The medical marijuana industry is fighting marijuana legalization.
Weaponized has been released. My interview with author Nick Mennuti.
Department of Justice honors slave catchers killed in the line of duty. Via Radley Balko.
Warrantless cell phone tracking OK, court rules.
Julian Sanchez thinks the NSA is bulk collecting those phone location records.
Crowdfunding a space railroad.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
'A watershed era for Fortean/occult shenanigans'
Tristan Eldritch — no doubt his real name — blogs at a few years in the Absolute Elsewhere. His latest blog entry, Cosmic Trigger: Le Soleils de l'ile de Paques (The Suns of Easter Island) 1972. offers this observation:
The early to mid-70s is a period I'm particularly fascinated by; it was a watershed era for Fortean/occult shenanigans. The idea of mental contact with extraterrestrial higher intelligence was very much in the ether during this strange time. On July 23, 1973, the great Robert Anton Wilson experienced the first of what he then suspected to be transmissions from an extraterrestrial intelligence located somewhere in the vicinity of the dog star Sirius. Timothy Leary, then doing the persecuted philosopher routine in Folsom prison, was also receiving downloads from a cosmic intelligence - a cosmic intelligence, it should be conceded, whose oracular pronouncements sounded more than a little like Leary himself. Philip K. Dick was writing the best fiction of his career, and was of course zapped by the motherlode of all cosmic transmissions in the legendary VALIS incident of '2-3-74'.
The post is actually part of a review of an old movie.
Unrelated question: I seem to recall a passage in Illuminatus! about organized crime making a campaign contribution to try to keep marijuana illegal, but I couldn't find it when I went looking. Can anyone help?
The early to mid-70s is a period I'm particularly fascinated by; it was a watershed era for Fortean/occult shenanigans. The idea of mental contact with extraterrestrial higher intelligence was very much in the ether during this strange time. On July 23, 1973, the great Robert Anton Wilson experienced the first of what he then suspected to be transmissions from an extraterrestrial intelligence located somewhere in the vicinity of the dog star Sirius. Timothy Leary, then doing the persecuted philosopher routine in Folsom prison, was also receiving downloads from a cosmic intelligence - a cosmic intelligence, it should be conceded, whose oracular pronouncements sounded more than a little like Leary himself. Philip K. Dick was writing the best fiction of his career, and was of course zapped by the motherlode of all cosmic transmissions in the legendary VALIS incident of '2-3-74'.
The post is actually part of a review of an old movie.
Unrelated question: I seem to recall a passage in Illuminatus! about organized crime making a campaign contribution to try to keep marijuana illegal, but I couldn't find it when I went looking. Can anyone help?
Monday, July 29, 2013
Are we losing our freedom?
I have always thought that if we lost our republic, it would not be a dramatic shift to an open dictatorship; rather, it would be a shift from a republic to something that still seemed to have the form of a republic. Rather like the Roman Empire, when Augustus, the first emperor, ruled as the "first citizen" in what was sold as a continuation of the republic, complete with a Senate that persisted for hundreds of years. Is our government the "real" government, or are all of the decisions for the national security state made behind the scenes, with the president more or less a figurehead? I don't mean to sound paranoid; I am agnostic about this, but I wonder about the scope of the National Security Act of 1947. It doesn't seem that the last couple of elections made much difference from the Bush years. And somehow, there are always enough people who are suborned to make sure that real change never happens, as we saw in last week's NSA vote.
Michael Johnson seems to be thinking along the same lines.
Michael Johnson seems to be thinking along the same lines.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
News of the weird, U.S. edition
From ProPublica, the "Journalism in the public interest" website: The National Security Agency, the agency that's busy spying on every American (and many foreigners), has responded to a Freedom of Information Act request by saying that it cannot search its own emails.
President Obama is "concerned and disappointed" that a Yemeni journalist has been released from prison after a sham trial.
Alleged surveillance camera video of odd Michael Hastings car crash. From Breitbart. Via John Merritt.
President Obama is "concerned and disappointed" that a Yemeni journalist has been released from prison after a sham trial.
Alleged surveillance camera video of odd Michael Hastings car crash. From Breitbart. Via John Merritt.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Perspective
Here is something that fits with RAW's discussions about using different models for reality. Here are a couple of unfamiliar ways at looking at the Earth. (When I post photos here they never seem to be big enough, so I will resort to links.)
Jesse Walker has a feature on his Twitter feed called Your Daily Image, which as far as I can tell consists of anything cool that happens to strike his eye. I always click on it.
I thought these images were some of the best yet. (After you look at the immediate one, scroll down to see the others and take a moment to read the text.)
Jesse Walker has a feature on his Twitter feed called Your Daily Image, which as far as I can tell consists of anything cool that happens to strike his eye. I always click on it.
I thought these images were some of the best yet. (After you look at the immediate one, scroll down to see the others and take a moment to read the text.)
Friday, July 26, 2013
Another RAW interview
One of our friends over in Albion, Nick Helweg-Larsen, wrote to me to tip me off about a Robert Anton Wilson interview that isn't online.
A book called Inside Angels and Demons, by Dan Burstein and Arne De Keijzer, is a handbook for readers who want to explore what's behind the bestselling Dan Brown novel. It's apparently part of a series; there's a Secrets of Mary Magdalene, and Secrets of Inferno is coming out this September.
Anyway, Inside Angels and Demons has an interview with Robert Anton Wilson, and it's a rather good one. I'm kind of old-fashioned about the copyright thing, so I won't try to reproduce it here, but in the spirit of fair use, here's a brief excerpt to illustration why it's worth hunting up the book.
One of your characters from the Illuminatus! Trilogy begins to see conspirational connections everywhere—in numerology (the law of fives), in history, in literature both high and low, in politics, in folklore, etc. Once you begin to accept the plausibility of a conspiracy, is this sort of free fall inevitable? What can conspiracies tell us about different modes of knowing?
RAW – I suspect a great deal, but believe nothing. After finding the law of fives everywhere, I no longer claim to know anything for certain. This has led me to formulate what I call maybe logic, in which I consider ideas not simply true or false, but in degrees of probabilities. If other conspiracy theorists learned this much, they would sound less like paranoids and people would take them more seriously.
Maybe logic is a combination of general semantics, neurolinguistic programming, and Buddhism—all three as methods of bullshit control, not as dogmas. I joined the Flat Earth Society for a year once, just to challenge myself. I didn’t learn much from that experiment but it was fun. I just preach that we’d all think and act more sanely if we had to use “maybe” a lot more often. Can you imagine a world in which Jerry Falwell hollers “Maybe Jesus was the son of God and maybe he hates gay people as violently as I do.” Or every tower in Islam resounds with “There is no God except maybe Allah and maybe Muhammad is his prophet”?
Copies of the book are available cheap at Amazon. There's a whole section in the book on the Illuminati, with contributions by George Johnson, Michael Barkun, James Wasserman and Alexandra Robbins.
A book called Inside Angels and Demons, by Dan Burstein and Arne De Keijzer, is a handbook for readers who want to explore what's behind the bestselling Dan Brown novel. It's apparently part of a series; there's a Secrets of Mary Magdalene, and Secrets of Inferno is coming out this September.
Anyway, Inside Angels and Demons has an interview with Robert Anton Wilson, and it's a rather good one. I'm kind of old-fashioned about the copyright thing, so I won't try to reproduce it here, but in the spirit of fair use, here's a brief excerpt to illustration why it's worth hunting up the book.
One of your characters from the Illuminatus! Trilogy begins to see conspirational connections everywhere—in numerology (the law of fives), in history, in literature both high and low, in politics, in folklore, etc. Once you begin to accept the plausibility of a conspiracy, is this sort of free fall inevitable? What can conspiracies tell us about different modes of knowing?
RAW – I suspect a great deal, but believe nothing. After finding the law of fives everywhere, I no longer claim to know anything for certain. This has led me to formulate what I call maybe logic, in which I consider ideas not simply true or false, but in degrees of probabilities. If other conspiracy theorists learned this much, they would sound less like paranoids and people would take them more seriously.
Maybe logic is a combination of general semantics, neurolinguistic programming, and Buddhism—all three as methods of bullshit control, not as dogmas. I joined the Flat Earth Society for a year once, just to challenge myself. I didn’t learn much from that experiment but it was fun. I just preach that we’d all think and act more sanely if we had to use “maybe” a lot more often. Can you imagine a world in which Jerry Falwell hollers “Maybe Jesus was the son of God and maybe he hates gay people as violently as I do.” Or every tower in Islam resounds with “There is no God except maybe Allah and maybe Muhammad is his prophet”?
Copies of the book are available cheap at Amazon. There's a whole section in the book on the Illuminati, with contributions by George Johnson, Michael Barkun, James Wasserman and Alexandra Robbins.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Reading Dubliners
I decided a few months ago to read through James Joyce's major works chronologically. I read Chamber Music first, and I've just finished Dubliners.
It's a strong collection; the last story, "The Dead," is the longest, the most famous and arguably the best. Some of the allusions were difficult to me, as I don't live in the Ireland of about 100 years ago, but the Wikipedia entries for the individual stories helped a lot.
I didn't think of Dubliners as being very controversial when I first read it in high school, or when I re-read it now, so I was interested to read in the Wikipedia article that Joyce struggled for years to get the book into print.
Of course, when I get to Ulysses, I'm going to re-read PQ's posts on the novel. He just put up a new one.
It's a strong collection; the last story, "The Dead," is the longest, the most famous and arguably the best. Some of the allusions were difficult to me, as I don't live in the Ireland of about 100 years ago, but the Wikipedia entries for the individual stories helped a lot.
I didn't think of Dubliners as being very controversial when I first read it in high school, or when I re-read it now, so I was interested to read in the Wikipedia article that Joyce struggled for years to get the book into print.
Of course, when I get to Ulysses, I'm going to re-read PQ's posts on the novel. He just put up a new one.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
The gala celebration continues
I didn't mean to milk Robert Anton Wilson Day for another blog post, but over at Supergee the commemoration continues, and there are some good additional favorite quotes in the comments.
Thanks to everyone who joined in the celebration yesterday by contributing a quote in the comments or reTweeting my Tweet on the subject.
Thanks to everyone who joined in the celebration yesterday by contributing a quote in the comments or reTweeting my Tweet on the subject.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Happy Robert Anton Wilson Day!
Today is Robert Anton Wilson Day. Time to celebrate!
What to do? Well, you can read the piece John Higgs published in the Guardian on July 23, 2009, to celebrate Happy Maybe Day. You can read about the origin of Robert Anton Wilson Day here (it was officially proclaimed on July 23, 2003, by the mayor of Santa Cruz, Emily Reilly.)
Or you can celebrate by posting a favorite RAW quote in the comments. Here's one I like:
"The Western World has been brainwashed by Aristotle for the last 2,500 years. The unconscious, not quite articulate, belief of most Occidentals is that there is one map which adequately represents reality. By sheer good luck, every Occidental thinks he or she has the map that fits. Guerrilla ontology, to me, involves shaking up that certainty. I use what in modern physics is called the "multi-model" approach, which is the idea that there is more than one model to cover a given set of facts. As I've said, novel writing involves learning to think like other people. My novels are written so as to force the reader to see things through different reality grids rather than through a single grid. It's important to abolish the unconscious dogmatism that makes people think their way of looking at reality is the only sane way of viewing the world. My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything. If one can only see things according to one's own belief system, one is destined to become virtually deaf, dumb, and blind. It's only possible to see people when one is able to see the world as others see it. That's what guerrilla ontology is — breaking down this one-model view and giving people a multi-model perspective."
(From Wikiquote).
What to do? Well, you can read the piece John Higgs published in the Guardian on July 23, 2009, to celebrate Happy Maybe Day. You can read about the origin of Robert Anton Wilson Day here (it was officially proclaimed on July 23, 2003, by the mayor of Santa Cruz, Emily Reilly.)
Or you can celebrate by posting a favorite RAW quote in the comments. Here's one I like:
"The Western World has been brainwashed by Aristotle for the last 2,500 years. The unconscious, not quite articulate, belief of most Occidentals is that there is one map which adequately represents reality. By sheer good luck, every Occidental thinks he or she has the map that fits. Guerrilla ontology, to me, involves shaking up that certainty. I use what in modern physics is called the "multi-model" approach, which is the idea that there is more than one model to cover a given set of facts. As I've said, novel writing involves learning to think like other people. My novels are written so as to force the reader to see things through different reality grids rather than through a single grid. It's important to abolish the unconscious dogmatism that makes people think their way of looking at reality is the only sane way of viewing the world. My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything. If one can only see things according to one's own belief system, one is destined to become virtually deaf, dumb, and blind. It's only possible to see people when one is able to see the world as others see it. That's what guerrilla ontology is — breaking down this one-model view and giving people a multi-model perspective."
(From Wikiquote).
Monday, July 22, 2013
Providence City Council honors Lovecraft
The Associated Press reports that the Providence City Council has voted to name the intersection of Angell and Prospect Streets "H.P. Lovecraft Square" in honor of the writer.
"Lovecraft lived for years on Angell Street near Brown University. The Halsey House mansion on Prospect Street served as the fictional home of the main character in one of his better known works, 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward'," the AP explains.
For Lovecraft and Illuminatus!, see my previous blog post. I never got an answer to the question I posed on that entry.
Via Tyler K. McManus in the Robert Anton Wilson Facebook group.
"Lovecraft lived for years on Angell Street near Brown University. The Halsey House mansion on Prospect Street served as the fictional home of the main character in one of his better known works, 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward'," the AP explains.
For Lovecraft and Illuminatus!, see my previous blog post. I never got an answer to the question I posed on that entry.
Via Tyler K. McManus in the Robert Anton Wilson Facebook group.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Prometheus Awards announced
The Libertarian Futurist Society, which I'm a member of, have just announced the latest Prometheus Awards.
The Prometheus Award itself goes to Cory Doctorow's Pirate Cinema. It's a good novel that focuses on a topic I'm very interested in of late, copyright reform.
But I was particularly interested in Saturday's announcement that the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award went to Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. I nominated the book and I'm very glad it won. The Hall of Fame Award has now gone to two of my all-time favorite works: Cryptonomicon and Illuminatus!
Here is the press release:
The Prometheus Award itself goes to Cory Doctorow's Pirate Cinema. It's a good novel that focuses on a topic I'm very interested in of late, copyright reform.
But I was particularly interested in Saturday's announcement that the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award went to Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. I nominated the book and I'm very glad it won. The Hall of Fame Award has now gone to two of my all-time favorite works: Cryptonomicon and Illuminatus!
Here is the press release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, July 20, 2013
LFS announces 2013 Prometheus Award winners
* The Libertarian Futurist Society has announced the Prometheus Awards winners for Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame), to be presented Friday Aug. 30, 2013 at LoneStarCon3, the 71st Annual World Science Fiction Convention in San Antonio, Texas.
* Cory Doctorow won for Best Novel for Pirate Cinema (TOR Books). Doctorow also won the Best Novel award in 2009 for Little Brother. Doctorow explores themes of artistic freedom, Internet freedom and peaceful social change while shedding light on issues of copyright and government surveillance in Pirate Cinema, an optimistic young-adult novel about a young pirate filmmaker whose Internet activity threatens his family with government reprisals and who learns to fight back against outdated forms of control.
* Cryptonomicon, a 1999 novel by Neal Stephenson, has won the 2013 Prometheus Hall of Fame award for Best Classic Fiction. Set during World War II and during the early 21st century, Stephenson's novel explores the implications for a free society in the development of computation and cryptography.
* At its award ceremony to be held at the WorldCon in San Antonio, the Libertarian Futurist Society will present a plaque and one-ounce gold coin to Cory Doctorow. A smaller gold coin and a plaque will be presented to Neal Stephenson. The specific time and location will be available in the convention program.
* Also recognized as Best Novel finalists for the best pro-freedom novel of the past year are Arctic Rising, by Tobias Buckell (TOR Books); The Unincorporated Future, by Dani and Eytan Kollin (TOR Books); Darkship Renegades, by Sarah Hoyt (Baen Books); and Kill Decision, by Daniel Suarez (Dutton - Penguin).
* Also recognized as Hall of Fame finalists: "Sam Hall", by Poul Anderson (a short story, published 1953 in Astounding); Falling Free, by Lois McMaster Bujold (a novel, published 1988); "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman", by Harlan Ellison (a short story, published 1965 in Galaxy); Courtship Rite, by Donald M. Kingsbury (a novel, published 1982); and "As Easy as A.B.C.", by Rudyard Kipling (a short story, published in London Magazine in 1912).
The Prometheus Award, sponsored by the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), was established in 1979, making it one of the most enduring awards after the Nebula and Hugo awards, and one of the oldest fan-based awards currently in SF. Presented annually since 1982 at the World Science Fiction Convention, the Prometheus Awards include a gold coin and plaque for the winners. The Prometheus awards for Best Novel, Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame), and (occasional) Special Awards honor outstanding science fiction and fantasy that explores the possibilities of a free future, champions human rights (including personal and economic liberty), dramatizes the perennial conflict between individuals and coercive governments, or critiques the tragic consequences of abuse of power--especially by the State.
The LFS is announcing the winning works so that fans of the works and the writers can begin to make plans for attending the awards ceremonies. Anyone interested in more information about the awards ceremony or other LFS activities at LoneStarCon3 can send email toprogramming@lfs.org.
For a full list of past Prometheus Award winners in three categories, visit www.lfs.org. Membership in the Libertarian Futurist Society is open to any science fiction fan interested in how fiction can promote an appreciation of the value of liberty.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Michael Johnson on RAW, natural law and philosophy
Michael Johnson's latest piece, "Are We Living in a Robert Anton Wilson Novel?" seems tailor-made for readers of this blog, so I'll send you over there and invite you to join me in making comments. But I will put in an additional comment. Johnson argues that RAW did what a couple of philosophers he references, Scott F. Aikin and Robert B. Talisse, have called for: Bridging the gap between philosophers and intelligent laymen. When I read that, I wondered if Michael had read a charming novel I came across years ago, Sophie's World, a novel that's about the history of philosophy.
Friday, July 19, 2013
Are we living in a RAW world?
I sometimes get Tweets from people asking if he are living in the world that Robert Anton Wilson wrote about. Lately, I seem to see a lot of stories that sound like a scene in Illuminatus! or an extension of RAW's other writings:
The Vatican's bank is rocked by scandal again. (Hat tip, hagbard celine).
The Department of Homeland Security has warned its employees not to read a particular Washington Post article. Roman Tsivkin, my source, thought at first the article was satire.
Virginia's attorney general wants to ban oral sex. (To protect the children, of course. He's the GOP candidate for governor, naturally.)
The Vatican's bank is rocked by scandal again. (Hat tip, hagbard celine).
The Department of Homeland Security has warned its employees not to read a particular Washington Post article. Roman Tsivkin, my source, thought at first the article was satire.
Virginia's attorney general wants to ban oral sex. (To protect the children, of course. He's the GOP candidate for governor, naturally.)
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