tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58874400393238686592024-03-19T01:48:33.375-07:00RAWIllumination.netRobert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. Blog, Internet resources, online reading groups, articles and interviews, Illuminatus! info.Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.comBlogger5027125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-83039909378839768912024-03-18T08:12:00.000-07:002024-03-18T08:12:51.144-07:00Archived issues of Mondo 2000 <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhVt2QEfR5PIkSu6m8d3ZUlwdRzAXjevBvbXjdWB4mR0LXXtITCGcslJFxt8v7LFmZSTNh0murYH6UfxPVJDL6-MJfx7eoXc0WJsl_oH1i7_5A-hu7w2qG-fRQ_a86Vwi6mKdljUePrvQyRPxyCHgTWQpsrnomuKSjS9yQpJuhkrwGgsCODXyZzdds/s360/MONDO_2000_Issue_14_Spring,_Summer_1995_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="277" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhVt2QEfR5PIkSu6m8d3ZUlwdRzAXjevBvbXjdWB4mR0LXXtITCGcslJFxt8v7LFmZSTNh0murYH6UfxPVJDL6-MJfx7eoXc0WJsl_oH1i7_5A-hu7w2qG-fRQ_a86Vwi6mKdljUePrvQyRPxyCHgTWQpsrnomuKSjS9yQpJuhkrwGgsCODXyZzdds/w308-h400/MONDO_2000_Issue_14_Spring,_Summer_1995_cover.jpg" width="308" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Cover of issue 14 of Mondo 2000.</i></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondo_2000"> Mondo 2000, the cyberculture magazine co-founded and edited by R.U. Sirius, </a>featured contributions from the likes of Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary and Rudy Rucker. It came out in the 1980s and 1990s.</p><p>Every issue of the magazine is now available for download.<a href="https://anarchivism.org/w/Mondo_2000"> Find all of the issues here. </a></p><p>I downloaded the first issue, and it includes a piece by Robert Anton Wilson, "Cyber Evolution: Montage." </p><p><br /></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-44856061757478324352024-03-17T08:30:00.000-07:002024-03-17T08:30:18.862-07:00James Burt Nirvana story, and Kickstarter<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiekEZ0lx6xNQHOHoNnFTftAu_h-Cw5S0bYjLdGHt8w1YrcGH5b-kR6Xz8ben3lOvs48870mkw-hg9vypdYhdhPOYti9gverMmkm48YBjcAnsB_3ii-R-0pYjYbORvXRA26lYd9UsjKXmwzu91s-CqpvDgeRLJvyEMoBYD60wJ3RYjI0y18iDBZ5DZd/s475/abeerdeen.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="475" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiekEZ0lx6xNQHOHoNnFTftAu_h-Cw5S0bYjLdGHt8w1YrcGH5b-kR6Xz8ben3lOvs48870mkw-hg9vypdYhdhPOYti9gverMmkm48YBjcAnsB_3ii-R-0pYjYbORvXRA26lYd9UsjKXmwzu91s-CqpvDgeRLJvyEMoBYD60wJ3RYjI0y18iDBZ5DZd/w400-h272/abeerdeen.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Copyrighted free use photo, credit Paul Fritz Surachit, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Welcome_to_Aberdeen_cropped.jpg">details here. </a></i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://microfictions.substack.com/p/hidden-tracks-kickstarter-news?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1743027&post_id=142315809&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=ncq2&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email">"Hidden Tracks," a short story by James Burt about Nirvana fans</a>, is both touching and funny. Two of the characters save up to visit Aberdeen in the state of Washington in the U.S.</p><p style="text-align: left;">"(Our friend Emily thought that Nirvana came from Aberdeen in Scotland, and couldn’t figure out why it was taking Henry so long to save up. When we realised, we took the piss. But Emily got a first in her degree and I was a long way from that)." </p><p style="text-align: left;">"Taking the piss" means to mock somebody; my wife and I watch a lot of British mysteries, so we had heard the expression.</p><p style="text-align: left;">James sends out emails of short stories, none of them longer than about 700 words.<a href="https://microfictions.substack.com/"> Sign up here. </a></p><p style="text-align: left;">James also has announced a Kickstarter for a new book:</p><p style="text-align: left;">"I’ve been chatting with Dan from Peakrill Press, and we’ve set a date for launching the <i>True Clown Stories</i> kickstarter: March 21st. We’ve uploaded a<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dansumption/true-clown-stories"> preview page </a>where you can sign up to be notified on launch.</p><p>"The clowns in this book are not the creepy ones from horror stories. Rather, these are talented people who’ve found themselves in a world that doesn’t value their skills. These are stories about how they fight back against that disappointment.</p><p>"This book has been far too long in the works and I’m excited about launching the kickstarter. Nervous too - it’s so much harder to promote things online these days. But we’ll see what happens."</p><p><a href="http://www.rawillumination.net/2024/01/big-sale-at-peakrill-press.html">As I mentioned in an earlier post,</a> James Burt worked on the <i>Mycelium Parish News 2023.</i> </p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-29882571676742672022024-03-16T08:31:00.000-07:002024-03-16T08:31:39.128-07:00Jesse Walker reviews 'Tripping on Utopia'<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOJgW0wiDSz7aSWLhA5FzFClhd9KOQIWekr_qTM9PZqJLNMV5IURTXCB4wOvyhEAL909DmAjpUR43RIvrxBaEXmI1hS9rq1msA4yKQwwaU4EPrLufyr5ldlfPgXfeMaSfSfaoPnCwOb-Tje0g1Q5gAPRj7sbEli6QX8od8UiM_SekTO405pQ-kaNWk/s500/breen.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOJgW0wiDSz7aSWLhA5FzFClhd9KOQIWekr_qTM9PZqJLNMV5IURTXCB4wOvyhEAL909DmAjpUR43RIvrxBaEXmI1hS9rq1msA4yKQwwaU4EPrLufyr5ldlfPgXfeMaSfSfaoPnCwOb-Tje0g1Q5gAPRj7sbEli6QX8od8UiM_SekTO405pQ-kaNWk/w339-h512/breen.jpeg" width="339" /></a></div><br /><p>Jesse Walker's comments on Benjamin Breen's book, <i>Tripping on Utopia</i>, <a href="http://www.rawillumination.net/2024/03/john-lilly-was-creep.html">attracted some discussion in the comments for my recent blog post.</a> Jesse's review of the book <a href="https://reason.com/2024/03/15/tripping-on-utopia/?comments=true#comments">has now become available at the Reason magazine website. </a></p><p>I don't think the sole focus should be on Jesse's review, particularly as he is kinder about Tim Leary than other reviewers. Charlotte Shane's review for the New York Times<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/16/books/review/tripping-on-utopia-benjamin-breen.html?unlocked_article_code=1.dE0.hHq9.MJxlak3E16mn&smid=url-share"> is available here. </a> The book also was reviewed in the <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/timothy-leary-is-why-we-cant-have-nice-things-on-benjamin-breens-tripping-on-utopia/">Los Angeles Review of Books</a>. (The headline for that review is "Timothy Leary Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.") Publisher's Weekly <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781538722374">also reviewed it. </a></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-80850817744780043842024-03-15T08:32:00.000-07:002024-03-15T08:32:59.257-07:00Was the RAW gorilla story 'too good to check'? <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlJZ8LMGWTHtB6uEkPkEA7WNGB0YVFwnLjj512KG8Obl973dfCod7go0dHG4899T_WUDmo4SsnnuzDpmbhyphenhyphenGSWynhlEybc005WDoKoAFIoIn1rb1zgpiBGkto8HZgvC1ew01-rM3iqUxYRkVxHqHwmChb3syKMmBRHTaYeQw-7CzOg-MKChoalkJOY/s772/Cosmic-Trigger-3-featured-image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlJZ8LMGWTHtB6uEkPkEA7WNGB0YVFwnLjj512KG8Obl973dfCod7go0dHG4899T_WUDmo4SsnnuzDpmbhyphenhyphenGSWynhlEybc005WDoKoAFIoIn1rb1zgpiBGkto8HZgvC1ew01-rM3iqUxYRkVxHqHwmChb3syKMmBRHTaYeQw-7CzOg-MKChoalkJOY/w259-h400/Cosmic-Trigger-3-featured-image.jpg" width="259" /></a></div><br /> <a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/03/14/a-ugandan-hunter-is-tranquilizing-gorillas-and-dressing-them-in-clown-suits-the-origins-of-a-crazy-story-that-lives-on.html">At the Boing Boing website,</a> RAW fan Mark Frauenfelder mentions that he has been reading RAW's <i>Cosmic Trigger 3 </i>and decided to track down an anecdote in the book about a prankster in Uganda who tranquilized gorillas and then dressed them up in clown suits. Mark tries to track down the story and can't find any confirmation and finally decides that it might have been "too good to check." <p></p><p>In the comments section, this remark from the current Fortean Times news editor might be relevant: "I can confirm that it is indeed from us, via the Coventry Telegraph. It is definitely one of the more unlikely stories we’ve run, but we are as much about the strangeness of the media as the strangeness of the world, so do run tales like this without going deeply into verification, but provide the source for those who feel motivated to follow up."</p><p>"Without going deeply into verification" is a good description for a great deal of Fortean material, apparently;<a href="http://www.rawillumination.net/2020/07/review-new-inquisition.html"> see this discussion of<i> The New Inquisition.</i> </a></p><p><br /></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-47181055424037758872024-03-14T08:30:00.000-07:002024-03-14T08:30:59.342-07:00Thursday links <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0btobQdLjba-TNW6yV4-nwFp8kXJeNjj2SCdKmf55kchVsQuKX-Tl41S-BnGlZY9kAy0XxjkCMEQJtTppVmqBrxrdtmsiIwxtZsJoh4szkMBAmce4-JDarrCzjSFE0qluhHbZxTgv3i6dtm8dqDCi_pCYcfDlXAn-NAA9CJvM1FYYKpq9dcUtRv91/s682/Suicide(band)crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="594" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0btobQdLjba-TNW6yV4-nwFp8kXJeNjj2SCdKmf55kchVsQuKX-Tl41S-BnGlZY9kAy0XxjkCMEQJtTppVmqBrxrdtmsiIwxtZsJoh4szkMBAmce4-JDarrCzjSFE0qluhHbZxTgv3i6dtm8dqDCi_pCYcfDlXAn-NAA9CJvM1FYYKpq9dcUtRv91/s320/Suicide(band)crop.jpg" width="279" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Martin Rev and Alan Vega of the band Suicide. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Suicide(band)crop.jpg">Creative Commons photo.</a> </i></p><p><a href="https://www.spotlightonpodcast.com/blog/america-is-killing-its-youth-martin-rev-and-the-artistic-legacy-of-suicide/">Prop Anon interviews Martin Rev, from the band Suicide. </a> One of my favorite bands, The Cars, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide:_Alan_Vega_and_Martin_Rev">tried to help the duo back in the day. </a></p><p><a href="https://shows.acast.com/perplexitymysterypodcast/episodes/episode-67-ongs-hat-new-jersey-and-the-internet-conspiracy-t">Podcast on Joseph Matheny's<i> Ong's Hat.</i> </a></p><p><a href="https://orbific.com/movies/2024-best-picture-oscar/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email">James Burt watches all of the Oscar "Best Picture" nominees and posts brief reviews. </a>I must admit, I liked the "heavy handed literary satire" in<i> American Fiction. </i></p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/postnuclearjoan/status/1767957930740007309">Nabokov's literary judgments. </a></p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1766189290869121163">The New York Times bestseller list is fake.</a> The paper simply excludes books it doesn't like. </p><p><a href="https://reason.com/2024/03/08/bidens-inaccurate-and-inadequate-lip-service-to-marijuana-reform-ignores-todays-central-cannabis-issue/">Joe Biden's marijuana record.</a> As in, he's done little. </p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-10460379510450981292024-03-13T08:11:00.000-07:002024-03-13T08:11:10.432-07:00Interesting new article on James Joyce <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgeNK-94vZM2vp0eX9K_zm2eycovohmdzjUvAm3QPGuZCbw4r58iHujoS5NOEZFDR12MUdfYpV-AMMfQ0jmfW5tGp14Hhk8HnIUCDlQn5NHlJixg1s7K-TZ02K_ATFkc6Ygxlze-yVlLrEotm0BvI4aTdbDs-Xx4zPbtx4BdHcxIQRtjqsVHw2N5QM/s810/James_Joyce_-_Sep_1922_Shadowland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="595" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgeNK-94vZM2vp0eX9K_zm2eycovohmdzjUvAm3QPGuZCbw4r58iHujoS5NOEZFDR12MUdfYpV-AMMfQ0jmfW5tGp14Hhk8HnIUCDlQn5NHlJixg1s7K-TZ02K_ATFkc6Ygxlze-yVlLrEotm0BvI4aTdbDs-Xx4zPbtx4BdHcxIQRtjqsVHw2N5QM/w294-h400/James_Joyce_-_Sep_1922_Shadowland.jpg" width="294" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>A 1922 photograph of James Joyce by Man Ray. (Public domain photo). </i></p><p><a href="https://www.thefitzwilliam.com/p/james-joyce-was-a-complicated-man"> "James Joyce Was a Complicated Man"</a> by Henry Oliver, an article posted at The Fitzwilliam, starts out by zeroing in on the date James Joyce chose for<i> Ulysses</i>: </p><p>"After Nora Barnacle masturbated James Joyce under a bridge, she became his muse. It was their first date, and Nora thought it a way of keeping her ardent admirer at bay. The glove that Nora had removed, Joyce kept by him in bed as a young man. But this was more than infatuation. That day became the centre of Joyce’s imaginative work, the day on which <i>Ulysses</i> was set. </p><p>"A few years earlier, Joyce had been seduced by a prostitute, down by the River Liffey, an encounter which began his retreat from religion and religious authority. Now Nora was bringing him towards his central idea: the role of love in human affairs, and the notion that, as Richard Ellmann put it, the ordinary is the extraordinary; Joyce’s novel is the 'justification of the commonplace.' What happened between him and Nora that day wasn’t crude or immoral or disgusting: it was life. And it became the foundation of Ulysses."</p><p>Lots of other interesting observations in the article, too. This passage, for example, could be read as a restatement of how <i>Ulysses</i> influenced <i>Illuminatus!</i>: "Consciousness is fragmentary and so, to depict consciousness, novels must become fragmentary too. As T.S. Eliot said, 'the number of aspects' in Ulysses 'is indefinite'.” This seems like a restatement of RAW's comment that <i>Ulysses</i> does not have one objective point of view. </p><p>The author, Henry Oliver,<a href="https://www.commonreader.co.uk/"> has his own Substack. </a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-77334764770708325652024-03-12T08:30:00.000-07:002024-03-12T08:30:01.574-07:00Bobby Campbell's big comics collection <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaHcIK27g0PRhLJ_WkNlpVqwNn2Nvr0lQr5fXUx0ZifhibaKixnJl9TC3SUTMpQu0i2qOMMWNaxO-JF_tQLPP5afz_UNrkZXgCNu3jyIkeQWlbj2jz1YQ_4K7dhJFRzWhmycEIc2bucgVz7be4BxrvDiWamg1MkovZVslsD5P_b2HxWnwKmpqwDbox/s1021/il_794xN.5830774580_flxk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1021" data-original-width="794" height="493" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaHcIK27g0PRhLJ_WkNlpVqwNn2Nvr0lQr5fXUx0ZifhibaKixnJl9TC3SUTMpQu0i2qOMMWNaxO-JF_tQLPP5afz_UNrkZXgCNu3jyIkeQWlbj2jz1YQ_4K7dhJFRzWhmycEIc2bucgVz7be4BxrvDiWamg1MkovZVslsD5P_b2HxWnwKmpqwDbox/w383-h493/il_794xN.5830774580_flxk.jpg" width="383" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Omnibus 777 </i>is a digital comics bundle that has been put together by Bobby Campbell. $5 for hundreds of pages of comics that can be downloaded individually, or as one big bundle.<a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/1679630082/omnibus-777-digital-comics-bundle?click_key=870c603e5bdbfcf716ce7438e8db7c4ceba01887%3A1679630082&click_sum=7030c3e4&ref=shop_home_active_1"> Available here. </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"OMNIBUS 777 - Your Passport to the Weirdoverse! A digital comix bundle collecting together 12 comix and 4 zines from Bobby Campbell and his amazing friends :)))</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"Featuring: Weird Comix #0, Weird Comix #1, Weird Comix #2, Agnosis! #1, Agnosis! #2, BUDDHAFART #1, BUDDHAFART #2, Daze of Future Pastime, REJECTED, Psychonaut Comix #1, Psychonaut Comix #2, EITHER/OR, New Trajectories #1, New Trajectories #2, Maybe..., and Meet the Others.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"Bundle comes with access to PDF versions of all 16 releases, with CBR, Mobi (Kindle), and Web versions of all 12 comix. Download them individually or as a .zip file collection from the OMNIBUS 777 PDF guidebook."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"The idea is to make Omnibus 777 both the cheapest & best way to access my work," Bobby told me. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><br /></div>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-9571228515148863672024-03-11T07:23:00.000-07:002024-03-11T07:23:37.581-07:00Michael Johnson recommends three books on cannabis <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAs4PylBJuQ8UHgYU5eIladIeDcTqgS9mmnXsOJ5b_8jmzV9LeXpfBrGwVD6pPjem0T2hebZXYuURutWuk56sGNoEdU8if_qQI1jBmqhnMA2C0t2aTTlIQs_CL0BDiIjjGLUxKBweOnQ0Kt75dZkKOQXAWQMiYfIb0cJN8FQqZnA3i2p0shEYWhp1K/s772/Elevated-featured-image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAs4PylBJuQ8UHgYU5eIladIeDcTqgS9mmnXsOJ5b_8jmzV9LeXpfBrGwVD6pPjem0T2hebZXYuURutWuk56sGNoEdU8if_qQI1jBmqhnMA2C0t2aTTlIQs_CL0BDiIjjGLUxKBweOnQ0Kt75dZkKOQXAWQMiYfIb0cJN8FQqZnA3i2p0shEYWhp1K/w259-h400/Elevated-featured-image.jpg" width="259" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p><i>[If you look at this blog, I hope you have noticed that the comments have been really interesting lately. Most of them should not really be taken out of context, but Michael's three book recommendations, as part of other comments <a href="http://www.rawillumination.net/2024/03/thursday-links.html">for the March 7 blog post</a>, seems to stand alone, and I decided to turn them into a blog post to make them easy to access, not least to remind me to read them. The Management.]</i></p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">Three good books about cannabis</span></b></p><p><b>By R. Michael Johnson </b></p><p>Peter Grinspoon's book from 2023, <a href="https://www.petergrinspoon.com/book/"><i>Seeing Through The Smoke: A Cannabis Specialist Untangles The Truth About Marijuana</i> </a>is to be recommended.</p><p>On the neurobiology of cannabis and the endocannabinoid system that is probably the master regulatory system in the body: see Cheryl Pellerin's <i><a href="https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/9781510751866/healing-with-cannabis/">Healing With Cannabis: The Evolution of the Endocannabinoid System and How Cannabinoids Help Relieve PTSD, Pain, MS, Anxiety, and More</a></i>: it's quite readable for the intelligent layperson.</p><p>For cannabis and philosophy, I have a heavy bias toward Sebastian Marincolo's <i><a href="https://www.hilaritaspress.com/portfolio-item/elevated-cannabis-as-a-tool-for-mind-enhancement/">Elevated: Cannabis As A Tool For Mind Enhancement</a></i>, put out by Hilaritas, with an Intro by some jackass<b>*</b>, but Marincolo's book is da bomb.</p><p>Read all three, digest what they have to say, then settle back with a few hits of a hybrid and try not to ponder the amount of BS that the government and industries that felt threatened by weed got far too many people to believe. The data/info/knowledge in those books couldda been common by the 1960s if there was no concerted disinformation program against this plant. (AKA Stanford professor Robert Proctor's term: agnotology: the business of creating un-knowledge) This is no small point: tens of thousands of people have done heavy time in prison for small amounts of what grandma is now scoring from her local dispensary, 'cuz it helps with her arthritis and the side effects are negligible.</p><p>Do that for a few minutes, then drop it - cannabis helps you easily to drop this kinda of anger - and just enjoy music, poetry, or movies. Or art, food and sex. Just a thought.</p><p><b>*</b><i><b> </b>[Foreword by R. Michael Johnson]</i></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-50881103055314959122024-03-10T09:57:00.000-07:002024-03-10T09:57:28.444-07:00Do psychedelics make everyone better? Maybe the answer is obvious ....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAeTXYLhrrTE8D2f_cKyp9YM8QZQ3hgkCyKizyerIZmhhKomKVZj-wLMzEocTheiX0YbTgEbgmDt9lMQ6WfsDemGNhYhOPlwhmdjUXoR5gO_RUbumYdfNpJK37_epIdoz3NvpIG0OrSB1jw-xymdzzs448iyTkjMihsyIJjmJYEit9b6DqSYCzxq26/s400/Rushkoff.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAeTXYLhrrTE8D2f_cKyp9YM8QZQ3hgkCyKizyerIZmhhKomKVZj-wLMzEocTheiX0YbTgEbgmDt9lMQ6WfsDemGNhYhOPlwhmdjUXoR5gO_RUbumYdfNpJK37_epIdoz3NvpIG0OrSB1jw-xymdzzs448iyTkjMihsyIJjmJYEit9b6DqSYCzxq26/s320/Rushkoff.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Douglas Rushkoff</i></p><p> Article <a href="https://twitter.com/StealThisSingul/status/1766482742215356738">spotted on Twitter by R.U. Sirius</a>: <a href="https://www.salon.com/2024/03/08/ego-tripping-why-do-psychedelics-enlighten-some-people--and-make-others-giant-narcissists/">"Ego tripping: Why do psychedelics "enlighten" some people — and make others giant narcissists?" </a></p><p>"Crossing paths w. everyone from Leary and McKenna to RAWilson & R.U. Sirius Rushkoff was an early proponent of the crossover between technology & psychedelics." Rushkoff is is quoted a lot, so your mileage may vary depending on what you think of how his thinking has evolved. </p><p><a href="https://www.salon.com/2024/03/08/ego-tripping-why-do-psychedelics-enlighten-some-people--and-make-others-giant-narcissists/">More here. </a></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-27273158065792028082024-03-09T08:14:00.000-08:002024-03-09T08:14:06.468-08:00My Robert Shea FOIA<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij0LYedlcYwdCfz4YwD1FIZZhqlozwgTjHakVTMhKRCp8st9HC-VireauOjLg6KY9yEtwRpgnACn-l60j0Xwwyyh9IXVgSsCG_095Y6z5-_zi9fOYPaZkLfk777MJLkCRlLmeZFmS0ZgCWmndUlvrS1_KNfN8rjQeeizzlSoF3ss31nZNrrcT5apT4/s585/bob_shea_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="462" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij0LYedlcYwdCfz4YwD1FIZZhqlozwgTjHakVTMhKRCp8st9HC-VireauOjLg6KY9yEtwRpgnACn-l60j0Xwwyyh9IXVgSsCG_095Y6z5-_zi9fOYPaZkLfk777MJLkCRlLmeZFmS0ZgCWmndUlvrS1_KNfN8rjQeeizzlSoF3ss31nZNrrcT5apT4/s320/bob_shea_1.jpg" width="253" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Robert Shea. Photo from Bobshea.net. </i></p><p>Via<a href="https://twitter.com/notjessewalker/status/1766191075436159273"> Jesse Walker on X</a>, I read an <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/03/07/aaron-bushnell-fbi-anarchism-extremist/">article in the Intercept </a>which says that the FBI "the FBI maintains a program specifically for combating anarchists, called the Anarchist Extremism Program."</p><p>"An internal FBI threat advisory obtained by The Intercept defines Anarchist Violent Extremists as individuals 'who consider capitalism and centralized government to be unnecessary and oppressive,' and 'oppose economic globalization; political, economic, and social hierarchies based on class, religion, race, gender, or private ownership of capital; and external forms of authority represented by centralized government, the military, and law enforcement'.”</p><p>Robert Anton Wilson's interest in anarchism waned somewhat over the years, but <i>Illuminatus!</i> co-author Robert Shea called himself an anarchist, put out the anarchist zine <i>No Governor </i>(see the Robert Shea Resources at the right side of this page) and was otherwise active on the anarchist zine. He was rather strictly opposed to violence (he equated violence with statism), but I wondered if he showed up in the FBI files, anyway.</p><p>So I've filed a <a href="https://efoia.fbi.gov/#home">Freedom of Information Act request</a> to see if there is anything. Naturally, if I get something, I will post about it here. </p><p>As I wrote in 2013, there have been attempts to get information on what the FBI files had about Robert Anton Wilson. <a href="http://www.rawillumination.net/2013/03/robert-anton-wilsons-fbi-file.html">Apparently, there's not much there. </a></p><p><br /></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-78312460322518661632024-03-08T09:04:00.000-08:002024-03-08T09:04:50.562-08:00Robert Anton Wilson on Daniel Defoe<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhURSY7EBpbmKqoqe2tRuS-VgstgXhc1p80x8jfYIZqfr9To00WtFPRpSTPMsTkajjymEDxfjpo1qBY9QZTiIvuKF4ZEyHcYWbYXiJ8E7WHsLnpMM_KOcb8k4A2IMhNnNWB7HZimC1D_1XuoS3V1uCYQLdQLl_LN0MyuUnwwH7Gq6KIpxhChyphenhyphenl3x_az/s772/Natures-God-Front-Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="500" height="534" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhURSY7EBpbmKqoqe2tRuS-VgstgXhc1p80x8jfYIZqfr9To00WtFPRpSTPMsTkajjymEDxfjpo1qBY9QZTiIvuKF4ZEyHcYWbYXiJ8E7WHsLnpMM_KOcb8k4A2IMhNnNWB7HZimC1D_1XuoS3V1uCYQLdQLl_LN0MyuUnwwH7Gq6KIpxhChyphenhyphenl3x_az/w346-h534/Natures-God-Front-Cover.jpg" width="346" /></a></div><i><p><i><br /></i></p>[A literary observation <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/266989076737353?multi_permalinks=6492191364217062&hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen">posted on Facebook </a>by Jamey-Heather Davis. I thought it would share it with you. Jamey-Heather Davis is a teacher in Eugene, Oregon, and a member of Robert Anton Wilson Fans group. The Management.]</i><p></p><p>As an undergrad, I got an A+ on a paper where I demonstrated Wilson's use of other author's voices (in my paper, Joyce and Burroughs) to communicate certain states of mind. But my all time favorite passage of his doing so is this: "Maria had been reading a chryselephantinely over written book called Moll Flanders in the coach, and very definetely thought the somber, passionate, tragicomic and picaresque story was most absorbing, and certainly presented the dark, sinister, underground side of English life in a vivacious and veridical manner that carried conviction, but she wished Mr. Defoe were not so in love with ornamentally excessive adjectives and long, stentorian, and somewhat inchoate sentences that, even by the standards of the time, seemed to twist and turn through curlicues and arabesques and wind on and on through ever-increasing clauses and sub-clauses, including abrubt changes of subject and total NON SEQUITURS (italics in original), even if he did seem to be making a unique effort to understand a woman's perspective on the world, which was all to the good, and it was less monochromatically monotonous (she had to admit) than the other one he wrote with virtually nobody in it but that one ingenious mechanic on the island , living in total isolation unitil he found that one ineluctable footprint; and yet it could all be told as well and be more pleasant to read if those sentences did not get so totally out of control and sprawl all over the page so often in positive apotheosis of the lugubrious style, and then she wondered if reading so much of such labyrinthe and arabesque prose for so long in the hot carriage had affected her own mind and she were starting to think like that herself....." ~ RAW, <i>Nature's God</i>, Hilaritus Press edition, p. 17 - 18</p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-26393332555908017312024-03-07T08:18:00.000-08:002024-03-07T21:07:05.163-08:00Thursday links [Updated]<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGMwc8pR4gvIBFTJM57posibz31GeW_ltnFVmYHBbVBhTgNa8R2fFOAKIEIEkNuEnLt5ayFV9L-KhZaaj_6VlcCjhQC3Y0gKhJAY3pZ02VSVjKZ64akuzB3FMZRfcMqXl9TC5U167jPzuHLZL4VyIu-4NAl7tIwO6IBFjkVozCg4vJesKfHx1dQXPq/s425/blotter.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="340" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGMwc8pR4gvIBFTJM57posibz31GeW_ltnFVmYHBbVBhTgNa8R2fFOAKIEIEkNuEnLt5ayFV9L-KhZaaj_6VlcCjhQC3Y0gKhJAY3pZ02VSVjKZ64akuzB3FMZRfcMqXl9TC5U167jPzuHLZL4VyIu-4NAl7tIwO6IBFjkVozCg4vJesKfHx1dQXPq/s320/blotter.jpg" width="256" /></a></div><br /><p><a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2024/03/04/the-institute-for-illegal-images/"> Erik Davis in the Paris Review</a>, an article adapted from his upcoming book, <i>Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium, </i>about a museum of LSD blotter paper. </p><p><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/north-carolina-gop-mark-robinson-women-vote_n_65e7d899e4b0f9d26cacc002">Republican nominee for governor in North Carolina.</a> </p><p><a href="https://filtermag.org/cannabis-cognitive-decline/">"Marijuana use is associated with lower odds of subjective cognitive decline." </a>News for older people, but I don't know what to make of this and it may not be the final word. <b>UPDATE: </b>Here is another encouraging study (<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10863546/">clickable link</a> for the study Michael mentions in the comments.) </p><p><a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/24/the-2024-santa-monica-film-festival-was-chock-full-of-red-pilled-conspiracy-content.html">Conspiracy content at the film festival. </a></p><p><a href="https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2024/03/u-s-a-yikes-fact-of-the-day.html">There's a huge increase in young women taking antidepressants.</a></p><p><br /></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-37538654408112827122024-03-06T07:34:00.000-08:002024-03-06T07:34:28.203-08:00Powerful psychedelic may hold key to breaking opioid addictions<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiae33A-Ip0dqFrb16bKHCUWeal4ZVK1s3-YZpTNv2peeaGW03U7Ads6KPsascjxPYzHSXCJCRy8ZfXL348A-RVVvM6vvKEU92eOLyUxVKDeunEsxhjbAQmbuACDncdbyv42JLE69jBKO9xADrjPer5ie85v05WTlWCHIjbXga18_3bu8PhyphenhyphenolRzDTY/s3456/iboga.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="2304" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiae33A-Ip0dqFrb16bKHCUWeal4ZVK1s3-YZpTNv2peeaGW03U7Ads6KPsascjxPYzHSXCJCRy8ZfXL348A-RVVvM6vvKEU92eOLyUxVKDeunEsxhjbAQmbuACDncdbyv42JLE69jBKO9xADrjPer5ie85v05WTlWCHIjbXga18_3bu8PhyphenhyphenolRzDTY/w266-h400/iboga.jpg" width="266" /></a></div> <p></p><p><i>Iboga is described as "an evergreen rainforest shrub native to Central Africa." It produces ibogaine. (Creative Commons photo via Wikipedia, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabernanthe_iboga#/media/File:Tabernanthe_iboga_MS_4098.jpg">information here). </a></i></p><p>While we all wait for SMI2LE to be fulfilled (we may not have the space colonies or life extension yet, but we're getting the intelligence increase, in the form of AI), it's worth noting again that Robert Anton Wilson apparently had a point when he condemned the long ban on psychedelic research.</p><p>Here's a New York Times story about ibogaine, a powerful psychedelic from Africa I had not heard about before:</p><p>"Ibogaine, a formidable psychedelic made from the root of a shrub native to Central Africa, is not for the timid. It unleashes a harrowing trip that can last more than 24 hours, and the drug can cause sudden cardiac arrest and death.</p><p>"But scientists who have studied ibogaine have reported startling findings. According to a number of small studies, between a third and two-thirds of the people who were addicted to opioids or crack cocaine and were treated with the compound in a therapeutic setting were effectively cured of their habits, many after just a single session."</p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/05/health/ibogaine-psychedelic-opioid-addiction.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ak0.Ly81.tP2giV5Y9uO3&smid=url-share">Full story here.</a></p><p>The article is written by Andrew Jacobs, and the byline says he "writes about psychedelic medicine." Think about that -- the New York Times has a psychedelic medicine reporter. </p><p><br /></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-29896962976511192622024-03-05T08:26:00.000-08:002024-03-16T08:32:04.284-07:00'John Lilly was a creep' <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp8BoZoWESK9gbDMD8Tw46eePt5iorVcndnJuQPelGV6PyExN-q_4fhvuyDUXW-UT0_s_6f44K9oCrofE9vfGsoRA5ZzQSSrl0GwOudoYlo6lPoImv3eYf89wJiq_4siKmk__1-5nLAFjmvwbToFDdEnqeyr-AfZCGwqMa-1WEYD3E88O4DFSyIJIl/s487/johnlilly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="487" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp8BoZoWESK9gbDMD8Tw46eePt5iorVcndnJuQPelGV6PyExN-q_4fhvuyDUXW-UT0_s_6f44K9oCrofE9vfGsoRA5ZzQSSrl0GwOudoYlo6lPoImv3eYf89wJiq_4siKmk__1-5nLAFjmvwbToFDdEnqeyr-AfZCGwqMa-1WEYD3E88O4DFSyIJIl/w320-h296/johnlilly.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>John Lilly </i></p><p style="text-align: left;">There apparently was quite a dark side to John Lilly, the dolphin and consciousness researcher <a href="http://www.rawillumination.net/2022/10/raw-reviews-john-lilly.html">whom Robert Anton Wilson wrote about. </a></p><p style="text-align: left;">On X, Jesse Walker writes, "John Lilly was a creep. He bragged to a military audience that he could do dolphin experiments 'that one could not do with man without getting into severe moral, legal, or ethical problems.' Then he wrote a book calling dolphins 'humans of the sea.' "</p><p style="text-align: left;">Jesse <a href="https://t.co/v8j5o7UdK6">links to an article written by historian Benjamin Breen,</a> the author of a new book on LSD research <a href="http://www.rawillumination.net/2024/02/new-book-about-psychedelic-history.html">I mentioned recently. </a> </p><p style="text-align: left;">Jesse notes that the quote he mentions does not appear in the article he linked to, but does appear in Breen's<i> Tripping on Utopia</i> book, which Jesse reviews in the latest issue of Reason magazine. I'll link to the review when it appears online.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The article Jesse links to says the "most unsettling feature" of Lilly's research "was the fact that his dolphins kept dying." It says that Lilly relied on "using pain to control animal behavior."</p><p style="text-align: left;">And <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/29/tripping-on-utopia-margaret-mead-the-cold-war-and-the-troubled-birth-of-psychedelic-science-benjamin-breen-book-review">this New Yorker article says</a> four of the seven dolphins Lilly gave LSD to died. </p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-83222034147948546582024-03-04T08:21:00.000-08:002024-03-04T08:21:57.876-08:00Joseph Matheny releases free digital comic<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDc3vXPY2x99vxDtXJ9PrnuyStQomBRo6JnN0yciT_aQx-uOFwJcYy-1GvgNkEAUipmIben0-ej2RBH6wBltstCroCeP_v2G-ynwR2HQLyHK0W8M4r_ou9U9TJ1dqCcR0VOmdu5qDYcwxtv-0c9jVxFM6ae9ZCi_nOzQ8qeA_hq7tlqWjtCRMKBdHe/s2912/statio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1941" data-original-width="2912" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDc3vXPY2x99vxDtXJ9PrnuyStQomBRo6JnN0yciT_aQx-uOFwJcYy-1GvgNkEAUipmIben0-ej2RBH6wBltstCroCeP_v2G-ynwR2HQLyHK0W8M4r_ou9U9TJ1dqCcR0VOmdu5qDYcwxtv-0c9jVxFM6ae9ZCi_nOzQ8qeA_hq7tlqWjtCRMKBdHe/w400-h266/statio.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Joseph Matheny <a href="https://josephmatheny.substack.com/p/statio-numero-now-available-as-free">has announced a new free digital comic version</a> of his latest novel,<i> Statio Numero.</i></p><p>"Due to popular demand, I have added a<a href="https://archive.org/download/statio-numero-signed/Statio_Numero.cbr"> CBR</a> and <a href="https://archive.org/download/statio-numero-signed/Statio_Numero.cbz">CBZ</a> format to the free Internet Archive version of <a href="https://archive.org/details/statio-numero-signed"><i>Statio Numero</i>.</a></p><p></p><p>"CBR and CBZ are standard digital comic formats. There are lots of free readers for tablets and desktop/laptop computers. You should read these on a tablet or laptop/desktop computer, not a phone, for legibility reasons. Of course, the links won’t be clickable in this format, but the art and text have good-quality resolution."</p><p>There's <a href="https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Joseph+Matheny%22">a lot of other Matheny material at the Internet Archive,</a> including work of interest to Robert Anton Wilson fans.<i> The Lost Studio Session </i>audio recording of Robert Anton Wilson <a href="https://archive.org/details/RobertAntonWilsonTheLostStudioSession">also remains available. </a></p><p><br /></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-34702009585090655632024-03-03T08:40:00.000-08:002024-03-03T08:40:41.303-08:00Did the Guns and Dope Party win? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9K75GKR4fB5dG1TQC4JNsKNgBuhOIYiay8QrBJrgCA7jGXQb9pQUwcDFo1hCK9rJiYA_qgVSCsboUnz8-3Mgcnfg4h8uQPPQ5V4wXOX6NofarKOTkpR2M9Or7DN7XGaUjkzxXguA3LZcgDuz2mas6VdOofkG3BUKfUuzWSWI_QjJH1cOG9liY02-f/s354/AnnieInFrame.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="354" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9K75GKR4fB5dG1TQC4JNsKNgBuhOIYiay8QrBJrgCA7jGXQb9pQUwcDFo1hCK9rJiYA_qgVSCsboUnz8-3Mgcnfg4h8uQPPQ5V4wXOX6NofarKOTkpR2M9Or7DN7XGaUjkzxXguA3LZcgDuz2mas6VdOofkG3BUKfUuzWSWI_QjJH1cOG9liY02-f/s320/AnnieInFrame.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>A graphic for the Guns and Dope Party,<a href="https://www.pelorian.com/artraw.html"> from Rasa's website.</a> </i></p><p>When Robert Anton Wilson ran for governor of California in 2003, he ran as the candidate of the Guns and Dope Party. The name comes <a href="https://www.pelorian.com/artraw.html">from these positions in the party's platform</a>: "Guns for everybody who wants them; no guns for those who don't want them. Drugs for everybody who wants them; no drugs forthose who don't want them." The Guns and Dope Party seems generally libertarian, if you overlook the satirical aspects of the party's platform. </p><p>While the two main American political parties have arguably become less libertarian in recent years, the U.S. also has become more libertarian, at least in terms of regulating personal behavior. </p><p>This trend seems certainly true in Ohio, where I live. Last fall, voters approved two state questions. One puts legal abortion in the state constitution. The other legalizes possession and use of marijuana; marijuana stores for the general public will open in Ohio later this year. </p><p>Here in Ohio, I am also allowed to set off fireworks in public during numerous holidays during the year, not just the the Fourth of July. That's a relatively new law. Gun laws, never very restrictive in Ohio, have become even less so. For example, in 2022 Ohio dropped requiring permits for the concealed carry of a handgun. Now you can tote one around without a background check or any training requirements. Betting on the outcome of sports games also recently became legal. Casino gambling was legalized some years ago and is available in all of the big cities. No one has to go out to buy porn anymore; it's on the Internet. It's become easier in Ohio for people to choose what schools their kids will go to; most people except the quite wealthy can obtain vouchers to make it easier to send their kids to private schools, including religious ones. </p><p>In some cases, Republican lawmakers who control the legislature simply passed laws; in a few cases, as in last year's state questions, they blocked action and the voters overrode them. </p><p>The trends I am citing are generally true in the U.S. States continue to legalize marijuana in the U.S. Casino gambling and gambling on sports, once mostly confined to Las Vegas, has spread to many areas of the U.S. The people who support "school choice" vouchers for everyone have won in several states. Gay marriage has become the law of the land and is generally accepted. </p><p>Even in nonpolitical ways, life has become less restrictive. You choose your gender. American football was on TV only two days a week when I was young; now in football season, it's most days. Major league baseball when I was young was only on TV one time a week, on Saturday afternoon, until the playoffs arrived. Now baseball is on TV every day, during baseball season. </p><p>This seems like an impressive list for doing what you want to do in your personal life, not just in comparison to repressive regimes such as North Korea and Saudi Arabia, but also in comparison to most countries of the western world, where legal marijuana and buying all the guns you want is not really the norm. </p><p>There are a couple of apparent exceptions to my general rule about the country becoming more libertarian. </p><p>The Supreme Court overruled the Roe v. Wade decision and allowed abortion to be decided by the states, and many states have criminalized the procedure, so on the surface that's an example of less free choice. </p><p>But in every state where the issue has gone on the ballot as a state question in the wake of the ruling, <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/History_of_abortion_ballot_measures">the pro-abortion side has won, </a>including in Ohio. This statement is true about both liberal and conservative states; when the people themselves are allowed to decide, they vote not to let the government interfere with medical decisions. As a political matter, abortion (and most recently, IVF) has become the biggest issue Democrats can use to attack Republicans, with the possible exception of the existence of Donald Trump.</p><p>And I think it's possible that on guns in Ohio, left leaning political groups may succeed in putting gun control on the ballot and imposing certain restrictions that seem generally popular, such as background checks for all gun sales. But even with such changes, I doubt Ohio will become more restrictive than most western countries. I suspect the opposite will remain true. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-68950864332982171182024-03-02T08:10:00.000-08:002024-03-02T08:10:55.192-08:00Libertarians debate universal basic income <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wt7miKpEN_c?si=42uRbZbIaYUx_Wcd" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
<p>As a libertarian-leaning thinker who said he wasn't "that kind of libertarian" because "I don't hate poor people," Robert Anton Wilson was interested in maximum freedom but also advocated helping the poor. One of the ideas he was interested in was the universal basic income, sending money to people to make sure they aren't totally broke.</p><p>Two libertarian college professors whose work I follow closely, <a href="https://www.betonit.ai/">Bryan Caplan </a>and <a href="https://freiman.substack.com/">Chris Freiman,</a> recently held a debate on the UBI, with Freiman arguing in favor and Caplan against. I plan to try to watch this over the weekend. </p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-67020760009847430402024-03-01T07:45:00.000-08:002024-03-01T07:45:02.998-08:00RAW Semantics on censorship and free expression <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOHhltN943Emtv3blMGYnTSYAjk7wbCrnfaUpIJimucUvE_yTSPgGIhztFzU9HEIFoMyQ3DZ7faQ-2rlScnpMJGbRaZJbqT-ZPmMD-AyOV5u7vPtwIznYqNvavDjnxqhPpKyoQAPqO-VqrMi5w4IbDO4deZdToR_wQlQYzN54wz07Qul-1CHiZxJiZ/s334/censor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="334" data-original-width="230" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOHhltN943Emtv3blMGYnTSYAjk7wbCrnfaUpIJimucUvE_yTSPgGIhztFzU9HEIFoMyQ3DZ7faQ-2rlScnpMJGbRaZJbqT-ZPmMD-AyOV5u7vPtwIznYqNvavDjnxqhPpKyoQAPqO-VqrMi5w4IbDO4deZdToR_wQlQYzN54wz07Qul-1CHiZxJiZ/w275-h400/censor.jpg" width="275" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>A new blog post at RAW Semantics is always interesting, and one that has just posted takes on a hot topic.<a href="https://rawsemantics.home.blog/2024/02/29/raw-restricted/?c=4361#comment-4361"> "RAW restricted" features Robert Anton Wilson's views on censorship and how accusations of censorship can become a political tool in an era when few views actually are suppressed</a>. Quite a few issues are explored; Brian has influenced my thinking. </p><p>In the discussion of "shadow banning" on X, he mentions an incident in which the @RAWilson23 X account mentioned one of my blog posts and a reply post on X was for mysterious reasons was hidden from readers. As the RAW Semantics post remarks, "This was the only reply. It contains nothing offensive, but it got hidden. (The hidden tweet has a link to then US Democratic Party candidate Marianne Williamson – does this seem relevant? And would some folks cry “censorship” if RFK Jr got “shadow-banned” in this way?)." I had not noticed the whole odd incident. </p><p>Anyway, <a href="https://rawsemantics.home.blog/2024/02/29/raw-restricted/?c=4361#comment-4361">interesting post, so join the discussion. </a> As per usual, the illustrations are quite witty; I've nicked one for this post. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-44964119223657340052024-02-29T06:21:00.000-08:002024-02-29T06:21:07.266-08:00It was a great run! <iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="640" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/828457445?h=dcc4c5a87d&color=ffffff&title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="640"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/828457445">18 Book Cover Designs for Robert Anton Wilson</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/amoeba">amoeba</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>. (The artist has now retired from doing the Hilaritas covers, but he's right to celebrate his achievements.)</p><p><a href="https://www.theestateovcreation.com/">More here. </a></p>
<p> </p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-60371827782215315092024-02-28T07:48:00.000-08:002024-02-28T07:48:08.662-08:00New Erik Davis book and an April book tour <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGUPj5eOWRQZpYrKfInyU71s6KZFkzAHKGd4nxOYiFZEpr9rdrO7Xu-ByCVO5m8jcIf9TrxmFT9wEhx1Ze3r58KWTckvac69FsKLNLjrVsWyOk8SXG2uiGGRHs31DvnB7bOoeIVA3-DeR54jm8plWhOfuvduDR1FXRPI9iAhvJ8xvauuY6Ld4So6gg/s1500/blotter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGUPj5eOWRQZpYrKfInyU71s6KZFkzAHKGd4nxOYiFZEpr9rdrO7Xu-ByCVO5m8jcIf9TrxmFT9wEhx1Ze3r58KWTckvac69FsKLNLjrVsWyOk8SXG2uiGGRHs31DvnB7bOoeIVA3-DeR54jm8plWhOfuvduDR1FXRPI9iAhvJ8xvauuY6Ld4So6gg/w320-h400/blotter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>In my Erik Davis news roundup the other day, I managed to miss he has a new book out and is about to embark on a new book tour. </p><p>The new book is <i>Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium</i>, which Davis says is " is illustrated with over one hundred images drawn from Mark McCloud’s epic blotter archive." </p><p>The book is out April 2, and Davis writes, "This pleases me, because while I dig all my books, I am particularly proud of this one. As an author, it’s pretty tough these days to stake out some unmarked territory in the landscape of psychedelic discourse, and the history and analysis of LSD blotter as both a carrier medium and an artistic medium is some fresh and funky ground. Blotter also gave me a rare opportunity to develop a conceptual apparatus to think about an entire print culture that only a few serious heads — notably Carlo McCormick — have heretofore bent their minds to. To top it off, it also may be my most entertaining book (though <i>Led Zeppelin IV</i> might be tough to beat)." He is hoping you will <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Blotter-Untold-Story-Acid-Medium/dp/0262048507/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3CK2IGLXTU7QN&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ofcrzhlzuMB1ErDs0vmdkPW9A3sTLhtAqe2yA9ClE4WLhxf7xwAxmt_7PC5DoUmJ4sPvN308GgYu06j1r2D_yg.do9U-u2trX2LIQnVUS5QbP_l_lCs-OzeUz3q-IA3BGo&dib_tag=se&keywords=blotter+erik+davis&qid=1707848306&sprefix=blotter+erik+davi%2Caps%2C180&sr=8-1">consider a preorder.</a></p><p>The April book tour takes Erik to an online appearance, and also to Berkeley, Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, Cambridge (in Massachusetts), New York City, Berlin, London and Amsterdam. Dates for the book tour, more on the book and more information about upcoming appearances can be found <a href="https://www.burningshore.com/p/on-the-road">in a recent Substack newsletter. </a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-23041388521029001942024-02-27T08:09:00.000-08:002024-02-27T08:09:09.786-08:00New interview with Rupert Sheldrake <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD0677Hdjaw0V0mj8S-kcTHYFPspvkdVI5XOMrBK-nMTDiVtDuZ45IAYiWvkhtb4PvKK23iuNM5wHVgwuHYBizJSoNNkI1sWkjbe4SbNkuz3UJJDG4Ewu-h5fszbOyaW3DasW0S6aM7xqCS4oSirCOohAcKXCvb32Ls6dZ0UZpfRBEPf8KKjkCuSfd/s772/The-New-inquisition-featured-image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD0677Hdjaw0V0mj8S-kcTHYFPspvkdVI5XOMrBK-nMTDiVtDuZ45IAYiWvkhtb4PvKK23iuNM5wHVgwuHYBizJSoNNkI1sWkjbe4SbNkuz3UJJDG4Ewu-h5fszbOyaW3DasW0S6aM7xqCS4oSirCOohAcKXCvb32Ls6dZ0UZpfRBEPf8KKjkCuSfd/w259-h400/The-New-inquisition-featured-image.jpg" width="259" /></a></div><br /><p>If you've read<i> The New Inquisition</i> by Robert Anton Wilson, you know that there is quite a bit of ink about Rupert Sheldrake and his theories. </p><p>Infinite Loops -- the podcast of investor, philanthropist and RAW fan Jim O’Shaughnessy -- <a href="https://www.infiniteloopspodcast.com/rupert-sheldrake-on-scientism-morphic-resonance-and-the-extended-mind-ep-204/">has a new episode up, an interview of Rupert Sheldrake.</a> Available at the link and you can also download a transcript.</p><p>Early in the interview, after a discussion about Sir John Maddox and his denunciations of Sheldrake:</p><p><b>Jim O’Shaughnessy:</b> There's a wonderful book, I don't know if you've read it, by Robert Anton Wilson, called<i> <a href="https://www.hilaritaspress.com/portfolio-item/the-new-inquisition/">The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science</a>.</i></p><p><b>Rupert Sheldrake:</b> Yes, I have read it. Yes. I mean it is a very good account of this thing. I mean, it is not just me and it's not just Maddox. It's a much bigger issue really as Wilson points out.</p><p>Hat tip: Mike Gathers. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-34431050262781752702024-02-26T07:51:00.000-08:002024-02-26T07:54:16.220-08:00What did RAW think of 'Casablanca'?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbpJeJF98upw5Abpqm39RUxnYxWz8GwMLCBYcd6f9kEJ0fdo4xJxWaqf8WEV_4TDPyw280hASdCUoNqKwraPOFmd3Qx74Q9tQT5gm_UbRIBv7DQOj6Mmu_tCqILHb4qanohyphenhyphen8eNhGbrhqgLwAvJoxJcBAffJYwmeqaqP6NSIYFhdp8Rytd5Ys_9jiS/s859/CasablancaPoster-Gold.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="859" data-original-width="580" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbpJeJF98upw5Abpqm39RUxnYxWz8GwMLCBYcd6f9kEJ0fdo4xJxWaqf8WEV_4TDPyw280hASdCUoNqKwraPOFmd3Qx74Q9tQT5gm_UbRIBv7DQOj6Mmu_tCqILHb4qanohyphenhyphen8eNhGbrhqgLwAvJoxJcBAffJYwmeqaqP6NSIYFhdp8Rytd5Ys_9jiS/s320/CasablancaPoster-Gold.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Theatrical release poster for Casablance, believed to be public domain, via Wikipedia.</i></p><p>When I look <a href="http://www.rawillumination.net/2014/01/raws-100-favorite-movies.html">at the list of Robert Anton Wilson's 100 favorite movies, </a>supplied to me in 2014 by Jesse Walker, one thing jumps out at me: My favorite movie is missing. My personal favorite is <i>Casablanca,</i> which of course is a favorite for many other people, too.</p><p>The list is described as RAW's "personal and eccentric list," so maybe he was just trying to avoid cliche selections, but I'm still curious what he thought of the movie. I thought perhaps Scott Apel might know; Scott<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Killer-Bs-Movies-Video-Probably-ebook/dp/B00NTQ71X6/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3F5G2XSQ7EPGS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.2Uw0q32NAfuubsVdu9NYmAiPQZEOvpQgtpV9FuXe8dOgD1roQU1n7FONdFj1lZRBMqQtLea3Y0i5Ltez4YavZJycES2_rlsbDEV49OzCZ5cD8fK061-AC_MCqI5tQJLd.QkwPJFnlKVwFwl-yoh_gnHAxTsGBd7ojCB0kmbaD8-w&dib_tag=se&keywords=killer+b%27s+scott+apel&qid=1708962796&s=digital-text&sprefix=killer+b%27s+scott+apel%2Cdigital-text%2C200&sr=1-2"> has written books about movies</a> and would watch films with RAW. But Scott says, "As for <i>Casablanca</i>, I can't recall ever discussing it with RAW. I love it, but I have no idea how he felt about it (as opposed to the movies we did discuss regularly, like <i>Silence of the Lambs</i>, and -- of course -- <i>Citizen Kane</i>). Sorry I can't help you out there."</p><p>It seems odd if RAW never held forth on a classic famous movie (see <a href="https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2024/02/my-view-of-casablanca-with-spoilers-but-youve-seen-it-already.html">the recent discussion at Marginal Revolution</a>). Can anyone weigh in? Then again, I've always been surprised there is no evidence RAW was interested in <i>Twin Peaks</i>. </p><p><br /></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-92108150033718925942024-02-25T07:51:00.000-08:002024-02-25T07:57:29.092-08:00Some Erik Davis news, and a question <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1-59u-xe-fO_VBAljZ5kNrwL1Q-R3LDKvwEOVhW3hNEGIlUfCK_9E0yOz6HfqrtxXK0S9rbo4MqBruYA0yqH7f5nxPg1TL4aFkDEQ1HWkExq0pGFvr3L4JcsUqj6l3hKB4LINmoG038UvLi2m-lVG4yFZFh8HcIiHRst-2F86t7IE7EO2U4WQ2gOt/s400/erikdavis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1-59u-xe-fO_VBAljZ5kNrwL1Q-R3LDKvwEOVhW3hNEGIlUfCK_9E0yOz6HfqrtxXK0S9rbo4MqBruYA0yqH7f5nxPg1TL4aFkDEQ1HWkExq0pGFvr3L4JcsUqj6l3hKB4LINmoG038UvLi2m-lVG4yFZFh8HcIiHRst-2F86t7IE7EO2U4WQ2gOt/w320-h320/erikdavis.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Erik Davis (Twitter portrait)</i></p><p>Erik Davis, who wrote about Robert Anton Wilson in his excellent book <i>High Weirdness,</i> <a href="https://www.burningshore.com/p/pkds-divine-interference?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=34995&post_id=141762783&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=9hfs7&open=false&utm_medium=email">has posted "PKD's Divine Interference" in his Substack newsletter,</a> substantial excerpts from his long essay on what happened to Philip K. Dick about 50 years ago, "when Philip K. Dick glimpsed a delivery woman’s Christian fish necklace and launched into the extraordinary series of bizarre experiences and events that the author referred to as '2/3/74'.” </p><p>Also, <a href="https://twitter.com/erik_davis/status/1759631534175494602">this announcement from Mr. Davis:</a> "Come study "The Psychedelic Universe" with me and my PhD crony Christian Greer at the University of Amsterdam this summer: a two-week in-person immersion seminar on 'Global Perspectives on Higher Consciousness'." <a href="https://summerschool.uva.nl/content/summer-courses/the-psychedelic-universe/the-psychedelic-universe.html">More details here. </a></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">My question</span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Separate from the above, I recently located and transcribed an article by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea, "Come Back Lyndon," for the Robert Shea collection I am working on. It was published in in the July 1971 issue of The Organ, an underground newspaper in California<a href="http://www.rawillumination.net/2024/01/robert-sheas-pal-richard-lupoff.html"> I mentioned recently.</a></p><p style="text-align: left;">The piece, which draws on the "Illuminati Mythos" in <i>Illuminatus!</i>, has this last sentence: "Do not, O Illuminati, leave us out here in the twilight with no more for host than a sincere Coca Cola machine." I don't understand the sentence. Am I reading it wrong? Is there a wrong word or a missing one? Or do I just have poor reading comprehension skills? </p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-67329015589190436282024-02-24T09:07:00.000-08:002024-02-24T22:03:23.756-08:00RAW on the hypnosis of 'reality'<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVg94AVbKuS0AF9IPWjXiC4ZR69uSL8vLo_cxXDdpexfgmEEQP7RKWyh32xre9m0iHeYptDNfCaYBwoDTPs3qXDjTOCGuZdhHafiR-VGUtBqLISpQc6kyFyQeoGIAyYdaCCA36v53lfmVj8gRtbRiALuPMGm9Sr51BFH6VlAuwfvI1BEOaNYNyew-R/s777/Prometheus-Rising.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="777" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVg94AVbKuS0AF9IPWjXiC4ZR69uSL8vLo_cxXDdpexfgmEEQP7RKWyh32xre9m0iHeYptDNfCaYBwoDTPs3qXDjTOCGuZdhHafiR-VGUtBqLISpQc6kyFyQeoGIAyYdaCCA36v53lfmVj8gRtbRiALuPMGm9Sr51BFH6VlAuwfvI1BEOaNYNyew-R/w258-h400/Prometheus-Rising.jpg" width="258" /></a></div><i><p><i><br /></i></p>Prometheus Rising,</i> one of Robert Anton Wilson's best-loved books, has a passage that is one of my favorites: <p></p><p>"When the Russian mathematician, Ouspensky, was first studying with Gurdjieff, he had great trouble understanding Gurdjieff's insistence that most people are machines and totally unaware of the objective world around them. Then, one day, after World War I had begun, Ouspensky saw a truck full of <i>artificial legs.</i> These artificial legs were being sent to the frontline hospitals, for soldiers whose legs had not even been blown off yet, but whose legs would be blown off. The prediction that these legs would be blown off was so certain that the artificial legs were already on their way to replace the natural legs. The prediction was based on the mathematical certainty that millions of young men would march to the front, to be maimed and murdered, as mindlessly as cattle marching into a slaughterhouse.</p><p>"In a flash, Ouspensky understood the mechanical nature of ordinary human consciousness." <br /></p><p>This is from <a href="https://www.hilaritaspress.com/portfolio-item/prometheus-rising/">the Hilaritas edition of </a><i><a href="https://www.hilaritaspress.com/portfolio-item/prometheus-rising/">Prometheus Rising</a>,</i> and it's certainly one of the RAW books you should buy and read, if you are a RAW fan. </p><p>This passage comes to mind when I think about the current U.S. presidential election, which, if all goes badly, will gives us a Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden rematch.</p><p>We are sleepwalking toward an election that many Americans dread. The Republican Party could select at random any sitting Republican governor of any U.S. state, drawing names from a hat, and would have a candidate who would seem to have more apparent common human decency, and apparent connection to reality, than Donald Trump. Similarly, in the minds of people who aren't fanatical supporters of the Democratic Party, any sitting Democratic governor would be better than Joe Biden.</p><p>I probably don't have to defend my characterization of Trump for most RAW readers. If you really need a refresher, see <a href="https://fakenous.substack.com/p/which-candidate-will-be-best-at-destroying">"Who Can Best Destroy America?"</a> by the philosopher Michael Huemer, which I offer because Huemer cannot be dismissed as a partisan Democrat, and because getting to know Mr. Huemer's Substack seems worth your time. </p><p>As for Biden, <a href="https://twitter.com/PropAnon">Prop Anon</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/paulg">Paul Graham</a> have been doing a pretty good job on X of chronicling Biden's apparent indifference to the situation in Gaza, but given the culpability of Hamas and the complexity of the situation in the Mideast, I also will point to another recent example that there seems to be something wrong,<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/21/us/politics/secret-service-commander-dog.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XU0.ANeA.5tTkOcBO3fvW&smid=url-share"> "Secret Service Had to Adjust Tactics to Avoid Bites From Biden’s Dog,"</a> a story from the New York Times (similar news reports are available elsewhere.) </p><p>My link gets you behind the Times paywall; read the story and see if you think most Americans would allow their local mayor to treat employees at City Hall this way, for months at a time. Biden allowed his dog, Commander, to bite Secret Service agents (i.e., his bodyguard, for non-American readers) 24 times, and that figure is not a typo. (In fact, for reasons cited in the Times piece, 24 apparently understates the situation). In many cases, these were serious injuries. In one incident, tours of the public portions of the White House had to be interrupted, so the pool of blood could be mopped up from the floor first. Biden only finally sent away the dog when news reports became too embarrassing. There's also a wonderful quote from a White House PR sycophant, Elizabeth Alexander, that stands out, even in the annals of political lying: “The president and first lady care deeply about the safety of those who work at the White House and those who protect them every day." </p><p>I see postings on social media from various left wing British fans who I'm fond of, and often they will post about some supposedly terrible British politician. I think there may be some sort of regional/cognitive bias at work here -- I assumed Oklahoma politicians obviously seemed like the worst in the U.S. until I moved to Ohio -- but I think I can defend the proposition that national U.S. political figures seem obviously worse than comparable Brits. In your face, limeys, we have the Olympic gold medal worst politicians in the western world! USA! USA! </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSlEmXWYVuVNULPWkR3INVGctw1LYxDxl-CwvFFX6Un_vto275YgyscvEk-6mloNZsYnbzX79wM2eeSjfAfDQa32QG6Rd5vGbhPp3VYQ6ROPyYmUbirb7qLCBIKLNg9s9tryE9TkvCW49JUKD9EK0DM_egTDeq65R4twEcM0cLBgyCSn5bg9rZhd7Z/s400/elizabeth.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSlEmXWYVuVNULPWkR3INVGctw1LYxDxl-CwvFFX6Un_vto275YgyscvEk-6mloNZsYnbzX79wM2eeSjfAfDQa32QG6Rd5vGbhPp3VYQ6ROPyYmUbirb7qLCBIKLNg9s9tryE9TkvCW49JUKD9EK0DM_egTDeq65R4twEcM0cLBgyCSn5bg9rZhd7Z/w200-h200/elizabeth.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /><p><i>Jill Biden spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander, who wants you to know that "The president and first lady care deeply about the safety of those who work at the White House." Duly noted, Liz! </i></p>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5887440039323868659.post-56524825209102567322024-02-23T06:31:00.000-08:002024-02-23T06:31:48.341-08:00Hilaritas podcast features Vincent Murphy on artificial intelligence<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4xvtyRldEL0?si=LplNxXiCVv6itvbo" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
<p>The latest episode of the Hilaritas podcast, released today, featured RAW fan and AI enthusiast Vincent Murphy.</p><div>"In this episode, Mike Gathers chats with RAW Lucubrator and Guerill-AI Ontologist, Vincent Murphy," says the show's blurb. </div><div><br /></div><div>Available at all of the usual podcast places, but <a href="https://www.hilaritaspress.com/podcasts/vincent-murphy-on-artificial-intelligence-episode-30/">the official site with the show notes is here.</a></div>Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.com0