Steven Otero
Steve’s Weekly Dish 277.0
February 2nd, 2012
Rick Santorum and the New Feminism(!)
Thanks Richard Metzger
You’d think that as the parent of a child with a rare genetic disorder, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum would have deep empathy for a fellow parent of a child with a rare genetic disorder—or if he was a true Christian as he claims to be, even support universal healthcare for everyone’s children—but… NOPE!
Why We Got Ayn Rand Instead of FDR: Thomas Frank on How Tea Party ‘Populism’ Derailed a New New Deal
But something happened on the way to this much-anticipated swing back to the left. Instead of FDR, we got Ayn Rand. Rather than calling for programs that might alleviate some of working America’s suffering, we saw the emergence of the Tea Parties, which demanded that ordinary Americans feel every bit of pain they had coming to them – and also that we leave the Wall Street hustlers who had precipitated the crash alone.
Robert Anton Wilson Talks To Reality Hackers Forum (1988 — Mondo 2000 History Project Entry #4)
Robert Anton Wilson tries out a little bibliomancy with Finnegans Wake, and discusses the connections to European history and psycho-linguistics,Operation Mindfuck, the Vatican, and reprogramming your own brain.
Jobless man builds a house out of $1.82 billion worth of shredded money
What would you do with $1.82 billion worth of shredded money? In Ireland, people build houses out of it at least that’s what Dublin-based artist Frank Buckley did. The unemployed artist originally wanted to create a gallery for his series of mixed-media artworks called “Expressions of Recession,” but he ended up building a house instead
Zip! Looking Closely at a Strip Club
A strip club may seem like a lightweight oddity as a subject for Mr. Wiseman. But in an interview in a cafe here he was adamant that his work was not simply about “the suffering of the downtrodden.”“What I am doing,” he said, “is showing many aspects of human behavior, which makes anything that interests me a possible subject.”
Steve’s Weekly Dish 276.0.
January 26th, 2012
RAW Week: “Some of this stuff might be bullshit,” by Peter Bebergal
Agnosticism, even more than atheism or theism, is, for Robert Anton Wilson, the authentic ethical position
RAW Week: 23 Skidoo + 5 — Robert Anton Wilson Again, By Loren Coleman
Today, with Facebook and more it all seems overwhelming. We need Robert Anton Wilson to cut through
it all and give some direction through this noise. I miss him.
Why Evangelicals Don’t Care When Rich White Conservatives Defile Marriage
Gingrich doesn’t live by the strict sexual rules laid out by conservatives, because those rules are meant for other people: the poor, Democrats, gays, and minorities.
Eleventh Entry for Schrodinger’s Diary: Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
New breakthroughs in neuroscience and mysticism reveal that Temporal Lobe Epilepsy actually opens the channels to the Higher Self and the Reality Behind the Reality.
Mindbomb: Prophecies of a Pop AstroGnostic
At a time when a near-majority of Americans think a talentless professional athlete is a prophet based on beginner’s luck and some cute but garden-variety synchronicities, what do we make of Jack Kirby?
Steve’s Weekly Dish 275.0
January 19th, 2012
AstroGnostic: Trapped Here on this Alien World-UPDATED!!!
So the problem is simple, and one begins to understand how the Gnostics saw it: man, then, is a lifelong exile on a planet which is a prison for all mankind; he lives in a body which is a prison for the soul; he is the autochthon of a lost and invisible world.
Gnosis: The Not-So-Secret History of Jesus
The parallels between Mithras and Jesus threatened the emerging Literalist Church. Roman bishops even made the absurd claim that the devil had engaged in diabolical mimicry, plagiarizing by anticipation the story of Jesus before it had actually happened.
Wilson and I, by Richard Metzger
What exactly it was that I learned from knowing Robert Anton Wilson personally,I’d answer, without much hesitation, that he really and truly was an “irrational rationalist.” There was nothing superstitious about Bob Wilson. True, he had always been interested in “occult” things, but he himself was no “occultist,” rather he was an observer of “occultism” . He never dismissed anomalist information — he loved it — but assumed that even the most far out things will ultimately get scientific explanations.
My Encounter With At Least 2 Robert Anton Wilsons
The night was billed as a workshop with Robert Anton Wilson, but the extent of the exercises he taught us that night were limited to one. He asked us to shut our eyes and breathe, clearing our thoughts and settling down our minds. And then, when the inevitable inner voice would once again raise it’s borish head, we were told to shout at the top of our lungs at the persistent sod to “Shut the Fuck Up!”
RAW Week: Interviews with Douglas Rushkoff, RU Sirius, David Jay Brown, Phil Farber, and Antero Alli, by Propaganda Anonymous
Douglas Rushkoff, RU Sirius, David Jay Brown, Phil Farber, and Antero Alli are all accomplished thinkers in their own right, and have been kind enough to reminisce about the man they considered a mentor, teacher, and friend.
Steve’s Weekly Dish 274.0
January 12th, 2012
RAW Week on boingboing
I regard belief as a form of brain damage.” Robert Anton Wilson
Amazon’s Plagiarism Problem
Amazon’s erotica section isn’t just rife with tales of lust & straight-up kink.It’s also a hotbed of masked merchants profiting from copyright infringement.Amazon doesn’t appear too eager to stop the forbidden author-on-author action.
Sexuality vs. Sensuality: The Steady Decline of Affection in America
With most contemporary portrayals of sexuality being outright promiscuity and tactless drunken debauchery, it’s not surprising that women and men have lost sight of the joys and need for sensuality.
Have the Super-Rich Seceded From the United States?
Bernard Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot, says about the views of the 99 percent: “Who gives a crap about some imbecile?”
Kate Bolick: why modern women don’t marry
Many modern women, wrote Kate Bolick in an American magazine, are at best ambivalent about the idea of marriage and babies. That’s when the letters began to land by the thousand. So does she stand by her manifesto?
Steve’s Weekly Dish 273.0
January 5th, 2012
Bob Anderson, Sword Master, Dies at 89
Most famously, Mr. Anderson worked on George Lucas’s “The Empire Strikes Back” & “The Return of the Jedi” , he appeared on-screen as the evil, black-helmeted Darth Vader in the scenes in which he battles the young hero, Luke, who is secretly his son, with sabers whose blades are laserlike lights.
The Messenger
The fervency for Ron Paul is rooted in the longing for a reedemer, for one who will rise up and cut through the dishonest pablum of horse-races and sloganeering and speak directly to Americans. It is a species of saviorism which hopes to deliver a prophet onto the people, who will be better than the people themselves.
Did Psychopaths Take Over Wall Street Asylum?: William D. Cohan
How do people with such obvious personality flaws make it to the top ?
Boddy says psychopaths take advantage of the “relative chaotic nature of the modern corporation,” including “rapid change, constant renewal” and high turnover of “key personnel.”
Ron Paul Is No Friend to Progressives
His mission is to continue his sermon about the viability of a completely non-functioning ideology, libertarianism, while paying homage to the L. Ron Hubbard of politics, Ayn Rand.
California DIY, shipping container tiny home and a cargo trailer bedroom
Lulu is a single mom who’d gone back to school and didn’t have the time or interest in working full-time to pay for rent. So when she had to move out of her more conventional home, she decided to move herself and her daughter into a shipping container.
Steve’s Weekly Dish 272.0
December 29th, 2011
Have Yourself a Socialist Little Christmas
Here comes Santa Claus with a sack full of entitlement programs there’s a reason he wears RED.
How the GOP Tries to Transform America into a Selfish, Souless Place
In the spirit of their self-centered mentor Ayn Rand, Republicans are trying to disfigure America so she resembles Pottersville, the bankers town in It’s a Wonderful Life.
The Cathar Prophecy
The Cathars maintained a church hierarchy yet rejected any idea of priesthood. They regarded men and women as equals and had no doctrinal objection to contraception, euthanasia or suicide. It follows that the Catholic Church condemned them as heretics.
Sex, Sake and Zen
Much of modern Zen owes a huge debt for its existence to a man who preferred the company of hookers to that of monks.
Instead of Work, Younger Women Head to School
Today young girls are told they can do anything. But if boys express any interest in traditionally female occupations, they get teased and bullied. Lots of guys are not understanding what’s happening to traditional low-income or middle-income male jobs.
Steve’s Weekly Dish 271.0
December 22nd, 2011
Here’s my picks!
Autism hidden in plain sight
As more children are diagnosed with autism, researchers are trying to find unrecognized cases of the disorder in adults. The search for the missing millions is just beginning. Steve adds, Please note I was diagnosed with Autism last year at age 51.
Polemicist Who Slashed All, Freely, With Wit
Christopher Hitchens RIP
What Slate doesn’t get about bookstores
Think buying books on Amazon is better for authors and communities? Good luck hanging out there on Friday night
What Vaclav Havel Understood: Only Democracy Guarantees Peace
The Czech dissident, politician, and writer, who died today at 75, left important lessons for a world that badly needs them
300 Economists Who Stand With #OccupyWallStreet
An extremely well-made clip, featuring economists who get it — and have signed a statement in solidarity.
Steve’s Weekly Dish 270.0
December 15th, 2011
Here’s my picks
Thanks Richard Metzger
Evil troll: Newt Gingrich wants to speed up America’s race to the bottom
Newt Gingrich thinks that America’s adult workforce should be competing with their own children for jobs that pay a third world wage.
AstroGnostic: The Evolutionary Triad
The drama of evolution is played out in the book of Genesis, as well as in Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. And the drama of synchronicity is played out seemingly everywhere, and things can end up getting intertwined in mysterious ways
Brain Magick Exercises
The following excerpt is from BRAIN MAGICK: EXERCISES IN META-MAGICK AND INVOCATION by Philip Farber .
A Krampus Carol by Anthony Bourdain
Krampus is Santa Claus’ whip-toting Christmas sidekick. According to legend, Krampus joins Santa where he tends to the children on Santa’s naughty list. No coal here though. Instead, Krampus whips and licks children into shape or carries them off in his sack.
Radley Metzger’s “Naked Came The Stranger” Coming From DistribPix 1/1/2012
Ring in the New Year with Billy & Gilly
Steve’s Weekly Dish 269.0
December 8th, 2011
Here’s my picks
The Sick Social Darwinism Driving Modern Republicans
As a country, we’ve rejected the notion that each of us is on his or her own in a competitive contest for survival. Republicans want to bring Social Darwinism back.
Love and Family: The Darwinism Of Modern-Day Marriage
Increasingly Western homes won’t be run by the alpha wolf they’ll be run by the queen bee.
The Death of Philip K. Dick and the Birth of Cyberpunk
If I say that Phil Dick is not really dead, then this is what I mean: He was such a powerful writer that his works exercise a sort of hypnotic force. Many of us have been Phil Dick for brief flashes, and these flashes will continue as long as there are readers.
Naomi Klein: Addicted To Risk
Watch Naomi Klein’s amazing TEDTalk on our addiction to risk and its consequences.
DYING, THE END GAME, Part Fourteen: The Quality of Life
Death comes to all of us, often sooner than we think it will. We are hostage to a brutal medical system because we are in cultural denial about death. That system denies us the spiritual and emotional journey that is dying.
Steve’s Weekly Dish 268.0
December 1st, 2011
The heterosexual world is a very conservative place
Kate Bolick caused a stir when she wrote a magazine article about how she and many other American women might never marry. Here she talks about why she struck such a chord
My Libido Went to the Revolution & All I Got was This Lousy T-Shirt
The 1960s saw ‘free love’ but how far did those externally focused movements really get us? And where is the sexual revolution in the Occupy movement?
Reality as Subversion
Douglas Rushkoff wrote this piece six years ago anticipating or at least wishing for the Occupy movement
The Literary Cubs
So once a week, about 20 of The New Inquirer’s contributors and guests gather at an unmarked clandestine bookstore, a sort of literary speakeasy, in a apartment on the Upper East Side.
Anais Nin: A Woman Unafraid to Explore Taboo [even when it was her own]
Anais Nin is hailed by many critics as one of the finest writers of female erotica. She was one of the first women to explore fully the realm of erotic writing, and certainly the first prominent woman in the modern West to write erotica.