a pinko. His tearing up while announcing the death of President Kennedy could be considered sincere or pretentious, depending on who you talk about.
Cronkite was one of the first journalists in America to say the Vietnam War was unwinable. Two weeks ago, Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense and architect of that war, died. Many conservative people I know say McNamara should have never been in the position. But some people may say that Cronkite should have never said what he said about Vietnam even though McNamara has publically admitted himself mistakes he made.
Many Americans believe the government should have some control on the media. I'm not one of them.
William Randolph Hearst helped start the Spanish American War in 1898. He ran a smear campaign against hemp and marijuana to control his his interests in the timber industry, thus getting the growing of both illegal in America.
Cronkite was more or less removed by CBS in 1981, at a period in which the news became more sensationalized. He was 64 at the time and some say he was getting too old for the way things were becoming. I wonder what Cronkite would have thought about the media storm following the death of Michael Jackson.
I always wonder what he would have thought about all the people on the TV picking sides with political parties. Bill O'Reilly, Keith Oberman, Glenn Beck, Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Dan Rather, Rush Limbaugh, Chris Matthews, Shawn Hannity.
First Tim Russert and now, Cronkite. You won't find any more objective or impartial anchormen out there now.
Which is a shame.
Someone had to announce the news of Kennedy's death. The assassination of an American president is an awful thing and Cronkite expressed the feelings of many Americans when he got choked up, cried a little and carried on. He also expressed the excitement of many Americans when he cried tears of joy when Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon.
Both were critical moments for America. One was the lost of its innocence. Another was an assurance that everything was going to be alright after the political and social upheavals of the 1960's.
Cronkite might have been a pinko to some but he just said what was on many Americans' mind about the Vietnam War. He also said this in 1968 when LBJ, a Democrat, was President.
But Cronkite was a journalism first and he remained objective. When he said, "And that's the way it was" he meant that's the fact.
There'll probably never be another man like Cronkite who sat in front of millions of Americans and reported it the way it was, instead of the way he wanted it to be.
Rest in peace, Uncle Walter.