Soldier Of Fortune (Define "Fun")

 

 "30% of Americans Consult Astrology, Tarot Cards or Fortune Tellers" reports the Pew Research Center. 

    

 That's a lot, but "most say they engage in these practices for fun, rather than for insights or guidance on life decisions." Which makes me wish Pew had probed deeper, to maybe ask what's so "fun" about telling manipulative types the inner workings of your relationships and community? 

    

Or what's so "fun" about letting liars know you're gullible? 

    

 What's so "fun" about possibly helping "fortunetellers" update the information on you, kept on their own private online community bulletin boards, that they can consult to know specific things about someone, no matter which "fortuneteller" they consult in the area?

What's so "fun" about undermining science, while keeping profoundly unscientific (and sometimes destructive) practices alive?

And what's so "fun" about representing, and proving, how bad your education, and the system that produced it, is?

 

This Time It's Personal (And Getting Farther And Farther Away)

 

 Reading a Fortune Teller Warned Lucy Lawless Not to Appear on Jay Leno is a reminder. 

   

 But then, every day, there's a reminder: I was married, for 20 years, to a psycho. 

   

 I (and apparently, the world) somehow got roped into something I wanted nothing to do with. 

   

 Filled with people who don't know what it is to answer a direct question with a clear answer. 

   

And cults of every kind, flourishing. 

    

It's the end of the world as I know it.  And as I knew it, too. 

    

And as I knew it, too.

 

Those Editorial Meetings When I Was Glad There Was No Seat Available For Me

"Events are turning me into a radical skeptic. I no longer believe what I read,...The fact is that almost the entirety of what one reads in the paper or on the web is speculation. The writer isn't telling you what happened, he is offering an interpretation of what happened, or offering a projection of the future...the interpretations of current events, and prophesies of future ones, are merely the products of groupthink or dogma or emotions or wish-casting,...There was a time when newspapers printed astrology columns. They no longer need to. The pseudoscience is on the front page."

Well, it's so nice not to be alone, at last.

Now how do we get out of it?

Hungry Hearts: My Killer Divorce Got It's Own Movie

"It tastes like a true story but I do not know if this has happened in reality or not." 

Oh yes, it has. The Venice Film Festival is getting rocked by Hungry Hearts, a film that sounds kinda like the real life story of my marriage. It's about a New York City couple as they endure the immigrant wife's spiritual psychosis over food impurities, and her baby, resulting in it's death. The difference in the specifics of the circumstances (my wife killed three people, and is from France, not Italy) doesn't change how they met their demise:

The unrealistic fears of an outsider to the new world, fortunetellers contributing to it - and exploiting it behind the husband's back - further deception and, finally, NewAge death.

What a world. Is this film (further) evidence the phenomena of modern spiritual murder is  finally gaining attention and/or currency?

"It tastes like a true story,..."

 

Battering Myself In The Head To Avoid Living With Rats

I saw a lot of crazy shit in South Central, Los Angeles but, until I was fully exposed to NewAge, I'd never had a full appreciation for the face palm.

Courts have ruled that fortune telling is free speech that is constitutionally protected by the First Amendment. Prosecutors say Marks made it a fraudulent crime when she promised to keep clients' money safe, cleanse it in rituals, and return it to them — because, they say, she never intended to give it back. 

Though jurors heard secretly recorded conversations, including one of Marks telling Deveraux in 2008 that much of the money Deveraux gave her had burned in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, Schwartz told the jury that prosecutors provided no evidence that Marks was lying about that and he also suggested it was possible Marks was just trying to cover her embarrassment that she didn't have the money to return at the time. 

A second client, Sylvia Roma of Houston, told jurors Marks also told her that her money had burned in the 9/11 attack, although she admitted she continued to give her money after that. 

This is the horrified palm-over-your-own-mouth move:

It's always appropriate, but I try to save it for special occasions,...

 

2013: When Miley Bombed And The Onion Became News

NewAgers Waited For News (To Hear They're A Fraud)

US News | Syria News | More ABC News Videos

Remember the height of American television programming? When Montel, and Oprah and Ellen and all the other reality TV con men had our country awash in X-Files nonsense - while crushing the weak and vulnerable at their most exposed, right before our eyes? Man, that was a wonderful time.

Unless you weren't buying any of it.

Then - despite the fact this wasn't the 70's, no one was wearing bell bottoms, and we'd seen this cult stuff all before - skeptics were labeled "energy vampires" to be shunned for not having an "open mind." These people said so, and also said others should do so, right on television and radio. To applause. This way, the leadership could view and use those inside, and outside, NewAge's circle as prey.

I remember those times vividly because, for me, this wasn't stuff that stayed behind our TV screens. This was part of what Grrrl Power! meant and means and, for some reason, nobody wants to do an investigation on that and what harm it's caused.

Nobody really wants to report on any of it because, like the discovery of a "real U.F.O." or proof that homeopathy works, I think the revelation would turn the entire known universe - including the question of who has been America's good and bad actors - upside down. Completely. Hell, considering the quality of names, crimes, and just plain bologna, it might even sell some newspapers. You know, get us going again.

Baby steps,...

Atheists Still Act Religiously (In A Manner Of Speaking)

 

I know, in my case this probably isn't true, but it still rings true:

All sorts of people write with strong feeling, the way I do. But if they’re white, they won’t say it. I used to just pretend I didn’t notice it, and now I just think I don’t care. 

There are all sorts of reasons not to like my writing. But that’s not one of them. Saying something is angry is not a criticism. It’s not valid. It’s not a valid observation in terms of criticism. You can list it as something that’s true. But it’s not critical. 

You may not like it because it makes you uneasy—and you can say that. But to damn it because it’s angry…. They always say that about black people: “those angry black people.” And why? You’re afraid that there might be some truth to their anger. It might be justified. 

I promise you, if I had blonde hair and blue eyes this wouldn’t be an issue. No one ever says, “That angry Judith Krantz…” or whatever.

 

 Fighting a pain others turn from is but one of the many concepts I've had to wrestle with, practically all my life, starting much too early. I've learned to compartmentalize a lot of things, just to get on with it. But, whatever I do, I don't follow my "beliefs" just because they "ring" or (let's be blunt) feel true. 

I know how that "works":

Exactly a week after watching the movie Edmond, where a fortuneteller's "advice" helps screw up a guy's life, I accidentally bumped into another film that featured a male NewAger.

It was The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers starring Geoffrey Rush. 

Now - having no clue a fortuneteller was an integral part of Peter Sellers' story - I could have found this second NewAge occurrence significant, somehow, as a part of my own life.

I'm into this shit, right-right?

Somebody trying to "tell me something," maybe?

   

Hey, I might be that hot important.

But it gets even better because, after divorcing his wife (!) Peter Sellers goes to this fortuneteller who - fraudulently acting on a tip the director Blake Edwards wants Sellers to star in a movie - tells the actor to build a strong relationship with someone who has the initials "B.E.". 

Sellers immediately runs out and "marries" Britt Ekland. 

Which also doesn't end well.

But, otherwise, what's so weird? 

My very next movie was The Wicker Man, which I had no idea was starring - wait for it:

Britt-Fucking-Ekland!!!

   

 And not just Britt Ekland, but I'm talking Peter Sellers' second "wife" buck naked - this YouTube cut is edited and framed not to show it - and doing some Stonehenge-y white girl hoodoo love dance, using NewAge to try and make a good man go bad.

[Place the theme to The Twilight Zone here.] 

I was getting totally sucked in, like, Oh-My-God, Becky, Look-At-Her-Butt.

What the name of Oprah and Gail was going on?  Had I discovered The Matrix? 

   

Nope.

 Nothing was going on, except we're a nation of hysterics, seeing "signs" where there are none - and disregarding everything we know for "beliefs" - as unworthy as anyone who holds them.

The reality is, I pick up, and watch, random DVDs for free from the library. 

Y'all suit yourselves,...

 

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,...

The Ugliest One They've Done It With (Against Their Will)

"I'm not a fortune teller / I won't be bringing news of what tomorrow brings: 

I'll leave that up to you,..."

-- Maroon 5, Fortune Teller

Folks, when I notice somebody, in TMR's site-specific way, you can say I'm practically pinning a sign on their back to stay noticed. Not in the media but in reality. One time for the cameras? Sure:

Nothing up my sleeves - Presto!

Whether you look at Mitt and The Mo's, bad Republicans, Scientology, Glenn Reynolds - even the Democrats - if TMR has voiced the opinion they needed to slow their roll, ethically, they seem to be slowed or slowing. It ain't just the post-holiday news period. Something significant may be happening:

Nothing's working for them because - if you ask me - reality (as some have stated) is finally rearing it's ugly head. They don't know what to do, so they're scared (not surprising for intellectual cowards).

Why I waste my time - with these guys still at the head of the pack - is anybody's guess:

By the look of things, they're doing just fine without me.

"Your guru must screw you for a new you."

True, true - I'd better move to dealing with loss,…

 

When Mitt Romney Gets His Own Planet (Can We Visit?)

I keep insisting psychics should be busted - arrested - under fraud laws (Why else do we even have fraud laws?) but everyone else seems to think, even if it comes down to death, the gullible should be allowed to be stupid. Here are the words of a woman who sank into financial ruin from her addiction to them:

“I lived my life by what they told me and without it I felt completely lost and unable to function. 

“I didn’t have anyone else I felt I could talk to and the psychics would listen to my problems and offer advice, visions into my future and contact from beyond the grave. I spent my days wondering what I’d find out on the next phone call and as soon as I hung up on one I was already thinking of new questions for the next.”

"Visions into my future and contact from beyond the grave." Whoo-boy. You KNOW you don't have any friends when not a single person in your social circle will tell you that's not possible.

What am I saying? I know from experience that, once they slip into La-La Land, these nutjobs violently push away anybody that argues for accepting reality (And if it's a woman, their girl and gay friends will assist them in it, as some misguided effort at Grrrl Power,...)

Still, that's the problem as I see it - that EVERYBODY isn't arguing for reality. The mark can only push away the rationalist because the con man's victims have other so-called "friends" who will go along with anything they say or do. To some people (the idiotically insecure) that's what trust consists of now, as twisted as that is.

When I consider all the havoc believers wreck, especially on others lives, it makes my blood boil. But just as bad are the people who go along - which is almost everybody. So what are we going to do? I know - unbelievable as it sounds:

Keep electing total fruitcakes to run our country! 

Because, as far as I can tell, collectively leaping head-first off a cliff HAS to be a pretty reliable way - for some people - to finally come face-to-face with the truth,…
 

There Ain't No "Obama Curse" (There IS An LQF)

Just a quick reminder that while the Instapundit is talking about the "Obama Curse" - which one of his readers dates back to 2010 - I used my knowledge of NewAge to tag Oprah's candidate with The Law of Quantum Failure.....as early as 2008.

Obviously - like Wesley Snipes avoiding prison and Global Warming - Obama broke the law throughout the campaign, but it couldn't last,...

Far Out

When you just can't do it any longer, this is what you're left with:

I might take the daring leap into full blown atheism. I was once a guy that read Tarot cards, believed in angels, played with pendulums and spent a fortune on books like "The Secret". I now have no doubt that all of that stuff is at best, a fun distraction and at worst, a dangerous delusion. I feel like my eyes are opening to a new level of personal truth and with that truth, ironically perhaps, my long-time depression is slowly dissolving and a boyhood sense of scientific wonder is re-appearing.

More and more, I want to get out of Los Angeles.

Yes, Sir. When you finally come to terms with reality, the last place you'll want to be is one of those so-called "power spots" or dream factories - where you can see the cogs turning and you're still treated worse than someone in the audience. Where you realize you're being used. What is anyone in any of those places for again?

Oh yeah, being there, Chauncy.

Being there - and nothing more.

Everything Involves You Picking Up The Soap,...

Man, it's a good thing I can't hang a "fortune teller" shingle out front, because I'd be cleaning up:

The upcoming hearings on Islamic radicalization, to be presided over by Representative Peter T. King, the  Republican from  Long Island who is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, have already prompted much protest. One critic, Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, said the hearings are by definition unjust since they “single out Muslim-Americans as the source of homegrown terrorism.” The committee should instead “examine all forms of violence motivated by extremist belief.”

This controversy calls to mind the often clamorous proceedings of what might prove to be a forerunner of Mr. King’s investigations, those held by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. HUAC, as it came to be known, is best remembered today for its “Red-hunting” sessions in the late 1940s. The witnesses, “friendly” and “unfriendly,” included the “Hollywood Ten” and government officials, some of whom were or were accused of, or admitted to having been, Communist Party members or even Soviet agents.

Yes, indeed. Now, I guess, all I've got to work on are my skills as a hypnotist,...

The Union For Peace, Love And Understanding

Just keep repeating "there's no link between the Democrats, NewAge and violence, there's no link between the Democrats, NewAge and violence" and that will make it true:

SUZAN HAYDEN

It seems that this person has tweeted death wishes towards Governor Scott Walker and Jihn Kasich, as well as every “Republican Governor.”

She is “an astrologer.” No. Really. She is.

Let’s tell her fortune….

I see her in an orange jump suit, sharing a cell with her new special friend, Bernice. Bernice enjoys it when you “yodel while carrying a six-pack.”

Here are the tweets:

-Gov JOHN KASICH (OH)&Gov Scott Walker(Wi)must be eliminated by March 22nd or OUR AMERICA WILL BE DESTROYED. about 5 hours ago via web

-Wisconsin&Ohio Police eliminate in any way possible GovWalker & Gov John Kasich. Prison for TREASON or DEATH. about 5 hours ago via web

-Local&State Police jail or eliminate Republican Governors NOW<<<<<<<<< about 5 hours ago via web

I want to know if this idiot is a member of the Astrologer’s Union! hehe

Yea, she, Andrew Sullivan, Jared Lee Laughner, The Daily Kos kids, and Arianna Huffington, are all founding members!

And do you notice how she feels she's got some special "connection" to, or "powers" over, the police to do her bidding?

In-fucking-credible.

Hat Tip (and a complete fucking rip) from the blog we love: iOwnTheWorld

A Prophet - Or Could It Be I'm Fooling Myself?

Gee, is it possible that people are finally getting the message about the NewAge Left that we've been saying, like, forever? Let's see:

The single most dangerous thing about leftists is their capacity for self-delusion. Most leftists really do believe that they personally know what is best for everyone.

That can't be right - it's too straight forward. Plus, it's written by one of those crazy American Tea Party conservatives, so there's no reason to take their word for anything - let's go to Europe, where they're at least edumacated:

Look to the whole of the Left, and you find gullibility. Stick two fingers up at the establishment, flash some 'alternative' credentials, and the Left will embrace you as a subversive Messiah. These are the people who spawned the manic organic brigade, happy to pay inflated prices for bog-standard goods. Lefties cheered on the feminist sisterhood, who talk of loving women but in fact want to be just like men. The Left also fell for the Fair Trade campaign, even though farmers in developing countries say it is our protectionism, not our pricing, that cuts into their income.

Time and again, the Lefties fall for some questionable initiative that promises a panacea for the world’s ailments – from the patriarchy to pesticides. Their boundless naivety propels them towards dodgy causes,...it also makes them vulnerable to gross self-deception.

Man, if they keep this up, I'm probably going to have to find a new gig - like fortune teller!