WilCulture

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Thanks to AsiaTeam, you can enjoy an advance screening of the "24" Season 6 Premiere(just like Jack and Chloe). I guess CTU is just as bad at stopping torrents as they are at stopping terrorists.

Over the next few days I will be adding a collection of previously unpublished posts as part of my BackBlog Series as well as new content including The WilCulture 2006 Yearbook. So sit back, have a cold beverage, and I hope you enjoy the new material. I'd also like to say thank you to my loyal readers. All three of you.

The first time I went to an airport was an experience I will never forget. It was almost twelve years ago and my traveling companions were my two best friends. We were all newly eighteen years old and were flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Las Vegas, Nevada. It was our first trip as adults and my first time on an airplane. As we stepped through the door and I saw the mosaic map of the world on the terrazzo floor, an overwhelming sense of freedom came over me. I was only traveling a few hundred miles, but seeing the possibility of going anywhere in the world literally laid out at my feet is something I will remember for the rest of my life. We checked our luggage and breezed through the security checkpoint. I was relieved that the female security screener let my backpack filled with one and one-half liters of Bacardi pass through with just a sly, knowing smile. It was clear that we were three young people just out for a good time.

The last time I went to the airport was four months ago and I would like to forget it. This time around I was traveling from Phoenix to Los Angeles to visit the same two best friends from my first flight. Arriving at the airport didn’t hold the same magic that my first trip did, being 31 instead of 18 notwithstanding. I shared a ride to the airport with a coworker who was flying out at the same time but to a different destination. We had planned to check our luggage then stop off at the bar for a quick drink before leaving. We arrived the obligatory two hours early and checked in for our flights. At the ticketing counter we show our IDs, tickets and answer the familiar series of questions: “Did you pack your own luggage?” and “Has anyone unknown to you been in possession of your luggage?” This shouldn’t take very long but when they have to do this to every single person getting on the plane it leads to incredibly long lines. Forty minute long lines in my case. My feelings of freedom were replaced by feelings of frustration. The security screeners have replaced their knowing smiles with robotic repetition of the same questions asked by the ticketing agents and measuring devices used to determine if a travel size Listerine is of an acceptable volume to be allowed into the terminal. After another forty minute long line, swallowing exaclty one-half ounce of Listerine and flashing my ID once again, we make our way to the bar. Interestingly, the bartender was the only airport employee that we encountered that didn’t ask for our IDs or seem the least bit interested in the contents of our suitcase.

Of course by now, we have become used to these restrictions. The Transportation Security Administration(TSA) was created in 2002 by the federal government with the stated purpose of preventing airplanes from being used as weapons by terrorists. Their actual purpose seems to be preventing fingernail clippers, practical amounts of hair care products and cups of coffee from entering the terminal.

The TSA represents a segment of the Department of Homeland Security that the average U.S. citizen is most familiar with, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg when comes to the erosion of our individual freedoms in the name of safety. Many authors and scholars believe that as a nation, we have a preexisting sense of generalized fear. After September 11, 2001’s terrorist attacks in New York City this fear became fixated on the possibility of terrorism invading the U.S. and affecting us and our own families. The Department of Homeland Security was created in response to this fear, as a result of the Patriot act, which gives the federal government unprecedented freedom to detect and fight terrorism. Detecting and fighting terrorism is loosely defined and strips the individual of many freedoms and Civil Liberties.

Like most U.S. citizens, I believe the need to protect ourselves from terrorism is real, but the question I have to ask myself is this: How much personal freedom am I willing to give up in order to feel safe in the face of perceived fear of terrorism? History has shown us that governments with too much power have been the major force of terror in the last century. Lenin, Mao and Hitler all brought brought terror to the world and were enabled to do so by the people of their nations.

In 2006, congress approved changes to the Foreign Intelligence Security Act(FISA) that essentially gives the federal government carte blanche to investigate U.S. citizens in the same way they investigate foreign terrorists. While the intent of preventing terrorism is good, the ability to suspend a U.S. Citizen’s Constitutional rights is very bad. There is no safety net in place in the event that a corrupt leader takes power and decides to use this act to imprison those that oppose him politically. The loose definitions of “terrorist,” “terror suspect” and “act of terror” could easily be used in this way.

So far, the steps taken by our government that strip away our freedoms have had few effects on the average citizen other than when traveling by plane and a few cases of illegal wiretapping by the NSA. Benjamin Franklin said "Those willing to give up essential liberties to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” We don’t know how far the distance is between airport inconvenience and dictatorship, but it’s a dangerous path to follow, and it’s a path I am unwilling to take.

I first learned of the the West Memphis 3 when I saw the premier of Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. The film went on to win the Grand Jury Award in the documentary category, but more importantly it exposed a startling injustice. Much was written about the West Memphis 3 by the mainstream media following the film's release. Ten years later there is little coverage of the case . The following recap of the case is my contribution to the effort to keep the "Free the WM3" movement alive.

In 1993, three teenagers were convicted of the brutal sexual assault and murder of three 8 year old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. All three teens were tried by the same judge in separate trials, and all three were found guilty. The problem is that not a single eyewitness placed them at the scene of the crime and there was no physical evidence connecting any of them to the crime scene. One has been sentenced to death and the other two are serving multiple life sentences. Instead their trials consisted of a testimonies describing the boys’ black clothing taste, their taste for heavy metal music, and in Damien Echols’ case, for being a fan of Stephen King’s novels. While the WMPD and Judge Burnett are convinced that they have solved this crime and that justice has been served, many outside (and objective) observers, including attorneys, criminologists, FBI agents and polygraph experts have examined the evidence. They have all concluded that the teens, who are now grown men could not have been responsible for committing these crimes. Furthermore, many of these experts believe the true murderer is John Mark Byers, the stepfather of one of the murdered boys. As startling as the lack of evidence used to convict the WM3, it pales in comparison to the evidence pointing to Byers as the real killer.

Convictions are supposed be made based on the prosecution providing evidence proving guilt beyond the shadow of a doubt, but in this case there is overwhelming evidence casting a shadow of doubt on their guilt. 13 years later, these three young men are sitting in a maximum security prison. The frightening part is that this could happen to any of us.

So I saw this funny truck on the road today and I had to take a picture of it!

A smooth, coconut flavored cocktail.

2 parts Vox vodka

1 part Malibu rum

1 part Coconut Water

Shake and strain into a cocktail glass.

I served one to a coworker last weekend and she loved it. I came up with the idea for this drink at a Thai restaurant in Portland last year. I wanted a coconut martini, but there was no such thing on the menu. The bartender produced a glass of coconut water from the kitchen and I asked him to shake it with vodka and coconut rum. The Coconut Martini. Delicious.

In 1964, the American public was introduced to Jonny Quest, which was a smart, sometimes funny and violent (for its time) prime-time cartoon that appeared on the ABC television network. Jonny Quest featured the adventures of the Quest family as they traveled around the world solving mysteries and fighting international villains. Forty years later, in 2004, Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim premiered The Venture Bros., an animated comedy series heavily influenced by Jonny Quest and other cartoons produced its creators, Hanna-Barbera. The Venture Bros. also follows the adventures of the family and friends of the title characters, as they travel around the world, solving mysteries and fighting international villains. As the times have changed, so have the styles of these two shows.

Parallels can be drawn between the characters of both shows. While some characters are homologous, others can be considered composites of characters, while still others are entirely unique. The Quest family consists of Jonny Quest an 11-year old boy with a penchant for getting into trouble; his father, Dr. Benton Quest, a scientist who is frequently called on to save the world; Race Bannon, the Quest family’s bodyguard and tutor; and finally, Hadji, a Calcutta-born orphan who was adopted by Dr. Quest. The Venture Family is made up of Hank and Dean Venture, teenaged fraternal twins; their father Dr. Thaddeus S. Venture, a not-so-brilliant scientist who lives in his fathers shadow and has a “diet” pill addiction; and lastly, Brock Samson, the Venture Family bodyguard with a license to kill. Dean and Hank constantly find their lives in peril because of their father’s enemies, as do Jonny and Hadji. Both sets of characters have been kidnapped on more than one occasion. Dr. Quest is a brilliant scientist and takes his work very seriously. As a father, Dr Quest may be considered somewhat negligent, consistently leaving his sons unsupervised while he conducts experiments. This frequently leave the boys plenty of free time to get into dangerous situations, such as being kidnapped by Dr. Zin, their father’s archenemy. Dr. Venture has little interest in his sons’ lives, unless they are needed as organ donors. He took a kidney from each twin after losing both of his while on a drunken bender in Mexico. His sons were also kidnapped by his archenemy, the Monarch. Unlike Dr. Quest, Dr. Venture has little interest in science, and relies heavily on his own deceased father’s inventions for his livelihood, usually taking credit for them himself. Race Bannon and Brock Samson are both hyper-masculine bodyguards, skilled in hand to hand combat, dedicated to the well-being of the people they are in charge of protecting, and are considered to be part of their families, often showing more interest in the children’s welfare than their own fathers do.

From a cultural perspective, both series related to real-world issues and were influenced by contemporary pop culture. Jonny Quest featured settings and villains inspired by the Cold War and James Bond. Villains were nearly always depicted as foreigners, usually Asians or Eastern Europeans. Being a comedy, The Venture Bros. makes silly references to many other cartoons, comic books, movies, and and other media popular with its audience. These range from the series parodying of Jonny Quest to quotes from To Kill a Mockingbird. Both series are set in the time that they were produced, however Dr. Venture’s dependence on his father’s success leads to him living in the 1960’s era compound he inherited. Many viewers humorously find the relationship between Dr. Quest and Race Bannon to have an implied homoerotic undercurrent. This is also the case with the relationship between Dr. Venture and Brock Samson, although when a hospital worker told Brock that he would be allowed to visit Dr. Venture since they were “together”, Brock made it clear that he was only his bodyguard. Jonny Quest was the first animated series to feature realistic violence and death. This led to the show being taken off the air when it went into syndication on Saturday mornings in 1967. The Venture Bros., while equally violent, has suffered no controversy, due in large part to the fact that it was aired late at night and was aimed at adults, many of whom were desensitized to such violence thanks to the cartoon images they saw in their youth, most notably those in Jonny Quest.

As different as these two shows are, the appeal they hold for cartoon fans is universal. The combination of action, comedy, and international intrigue is still as interesting to children and adults today as it was decades ago.