Aside from Phil Jackson, Pete Carroll is my new favorite coach. He worked his way up from nothing and weighed 110 pounds when he entered high school. He had to get a doctor’s permission to even try-out for the football team because he was under the minimum weight. Everyone said he was too small and too scrawny to play football, but he became an outstanding quarterback.
Since we’re both born in 1951, and since Carroll has spent most of his life on the West Coast, it’s safe to say he was touched by the counterculture revolution, which explains why he remains a Grateful Dead fan to this day, leading to the possibility he may even be a secret stoner. I always thought Jackson allowed his players to smoke pot as long as they kept it concealed. In fact, Kareem later reportedly told someone he used cannabis to ward off migraine headaches and often took a toke before a game strictly for medicinal purposes. I know that info has never appeared in the media, but I believe it comes from a solid source.
Everyone is making a big deal about the “Stoner Bowl” because Washington and Colorado are the two legal marijuana states. But since this game is being played in New Jersey, one of the least pot-friendly places in the country, I don’t find that tag very appropriate. I could understand if the game was in a legal state, in which case I’m sure the stands would be filled with vapers, which would have been an amazing sight, although the networks will likely put the kabosh on showing that reality when it does surface in the future.
So this game really should be called “Skeptics Bowl,” or something similar. Anything but the “9/11 Truth” Bowl, since I hate that term and believe intel invented it as a means to bash the researchers. But then I also believe intel invented the term “conspiracy research” as part of a similar op because those two words are code for “nut-case” in the media.
Since Pete Carroll is one of the few people who have put their careers on the line to speak the truth, expect him to be treated very savagely in the press over the next few days for his political beliefs. But that’s just the way it goes in America. When you act like a real patriot and protect the Constitution instead of the Pentagon, the media turns against you.
Jonathan Kay’s Cult Politics
It’s certainly illuminating watching the advance promotion of Jonathan Kay’s selective history of crackpot conspiracy theory, a book is designed to throw a net over every person who questions the official story of 9/11. The national media has fallen over itself to praise the book long before its release. The latest tactic has been to link “birthers” with “truthers.” Personally, I never went for the bait on Obama’s birth certificate. But when finally produced, it was employed for maximum political advantage. In case of major political conspiracies, the intelligence agencies control the details. That’s one reason why they fostered a “truth” network obsessed with micro-details. They’ve created a landscape they can dominate, a landscape they have pocketed with “rabbit holes” leading nowhere. Meanwhile, as everyone becomes transfixed by micro details and following rabbit holes, the big picture disappears.
In his Salon interview, Kay makes a couple of interesting statements:
“In the case of 9/11 conspiracy theories, the original theories were created in late 2001. But when they really took off was 2003 and 2004 when it was discovered there were no WMDs in Iraq, and people did feel deceived….It’s a cult. And you can’t disabuse a cult member of their beliefs, because it’s central to their identity. Hardcore conspiracy theorists are attached to their conspiracy theories with the same force of conviction that religious adherents are attached to their religions. You can’t rationally convince someone not to be a Christian or a Scientologist. That’s their identity, that’s who they are.”
Kay is flat-out wrong on his timeline concerning the “truth” movement. Within days of the event, websites and discussion groups were flooded with wild conspiracy stories, the first of which was that “no planes hit the Twin Towers” (but they were brought down by holograms and super-advanced explosives). Very quickly followed the “no plane hit the Pentagon,” and this was the deepest rabbit hole of all. Finally, “no plane crashed in Pennsylvania.” A deluge of this material seemed to arrive all at once, as if prepared in advance.
As part of this campaign, all video and photos from the Pentagon and surrounding area were immediately confiscated and only one set of images has been released, and they show only an explosion with no plane in sight. If, someday, the Pentagon decides to release a photo or video of the actual plane hitting the building, it will be handled with maximum propaganda effect to silence the conspiracy community.
In the USA only 16% of people believe the government’s version of events, while in Germany, 90% of the people believe our government was actually involved. And yet, according to Kay, any American who fails to toe the government line should be branded a “truther” and shunned from the corridors of sanity? I hope someday Congress can actually instigate a real investigation and follow the evidence wherever it goes. And in the meantime, can we stop branding intelligent people as cultists, especially considering we’re in the majority?
