Standin' On Shaky Ground Ever Since You Put Me Down

 

That's some pretty boring reading out there today. Until I arrived at the Althouse, who really got things shakin' in an exchange with a reader, and revealed her chain-yanking ways:

"'A lot of bloggers tease their posts on Twitter and I think people follow bloggers on Twitter and then choose which post to click over to.' 

 

This doesn't work. I've tried it and there's virtually no traffic that comes through this way. I can see on Site Meter where my traffic comes from, and it's never from me teasing my own blog posts, even when I craft a tweet in a way that should be intriguing. I don't really think the readers are there. I think it's a lot of people trying to promote their brand, in competition with other promoters."

This makes me wonder what my fellow so-called "Hillbillies" were up to for all those years, because "teasing my own blog posts" was repeatedly charged as my behavior, whenever I'd make a point by linking to a post I'd created. It was, supposedly, the worst thing a blogger could do.   

But Ann can openly state she's intentionally done it ("I've tried it") and her readers don't blink. They even discuss how it works and what might be going wrong. They know her hook-up with Instapundit isn't designed to fix anything, solve problems, make America better, etc., but just to extend their reach - apparently into our wallets. 

They're frauds, this is a game, and whatever happens, happens.

   

 So was the whole thing with me. It was a set-up. A tactic. Something the "Hillbillies" intentionally used to try and get under my skin. Ruffle my feathers. 

Chase me away. 

 

Black guy gets hurt? Big deal. He talks too much.

 Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they ain't out to get me, huh? And for behavior that, still, drives me to say the whole cabal is dishonest. Funny how that works. It took 'em a while. 

And I love the ending:

   

 Based on Glenn & Co. saying the election's in the bag, the Hillbillies were screaming they don't need my vote - it was fucking beautiful. 

   

 Now don't get me wrong - whether looking at all of this as just a blogging matter, or (more importantly, if you want to get serious, and I do) also as a story of race in 2013 America, how politics currently "works" on the Right, an expose' on the deployment of cultish thinking (or the "groupthink" Robert Stacey McCain admitted to) or any number of other issues, discovered to be a "problem," on "our side" - none of that will ever make TMR as "brilliant" as Andrew Sullivan's online assumptions about the policy implications of President Obama's star sign. 

   

 Blow me. 

   

 I think, as a historical matter - since Ann agrees so vehemently that blogs are special - I've got the Right by the balls. 

Or something.

TMR ain't going away.

   

 Some of the tags I'm using for this post are "ann althouse," "glenn reynolds," "blogging," "politics," "race," "cultish thinking," "lying," "deception," "manipulation," and "exploitation".

   

 I think the evidence speaks for itself,...

 

Richard Branson's A Problematic Character But WHOA!

Now that's a reason to live,...

Macy's Song For Black Men At The Libraries & Museums

I was just returning from the library - and heard my local NPR affiliate discussing exorcisms like they are for realz - so this was a welcome iTunes pick-me-up when I got safely back home:

AKA Before the lows could set in,...

 

Speaking As An Individual (It Sounds Kind Of NewAge-y)

Wanna see the similarity between the whole Transcendental Meditation racket, seen above, and Instapundit?  Robert Stacy McCain has an interesting observation:

"This network/community concept seems to have been lost by (or, more likely, was never known to) newer arrivals in the ‘sphere. The idea that each of us is contributing to a common project is not just some kind of “Stone Soup” idealism, but is in fact the only way to build any genuinely meaningful alternative to that pathetic exercise in groupthink we call the Mainstream Media…."

So Glenn's answer to the Mainstream Media's "groupthink" was to create a vessel for his own. And now they, too, are known for deception, manipulation, misinformation, and exploitation. Paraphrasing:

That Mitt Romney election was in-the-bag, now pay us for that marvelous insight - at, supposedly, no cost to yourself - unless you think losing the White House bore no cost.

Fools. Rush. In.

Listen to Ann spout it:

"I'm getting impatient with Tracy right now. I want to interrupt and say that blogs are a great format if you have a distinctive voice, and not just if you have idiosyncratic attributes — like gay, English, Catholic, and heretically conservative. The form — the blog — was so great, so powerful, so liberating, that many, many writers said me too, often pushed by an old-style publisher like the NYT that needed to have blogs to seem up-to-date. What made the age golden was the greatness of some blogs, like Sullivan's, not the sheer number of blogs at any given time."

Yeah, and as long as you silly, silly people - and not ideas - got there early enough to become the gatekeepers, saying who's "in" and "out". Listen to the loonie:

She actually wants us to go along with the suggestion that Andrew Sullivan - the weirdo who launched an investigation into Sarah Palin's womb - runs a blog of "greatness".

There aren't enough drugs on the planet to make that work. How can it?

Yesterday, when I was posting about gay men and NewAge, I could've been writing about Sully.

This is, specifically, why a blog about NewAge cultism focusses on the political blogosphere. They are as blind to themselves as the mainstream media is.

Point - I don't pick on Professor Jacobson.

It's a fact that Glenn Reynolds & Co. can't give me a fair shake, because I spotted - and spoke out about - their cultish nonsense from Day One. I was ranting about despising "groupthink" wherever it comes from - Left or Right - and saying I will never fit into it. 

Nor will I ever try. 

And, as Boomers,  this "community" of "groupthink" was destined to be their answer. 

In stepped Ann Althouse.

I was raising noise about their "clique," on her blog, and she told Glenn to link to TMR, probably to shut me up. People on her blog were listening to me then.

That's what big bloggers are afraid of. It has nothing to do with language or attitude - or else Ann would've gotten rid of me, long ago, instead of me leaving - it's attention going elsewhere. They can't shake down the rubes without 'em, can they?

Their mistake?

Assuming - by inviting me in - I couldn't see, and would stop saying, what they've been up to all along.

But, as Sojourner Truth said, ain't this a blog?

Next: They'll Say The Planet Is Green Instead Of Blue,...

 

 It's fascinating this would be described as a "shock":

According to a pair of recent polls, for the first time since the 9/11 terrorist hijackings, Americans are more fearful their government will abuse constitutional liberties than fail to keep its citizens safe. Even in the wake of the April 15 Boston Marathon bombing – in which a pair of Islamic radicals are accused of planting explosives that took the lives of 3 and wounded over 280 – the polls suggest Americans are hesitant to give up any further freedoms in exchange for increased “security.” 

Wait - was it Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin who first told Americans security-for-freedom was a really bad trade? And yet - 300 years later - these idiots are in "shock" Americans are aware of it? I swear, you've really got to hand it to these cultists: 

They reveal who they are in the most obvious ways,...

 

Since Marriage Is For Life, You Can't Be On Your Second One Without Also Buying Into NewAge's Cult Mantra That Says "You Believe Whatever You Want To Believe"

Based on nothing, Ann Althouse has said she doesn't "think" there's such a thing as brainwashing. 

 Of course, Ann Althouse has been brainwashed a long time:

While America was traumatized by the televised explosions, murders, and manhunt for the Boston bombers, 25-year-old "Connie" was recovering from her own trauma in an Athens area treatment center. 

Her five-month stay in a Nigerian cult-camp has given her a different perspective on how Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar may have committed to a killing-cause. 

"My heart actually kind of goes out for the young guy who, as awful as it is, I believe you have to be totally mind controlled ... to do something like this at the age of 19," she said. 

"You don't just do something like it for the sake of it." 

We interviewed Connie at Wellspring, a cult-deprogramming retreat near Albany, Ohio. 

She asked to use a pseudonym as she's involved in an investigation of the organization she was in. 

While the wooded retreat shielded her from much of the national coverage during the events surrounding the bombings, she was able to view some television and hear about the latest from her counselors. 

The answer to the question of "why" being asked by most touched by the bombings comes easy for her. 

At the age of 19 herself she was led to a cult in Lagos by her mother in an attempt to curb her rebellious spirit. 

Though that experience was six years ago, she found herself continually depressed by the experience.

Yes, oh yes, we must always curb "rebels". Oh man, just wait until Connie gets out of Wellspring: 

 She'll find encountering the blogosphere to be just as depressing, if not more so.

If she thinks being in a cult was rough, she'd better prepare herself for being out of it:

Those in positions of authority, and who should know better, will really send her off the rails,...

 

I Wish I Had A Gun To My Head Right Now (Homesick)

Ann Althouse (who actually reads The New York Times) posted this - here's the accurate version:

"People think of scientists as monks in a monastery looking out for the truth. People have lost faith in the monks, but they haven’t lost faith in science. My behavior shows the monks are not holy."

O.K., that's my version. Since I'm both "people think" and "people have lost faith," I'm sticking to it. 

Cue Ann's stupid readers:

"Well, duh. Look at the white robes. They are our modern priestly caste."

So, utilizing methods for revealing accurate evidence is like worshiping under the illusion of blind faith - because they both wear white coats. Riiight. Who let that fool out of the Monkey Cage? What? He's just the first to reply that way? Sheesh. 

I think I've encountered enough right-wing morons over there to last a lifetime. 

Ann also charmed me with this post:

"Resisting a robber who points a gun. A trend in the Bronx."

Now those are obviously the words of someone living an extremely sheltered life (and written like they don't think there's any other kind, while still bitching because she's a "woman" facing "danger," specifically from men - like women are no threat to anyone. Like I said, Ann rarely got out. She thinks having a gay son makes her "worldly." Just mind-bendingly ridiculous nonsense,...).

They're people who've never done anything but hurt others, who've never been anywhere shifty, never been outnumbered in physical battle. Who've never faced real danger, existential or otherwise, and never had to use their brain, Indiana Jones-style, to get out of it. 

You know, the stuff some of us faced so much it's called "my life".

But still, from their air-tight canister of existence, think they're the shit who should tell the rest of us how everything should go down because, long ago, they memorized some shit in a school others (like me) couldn't afford. 

That still doesn't prove they can think - and the overwhelming evidence suggests otherwise.

Overwhelmingly.

Shit, I've had more guns put to my head than I can count - many times by people wanting me to produce their records - and I'm still here. That's an accomplishment! That's thinking on your toes!

And one I've finessed many times. 

I like the people who act like they know the score:

This is religion.

We're alive, but apparently only to worship the walking dead.

Or the brain-dead.

The white, white-walled, and always NewAge blogosphere.

Really - after all I've seen and done - I think it's a set-up that's positively cosmic,....

 

Ignorance Is An Aphrodisiac (For Everything Following)

"Just do it!"

It's no longer surprising that women found a way to eat the placenta,...

 

Bad Meaning Bad Not Bad Meaning Good (In Reverse)

People are slowly wising up to "spirituality," how they've bought and sold the perfect cover:

A Benedictine monk from Wisconsin has been charged with trying to abduct a 14-year-old girl in Antioch last week. Police said Thomas M. Chmura, 57, a monk who has been living at St. Benedict’s Abbey in Benet Lake, Wis., for 32 years, was arrested Friday night and admitted he’d been offering rides to teenage girls the past six weeks.

And, surprisingly, that's still not a safe bet yet,...

 

Stop Crying (Or They'll Give You Something To Cry For)

It isn't often a good William H. Macy movie gets a 46% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but David Mamet's little nightmare, Edmond, has achieved it. 

Brutal honesty, punished, for making the West most uncomfortable. 

And it shouldn't be compared to Falling Down because, when it comes to *legit* mainstream movies about angry white men, Edmond ain't nothing like it - or even Fight Club - though the Brad Pitt vehicle is closer to the mark. They'd make a ruthless art house triple bill, somewhere, that's for sure. 

No, unlike the guys in those other films, Edmond is about a true NewAger. It goes unstated because, in this NewAge Nazi society, it's accepted "logic" that a "man" would use numerology to arrive in front of a tarot deck, and then - based on a combination of sexual frustration, emasculation, and what the cards "said" - proceed to leave his wife. He's "on the path". 

We know the path. Check it out, solipsism fans: 

For viewing online, someone's helpfully even broken Edmond into 8 individual parts,...

A Man Against The Homeopathic World (Life's Undiluted)

"I heard 'payback's a motherfucking nigga'  

That's why I'm sick of gettin treated like a goddamn stepchild 

Fuck a punk, cause I ain't him,..."

They Never Say The Word Scientology (It's Scientology)

There Will Be No Recycling Here

Angela Davis' lawyer died this week. 

He'd already helped Nat "King" Cole live in a white neighborhood.

Richie Havens also died. Finally. I'd break his guitar, too.

It's the only way to be sure.

And - speaking of "finally" - this week claimed "The Crown Prince Of Country Music," George Jones. 

He was so special, I can still remember exactly where I was, and what I was doing, the first time I heard him. Just standing there, stunned, at the depth of all he drew.

He was real.

 Yes, Sir - culturally speaking - I'd say Death had a pretty good week,...

 

We've Got Two Cold Dishes (Choose, Confused Person)

I've made no secret of my admiration for President Bush. Part of that grew from watching his many opponents - both foreign and domestic - misread the man by a country mile, to their lasting shame. 

This one surprised me:

A personal note: When I served as a communications intern at the White House in 2007, I had the privilege of sitting in on an off-the-record Q&A session between President Bush and a small group of entrepreneurs under 40.  It was closed to the press.  For nearly an hour, the assembled group peppered the president with questions on myriad subjects — from granular economic policy, to war, to his relationship with his father.  I must admit that I was taken aback by Bush’s performance.  He was sharp, deeply informed, self-deprecatingly funny, and serious.  In short, he was in total command.  Even as someone who voted for him and who respected him greatly — despite several disagreements on policy — it instantly dawned on me that I’d never encountered that George W. Bush before.  Perhaps I’d doubted he even existed; call it the soft bigotry of (unfairly) low expectations.  I wondered why.

 

 Another part of Bush I like is, in the face of such true incompetence and (sometimes) pure hatred, how gracefully he's played his hand. 

   

 He's got a lot of good parts, but the thing is, they've added up to what I recognize as a normal human being, from this century, and these United States.

   

 That I saw one rise to Leader Of The Free World is still thrilling.

   

 Now - about that quote above - I still don't know why, say, Hot Air would give anyone that clueless a platform. (They're probably as emotionally stunted as he is.) White House background or no White House background, I don't get why these people are foisted on us. His comments mostly remind me that - if President Bush's term exposed anything - there's an astoundingly shallow vein running through America, if not the entire Western world. 

Is that now the standard?

   

 While Obama has redefined "The Emperor Has No Clothes," everyone knows who that's in comparison to - the man who didn't allow anyone else to dress him. And, for that reason, too many people actively resisted actually seeing him. ("Perhaps I’d doubted he even existed.") A delusion that's resulted in too many years spent shaking my head. 

I'd like to stop.

   

But - along with a growing understanding that it takes a long time for people to fess up to their problems - even worse, I've discovered, are the problems they make for others.

   

 In Ken Burns' documentary, Central Park Five, he shows that a murderer had more integrity than the judiciary, law enforcement, or the general public - the killer being one of the few insisting that innocent men not suffer for his crimes. 

You don't see that much, for everyday offenses, and that's the tragedy.

   

 I hear President Bush's new digs allow the public to be "The Decider" on the issues he faced.

One of which has to include them.

Which brings up another part of Ol' Bushie Boy I admire:

The one that really knows how to stick it to 'em,...

 

Canaries In A Coal Mine: Afraid To Run Out Of Oil, Afraid Of Vaccines, Afraid Of A Fast Paced Society, Afraid Of Straight Men, Afraid We're Warming The Planet, Afraid,...

It'll never stop being weird to have NewAgers ask what I'm afraid of - and they always do - as though fishing for how they can provide another dose of it: 

Meanwhile, I can't think of a single tactic used in this film that's not being employed by them today,...

 

It's Not This Kid (But Still Could Be Any One Of YOU...)

 

What a good thing it is that Americans will never take a stand to undermine this nonsense:

"Baby burned to death on bonfire in Chile after cult leader decided she was the antichrist"

Not as good as the idea spirituality is good and (of course) harmless, but it's very, very close: 

 Yessiree, keep this up and we're sure to stay a shining example to the world,...

 

It's Good Saving Gaia From Conservatives Stopped This

Somehow, after seeing the two examples of "emotion" presented here - and comparing them with people today - I don't think this film had the desired effect.

They remind me of Ann Althouse, declaring the less frivolous - in a crisis - to be no "fun,..."

I'll Be Working On It Every Day As Best I Can I Promise

 

 Since I'm in a positive frame of mind today, as part of my "healing," I'm willing to join the majority in entertaining cultism as just a mole hill in my imagination, but - BUT - one that's helpfully making a mountain out of it:

"Across the United States, Scientology is now facing 20 Narconon drug rehab lawsuits ranging from 3 wrongful deaths, fraud, misrepresentation, civil conspiracy, and fraudulently billing credit cards."

Just my imagination - love it. And this post-cultism life that I'm leading (not my own) is no more real than I am, so I have no reason to complain. I mean - phhfffft - bombs are going off. Big deal.

"And you don't react, you remember from school, they've got this thing of 'don't react, don't react,' that's - 'don't' - and you're just 'arrrghhh,' and they get away with it. I think you should react. It's the flip side to being an adult. If someone's behaving like a fucking idiot, then just go 'AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! WHAT-THE-FUCK ARE YOU DOING? YOU BASTARD! I hope you die in a car crash.'" 

-- Eddie Izzard, advocating a charming incivility that, apparently, I can't pull off. 

That's alright:

What I've been told is, once I grip reality - instead of it's opposite - I'm on my way to wellness,...