We're waaay past the music thing. Now we're up to asking how much money have we been (or are we) wasting on Big Green Al's Big Green Gloat Ride?
And I mean all of it?
Let's say The New York Times reported "recycling may be the most wasteful activity in modern America: a waste of time and money, a waste of human and natural resources." Why would we keep doing it? What are the implications of, y'know, stopping?
Look, I like Trance as much as the next head, but this NewAge shit is wrong (you knew I was going to get there, didn't you?) and it all should be stopped. That's some positively evil shit.
And I'm sorry for wanting validation for this blog's premise so much but, in the beginning, I caught that same kind of hell seen in those videos (and from the newly-christened "Birkenstock Tribe") for pursuing these topics (just as I caught hell for liking Queen while living in the ghetto) and I'm not just going to sweep that behavior under the rug:
First, friends and foes alike told me to stop because (friends) NewAge is "too big" for me to have any affect against it, plus I'll never defeat it because (foes) the believers are always right, and I'm a conservative "man" and our time was over. Like the Blues.
On top of those warnings, this blog was ripped down, twice, by saboteurs, so there's more-than-a-little bit of pride in there for me to carry on until everyone understands what I'm getting at, regarding it's effect on the larger society. I mean, if I wasn't on to something (instead of on something) why would anybody go to those lengths to stop little ol' Punk Rock me? I'll tell you why: because they're afraid. They're afraid that, just like in Alice In Wonderland, at some point the rest of you are going to say "Pooh!" and reduce their whole outlook to a bunch of worthless cards.
O.K., I'm ranting about my own shit again, when I'd rather re-examine Byron York's last two paragraphs of Molly Hagerty's accusations against Al Gore:
"Then, abruptly, the former vice president changed tone. It was 'as though he had very suddenly switched personalities,' she recalled, 'and began in a pleading tone, pleading for release of his second chakra there.'
'Chakra,' in Gore's new-agey jargon, refers to the body's 'energy centers,' which the masseuse interpreted as having a specific meaning. 'This was yet another euphemism for sexual activity he was requesting,' she told police, 'put cleverly as though it were a spiritual request or something."
Now, where did Al pick up such Hindu language as that? We know that Gore has lately spent a lot of time with the man he shares his Nobel Prize with, Rajendra Pachauri. What most people don't know is that Rajendra Pachauri has a little "second chakra" release problem himself, having published:
"A soft-core pornographic novel. (The main character is an aging environmentalist and engineer engaged in a 'spiritual journey' that includes meeting Shirley MacLaine, detailed explorations of the Kama Sutra, and group sex.)"
Now that Molly Hagerty has admitted "This was yet another euphemism for sexual activity", you might want to ask yourself - what else is just blithely flying by the average person? I'll tell you: tons of stuff. It might as well be german rap music.
He's a really special man. I met him once - we shared a smoke during one of his book signings - and it will remain one of the proudest claims I can make. I have an autographed copy of No One Left to Lie To: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton from that night. Hell, as far as I'm concerned, if he has to die soon, I think we should at least let him do it knowing he's left one hell of a mark on the Western World and beyond. He's definitely left one on me.
Unlike NewAgers, I don't think knowing the name of what kills us ("cancer") makes comprehending the implications of our deaths any more or less terrifying, so there'll be no smoking=cancer chiding, or anything else, from me now. Whatever it took Christopher Hitchens to do what he did, then so be it. He did it. He's a man.
And we all - himself included - have been better for it.
I don't even know, but a casual look around takes me here,here, and here - for starters - and, still, no one believed me.
But now, for your late nite enjoyment, I present to you a most unhappy ending:
"Gore said he was tired from travel and described in detail the massage he wanted. It included work on the adductor muscles, which are on the inside of the thighs. 'I mentally noted that a request for adductor work is a bit unusual," the masseuse told police, because it can be "a precursor to inappropriate behavior by a male client.'
Gore also requested work on his abdomen. When that began, 'He became somewhat vocal with muffled moans, etc.,' the masseuse recounted. Gore then 'demand[ed] that I go lower.' When she remained focused on a 'safe, nonsexual' area, Gore grew 'angry, becoming verbally sharp and loud.'
The masseuse asked Gore what he wanted. 'He grabbed my right hand, shoved it down under the sheet to his pubic hair area, my fingers brushing against his penis,' she recalled, 'and said to me, "There!" in a very sharp, loud, angry-sounding tone.' When she pulled back, Gore 'angrily raged' and 'bellowed' at her.
Then, abruptly, the former vice president changed tone. It was 'as though he had very suddenly switched personalities,' she recalled, 'and began in a pleading tone, pleading for release of his second chakra there.'
'Chakra,' in Gore's new-agey jargon, refers to the body's 'energy centers,' which the masseuse interpreted as having a specific meaning. 'This was yet another euphemism for sexual activity he was requesting,' she told police, 'put cleverly as though it were a spiritual request or something.'"
"Pleading for release of his second chakra". Hear that? See, just like with Obama, before this scandal, most people didn't really listen to Al.
And see, just like with Obama, they also don't pay attention when someone's hanging out with a bad crowd.
I've tied the President to Oprah, who's tied to every guru on the planet. His Secretary of State to the psychic, Jean Houston.
On the one hand, I'm really excited to see this video because it does a good job of outlining the Thomas Sam case. On the other hand, I'm disappointed to see homeopathy - a german invention - tied so tightly to India, alone. The Sam's live in Australia, as did the uber-NewAge Penelope Dingle, dead at the hands of her NewAge T.V. "doctor" husband - and a homeopath. NewAge, which a belief in homeopathy is a sure indication of, is a world-wide phenomena being exploited by quacks. Dr. Robert Wohlfahrt was killing in France. Dr. Frank Shallenberger killed in Nevada. Their Code of Ethics has a "no snitch" clause. Understand?
Don't get me wrong: I appreciate any lesson I can get on excema. But we have bigger fish to fry as well. The Gloria Sam case is but one, in a myriad of other cases, that reveal the tapestry of a very sick NewAge culture. In just the three cases mentioned above, we're talking about a baby - their baby - a wife, a mother (plus two others) and someone's father. In every case, the Homeopath's excuse adds up to "It wasn't me" when it's obvious their cultish attraction to water as a remedy is but one of a myriad of bad decisions (like playing doctor in the first place) that's driving them to make preventable mistakes.
I hear Shallenberger's back doing what "works". Anybody covering him?
Come on, people, come on. I'm looking down at you.
That's a picture of me, trying out this blue eyed performance idea. And now look at Michael:
Man - if I was rich and turning white - I'd be creeped-the-fuck-out.
But I ain't: I just make this face at NewAge spirits and they all go away.
As anyone can see, I ain't exactly capable of putting my opinions this way, because this English guy's a waaay better writer than I am, plus I can hear England in his voice, and we Americans like that, so I'm letting him do the talking:
"The public is not behind the war; there is a confusion over war aims, an uncertainty about withdrawal and growing tensions between the people running it. Why shouldn't the citizens who pay for the war and the men who give up their lives for it know what is going on? General McChrystal may have been motivated by self-aggrandisement. But that is true of half the people who speak out to the media. We should be acclaiming him as a hero, not an errant soldier whose openness to the media must be condemned."
See: that's almost my position - smoking a pipe. (I was going to say "wearing an ascot" but Jon Stewart's on the whole ascot thing so I went with the pipe.)
The firing of General McChrystal was stupid and wrong.
The biggest controversy I've heard of, surrounding the newest war documentary, "Restrepo", has been about the lack of politics heard from the soldiers. Now you hear what they think on a boozy night in Paris and - even though it's probably not that much different from what you or I think - they lose their jobs. No. General McChrystal and his men don't deserve this.
I think, at this point, his buyer's remorse should be punishment enough.
"Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in November 1967, at the height of the counter-culture movement, by a university drop-out called Jann Wenner, who financed its earliest editions with the help of a $7,500 loan from his family.
'The spirit was that rock'n'roll was not merely music, but an expression of a new generation,' says Victor Navasky, the chairman of the Columbia Journalism Review. 'They stood for a revolutionary principle, mixed up with new-age spiritualism,...'"
I don't put the words in their mouths, folks, I swear.