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Crytogon
Mar 16, 2009

For the last few years I've subscribed to the Crytogon feed, I'm not really sure why. Everyday, I get a series of messages about how the world is collapsing, economically, politically, each from a worst case scenario. I don't take it seriously, and suspect that the creator and maintainers of this site probably don't either. The main motivation seems to be to profit from paranoia. There is way too many less than neutral postings about buying gold, and most every link that can be made to profit generating sites such as Amazon are included. I don't mind people making money, even from a slacker job like a website. What I don't like is when comments pointing out rather obvious details get censored because they would interfere with the profit motive.

My latest communication involved pointing out that the Gerber Knife Company formerly of Portland Oregon, was bought out by Fiskars; a Finnish company mainly known for fillet knives and scissors. Since the purchase by Fiskars, all the knives produced under the Gerber brand name that I have seen (I attend trade shows) have been of Chinese manufacture, and the quality has gone downward; more plastic, thinner metal, less countour. Prices for Gerber products have not dropped though, and there are many alternatives that are of much higher quality in the same price range. My posting was censored, as I could not prove my assertion in a way that would satisfy the censor, who had not actually seen the knife in question (I had, and confirmed that it had a China stamp). I suppose I should in future take a photo and provide a notarized witness.

http://crytogon.com

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David George
Mar 8, 2008

David George (not his actual birth name, which I think was Vonagut or similar) was a poet of some notoriety, and a tireless supporter of several other poets. My own experience of him was as an insomniac who would call up to speak to my wife, about poetry subjects, but if she wasn't available, would happily chat with me for a couple of hours about numerous subjects. He could tell some pretty interesting stories, at the time I questioned the truth of, but anything I could verify would later prove to be true.

He was very much interested in the "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" mythos, and claimed to have visited Rennes le Chateau, and many other venues in the Pyrenees of France and Spain. I had read most of the books on the topic so I could keep up with him. David claimed to have met Jean Cocteau after the war.

David also knew about the "Werewolves", which were post WWII, terrorist units composed of former Hitler youth, according to David they didn't bother with incarcerating them, they simply hung them from the nearest light or telegraph pole. This is paralleled by a similar description in Lars van Trier's "Zentropa", but I had not yet seen it at the time he told me about it. At some point it became obvious that David had been part of the OSS and later X-2(what his son refered to as "US Army Counter-Intelligence").

He was stationed for a time on Majorca. The subject came up in a conversation on Robert Graves, and he is the only other person I've known that could keep up with me about him. David had lots of missing details about Idries Shah, with whom Graves had collaborated with, and thought highly of. Majorca had also been a critical phase in the lives of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.

He also enjoyed hanging about in the Andalusian Cafes listening to Gitano Gypsy music. David even wrote the book on it's history; "The Flamenco Guitar". If you look it up it actually is THE BOOK on the subject; referenced by most everyone who has commented upon it subsequently. His involvement with the Gitano had of course interlaced with his earlier work, which is an unknown chapter in the history of World War II.

David was also a recluse, largely alienated from his family; notably an ex-wife and son. He had several younger female proteges who he helped through college, who remained some of his closest friends in the latter years of his life. Nominally a Roman Catholic, he was buried as one in 2003.

David had left a considerable backlog of unpublished work, both poetry, writing and apparently photography. The task of organizing this fell to the aforementioned son. As of 2008, a small photographic exhibition at the Maceys department Store in San Francisco is all that has been made available so far.

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Tueday Weld, Illuminatus.
Feb 20, 2008

Paranoia Magazine has floated an advance of its cover, which features Tuesday Weld; a minor but notable American actress. The quirky part is that it claims that she is a "High Priestess" of the Illuminati.

In an attempt to scoop Paranoia, I will attempt to draw together the chain of meaningful coincidences:

Weld was a supporting character in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis", along with Warren Beatty.

Warren Beatty is brother to Shirley MacLaine, who popularized various New Age trends, as well as bankrolling and supporting Dennis Kucinich, a minor American presidential contender.

In 1980, Weld appeared in the the movie "Serial" with Martin Mull.

Martin Mull is the brother of Anodea Judith, former President & Priestess of the "Church of All Worlds" a neopagan organization that was based in part on ideas from Robert A. Heinlein's "A Stranger In a Strange Land". Mull's has worked with Roseanne Barr (herself quite a conspiracy buff). Shirley MacLaine played Roseanne's mother on the "Roseanne" TV program.

Robert Heinlein derived many of the ideas of "Stranger" from his interactions with Jet Propulsion Laboratory rocket scientist Jack Whitesides Parsons, and the Pasadena Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO).

OTO was for a time headed by Aleister Crowley, who had inherited the mantle of numerous initiatiac societies, masonic, Rosicrucian, and yes, even Illuminati.

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The horror of canceling Earthlink
Jul 4, 2007

July 3, 2007
Dear Earthlink:

I am disputing any charges ascribed to me after January 20, 2007.

Roughly January of 2007, I made several attempts to cancel my Mindspring account via phone but was only able to reach an automated phone answering system, and was informed by that system that all it's agents were busy, and was directed to the Earthlink website, which had no means of canceling service. I tried for several days without success. I sent a letter to Earthlink asking to cancel service. About this time, my credit card was canceled by the issuer due to the TMAX indentity theft case. I did not feel any need to update your billing system because I believed that my service was canceled.

Around March I received a bill from Earthlink. I returned the bill with a clear statement that I had canceled service. I attempted to call Earthlink again, but again was unable to reach a person that could cancel me via phone.

By May 2007, I noticed that my Earthlink account was still active, and tried to call again. I was able to get through, after a tense conversation that tried to sidetrack me from canceling and being hung up upon by the Earthlink phone agent my service was finally canceled. The phone agent informed me that written requests to cancel service had to be sent by registered mail, which was not part of any agreement I made with Mindspring, and was not clear from any Earthlink website that I consulted.

I have sent two written requests to cancel service, made numerous attempts to call and cancel service, and suspended payment. I believe Earthlink is negligent:

By not providing reasonable methods of canceling service,

By using diversionary tactics that make phone cancellation difficult, as well as using phone agents that attempt to dissuade the caller from cancellation.

By continuing to charge for a service that is no longer being paid for, beyond the 30 day advance payment. Your willingness to continue charging is predatory and bad business practice.

By requiring that mail cancellation be sent via registered letter.

I was a Mindspring account user before that Earthlink merger/buyout, and have been a good customer for over seven years. I only maintained a 9.95 a month account to occasionally check my e-mail and used the internet when I traveled. It no longer served any purpose, so I canceled it.

I expect that Earthlink will dismiss any further eroneous claims of debt against me.

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Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder
Dec 17, 2006

Flashbacks, There exists an entire mythology in popular culture about what happens from the use of LSD and related compounds. Most of it is just as stupid as the "Blue Boy" episode of Dragnet. The Brain Sciences are as likely to be confused about it as your 16 year-old brothers' friend.

The problem is that you cannot just observe this phenomenon in other people, ask them questions, and formulate a theorum on why it happens, and how to treat it. This doesn't matter, they do anyway, and they sometimes injure the people they are supposed to help.

Another problem is that the people who do experience it may be delusional. There is little that you can do with the phenomenon from a scientific perspective.

If you are having this problem the psychiatric/medical treatment will be a pharmacutical one most of the time. They don't understand these substances, but have been working on more of them, and more uses for them in spite of the fact.

If you are experiencing any disturbing form of mental difficulty that you believe is related to injesting a substance, Stop taking any substances that you don't absolutely need to live. Really, no caffeine, cannabis, alchohol, funny herbs, energy drinks, diet pills, vitamin combinations, cough medications, anti-diarea medications etc.

Reduce the amount of stress you are experiencing from home, work or play.

Consider never taking the trigger substance and/or related substances again. Most people who have had really difficult experiences with a drug will re-ingest it within far too short a period of time. Plan on not doing it for at least a year if you can't let go of the idea of not experiencing such a substance again.

After a year or so of clarity, learn more about the substance and how it affects people from people who actually know. The cultures that have used these substances have some real knowledge about it, and it is based on survival experience. Consider someone besides Tim Leary. Don't go to the people who convinced you to take the substance to begin with.

Learn something about panic/anxiety attacks, and how to deal with them. If you have had any kind of traumatic experience, drug related or not, it will change the way you react to stress triggers chemically. I don't know for sure if all Flashback phenomenon is like a panic attack, but it is in everyone I've observed. The techniques for handling a panic attack work quite well with for this phenomenon, and do no harm(at least the non medication versions). Pay attention to what triggers the panic; It could be music, a picture, sounds, even an idea. After a few dozen experiences, you'll learn to recognize why you are having the experience and how best to ride it to a stable state.

If you take another drug, and get the phenomenon similar to the trigger drug, that is a pretty good sign that you shouldn't be using either substance. Something is out of balance, and you have a conditioned response to anything that alters you in that way. This will not be made better by repeated attempts.

Entheagenic substances might be wisely approached as an initiatory ordeal, but not as recreational playthings. Do not disrespect them.

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