When Ted Olsen teamed up with his former adversary, David Boies, to file a federal lawsuit on behalf of two plaintiffs against Proposition 8 in California, one would have thought that the apocalypse was indeed nigh. Olsen and Boies were on opposite sides in 2000 when they were arguing before the Supreme Court about that little election issue in Florida… I think it was important, but I don’t recall. Anyway, the fact is, they teamed up and brought a lawsuit against the State of California. At the time it was filed, there was reticence and mistrust from the LGBT community. There was a real concern that if Olsen and Boies lost it would be disastrous precedent for future lawsuits to overcome. Lambda Legal was one group who was worried that the timing wasn’t right, and that a loss would be incredibly damaging. Some conspiratorial voices buzzed that Olsen was going to intentionally throw the case. But, no such thing happened, and they actually won, for now. There’s a good chance that this ends in California, though, because California may not pursue the appeal. Governor Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown have declined to pursue it any further, and as they were the defendants named, nobody else would have legal standing to defend Prop 8 before the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. If this happens and the 9th Circuit declares that there’s no standing, the case does not advance. That would be the best scenario for social conservatives, a containment of their loss, because a Circuit-wide defeat of Prop 8 would in effect wipe out any state law or state constitutional amendment that restricts marriages to one man and one woman. Other states would most certainly appeal that to the U.S. Supreme Court and it’s really a toss up at that point, because Judge Vaughn Walker- ahem- a Reagan conservative appointee- wrote a solid ruling that was based in constitutional law and analysis, and not the emotional, irrational whining of the Prop 8 defenders who almost seemed to be throwing their own case intentionally. But, this is not about the ruling in Perry v Schwarzenegger. There is a movement afoot that I have been sensing since this case was first filed.
Conservatives are turning the page on gay issues.
At first it was subtle. Just a little rustling in the wind. In 2004, Vice President Dick Cheney broke ranks with President Bush and declined to support a federal Constitutional amendment that would have forced a nationwide definition of marriage on all 50 states. Not for nothing, but many prominent Republicans at the time also recoiled at the idea of etching such a thing into our founding document. Many who did faced enormous criticism from liberals and conservatives alike. The next wave crested when the State of Massachusetts could not get the required votes to place a ballot initiative that would repeal marriage equality. The State of Iowa became the first state West of the Mississippi to enact same-sex marriage when their state supreme court overruled the ban on same-sex marriage and it’s held for several years now. So, when did conservatives see the writing on the wall and decide that the time was right to make a move? I would say it all began with the campaign and election of Barack Obama.
Barack Obama has, in the past, expressed his support for marriage equality back when he was doing community work in Chicago. Yet, when he ran for the U.S. Senate against the carpetbagger Alan Keyes, he dialed back his support to the fence-sitting position of ‘civil unions’. It was easy to look like the beacon of reason next to the virulently homophobic Alan Keyes, who called Mary Cheney a selfish hedonist and even kicked his own daughter out of the house for being a lesbian. Everyone knew that Obama was being groomed for a run at the presidency even while he was being sworn into the Senate, and on the national stage, the more vague you are, the more people you reach. He tried several times to reach out to socially conservative, religious Black people, first through using ex-gay singer Donnie McClurkin on his campaign tour, and then by inviting Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church, to give the invocation at Obama’s inauguration. Warren has had his own litany of anti-gay screeds and arguably, the blood of many Africans on his hands thanks to his help in getting condom distribution stopped in countries ravaged by HIV/AIDS. Gay people were frankly livid at Warren got such a prestigious invite. Incidentally, many social conservatives were also livid that Warren accepted. Obama then failed to say anything about Propostion 8. He did not object to his words being used out of context in pro-Prop-8 ads. He did not say much a year later when a voter’s referendum was used to repeal the legislatively enacted same-sex marriage law in Maine, one that was heavily financed by out of state interests, similar to how Prop 8 was pushed. Obama’s justice department filed briefs in two cases, one defending the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act from a Massachusetts lawsuit, and another defending the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy by people who were suing to keep their careers in the United States Military. Both briefs were filled with insulting and demeaning characterizations of gay people. It was becoming clear that Barack Obama was no “fierce advocate” for the LGBT community. By the time Ted Olsen and David Boies filed the lawsuit, a plan was in place.
I have to admit, it’s a good plan.
First, you quietly drop the opposition to same-sex marriage and gays serving in the Armed Forces. Even if you oppose it, just let it go, because eventually these battles will be lost. The second is to have some conservatives actually outflank the President on these issues. Not conservatives who actually have any power, mind you, but a few big names that might open some eyes, like Dick Cheney and Laura Bush. It makes Obama look weak if he can’t even throw a bone to members of his base. Ken Mehlman comes out. GOProud puts on a conservative gay convention and has Ann Coulter speaking, not to mention such sponsors as Tammy Bruce, Grover Norquist, Margaret Hoover, John Hawkins, Lisa DePasquale, Bruce Carroll & John Ciccone, Christopher Barron & Shawn Gardner, Jimmy LaSalvia, Craig Engle, Christopher Taylor & Anthony Cirone, Roy Eappen, and Jessica Lee. Glenn Beck even takes a few steps back and telling Bill O’Reilly that there’s bigger fish to fry than gay marriage. The plan is, I believe, in two years, to split the gay vote from two fronts- the first is dropping opposition to or even expressing support for marriage equality, and the second is to use Islamophobia to convince us that compared to Muslims, Christians are downright docile. Lastly, they get to one-up a president who has had a lot of trouble putting his words of support into any tangible action that benefits gays & lesbians. If the Republicans manage to deliver marriage equality while Obama waffles on it, it’s going to go a very long way in getting new GOP support in 2012.
Some have said that the social conservatives in the GOP won’t stand for it, but I believe that they will endure it, because the thought of four more years of Obama enacting what they believe to be a socialist, communist, non-citizen, Muslim (okay, look, birthers and other people who try and paint Obama as something completely foreign- he’s black. Deal with it, okay? Get over yourselves.) agenda is more frightening to them than two dudes and two chicks getting married. So the GOP will downplay their social cons and their theocratic cons, and use the Tea Party movement to recruit gays by one-upping the president and the do-nothing Democrats in Congress. Even though their motives are purely political and have nothing to do with, oh, doing the right thing for LGBT people, they get to wrap themselves in the mantle of acceptance and equality while they evangelize a new batch of gays & lesbians into Republicanism.
I’ve been there. I’m a recovering Republican. I’ve seen what this kind of governance has done for this country and I can’t say I like what I see, and that has nothing to do with marriage equality or LGBT issues. It has more to do with giving away so much power to megalithic, unaccountable corporations who have undermined capitalism and representative democracy, which as a result, is systematically destroying a once prosperous American middle class, and in this endeavor, Democrats are also complicit. They have just as much blood on their hands as Republicans. I am all for diversity of thought and public opinion in the political sphere, I am not one who thinks that all gays should vote Democrat, but I do ask that you think about this sudden shift in opinion and ask yourself why they want your vote so badly that they’re willing to throw 30 years of pandering to Christo-fascists and Moral Majority types under the bus to get it. Perhaps they see that younger generations aren’t quite as hip to the disturbing anti-gay messages of the late Jerry Falwell or the severely aged Pat Robertson. Perhaps they see Islam as a far greater threat to the West than homosexuality. No doubt we have to keep a watchful eye on crazy radical Muslims, but the degree of fearmongering going on lately is a bit much. Whatever the reason is, remember, they’re not doing it because they genuinely believe in marriage equality. They want something from us. They need something from us. Our problem is that we’ve forgotten how to be demanding. We’re a cheap date, anyone knows by watching how we fawn over Democrats who make us promises they have no intention of keeping. So let’s stop being such pushovers and start dealing, and make them come to us hat in hand. Democrats too, it’s time that we hold them responsible for broken promises, stalling, and inaction as well. Screw it, while we’re at it, ANYONE who feels that they’re simply being pandered to, stop being so easy and start holding the feet of your elected officials and candidates to the fire. Let’s hold them all accountable for selling out the American Dream while using volatile but meaningless social issues to distract us from how badly we’re being shafted.
We’re making this film because we’re amazed by how many people who love guns also support the War on Drugs, and how many people who love drugs support the War on Guns. They need to know the two wars fuel each other. And most pro-pot people are also into progressive socialism. It doesn’t make sense. If you’re into one freedom, you really should be into ALL freedoms.
For instance, Woody Harrelson is a well-known pot advocate. I agree with Harrelson on the pot issue. But he’s an inveterate Obama licking socialist progressive.
Salon.com: At least at this point, it appears that Obama is pushing onward with the war in Afghanistan. Is he just constrained by geopolitics? Is he simply not free to say, “Look, we’re not going to do this anymore”?
Harrelson: I think there’s a lot of persuasive and powerful people around Obama. For a president to make his own decisions, I think that’s a rarity. Even someone who we think of as our guy — this is a guy with integrity, a guy who cares, for the first time in a long time — in the Oval Office, even with him we don’t really know who’s pulling the strings. I think of every president as being a marionette. Whether he’s any different, I don’t know. Certainly his military advisers all want him to prosecute this war to the end, just as they did in Vietnam with LBJ.
It’s just too depressing, I think we’re going to have to hit the streets. Obama has the chance of becoming JFK or LBJ. I think JFK was one of our last great presidents, although I thought Carter was pretty great too…..
Which just goes to prove my thesis….the Republicans better quit trying to legislate against what people smoke and who they bed, or we’re going to have a permanent majority of people who want to rob from the disarmed producers to support the insolent and indolent parasites.
Not that repubs don’t do that, but lately the dems have been taking it to vast new levels. And while dems don’t care what kind of freaky mammal sex you have, they certainly want to control or eliminate every tiny little other nuance in the world. Coal, oil, commerce, guns, hunting, water, health care, salt, or body fat index and ironically, weed.
Why should the government protect us from ourselves?
If you think they should, then no one should have guns, right? (Except of course, the government, because the government is an all-knowing and perfect loving-yet-stern parent to guide us in our every decision!)
Another issue: PROHIBITION DOES NOT WORK. The War on Drugs has been unwinnable since the 1930s. It only fuels government waste, bolsters government intrusion, and puts good people in prison. It also fuels the War on Guns. Look how Holder tried to reinstate the Assault Weapon Ban to help the War on Drugs.
Prohibition doesn’t make people quit smoking pot anymore than a total gun ban would make a patriot hang his head in shame and voluntarily hand in all his hardware to the federal smelter.
My friend Neema directed this piece (which features me) about the Wyoming Firearms Freedom Act, for the news. This showed in Casper, Cheyenne, Riverton, Lander and throughout most of Wyoming. Yay! It’s also got Anthony Bouchard, from the Wyoming Gun Owners Association.
Neema and I are working on a film together. It’s about liberty.
Here’s part two, Wyoming governor candidates talking about guns:
Cale Case (Republican) – Wyoming state senator, co-sponsor of the Wyoming Firearms Freedom Act, Hotelier, libertarian, Republican Liberty Caucus member, sometimes called “The Ron Paul of Wyoming”, comes over to Michael W. Dean’s house and yacks freely about how a Constitutional Convention can save America. They also yack about Molon Labe, the economy, homeschooling, guns, cats, pot, porn, dueling, the wind tax, the role of government, Ron Micheli, Matt Mead, Rita Meyer, Gerald Gay, Free State Wyoming and Free State Project New Hampshire, how wonderful Wyoming is, and how to be hopeful, not fearful, in the coming years in America.
Nearly a gigabyte of sonic Michael Dean loveliness….125 songs, high-quality MP3s, FREE. Every song ever recorded by Bomb, Baby Opaque, The Beef People, Right Arm of Wyoming, The Rolling Scabs, Slish, and a few other cool surprises.
I hate liberals so damn much!
But not for their freaky mammal sex
I don’t care what you wed or do or screw
and I don’t care if you shoot crack!
I hate liberals because they steal
My money and my rights
They mug me and they mug you
and think they’re doing right…..
I HATE LIBERALS SO DAMN MUCH (AND I HATE STATISTS TOO)…but I love cats!
Michael W. Dean and Debra Jean Dean have rainy day fun talking about the baffling case of South Carolina candidate Alvin Green, chili cookin’ on a rainy day with your baby, the concept and the book Future Shock, the growing divide between far left and far right, the concept and the book The Road to Serfdom, THE PUSSIFICATION OF THE WESTERN MALE, the cool site and book The Art of Manliness, why people who hate guns are really dangerous (and pussies), how all laws and taxes are enforced at the barrel of a gun, and more nifty stuff.
Sound Strike, a group of musicians–led by Rage Against the Machine, and including Kanye West, Sonic Youth, and Massive Attack–are calling for a boycott of Arizona, refusing to perform in the state until a recently passed law regarding illegal immigration is repealed.
WOW!
Remember the “King of the Hill” episode (“Love Hurts and So Does Art”) where an “important” New York City conceptual artist comes to Texas and gets shunned for defaming beef in his exhibit (by displaying an x-ray of Hank Hill’s beef-filled colon)?
"King of the Hill" "Love Hurts and So Does Art"
The artist threatens the sheriff “YOU’LL NEVER HAVE ANOTHER SHOWING OF IMPORTANT ART FROM NEW YORK IN THIS STATE AGAIN!”
The sheriff drawls back at the artist “We’ll get by….”
That will be Arizona’s feeling if “important” “edgy” bands stop playing the state.
My wife and I often drawl “We’ll get by….” regarding situations like that. It’s kind of a running joke, and fits SO many situations.
In the late 1980’s and early ’90’s there was this great band from San Francisco called Bomb. I never got to see them live. Jack Endino did and his comment was, “The drummer is amazing”. They made this great record called Hits of Acid and one of my favorite tunes of all time is “I Loved Her, Then I Died” – I urge heavy rock fans to check it out. Here’s a free mp3 of the tune “You In Romance”
Hits Of Acid is a great lost-classic. It’s super-warped heavy rock. And like all of my favorite records – listening takes me on a journey. If this band came out of Seattle instead of San Francisco – they would have been one of the great Grunge bands.
NOTE: This song is not a call to action. Its a history lesson, about the Whiskey Rebellion….sort of punk rock Schoolhouse Rock.
“Would You Tar and Feather a Tax Collector?”
NEW song from Right Arm of Wyoming. DOWNLOAD MP3 HERE. (RIGHT CLICK TO SAVE.) http://www.rightarmofwyoming.com/TarA…
Punk Rock Saved My Ass is the name of a great new book from Medusa’s Muse press. It’s got some surprisingly great writing and true storytelling in it, and the first article is by me. (They also printed a sweet ass picture of me with a scary black rifle, which should unnerve some leftie punx who will probably read the book.) You can get the book on Amazon here for only ten bucks, and a buck from each one sold goes to Gilman Street Project. The book is a better “slice of life” of the punk “movement” than a lot of books and films that have much better known people in it.
The writers include musician and libertarian Michael W. Dean, UK poets Tony Walsh and Annie Mcgann; Boston musicians Chestnut Growler and Squallie Greenthumb; performer Jennifer Blowdryer; writers Ryan Cooper, Mic Schenk, Jim Munroe, Matthue Roth, and Heather Seggel; musician Paul Richards of the band Heavy Load; and many more. Also included are several never before published photographs of punks and punk bands taken by Nicole Lucas and Richard Wismar. Punk Rock Saved My Ass, distributed by Ingram, is $10.00 and will be available from Amazon.com, Powell’s Books, BarnesandNoble.com, and your local bookstore.
The Revolution rock and roll podcast interviews Michael W. Dean about punk rock, revolution, survivalist ideals, prepping, the Sex Pistols, Wyoming, Texas, drug addiction, the dot-com crash, making a living doing what you love, battle rifles, GOOCA (get out of California!), building a home recording studio, libertarianism, guns guns guns and more guns, the FAL rifle, carrying a gun to save your life, dealing with gun grabbers and much, much more.
Questions:
- Why the FAL?
- What specifically brought you over to libertarianism from liberalism
- How do you deal with all of the libs and left-wing nuts in the music industry?
- Mention letter to self, What were your punk rock influences?
- Why Wyoming?
- What do you do besides RAW?
- Discuss Songs:
+ Fakin’ the Race Card (you lie!)
+ Get Off My Property
+ Government is A Collective Hallucination (lots of talking)
+ My Gun Keeps You Honest – “and I practice almost every day…”
- “My guns are keeping you honest, that is my right as a free man”
Libertarian rapper and TV personality Neema Vedadi visits Michael W. Dean and Debra Jean Dean in Nestlandia, in Wyoming, and drops mad science. They talk about consent of the governed, the coming collapse, impending doom, liberal idiots, and how to transcend all of the above through education, edu-tainment, and guns. Neema explains how America is headed toward a Weimar Republic where a loaf of bread costs a million dollars. He and the Deans talk about what to do about it, how to save yourself and your family, and chat about liberty, child rearing, taxation as theft, where America went wrong, why there should be no public property, and what’s cool about guns and weed.
They talk about a lot of other fun stuff, for a long long time (an hour and 40 minutes). Yay!
PODCAST:
Neema V Tells You How to Thrive in the Coming Collapse: Download
(CNN) — The former governor of Oklahoma and his wife were robbed at gunpoint in the driveway of their northwest Oklahoma City home, officials said Thursday. George Nigh, 82, and his wife, Donna, were unhurt in the incident about 10:15 p.m. (11:15 p.m. ET) Wednesday as they were returning home from a dinner engagement. Nigh told reporters his wife was unlocking the front door of their home as he got flowers out of their vehicle when a man approached him from behind and said, “Get on the ground.”…..
AUSTIN, Texas – Pistol-packing Texas Gov. Rick Perry has a message for wily coyotes out there: Don’t mess with my dog. Perry told The Associated Press on Tuesday he needed just one shot from the laser-sighted pistol he sometimes carries while jogging to take down a coyote that menaced his puppy during a February run near Austin. Perry said he will carry his .380 Ruger — loaded with hollow-point bullets — when jogging on trails because he is afraid of snakes. He’d also seen coyotes in the undeveloped area. When one came out of the brush toward his daughter’s Labrador retriever, Perry charged.
“Don’t attack my dog or you might get shot … if you’re a coyote,” he said Tuesday.
Perry, a Republican running for a third full term against Democrat Bill White, is living in a private house in a hilly area southwest of downtown Austin while the Governor’s Mansion is being repaired after a 2008 fire. A concealed handgun permit holder, Perry carries the pistol in a belt…..
I don’t like the idea of anyone getting mugged, but I must add that the unarmed Oklahoma guy who got mugged is a Democrat, and the pistol-packin’ Texan is a Republican.
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are longtime self-proclaimed “libertarians.” Indeed, Parker is actually a registered Libertarian Party member. They are friends of Reason Magazine. And they have used explicit libertarian themes in numerous episodes.
In the early 2000s, a movement was born out of their series, called “South Park Republicans.”
South Park co-creator Trey Parker is actually a registered member of the Libertarian Party. Fellow co-creator Matt Stone sums up their views with the comment “I hate conservatives, but I really fucking hate liberals.”)
They are described as center-right Republicans, mostly suburban fans of the show, with moderate libertarian-leanings. There was even a book released by author Brian C. Anderson called “South Park Conservatives.”
And now, like European Free Speech advocating Cartoonists, they have been specifically targeted with a serious Death Threat from a major Islamic Website.
From FoxNews.com “‘South Park’ Creators Could Face Retribution for Depicting Muhammad, Website Warns” :
A radical Islamic website is warning the creators of “South Park” that they could face violent retribution for depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit during an episode broadcast on Comedy Central last week.
RevolutionMuslim.com posted the warning following the 200th episode of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s “South Park,” which included a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad disguised in a bear suit. The Web posting also included a graphic photo of Theo van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who was murdered in 2004 after making a documentary on violence against Muslim women.
“We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show,” the posting reads. “This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”
Reaching by phone early Tuesday, Abu Talhah al Amrikee, the author of the post, said he wrote the entry to “raise awareness.” He said the grisly photograph of van Gogh was meant to “explain the severity” of what Parker and Stone did by mocking Muhammad.
“It’s not a threat, but it really is a likely outcome,” al Amrikee said,
Ironically, both Parker and Stone were guest speakers at a conference in Amsterdam in 2006 on the topic of Free Speech Rights, sponsored by Reason. Editor Nick Gillespie said at the time:
One of the reasons we were interested in having a conference in Amsterdam is that it’s not only the birthplace of tolerance but the site of one of the most brutal crimes related to free speech in recent memory: the 2004 murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, who was stabbed to death in the street after making a 10-minute film critical of Islam’s treatment of women.
Parker commented to Reason in a resulting interview, Dec. 2006 isue:
This is what happened. I was on my honeymoon in Disney World. I turned on the television, and there were thousands of rioting Muslims, and the caption said, “Muslims enraged over cartoon.” And I said, “Oh, shit. What did we do?”
We actually did an episode five years ago with Muhammad in it. It was an episode called “Super Best Friends,” and Muhammad had super powers and turned himself into a beaver and then killed Abraham Lincoln. I thought, “They finally just saw it, and they’re all pissed off.” But no, it was those other cartoons that they were mad about.
Reached for a comment, Gillespie told Libertarian Republican yesterday:
To say that semi-veiled death threats against the creators of a cartoon show that spoofed Mohammed demonstrates the need for an Islamic reformation is self-evident. The threats, especially the invocation of the brutal murder of Theo van Gogh by a religious nutbar, should shame all serious Muslims the same way the pope’s behavior in sexual-abuse scandals shames true Catholics. Whether religious or secular, ideologies that try to suppress dissent and free expression through violence always lose, and always make themselves more abjectly pathetic on the road to the dustbin of history.
I make no secret of my love of snubbies. I carry a .38 special sometimes, and a .357 mag sometimes. The .357 can stop a bear, but weighs 24 ounces empty and kicks like a shotgun. The .38 special can stop most things, weighs only 12 ounces empty and has a manageable kick, which makes accurate follow-up shots easier.
My .38 is a Charter Arms Undercover Lite. Was 350 bucks new. I carry it all the time, even at home. Outside the house, I carry it, and often carry the .357 Taurus model 605 also.
Below the pix are some good links with excellent snubbie info. (added later: also check out the comments, there’s some great info there, especially on speedloaders, holsters and carry options.)
NOTE: This song is not a call to action. It’s a history lesson, about the Whiskey Rebellion….sort of punk rock “Schoolhouse Rock.” lol….
NEW song from Right Arm of Wyoming. DOWNLOAD MP3 HERE. (RIGHT CLICK TO SAVE.)
Song is dedicated to my great great great great great great grandfather, Joseph Cornish, who died on the American side in the American Revolution.
LYRICS for “Would you Tar and Feather a Tax Collector?” :
CHORUS 1:
Would you tar and feather a tax collector?
Like they did in days of old?
Would you tar and feather a tax collector?
For breaking in and stealing your gold?
CHORUS 2:
GET OUT AND FIGHT!
GET UP AND FIGHT!
STAND UP AND FIGHT!
FOR YOUR RIGHTS!
GET OUT AND FIGHT!
GET UP AND FIGHT!
WAKE UP AND FIGHT!
FOR YOUR RIGHTS!
The American Revolution was mostly
fought for just two things:
taxation and trying to take our guns.
My great great great great great great grand dad
died in that war.
He took a musketball from King George’s goons.
A few years later, in 1791 the federalist gub’mint
sent us the bill for that war
with even higher taxes than before
That federalist traitor Alexander Hamilton
acted like the new King George.
He tried to take honest money from the distillers.
But the brave men of Pennsylvania didn’t want a nanny state
so they tarred and feathered a tax collector
(CHORUS 1)
Flash forward 219 years
The new Alexander Hamilton is trying the same plan
but on a much larger scale
The gub’mint’s much bigger
And most people are sheep
waiting to be sheered in their sleep
(CHORUS 1)
The gub’mint buys guns by the millions
Meanwhile, they’re taking ours.
What do you think they’ve got in mind?
I’m not saying “it’s time.”
I’m just sayin’ ya gotta look behind.
Those who ignore history
have no future.
And King George wants us all subdued.
Middle 8:
It’s hard to watch my country being destroyed
It makes me very sad.
When I’m sad I don’t feel sorry for myself.
The sorrow turns to anger, which
hardens into steely reserve.
(CHORUS 2)
I’ll probably get on some list for singing this song
Screw ‘em – I’m right, they’re wrong.
We were taught to love our country, at one time.
But now?
That’s a hate crime.
From CNN– The mayor of Los Angeles, California, called Tuesday for a plan to shut down all city services — except for public safety and revenue-generating positions — twice a week beginning Monday in an effort to solve the city’s budget crisis.
“There are no easy decisions or simple ways to solve this budget crisis,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. “But as the CEO of this great city, it is my responsibility to make these difficult, but necessary, decisions to steer the city out of this crisis and onto solid financial ground.”
He said he was asking the city administrative officer to develop a plan to shut down the city for two days a week and calculate the money the city would save from the move….
I think this is the wave of things to come. California sets the tone for everything in America, including politics and spending. When you have decades of bailing out everyone with taxpayer-funded “social justice”, this is what you get.
It sort of reminds me of the squirrel in my yard. He barely noticed me for a long time. One day, I put some peanut butter out for him. He gobbled it up. Then I gave him some more, for several days in a row…..
One day I didn’t have any peanut butter, and he stood on my window sill, watching me eat my lunch inside, looking like “Hey buddy, quit stuffing your pie hole and feed me, or I’ll kill you.”
That’s California in a nutshell. Damn glad we got out while the getting was good.
–Michael W. Dean
p.s. When Los Angeles says they’re cutting off everything except for public safety and revenue-generating positions, I believe the second part – hell, they’ll ADD more meter maids. But public safety? They laid off a bunch of cops and firemen six months ago and let a lot of people out of prison early, including some violent offenders and kiddie touchers.
As soon as they give out vouchers for welfare, as they’ve talked about, the result will rival the LA Riots.
Here’s my open letter to the Casper Tribune about it:
Do we want a terrorist speaking at the University of Wyoming?
—-
University of Wyoming has scheduled convicted domestic terrorist William Ayers as a 2010 Spring guest lecturer for Monday, April 5. Ironically, the name of the speech he’s scheduled to give is “Trudge toward Freedom: Moral Commitment and Ethical Action.”
In the early 70s, William Ayers participated in the bombings of New York City Police Department headquarters, the United States Capitol building, and the Pentagon. He is unrepentant about these acts, and is currently a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Ayers wrote a blurb for the back of President Obama’s autobiography, though Obama has downplayed their relationship.
I think having Ayers speak in Wyoming, especially to impressionable youth, is a HORRIBLE idea. And I think having it paid for by our taxes is a travesty.
I’m all for free speech, but I think Ayers’ past actions and present attitude goes far beyond free speech. I also think it’s a crazy world we live in when former enemies of the state are considered role models, and have a relationship with the president. Wyoming seems more secluded from this sad decline than the rest of the country, and I think we should help keep it that way.
I urge people contact to the public relations coordinator, Jim Kearns at 307.766.2670 or jkearns@uwyo.edu and event coordinator Tanaya Moon Morris, sjrc@uwyo.edu, 307-766-3422 and POLITELY ask them to cancel this event.
Respectfully,
Michael W. Dean,
Casper
Wyoming contact for the Republican Liberty Caucus http://www.rlcwy.org/
I really really love the movie Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. It’s a great send-up of every rock or country music biopic ever made. It’s funny and at times deep. It makes me laugh a lot, and even cry a little.
But moreover, the music in it is great. Spanning a lot of genres, it has songs that sound like, and are almost as good as, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Brian Wilson, and more. But I think my favorite musical moment in it is when Dewey and his band do a bunch of coke and invent punk rock. Dewey loves it, but the band hates it. The guitar player says “Dewey, you just keep screaming louder and faster, like some……PUNK!”
I got the soundtrack for the movie, and loaded it all up onto my iPod. I put the punk version of “Walk Hard” on repeat for about six hours. It finally hit me why I love it so much: it sounds like the 1980s LA Cowpunk psychobilly band The Gun Club.
Gun Club were a big influence on the mood, if not the music, of my band, BOMB.
In fact, the line “You look just like an Elvis from hell” in the Gun Club song “For the Love of Ivy” was the inspiration for the name of Bomb’s first record, “To Elvis in Hell”
Anyway, I made an MP3 comparing sections of Dewey Cox music to The Gun Club. GRAB THE MP3 HERE and check it out. (Short song sections used under Fair Use for academic and artistic critique).
The MP3 has fade ins and fade outs and a beep between each song part, to make the separations clearer. The parts are, in order,
Dewey Cox, original country version of “Walk Hard”
Dewey Cox, coked-out punk version of “Walk Hard”
Gun Club, She’s Like Heroin to Me”
Gun Club, “For the Love of Ivy”
Little sidenote: I used to see Dewey Cox star John C. Reilly at a coffee shop near my house in Los Angeles. He seemed like a down-to-earth guy. I never bugged him, and never saw anyone else bug him. He’s an Academy Award winner, but really kind of blends in with the crowd in a way most stars don’t.
By the way, while most of the songs on the soundtrack were written by the guys from The Candy Butchers, “Walk Hard” was written by John C. Reilly. He also did all his own singing and some guitar playing in the film.
Acrassicauda-which means Black Scorpion in Latin, is a Heavy Metal band from Baghdad, Iraq. Formed during the reign of Saddam they’ve endured death threats, mortar attacks during shows, and their practice space being blown up by a scud missile. in 2006, they were the subject of the documentary “Heavy Metal in Baghdad”, which covered everything from their formative years to their eventual exodus to Syria. Eventually, the quartet then moved to Turkey and eventually, The States. They have just released their first record, the 4-song EP titled “Only the Dead See the End of the War”.
I gotta respect these guys, they’ve had their lives threatened for playing “satanic, Western Music”, yet they still kept their dream and still played. After hearing these guys’ story, I feel like all the bands in the States and Europe who bitch about touring in a small van or not having a lot of money are a bunch of whining pansies.
Michael W. Dean talks about filmmaking, art, life and politics
podcast episode 38
Michael W. Dean sits in his back yard on a glorious spring day, pets his cats and talks about digital filmmaking, art, life and politics…while answering interview questions from a college student in India. His name is Anamitra Roy and he’s no-budget filmmaker from Kolkata, Westbengal, India and a student of film studies at the Jadavpur University. He has sent me these questions while preparing his dissertation paper on no-budget film making worldwide.
Questions I was asked, then talked for 40 minutes:
1) What does it mean by ‘no-budget film’ ? ( Definition or the concept)
2) What is the philosophical aspect of these non/anti-industrial films? (Marxism, people’s art or Post-modern individual effort / potential role in a democratic state)
3) What Cameras and Edit suits have you used for your films? Why? (availability of digital technology in today’s world)
4) Unless there have been a DV revolution, do you think that the concept of no-budget had flourished to this extent? (The festivals organized all over the world, people making films on their own — could this be real in the era of celluloid too. Please elaborate.)
5) Will you go to Hollywood if they call you? Why? (center – periphery relationship / cultural hegemony)
(I forgot to answer this one, but the answer is “No.” I plan to never ever set foot in the state of California again, mainly because it’s a dangerous place and I can’t legally bring my guns. The California chapter in my life is over. I lived there from 1986 to 2009. That’s well long enough.)
6) How does Digital technology help in organizing screenings? (budget)
I don’t have anything political to write about now so I’ll just post about what’s been going on in my life.
Last Thursday, March the 4th, Machina Infernus broke up, this time it’s for good. At least, if guitarist and founding member Rich Kovacs decides to start it up again, I will not be a part of it. I am disappointed in the way this was handled and it’s kind of knocked me off-kilter for the last few days, it preoccupies my thoughts and just bums me out. I think it’s caused me to have a writer’s block, as I haven’t been posting much at all anywhere these last few days.
I’ve been irritated at WordPress because I can’t get my embedded YouTube videos to show up in my posts, I have to go to Michael and beg him, PLEASE, will you help me embed this video. PLEEEEEEEEEEASE. And he does it for me, but we can’t figure out why it’s not working when I try to do it myself.
Washington DC now has legal same-sex marriage. The city council passed a bill and the mayor signed it, and Congress, who oversees the District’s laws, declined to review the law. They had 30 session days to do so and, as is typical of Congress, didn’t make the deadline. The response by residents has been largely positive. Catholic Charities, however, is now finding ways to cut services. They’re ending foster care outreach and spousal benefits for their employees. How Christ-like. Whatever, I’m just going to get pissed off again if I go down this road, maybe another day.
They say we’re in a recession, but people keep ordering take-out and going to the movies. I saw Alice in Wonderland (in 3-D) the other day, and my advice to Tim Burton is to stop trying to make Tim Burton movies. Other than that it was just okay, visually stunning but I am tired of Johnny Depp playing the same charatcer in every Burton flick. The 3-D was just aight, dawg. Felt like it was shoehorned in, whereas in Avatar, it was meant to be that way from the beginning. Oh, and the takeout- 34 deliveries today in 9 hours, I was busy from the time I clocked in until the time I left. Maybe this recession is completely media-driven because I don’t see people not spending money, just the opposite.
Why is Justin Bieber famous, and who wants to take bets on when he gets his first arrest, when he beats his first girl, and how long before they find him overdosed in a seedy hotel? Well, we can hope, right?
Speaking of pop-culture garbage, if you haven’t seen the new version of We Are the World, you have to search it and watch this abomination. It’s pure douche-chill theater, most notably Jamie Foxx impersonating Ray Charles and Kanye West’s line at the end, and the autotune… oh the autotune.
That’s all for me for now. This week I’ll be back on politics.
Up the independents. I am tired of people trying to put me into a box because they only see other people’s political views in relation to their own. If I am disagreeing with a liberal, that must mean I am a right-wing nutcase. If I am arguing with a conservative, then I am a bedwetting liberal moonbat. Stop already, you people who do this are embarrassing yourselves.
Recently, I had an exchange with someone on one of the message boards I post on. Someone complained that Republicans were abusing the filibuster and stonewalling Democrat-backed legislation in the Senate. When I mentioned that the Democrats did the same thing to President Bush’s judicial nominees, I got a world of shit for it. I was called an ‘apologist’ for the GOP, I was told that it was different since the Dems were filibustering nominees but the Republicans are just blocking everything. I was even called a “traitor” to who I am, since the Republicans generally oppose same-sex marriage and the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. Oh man, did I get pissed. Here’s what I said:
“Who the hell do you think you are to tell me what my political ideology should be based on who I have sex with? Because I like smoking a pole or two, that means I have to support EVERY liberal tax me out the ass, welfare state-loving, illegal immigrant harboring, enviro-nazi chump-stain socialist douche nozzle who runs for office?
Again, fuck you, pal. I agree with what the Democrats SAY about marriage equality and ending DADT, now let’s see them actually DELIVER on it. Maybe then I’ll be more willing to put up with all the other bullshit that spews out of the DNC. Until then, I will support whomever the fuck I want and if you don’t like it, tough shit.”
I was slightly miffed.
The truth is that I can’t stand either major political party. I think they’re both full of incompetent and/or corrupt people out for their own gain and their own power. I don’t think they care one bit about average people. TS, who responds to many posts here, believes that conservatives are selfish and liberals are compassionate. Are they? Or is that what people been led to believe by those who are trying to pose as compassionate? Who or what defines compassion anyway, or selfishness for that matter? Doesn’t anyone ever think that maybe, just maybe, there isn’t that great of a divide between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to their votes and their actions? Put away the rhetoric and look at what they DO.
Both tend to favor big business over the individual.
Both supported bailouts and giveaways to failing industries.
Both were complicit in the signing of the Patriot Act and in sending our troops to war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Both parties used the filibuster as a cheap way to thwart the executive branch, and both parties even met to hammer out a compromise so they would be able to use the cloture process as a de-facto filibuster in the future.
Both support the massive confiscation and wasting of our tax dollars.
Both support, for the most part, the war on drugs.
Both supported NAFTA and all of the other so-called “free trade” agreements that only served to gut the American workforce and erode our national sovereignity.
Just because they pretend to be on polar opposites every election year doesn’t mean they really are. They’re simply trying to get themselves elected, and the American public buys it, thinking that there are real differences at play.
As George Carlin was fond of saying, “Bull-fucking-shit!”
Words of Wisdom:
Rest in peace, George. A shame you didn’t live to see the final freak show.
ANGRY PEASANT RECORDS will send CDs FREE to active military at US/ APO/FPO address. Will send to the first 70 who write us. (NO FAKERS. REMEMBER, STOLEN VALOR IS A CRIME AND WE WILL CHECK!)
Sending these free to our troops is our small way of saying THANK YOU!
YOU GET: TWO (yes, 2!) copies of the CD of feisty libertarian gun-nut punk rock/industrial music, CLING TO OUR GUNS by Right Arm of Wyoming. Check out the music at www.rightarmofwyoming.
Extra copy of the CD is to “spread the love”, makes a perfect gift for that leftie relative who needs some modern “school house rock” to educate them on the error of their ways!
STYLE: PUNK ROCK, HARDCORE PUNK ROCK, INDUSTRIAL ROCK, ROCK ‘N” ROLL
SONG LISTING:
1. GET OFF MY PROPERTY!
2. MY GUN KEEPS YOU HONEST
3. REDISTRIBUTION OF THEFT
4. GOVERNMENT IS A COLLECTIVE HALLUCINATION
5. GUN CONTROL GETS WOMEN RAPED
6. LIBERTY IN SHARDS
7. FREAKY LIBERAL MAMMAL SEX
8. FAKIN’ THE RACE CARD
9. SINGLE CRACKLING BLUE FLASH
10. WE ARE THE GOOD GUYS!
11. US Bill of Rights (read by Mrs. Dean)
12. LETTER TO A YOUNG ME (SPOKEN)
13. MY GUN KEEPS YOU HONEST – CLEAN VERSION FOR RADIO
REVIEWS:
—”Fox News – the band” – Bridge Nine punk forums
—”As refreshing as a gunshot to the head…” – children’s book author Eric B. Anderson
—”You rule! I listened to your CD. It’s AWESOME!” –Pat Kim (head honcho at ConservativePunk.com)
—”WOW, you do not pull any punches. Great! The movement needs music which will strike a cord with all different kinds of people. Thanks for all you are doing to preserve our freedoms, liberty and culture.”
– Patriotic singer Lloyd Marcus
—”I threw up watching this crap. Talk about trying to indoctrinate! Pure propaganda set to music.”
–Some Michael Moore fan, commenting about Right Arm of Wyoming on YouTube
CD is factory glass mastered (not burned at home), and packaged in nice cardboard sleeve with four-color printing.
Last Sunday, I was working around 3 PM, delivering food, when a bolt of inspiration struck me. I heard a melody in my head and I couldn’t get it out, but I knew if I didn’t do something I’d forget it eventually. I’ve lost so many ideas that way. So, I wrote down the first half of the first verse of what would become a new song in less than 24 hours’ time.
“And we march on through the frigid night,
In the shadow of our forefathers,
We brave the Winter’s might.”
I didn’t know if I would keep these at the time, or where the song would go from there, but it was enough so I remembered the melody. When I got home at midnight, I picked up my acoustic and fired up the drum program, and out came this song.
And we march on through the frigid night,
In the shadow of our forefathers,
We brave the Winter’s might
Soldiering across this barren lane
To where we’ll join out kin
And resist the invading warriors of
Christendom, who’re threatening
To destroy our very way of life
Lay siege to the cross
Don’t let them gain upon your ground
Fight to defend our clan
Cut every last one of them down-
Before they kill us all,
And put our women and children
To their swords and burning stakes
And raze our temples and destroy
Our lore, our tales of old
Traditions handed down for eons
From the bards, we were told
We must not let this be our fate
The next day, after mixing Not While I Draw Breath, Jay and I hammered out Heathen’s Lament in about six hours. While lyrically, this sounds like a gung-ho fight song, it’s intended to be a reflection on the history of what happened centuries ago, how vigorously our pre-Christian ancestors fought, and yet could not stem the spread of Christianity. At best, Christianity absorbed some of the heathen customs, holidays, and traditions, at worst, people were killed and the beliefs of our ancestors were stomped out. This song is written from the perspective of those who are marching off to fight to preserve their traditions, their culture, and their gods, who saw Christianity as a threat to their way of life and were willing to do whatever they had to do to stop it. Ultimately, they failed, and were either assimilated into Christendom, killed, or driven far from their ancestral homes and land.
Now that we live in a time of relative safety, we do battle mostly with words and images. We don’t go at each other with swords and axes, or guns for that matter. Instead, we mostly trade verbal slights and barbs. Non-Christians are subject to proselytizing by fervent believers, but that’s nothing new. We’ve learned to deal with that. However, there may be a time when the strife will become physical- maybe not- but the question remains, will we allow history to repeat itself? It probably won’t even be Christianity that threatens this time. Christians in Europe don’t seem to be willing to stand up to Islamists anymore and there aren’t enough Heathens to fight this battle. Even speaking out against Islam in Europe can be considered a hate crime, just ask Geert Wilders. So, basically, the song is saying, keep your swords sharp, your wits about you, and be prepared for anything. You never know when you may have to really fight for what you truly believe in. I sincerely hope and wish for peace and understanding between Christians, Muslims, and those of us who don’t follow any of the Middle Eastern Abrahamic faiths, but I still don’t think we’ve quite reached that level of ecumenicism.
And of course, enjoy the song. For all the layered meanings in the words, it’s a catchy number that’ll have you toe-tapping and singing along.
THE VOICE OF A TWO-PERSON NATION IN WYOMING. Radio Free Nestlandia is a multi-subject talk show produced by an unusual married couple who comprise the two-person sovereign nation of Nestlandia, which is located in a normal neighborhood in Casper, Wyoming.
Author Michael W. Dean and his talented wife Debra Jean Dean stick a giant virtual antenna on their roof to entertain and delight the world with their spirited discussions of art, marriage, sex, politics, science, cats, shopping, guns, liberty, love, sex, bondage, travel and shoes, as well as opining on their love of the First and Second Amendments of the Constitution of the United States.
Includes bonus music episode, “Right Arm of Wyoming” CD 2, work in progress, all music, no vocals yet.
Also includes two episodes with the amazing and mysterious NUNZIO of Oklahoma.
All episodes high-quality recording, production and encoding, and properly tagged.
The most life-changing moments for me have always come by accident, it seems. When I was 15, I told a lie that ended up committing me to buying a drumset and started me on the path to becoming a musician. When I was 30, another flap of my big fat mouth put me in the gym and it’s kept me there, more or less, for the last 7 years. This bout of happenstance, however, was not my doing, at least, not directly, but it came about through my acquaintance with Michael W. Dean.
Michael and I met online at ConservativePunk.com, where our common love for music and passion of political discourse made us friends, at least online friends. When he was writing the first Right Arm of Wyoming album, I offered to send him some drum loops I had created in a program I have. Being a drummer for so long, I tend to try and make programmed drums sound as real as possible. Alas, I had no way of uploading the files to him, as none of the upload sites worked, but all of this was discussed openly on ConPunk.
After the RAW CD Cling to Our Guns was released, Michael would post reviews and comments on ConPunk, both positive and negative. One such post was a review posted on the Bridge Nine forums. The post, titled Fox News- The Band, was a scathing criticism of RAW’s music and themes. One user, however, seemed to have some inside knowledge, which could only have come from them being a lurker on ConPunk. They claimed that I was the drummer for RAW and that I was a “homosexual right-wing Odinist”. Sadly, the post has long since scrolled off the boards, but it did make me call out the person who posted such wrong information about me and RAW on the B9 boards. I also became a poster there as well.
It was shortly thereafter that I saw a post about organizing a compilation CD titled Enough is Enough, to benefit Freedom to Marry, an organization dedicated to promoting marriage equality and fighting anti-gay ballot initiatives. I contacted the organizer, Paul Blest, and offered a Frost Giant song, but none of the existing songs at the time fit topically except for Relic, which was just too long at 9 minutes to be included. So, I decided to record fresh. Initially, the plan was to do a 7 Seconds song called Regress No Way, which was arguably one of the first anti-homophobia songs out there, but the compilation started gaining ground, and soon, a lot of bigger names in punk & hardcore started signing on. I knew then that as much as I love that band, I couldn’t go out there with a 7 Seconds cover. I wanted to make my mark, so I decided to write a new song. It took me a long time to get a song in my head, as I do not do too well when I am forced up against a deadline, but soon enough I had something to work with and I went to my drum program and my trusty Les Paul and wrote it out. What came out of it was something I never imagined.
The song Not While I Draw Breath is probably the most angriest, pissed off, intense and in-your-face Frost Giant song to date. The lyrics deal with standing up to oppression and tyranny, of not caving in and backing down, and with being willing to hurt, suffer, and even die for the sake of your principles. It speaks of defending yourself and not going out meekly without a fight. On one hand, it could refer to the fight for marriage equality and is thus in line with the message of the compilation, but it’s written to be far more universal than that. Complacency, apathy, and willful ignorance abound in music and in pop culture in general. We are easily distracted by trivial things and made to focus on those as if they were important while we’re taken for a ride on the things that really matter. I intend this song to be a wake-up call to anyone that will hear it, but I leave it to the listener to apply it to their own lives however they see fit. I will not tell you what to think or what you should stand for, only that you should think, and that you should stand for something.
Not While I Draw Breath
by Matt Frost, January 2010. All rights reserved.
Will you stand with me
Fight and die if need be
Hold against the hordes until
The last man falls
Will you sacrifice all
You have gained in life
Reject your comfort
For a greater end
Stand together
And never waver
Brave in the face of
Overwhelming odds
For our future,
And our freedom
We unite in
Liberty or death
The evil stirs from its sleep
And no one will be safe from its reach
For we shall fight to be free
And never will we bend our knee
Forever clawing
Fight like a demon
Taking it to
The very bitter end
Swords are drawing
Battle lines forming
Storm clouds are churning
Soon there will be war
The earth will be fed
With blood
And the skies will weep
Unto the dead
Never give up,
Never back down,
We unite in
Liberty or death
Tonight, we lay down our lives
In the path of those who would oppress
And enslave us to their god
And trod us under until we are no more
Not while I draw breath
Will I submit, will I accept
Not while I draw breath
Will I bow down, nor will I live
With empty regrets
Now feel the sting of a thousand swords
Vanquish the hordes drive them away
To the darkness from whence they came
Obliterate they are no more
Overrun them all
Take what is ours.
Crush the wretched enemy
Bring victory
To our hearth and home
So….some of the things I do, I do to make money. (Like the $30 School book series.) But some things I do just to get something good out there. Like my new band, RIGHT ARM OF WYOMING, or my libertarian self-help book:
The money projects pay for my living, and usually leave enough left over to make something great that I do not for money, but sell physical copies of (as well as giving away on BitTorrent), and usually make enough to break even.
I usually send out about 100 copies of everything for promo, to magazines, radio stations, blogs, etc. With my latest book, A User’s Manual for the Human Experience, I decided to send links to PDF copies for promo to save money, so I could send 100 paperback copies out to give to libraries.
I always liked libraries, and feel that having your book in a library is a nice thing…your book can be found by someone who would be unlikely to ever order it online or buy it in a book store. And I wrote this book to help people, not to make money.
So when the book came out in May of 2009, I sent out copies to 100 libraries all over America.
The fact that Wyoming libraries put it into their system is cool, it just proves more and more that we moved to the right place. This coming Thursday will be six months we’ve been here, and it feels more like home to both of us than anywhere we’ve ever lived.
Anyway, if you’re in Wyoming, here’s the libraries that have my book:
Michael W. Dean and Nunzio do another double-ender podcast over the miles and formulate and explain the idea of 4th Dimensional Politics.
Our grandparents had the one-dimensional left/right continuum. The Libertarian Party invented the two-dimensional x/y axis (see: World’s smallest political quiz:
Debra Jean Dean invented three-dimensional politics (points on a sphere to represent going beyond the two-dimensional, and allowing for nuances in stands on various issues among people who live on the same point on the x/y libertarian chart).
But Nunzio and Michael Dean explain 4th Dimensional Politics, which is the Debra Jean Dean sphere moving through time as we evolve. Because as ex-liberal Michael says, “Once you stop being teachable, you start being old.”
Then they talk about abortion, politics, the president, idiots, guns, dope, Robert Anton Wilson, The Guns and Dope Party, and a whole bunch of other cool shit.
I would like to point out that organizations like the SPLC stoke the fires of government officials and law enforcement that there is more of a threat than there truly is when it comes to militias. Some government agencies even ignorantly use the SPLC “Hate Groups List” and their bogus “reports” as legitimate. This causes law enforcement both at the local, state and federal level to overreact…..
…There is no mention in this report on the Black Muslim man who shot up a recruiting station killing one soldier and wounding another. There is no mention of the DC snipers, both who were black and influenced by information they had. No mention of the Black Panthers intimidating voters in Philadelphia in 2008. Those acts are no less tragic than the ones they do mention…..
…Potok automatically associates any American who identifies themselves as a “Patriot” as a potential terrorist militia member. Any information these self-declared patriots send out, whether it be forwarding an email about your disagreement with a piece of legislation or your outrage at some action by a member of congress, is propaganda in the SPLC’s eyes and not of a legitimate concern…..
…It’s also quite telling that Potok does not identify who the sources of the information and statements are from. He notes “authorities” and “says one”. According to section two of the report – which I address below – they didn’t want to be identified. How convenient. The real reason is that the SPLC is “cherry picking” who they listen to. They will quote only those whom they agree with and those who use their reports and information as in “Anonymous sources”……
…Keller states: “In the words of a February report from law enforcement officials in Missouri, a variety of factors have combined recently to create ‘a lush environment for militia activity.’”
The report caused outrage because it specifically targeted supporters of presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr as “militia” influenced terrorists and to watch out for citizens with bumper stickers regarding the Constitution, Campaign for Liberty and Libertarian parties.
The most amazing thing is that even after the retraction by the MIAC, Keller’s portion of this current militia report reads almost verbatim what “The Modern Militia Movement” report said. The MIAC report cites the SPLC as the source for a good portion of the report….
…On page 5 of the report Keller tries to play a game. In this game he sites a report which had information supplied to it by the SPLC. In other words he is trying to trick you by using the law enforcement agency’s name, but it is really their info that they had supplied to that agency. They are referencing their own statements….
Just a fun post for today. I’m going to visit my childhood and list a few movies that fostered my distrust of government and authority, with some brief reviews and comments. Some will be well-known and obvious, but others might be a little more obscure.
I saw this in theaters twice and I own it on VHS. Sadly, I don’t think that it’s been released on DVD, and Blu-Ray? Come on. Yet, this movie, based loosely on the legend of the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico UFO crash, made a huge impression on me as a kid. It fed my budding sense of outrage that our government would keep such a secret from the people, and that they would be willing to kill to keep the secret from getting out. I haven’t watched it in years so I have no idea if it holds up. Chances are it doesn’t, but if you can find it, it’s worth a viewing, especially if you were 10 to 13 years old in ‘83, it’ll bring back some memories.
I think I read this book too. Loosely based on a true story, this 1984 movie stars Scott Schwartz (A Christmas Story, The Toy, and several adult feature films in the 1990’s) as a young entrepreneur who starts a successful fertilizer/pest control business only to have the government come in and shut them down. As usual, the government ruins all the fun. In recent years, life imitates art as school bake sales become banned and don’t you even think of having a lemonade stand, or the Board of Health will land on you like a ten ton hammer.
I was angry from the minute the cop confiscated Wren’s Quiet Riot tape. I mean, yelling ‘No!’ at the screen. I was pissed. This movie, I have to give credit, it inoculated me against the bullshit that is organized religion, and for all the evangelical types like to bitch about Hollywood indoctrinating audiences against Christians, look, it wasn’t that far off the mark for what the evangelicals and Moral Majority members were actually doing. There were towns where dancing was not allowed. There was a big push to ban all kinds of popular music of the time. The Dead Kennedys were put on trial for their music (it was never about the H.R. Giger insert, the authorities had a hard-on for that band since they started). The infamous PMRC hearings followed a couple years after this movie. After failing to get record labels to censor their rock music, the censorship movement shifted to rap and hip-hop in the 90’s because it was easier to scare lily-white Christians with gangsta rap than it was to scare them with Twisted Sister (who had since jumped the shark). Looking back, the movie is a bit dated. OK, it’s really dated. Chris Penn is not only alive, he’s skinny. And Bacon’s solo dance number/montage is hysterical, but the emotion of it still resonates with me, the influence that a majority of religious people can have in a small town to the point of outlawing dancing (or anything else) is something we see repeated on a bigger scale when majorities vote for state constitutional amendments that strip gay & lesbian couples of their right to marry, for example.
This goes without saying. I mean, you have a kid who discovers an alien, a government that is spying on people trying to find said alien, and trying to capture the creature for their own designs. It’s classic kid vs. government, I loved those movies back in the day. Only watch the original, though, do NOT watch the altered and mutilated anniversary edition where the guns the government agents were pointing at the kids were replaced by hand-held radios. When the feds bust in your door they will NOT be carrying walkie-talkies. Plus, this movie got snubbed at the Oscars for Chariots of Fire. Chariots of Fire was fucking terrible.
This one was late 80’s, I was a little older. Goes like this. Government builds a cyborg prototype that for all outward appearances, is a teenage boy. Government decides to scrap the program, and that means that the robot-boy will be killed. A great tale that asks some good questions. When is a life a life? If a person creates a life artificially, through inventing a sentient, self-aware android, does that android then assume individual liberty by virtue of his own free will, or is he a disposable slave to his creator? It was a well-made movie and a good story as well, but it definitely made me think.
So… this is your homework assignment. If you haven’t seen these movies, you must watch them. See if they affect you the same way they affected me. And ask yourself, what modern movies out there portray government as the villain against the protagonist who wants to be free these days? Is there any film in the last 10 years or so where you feel incensed and angry with authority that steamrolls the individual, or do movies seem to be pushing the glory of the collective?
Samson C01UCW Studio Condenser USB Microphone
Cakewalk Software
Mike Stand BL3
Microphone Pop Filter
SP01 Shock Mount
10 ft. USB 2.0 Extension
–Carpet remnants to nail up on walls: free (pulled out of dumpster behind carpet store)
If you have a room you can sacrifice, it would be good to nail up carpet remnants on the wall for the place you do your recording. An echoy room will make a shitty recording. You can always add reverb in your editing program, but you can’t take it away.
I did this to a room in our old house:
In our new house, I only did that in a small closet, because I’m only recording voice and guitar in there…not drums. I record bass direct into a tube preamp, and use drum loops.
It’s a lot less work to sound-condition a closet than a whole room:
If you’re recording live drums, There are lots of ways, partially depending on how many mics you have.
1 mic: hang it overhead.
2 mics: one overhead, one on the bass drum. Or two overhead, crossing each other in direction.
3 mics: one on bass drum, two overhead, crossing each other in direction.
4 mics: one on bass drum, one between the snare and high hat, two overhead, crossing each other in direction.
5 or more mics: one on each drum and cymbal, two overhead, crossing each other in direction.
If you wanna go old school (non-computer, non-digital), you could pick up a cassette 4-track Portastudio on eBay cheap. (Maybe 100 bucks?) That might be a good choice for if you’re not very computer literate.
Here’s a page with MP3 links: http://www.hitsofacid.com/SexKissCage/sex_kiss_cage.html
to the demo Bomb made that got us signed to Warner Brothers. Was recorded on a portastudio with an outboard compressor, two Sure sm58 microphones (about 80 bucks each…they’re the mics usually used for the vocal mics in clubs).
One of our guitar players engineered it, and I think it sounds pretty good for no-budget.
You could skip the outboard compressor if you were REALLY careful with all the levels.
We recorded the guitars, bass and drums live to two tracks with two SM58s hung from the ceiling, about ten feet apart, in the practice space. Then we overdubbed my vocals to one track, then added more guitars (both at the same time) to the last track.
You’d still want to hang up blankets or nail up carpet. A good dead-sounding room is important.
BUY A GUN, LOSE ALL YOUR FRIENDS. (A true story of Republitarian redemption.)
Copyright 2009, Michael W. Dean
I’m a peace lovin’ guy. I’d never hurt anyone who did not try to hurt me.
Though I used to vote Democrat. But couldn’t really tell you why. I hated authority and I hated big government. I guess I just wasn’t paying attention. I was one of those folks who thought that following the issues was too much work. So I voted by clipping out the little voting guide from the leftie City Paper.
That’s how, many years ago, I ended up voting for Feinstein and Pelosi. (Don’t tell my friends at the NRA, the GOA and the JPFO. I’m now a card-carryin’ member of all three.)
A couple years ago I was awake late one night in my home in Los Angeles when someone outside tried to pry open our bedroom window. The guy wasn’t very badass. Unarmed, I chased him away just by going outside and confronting him.
But we were shaken. The next day I told my wife, Debra Jean, “Baby, we’re buying a shotgun.” She was very against it. She said, “Buying a gun is admitting that the world is a horrible place.” I said, “Baby, sometimes the world is a horrible place, and I love you, and we’re buying a gun.”
And being the one California Democrat with his balls intact, I bought a shotgun anyway, even though my wife hated the idea.
Turns out, we both really liked guns, and we loved our dates to the range. We soon added his ‘n’ hers 9mm pistols and a couple .22 rifles to our collection. Debra Jean became a good shot in weeks. Took me a little longer.
All of our friends were lefties, and most of them were concerned about the “new us.” But they still kept talking to us, and we even took one of them to the range. Once.
I started reading up on California and Federal gun laws. I’ve never been arrested and intended to keep it that way. Debra Jean (a paralegal) and I decided that the laws seemed designed not to protect people from violence, but rather they were structured to make honest folks into criminals.
Our new view of nanny-state gun laws made us look at California (and the USA) in a whole new way. And that made us both start paying attention to government and politics.
We became Republitarians almost overnight.
I got there from “punk rock anarchist” on one end and apolitical Democrat on the other. I loved the process, but it kinda hurt. Debra Jean didn’t have as far to go…..Turns out she was registered Republican. Which if I’d known years earlier, I probably wouldn’t have married her. But it never actually came up, which shows you how much attention I paid to politics, and shows you how much she loved me to marry me even though I’d made it clear I was “a compassionate liberal, not one of those stuffy old selfish Republicans like my dad.”
My wife really liked my political “spiritual transformation.” (Her dad, by the way, had given her Heinlein books to read as a child, and he’d stumped door to door for Goldwater.)
Debra Jean and I got itchy. Being around leftists suddenly gave us hives. So it was clear what we had to do: GET OUT OF CALIFORNIA AND MOVE TO WYOMING.
Our leftist friends got really worried. The “hipper” ones said, “OK, I guess I can “get” having a shotgun for protection, if you must. But I really don’t feel comfortable coming to a house with handguns in it, and…WAIT….YOU DON’T HAVE THEM WITH YOU NOW, in MY house, do you?!!…”
Or, “Who is this ‘Bob Barr’ person you say you’re voting for? Libertarian? What’s a ‘libertarian’?” And “Obama is so cool and hip and…Wait, WHAT? YOU’RE SELLING YOUR HOUSE AND MOVING TO WYOMING? And you wanna buy a BATTLE RIFLE? What the hell is a BATTLE RIFLE?!”
Let me just say this: our outgoing Christmas card list was a lot shorter this year. And I doubt we’ll get any cards from California, but if we do, the card will not likely have the word “Christmas” on it. And it will probably be colored green and say “Reduce! Reuse! Rejoice!”
I will promptly take that “Seasonal Holiday Greeting Card” at its word and toss it in the recycling bin. (See? We did import ONE of our hippie ways from California. But we would never in a billion years try to force our new friends and neighbors to do the same, out of respect for their liberty. And we love that our new friends and neighbors are far less “in other people’s business” than most everyone we met in California. Which is partly because our new friends and neighbors are nicer people, and partly because most of them own and carry guns, too. “An armed society is a polite society.”)
We’ve lived in Wyoming for almost six months and WE LOVE IT. The air is clean, the people are sweet and we can open carry a pistol, or have our loaded battle rifle on the car seat next to us. Talk about “breathing in the sweet air of liberty”!
Carrying a gun could literally get you killed by SWAT in California. Here, people just say, “Oh, my husband has that one! Is that the .357 or the .38 special?” or “Nice rifle! Getting in practice for antelope season?”
We feel like we left California and moved to AMERICA.
Our few remaining California leftie friends who still talked to us followed this ongoing transformation in words and pictures on my blog. One by one they STOPPED BEING OUR FRIENDS. Their comments ranged from a good friend of eight years saying “Michael, I love you, but I’m really worried about you” to a good friend of 23 years (a guy I was in a band with) saying, “Michael…..Once someone gets talked into these right-wing ideas very rarely can they be talked back…..This new-found cocky way of life is very wrong, very immoral and very dangerous. I’m older than you so consider my opinion, if you still can…I doubt you will. This makes me very sad. Good luck, dumb fuck.”
Another “friend” actually talked about organizing an intervention and driving out here to “save us.” Didn’t happen though. I guess it’s easier to take the bottle out of a passed-out drunk’s hand than it is to take guns away from people who are more awake and alive than they’ve ever been.
Even strangers chimed in. Typical of the many slams I received was a fan of my older books and music who said “I can’t believe how quickly you went from being a hip, artistic guy to being a fat WalMart redneck Red Lobster-eating NRA asshole.”
The comments from strangers made me laugh, in a dropped-jaw kind of way. The comments from the actual friends hurt. But I remembered what my dear sweet mother would have said: “If they say things like that sweetie, they’re not really your friends.” And my dad told me, “Better to find out now than further down the road.”
I do not cling to my “victimhood” and you’ll never catch me at a support group or on Oprah bitching about this, (nor would she likely have me). All in all it has really just reinforced my resolve to reject idiocy in all its forms.
I just cannot wrap my head around the fact that so many people, including ones I thought were “cool”, cannot wrap THEIR heads around the fact that “social justice” is always accomplished by muggery and thuggery. And they get freaked out if I say “Guns aren’t bad, guns are good….And guns make it harder to be a victim of muggery and thuggery.”
I now have a lot more to talk about with my dad and my father-in-law. I no longer think they’re “square”, and I really love yakking with them now. They “get it.” They get liberty.
Those other folks can just stay in California, me and my wife will be in AMERICA. If you need us, we’re probably on a date to the rifle range. After that we’ll be at Red Lobster, then WalMart.
Michael W. Dean sings in the “feisty libertarian punk rock band” RIGHT ARM OF WYOMING LibertarianPunk.com
Nothing political here, just some nice punk rock I did back in th’ 80s.
The Lost Beef People tracks. Recorded in 1985 at Inner Ear Studio, engineered by Don Zientara. I played guitar on this. (I’m the blond hippie punk on the right):
We recorded and mixed about 15 tracks in probably 8 hours. Some were released as the 1985 EP “Music for Men” (Catch Trout Records.) These remaining seven tracks were finally released last year by UK label Damaged Records” on vinyl, limited edition of 500, only went out as inserts in an issue of Artcore zine.
The vinyl EPs have all long sold out, so I can post MP3s now:
OMFG I know you’re not being sarcastic to me. I don’t know who you think you are or where you’re from but around here we don’t tolerate bullshit like that. If this were on the streets where I’m from, you’d get a cap in your ass, son!
I used to be a nigga on the street tryin’ to kick a beat and now I’ve got a great job as a manager, despite rednecks like yo self trying to keep me down.
We need hate crime laws, but no one needs a god damn bumpkin band putting out anti Obama music.
Peace out.
It was a response to this video:
I don’t know where the guy lives, but I’ll bet he’s posting from his mother’s paneled rec room.
I started a thread about guns on the MySpace punk rock forum. Got some interesting replies (many of them full of jackassery, a few coherent). Forum thread and replies are here. My user name on MySpace is “Right Arm of Wyoming.”
The original post that I wrote to start the thread is below.
——-
So I’ve been on here for about a week, and noticed several anti-gun anti-NRA comments, even in posts that are not about guns or the NRA. Even the one guy who says he owns guns made it clear he’s not “one of those NRA folks.”
I’ve been into punk rock since 1982, and used to hate a lot of things without being able to tell you why. I saw Dead Kennedys and MDC at the Rock Against Reagan in 1984 and cheered along with everyone there hating Reagan, but couldn’t tell you why if you asked me, other than “Reagan is a Republican and Republicans are selfish and evil.”
I had similar thoughts about guns. I hated guns, and used to think that the world would be a better place if they were all outlawed.
I now own guns, and carry a gun with me whenever I leave the house. I have my reasons, which I’ll explain if you like.
I’ll say this: one of the reasons I have guns is to protect my home and loved ones from looters in a breakdown situation like Haiti’s earthquake or Hurricane Katrina. I would NOT want to have to wait for the government to protect me while roving gangs go door to door using violence to take what they want. And anyone who says “it can’t happen here” does not understand history.
I’m also a member of the NRA. I’m amazed at how many people are cool with gun ownership, but think you’re nuts if you’re a member of the NRA. I don’t like the idea that I have to be a member of a lobbyist organization, because I don’t like the idea of lobbyist organizations. But the thing is, guns would basically be illegal in America without the work of the NRA. So I begrudgingly send them 35 bucks a year, and in that sense, I “support” them. But I am by far not “your typical NRA member”, and not what most people think of when they think of the NRA.
(I’m also a member of the Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership, a gun-rights organization that I like much more than the NRA.)
I’d like to hear your thoughts on guns, and the NRA. I will also logically refute anything I take as non-logical. People tend to get emotional on this subject, and yell, and judge people as a group, rather than as individuals, and that is not using logic. It’s using hate and fear.
(Also, when you respond, please let me know if you’re in a country where guns are illegal, and if not, have you ever shot one, and do you own any?)
I was over on the MySpace punk rock forums, arguing with liberals, and some gal said “I hate Green Day. They’ve sold out. They’re so corporate. Every kid in America likes them now.”
I replied:
I think that Green Day are outstanding. Anyone who can write a great song has my vote, no matter if it’s punk rock, country or jazz.
I also love Rancid. The “Out Come the Wolves” album mainly….it’s got like 20 great songs on it. Most bands don’t write TWO great songs in their whole career.
I also worked with the engineer who did that album, he said the guys in the band are truly like brothers, and deeply care about each other. I was really happy to hear that for some reason.
Other than those two bands, I don’t pay much attention to much newish punk rock. What I have heard of recent punk and hardcore mostly sucks…..doesn’t have much spark or depth. And has little or no melody. Just a lot of testosterone and loud guitars…Bloodless….facile….All look and no ass.
Most of my favorite music either came out in the early 80s on Dischord Records or Alternative Tentacles, or is some demo pressed in a limited edition of 100, recorded on cassette in a garage somewhere like Akron…or a cave in Belarus.
What’s wrong with a band being popular? Does that make them suck? Or do you think they’ve changed somehow musically to accommodate/promote their popularity.
“Know Your Enemy” is a fantastic song. As good, or better, than anything ever written by Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, Naked Raygun, The Clash or the Ramones. Or whatever unknown band is “hot” this week.
I don’t listen to the radio or watch MTV, so I don’t really have a sense of over-saturation. I’m not sick of them. Are you sick of them? Is that what you don’t like about them being popular?
Or is it that you liked them when they were indie, and felt like you had some “ownership” of them, that they were you’re little secret, and that got tainted or taken away by the mere fact of lots of kids in malls being into them.
When you like a band, don’t you wish them well? Don’t you want them to make enough money to not have to sleep on floors, to be able to not live in a shitbag apartment, to keep making music without breaking up because they’re starving?
Or are they only “pure” when they’re starving?
I’m trying to understand why a band being popular = bad in your mind (and a lot of people’s minds.)
Also, on a semi-related note: I always laugh at the irony of punk rockers (popular or unknown) who write songs complaining about how evil corporations are, and play them on guitars made by huge corporations, record on gear made by huge corporations, press CDs, a technology developed by huge corporations, spam the world via MySpace (owned by FOX, a huge corporation), and get in vans made by huge corporations and drive around to clubs singing their anti-corporate protest songs.
It’s a 106-meg zip file of all the MP3s of the new album, plus one bonus song, “Tar and Feather a Tax Collector.” Also included is the lyric sheet and cover art. It takes about 90 seconds to download on DSL. The MP3s are high-quality encodes (192k / 44,100 k, 16-bit joint stereo MP3s, properly tagged). Download, unzip, and you can drag them right into your iPod, iPhone, or whatever chromed-robot-turd folks are carrying this week, and they’ll light up your day.
You can still buy the CD for only 12 bucks, and once the initial pressing of 1000 is gone (fairly soon), I’m probably not repressing. I’m on to making the second CD now, and I don’t like to “paint the same picture twice.”
WHY ARE YOU GIVING THIS AWAY?
I make enough to get by on my day job, writing tech books and how-to stuff. Even though this music is better than most stuff done by people who “define themselves as being in a band”, that’s not me. At least not anymore. I have no plans to tour or get signed, I’ve been there and done that. Touring the gin mills of the world, playing for beer and gas money, and waking up next to hot crazy women whose name I can’t remember….well, that’s no longer in my plans. I’ve done the hell out of it, and lived to tell the tale, and that’s enough.
This music exists to pass on a message. Giving away downloads isn’t taking any food off the table, and I’ve also found that people who download don’t usually buy things. So I’ll still sell as many CDs. Maybe more, given my past experiences doing things like this.
WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
Tell two friends. Blog. Twitter, Facebook, or whatever you kids are doing these days. Get this shit out there.
Also available on BitTorrent, if you prefer (please seed if you do that.)
1. GET OFF MY PROPERTY!
2. MY GUN KEEPS YOU HONEST
3. REDISTRIBUTION OF THEFT
4. GOVERNMENT IS A COLLECTIVE HALLUCINATION
5. GUN CONTROL GETS WOMEN RAPED
6. LIBERTY IN SHARDS
7. FREAKY LIBERAL MAMMAL SEX
8. FAKIN’ THE RACE CARD
9. SINGLE CRACKLING BLUE FLASH
10. WE ARE THE GOOD GUYS!
11. US Bill of Rights (read by Mrs. Dean)
12. LETTER TO A YOUNG ME (SPOKEN)
13. MY GUN KEEPS YOU HONEST – CLEAN VERSION FOR RADIO
MP3 podcast
Last Sunday, I was working around 3 PM, delivering food, when a bolt of inspiration struck me. I heard a melody in my head and I couldn’t get it out, but I knew if I didn’t do something I’d forget it eventually. I’ve lost so many ideas that way. So, I wrote down the first half of the first verse of what would become a new song in less than 24 hours’ time.
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