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June 24, 2010

Troy Anthony Davis Hearing Held

Photo featuring a poster of Troy Anthony Davis is from http://www.troyanthonydavis.org/In a hearing today for the convicted Troy Anthony Davis, a witness testified he saw Sylvester "Redd" Coles fire the shots that killed a Savannah, Georgia, police officer.  Benjamin Gordon was a primary witness for the defense, which said enough evidence was presented to get a new trial for the convicted Troy Davis.  Ultimately, a judge will make that decision.

Davis was convicted of the 1989 killing of Mark Allen MacPhail.  But according to Davis' attorneys, most of the witnesses against him recanted their testimony, some saying they were coerced by police.  "I was so scared I told them anything they wanted to hear," Jeffrey Sapp said on Wednesday.  Sapp testified that police told him, "Just say Troy told you. Just say Troy told you."

Kevin McQueen also said in the 1991 case that Davis admitted he killed MacPhail.  But in the hearing, McQueen said, "He never told me nothing like this. ... He never confessed to shooting anybody to me."

While Coles was named as a possible suspect in the killing, Savannah lead detective Greg Ramsey said Coles, who had been a witness against Davis, was not a suspect in the case.

The defense team did not call Coles to the stand nor all of the witnesses they said recanted their testimony.  They presented a possible case against Coles and their claim that police had focused on Davis as the suspect to the exclusion of others.

The U.S. Supreme Court had decided in August that a federal judge should hear evidence to see whether it "clearly establishes (Davis') innocence."  The defense is hoping that the judge will call for a new trial so evidence can be presented in court.

District Judge William T. Moore Jr., who listened to testimony Wednesday and Thursday, 23 and 24 June 2010, will announce his decision later.

LINKS

To see all our entries on Troy Anthony Davis, click on http://loveshade.org/blog-mt/mt-search.fcgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=troy+anthony+davis

For more information on the hearing, see http://savannahnow.com/news/2010-06-25/troy-davis-hearing-ends-no-date-yet-decision-new-trial and http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/witnesses-helped-convict-man-death-row-now-recant/story?id=10995816 and http://www.wtvm.com/Global/story.asp?S=12760334 and http://www.wtoc.com/global/story.asp?s=12699354

To see more on Troy Anthony Davis, visit http://www.troyanthonydavis.org/

Updated 7 July 2010 and 29 June 2010.

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May 13, 2010

Teacher Found Not Guilty of Sexual Child Molestation--And Loses

Edith, Lorina and Alice Liddell (photo by Charles Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll)"

Paranoia strikes deep / Into your life it will creep / It starts when you're always afraid / You step out of line, the man come and take you away."

-- Neil Young and Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield, 'For What It's Worth,' 1966.

In certain times and certain places, being pinned with a certain label can destroy you.  The label pinned on you could be Communist, or Jew, or Nazi, or Gypsy, or Witch, or Homosexual, or Pedophile, or Christian.  The label doesn't matter, as long as fear and ignorance and their offspring hate go along with it.  When fear and ignorance are in control, "presumed innocent until proven guilty" doesn't matter.  If you're accused, you're guilty.

Former Georgia kindergarten teacher Tonya Craft, who lived with two years of accusations, hate and death threats, was cleared of all 22 counts of molestation and sexual abuse.  It began--and ended--with three young girls.  But her real-life trial is far from over.  There are still threats against her.  And her case cost Craft her job, her reputation and her home.

The charges came from when she was a kindergarten teacher at the American Chickamauga Elementary School, and one of her accusers was her own daughter.  The girl claimed her mother had put medicine on her.  But in a country obsessed with tracking down and destroying child molesters/pedophiles, that, and the testimony of two girls, was enough.

Two young girls were found touching each other. According to history and psychology, that is normal human behavior.  But not in this time of paranoia.  A monstrous, depraved, perverted adult must have done something awful and against the girls' will, so that person must be found and punished.

Fortunately for Craft, the girls were not very skilled at being consistent in telling their stories.  After five weeks of trial, the court and the jury discovered the youngsters were telling the tales they had been taught by their parents.  In cases like this, that sort of coaching by parents and prosecutors is commonplace.  And so are the angry mobs.

Continue reading "Teacher Found Not Guilty of Sexual Child Molestation--And Loses" »

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May 03, 2010

Fix Health Care by Bartering Chickens

Rooster found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rooster_portrait2.jpg (photo by Muhammad Mahdi Karim)Sue Lowden, a Nevada Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, has got a doozey of a way to reform health care.  If you get a check up from a doctor, give him a chicken as payment.  What a novel idea.  I'm all for it.  Bring back the barter system.  If you get a heart transplant, paint the doctor's house.

Our forefathers in the rural areas used the barter system, not like those big city dudes who used money.  So I'm all for this.  Screw the doctors.  Why should they make money?  So what if they spent 12 years in medical school and as an intern.  Why should they expect to buy a car and raise their families?  But I'm not against the doctor I'm against the health insurance. Those death panelists get way too much. 
 
This idea could catch on and it can be used for more than medicine.  If I want a new car (like a Mercedes or BMW), I can give them a cow in trade.  If I need a yacht, I can trade an old comic book (not too old) for it.  I can give the IRS two chickens to pay for my taxes.  All in all, it sounds like a good idea.
 
This is another brilliant idea from the radical Republicans.  This comes from the same people who won't recognize the president's official birth certificate, and who say that the Earth doesn't rotate about the sun.  Are these people for real?  Farmer Joe might be able to barter for small things, but not brain surgery.  Wake up; it's time to get real.
 
Heres the link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/21/chickens-for-checkups-dem_n_546762.html
 
Some Democrats put up a site where can "write a letter to Sue Lowden with your ailment and what you're willing to trade" at http://www.dscc.org/chickens

And somebody figured out exactly how many chickens it would take for a tonsilectomy and other procedures at http://www.lowdenplan.com/


Have a Great day.

Rooster photo by Muhammad Mahdi Karim is licensed by the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation--for more details see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rooster_portrait2.jpg

Entries by persons who are members or associates of The Loveshade Family do not necessarily represent the views of the whole family.

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April 22, 2010

The Real American Tea Party

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/04/15/us/16teaparty2_600.JPG (photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times)Like it or not, but often the more political power you have, the less likely you are to let people know what you're really after.  You may even de-emphasize who you really are.

People in the emerging Tea Party movement encourage others to "Join the fight for liberty" and be a "patriot."  They describe themselves as part of as a "populist" or "grassroots" movement, representing the vast majority of America.

They hearken back to the 18th century Boston Tea Party protest against taxation without representative--an event that fueled the American Revolution and a violent break from the British government.  Last year the Republican Governor of Texas, Tea Party activist Rick Perry, even went so far as to hint that Texas could split from the Union.  But he backtracked by saying no such thing was planned, and that he loved America.

Now a poll by The New York Times has found who the Tea Party members are--and this is directly from them.  (And for those who don't know, the Tea Party is not a political party in the sense that the Democratic Party, Republican Party, Libertarian Party or Green Party are.  At least not yet.) 

They are generally affluent, and not suffering economically like much of the rest of the country.  They are also Republican and conservative, and many see little difference between the Tea Party and the Republican Party--except that many of them want to weed out less conservative Republicans.  They also tend to be over the age of 45, male, married, and white.

Image is at http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2009/04/16/image4949606x.jpg (photo by CBS/Brian Montopoli)And, according to their own responses, the largely affluent members think the current system gives too much help to the poor.  And the primarily white members are more likely than most Americans, even than most Republicans, to think too much focus has been spent on the problems of blacks.  In fact they are more than twice as likely as the average American to think the current administration favors blacks over whites.

See two articles about the poll at http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/04/14/us/politics/20100414-tea-party-poll-graphic.html and at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/politics/15poll.html

Photo by Doug Mills for The New York Times is from http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/04/15/us/16teaparty2_600.JPG and photo by Brian Montopoli for CBS is at http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2009/04/16/image4949606x.jpg No threat to their respective copyright is intended.

Entries by persons who are members or associates of The Loveshade Family do not necessarily represent the views of the whole family.

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April 12, 2010

Journalistic Ethics, Exposing Sources and Pedophilia

No threat to Coppertone's copyright is intended.

Journalists are facing a modern-day version of an old challenge.  Should journalists leave behind their "fair and balanced" ethics to expose a crime (or sell their product), or abandon the confines of journalism all together and move from informers to informants?

Traditional journalistic ethics are being challenged in France because of an installment on the series Les Infiltrés called "Pedophiles: The Predators."  In it, reporter Laurent Richard pretended online to be variously a 12-year-old girl and a man who was sexually interested in children.  He communicated with several people who collected child pornography, then traveled to Montreal and met a man he later turned in.  In terms of traditional journalistic ethics, this could be seen a betrayal of the confidentiality of his source.

Some may have the reaction of "So what if he violated some abstract ethics?  He caught somebody."  The problem here is the challenge to journalistic ethics and to the nature of journalism itself, which can have a tremendous effect on what the public learns.  People's safety, health and even lives can and have been dependent on information journalists gained from confidential sources.

Continue reading "Journalistic Ethics, Exposing Sources and Pedophilia" »

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April 01, 2010

Zoey Zane Declared Discordian Saint; Killer Gets Life

Israel Mireles (photo from http://blogs.kansascity.com/.a/6a00d83451b1b869e2012877966705970c-320wi)Israel Mireles, 26, the man convicted of killing and raping the 18-year-old Emily Sander, got life in prison without the possibility of parole.  Had Mexico not refused to deport him unless the United States of "We like to kill people in" America promised not to kill him, he probably would have gotten the death penalty.  Then he would have sat on Death Row for 20 years at a cost of millions of dollars.

Synchronistically, on the same day, 31 March 2010, Zoey Zane (the modeling name of Sander) was declared a Discordian Saint.  Emily Sander had already been named a Discordian American PriEmily Sander (image from family)ncess.

As this may be our last entry on Emily Sander/Zoey Zane, I'll let you know we were the first website (other than that of the local Kansas paper) to report that Emily was missing before it was revealed she posed nude as Zoey Zane.  Our friend Perlie the Pony Girl was friends with Emily and knew about the double identity, but didn't want to hurt the family.  But the organized media called Emily a "porn star" and still insists on calling her a "pornography model," even though almost all her poses were relatively tame.

Had she not posed, almost everyone who's read the story would not have heard of her.  And that's a shame.

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LINKS

Emily Sander tribute: http://discordia.loveshade.org/xtra/emily.html

Israel Mireles' sentence: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20001552-504083.html

Discordian American Princesses: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Discordian+American+Princess and http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Discordian_American_Princesses

To see all our entries on Emily Sander, click on http://www.loveshade.org/blog-mt/mt-search.fcgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=emily+sander

Entries by persons who are members or associates of The Loveshade Family do not necessarily represent the views of the whole family.

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March 26, 2010

Rush Limbaugh Leaving America--Will His Fans Follow?

Rush Limbaugh (public domain photo by Jeick at http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Rush_Limbaugh_at_CPAC_%282009%29.jpg)Rush Limbaugh, the radical-conservative radio talk show host, said that if health care reform passed in America, he would leave the United States and go to Costa Rica.

Well, it passed.  Poor Americans may finally be able to get health care like everyone can in, ironically, Costa Rica.

We want to join those who wish Rush a fine farewell.  You can say "Goodbye Rush" too, by sending him a farewell card (see link below).

One question: his fans call themselvers "Dittoheads," meaning they say "ditto" or agree with everything he says.  Does that mean they'll all be leaving America too?  Hallelujah!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/684302073

Thanks to Vernon Avaritt for pointing this out to us.

Entries by persons who are members or associates of The Loveshade Family do not necessarily represent the views of the whole family.

 

 

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March 11, 2010

Klee Brasserie Serves Breast Milk Cheese

Breast cheese image from http://www.dvorak.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/cheese.jpgYou may remember when pushing for breast-milk foods for people was a publicity gimmick done by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals--see below).  Well, this time it's real.

"Iron Chef" Daniel Angerer said necessity is the mother of invention--and in this case the source of milk.  He had and wife Lori Mason had a freezer full of her breast milk, and were running out of room.  Rather than waste it, he decided to serve cheese made from it with figs and Hungarian pepper at Klee Brasserie.

Of course some people are shocked.  Even the New York City Health Department advised him to stop serving it.  They didn't have a law against it, but you know if they work hard enough they can make up--I mean find--something.

It's actually odd that it would seem odd.  People think nothing of swallowing bodily fluid from a fat, four footed creature that regurgitates matter from its stomach, then chews it and swallows it and regurgitates it again.  But humans drinking a drink that's specifically designed to fill the nutritional needs of humans?  Horrors!

And if it starts with getting adults to consume breast milk, it won't end there!  Before you know it, they'll be having teenagers, preteens and young children doing it.  Can you imagine the atrocity of having babies breast feeding?

Read more: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35778477/ns/today-today_food_and_wine/

For all our entries that touch on breast feeding, click on http://www.loveshade.org/blog-mt/mt-search.fcgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=breast+feed  The PETA story is at http://loveshade.org/blog/2008/09/will_ice_cream_made_from_breas.html

The cheese breast image is at http://www.dvorak.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/cheese.jpg and appears in the article http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2008/04/10/human-breast-milk-cheese/.  No threat to its copyright is intended.

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January 21, 2010

Air America is Blown Away

Al Franken on Air America (Aug. 24, 2004 file photo from http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/974abbd0-9266-430b-a664-83df4c425299_mn.jpg)"It is with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business."  -- Air America Media

For those who aren't familiar with Air America, it began in April of 2004.  It was broadcast on over 100 radio stations, and broadcast during a time when disagreeing with policies such as America beginning a war with Iraq were considered "un-American."  It had already dealt with bankruptcy in 2006, but was sold and saved.

It wasn't an unbiased medium--it featured Democrat Al Franken (recently elected senator in Minnesota after months of debate about who won) and Rachel Maddow, who at the beginning of Air America was not well known.  It called itself "the only full-time progressive voice in the mainstream broadcast media world."

It will supply "encore programming" from 6 p.m. Eastern time today, 21 January, through 9 p.m. EST on Monday, January 25.  It will be missed.

See more info at http://airamerica.com/ and at http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=9628724

Photo is from http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/974abbd0-9266-430b-a664-83df4c425299_mn.jpg No threat to its copyright is intended.

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January 11, 2010

World Wide Pants Less

No Pants Subway Ride (photo from http://improveverywhere.com/images/nopants7_17.jpg. No  threat to its copyright is intended.)

Why can't you ride the subway without pants?

That's the question asked for the ninth annual No Pants Subway Ride on Sunday, 10 January. Begun by Improv Everywhere in New York, this year it was also held in various parts of the United States and the world, with participants in a reported 16 countries. A few thousand people took off their pants in New York, and others dropped them in Baltimore, Washington D.C., and, of course, San Francisco. Other places included Lisbon, Portugal, and Buenos Aires.

But it's actually related to an earlier tradition called No Pants Day celebrated by The Knighthood of BUH at the University of Texas, Austin, since 1997. And some claim it began even earlier, around 1985 or 1986. It's often celebrated on the first Friday in May.

In both No Pants Day and No Pants Subway Ride, particpants may act like nothing unusual's going on. If questioned, act as if they forgot to wear their pants, but that's no big deal. Other celebrants make a point of being pantsless, even wearing T-shirts celebrating wearing no pants. How you celebrate is up to you (but for most areas, you're safer if your nether regions are covered by underwear. "Pants" in the United Kingdom means underwear, but in America it means trousers).

 

See Links:

Check out the No Pants Day site at http://www.nopantsday.com/wp/

Read a report at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34799796/?GT1=43001

Watch the ZeitGeist version at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26852192/vp/34805765#34805765

The photo above is from http://improveverywhere.com/images/nopants7_17.jpg. No  threat to its copyright is intended.

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January 04, 2010

Saul Landau, Barack Obama, and the World

Saul Landau.  Image from http://progreso-weekly.com/2/images/semana0/landau1.png. No threat to its copyright is intended."After eleven months in office, Barack Obama has hardly revolutionized – or even altered – the major dysfunction that confronts our system. A man of obviously good values – read his books and speeches – he has yet to show convictions. He has tinkered to keep terrible problems from getting much worse – a kind of political plumber without access to equipment that would redo the entire system."

That is from the blog of Saul Landau, an Emmy-award winning documentary producer I had the priviledge to work under as head writer of a university-produced, English-language telenovela.  Landau, a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, is an internationally-known filmmaker, television producer and author who focuses on domestic and foreign policy.  Discordians might be interested to know he won a Golden Apple award for "The Sixth Sun: Mayan Uprising in Chiapas," a film that was a major inspiration to both myself and Reverend Loveshade.  Saul is also a man who, like many of us here, was thoroughly investigated because he knew the "wrong" people and asked the "wrong" questions.

You can read a short bio on Landau, who can be profound and entertaining at the same time, at http://progreso-weekly.com/2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=971:saul-landau&catid=42:our-columnists&Itemid=60

At that page you can click on "Show Other Articles By This Author" to read his blog entries, including the one on Obama quoted above, which is at http://progreso-weekly.com/2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1364:almost-one-year-assessment&catid=40:lastest-news&Itemid=59

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Other links:

His homepage is at http://saullandau.com

For those who don't believe anything outside of Wikipedia, there's an article on him (which previously mentioned me but currently doesn't) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Landau

The image of Saul Landau above is from http://progreso-weekly.com/2/images/semana0/landau1.png. No threat to its copyright is intended.

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December 31, 2009

Predictions for 2010

 

Loveshade Predictions for 2010

 

I know you've all been waiting for this all year, so here it is.

Here are my predictions for 2010 (actually, other members of The Loveshade Family contributed to this; they just don't want to admit it):

* The HEALTH CARE REFORM so praised by Americans (that is, those who don't have health care), will pass, but will not work as planned.  Detractors will say it's a huge waste of money, and will put America in the toilet.  However, supporters will say it's at least better than it was, and it will continue to get better.  Rush Limbaugh will say at least I'm still alive.

ELVIS PRESLEY will be spotted in a shopping mall in New Jersey.

* The AMERICAN ECONOMY will show significant improvement; Democrats will claim it's because of their fine work, while Republicans will claim it's because of improvements made while George W. Bush was still president.

* An American group will work very hard to prove that BARACK OBAMA DOESN'T QUALIFY AS PRESIDENT.  The group will be suspected of having ties to a dissident group overseas.

* The supposedly dim-witted PARIS HILTON will still maintain the facade of being dim-witted, but will none-the-less cleverly manage to get herself in the news for yet another scandal.

* A male AMERICAN ICON of purity and wholesomeness will be caught with his hand somewhere people don't think it belongs; i.e., in someone else's pocket.

* A female BRITISH ICON of purity and wholesomeness will be caught exposing a portion of her anatomy that the prudish will not think should be exposed.

* The Law that DEATHS ALWAYS HAPPEN IN FIVES will once again be proven this year.  At least of those deaths will be unexpected, a famous singer, and a famous actor.

QUEEN ELIZABETH I will not die, but will have a significant medical problem.  (Sorry, your Majesty).

* A major figure in the MIDDLE EAST will be violently killed.

* In the United Kingdom, there will be renewed interest in an ANCIENT ACTIVITY.  It will be something that's been popular in North America for years.

HIP HOP will still be popular with many, and still hated by many others.

* I will perform a legally-recognized DISCORDIAN WEDDING, and there will be much rejoicing.

HAPPY NEW YEAR,

THE LOVESHADE FAMILY

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December 04, 2009

Sexting--Fun or Dangerous?

SextingParents, moralists and media are curently attacking Sexting, or sending nude, semi-nude or sexually-explicit images and videos of yourself over phone and the Internet.  They're even going after cybersex, or sexually-explicit conversations in chat rooms.  Naturally, the biggest concern is when it's done by "young people."

After all, didn't some 13-year-old girl commit suicide over it?

No.  She wasn't a victim of sending nude photos of herself, she was a victim of vicious cyberbullying.  People who could be helped with counseling for self-esteem issues brought on by hormonal changes and, often, non-supportive parents, need help.  But they can get an easy release by harassing people online.  After all, it takes no courage attacking someone who can't really attack you back (plant your attacks, then log off).

The old "sticks and stones may break my bones, but your dirty words can't hurt me" is a great philosophy to live by, but it doesn't reflect the reality that human beings are a social species.

But can't you get arrested?  Yes.  As we've reported here before, young people have been arrested and charged with promoting child pornography for sending pictures of themselves.  The criminal and the victim become the same person.

Continue reading "Sexting--Fun or Dangerous?" »

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October 26, 2009

No Naked Boys in Australia--Even If It's Art

A sculpture in the sand … Little Boy Lost by Sydney's Paul Trefry is one of 114 works along a two-kilometre stretch of coast from Bondi to Tamarama. Photo: Dean SewellRemember Australia, which used to be such a cool place to visit and live?  Well, censors and social prudes are continuing to wage their glorious battle to make the country sterile and oppressed for visitors and natives alike.

When Sculpture by the Sea opens on Thursday, a statue of a lost little boy will be wearing swimmers.  This is not the wishes of the artist Paul Trefry.  Little Boy Lost showed a young boy lost on the beach, naked and vulnerable.  But apparently censors were so worried about people in Australia seeing the sculpture, that they insisted the boys' "naughty bits' be covered.

You really have to watch those Australians, as their uncontrollable urges force them to molest anything they see that's not wearing clothes.  Where do you think satyrs and wolfmen and mermaids come from?  There are so many naked goats and wolves and fish there.

To see the article, go to http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/10/26/1256405349832.html

Photo credit: A sculpture in the sand … Little Boy Lost by Sydney's Paul Trefry is one of 114 works along a two-kilometre stretch of coast from Bondi to Tamarama. Photo: Dean Sewell

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Goodbye GeoCities

Yahoo!-Geocities logo "noed".It pains us to write this, but GeoCities, one of the Internet's early and most popular places for posting a personal website, ends today.

It's one of the cruelties of the modern era that history may not be preserved.  Even in the U. S. government, critical issues discussed via email and text messaging can vanish at the touch of a few buttons.

Geocities technically began in 1994, when most people not only hadn't used the Internet, but didn't even know what it was.  But it didn't really get going until 1995.  The site was divided into loosely themed "neighborhoods," like Area51 and Hollywood.  A person's personal url originally would be an address like http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/8484/.  As the Internet advanced, these could be shortened to the domain name plus user name, like http://www.geocities.com/bloodstar84.

Many people's first websites were there.  Our friend BloodStar built his in the 1990s, and it was the first place anyone could find Reverend Loveshade's work online, including the now well-known "Five Blind Men and an Elephant" (the second place was http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/7971).  It held one of the early online references to Apocrypha Discordia, which back then wasn't a real book.

Alden built his first website there in 1997, and still considers it his second favorite self-built sites (the first is this site, of course).  Friendships and even marriages happened through that site, which was the third most visited in its heyday.  Some people grew up there, posting as young teenagers and continuing into their college years.

And now, with one swipe of Yahoo's axe, it will be gone.  For a while now, it hasn't been possible to start a new site or even to edit one that's already there.  But as Yahoo! now offers everyone free email with unlimiitd storage, keeping the sites up would likely take very little.  Back in the day, you got what was a whooping big 15 megabytes of space for your website.  And most sites weren't nearly that big, meaning you could easily save 100,000 of them on a $200 flash drive.  But Yahoo! won't do it.

Thanks goodness http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/28/geocities_preservation/ has been working to save what they can.  This is real history, the personal, amateur groundwork on which the personal and corporate blog were built.  Decades from now, when people are downloading a history book of the Internet into their brain, GeoCities will be an important part of the book.

Goodbye, old friend.

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September 02, 2009

Privacy--An Endangered Species

Image found at https://projectbee.s3.amazonaws.com/img/Privacy.jpgSocial Networks are leaking your private information to tracking sites, according to a WebProNews column by Mike Sachoff (see link at bottom). Are you assuming you have privacy when you visit a website you wouldn't want strangers to know about? You may well be wrong. But keep reading to learn some things you can do to help yourself.

Privacy, while not specifically guaranteed in many nation's constitutions, has been regarded as a fundamental right in a democratic government. But technology is quickly taking the right to privacy away.

I remember when it took a professional skip tracer days or even weeks to track a person down who can now be found online by an amateur in 15 minutes. I also remember when a professional webpage designer told me she learned how to access people's marital status and mortgage records online. That frightened me. But those were the long-ago days, back in the late 1990s. People weren't thinking about how much of their personal information could be gained online, and there was little security.

Now that online security has greatly advanced, so has the ease with which you can access anyone's personal information. That even includes someone's credit card information or passwords.

It's a cliche' to say we're living in the age where "Big Brother is watching you." But it's not just the government big brother who's watching you, it's big brother business, and little brother your next door neighbor, and even the guy you knew 10 years ago who now lives 3,000 miles away. He might be checking to see where you go online, or watching you through someone else's hidden camera. Walk a block downtown, and you could be recorded dozens of times. Visit a website you wouldn't want your boss or spouse or sother to know about (even one that hints at your differing political views), and they may well know.

Continue reading "Privacy--An Endangered Species" »

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August 29, 2009

Miyam Bialik: Teen Icon as Blossom to Unconventional Mom

Miyam Bialik (photo from http://www.holisticmoms.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/mayim-final1.jpg)If you remember 1990s American television, you likely remember Miyam Bialik as Blossom. Blossom was the teen who hung around with Six and had a clueless brother named Joey. Now Bialik is becoming known for alternative or holistic parenting.

Bialik, who received a doctorate degree in neuroscience, is using and promoting family bed sharing, home schooling, home birth, and nursing on demand--breast-feeding based on your child's needs, not a schedule. She also promotes elimination communication, which means the parents learn to observe when the child is ready to "go potty." Her first son was potty trained at 12 months.

Two of our small family have worked professionally with children, believe in holistic methods, and most if not all of us were fans of the TV program Blossom. (You may also have see Bialik in the film Kalamazoo? and while playing Bette Midler's character as a young girl in the movie Beaches).

You can learn about Mayim and Holistic Parenting at http://www.holisticmoms.org/category/aboutus/spokesperson/ and see the commercial-free version of Ali Landry's interview with Bialik at http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/goddess/spotlight-to-nightlight-mayim-bialik-from-teen-icon-to-unconventional-mom/270?nc. Photo is linked to http://holisticmoms.org. No threat to their copyright is intended.

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Michael Jackson: Murdered and Still Alive

Michael Jackson shortly before his supposed death http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Michael_Jackson_June_23,_2009.JPGYep, we guessed it. Michael Jackson, The King of Pop, was seen alive in a video after he was murdered. Who would have thought it? We would have thought it. Look Below.

It will be really interesting to see how these reports work out. I can imagine the trial:

As a witness, you claimed you saw Michael Jackson alive after his supposed death.

Yes, that's correct.

But according to this autopsy report, he's dead. And you also claim you know who murdered him. Can you explain how you can both claim he's alive and say you know who killed him?

Yes. I want the publicity.

Below

We would have thought it. See our blog entry at http://loveshade.org/blog/2009/08/death_of_michael_jackson_homicide_or_fake.html

See that he was murdered at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32542682/ns/entertainment-music/ and see he's still alive at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9b8_1251194026

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For all our blog entries dealing with Michael Jackson click on http://www.loveshade.org/blog-mt/mt-search.fcgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=Michael+Jackson

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August 28, 2009

Taking Woodstock: We Were There

Left to right, that's Kelli Garner, Demetri Martin and Paul Dano doing cuddles.We weren't going to even mention this, but....

All right, a couple of us (I'm speaking of both The Loveshade Family and the extended Discordian Division of the Ek-sen-triks CluborGuild) can be seen in the movie Taking Woodstock which just had its national release today.  Why didn't we mention this before?  Especially when I'm known for having an enormous ego and bragging about everything I ever did and even some things I didn't?

We didn't mention it because 1) we appear in a crowd scene buried in the midst of a zillion people; and 2) until we saw the film we didn't even know if we'd be in the final cut.  Movie makers always shoot a great deal more footage than ever appears on screen, and even a great deal more than ever appears in those expanded DVDs.

Even my ego's not big enough to stand up to "so you're bragging about being in a crowd scene that nobody will ever see?"  Frankly, it's barely big enough to "brag about being in a crowd scene that people will see."  But I'll step up to the challenge.

Some of you may have heard the rumors that I've appeared on film before, even if those films are, well, not available for general release.  (See how I manage to brag?)

But this was no work and lots of fun.  We got to see New York, wear the Sacred Chao on film (although you can't see it), see some very talented people, meet Jonathan Groff (very briefly), meet Kelli Garner and Paul Dano, roll in the mud, get chewed out for being in the mud when I wasn't supposed to be, and meet some Discordians (we met at least half a dozen).

I didn't get to meet the real-life Elliot Tiber, who with Tom Monte wrote Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life.  And I also didn't get to meet the director Ang Lee (you may not know that crowd scenes are often not directed by the listed director).  Would have loved to have met them both.

The movie's a comedy, plays very loosely with the facts, and is a lot of fun (Roger Ebert likes it).  So go see it, and tell them Reverend Loveshade and friends sent you.

Learn more about the film at http://www.filminfocus.com/focusfeatures/film/taking_woodstock/

(In the photo, left to right, that's Kelli Garner, Demetri Martin and Paul Dano doing cuddles.  Yes this picture's something of a clue.  It's from the website linked above and is © 2009 FOCUS FEATURES LLC.)

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August 17, 2009

Death of Michael Jackson: Homicide or Fake?

Michael JacksonAs of right now, it's been seven weeks since the death of "The King of Pop" Michael Jackson died at age 50. He's been the focus of tremendous media attention, and received what was called "the biggest celebrity send-off of all time," watched by 1 billion people.

And yet the cause of death has still not been released. Was it an accidental overdose of a prescription medication, a lethal drug mix, a rare medical condition, or what?

In a case like this, the relatively young death of an American icon, the death report would usually come relatively quickly. Unless there's suspicion of foul play.

We suspect two things: first, like what happened with the other American music king Elvis Presley, somebody will claim to have seen Michael Jackson alive. Second, his death will be investigated as a homicide.

See more at http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=7948345 and http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MichaelJackson/story?id=7938918&page=1 and  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/michael-jackson/5771156/Michael-Jackson-memorial-service-the-biggest-celebrity-send-off-of-all-time.html

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May 19, 2009

Is Your Internet Access Being Subtly Censored? Find Out

No symbolThe most effective censorship is the censorship you don't know about. If what you can learn is controlled by a government, corporation, religion, you won't know what you're missing. You will likely believe what you're told.

The Internet has been censored by various groups and nations for years.  At first, the censorship was quite obvious.  Now, it's getting more subtle.  You may head for a website that's not blocked, but just takes a really long time to load.  Too long, so you head somewhere else.  But is the delay due to poor website design, heavy bandwidth usage, or subtle censorship?

Want to know if your internet provider that claims to only be blocking hate speech and child pornography is also blocking politics they disagree with and the competition?  Check out Herdict.  It's run by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.  You can go there to learn of blocked websites, and also report your own suspicions.  You can also sign up for alerts, and download a browser add-on you can use when you can't access a site.  It's at  www.herdict.org

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April 15, 2009

Dave Arneson, Dungeons & Dragons Co-Creator, Dead at 61

Dave Arneson, co-creator of Dungeons & DragonsPortions of this were lifted from our report on Gary Gygax, who died a year ago.

Dave Arneson, who with Gary Gygax created Dungeons & Dragons which changed both fantasy and gaming, died at age 61. As Steve Jackson wrote, "Dave never did get as much attention as the other guy whose name was on the box, and he never will."  It was apparently Arneson who had the idea of playing not a group of miniatures as is done in war games, but a single one, an independent "character," who could grow in power through adventuring.

Arneson's game-in-progress Blackmoor, which became a D & D suppliment, was likely the first true roleplaying game.  Without their creation, Steve Jackson Games might never have existed.  It wouldn't have produced the roleplaying game GURPS, and probably wouldn't have published the most-seen edition of Principia Discordia, or hosted perhaps the first open online discussion of Discordianism.  These in turn led to the creation of several Discordian works.

Continue reading "Dave Arneson, Dungeons & Dragons Co-Creator, Dead at 61" »

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March 29, 2009

Dora The Explorer Growing Up? Horrors!

Five-year-old Dora and Preteen Dora the ExplorerIn case you aren't an American who has or works with young children, you may not know what all the fuss is about.

Dora the Explorer is a popular cartoon character on the Nickelodeon cable television network. She was introduced at the end of the 20th century, and became extremely popular with the pre-tween or pre-preteen set. The very young girl (age about 5), goes on little adventures to find things or help people, and is nice to everybody.

But now Nickelodeon and Mattel, the toy company, have unveiled a version that shows Dora in her tween/preteen years. Parents are horrified.

Part of this is because they first hinted at the new version's look with a silhouette.

Continue reading "Dora The Explorer Growing Up? Horrors!" »

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March 07, 2009

Fake News on Real TV

Then President George W. Bush Hugging the Easter Bunny (source unknown--please tell us)If you saw it on FOX News it must be true, right?

Turns out some news shows will take VNR (Video News Releases) from major corporations, add their own comments on top of it, and air it as news. From a candy ad disquised as a Halloween report to a toothy news bite that's really an ad for the American Dental Association, media will spoon feed it to your brain. Close mind, open wallet.

Learn more and learn from the Center for Media and Democracy at http://www.prwatch.org/fakenews/findings/vnrs

We ripped off the link from http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/09/the_real_fake_n.html

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March 05, 2008

Dungeons & Dragons Co-Creator Gary Gygax Missed His Saving Throw

Gary Gygax (Alan De Smet photo, 2007)Gary Gygax, who with Dave Arneson created Dungeons & Dragons which transformed the worlds of both gaming and fantasy, died at age 69.  As Steve Jackson wrote, without Gygax and Arneson, the roleplaying game industry might never have happened, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy likely wouldn't have been made.

Alden and I have a personal interest here.  Years ago Alden got involved in a D & D group, which eventually led em to GURPS in Steve Jackson Games.  Most of es closest friends played one or the other game with em as either player or Game Master (GM).  During a very difficult phase of es life, es weekly GURPS game kept em going.  These also led em to involvement in the Society for Creative Anachronism, which lead to an interest in alternative forms of society, which led to...well, keep reading.

I, Reverend Loveshade, saw the Steve Jackson Games edition of Principia Discordia (the first edition that put the book in bookstores) when it came out in 1994.  Before that I didn't know of the book, but it led me to some very strange places.  Discussing it with my Mum led to my learning that my Mum had been friends as a teenage girl with Luna Wilson, who was murdered at age 15.  Luna was the daughter of Robert Anton Wilson who contributed to the Principia, and who wrote about the Illuminati.  I had learned about the Illuminati through one of Bob Wilson's books, but didn't know of es connection to my mother.  But learning this connection led to my contacting the borderline fringe-mainstream writer whom I grew to call Grandbob.

These various connections came together when I had a vision of doing a book, which became the still evolving Ek-sen-trik-kuh Discordia: The Tales of Shamlicht.  Alden brought es vision to it, as did Princess Unicornia, Fairy Princess Yoshikyoko, Dr. Sinister Craven, Untroubled Teen and many others.  Each of those mentioned above connected to the book either through fantasy or roleplaying.  It's likely that, without Gary Gygax and all the interconnections made through the creation of D & D, our book would never have happened, and likely neither would Apocrypha Discordia or several other great Discordian works.

Ironically, Gary Gygax died on March 4, which has been called GM Day.

See an Associated Press story at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080304/ap_en_ot/obit_gygax and see Steve Jackson's tribute at http://www.sjgames.com/ill/archives.html?y=2008&m=March&d=5

(Alden Loveshade contributed to this report.  Details of photo are at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Gary_Gygax_Gen_Con_2007.JPG)

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See Dave Arneson goodbye entry at http://loveshade.org/blog/2009/04/dave_arneson_dungeons_dragon_c.html

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May 25, 2007

Star Wars: 30 Years

This is a message sent to us by Danacasso 

Well, I'm sure that you must know that today is the 30th anniversary of the release of Star Wars, now called Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. It didn't have that longer title until after 1980, but then you knew that.

On May 25, 1977, I was twelve years old and living in King Salmon, Alaska and although the local Air Force station did have a theater, I never saw Star Wars there. Instead, I saw The Great Waldo Pepper and Airport 77, both aviation movies.

However, I did know about Star Wars after a fashion as one of my dad's magazines had an ad for the famous poster by the brothers Hildebrandt; I just didn't know it was for a movie.

Then, in August of 1977, my brother and I travelled back to our home state of Oregon to live with our mom. Right after we got there, the big news was not a movie but the death of Elvis. Then, one day in a store, we saw a magazine about the movie, and it was then that I realized what it was. Then my cousin mentioned it and how good it was.

Finally, my dad came down to visit us and he took my brother and me to see Star Wars. This was at one of the last old single-screen theaters in town.

It's been a long road, and a difficult one, since then, but I still haven't forgotten that August evening in 1977 when I got my twelve-year old mind blown away. Thanks, George, you changed my world.

Danacasso

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January 14, 2007

Goodbye RAW: Robert Anton Wilson

Robert Anton Wilson (photo by Robert Altman)I've been trying for three days to come up with something poignant, clever, insightful, and moving about the passing of Robert Anton Wilson. For three days, I've failed. But I would be remiss if I let another day pass and posted nothing.

To es fans, Robert Anton Wilson was the co-author, with Robert Shea, of The Illuminatus! Trilogy, and the author of many other great books that challenged our perspectives and perceptions of society, human relations, and even reality. E was a free-thinker, a friend of Dr. Timothy Leary, and, with Shea, the popularizer of Discordianism, the religion-joke began by Malaclypse the Younger and Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst. According to Wikipedia, e was "a prolific American novelist, essayist, philosopher, psychologist, futurologist, anarchist, and conspiracy theory researcher." E worked to be an agnostic in all things, taking nothing for granted or at face value. To the Church of the SubGenius, e is possibly the model for their "God" Bob Dobbs. According to es former co-workers at Playboy magazine, e was an associate editor with a fresh sense of humor. To es friends, e was a gentle spirit who cared about others. You can read more about RAW at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson, or at es website at http://www.rawilson.com.

But what was e to me? I cannot answer. Es passing is still too close.

I like to imagine that BloodStar, our missing friend who "left Earth" following the paranoia and Government abuses following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States, returned. I can see the space alien picking up Bob on the StarShip Lorelei, and taking Bob back home to planet Eris. There they can discuss conspiracy theories, sex, humanity, the Illuminati, our crazy planet Earth, and, of course, fnord.

But what have I to say about Robert Anton Wilson? I have no pithy comments, no great witticisms. I have just one, very simple, thing to say. Goodbye, Grandbob.

* * * * *

(For information on Memorial Events and other RAW stuff, go to http://discordia.loveshade.org/xtra/raw.html)

Photo by Robert Altman from http://www.altmanphoto.com/robert.anton.wilson.jpeg

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September 02, 2006

The Politics of Pluto

Artist's conception of Pluto and its moon Charon (NASA)Is Pluto a planet or not?  Many astronomers are up in arms over the declaration of the International Astronomical Union that Pluto, along with a couple other heavenly bodies, are not planets.  Pluto has been considered the ninth planet since its discovery in 1930, so why the change?  Is it because scientists discovered that Pluto didn't fit the established definition of a planet?

No.  There never has been an established definition of a planet, until now.  And a number of scientists don't like it.  Is this a matter of scientific debate on the validity of observational and experimental evidence, or is this pure politics?

Continue reading "The Politics of Pluto" »

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