21st Century Rape Culture

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
― Albert Einstein

Is there an environmental “rape culture” in the United States? Yes, of course, there is. Most contemporary ecological problems, or “rape the land” mentality, is deeply rooted in Western patriarchal culture.

Rape (transitive verb) definition for this piece: 1a: (archaic) to seize and take away by force b:despoil 2: to commit rape on Continue reading “21st Century Rape Culture” →

Was Dealey Plaza just a family reunion?

[Note to readers: This post should be two, as it covers both the movie Grizzly Man (the life and death of Timothy Treadwell), and Woody Harrelson and his dad, Chuck, and the discovery that Harrelson’s mother is an Oswald. Grizzly Man will be covered in more and better depth in a separate post very shortly. The part about Harrelson in this post starts about 2/3 of the way down. ]

TreadwellComing fresh off the realization that the death of Mathew Shepard was probably a hoax, and thinking back on other events in my life that were both gruesome and captivating, I decided to take a look at Grizzly Man, AKA Timothy Treadwell, AKA Timothy William Dexter.

For those not familiar, Treadwell was an advocate for Alaskan brown bears, and during the 1990s he lived with them, filmed them, anthropomorphized them, and was finally eaten by them in October of 2003. His then girlfriend, Amie Huguenard was also killed on that same day.

We saw Treadwell give a talk when we lived in Bozeman. He gave a slide show and was passing the hat, and seemed genuine. He named all the bears – doll-like names indicating that he thought of them as fuzzy friends. One thing I clearly remember from the talk was his view of the bear mating ritual. The male gets a whiff and stalks the female until she is in a receiving mood. He then has a one minute tryst with her, if that. Treadwell called it “making love.” I did think he was a little ’round the bend.’

Continue reading “Was Dealey Plaza just a family reunion?” →

And now for something completely different

Steve is a man in his mid-thirties, married with a young child. He expresses himself well. He is a bit of an idealist, that is, he uses words like “authentic” in describing people and looks for meaning behind things like mini-malls. (Idealism is always about “What does it mean? What does it really mean?”) He’s aware of reputation, how far words travel, how meaningless Facebook friendship can be.

He is apparently feeling some stress, as we all do, at having to produce a constant flow of income into his household to keep it afloat. He realizes this will never end.

Continue reading “And now for something completely different” →

The Mathew Shepard killing looks like another hoax

Note to readers: I am re-running this 2017 post along with original comments intact. The Shepard incident was close to my (former) home in Montana, and I was deeply familiar with the towns in which it was staged. The Shepard incident (along with Columbine) served as the means by which the public mind was prepared for Hate Crimes legislation signed by Barack Obama in 2009. I regard such legislation as a perversion of justice, as it requires that we grasp not only the crime and the evidence but also the state of mind of the accused. Such a thing cannot be done in an impartial and fair world.

Yeah, I know, we don’t have a fair and impartial justice system. Still, Hate Crimes are an aberration.

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ShepardThis photo appeared on Facebook recently, someone commemorating the 19th year of Matt Shepard’s passing. Since his death was inspiration for major legislation regarding “hate crimes,” I reluctantly thought I should take a look at it.

“Please be real! Please be real!” I thought. I don’t want another project.

It is fishy. Very fishy. Just eighteen months after the Shepard event we would be asked to believe that two psychopathic murderers just happened to be classmates at Columbine. Here are we asked to believe that two kids in Laramie, Wyoming also just happened to be natural-born killers. Such people are [extremely] rare [or non-existent]. That they would hook up in a small town like Laramie, Wyoming … is there something in the water? Continue reading “The Mathew Shepard killing looks like another hoax” →

More “Red Meat” for America

serveimage.jpgCould not resist sharing this. 
Of course, it’s not hard to see why artists and poets are the first to be rounded up when nationalism boils over.
And if you’re not sure what to get Uncle Grumpy for Christmas, there’s always the Trumpy Bear to consider.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9qv8RSreIM 
I’ll leave you all with this mini-montage as the country watches (and worships) football, and fights in the stands and living rooms  about who’s more patriotic.  Rhymes with idiotic. 
Won’t somebody give me a cheeseburger?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyV41-tFPcQ

Another Kabuki Dance

This video, and no doubt others like it, is making the rounds on Facebook, the current and most widely used propaganda outlet for not only politicians, but hucksters of every stripe. I suggested to the Democrat that put it up that if he cannot detect fake outrage here, his right to vote should be rescinded. He suggested that I limit my criticism to “your own page,” an indication that he has unfollowed me. For a Democrat in Montana, criticism of Tester is like farting in church.

It is easy to see from the backdrop above, sound-absorbing panels with cheesy posters featuring Tester’s home state of Montana on them, that he is in a studio. That means that everything, including the paper bill he uses, is a prop. I imagine that he is looking at either a Teleprompter, or cue cards. His voice is perhaps a third higher in octave than normal, indicating some serious lying going on, like a kid saying “I didn’t eat those cookies, Mom! Honest! I didn’t!”

Continue reading “Another Kabuki Dance” →

Exit Cold War, enter AIDS

“The American people don’t read.” (Allen Dulles, 1963)

DuesbergI have long believed that the best way to hide something from public view in our country is to put it in a book. I have been reading one by Peter H. Duesberg,, “Inventing the AIDS Virus,” with the idea in the back of my mind that it would make great fodder for a long and informative blog post.

But then I realized that the best way for dissemination the information in the book is to suggest people read the book. It is all there, it is indisputable. HIV does not cause AIDS.  It is a harmless passenger virus. The main culprit in the rise of AIDS is not a virus, but rather personal habits in certain population segments, most notably drug abuse, primarily in the homosexual population. Among the many debilitating drugs they took during the heyday of the rise of AIDS were nitrite inhalants, also called “poppers,” which intensified orgasms and relaxed muscle tension, thereby making anal intercourse easier. Nitrites were the single largest cause of the AIDS “epidemic.”

Continue reading “Exit Cold War, enter AIDS” →

Hearses fall like manna from heaven

The following comment is by Jack33, a commenter brought here long ago by our friend Annette. He has given me permission to reprint it.

Jack33 linked me to the Cleburne Times Review, an annoying pop-up infested newspaper that quickly insists on subscription to access its branded tripe, warning that we are given only five clicks before before the wall goes up. Use your clicks wisely! We don’t want to miss it if the Times Review accidentally prints something true or, God forbid, insightful.

(I would like to see some data on the number of people who actually subscribe to distant newspapers based on this this marketing ploy. My guess: Zero.)

Continue reading “Hearses fall like manna from heaven” →

“Saving” Watersheds and Urbanites

The Prussian “Iron Chancellor” Otto Von Bismarck is often credited with the saying: “To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.”

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) recently introduced legislation to speed forest clearcutting and thinning projects in the Forest Service’s Northern Region.

The “Protect Collaboration for Healthier Forests Act” would adopt a regional approach to disputes over forest management projects that Daines has sought to implement nationally. According to Sen. Daines, “fringe litigators — radical environmental extremists — sue to stop commonsense collaborative forest management projects that would reduce the risk of wildfire.” Continue reading ““Saving” Watersheds and Urbanites” →

Shiny happy people*

The Tiananmen Square “Massacre”

I still watched TV news in 1989 even as I was in the process of breaking free of the American propaganda machine. So I greeted coverage of the events in Beijing, China with wide-open eyes, not comprehending, and not yet aware of the degree to which American news was a manufactured mural of fake imagery. So Tiananmen took up residence in  my mind, though it was neither resolved nor understood.

In or around 2004 I read the book “Killed: Great Journalism Too Hot To Print,” a compilation of articles rejected by major American magazines. I have forgotten most of it, but clung on to this passage by T.D. Allman, who claimed to be present in Beijing on June 3 and 4 of 1989. He wrote (in an article supposedly rejected by GQ Magazine)

“As anyone who was there knows, the ‘Tiananmen Square Massacre’ is a myth. No one was killed inside the square that famous night of June third to fourth, 1989. Instead, when the troops reached the entrance to the plaza, the armored column paused. Following negotiations with the military, most of the hundreds of thousands of people in Tiananmen Square left in an orderly, self-disciplined fashion. But people felt they had to stay… No one was killed right in the square, though from my balcony I saw dozens killed on Chang-Ang Avenue when demonstrators attempted to reenter Tiananmen Square the next day.”

Continue reading “Shiny happy people*” →