Broken pipes, broken tools, people bending broken rules.
Hound dog howling, bull frog croaking - Everything is broken. - Bob Dylan
If Nazi Germany had been wired with fibre optics, I doubt whether the White Rose would have distributed a single leaflet. Perhaps, rather than cranking them out on a hand press, Hans, Sophie and the rest would have spammed Hitler Youth forums from cyber cafes across southern Germany. That is, if they had first evaded the Gestapo's Carnivore, sifting every email and seemingly anonymous web comment for anti-Fuhrer sentiment. (A headline today: "Pentagon sets its sights on social networking websites".)
Freedom of expression is often regarded as America's distinguishing liberty. "That's what's great about this country and all free countries: freedom of speech," Neil Young told CNN six weeks ago. "That's what makes us different from everybody else." Though it's suffered multiple paper cuts from the Patriot Act, it's still the go-to characteristic for those who choke on Nazi analogies. (Bush isn't Hitler, runs the argument, because you have the right to call him Hitler.) But it's also the cheapest freedom rulers can afford, when popular expression is cut off from the means of effecting popular change. Nothing is risked by allowing people to say what they feel, so long as it's understood they cannot act upon it outside of the unresponsive and compromised political system. But when the elections are rigged, and most politicians of prominence are beholden to the same security apparatus, what do you do then?
America is a free-speech zone, and Americans remain fenced within it so long as they mistake risk-averse expression with direct yet non-violent action. It's the difference between shouting slogans on a sunny afternoon and Tiananmen Square. And so much of the ineffectual sloganeering now takes place only in the cocooned and virtual America, where the empire obligingly hosts its chat rooms of dissent for political deviants. It has no worries, so long as everyone keeps talking.
I don't think I like paperless revolutions anymore. It seems the more sophisticated our means of communication, the more illusory our ownership of the media, and the greater the disconnect between our words and our words' implications. Under the Nazis, hand-cranking the press in the basement took courage. Under the NSA, posting online may take nothing more than naivité.
By the way, I'm still trying to get Blogger to address my broglem of the non-updating home page, though I'm increasingly pessimistic. So I'm beginning to consider alternatives. In the event Blogger is finished with me, I've registered rigorousintution.ca, and am starting to scout about for hosts and publishing options. (WordPress or Movable Type?) If I move - and I'd rather not, because the thought gives me a sick headache - I would want to leave this blog standing as an additional archive, but copy everything over, including comments. (I'd also like to consolidate the discussion board, bringing over the posts into a php forum.) I've received some good tips already, and would be happy for more. And thanks for your patience.
94 comments:
I've always been sceptical of the "be the media" mantra. What it has turned into is preaching to the choir. I'm sure these efforts do help build an oposition base, but it's not going fast enough and too many people are trained to only pay attention to multi-million-dollar media.
A new strategy is on order. I expect it to be delivered from the great beyond, the land where stories come from, any day now.
-anotherdrew
No matter how much I ponder it, I still come to the same conclusion; That being, there is nothing we can do. It has a momentum all its own, and nothing you or I do or say will impact that momentum.
All we can do, is sit back and comment about the spectacle/predicament in Cyberspace....while we can. Sure, it's an echo chamber, but at least I still feel (note, I didn't say know) there are people out there who share my dismay and disdain.
I'm not giving up on Whistler. One way to kick start this "thing" of ours, is to make physical contact. It would be a risk, because I can assure you that meeting would be infiltrated from the get go. All of this chatting into the ether only corroborates that we are looking at the same book and are approximately on the same page. Other than that, it will accomplish nothing. We've collected the snow, now we must form it into a compact ball and set it in motion down the hill and watch it become everything we have ever dreaded.
I wish someone had choked me in the shallow water before I got too deep. Well, it's water under the bridge, as they say......or should I say, it's me under the deep water under the bridge.
The curse of an inquisitive mind.
While we are wringing our hands and looking up at the sky for answers, how about this ditty from the planetary engineering freemasons at NASA & JPL:
http://www.rinf.com/news/nov05/lucifer-project.html
Pardon me if you have discussed this project at some point earlier. But the plan to ignite the atmosphere of Saturn using 72 lbs. of imploding plutonium onboard the spacecraft Cassini, and form a second star in our solar system within the next two years, seems like, among other things, the perfect pretext for anointing a phony "anointed one" and all that ensues from it.
There is way more to the scenario, but:
Anyone ever read Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"? It's kind of like Merlin being able to predict the solar eclipse. But way more.
How will/would the masses of humanity react, given a whole set of preparatory engineered political events, to the sight of a new bright star in the sky?
One shudders to think.
BTW, keep cranking those hand presses.
I don't know that I'd call America a Free-Speech Zone, so much as I'd call it a Speech-Free Zone.
Ok, Maybe that's going a bit far, but not by much. I think it's the difference between having a culture where freedom of thought is encouraged, and one in which it is grudgingly permitted. And even then, like you're saying Jeff, it's allowed only as long as it isn't backed up by any kind of action. And how free is anyone's speech, really, when you know that the NSA may just be listening in (hey guys).
And as far as the comparisons to Hitler go, sure, we can always say, "Well, he's not as bad as Hitler", but what the hell kind of defense is that? Gee, I guess since we can't pin the blame for MILLIONS of deaths on him (yet), and that he's currently only responsible for Hundreds-of-thousands of deaths, then he's not really all that bad right? Of course, that still makes him about 100,000 times worse than Charles Manson, but why split hairs. Maybe the sociopaths in power have just learned that, when it comes down to it, it pays more to give lip-service to Freedom. It's a lot easier to keep track of and control the dissidents when they operate above ground.
Hmmm... That spurred a thought. Maybe we've been going about this the wrong way. Perhaps we shouldn't wait until it's necessary to drop off the radar, and go underground pre-emptively. Imagine how freaked out the PTB would get if, all of a sudden, visible dissent simply disappeared....
One more thing, off topic I'm afraid...
If al-Zarqawi really was the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, wouldn't it have made a little more sense to attempt to capture him alive, as one would assume he'd be a prime candidate for (cough) interogation. Just saying...
Just to let you know Jeff...
I was unable to post a comment yesterday, recieving instead a notification screen from Blogger itself regarding temporary inconveniences while it is supposedly consolidating some of it's databases...hmmm.
Personally I think the system has either been hacked with something that is still blocking some basic links and buttons or is suffering from an overloaded server somewhere.
Blogger's not likely to reveal the circumstances if either one is the case.
I was able to post from the link you initially provided to the new thread but nothing else worked to post to your more recent additions in the June file by accessing it directly.
The verisign portion was completely suppressed (little square with an "x" in it in an empty frame) effectively stopping any post, at least of mine, from being published. Something that makes me suspect some deliberate mischief behind the problem.
Needless to say that situation is slightly improved today since I've been able to forward this to you in the normal fashion.
The site is more functional than it was. Not normal, I'll grant you, but something has been fixed in the past 24 hrs. Keep your fingers crossed and keep trying at the original page, maybe the rest will finally fall back into place.
Fondest Regards from the Fox
Unless the sheeple read between the lines and realize how sinister things "could be" they will still follow the flock. Once the shit hits the fan and there is no internet, no cable, or power, only the governments proposed Intenet II...then the masses will awaken from their Dorritos/Prozac induced stupor and rebel. These recent tech problems for RI/jeff on Blogger should remind us that when it goes down "the revolution will not be televised" and we will be discussing politics on the down low on some viagra info chat room or something, so we dont have the door kicked in, in the middle of the night.
Blogger =
Google is 'rotten.' Everything happens for a reason. MT might still be relatively 'clean.'
Good luck.
The implications of permanently losing network neutrality could not be more serious. The current legislation, backed by companies such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, would allow the firms to create different tiers of online service. They would be able to sell access to the express lane to deep-pocketed corporations and relegate everyone else to the digital equivalent of a winding dirt road. Worse still, these gatekeepers would determine who gets premium treatment and who doesn't.
Their idea is to stand between the content provider and the consumer, demanding a toll to guarantee quality delivery. It's what Timothy Wu, an Internet policy expert at Columbia University, calls "the Tony Soprano business model": By extorting protection money from every Web site -- from the smallest blogger to Google -- network owners would earn huge profits. Meanwhile, they could slow or even block the Web sites and services of their competitors or those who refuse to pay up. They'd like Congress to "trust them" to behave.
No Tolls on the Internet
I think these comments lack historical perspective. American free speech has been plagued by establishment crackdowns from the very beginning; ranging from the Alien & Sedition acts to the Civil-War era suspension of habeas corpus, to mass jailings during WWI, to Cointelpro during Vietnam.
However, the model of control has gotten more sophisticated, and the public has grown more apathetic and jaded by false cynicism.
A big reason for establishment success is their self-created myth of invincibility. It causes people to defeat themselves before they even start to rebel.
As for physical action, there's been that as well. It's why we had social reforms: the threat of violent revolution.
I also must respectfully disagree with Jeff. The Web changes opinions and attitudes en masse like never before. People are far more sophisticated in their understanding of government corruption than ever before.
Of course, establishment types stick to their blogs.
But think how EASY it is for them to visit other viewpoints. In the past, they would have had to buy books, newsletters, etc.
Now they can change their views in one click.
I know for a fact that the Web has been integral in my intellectual development.
Thought should always precede action. You shouldn't act unless you know what you're getting into. Too many times people act without thinking, and then pay the consequences.
"Be the media" is bullshit. The media isn't a conversation. However this blog could almost be...
Its not pamphleteering or anything like that.
To think the internet is anything other than an advanced telephone available to the worlds technoeconomic elite is a self delusional mindset.
I am not wealthy by any western standards, but compared to the majority of people in the world I live a life of incomparable luxury. I have good food, clean air and water (as clean as you can get these days anyway), and fairly secure shelter and territory.
I have been trained in so many different skills, can hunt, grow food know abit about bush medecine, how my body works etc etc.
I can build machines, get off the grid electrity systems going and a whole myriad of skills that most people don't have. Drive machinery, use weapons, fight. I have compassinate skills in first aid, councelling etc etc.
And I have just picked this stuff up by living my life to its fullest extent more than 50% of the time. Maybe 55% of the time.
Just about everyone I know in my community has a similar list of skills.
Our greatest fear is this place (weirdsville) turning into a populated area. It will make us soft and we will suffer too much intrusion from the system in our lives.
These days its (anti pot) chopper raids once a year and thats about it.
15 years ago I wanted a revolution, but the wheel of karma turns one revolution and you are back where you started. These days I feel part of the trap of life is the system of empire. It is part of the universe';s joke on us, and challenge to us to really live well... Whatever that means.
The internet doesn't help this. Really its just self indulgent, me spouting off my bullshit opinion on anything.
Cept that its not, cos communication is a vital piece of human life.
But it is not goning to save the world.
As Terry pratchett once said "Only you can save Earth".
If what you say or type on the internet is divorced from the way you live your life. If it doesn't become part of the feedback loop you have with the world, and that you use to further your interactions with the world. its useless, and a wank.
And unless you have some way of constructing the world that gives you meaning and a sense of being part of and responsible to/for something greater than yourself, then your attempts to try and heal the problems of our society won't work.
Its easy for me cos I live in the bush. The nearest towns are 20 kms away, one is Nimbin, where they have the only anti prohibiton festival in the world at the moment (to my knowledge). Around here everyone knows who everyone else is. But cos we are mostly people who want to get away from society, we don't indulge in that small town bullshit as much as some places.
Most of the moeny that came into this community in the last 20 years came from dope, so there is a strong anti authoritarian streak here, and a fierce independance.
It makes it easy to part of a community you can love and accept. None of us are perfect, far from it. But we understand we are in this together and need each other on some levels.
The internet would be pointless without this community I live in. It is there that I do what I can in my judgement to use my talents to do what I believe I should.
I feel connected to it and part of it.
The internet isn't like that.
At least making presses and printing pamphlets gives you human contact. chi fields interacting...
Shrub's idea is good. I have family scattered throughout Canada. And friends, and one of these days I want to visit them.
This blog is good, because it fits many of the ideas I like thinking about. But thats the problem with the internet, human culture is so diverse that entire net is preaching to the perverted, er converted. Its too big to surf anymore, its not like 10 years ago...
its all these private clubs.
And private clubs are great places to meet, but unless they interact with the outside world on other levels they only stay relevant to their members.
Update from savetheinternet.com:
House Ignores Public, Sells Out the Internet
June 9th, 2006 by tkarr
Last night’s House vote against an amendment that would make Net Neutrality enforceable is the result of swarming lobbyists and a multi-million-dollar media campaign by telephone companies that want Congress to hand them control of the Internet.
The fight now moves to the Senate, where there is stronger bi-partisan support for a bill — put forth by Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota) — that would protect our Internet freedom from AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth.
Mr. Wells said:
"I don't think I like paperless revolutions anymore. It seems the more sophisticated our means of communication, the more illusory our ownership of the media, and the greater the disconnect between our words and our words' implications. Under the Nazis, hand-cranking the press in the basement took courage. Under the NSA, posting online may take nothing more than naivité."
I couldn't agree more, but while print media like the New York Times gives us "All the News That's Fit to Print," sites like yours are free to give us "All the News that They Want Me to ignore."
Of course, print media can be read by candlelight......
& I doubt the future holds any buried Dead Sea Laptops, but ya never know.....
Having said that I'd like to draw your attention to this Greg Palast article. No matter how much hot air the Bush administration pumps into these manufactured enemies & manufactured plateaus & manufactured turning-points, I can always count on Greg Palast to be standing there with a pin.
http://www.gregpalast.com/unreported-the-zarqawi-invitation#more-1414
hey got him — the big, bad, beheading berserker in Iraq. But, something’s gone unreported in all the glee over getting Zarqawi … who invited him into Iraq in the first place?
If you prefer your fairy tales unsoiled by facts, read no further. If you want the uncomfortable truth, begin with this: A phone call to Baghdad to Saddam’s Palace on the night of April 21, 2003. It was Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on a secure line from Washington to General Jay Garner.
The General arrived in Baghdad just hours before to take charge of the newly occupied nation. The message from Rumsfeld was not a heartwarming welcome. Rummy told Garner, Don’t unpack, Jack — you’re fired.
What had Garner done? The many-starred general had been sent by the President himself to take charge of a deeply dangerous mission. Iraq was tense but relatively peaceful. Garner’s job was to keep the peace and, to use the President’s words, “Open Iraq’s arms to democracy.”
Unfortunately for the general, he took the President at his word. But the general was wrong. “Peace” and “Democracy” were the slogans.
“My preference,” Garner told me in his understated manner, “was to put the Iraqis in charge as soon as we can and do it in some form of elections.”
But elections were not in The Plan.
The Plan was a 101-page document to guide the long-term future of the land we’d just conquered. There was nothing in it about democracy or elections or safety. There was, rather, a detailed schedule for selling off “all [Iraq’s] state assets” — and Iraq, that’s just about everything — “especially,” said The Plan, “the oil and supporting industries.” Especially the oil.
There was more than oil to sell off. The Plan included the sale of Iraq’s banks, and weirdly, changing it’s copyright laws and other odd items that made the plan look less like a program for Iraq to get on its feet than a program for corporate looting of the nation’s assets. (And indeed, we discovered at BBC, behind many of the odder elements — copyright and tax code changes — was the hand of lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s associate Grover Norquist.)
But Garner didn’t think much of The Plan, he told me when we met a year later in Washington. He had other things on his mind. “You prevent epidemics, you start the food distribution program to prevent famine.”
Seizing title and ownership of Iraq’s oil fields was not on Garner’s must-do list. He let that be known to Washington. “I don’t think [Iraqis] need to go by the U.S. plan, I think that what we need to do is set an Iraqi government that represents the freely elected will of the people.” He added, “It’s their country � their oil.”
Apparently, the Secretary of Defense disagreed. So did lobbyist Norquist. And Garner incurred their fury by getting carried away with the “democracy” idea: he called for quick elections — within 90 days of the taking of Baghdad.
But Garner’s 90-days-to-elections commitment ran straight into the oil sell-off program. Annex D of the plan indicated that would take at least 270 days — at least 9 months.
Worse, Garner was brokering a truce between Sunnis, Shias and Kurds. They were about to begin what Garner called a “Big Tent” meeting to hammer out the details and set the election date. He figured he had 90 days to get it done before the factions started slitting each other’s throats.
But a quick election would mean the end of the state-asset sell-off plan: An Iraqi-controlled government would never go along with what would certainly amount to foreign corporations swallowing their entire economy. Especially the oil. Garner had spent years in Iraq, in charge of the Northern Kurdish zone and knew Iraqis well. He was certain that an asset-and-oil grab, “privatizations,” would cause a sensitive population to take up the gun. “That’s just one fight you don’t want to take on right now.”
But that’s just the fight the neo-cons at Defense wanted. And in Rumsfeld’s replacement for Garner, they had a man itching for the fight. Paul Bremer III had no experience on the ground in Iraq, but he had one unbeatable credential that Garner lacked: Bremer had served as Managing Director of Kissinger and Associates.
In April 2003, Bremer instituted democracy Bush style: he canceled elections and appointed the entire government himself. Two months later, Bremer ordered a halt to all municipal elections including the crucial vote to Shia seeking to select a mayor in the city of Najaf. The front-runner, moderate Shia Asad Sultan Abu Gilal warned, “If they don’t give us freedom, what will we do? We have patience, but not for long.” Local Shias formed the “Mahdi Army,” and within a year, provoked by Bremer’s shutting their paper, attacked and killed 21 U.S. soldiers.
The insurgency had begun. But Bremer’s job was hardly over. There were Sunnis to go after. He issued “Order Number One: De-Ba’athification.” In effect, this became “De-Sunni-fication.”
Saddam’s generals, mostly Sunnis, who had, we learned, secretly collaborated with the US invasion and now expected their reward found themselves hunted and arrested. Falah Aljibury, an Iraqi-born US resident who helped with the pre-invasion brokering, told me, “U.S. forces imprisoned all those we named as political leaders,” who stopped Iraq’s army from firing on U.S. troops.
Aljibury’s main concern was that busting Iraqi collaborators and Ba’athist big shots was a gift “to the Wahabis,” by which he meant the foreign insurgents, who now gained experienced military commanders, Sunnis, who now had no choice but to fight the US-installed regime or face arrest, ruin or death. They would soon link up with the Sunni-defending Wahabi, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was committed to destroying “Shia snakes.”
And the oil fields? It was, Aljibury noted, when word got out about the plans to sell off the oil fields (thanks to loose lips of the US-appointed oil minister) that pipelines began to blow. Although he had been at the center of planning for invasion, Aljibury now saw the greed-crazed grab for the oil fields as the fuel for a civil war that would rip his country to pieces:
“Insurgents,” he said, “and those who wanted to destabilize a new Iraq have used this as means of saying, ‘Look, you’re losing your country. You�re losing your leadership. You’re losing all of your resources to a bunch of wealthy people. A bunch of billionaires in the world want to take you over and make your life miserable.’ And we saw an increase in the bombing of oil facilities, pipelines, of course, built on — built on the premise that privatization [of oil] is coming.”
General Garner, watching the insurgency unfold from the occupation authority’s provocations, told me, in his understated manner, “I’m a believer that you don’t want to end the day with more enemies than you started with.”
But you can’t have a war president without a war. And you can’t have a war without enemies. “Bring ‘em on,” our Commander-in-Chief said. And Zarqawi answered the call.
This is also worth checking out, although Mr. Wells has probably already mentioned it here. I tried the search feature butit rudely stuck its tongue out at me.
It's a book called Passport to Eternity by Larry Foreman. It details....well....its details are best read rather than described. Just one quote:
" About five o'clock, I ambled back and fixed my favorite supper; homemade biscuits cooked in a dutch oven with bacon, beans and a big pot of coffee. Just as I was sitting down to eat, when I heard footsteps and here was a man about 5'10", a hundred and sixty pounds. His complexion was light and I noticed that he had small feet. He was garbed in some kind of suit like I had never seen before, but people on the desert and everywhere else are dressing funny now, anyway.
His age puzzled me. He seemed to be mature but neither young nor old. After I greeted him with the old desert salute of "HI", he asked me if he could join me and, remembering my manners, I got out another plate and poured him a cup of coffee. He protested that he was imposing upon me, that he had not come over for dinner, but I soon put him at ease and insisted that he have dinner with me. I was glad to see a human way out there after the tracks and everything, even if I couldn't figure out how he got there.
He seemed to be good and hungry and I enjoyed seeing him eat. He examined every bean and got a kick out of my homemade biscuits. This man was not used to the desert grub, I could see that.
After dinner, I put some more wood on the fire and poured another cup of coffee and we settled down in comfortable positions and had time to study my guest, who was doing the same thing to me. This man had an air of calmness and the steadiest gaze. Then something all at once told me that he was not of this world. I obeyed the unwritten law of the desert to never ask a stranger questions, that is, until he opens up, but I was really bursting to ask him a few.
We talked about a little of everything. He noticed that I was having to strain to understand some of his language and he informed me that his native tongue was "sanscrit", that he had picked up english by monitoring our radio and television with a short course of English in school. My observation that sansrit was a language that had not been spoken for thousands of years, made him laugh. In fact, he laughed easily and seemed to have a good sense of humor and was getting a bang out of me."
To bring Marshall McLuhan up to date and put him in perspective with an internet that only arrived after he departed, this particular medium is not only the message...the users are its content.
I suggest we all think on that carefully and where the real power that brings the internet into being both starts and ends before we commence to wringing our hands about any wannabe masters of the universe trying to park their fat asses in the middle of it and try to sell us something that's already ours in the first place and worth nothing at all without us in the second.
It's one thing to seek to control or dominate purely corporate and commercial uses through secure company websites for business transactions, marketing, internal intranets and the like, and quite another to try and set up broad toll-booths and roadblocks or simply force any and all individual users in directions they simply aren't interested in going.
Far from trying to stop anyone, every isp is ruthlessly competeing for the privlege of simply getting and keeping as many of us happily online as possible...hmmm?
In very short order the power utilities are going to add another bold dimension to that mayhem from any ordinary electrical outlet on the power grid.
It's not simply access but the technology and software for the most sophisticated communications only costs peanuts these days and the guys who supply it are also falling all over themselves to sell it to us.
The genie is not only out of the bottle it's loose and at large in a world with more than billion users and growing exponentially.
It's well beyond any national power, even that of the US to try control or contain it in any way; moreover it's guaranteed political and economic suicide to even attempt it.
As for the "freedom" of being able to call Bush 'Hitler:' there's that old adage that you're free to make fun of all but those really in control. Just ask Irwin Schiff.
http://irwinschiff.blogspot.com/
In other news: Jeff wrote: "But when the elections are rigged, and most politicians of prominence are beholden to the same security apparatus, what do you do then?"
Um...write 'Uncle Tom's Cabin?' Though I think the blogs have a certain power to educate, call me old-fashioned, but novels remain the most persuasive tool available. Of course, a great, world-changing novel requires a great, world-changing writer. And maybe, jes mebbe, all the candidates are too busy...blogging.
But I bet Orwell woulda had a kick-ass blog.
Ah, Schiff. From Wikipedia: One of the more telling results of his conviction is the present state of his former bookstore, "Freedom Books" [4], which stood at 444 E. Sahara Avenue in Las Vegas, Nevada. The store had a large sign which boldly read "WHY PAY INCOME TAXES WHEN NO LAW SAYS YOU HAVE TO?". The building (as of May 2006) is now vacant and for sale. The sign's bold message has been covered by brown paint.
Down the Memory Hole with that one. But please remember: you have the freedom to obey.
Jeff: Apologies for flicking back but I've only just you in your reduced circumstances.. I saw that you have been quoting Rudolf Steiner in your piece on Mephistopheles: I thought you might be interested in these pictures (you've probably come across them before) of demons arising from the smoke of the trade towers.
The one on what they mark up as the second picture bears an uncanny resemblance how Steiner depicted the being he called Ahriman
http://advice7.com/psychic_spiritual/badspirits.html
Sorry - here are some better pictures of this being on the towers:
http://www.bibleprobe.com/smokeface.htm
Thanks for attempting to bury that House update on 'internet neutrality' with your spam.
Jeff Wells is one of the handful of Internet participants who I trust.
I don't know anywhere else, except the books of Jacques Vallee, where I can find a bona fide acknowledgement of The Mysterious combined with respect for scientific method & skepticism; where I can find an acknowledgement of the history of the State Secrecy Apparatus -- our history: Operation Mockingbird, MKUltra, Paperclip, et al -- without the usual degeneration into self-indulgent agendas of "Zionism blablabla Hollow Moon blablabla Mexican Invasion blablabla."
(The notion that Wells is Vallee writing under a pseudonym has crossed my mind more than once... Don't worry, Jeff, I know the difference).
But certainly, if ever there was a blog or website with a perfect intersection of subject matter that the State would be interested in, RI would be a prime candidate.
What would Orwell do?
He'd think ahead. He'd be willing to Think The Unthinkable... which is rare enough, even on the Internet.
Moreover, Orwell would be willing to go to great lengths -- to find the truth, and to protect the truth.
If we are willing to think ahead, face the unthinkable, and go to great lengths (in the face of enormous pressures both extraordinary and mundane), then above all, I'd like to propose this:
If we don't do it, nobody will.
Acknowledging the inherent dangers of grandiosity & solipsism here, who would have taken Orwell's path, if Orwell hadn't?
And who has filled his shoes since?
And of course, the same must be said for multitudes of flamekeepers from Jefferson to MLK.
But for those of us willing to trust ourselves -- to trust our own individual rigorous intuition -- (our) action must follow this bloviation.
I agree that we should indeed carry this dialogue off the Internet.
As inconvenient and demanding as that will be, History will reward us for it.
Even if we are only a handful remaining, the future that I personally foresee is so bleak that any postal-carried pamphleteering will be short-lived...
...but we must take the gathering totalitarianism seriously. A 1976 Argentina "Leftist-cleansing" or a STASI-like informant network is just a few chess moves away. A global Operation Condor infrastructure is already in place. A "Dark Age Ahead" scenario is hardly radical anymore.
An unnatural concentration of wealth and power is inherently a natural conspiracy. We have seen proof of this, time and again.
Let's not forget that "Fascism" will be a pale shadow of its previous incarnation: Corporations are now Transnational. WW2-era Fascism needed armies to spread across borders; tomorrow afternoon's Fascism will conquer borders with a mouse-click.
And the Wolf is already inside the house. It's too late.
We must face the unthinkable and act accordingly. Plant your Victory Gardens, get off the grid, foresee the worst like Orwell would have (and did) -- and let's begin this conversation. Let's get our P.O. boxes for the interim.
Information is a priceless commodity. Let's not underestimate how much we'll want it, even when it's a once-a-week pamphlet.
Incidentally, I forgot to chasten us all, to remember that previous pamphleteers worked under extraordinary adversity, even poverty, to fulfill their sense of purpose.
Are we that driven?
What could Thomas Paine have accomplished with modern inexpensive resources? Woody Guthrie? George Orwell?
Thanks for my patience? I've checked the website every night and worried for your safety. It is not accurate to say that you are allowed to say whatever you choose as long as you don't act upon it. News articles have been written about 3 ordinary citizens who said what they thought and now sit in prison for it. TPTB can accuse almost anyone of being a terrorist.
If any of your concerns about changing your website is related to losing readers, forget it. It's not patience Jeff, it's loyalty and a thirst for knowledge.
Mailer-Daemon said...
Thanks for attempting to bury that House update on 'internet neutrality' with your spam.
Please check before firing off! It was highly pertinent to a previous debate and only appeared here BEACAUSE Jeff has been forced semi-off line.
Knee-jerkism belongs to the other side surely.
ex martini and rossi
If an organization of people is reaching out to others in an attempt to enact serious minded solutions to a problem they will be rejected.
Most people may think the action is sound based on principle. But involvement with a solution to a problem is unpopular. Individuals outside of the organization will not involve themselves with a workable solution. They will not do it.
Only when hidden agendas are being served by leaders within an organization is action taken when dealing with serious minded issues. It's like men or the men's women do not want to cross the blue line. But if it's dancing towards the line and you just say the right things hoping for the future that is accepted behavior. It is self indulgence. But this should not be negative. Unfortunately it always is. Like the surgeon finding out laetrile removes cancerous growth. He's stuck. There's no security in it for him.
The solution would be to open up an alternate cancer therapy clinic. The surgeon could perform surgery as a last resort. Instead the course of action is in reverse. The hidden agendas that frustrate are served.
I'm not worried about communicating this stuff with like minded people. Because I know that solutions to social or political problems are not popular. They are only when the course of action has to do with corruption and money. Only when problems(corruption) affect people in their own backyards will they take action. But it is usually too late then. Part of the solution is prevention and by neglecting the ounce of preventative we welcome the pound of cure. It takes work and investment of cash to make a solution work. 99% of people will not labor for solutions to social or political problems. Solutions like this are never popular! If they were we would see a much larger percentage of them.
This is not about giving up our security but increasing this for our future. Any form of it relating to the societal or the political is left to rot on it's own. The truth is never popular. So we pass the buck to others only to be bribed with it.
We're free to say what we will about Bush and Cheney, but where is there one critical word in the print media about the Rothschilds or Rockefellers?
When Arnold Schwarzeneger went to England with Warren Buffett to meet with Lord Rothschild, a photo was taken of the three of them. That photo was used in Life magazine, but Lord Rothschild was airbrushed out of the picture. Why?
If for no other reason, the blogosphere is beneficial because it allows people with differing viewpoints to have an equal say. It's a countermeasure against the demonization of groups of people. The campaign against the Jews that took place in the 30's was successful, and the subsequent pogroms and concentration camps remained out of media and out of mind. Similar attempts by Bushco to incite hatred--against Muslims, or undocumented immigrants for example-- fail to gain momentum these days. The amused scorn of even mainstream Americans with regards to Bushco's latest attempt to scapegoat gays is encouraging. True, in an ideal situation, we would all be in the streets, or in communes, farming and brushing up on our target practice, but then again we could have nothing more on our minds than what Brad and Angelina named their baby, and how great it is that Zarqawi's been killed. I think it's sort of interesting that people can cultivate extremely subversive ideas and keep in contact with others who challenge and expand upon their ideas, and do all this from their cubicle, or while the kids are taking a nap.
>>The Plan included the sale of Iraq’s banks, and weirdly, changing it’s copyright laws and other odd items that made the plan look less like a program for Iraq to get on its feet than a program for corporate looting of the nation’s assets.<<
Do you remember when this stuff first came out, at first reading it looked as though Iraqi farmers traditional seed was to be outlawed. There was a huge fuss until it was revised and the laws clarified.
I think Iraqi farmers are allowed to save and use traditional seed, but now US copyright covers the saving of hybrid and GM seed, so its illegal (Not that it is any good for saving anyway)!!
There are other dodgy aspects of this neo colonialist document that point to control of genetics but I havemn't seen it for years.
PS Richard, my old man "speaks" sanscrit.
IE he can make sounds that are what he thinks it would sound like, based on other indian languages, he speaks about 8 or 9 of them, and about another 6 or 7.
And he can read both latin and sanskrit.
Personally I speak and read English badly and other languages not at all, bring on the devolution.
>>It is not accurate to say that you are allowed to say whatever you choose as long as you don't act upon it. <<
This has always been the way, whatever happened to Reich, and Jeff as a Canadian should be familiar with Mark Emery, and the DEA's attempts to lock him up for 5 billion years.
Thats the point, just take a risk.
I like the idea of old fashioned hard copy correspondance. Something that will be here in reality with me, not through there (points at screen) in virtual (almost) reality.
Silverfox raised some good points about the net, its a market sure, but remember the days before Windows 95? I remember meeting some full on hackers years ago. These guys were hardcore, and would not hesitate to patch into peoples home lines and stuff, splice lines in and things.
I remember hearing about one group of hackers that busted into a company called trw or twr or smething like that.
Apparantly they were like Carlyle or some such thing.
Anyway haven't seen that lot for years but I wonder what happened to them. The story about the other hackers turned up in a book called Cyberia I think.
Those hackers i mentioned...
They were acting already, they were in the process of doing what they thought was legitimate action.
Its funny, but to me the biggest consequence of September 11 2001 was the death of the anti globalisation movement (in the media and in the west).
It seems to have disappeared.
There has been a rash of sovreignty nullifying free trade agreements ala Nafta, not just with US, but with all sorts of countries, treatires between 2 or more groups.
MAI by stealth.
All serving some imaginary economy.
Pre 2001 11 th of september was an international day of action, anti capitalist globalisation.
The debate was changed that day, knowledge (Daath, illusion,) says this is now a clash between Islam and the West, others say between power and freedom.
But really, until the consequences of people jumping out of windows to live an extra 2 seconds, and not burn, sunk in. I was thinking, perhaps some pissed off Indonesian father whose wife and daughter both died in sweatshops set it up.
Lets face it, people attacking the most powerful institution in the world, possibly ever (global capitalism), caused it a near fatal blow, using box cutters. That should be the most liberating idea to anyone worried about the abuse of power.
No high tech weapons, everyday working persons tools...
But...
The destruction of the symbols of capitalism served the pro globalisation agenda well. If so many "innocent" people hadn't died horribly... I know more "innocent" people have died in Iraq this year, but the faces someone mentioned were there in the smoke, that did effect people.
Made martyrs of cleaners and money traders, even gave Wall Street some credibity, as if it too suffered.
What a croc of shit.
(Martyrs as in the first victims of our holy terror, er, ... I mean war on terror).
Now Chavez is mentioned in the same terms as Bin Laden or Hussein, WTF.
How is it possible to make that connection using a functional nervous system?
These days it seems the whole world is pissed off with the US, even 10 years ago, that wasn't the case. People still believed it was all abut freedom. Might be messed up, but as one Iraqi apparantly said, we are not Saddam, we know the Americans are not Bush...
But these days it is apparant that the US will steal resources and expect thanks - the way any other empire operated...
And its people who once prided themselves on their government for, of and by the people, couldn't care less, in fact, "good, thats how it should be" seems to be their attitude (Govt fof fore and buy the peole is more appropriate.
So non Muslim people world wide are also starting to reject economic colonialism.
Yet the entire debate is still framed in terms of Christianity V Islam. Its like watching Sauron fight Saruman and thinking one of them is the good guy...
If nothing else the non mainstream madia challenges this, and provides an opportunity for those ideas to be exchanged.
But it would be better if these ideas were put on paper.
After all who would bother publishing their email correnspondance.
re the faces in the smoke.
This photo was apparantly taken in Aug 2001, and when I first say it, it was entitled
Did the Goddess bless the WTC before its destruction" or something very similar.
http://www.falmouthschools.org/Thayer/Hotaling/ny%20twin%20towers.jpg
"Lets face it, people attacking the most powerful institution in the world, possibly ever (global capitalism), caused it a near fatal blow, using box cutters. That should be the most liberating idea to anyone worried about the abuse of power.
No high tech weapons, everyday working persons tools..."
Seriously?
This is completely off topic, but I just came across this creepiness:
http://www.michiganmasons.org/
Check out the MICHIP sidebar.
What a friggin' circle jerk.
GMO seeds are patented, not copyrighted. D'uh...
You wouldn't know Latin from Sanskrit if they both bit reared up and bit you in the ass, Devanagari script notwithstanding.
Why don't you return to your games of Dungeons and Dragons?
Time for a reality check, people.
Okay, Anon 2:20, I'm game. Give us your version of reality. I'm all ears, sincerely.
To Shrub: About your story of the tape which was sent to your mother (posted 9:48 AM, I think on 6/9)--
Two very similar incidents reside naggingly in my own history. I would also like for that information to become knowledge. Perhaps if you and I compare some points of reference in our lives, the raw information could trend a bit closer towards knowledge.
I welcome you to email me, rosshoff@aol.com. If you choose to do so, I'll get back to you with my specific comparable incidents and leave it up to you from there as to whether you'd like to continue the dialog.
I very much hope to hear from you about this.
Anon 12:09,
I prefer to keep our dialogue public, rather than taking it off-line. This is for a couple of reasons.
1.) I'm extremely proprietary about my e-mail address, so I refrain from handing it out, in most instances.
2.) If we were to inculcate knowledge from our shared information, I would want all here to share in that knowledge.
I will state that I am skeptical any knowledge could ever be inculcated from our similar experiences.
Regards,
Shrubageddon
Sorry, Anon 2:20, but the more I check my reality, the stranger things get. Guess I'm just not checking in the right places....
With all due respects to any comments regarding George Orwell's writing, let's remember that he based it on observing and reflecting upon developments in his own country and times...and certainly not anyone else's.
If their truth has come to haunt and bedevil us it's only because we have yet to fully grasp their meaning and significance.
Orwell was certainly no fan of capitalism and the privleged elitism that still drives and sustains it. Yet his writings are constantly misconstrued or used in the defence of them. To make us believe, that at least in the west those elites and the system that supports them is still somehow the lesser of "two evils"...hmmm?
To Orwell's mind there was only one evil, however, and wherever or whenever it worked it's vile handiwork, playing both sides of the street and wearing at least two faces has always been there to be seen... if we can be honest with ourselves.
Orwell thoroughly opposed any "elitism" or privlege, first and foremost. There could be no caveates on human equality or anyone's right to it in his view.
If you don't have it socially, politically and financially, you are simply kidding yourself about having any vestige of it all.
Without that all essential and uncompromising kind of equality you are free to do or decide exactly nothing but how to conform to the demands that any one of those factors alone will automatically shackle you with.
Orwell focussed his attacks on the socialists of his day because they, above all, had lied and betrayed their own support for that kind of true equality.
There was little point in railing against capitalists who were, after all, the elitist enemy themselves.
Orwell himself was a socialist and humanist of the first magnitude. What he most strenuously objected to certainly wasn't the subversion of socialism's genuine ideals regarding a truly "free" society based on absolute equality by any totalitarian regimes, but by all the so-called socialists themselves who were supposedly seeking to modify the political systems within capitalist nations.
What we normally consider the "left" side of our own political spectrum in this "free world" of ours's where nothing can be had without the money the elites control and what they dictate must be done in return for it.
The so-called "left" Orwell saw quite clearly as being merely a thinly veiled subset of the right with no intention of ever seeing any of those ideals realized either.
Their ideology was nothing short of a smoke-screen for all the same kinds of personal and self-aggrandising motives and underhanded methods they accused their opponents of having.
Like the hypocritical and greedy pigs in Animal Farm their objective was, and still is, to become the new masters themselves.
They didn't despise or even want to be rid of the social and economic elites, they simply wanted to put themselves into the uppermost ranks of them by trading on the "human capital" of the common man they supposedly represented to buy their way into them.
Now there are no ideals that are not "human ideals" to which every human being should have an affinity.
Politics, if anything, is supposed to be predicated exclusively on the most appropriate methods we may apply to serve and promote those ideals and nothing more.
If one thing has become patently obvious over the course of human history, including our modern times, it is that any methods that are unworthy of those ideals will ultimately corrupt, subvert or destroy the very ideals themselves.
Eventually those ideals will become the very antithesis of all they once stood for. Demeaning and devaluing the quality of human life rather than upholding it.
The tale is as plain in Orwell as it is in our daily news. What's still lacking is the honesty of ordinary people to finally admit it to themselves.
Here are some lyrics of which I have always been fond.
There is unrest in the forest,
There is trouble with the trees,
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas.
The trouble with the maples,
(And they're quite convinced they're right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light.
But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made.
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade.
There is trouble in the forest,
And the creatures all have fled,
As the maples scream "Oppression!"
And the oaks just shake their heads
So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights.
"The oaks are just too greedy;
We will make them give us light."
Now there's no more oak oppression,
For they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw.
The ending is open to several interpretations. I welcome your interpretation, so please provide one, if you are so inclined.
Also, just for Atem, what band is responsible for the lyrics?
I'd say the interpretation of the ending of that song may depend largely upon wether one is an Oak, a Maple, or just some schmuck Pine who's left out of the discussion altogether.
My own interpretation is pretty well represented by a post I made to the 'Mephistopheles' thread:
Justice is not now, nor ever has been, metted out by government. To say that our laws provide for justice is like saying that the science of physics provides for gravity. Justice, if anything, is a function of nature (God, if you must). The balance is self-enforcing.
Oh, and the song is 'The Trees' by RUSH, though I suppose knowing that simply cements my place in the non-reality-grounded, Dungeons and Dragons playing community....
Shrub: Thanks for your reply, and I respect your policy. In fact I share your proprietary stance regarding email addresses, but in this instance my curiosity overuled my circumspection.
What I had hoped to do was to try to determine if our histories have any similarities of places, times, associations and so forth. A process too exhaustive to attempt in this forum.
Twice in the mid-seventies, when I was in my twenties, family members reported phone conversations with "me" of a very disturbing nature. Those incidents both happened in the same year, maybe '74.
One person received the call, at 4 a.m., and described me as having been terrified and asking them to help me, but I was vague and wouldn't provide details.
The other called me at home and reported that I was very nasty and chillingly distant. That was my sister and she wept after the call ended.
The fact that I have no memory of either lengthy call doesn't correspond to any other events in my life of which I'm aware. At that time I neither drank nor used any mind-altering substances.
Although the formats of our experiences were different, your story definitely conveyed the same flavor to me. I've yet to personally encounter anyone else with a similar experience.
No high tech weapons, everyday working persons tools..."
Seriously?
That was (and still is) the story.
I am not talking about what did or didn't actually happen, just the story.
Think about it, what do you need apart from commitment and something from the 2 dollar shop.
And you can take on the most powerful entity in the world, (May not be the actual truth but it is the bones of the issue.) Despite their military. Despite all the planes and bombs and stuff...
but I think there were persons involved with or connected to the US who were in on the whole thing.
So that idea doesn't ring true for me.
But if you don't think the US was betrayed as well as attacked on sept 11th, then it could ring true and it could encourage people to realise that the power and strength of global capitalist mega theft is not as great or as entrenched as people would like to believe.
BTW I am a firefighter, not in towns, in the bush. I was appalled at the loss of life and genuinely felt for anyone involved in trying to bring people out of that mess. It is never good if fireys die.
anon 2.20
Patents and copyright are both considered intellectual property.
When you finally get an intellect you might understand that. You are right tho, I don't know Latin from Sanskrit - if either of them jumped up and tried to bite me I would be most surprised. You on the other hand...
"
New from GRAIN
15 October 2004
World Food Day: Iraqi farmers aren't celebrating
NEWS RELEASE For immediate release
http://www.grain.org/nfg/?id=253
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CLARIFICATION - February 2005
The report jointly issued by Focus on the Global South and GRAIN in October 2004 on Iraq's new patent law has received a lot of attention worldwide. It has also generated a misunderstanding that we wish to clarify.
The law does not prohibit Iraqi farmers from using or saving "traditional" seeds. It prohibits them from reusing seeds of "new" plant varieties registered under the law - in practical terms, this means they cannot save those seeds for re-use. The report has been revised to express this more clearly.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) celebrates biodiversity on World Food Day on October 16, Iraqi farmers will be mourning its loss.
A new report [1] by GRAIN and Focus on the Global South has found that new legislation in Iraq has been carefully put in place by the US that prevents farmers from re-using seeds harvested from new registered varieties and effectively hands over the seed market to transnational corporations. This is a disastrous turn of events for Iraqi farmers, biodiversity and the country's food security. While political sovereignty remains an illusion, food sovereignty for the Iraqi people has been made near impossible by these new regulations.
"The US has been imposing patents on life around the world through trade deals. In this case, they invaded the country first, then imposed their patents. This is both immoral and unacceptable", said Shalini Bhutani, one of the report's authors.
The new law in question [2] heralds the entry into Iraqi law of patents on life forms - this first one affecting plants and seeds. This law fits in neatly into the US vision of Iraqi agriculture in the future - that of an industrial agricultural system dependent on large corporations providing inputs and seeds.
In 2002, FAO estimated that 97 percent of Iraqi farmers used saved seed from their own stocks from last year's harvest or purchased from local markets. When the new law - on plant variety protection (PVP) - is put into effect, seed saving will be illegal and the market will only offer proprietary "PVP-protected" planting material "invented" by transnational agribusiness corporations. The new law totally ignores all the contributions Iraqi farmers have made to development of important crops like wheat, barley, date and pulses. Its consequences are the loss of farmers' freedoms and a grave threat to food sovereignty in Iraq. In this way, the US has declared a new war against the Iraqi farmer."
http://www.grain.org/nfg/?id=253
BTW I don't play Dungeons and Dragons, RTS games are cool, but I play Aussie Rules, thats a game that requires heart, endurance, speed, courage and skill.
You wouldn't know those qualities if they reared up and bit you in the ass.
Devanagari script notwithstanding
say hi to your mum for me.
"But if you don't think the US was betrayed as well as attacked on sept 11th, then it could ring true and it could encourage people to realise that the power and strength of global capitalist mega theft is not as great or as entrenched as people would like to believe."
Hey. Obviously I do, but I agree with you about the latter.
To Jules @ 8:43:
You said:
"PS Richard, my old man "speaks" sanscrit.
IE he can make sounds that are what he thinks it would sound like, based on other indian languages, he speaks about 8 or 9 of them, and about another 6 or 7.
And he can read both latin and sanskrit."
Ummmmm....good for him.
Not sure why I should care though.
If it was in response to this:
"He noticed that I was having to strain to understand some of his language and he informed me that his native tongue was "sanscrit", that he had picked up english by monitoring our radio and television with a short course of English in school."
I didn't write it, a feller named Larry Foreman did so I suggest you point out his gullibility to him, although that might prove a tad difficult since he's shed the mortal coil. Although I'm sure that ya count 'speaking with the dead' among your enviable skill set so you shouldn't have a problem.
Although you might want to take a little time for an 'explanation of quotation marks' class.
&, for future reference, quoting something doesn't necessarily imply belief in the quote.
"Although I'm sure that ya count 'speaking with the dead' among your enviable skill set so you shouldn't have a problem."
I do actually.
But only with some people.
I dunno whether you believe that story or not, thats your business, and I am having issues with finding it... Larry Holmes V George Foreman?
But I guess the weird thing about it is I wouldn't know whether or not my dad is making stuff up or he really speaks it, and its still being spoken. We just dunno about it.
Dunno how enviable that skill set is, being jack of many trades isn't an enviable thing, but I think its displays the sad state of human development that everyone isn't more skilled than that.
The whole point of that little wank about what I think I can do is the independance of mind that goes with it. We never really took that Y2K stuff too seriously here, but everyone who was on mains power was suddenly fucking about with gennies, solar panels, Joe cells and grud knows what else trying to maintain the potential for a local grid. Well not everyone, but over half the local population.
That is one example of the mindset that is so lacking cause of the net. That get shit done mentality, this is a great place to crap on, and what seems indulgent or rubbish to one person can also be of benefit to another.
Maybe not cause of the net...
Over 10 years ago James Hillman and Micheal Ventura put together a book.
It was called "We have had 100 years of psychotherapy and the worlds getting worse. They contrasted the state of political awareness at the end of the 80s in Eastern Europe with the Western world. The conclusions they came to appear more accurate every day.
"If Nazi Germany had been wired with fibre optics, I doubt whether the White Rose would have distributed a single leaflet. Perhaps, rather than cranking them out on a hand press, Hans, Sophie and the rest would have spammed Hitler Youth forums from cyber cafes across southern Germany."
Living in the bush focusses your mind. You can't duck down to the 711 and get eggs at midnigtht, cos you forgot to organise breakfast. You have to know how much water is in the tank. Especially in drought times. You have to be able to fix the pump, if it breaks down. etc etc.
The government or the net or whatever won't do it for you.
I am a computer illeterate clown really, compared to people I knew who used the internet 15 years ago.
They had to do stuff for themselves, develop the skills and tools to get stuff done. Now people get browsers, and surf a network that is built and controled by others for them. People like me.
The old hacker community, from what I understand, loved the challenge of the enviroment. They found it stimulating and the danger of it made them do it better, as you do when things are really on the line.
Now we have a passive infotainment network personalised to us, whatever we want it is out there. All you have to do is sit and click.
Isn't that the whole point of Jeffs post the revolution will not be webcast...
Whatever it is, its being done by people right now. While we sit here typing. You aren't supposed to sit here going "oh gee what a talented individual" when you see that list of what I can do. You are supposed to go.
"Well shit, if that prick can do that lot I can too, and more."
And get motivated to make the Evolution happen.
Back in the early 90s Jello Biaffra mentioned that the reason the Eastern European movement started was that people prepared for the collapse they saw coming. They thought about what they wanted to raise from the ashes and acted on it.
you can't do that if you don't have the skills to build the world you want.
And once you get them why wait. If you are still awake by now well done.
Anon 3:53,
It does sound like similar circumstances. The thing that bothers me is that my mother wouldn't be more forthright about the details. I would give anything to hear that tape. She won't tell me these terrible things I allegedly said. I do realize I would go off on theoretical tirades when I was stoned, but I have no memory, whatsoever, of saying truly wicked or evil things.
Also, I don't see how the untrustworthy guy would have been able to tape me without me knowing. Sure, it's possible, but not likely. This was 1983, mind you. Also, if it was this dude, why the hell would he do something like that? It doesn't add up. Something is not quite right.
I know you have the same feeling. Was it you on that phone? Was it me on that tape? If it was, who the hell are we? If it wasn't, then who the hell was it?
I will divulge one other rather strange phenomenon I experienced during my college days. I tried Cocaine once in my life in college. It was quite a rush, but coming down was like being hit with a ton of bricks. I felt as though I was made of lead. I needed a bed.....and my bed I got.
I lived a very stoic existence in college. Monks didn't have a thing on me. My room (I shared a two bedroom apartment with a guy who reminded me of one of the brady bunch kids.....and get this....his name was Ken)was a bed on the floor with no metal framing and an alarm clock on the floor beside it. I had clothes, a plastic crate and a suitcase in the closet. That was it.
Well, after descending from my cocaine high, I wondered back to my apartment and curled up in my bed. I didn't wake until sixteen hours later, despite setting the alarm before I fell asleep.
Of course, if the alarm went off, I never heard it. When I awoke, I instinctually looked at the alarm clock beside the bed for the time, however, I could not tell the time because the hands of the alarm clock were missing.
I was freaked out. Where the hell were the hands to my alram clock? I searched every square inch of that room several times over, but to no avail. I questioned my roomate aggressively. He swore up and down he didn't touch my clock. He was adamant that he would never do such a thing.
What the hell happened to the hands on my alarm clock? I have no memory, whatsoever, of doing anything to that alarm clock after I fell asleep, but even if I had, where were the hands? Did I eat them? If I was responsible for the disappearance of those hands on the alarm clock, what else could I have done while I was supposedly asleep?
It will always be an unaccounted for mystery, but I will never forget it.
To anyone who cares to listen,
Have any of you noticed how certain personality types seem to take over internet forums and control the basic dialogue? Maybe there's a word for it....I don't know, but it's one of the reasons I have refrained from registering on Jeff's Forum. I guess I don't want to go back to high school.
Also, why do some prolific posters on forums take themselves so damn seriously? It's the internet, for Christ's Sake. It's not Church. You don't have some noble reputation to uphold, so why don't they loosen up and drop the act?
Establishment, like moisture, must creep in and decay. It's called entropy, I suppose.
Shrubageddon--
hahahahaha. Here, here.
Yes, considering we are disembodied, for all practical purposes, there is an etiquette enforced. I laugh a lot when I read bitter arguments over race & ethnicity. The arguments are valid, but how does one really know who's who?
Also, why do some prolific posters on forums take themselves so damn seriously? It's the internet, for Christ's Sake. It's not Church. You don't have some noble reputation to uphold, so why don't they loosen up and drop the act?
It especially cracks me up when some helpful citizen comes along and says "I just want to make it clear that not all gay people are evil." Or "Just to make very clear: dark skin should not be equated with dark powers." Hall monitors in cyberspace? I'm perfectly capable of telling off haters. No need for pre-emption. And people who claim not to like the "tone" or the "direction" of the discussion: SCROLL DOWN.
Such scolding is especially unneccessary because aside from the weird SPAM that accrues at the end of these threads, the discussions on this particular blog are astonishingly cogent; very informed, very eloquent-- even I try to refrain from troubling everyone with whatever inane comments might float to the top of my lapine head. Open blogs are by nature unrestricted. And I like it.
I agree, Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids.
Seriously, that's why I like the comments section of Jeff's Blog, and apparently he does, as Wells.
I liken it to a stream of Jungian Consciousness. It's unrestricted like so many forums, and for the most part free-flowing.
You get more than Raspberry Red, Lemon Yellow and Orange Orange.
I've registered rigorousintution.ca, and am starting to scout about for hosts and publishing options.
Well, you might want to check out the Free American magazine.
Clay has been putting out a newspaper down in Bingham, N.M. since before the OKC bombings. Call him sometime, Jeff- if nothing else, he might give you a few ideas...
hmm...
google DID link to it a few days ago-
"Providing insight into current events. Against foreign interests and foreign entanglements."
www.freeamerican.com/
Hi there...
You once linked to my FEMA Camp Video footage and I was just reading through your latest when I read that you're having problems with Blogger. Let me know and I can probably give you a hand with it. There's little about Blogger I don't know and I'm pretty handy with WordPress as well.
Nate
Get In Their Face!
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Sleeve gastrique
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Blepharoplastie Tunisie
Lifting seins Tunisie
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réduction mammaire Tunisie
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Thank you very much this blog is awesome ! Chirurgie esthetique Tunisie Chirurgie esthetique Tunis Chirurgie esthétique en Tunisie Chirurgie esthetique clinique Tunisienne Chirurgie esthétique médecin Tunisie Chirurgie esthétique prix rhinoplastie en Tunisie
Yes I agree ^^
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superbe blog!
Augmentation mammaire Tunisie
Reduction mammaire Tunisie
Lifting des seins en Tunisie
Lipofilling seins Tunisie
Reconstruction mammaire Tunisie
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pour demander un devis rhinoplastie en Tunisie veuillez contacter mondiale santé votre accompagnant de tourisme médical en Tunisie
Blog exceptionnel !
bonne continuation
Chirurgie esthétique à Paris France
Très intéressant cet article. En tant qu'artisan vitrier, je constate aussi une transformation dans mon domaine. Pour voir comment on s'adapte à cette évolution dans le Val-d'Oise, vous pouvez consulter Artisan Cantin - Vitrier Val-d'Oise.
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Greffe de cheveux Tunisie
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