The Silent House- Foreign film with almost no budget and supposedly shot in one take. A bit reminiscent of films like Paranormal Activity but was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. It is slow at times and there are scenes where there's almost no sound. It keeps you intrigued though as you want to find out what's going on in this house. The twist comes out of left field and while it works, it contradicts things that happened earlier in the film. It's also based on a true story that happened in the 1940s. Should download this or watch it on Netflix. There's gonna be a bullshit American remake of this. I'll pass. 6/10 Red White & Blue- GREAT film. About a young promiscuous woman with HIV and these guys she meets. One wants to be her friend and develops a platonic friendship with her. When the shit eventually hits the fan, to say this guy gets pissed off would be the understatement of the decade. The film moves at a slow pace but that makes the third act even more shocking. Cant believe this film didn't get more attention last year. 7/10 Victim(2010)- I loved this. Was glued to the screen the entire time. A doctor and his male friend/companion kidnap a young guy and keep him locked in the basement so they can transform him into a woman so he can replace the doctor's dead daughter. You immediately wonder why they didn't just kidnap a woman but this question is answered when the twist comes. 7/10

Moby- Natural Blues

BRUSSELS – In a stern rebuke, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Friday that the future of the historic NATO military alliance is at risk because of European penny-pinching and distaste for front-line combat. The United States won't carry the alliance as a charity case, the outgoing Pentagon chief said.

Some NATO countries bristled, but Britain quickly and heartily agreed.

Gates' assessment that NATO could face "a dim if not dismal" future echoes long-standing concern of U.S. policymakers about European defense spending. But rarely, if ever, has it been stated so directly by such a powerful American figure, widely respected in the United States and internationally.

The remarks, at the close of Gates' final overseas trip, reflect a new reality of constrained American finances and a smaller global reach.

Earlier in the week Gates played "bad cop" to U.S. President Barack Obama's good, criticizing Germany's abstention from the air campaign in Libya two days after Obama lavished an award and fancy White House dinner on visiting Chancellor Angela Merkel.

But Gates spoke for the Obama administration, and his warning Friday was aimed squarely at Europe's priorities.

"The blunt reality is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the U.S. Congress, and in the American body politic writ large, to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources or make the necessary changes to be serious and capable partners in their own defense," he said.

That assessment may cause Europeans to question the future of their defense relationship with the United States, on whom they have counted for a large measure of their security for six decades.

It comes on the heels of the withdrawal of one American combat brigade from Europe as part of a significant reduction of U.S. troops in Europe.

The U.S. has been the brawn behind NATO since its birth in 1949. But the disparity between strength and allies' investment has only grown wider.

In a question-and-answer session after his speech, Gates, 67, said his generation's "emotional and historical attachment" to NATO is "aging out." He noted that he is about 20 years older than Obama, his boss.

For many Americans, NATO is a vague idea tied to a bygone era, a time when the world feared a Soviet land invasion of Europe that could have escalated to nuclear war. But with the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, NATO's reason for being came into question. It has remained intact — and even expanded from 16 members at the conclusion of the Cold War to 28 today — but European reluctance to expand defense budgets has created what amounts to a two-tier alliance: the U.S. military at one level and the rest of NATO on a lower, almost irrelevant plane.

Gates said this presents a problem that could spell the demise of the alliance.

"What I've sketched out is the real possibility for a dim if not dismal future for the trans-Atlantic alliance," Gates said. "Such a future is possible, but not inevitable. The good news is that the members of NATO — individually and collectively — have it well within their means to halt and reverse these trends, and instead produce a very different future."

Without naming names, Gates blasted "nations apparently willing and eager for American taxpayers to assume the growing security burden left by reductions in European defense budgets."

A German foreign ministry spokeswoman defended that nation's contribution and noted Obama's recent praise.

However, defense spending is uneven within Europe.

Liam Fox, defense secretary in Britain, a strong U.S. ally, told NATO Thursday that European governments were undermining military co-operation with the U.S. by failing to spend enough on defense. He also said other European nations should be more willing to send their forces to NATO operations such as Afghanistan.

He praised Gates as a champion of the trans-Atlantic relationship.

"Unless Europe carries more of the share of its own defense, we should not assume his successors will do the same," Fox said.

Over the past two years, military spending by NATO's European members has shrunk by about $45 billion — the equivalent of the entire annual defense budget of Germany, one of the alliance's top-spending members.

As a result, the U.S. defense budget of nearly $700 billion accounts for nearly 75 percent of the total defense spending by NATO members. The combined military spending of all 26 European members is just above $220 billion.

The White House stood by Gates' comments Friday, though officials emphasized that the outgoing defense secretary was not guaranteeing a dim future for NATO, only saying that the possibility existed if allies cannot provide the resources needed. "I don't think anyone would argue with that," said Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security Council.

Gates has criticized the Europeans before. He bruised feelings at NATO by publicly calling for larger troop contributions in Afghanistan. He has also criticized the heavy restrictions many European governments set for their soldiers, including bans on night patrols that mean many of them rarely leave their bases.

In February 2010 at the National Defense University in Washington he said NATO was in danger of becoming a paper tiger.

"The demilitarization of Europe, where large swaths of the general public and political classes are averse to military force and the risks that go with it, has gone from a blessing in the 20th century to an impediment to achieving real security and lasting peace in the 21st," he said then.

To illustrate his concerns about Europe's lack of appetite for defense, Gates pointed to Libya, where France and other NATO nations pushed hard for NATO intervention and where the U.S. insisted on a back seat role.

"While every alliance member voted for the Libya mission, less than half have participated at all, and fewer than a third have been willing to participate in the strike mission," he said. "Frankly, many of those allies sitting on the sidelines do so not because they do not want to participate but simply because they can't."

Such inequality is unacceptable, Gates said, and so is the poor follow-through that occurred once the mission began.

"The mightiest military alliance in history is only 11 weeks into an operation against a poorly armed regime in a sparsely populated country, yet many allies are beginning to run short of munitions, requiring the U.S., once more, to make up the difference," he said.

During his first two years on the job, Gates alternately coaxed and complained, often loudly pressing allies to send more forces and funding to Afghanistan and to lessen their restriction on the troops they had there.

After a while he scaled back his constant hounding, acknowledging that it wasn't paying off much. And he frequently joked that NATO colleagues weren't shy about mentioning his "megaphone diplomacy."

NATO did send more forces over the past two years, and Dutch, British and other European forces have taken heavy losses. But as the Afghan war approaches its 10th anniversary, the U.S. has more than twice as many forces in Afghanistan as all other nations combined. Several NATO nations have withdrawn forces or have announced plans to do so. The U.S. shares the NATO goal of ending combat there by 2015.

Gates offered praise and sympathy along with his chiding, noting that more than 850 troops from non-U.S. NATO members have died in Afghanistan. For many allied nations these were their first military casualties since World War II.

Gates spoke at the Defense and Security Agenda think tank in Brussels, where earlier in the week he attended a two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers.

http://news.yahoo.co...tes_nato_doomed


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What does everyone think about this development? I am in the minority that thinks we should have pulled out of NATO decades ago and that the alliance serves no real purpose in the 21st century. While we do have some key allies in the alliance(most notably Britain), if push ever came to shove I think the alliance overall would have revealed itself to be a paper tiger.

The NATO expansion of the 90s and beyond was pure idiocy. It made it even weaker. You willing to risk WWIII over the protection of Slovenia? Yeah.....sure.

Even the strategy of encircling Russia is a relic. There's simply no point in doing it. Europe depends on Russia for some of its energy needs. Russia could turn off the spigots and send that region into chaos yet we're gonna pretend to surround them in a checkmate move? I'm surprised Russia even bothers to complain about this as its a waste of oxygen. Putin should have laughed in Bush and Obama's faces regarding the issue at one of their meetings. The only legitimate issue concerning the expansion is missile defense.

Regardless, a US pullout of NATO or just minimizing our role is a strategic move. Pretty much a 180 of US foreign policy in the post Cold War era and a departure from the Bush/Obama doctrine.

nazherald.co.nz writer Scott Kara tweeted this: Just interviewed Chris Cornell. Nice chap. Still recording “sonic aggressive” new Soundgarden album but nearly ready he reckons.

Buckethead- Tonka

There's two new Ju On movies being released at the same time later this month. Looking forward to them but going in with very little expectations.

Really? The one I just saw was Ju-on: Shiroi rojo or The Grudge: Old Lady in White from 2009. Ugh, seriously, don't waste your time.

I'm waiting for the new zombie movie from the director of 28 Days Later.

http://www.bloody-di....com/news/17712

You're right. They're from 2009. Some horror site I checked recently insinuating these were new. Maybe they got a DVD re-release or something.

There's two new Ju On movies being released at the same time later this month. Looking forward to them but going in with very little expectations.

I haven't made a post to my blog in nearly 3 months, and that is something that I am passionate about, So, I would probably disappoint.

What's your blog?

Too bad you and Freedom wont contribute. Actually, just about everyone here has a unique perspective and people that can write a long, intelligent post(you, freedom, TAP, Flagg,etc.) could easily turn it into an article.


Sign me up for this.

Agree. Sort of like MJ in the sense you could never look at him or watch one of his movies without thinking of that shit. I like most of his 70s/80s movies. Broadway Danny Rose, Manhattan, Annie Hall, Play It Again Sam, Hannah and her Sisters,etc. His 90s film Manhattan Murder Mystery is very underrated and in my opinion one of his best films.

I'll definitely watch Insidious when it comes out on video, I've got a dislike for movie theaters so I never see films in the theater anymore. I know, weird, it's my hangup I've got. I can't wait to see it though.

There's a DVD quality version on the torrents.

I imagine they would've killed Tony's mother off at some point anyway, but it's an interesting question. There's a real lack of focus in series three and four, and I'm sure things would've been different with Nancy Marchand around.

I doubt she would have lasted the entire series as well. Their dysfunctional relationship was brilliant and I loved how her and uncle June were like a tag team nemesis to Tony. They helped keep him in check so to speak and the series lost that with her death and Junior's role in the series changed once the show lost that element. I loved Junior but once his role in the series changed/was minimized he should have been killed off(or simply died during the cancer scare).

Lack of focus in three and four? Those seasons are pure gold compared to the final two seasons. While season six had a few really good episodes, it was a cluster fuck. Tony basically had a skeleton crew, the NJ crew did not seem to be as powerful as we were led to believe in the beginning, and it felt like they were just making it up as they went along. The all out war that occurred in season six should have happened in 3-4 between Tony-Johnny Sack- Carmine during that Espanade(however you spell it) ordeal.. Would have been stellar as most of the great characters were still alive at that point.

Portishead- Threads

Was gunna' grab some Toronto tickets but they're gone.

Just go through a scalper site, or wait awhile and Ticketmaster may release more tickets for that show.

This is pretty much "last chance saloon" for SG fans to see them live. While they are gonna release a new album this year, a massive tour is unlikely and I doubt the US/Canada get a second leg.

I'll be at the Frisco show. Anyone here plan on going to see them on this tour? More dates are expected to be announced at some point.

July 02 - Toronto, ON - Molson Canadian Amphitheater July 03 - London, ON - John Labatt Centre July 05 - Ottawa, ON - Ottawa Blues Fest July 06 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena July 08 - Newark, NJ - Prudential Center July 09 - Wantagh, NY - Nikon at Jones Beach Theatre July 10 - Mansfield, MA - Comcast Center for the Performing Arts July 12 - Fairfax, VA - Patriot Center July 13 - Philadelphia, PA - Festival Pier at Penn's Landing July 14 - Atlantic City, NJ - Borgata Spa & Resort Event Center July 16 - Chicago, IL - UICPavilion July 18 - Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheater July 21 - San Francisco, CA - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium July 22 - Inglewood, CA - The Forum July 23 - Las Vegas, NV - The Joint July 29 - Vancouver, BC - Rogers Arena July 30 - George, WA - The Gorge Amphitheater Special guests: * COHEED AND CAMBRIA: all shows July 2-10 (Toronto, London, Ottawa, Uncasville, Newark, Wantagh, Mansfield) * THE MARS VOLTA: all shows July 12-23 (Fairfax, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Chicago, Morrison, San Francisco, Inglewood, Las Vegas) * QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, MEAT PUPPETS: July 29 (Vancouver) * QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, MASTODON, MEAT PUPPETS: July 30 (George, WA)

Soundgarden- Karaoke

I like SOME of Paul's platform but he is WAY out there on some issues. In an alternate universe he would have made a great president.

I know Paul is as as old as Yoda but does anyone think he has a chance in hell if he moved a bit towards the center? He has some wacky ideas but other than that and his age, would have a chance at going all the way. Would LOVE to see a debate between Paul and Obama. Paul would have him shaking in his boots.

Been watching some Sopranos episodes again as I lay down to go to sleep. Watched the whole series before but forgot how brilliant those first few seasons were. I'd consider it one of the greatest series ever made based on the first two seasons alone. Unfortunate his mother died in real life between seasons 2 and 3. Altered the course of the series completely as the dysfunctional relationship between Tony and his mother was one of the things that made the series so original. Would love to know how the series as a whole would have turned out had she not died..

I've seen Martyrs but was incredibly stoned when watching it. Still have it on my pc so I might watch it again in the next couple days. When you gonna watch Insidious? Looking forward to your review of that.

Insidious. Best horror film this year so far. Some genuinely creepy moments throughout the film and the look on that old woman's face at the end of the film gave me a chill.

My favorite (though I don't view it positively in any light) are the 9/11 truthers. If I ever saw one walking up a set of stairs, I'd promptly kick them down it.

While there a few oddities from that, I do agree that the nerds on the net take it WAY too far and a lot of them are very disrespectful towards the victims, firefighters, and even the military.

Kennedies involved in the death of Marilyn Monroe

While it did look like an OD, I wouldn't have minded a thorough investigation into that.

Like I've always liked the idea that Brezhnev died six years before they actually announced his death and they just used to wheel his preserved body out for parades and someone would stand behind him and wave his arm so it looked like he was still alive.

I'm a Cold War junkie and I don't even remember that. Can you recommend a book discussing the theory?

Moon landing

I'm a fence straddler on this issue. LOTS of questions regarding the technology we had then being capable of pulling it off. My grandpa used to say something like "anyone dumb enough to believe we landed on the moon is dumb enough to believe it's made of cheese".

New World Order

Considering the fact world leaders have used this term and variations of it, I don't consider it a conspiracy. All that crap about loading Americans on trains and taking them to concentration camps and other things associated with it is just basement dweller jack off material but there's definitely something to it.

Type 2 Diabetes is a disease fabricated by drug companies

Anyone who says this needs to be diagnosed with it ASAP. This runs in my family and my grandma that died 7 years ago had toes amputated and could barely even walk.

having sex with a virgin will cure AIDS

Anyone who believes that should be shot on sight.

Sucks that you didn't like it. I thought the twist was great. Totally out of left field. Funny Games has a totally different vibe than Ils or The Strangers. A LOT of interaction between the victims and the guys who do the home invasion.

Praxis- Seven Laws of Woo

Was looking for news on Russian statements about this operation. Didn't find much....


The Moscow Times

Kremlin Got Tip on Bin Laden’s Death


Vladimir Putin was the first international leader to call George W. Bush after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Now President Barack Obama has returned the favor, notifying the Kremlin that U.S. forces killed 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden before making the public announcement.

"We appreciate it that the Russian authorities were sufficiently informed before the official statement by U.S. President Barack Obama," the Foreign Ministry said Monday in a brief statement.

The ministry did not elaborate on the U.S. tip-off, and the Kremlin made no comment about it in a separate statement, where it pledged to expand cooperation with the United States in the fight against terrorism.

Russian officials have made numerous claims about al-Qaida's involvement in the insurgency in the North Caucasus, and the man tipped as bin Laden's likely successor even spent several months in a Dagestani prison in the 1990s. But, security experts said Monday, the link between al-Qaida and the North Caucasus is largely symbolic, and bin Laden's death will have little impact on the Russian insurgency.

Obama announced just before midnight Sunday in Washington that bin Laden had been killed by U.S. forces in a special operation outside the Pakistani city of Islamabad. The manhunt had lasted for nearly a decade after bin Laden claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. Despite the late hour, thousands of people converged on the White House and took to the streets in major U.S. cities to celebrate the news.

"The Kremlin welcomes the serious success achieved by the United States in the fight against international terrorism," the Kremlin said. "Russia … regretfully knows what al-Qaida is from experience."

The Kremlin statement said that only unified efforts could fight global terrorism successfully and pledged to expand cooperation toward that end — a promise similar to one made by then-President Putin when he called then-President Bush shortly after the 9/11 attacks. The phone call marked a turning point in U.S.-Russian relations at the time.

In its statement Monday, the Foreign Ministry likened bin Laden to slain Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev and the U.S. anti-terrorism operations in Pakistan to Russian security services' own operations in the North Caucasus, where, it said, a hunt continues for al-Qaida emissaries.

Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the State Duma's International Affairs Committee, said Monday that bin Laden had been involved in attacks on Russian soil. "We have grounds to believe that Osama bin Laden was involved in several terrorist attacks that took place in our country," the senior United Russia lawmaker said, without elaborating, in a statement published on United Russia's web site.

Kosachyov also warned that bin Laden's death might spur a series of retaliation attacks by international terrorists.

Moscow police boosted security around the U.S. Embassy on Monday.

North Caucasus insurgents have several times attacked public venues in Moscow, but they've never specifically targeted U.S. or other foreign buildings here. Only one U.S. citizen has died at the hands of Chechen rebels — during the 2002 Nord-Ost hostage siege in a Moscow theater.

Interestingly, it was after the Nord-Ost drama that bin Laden for the first and only time spoke of North Caucasus rebels in one of his many public addresses, describing them as victims of Russian aggression and a group in need of assistance.

The first known links between bin Laden and the North Caucasus conflict date back to 1995, when bin Laden offered $1,500 toward a Kalashnikov assault rifle and travel expenses for each volunteer ready to fight in Chechnya, a Sudanese defector from al-Qaida told a U.S. court in 2001.

Curiously, bin Laden was often filmed and photographed with a Kalashnikov in his hands or within reach. He claimed that the Kalashnikov belonged to a Russian soldier that he had killed while fighting the Soviet army in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

In late 1996, al-Qaida's No. 2 and the most probable successor of bin Laden, Egyptian Ayman al Zawahiri, traveled to the North Caucasus in search of a new home for the terrorist organization after it was expelled from Egypt and Saudi Arabia. He was arrested in Dagestan for illegally crossing the border and spent several months in a local prison before being expelled. After that, al-Qaida made Afghanistan its base of operations.

Following the 9/11 attacks, several reports surfaced that two of the plane hijackers had fought in Chechnya and a third had told friends prior to the attacks that he was going to train in an al-Qaida camp in Chechnya or Afghanistan.

Several al-Qaida operatives arrested over the past decade, including suspects nabbed in London in 2003 for trying to produce the powerful poison ricin in their apartment, either fought or trained in Chechnya or Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, which is predominantly inhabited by ethnic Chechens.

Any foreign insurgent killed by the police or security services in the North Caucasus — including most recently on April 21 in Chechnya — is automatically labeled as an al-Qaida representative by Russian officials.

North Caucasus-based foreign fighters, described as "members of the roaming brotherhood of jihadi paladins" by U.S. researcher Brian Glyn Williams, who is an authority on al-Qaida's links to Chechnya, are believed to have first surfaced in Chechnya in 1995. While the small group of foreign fighters considered Chechnya just another battlefield in the global jihad, it quickly became a strong force competing for influence with the largely secular Chechen separatists. Some of the fighters are believed to have fought against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan, just as bin Laden did.

The alliance between the fighters, led by the late Saudi-born Emir Khattab and Basayev, gave Russian authorities a pretext to paint the leaders of the North Caucasus insurgency as part of al-Qaida's global effort.

In 2003, as the second war in Chechnya was in full swing, then-President Putin told journalists in Paris that al-Qaida had retained its presence in the North Caucasus. "There are no longer al-Qaida camps in Chechnya, but its money and trainers remain," he said.

Still, not a single Chechen has ever been arrested outside Russia for involvement in al-Qaida. The few Russian citizens arrested by coalition forces in Afghanistan and then jailed in the Guantanamo prison comprised natives of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan and Kabardino-Balkaria. All were later sent back to Russia, where they were released.

Andrei Soldatov, a security analyst with the Agentura think tank, said playing up al-Qaida's presence in the North Caucasus helps Russian authorities pretend that they are fighting a common enemy with the United States and other Western countries.

"This naturally allows them to undercut foreign criticism of the brutal anti-terrorism efforts in the North Caucasus," he said.

Enver Kisriyev, a Caucasus expert with the Institute of Ethnography and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Science, concurred, saying, "Claiming to be fighting al-Qaida allows federal and local security officials to often operate outside the legal limits."

Bin Laden's death will have little effect on the activities of North Caucasus rebels because they do not share al-Qaida's global goal of fighting the United States, which it sees as the biggest enemy of Islam, Soldatov said.

http://www.themoscow...ath/436133.html