Archive for the ‘Anamolous Phenomena/ Forteana’ Category
The Rick Santelli ‘Tea Party’ Controversy: Article Kicks Up a Media Dust Storm
Posted by invizweb on March 4, 2009
Mark Ames and Yasha Levine, of eXiled Online, wrote for AlterNet
..Santelli’s reversal resulted from the controversy surrounding a Playboy article by journalists Mark Ames and Yasha Levine. The article, which was later taken down from Playboy’s site after possible libel claims, exposed the connection between the right-wing group FreedomWorks and the online Tea Party organizers, and suggested that Santelli’s tirade was a “carefully planned trigger” for the Tea Parties.
In addition to his public statement on CNBC, Santelli suffered the ignominy of canceling an appearance on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show this week, and further revelations and accusations are flying between Ames and Levine’s ExiledOnline Web magazine and the New York Times and Atlantic Monthly blog, among others.
In a statement on the controversy, sent to me in the afternoon on March 3, Ames and Levine write:
“There has been a lot of speculation as to why Playboy removed our original article from its site. Let us put it this way: When you look at the fallout from our article — FreedomWorks admits its role in the teaparty, Santelli issues a giant lawyer-penned opus about how he loves Obama, and CNBC (whose parent company is the megaconglomerate General Electric) frightens a bunch of Astroturfing Web sites into dropping Santelli’s name and into revealing their own PAC sponsors — then it’s clear we hit the bull’s-eye and stirred up the wrath of a very scary monster.
“Given all of this, it would not be unreasonable for one to consider the possibility (as many have) that the multigazilliondollar megabeast GE threatened the much smaller independent media company Playboy with a terrifying and expensive lawsuit, which, given the current financial crisis, is not something anyone but another GE-sized megabeast could cope with. ‘Nuf said on that.”
Read more.
Posted in Cryptopolitics, Current Events, Internet | Tagged: eXiled Online, FreedomWork, Mark Ames, Rick Santelli, Tea Party, Yasha Levine | Leave a Comment »
The 25 Meme
Posted by invizweb on January 31, 2009
An excerpt from my Facebook profile:
“Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.” -an anonymous Friend
1. Ever since I read The Illuminatus Trilogy! by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea, I have held a special mystical affinity for the numbers 5, 17, 23, and 40. The Chinese people in this note will point out that 40 is a very unclean number. Those hip would know that the man who first told the legendary William S. Burroughs who popularize said 23 Meme, died a vicious death, so there’s more than a 23% chance I will be cursed by this decision~!
3. Even though she is a Myspace and Facebook friend now, I once bore a grudge against Margaret Cho over what I thought to be a racist joke about woks. We’re good now.
4. As an elementary school kid, I thought RuPaul was a fine woman. Then I found out RuPaul was born male. That said, shi has a much better sense of style than me, and I am almost sure shi is the reincarnation of Aleister Crowley. See the Book of the Law for clues (Liber Al Vegis). If anyone can bring the next Aeon for humanity, it would have to be RuPaul.
6. Born in the HK, raised the in the South BX from age 6 months to 15 years.
Posted in Anamolous Phenomena/ Forteana, Internet, New York, Philosophy & Religion & Spirituality | Tagged: Combat Hooligans | Leave a Comment »
On Hip Hop and Homophobia, “If You Are Homophobic, Then You Are Probably Gay?”
Posted by invizweb on January 17, 2009
Editor: Below is a compelling yet whimsical article by Johann Hari for the Huffington Post.
“…Listen to any album and a list of homophobic howls will hit you: Eminem squeaking “Hate fags? The answer’s yes!”, or Masse saying “I be wastin’ em. That’s what you faggots get!” The music’s mood was summarised in a 1992 Ice Cube hit: “True niggaz ain’t gay.”
This boom-boom-boom of homo-cidal hate has a crushing effect on gay kids. It sends out the message: you are so repulsive you should be killed. It’s one of several reasons why gay teenagers are still — after all the amazing progress we have made — six times more likely to commit suicide than their straight siblings.
Why do they do it? Why do hip-hop artists — often the victims of bigotry themselves — incite this hatred? For ten years, Terrence Dean was at the heart of the hip-hop scene as a producer at MTV and Warner Brothers. His life is as ghetto as any of the big name artists. His mother was a heroin-addicted, AIDS-infected prostitute whose ‘clients’ held Terrence hostage at gunpoint. His drunken grandmother raised him in the slums of Detroit, and he eventually ended up in prison. When he was released, he headed for Hollywood – and he was amazed to stumble into a gay underworld stocked with some of the biggest names in hip-hop”
Read more.
Posted in Human Sexuality, Internet, Urban Legends | Tagged: Hip Hop, homophobia, Huffington Post, Terrance Dean | 1 Comment »
Green Eggs and Bob?
Posted by invizweb on January 12, 2009
Editor’s Note: Yesterday, two years ago, on January 11, 2007 at 4;50 AM PST, Robert Anton Wilson left this life. I wrote some words to remember him by, last year. Interestingly, Jason Pitzl-Waters, a premiere blogger of the Pagan community reviewed Green Egg Omlet, An Anthology of Art and Articles from the Legendary Pagan Journal, which contained artciles Rev. Bob wrote for the celebrated peridodical. From reading the review, and gleaming inside the TOC, I think I might get a copy from Borders. It would look nice next to my copy of Drawing Down the Moon in my bookcase. What were the first forty years of the modern Pagan movement like? Here is an an excerpt of Pitzl-Waters’ review of this collection from a bygone era.
The print medium is changing irrevocably. Any clear-eyed assessment concerning the state of magazines and newspapers would see a widespread and unforgiving culling taking place. So many magazines are going under that a regularly updated blog has been created to keep track of the carnage, while digital-age pundits predict that the surviving niche publications will soon have to make hard choices about their future. While I’m no futurist, I’ve seen some of these changes coming for some time now, the struggling economy only hastening a transition already underway. It is part of the reason that the bulk of my writing is focused on this blog, rather than in the more “traditional” outlets for a writer/journalist (though I do admit to a certain romantic attachment to being in print, and I currently write for Pagan publications like PanGaia and Thorn).
Given these shake-ups in the world of print, I think it is entirely timely that I recently received a review copy of “Green Egg Omelette: An Anthology of Art and Articles From the Legendary Pagan Journal”. This book, a compliation of excerpts from one of the most influential Pagan magazines ever printed, shows just how vital and necessary the format once was. While books published for Pagans usually stuck to the “101-isms” of Wicca and other Pagan faiths, it was in the magazines that this loose network of Witches, Pagans, magicians, free-thinkers, and philosophers started to communicate, hash out ideas, argue, and push the boundaries of what they knew. It was a place where Pagan filk could rub shoulders with treatises on magic(k) by Robert Anton Wilson, and initial attempts at describing a Pagan theology could have a place next to explorations of polyamory. It is little wonder that even today Green Egg is remembered fondly by almost all who came across it in their journey.
Read more.
Posted in Internet, Magic(k), Mythology, Neo Paganism, Philosophy & Religion & Spirituality, Urban Legends | Tagged: Green Egg, Jason Pitzl-Waters, Robert Anton Wilson, The Wild Hunt | Leave a Comment »
Right Where You Are Sitting Now! EPISODE 21 – 2008: Obama, Anonymous and the State of Neo Paganism with DisInfo.com’s Raymond Wiley and Austin Gandy
Posted by invizweb on January 8, 2009
Ken wrote:
This week we mark the end of our holiday break by discussing some of our ‘favorite bits’ of 2008. Topics covered in this show include Anonymous, The end of Neo-Paganism as we know it?, Patriots and the Georgia Guidestones and of course Obama (or in this case OBAWWWWMA).
Joining me for this episodes banter is Sir Raymond Wiley and Lord Austin Gandy from ye olde Out There Radio and the all new Disinformation The Podcast.
Download now.
Posted in Anamolous Phenomena/ Forteana, Internet, Neo Paganism, Podcasts, Urban Legends | Tagged: Austin Gandy, Disinformation, Georgia Guidestones, Raymond Wiley, Right Where You Are Sitting Now! | Leave a Comment »

