Feel free to assemble? To associate with whatever activist group supports a cause near and dear to your heart? To sound off in your blog about corporate greed, evil oil cartels, and genetically modified food? Prepare to be boarded! Ex-CIA agents may steal the subscription lists of your favorite magazines, get your name and address and go through your trash. Is the U.S. Government blatantly breaking the law by invading our privacy yet again? No, this time it’s Corporate America hiring the government’s discarded spooks to trample our rights as citizens.

James Ridgeway at Mother Jones broke the story. A corporate spying outfit staffed by ex-Secret Service, ex-CIA, and ex-police personnel — Beckett Brown International, a/k/a S2i (”BBI”) — has been utilized by corporations like Halliburton, Wal-Mart, even the Carlyle Group (what a boon to conspiracy theorists!) to spy on their worst enemy: activist America. So far, Greenpeace and other environmental groups have been targeted; who knows which progressive organizations will be next? Air America? The Huffington Post? The Interfaith Alliance? After all, if Halliburton and Wal-mart can hire BBI to go after Greenpeace, what’s to stop Pat Robertson or John Hagee from hiring such a firm to go through the trash at the Interfaith Alliance or steal the membership lists of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, so they can start harrassing you or me?

“The company paid private spies to collect phone records and other private information on prominent activists, to root through dumpsters and infiltrate the staffs of environmental organizations,” says the FreePress. Mother Jones noted that “[R]ecords include[d] internal and confidential financial reports of a local bank that had been the subject of a takeover.” One of the firms BBI targeted suffered a break-in that included the theft of laptops and file boxes.

The unethical, immoral propietors of BBI bascially killed the company while snapping at each other, but they have since been snapped up by other security firms and are presumbably still doing essentially the same illegal things. And let us not be fooled by the fact that corporate espionage is pervasive, even expected — it is still illegal. Did BBI have limits, ops that were too black even for them? “On the advice of Cannistraro and Bresett, BBI turned down a $1 million job with the Church of Scientology, according to Dodd.” So I guess even they have their limits. Thank Xenu for small favors.

So if you’re ever daring enough to have an independent thought for yourself and <shudder> actually share it with another human being, congratulations — apparently you have just invited corporate America to go dumpster-diving in your organization’s parking lot, or to go on a panty raid in your daughter’s dorm. Meet the love of your life at your local ACLU meeting? Watch out — he may be an ex-spook assigned to infiltrate. Start campaining for net neutrality? Comcast has got your number, baby! Your credit card number, your pin number, your social security number…. Invested in that paper shredder for your mail yet?

 BB,

Vivienne

Tags: Current Events, Morals, Vivienne D'Avalon by Vivienne D'Avalon
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How about me and you have a quick little chat.

After the Pennsylvania Primary I have one thing to say:

GIVE THE FUCK UP!1!!1

Look, you can’t win. You said that we should let the voters decide (and they did). Then, you said that the voters don’t matter because the Super Delegates know best. So when you were in the lead you loved the American Voter, when you got your ass handed to you in 12 states, suddenly they don’t matter. Stop cannibalizing your own party. Fuck.

This post brought to you by a fucking registered Republican who knows Obama can beat McCain and you can’t.

-Magus-

PS. I used to have no respect for you politics or your character. Now I have even less.

Tags: Current Events, Government, Magus Dethen, Politics by Magus Dethen
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Dance Dance Revolution: Jefferson Mix

Alright, say that one of your favorite founding fathers was having a birthday — a person that is considered by Libertarians to be one of the greatest men to have ever held office (dare I say, even better than Ron Paul [yes I mentioned him {and FYI I voted for him} ] so leave us alone about not including him!).
Now for those disadvantaged students that studied American history in an American school, let me introduce you to one of my favorite presidents, second in my esteem only to Roosevelt — Teddy, not commie — Tomas Jefferson.
Let me list a few of the reasons Jefferson was great:

1) He was the 2nd Vice President of the United States and the 3rd President of the United States (third time’s the charm).
2) He was responsible for the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of America at the time).
3) He considered much of the New Testament of the Bible to be lies, and was deeply suspicious of Catholic priests and bishops, feeling they were a reactionary force promoting ignorance (man after my own heart).
4) He wrote the Declaration of Independence, including the statement “that all men are created equal.” You know, that may even include gays, blacks, pagans, and women. Just a thought.
5) He said:

“I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical… God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty… What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?”

(One of my favorite quotes.)

Again, a man after my own heart; bring out the pitch forks!

To celebrate this great patriot’s birthday, you might say to yourself, “why not throw a party at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C.?”
The place is open 24/7, or so the website says. So this is exactly what a group of 20 people decided to do — even though “the cake is a lie” — to “party hard” by dancing to music they were playing (silently, using head phones) on their mp3 players.

So — they came, they partied, they left — right?

Right?

Not really. Enter the swine, in the form of a park officer who arrested one of the dancers. You might think there must have been some legitimate reason for the arrest. You know, like fighting back, or even just being belligerent to the officer.

No.

Then what?
The heinous crime was simply asking why the group was being asked to leave.
For this unforgivable sin, one patriotic partier was actually arrested and held for several hours before finally being released.
Don’t just take my word for it — I had a hard time believing it myself. Check out the youtube videos under the cut.
[Read more →]

Tags: Current Events, Government, Humor, Magus Dethen by Magus Dethen
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Alright, to catch you up from the last time we had this conversation,
We have figured out that religion has struck down:

Evolution
Stem cell research
Nanotechnology

So what next? How about opposing a cure for cancer?
Yep, they are against preventing cancer!

And not just some obscure cancer that no one’s ever heard of; this one affects half a million people.

The good news about this type of cancer is that there is a vaccine against it — or rather, against the virus that is the leading cause of it — genital human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer.

But back to why Americans are against it. Are you ready?
Because (gasp!) vaccination “might encourage premarital sex!”

How so, you ask?

Because, for the vaccine to be effective, you need to use it before there is any risk of contact with HPV, which means before someone becomes sexually active. (Though men can’t get cervical cancer, they can still catch HPV, become an asymptomatic carrier, and thus unknowingly pass it to their sexual partners). So the best strategy is, as the cigarette companies say, ” get them while they’re young.”

Unfortunately, here in America we blindly follow abstinence-only “education” policies. The proponents of such policies erroneously but fervently believe that if we vaccinate children against this virus, they’ll take that as a signal that it’s OK to go have sex, instead of waiting until marriage “like God wants you to.” (Apparently the sacrament of marriage is some kind of miraculous vaccine against HPV and a cure for cancer — wait ’til the pharmaceutical companies hear of this, and figure out a way to patent it and make a fortune off of overcharging for it!)

Well, FUCK THAT!
No, really — FUCK THAT!

This is a very personal issue for me. I have a friend who is dying from cervical cancer, not because she had consensual premarital sex, but because she was raped. If she had been given this vaccine before that horrid incident, maybe she would not be dying now, when she’s still too young to legally drink!

Use some common sense, people! Are you going to go find some rusty nails and jab yourself with them, just because you’ve been vaccinated against tetanus? Are you really looking forward to rejoicing at your 18 year-old daughter’s funeral because “the little slut got what she deserved for sinning against God?”

What worries me most about this kind of twisted logic is a big “what if ” scenario: What if we discover a vaccine that successfully prevents HIV and AIDS? HIV is also sexually transmitted (among other methods), and it’s widely believed among the religious right to have been “created by God to kill fags.”

So, how much do you want to bet that if an HIV vaccine becomes available, the religious “wrong” will try to squash that, too?

Personally, I can’t afford to take that bet. I apparently need to save every penny, just so I’ll be able to buy the life-saving vaccines I need on the black market.

-Magus-

Tags: Christianity, Magus Dethen, Morals, Religion, Science and Technology by Magus Dethen
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Tags: Christianity, Current Events, Government, Morals, Paganism, Politics, Vivienne D'Avalon by Vivienne D'Avalon
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The compendium for the 2007 New Orleans Harry Potter symposium, Phoenix Rising, is out and my paper, “Sirius Black: the Face of Eleggua in the Potterverse” is in it. The table of contents is here.  It can be purchased here.

Tags: Entertainment, Paganism, Vivienne D'Avalon by Vivienne D'Avalon
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The film legend passed away this past Saturday, April 5, 2008, at the age of 84.

In the past he was most famously known for saying “let my people go” and “soylent green is people!”  But most recently he was better known for saying that his musket would be taken “from my cold, dead hands.”

A hero to the NRA (National Rifle Association), a bane to gun control lobbyists, Heston fought hard and long to protect his Constitutional right to bear arms.  Not everyone agreed with his stance, but he worked hard for what he believed and he did it larger than life, as grand a figure as any of the characters he played on screen. 

The number of culturally relevant films he starred in is staggering, from Moses and Ben Hur to Planet of the Apes.  I highly recommend checking out the filmography and renting any of the most important films you haven’t yet seen, to remind yourself of the impact this one man’s film career had on our culture.

Mr. Heston, you have earned a well-deserved rest. 

See his Wikipedia entry here.

Tags: Current Events, Entertainment, Vivienne D'Avalon by Vivienne D'Avalon
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Alright people, Obama scored a 37 out of 300 bowling.

BOWLING!

How the FUCK does this at all matter to the election?

No, tell me. Really.

Hell, he can beat me in a game of bowling; unless it’s on the Wii, then I can get a 40! W00t!

This just shows you how asinine this election has gotten. I mean, how many delegates would Obama have gotten if he bowled a 300? My guess is, one Spartan.

So again, does this matter when “Delegates Decide the Democratic Candidate: Your Vote Does Not Matter ‘08?” Well, it does matter, because once again it’s coming back to the race issue!

MSNBC political analyst Howard Fineman decided to tell America on Hardball, “he should have stuck to shooting hoops.” So I wonder, what would he have said if Mrs. Clinton had scored a 37? “She should have stuck to stitching quilts?” Or McCain? “He should have stuck to shouting at kids on the lawn like other grandfathers?” Or Ron Paul (because if I don’t mention him other bloggers will get mad at us)? “He should have stuck to shouting at kids on the lawn — about the Constitution?”

So this little issue of only scoring 37 pins, 37! Has nothing, NOTHING to do with the election (except, of course, that more underlying racial tension comes to light). This is just as bad as hearing about Britney Spears’ latest crisis. Why don’t we just get this election over with; after all, don’t you know that line 37 on page 666 of the Patriot Act says that Bush automatically gets a 3rd term?

But then, even that might not happen if the Large Hadron Collider kills us all (more about that later).
-Magus-

Tags: Government, Humor, Magus Dethen, Politics, Science and Technology by Magus Dethen
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