Keith B. Darrell's Blog, page 35

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The Desert Warrior

Actress Cindy Lee Garcia was paid $500 for a bit role in an Arabian adventure film called “Desert Warrior.” Her four pages of script were cut down on the editing floor to five seconds in the finished film, and her dialogue was dubbed over. Unfortunately for Garcia, the film was released on YouTube under the title “Innocence of Muslims” and her character, in a dubbed voice, asks “Is your Mohammed a child molester?” Muslims, who regard any depiction of the prophet Mohammed as sacrilegious and b...

Miss Appropriation: Hot Punk Rock Girls Naked

Want to see "hot punk rock girls naked"? The SuicideGirls is a website where “alternative” models post photos of themselves. Those of you who have read my book, Issues in Internet Law: Society, Technology, and the Law, already know that a photographer owns the copyright in any photograph he or she takes, so if a model uploads a selfie to the Internet, then she holds the copyright to that photo. It’s a simple concept, but where the SuicideGirls are concerned, it could mean the difference betwe...

The Killing Joke

The Killing Joke is the title of a pivotal Batman comic book in which the Joker bursts into Police Commissioner Gordon’s home and shoots his daughter Barbara – who is secretly Batgirl – permanently paralyzing her. It was a shocking, brutal, heinous act of a depraved heart, worthy of the legislators of Colorado.
You may recall the Joker’s connection to Colorado. As I wrote in my blog entitled The Dark Night Rises on the day it occurred, a murderous sociopath dressed as the Joker walked into a m...

The Emperor’s Clothes

When I was young, my friends wanted to grow up to be rich and famous. Not me; “I’ll settle for rich and unknown,” I told them. I’m a private person and I value my privacy. As a writer, I may have shared my thoughts when I was younger, and my wisdom (once I had lived long enough to have attained any) now that I’m older, but I've always shielded my personal life from public view. Again, as a writer, I believe it is the content of my words and not the ego of the individual who pens them that sho...

“I’m Not An Expert, But…”

My television set has a few new dings in it as a result of my flawless aim and utter vexation with yet another annoying TV commercial. This time, it’s Comcast who is driving me to reach for the nearest object to throw at the TV. The cable company has a new commercial featuring a cute little black girl who tells us “It makes me happy to go on the computer. I like feeling… smart!” No, sweetheart, you may be cute, adorable even, but logging on to the Internet doesn't make you smart anymore...

Water, Water, Everywhere

Dateline: California, Spring 2015. California is in the grips of what may be the worst drought in its history. Four years into the natural disaster exacerbated by global climate change, Gov. Jerry Brown has declared an emergency and mandated citizens curtail their water consumption by 25 percent – All citizens except for those engaged in agriculture, which surprisingly accounts for 80 percent of the state’s water usage. It seems someone had the not-so-bright idea that the desert would be an i...

The Hypocrisy of Race

A student group at Canada’s Ryerson University recently held an event entitled “Building an Anti-Racism Community on Campus” for the stated purpose of “awareness-raising for a more inclusive campus.” The group then barred two white students from attending the event.

Racism, like ice cream, comes in all flavors and colors. Sometimes the perpetrators are white, but they can just as easily be black. The perpetrators in this case rationalized the exclusion of two white students from an event at th...

Race to the Bottom

I usually stick to one or two themes in each of my columns, but no fewer than five distinct themes comprise this week’s column. I’ll be addressing America’s peculiar institution, and by that I don’t mean a euphemism for slavery, although matters of race and racism are certainly pertinent to today’s topic. Our country’s other peculiar institution is that of the position of First Lady of the United States. It’s an odd institution because it’s been with us in one form or another since the foundi...

The Magic Pill

A generation ago, dozens of terrible diseases and medical conditions caused untold suffering that often led to disability or death. Through the miracle of modern science, all of these particular illnesses are now treatable or curable through newly discovered medications. So if you were to succumb to these illnesses today, a pill exists that could alleviate your sickness and disability, and prevent your death. But even though these magic pills exist, if you’re unfortunate enough to need them,...