RAW on Santa Claus

A holiday reprint: Robert Anton Wilson on "Santa's Crimes Against Humanity."

Quantum poetry from Nick Herbert

For millennia we've played in the shallows
Our sciences mere baby steps
With the advent of quantum reality
Get ready to taste Nature's depths.

For the rest of the poem (on his Quantum Tantra blog) go here.

A post for classical music lovers

Here's a post for the RAW fans who share his love of classical music and Beethoven (as I do). With apologies to Haydn (and to Boom), ""I tell you before God, and as an honest man, this blog is the greatest classical music blog known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in composition." Be sure to look at the Beethoven entries.

My own music blog -- often neglected in favor of this one -- is here.

RAW and Ron Paul

Believe it or not, Ron Paul is leading in the polls in Iowa. That will change, for all I know, but it's a weird development.

Every libertarian has to think about how he feels about Ron Paul, as he is by far the most prominent libertarian leader in the country.

Robert Anton Wilson, explaining why he did not vote in 1980 for the Libertarian Party candidate, Ed Clark, explained,  "I am not that kind of Libertarian, really; I don't hate poor people."

I'm guessing that if RAW was alive today, he would say that Ron Paul (the 1988 Libertarian Party nominee) was not his kind of libertarian, either. I'm guessing though, that like nearly all libertarians, he would be pleased with Dr. Paul's foreign policy and civil liberties positions.

Will Wilkinson's excellent essay on Paul explains nicely, I think, why many libertarians have doubts about Paul.

Bonus link: Conor Friedersdorf on Paul's racist newsletters. (He heaps lots of blame on Paul for them, but comparing Paul to the other candidates, writes, "My tentative conclusion: among the candidates who could win, Paul is least complicit in needlessly killing innocents abroad; he is least likely to deprive innocent foreigners of their God given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; he is most committed to civil liberties and drug legalization at home.")

Addendum bonus links: Nick Gillespie weighs in with a fair minded post at Reason's Hit and Run blog; columnist Debra Saunders writes how she "first met Ron Paul in 1988 at the Beverly Hills home of Dr. Timothy Leary, the onetime "turn on, tune in, drop out" LSD guru. Leary talked to me about how he was going to have his head frozen cryogenically when he died - it happened eight years later - and why he was hosting a fundraiser for Paul."

Gary Johnson, probably the most sane libertarian candidate in politics right now (I'll let you decide how much there is to cheer in that statement) apparently is planning to give up his attempt to win the Republican nomination and will seek the Libertarian Party nomination.

Wonkette and RAW

I have read several obituaries that ran after Robert Anton Wilson died, but I did not know until this week that Wonkette, the prominent political blog, had run one. It does a good job of describing what kind of libertarian RAW was, which is a good segue to tomorrow's posting.

A Cthulhu Christmas

In honor of RAW's interest in H.P. Lovecraft, and because it's the season, here is a Cthulhu Christmas tree. (Via Ted Hand on Twitter, @t3dy).

No Governor No. 3 posted

I have posted issue #3 of No Governor, Robert Shea's anarchist fanzine. Thanks again to the University of Michigan library for providing it.

I was surprised to see that the issue has no Robert Anton Wilson bylines in it. There is, however, a short piece, "The Secret Teachings of George Washington," attributed to an author named only as "General Strike." It is reminiscent of certain of RAW's writings, so I'll be interested in what the rest of y'all think.

Oz Fritz on the greatest guitarists

Rolling Stone has recently posted a list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time." The list strikes me as not very useful, mixing the obvious (Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn) with the idiotic (Steve  Howe  is excluded, but the alleged guitar virtuosos Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen are included.) But it has inspired two (so far) interesting posts at The Oz Mix. Here's my favorite passage from the first one: "Jimmy Page came in at number 3. I thought he should have reached 2 instead of Clapton but figure that Coincidence Control must have put him at 3 for Crowley/Qabalistic associations. As is well-known, Page is quite experienced with magick and it definitely got channeled through his music. Page had Do what thou wilt inscribed in small letters on the innermost part of every vinyl copy of Led Zeppelin IV. According to Wikipedia, that album has sold over 23,000,000 copies in the U.S. alone making it 23 times certified platinum. With all those spinning discs, Page instigated a Crowleyan flavored Tibetan prayer wheel."

Quote on the Grail

@Robert_A_Wilson on Twitter (i.e., from Temple Illuminatus) had the following RAW quote the other day: "The Grail is the womb of the beloved." Can anyone tell me where that quote is from?

A list of history books

This is the time of year for lists of "best" books, but I thought this list of the best 11 history books, from Brain Pickings, was particularly thoughtful. Reading RAW convinces me I should have read the first book on the list; I intend to read it soon.

Exciting new video site

A new video site, Tubegnosis, seems tailor made for Robert Anton Wilson fans. Aside from Maybe Logic, it has videos featuring Timothy Leary, Aleister Crowley, David Lynch, Christopher Hyatt, William Burroughs, Philip K. Dick and Alan Watts, among others. I am adding a link to the "Resources" section of this web site.

This year's best science fiction novel

Because of the overlap between RAW fans and science fiction fans, you'll have to forgive me for posting about Ready Player One by Ernest Cline,  the best science fiction novel I have read this year. It's very nerdy, and it's sneaky good the way that Pride and Prejudice is sneaky good. Just as you can read Jane Austen's classic for the love story, without noticing, say, the dramatic ironies, the reader can race through Ready Player One for the plot, without picking up on the mythic resonances. (I'm sure that if RAW read it, he would have picked up on some of the character names.) Can't help wondering whether guru of nerd cool Supergee has read this novel -- I don't see a mention of the book on his blog.

Bonus link: Ernest Cline's top ten favorite science fiction novels.

Michael Johnson on coded texts

At Overweening Generalist, Michael Johnson has written a series of blog posts (five, so far) on "obscure, coded and alchemical texts." He covers all sorts of ground I find personally interesting, including Robert Anton Wilson's thoughts on the subject and the allegedly hidden codes in Shostakovich's music. Be sure to read the comments, full of interesting thoughts by many folks who often weigh in on this blog.

I think Michael has a possible book topic here, although I hate to suggest that, because I want him to finish his RAW book first.