The first tip-off that Greg Mortenson's memoir "Three Cups of Tea" has some credibility issues comes in the book's introduction. Co-author David Oliver Relin writes that as Mortenson is flying over Pakistan, the helicopter pilot marvels to Mortenson, "I've been flying in northern Pakistan for 40 years. How is it you know the terrain better than me?"
The pilot also confides, "Flying with President Musharraf, I've become acquainted with many world leaders, many outstanding gentlemen and ladies. But I think Greg Mortenson is the most remarkable person I've ever met."
People don't talk like that. Books don't lead with that level of self-aggrandizement. Unless they want to induct you into a cult.
I have better things to do than question the personal life of a presidential hopeful. But there is no getting away from Gingrich's messy personal life. It does not speak well for his character or his judgment.
And here's the worst part: A truly sensible man with a past would know enough to keep his mouth shut about his marital history. Instead, Gingrich and wife Callista trumpet their religious views -- and Gingrich's conversion to a religion that does not accept divorce -- so that there is no ignoring that they got together when he was married and that they married because he divorced.
Memo to the Newter: If you want people to remember the things you are proud of, stop rubbing their noses in the conduct of which you should not be proud.
I would like to look at Newt Gingrich and not think about what a heel he has been. But he won't let me.
Unlike Mrs. Saunders, we're not trying to see Newt as anything other than what he is - a political operator, a serial liar, and a cheat - and wouldn't consider voting for him under any circumstances. His constant, quarterly, claim to be running for president does nothing but damage the Republican brand and, if he was so smart, he'd know that, sit down and shut up.
"Ask some out-of-towners to walk Market Street from the Ferry Building to City Hall. They'll tell you how beautiful San Francisco is, but it's too bad that the farther they traveled from the waterfront, the grungier, smellier and scarier Ess Eff's Main Street became. The problem? Too many panhandlers and crazy people living on the streets. Half way through the walk, the visitors were hugging their purses and hesitating before looking passers-by in the eye. It's simply not a sunny walking experience when you're trying to dodge people who want to scam you, hit you up for money so they can self-medicate or peddle the kind of sex that you suspect will require penicillin."
"I'm looking forward to the civil suit," soccer player [April] Grolle told me, after she recounted seeing Jane Doe stripped from the waist down, with "vomit all over her face - turns out it wasn't her own vomit."
I've seen a lot of dumb excuses for Barack Obama's regrettable remarks about "bitter" Pennsylvania voters who "cling" to God, guns and narrow-mindedness in the last few days. But maybe the dumbest are the ones that blame my city, San Francisco.
-- Salon.com's Joan Walsh - in total denial, as usual - and stupidly attacking out-of-town newspapers for saying San Francisco is out of touch with America
In Obama's answer, one could hear that he is wise to the precious Bay Area Liberal lament: Oh why, oh why, isn't the rest of America as enlightened as we are?
And: If only the rest of America were better educated, then folks would turn in their hunting rifles and head for the sushi bar, sneer at devout evangelical Christians and happily hire immigrant gardeners - just like we do.
It cannot be an accident that Obama spoke as he did in an area where many two-college-degree Democrats think that, because everyone they know thinks as they do, that all the smart people must be liberals. It does not occur to them that they are cocooned in their own like-minded world, just as guys who go duck-hunting and women who cook for the church bake sale might do. They dutifully nod when Obama talks about small-town voters who express "antipathy to people who aren't like them" - and they don't even realize they are doing just that.
Then they congratulate themselves for being so broad-minded.
The strikingly handsome young gentleman pictured above is James Randi. He is a great man. He runs the James Randi Educational Foundation which has been in hot pursuit of the purveyors of nonsense for many, many, years. He once said doing his job is like attempting to drain a swamp with a paper cup. And he was right:
People are (for lack of a better term) stupid, and dealing with stupid people makes it very hard for an intelligent person to do this work, that much I've learned since I've joined in his effort.
The gentleman pictured above is also James Randi. This is how he looks, today, after all his years of ghost busting and crank calling: Like Popeye with a problem.
What's his problem? He knows there are killer homeopaths, bogus reporters, politicians who indulge in magical thinking, and worthless psychics on T.V. and elsewhere. But Randi gets very little support from the mainstream media for doing away with any of them. Because I've been personally hurt by the influence of this nonsense, that fact tends to make me very angry, thus (for better or worse) The Macho Response.
The asshole pictured above is Uri Gellar. I call him an asshole because he's made his living (if you can call it that) fooling people into believing he's had the power to bend metal and read minds. He used to be famous in the United States but Johnny Carson, with the aid of James Randi, put an end to that:
James Randi has brought down lesser lights than Uri Gellar. Some have even appreciated him doing so. People like James Hydrick:
For many years, James Randi has offered $1 million dollars to anyone who can prove the paranormal is real. He has also taken on quackery, like homeopathy, which he has graciously taken the time to explain:
Unfortunately, the mainstream media hasn't had much interest in exposing the frauds that pretend such nonsense is real. The media would rather go along with the charade, putting worthless beliefs, like astrology, in our newspapers, and leaving the heavy lifting to people like Mr. Randi:
Of course, James Randi would like the mainstream media's help, but (journalism being an occupation filled with stupid people) he hasn't received much of a response. Talking about his efforts to confront what one fan called "the bad guys" (psychics, homeopaths, etc.) Randi recently wrote:
"We’ve issued strong challenges to these specific persons, in [my blog] and media articles, on TV, radio, and podcasts. They’re insulated by their handlers and their money, and of course can continue to operate because the media won’t put their noses to the grindstone."
Which is why I'm writing today: I want to talk about "the media" and how they don’t "put their noses to the grindstone" anymore - even when they have every reason to do so.
The gentleman pictured above is Phil Matier. He's known in the San Francisco Bay Area as a good investigative reporter. I saw him on T.V. last night, questioning Barak Obama about how he would fund a program for unwed mothers. Barak Obama gave Phil Matier an answer that, for Barak Obama, has become par for the course: A lot of empty phrases that add up to - you guessed it - nothing. I only saw a seconds-long clip, so I don't know if Phil Matier followed up his question by asking Barak Obama why he keeps "talking loud and saying nothing", though I've always been under the impression that's what "good" investigative reporters did.
I have met Phil Matier on a couple of occasions, and he seems like a nice guy. I'm sure he has gathered that I am extremely distressed by the influence nonsense has had on society, and my life, specifically. But, though he and his partner, Andrew Ross (pictured above) are political reporters, they haven't been concerned enough - for me or by anyone else - to expose the massive fraud of Bill Clinton's NCCAM, or any of the many cults, and cult-influenced organizations, that prey on people in the San Francisco Bay Area.
For instance, they haven't asked why our courts, routinely, send people to AA, when there's no proof AA works, but ample evidence AA is a cult. They haven't gone after health food stores, like Whole Foods, when they know they sell worthless belief-based nonsense like homeopathic preparations.
I don't know why this is (when investigative reporters have to know the sellers of these products are ripping off the public to the tune of billions of dollars) except Matier & Ross may be two "good" - but stupid - investigative reporters. Much more concerned with asking Barak Obama questions that, they know, he can give non-answers to, than dealing with anything a person like me would find substantive.
This is a picture of Phil Matier with San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom. When Newsom was sleeping with his campaign manager's wife, Phil Matier knew about it and held the story. (He later wrote that most of City Hall was aware.) Things like that make people like me wonder what an investigative reporter's job really is these days:
The fresh-faced gentleman pictured above is Dan Noyes. He was ABC News's investigative reporter for San Francisco. He had a reputation with the public, for being stupid, but he was always on Gavin Newsom's case. Gavin Newsom hated Dan Noyes because, despite his reputation, Dan Noyes always did his job. Look at the tape below - can you see a difference in how Gavin Newsom regards Dan Noyes and Phil Matier? I can:
This is a picture of Debra J. Saunders:
She's the conservative columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle. She's written one column, on Global Warming, where she marveled at the cultish thinking involved but, despite my best efforts, she's steadily avoided my pleas to look more closely at any other aspect of cultish phenomena. I'm not going to guess why, in her case, because it seems apparent that the topic of cults - or, maybe, it's just me talking about cults - seems to make her uncomfortable. We've never met, so I can't be sure, but she (and her husband) have been very nice in trying to dissuade me from this crusade. Of course, it didn't work and I'm still here, fully prepared to carry on.
This is a picture of Donnell Alexander, the editor of New Angeles Monthly. He's a friend of mine. He wrote a book, called Ghetto Celebrity, where - while admitting I can be difficult - he, without prodding (and along with a nice article about my capabilities as a bandleader) vouched for my integrity as a human being. You can see the cover of his book below:
Donnell, in his new role as an editor, recently sent a reporter to interview me for a story but, unfortunately, he won't tell me what aspect of my character the article is going to be about. Granted, he doesn't have to (and I've never told anyone what to write about me) but I don't think it's going to be about my alarm over my life being derailed by killer quacks, pseudo-science passing as "alternative medicine", the negative influence of Self-Help regimes, or living with someone involved in cults and cultish-thinking. I think it's going to be about the totally unimportant news of his alarm that he's, now, friends with a newly-minted black Republican who once made a pretty good anti-war album.Yawn.
Donnell grew up in a family of Jehovah's Witnesses - but I've always been an atheist - so, I guess, it's understandable that he doesn't comprehend the trauma I've suffered from what some are calling cult affected personality disorder. What hurts is to discover that he and so many others, who've been raised to accept cultish-thinking as a normal part of life, may not really even care. Some friends.
Maybe it's just hype, but it seems to me there was a time in this country when journalists knew a good story when they saw it. They seemed to be able to naturally sense when the country was in danger of veering off course. (And "We The People" knew it too.) I fear those days are over.
But that certainly doesn't mean the dangers have lessened or gone away. Things just may be worse. The journalist's awareness of what's what seems to have been dulled by an over-arching relativism that's difficult for most of them to escape or easily see their way out of.
James Randi is in very good health but (bless his heart) anyone can see he's getting old,...and, being new at this work, I'm finding my arms are getting a little tired. So for once, without anger, I'd like to, again, appeal to the journalists of the world - those I know, the few I've mentioned, and all I don't know - to join with those of us fighting against what Randi calls The New Dark Age. We're feverishly working, night and day, armed with only our determination and a paper cup in each hand. Please, you must help us:
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