Isaiah 28:15-18
15.Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
Fact or Fiction
I have never killed a cat. Although I pressume there is a rumour in some dark quarters that I killed intentionally my little kitty cat when I was a child. I myself I am not sure if I did accidentally provoked his death or not. That was in the year of 1963 in the house we were renting for a short period of time while the other house was refurbished or remodeled. In that house there was a front corridor that had a veranda about a meter high and I developed the habit of jumping forward to the railing and then jumping backwards and landing on the mosaic of the floor. It was a great way of getting some exercise done and show off a little bit. This I did for a long time before Tommy arrived, that's what I named my little beloved cat. So I frequently took to doing this, the second or third day my cat was with us he happened to be playing in the corridor, I automatically proceeded to do it, but I had forgotten about my cat and I think, not sure now though, that I might have partially landed on him-remember that I landed backwards and therefore did not see where I was landing. If I did , it didn't do much apparent damage. I remember feeling stupid, how could I had been so absent minded to put in jeopardy my beloved precious new acquisition. I felt bad in two ways, my beloved new pet being hurt by me and that people would think that I was dumb. I didn't expect my kiddy cat to die from that "close call", for so it was on my mind. There was no visible signs of real injury. He actually walked away. And as I said, I am not sure if I did ever actually landed on him. But hours later I found my little cat dead. So all I can positively say is that I had never intentionally killed a cat, lest my beloved mascot.
I did shoot with my first shot ever fired with a rifle a magpie in flight. And it was a shot not even from the shoulder but form the hip, and it was almost a reflex action. I was as surprised as the other people with me there. I was the only one with a rifle, so it had to be my shot.
At the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs during Basic Cadet Training in an exercise jumping backwards from a ledge 7 or 8 feet high I manage to land standing on my feet , which surprised my mates and the upperclassmen in charge, because it is very unlikely without seeing the ground to accomodate the springing back in balance.
So there you have it. I had never had a guilty feeling regarding the death of my pet because I felt the loss in my heart knowing that I did not kill him intentionally and still have my serious doubts as to what really caused his death.
What Just Happened
Promotional poster
What Just Happened
What Just Happened is a satirical comedy-drama directed by Barry Levinson starring Robert De Niro.
What Just Happened is an independent film, produced by 2929 Productions, Art Linson Productions and Tribeca Productions, and was released on October 17, 2008.
The film is based on the book, What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line, by Art Linson, about his experiences as a producer in Hollywood.
This film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, May 25, 2008.
Synopsis
A Hollywood producer, Ben, witnesses a poor test screening for his new film, Fiercely, mostly caused by the fact that its ending features not just its main character (played by Sean Penn, who plays himself in the film) being graphically shot dead, but also his pet dog. Ben and his maverick British director, Jeremy Brunell, plead their case to studio executive Lou Tarnow, who threatens to pull it from Cannes and hire an independent editor to re-do the film unless at least the dog's death is removed. Jeremy adamantly refuses, evidently not realizing that the only reason Ben let him put it in there was so that the studio would overlook the film's other violent content.
Adding to Ben's problems, he is having trouble making a clean break from his second wife, and Bruce Willis is refusing to shave the large, thick beard that he has grown, which will result in the studio pulling the plug on their new project, and in turn put a certain end to Ben's career. Any attempt to reason with Willis inevitably meets a violent, foul-mouthed response.
The situation with Fiercely is eventually remedied when Jeremy relents and re-edits the final shots to have the dog running up to Penn's character after Penn is fatally wounded instead of before, and ending without the dog being harmed. However, another problem arises when Ben discovers that his wife is also having sexual relations with Scott Solomon, a married screenwriter who Ben has previously worked with. Ben tries to get Willis's agent, Dick Bell to reason with him and get the beard removed, but his efforts only get Dick fired. Nonetheless, Willis does eventually shave half of his beard off, and the film goes ahead.
A week later, Ben, Lou and Jeremy attend Cannes, hopeful that they might take a Palme D'Or award. Unfortunately, Jeremy has re-edited the film again without the knowledge of Ben or Lou, and the third version of the ending not only features Penn's character and the dog being killed, but is made even more violent with the addition of nearly a full minute of bullets being shot into their bodies. However, the response is not entirely negative, and despite abuse being shouted by some audience members, many eagerly applaud the final version of the film, as does Penn (although any chance of a Palme d'Or is now obviously gone). Lou on the other hand is not impressed, and immediately flies out of Cannes on the studio's private jet, leaving Ben stranded in France.
Ben eventually does make it back home, in time for a photoshoot of Hollywood's top thirty producers with Vanity Fair, although after the magazine's publishers hear about the debacle in Cannes Ben is relegated to the far edge of the photo, meaning he won't be on the magazine's cover and will be barely noticeable in the larger inside version. Ben's voiceover, as the film ends, comments that this represents him nearly, but not quite being pushed out of Hollywood.
Critical reception
Based on 113 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes as of February 7, 2009, the film has received an overall "Rotten" rating of 53 percent, with a weighted average score of 5.8/10. [1] In describing the critical consensus, it stated: "What Just Happened has some inspired comic moments, but this inside-baseball take on Hollywood lacks satirical bite."
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