Jordan Peterson Goes To Russia
This is a repost from February 2020. A few things have happened in the last four years. … Sometimes, things go beyond the like/dislike binary. Some stories are just so weird, that the only reaction is to observe in wonder. Just how can real life could be so bizarre? The recent chapter in the Jordan Peterson story is an example. Dr. Peterson is a Toronto psychologist/professor, and youtube personality. His signature work is a book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.
Mikhaila Peterson, the daughter of the professor, released a youtube video on February 7, 2020. “Dad was put on a low dose of a benzodiazepine a few years ago for anxiety following an extremely severe autoimmune reaction to food. He took the medication as prescribed. Last April when my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer, the dose of the medication was increased.” This went on for a while, until he went into rehab. This article, about the first rehab, is dated September 20, 2019.
“After several failed treatment attempts in North American hospitals, including attempts at tapering and micro-tapering, we had to seek an emergency medical benzodiazepine detox, which we were only able to find in Russia. … He’s had to spend 4 weeks in the ICU in terrible shape, but, with the help of some extremely competent and courageous doctors, he survived.”
“She and her husband took him to Moscow last month, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia and put into an induced coma for eight days. She said his withdrawal was “horrific,” worse than anything she had ever heard about. …Jordan Peterson has only just come out of an intensive care unit, Mikhaila said. He has neurological damage, and a long way to go to full recovery.”
This raises a few questions. Why Russia? France ranks as the number one healthcare system in many rankings. The World Health Organization, in their ranking of “Overall efficiency in all WHO member states,” puts Russian Federation at 130, out of 191. (The United States is 37.) USNews ranks Canada as number one. Jordan Peterson is famously Canadian.
Pride goeth before a fall. Jordan Peterson is not a humble person. It is bad manners to celebrate the misfortune of others. However, when the fallen person is famous for promoting 12 Rules for Life, it is tough not to speculate. This story has inspired some creative types. “deep in the Russian wilderness, an unholy experiment is underway. for years Peterson has attempted to transmute himself into the exalted lobster, king of the animals. but there’s been a malfunction—he’s stuck in the interstitial stage, forever to live as an eldritch abomination.” @MenshevikM “Jordan Peterson is incredible because most right wing hacks are very boring career hypocrites, whereas he went from nobody to living in Russia with brain damage in about 3 years by practicing what he preached”
There are hundreds of hours of Jordan Peterson talking online. These videos are a gold mine of ironic comments. Chamblee54 had a post about a Peterson appearance in June 2018. (The video is no longer available.) Apparently, this was after he started taking Benzos. Two quotes that stand out. “What stupid things am I doing that is making my life wretched?” “The next rule is to not let your children do anything that will make other people not like them.”
On November 29, 2018, Peterson was on the Joe Rogan Experience. Rogan “you have the schedule that you have and the amount of energy and enthusiasm you maintain with the schedule is very remarkable cuz you’re not stopping you’re not slowing down I mean you’ve had your foot on the gas for like two solid years now” Peterson “make hay while the Sun shines I guess is that how you feel about it well you know when you have an opportunity that’s completely preposterous you’re a fool to take it for granted … Tammy and I have been to a hundred cities since January.” Dr. Peterson was raking in the dough, and did not want to get off the merry go round. “What stupid things am I doing that is making my life wretched?”
Dr. Peterson started to make appearances after his first bout with rehab. PG saw a video, and noticed a difference in his appearance. PG has written about Dr. Peterson two times, in addition to the 06/13/18 post. There was a commentary about a video at Prager U. When you click the original link to that video, you get a message: “You just hit a route that doesn’t exist… the sadness.” Dennis Prager is another snark-worthy public figure.
The other video is about an appearance Dr. Peterson made in Aspen, hosted by Bari Weiss. John McWhorter asks a question. Dr. Peterson does not have a slick answer. Pictures, for this tabloid view of academia gone awry, are from The Library of Congress.
Was Mohandas Gandhi A Racist?
A meme appeared on facebook, “GHANDI’S 7 DANGERS TO HUMAN VIRTUE.” Below the misspelled name were seven concepts, written in all caps. This got PG thinking.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (M.K. Gandhi) “was born was born on October 2, 1869, at Porbandar, a small town on the western coast of India.” At some point the title Mahatma was applied, and is often used as though it was his name. Exact transliterations between languages using different alphabets is tricky. What is the “correct” spelling of this man’s last name? Most sources today use Gandhi.
Another term, Gandhiji, turns up in the research. “‘Ji’ in Hindi or Urdu is a suffix used after the names of respectable persons and elders like father and mother. It is used every day by millions of Indians to address their elders. Hence Gandhiji is but Mahatma Gandhi, father of our nation, addressed reverently and respectfully. We call mother mataji. Mata means mother.”
The quote in the meme is real. It is found on page 135 of Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Vol. 33. It was in an article found in Young India on October 22, 1925.
“SEVEN SOCIAL SIN The same fair friend wants readers of Young India to know, if they do not already, the following seven social sins: Politics without principles, Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice. Naturally, the friend does not want the readers to know these things merely through the intellect but to know them through the heart so as to avoid them.”
The next entry in the collected works is interesting. “79. THAT ETERNAL QUESTION However much I may wish to avoid it, the Hindu-Muslim question will not avoid me. Muslim friends insist upon my intervention to solve it. The Hindu friends would have me discuss it with them and some of them say I have sown the wind and must reap the whirlwind.”
The meme had comments. Lloyd Lachow Gandhi was intensely racist. Joanne Gibson Gandhi was not intensely racist. Fighting racism was his first cause. John Janiga Gandhi racist??? John Taylor Lloyd, were you born an idiot, or did you have to work at it?
This looks like a job for Mr. Google. When you type the phrase “Is Gandhi,” suggested searches include “sill alive” and “on netflix.” This does not help if you want to know if someone is racist.
Mr. Gandhi lived in South Africa from 1893-1915. During this time he was offended at the treatment of Indian nationals, which led to a decision to fight for Indian rights. Unfortunately, these rights were not to be extended to the native South Africans.
… “there’s no doubting that Gandhi had little time for black people. During his 21 years in South Africa, he repeatedly expressed contempt for the native population, claiming they were no better than the “untouchables” of Indian society. One speech in particular stands out. In 1896, he was quoted as referring to black South Africans as the “raw kaffir, whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with, and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness.” For those of you who aren’t up on your South African slang, “kaffir” is a direct equivalent of our N-word. Another time, he complained about finding himself in a “kaffir” prison, claiming Indians were “above” natives, who “are troublesome, very dirty and live like animals.”
There is the story of the Durban Post Office. “The first major accomplishment of the Natal Indian Congress was to further entrench racial segregation into South African society during a time of massive racial strife. At the time, the Durban, South Africa post office had two doors. One was for whites and the other for Indians and black natives. Gandhi was so disgusted at having to share a door with blacks that he initiated a campaign for the creation of a third door. … A year later, after the issue had already been resolved, Gandhi chose to expound upon his reasons for raising it in the first place. In his August 14, 1896 letter, “The Grievances of the British Indians in South Africa: An Appeal to the Indian Public,” he called being “put on the same level with the native” a “disability.”
This is a repost. Many of the links no longer work. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
TED Talk Google Adventure
This is a repost from February 11, 2020. Thirty days later, the stock market fell 2400 points, and Kroger had panic buying. The pandemic had arrived, and nothing was ever the same again. … TED sends me emails, recommending talks. This week, it was The real story of Rosa Parks — and why we need to confront myths about black history. I felt like listening, and clicked on the link.
David Ikard was the TED-talker. His son came home from school, having learned a lesson about Rosa Parks. Unfortunately, he was taught the version where Mrs. Parks is an old lady, whose feet hurt. The truth is that the protest had been planned.
Dr. Ikard was offended that his son was taught the incorrect version of the story. He wanted to have a conference with the teacher. The transcript tells what happens next. “So I’m agonizing over this, primarily because I understand, as an African-American man, that whenever you talk to whites about racism or anything that’s racially sensitive, there’s usually going to be a challenge. This is what white sociologist Robin DiAngelo calls “white fragility.” She argues that, in fact, because whites have so little experience being challenged about their white privilege that whenever even the most minute challenge is brought before them, they usually cry, get angry or run.” At this point, I decided not to listen to any more of the talk.
I got curious about how this turned out. His son taught his own lesson to the class. The teacher saw the error of her ways. That part of the talk has a happy ending. Unfortunately, the talk has eight minutes to go. Dr. Ikard tells another story. If you want to hear this story, you can listen to the talk.
After the second story, Dr. Ikard is talking about race relations in general. He repeats a quote. “Toni Morrison said, “If, in order for you to be tall, I have to be on my knees, you have a serious problem.” She says, “White America has a serious, serious problem.”
I have never read any of Ms. Morrison’s books. I have heard an interview on CBS radio, and seen a couple of videos. The “If, in order for you…” quote sounds like something she might say. However, I wanted to know the context. How did she come to say that?
I highlight the quote, right click, select google search. The only results that I saw, in English, were the TED talk. The next step is to find the Wikiquotes page for Toni Morrison. Go to Control F, write a search term in the field, and see what you find. After using tall, knees, order, and serious, as search items, the quote does not appear. It is possible that Ms. Morrison did say that sentence, but, for our purposes, it is not verified.
This is not the first time a Toni Morrison quote has caught my attention. A few years ago, a facebook friend posted a video of Ms. Morrison on the Charlie Rose show. I asked the fbf if he had a link for the video, for which he replied “Google it, sir.” It turns out that the video used creative editing, and did not accurately represent what Ms. Morrison said.
This is the problem with saying “Google it.” A search engine is going to show the searcher information that you might not want them to see. Besides that, saying “Google it” is rude. If you post something on facebook, or a TED talk, you should show where you get your information.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
The Georgian Terrace Ballroom
The Georgian Terrace hotel used to have an adjacent ballroom. The building opened as the “Lucky Strike”, featuring “Duck Pin” bowling. At some time, it became a 1300 seat ballroom. It was not the grand ballroom, where events for the premiere of “Gone With The Wind” were held. As time moved on, the ballroom became a music performance hall. I saw shows there under four different business names. After the Agora Ballroom closed, the building was vacant, until a fire August 30, 1987. The site of the ballroom is now occupied by an annex of the Georgian Terrace Hotel.
The first show I saw at this facility was in 1972. The name of the business is forgotten, as is the act that performed. A band, comprised of people I went to high school with, played before he got there.
In 1974, “Big Time” promoter Alex Cooley opened “Alex Cooley’s Electric Ballroom”. (Alex Cooley died December 1, 2015.) The first show that I saw was Dr. John The Night Tripper. A few months later, Capricorn artists Cowboy played, with a vulgar New York band named Mercury opening. Gato Barbieri played, with some wondering how people could dance to that type of music.
Several major acts appeared at the Ballroom, mostly without me in the audience. KISS played there in 1974, and photographs from backstage are in the video. In April of 1974, Steely Dan was across from the Fox. In the summer of 1974, The Tubes played a week at the ballroom, with another heavily hyped show. On January 23, 1976, The Patti Smith Group played at the ballroom.
In 1975, Bruce Springsteen was on the covers of Time and Newsweek, and was receiving a promotional push unlike anything seen before. He played a show at the ballroom that summer, with a generous press party in the balcony. (At one unforgettable show Alex was caught off guard by a Bruce Springsteen request. “He asked if we could shut down the cash registers because they were making too much noise!… That’s the only time I ever did that.” Alex admits.)
I attended two shows in 1975. Mckendree Spring opened for Fanny, while I drank too many bourbon and cokes. In November of 1975, Juice Newton opened for Hot Tuna. Miss Newton seemed to be a bit pale, and performed “Get drunk and screw”. Hot Tuna was amazing. They went on stage at 10:55, and played, without a break, until 2:50. The drummer wore a shirt, mother fucking hot tuna. Few would argue that night.
In autumn of 1977, some brave soul opened a place called “The Ballroom” in the space on Peachtree Street. One night, I went with some friends to see an act, Happy the Man. There seemed to be a bit of chaos in the management of the facility. The Great Southeast Music Hall loaned a few microphones for the show. When the show was over, I walked out to a car, whose motor was running, with the driver asleep inside.
In the summer of 1978, the ballroom opened as The Agora Ballroom. Apparently, there is a music hall in Cleveland with that name, and they opened branch facilities around the country. There were some shows that I did not attend. Todd Rundgren opened the facility August 19, 1978. On October 2, 1979, The Clash played. Pictures from the crowd appeared on an album by the band. On December 2, 1981, U2 made their Atlanta debut.
A few weeks after the opening, PG won tickets to an all Texas show. Marcia Ball opened. I got bored and went to a neighborhood bar to drink beer. I returned later, and stayed long enough for the singer with Asleep at the Wheel to ask the crowd, Are you stoned?
In November of 1978, I called a radio station, and asked to be put on the guest list for Talking Heads . (For Talking Heads, and three links in the following paragraphs, the link is for a previous Chamblee 54 post about the show.) The first six people he called were busy, but the last one agreed to go. On the bus going home, a group of black men started to make unfriendly comments. At the next stop, a black friend got on the bus, and went to talk to me.
A few weeks later, Tim Curry made his United States debut. Some record company invested a lot of money in him, and supplied him with an outstanding band. I was wandering around the balcony after the first show, and saw Tom Waits sitting at a table. The bodyguard said no, that’s not Tom Waits, it is just someone that looks like him. At a bar, after the show, I was raving about what he had seen, when a lady came up to him. What color are your eyes? They are brown, because you are full of shit. Soon, the 23 Oglethorpe was taking him home.
Somewhere in the haze of 78 and 79, Ultravox brought their synthetics to the Agora. A local band, First Blood, was more entertaining as the opener. I drank a very large can of Foster’s beer, and floated through the proceedings. After the show, I was invited to a party in Candler Park. On the way there, there was a horrific car crash on Ponce de Leon. At the party, friends of First Blood dissected their performance, between lines of coke.
One night, I was enjoying drink specials at a neighborhood bar. He took a break, walked over to the Agora, and saw a few minutes of a show by Freddie Hubbard.
In early 1979, the B 52s were on the verge of stardom. (Here is a nifty feature about the Atlanta local music scene in those days.) The opener for the 52s was The Brains , yet another talented band that never made it big. At the table next to PG, a lady wore a dynamite World War Two army uniform.
Later in 1979, Ted Turner had an idea for a TV show, “Live at the Agora”. The first show was filmed in Atlanta, and featured Graham Parker and the Rumor. If they ever show that film again, and you see a crowd shot, that is me wearing a white T shirt, with a white Agora iron on logo. Parker was a great musician, who had the misfortune to look like Big Bird’s nerdy little brother. If Graham Parker looked like Bruce Springsteen, he would have been a superstar.
In March of 1980, Lene Lovich came to the Agora. About a year later, Spirit played on Peachtree Street. The show was sponsored by a radio station, and tickets were $2.96. Despite the low price, and high musical quality, the balcony was closed, and only about a hundred people were at the show. I thought this was odd, but little surprised me by this time.
The last show that I caught at the Agora was The Ramones. Joey and the pinheads were past their prime, with only two original members playing. It was an all ages show, with alcohol served in the balcony. Downstairs was a festive party, with costumes and enthusiastic high school kids. The balcony was the same rock and roll drunks you had seen for years. The Ramones would have made a great oldies band, if they could have quit dying. This is a repost, with pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Mardi Gras
It is fat tuesday again. For someone who lived most of his life in Georgia, it is just another day.
In 1990, PG went to carnival. He rented sleeping bag space in a house on Marigny Street, just outside the quarter. It was like nothing he had ever seen.
This was 14 months after PG quit drinking. If he had life to do over, he would have gone to Mardi Gras first. He did feel good about going through that much drinking without being tempted to participate.
By the end of the Rex Parade, PG was getting tired of the whole shebang, Mob scenes of drunks, in costume, can get old. PG has not been back.
Two years later, the Grateful Dead was playing at the Omni, and the camp followers were in the parking lot. PG would go on his lunch hour and observe. A young lady walked by, and PG said Happy Mardi Gras. She gave him a string of beads.
Five years after that, PG had a boss from New Orleans. He looked like the Grinch who stole Christmas. He also hated Mardi Gras. PG did not know this, and greeted him Tuesday morning with a cheerful Happy Mardi Gras. If looks could kill, PG would have dropped dead. This is a repost, with pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
“White Fragility” Myth
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luke terpstra ~ anthony huber ~ gaza ~ xodohtronu ~ xodohtronu
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wisdom ~ no fap npr ~ after the interview ~ vladimir putin ~ 6 letter words
6 letter word ~ 6 letter word ~ 6 letter word ~ 6 letter word ~ beltline
tersorium ~ luther mckinnon ~ mojo nixon ~ beau ~ retire already
slam ~ scott ritter ~ trevor laster ~ trevor laster ~ joe biden
george kennan ~ whitey ~ catturd ~ toby keith
killer mike ~ killer mike ~ groyper ~ Michele DiPietro ~ slam
immigration is for republicans what racism is for democrats. it can fire up the gullible base, while knowing there is little they can do about it. ~ Mark 6:4 But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. ~ Fani Willis was running against Paul Howard, she said voters deserve a DA that will not have sex with their employees. You can’t make this up. ~ this is your monday morning reader for today. The picture today is a haiku reduction. Take a text, select a five-seven-five group of words, and render the rest unrecognizable. It is a metaphor for a lot of other activity in the world today. ~ yesterday was birthday number 110 for William S. Burroughs, a heroin addict of international renown. The picture today was taken by Timothy H. O’Sullivan in August 1863. “Bealeton, Virginia. Officers of 93d New York Infantry” ~ I do not watch cable news. I saw all the animosity towards @TuckerCarlson Then he got foxfired, I heard some things I agreed with, and I wondered what the problem was. This is similar to what is happening with Mr. Putin ~ Who is going to translate the conversation between @TuckerCarlson and #VladimirPutin ? How will the American translation compare to the Russian translation? ~ the Bituah Leumi data does not distinguish between those killed by Hamas and civilians killed by Israeli forces in the fighting to retake control of southern Israel, an operation in which the army used shells and rockets on inhabited areas, according to testimonies collected by AFP and Israeli media. ~ Now, there is a growing body of evidence that many of the Israeli civilians Tel Aviv claims were killed by Palestinian fighters on Oct. 7 were actually killed by the Israeli military. Over the last month, eyewitness testimonies and other evidence has surfaced indicating that a great many of those blasted and torched on Oct. 7, Palestinian and Israeli alike, were the victims of indiscriminate and massive Israeli tank and helicopter bombardment. The narrative now being pieced together is that Israeli forces fired a huge amount of ordinance indiscriminately from tanks and U.S.-supplied Apache helicopters on towns as well as on cars either fleeing a rave concert or driving towards Gaza with hostages, indiscriminately killing both Palestinian fighters and the Israeli civilians. This was a desperate attempt to contain the Palestinian surprise assault and to prevent the fighters from taking live Israeli hostages. The death toll was then added to those killed by Palestinian fighters and Hamas was blamed. By the military’s own admission, Israeli pilots could not distinguish clearly between Palestinian combatants and Israeli civilians but decided to open fire anyway. Apache helicopter pilots fired continuously without intelligence on targets. Tank crews were ordered to shell homes, even though Israeli hostages might be inside. A military commander even ordered an air attack on his own base when he learned it had been overrun by Palestinian fighters. At least part of the indiscriminate firing appears to have been a deliberate policy called the “Hannibal Directive” under which Israel is willing to kill its own citizens rather than have them taken hostage. ~ “The woman in the black dress” is a key figure in the sexual violence claims about October 7. Was she killed by #Hamas or #IDF ? ~ the spell check suggestion for gnihton is tonight gnihton in chinese is 格尼頓 Gé ní dùn. ~ chamblee54 This is just good clean fun. Krystal says that trash talking “self improvement” adds “shame and pressure to their lives” Saager responds by saying “I don’t know it depends” These are stressful times. A tragedy of historic proportions is occurring in Palestine. The Presidential election is going to be between two senile white guys. Taylor Swift’s bf has a haircut that is cultural appropriation. Krystal and Saager are doing a great job of keeping us informed on these crucial issues. It is not going to hurt anything if they have a discussion of a “human interest” subject. They might even be able to sell some ads for paper towels. ~ @clgood Somebody said that it couldn’t be done, But he, with a grin, replied, He’d never be one to say it couldn’t be done, Leastwise not ’till he tried! So he buckled right in, With a trace of a grin, By golly, he went right to it! He tackled the thing that couldn’t be done… And he couldn’t do it. ~ I saw this purple prose, and felt the need to make a statement. The result was a short haiku. “But Wig Snatch all the feels We know chopping onions.” As a wise man once said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” @JonathanLKrohn Picture: “Singing “Trying to Make a Hundred, Ninety-Nine and a Half Won’t Do” during the collection at Negro church in Heard County, Georgia” ~ @JonathanLKrohn Essayist. Film programmer. Jewish Benjamaniac. Bisexual baseball faggot. Bylines:@RollingStone , @TheAtlantic , @WashingtonPost , @USAToday , and others. ~ I don’t like Bob Newhart, but I don’t mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like Bob Newhart, denigrate means ‘put down’ ~ “in the special case of Gaza, moreover, the crowded urban battlefield offers endless opportunities for the easiest of tactics, because contrary to accusations that only expensively educated U.S. college students could possibly believe, Israeli soldiers do not deliberately kill innocent civilians going about their business.” ~ religiousfruitcake-ModTeam Your post was removed because this is a screenshot with no apparent fruitcaky content. If you believe the post was removed in error, please message the moderation team. … Your post was removed because it is a reaction-ception that wasn’t made by a religious fruitcake from their point of view. ~ Here is an experiment. I took a James Baldwin soliloquy about the magic word. I substituted racist, for the other 6 letter word. (the one that ends in r) Be sure to read to the second part. ~ “You’re the ______ baby, it isn’t me” Which six letter racial slur was James Baldwin talking about? The one that starts with R, or the one that ends with R? ~ We could use the initials AH, for alleged hypocrite. This might be confused for an anatomical pejorative with those initials. ~ Glimmer of Darkness/ A Glimmer of Kindness/ Glimmer of Silence, glimmer of camera not working learn something new everyday, if you hit the widget off and on the camera will work, it was a glimmer of digital kindness, it is a glimmer of silence while the writing juices flow, meanwhile the stupid bowl is playing on a silent screen, if only i turn it on, ~ Mr. Hughes made this post about “How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7.” This is the controversial NYT story, whose veracity is seriously disputed. “These is not an Israeli gov claim, Aaron. I knew you would dismiss it if it were. These are claims made by The NY Times—which, for all its flaws—tends not to invent photographs out of whole cloth. I’ll let you parse the difference between rape and driving nails into a woman’s groin. I see no meaningful difference in the context of 10/7. In other words: Whatever it would say about Hamas that they did the former, it would say the same about them that they did the latter. And you seem equally tempted to deny it in either case.” ~ pictures for today’s post super bowl slowdown are from The Library of Congress ~ selah
James Baldwin And The Magic Word
In the spring of 1963, KQED filmed a show, “Take this hammer, featuring James Arthur Baldwin. The snippet in the video seems to have been the last three minutes of the show. Here is a transcript. Mr. Baldwin discusses a six letter insult. The n-word is more about the speaker, than the spoken of. A 2010 blogger had this to say. The original link no longer works.
“I’ve often felt that people’s projections of me are oftentimes just that – their projections. However, Baldwin’s ending sums up a solution to this perfectly: “But you still think, I gather, that the n****r is necessary. Well he’s unnecessary to me – he must be necessary to you. Well, I’m going to give your problem back to you…you’re the n****r, baby…not me.”
It is now 2024. (All discussions of race must mention the year.) The TV show was sixty one years ago. A few things have changed. To many white people, overt expressions of racism are seen as bad manners. The n-word is taboo in polite company. The overall attitudes may not have changed, but most white people are careful how they say things.
Mr. Baldwin offered an insight into who the user of this nasty word was really talking about. Now, there is another nasty word being casually tossed about these days. This other nasty word is Racist. What would happen if you took Mr. Baldwin’s talk, and substituted racist for nasty? It is an interesting way to look at things. What follows is not a perfect fit, and may be offensive to some. A few times, it is very close to the truth.
Who is the racist? Well I know this…and anybody who has tried to live knows this. What you say about somebody else, anybody else, reveals you. What I think of you as being is dictated by my own necessities, my own psychology, my own fears…and desires. I’m not describing you when I talk about you…I’m describing me.
Now, here in this country, we got somebody called a racist. It doesn’t in such terms, I beg you to remark, exist in any other country in the world. We have invented the racist. I didn’t invent him, white people invented him. I’ve always known, I had to know by the time I was seventeen years old, what you were describing was not me and what you were afraid of was not me. It had to be something else. You had invented it so it had to be something you were afraid of, and you invested me with it. … I have always known that I am not a racist … but if I am not the racist … and if it is true that your invention reveals you … then who is the racist?
I am not the victim here. I know one thing from another. I know that I was born, am gonna suffer and gonna die. And the only way that you can get through life is to know the worst things about it. I know that a person is more important than anything else. Anything else. I’ve learned this because I’ve had to learn it. But you still think, I gather, that the racist is necessary. Well he’s not necessary to me, so he must be necessary to you. So I give you your problem back. You’re the racist baby, it isn’t me.
This is a repost. Pictures are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. These images are from the morality play “Heaven Bound,” staged by the Big Bethel African Methodist Choir, at the Atlanta Theatre (23 Exchange Place), Atlanta, Georgia, August 1937.” Chamblee54 has discussed Mr. Baldwin before. One Two
@nakedpastor Reacts To r/religiousfruitcake
@nakedpastor “I created a react video for Youtube. I’d love to know what you think!” The RVFYT is NP scrolling through r/religiousfruitcake. This is a subreddit, featuring people with too much free time. They like to post clever memes. You are not likely to learn anything useful there.
The first item is an instagram video. We see a young lady is talking about loving God, who sends people to hell. Is there anything more pathetic than Christians, past or present, pearl clutching about life after death? Christianity is not a religion anyway. It is a high pressure sales pitch for “salvation.” If you don’t agree with their ideas, then there is no point is sticking around.
What do I think about Jesus, and life after death? NONE OF YOUR GODDAMN BUSINESS. That is not gratuitous profanity. Merriam-Webster says that damn is the act of God sending your soul to HELL. It is totally appropriate to use GD in discussions about life after death.
I turn the video back on, and have to turn the sound up so I can hear NP. This means that I will have to turn the sound back down later, when I look at something else. This is an important point. The medium is the message. When you deliver your message, you should make it easy on the listener. This is another problem with the Christian church. They think their message is wonderful, and it is your duty to pay attention no matter what. If you don’t turn up the volume, you might go to HELL.
NP does not see the video as being about life after death, but rather the existence of evil. My Bad. Why does an omnipotent God allow evil to exist. I could offer thoughts and prayers, but want to get back to the video. We are only up to 3:31, of a video lasting 14:10.
At 4:30, NP holds up his index finger and says “There’s only one reality.” I immediately flash back to those evenings watching the Billy Graham Crusade, where Billy would hold up his index finger, and shout there is one way, Jesus Christ.
At 6:00, we finally move to the second item. It is a tweet, saying that the job of women is to make babies. The best thing to do here is make a haiku reduction. yo die God create magnificent job eating ew important this This exchange has 42 upvotes at r/religiousfruitcake.
I am reluctant to say this, because it sounds so pretentious, but here goes. God is using me as a conduit, when I create content. Does this mean that she exists? I don’t know, and I don’t care. I will say this is not evidence of the divine tautology … to believe in the God of the bible, and that the bible is the word of God. I could ramble on a while. … The rest of the video is not that inspiring. Finally, NP says “Thats enough for now.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress
Junk To Smithereens
This is a repost from 2017. @JonathanLKrohn “This is quite possibly the worst thing I’ve ever read. The person who wrote this should be barred from ever writing again. If you could burn emails, I would recommend burning this one with a blow-torch, and scattering the ashes deep in the heart of the Atlantic Ocean.” This pastel performance got my attention on a boring Saturday. It actually was value added comment to a re-tweet.
“The PR email for Meghan Trainor’s new album is absolutely insane” was the seminal offering. @WizzKhaleesi had a screen shot of the special text. “”hot newlywed sex Meghan and Daryl Sa-BAE-ra are having (did you see what we did there?). Which is why you’ll love the banging’ single “All The Ways.” Billboard was wet for “All The Ways,” calling it “another fun, danceable track to fall in love with.” And would Billboard lie to you, girl?
But perhaps the piece de resistance (that’s French for “Wig Snatch”) is “Marry Me,” a romantic acoustic guitar and ukulele-tinged Awww Fest which delivers all the feels (and then more feels). Meghan wrote the song thirty days after meeting Daryl, and it was so good that she walked down the aisle to it. We know, it’s a little bit #Vomworthy, but also, am I chopping onions right now or are those tears rolling down my face?”
I saw this purple prose, and felt the need to make a statement. The result was a short haiku. “But Wig Snatch all the feels We know chopping onions.” As a wise man once said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Who is Meghan Trainor? Why Is This Meghan Trainor Press Release So Horny? has the text of the PR sensation. The first sentence will live forever. “Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and whether you’re planning on smashing bae’s junk to smithereens or making out with a pint of Phish Food, you need some fresh Valentine’s Day bops to get you in the mood for L♡VE.”
Help, This Meghan Trainor Press Release Is Haunting My Nightmares piles on with glee. “This happened with Thinx underwear’s deranged series of press releases, which used phrases like “Hey squirrelfran” and “astronaughty booty” in an effort to sell period underwear.”
Caroline Goldfarb claims to have written the Trainor train wreck. (Don’t let your mouse hover over the background of that page.) @hairoline A lot of people absolutely HATE the press release I wrote for Meghan Trainor and claim it seems like “a horny 12 year old with no writing experience” must have written it. Jokes on them because I’m actually a horny 28 year old with *some* writing experience @hairoline Trivia: The original draft had a line about Meghan buying sex toys with the ginger from Spy Kids but they took it out @hairoline I just had to block someone who said I deserved the electric chair for writing the horny Meghan Trainor press release, but jokes on them, cause I’m the one who got paid to say “smash bae’s junk to smithereens”
Jonathan L. Krohn had fifteen minutes of fame before he was fifteen years old. He is a journalist now, living in “Iraq and ATL, mostly.” Pictures for this post are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the pictures in April, 1941. “Singing “Trying to Make a Hundred, Ninety-Nine and a Half Won’t Do” during the collection at Negro church in Heard County, Georgia”
Woman In The Black Dress
@GlennLoury This “bonus episode” of The Glenn Show, a conversation between me and Noam Dworman on “Friendship in a Time of War is worth a look/listen. Feel free to subscribe to my Substack if you like what you see/hear: … @chamblee54 @noam_dworman Thank you for this. It was far more reasonable than I expected I may have missed it, but I don’t recall hearing about the Israelis killed by IDF on 10/7. That is the one part of this nightmare that I was not expecting. … @noam_dworman Google around the Israeli papers, you’ll see there is some credible evidence that some Israelis may have been killed in the crossfire. It’s hardly anything for Israel to be ashamed of. … @chamblee54 Was the “woman in the black dress” killed by #IDF or #Hamas ? Her face was burned, which tells me it is possibly #IDF #alaqsastorm is going to be investigated to the nth degree. Will any of the Israeli missions in the resulting war be investigated?
“The woman in the black dress is a central figure in a controversial NYT story about sexual violence on October 7. … At first, she was known simply as “the woman in the black dress.” In a grainy video, you can see her, lying on her back, dress torn, legs spread, vagina exposed. Her face is burned beyond recognition and her right hand covers her eyes. The video was shot in the early hours of Oct. 8 by a woman searching for a missing friend at the site of the rave in southern Israel where, the day before, Hamas terrorists massacred hundreds of young Israelis. … Based largely on the video evidence … Israeli police officials said they believed that Ms. Abdush was raped, and she has become a symbol of the horrors visited upon Israeli women and girls during the Oct. 7 attacks.”
One of the many shocking items to come out about Al-Aqsa Flood is the IDF use of the Hannibal Directive. “The Hannibal Directive … stipulated measures to be taken when an Israeli soldier was captured during combat. Its purpose was to prevent the enemy from escaping with that soldier, even if it meant endangering the soldier’s life and the lives of civilians in the vicinity.” There are indications that IDF employed HD against civilians on October 7.
“Her face is burned beyond recognition” is the key phrase here. “This kind of damage cannot be explained merely by examining the light arms the Palestinian fighters carried with them. … The light weaponry that Palestinian fighters were armed with that day – rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and a few truck-mounted machine guns – cannot inflict that kind of damage to homes or cars. But tanks and aerial bombardment can. … It is most likely that these 200 bodies burned beyond recognition were among many others killed indiscriminately by great fire power, like Hellfire missiles dropped from apache helicopters, fire power the Palestinian fighters did not possess.”
If WITBD was killed by IDF, as part of the Hannibal Directive, then it is unlikely that she was raped by a Hamas actor. When we learn the answer to this, we will know more about what happened on October 7. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress
Happy Birthday Bill Burroughs
February 5, 1914, was the birth day of William Seward Burroughs Jr. For the rest of this piece he will be known as WSB. This is both a handy abbreviation, as well as a touch of irony for Atlanta readers. WSB radio is a 50k watt clear channell am station, owned by the same media oligarchs that own the fishwrapper and channel two. The radio tv clusterfuck has long been the symbol of Peachtree Street white column respectability. Just to be clear/queer, from here on out in this feature WSB will mean a certain junkie writer, not welcome south brother.
This is a good day for birthdays. Hank Aaron in 1934. Adlai Stevenson in 1900. Peg Entwhistle in 1908. The last one lived until 1932, when she jumped off the Hollywoodland sign.
A well thought of radio institution called “This American Life” has a show this week, Burroughs101. Actually, there is a class by that name, and there will be an exam at the end of the semester. The show is narrated by Iggy Pop. It begins with a warning. “A warning. The following program contains references to homosexuality, drug use, sex with aliens, violence, and kitty cats. What did you expect?” The show was originally cobbled together by the BBC, which might explain things a bit.
Iggy Pop did a show at the 688 club. PG was in the audience. A man named Ivan Kral was in the band. When Mr. Kral came on stage, he blew his nose, and a white powder booger came out. The performance was not so much a concert as it was an endurance test.
The show has the lazy bloggers friend, the transcript. There are some lovely quotes. This show is not going to candy coat the bastard. This is a man who shot his wife while playing William Tell, and got away with it. As one non admirer says “I don’t just take the Burroughs myth with a pinch of salt. I view it as a unpleasant slug crawling across the lawn of literature. And I like to pour salt on it.”
Or this one. “Having used heroin yourself– I think used is a bit of an understatement. I was a heroin addict on and off for pushing a quarter of a century. For myself, I find the whole Burroughs myth pretty repulsive, actually. Because I understand what happened to me. I was an addict in waiting. I got my form prize or my English prize at The Naked Lunch. And a year and a half later, I was sticking needles in my arm. … You could be lying in some pestilential piss-soaked squat in the bowels of the city listening to some moron totaled on drugs drooling on and talking about Burroughs, because Burroughs was their Leon Trotsky. He was their Archbishop of Canterbury. He was the Pope. “
One of the questions of the early eighties was whether or not WSB was shooting up. Forget the nonsense about there not being any old junkies. Supposedly Ray Charles never really quit using heroin. So, in 1981, WSB was living somewhere in Manhattan, and it was a right of passage to go to the bunker and take heroin to him. Since he was the star, he used the needle first, which was an important distinction in those days … hiv did not have a name but was running wild through the junkie veins and queer buttholes of Reaganite America. We don’t know if WSB got hiv or not. He made it until August 2, 1997, when a heart attack sent him to meet his maker. Contemporary Allen Ginsberg cashed in his chips earlier that year. In Washington, silly billy POTUS was getting knob jobs from Monica Lewinsky, who now gives TED talks by calling herself a social activist. WSB was a social activist, at a time when few would publicly admit to such a distinction.
The answer to your question is, yes, WSB was shooting dope in 1981. Somebody saw this as being an unhealthy situation, and arranged for him to move to Lawrence KS. This was his home until WSB went to live with Jesus, who was pissed because WSB didn’t bring him any smack.
So WSB was living the beat life, shooting dope, fucking boys, and just being a general mess. In his spare time he was writing books. Naked Lunch was busted for obscenity, and became his best known work. It is the first thing by WSB that PG tried to read, making it to page twenty six before declaring the endeavor a hopeless waste of brain cells.
It is not known how much of Naked Lunch Dorothy Kilgallen read. She was called as a witness during an obscenity trial for Lenny Bruce. ” …There’s another book called The Naked Lunch which I couldn’t even finish reading, but it’s published, and I think the author should be in jail and he used– Q. Unfortunately we can’t do everything at once, Miss Kilgallen. Are you judging the non-obscene quality and the artistic quality of Bruce by the fact that The Naked Lunch is a book which, as of this date, is sold in the community? A. No, I’m not. I just mentioned it because you asked me for some books. Q. And The Naked Lunch is a book you found impossible to read, is that correct? A. Yes, I found it revolting. Q. What was revolting about it? A. Just the way it was written.”
Another expert witness to testify … to a BBC reporter, not a New York courtroom … is Marcus Ewert. A Dunwoody native, Mr. Ewert took literary groupiedom to ridiculous lengths with Allen Ginsberg and WSB. “We’re getting into bed, and I’m sticking my legs down under the covers. There’s this bump that my legs feel. And I’m like, “Oh, what’s this hard thing my legs are bumping against, William?” And he said, “Oh, that’s the gun.” I said, “Is it a loaded gun?” He said, “Of course it’s loaded.” You’d sleep with a lover with a loaded gun in your bed. That’s kind of a metaphor waiting to happen.”
Mr. Marcus is now a children’s book author. An Amazon reader says this about 10,000 Dresses. “I returned mine today and was appalled as I read the story to my son before reading it to myself. Kids need to feel safe at home, especially when dealing with gender non-conformity. I wish the author would have reconcilled the reactions of the family members. It is great to have stories out there addressing gender non-conformity in kids, but we have a huge responsibility to make sure they are sending the right message.”
The death of Joan Vollmer is discussed. This is the lady who was playing William Tell one night, with fatal consequences. Some say accident, some say intentional. The word uxoricide is used, meaning the act of killing one’s wife.
The cut up technique is discussed. The show goes on to talk about how much WSB liked cats. He died, and people said nice things about him. Pictures tonight are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost. Last year, PG found an audiobook of Junky, read by Mr. Burroughs. A two part post, Junky, and Junky Part Two, was the result.
Chamblee54 
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