When I got back to my office in Seattle two days after my birthday, I found two packages waiting for me. One of them, from a reader who has enjoyed my Doctor Who thread on Twitter but prefers to remain anonymous, contained the complete series of Blake’s 7, a BBC serial from the 1970s I’ve heard lots of good things about but have never seen. It was only available in Region 2 format, but that’s OK because I have an all-region player (which is how we watched The Sarah Jane Adventures, since it’s badly overpriced in Region 1 format). We’re going to start watching it in December, after we’re done with Doctor Who up to the last season; the current season won’t be out on disc until probably sometime next year. And I’ll definitely be sharing my thoughts, though not at such length as I have with Doctor Who! The other package was from one of my regular gentlemen, and contained the Meat Loaf disc you see at the bottom of this picture, plus a special edition of John Coltrane’s masterpiece A Love Supreme. When I left for Sunset last Thursday, I wanted to listen to at least one of them on the way home, but realized too late I had packed them in my suitcase and I wasn’t going to pull over to dig them out. But that’s OK, because I’ll be going back in two weeks and I’ll listen to them then. In case you’re wondering, I actually prefer to listen to discs in the car because it’s the only time I can do so without usually being interrupted, including by myself. Yes, I also listen to music while getting stoned, but for that I just use Pandora so I needn’t deal with changing discs, or miss something I really want to hear because I drop off into a drugged sleep. Two other readers have told me there are packages on the way, so I’ll tell you about them when they arrive. And though you can’t see it clearly, this picture also contains another of my presents: Jae is decorating my office and I’m already using it even though it isn’t yet finished!
Posted in Diary, Music | Tagged imaginative fiction, Presents, Sunset | 2 Comments »
Cops are basically the same everywhere, because the kind of mind which thinks it’s OK to threaten or inflict violence in order to terrify people into obeying the whims of “rulers” is a very primitive, narrow one. Of course, some governments are somewhat better at controlling their cops than others, and some are better at hiding the misdeeds of their cops. But once the dam starts to crack, a flood of reports are wont to appear, revealing the putrid underbelly police invariably inhabit. Since the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by typical and representative UK cop Wayne Couzens, using the pretext of COVID diktats to obtain her compliance, many other reports of rapist cops have come out despite the efforts of police officials to present Couzens as an isolated menace; one spokespig even oinked that if a woman is afraid of a cop who is trying to arrest her she should just run away (because they totally won’t call that “resisting arrest”), or call the cops to summon more cops to cover up for the one she’s afraid of, just as a gang of cops conspired to intimidate women at a vigil for Everard.
But those cops are hardly atypical, because cops’ sense of sexual entitlement is well known to sex workers:
A [London cop] secretly filmed dozens of women while posing as an airline pilot…Neil Corbel…set up fake photoshoots with models and [sessions with] escorts while…us[ing] cameras disguised as everyday items, such as a phone charger, clock, pair of glasses, air freshener and tissue box to film the women from intimate angles and while changing…He was caught after one of his victims…“became suspicious of a digital clock which had been placed on top of Corbel’s laptop computer…he had been maneuvering her into positions where her genitals would be in view of the clock.” The woman noticed a logo on the clock and went to the bathroom to research it on the internet. She discovered that it was being sold online as a “high-end spyware video recording device” that could be controlled by smartphones…Police discovered recordings of at least 51 women…19 agreed to make statements…Of those, 16 were models booked by Corbel for photoshoots and the other three were escorts, who consented to sexual activity but not being filmed…
Over the last four years in Scotland, 245 counts of sexual misconduct were filed against 166 cops, yet every one of these dangerous sexual predators is still loose to attack more women. In one recent case, Scottish cop Paul Bucknall tried to arrange sex with a ten-year-old girl online, only to find out that the bad mother he thought he was talking to was a fantasy role-playing English cop; he got a slap on the wrist because he “admitted his guilt” and had “suffered for his actions” because his wife left him.
Then there’s this dude, trying a variation on the venerable “she wanted it” defense:
[Cop James Geoghegan] raped a woman after a night out despite repeatedly being told to stop…[claiming that he thought she was] “playing hard to get”…he…had been out for drinks with the woman and other friends when they ended up back at hers…the[n he]…entered her bedroom uninvited and…”pushed” [her] down on to the bed…[and] rape[d her depite her protests]…
Of course, cops aren’t the only violent profession whose leaders often cover up their atrocities:
…a group of [British soldiers training in Nanyuki, Kenya were] led to the[ir] hotel’s septic tank…[by] one of their number[, who] had just murdered [a sex worker]…The body of 21-year-old Agnes Wanjiru would lie undiscovered…in that septic tank for two months, while her family searched for her. By the time it was found by a hotel worker, all the soldiers who had been at the hotel had returned to the UK. The name of the soldier widely suspected of being responsible for killing Wanjiru…on the night of March 31, 2012, was an open secret by this time…Yet the British Army has held no inquiry, and…what happened has been the subject of a cover-up by senior officers…
And just like the cops, those who participted in the cover-up think murder is funny and sex workers subhuman:
A member of the…Regiment…posted two pictures from outside the venue where 21-year-old Agnes Wanjiru was last seen alive…accompanied by the caption “if you know, you know” and the soldier “tagged” a number of other squaddies to notify them…One posted a picture of a ghost emoji, to which another added the words “septic tank”. In response, Soldier X — widely alleged in the regiment to have been responsible for the murder — got involved, posting an emoji of an angel, often used to assert innocence. This prompted other soldiers to post “crying with laughter” emojis, followed by a cartoon image of a baby crying at a funeral, from the television show Family Guy…
But go on, keep giving armed thugs power over women; I’m sure that will eventually produce different results if they’re simply given the right “training”.
Posted in Current Events, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny | Tagged Above the Law, cops, Facebook, Kenya, Long Hidden, rape, Stalkers in Blue, To Molest and Rape, United Kingdom, violence vs. sex workers | 1 Comment »
You’re going to die today. – “Officer” Devuton
I was familiar with this song, but unfamiliar with its history as the only instrumental ever banned from US radio. The video was provided by Franklin Harris, and the links above it by Stephen Lemons, Emma Evans, and Cop Crisis (x4), in that order.
- R.I.P. Mort Sahl.
- Not a police state, no sirree!
- Are you enjoying the world you begged for?
- Cops regularly demonstrate exactly what they are.
- Crime: no turn signal. Penalty: (attempted) summary execution.
- Crime: driving slowly in a cul-de-sac. Penalty: summary execution.
From the Archives
- The coroner knows there’s only one likely cause for a broken hyoid bone.
- Hey, female cops; is that collaboration with the police state working out?
- The government doesn’t care that its war on thought is unconstitutional.
- Once in a while, there are witnesses to the way cops act toward women.
- The more sex workers speak in public, the harder it will be to ignore us.
- Swedish criminalization harms sexworkers by creating a climate of fear.
- A prohibitionist has wormed her slimy way into the Danish government.
- Asian sex workers fighting back vs the racist “sex trafficking” narrative.
- Florida steals everything a woman owns because it dislikes her clothes.
- Calling a bunch of unrelated raids & arrests a “human trafficking sting”.
- A “writer” who thinks the word for sex workers’ clients is “John’s” [sic].
- The power to declare something “non-essential” is the power to ban it.
- Nevada politicians accomplish by decree what they couldn’t do legally.
- Bird-brains still think realistic porn cartoons are the worst use for this.
- The only “evidence” these racist sociopaths need is being Romanian.
- Nobody is giving expensive cannabis edibles to your spawn for free.
- Uber is training drivers to spy on whores and rat us out to the pigs.
- Sex workers need to keep suing prohibitionists whenever possible.
- They always act as though the obvious is some kind of revelation.
- Everyone except local news recognizes what a disaster FOSTA is.
- The “Violence Against Women Act” promotes its named subject.
- We are watching the beginning of the end of the War on Drugs.
- This isn’t the last we’ll see of the fanatical, unhinged Guinasso.
- ACLU finally bothers to call for decriminalization, 45 years late.
- There has literally never been a case of drugged trick-or-treat.
- In mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down.
- Remember, Twitter claims this surveillance isn’t surveillance.
- Any internet-connected device can be used to spy on you.
- Watch what you say in front of your children, comrade.
- But they were on the wrong side of an imaginary line!
- It wasn’t easy to get the steel for my bathhouse roof.
- Cops, horror, irony, Sean Connery, and much more.
- Your government wants this to happen more often.
- There’s too much surveillance to fit in just one tag.
- A firsthand account of China’s torture of Uighurs.
- A sci-fi themed brothel is the right place for this.
- My two previous columns for Guy Fawkes Day.
- Your government calls this “border protection”.
- A permanent dumb “awareness raising” stunt.
- Your government calls this “correction”.
- Cops, gender, covers, and much more.
- Birthday presents are awesome.
- My encounter with a “Karen”.
- Rapist cop of the week.
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny | Tagged Australia, Canada, censorship, cops, Florida, Missouri, racism, Texas, video | 1 Comment »
[The Backpage] case is a hot mess. – Michael Piccarreta
I was incredibly disappointed when I recently learned that music artists are partnering with telecom corporations in the prison industry…Prison telecom is a $1.4 billion industry dominated by just two corporations that charge families extortionate rates to communicate with their incarcerated loved ones. One of these…is Aventiv Technologies, which [owns the]…notoriously predatory…Securus and JPay. Securus controls roughly 40 percent of the prison and jail telecom market and charges as much as a dollar per minute for a simple call. JPay charges similarly egregious rates for everything from money transfers to emails…And both…routinely face legal action for an extensive list of unlawful practices…including the unlawful recording of sacred attorney-client calls…As music executives and artists, we should…not [be] cutting back-office deals with…the prison industry…I’m making a pledge not to collaborate with corporations that profit from incarceration…And I urge my fellow music executives and artists to join me…
Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#957)
“Porn addiction” is still being used as an excuse for violent crimes:
Two 11-year-old “porn addicts” have been arrested in India after they allegedly stoned a six-year-old girl to death for refusing to perform sex acts they had watched on their parents’ phones…Authorities arrested the two…along with another eight-year-old who is thought to have [stood guard while] the [others] murder[ed] the…girl…children are seen as having criminal responsibility from the age of seven in India…
While American cops favor VR porn games, Kazakh cops prefer LARPing:
A…week-long simulation exercise on combating…migration…started on 11 October 2021 in Almaty. The simulation exercise [refers to this migration control as “]Combating Trafficking in Human Beings[“, following the racist European practice]…this training exercise offers f[antasies in place of]…real-life [situations], using actors to create [fantasy] trafficking scenarios. A fictitious brothel..a[nd] massage parlor…were…created to…[indoctrin]ate c[ops in the fantasy version] of human trafficking…and sexual exploitation…
The PREA is just feel-good nonsense as long as screws have absolute power over their victims:
…a 23-year-old woman…committed suicide in a [Forks,] Washington jail [after] she tried to report sexual harassment by a guard, but her complaint was [ignored]. Months later, that same [screw] was sentenced to prison for [raping] four other women…the family of Kimberly Bender [is suing jail] officials…[for allow]ing Bender…[to] be…tormented by a [typical and representative screw] with a known misconduct record…John Gray…[repeat]edly tormented Bender at night, leering at her, making “vile” comments, and frequently waking her up. Bender, “struggling with heroin withdrawal, was unable to sleep, rest, or relax because of…Gray”…wh[o was]…previously…fire[d from a different cage stack] in 2018 for m[oc]king…a training on the Prison Rape Elimination Act…[by making disgusting] “comments and sounds such as, ‘Here we go’ and ‘oooh…oh yeah baby…mmmmm'” during a [scene showing]…a woman [groping]…another woman [under the pretext of a “search”]…PREA is [well-known to be] largely toothless. Since the reporting rules went into effect in 2012, reports of sexual assaults in prisons and jails have dramatically increased, especially at local and county jails…
Vomit out the right buzzwords and you can censor at will:
The Waterloo Region District School Board is undertaking a multi-year review of its library collections to [censor] any texts deemed “[magically] harmful to staff and students.” Graham Shantz, coordinating [bureaucrat, made a bunch of incoherent, pseudointellectual excuses about why stunting students’ intellectual growth and controlling their thoughts is actually a good thing, belching out words like]…”inappropriate…questionable and…pedagogical framework”…[to support plain old-fashioned book burning]…Earlier this year, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board removed William Golding’s classic Lord of the Flies from its curriculum after [bureaucrats vomited out the words]…white, male power structures [at librarians]. Other books recently removed from Canadian school libraries…in response to complaints [backed by fashionable pseudointellectual bullshit]…include Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale…
Imagine a non-cop child rapist staying free for decades like this:
A [typical and representative] New York [cop] who for decades has delayed facing [trial for]…repeatedly rap[ing] and molest[ing] his daughter’s 12-year-old friend was arrested in Florida…Leonard Forte, who is now 80…was [found guilty] in Vermont in 1988…[but] the judge tossed the verdict…[because cop]…and…Forte persuaded prosecutors to delay the retrial because he [claimed to be terminally ill]…A USA Today investigation in 2019 revealed how Vermont prosecutors had mishandled the case [for over 25 years]…and exposed Forte’s dubious claims about his health…[thus shaming] Vermont’s Attorney General’s Office [into] reviv[ing] the case…
…Judge Susan Brnovich today recused herself from the [Backpage] trial…[without providing a] reason…the case ha[s] been reassigned by lot to…Judge Diane J. Humetewa…Brnovich…previously refused to recuse herself from the case [despite obvious]…conflict [of interest due to]…Brnovich’s [being married to the attorney general of Arizona, a noted prohibitionist with a history of disseminating anti-Backpage propaganda]…Humetewa is…the fourth judge on the case…Steven Logan was first assigned to the case…[but] recused himself with no explanation in March 2019. The case was briefly assigned to…Douglas Rayes, who immediately recused himself sans explanation…Brnovich was then assigned the case…Tucson criminal defense attorney and former Arizona State Bar President Michael Piccarreta [pointed out that]…“Someone’s going to have to take a look at the government’s overreaching issues…No judge wants to have to deal with that”…prosecutorial misconduct in this case…[includes] the [intentional] destruction of exculpatory evidence…and…the [armed robbery] of millions of dollars in assets, including…more than $10 million from lawyers for the defense…
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, Music, News, Perception, Tyranny | Tagged agency denial, Arizona, asset seizure, Backpage, Canada, cell phones, censorship, cops, Dangerous Speech, fantasy, fascism, Florida, games, illegal aliens, India, Kazakhstan, left-right myth, libraries, Neither Addiction nor Epidemic, New York, No Escape, porn, prisons, propaganda, psychology, rape, Subtle Pimping, teachers, The Punitive Mindset, Thought Control, To Molest and Rape, Torture Chamber, Vermont, Washington (state) | 2 Comments »
Absolutely no one can be trusted with power over others, and a tyranny which claims legitimacy via the charade of “democratic elections” is no more legitimate than any other because it still claims the “right” to inflict violence upon those who want nothing to do with it and have done nothing to harm anyone. – “No True Anarchist“
I never thought I’d be doing this blog for so long I’d start repeating myself, yet here we are; this year, instead of attempting to find a new way to say that which I’ve said countless times before in countless other essays, I’ve decided to observe each of the occasions on which I generally publish philosophical essays (Screeds? Polemics? Jeremiads?) with a selection of linked quotes from previous such occasions. On July 4th I wrote:
Empires rise, thrive, decline, and fall, to be replaced by younger ones which then decline and fall in their time. The history books are littered with their names, and even before Man learned to write there were other, elder realms (albeit of smaller size), stretching back into the mists of prehistory; there may have even been civilizations before the present Age of Apes which rose, fell, and eventually faded even from the hazy glass of mythology, leaving not a rack behind. Likewise, the future will be riddled with empires, in[cluding many]…on worlds yet unsettled circling nameless stars in constellations invisible from the Earth…
And so, as I have already done on other occasions this year (and will again on Thursday), I present a collection of statements I’ve previously made on this topic:
Posturing politicians pretend to be the sworn enemies of other politicians, only to play kissy-face with one another when they don’t realize there’s a camera around. – “The Grand Illusion”
There is not and in fact cannot be any such thing as “legitimate” authority, whether that authority is chosen by elections, lots, birth, examining goat entrails, or pulling swords out of lakes. – “Illegitimate”
Some of you may pooh-pooh the idea of people running their own lives, working together for mutual benefit without the help of “leaders” or “officials” or “organizers” or bosses or commissars or bureaucrats of any kind; some of you refuse to accept that government is at best a barely-necessary evil, and in most cases just a plain evil. – “Anarchy?”
Sometimes dead things are dragged off and devoured by creatures from elsewhere, but very often they rot where they fall and give rise to new life right there in the same soil. – “Remember, Remember”
We make government positions attractive to sociopaths by heaping accolades and privileges upon them; instead, those positions need to be made so repellent that nobody will stay in them for very long. – “Wildfire”
I’m not calling for a revolution; I’m saying that a revolution is inevitable, whether we like it or not. – “To the Ground”
The rulers, rather than admitting the systemic problems, prefer to treat government as a colossal game of hot potato, eternally passing the ball forward in the hopes that it will be in someone else’s hands when the music at last stops as it inevitably must. – “Cleansing Fire”
Western cultures in general, and the US in particular, have become so obsessed with the end of Our Way of Life, that we’re willing to discard everything good about it to avoid that end. – “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi”
The American political system has failed; the two officially-sanctioned parties are merely two wings of the same vulture, and their members are too locked in groupthink to make the radical changes which need to be made to save this country. – “Revolution”
Governments need to be reminded (at least annually if not constantly) that they only hold power by the sufferance of all the people, not merely the majority, and that the overthrow of any government by a disgruntled minority is always a possibility. – “Guy Fawkes Night“
Posted in Philosophy, Tyranny | Tagged holidays, left-right myth, politicians | Leave a Comment »
We got three clear days last weekend, so I was able to get the first four sheets of roofing into place. It wasn’t a quick process, because I was largely working alone; on Friday I moved the sheets to the deck, then pulled them up to the roof one by one and wrangled them into place. Attaching them was slow because we were given substandard self-drilling screws; apparently, the norm around here is to attach the metal to a wooden frame (our outbuildings were all constructed that way) so the provided screws were not of a high enough grade to drill into the cee purlins. I therefore had to pre-drill the holes so the screws would work. Then Saturday I used the plasma cutter to trim off the excess roofing; the north side was very difficult because I was working at a bad angle, so the cutting is very rough there and I’ll need to go back later and smooth it off with a second pass from above. Still, we’re getting the roof up at last; once this leaf is done we’ll move on the the southwest facing, and then the complicated northwest. That’s the part where you can see the orange ladder, which will eventually be a bathroom. Onward and upward!
Posted in Diary | Tagged Sunset | Leave a Comment »
Chekhov told me a few weeks ago that he and his lady friend Yellowbird wanted to provide dinner for my birthday, but I had no idea they were planning to go all out with a fun Halloween-themed spread! You can probably tell what the things at front left are; behind them are deviled eggs with a little avocado in the filling, and the pumpkin puke is guacamole. Between the two pumpkins are mushroom eyeballs and a multi-layer dip topped with spiders made from black olives; to the left of those is a carrot cake, and the cemetery is a cheeseburger casserole. The upside-down devilled eggs are poked with holes to resemble a hockey mask (as worn by Undead Serial Killer from Popular Slasher Movie Franchise Guy™), and the plate at front right contains tooth-rows made from apple slices, peanut butter & miniature marshmallows; Frankenstein’s monster heads made from kiwi fruit; banana ghosts; cucumber skulls; and teensy mandarins dressed as pumpkins. And at the back are 50 roses, sent by Dr. Quest! Jae got me some cool snakeskin print clothes, Yellowbird got me a horror-movie-watching blanket, and Grace got me some titanium chopsticks; we celebrated with three Vincent Price movies, and I got completely stoned and blew my diet. So all in all, it was a very lovely birthday, and when I arrived at my city flat yesterday I had several presents from readers!
Posted in Diary | Tagged holidays, Presents, recipes, Sunset | 1 Comment »
Once-lawful whip-possessing citizens have now been made criminals. – Christian Britschgi
Politicians will criminalize virtually anything that can be defined:
…the Reno City Council [has] passed an ordinance that prohibits people from using or possessing whips in the city’s downtown without first obtaining a city permit. The policy is in response to an increasing number of 911 calls by [aggressive busybodies imagining that] the periodic snaps and cracks of whips [are] gunshots. Reno City Attorney Karl Hall said that the new restrictions were commonsense whip control…Council Member Jenny Brekhus voted against the ordinance because it didn’t apply citywide, thus leaving whips dangerously unregulated in most of Reno. Meanwhile, a representative for the state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union argued that banning the possession of whips without a permit…contributes to the criminalization of [Reno’s] homeless…[who] are known for using whips for self-defense…
So does Reno also plan to criminalize cars backfiring and transformers exploding?
Do the chattering classes seriously believe unprotected sex is something new?
“Fluid bonding” — the act of intentionally sharing bodily juices with a sexual partner — is purportedly becoming a popular practice in bedrooms across the nation…a variety of publications are now reporting on the randy activity, which refers to far more than simply forgoing a condom during sex…fluid bonding is done with the goal of being “more connected, [or to] have more sensation, intimacy or commitment”…it…“is an active, conscious choice” that revolves around consent and intent…
And yet amateurs pretend that sex workers are the one who spread STIs.
Prohibitionists call this “rescue”:
A woman who had overstayed in Singapore since 2013 was trying to escape [police violence] by climbing through her room window when she fell to her death last year…Gong Xiuxian…worked as a private masseuse from her home and sold apparel at market stalls…Her death on 2 November last year was pronounced an unfortunate misadventure by Coroner Kamala Ponnampalam…[so as to absolve cops from responsibility for terrorizing women by showing up with a gang] of eight [thugs to bang on their doors and shine lights into their]…bedroom [windows] at about 5.15am…
Nicholas Kristof is a vile excuse for a human being, so naturally he’s going into politics:
[Recently-retired] New York Times [hack column]ist Nicholas Kristof announced his candidacy…for Oregon governor, saying the state needs a political newbie to solve problems like homelessness and rural despair. “I’ve never run for political office in my life,” Kristof said in a campaign video, expressing it as an asset. He said he felt compelled to run for governor because, after [supporting state violence] around the world, he was heartbroken to see [what he considers insufficient in]flicti[on of it on] his home state…
All too often, evil arrives cloaked in the mantle of expediency:
Delta Air Lines…is testing new facial recognition technology [using the pretext of] reduc[ing] the time it takes between arriving at the airport and getting passengers in their seats…Delta wants to be the first [airline] to offer full curb-to-gate security centered around facial recognition…the pilot program…will soon be available to [marks who already belong to] Delta’s Loyalty Program…[and] have also uploaded passport details and have TSA Pre-check…
The Clueless Leading the Hysterical (#1087)
Nobody is going to give expensive cannabis edibles to your spawn for free:
As Halloween approache[d]…several state attorneys general [vomited out stupid copaganda about]…marijuana edibles that [a moron might mistake for] regular candies and snacks. Attorneys general in Ohio, New York, Illinois, Connecticut and Arkansas all released statements [last week], a part of a coordinated effort to [continue the dying drug war at least until they leave office]…THC is the main compound found in marijuana, and [has no known LD50 despite inane squawking about]…overdose…In Ohio, Attorney General Dave Yost…[claim]ed the levels of THC could have “real and devastating” consequences for children [who manage to consume 1/3 of their body weight in edibles]…
I find it amusing that so many people are surprised that NPR so often parrots copaganda; apparently they’re unfamiliar with the adage, “He who pays the piper, calls the tune.”
“Vagina Egg” Paltrow joins the prohibitionist trash who once called stripping a “gateway to slavery”:
[Noted sex scammer] Gwyneth Paltrow [joined noted bigot] Jada Pinkett Smith…in…[vomiting out ignorant, censorious nonsense about] “how pornography is harmful to women” on the latest episode of Pinkett Smith’s chat show, Red Table Talk…Neither [“celebrity” airhead] has any training on health issues or sexuality studies…Pinkett Smith, who on a [filmed but unaired] prior episode [verbally attacked and slut-shamed a sugar baby]…discussed having had what she [claimed was] “an unhealthy relationship with porn”…
Neither actress specified what kind of sexual content could be broadly classified as “pornography.”
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny | Tagged Acting and Activism, Against Their Will, Arkansas, censorship, condoms, Connecticut, cops, Dirty Amateurs, disease, drugs, Feet of Clay, holidays, hysteria, illegal aliens, Illinois, Nevada, New York, Nothing New, Ohio, Oregon, politicians, porn, propaganda, Pyrrhic Victory, Singapore, surveillance, The Clueless Leading the Hysterical, universal criminality, Universally Criminal updates, weaponry, yellow journalism | 2 Comments »
I…have followed in the footsteps of my many-times-great-grandmeres by offering to others the wisdom that mortality is not a thing to fear, but rather a blessing to accept when it comes to us in the fullness of time. – “The Mysteries“
Every year on this day, I write about the inevitability and goodness of Death. Every year on this occasion, and in innumerable other essays, tweets and statements, “I have reminded my readers that every single thing in the Cosmos is mortal, and will pass away in its time. [Organisms and empires alike] rise, thrive, decline, and fall, to be replaced by younger ones which then decline and fall in their time…crumbling into dust and passing first into memory, then legend, and eventually beyond the horizon of sentient knowledge. The wheel turns inexorably, and all there is to say about it has already been said countless times; there is, I think, little point in saying it again…” And so, as I did earlier this year and will again on Friday and next week, I present a collection of statements I’ve previously made on this topic:
That experience of being a stranger in one’s own community, of being treated like a living oracle, like a weird visitor back from the underworld with divine wisdom to share…that, I think, is the experience which defines the old. – “Let There Be Dark”
Western culture’s impending demise is being driven by tyrants whose destruction of freedom and justice is enabled by the masses willing to give them any power in exchange for their impossible promises to delay death, both personal and cultural, just a little longer. – “Eros and Thanatos”
Death is what gives life meaning, and fighting excessively against it is as childish and futile as the behavior of a toddler who refuses to let another child take his place on the carousel once his ride is done. – “Thanatopsis”
People believe what they want to believe, and some of them even seem wedded to the delusion that they can indefinitely avoid this riverbank, though none ever has since the dawn of the world. – “On the Riverbank”
When [the Reaper] at last come to collect me it will be a rendezvous rather than a capture, a meeting (whether anticipated or unexpected) of old friends rather than the cornering of a terrified animal by a hunter who has never in the history of the world ever failed to run down his prey. – “A Necessary End”
Sex and death are our constant reminders that for all our pretensions we are still animals; no wonder those uncomfortable with that fact try to disguise and sanitize both of them, to hide them from the children and speak about them in whispers, to bind them in legal codes and bury them under layers of ritual. – “Even This Shall Pass Away”
Death is the one great universal experience, the sacrament shared by every dynamic thing from the most ephemeral of microbes to the stars and galaxies themselves, the inescapable conclusion to every form of existence not already dead in its immutability. – “The Dance of Death”
You will die, and so will I, and there is absolutely nothing any of us can do about it…yet vast numbers are so obsessed with this simple and indisputable fact that they waste much of their time on Earth in a struggle they absolutely cannot win. – “The Day of the Dead”
Posted in Philosophy | Tagged Day of the Dead, holidays, paganism, psychology | 4 Comments »
Happy Halloween, dear readers, and Blessed Be!
Posted in Holidays | Tagged holidays, paganism | 2 Comments »
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