The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Three Jobs in One?

Posted on | January 13, 2011 | 3 Comments

My buddy Matt Keller explains to employers: When you advertise for a “Social Media [Insert Noun Here]” — options include “Coordinator,” “Specialist,” “Mystic Zombie Overlord” — don’t expect that person also to code your Web site, maintain your servers and water the ficus tree in the lobby:

They want someone with HTML, they want someone with various Programming language knowledge and Dreamweaver and Photoshop skills. They basically want to fill a job with three jobs: Social Media; Web Engineer; Graphic Designer.
Here’s the rub. Unless you’re creating your own Social Media Network the latter two jobs have little (note: I didn’t say “nothing”) to do with Social Media skills in their current evolution.

Read the whole thing. BTW, “graphic design” is a service you can contract out. Ask yourself this: What are the odds of a Web designer or an IT guy also being a Mystic Zombie Overlord of Social Media?

Category: How This Here Internet Thingy Works

Zeitgeist: Watch the Conspiracy Movie That Had a ‘Profound Impact’ on Tucson Mass Murder Suspect Jared Loughner

Posted on | January 13, 2011 | 46 Comments

“I really think that this Zeitgeist documentary had a profound impact upon Jared Loughner’s mindset and how he views the world that he lives in.”
— Zach Osler, friend of Tucson gunman

The producers of this film decided to market it virally, so it’s been available for free on the Web for three years.

PART I: Attacking Christianity as a ‘Myth’

This segment has been called “The Da Vinci Code on steroids.” Toward the end, the narrator says, “Christianity, along with all other theistic belief systems, is the fraud of the age. It serves to detach the species from the natural world and likewise, from each other. It supports blind submission to authority. It reduces human responsibility to the effect that God controls everything.”

PART II: 9/11 Was a Conspiracy

Not much to say here. You’ve seen one 9/11 “Truther” documentary, you’ve seen ’em all. But the guys at Loose Change can’t sue for copyright infringement because, hey, it’s a “documentary,” and you can’t copyright crazy.




PART III: TOTAL FREAKING KOOKINESS!

This is the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test of Zeitgeist where, if you’ve gone along with the Jesus-Was-a-Myth stuff and the 9/11-Was-a-U.S.-Plot stuff, you’re going to find yourself throbbing helplessly in spasms of conspiratorial ecstasy, covered in kook-splooge. The U.S. government and “international bankers” scheme behind the scenes to control every damned thing in the world — and plant computer chips in your brain, to boot!


CLICK THIS LINK to see the next part of the video, embedding “disabled by request.”

So there you have it: A couple hours of anti-Christianity, 9/11 “Trutherism” and the familar sort of “New World Order” paranoia beloved by connoisseurs of tin-foil everywhere. And Jared Loughner’s good friend says this two-hour video stew of high-grade kookery had a “profound impact” on the guy who (allegedly) killed six people and wounded 12 others in Tucson on Saturday.

It should go without saying that none of this cuckoo-for-Cocoa-Puffs crackpot stuff has been promoted by Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh or any of the other usual suspects whom Matthew Yglesias, Markos Moulitsas and Sheriff Clarence Dupnik rushed to blame for the Tucson Massacre.

UPDATE: Linked by Eternity Matters, The Rude News and Bob Belvedere at The Camp of the Saints. Thanks!

UPDATE II: Today’s Media Narrative: Barack Obama Totally Kicked Sarah Palin’s Ass. Because, y’know, this doesn’t have anything to do with partisan politics. Professor Glenn Reynolds asks, “Has any other public figure ever had to try to act ‘Presidential’ . . . . while being accused of complicity in mass murder?”

Lefty blogs — by which I mean, The Moderate Voice and Richard Fernandez of Pajamas Media —  are linking to a story that describes Alex Jones as “9/11 truther from Patriot Movement school of thought,” which is kind of a backhand way of saying, “Right-Wing Racist Teabagger!”

UPDATE III: Jesse Walker at Reason dubs Loughner “The New Age Assassin.” And, at Texas for Palin, Josh Painter wonders why the “lamestream media” isn’t making more of the Zeitgeist angle.

UPDATE JAN. 16: The Google Video versions of the movie originally embedded here — which had been online for more than three years and had hundreds of thousands of views — have apparently been taken down. (Wonder why?) I’m in the process of replacing them with YouTube versions.

PREVIOUSLY:

  • Salvia, Zeitgeist and the Tucson Shooter
  • ‘Vain in Their Imaginations’: God-Haters and the Tucson Massacre
    • Category: Arizona, Conspiracy Theories, Crime, Zeitgeist

    LIVE AT FIVE – 1.13.11

    Posted on | January 13, 2011 | Comments Off on LIVE AT FIVE – 1.13.11

    TOP NEWS
    President Asks For Words That Heal, Not Words That Wound

    The President hugs Mark Kelly, Congressman Giffords' husband

    Calls for moderation in the ongoing political debate

    Extra Police Sent In As Flood Death Toll Continues To Rise
    Police will patrol vast flooded areas in Brisbane, Ipswich

    Sarah Palin Breaks Silence, Accuses Critics Of “Blood Libel”
    Predictable whining from media, leftist Jews ensues

    At Least 270 Dead In Brazil From Flooding, Landslides
    Heavy rains trigger lethal landslides in mountain towns near Rio



    POLITICS
    Quinn Refuses To Be Pinned Down On Illinois Death Penalty Repeal

    GOP State Senators listen during Tuesday's debate

    Mayor Daley’s agin’ it

    Neighboring States Gleeful Over Illinois Tax Increase

    Mississippi Governor Barbour Pushes For Civil Rights Museum

    Man Arrested After Threatening Rep. McDermott

    Border Patrol Agent Arrested For Harboring Illegals, Including His Father

    Supremes Approve B&E In Pot Cases

    NJ Governor Christie Eyes Ending Teacher Tenure

    AP Suit Against Shepard Fairey Settled

    Va. Governor McDonnell Pushes For Spending On Roads, Businesses; Seeks Privatization Of State Liquor Stores



    THE ECONOMY, STUPID
    Merit-Pay Pressure On UAW Rising
    Home Foreclosures Top 1 Million Per Year For First Time
    Heating Oil Rises To 27-Month High On New England Snowstorm; Gasoline Falls
    2010 PC Sales Slow, Hurt By Tablets
    Sony Takes PS3 Hackers To Court
    News Corp Looks At Sale, Spinoff, Or Merger Of MySpace



    SPORTS
    Kitchen Leads Seminoles To 66-61 Upset Of #1 Duke

    FSU's Chris Singleton puts up a shot over Duke's Ryan Kelly

    Florida State’s defense good enough to put Coach K’s Blue Devils off their game, end Duke’s 25-game win streak

    Patriots Shrug Off Jets’ Trash Talk

    Thunder Hold Off Rockets For First Win In Houston Since 2005

    Jazz Outgun Knicks, 131-125

    Another Shutout For Crawford As Hawks Top Avs 4-0

    Doc Rivers Now Third On Celtics Wins List


    LeBron James Tweaks Horrible Cavaliers



    FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
    Golden-Voiced Ted Williams Entering Rehab, Sez Dr. Phil

    Ted Williams - golden-voiced bottle jockey?

    Long one-on-one with celebrity doc convinces Ted to dry out

    Camille Implies Kelsey Likes To Cross-Dress

    David Fincher Gets The Girl (With The Dragon Tattoo)

    Brett Favre’s Sister Arrested In Meth Bust

    DA Not Dropping Lindsay’s Betty Ford Incident

    Next Up For Kiefer: Internet Series!



    FOREIGNERS
    Haiti Mourns Dead, Looks Ahead
    Lebanon’s Government Collapses After Hezbollah, Allies Pull Out
    Protests Spread To Tunisian Capital, Curfew Invoked
    Ivory Coast Racked By Clashes For Second Day
    Kuwaiti PM Visits Iraq For First Time Since First Gulf War
    Japanese PM’s Wife Publicly Mocks Husband As Form Of Tough Love



    BLOGS & STUFF
    Big Government: Alan Dershowitz Defends Sarah Palin’s Use Of “Blood Libel”
    Ramesh Ponnuru: Poolside Fight
    Atlas Shrugs: Lawsuit Filed To Stop Ground Zero Mosque
    Allahpundit: Palin Getting Death Threats At Unprecedented Levels
    Hit & Run: The Assassin Who Would Save America From The Extreme Right
    Pirate’s Cove: WaPo Offers Up Complete Lies About Wake County School Integration Policy

    — compiled by Wombat-socho

    Category: Live at Five

    Salvia, Zeitgeist and the Tucson Shooter

    Posted on | January 12, 2011 | 34 Comments

    Leaving aside Sheriff Clarence Dupnik and the Left’s “blood libel” hysteria, let’s examine the factors that really motivated mass murderer Jared Lee Loughner. First, here is a four-minute Associated Press video interview with George Osler, father of Loughner’s friend Osler:

    “There was a lot of talk about lucid dreaming and understanding reality. . . . And there were a lot of books and movies . . . things that I never would have heard about or watched — things like Loose Change about the 9/11 conspiracy . . . He watched things like that. . . . He had basically nothing going for him, and I think he just couldn’t deal with reality anymore. . . . I know that he was experimenting with the drug, or herb or whatever it is, salvia divinorum. And from what I hear, he used it quite frequently. . . . It’s like a hallucinogenic type of effect.”

    Adding a few more dots to the pattern:

    Loughner, now 22, would come over several times a week from 2007 to 2008, the Oslers said.
    The boys listened to the heavy-metal band Slipknot and progressive rockers the Mars Volta, studied the form of meditative movement called tai chi and watched and discussed movies.
    Loughner’s favorites included little-known conspiracy theory documentaries such as “Zeitgeist” and “Loose Change” as well as bigger studio productions with cult followings and themes of brainwashing, science fiction and altered states of consciousness, including “Donnie Darko” and “A Scanner Darkly.” . . .
    Roxanne Osler [said]: “Jared struck me as a young man who craved attention and acceptance.”

    Altered consciousness, “lucid dreams,” conspiracy theories, sci-fi dystopias — you see the pattern. This is what I meant by the “Beta male” reference earlier today. Today’s feral adolescents are heinously cruel to those they stigmatize as “losers.” As George Osler says, Loughner was a failure in reality and therefore craved some sort of alternative reality where (he imagined) he could succeed.

    Loughner’s disconnection from, and hostility toward, the real world obviously would have made the quasi-revolutionary utopian radicalism of Zeitgeist extraordinarily attractive. Secular Stupidest provides this three-minute video about Zeitgeist:

    I’ll be back to update with some more background, but you can see from just these two videos — requiring a total of seven minutes to view — how far removed Loughner’s worldview was from anything connected to Sarah Palin, the Tea Party movement, conservative talk radio, etc.

    CLICK HERE to See Zeitgeist: The Conspiracy Movie That Had a ‘Profound Impact’ on Jared Loughner

    UPDATE:  Travis Walter Donovan, whose title at HuffPo is “Associate Green Editor” (??), wrote what the Secular Stupid video calls a “glowing profile” of Zeitgeist in March:

    “It takes a different value system if you wish to change the world,” Jacque Fresco said to a sold out crowd of over 800 in New York City’s Upper West Side. Though he may not need to convince these people, many his ardent followers, it will indeed take a restructuring of the mind for those unfamiliar with Fresco’s work to realistically accept the ideas he proposes of a new global society that has given up money and property in favor of a shared, sustainable, technology-driven community. . . .
    March 13th, 2010 was the second annual celebration of ZDay. Coordinated by The Zeitgeist Movement, ZDay is an educational event geared toward raising awareness of the movement. . . .
    [T]he movement declares itself as the activist arm of The Venus Project, an organization started in the 1970s by Fresco and his partner, Roxanne Meadows. The Venus Project distributes resources promoting Fresco’s vision of an improved society, with the main component being a resource-based economy, rather than a monetary-based one. In Fresco’s resource-based economy, the world’s resources would be considered as the equal inheritance of all the world’s peoples, and would be managed as efficiently and carefully as possible through focusing on the technological potential of sustainable development.

    The impossibility of abolishing a “monetary-based” economy is one of the basic insights Ludwig von Mises explained in Socialism more than 80 years ago. That the objective of Zeitgeist is a global egalitarian redistribution of wealth classifies it as socialism and, as I think any orthodox Marxist would say, it is a utopian form of socialism.

    This is why I called it “quasi-revolutionary”: Zeitgeist envisions an essentially voluntary egaltiarianism, as if the rich would gladly give up their “resources” (a word tendentiously employed) to the have-nots. At least Marx and Lenin were sane enough to recognize that such a redistribution could only be accomplished by force.

    And as for the idea of resources being “managed . . . efficiently and carefully” — by whom? Who has the capacity for this technological management of “resources”? Where will this managerial authority be vested? With “experts”?

    To any student of Mises and Hayek, this is simply the old “planned economy” fallacy dressed up in new clothes of globalism and “sustainabie development.”

    Who are these young fools who fall for such recycled nonsense? What are they teaching kids in school nowadays, that they are so easily taken in by these Zeitgeist charlatans?

    UPDATE II: Here is the 5-minute video trailer for Zeitgeist:

    The main question raised by Zeitgeist: How much salvia does a semi-literate paranoid psychotic adolescent have to smoke before that crap starts making sense? It needs to be re-titled Nonsense On Stilts.

    Really, it makes Keynesianism seem sane by comparison.

    UPDATE III: The founder of the Venus Project, whose ideas evidently inspired Zeitgeist, is 94-year-old Jacque Fresco. This is from his essay, “The Future and Beyond”:

    We believe it is now possible to achieve a society where people would be able to live longer, healthier, and more meaningful productive lives. In such a society, the measure of success would be based upon the fulfillment of one’s individual pursuits rather than the acquisition of wealth, property, and power. Although many of the concepts presented here may appear as unattainable goals, all of the ideas are based upon known scientific principles. . . .
    The answers do not lie in debate or philosophical discussion of values, but rather in methodology. Thus what is needed is an operational definition of a better world, which is as follows: To constantly maximize existing and future technologies with the sole purpose of enhancing all human life and protecting the environment. . . .
    The future does not depend on our present-day beliefs or social customs, but will continue to evolve a set of values unique to its own time. There are no “Utopias.” The very notion of “Utopia” is static. However, the survival of any social system ultimately depends upon its ability to allow for appropriate change to improve society as a whole. The paths that we choose will ultimately determine whether or not there is intelligent life on earth. . . .

    (Elaborate gibberish. Fresco anticipates the accusation of utopianism, and denies it, but this does not change the utopian nature of his scheme.)

    As the amount of scientific information grows, nations and people are coming to realize that even in today’s divided world there are, in fact, many common threats that transcend national boundaries. These include overpopulation, energy shortages, pollution, water shortages, economic catastrophe, the spread of uncontrollable disease and so forth. However, faced even with threats of this magnitude, which are common to all nations, the direction of human action will not be altered so long as powerful nations are able to maintain control of the limited resources available. . . .

    (“I’d like to buy the world a Coke . . .” Here we see Fresco beginning to encourage the reader to imagine the transcendent global sharing that is the foundation of his Don’t-Call-It-Utopian utopianism.)

    There are growing indications of awareness on the part of people in many areas of the world that events have gone beyond the control of their political leaders. Everywhere we see political figures and parties come and go, political strategies adopted and discarded for their inability to satisfy the demands of one faction or another.
    The reason that we do not suggest writing your congressman, or any number of governmental agencies, is that they lack the necessary knowledge to deal with our problems. Their focus is to preserve existing systems, not to change them. It appears that there are few within present-day societies who want to phase themselves out. In modern industrial societies the cause of inaction lies within the cumbersome political process itself, an anachronism in an era when most decisions can be made on any important issue in a split second by the objective entry of relevant data into computers.
    The prime conditions that would really effect social change will come about when conditions have deteriorated to such an extent that governments, politicians, and social institutions no longer have the support and confidence of the people. What once worked is acknowledged to be no longer relevant. If the public were better informed, only then would it be possible to introduce a new and improved social arrangement. . . .

    (Here Fresco is appealing to what might be called the super-political mythos: Our problems are too big for existing “status quo” systems to cope with. Ergo, to get past “present-day societies” — i.e., the real world, where geeky adolescent dopehead misfits can’t find a job or a girlfriend — will require some crisis that will cause people to support the introduction of “a new and improved social arrangement.”)

    Along with the introduction of new paradigms towards human and environmental concern, there must be a methodology for making this a reality. If these ends are to be achieved, the monetary system must eventually be surpassed by a world resource-based economy. In order to effectively and economically utilize resources, the necessary cybernated and computerized technology could eventually be applied to ensure a higher standard of living for everyone. With the intelligent and humane application of science and technology, the nations of the world could guide and shape the future for the preservation of the environment and humankind. . . .

    OK, enough of the interrupting in italics. What Jacque Fresco proposes here is Underpants Gnome socialism:

    Phase 1: Abolish the monetary system.
    Phase 2: ?
    Phase 3: A higher standard of living for everyone!

    He goes on in this one essay for more than 10,000 words, along the way enumerating 16 “aims and goals of The Venus Project” (e.g., “Transcending all of the artificial boundaries that separate people”) before concluding: “It is not possible in this short writing to present the precise methodology and operation of a global resource based economy.”

    Dude. Pass me the pipe. I’m gonna need another hit of salvia.

    UPDATE IV: Brace yourselves, Glenn Beck fans, but I am currently researching a tip that Zeitgeist/Venus Project has received funding from — wait for it — George Soros. If that turns out to be true . . . well, can you imagine what Glenn’s chalkboard is going to look like when he explains this? Meanwhile, here’s a March 2009 New York Times story about the big “Z-Day” event:

    In his goatee and mustache and tieless in a brown suit, [Zeitgeist director Peter] Joseph had been lecturing for nearly 90 minutes on the unsustainable nature of the money-based economy — on cyclical consumption, planned obsolescence, corporate malfeasance and piles of poisonous waste. “It’s time that we wake up,” he intoned, speaking solemnly through a wireless clip-on mike. “The doomsday scenario, the big contraction, might be happening right now. The system of monetary exchange is — in the face of advancing technology — completely obsolete.” . .
    There, in the crowd, was Jacque Fresco, an industrial designer and the engineering guru of what people unironically called “the movement.” . . .
    Mr. Fresco . . . [is] an author, lecturer and former aircraft engineer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio who has spent the last six decades working on the Venus Project, a futuristic society where (adjust your seatbelts, now) machines would control government and industry and safeguard the planet’s fragile resources by means of an artificially intelligent “earthwide autonomic sensor system” — a super-brain of sorts connected to, yes, all human knowledge.

    Two words: Nucking futz. And yet I agree with Verum Serum that this wacko futuristic lunacy may be the key to “whatever was left of Loughner’s mind.”

    UPDATE V: After a few hours of looking around, I have yet to verify the Soros-Zeitgeist connection. Meanwhile, however, the film’s director — whom Zeitgeist critics say is North Carolina-born musician-turned-filmmaker P.J. Merola — has responded to the media coverage:

    PUBLIC STATEMENT FROM THE CREATOR OF THE “ZEITGEIST FILM SERIES”, PETER JOSEPH:RE: THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA ASSOCIATION CREATED BETWEEN “ZEITGEIST” AND THE TUCSON MURDERS.

    It has come to my attention that various mainstream news organizations are beginning to run an association between my 2007 performance piece/film, “Zeitgeist: The Movie” and the tragic murders conducted by an extremely troubled young man in Tucson, Arizona. They are also slowly beginning to bleed the obvious line between my 2007 documentary work, my film series as a whole and The Zeitgeist Movement, which I am the founder. Frankly, I find this isolating, growing association tremendously irresponsible on the part of ABC, NBC and their affiliates – further reflecting the disingenuous nature of the America Media Establishment today. . . .

    When we reflect on the history of seemingly random violence or other forms of highly offensive, irrational, aberrant behavior, we see a common pattern of reaction from the public and media in their attempt to explain such extreme acts. Rather than deeply examining the Bio-Psycho-Social nature of human social development and the vast spectrum of influences that create and morph each of us in unique and sometimes detrimental ways, they take the easy way out. The first thing they do is simply ignore all modern scientific, social understandings of what generates human motivation in both positive and negative regard, for to do so can only call into question the social system itself and hence the “zeitgeist” (meaning: spirit/intellectual climate of the time/culture) at large.

    Generally speaking, it is historically accurate to say that the Mainstream Media simply isn’t in the business of challenging the Status Quo. The limits of debate are firmly set. Virtually all ideas, persons or groups who have succeeded in changing the world for the better, later to be hailed as heros in the public mind, started out being condemned by those in the Mainstream Media who latch on to the dominant world view of the time. Even Martin Luther King Jr., a peaceful, loving, wonder of a man who contributed more to our social progress than likely any humanitarian in the US history, was followed by the CIA and publicly humiliated as a “Communist” which he even had to defend in front of a Congressional Committee. In fact, you can rest assured that if King were alive in the current paradigm today and seeking an equal form of justice – he would be given the name: “Terrorist”.

    So, again, rather than taking the scientific view, the Mainstream Media often seeks out or implies one point of blame and runs with it. After all, it is much easier, presentable and more simplistic for the public to think that the troubling reality of seemingly random acts of mass murder is the result of a “singular influence” and hence the logic goes that if that one influence is removed, then the world will be back in balance. This gives the public a false resolve and position of focus in an otherwise ambiguous, complex world of social and biological influences. And as far as the scapegoat itself, very often any group, media or dataset that is counter-culture or even hints at wishing to challenge the status quo, is a magnet for such blame.

    For example, musical groups of a counter-culture nature have been a favorite scapegoat for acts of murder/violence historically. In 1990, the rock band Judas Priest was actually taken to court for their “role” in the self-inflicted gunshot wounds in 1985 of 20-year old James Vance and 18-year old Raymond Belknap in Reno, Nevada. In 2008, the band Slipknot was publicly tied/blamed to a high-school murder in South Africa. Even the Beatles song “Helter-skelter” was associated to the murders incited by Charles Manson. It goes on and on… and, frankly, it’s simply pathetic – avoiding the true nature of the problem – which is the Socio-Economic Environment itself.

    Make no mistake: The Social System is to blame for the rampage of Jared Loughner – not some famous online documentary which is known as the most viewed documentary of all time in internet history. Are the other 200 million people who have seen the film also preparing for murder sprees? I think not.

    In my new film: “Zeitgeist: Moving Forward”, I feature a prominent Harvard Criminal Psychologist by the name of Dr. James Gilligan who headed the Centre for the Study of Violence at Harvard Medical School for many years. In his life work of personally engaging the most dangerous, violent offenders the US system produces, he found some basic trends. The most common is the social issue of “shame”. Our socio-economic system inherently breeds social division and there is a natural demeaning of others generated as a result. It is a scientific fact that mass murderers and those who many just dismiss as “evil” today, are the product of years of being shamed, humiliated and demeaned. Their acts of violence is a reaction from these highly oppressive feelings and the real resolve to such acts can only come from removing the real source of such emotional hurt. You will notice that most other countries don’t come close to the level of violence we see in the United States. The US is the capital of violence with 30-300 times more acts of violence than any other country. We have produced more serial killers in America than all other countries combined. Why? You will notice the Mainstream never asks this question.

    If anyone would like to understand why more and more people in the modern world end up like Jared Loughner and why these patterns are only going to get worse as time goes on in this system, I suggest the book “Violence” by Harvard Criminal Psychologist Dr. Gilligan.

    In conclusion, let it be stated that the Zeitgeist Film Series is about critical thought regarding various social issues which challenge many erroneous notions held as fact in the modern culture. It also explicitly promotes non-violence, human unity and prosperous human development based on truth and science.

    I am also in contact with my legal team and considering legal action against ABC.

    -Peter Joseph

    Yeah, “considering legal action” is one of those wonderful phrases, isn’t it? There are entire blogs devoted to denouncing the Zeitgeist Movement/Venus Project as a cult or a scam or some combination of both, and yet the director is “considering legal action” because TV networks interviewed a friend who said Loughner was into watching Zeitgeist.

    And it’s all because he’s challenging the “status quo” of the “Social System” which, of course, the real villain. Also, Peter Joseph/Merola wants you to know that he is a persecuted humanitarian. So if you criticize him, you’re just like those people who called Martin Luther King a commie.

    Peter Joseph, however, cannot blame the “mainstream media,” because it was Loughner’s friend — not a reporter — who said that Zeitgeist had a “profound impact” on Loughner. And, as extensively documented by the film’s fans and critics alike, the three main points of Zeitgeist are:

    1. The falsehood of Christianity.
    2. The 9/11 attacks were a government conspiracy.
    3. The money-based economy is a plot by “international bankers.”

    We can summarize Peter Joseph’s public-relations problem in four simple words: “Facts are stubborn things.”

    UPDATE VI: Greg Ransom at the Hayek Center:

    The drug-addled mind of mass murderer Jared Loughner was under the spell of the crackpot socialist idea of a money-less, resource-based economic system, and other fallacies as old as Marx and Owen. . . .

    You really have to read Mises and Hayek to understand why the fantasy of an egalitarian post-monetary society is . . . well, a fantasy.

    There is no escape from prices, which are essential as information, and thus there is no way to make an economy function without money.

    No matter how much or in what way government interferes with the market processes — through taxes, regulation, welfare, public-works projects, etc. — the market still exists. The fundamental realities of supply and demand remain, and cannot be escaped or transcended, no matter what government does. Joseph/Merola’s rantings against “our socio-economic system” convey exactly one thing: His near-total ignorance of economics.

    * * * * *

    UPDATE 1/14: Rush Limbaugh mentioned Zeitgeist on his radio show today. See also:

  • How to Talk to a Follower of the Zeitgeist Cult (If You Must)
  • Zeitgeist: Watch the Conspiracy Movie That Had a ‘Profound Impact’ on Tucson Mass Murder Suspect Jared Loughner
  • ‘Vain in Their Imaginations’: God-Haters and the Tucson Massacre
    • Category: Arizona, Conspiracy Theories, Crime, Economics, Environmentalism, Video, Zeitgeist

    The Cover-Up in Pima County

    Posted on | January 12, 2011 | 15 Comments

    The Arizona Republic reports:

    Sheriff’s Department and community-college officials in Pima County are refusing to release a wide range of public documents about the man charged in Saturday’s shooting rampage that left six dead and more than a dozen wounded.
    The Pima County Sheriff’s Department and Pima Community College have declined to release documents that could shed light on run-ins they had with 22-year-old Jared Loughner in the months prior to the shooting. . . .
    The school officials assertion that an FBI inquiry prevents them from releasing this information is transparently invalid.

    The school official’s assertion that an FBI inquiry prevents them from releasing this information is transparently invalid. And if the FBI has indeed asked officials to suppress the information, this is absolutely unacceptable.

    Six people are dead, among them a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl, while a U.S. Congresswoman and 11 other people are grievously injured. There can be no “privilege” to shield government officials from scrutiny for their apparent mishandling of previous criminal behavior by the suspect in this case, given that protecting the lives of its citizens is the first duty of government.

    Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has not merely failed at that duty but, in attempting to shift the blame to others, has disgraced his office, covered his department in shame, and embarrassed his community. Michelle Malkin is rightfully indignant at the ongoing farce of The Worst Sheriff in America:

    Despite continued revelations from Loughner’s friends about his nihilist, Nietzschean nuttiness, Sheriff Dupnik is clinging to his Climate of Hate blame game — embarrassing his fellow lawmen, Arizona’s largest newspaper, and the rest of decent America with every new baseless utterance aimed at suppressing conservatives’ political free speech.

    While some media outlets are reporting “All the News that’s Fit to Edit Like a Ransom Note,” it’s good to see that the Arizona Republic is doing its job and speaking truth to  incompetent power in Pima County.

    Who is “irresponsible,” Sheriff Nifong? (Too cruel, but alas, too true!) We’ll let Rush Limbaugh explain:

    It’s kind of rhetorical to ask if the sheriff, Mr. Dupnik, will apologize. But Dupnik, the sheriff, knew that Jared Loughner had written “Die, bitch” on that note to her in 2007. . . .
    Will Obama say tonight in his remarks in Tucson that Dupnik acted stupidly as he did in describing the actions of the cop in Cambridge? Will Obama castigate Dupnik? No, this is not gonna happen. He called Dupnik and thanked him yesterday. . . .
    Why was that “Die, bitch” note covered up? I mean it’s now how many days? Saturday, Sunday, Monday — four days. Four days and we are still learning about all of this. Why did the media bury that information?

    Let those in the media who have promoted Sheriff Dupnik’s dishonest scapegoating — disseminating the hateful political propaganda that None Dare Call “Blood Libel” — answer that question.

    UPDATE: Roxeanne de Luca: “If you want to see progressives do a 180 and decide that words have a very specific, special meaning that cannot be used in any other context, ever, have Sarah Palin say them.”

    UPDATE II: Mission Accomplished, Clarence Dupnik: Tucson Tea Party Leader Gets Death Threats.

    UPDATE III: “Why must Sarah Palin insert herself into this story by defending herself against charges of inspiring murder?” It’s important to note the method of the Left’s propaganda:

    1. Based on zero evidence, they accused Palin — and Glenn Beck, Michelle Bachmann, the Tea Party, Rush Limbaugh, et al. — of having incited a horrific crime.
    2. It is subsequently learned that the crime was perpetrated by a psychotic “left wing” dopehead anti-Christian 9/11 Truther with an insane personal grudge against Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
    3. Those who have been falsely accused of complicity in mass murder — “Mission Accomplished, Sarah Palin” — respond to the accusation and criticize the transparently political motives of their accusers.
    4. The accusers then accuse those whom they have previously accused of murder with attempting to politicize a tragedy.

    This is why I say it is always wrong to accuse liberals of not having any standards. They’ve got exactly two: One for them, and one for everybody else.

    UPDATE IV: Examiner columnist Martin Hill and Kerry Picket at The Washington Times both have this astonishing background on Dupnik’s own drug-addict daughter’s 2007 arrest:

    The adult daughter of Sheriff Clarence Dupnik was booked into the Pima County jail Wednesday on drug charges.
    Mary Louise Alvarez Dupnik, 40, was arrested on suspicion of unlawful possession of marijuana, unlawful possession of a dangerous drug, unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia and an unrelated failure to appear on a charge of having a suspended license, according to the jail.
    She was booked into the jail the same day a search warrant was served at a Midtown hotel room where methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, a scale, syringes, pipes and counterfeit money were seized, according to court documents filed Friday.

    Also, in May of this year, Sheriff Dupnik declared he would not enforce the new Arizona immigration law that he denounced as “racist.” 

    PREVIOUSLY:

    Category: Arizona, Crime, Ed Driscoll, Journalism, Michelle Malkin

    ‘Vain in Their Imaginations’
    God-Haters and the Tucson Massacre

    Posted on | January 12, 2011 | 24 Comments

    Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools . . .
    — Romans 1:21-22 (KJV)

    Vox Day quoted from that famous passage in describing the auto-beclownment of University of Minnesota biology professor Paul Z. Myers — a self-proclaimed “godless liberal” — who like a lot of other godless liberals was utterly wrong about the Tucson shooting:

    “The scumbag who committed this crime has been caught; I’ll bet he’ll turn out to be a Teabagger who listens to a lot of AM talk radio.”

    Professor Myers went on to call Sarah Palin “a vile creature” and accused her of ” inciting the deranged a–holes who follow her.” When called out for his malicious libel, Professor Myers doubled down:

    This is NOT the time to back down and suddenly find it embarrassing to point out that right-wing pundits make a living as professional goads to insanity. . . .
    Do not sit there cowering, trying to make excuses for teabaggers and violent morons. This is supposed to be the part where you stand up, look at the shouters on the other side, and tell them, “This is wrong, and this is the harm you bring to our country.”

    In other words, no matter what vicious lies the “godless liberal” perpetrates, his comrades must defend his infamous falsehoods because . . . well, the Ends Justify The Means, and the road to a secular Utopia will necessarily be paved with the bones of the Enemies of Social Justice. This brutal logic, the demand that everyone must toe the line, that any tactic — even outright falsehood — is defensible so long as it advances the radical cause, is inherent to totalitarianism, which must silence dissent By Any Means Necessary.

    That an arrogant fool like Professor Paul Z. Myers is a government employee, paid to instruct the impressionable minds of Minnesota’s young people, ought to give pause to citizens of that state. Read more

    Category: Arizona, Crime, Education, Liberals, Minnesota, Religion, Sarah Palin, Zeitgeist

    It’s Almost Enough to Make You Think They Don’t Want to Enforce the Law

    Posted on | January 12, 2011 | 6 Comments

    Your taxpayer dollars at work:

    A U.S. Border Patrol agent is in custody for allegedly harboring illegal immigrants, including his father, in his San Ysidro, California, home, Fox5 San Diego reported Tuesday.
    Marcos Gerardo Manzano Jr., 26, was arrested Monday at the Imperial Beach Border Patrol Station, according to the FBI.
    Shortly before sunrise Tuesday, a federal SWAT team raided Manzano’s house and arrested suspected undocumented immigrant Jose Alfredo Garrido-Morena, also 26.
    According to a complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court in San Diego Tuesday afternoon, Garrido-Morena had been living at the residence since at least November along with Manzano and the accused agent’s 46-year-old father, Marcos Gerardo Manzano Sr.
    The elder Manzano, who faces federal immigration-violation charges in the case, remains at large, the FBI said.

    Great: Let’s hire the children of illegal aliens to enforce immigration law. What could possibly go wrong?


    Category: California, Crime, Immigration

    Jared Loughner: Beta Male

    Posted on | January 12, 2011 | 17 Comments

    No doubt about it, if this guy hadn’t become a mass-murderer, he would have been a blog troll:

    A trove of 131 online-forum postings written between April and June 2010 . . . provides insight into Mr. Loughner’s mind-set in the year leading up to Saturday’s shootings in Tucson . . .
    The online postings paint a picture of a disturbed young man trying to impress his peers and struggling to find a purpose to his life. . . .
    The online-forum messages exhibit a growing frustration that, at 22 years of age, Mr. Loughner couldn’t land a minimum-wage job and was spurned by women. By May 15, he wrote, he hadn’t had a paycheck in six months. A month later, he wrote that he had submitted 65 applications, yet “no interview.” . . .
    The postings exhibit fixations on grammar, the education system, government and currency. . . . They are peppered with displays of misogyny. . . .
    Gaming appears to have been an important part of Mr. Loughner’s life.

    Read the whole thing. Speaking of nonsensical fixations, Newsweek has published a weird story trying once again to depict Loughner as a right-wing extremist:

    The writer of that irresponsible and misguided article is Aaron Mehta of the non-profit Center for Public Integrity. Ace of Spades is in fine form about this ridiculous exercise in phony “investigative” journalism:

    This is what American liberal journalism is reduced to — lying by implication. . . .
    Note to the media: If a lie is so obvious and disprovable that you are forbidden to state it directly, isn’t that a sign you shouldn’t imply the fuck out of it? . . .
    This is the new technique. Don’t explicitly connect the dots, just put the dots an inch apart and let the viewer connect them.

    Read the whole thing. I’ll point out that the “executive editor” at the Center for Public Integrity is John Solomon — when he was hired as editor at The Washington Times, I quit. And then after Solomon ran the newspaper straight into the ground, he went to work for this left-wing smear machine.

    Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the purported Department of Homeland Security memo, alleging that Jared Loughner was tied to an anti-immigration group was, in fact, authored by a couple of second bananas at the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center. The commander of that agency says he has no idea why or how these state employees made that spurious claim. But they’ve got government jobs; competence is not a requirement and they can never be fired.

    Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik is an elected official, so it is to be hoped the voters will turn him out at the next election.

    Category: Ace of Spades, Arizona
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