The Matthew Shepard Act (S.909) is essentially an updated version of the hate crime law that was passed four decades ago, which allows for federal prosecution of crimes committed on the basis of victims' race, religion, or ethnicity while the victim(s) is engaged in a federally-protected activity such as voting or attending a public school.
The act simply adds gender, sexual orientation, and disability to the list, and removes the stipulation that the victim(s) must be engaged in federally-protected activity when the crime occurs. It also provides an opening for federal investigators to get involved in hate-crime investigations that state and local law enforcement can't handle or won't pursue. This makes sense, as federal hate-crime legislation applies only to federal crimes.
Opposition to hate-crime legislation focuses primarily on the definition of "hate". Critics point out that:
- all crimes are hate-based; therefore, laws specifically aimed at hate crime are unnecessary
- the legislation provides special status and protection for minority groups while ignoring hate crimes against majority groups
- the legislation may criminalize free speech. For example, members of religious groups have been charged with hate crimes for publicly criticizing homosexuality.
- the laws can be exploited by individuals or groups who wish to silence ideological opponents
- it is difficult or impossible to determine a perp's motive. For instance, an assault that seems to be racially motivated may actually be a random attack.
- the laws criminalize stupidity and ignorance. Example: Holocaust deniers may not be engaging in hate speech; they may just be poorly educated.
- a perp's motive is immaterial to the nature of the crime and how it should be prosecuted
I believe there is some validity to all of these arguments, except for the last two.
Intent is a crucial component of the legal system. Determining what a perp intended to do at the time a crime occurred is a major factor in the filing of charges, prosecution, and sentencing. It can spell the difference between a life sentence and a death sentence.
Stupidity should never be a prosecutable offense, but it should be up to the legal system to decide if a particular case involves hate or ignorance.
Let's look at Jones' and Ted Pike's reasons for opposing the new hate-crime legislation:
It will criminalize free speech. There is some validity to this, as mentioned above, but the notion that the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act will criminalize all free speech is absurd. And the Matthew Shepard Act specifies that hate speech can be used as evidence of hate crime only if it directly relates to the crime. Hate speech is still fully protected by the First Amendment. In other words, you're not going to be charged with a hate crime because you said "I hate gays". However, if you said "I hate gays" while beating a gay man with a baseball bat, your comment can be used as evidence at your trial.
Groups that have previously rejected proposed hate-crime legislation on the grounds that it threatened free speech, like the ACLU, have embraced the Shepard Act because it is the first such act that protects free speech.
It will create a "supergroup of supercitizens, and titles them nobility" (Jones). Okay, that's almost too weird to even discuss on a rational level.
Like civil rights legislation, hate crime laws are designed to protect the rights of historically persecuted minorities. If you want to argue that minorities don't need extra protection from persecution or discrimination because existing laws are sufficient, fine. But don't try to argue that minorities are suddenly going to be elevated to privileged status by some amendments to existing laws. Even in Canada, where hate speech laws are in effect, minorities do not enjoy special social status.
You can be arrested and charged for hurting someone's feelings, because the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act specifies that "causing significant emotional distress" via electronic means can result in prosecution. This seems like ridiculously loose wording, but there are actually well-defined legal perimeters for what constitutes emotional distress. In fact, emotional distress (commonly known as "pain and suffering") is a key component of personal injury law, anti-stalking legislation, and the law against cruel and unusual punishment, among other things. So if you're going to oppose anti-bullying legislation on those grounds, you should oppose all these other laws as well.
Some countries, like Canada, have hate propaganda laws that forbid the denigration of minorities. The U.S. does not. Hate speech is fully protected in the U.S. The Matthew Shepard Act applies only to existing hate crime legislation; it does not create a new hate propaganda law.
That said, I actually agree with Jones et.al. that other parts of the Cyberbullying Act are too loosely worded. In fact, I think the entire act needs to be scrapped or redrafted.
It doesn't protect straight white people from hate crimes. Sorry, guys, but you're not a minority. Get your own damn bill.
The legislation is identical to policies of the Soviet Union. Pike claims that Lenin's recorded speech against anti-Semitism contained a warning that any Soviet citizen who referred to a Bolshevik as Jewish would be put to death. Untrue. This was written by Stalin in 1931, and even Stalin didn't slice hairs so thinly - he wrote that "active anti-Semites" were liable to the death penalty. Lenin simply told Russians they should be ashamed of themselves for anti-Semitism, pogroms, and other atrocities against the Jewish people. There was no death penalty for anti-Semitism under Lenin. And Stalin's own anti-Semitic hate crimes belie the notion that ethnic and religious minorities had any true protection in Soviet Russia.
If your speech incites or influences the commission of a hate crime, you can be prosecuted. Again, hate speech is fully protected by the First Amendment. This stipulation in the original 1969 hate crime law applies only to speech that incites or provokes federal crimes against specified minorities. You can say, "Immigrants shouldn't be allowed to vote", but if you say "You must physically prevent immigrants from voting" and your audience does just that, you can be liable. If you want to avoid being prosecuted under this section of the law, simply avoid telling other people to commit hate crimes.
You can be arrested for saying that 5, 999, 999 Jews died in the Holocaust or using a racial slur. Okay, for the last freaking time, hate speech (including Holocaust denial and racist speech) is protected in the U.S.
The Cyberbullying Act may make it harder for racist broadcasters to sound off on the radio or television, but they're already subject to FCC regulations (not to mention company policies) that limit that sort of thing.
The Matthew Shepard Act violates states' rights by allowing federal investigators to intervene in hate crime cases. As mentioned, these are already federal crimes. Permitting federal agents to investigate federal crimes makes sense, doesn't it? I don't see anyone complaining when the feds step into kidnapping, drug trafficking, or terrorism cases.
The act also increases funding to state and local jurisdictions for the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes, but neither Pike nor Jones mentioned this.
The bottom line: If the Shepard Act is defeated, federal hate crime legislation will still be in place. It just won't protect as many minorities. If the act passes, you can still be a bigot to your heart's content - you just won't get away with any bigoted crimes you commit.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Jones Calls in a Hate Speech Expert
The following is a prime example of how my idea of an expert and Jones' idea of an expert couldn't possibly be any different.
If discussing a medical issue like vaccination or Swine Flu, I would talk to licensed health professionals who have dealt extensively with that issue and are able to offer concrete information about it to the public.
Jones talks to doctors who have been stripped of their licenses, people who have no formal medical training at all, and doctors who attribute the spread of disease to Lucifer.
If discussing the Cyberbullying Act and hate speech legislation, I would talk to an ACLU rep, a human rights advocate specializing in free speech, or maybe an attorney.
Jones talks to Ted Pike.
The Reverend Pike is the head of the National Prayer Network, a Christian organization that provides two things: God's word, and reasons why a lot of Jews suck.
Like virtually all anti-Semites, Rev. Pike indignantly and vociferously insists that he is not anti-Semitic. He simply devotes most of his time to pointing out how mean, greedy, and amoral a lot of Jewish people are. He also likes to point out that they killed Jesus, and how anyone who says otherwise is just covering up the truthiness and persecuting nice people like Mel Gibson.
Rev. Pike's National Prayer Network website is bursting with information about the "threat of evil Jewish leadership" posed by hate speech laws, as well as charming cartoons about black men crucifying straight white men.
Many of his articles decry the persecution of the "well-researched movement" made up of "Holocaust reductionists" like Fredrik Toben.
Oh, and the word of God? That part of the website is still under construction. You'll have to go elsewhere for that. Maybe, I dunno, the Bible?
I'd provide a link to the NPN site to make life easier for you, but then I would have to bathe in kerosene to strip away the yuck.
The National Prayer Network was founded by Pike's father, Claude, in the late '70s to campaign for a national day of prayer. Today, Rev. Pike is on the staff of the American Free Press. In 2006 he co-authored an article on the Jewish threat, the other authors being National Vanguard staffers (NV was dissolved a year later, when its founder was convicted of child porn offenses). His books and videos are very popular with other neo-Nazi/white supremacist organizations, as well.
In other words, Rev. Pike is very much a part of the anti-Semitic culture in America, whether he's actually anti-Semitic or not. The national day of prayer fell by the wayside a long time ago - a single page of the NPN website is currently devoted to it.
Truthtellers groups are organized along the lines of Campus Crusade, but rather than being devoted to Christian college life, their mandate is to "fight" pro-gay professors and staff. Rev. Pike bragged about the success of this program in his 2002 book Shaking Campus Liberalism: How Christian Students Defied the Pro-Gay Faculty...and Won!.
This is the kind of demented little assmonkey Jones turns to when he wants to educate the public about the perils of hate-speech legislation. Are you still going to tell me that Alex Jones is a "Zionist shill"?
If discussing a medical issue like vaccination or Swine Flu, I would talk to licensed health professionals who have dealt extensively with that issue and are able to offer concrete information about it to the public.
Jones talks to doctors who have been stripped of their licenses, people who have no formal medical training at all, and doctors who attribute the spread of disease to Lucifer.
If discussing the Cyberbullying Act and hate speech legislation, I would talk to an ACLU rep, a human rights advocate specializing in free speech, or maybe an attorney.
Jones talks to Ted Pike.
The Reverend Pike is the head of the National Prayer Network, a Christian organization that provides two things: God's word, and reasons why a lot of Jews suck.
Like virtually all anti-Semites, Rev. Pike indignantly and vociferously insists that he is not anti-Semitic. He simply devotes most of his time to pointing out how mean, greedy, and amoral a lot of Jewish people are. He also likes to point out that they killed Jesus, and how anyone who says otherwise is just covering up the truthiness and persecuting nice people like Mel Gibson.
Rev. Pike's National Prayer Network website is bursting with information about the "threat of evil Jewish leadership" posed by hate speech laws, as well as charming cartoons about black men crucifying straight white men.
Many of his articles decry the persecution of the "well-researched movement" made up of "Holocaust reductionists" like Fredrik Toben.
Oh, and the word of God? That part of the website is still under construction. You'll have to go elsewhere for that. Maybe, I dunno, the Bible?
I'd provide a link to the NPN site to make life easier for you, but then I would have to bathe in kerosene to strip away the yuck.
The National Prayer Network was founded by Pike's father, Claude, in the late '70s to campaign for a national day of prayer. Today, Rev. Pike is on the staff of the American Free Press. In 2006 he co-authored an article on the Jewish threat, the other authors being National Vanguard staffers (NV was dissolved a year later, when its founder was convicted of child porn offenses). His books and videos are very popular with other neo-Nazi/white supremacist organizations, as well.
In other words, Rev. Pike is very much a part of the anti-Semitic culture in America, whether he's actually anti-Semitic or not. The national day of prayer fell by the wayside a long time ago - a single page of the NPN website is currently devoted to it.
Truthtellers groups are organized along the lines of Campus Crusade, but rather than being devoted to Christian college life, their mandate is to "fight" pro-gay professors and staff. Rev. Pike bragged about the success of this program in his 2002 book Shaking Campus Liberalism: How Christian Students Defied the Pro-Gay Faculty...and Won!.
This is the kind of demented little assmonkey Jones turns to when he wants to educate the public about the perils of hate-speech legislation. Are you still going to tell me that Alex Jones is a "Zionist shill"?
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Jones Suing a Fan?
I really don't like to discuss Alex Jones' off-air behaviour, but if it's true this is kind of infuriating, and it is directly related to his broadcasts: Jones is reportedly suing a former Prison Planet forum moderator, Chris Arnold, for posting Jones' videos on his own website. If you're a regular listener, you know that Jones virtually orders his listeners to freely copy and distribute his documentaries to get the word out there. The catch here is that the website in question had some advertising (to pay for the site, presumably), and Jones and/or his lawyer feels he should be getting a cut.
To my knowledge, Jones has never specified that you shouldn't post his videos on sites that advertise. While I can understand being irked by someone else making money off your work, the revenue from these ads probably wasn't even enough to pay for the site itself (considering Jones' documentaries are available on YouTube, Google Video, and many other prominent web-sharing sites).
During his money bomb drive, Jones mentioned that part of the proceeds could go into a legal defense fund because some people were talking about suing him. That may be true, and donors were obviously okay with that. But I don't know if they wanted their money to go towards suing other fans, instead of "fighting the New World Order".
To my knowledge, Jones has never specified that you shouldn't post his videos on sites that advertise. While I can understand being irked by someone else making money off your work, the revenue from these ads probably wasn't even enough to pay for the site itself (considering Jones' documentaries are available on YouTube, Google Video, and many other prominent web-sharing sites).
During his money bomb drive, Jones mentioned that part of the proceeds could go into a legal defense fund because some people were talking about suing him. That may be true, and donors were obviously okay with that. But I don't know if they wanted their money to go towards suing other fans, instead of "fighting the New World Order".
Monday, July 6, 2009
Classic Quote
From Sunday's broadcast:
"They're taking us down now...
These elites don't care about you...
These are ruthless, cold-blooded world conquerers using financial systems to blast out economies and get people under their control and domesticated and dependent on them. And if they can't do that, they'll fund terror organizations and revolutionary groups in your country to overthrow you, or they'll hire your military to overthrow you, or they'll come in and bombard your nation and blow its infrastructure out and then sit back for 15 years waging siege on your nation 'til millions of your people starve to death, then they'll come in and take over... At least people out there could wake up and face how much trouble we're in, but you won't, because you want to be slaves and bankrupt homeless! Okay, get what you want, then!
Look. I'm not trying to be negative, here."
"They're taking us down now...
These elites don't care about you...
These are ruthless, cold-blooded world conquerers using financial systems to blast out economies and get people under their control and domesticated and dependent on them. And if they can't do that, they'll fund terror organizations and revolutionary groups in your country to overthrow you, or they'll hire your military to overthrow you, or they'll come in and bombard your nation and blow its infrastructure out and then sit back for 15 years waging siege on your nation 'til millions of your people starve to death, then they'll come in and take over... At least people out there could wake up and face how much trouble we're in, but you won't, because you want to be slaves and bankrupt homeless! Okay, get what you want, then!
Look. I'm not trying to be negative, here."
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Al Gore and the Suitcase of Blood
It's an indie movie just waiting to happen.
According to Jones' frequent guest Alan Watt (not to be confused with the late Alan Watts, who was actually quite intelligent), all prime ministers, high-level bureaucrats, and VIPs carry at least two pints of their own blood with them wherever they go. He surmises this is because THEY know how contaminated we serfs have already become by all the toxins THEY are using to poison us into extinction.
Jones added that USA Today reported that Al Gore travels with an entire fridgeful of blood.
I couldn't find any credible source for the Fridge of Blood story, but a Suitcase of Blood story is quite popular among the fringier conspiranoids on the Internets. Some say Gore is a vampire, others think he's a Reptilian, and one YouTuber wonders if he's addicted to adrenochrome.
Whatever he is, the story seems to have originated with Fritz Springmeier, a fundie mind-control deprogrammer and professional conspiranoid who used to give Prophecy Club lectures on the "13 bloodlines of the Illuminati". A huge amount of the weird misinfo featured in David Icke's books (like the nonexistent "Mothers of Darkness" castle near the village of Muno, Belgium) comes from Springmeier's lectures and his mammoth books The 13 Bloodlines of the Illuminati and The Illuminati Formula Used to Create an Undetectable Mind-Controlled Slave. (That's right - you can actually create your very own invisible zombies. Go ahead and add that to your Amazon wish list. I'm sure it will come in handy.)
Springmeier is currently serving prison time for plotting a 1997 armed bank robbery in Portland, Oregon. Needless to say, he and his supporters insist he was framed by the Illuminati.
According to comments on the Prison Planet and Infowars forums, Springmeier mentioned in one of his lectures that Al Gore was apprehended at an airport with a suspicious-looking suitcase. It turned out to be full of numerous "packets" full of Gore's own blood. The media allegedly covered for Mr. Gore's vampirism/blood addiction by telling the American public he's a hemophiliac.
A strange conspiracy-art vid on YouTube, titled Al Gore Addicted to Blood??!!!, features audio of conspiracy researcher Steven Soros telling the Suitcase of Blood/hemophiliac story, and hinting that Gore is hooked on adrenochrome.
The trail ends there.
Whichever version of the story you choose - fridge or suitcase - it doesn't make much sense. Gore is not a hemophiliac, and apparently has never been misidentified as one by the mainstream media. Blood supplies are not hauled around in briefcases. Hemophiliacs don't use their own blood for transfusions. And if we are thoroughly contaminated by environmental pollutants, then THEY are too; it's not as though Gore and company can take space-vacations to detox themselves while the rest of us are stuck on Earth, stewing in all the air-, water-, and food-borne chemicals. Although that would also make a decent indie movie.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Ken and Barbie Take on the New World Order
...or at least talk about it on the radio, to squeeze out an extra five minutes of fame.
Heidi Montag and husband Spencer Pratt have declared in an Alex Jones interview that they will not be implanted with microchips for any reason. No need, really. Their credit cards already have chips, and they're permanently fused to their skin.
Admittedly, I avoid reality TV, so most of the background information here comes from Al Roker's interview of Montag and Pratt on The Today Show. I've seen a lot of Jon Minus Kate because it's my stepdaughter's favourite show (and we had bets going on how long it would take Jon to have a nervous breakdown), but I've seen only one partial episode of The Hills, and I've missed the whole Heidi and Spencer Pratt (Speidi) phenomenon aside from what I could glean while standing in line at the grocery store. I'm still not shedding any tears over that - somehow I doubt that the Pratts will be developing into hardcore activists anytime soon. I've seen just enough clips of Pratt lecturing his competition on I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here ("I'm too rich and I'm too famous to be here!") to know that he's not exactly made of the toughest stuff. Even offscreen, dude uses more hair product than I've ever seen in one place in my life. And Heidi burst into tears when someone removed the labels from her collection of shampoo bottles. Keep in mind that this was in the Costa Rican jungle.
It might seem strange that cosmetically-enhanced California reality show vets would jump on the anti-NWO bandwagon, but to me it makes a small bit of sense:
- While Montag and Pratt aren't stupid, they're young and their experience of the world is limited. Really limited. They probably don't realize yet that the Amero is impractical, mandatory microchip implantation is not imminent, and babies are not issued credit cards at birth.
- Montag is a self-described Republican who would have voted for McCain, if it hadn't been for that Louis Vuitton sale. She is also a "true disciple of Jesus" who wants to be just like Mother Theresa, only with a Playboy layout. Pratt is a born-again, recently baptised by Celebrity co-star and "xtreme sports minister" Stephen Baldwin. Gawd, if that's not trippy...
There has always been a strong conservative link to beauty pageants, plastic surgery, reality television, and other superficial industries. Girls brought up in these circles are generally persuaded to believe that their purpose in life is to marry well, look fabulous, vote straight-ticket Republican, and perhaps do some charity work. So it's no shock that Ms. Montag thinks she's a conservative. What is surprising is that she's jumping on the John Birch wagon, rather than waiting for the Miss California one to roll up (i.e., saying something like, "Even though my body is 20% artificial and I have a few sex tapes floating around, I believe in the sanctity of marriage and I think you might go to hell if you behave like I did two months ago. Don't have sex, kids. Ever.") Maybe the family-values thing is just getting old for California girls, and paranoia is the new chastity? Will we be seeing a wave of Kayleys and Paytons setting aside their makeup just long enough to rant politely about fiat currency, European banking dynasties, and the matrix system of control?
Oh gawd, no. Please.
Meanwhile...
Skipper Works for the New World Order
Miley Cyrus has thrown her support behind the Cyberbullying Act, anti-bullying legislation that would apply to schools and media outlets, among other things. Cyrus has spoken publicly about her own experience of being bullied by girls at school.
Jones objects to some of the broader language in the act, believing he could be arrested if something he says on-air hurts someone else's feelings. Whether he's right about this or is once again loosely interpreting a passage, I don't know; you can read the act for yourself. I just wanted to mention that Miley Cyrus's support of this act led to one of Jones' classic lines: "We don't think Hannah Montana herself is a bad person."
Heidi is concerned that she could be prosecuted for hurtful comments posted on her Twitter feed. Srsly.
Also, though Jones has griped about the tween subversiveness of Hannah Montana, he didn't mention that Stephen Baldwin has a Hannah Montana tattoo. His daughters are such big fans of the show that he wanted to be on it, and figured stamping the initials H.M. on his arm might help (it did).
Like her father, Miley is a church-going Christian. And like the girls in The Hills, she has of course been oversexualized like crazy at a young age.
Jones commented that if Miley is ever on his show, the CIA will probably put pressure on her dad to silence her. He's "mobbed-up with the government."
Whatever you think of Miley, though, her intentions in supporting the Cyberbullying Act are clearly good. And she's a smart, talented, together young woman. Let's just hope she doesn't branch out into paranoia.
The Question Is...
Just where did Hatt or Spiedi or whatever you want to call them obtain their info about the New World Order? Where did they hear about microchip implants, a conspiracy theory that has been drifting aimlessly through the conspiranoid/fundie ether for the past two decades? Though it's been around a long time, it doesn't typically penetrate mainstream conservative discourse (not that the Pratts necessarily have anything to do with discourse of any kind). It is a concern primarily of fringe conservatives and those who represent them, like Alex Jones.
It could have come from Baldwin, who hosts a conservative radio talk show with fundamentalist Kevin McCullough. McCullough is a little out there. He writes columns for World Net Daily, a dumping ground for vaguely religious conspiracy theories about the Amero and the New World Order as well as lots of fundie invective against the erosion of "traditional" values. In his efforts to "overturn liberalism" (as the title of his latest book puts it), he writes almost parodically skewed commentary.
Baldwin threatened to leave the U.S. if Obama was elected. He didn't, of course, because there are many more reality TV shows depending on him for their survival.
So, yeah, these are not the most rational guys around. I wouldn't be stunned if Pratt and Montag received their knowledge of the New World Order agenda from one or both of them, in part. But the couple told Jones that Heidi's manager gave them a copy of The Obama Deception, and that this facilitated their "awakening". Pratt claims they have watched nearly all of Jones' documentaries.
I just can't picture them listening to Alex Jones or Jack Blood on their iPods as they roast their skin on the beach and plan their next cosmetic procedures. But hey, creepier things have happened. Like I said, this could be the beginning of a new trend. Time will tell.
The most horrifying aspect of all of this is that Jones is delighted to have two young, hip, moderately interesting celebs on board because he hopes that Heidi will steer teenage girls away from drinking tapwater (fluoride causes brain damage and calcification of every major organ), being vaccinated, and taking birth control ("sterilizes" women).
I've never heard anyone say that some forms of birth control can render you infertile. That's probably because no form of birth control does that. Anyone who actually understands how and why birth control works knows better than this. There are side effects and risks, of course, but infertility is not one of them - and death from blood clots or other side effects is extremely rare.
While the intentions of pro-abstinence advocates are honorable, lying to our kids and stuffing them full of ridiculously dangerous misinformation isn't actually going to keep them healthy or safe. The fact that Jones apparently doesn't know the difference between infertility and sterility tells me he is far from well-informed on this issue. And Heidi Montag-Pratt isn't remotely qualified to dispense dietary and medical advice, even if it is just on Twitter: When not praying, displaying her junk, or watching Alex Jones docs, she's an event planner; she dropped out of L.A.'s Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising.
Instead of turning to reality TV starlets and radio talk show hosts, girls might be better off turning to, oh, I dunno, maybe doctors?
Jones wants to see a generation of young 'uns just like Speidi.
The Wit and Wisdom of Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt:
On Laguna Beach (season two):
Jen: You can't look for shoes.
Heidi: Yeah, they have to come to you.
From a TV Guide interview about Heidi's music:
Spencer: Relationship aside, like spirituality and, like, the bigger picture of Heidi saving the planet with her music, I just have to be part of that.
On The Hills (season four):
Spencer: We've been talking about this [moving in together] for over a month.
Heidi: Well, my answer is no.
Spencer: Sweet. My answer is get out of my car.
On The Alex Jones Show:
Spencer: We used to have a phenomenal relationship with the media. They've kind of turned on us now because they've created us into such a monstrous thing, monster in their opinion...They made us too big, they Obama-sized us. [he went on to say that the narrator of The Hills didn't like them and contributed to their bad press, just like "the government narrates the media"]
Heidi: They've done such a good job of making computers seem cool...we're incriminating ourselves by laziness...This chip is the end of humanity.
Jones: The really big stars, they're all awake to this.
Spencer (on Bohemian Grove's Cremation of Care ceremony): Anybody dressed in a cloak and around a fire, is not supposed to be who's running America.
Heidi (on the Cremation of Care): I saw that clip and I was praying to Jesus that it was not a real child they were mock-burning...
Heidi Montag and husband Spencer Pratt have declared in an Alex Jones interview that they will not be implanted with microchips for any reason. No need, really. Their credit cards already have chips, and they're permanently fused to their skin.
Admittedly, I avoid reality TV, so most of the background information here comes from Al Roker's interview of Montag and Pratt on The Today Show. I've seen a lot of Jon Minus Kate because it's my stepdaughter's favourite show (and we had bets going on how long it would take Jon to have a nervous breakdown), but I've seen only one partial episode of The Hills, and I've missed the whole Heidi and Spencer Pratt (Speidi) phenomenon aside from what I could glean while standing in line at the grocery store. I'm still not shedding any tears over that - somehow I doubt that the Pratts will be developing into hardcore activists anytime soon. I've seen just enough clips of Pratt lecturing his competition on I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here ("I'm too rich and I'm too famous to be here!") to know that he's not exactly made of the toughest stuff. Even offscreen, dude uses more hair product than I've ever seen in one place in my life. And Heidi burst into tears when someone removed the labels from her collection of shampoo bottles. Keep in mind that this was in the Costa Rican jungle.
It might seem strange that cosmetically-enhanced California reality show vets would jump on the anti-NWO bandwagon, but to me it makes a small bit of sense:
- While Montag and Pratt aren't stupid, they're young and their experience of the world is limited. Really limited. They probably don't realize yet that the Amero is impractical, mandatory microchip implantation is not imminent, and babies are not issued credit cards at birth.
- Montag is a self-described Republican who would have voted for McCain, if it hadn't been for that Louis Vuitton sale. She is also a "true disciple of Jesus" who wants to be just like Mother Theresa, only with a Playboy layout. Pratt is a born-again, recently baptised by Celebrity co-star and "xtreme sports minister" Stephen Baldwin. Gawd, if that's not trippy...
There has always been a strong conservative link to beauty pageants, plastic surgery, reality television, and other superficial industries. Girls brought up in these circles are generally persuaded to believe that their purpose in life is to marry well, look fabulous, vote straight-ticket Republican, and perhaps do some charity work. So it's no shock that Ms. Montag thinks she's a conservative. What is surprising is that she's jumping on the John Birch wagon, rather than waiting for the Miss California one to roll up (i.e., saying something like, "Even though my body is 20% artificial and I have a few sex tapes floating around, I believe in the sanctity of marriage and I think you might go to hell if you behave like I did two months ago. Don't have sex, kids. Ever.") Maybe the family-values thing is just getting old for California girls, and paranoia is the new chastity? Will we be seeing a wave of Kayleys and Paytons setting aside their makeup just long enough to rant politely about fiat currency, European banking dynasties, and the matrix system of control?
Oh gawd, no. Please.
Meanwhile...
Skipper Works for the New World Order
Miley Cyrus has thrown her support behind the Cyberbullying Act, anti-bullying legislation that would apply to schools and media outlets, among other things. Cyrus has spoken publicly about her own experience of being bullied by girls at school.
Jones objects to some of the broader language in the act, believing he could be arrested if something he says on-air hurts someone else's feelings. Whether he's right about this or is once again loosely interpreting a passage, I don't know; you can read the act for yourself. I just wanted to mention that Miley Cyrus's support of this act led to one of Jones' classic lines: "We don't think Hannah Montana herself is a bad person."
Heidi is concerned that she could be prosecuted for hurtful comments posted on her Twitter feed. Srsly.
Also, though Jones has griped about the tween subversiveness of Hannah Montana, he didn't mention that Stephen Baldwin has a Hannah Montana tattoo. His daughters are such big fans of the show that he wanted to be on it, and figured stamping the initials H.M. on his arm might help (it did).
Like her father, Miley is a church-going Christian. And like the girls in The Hills, she has of course been oversexualized like crazy at a young age.
Jones commented that if Miley is ever on his show, the CIA will probably put pressure on her dad to silence her. He's "mobbed-up with the government."
Whatever you think of Miley, though, her intentions in supporting the Cyberbullying Act are clearly good. And she's a smart, talented, together young woman. Let's just hope she doesn't branch out into paranoia.
The Question Is...
Just where did Hatt or Spiedi or whatever you want to call them obtain their info about the New World Order? Where did they hear about microchip implants, a conspiracy theory that has been drifting aimlessly through the conspiranoid/fundie ether for the past two decades? Though it's been around a long time, it doesn't typically penetrate mainstream conservative discourse (not that the Pratts necessarily have anything to do with discourse of any kind). It is a concern primarily of fringe conservatives and those who represent them, like Alex Jones.
It could have come from Baldwin, who hosts a conservative radio talk show with fundamentalist Kevin McCullough. McCullough is a little out there. He writes columns for World Net Daily, a dumping ground for vaguely religious conspiracy theories about the Amero and the New World Order as well as lots of fundie invective against the erosion of "traditional" values. In his efforts to "overturn liberalism" (as the title of his latest book puts it), he writes almost parodically skewed commentary.
Baldwin threatened to leave the U.S. if Obama was elected. He didn't, of course, because there are many more reality TV shows depending on him for their survival.
So, yeah, these are not the most rational guys around. I wouldn't be stunned if Pratt and Montag received their knowledge of the New World Order agenda from one or both of them, in part. But the couple told Jones that Heidi's manager gave them a copy of The Obama Deception, and that this facilitated their "awakening". Pratt claims they have watched nearly all of Jones' documentaries.
I just can't picture them listening to Alex Jones or Jack Blood on their iPods as they roast their skin on the beach and plan their next cosmetic procedures. But hey, creepier things have happened. Like I said, this could be the beginning of a new trend. Time will tell.
The most horrifying aspect of all of this is that Jones is delighted to have two young, hip, moderately interesting celebs on board because he hopes that Heidi will steer teenage girls away from drinking tapwater (fluoride causes brain damage and calcification of every major organ), being vaccinated, and taking birth control ("sterilizes" women).
I've never heard anyone say that some forms of birth control can render you infertile. That's probably because no form of birth control does that. Anyone who actually understands how and why birth control works knows better than this. There are side effects and risks, of course, but infertility is not one of them - and death from blood clots or other side effects is extremely rare.
While the intentions of pro-abstinence advocates are honorable, lying to our kids and stuffing them full of ridiculously dangerous misinformation isn't actually going to keep them healthy or safe. The fact that Jones apparently doesn't know the difference between infertility and sterility tells me he is far from well-informed on this issue. And Heidi Montag-Pratt isn't remotely qualified to dispense dietary and medical advice, even if it is just on Twitter: When not praying, displaying her junk, or watching Alex Jones docs, she's an event planner; she dropped out of L.A.'s Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising.
Instead of turning to reality TV starlets and radio talk show hosts, girls might be better off turning to, oh, I dunno, maybe doctors?
Jones wants to see a generation of young 'uns just like Speidi.
- They will reject the notion of global warming and turn their backs on the problem of carbon emissions, because that's just a NWO taxation-based scam - we can't actually damage our world in any way.
- They will be fearful of tapwater and rely on the water filtration system advertised on Jones' show for all their drinking water needs. They will refuse fluoride treatments at the dentist, if they even trust the medical establishment enough to go. Spencer says his father, a dentist, has always told him not to use fluoride toothpaste.
- They will refuse all vaccinations for themselves and their children. If this happens in significant numbers, we'll see the return of life-threatening preventable diseases that have been virtually eradicated in North America.
- Young women will promptly go off birth control pills, shots, and rings and rely exclusively on condoms and/or the rhythm method to prevent pregnancy. Heidi went off b.c. recently because it was "created by the government" and making her "really sick"; she learned that a co-creator called b.c. the worst thing he had ever created because it "morally corrupted" society, and she believes it devalues women, causes suicidal depression and cancer, and "sterilizes your body", among other things. Needless to say, Jones didn't correct her on any of these points - every single one of which are just wrong (aside from the moral corruption thing, which is a judgement call). Austrian-born chemist Carl Dejrassi did reportedly express regret about his role in the development of the pill, not because it devalued women by making them more sexually desirable and available, but because it reduced the population of Europe. He never said a thing about the moral consequences of the pill, and in reality he blames xenophobic European immigration policies rather than the pill for the decrease in Europe's population. Pills provide some protection against certain reproductive cancers. They cannot cause permanent infertility because that's not what they're designed to do. There is zero evidence that they contribute in any way to mood disorders; this is an un-sourced factoid spread by a handful of pro-abstinence advocates.
- Heidi also believes that the world is so underpopulated that each women must bear three children to "stabilize" the population. This is just plain wrong. And it also comes from an editorial by Dejrassi, published in Der Standard. He was referring only to Austrians. The more feasible alternative, he said, is to increase immigration to Europe. He pointed to the U.S. as the only major developed nation that has a growing population, thanks to its immigration policy. Specifically, he said California will continue to have a stable population for decades due to the influx of foreign students. Clearly, Heidi either didn't read the entire article, or was fed mangled information about it by a third party. Way to be more smarter. If this way of thinking becomes trendy, prepare for another baby boom.
- They will reject most modern medicine. They will not donate to cancer research, because that's just a scam (what a shame that many of the contestants on I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! donated to cancer research orgs, including the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund).
- They will accept that most acts of terrorism, including 9/11, are false-flag operations. They will reject the notion that Middle Eastern radicals could possibly have any reason to be upset with the United States.
- They will anxiously stare up at contrails, praying they don't rain lethal poison on their neighborhoods.
- Like Heidi, they will live in dread of forced microchip implantation because microchips are the Mark of the Beast. She says if she accepts a chip it will make her a devil worshipper. She also says The Book of Revelations mentions one-world currency as a sign of the endtimes, which is just another reference to the Mark of the Beast.
The Wit and Wisdom of Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt:
On Laguna Beach (season two):
Jen: You can't look for shoes.
Heidi: Yeah, they have to come to you.
From a TV Guide interview about Heidi's music:
Spencer: Relationship aside, like spirituality and, like, the bigger picture of Heidi saving the planet with her music, I just have to be part of that.
On The Hills (season four):
Spencer: We've been talking about this [moving in together] for over a month.
Heidi: Well, my answer is no.
Spencer: Sweet. My answer is get out of my car.
On The Alex Jones Show:
Spencer: We used to have a phenomenal relationship with the media. They've kind of turned on us now because they've created us into such a monstrous thing, monster in their opinion...They made us too big, they Obama-sized us. [he went on to say that the narrator of The Hills didn't like them and contributed to their bad press, just like "the government narrates the media"]
Heidi: They've done such a good job of making computers seem cool...we're incriminating ourselves by laziness...This chip is the end of humanity.
Jones: The really big stars, they're all awake to this.
Spencer (on Bohemian Grove's Cremation of Care ceremony): Anybody dressed in a cloak and around a fire, is not supposed to be who's running America.
Heidi (on the Cremation of Care): I saw that clip and I was praying to Jesus that it was not a real child they were mock-burning...
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
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