Journal perfessor multigeek's Journal: Speaking of Saucer Cults . . . 10
These days I feel more and more like I'm living with Soviet-based mass media. Am I the only one who feels like we can no longer assume that the stuff in the paper has any real connection to the stuff happening out in the world?
As the news gets ever more random, I find it harder and harder to keep track of what is reality versus what is paranoid fantasy. For example, most of my friends by now have talked about what we expect to happen when the Republican Convention comes to town. Will the feds enforce martial law? Will some Al Quada faction hit the city? Will the protesters suffer mass arrests?
But anybody reading the news would have no idea at all. A friend came over for dinner, we started talking about the risk of a terrorist attack on New York, and we decided to Google it. Nothing. Not a doggone thing at all from any major media source.
Now personally, I've already resolved my equivalent of Pascal's wager and I intend to be at least a hundred miles away with a significant percentage of my possessions in several other states.
But it seems like fewer and fewer of the things I and the people around me know or suspect have anything to do with what gets reported and no, I do not consider the ranting of places like Indymedia to be reporting.
- Was the 9/11 Pennsylvania plane crash a result of passenger action or was it shot down?
- Whatever happened to all those other planes that were supposedly diverted, some of which were supposedly reported at the time to contain terrorists?
- Wasn't a partial breakup of parts of Microsoft supposed to be happening by now?
- What countries are we in combat in and to what extent? Who the hell were the people who just died in Uzbekistan and what got seized Tuesday in the Philippines and England?
- What was the BBC's involvement in assessments of WMD data?
- Who *did* spread all that anthrax? What about the recent Ricin incident?
- What really happened with all those biowarfare experts who all died/got killed in the same week?
- Are we supposed to not be upset that Kerry and Bush are both Skull&Bones members while Dean has enough S&B connections to put him well inside the suspect range? How about Dubya's recent refusal to discuss the issue?
- Is there anything Halliburton *hasn't* got a corrupt contract for these days?
- Anybody got a clear answer on the gruesome effects on the creators of "Fortunate Son"? Was there a coke conviction or not? And while we're on the subject, was an explanation ever given for why the accuser against Quayle, recorded as a model prisoner, was put into solitary and left there for months at a time?
- How the hell many people are we holding in custody without charges or other legal rights? Seized when? On what grounds?
- Is there going to be any apology or other recompense for Chaplain Lee or will the U.S. military get away scot free yet again since, after all, he had "pornography" on his computer and may have committed adultery, which we all know is just the same a terrorism?
- Are there or are there not FEMA-run camps in mothballs being "repurposed" to hold protesters and other "social elements" in the event of the nation being subject to a new terrorist attack?
- Are there or are there not rules of engagement for all those machinegun toting fellas I see around the city these days?
- What exactly were the "secret concerns" determining response at the WTC site on and after 9/11? Was there gold bullion and if so, how much? Whose offices were getting special protection? And what effects did the Guiliani "emergency center bunker" insanity play in the bungled emergency response?
These days I feel like I'm living in a Robert Anton Wilson story except that it's nowhere near funny enough. We're expected to go along with things like a Resident in Chief who utterly falsified his military serivce records (what, not a single human being can be found who EVER saw Dubya in his East Coast posting?) and White House advisors who do things like publish economic estimates based on assumptions that haven't been valid in two hundred years.
If this is still a republic, it seems like a mighty queer one to me. If this is a police state, well, they sure did a quiet and tidy job of sneaking it in.
Too late for me to underground,
Rustin
As the news gets ever more random, I find it harder and harder to keep track of what is reality versus what is paranoid fantasy. For example, most of my friends by now have talked about what we expect to happen when the Republican Convention comes to town. Will the feds enforce martial law? Will some Al Quada faction hit the city? Will the protesters suffer mass arrests?
But anybody reading the news would have no idea at all. A friend came over for dinner, we started talking about the risk of a terrorist attack on New York, and we decided to Google it. Nothing. Not a doggone thing at all from any major media source.
Now personally, I've already resolved my equivalent of Pascal's wager and I intend to be at least a hundred miles away with a significant percentage of my possessions in several other states.
But it seems like fewer and fewer of the things I and the people around me know or suspect have anything to do with what gets reported and no, I do not consider the ranting of places like Indymedia to be reporting.
- Was the 9/11 Pennsylvania plane crash a result of passenger action or was it shot down?
- Whatever happened to all those other planes that were supposedly diverted, some of which were supposedly reported at the time to contain terrorists?
- Wasn't a partial breakup of parts of Microsoft supposed to be happening by now?
- What countries are we in combat in and to what extent? Who the hell were the people who just died in Uzbekistan and what got seized Tuesday in the Philippines and England?
- What was the BBC's involvement in assessments of WMD data?
- Who *did* spread all that anthrax? What about the recent Ricin incident?
- What really happened with all those biowarfare experts who all died/got killed in the same week?
- Are we supposed to not be upset that Kerry and Bush are both Skull&Bones members while Dean has enough S&B connections to put him well inside the suspect range? How about Dubya's recent refusal to discuss the issue?
- Is there anything Halliburton *hasn't* got a corrupt contract for these days?
- Anybody got a clear answer on the gruesome effects on the creators of "Fortunate Son"? Was there a coke conviction or not? And while we're on the subject, was an explanation ever given for why the accuser against Quayle, recorded as a model prisoner, was put into solitary and left there for months at a time?
- How the hell many people are we holding in custody without charges or other legal rights? Seized when? On what grounds?
- Is there going to be any apology or other recompense for Chaplain Lee or will the U.S. military get away scot free yet again since, after all, he had "pornography" on his computer and may have committed adultery, which we all know is just the same a terrorism?
- Are there or are there not FEMA-run camps in mothballs being "repurposed" to hold protesters and other "social elements" in the event of the nation being subject to a new terrorist attack?
- Are there or are there not rules of engagement for all those machinegun toting fellas I see around the city these days?
- What exactly were the "secret concerns" determining response at the WTC site on and after 9/11? Was there gold bullion and if so, how much? Whose offices were getting special protection? And what effects did the Guiliani "emergency center bunker" insanity play in the bungled emergency response?
These days I feel like I'm living in a Robert Anton Wilson story except that it's nowhere near funny enough. We're expected to go along with things like a Resident in Chief who utterly falsified his military serivce records (what, not a single human being can be found who EVER saw Dubya in his East Coast posting?) and White House advisors who do things like publish economic estimates based on assumptions that haven't been valid in two hundred years.
If this is still a republic, it seems like a mighty queer one to me. If this is a police state, well, they sure did a quiet and tidy job of sneaking it in.
Too late for me to underground,
Rustin
Point by Point (Score:2)
What do you mean, "no longer"? When could you?
As the news gets ever more random
But maybe they aren't random...
- Was the 9/11 Pennsylvania plane crash a result of passenger action or was it shot down?
We plead the sixth: Swamp gas.
- Wasn't a partial breakup of parts of Microsoft supposed to be happening by now?
Yes. Isnt it amazing how money can
Re:Point by Point (Score:2)
I thought that was overturned....
Some responses (Score:2)
Yes. We know that it had terrorists on it. We know that the passengers tried to stop it. We know it crashed down.
In fifty years whatever happened will be declassified, and we'll "know the truth." Until then, why worry about it?
- Whatever happened to all those other planes that were supposedly diverted, some of which were supposedly reported at the time to contain terrorists?
I'd wager that they didn't find te
They're from tbe Government: Trust Them, :-) (Score:3, Interesting)
First of all, this is about our safety. We have NEVER had the dergee of secrecy now being imposed before. Not during World War I, not during World War II, not ever. As a citizen, as a New Yorker, as a publisher, and as somebody endangered every time our government authorizes the sort of craziness they're proposing for during the RNC, I have a right to know w
Re:They're from tbe Government: Trust Them, :-) (Score:2)
Don't put words in my mouth, Rustin.
I want us to think about the questions before we ask them, and not worry about the ones that can't effect us. It doesn't matter, really, if the 4th 9-11 plane was shot down or taken down or blown up by terrorists or knocked out of the sky by a meteorite. What matters is that the Air Force will shoot down planes that are being used as weapons.
Similiarly, it doesn't matter if Kerry and Bush are Illum
Re:They're from the Government: Trust Them, :-) (Score:2)
Don't put words in my mouth, Rustin.
Kinda hard to avoid doing that when what I'm doing is framing the problems with what you've written.
Your overall message keeps coming back to variations on "it doesn't matter". Well, if you're going to spend so much time in this thred, please do address the many paragraphs
Eternal Vigilence (Score:2)
Ok, I'll try again, with a different tract:
If I started asking about the sexual positionts that the President most favors, would I be doing anything to avert Tyranny?
There are some things that, really, asking questions about isn't important. And there are some things that really are important, questions that really must be asked, and answers that will influence who we pick as President and what the President and the President's men will do.
We should ask the questio
What are you on, so I can avoid it? (Score:2)
Why, without recourse to discussing Presidential sexual positions or the like, is anything that Rustin asked in his original post, "unimporta
Re:What are you on, so I can avoid it? (Score:2)
- Was the 9/11 Pennsylvania plane crash a result of passenger action or was it shot down?
Why does this matter? More to the point, what kind of an answer that Rustin want, and by who? If the passengers took the plane down, how will we know? If the plane was shot down--why is it worthwhile to destroy modern folk heroes NOW when we knew already that our collective pants were down on 9/11?
- Are we supposed to not be upset that Kerry and Bush are both Skull&Bones members while Dean has enough
Re:What are you on, so I can avoid it? (Score:2)
Oh, and in case it wasn't clear--I think that all of the other questions that you and Rustin asked are important, and should be asked and answered. I just think that we should focus on the questions that are the most important.
If you think that the questions I think are unimportant are as or more important than the other questions, I'd like to hear why.