CAFR — New Video A Must See
Jerry Day of FreedomTaker.com has posted a new video entitled “Introduction to the CAFR – Why You Can’t Get Ahead” which delves into manufactured scarcity by government to keep control of the populace.
He explains that there are two sets of books, the budget and the CAFR, which stands for Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. He says that the public is usually given access to budget numbers which are mere guesses, but the CAFR which are the actual dollar numbers that usually sit in the bank are generally kept secret and are used as tools of manipulation. He notes that CAFRs exist in every level of government, local, state, and federal.
In the video, Day says that abundance is hidden from the public so that control can be maintained by the elite. “The squandering and destruction of newly created wealth is an essential element of controlled tyranny and exploitation. “
He goes on to say that the “scarcity myth is maintained by a matrix of partnerships between corporations and government.”
The video goes into great detail about how this matrix evolves and what its implications are.
Since to solve a problem is to first identify it, this video plays an essential role in that quest. The Iconoclast highly recommends that its readers follow this link and listen to what Jerry Day has to say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2aif0Wk9E0&feature=em-uploademail
— W. Leon Smith
Ashtabula, River of Many Fishes
The name, Ashtabula, is Algonquian, or Iroquois, in origin, referring to the river which flows into Lake Erie through the small city of the same name. The name means, “river of many fishes.”
The watershed system, which feeds the Ashtabula, includes the West Branch and East Branch of the Ashtabula, Ashtabula Creek, Strong Brook and Fields Brook. A watershed includes sources of water which meet.
The Ashtabula River is one of three, designated as scenic in the county, more than any other county in Ohio. Along its journey woodlands of mixed oak, hemlock-beech hardwood forest, among other species, abound. Land owners are credited for their stewardship for lands, which are also home to black bear and bald eagle.
Beginning in the 1940s, industry began moving onto the lands which comprise the watershed of the Ashtabula River. The contiguous watershed of Fields Brook was one of these.
The six square-mile watershed eventually hosted 19 facilities. Manufacturing ranged from metals-fabrication to chemicals production. Fields Brook flows into the Ashtabula River approximately 1-1/2 miles downstream of the site. Industry left the area some time ago, but left behind its mark in closed complexes, now overgrown with weeds.
A google search of the areas impacted reveal sites from the EPA and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which cite possible radiological contamination. Another citing notes that the RMI Extrusion Plant, a subsidiary of Reactive Metals, Inc., as a subcontractor to the Department of Energy. This plant was located in the northeastern corner of Ashtabula County, Ohio, approximately three miles east of the center of the city of Ashtabula.
Studies note that the lands surrounding these facilities are residential, and expected to continue to be used by families, who live and raise their families in Ashtabula.
Apparently, in 1986 the same governmental body, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry prepared a public health assessment regarding the Fields Brook.
The record reflects clean ups were attempted.
When I asked a friend, who was born in Ashtabula, why nothing more had been done she told me people were afraid they would lose their jobs at the plants. She recalled the father of a friend, who worked there as an engineer, dying of cancer at an unusually young age.
Soil is permeated by water. As part of the watershed, water continues its flow. As the waters flowed in 1811, so they flow today.
What Henry Story Learned
Henry Story, born in 1941, was raised here. As a small child he began to dream of places far away with an intensity which called to him.
Henry’s parents, Henry Senior and Iola, came to Ohio from Arkansas in 1940s so Henry’s dad could work in a war plant.
After the war, the family moved to a dairy farm in Windsor, Ohio. The elder Henry began milking cows, planting oats and wheat, to be used as fodder for the cows, also raising hogs, chickens and ducks. “They did the whole deal,” as Henry, Jr. put it.
Later, the family moved to East Trumbull. Home was down a dirt road a mile and a half long with no close neighbors. There was no electricity and the water came from a hand pump in the kitchen.
During winter, Henry walked the mile and a half to the bus because the bus could not make it down the road through the snow. He attended school in Rock Creek. His favorite subject, then and today, is history. History takes us out of ourselves in many directions and Henry had already decided on the direction for his life.
Since his earliest years Henry had experienced two dreams. The first was a shiny gold disk with wings. When young Henry saw the disk in his dream he felt himself lifting out of his body and seeing the world from very different perspectives. The second dream, which also recurred, was of a bull, which chased him. He would run, levitating himself into the tree. The disk, he later realized, was the ancient symbol of the Rosicrucian Order. He remembered a reincarnation in China and studying at the Shaolin Temple in China.
Henry’s study of martial arts began by watching Little Ricky on Ozzie and Harriet, after the family had a television.
At age 19 Henry left Ashtabula County to study martial arts. He returned in Ashtabula in 1985 where he began sharing his mastery at the YMCA and later at the Wellness and Total Learning Center. He taught martial arts, and also his philosophy, continuing his own studies until last November, when he suffered a stroke. As he has recovered, his studies have served him well.
Today he is a student in the Qi Gong class he once taught. Now nearly blind, he continues to seek wisdom and solutions which heal body, mind, and spirit.
Keyhole Garden Video Stars Texas Actress
CLIFTON, Texas – A young Texas actress, Brianne Harvey, has taken to the Internet to promote what she feels is the future in raising crops – keyhole gardening.
The 14-year-old recently accepted a starring role in the You Tube video entitled “Open The Door To The Future…Keyhole Gardening.” Here she explains and demonstrates the advantages of something dear to her heart — keyhole gardens. “I love them,” she said. “They are fascinating. “
The youngster wants to pass on the reminder that fall gardens can be the best, especially the keyhole variety, so she urges the public to consider planting for fall, which needs to be done soon.
POSSIBILITIES ABOUND when raising crops in a keyhole garden, which is illustrated in this garden located at Keyholefarm.com’s Central Texas location earlier this year.
She said that keyhole gardens are easy to tend and, by design, the concept takes recycling to the hilt. Other advantages include substantial water conservation, the ability to plant crops closer together and within easy reach, and less weeding and backbreaking work.
“Brianne” (as she likes to be called) explained that the younger generation – her generation – can “really get into” this new approach to learning about agriculture. “It is an important step in re-establishing an old link to the past, one our forefathers believed in.”
Keyhole gardening began a few years ago as an experimental venture at a school in Lesotho, Africa, but has now spread to the United States and is catching on like wildfire, the actress explained. “Schools here are now getting into the act, utilizing keyholes to teach students about geography, mathematics, science, and economics as they pertain to agriculture.
“This is so valuable,” she commented. “It’s something that stays with you always, like riding a bicycle, and we really need inspirations in traditional values in this country right now so I am happy to tell the world about keyhole gardens.”
The 4:54-minute video provides useful details about the concept of keyhole gardens, their design, and how they work. The video was sponsored by Keyholefarm.com, which provided the images used in the project.
The video can be found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVTQxstJ1Ck.
Brianne Harvey has appeared in two television commercials, one for Pilgrim’s Pride chicken and one for a political movement, a Baylor University play entitled “Six Characters In Search Of An Author,” her school’s one-act play competition, and various other acting venues over several years. She wants to expand her acting into a full-time career.
We’re Back! The Iconoclast Returns
For the past few months (since about March), The Lone Star Iconoclast website has been somewhat inactive, due to several circumstances beyond our control.
With a very small staff, what impacts us on the periphery also impacts our ability to publish at times.
Not to make lame excuses, these most recently involved two attacks by hackers that disabled our site, the deaths of some very close family members that we had to deal with, and some situations regarding my health. You might recall that two years ago I suffered from 73 strokes and have been dealing with rehab and bad medication side effects ever since, the latest to be detailed in a future essay regarding pharmaceutical companies not willing to advise patients of the exact ingredients of their drugs for “proprietary” reasons, even when patients’ lives are at stake.
It is quite a task to rebuild fairly intricately constructed websites such as ours. We have had to reconstruct thousands of files — twice — in an effort to get back on track. This has been an expensive and time consuming venture and we now hope our security is strong enough to prevent it from happening again.
In some ways it is interesting to realize that some powers that be want this site to come down, which, of course, makes us want even more to keep it going. It has taken much longer to rebuild the site than I had anticipated and there are some files that still need some tweaking, but we are back online now and hope those who have provided us with tips, news dispatches, and information in the past will continue to do so.
My health had been improving considerably over the past two years, until I took one generic pill about eight weeks ago to replace a brand name. The damage it caused was one of the worst experiences of my life and I am still recovering from it.
One of my health treatments in its aftermath has involved acupuncture, something new to me. So far, it has been a positive experience, and brings back memories of how The Iconoclast has always been a firm supporter of those who have been persecuted by the Chinese government for practicing Falun Gong, a qigong discipline combining slow-moving exercises and meditation with a moral philosophy centered on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Their calls for freedom are immense and their positive influences are now more personal for me.
There are several additions and enhancements we are anticipating with The Iconoclast in the days and weeks ahead, so we hope you will stay tuned.
Someone the other day asked why we show that “stupid rat” in our header and in promotions. In a way it is fitting, for he once was considered the “capitol rat,” symbolically getting in behind closed doors to let the public know what goes on with hidden agendas, which is one of our strengths. We are experienced investigators and have had success in the past, especially with the assistance of whistle blowers with whom we have worked and continue to share information.
A similar cartoon rat originated as a sports column heading when we published newspapers in Dublin and Stephenville, Texas many years ago over the writings of the late Denver Doggett, a very good friend and colleague. Keeping the rat alive seemed like a good thing to do. I think Denver would appreciate it.
Gore Vidal Revisited – Iconoclast Interview
With the recent passing of author and activist Gore Vidal, The Lone Star Iconoclast has decided to reprint an interview it conducted with him that was published on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2006.
Vidal had just published a new book, Point to Point Navigation, A Memoir from 1964 to 2006 and the title of the Iconoclast interview, conducted by its publisher, W. Leon Smith, was entitled “Gore Vidal: Point to Point Provocateur.”
The interview is preceded below by a lead-up that describes Gore Vidal’s influences in politics and in his writing:
GORE VIDAL: POINT TO POINT PROVOCATEUR
AUSTIN — Gore Vidal — the inimitable raconteur, essayist, novelist, playwright, historian, critic, and screenwriter — was in public conversation with Maureen Dowd at the Paramount Theatre on Sunday, Oct. 29, as part of the Texas Book Festival, where his new book, “Point to Point Navigation, A Memoir from 1964 to 2006,” that is due in bookstores Nov. 7 was highlighted. Published by Doubleday, the memoir is a sequel to his acclaimed, bestselling “Palimpsest.”
Noted in several venues, from literature to politics to entertainment, Vidal is considered an American icon.
In “Point to Point,” Vidal ranges freely over his life experiences with the signature wit and literary elegance that is uniquely his.
The title refers to a form of navigation he resorted to as a first mate in the Navy during World War II.
He says, “As I was writing this account of my life and times since “Palimpsest,” I felt as if I were again dealing with those capes and rocks in the Bering Sea that we had to navigate so often with a compass made inoperable by weather.”
From his desks in Ravello and the Hollywood Hills, Vidal, in “Point to Point,” travels in memory through the arenas of literature, television, film, theater, politics, and international society where he has cut a broad swath. Among the gathering of notables to be found in these pages are Jack and Jackie Kennedy, Greta Garbo, Paul Newman, Johnny Carson, Amelia Earhart, Eleanor Roosevelt, Tennessee Williams, Orson Welles, Federico Fellini, Rudolph Nureyev, Princess Margaret, Elia Kazan, Francis Ford Coppola, Grace Kelly, Paul Bowles…and the list goes on.
According to Doubleday, some of the book’s most moving pages are devoted to the illness and death of his partner of five decades, Howard Auster, and the book is, among other things, a meditation on mortality written in the spirit of Montaigne.
“Point to Point Navigation” is a summing-up of Gore Vidal’s time on the planet that manages to be at once supremely entertaining, endlessly provocative and thoroughly moving, notes his publisher. It is an important addition, and in some sense a capstone, to the canon of his works.
Always in the political limelight, Vidal’s latest crusades involve bringing the Bush Administration to justice. He suggests that Americans “are now governed by a junta of Oil-Pentagon men…both Bushes, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and so on” based on that group’s endeavors to control the oil of Central Asia.
He says that, regarding the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, of which American intelligence warned was coming, for the neoconservatives, this politically justified the plans that the Administration already had in August 2001 for invading Afghanistan the following October. Vidal is critical of the intercept failures by Norad, which, he says, would deserve “a number of courts martial with an impeachment or two thrown in.”
Last week, on the Alex Jones Show, Vidal said that he was certain that the Bush Administration had “let it happen on purpose,” noting that the head of the Pakistani ISI bankrolling the hijackers had also met with U.S. government officials during the week before and on the morning of 9/11. Of this, he said, “What made no sense is that CNN wouldn’t follow up on why the fighter planes had not been scrambled and gone up to stop the hijacking – that’s the law of the land. You don’t need the President to order you. You don’t need a general – those are your instructions. I know. My father wrote them.”
Eugene Luther Vidal was born in West Point, N.Y., the son of Eugene Luther Vidal and Nina Gore, at the U.S. Military Academy where his father was an aeronautics instructor. Vidal later adopted as his name the surname of his maternal grandfather, Thomas P. Gore, the Democratic senator from Oklahoma.
Raised in Washington, D.C., young Gore Vidal read aloud to his blind grandfather and was his guide, which gained him access to the corridors of power and shaped his political principles. During the 20th Century, Vidal wrote 22 novels, five plays, many screenplays, more than 200 essays, and the critically lauded memoir, “Palimpsest.” Vidal’s “United States” (Essays 1952-92) won the 1993 National Book Award. Vidal lives in Beverly Hills, Calif.
He perhaps best known for his historical novels, cutting-edge screenplays, and political activism, which included his candidacy for Congress in 1960, the same year John F. Kennedy won the presidency. That year, Vidal ran as a Democratic candidate in the solidly Republican district along the Hudson River in upstate New York, losing the election but receiving the most votes of any Democrat in 50 years in that district. Twenty-two years later, he ran for the U.S. Senate, finishing second to incumbent Gov. Jerry Brown in California’s 1982 Democratic primary election.
In some circles, he is best known for his “debates” with William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1968, when ABC News hired the two as politcal analysts for the Republican and Democratic presidential conventions. The on-air battles of the two witty, sarcastic men of letters who resided on opposite poles of the political spectrum are legend, and eventually erupted in an exchange in which Vidal called Buckley a “pro-crypto Nazi” and Buckley lividly countered “Now listen, you queer. Stop calling me a crypto-Nazi, or I’ll sock you in the goddman face and you’ll stay plastered.”
Lately, Vidal is serving as a member of the advisory board of the World Can’t Wait organization, which demands the impeachment of George W. Bush, and the charging of his administration with crimes against humanity
Vidal recently celebrated his 81st birthday and consented to an interview with W. Leon Smith, publisher of The Lone Star Iconoclast:
……………….
VIDAL: I’m the only author that you’ve spoken to in America, I am sure, who has read all of Brann The Iconoclast. I was brought up on it.
ICONOCLAST: We named our publication after his publication. We don’t necessarily agree with him politically on some things, but it was a very interesting era back then.
VIDAL: These were the types of authors I grew up reading because Senator Gore, my grandfather, was a great iconoclast. Although he was a senator from the Bible Belt, the Bible Belt never figured out that he was not with them.
ICONOCLAST: I have enjoyed reading your books and the movies based on your plays.I have seen the movie version of your play The Best Man many many times. To me it is a classic, one of the great political dramas with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson.
VIDAL: That’s funny. I just watched it for the first time in some time.
ICONOCLAST: I think it’s really interesting with the backroom negotiations that go on. I’m sure things have changed somewhat since then.
VIDAL: It’s all who’s collected the most money now — and buys the most ads on television.
ICONOCLAST: When you wrote the play about 45 years ago, did you envision that we were headed for the politics of today?
VIDAL: Yes.
ICONOCLAST: When it comes to this administration attempting to destroy the Constitution, I take it personally, as do most of our readers. In writing your many historical novels, you have likely spent considerable time in the minds of many of our founders, and with that process likely have a feel as to how they would look upon America today. What do you think their take on it would be?
VIDAL: Benjamin Franklin, as usual, was the most prescient. In 1787 when asked to comment on the Constitution he said he did not like it but favored an immediate ratification because the republic was in need of good governance which this flawed work would provide us until it, too, failed as had so many other attempts due to “the corruption of the people.” Old Ben knew his countrymen and never feared a hard truth. Jefferson thought the Constitution should be reviewed and revised every 30 years or so. Madison, his practical friend, said how on earth can we accustom the people to the rule of law if they know that everything can be changed next year? But these are details; in great matters, such as habeas corpus, they took Magna Carta as foundation stones for our systems of law and of the republic that rests upon them. As I write, a sometime resident of Crawford has smashed in the foundations of our republic and chaos will ensue. The post 9/11 coup d’etat is now in full control of the state through corrupted elections and the joyous dismantling of the Bill of Rights.
ICONOCLAST: The World Can’t Wait has impeachment written all over it. If the Nov. 7 elections take place and if a true net vote can survive electronic voting machine theft, and if today’s polls hold steady among our generally apathetic and fickle populace, do you think Congress will move swiftly to engage investigations into 9/11 and all the atrocities that followed?
VIDAL: I have several times noted the direction in which way the country might go. If the state will allow Democrats to organize the House of Representatives then acts of impeachment of the little president will be in order ditto for several other members of the junta that has wrecked our military and the U.S. dollar for which it stands.
ICONOCLAST: Do you think the U.S. is on the verge of becoming a third-world country?
VIDAL: With luck we will take our modest place between Argentina and Brazil, our only compensation a great soccer team.
ICONOCLAST: From the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower forward, is there an administration that could be described as the tipping point that put us into the position we are today?
VIDAL: No; the end of the republic dates from Harry S—for nothing—Truman. FDR had come to terms with Stalin; then died. As of 1940 the Depression had returned, causing FDR, eager for war, to put $8 billion into rearming the U.S. At a Keynesian stroke, unemployment ended. Happy Days (and war) were here again. At Potsdam the green new president Truman met Stalin, to talk him into helping us defeat Japan. But a sudden message from the War Department told him the atomic bomb was ready for use. Aware that with the end of the war effort the Depression was apt to return, Truman decided to replace Hitler and Nazi-ism with Stalin and Communism. Told by Senator Vandenberg that if he wanted to spend a fortune on a second war paid for by Congress, “You’re going to have to scare the hell out of the American people,” which he did with cries of “the Russians are coming!” which they were not. They had lost twenty million people in the war. But thus began the series of fantastic lies that the military industrial complex and its control of media still deafen us with. Where Truman was stupid in good faith, the current junta is stupid in the worst possible way, hoovering up our tax money while plotting to sell off Social Security.
ICONOCLAST: Do you think the administration is using Buckley Jr.’s playbook from 1968, where he advocated a pre-emptive strike against Red China? It is almost like déjà vu, with stark similarities between Iraq and Vietnam, the same arguments being retold today, Buckley’s father into Texas oil, and a raging debate between “law and order” and “law and justice,” and the disenfranchisement of blacks.
VIDAL: I think the junta is basically too chicken, thank heaven, to follow Buckley’s lunatic politics but…
ICONOCLAST: You have long been a strong advocate of free speech. In one of the provocative debates you had with Buckley, you said, “We have the right according to the Constitution of freedom of peaceful assembly,” and “It is no violation of the law to freely demonstrate,” referring to attacks by police at the DNC in Chicago in 1968. How at risk is freedom of speech today?
VIDAL: Censorship is fairly rigid now but we’ve seen nothing yet.
ICONOCLAST: One of the editors of The Iconoclast, Don Fisher, wanted me to ask you why you just didn’t punch out Buckley when he began making personal attacks on you in order to avoid the issues being discussed. Or was his falling into your trap enough?
VIDAL: Tell your editor that, re: Buckley, I have never struck a lady.
ICONOCLAST: There is a new documentary out this year. The US vs. John Lennon, in which you appear. Do you have any additional thoughts about Lennon that aren’t in the film?
VIDAL: I thought my summing up said all that I meant: Vis a vis the Feds’ desperate attempts to arrest and deport Lennon were in character: J. Edgar Hoover and Nixon, like our present junta, represent death while Lennon stood for life.
……….
Here are some highlights from “Point to Point Navigation”:
Amelia Earhart: “My father’s widow, Kit, told me that she had come across a letter Amelia had written Gene after she had had an accident in California. While her Lockheed Electra plane was being repaired, she’d written an anguished letter all about some sort of emotional problem that she was having. I asked if a name had been mentioned. ‘Oh, it was so long ago, I forget.” I asked Kit if the problem was with a man or a woman. My conventional stepmother frowned at this impropriety. ‘A man, of course.’ ‘So what did you do with the letter?’ ‘I tore it up, naturally. After all, it was no one’s business but hers.’ So there was the final mystery that might have explained what happened. Gene had often speculated that she had deliberately crashed the place. ‘She was going through a bad time with G.P…’”
Johnny Carson: “John was the only political satirist regularly allowed for thirty years on that television time which is known to be prime and so he was able to influence the way the people at large thought about many things that were often unexamined in the media until he put his satiric spin to them…He once told me that he could predict the winner of any approaching presidential election by the reactions to certain jokes he’d tell to the live audiences at his Burbank studio. He’d make amiable fun—at least it seemed amiable—of the entire field but all the time that sharp ear was listening carefully to the laughter and, even more attentively, to the silences. He read this microcosm of the American people like a barometer.”
Jack and Jackie Kennedy: “With the help of Mrs. Roosevelt I had come up with an alternative to military conscription: voluntary service at home or abroad in such places where help was needed. I got such a good response from the district that I passed the proposition on to Jack who adopted it. Once president, it became the Peace Corps headed by his brother-in-law Sargent Shriver.”
“…Howard and I took the lift down to the [Ritz Carleton’s] lobby. It was a small lift lined with mirrors. Halfway down it stopped to admit another passenger, a woman in a white trench coat. Our eyes met in mute shock: it was Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Relations between us had broken off after my row with Bobby in 1961 and time certainly had not improved my mood… to Howard’s horror, I turned my back on her to discover in the mirror a smudge of ink on my brow. As I used a handkerchief to remove the ink the lift door opened and she sighed in her best Marilyn Monroe voice, ‘Bye-bye’ and vanished…”
Grace Kelly: “[Princess] Grace and I chatted about distant romantic Hollywood, not that she pined for her days of glory. I did ask her once, why, at the peak of her career, she had quit to become, in effect, the doyenne of an amusement park. Her answer was to the point. ‘You know about the studio’s makeup call?…Well, my makeup call was still pretty late because I was still very young. But I have a tendency to put on weight. When I do, my call is earlier. On my last picture, it was…’ she frowned at the thought of the dawn’s early light which one day she would have to face as had Loretta Young and Joan Crawford and a host of stars of yesteryear some of whom were obliged to report to makeup before sunrise. ‘It was the sudden change in my makeup call that decided me it was time to go before I absolutely had to.’”
Great Garbo: “Not only did she like to talk about the old days but she wanted to know what MGM was like so many years later. She also had a number of ribald stories that she enjoyed telling and retelling.”
Federico Fellini: “Farther down the corridor from my office, Federico Fellini was preparing what would become La Dolce Vita. He was fascinated by our huge Hollywood production [of Ben Hur]. Several times we had lunch together in the commissary. Soon he was calling me Gorino and I was calling him Fred.
Tennessee Williams: “The Glorious Bird—the name that I called Tennessee—had caught on with many of his friends and, finally, with him, too.”
Francis Ford Coppola: “I found Francis to be encyclopedic on anything that had to do with filmmaking. He was truly post-Gutenberg. Film was where it—all of it—was at…Recently, Francis told me that I had turned him onto wine which, in turn, led to his becoming one of the leading winemakers in the United States.”
Paul Newman: “Women sometimes behaved oddly when they saw [Paul]. Once when we were walking down Madison Avenue, a large young woman came toward us from the opposite direction: quickly, he tucked his chin into his collar to hide those arctic blue eyes. He also increased his pace. ‘Keep moving,’ he whispered as we passed her. Then there was a crash behind us. ‘Don’t look around,’ he said, looking around; then he broke into a run. ‘What happened”’ I asked. ‘She’s fainted,’ he said and leapt into a taxicab.”
Princess Margaret: PM spoke of the royal family with expectable reverence not unmixed with humor and the occasional surrealist note: ‘The Queen is uncommonly talented in ways that you might not suspect,’ she proclaimed. Suspecting nothing, I asked, ‘In what way?’ Well, she can put on a very heavy tiara while hurrying down a flight of stairs with no mirror.’”
Works By Gore Vidal
Essays, Non-Fiction
• Rocking the Boat (1963)
• Reflections Upon a Sinking Ship (1969)
• Sex, Death and Money (1969)
• Homage to Daniel Shays (1973)
• Matters of Fact and of Fiction (1977)
• The Second American Revolution (1982)
• Armageddon? (1987)
• At Home (1988)
• A View From The Diner’s Club (1991)
• Screening History (1992)
• Decline and Fall of the American Empire (1992)
• United States: essays 1952–1992 (1993)
• Palimpsest: a memoir (1995)
• Virgin Islands (1997)
• The American Presidency (1998)
• Sexually Speaking: Collected Sex Writings (1999)
• The Last Empire: essays 1992–2000 (2001)
• Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace or How We Came To Be So Hated, Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2002, (2002)
• Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta, Thunder’s Mouth Press, (2002)
• Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson (2003)
• Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia (2004)
• Point to Point Navigation : A Memoir (2006)
Plays
• Visit to a Small Planet (1957)
• The Best Man (1960)
• On the March to the Sea (1960-1961, 2004)
• Romulus (adapted from Friedrich Duerrenmatt’s play) (1962)
• Weekend (1968)
• Drawing Room Comedy (1970)
• An evening with Richard Nixon (1970)
• On the March to the Sea (2005)
Novels
• Williwaw (1946)
• In a Yellow Wood (1947)
• The City and the Pillar (1948)
• The Season of Comfort (1949)
• A Search for the King (1950)
• Dark Green, Bright Red (1950)
• The Judgment of Paris (1953)
• Messiah (1955)
• A Thirsty Evil (1956)
• Julian (1964)
• Washington, D.C. (1967)
• Myra Breckinridge (1968)
• Two Sisters (1970)
• Burr (1973)
• Myron (1975)
• 1876 (1976)
• Kalki (1978)
• Creation (1981)
• Duluth (1983)
• Lincoln (1984)
• Empire (1987)
• Hollywood (1989)
• Live from Golgotha: the Gospel according to Gore Vidal (1992)
• The Smithsonian Institution (1998)
• The Golden Age (2000)
• Clouds and Eclipses : The Collected Short Stories (2006)
Under Pseudonyms
• A Star’s Progress (aka Cry Shame!) (1950) as Katherine Everard
• Thieves Fall Out (1953) as Cameron Kay
• Death Before Bedtime (1953) as Edgar Box
• Death in the Fifth Position (1954) as Edgar Box
• Death Likes It Hot (1954) as Edgar Box
Appearances, Interviews
• The U.S. Versus John Lennon (2006 film)
• Why We Fight
• Gattaca (1997 film)
• Bob Roberts (1992 film)
• Gore Vidal: The Man Who Said No (1982 documentary)
• Family Guy – “Mother Tucker” (2006 Animated TV episode)
• Da Ali G Show (2004 episode)
• Inside Deep Throat (2005 film)
TxDot Not Acting In State’s Best Interests
To The Honorable Senator John Carona,Chair Senate Transportation Committee:
copy to our district State Senator Jeff Wentworth and Representative Jason Isaac:
Sir,
Several years ago as Chair of the Senate Committee on Transportation you led an investigation into the actions of TxDOT and its ongoing belligerence and questionable if not corruptive and illegal misuse of taxpayer dollars. The committee considered more oversight and restructuring of the runaway agency and yet it seems that little has been done since that time to curb the agency’s irresponsibility and misuse of funds.
I am hereby formally filing a complaint with you and the Senate Committee on Transportation against TxDOT’s administration, its ongoing questionable alleged illegal actions and the agency’s special interest agendas that enable the TxDOT to act arrogantly, illegally and inappropriately and certainly NOT in the best interests of the Texas community.
One case in point: TxDOT usually whines that it has no tax dollars to build and maintain Texas roadways; however, the agency recently stated it had “found” $130 MILLION dollars that is now plans to use for the proposed “managed lanes” [tolls] on MOPAC instead of using the money to build and repair our regular roadways.
In addition, the watch dog group TURF has sent a threat to sue letter (and will sue the San Antonio MPO) for a violation of the Open Meetings Act at their June 25 meeting. The MPO down here did the same thing.
Completely changed a toll proposal over the weekend without posting it or discussing it in public. It took the control of the 281 & 1604 toll lanes (and hence who gets to set and collect the tolls) away from the RMA and gave it to the Via transit board (to buy the Via votes presumably) who wants to use the toll revenues to build their street car system downtown. They don’t want to come to the voters with their street car (San Antonians overwhelmingly rejected light rail in 2000, street cars are in effectively a less safe form of light rail), so they think this is just a dream to be able to raid revenues without ANY accountability to the voters.
The MPO also allegedly stole $20 million from 281 and gave it to 1604 which their bylaws require to be posted on the agenda, and it wasn’t. These MPOS so flagrantly and so frequently violate the Open Meetings Act, TURF decided it was time to sue them. These back room deals down in the dark of night at the eleventh hour that will effect generations of Texans have got to STOP!
Such actions are unconscionable and the fact that Gov. Rick Perry, Texas Legislators and the Senate Committee on Transportation all seem to turn a blind eye to these illegal actions indicates that TxDOT and toll authorities are permitted carte blanche to do whatever they want without ANY oversight or regulation that threatens the misuse and/or abuse of our tax dollars. THIS REQUIRES YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION.
I ask you to rise up to the statements/promises you had made as Chair and work again with the Senate Committee and demand TxDOT to act legally and prevent such a dangerous precedence from abusing Texas tax dollars and misuse of the agency’s responsibility to all Texans.
Thank you for your consideration re: this commentary, request and complaint and I trust this email will provide the needed catalyst that will lead to finally restructuring runaway TxDOT and require it to work legally in the best interest of the Texas community.
Sincerely,
Peter Stern, Driftwood, Texas
MacFarland: Take Guns To Church
To The Editor:
Have we learned nothing? Why, I repeat, why would anyone these days consider going to a movie, political event or their house of worship unarmed? Obviously the slaughter of innocents hasn’t made much of an impression on the fools who continue to take these walks on the wild side, and they only have themselves to blame for the consequences of their lack of preparedness.
Really, how many times does the N.R.A. have to tell you that in order to protect your rights, including your right to gather, you need to be packing. Even PBS types should be able to grasp this simple concept, which leaves me wondering what the congregants of the Wisconsin temple were thinking. Picking and choosing which of your rights to exercise clearly doesn’t work.
If just one member of this congregation would have had the forethought to be armed up with a proper assault weapon (semi-auto, of course) before attending services, perhaps the body count would have been lessened. Perhaps. Realistically though, I understand that this is an election year and not the appropriate time to dwell on such as prevention of these incidents.
Better would be another day, another year, another century. Or not.
Alan MacFarland, Tallmadge, Ohio
Terrell: Fair Tax Act
Dear Editor,
Fellow Americans, there’s been a proposal before Congress for over a decade that would put America on track to a swift and permanent economic recovery. Congress won’t pass it unless we demand it. Its adoption would drastically reduce elected politicians’ power and control over US citizens. It’s called the Fair Tax.
Adoption of the Fair Tax would (1) do away with the IRS, (2) put American businesses on a level playing field with their global competition, (3) ensure those living below the poverty level pay no taxes, (4) bring both capital and jobs back to America, (5) ensure everyone pays their fair share including tourists and those in the country illegally and (6) result in an economic boom.
From page 106 of The Fair Tax Book: “Economists estimate that in the first year after the Fair Tax Act becomes law, the economy will grow 10.5 %. Exports will grow by 26 %. Capital spending will increase by more than 70%.”
Every candidate running for congressional office must be asked about their support of the Fair Tax at every opportunity; Town Hall meetings, public appearances and every debate. Read the book, push hard and the Fair Tax could be adopted soon.
Glen Terrell, Arlington, Texas
State’s Rights vs. Individual Rights
According to the latest anti-abortion news, the appeals court has determined that “Texas can cut off Planned Parenthoodfunding.”I am a long time Republican who has grown weary of the party’s current platform of right-wing extremism in too many areas of our daily lives.
I believe as Gov. Rick Perry does that the federal government should stay out of our daily personal lives and state affairs.
I believe as Perry does NOT, that state government should stay out of our personal lives. During his tenure as governor of Texas, Perry has shown time after time that he and the state want to control more aspects of our daily lives, especially those of women.
With this latest appeals decision on the extremist right-wing anti-abortion agenda, Perry and Texas legislators have been provided the extreme right to legally tell women and various health care entities like Planned Parenthood what they can and can not do.
Before my fellow GOP members point a finger at me for saying these things, I do not believe that tax dollars should go to paying for abortions, but I believe that women have the right to make educated decisions about what they will do with their respective bodies and with any fetus inside those bodies. Otherwise stated: I am pro-life up until the individual woman has the right to determine her actions for herself. Government should not have that right — but as of today in Texas, it does.
Despite what the appeals court determined, the state’s interference in women’s lives is still unconstitutional. Anyone with half a brain can see that. The fact that the appeals court ruled in favor of Perry and the state shows how far right extremist our court system and Texas has become. Perry continues to complain about and fight against federal interference in state and private agendas, but here in Texas as our governor, Rick Perry believes he is King with divine rights and the court has just reaffirmed his belief. Something stinks like week old fish, deep in the heart of Texas.
Peter Stern, Driftwood Texas
Three Days In Jakarta…
Cheap Massages & Desperately Seeking Obama
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2012/08/3-days-in-jakarta-cheap-massages.html
After spending 10 hours in the Doha airport and 24 hours at the Singapore airport, I was totally looking forward to spending three whole days in Jakarta — but had no idea what to expect. Jakarta? Capital of Indonesia? Located on the island of Java, famous for its coffee and Krakatoa? Where Mel Gibson fell in love with Sigourney Weaver during their “Year of Living Dangerously” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086617/? Barack Obama’s old boyhood home? What is Jakarta really like? I was about to find out.
An old friend of mine from back when we both worked at Berkeley law offices met me at the airport and immediately whisked me off into a fabulous whirl of fun and food — a sort of three-day-long “Girls Night Out.”
Jakarta has definitely changed a whole lot since 1965 when Sukarno was top dog and Linda Hunt was taking photos of poor people rioting in the streets. Poor people no longer riot in the streets here. Now they know better. The foreign and local “extractive industry” moguls who apparently own most of Indonesia these days have done a really good job of teaching Indonesian poor people to know their place — except of course for a few pesky ingrates over in East Timor. But they no longer count now, having been mostly killed off.
The poor people in Indonesia clearly know their place now — just like the “extractive industries” in America are also happily teaching America’s 99% our places so they can steal our resources too.
But oil companies no longer have to kill people in America to get their hands on our land — because, unlike the people of East Timor (or Sitting Bull or Geronimo either for that matter), Americans have become so, er, gullible that they now allow the “extractive industries” to legally seize their property by use of eminent domain.
According to environmental researcher Allison Grass, “The controversial Kelo v. City of New London (2005) is credited with broadening the interpretation of ‘public use’. In this case, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of New London, deciding that the city could take private property and give it to another private entity for ‘economic development’. The Court decided that this met the ‘public use’ provision of the Fifth Amendment.” http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/08/21-0
What does this ruling mean for Americans? It means that if the “extractive industry” wants your land, they can have it. Period. And you of course will be S.O.L. Never forget that extractive-industry people are running a very harsh economic dictatorship behind that Oil Curtain — and they are not our friends.
As I was being driven though the streets of Jakarta, it became immediately clear that this city is now more like Dallas than Zuccotti Park. Neiman Marcus fans would feel right at home here. The Bush dynasty would love it. And my guilty secret? I too loved Jakarta.
First my friend and I went off to a top-of-the-line beauty salon for full-body massages. Only five dollars! Then we went to the old port of Jakarta where the docks are lined with funky old wooden schooners still being used for transporting goods to and from Indonesia’s 1700-odd islands.
Next we went to visit the old Dutch colony of Batavia. Did you know that the Dutch East India Company was one of the world’s very first global conglomerates? Back in 1602, it was a pioneer poster-boy for globalization — and was probably just as cruel and ruthless back then as Monsanto is now.
What to see and do next? Off to a wonderful Rijsttafel dinner with some delightful Indonesian women and a handful of ex-pats from America, Australia and Korea. And then another body massage. I could get used to this!
Next we experienced a top-of-the-line display of wealth that went way beyond my mere concept of “mall”. So much money here in Jakarta. Streets crammed with chauffeur-driven Mercedes and BMWs. And then after the “shopping complex” experience, we visited a folk-art museum, ate avocado ice cream and — went for a massage!
I owe so much to my friend from Berkeley and her Indonesian friends for giving me the full Jakarta experience.
And the food here! Marvelous. Everyone was getting ready to observe Ramadan in this mostly-Muslim country — and everyone here was either eating or shopping for food or thinking about eating. Me too!
Next came a tour of Jakarta’s largest mosque. “It is the third largest mosque in the world — only Mecca and Medinah have larger ones.” I’ve been to both those other mosques but this one was different — all modern in design and using lots of copper and chrome.
Across the street from the mosque was a large European-style cathedral. Catholics in Indonesia? Yeah. Just like there were Catholics in Nagasaki when American pilots in World War II used Nagasaki’s cathedral spire as a landmark for dropping their atomic bomb, wiping out 8,500 Japanese Christians attending Sunday services in one shot http://tinyurl.com/8pf7yb6. Ah, the smell of burning Christians in the morning. One of America’s finest hours. But I digress.
Time for another massage.
“You know what I would really love to do here?” I asked my wonderful new Indonesian BFF. “Can we go see where Barack Obama lived as a boy and also visit the school that he went to?” The school was easy to find. The two homes where Obama used to live were harder to find — but a local journalist gave us the 411 and we actually found them.
“Did you know that Barack, as a boy, was reputed to be rather pudgy — and that he confused his fellow students because his step-father was Indonesian and his mother was a white American and yet he had really curly hair. Most students finally decided that he was from Papua-New Guinea. And did you know that Obama’s father was an oilman?” No I didn’t. An oilman? Hmmm. Then I can’t understand why Republicans don’t just love Obama. Republicans always seem to love anyone who exploits natural resources for their own benefit (not ours).
And those were my three days of (not) living dangerously in Jakarta. And now it’s time for me to go off to spend yet another night in yet another airport — Narita, in Tokyo. “Ah, but wait!” said my old friend from Berkeley and my new BFF from Jakarta. “We still have time to fit in just one more massage!”
Stalinist Housing Blocs & Feng Shui
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2012/08/singapore-stalinist-housing-blocs-feng.html
After spending a rather unique night trying to sleep on glorified lawn chairs at the Doha airport, I finally arrived in Singapore — blurry-eyed and confused. And that’s not a good condition to be in when trying to navigate through the Singapore airport — because this airport is HUGE. Imagine the Great Mall of America, Rodeo Drive and a mini-Disney Adventureland combined with more restaurants than you could eat at in a month, an elaborate system of people-movers and thousands of happy tourists and shoppers, all tacked onto miles and miles of terminals, departure gates and runways — and you pretty much get the picture. The Singapore airport is HUGE.
“Where is the closest transit hotel?” I bleated piteously.
“After Terminal 3, get on the tramway, turn right at Cartier, walk a half-mile past the third food court, it’s next to the butterfly garden.” Found it!
For approximately $60, I was able to rent a sweet teeny-tiny little hotel room in miniature for six hours — and promptly fell asleep. It was like they had shrunk a hotel room at the Hilton to fit into your closet. I loved it.
And what’s not to like about the Singapore airport — if you are a Material Girl. Everything you can imagine is on sale here. WHAT will this place ever do if people ever wise up and discover that material goods can’t buy you happiness — and also when the world runs out of raw materials? Then the Singapore airport will be screwed. But until then, the place is like a freaking MUSEUM for material goods, the ultimate wet-dream for Material Girls.
The airport also offers a two-hour free tour of the city of Singapore. My plane doesn’t leave for Jakarta for another seven hours. I’m on this!
“The island of Singapore consists mainly of parklands and highrises,” said our guide. And it did. So many lovely parks. Hand-groomed parks very much like Central Park in New York — only miles and miles and miles more of them.
“Why do you have so many parks?” I asked.
“It’s good feng shui,” said our guide. Oh. Okay. “The ancient art of feng shui tells us that the way your home or business is laid out can strongly affect your fortune. And having good feng shui brings you good luck and having lots of greenery around brings you even more good luck.” http://video.about.com/fengshui/Color-and-Feng-Shui.htm
Well, it does look like all those miles and miles of parklands and trees and manicured flower beds and well-trimmed lawns really are bringing Singapore lots of good luck. America should try that!
And springing up like gigantic mushrooms from all of these parks were many many tall skyscrapers and housing blocs. The total effect here reminded me of Pyongyang, up in North Korea. After Americans had leveled the city flat with thousands of bombs back in the 1950s, Pyongyang was rebuilt on a grid of parklands, skyscraper hotels for tourists and Stalinist housing blocs.
Of course the parklands in Singapore are hecka lot nicer and the housing blocs here are far more luxurious than in Pyongyang — but the effect is the same: The good feng shui of parks to offset the bad feng shui of housing blocs and skyscrapers.
Back home in Berkeley, our current mayor and most of our city council appear to be trying to Manhattanize Berkeley just as fast as humanly possible. But. They are leaving out that other highly important ingredient of good feng shui — the parks. If our current mayor wants to cram Berkeley full of Stalinist housing blocs, fine with me. But where are the parks? So next election I’m going to vote for Kriss Worthington for mayor instead. http://www.krissworthington.com/home/
That is, if I ever get out of the Singapore airport alive. One could live here comfortably forever — except that there are no parks (unless you count runways).
PS: Mitt Romney has named Paul Ryan to be his vice presidential running mate. Paul Ryan! Electing those two would be like electing the Beagle Boys to guard Uncle Scrooge’s bank vault. With Romney and Ryan in charge of our treasury, we can almost count on being burgled for every last red cent that we own.
A vote for these Beagle Boys may be a really great idea — but only if you yourself are a Beagle Boy too. Most of us are not.
According to Robert Reich, “Republicans want to obliterate any trace of the [Bush] administration that told America there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and led us into a devastating war; turned a $5 trillion projected budget surplus into a $6 trillion deficit; gave the largest tax cut in a generation to the richest Americans in history; handed out a mountain of corporate welfare to the oil and gas industry, pharmaceutical companies, and military contractors like Halliburton (uniquely benefiting the vice president); whose officials turned a blind eye to Wall Street shenanigans that led to the worst financial calamity since the Great Crash of 1929 and then persuaded Congress to bail out the Street with the largest taxpayer-funded giveaway of all time.” http://www.nationofchange.org/erasing-w-1344692189
Bush was the ultimate Beagle Boy. And now we are supposed to forget all that and let them force the Romney-Ryan Beagle Boy team on us too? Exactly how dumb do they think that we are?
What would Unca Scrooge do?
Maybe I should just stay here in Singapore after all — because it has such good feng shui. But no. My flight leaves for Jakarta in two hours and there are no backsies on my plane ticket.
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Advertizements for myself: In these hard times of brutal (and illegal) corporatist economics, I am doing whatever I can to make a spare dollar. Here are some of my current alternate-economy schemes that never seem to work — but I keep hoping!
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What next? Now I’m trying to go to a six-day vodou ceremony in a cave somewhere in Haiti. Please donate toward my trip expenses here: https://www.wepay.com/xh8kekc
Also my son Joe is trying to raise money to film a documentary on this event. Check out his video of the vodou master here — a truly heavy-duty dude:
https://www.wepay.com/donations/suzandoc
“This documentary is about capturing a Haitian Vodou Ceremony experienced through the perspective of Suzan (a Shaman leader). The ceremony takes place in a cave that Suzan had lived in for 10 years in Fonds-des-Nègres, Haiti, 114 km west of Port Au Prince.”
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Need someone to help you throw out stuff? I’m really good at deciding what needs to be thrown out (starting with all the corporate-owned bums in Washington!)
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Need an actor to play an older woman in your movie? Then I’m your man! I can portray all kinds of older women — from judges, business execs and other insane zombies to bag ladies, cancer patients, kindly grandmothers and dying patients in rest homes. I’ve played them all. So send me a script and let’s do this. Hollywood, here we come!
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Are you a plaintiffs’ attorney who is tired of writing those pesky personal injury settlement briefs all the time? No problem! I can write them for you. Years of experience. And pay me only if you win the case.
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Need a Notary Public? Have seal, will travel. E-mail me at jpstillwater@yahoo.com and I’ll stamp your document, make it official and only charge $10. Of course if you live outside of Berkeley, I may have to charge travel expenses — but am well worth it!
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Want something good to read? Buy my book! “Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today’s Middle East,” available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It’s like as if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.
I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in “Bring Your Own Flak Jacket,” but this book is cheaper — but it’s worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=cm_rdp_product
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Please sign my petition to create a Constitutional amendment to stop corporate lobbyists from buying our country: http://www.thepetitionsite .com/2/constitutional-amendment-to-stop-lobbyists
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“Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!” You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers’ caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters
“Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds.” You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers’ caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters
Peace Group Boycotting Chik-fil-A
WACO, Texas — The Waco Friends of Peace at a meeting in August voted to endorse the boycott of Chik-fil-A restaurants.
According to Alan Northcutt, a leader in the peace group, reports indicate the restaurant chain uses its profits to work against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (KGBT) community rights and donated $4 million to anti-gay groups in 2009-2010.
Northcutt says the chain donated to the Eagle Forum which believes LGBT people should be considered criminals. Chik-fil-A donated to the Family Research Council (FRC), which is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The FRC spent $25,000 in an effort to stop the U.S. Congress from condemning the Uganda “Kill the Gays” law.
Gays and lesbians in the United States are frequently treated as second-class citizens and are able to marry in only a few states.
“As a result of cruel treatment directed at gay people, one-third of gay/lesbian teenagers have attempted suicide,” noted Northcutt. “Therefore, the Waco Friends of Peace will support the boycott of Chik-fil-A restaurants. We will not allow our dining dollars be spent to support efforts to deny LGBT people human rights that all people should equally receive.”
