From http://e-rocky-confidential.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_e-rocky-confidential_archive.html ...

Stars and Stripes is a newspaper I’ve never seen available in the United States, but here they’re delivered to us daily, for free. It’s an interesting paper: it offers a heap of stories from *the front*, a pageful of Associated Press short pieces regarding world events, another page of quirky isn’t-that-weird shorts from around the States, a daily update of coalition casualties, a sampling of American editorials and cartoons, and a bulky sports section that seems to obsessively follow German high school basketball. What’s really curious is the “Messages of Support” section that runs throughout the paper. Usually they’re just the predictable “Dear-Jim-Bob-we’re-so-proud-of-you-come-home-safely-love-Auntie-Emm” sort of affair, but there are some variations on the theme. Consider this one from February 22:

What’s up? My name is C. O’Parrieskiovachimentero and I am 10 years old. I live in Shawnee, Kansas. Iraq sucks. Saddam Hussein is a loser. Thanks for what you are doin. Thanks for reading this, i needed to get that out. My father was in the army but he died. I am so upset and i am planning a jump from the top of my barn with a rope around my neck. Thank you for listening hopefully i see you in heaven. Good day.

Huh?
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When we arrived for the weapons tutorial, we were greeted by a grizzled man who never told us his name but who claimed, “I was in the Army for thirty years and six months—and for much of that time I never wore a uniform that would identify me as an American.” He was former Special Forces (they almost never refer to themselves as “Green Berets”; they prefer the moniker “SF” or plain old anonymity, and might tell you that a term that describes a hat is a term that describes a hat) and he was now working for MPRI—Military Professional Resources Incorporated, an organization of former military personnel who hire themselves out to the Department of Defense in a variety of roles— teaching army units to prepare themselves for the brutal realities of Iraq. He was impressive. My favorite of his statements:

Don’t fool yourselves: Arabs ain’t dumb. They brought the world mathematics; they brought the world the alphabet; they contributed to ancient philosophy, art, and architecture. So they ain’t dumb. I’ve trained ’em, I’ve eaten in their homes, and I’ve killed ’em. Trust me: they ain’t dumb.

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Genesis 22
God asks Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice.

"In ancient times, the Greeks later called the area of the world's first civilization "Mesopotamia" which means "the land between the rivers" or "the land between two rivers." This name was appropriate because ancient Mesopotamia was located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the present-day Middle Eastern country of Iraq. The twin rivers actually begin in eastern Turkey, flow southeast, converge in southeast Iraq, and empty into the Persian Gulf. Although the hot dry climate mixed with seasonal flooding was difficult and challenging, the farmers of the area learned to control the flooding rivers and used the resulting fertility to produce crops such as barley, wheat, flax, and sesame. The fertile ground also supported many different kinds of fruit and vegetable crops."

Isaac's wife Rebekah traces her lineage to Bethuel, son of Milcah. Milcah is the wife of Abraham's brother, Nahor.

Nahor (married to Milcah) has son Betheul--------------Abraham (married to Sarah) has Isaac
:
Betheul has daughter Rebekah

Isaac and Betheul are first cousins
Rebekah is Isaac's niece?

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MAJOR ISSUE WITH THE BIBLE'S "INTERPRETATION" OF EVENTS

Genesis 19:30

"Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. One day the older daughter said to the younger, 'Our father is old, and there is no man around here to lie with us, as is the custom all over the earth. Let's get our father to drink wine and then lie with him and preserve our family line through our father.'
"That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and lay with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
"The next day the older daughter said to the younger, 'Last night I lay with my father. Let's get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and lie with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.' So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went and lay with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
"So both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father. The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today."


Daughters wishing to sleep with their father or simply another way to rationalize and justify a father's raping of his two daughters. History retold by men? And the women's version ultimately silenced?

Incidentally, Abraham's wife Sarah is his half-sister (same father, different mother) ... (Genesis 20:11)

 
Link to debated issue of the garden of Eden: http://www.ldolphin.org/eden/

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Genesis 12

"The Lord had said to Abram, 'Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. 'I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.'"


Jewish rationalization? that God made an unconditional promise of blessings through Abram's seed to the nation of Israel to inherit a specific territory forever... as well as a promise of blessing upon those individuals and nations who bless Abram's descendants, and a curse laid upon those who persecute the Jews

Genesis 14: 11-13

"The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food; then they went away. They also carried off Abram's nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom.
"One who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew."

Note:
This is the first time that the word 'Hebrew' is used in the Bible. It may be derived from 'Eber,' Abram's ancestor (Gen 10:25).

Genesis 17: 1-4

"When Abram was nintey-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, 'I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly incrase your numbers.'
"Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 'As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.'"...

Genesis 17:10-14

"'This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner--those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.'"

The sign of the covenant between the Lord and Noah was the rainbow, in regard to which man himself had no responsibility. But the token of God's covenant with Abraham, circumcision, becomes effective only by the voluntary obedience of man, especially of parent toward child, and thus indicates man's responsibility, his faith in God's Word, and his assent to the condition of divine mercy. The circumcised man was to identify himself as a memeber of Israel.

Important note
Circumision was practiced in Egypt at a very early time, but not among the Babylonians or the Hurians (Horites) who made up a large part of the population of Palestine in Abraham's day. Genesis 17 does not descirbe the origins of circumcision but tells how God prescribed it for Abraham and his descendants, and gave it a spiritual meaning.

Lot: Abraham's nephew

Genesis 19:23

"By the time Lot reached Zoar (meaning small), the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah--from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities--and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt."


The ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah are probably hidden beneath the waters of the shallow southern end of the Dead Sea, which has risen greatly in recent years and now covers a much larger area than formerly. Ruins of a festival center on a neighboring plataeu, where inhabitants of these cities may have gathered, have been discovered. Archaeological examination proves that the center was used for centuries but abandoned after Abraham's time.

 
Genesis 11: 1-8

"Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
"They said to each other, 'Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly.' They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.'
"But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said, 'If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.'
"So the Lord scattered them away from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel--because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth."

Note
"That is why it was called Babel..." --that is, Babylon; Babel sounds like Hebrew for confused.

 
How to start writing after such a long absence. To say what? To say I'm still trying to get this film off the ground... this feature that I've put so much blood into. To say I feel like I'm in the same place I was a year ago. To say I feel demoralized about this process.

In February I landed a producer for my feature. He seemed enthusiastic (he was). He seemed intent on getting this film off the ground (he was). He seemed committed (he was). And then the thrice a week phone calls dwindled off. Even after we attached some semi-famous character actors to the screenplay, I felt him slipping. Felt his energy elsewhere (on his own $15 million dollar project that he was pitching to the studios). And now, with attached actors I no longer believe I have a producer. Promises to call a month ago never materialized. A month ago.

So... as writer/director... I'm steering the ship again on my own. Getting it out to production companies. Two in New York. One out here in L.A. And just figuring out how to go it alone. I won't lie: I feel abandoned. Confused. As though I'm in a relationship gone sour and no one wants to pick up the phone to end it. Even when we both know it's over.

Hollywood is cruel. It's cruelty never fails to astound me. And I've seen so much of it, seen so much of the superficial nicety laced into voices, the ignored phone-calls, the deceit. But I never get immune to the treatments. Never forget the slights... even those five years old. I can count them off easily as though I were reciting the alphabet. The VP of Production at Paramount who... the agent at Paradigm who... the agent at CAA who...

Maybe it means I'm still human. Maybe it means (and I hope this is true), I would hesitate before exhibiting similar behaviors.

In the end it matters less and less. I just have focus for one thing. My film. And it's future.

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Genesis 2: 10 (NIV Bible, New Scofield Study System)
"A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Haviah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates."

Genesis 2: 21
"So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man."

Genesis 4:9
"Am I my brother's keeper?"

Genesis 4:15-16
"But the Lord said to him, 'Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.' Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.
"So Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden."

Genesis 4:25-26
"Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, 'God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him. ' Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh."

Genesis 5:27
"Altogether, Methuselah lived 969 years, and then he died."

Genesis 6:14-16
"So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.
This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, mddle and upper decks."

Genesis 7: 24
"The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days."

Genesis 8:3
"At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone donw, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat."

Notes
The flood began in the 600th year, 2nd month, 17th day of Noah's life (7:11). It rained 40 days and nights (7:12); the waters continued to increase (7:18) reaching their highest point on the 150th day (7:24), which figure includes the 40 days. The ark reseted somewhere in the mountain range known as Ararat (i.e Armenia) on the 7th month, 17th day (i.e. 74 more days). There followed 40 days before Noah sent out the raven (8:6-7) and three periods of 7 days related to the three releasings of a dove after the raven (8:8-12). For a total of 285 days. The period between the removal of the covering of the ark (601st year, 1st month, 1st day, v.13) and the third sending forth of the dove is 29 days (deduced by comparing 8:13 with the date of enterintg the ark, 7:11). Finally, a comparison of 8:13 with vv.14-16 indicates a further 57 days' wait before Noah and his family went forth to the dry earth or 371 days in all, which figure agrees when 7:11 is deducted from 8:14... 12 months of 30 days plus 11 days. (The Jews count both the beginning and ending day of a sequence). But the actual elapsed time was exactly a solar year. This is established by multipying the 12 months (of 7:11 and 8:14) by the 291/2 days which comprise a lunar month. The total is 354 days. Add 11 days (17th to the 27th of 2nd month, 7:11 and 8:14)... a total of 365 days, one solar year.

Genesis 9:4

"But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it."

Genesis 9:12-13

"And God said, 'This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.'"

**The rainbow is not said to have come into existence at this time but only to have been invested with the character of a sign**

 
People rarely change unless they feel accepted as they are. Once folks feel they're not required to change, growth happens.

 
The true science cannot be attained just by mastery of swordsmanship alone. Knowing the small by way of the great, one goes from the shallow to the deep.

--Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings