December 2012 – The Tin Whistle

December 19, 2012

Guns for Kids: A Modest Proposal

With four million assault weapons already on the streets, I’m afraid it’s too late to disarm and we need to move forward confident in the reality gun violence is only going to increase in our lifetimes.

Consequently, it’s time to rethink our approach and take a more offensive position.

If every person in America deserves the right to bear arms, as guaranteed by the Constitution, why leave our most vulnerable unprotected? Isn’t it about time we allowed children to carry weapons so they too can defend themselves?

People would certainly think twice about shooting up a school if they knew the majority of kids inside were already dressed in flak suits with fully automatic weapons within reach.

And that’s really the problem. We need more firepower. The solution is more guns in the hands of younger citizens. And I mean really good guns, fully automatic assault weapons, the sort that sell for between $10,000 and $30,000. You might be surprised at that price, but fully automatic weapons are banned, so the only ones in service are dated from the 1980s or earlier. Of course, anyone can buy one of these at a gun show and avoid the messy background check. But dammit, it’s still illegal for anyone under 21 to buy a fully automatic assault weapon, even at a gun show, where they can’t even track your purchase! This law needs to be changed asap! If a ten-year-old wants a fully automatic assault weapon, and has the $10,000 to spend, then, by god, the Constitution protects that right. We also need a tax incentive and special loan program to help insure every kid in America can realize the dream of owning a fully automatic weapon.

Most of the crazies out there are not carrying fully automatic guns as they don’t have $10,000 to burn, thank god. Which means, if you have a fully automatic assault weapon (and wear the proper gear) you have a very good chance of blowing those crazies away while taking a minimum amount of incoming fire. If you’re on the right, the danger is obviously coming from a total breakdown of society, something that didn’t happen in Germany when their currency collapsed, but is to be expected in America because we love apocalyptic thinking. And, of course, if you’re on the left, the danger is coming from the government itself. Of course, the government could just kill us with vaccines, chemtrails, modified foods, toxic pills, but we know the real danger is going to come when they storm our homes with SWAT teams because someone in the house posted some info about 9/11 on the internet.

The whole point is we need to be better armed, not disarmed. So wake up America and start taking your kids to the shooting range and training them for the future. The more violence pornography, whether through video games, or just films and TV, the better. Prepare your kids for that inevitable day when they engage in their first firefight. And never let them leave the house without a vest, helmet and fully automatic weapon, preferably locked and loaded with the safety off in case of sudden emergencies.

December 19, 2012

Inside the Shooter Rabbit Hole

There’s a lot more disinfo than real info going around these days, and nothing demonstrates this trend better than the stories circulating about the recent shootings in Colorado and Connecticut. Since the fathers of both shooters are in the banking industry, some now claim both events are tied to the LIBOR rigging scandal. What evidence do they put forth? Nothing. Just working in the banking industry is enough evidence it seems.

This sort of disinfo reminds me of that recent book I panned, The Most Dangerous Book in the World, which purports to reveal how the world is being run by a black magic cult that worships Aleister Crowley. In this scenario, any bird image is secretly a reference to a Masonic phoenix, just as any town or building near the 33rd parallel is secretly an illuminati operation. As I have tried to explain in the past, you can filter any story through this sort of template and come up with all sorts of coincidences. By trailing these coincidences into some master theory, the disinfo machine creates the chaff and flares used to divert researchers from investigating real conspiracies while leading people into a fake rabbit hole.

Creating a Manchurian Candidate is a complex operation. One thing we know about the Connecticut shooter is he lived a solitary life with his mother, and both were virtually estranged from the rest of their family, especially the father, who seems to have had little contact other than providing $200,000 a year for his estranged wife and son to live on.

My question is, where is the evidence of CIA involvement in these two shootings? There is none. Instead, the disinfo artists take fragmentary info from the initial news reports and pretend some enormous coverup is going on. In both cases there were initial false reports of other people being involved, just as there were false reports that the shooter’s mother worked at the elementary school, as well as false reports that the shooter was let into the school because he was recognized. In fact, the shooter shot his way into the school. He was likely seeking vengeance for being kicked out of the school many years earlier. Or maybe he was bullied there. We may never fully understand the motives, but they are not rational whatever they are.

One thing I’m pretty sure of however, and that is we won’t be uncovering any evidence of CIA mind control being used on either of these two kids. Brainwashing is a complex operation and it can’t be done without leaving a trail of evidence. In the case of Sirhan Sirhan, this evidence is apparent for anyone who looks deep into the case. Sirhan is an excellent example of a probable Manchurian Candidate, while the shooters in Colorado and Connecticut are not. But by claiming they are, researchers are led off on a wild goose chase to nowhere.

So please don’t spread fake rumors on the internet that have zero evidence to back them up. Try to focus on the real issues.

December 16, 2012December 27, 2021

Ban the Bullet?

I will have to avoid the TV news for a few days. I have kids in my house and I certainly don’t want them seeing the endless replays of the grisly facts. Like everyone, I feel tremendous sorrow for the victims and their families, but I also wonder why it takes an event like this for people to even address why violence so prevalent in our society today.

I have some positive suggestions for how to move forward.

First, I don’t think these shootings should be covered on national TV for days on end to the extent that they are. In fact, I think they should barely be mentioned at all, and the shooters should remain as anonymous as possible. Some of them undoubtedly are seeking fame and publicity and the way our media reacts to these tragedies makes that dream come true. I’m interested primarily in one fact: was the shooter taking prescription medication? I realize many popular medications have bizarre side effects that some pill companies may seek to conceal. I know these shootings never happened until we put half the country on pills. So is there a cause and effect? This is a health study we desperately need right now.

The gun lovers are never going to give up their guns and I wouldn’t be so stupid as to ask them. It’s a right they will defend to the death. I get that, but can we make a few changes, like closing the gun show loophole, and restricting mental patients with a history of violence from obtaining weapons? I’d also like to see taxes on some weapons greatly increased so a national fund can be created, a fund that would compensate the families of the victims. Not that any amount of money could replace the life of a single child, but simply that all these gun lovers and violence worshipers should contribute to easing their suffering. I also think violence pornography needs to be better identified and taxed as well. Sponsors of violence pornography should be forced to pay into the fund. And so should consumers. So we need a special tax on violence pornography video games and violence pornography TV shows.

Ken Kesey had a novel idea, inspired by his grand-daughter. Ban the bullet. Make it very hard to get anything but rubber bullets and paint pellets, which are perfect for target practice, which is the only thing most people do with their guns. Lead builets, on the other hand, should be much more closely controlled.

Of course, the gun lovers need guns to protect themselves against the government. As if a civilian population in this country could engage the government in open warfare in the streets? Those days are over. The only revolution that will succeed from here on is a non-violent one. We really need much more respect for the grandmasters of peace, people like Gandhi and Bob Marley, and we need more celebrations of peace, and more respect for peaceful cultures, especially the counterculture, which is as American as rock’n’roll and apple pie.

At the second Whee! festival in Oregon, the Merry Pranksters unveiled plans to take on the gun lobby in the usual Prankster fashion (by tricking the bozos). Check out the video:

December 15, 2012

Whatever happened to experimental theater?

In the 1960s, the idea of joining an experimental theater troupe was a noble concept pioneered by The Living Theater on the east coast and the San Francisco Mime Troupe out west.

I studied theater as an undergraduate but was mostly initially obsessed with Anton Chekhov. I had a theory most productions were badly directed and failed to appreciate Chekhov’s sense of humor, as well as his ability to poke fun at distinctly Russian personalities. Since American directors had little contact with those Russian personalities, Chevhov’s plays became drawn-out with long, pregnant pauses and bombastic emotions, instead of the light comedy the author had intended.

However, I did become fascinated with the saga of The Living Theater, and would soon learn about Jasper Grootveld and the Provo Movement in Amsterdam. Julian Beck and Judith Malina had drawn the audience into the play, and loved nothing better than ending a performance with the entire audience stripping naked and then maybe going out into the street to perform an ritualistic OM circle around the local draft board. But The Living Theater was quickly hounded out of the country and forced into exile in Italy. They were considered that dangerous. Grootveld, meanwhile, had a much different fate. Today, we know him as the founder of “the happenings,” and he’s considered a performance artist. But his performances were intended to provoke his audience into action, which is exactly what happened. Dressed as an African shaman, Grootveld threw a flaming hoop over a statue in Spui Square during certain special evenings. Marijuana is legal for adult use in The Netherlands as a result of these ceremonies, and that, my friends, is real magic in action.

Boy, did my mind get blown when I finally met up with Andre Gregory’s Manhattan Theater Project during their visit to the University of Illinois around 1972. Their version of Alice in Wonderland (see photo above) was the greatest adaptation of that novel ever achieved. The company also produced a version of Chekhov’s Seagull unlike any other production I’d ever experienced, and one that solidified my belief Chekhov was misinterpreted. Gregory is a Harvard grad, by the way, from the Adams House, once home to head jocks, but later a center of student activism. Gregory learned a lot from Jerzy Grotowski, who re-invented experimental theater through the use of extended improvisations combined with intense yoga and mudra exercises designed to open up all seven chakras to full power. Gregory and Grotowski were really in a class by themselves at the time, both masters of what I call Improvisational Ritual Theater.

Another part of this tradition that gets frequently ignored is Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, who were pursuing very similar art at the time. The Acid Tests were a deeply spiritual endeavor, as well as an artistic statement and Kesey was a pioneer in performance art as well as master shaman and magician. The Pranksters, however, were surfing the fun vibe, while Grotowski, unfortunately, seemed completely humorless, which was probably his tragic flaw. I think you can understand the similarities and differences by just realizing one was based in Poland a few miles from Auschwitz, while the other was based out of Haight-Ashbury.

It’s strange how this tradition has largely disappeared from the planet. I keep the flame alive, however, when I get together with the Temple Dragon Crew. We manifest ceremony, ritual and improv energy for days, and frequently take that ball of energy to a big stage and show it off, like we did recently at the Munchie Cup in Aspen, Colorado, last August. We’ll be back next May.

December 14, 2012

On the Road Again?

I probably won’t be checking out The Hobbit this weekend, as the reviews are dreadful and I didn’t even care for the bloated Rings trilogy. However, there’s an upcoming release that does attract my interest, a remake of Jack Kerouac’s masterpiece On the Road, a book that launched thousands of teens on vision quests around the world to find their true identities, while searching carefully for any potential sacraments that might aid in that mission.

Today a lot of people complain On the Road is meandering and structureless. They fail to understand the book introduced a new zeitgeist and trumpeted the appearance of an emerging counterculture that had been incubated inside the jazz scene for a century. Kerouac found an edge where Zen met Congo Square, and the two cultures were essentially revealed to have the same foundations. The counterculture actually began in Congo Square in New Orleans and the one element it prizes above all else is unfiltered, improvisational energy. On the Road was the literary equivalent of a wild jazz solo. And just as important, the book introduced tribal and Eastern concepts of spirituality which allowed a new spiritual vocabulary to emerge, one that dealt with vibrations and telepathic energies.

The Beats were inducted at the 12th Cannabis Cup, and Carolyn Cassady, the great love of both Jack and Neal, was the High Priestess. The thing Carolyn most wanted to convey was that everyone was extremely conservative in the 1940s, including the Beats, most of whom had conventional ideas about love and marriage. Jack’s biggest accomplishment, according to Carolyn, was his ability to inject meaning into everyday life and to treat every moment as a sacred experience.

By the way, if you attempted to read On the Road and were turned off because the narrative wasn’t pronounced enough for your taste, I suggest you pick up Big Sur, Kerouac’s greatest masterpiece. You won’t be disappointed.

The 12th Cannabis Cup provided a huge jump in terms of the video I was self-producing on limited budget because that year iMovie was released, giving me an opportunity to really delve into non-linear editing. Check out the short highlight reel I produced that year:

December 12, 2012

In Praise of Doctor Grinspoon

With any luck, marijuana will soon be legal and millions of patients will no longer be persecuted for seeking herbal remedies. It’s been a monumental struggle conducted through numerous generations but when the great warriors who made a difference are finally counted, Dr. Lester Grinspoon will remain in a category all his own.

I first met Lester on the set of the Ron Reagan Jr. show in Los Angeles. Lester immediately reminded me of my dad. Not just because of a certain facial resemblance, but also because Lester was a professor at Harvard and my dad was a biochemist there in the 1950s, although he and my mom hated the politics at that university. To get an idea of how vicious Harvard can be, Lester was denied full professorship his entire life despite having a powerful impact on the history of medicine on many levels.

At this point, cancer touches everyone, but none like Lester, who lost an 11-year-old son to that most dreaded disease. It was during this process Lester discovered the medicinal effects of marijuana. He published the first honest look at the subject and at that moment every door of possible advancement inside Harvard closed forever. Lester could have just kept his mouth shut, like so many others within the system, but Lester’s integrity is too great. And that is why Lester is the soul and conscience of the medical marijuana community, and I couldn’t imagine a more appropriate person for that job.

A few years ago, I wrote the first major magazine article on Rick Simpson. Before I published the article, I sent a copy to Lester to review. I did this knowing Lester had his own battle with cancer and I was also encouraging him to start eating massive amounts of oil. Lester was alarmed by my article, however, as he felt it conveyed an unbalanced portrayal of the science involved. Everything was anecdotal and zero evidence had been produced by anyone. His rebuttal to my article was posted on the High Times website and some people thought I was upset. On the contrary, I was happy to have some perspective from a qualified source of information. The mission became clear: find some real evidence regarding cannabis and cancer.

The first person I contacted was Valerie Corral at WAMM in Santa Cruz. At this point, Val had not even heard about cannabis oil treatment and it took years for her to marshal some evidence. During this time, only a few fully documented success stories emerged, including biochemist Dennis Hill, 4-year-old Cash Hyde, and Michelle Aldrich, who’d received oil from Valerie. I was overjoyed when Michelle came forward and had a brief facebook exchange in which I said I was looking forward to Lester’s mea culpa. (When Lester first contacted me, he’d said if any real evidence emerged of cannabis curing someone’s cancer, he’d write the first paper on the subject. He brought up the words mea culpa. They aren’t really part of my vocabulary.) So when I said I was looking forward to Lester’s “mea culpa” I did not mean to suggest Lester needed to write anything or, worse, was withholding information. I was only expressing my hope that the curative effects of cannabis oil will some day be documented and more widely known among the general population. But every time we seem on the verge of taking that step forward, we slip another step back. For example, Lester was in the process of writing up Dennis Hill’s success story when it was discovered Dennis had a major setback. We also lost young Cash Hyde.

People ask me all the time, what should I do? Who do I believe? If you have cancer, my advice is to move to Colorado or Washington (or at least get some oil from those locations). But I also strongly urge you to see an oncologist and pursue all avenues of defense. The oil, meanwhile, will do no harm and will certainly make you feel better. The anti-tumor effects of cannabis are well documented, but shrinking tumors and curing cancer are world’s apart. When Lester writes a paper about cannabis curing cancer, you can believe we’ve crossed the Rubicon. But only Lester can be the judge of when that should happen, if ever. In the meantime, I’d appreciate the activists on all sides of this issue to avoid further baiting me or Lester, a person I would never disrespect or dishonor.

In closing here’s a clip from our first encounter:

December 3, 2012

Oliver Stone’s “Untold History” Leaves Stones Unturned

I have to admit I was expecting something a bit deeper from Oliver Stone’s new mini-series on HBO. So far Untold History of the United States is really the untold story of how Henry Wallace was derailed as President and war-hawk and big money tool Harry Truman was engineered into the Presidency. Truman immediately unleashed a war of terror on German and Japanese civilians, although he’s gone down in history as one of our greatest presidents, when, in fact, he was probably a war criminal with blood on his hands.

Stone does a great job of illustrating how the actions of the allies insured millions of Russian, German and Japanese people would be senselessly murdered. The biggest toll during WWII was paid by the Russians, who lost over 20 million. The six million Germans who died leave no monuments. I like Stone’s work, but I wish he’d hired me as a researcher for this series. First of all, I would not have started with WWII, I would have started at Plymouth Rock. To understand America, you must understand the founding families of the Eastern seaboard, who still hold immense power. Some of these families supported England during the Revolutionary War, but emerged unharmed. A similar situation existed in New York City. British influence is largely hidden through secret societies, of which Freemasonry remains their most important, although its influence has been in steep decline for years. To understand how a man like Harry Truman made it to the Presidency with a high school education, you have to understand Truman was a Freemason. He was also the 33rd President, and 33 is the most important number in Masonic numerology, so you know the Masons wanted that Presidency above all others, although all the early Presidents were Freemasons.
If I had been Stone, I would have paid great attention to the creation of the anti-Masonic party, the first third party in American history, and surely as important as Henry Wallace’s Progressive Party, which never gained anything close to the traction of the anti-Masons. My initial hero would have been Smedley Butler, the most decorated war hero of WWI, and a man who tried unsuccessfully to blow the whistle on the elites who were orchestrating war for profit at the expense of American lives.

But the worst error of omission so far with this series is how it ignores all the gold and booty that was stolen by the Nazis and the Japanese Imperial Forces, most of which ended up in the Black Eagle Funds, which were used to foment Wall Street agendas around the world for the last 50 years. Until Stone looks into the secret societies and black gold his untold story can never be complete. Henry Stimson, Secretary of War, who engineered the Black Eagle Fund, was, after all, a member of Skull & Bones, which has always been dominated by the aristocratic families of Boston and New York.