The differences between men and women are profound.

What Would Tyler Durden Do?

"The problem is, for girls “rough” means the handsome pirate with the long windswept mane of hair ripping the buttons on her blouse as he holds her captive in a velvet blindfold, for guys it means a donkey punch and calling her a whore."

Don't think about it too much. It'll make you crazy.

Seriously.

Cards from an Illuminati Conspiracy card game first sold in 1995.

In part in inspired by The Illuminatus Trilogy, that fictional conspiracy satire sci-fi comedy written by one of my favorite authors, Robert Anton Wilson back in the early 70's. [A terrorist attack on the Pentagon actually takes place in the book, btw, blowing out one of the walls...]

9/11 'Predicted' by Illuminati Card Game in 1995

Just a coincidence, right? Has to be.... otherwise.... [fair warning, you start down that path, you never really come back.]

Have fun.

Hail Eris.

”Invisible Space Daddy says I should hug you, infidel.”

Esteemed comic book auteur, and one of my fave writers, Warren Ellis continues his breakdown of the new NBC show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and delivers the pull-quote of the month... nay, the year... on all those rational and loving religious consersative types.

Studio 60 looks awesome, btw. But I've dug Sorkin's writing since Sports Night.

STUDIO 60: 2

And who are those occupying powers? Judd Hirsch’s [Who's plays the Exec Producer of an SNL-type show who loses his shit, a la Howard "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" Beale in Network, on live TV. - Rob] rant at the top of STUDIO 60 1.01:

“We’re all being lobotomized by the country’s most influential industry which has thrown in the towel on any endeavor that does not include the courting of 12-year-old boys. And not event the smart 12-year-olds, the stupid ones, the idiots, of which there are plenty thanks in no small part to this network.

“…there’s always been a struggle between art and commerce, but now I’m telling you art is getting its ass kicked, and it’s making us mean, and it’s making us bitchy, and it’s making us cheap punks and that’s not who we are. …We’re eating worms for money, ‘Who Wants to Screw My Sister’, guys are getting killed in a war that’s got theme music and a logo. That remote in your hand is a crack pipe…

“…and it’s not even good pornography. They’re just this side of snuff films, and friends, that’s what’s next ’cause that’s all that’s left. And the two things that make them scared gutless are the FCC and every psycho-religious cult that gets positively horny at the very mention of a boycott. These are the people they’re afraid of, this prissy, feckless, off-the-charts greed-filled whorehouse of a network you’re watching. This thoroughly unpatriotic– ”

What interests me is that Sorkin’s working in a country that takes its television a hell of a lot more seriously than it takes its government. He could catch a lot of flak if he really goes after his theme. And plopping in Harriet Hayes, the WEST WING/Ainsley Hayes (hey!) character there to remind us that middle America is full of good honest downhome sensible conservatives and non-insane people of faith (”Invisible Space Daddy says I should hug you, infidel”), as a shield against knee-jerk rightist criticism just isn’t going to soak it all up.

I’ll be watching STUDIO 60 because Sorkin can write very well, even though the eventual produced pilot is a little slicker than I’d like. The thing that’ll keep me watching is whether or not Sorkin strips the thorns off the rose before he proffers it as his Valentine gift to television.

But the President said we were safer, so really, isn't that all that matters?

Too Much Information

Say what you will about Joseph Stalin, but at least the man ran a top-notch crime control apparatus. Freed of the petty constraints of due process and human rights, the crack investigative team at the KGB ran down leads swiftly and diligently. When they found someone with information, they tortured him, quickly generating accurate information and keeping the authorities ahead of the curve. Stalin's Soviet Union had its problems, to be sure. Bad weather, economic deprivation, a certain absence of political freedom, etc. But the criminal justice system -- that was solid.

Well, no.

It wasn't like that at all. Pervasive surveillance, an absence of due process, and widespread use of torture, shockingly enough, didn't actually create an effective law enforcement system. Instead, you got the madness of the Great Purge. Thousands upon thousands of supposed traitors and saboteurs were arrested and sent away to the GULAG for, essentially, no reason at all...

From the regime's perspective, this arrangement wasn't pointless by any means... And while the widespread deployment of torture didn't generate anything in the way of accurate information, it did generate confessions by the bushel. Confessions were, of course, precisely what Stalin was after, as they validated the existence of the alleged conspiracy that justified the purge. The system worked, after a fashion, but it certainly didn't work as a system for solving crimes or cracking conspiracies. It worked as a component of the dictator's imposition of totalitarian rule on the country.

Which is all just to say that there are two closely related reasons we find the idea of torture depraved. On the one hand, the deliberate infliction of cruelty is simply a depraved act. On the other hand, though, it's simply the sort of thing that only depraved people do -- as an actual investigative technique, it sucks. It's a way of encouraging people to tell interrogators whatever it is the interrogators already happen to believe.

This is why you don't see torture associated with low-crime jurisdictions. You see it associated with brutal dictatorships seeking to cow the population into submission. You see it associated with purges, witch hunts, and inquisitions. Wherever phony confessions are required as an instrument of policy, you'll find your torture chambers.

Under the Bush administration, we've seen much the same thing. Contrary to what the president claimed last week, torturing Abu Zubaydah hasn't made the country safer from terrorism. Rather, it made the president vaguely safer from public embarrassment. When Zubaydah was captured, Bush proudly claimed it as a crucial win in the war on terrorism. It turned out that he just wasn't very important -- he was kind of crazy, handled minor logistical matters, and didn't know anything about terrorist plots. But that’s not what his interrogators thought, so they tortured him until he told them about plots. The leads were duly tracked down and resulted in . . . nothing.

The brutally obvious for anyone who's been paying attention.

Sadly... that's surprisingly few, apparently.

The Question Never Asked

The question which is never asked is "why?" Why did so many American citizens die on American soil that day? Why would people want to attack us in such a vicious and grandiose fashion?

No answer? That is because the question is never asked. The reason it is never asked is because most Americans are like my father-in-law. When asked yesterday why he thinks people hate us, his response is that he does not care why and does not want to know. Sadly, neither do most Americans.

Certainly the government does not want you to know the answer to that question. That is why it offers up its own canard: "They hate us because we are free." Yet, a simple examination of other nations which are free demonstrates how thread-bare this explanation is. Canada, Switzerland, Austria, New Zealand: they are all free, and they are all free of "the threat." We are back to "why?"

...Of course the easiest source for the answer is to ask the people behind the movement. They are hardly shy, and have on many occasions expressed their motivations for their campaign against this country. Even the Pentagon knows the painful answer to the question of "why?"

"Muslims do not hate ‘our freedom,’ but rather, they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objection to what they see as our one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the longstanding, even increasing support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, and the Gulf states…"

Motivational Posters I can get behind.

Some of these are just brilliant. Many more at the link, via the crazy bastards at Something Awful .

"You've seen them before, at the doctor's office waiting room or maybe physical therapy, motivational posters promoting Preserverance or Enthusiasm or some other one-word pick-me-up with a witty one-liner underneath that's supposed to make you want to just deadlift the coffee table and ask out the receptionist right there.

You haven't, however, yet seen what a motivation poster would look like for your typical, cunning villain. Knowing full well they probably won't get the girl like the heroes do, they've gotta get the motivation to wear those ridiculous costumes from somewhere..."

DANGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More likely that a cop will kill you than a terrorist gets you. But let's not let the facts get in the way of America's current highly-honed sense of paranoia.

But I'm sure the wars on falling, walking down the street and electricity are on their way.
One Million Ways to Die

With that in mind, here's a handy ranking of the various dangers confronting America, based on the number of mortalities in each category throughout the 11-year period spanning 1995 through 2005 (extrapolated from best available data).

S E V E R E - Driving off the road: 254,419, Falling: 146,542, Accidental poisoning: 140,327

H I G H - Dying from work: 59,730, Walking down the street: 52,000, Accidentally drowning: 38,302

E L E V A T E D - Killed by the flu: 19,415, Dying from a hernia: 16,742,

G U A R D E D - Accidental firing of a gun: 8,536, Electrocution: 5,171,

L O W - Being shot by law enforcement: 3,949, Terrorism: 3,147, Carbon monoxide in products: 1,554

The Essence of Wisdom Distilled [in less than 10 minutes.]

Pretty much all you ever need to know about everything.

You're welcome.

"Who is Robert Anton Wilson?"

"If you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about."

Oh, really? Some cognizant responses via ask.metafilter.

http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/39312

"If I'm not doing anything wrong, then you have no cause to watch me."

"Because the government gets to define what's wrong, and they keep changing the definition."

"Mind if I make a video of you fucking your wife then?"

"That's not what the Constitution says. You should read it sometime."

"So you trust the government completely? Not just this administration, but all of them? You trusted Nixon?"

"So it doesn't bother you that within the last few years the US has held a few hundred people without charge or access to the courts, and then released them when it decided they'd done nothing wrong?"

"So it doesn't cause you concern that people are released from death row all the time after it's found they've done nothing wrong?"

"In the Maltese Falcon the district attorney tells Sam Spade, "If you have nothing to hide, why are you concerned?", and Sam answers back, "Everyone has something to hide.""

For those who brush those reasons off I tend to ask a few very personal questions... "How much money did you make last year?" "How many sex toys do you own?" "Your wife, does she spit or swallow?" That kind of stuff tends to drive the point home that most people have stuff they'd rather not have everyone know.

"You're right, the government would never make trouble for an innocent person. I'm just going to call the Department of Homeland Security and tell them that you're a terrorist who plans to blow up the White House, okay? I'm sure it'll only take a few minutes to clear up the misunderstanding."

"And all along I thought you were a conservative who didn't trust government, didn't like big government, and believed in limiting the power of the state. When did you change your political philosophy, and why? Does this mean you'll start voting differently, too?"

"No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

"If you've got nothing to hide, why don't you post your credit card statements on the Internet?"

PostSecret is worth reading every week.

My fav from this week.

(PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.)

"Politicians have traditionally hidden behind three things - the flag, the bible, and children." - George Carlin

Geekpost

Via Kryptonsite.com

I don't care. I think it's cool.

First Look: Green Arrow In TV Guide!

The monthly reading list for Aug 06

A brand new tradition, for as long as I keep it up, that is. Meant to post this up last week, but life happened.

16 hour plane rides to and from the U.S., plus summer vacation here in Japan, afforded me even greater opportunity than usual to get through these books...

Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies, & the Truth about Reality - great no-bullshit book based on the principles of Soto Zen. Occasionally wacky, frequently insightful. Fascinating read, even if it gets occasionally "this is the way" on ya. Author keeps a blog here: http://hardcorezen.blogspot.com/

Ecotopia - fictional utopia out in northern California, Oregon, and Washington that secedes from the Union. Noted as one of the first "green" utopian novels. Interesting ideas, worthwhile read. Found it's commentaries on the nature of people and relationships more interesting than it's environmental angle, actually. Planning on picking up the sequel at some point.

Jennifer Government - funny satire on an uber-libertarian society where government becomes just another corporate interest group. Great send-up of modern capitalism and corporatism. Fast, fun, smartass read.

The Last Assassin - the fifth in former CIA employee Barry Eisler's thriller novels about John Rain, a half Japanese, half American assassin. Great insights on Japanese and American culture, martial arts and philosophy all wrapped up in action, adventure and the yakuza. Pull quote/observation of the book - Japanese love nature the way Americans love peace. [If the irony escapes you, give it some thought.] Awesome book. Author keeps a blog on politics here: http://www.barryeisler.com/blog.html

Practical Spirituality: How to Use Spiritual Power to Create Tangible Results - James Ray, the author, was one of the participants in the intriguing documentary The Secret. He reminded me of the better aspects of some of Tony Robbin's NLP stuff, with a slightly more metaphysical bent. His demeanor resonated with me for whatever reason, so I picked up his most recent book. Interesting book, both thoughtful and practical while delving into some of the "bigger" issues in life. Highly recommended to anybody who ventures into the whole "meaning of life and how to live it" area of the world.

The Italian Secretary - a Sherlock Holmes pastiche by Caleb Carr, whose period mystery work The Alienist I'd really enjoyed. An enjoyable and servicable Sherlock Holmes story, but having read The Alienist, I'd expected better, frankly. It was perfect airplane reading though. Cotton candy for the mind. Tasty, but not particularly filling. But a good book, if you dig Holmes or period mysteries.

A Slight Trick of the Mind - another Sherlock Holmes pastiche, one I actually enjoyed a great deal. Not in the vein of traditional Holmes stories... there's no "real" adventure mystery here, as the "mystery" becomes more of a character study piece. [Making it more like Michael Chabon's The Final Solution: A Story of Detection I guess, though I didn't enjoy that one nearly as much, for whatever reason.] But I really liked A Slight Trick of the Mind. Partly as it examined Holmes' struggle with advanced age - he's around 90 in the book- and partly because a portion of the story involved Holmes taking a trip to Japan, an unexpected surprise that, expating here, made for interesting reading. Recommended if you've any love at all for Holmes or post WWII Japan.

DC Universe: Last Sons - Superman, Lobo and the Martian Manhunter in a "cotton candy for the brain" space adventure. Not big on the intergalactic sci-fi, but the story is mostly told from Lobo's perspective, so at least it was pretty funny.

DC Universe: Inheritance - story focusing on the former teen sidekicks of Batman, Green Arrow and Aquaman. Nightwing [formerly Robin], Arsenal [formerly Speedy] and Tempest [formerly Aqualad] work with their mentors to head off an international terrorist plot. Enjoyable despite a thin plot. Good characterizations, except for a very weird Green Arrow. Also some strange homoerotic subtext [take that Fredric Wertham!]. But a good book if you dig the Teen Titans or the generational aspect of superheroes, which I do, geek that I am.

Comic Book Trade Paperbacks -

Queen and Country Declassified Volume II and Volume III - Greg Rucka writes the best spy novels and thrillers in fiction, for my money. Try to follow me now... these are miniseries offshoots from the comic [Queen and Country Vol I: Operation Broken Ground] that launched the series of novels [A Gentleman's Game and Private Wars, so far] about the "Minders" of the British SIS/MI6, as dysfunctional and damaged group of spies you can find. Volume III actually written by Rich Johnston, not Rucka, but a good read. Wanna read about British spies without devolving into a James Bond pastiche wank-a-thon? Pick any of these up.

The Couriers 03: The Ballad Of Johnny Funwrecker - Brian Wood and Rob G's third foray into the world of the Couriers is a prequel to the other two - The Couriers 01 and The Couriers 02: Dirtbike Manifesto. The last volume completes the trilogy of ass-kicking fun and aventure in the world of the NYC courier underground.

The Future is Now (Teen Titans, Book 4) - Geoff Johns and Mark Waid write some of the best, straight-up superhero coolness in the business. Firing on all cylinders here, as the Titans meet their future despotic and dark selves. [I'm a sucker for a good time travel story.]

JSA: Black Vengeance - the heroes of WWII's Justice Society keep fighting the good fight and training the next generation of heroes. Great comic books.

Birds of Prey - Gail Simone writes some of the most entertaining, complex and kick-ass female characters in comics. Black Canary, the Huntress and Oracle take on a religious cult. Good superhero adventure comics with intelligent characterizations.

And, of course, too many comic book singles to mention...

Re-reads:

There are a few books I make sure to at least try to read once a year or so. Books that, in one way or another, hit me in a certain way at a certain time in my life so that they profoundly changed the way I look at and try to live my life.

I first read Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman and Illusions by Richard Bach back in high school. Peaceful Warrior I was tipped off to in the letter column of Denny O'Neil's The Question series [and I thought Illusions was too, for the longest time, but having just recently re-read through those columns, there's no mention of it there, so there's another mystery unsolved].

Way of the Peaceful Warrior was probably my first real exposure to Zen and eastern philosophy, amongst other remarkable insights in the book. It's an approach to life that was, and is, radically different from the small-town, southern, catholic life I was raised in. Illusions is a book that's hard to classify. One part parable, one part fiction, one part new-age, one part "huh?"... It's completely out of the box, non-traditional thinking that continues to appeal to me to this day. They're both profoundly simple books [in the best sense of the word] and I find I learn something new or find a better sense of perspective every time I read them.

Cosmic Trigger - Final Secret of the Illuminati by Robert Anton Wilson I first read about 4 or 5 years ago. Once again, I owe thanks to the magic of comic books [as I was searching out the influences of writer Grant Morrison]. In the last 5 years no other writer has had a more significant on the way I approach life. In my more lucid moments I aspire to live up to his optimistic, non-dogmatic, sufi and zen infused, multi-modality agnostic views. I've devoured Wilson's whole non-fiction library at this point, and while his later works Prometheus Rising and Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You and Your World resonate a bit more with my didactic, orderly, unmimaginative mind, Cosmic Trigger Vol I remains an astoundingly insightful book for me, and as it's the autobiographical story of Wilson's own self induced brain-change, it's the most entertaining and probably most accessible.

The more I think about it, I'd say this - Wilson taught me how to understand the world, Millman how to live in it, and Bach how to not worry about it. Though the more I read and re-read them all, the more crossover and confluence I see in them. [Or, as Wilson might postulate, the more crossover I make in them.] Those three books, and those three writers, probably have as much to do with who I am today [whatever that means] as anything else in the world.

Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth is the story of a simple and easy to do yoga routine wrapped up in a Shangri La parable that may or may not have any basis in reality. A fun little read and useful yoga routine though. I'd read a version of the book years ago and lost it, so I picked it up again.

God's Debris is a cool little thought experiment of a book by Scott Adams of Dilbert fame. All about the stuff that fascinates me, like the whys and wherefores of life, the universe and everything. Entertaining, funny and thought provoking. On the re-read, not quite as insightful as I thought the first time, but really, really interesting. A cool thing is that Adams has actually has training as a hypnotist and in reading about the book he's said he intentionally used hypnosis inducing techniques in his writing to persuade and influence the reader. Knowing this now I was able to pick out at least some of the places where his pacing, leading and assumptions help to pull the reader down the rabbit hole. Fun and interesting read, on its face, and on a metatextual level.

Well. No shit.

Children of alcoholics 'damaged'

Children of alcoholics are more likely to become addicted

Children who grow up with alcoholic parents bear emotional, behavioural and mental scars, experts say.

The Priory study said children of alcoholics were four times more likely to be addicted to drink and there was a risk of drug and gambling problems.

I always dug Andre Agassi.

Legend Agassi makes tearful exit

Andre Agassi's 20-year career ended in a 5-7 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 5-7 defeat to German qualifier Benjamin Becker at the US Open on Sunday.

R.I.P.

'Crocodile Hunter' Irwin killed'

Australian environmentalist and television personality Steve Irwin has died during a diving accident.

Mr Irwin, 44, was killed by a stingray barb to the chest while he was filming an underwater documentary in Queensland's Great Barrier Reef.

Doug Stanhope... [the comedy of hate].

George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks, Chris Rock, Joe Rogan, Patton Oswalt and now... Doug Stanhope.

...on freedom.



...on the rules of war.



...on marriage.



...and on abortion.

If the internet keeps up, women'll be safe as houses.

And yet more evidence that the new Puritans, of whatever stripe, wouldn't have a clue if you handed them one.

Porn Up, Rape Down

The incidence of rape in the United States has declined 85% in the past 25 years while access to pornography has become freely available to teenagers and adults. The Nixon and Reagan Commissions tried to show that exposure to pornographic materials produced social violence. The reverse may be true: that pornography has reduced social violence.

David Brown's interview with Arlen Riley Wilson

Her final interview before passing in 1999.

David Brown's interview with Arlen Riley Wilson

What I have learned is that life is an unqualified good, and living should be unqualified and unmodified...

But the secret of a well-balanced life is to appreciate everything, or at least as much as you can. Many people fall into imbalance and disharmony. There's no doubt about it, having enough money is a unqualified good. But if you decide that having a lot of money is the only good thing then you're in big bad trouble. Then you forget to look at nature, and you forget to look at your friend's faces. You forget to enjoy animals, and you just forget too much. So the thing is to spread the appreciation around.

...I'd like to see a world with more artistic and creatively flowing civilizations, but this is tremendously difficult at present. I knew a lot of painters and other artists in New York years ago. Many of them lived on very little. I knew one first-rate painter who lived on something like $1.36 a day, that he had from a minor stock investment twenty years before. I'm not suggesting that you rush madly to start fasting, but we should be aware that we could live on a fraction of what we consume.

I love this joke [disguised as politics.] Or is that politics, disguised as a joke? Or both?

GUNS AND DOPE PARTY POSITION PAPER #23

Little Tony was sitting on a park bench munching
on one candy bar after another.
After the 6th candy bar, a man on the bench across from him said,
"Son, you know eating all that candy isn't good for you.
It will give you acne, rot your teeth, and make you fat."

Little Tony replied, "My grandfather lived to be 107 years old."

The man asked, "Did your grandfather eat 6 candy bars at a time?"

Little Tony answered, "No, he minded his own fucking business."

--

THE GUNS AND DOPE PLEDGE

We will never vote for for any candidate who advocates destroying the second amendment or the tenth amendment. We will never, never, NEVER cease or rest in our efforts to abolish Tsarism and restore constitutional democracy in general and especially the first amendment.