Shady's Port-O-Pulpit

new blog site

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:51:24 GMT

http://www.blotterati.com/portopulpit/

also, regularly interacting on facebook. not so much on tribe.net these days.

post-debate blather

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:52:31 GMT

rather than poke my eyes with sharp objects, i took the equally masochistic route of watching the second obama-mccain "town hall" debate...

after weeks of promising a clean campaign, and teetering on the verge of a massive loss, mccain used his week to launch a series of attack ads. according to many media sources, almost all of mccain's campaign ads have "gone negative."

so the lead-up to this debate was, essentially, the question of whether mccain was going to hurl poop directly at obama or if he was going to do it from a distance and let his surrogates hurl poop from a distance.

while mccain avoided calling obama a terrorist, or mentioning his middle name, hussein, or asking if obama was in favor of the weather underground's tactics when obama was just eight years old, he nevertheless couldn't resist trying to lob the "tax and spend liberal" riff at obama...

watching this slow-motion train wreck leaves me with but two questions... will obama get the electoral landslide that i'd love to see? and, #2, if he does get the votes in crucial swing states, will those votes get counted or will they fall into some sort of diebold black hole?

the onion responds to the death of albert hofmann

Wed, 07 May 2008 15:08:04 GMT

LSD Inventor Dead

"It's just like I tell my kids: If you get involved with drugs, you're going to end up dead." -- i love it!

interesting article from harper's on the history of economic "bubbles"

Sun, 04 May 2008 18:11:11 GMT

read it here

happy beltane, hippies!

Thu, 01 May 2008 22:02:00 GMT

time to take your sheep out to pasture...

or whatever it is you do to celebrate the midway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltane

albert hofmann quote

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:01:08 GMT

“Alienation from nature and the loss of the experience of being part of the living creation is the greatest tragedy of our materialistic era. It is the causative reason for ecological devastation and climate change.

Therefore I attribute absolute highest importance to consciousness change. I regard psychedelics as catalyzers for this. They are tools which are guiding our perception toward other deeper areas of our human existence, so that we again become aware of our spiritual essence. Psychedelic experiences in a safe setting can help our consciousness open up to this sensation of connection and of being one with nature.
LSD and related substances are not drugs in the usual sense, but are part of the sacred substances, which have been used for thousand of years in ritual settings. The classic psychedelics like LSD, Psilocybin and Mescaline are characterized by the fact that they are neither toxic nor addictive. It is my great concern to separate psychedelics from the ongoing debates about drugs, and to highlight the tremendous potential inherent to these substances for self-awareness, as an adjunct in therapy, and for fundamental research into the human mind.

It is my wish that a modern Eleusis will emerge, in which seeking humans can learn to have transcendent experiences with sacred substances in a safe setting. I am convinced that these soul-opening, mind-revealing substances will find their appropriate place in our society and our culture.”

Dr. Albert Hofmann
Thursday, 19th April 2007
quote found on http://www.alexgrey.com

albert hofmann remembered

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:53:32 GMT

as many may now know, dr albert hofmann, the man who discovered lsd, died yesterday in basel, switzerland at the age of 102. i have posted a few bits about the story on my tribe page and my wordpress blog. today zane kesey posted a story from mountain girl about her recent visit to switzerland in which she met dr hofmann for the first time. the story is linked here: http://blotterati.com/pulpit/2008/04/30/albert-hofmann-receives-his-acid-test-diploma/

prison for anyone thought to be undermining US protection of petroleum products!

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 01:37:41 GMT

.lady.leblanc. made this recent post on the bassnectar tribe.

her synopsis of a recent executive order:

ANY US CITIZEN thought to be "UNDERMINING" (my, that word is vague) the US protection of PETROLEUM PRODUCTS in Iraq is now subject to having all of their assets and property instantly frozen without warning.

my thoughts on the subject:

.lady.leblanc. you've once again hit the proverbial nail on the head.

something i learned a few years ago that made sense of this whole iraq war:

since the '70s, the US dollar has had no backing by gold. instead, when the dollar was unhitched from the gold standard, some nixon era thug like kissinger made a deal with OPEC that it would back saudi oil interests with US guns if the partners of OPEC agreed to sell oil strictly on the dollar. this became known as the Petrodollar and it has been the single strongest factor keeping debt ridden US currency from collapsing.

in 2000 saddam hussein and hugo chavez had a plan to undermine US imperialism: sell iraqi and venezuelan oil on the euro instead of the dollar. the euro had been steadily gaining in stability and was finally considered a strong enough currency to use as a standard on the global market. saddam hussein was the first to begin selling on the euro. we saw what happened to him. the first executive order passed when the US took control of baghdad was to cease the selling of iraqi oil on the euro and resume selling it on the US dollar.

chavez has had his own share of trials and tribulations, not the least of which was the oil industry sponsored coup that forced him out of office until the venezeulan people had a counter-coup and reinstated him into office.

the latest nation to begin selling oil on the euro is iran. as soon as they announced their "oil bourse" the war drums began beating louder and louder about iran's alleged threat.

yes, iraq, iran and venezeula pose(d) a threat to the united states, but it was not so much a terrorist threat as an economic threat.

the financiers behind this war don't care how many innocents die. what matters most to them is that the dollar does not collapse.

for some of the grimmer perspectives on this war, i suggest the recent movie "iraq for sale." for info on the petrodollar, google the word petrodollar or read the book titled "petrodollar warfare."

in the eyes of the masters of war, it is a far graver crime to undermine the solvency of the dollar than it is to slaughter innocents. any threat to the oil is a threat to the stability of the dollar and, therefore, perceived as the gravest threat of all.

until we as a nation can see our way out of the trap that our currency binds us to, i'm afraid we are going to be beholden to decisions made by bankers and arms dealers and international terror financiers.

i think ron paul may be onto something when he says that the best way out of this trap is to abolish the federal reserve and return a federally issued dollar to the gold standard. as it stands, we have a federal reserve note that is produced by private banks at interest that generates debt (from the government to the banks) that we, the citizens, owe, and this debt is propped up in such a manner that we continually work to keep it afloat in spite of the suffering that is generated in the name of keeping it strong.

one solution that has been proposed is the so called liberty dollars. google liberty dollars for more info.

other solutions are simply to barter as much as possible, make almost no money and refuse to pay federal income taxes.

resistance to war taxes isn't much on an individual level, but it's certainly more effective than carrying picket signs or petitioning the democrats, who are beholden to the same arms industry lobbies for reelection, to change policy.

don't take my word for it, though. listen to the rhetoric of the democratic party front-runners and ask yourself how quickly you think they'll scale down this "war without end."

in the meantime, it might not hurt to stockpile silver and copper and other metals that conduct electricity. they'll maintain value and have practical use no matter how stable the dollar turns out to be. and, of course, precious metals won't be as blood soaked as federal reserve notes.

the first band to vomit in the bar and find the distance to the stage too far...

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 22:31:25 GMT

zig's cranking up the tunes in the dye studio and i'm having a pete townshend appreciation moment...

after i recovered from kiss, the who was the first band to really grab my attention... rowdy, neurotic and insane... and, unlike kiss, i still love to play 'em... LOUD.

Long Live Rock by The Who

Down at the Astoria the scene was changing
Bingo and rock were pushing out x-rating
We were the first band to vomit in the bar
And find the distance to the stage too far
Meanwhile it's getting late at ten o'-clock
Rock is dead they say
Long live rock

Long live rock! I need it every night
Long live rock! Come on and join the line
Long live rock! Be it dead or alive

People walk in sideways pretending that they're leaving
We put on our makeup and work out all the lead-ins
Jack is in the alley selling tickets made in Hong Kong
Promoter's in the pay box wondering where the band's gone
Back in the pub the governor stops the clock
Rock is dead they say
Long live rock

Long live rock! I need it every night
Long live rock! Come on and join the line
Long live rock! Be it dead or alive

Landslide, rocks are falling, falling down upon our very heads
We tried but you were yawning. Look again
Rock is dead
Rock is dead
Rock is dead

The place is really jumping to the high watt amps
'Til a twenty inch cymbal fell and cut the lamps
In the blackout they danced right into the aisle
And as the doors fly open even the promoter smiles
Someone takes his pants off and the rafters knock
Rock is dead they say
Long live rock

Long live rock! I need it every night
Long live rock! Come on and join the line
Long live rock! Be it dead or alive

like rats from the sinking ship

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 14:29:28 GMT

old-line Republican warns 'something's in the works' to trigger a police state

how desperate will the neocons get to retain their hold on the war profiteering slush funds?

LSD Researcher Denied U.S. Entry Under Terror Laws

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 20:40:17 GMT

read it and weep...

looks like the government, predictably enough, is using its arsenal of dirty tricks to link drugs and terrorism in the most abstract ways that it can...

expect more of the same for a long time to come.

WTF?!?

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:22:26 GMT

can anyone tell me where this site has posted the results of the senate vote on the iraq war?

media gets GOP fillibusters backwards

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 02:05:45 GMT

might not be of interest to everyone, but it caught my interest...

for a chuckle

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:25:21 GMT

http://www.oddee.com/item_87332.aspx

found on digg.com

scott baio for shah no more!

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 23:09:10 GMT

friends of mine at antioch had a campaign where they were proclaiming scott baio for shah about fifteen or so years ago. well, with the recent news of antioch's impending bankruptcy, now not only has the alumni been revitalized with an interest in trying to bail out the underfunded college, they've also dredged up years of in-jokes and started circulating them via email... thus the following from a recent email:

a friend posted:

> This may be our problem. Scott Baio has been a lousy Shah, things have been down hill ever since he assumed the position.
> We need an ayatollah.
> Chachi is in charge no more, just another lonely single former child star.

i replied:

the natural candidate is, of course, paris for ayatollah.

my friends and i were speculating about the Paris Hilton-Scooter Libby in '08 presidential ticket... it seems a shoe-in for them. both have already had their presidential scandal behind them, so there'd be no need for the "liberal media" to try to dig up dirt on them... but, y'know, i think paris for ayatollah is even better. it's the republican party's last great chance to prove once and for all that they can do worse than they've done the past eight years. the cia can overthrow the government in iran to nip the massive looming economic threat of iran selling petroleum on the euro in the bud. then, just as they once installed the shah, they'd now install paris and scooter, with paris as the smiling, affable airhead dubya-like head of state and scooter as the machiavellian no-bullshit cheney-like tough guy creep who really pulls the puppet strings...

paris and scooter for ayatollah in '08!

starwood?

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 21:19:21 GMT

anyone ever been to starwood? i'm thinking of going out there instead of west for the horning's hideout shows. i've never been but i've read quite a few books by many of the major presenters who'll be there, so that seems compelling.

pondering ron paul, conservatism and the constitution in police state america

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:27:42 GMT

a little over a decade ago, when i was going to grad school in boulder, i met a guy on dead tour who was very into the common law movement and individual sovereignty. he sparked my interest in learning about the foundations of constitutional law in the united states and, in his informally trained way, taught me a good deal and encouraged me to continue to investigate the law. the gist of a lot of what he said can be summed up as follows: there is constitutional law and there is contractual law. most constitutional law pertains to a single concept: we are born sovereign and the State shall make no law to abridge such rights. The Bill of Rights essentially lays out those things which the drafters of the constitution conceived as inalienable rights. the concept of inalienable rights is pretty straightforward but seldom really understood. these rights are recognized as having been granted by The Creator. they cannot be granted by any government nor taken by any government. every human born to planet earth has these same rights and governments around the world can either chose to recognize these inalienable rights or ignore them. the bill of rights created a charter whereby it directed the government that adopted its charter to recognize these inalienable rights.

lately i've been on a bit of a kick to figure out how the government that drafted the bill of rights became the same government that drafted the patriot act. the obvious answer is, of course, it is NOT the same government. time has passed and circumstances change. the constitution was said to be a living document and one that was thought to be malleable with the times. inalienable rights are, of course, not subject to the changing whims of the times, public opinion, fashion, etc.

for that reason, i've been watching the ron paul for president movement with a great deal of curiousity. ron paul, a congressman from texas, is running as a republican candidate for president who wants to get the united states out of iraq, balance the budget, repeal the patriot act and return the united states to a constitutional government.

he does very well in post-debate election polls and has a groundswell of support online, but is either exceedingly marginalized or completely ignored in most major media discussions of the republican primaries.

nevertheless, one of the things that ron paul's candidacy has seemed to do is define the conservative movement in the states as an entity separate from the neo-conservative movement in the united states.

i define the conservative movement in the united states as a movement that is motivated to restore a system of constitutional government in the united states. the conservative movement wants to reduce or abolish federal taxation for everything not designated in the constitution, remove provisions limiting individual freedoms, and abolish most forms of federal spending.

the conservative movement also wants to abolish the centralized bank known as the federal reserve bank and the internal revenue system that collects money to pay the interest on the money the fed loans (with interest) to the united states treasury.

sometimes that conservative movement comes across as a narrow minded movement of john birchers, militia members and confederate flag waving kkk shills who claim to be "true patriots" but more often than not, they are individuals and free thinkers who have examined the constitutional basis for most of the "laws" on the books in the united states and realized that the vast majority of them are the result of plans hatched by monied interests to subjugate the masses in order to create an obedient consumer work force.

the neo-conservative movement is, i believe, the product of very wealthy individuals manipulating carefully constructed think tank talking points to manipulate the less educated (or dogmatically blinded) conservatives into believing that their interests are being served by the neo-cons. it adopts much of the posturing of the conservative movement but delivers almost none of it. instead, what it delivers is a corporate / globalist police-state agenda intent on creating a permanent war-time economy that will put the united states taxpayers into spiraling levels of debt.

i haven't been on the planet long, but the current regime definitely strikes me as the worst and most harmful form of crony capitalism imaginable... an empire established by a global economic monarchy intent on subjecting individual nations to the grand designs of bankers, death merchants and death merchant bankers.

winston churchill once famously said, "If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain."

the concept was, of course, that conservatives would provide fiscal responsibility and a certain level of civic even-handedness, while liberals would allow a bloated and ever-expanding state to force individuals to pay ever increasing taxes.

to my thinking, the entire liberal-conservative debate is best understood as "managed conflict" not unlike the two warring factions in orwell's 1984. neither side is intended or expected to end the ideological war. instead, we are asked to pick sides in this quarrel and defend "our side" to the end, never really bothering to notice that the systems that perpetuate the conflict have every reason to prolong it indefinitely.

something that doesn't suck about my birthday:

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:30:43 GMT

january 12, 1969: led zeppelin released their self-titled first album.

dubya invents new word to help him better tackle health care crisis

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:58:15 GMT

i was reading a link off crooksandliars.com talking about how dubya is still implying that he is not a politician in washington. (we know he spent a record amount of time in crawford, texas on vacation, but that still does not, technically, mean that his job description does not include, by its very definition, being a politician in washington.)

well, in the course of reading this tedious road accident -- which is to say typical bush speechifying -- i noticed the self-proclaimed commander guy made the following statements in regards to health care in america:

"In other words, the whole plan has got to be to bring more accountability into health care, to make the consumer more responsible for making proper and rational decisions. That's what accountability does. And I applaud you for that, Doc. That's what transparency in pricing means, that you should be able to shop for price.

"But the system, by the way, the tax system does not enable the individual to be incented to buy insurance in the private sector. If you work for a company and you get insurance, you get a good -- you get a good tax benefit. If you're an individual and buy insurance, you don't get the same tax benefit. That doesn't make any sense. The tax code needs to be reformed. The tax code ought to treat everybody equally when it comes to health care. And therefore, one proposal, one way to deal with that is something I talked to the Congress about, and said, if you're a married person and you're working, you ought to get a $15,000 deduction, just like a mortgage deduction, from your income, whether you're working for corporate America, or you're working on your own; whether you're working for a small-business owner, or you're looking for a job.

"And that way, you begin to make sure the tax code is a level playing field. And that way, an individual market begins to grow, because you have got an incentive at that point in time to go out and purchase health care. As a matter of fact, you won't get your deduction unless you purchase health care if you're in the individual market.

"The whole point I'm trying to make is there's an alternative to federalization of health care. It doesn't make a nice, neat sound bite. It's not something that's easy to sell -- what do you care about making sure you expand S-CHIP? That sounds nice and cozy, but nevertheless, it is an alternative that will work, and it is working, right here in America today."

enable the individual to be incented?!?

this guy's command of the english language is a complete fucking road accident.

it's a small point when put against the backdrop of the iraq invasion, katrina, vote caging, the attorney general firings, the outing of a CIA agent, the presumably nefarious but extraordinarily well-concealed energy task force commission plans, the largest attack on US soil in the nation's history, wiretapping of the citizens by the NSA, international CIA torture camps, repeal of habeus corpus via the military commissions act, etc. etc. etc. but, uh, it is still rather pathetic that we have a national figurehead who critiques immigrants for not using the national language and can't articulate the language himself.

i know at this late stage in the national shame that is the bush administration i'm not going to reach anyone who hasn't already decided if they are "with him or against him" (that is to say, with the enemy -- however nebulously defined it may be) but you'd hope that by year seven as the never elected but craftily appointed two term president of the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the history of the world, his handlers would have learned how to keep this guy from opening his mouth and removing all doubt that he is a complete and utter tool.

Do It Yourself Impeachment Kit

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 05:07:46 GMT

Tired of waiting for Congress to impeach Bush and Cheney? Ever wish you could initiate the impeachment process yourself? Well now you can!

Apparently there exists "a little known and rarely used part of the Rules of the House of Representatives ("Jefferson’s Manual")" which "actually empowers individual citizens to initiate the impeachment process themselves."

That's right, according to the oft-touted yet rarely consulted document known as the United States Constitution, ordinary citizens of the Republic of the United States can initiate articles of impeachment against their elected officials. What's more, there's even legal precedent of successful impeachment following these procedures.

So hurry... don't wait... Draw up papers calling for the immediate impeachment of the vice-president and president today. Bush and Cheney's operators at the NSA are standing by monitoring your call at this very moment.

For more information on initiating impeachment yourself, go to this site, read the information, download the document and decide if you wish to join in the efforts for citizens to initiate impeachment hearings.

Perhaps from there we can impeach the War on (Some) Terror, the War on (Some) Drugs, the Prison-Military-Industrial-Complex, the Iron Triangle, Halliburton, Bechtel, Blackwater and Wackenhut... which'd give the Bill of Rights and a return to a Constitutional Republic a nice boost in the arm.

To paraphrase Robert Anton Wilson, "The government outlined in the United States Constitution may not be perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than the system we live under now."

Rep. Ingersoll's Murder of a Hobo

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 18:18:50 GMT

why doesn't this seem far fetched?

favorite sites?

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 17:31:47 GMT

anyone got any favorite web sites they'd like to recommend?

i've got about a dozen that are on my regular clicking circuit...

tribe.net -- because i have so many friends on there.
netvibes.com -- i use it as a blog aggregator and read a bunch of feeds at once there.
fark.com -- just discovered that one and love it.
wikipedia and google -- for just about everything
dead.net -- 'cos i'm still a deadhead
craigslist -- if i want anything in nyc or san francisco
digg and technorati -- to get a taste of what a lot of people are checking out online

beyond that, though, i run out of ideas pretty quickly. which should be OK because i waste too much time clicking around anyway... but i'm curious to know which sites other people are addicted to.

Freaky... even for the CIA

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:56:32 GMT

i clicked on fark.com for more of that amazing "news that's not news" and see the following: "Ex-Fort Dix drill instructor says the CIA experimented on her with nanotechnology in retaliation for her sex change operation"...

this is from the recently declassified CIA "Family Jewels" papers... yes, Jon Stewart's already started having a heyday with the name...

but this is some freaky shit, even for the CIA... nanotech retaliation on a former drill instructor who went on the Donahue show as a transexual?

does the entire world now just resemble some bad Jerry Springer episode? (wait, is there any other kind of Jerry Springer epsidode?)

well, looking on the bright side, it does make being the psychedelic pope of my own religion seem rather mundane and almost kind of quaint...

Al Gore's Son Arrested For Marijuana Possession

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 21:24:55 GMT

http://cbs13.com/national/local_story_185123922.html

found on Fark.com

from Google's Quote of the Day

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 21:22:56 GMT

I don't need a baby growing inside me for nine months. For one thing,
there's morning sickness. If I'm going to feel nauseous and achy when I
wake up, I want to acheive that state the old fashioned way: getting
good and drunk the night before.
- Ellen DeGeneres