The Lonely Goatherd Blog And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats - Matthew 25:32
Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
Hostile bearers of unproven and mostly unlikely evil conspiracies tend to come across to me as hateful seekers after cheap self-aggrandizement for the sake of their supposed arcane knowledge rather than actual seekers after truth or the better benefit of the country. Conspiracy mongering doesn't get me hard.
Links
To explicitly state the obvious, these external links go to interesting and provocative websites, but they speak for themselves. I don't necessarily agree with anything they say - especially that no-goodnik Richard Marcus.
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All original content on MoreThings.com copyright 2008 Albert Barger or the respective authors
February 25, 2005
Shallow, selfish schmuck: Afterthoughts on Hunter S Thompson Hunter Thompson was the kind of stuff you'd read as a thrill seeking college stoner. He was fun, but really pretty much empty calories as any kind of intellectual.
Thus, I hadn't given any particular consideration to him in 20 years. His suicide a few days ago, however, has brought him back into focus for a minute. I posted a simple obit a few days ago, and further down this page. Having stewed on it for a few days, I have rendered a more considered opinion. Perhaps not that surprisingly, as an older and more experienced reader, his literary worth tends to seem diminished.
CLICK HERE to read my second thoughts on Hunter S Thompson.
Ward Churchill confesses Well now, this should be it for Ward Churchill at the University of Colorado. From his talk at the University of Hawaii Tuesday night (2-22-2005):
"Is he an Indian? Do we really care?" he said, quoting those he called his "white Republican" critics.
"Let's cut to the chase; I am not," he said.
Basically, Churchill makes this belated admission only after having his background drawn, quartered, and ground up for hamburger to feed the evil VRWC. Mmm, hamburger....
Leave aside anything else he's said, he lied on his resume in a particularly bad manner. He got his job as chairman of the CU Ethnic Studies Department on the representation that he was a Native American. This guy was a tasty treat for bloggers. He's just the kind of small fish that's easy picking for a blogger or smalltown reporter. Just track down a couple of generations of his geneology, and NOPE, no Injuns there.
It would seem that the University would have no reasonable choice except to fire him with extreme prejudice. If you tell a prospective employer that you worked at IBM, neglecting to explain that it was as part of the cleaning crew- that would be padding your resume. But a German Aryan dude pawning himself off as an Indian to become chairman of an Ethnic Studies department- Now that's taking it to a whole nother level.
The university bypassed numerous qualified applicants who really were Native Americans to hire this schmuck. They simply wouldn't have hired a plain old white guy for this job- nor, probably, should they.
What possible logical argument could be made for the university keeping him in his job? This revelation would seem to have to be understood to constitute the complete death of his entire professional position. Bereft of life, his professional reputation lies at peace. It is an ex-reputation.
On the plus side, he did make some effort at moderation in his anti-American rhetoric. He had caught the attention of the VRWC, blogger division, with his hateful and unsympathetic statements about America supposedly deserving 9/11. He had referred to the victims of 9/11 as "little Eichmanns."
Pulling back the reins a little, in Honolulu yesterday he clarified these remarks. He didn't mean everybody who got killed. Apparently only the actual businessmen are "little Eichmanns." The cleaning crew are not "little Eichmanns." That's much better.
However, I wish the professor would clarify a little clearer as to who was and was not an innocent victim. The major corporate executives are obviously "little Eichmanns." How far down the chain of command does that complicity extend? Are girls in the secretarial pool at the WTC "little Eichmanns"? Bank tellers? Are the security guards at the WTC "little Eichmanns"?
However, that does not change the fact that he does not have one discernible drop of Indian blood, no matter what he claims. He's been checked out about 11 dozen times, and the only thing Injun anywhere around him has been one stepmother.
Are we supposed to just continue taking his word for it in the face of verifiable facts? This guy's no more an Injun than I am. He majorly lied to get the job. He should be gone- and I'd say the same no matter what his political views.
Yup, the guy's a buttmunch, but you generally can't and shouldn't fire a tenured professor because you don't like his opinions- no matter how damned stupid. The legislature and the governor definitely have no place advocating such.
On the other hand, I'd think the benefactors would be drawing them purse strings closed TIGHT. His presence has also reportedly caused a steep drop in applicants for next year.
And I'd still like some clarification as to which 9/11 victims were and were not "little Eichmanns."
New album releases, week of 2-22-2005 Tori Amos has a new album out this week, The Beekeper. Obviously any full fledged new studio album from Miss Tori will be the must-hear album of the week.
The righteous fire of "Holy Roller Novocaine" on the Kings of Leon 2003 debut should make you hungry for their new disc, Aha Shake Heartbreak.
Also, Petra Haden, daughter of jazz bassist Charlie Haden, has recorded the entirety of the classic Who Sell Out album - a capella. She's vocally imitating all the guitar parts and such. This sounds SO freaky that it might work.
Referrer logs give me the heebie jeebies I got my first clue on the passing of Ray Charles by checking my referrer logs. Suddenly, I had bazillions of people interested in my Ray Charles pages. I punched up the Drudge Report already suspecting the bad news.
Thus, I've been worrying myself today over Tom T Hall. I routinely get a hundred or so people a day visiting my Tom T Hall pages. Suddenly today, it's somewhere north of 2,000 Tom T visitors, mostly all from Google searches.
I appreciate the traffic, but my heart jumped. What would cause a sudden twentyfold increase in traffic? Has the old timer passed on us? I spent probably over an hour scrubbing Google news and various individual music and news sites, without finding any kind of recent story about him.
Hopefully, that means he's fine- but still leaves me scratching my head. Any clues?
Dr Gene Scott, 1929 - 2005 They're probably having a heller party up in heaven right now to greet Dr Gene Scott, proprietor of the University Network and the only TV preacher worth watching.
Uncle Duke has left the building Uncle Duke has checked out. Reports are coming in that 67 year old author Hunter S Thompson shot himself to death Sunday, February 20 at his home in Aspen, Colorado. [For local coverage from the Denver Post, CLICK HERE.]
Hunter Thompson significantly redefined the very idea of journalism. He upturned all expectations of what journalists do, inserting himself and his hard-living rock and roll lifestyle into his stories to the point they sometimes almost seemed to be more about him than the nominal subjects. Along with the writing of Tom Wolfe, Thompson's newly subjective expression became the basis of so-called "new journalism."
Yet in his day, back in the 60s and 70s, he had some skill and craft at work that belied the half-conscious dope fiend he described in his stories. He wrote very good character sketches, and in fact told the actual stories in the midst of all the flava.
You wouldn't likely see any sign of his impending suicide in the most recently published article, dated for February 15, a silly but pleasant little goof called "Shotgun Golf with Bill Murray."
Among his other adventures, his 1970 Freak Power ticket run for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado has been an especially entertaining inspiration to freak power candidates ever since.
Besides his writing, he provided the inspiration for Gary Trudeau's best Doonesbury character, Uncle Duke. It's even better that Thompson apparently HATED the Duke character, expressing the desire to do bodily harm to the author. This is, of course, how you would expect Duke to react. Uncle Duke's biography HERE.
Surely the wicked Hunter S Thompson must go to hell for his sinful ways. In my own role as Dante, though, it probably wouldn't be too harsh a punishment. Uncle Duke got his worst torment being stuck at home in Aspen- with John Denver as his next door neighbor. He could wake up every morning for all eternity to the strains of "Rocky Mountain High." That'd learn him to kill himself.
