Woo Is Just Wrong

"I'm angry; this is not right."

- The skeptics hero, James "The Amazing" Randi, in a discussion with college kids at Penn State University, about the paranormal, homeopathy, and other frauds, as reported in The Daily Collegian

Pissed Off Over Nothing

"Anger, or at least the unmediated expression of it, has effectively been outlawed. The emotional police have declared war on anyone who remotely resembles an angry young man (or woman). The aim, it seems to me, is to turn the ‘billygoats’ into sheep, yet barely an eyebrow has been raised in response to this insidious campaign of mental manipulation, emotional conformism and spirit-dampening,..."

"The demonisation of anger - more than that, the borderline criminalisation of anger - is part of today’s new insidious, intimate policing of the emotional mind. The wholesale management of anger is an attempt to enforce conformity, spearheaded by politicians, police, officials, judges and health practitioners who seem to prefer a populace that resigns, fatalistically, to the problems it faces, rather than one that asks awkward questions and kicks up a furious fuss."

"Anger was once seen as an understandable reaction to unpleasant experiences or less-than-civilised living and working conditions; it was a rational, sometimes even dignified ‘strong feeling of displeasure’. Now, in the Anti-Angry Decade, it has been psychologised: anger is looked upon as a condition, a disease, a moral failing on the part of individuals which must be treated and corrected."

"The psychologisation of anger has two consequences: first it separates our anger from the experience or the condition that gave rise to it, so that our ‘expressions of rage’ are always judged to be disproportionate, irresponsible and illegitimate."

"The second consequence,...the anger-management movement nurtures a society that is obsessed with policing individuals’ inner lives rather than focusing on transforming the world around us. From the anti-angry worldview, society should devote its resources to correcting rage-afflicted individuals rather than fixing the things that made us angry in the first place."

"You know you live in a deeply authoritarian society when, Stalinist-style, political, social and personal disgruntlement is labelled a mental illness, and the powers-that-be focus on pacifying and even medicating angry individuals rather than listening to and meeting their demands."

"The war against anger is not a top-down conspiracy. This is not Nineteen Eighty-Four, with faceless authoritarians decreeing that certain emotions must be outlawed. Rather, today’s nervous and insecure elite instinctively fears certain emotions and champions others; indeed, it is precisely because the authorities are adrift and directionless that they feel the need to police the mind and to pacify what looks to them like an unknowable, untrustworthy mass of people: the public. So governments promote happiness in schools and workplaces on one hand, and demonise anger on the other, because they would rather that we were contented little lambs, resigned and relaxed, rather than agitated, questioning and demanding individuals.

And yet there is still a great deal to be angry about,..."

- From Brendan O’Neill, writing in Spiked!

Nickelodeon's Shitty Bubblegum Revolution

At the March 13 hearing of the Berkeley Police Review Commission, tearful and angry antiwar protesters claimed local cops knocked them down, stomped them, and otherwise misbehaved during recent rallies protesting the war in Iraq and the presence of military recruiters in town. One activist decried "belligerent riot squads who use batons and arrests ... to silence political speech." Another claimed that "the youth of Berkeley ... were being beaten," albeit providing no specifics. Still another accused the cops of doing "everything they could to facilitate a right-wing hatefest."

But who was really inciting the hatefest? At the February 12 rally, this reporter saw high-school students confronting cops, calling them "cocksuckers," and shouting profanity unprovoked at elderly Marine supporters. Berkeley Unified School District spokesman Mark Coplan said he saw members of the antiwar group World Can't Wait deliberately hiding behind students while poking at police officers. "The police had kids screaming at them with adults behind them encouraging them," Coplan said in an interview about that rally. "I told the kids, 'The Berkeley police are not your enemies. When they tell you to move back, you have to or you'll be arrested.' ... I felt tortured watching what those officers went through that day."

A fixture at antiwar events nationwide, World Can't Wait was founded in 2005 by activists associated with the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party, whose web site RevCom.us endorses World Can't Wait in missives such as this one from RCP Chairman Bob Avakian. "The youth ... can be a very powerful force, in relation to the objectives of World Can't Wait," wrote the Berkeley-bred Avakian. "And, of course, from the standpoint of our party, they have a strategically important role in relation to the revolution."

The revolution also had some help from the mainstream media. On February 4, 2007, Nickelodeon's "Nick News" aired "Rebels With a Cause," a segment lauding fourteen-year-old Berkeley High School freshman and World Can't Wait organizer Micah, who was shown wearing an orange Guantánamo jumpsuit and black hood at street protests urging the impeachment of George W. Bush. "Being ready to rock the boat takes courage," host Linda Ellerbee told her viewers as the segment began. Coplan said Nickelodeon personnel told him they were excited to find Micah "because he was young enough to relate to their viewing audience."

- The East Bay Express, in an investigation of anti-war protests, in Berkeley, California.

This goes beyond sucking - it's just wrong - and somebody (many somebodies, including Linda Ellerbee and Nickelodeon) should be charged with child abuse. How dare they.

France: The Fair Weather Friend

"We should not allow,...an ever closer liaison with France. Why is this not a good idea? The first reason is that France has rarely been a reliable or trustworthy ally,...Time and again we have paid in blood and gold for our alliance with her, and usually received precious little thanks for our sacrifices,...

Look at it another way. Which alliance has benefited this country more: the so-called special relationship with the United States or the Entente Cordiale? Whereas France turned out on two occasions last century to be a country that needed rescuing, America has twice done her bit - three times, if you include the Cold War - to help rescue us and the rest of Europe.

We must be polite to them,...but we should not be taken in,...about a,...Anglo-French friendship.

A moment's thought about what has taken place between our two countries over the past hundred years,...should be enough to remind us why France and Britain can never be - and should never be - the very best of friends."

- Stephen Glover, telling it like it is, while writing for The Daily Mail

Well, Science Doesn't Know Everything (Part I)

I hear it all the time: "Well, science doesn't know everything,..". They say it like science is a bald-headed step-child compared to whatever goofy belief they're defending. So I think, from time-to-time, I'm going to remind these fools of what science does know - like space travel (above) or how to put a person to sleep, cut them open, fiddle around inside them, and wake them up again. What it allows us to see in the very small, as well as the very large; and whatever else people with NewAge beliefs think they can pooh-pooh because their outlook is so limited, and malthusian, they can't imagine anything better than what it allows.

By the way, you morons, if you're looking at this on a computer: science.

Eastern Philosophy (A Photo Essay)

Listen Up, Ladies: Put Hillary In Charge And Your Ass Is Grass (Just Ask Monica Lewinsky)

When bullies are women, they choose other women as their prey in 71% of cases. Bullying, or status-blind harassment, is four times more prevalent than illegal, civil rights, status-based harassment. Same-gender harassment defines the two most frequent categories of bullying.

- From a recent Zogby Poll on workplace bullying

What's that you say? "Oh, the world would be such a better place with women in charge"? Sure the world would be a better place with women in charge: men could watch the cat fights all day (I like the hair-pulling myself.) It would be just one big ol' "cult of the mean girl". And - hey - you'd be in charge. So men wouldn't have to pull you apart, going, "Ladies, ladies,..."

And, then, just let a guy you all like walk in,....

Tony Robbins' Musical Taste Will Burn Your Ears

I'm a huge U2 fan so everything from "Vertigo," "Beautiful Day," "The Saints Are Coming," "With Or Without You" – these are just standards when I'm working out. Alicia Keyes's "No One," Usher's new album, old Guns 'n' Roses like "Sweet Child of Mine," Nickelback's "Rock Star," the Best of Andrea Bocelli, and Jay-Z and Linkin Park's "Numb." My iPod is about as diverse as you can imagine.

- Tony Robbins, who the Christian Science Monitor refers to as a "leadership and performance guru" (remember: this is the super-tall bullshit artist with the fire-walking scam) on what he's listening to (like anyone should actually care - except to prove he doesn't know dick).

I'm sorry, but that is just an awful selection - and don't give me any of that "music is subjective" bullshit - Tony Robbins is a user, with a very-diverse playlist of extremely bad tunes. Guns 'N' Roses? Come on. Anyone that breathes the words "guns" and "roses" had better be exhaling them with "Mr." and "Brownstone" or they ain't got a right to live. Fuck, that shit hurt to read. I'd much rather listen to The Shaggs.

Anyway, to prove he's an asshole, here's a painless explanation of fire walking from the world's most super-nice skeptic, Michael Shermer:

Life During Wartime

Just a quick greeting to everyone swarming in from City Journal and (my man) Panda Bear MD - "welcome" - and a few well-chosen (and borrowed) words of advice as you look around:

"This ain't no party/this ain't no disco/this ain't no foolin' around,..."

I'll speak (Oh, you bet I will),

The Crack Emcee

I Will Not Follow

"Mantra meditation turns humans into zombies who serve [an] agenda,...that agenda is procurement of more humans and more human energy. This explains the common phenomenon of proselytizing by the religious, including fundamentalist Christians, TMers, and disciples of other varieties."

- From Bronte Baxter, writing in The Canadian

I've posted another part of this essay before*. I don't agree with all of it (he goes into a Bush thing at the end that makes me nauseous) but it still might be helpful, for anyone trapped in an Eastern spirituality haze, as a way to start breaking the spell.

I'm re-posting it to point out that it was written after Baxter took a trip to Fairfield, Iowa - the same place the Barack Obama cult started*: The TMers just added themselves to Oprah's "followers", stirred, and viola! We got The Cult of Obama.*

Anyway, the spell seems to have subsided, if not broken. I think we may have dodged a bullet on that one. Or Barack did, I don't know. Just don't vote for him and let's hope for the best. He might decide to confront his "followers" about the phenomena one day. If he ever does, he'd get my vote, for sure. But next time - not now. The fact he let it go as far as it did says he ain't ready: real leaders have to be aware of these things*. And if he is, and he let it go anyway, he ain't no real leader:

He's Oprah Winfrey's bitch.

*I'll add the links tonight, but you can click the Meditation and Barack Obama tags (at the bottom of the post) and find the previous appropriate ones yourselves.

I Guess - Since She's Already Got Rocks In Her Head - She Might As Well Go All The Way

Madonna wears crystals in her bra to improve her love life.

The pop queen has reportedly become a fan of the bizarre healing treatment which involves keeping pink quartz stone in underwear to boost love and healing.

A source said: "Madonna is a big fan of crystal therapy.

One of the techniques is having pink quartz crystals glided over your body to help you relax.

"Another is wearing the crystals inside your underwear they the stones are close to the heart to encourage love".

Earlier this year, it was reported that the 46-year-old star, who is a member of the controversial Kabbalah faith, turned to Indian medicine in a bid to conceive another child.

Insiders revealed mother-of-two Madonna and movie director husband Guy Ritchie were taking tablets prescribed by celebrity obstetrician Dr Gowri Motha, to help her get pregnant.

A source said at the time: "Tablets were sent over from India for her They looked like horse tablets - they were just so huge".

- From Female First

That's Not Funny (Yes It Is)

No, no, really, Folks, Tom Cruise is fine,...is it just me or does no one really care about what Scientology has done to him?

And We Need Him Now More Than Ever

"He could find wiggle room in the word is. He could issue stern denials about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky while looking straight into the camera. Sen. Bob Kerrey once described him as 'an unusually good liar.'"

- From John Dickerson, writing in Salon.com