Category: Culture

“Killers, Victims or Bystanders”

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Killers, Victims, or Bystanders

By D. S. Mitchell

Indifference Is Seductive

Elie Wiesel, teacher, writer, philosopher and Auschwitz death camp survivor, said in a speech before the US Congress in 1999, “indifference can be tempting-more than that, seductive.  It is much easier to look away from victims.  It is after all, awkward and troublesome to be involved in another person’s pain and despair.”

Three Categories

Furthermore, “to be indifferent to that suffering makes the human being, inhuman.  Indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor-never the victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten.  The political prisoner, the starving children, the homeless refugees-not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory.  And in denying their humanity, we betray our own.  Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment.  Where I came from, society was composed of three simple categories: the killers, the victims, and the bystanders.”

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Conspiracy Theories Fly With Epstein’s Death

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By D. S. Mitchell

Twitter On Fire

There is a great deal of discussion about whether sex trafficker and pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide, or was murdered. OMG, if you have been on Twitter; or watching the 24/7 cable news, over the last week, the hue and cry has been thundering.  The conspiracy theories are flying, and they aren’t flattering to many high profile men, such as Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitiz, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and strangely, AG William Barr’s father, Donald Barr.

Failure Of Explanations

I have a few times in my life knowingly and eagerly embraced a “conspiracy theory.” The reason of course, was because I could not accept the unbelievable government “explanations.”  The first and second were the murders of JFK and RFK. I just have felt that the Kennedy brothers made some very powerful enemies. Their enemies believed the Kennedy’s were dangerous to the country.

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Household Helps: Cleaning Schedule

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Cleaning Schedule

By D. S. Mitchell

Helpful Hints

I love saving helpful hints. You know the stuff you see on the side bars of Good Housekeeping. I’ve had some things saved so long they may have been written in cuneiform. These little hints and helps are often preserved written on the back of an envelope, or a crumpled magazine page I snatched from a magazine at my doctor’s office. I have an entire filing cabinet drawer memorializing “helpful hints”.

Rolodex Mind

John S., my second husband was a very organized fellow. He had a schedule for nearly everything. You know, those things a conscientious hubby tends to do around the house. He kept track of oil changes for the cars, Spring window washing, furnace filter changes, gutter cleaning. You get the idea. Anyway, I often miss his “already done” attitude toward household tasks. When I saw this household cleaning schedule I just knew I had to have it….and pass it on, of course.

When Lights Come On

Seriously, without this list how would you know that the coffee maker that I haven’t cleaned since I took it out of the box should have been cleaned every day.  That I should be cleaning the mirrors weekly but instead I clear them after they steam up from the shower with my bath towel.  Monthly cleaning includes maintenance on the vacuum cleaner instead of changing the bag when the light comes on.  Ovens aren’t cleaned when you want your deposit back, you’re supposed to do it every 3 to 6 months.  And finally, I’m pretty sure that none of my homes have ever been pressure washed, let alone annually.

Now you can refer to this list in order to better ignore important tasks around your home too!

Enjoy your weekend checking off chores on your cleaning schedule.

 

The Paradox of Our Time

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By D. S. Mitchell

Some who know the Moorehead story may object to my publication of “The Paradox of Our Time (Age)”.  Because, there is a devastatingly ugly back story about Dr. Moorehead.

Nose-dive

Moorehead was the leader of a congregation totaling more than 6,500 followers. In 1998 Moorehead was arrested in Florida for indecent exposure in a public bathroom. When his Florida arrest hit the newspapers back in Seattle, his life took a nose-dive.  It wasn’t long before 17 men came forward with allegations that the good reverend was guilty of sexual abuse. Moorehead resigned in disgrace. It appears he avoided jail time because of statute of limitation issues. However, his condemnation of modern times remains with us.

Choose Your Source

Over the years the authorship of this essay has been hotly debated.  It has been attributed to many sources, including comedienne George Carlin, an anonymous Columbine high school student and even the Dali Lama.  Carlin vehemently denied the authorship before he died. In fact, he trashed the piece calling it, “a sappy load of shit”.

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Dershowitz Admits To Massages At Epstein’s Mansion

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Massages At Epstein’s Mansion

By D. S. Mitchell

Dershowitz Shamelessness

In a recently uncovered taped interview from 2015, Dershowitz claimed, that he “didn’t really like massages”. REALLY? Dershowitz has been shameless in his rejection of the truth, but such statements are ridiculous.

Tidy Whities

That stated apathy to massages didn’t stop him from getting a 15-year-old girl to give him massages. He now calls the child a “prostitute”. Come on man, a 15-year-old girl cannot legally give permission to an adult male for sexual favors.  Remember folks he says he “kept (his) underwear on”.

I Doubt It

Just look at Deshowitz. He’s definitely not something a teenage prom queen is hankering for. So an ugly old white man got something he didn’t want, or requested, from sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, while he was at Epstein’s house? Was there someone holding a gun to his head? I doubt it.

Speaking For Myself

I was fifteen once. If an guy as old and creepy as Dershowitz came within 5 feet of me it would have sent me screaming into the arms of the nearest high school football player.  Only the most complicit supporters can be convinced that a 15-year-old child would be interested in Alan Dershowitz. My guess is that young girls were coerced, intimidated, or threatened to perform sexual services on rich, old, white men. Being given some cash after-the-fact by a slave master does not make you any less a slave

A Friend?

Epstein is and was an ADMITTED pedophile. That isn’t open to debate. Yet Dershowitz considers this predatory victimizer of children a “friend”. I want to know why the media isn’t asking Mr. Dershowitz why he would consider a man like Jeffrey Epstein a friend? He was supposedly a client. When did he stop being “a client” and become his “friend”? Epstein is an admitted pedophile and Dershowitz goes to his home as a FRIEND, not as his attorney?

Standards Matter

Standards matter. If I ever found out a “friend” of mine was a pedophile, I would immediately sever the relationship. Furthermore, when Dershowitz, an officer of the court, declares a 15-year-old child to be a “prostitute” he is clearly manipulating facts.  The only reason Dershowitz calls her a “prostitute” is because he wants to decrease her worth as a human being. SHAME ON YOU, ALAN DERSHOWITZ.

 

Trump Friend Arrested On Sex Trafficking Charges

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Trump Associate Arrested

By D. S. Mitchell

Big News

The big news Saturday July 6th, 2019 was all about the Jeff Epstein arrest in New York. Epstein, a hedge fund billionaire, and registered sex offender has been the center of scandal and corruption for decades.

Head Banging

Donald Trump, our current president, has been a long-time Epstein friend and associate. I wonder if Trump has spent this week-end banging his head against the wall? Whether he is head-banging or hair-pulling, I bet Trump is throwing a mindless fit.

High Flyers

Trump told New York magazine in 2002 that Epstein was “a lot of fun to be with.” Epstein was known to entertain his high-flying friends on his private Caribbean island or at the Gatsby-like parties he threw at his luxury homes in Manhattan, New Mexico and Palm Beach, Florida.

Prince Andrew

Prince Andrew, younger brother of Prince Charles was reportedly close with Epstein. Andrew was forced to step down from his prominent position as special UK representative for trade in 2011, after it was reported that Epstein had once arranged a sexual encounter for the prince with a 17-year-old girl — one of a number of under-aged girls Epstein allegedly groomed to entertain his powerful male friends.

Princes And Presidents

Andrew wasn’t the only prominent man who was caught up in the Epstein sex scandal.  It is well known that at one point, Epstein also hung out with both Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, the Washington Post reported. 

In The Old Days

Trump commented in a 2002 interview that Epstein, “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” Trump has had at least 22 women make allegations of sexual assault against him. Furthermore, there is a very dark story about Trump at an Epstein party many years ago. The oft repeated tale, alleged by a then 13-year-old girl, is that Trump raped her. Epstein was given a very sweet deal in Florida, let’s see if his money and powerful friends will be coming to his aid in this now very public case in New York.

 

What Happened At Columbine

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NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This is a piece I wrote about the Columbine tragedy. It turned out a bit different than I thought it was going to, but I think it works. It basically centers on the difficulty of really knowing the past with so many factors and interests involved, and ends with a counter-factual. A counter-factual is a sort of intellectual game we historians do to better understand what actually happened. We go through the facts and find a factor, usually a small one, that plausibly could have changed everything; presuming everything else stayed the same.

My factor was the fact that both of the attackers were under the legal age to buy the kind of guns they used and had to get them through an illegal “straw purchase.” In this case, meaning through a third-party, someone who got them at a gun show from unlicensed sellers. Had this not happened they would have been left with their primary bomb plot which if successful would have been the second largest domestic bomb attack after Oklahoma City. We, however, know that the large bombs completely failed and the homemade pipe-bombs were ineffective, all of the deaths coming from gunshots. No guns, no dead and what is seen as the first-mass shooting becomes an embarrassing fuck-up-T.K. McNeil

What Really Happened At Columbine

By Trevor K. McNeil

When Are Facts, Really Facts?

Recording history accurately is a tricky business at best. Particularly when there is a degree of shock and trauma involved in the events. Passion, stress and the now known unreliability of eye-witness reports make accuracy difficult if not impossible to piece together.  Furthermore, human memory can lead to things being a matter of record that turn out not to be true. The only reason we have a good idea of what happened on 9/11 is that there is video. But to this day, there are theorists who believe there were explosives inside the towers that were the real cause of the towers collapse.

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THE BENEFITS OF PORNOGRAPHY

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OPINION:

THE BENEFITS OF PORNOGRAPHY

By Trevor K. McNeil

Always With Us

Archeologists have long known that as long as there have been people there has been sex. And nearly as long as there has been human sexuality there have been representations of it.  Whatever medium was available at the time, cave wall, animal tusk, clay or papyrus pornography was available. Obviously, our forefathers understood the benefits of pornography.

Across Cultures

Through sculpting, painting, and pottery the ancients depicted the benefits of pornography.  Egyptian artisans depicted the beauty of human sexuality. This goes for the written word, there being some pretty racy entries in the Bible.  The Song of Solomon being a famous example. The Romans through sculpture glorified human sexuality.  Pre-Christian Viking sagas told of great adventures; and no great adventure would be worth telling if there wasn’t plenty of sex.

Today

The benefits of pornography have followed us through the ages; emerging today primarily in streaming videos on the internet.  Thanks to the vision of our forefathers we have reached for the stars and surpassed them.

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SEARCHING FOR ALTERNATIVES TO OPIOIDS

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Alternatives To Opioids

By D. S. Mitchell & Trevor K. McNeil

Definitions: *Opiate and opioid are often used interchangeably although that interchange of usage is not precisely accurate. The following would be more correct:

Opiate: A drug (such as morphine, codeine or heroin) containing or derived from opium or the opium poppy, used to alleviate pain, or induce sleep or euphoria.

Opioid: A synthetic or semi-synthetic drug producing an opium-like effect, often prescribed for the alleviation of moderate to severe pain; a prescription painkiller in the opiate class.

Balancing Act

With drugs, even those considered alternatives to opioids, there is always a risk. Even a “safe” drug such as caffeine.  Caffeine is regularly consumed by children, and has had documented negative effects. The same goes for nicotine, deemed for the most part “safe” except when smoked by children. Some of those effects include paranoia, muscle spasms and heart arrhythmia’s. The question becomes how much of a risk is there; and are the positive effects worth the negative risks?

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25 Things To Love About America

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By D. S. Mitchell

I have been on a hair pulling rant for the last 48 hours.  I recognize that. I am taking off my Calamity Politics Editor’s cap, and putting on a ball cap, and getting the hell out of this office. The blogger’s life is a good life, most of the time. Sometimes, however, U.S. politics and political rhetoric can just sap the energy from a person, no matter how earnest their intent.

So, let’s take time, lighten up, smoke one and check out, ‘25 Things To Love about America.’ These strange bits of illumination were partly supplied by Bowers’ and Gottlieb’s amazing book ‘1,000 Things To Love About America.’  Although I have used some of their text, but I have changed the numbering.

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