Toilet paper is the opiate of the asses

Avast, ye wretches! Ye sheeple! Know ye not the ways and means by which thou hast been cuckolded? Fooled? Corralled? Knick-bottomed?

Like you, I was raised to believe in my own wasteful incapacity; or rather, my own incapacity to handle my own waste.

Yes, I too was a slave of the porcelain throne. A pedant to that prettified-pooper, that quiet commander of tile floors and shuddering thighs. I, too, worshiped at that alter of gastro-intestinal exflux. I bowed my bowels to the bowl. I hunched, and strained, and prayed for desperate release to the gods of civilized shitting. I was not a man, but a supplicant.

They say that religion is the opiate of the masses: that it steals of man his sacred self, and sells it back to him at inflated price. Well, I have had my bodily processes stolen and resold by the CAPITALIST KYRIARCHY and I say: shitting is religion.

What is a water-closet but the temple of the secular world? A separate place, of enforced quiet and private meditation. Observe the similarity of the toilet stall to the Catholic confession box. Notice the juxtaposition of hushed silence and exaggerated echo; these are the sounds of a holy place, a sanctified realm. The scrawled, illicit messages on doors, mirrors, and towel dispensers: are these not prayers of a kind, bottled-messages flung blindly out toward god or man? The unspoken ritual of the line, the urinal, the line, the sink, the towel:

I once was lost, but now am found; Was blind but now I see.

I once held filth that's now released; Was pained, but now am cleaned.

Is the closing ritual of handwashing not a secular re-configuration of baptism? Ancient Israelites washed themselves of sin and evil; modern humans wash themselves of germs and shit, the scientificized articulation of that same sin and evil. Like our forebears, we must 'get clean.'

We do this. We hock our bodies, our selves, the very process which sustains us, into an anonymous white water-bowl, to be flushed away and forgotten. The public toilet is the modern guillotine: a public resource for separating the social chaff from the social wheat, a ruthless "cleansing" mechanism. Rather than surrender our heads, we surrender our excrement; but in that great calculus of power/knowledge, it is all one and the same. Control my shit, and you control my life; for if I cannot shit, how can I live? Does not the absolute authority of the toilet (that is, its authority over my bowels, and the complete absence of any socially-accepted alternative method of relief) coupled with its relative scarcity (ever tried to take a dump in downtown Seattle? If you're shopping, it's easy; if you're poor, it's damned-near impossible) make for a most insidious form of social control? THINK ABOUT IT, man!

The New New World Order

Is the world about to end? Think about it: in just three days, a presidential election of epicker proportions than Joseph Smith's snow-white lapels will come rambling to a halt, and we will know-- nay, we shall feel the powers-that-be shake, volcano-like, in their subterranean lairs.

What's at stake in this election? Well, besides the obvious question of "Whose supporters will peel their candidate's electoral bumper-sticker from the rear of their (i.e. the supporters') cars in shame?," there are the so-called 'issues.'

'Issues' like "marriage rights for the Gays," "getting the so-called 'economy' running again," and "whether or not to pre-emp a nuclear holocaust upon Iran or some other convenient villain" are all the pundits talk about, sure. And of you want to believe the mainstream so-called 'news' media, with your head in the sand and your ass in the air, like a cruising ostrich, then you go right ahead. It's not my business to enlighten you from the bonds of your brainwashed ignorance, now is it?

BUT! Those of us who know the TRUTH know that this election is about one thing: The New New World Order.

You see, the US presidential election of 2012 has its roots in the Council of Nicea, convened by the Emperor Constantine in 325 AD ostensibly to hammer out the theological particularities of the growing Christian religion. However, recent archaeological findings have revealed that the council's actual purpose was to create and sustain a league of banker-assassins, whose sole mission through the ages was to cultivate centralized political power through centralized currency manipulation. They accomplished this through targeted plague ships, mind-suggestive control, and bestseller-topping novels such as Harry Potter, the collected works of Dan Brown, and the Bible.

The Council's name has changed since then, but its mission has not. From inducing the first World-War (by strangling the Archduke Ferdinand and then framing his death as a gun-assassination) to faking the Korean War (on the same set, by the way, as the moon landing), to electing the Reagan-triplets to the US presidency in the 1980s (the first successful application of clone-technology), the Council's reach has been deep and penetrating. The successful encroachment of DEA jurisdiction into Iron-Curtain countries after the fall of Hitler (and his unsuccessful attempt to lead the knights of the Templar back into power) set the stage for a coup de tat by the so-called American economy against the Soviet Cold-War machine in 1988 (though video footage of the fall of the Berlin Wall was successfully covered-up until the following year). All that was left to be done, from the perspective of double-agent Ross Perot and his neo-moderate supporters, was a little mopping-up action vis-a-vis Brazil and Walmart.

But, in the late nineties, a new player entered the field: Willard Mitt Romney. Born of a Kangolese goatherd and the monarch-in-exile of New Amsterdam, Romney (then called "Obuntu") quickly took steps to mask his outsider identity by infiltrating the Romney estate at age three and switching places with the real Will Mitt Romney. The latter's fate is murky, but 'Romney' went on to attend the private school known as Hogwarts Eton Cranbrook, where he received his introduction in the grey arts. Bluffing his way through Harvard and Bring 'Em Young! Bringham Young U., Romney quietly established contacts with a variety of the rearguard-vanguard, who intro-docrinated him to counter GHW Bush's New World Order with their own, new New World Order.

So now you see what hangs in the balance of this election: on the side of Obama, more of the same. On the side of firebrand Mitt Romney, on the other hand, new more of the same.

The choice is yours.

Money Talks

Obvious fact: money talks. It yodels angelic to the captains of industry and finance who steer the fine ship of our economy (from local to global), and its silver tongue can smooth over any perceived conflict, can bridge any enmity, can cement any friend. Money is the grease on which the axle of the world spins, and its slippery utility stems from its ubiquitous persuasion. Money talks.

Which means that those with money do all the talking. To take the most obvious example, it's more or less publicly recognized that our current presidential election boils down to a bidding war. There are ideological and concrete differences between Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney (though if you caught their first debate, you'll recognize that these differences are rather more nuanced than either candidate wants his own party to believe), and as a faggoty, poor, socially and economically left-leaning young Seattlite I know where my own loyalties lie. Still, nobody seriously disputes the efficacy of effective advertising in this (or any) election, and advertising is a pretty direct function of cash-money. Substantive differences between Romney and Obama are like substantive differences between Starbucks and Seattle's Best: they're real, but only as efficacious as their ad campaign.

US military unveils non-lethal heat ray weapon

--Weapon was deployed briefly in Afghanistan in 2010 11 Mar 2012 A sensation of unbearable, sudden heat seems to come out of nowhere -- this wave, a strong electromagnetic beam, is the latest non-lethal weapon unveiled by the US military this week. "You're not gonna see it, you're not gonna hear it, you're not gonna smell it: you're gonna feel it," explained US Marine Colonel Tracy Taffola, director the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, Marine Corps Base Quantico, at a demonstration for members of the media. The effect is so repellant, the immediate instinct is to flee -- and quickly, as experienced by AFP at the presentation. Taffola added that the "Active Denial System" beam, while powerful and long-range, some 1000 meters (0.6 miles), is the military's "safest non-lethal capability" that has been developed over 15 years but never used in the field.

Five top hackers arrested... I wonder if this could have been a false flag all along or it's just a traitor...

I'm not sure what to believe now... Though I know our super secret government is quite good at what it does... You decide who to trust. And if there are any elite hackers reading this, thanks for the crucial, dangerous work you are doing in our global village.

It also means that the FBI allowed the recent wiki leaked Stratfor communiques... Now why would they do something like that? Makes me think a bit harder about this article from the Atlantic that Techonoccult turned me onto.

False Flag - from Wikipedia.
........................


Five arrested in high-profile cyberattacks 06 Mar 2012 Top members of the computer hacker group "Anonymous" and its offshoots were arrested and charged Tuesday after a wide-ranging investigation used the help of a group leader who was working as a secret government informant. Five of the suspects, considered by investigators among the "most sophisticated hackers in the world," were arrested in the United States and Europe and charged in a Manhattan federal court over their alleged role in high-profile cyberattacks against government agencies and large companies, according to an indictment. A sixth man, Hector Xavier Monsegur, a notorious hacker known as "Sabu," pleaded guilty in August to computer hacking and other crimes.

LulzSec boss Hector Monsegur was working for us - FBI --Monsegur, aka Sabu, turned by FBI last June --'We're chopping off the head of LulzSec' 07 Mar 2012 Police on two continents swooped on top members of computer hacking group LulzSec early today, and acting largely on evidence gathered by the organisation's leader - who sources say has been secretly working for the government for months - arrested three and charged two more with conspiracy. Charges against four of the five were based on a conspiracy case filed in New York federal court. An indictment charging the suspects, who include two men from Great Britain, two from Ireland and an American from Chicago, is expected to be unsealed today in the Southern District of New York. "This is devastating to the organisation," an FBI official involved with the investigation said. "We're chopping off the head of LulzSec." [We'll see.]

International hacking group LulzSec brought down by own leader --'They caught him and he was secretly arrested and now works for the FBI.' 06 Mar 2012 Law enforcement agents on two continents swooped in on top members of the infamous computer hacking group LulzSec early this morning, and acting largely on evidence gathered by the organization's brazen leader -- who sources say has been secretly working for the government for months -- arrested three and charged two more with conspiracy. The offshoot of the loose network of hackers, Anonymous, believed to have caused billions of dollars in damage to governments, international banks and corporations, was allegedly led by a man FoxNews.com has identified as Hector Xavier Monsegur. After the FBI unmasked Monsegur [working under the Internet alias 'Sabu'] last June, he became a cooperating witness, sources told FoxNews.com. "They caught him and he was secretly arrested and now works for the FBI," a source close to Sabu told FoxNews.com. Monsegur pleaded guilty Aug. 15 to 12 hacking-related charges and information documenting his admissions was unsealed in Southern District Court on Tuesday.

Wyoming Considering So-Called “Doomsday Bill”

Thanks Technoccult!

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Klint Finley

State representatives on Friday advanced legislation to launch a study into what Wyoming should do in the event of a complete economic or political collapse in the United States.

House Bill 85 passed on first reading by a voice vote. It would create a state-run government continuity task force, which would study and prepare Wyoming for potential catastrophes, from disruptions in food and energy supplies to a complete meltdown of the federal government.

The task force would look at the feasibility of Wyoming issuing its own alternative currency, if needed. And House members approved an amendment Friday by state Rep. Kermit Brown, R-Laramie, to have the task force also examine conditions under which Wyoming would need to implement its own military draft, raise a standing army, and acquire strike aircraft and an aircraft carrier.

Casper Tribune: Wyoming House advances doomsday bill

This may sound like wingnut survivalist paranoia, but this is pretty interesting. Much of the state quite vulnerable to system shocks. Services ranging from food shipping to postal mail processing depend on out of state resources. The state is extremely petroleum dependent, so gas shortages would hit people hard. I’ve been told that although Wyoming produces huge amounts of coal, but is highly dependent on out of state resources for electricity (but I’m not sure that’s true).

Have any other states proposed official bills for state resilience?

See also: Resilient communities with Jeremy O’Leary – the Technoccult Interview

Post-Crash Fascism: Planning for the Apocalypse

STEVEN MEISEL / VOGUE ITALIA

Climate change is happening faster than initially predicted, and its impacts are already upon us in the form of more extreme weather events, desertification, ocean acidification, melting glaciers and incrementally rising sea levels.

The scientists who construct the computer models that analyze climate data believe that even if we stop dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, CO2 levels are already so high that we are locked into a significant increase in global temperatures. Disruptive climate change is a certainty even if we make the economic shift away from fossil fuels.

Incipient climate change is already starting to express itself in the realm of politics.

Climate change arrives in a world primed for crisis. The current and impending dislocations of climate change intersect with the already-existing crises of poverty and violence. I call this collision of political, economic and environmental disasters the catastrophic convergence. By catastrophic convergence, I do not merely mean that several disasters happen simultaneously, one atop another. Rather, I argue that problems compound and amplify each other, one expressing itself through another.

Societies, like people, deal with new challenges in ways that are conditioned by the traumas of their past. Thus, damaged societies, like damaged people, often respond to new crises in ways that are irrational, shortsighted, and self-destructive. In the case of climate change, the prior traumas that set the stage for bad adaptation, the destructive social response, are Cold War–era militarism and the economic pathologies of neoliberal capitalism. Over the last 40 years, both of these forces have distorted the state’s relationship to society – removing and undermining the state’s collectivist, regulatory and redistributive functions, while overdeveloping its repressive and military capacities. This, I argue, inhibits society’s ability to avoid violent dislocations as climate change kicks in.

planning for apocalypse

A slew of government reports have discussed the social and military problems posed by climate change. In 2008. Congress mandated that the upcoming 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review – the policy document laying out the guiding principles of US military strategy and doctrine – consider the national-security impacts of climate change. The first of these investigations to make news, a 2004 Pentagon-commissioned study called “An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security,” was authored by Peter Schwartz, a CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network.The report was made at the behest of octogenarian military theorist cum imperial soothsayer Andrew Marshall. Known to his followers as Yoda, after the wrinkled, dwarflike puppet of Star Wars fame, Marshall got his start at the RAND Corporation in 1949 as a specialist on nuclear Armageddon and its alleged survivability. He moved from RAND to the Pentagon during Richard Nixon’s presidency and served every president since. (It is interesting to note the presence of atomic-era Cold Warrior physicists among both the climate-change denialists and the military adaptationists. In his book How to Cool the Planet, Jeff Goodell remarks on the same set’s infatuation with the high-tech solutions promised by geoengineering, in particular Lawrence Livermore Laboratory’s Lowell Wood, a tie-dye wearing disciple of Edward Teller.)

Schwartz and Randall’s report correctly treats global warming as a potentially nonlinear process. And they forecast a new Dark Ages:

Nations without the resources to do so may build virtual fortresses around their countries, preserving resources for themselves … As famine, disease, and weather-related disasters strike due to the abrupt climate change, many countries’ needs will exceed their carrying capacity. This will create a sense of desperation, which is likely to lead to offensive aggression in order to reclaim balance … Europe will be struggling internally, large numbers of refugees washing up on its shores and Asia in serious crisis over food and water. Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life. Once again, warfare would define human life.

In 2007, there came more reports on climate and security. One, from the Pentagon-connected think tank CNA Corporation, convened an advisory board of high-ranking former military officers to examine the issues – among them General Gordon Sullivan, former chief of staff, US Army; Admiral Donald Pilling, former vice chief of naval operations; Admiral Joseph Prueher, former commander in chief of the US Pacific Command; and General Anthony Zinni, retired US Marine Corps and former commander in chief of US Central Command. That report envisioned permanent counterinsurgency on a global scale. Here is one salient excerpt:

Climate change acts as a threat multiplier for instability … Unlike most conventional security threats that involve a single entity acting in specific ways at different points in time, climate change has the potential to result in multiple chronic conditions, occurring globally within the same time frame. Economic and environmental conditions in these already fragile areas will further erode as food production declines, diseases increase, clean water becomes increasingly scarce, and populations migrate in search of resources. Weakened and failing governments, with an already thin margin for survival, foster the conditions for internal conflict, extremism, and movement toward increased authoritarianism and radical ideologies. The US may be drawn more frequently into these situations to help to provide relief, rescue, and logistics, or to stabilize conditions before conflicts arise.

Another section notes:

When a government can no longer deliver services to its people, ensure domestic order, and protect the nation’s borders from invasion, conditions are ripe for turmoil, extremism and terrorism to fill the vacuum … the greatest concern will be movement of asylum seekers and refugees who due to ecological devastation become settlers.

In closing the report notes, “Abrupt climate changes could make future adaptation extremely difficult, even for the most developed countries.”

Another report from 2007, the most scientifically literate of the lot, titled The Age of Consequences: The Foreign Policy National Security Implications of Global Climate Change, was produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Center for a New American Security. Its prominent authors included Kurt Campbell, former deputy assistant secretary of defense; Leon Fuerth, former national security advisor to Vice President Al Gore; John Podesta, former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton; and James Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Age of Consequences laid out three plausible scenarios for climate change, each pertaining to different global average-temperature changes. The authors relied on the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change but noted, “Recent observations indicate that projections from climate models have been too conservative; the effects of climate change are unfolding faster and more dramatically than expected.” The report conceives of future problems not in terms of interstate resource wars but as state collapse caused by “disease, uncontrolled migration, and crop failure, that … overwhelm the traditional instruments of national security (the military in particular) and other elements of state power and authority.” Green ex-spook James Woolsey authored the report’s final section laying out the worst-case scenario. He writes:

In a world that sees two meter sea level rise, with continued flooding ahead, it will take extraordinary effort for the United States, or indeed any country, to look beyond its own salvation. All of the ways in which human beings have dealt with natural disasters in the past … could come together in one conflagration: rage at government’s inability to deal with the abrupt and unpredictable crises; religious fervor, perhaps even a dramatic rise in millennial end-of-days cults; hostility and violence toward migrants and minority groups, at a time of demographic change and increased global migration; and intra- and interstate conflict over resources, particularly food and fresh water. Altruism and generosity would likely be blunted.

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2005 Interview with Michael Hoy, Editor and Founder of Loompanics, Unlimited

     Originally published at Sunni's Salon, by Sunni Maravillosa. Please see the contact page for reprint information. Thanks Sunni, for the rights to republish this interview in full! - The Lone Haranguer at Last Earth Distro.
     Long live independent, radical booksellers, publishers and printers in the Pacific Northwest!
     We are one of the entities who helped buy out Loompanics back in 2005 when they closed their doors, and we have a lot of their titles available still. Please contact us at lastearthdistro@gmail.com for more details.

with Mike Hoy SUNNI: Hi Mike. Thanks so much for agreeing to this interview. How's life in beautiful, wet Washington these days? MIKE: Life is good in beautiful, wet Washington. Actually, Port Townsend gets about half the rain Seattle does. SUNNI: Ah, so you're not in the rain belt. I'd heard how gray and rainy the Seattle area is, but it wasn't until I was there -- all too briefly, earlier this year -- that I experienced it for myself. I think maybe the sun was out for about three hours total, in the four or five days I was there ... Is the weather responsible for all the coffee addicts around there? [laughing] MIKE: Weather in Seattle is usually quite nice in the summer -- most of the rain comes in the winter months, when we get rain instead of snow. I don't know what the story on coffee is -- me, I like just plain coffee, and I think Starbucks et al suck out loud. SUNNI: I prefer unflavored coffee too, but with cream. And yeah, Starbucks coffee isn't all that great. Maybe it was the mermaid -- the version with her breasts showing -- that's more responsible than they realize for their early success ... [laughing] MIKE: [laughs] I have never understood the concept of "flavored coffee." Coffee is the flavor that I want. I would no more put chocolate syrup or something in a cup of coffee than I would put it in a glass of beer. SUNNI: Exactly! You know, you're the first person I've interviewed whom I don't really know at all. In preparing for our conversation, I read a quasi-interview on the Loompanics web site, but it reveals very little about you, the brain trust behind Loompanics. What would you like people to know about you? MIKE: Well, once upon a time, I was an accountant working for a CPA firm. It didn't suit me, so I went off on my own trip. Politically, I first became aware in the tenth grade or so, when I was a Goldwater Republican. Then I was into Ayn Rand for a while, before settling on anarcho-libertarianism. Actually, I am a political solipsist, the anarchists have too many rules for me, and as for the Libertarians, what a bunch of uptight corporate-sucking wimps they are -- yech! SUNNI: Anarchists have too many rules? [laughing] Okay Mike, I'll bite -- what do you mean? MIKE: You should see them! Zines such as The Match and Anarchy and so on, are always denouncing other fellow anarchist absolutists for not being proper anarchists. You should check them out. A while back, the anarchist guru Murray Bookchin let out a screed titled Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm, which is typical of this genre. If you aren't the right kind of anarchist, then fuck you and the horse you rode in on. [laughs] Really, you should look into this -- it can provide a few brief moments of entertainment before you shout, "A pox on all your houses." SUNNI: I will -- and thanks for the tip! The story behind the Loompanics name is amusing, and tantalizing with its mention of "all your publishing projects". What are some of those other projects? MIKE: My pre-Loompanics catalog publishing projects included an index to National Lampoon magazine, a collection of paintings by the SF/Fantasy artist Stephen Fabian, and a little manual titled Slugs, on which foreign coins worked best in parking meters, and where to get them cheap. SUNNI: What an interesting, diverse set of projects! So, how long has Loomps been around? How many books have you published? MIKE: The first Loompanics Catalog came out in fall of 1975, so this marks my thirtieth year. I would guess that I have published around 300 books by now.

SUNNI: Congrats on thirty years in the business! That's no small accomplishment, especially these days. From all the language on the Loomps site cautioning customers about books being seized, one might think that's a serious liability for your business. How often does that happen? Is any particular country noteworthy for its five-finger treatment of your orders? What book or books seem to be seized most often? MIKE: Books are seized by government bodies far less often than, say, 20 years ago. Canada used to be particularly bad. Right now Australia is probably the worst. Just about any book on drugs is likely to rouse the ire of those who would protect us from thinking for ourselves. American prisoners often have their books confiscated, as well -- that is why we warn them about it. Various prisons have offered various rationales for not allowing books about sex, drugs, knife fighting, lock picking, etc. SUNNI: Interesting ... I would've guessed former Soviet countries and South American ones to be worse than supposedly freer ones. That drugs are so scary to them isn't so surprising, unfortunately. Which has had a larger impact on the books you choose to publish, Mike -- the Hit Man lawsuit against Paladin Press, or the USA Patriot Act? MIKE: The Hit Man lawsuit against Paladin Press has had a chilling effect amongst small press publishers, not just in what people will publish, but in what people are able to sell, since as a result, Paladin dropped about 50 titles from their line. The USA Patriot Act doesn't scare me much, insofar as being a publisher goes, but the draconian cloud of the entire Act scares the hell out of me as a citizen. SUNNI: One might think that the current political climate would have a chilling effect on your business; but it's also possible that more people are becoming interested in some of your diverse topics -- and that they, and long-time customers alike, are buying your books in anticipation of a day when books like yours aren't allowed to be sold. What do your sales trends -- and what you're hearing from your customers -- indicate? MIKE: I don't think the current political climate has had an effect on our sales one way or the other -- unlike, say, the Y2K scare, which greatly increased the sale of survival and independent living books. For the past 5 years or so, our sales have been dropping, but I think it is just the lousy economy in general that accounts for this. If you measure the American economy the way Wall Street does -- by toting up corporate profits -- they tell you the economy is booming, that we are in a recovery, etc. But if you measure the American economy according to the disposable income the average Joe has in his pocket after downsizing, taxes, etc., you will find a different story. We often have customers tell us that they really appreciate the job we are doing, and occasionally someone will tell us that our catalog isn't as good as when we had dozens of explosives manuals in it. SUNNI: I can see that; I miss the explosives titles myself. It also strikes me that part of the picture might be the unevenness of the books you publish. I don't mean the variety -- that's great -- but the quality of the books themselves. For example, I know Claire Wolfe's books are going to be solid; but a self-employment book you recently published was a great disappointment to me -- it didn't have much that common sense wouldn't tell someone, or that a few hours of web research could provide. I've heard similar things from others, too ... I'm not intending to beat up on you, Mike, but trying to offer some food for thought. I'd imagine it's harder to get really good writers too, with the increase in self-publishing we've seen in the past few years. Is that consistent with your experience? MIKE: Well, it's always been hard to find good writers, and not every book is as perfect as I would like it to be. I actually like the increase in self-publishing, because we can pick up the good stuff as retail items. But instead of self-publishing, what we are seeing a lot of times these days is vanity publishing, i.e., subsidized publishing. For the most part, these publishers are very unfriendly to booksellers, offering only minuscule discounts. I know of a few cases where I have seen a good book that I just simply cannot offer in the catalog because I can't make a profit on them. At least one such author has told us that he would have been better off with a small press publisher than with the vanity publisher he had bring his book out.

SUNNI: Ah, okay. We touched on this briefly earlier, but I didn't realize until we started talking that a lot of Loompanics' diversity comes directly from you. What are some of the books that have had a strong impact on you? MIKE: The early National Lampoon, of course, the Firesign Theatre, and The Whole Earth Catalog, to name just some. Also, science fiction in general, when I was in my early teens. If I had to pick just one thing that inspired me the most, it would be The Whole Earth Catalog -- a truly paradigm-rattling publication! SUNNI: I imagine you heard about Laissez Faire Books' decision not to carry Vin Suprynowicz's novel The Black Arrow. What's your take on that? MIKE: My take on it is that I am not at all surprised. The organized "libertarians" are so pusillanimous and life-hating that this is exactly what anyone with a brain should expect from them. I have seen some libertarians trying to excuse this egregious action by calling it a "business" decision -- that Laissez Faire was somehow following their customers' demands by refusing to sell a novel by a writer who is right now arguably the single most brilliant exponent of the rights of the individual against the forces of conformity. What a bunch of baloney! Laissez Faire, like all the major "libertarian" propaganda outlets, is not a business at all -- it is a charity. Kathy, or whoever is responsible for that decision [Kathleen Hiserodt], is not serving her customers, but is sucking up to whom she perceives to be her donors. She is afraid of offending someone who might give her money. It is the same among all the "libertarians". I mean, doesn't it strike you as odd that the bunch of people who proclaim themselves as knowing more about economics and business and the market than everybody else on earth avoid the marketplace like poison? They have all gone to the government and asked to be granted non-profit status -- i.e., they have asked the government to protect them from the very economic forces they claim to advocate. Why don't the "libertarians" quit running their mouths and show us by example how much they love the marketplace? SUNNI: [laughing] Don't hold back, Mike -- tell me what you really think! Seriously, I think you've hit on something that's a problem with a lot of libertarian think tanks -- they claim that being able to deduct contributions from one's taxes is important in order to get funding. Through my work at Free-Market.Net, I've seen a difference that offering tax deductions can make to a charitable organization. It seems to be a good tactical decision, but you're right, it isn't the most principled one. But why do pro-freedom people expect that tax deduction? If we're going to dismantle the system, let's get started already ... and getting back to the subject, if people aren't willing to pay straight up for what an organization wants to do, why should they do it? I think it's a case of "too many chiefs, and not enough Indians". MIKE: Yeah, why don't they "get funding" by engaging in honest trade, which they claim is their most deeply held principle? Nobody has ever done more to discredit an ideology by espousing it than the "libertarians". SUNNI: That seems to be the case for a non-trival number of them, sadly. How do you balance what your customers seem to want from Loompanics with your personal views? Is the customer always right, or do you reserve the right to reject book proposals or other material for personal reasons? Is there any subject that you would flat-out refuse to publish on? MIKE: Actually, I don't "balance" my views with anything when I am selecting books for the catalog. If I like a book, I will put it in the catalog -- as long as it will sell. Over time, I have had to drop some truly outstanding titles, simply because hardly anyone ever bought them -- e.g.,The Thinking Body, a book written for dancers that really showed you how to integrate your mind and body. There is not much point in having even a truly outstanding book in a catalog, if it is not selling. My rejecting proposals or books has more to do with space limitations than with any personal squeamishness. Of course, I reject books that I think are stupid, e.g., most religious tracts, or books advocating institutional solutions to personal problems, or books that contain false information. For example, lots and lots of my customers have asked that Loompanics carry The Anarchist Cookbook, but I refuse to sell it because I think the book is full of falsehoods and bullshit. Over the decades, I have often been asked if there is any subject that I would refuse to publish on, and the only thing I have been able to come up with is that I would not publish a book on how to bomb abortion clinics, or otherwise interfere with abortion clinics. Although any such book would necessarily contain material on general explosives and infiltration techniques, I just plain think it is mean-spirited to single out abortion providers.

SUNNI: You're right, it is, especially when there are so many other, more deserving targets. The quasi-interview I mentioned a bit ago contains the statement "America needs to loosen up". That seems to be even more true now ... what kind of loosening up would you recommend first? MIKE: In my opinion, America needs to loosen up the most about drugs in general, and marijuana in particular. The cannabis plant is the single most useful plant that exists on this planet, and it is truly insane to throw people in jail for possessing it. SUNNI: Yep. How do you think "we, the people" have morphed from being a hardy, self-reliant lot into a bunch of busybodies who are more interested in what our neighbors may be doing than taking care of our own lives? I mean mainstream Americans mostly, not the pro-freedom rabble, with some exceptions. MIKE: That is puzzling to me, because now the baby boomers are running the country, and just about all of us smoked dope when we were young, and know it is not only harmless, but beneficial. Now it's asshole boomer parents who are leading the anti-dope crusades. If I had a dollar for every party I was at in the 70s where we were passing a joint around and telling each other, "Sss [inhalation sound] ... Wow, man! In about like 20 years, man, our generation is gonna be the Congress and we will be passing the laws, and, like ... sss... we can get rid of the whole pig trip, man ...", I could buy a lot of albums, man. [laughs] It just goes to show you that it takes a pig to be a pig, and if you become a pig, then you are going to be a pig, regardless if you were a nice guy before you became a pig. Pigs is pigs! SUNNI: [laughing] And pigs will never fly ... While we're comparing past and present, Mike, what do you make of the observation that The Onion seems to be more in the prediction business than satire these days? MIKE: I'm not sure what you mean; I'm not familiar with The Onion. SUNNI: Oh! I guess I assumed that since you're a Lampoon fan you'd know about The Onion -- it's available online and as a print zine, and it features some pretty wicked political satire. Here are some headlines: from this week's issue, Halliburton Gets Contract To Pry Gold Fillings From New Orleans Corpses' Teeth; from last week, God Outdoes Terrorists Yet Again, and an amusing Virgo horoscope: "Despite your claims of historical importance and the need to remember America's fallen heroes, the authorities continue to refuse to grant you the permits required by your avid group of drug-war re-enactors." You might want to check it out. Out of all the books that Loompanics has published, what one are you proudest of having published? MIKE: That is a very difficult question to answer -- I like 'em all. But to single out just a few, let's say: The Art & Science of Dumpster Diving, Secrets of Methamphetamine Manufacture, Travel Trailer Homesteading Under $5,000, Guerrilla Capitalism, Eat Well for 99 Cents a Meal, Methods of Disguise, Understanding U.S. Identity Documents ... where can I stop? I guess if I had to pick just one, I would say Guerrilla Capitalism, a how-to-do-it book on dodging taxes in the underground economy. I think that one most fully lays out what Loompanics is all about. It is out of print now, but most of the material has been recycled into Deep Inside the Underground Economy. SUNNI: That sounds interesting; I'll have to check into that one. And I'd agree on Dumpster Diving -- that's a very good book. What kinds of things do you do for fun, Mike? Washington is so pretty, especially the western part of the state, with all the evergreens. When you're not busy with Loompanics, do you enjoy the outdoors? If so, what activities do you like? MIKE: Washington is beautiful -- I have fallen in love with Port Townsend, and don't see myself ever leaving here. For outdoor fun, I love walking -- not hiking, where you have to have equipment. Other fun things I do are: I read a tremendous amount, I love good movies, and I piddle around with miniatures -- I recently finished a basement recreation room that fits on two bookshelves -- took me almost 5 years to get it right. I am also a fan of old-time radio shows and have quite a collection of adventure, western, and horror shows. And, oh, yeah, I collect jokers from decks of cards. I have about 1,400.

SUNNI: Needing equipment to walk is stupid, I agree. Is there anything special about the jokers you collect, or will you take any old joker a customer might want to send you after reading this? MIKE: [laughs] Well, I didn't mean this to be a call for jokers! I specialize in what I call true jokers -- i.e., the court jester type, which I think is descended from the fool in medieval Tarot decks. SUNNI: What do you see as the greatest challenge facing individualists today? MIKE: The biggest challenge facing individuals -- as opposed to individualists -- is how to keep your head straight in the maw of conformist forces, most of which these days are coming from the private sector rather that the public sector. Loompanics has just published the latest book by one of the most brilliant writers working today, Claire Wolfe: How to Kill the Job Culture Before It Kills You: Living a Life of Autonomy in a Wage-Slave Society, that goes a long way towards effectively grappling with this problem. SUNNI: Your answer hit upon why I chose the word individualist instead of individuals, Mike. Everybody is an individual, but not everyone values his or her individuality sufficiently to embrace it. Even individualists can have problems sometimes with conformist forces. I suppose it's a never-ending struggle between our need for autonomy and independence and our social nature. MIKE: I think the school system, especially the public school system, is really dumbing kids down, even more than ever before. Their ideal is for no one to be an individual, but to make all kids want to see themselves as part of a group. I'm sure glad I'm not in grade school or high school right now! [laughs] Well, if I was in high school, I could just quit, but if I was in the 3rd grade, I would be one of the kids who they would dope down with Prozac and Ritalin, and other chemical straitjackets. If we had had all this fascist shit when I was a child, they would have deliberately destroyed my brain with drugs -- as part of the War on Drugs! SUNNI: I think most freedom lovers have a similar story, don't you? We never seem to fit in, sometimes even with other freedom lovers. But, speaking of being young, who inspired and motivated you when you were young? Who do you count among your heroes? MIKE: I have been inspired and motivated by lots of people, including Edgar Allan Poe, Ayn Rand, especially the brilliant and late Michael O'Donohue, and Lysander Spooner. My heroes include Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Paul Krassner, Michael O'Donohue, Lysander Spooner, Durk & Sandy, Pedr Lund of Paladin Press, my late father when he was young and strong, and Stewart Brand of The Whole Earth Catalog. SUNNI: Lots of good folks in there. Before we wind up the conversation here, what new books do you have in the pipeline at Loompanics? Are you working on any other new projects that you're excited about? MIKE: Claire Wolfe's book How to Kill the Job Culture Before It Kills You will be out this week. Other books in the pipeline include another underground economy book, and a book about modern-day train robbing. SUNNI: Great stuff! I gotta tell you, Mike, as I was looking through your catalog I had several ideas for book projects to pitch to you ... maybe I'll actually write up one or two for you to laugh at ... [laughing] MIKE: I am always looking for interesting book projects, Sunni, so feel free to send in some ideas! SUNNI: Thanks, Mike. We'll see what happens ... Right now my children are my first priority, and I am perpetually short on time to do all I want. Thank you very much for all your time today. It's been a pleasure getting to know you, and kicking around some issues with a fellow individualist and free thinker. I'm hoping next time I'm out that way I'll be able to meet you and Gia in person -- coffees or beer will be on me. MIKE: Thank you. It has been my pleasure. I would love to actually get together in person with you! Keep up the good work.