Oh look - It's Harry Houdini's birthday! And even Google is in on the act with a graphic. Of course, they indulge in many things Houdini hated, but still,...newspapers and other journalistic organs (which can no longer be counted on to give us news) are running articles about everything "Houdini" but the obvious, especially to Houdini fans:
Sylvia Browne on Montel pretending to talk to the dead? Oprah Winfrey and Ellen marketing "The Secret"? I could go on, but you get the point. What you don't get, though, is my real point:
The travesty on this day isn't that these con men and women and their scams, which have always been with us, are still trying to get away with this crap - the embarrassment is that, in 2011, they have an audience.
A huge audience. Of adults. Who ought to know better. But don't. So they're idiots. Because Houdini proved it was all bullshit before he died in 1937.
Even worse, the rest of you sit idly by and allow it to go on. Don't say you don't.
Are you fighting for critical thinking to be put in our school curriculum? No.
Have you told your local paper to stop it's Horoscope? No.
Have you tried to shut down your local psychic? Of course not.
But Harry Houdini would've been doing just that - that's what he did while he was alive, people.
So is Google, or anyone else, out there truthfully celebrating Harry Houdini's birthday? Or are they just doing more of what this era is becoming so disgusting for - mouthing empty platitudes backed by no convictions what-so-ever? Yeah, that's what I thought. But don't forget as you look on smugly:
You - yeah, YOU reading this - you're not left out of that statement either, and Harry Houdini would've told you so. That's why I'm telling you so. That's how you celebrate Houdini's birthday.
This year, before the across-the-table, politically-partisan, intra-family laughter begins, TMR would like to give thanks for the slim-and-trim NewAgers who will be attending as the butt of our jokes.
After having provided us fatties with a year's worth of non-stop entertainment by ignoring the obvious (NewAge "thinking" is stupidity writ large) and going for it anyway, we want to remind NewAgers we tried to stop them for a long, long time, but it was they who insisted on going down this "path":
Houdini died of peritonitis in 1926, at the crest of his fame. Yet long after that final disappearance, he inspired works by a slew of painters and sculptors....Still, Houdini’s most valuable legacy is not for artists or magicians like Penn and Teller, James Randi, and David Copperfield, who do their own great escapes, obviously influenced by the Master. It is for the credulous public.
Throughout his professional life, Houdini had no illusions about his talent. He always assured onlookers that no matter how miraculous his tricks appeared to be, they were actually earthbound, consisting of muscular contortions, lock-picking skills, inventive gimmicks, and misdirection. He did his best to expose charlatans who claimed that their magic came from occult sources. One of his colorful posters is succinct: DO SPIRITS RETURN? HOUDINI SAYS NO—AND PROVES IT. In an epoch when programs like Paranormal State and Psychic Kids are watched by millions of naive viewers, healthy skepticism is in short supply.
Yes, Sir. Since 1926.
By 2010, for waaay too many believers, black was white, up was down, left was right, and there was nothing - absolutely nothing - anyone could say to change their minds, because (as we personally discovered) NewAgers had ruthlessly self-programmed themselves to "change" only the politics of others:
It seems that whenever you hear about a "rightwing" hate crime nowadays, it turns out the the perpetrator turns out to be a leftwinger...much to the disappointment of liberals who continue to maintain the fiction about a violent Tea Party movement.
This was, of course, predicted by the former KGB agent, Yuri Bezmenov, after the Soviet Union sent him to study the (now very-popular) effects of yoga and meditation on the American Left. He was very clear about what they were up to - and how these contradictions would manifest themselves now:
So today, just as he said, we've been blessed with the spectacle of idiots calling Sarah Palin stupid, while giving balls-to-the-wall support to Oprah's "brilliant" choice for president who (surprise!) can't seem to do even the simplest things correctly.
Yes, for all their self-implanted mantras about their own self-awareness, and the billions they've spent on Self-Help (which, for any thinking person, would be a clear sign of a problem) it's self-reflection that's so obviously in short supply, one can't help but be laughably appreciative of their efforts to look brainy when, quite obviously, their brains are the only thing they haven't been taking much care in stretching - while the rest of us were growing our guts.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
All that time at the yoga studio has really paid off:
This year, you insure that every American table you grace has at least two turkeys for us to feast on.
