Attacking Howard Kurtz

Breitbart's John Nolte went after Howard Kurtz's reasoning in the article: Top Five False Statements in Howard Kurtz's Christopher Dorner Column. Here are his 5 points on Kurtz:

1.  Kurtz Invents Straw Man that Right Is 'Blaming' the Media for Murder Spree
2.  Kurtz's Only Example of a Media 'Blamer' Didn't Blame the Media
3.  Kurtz Pretends Dorner Is 'All Over the Map' Politically
4.  Kurtz Is Reduced to Citing Anonymous Tweets
5.  Kurtz Pretends Only the 'Left' Attempted to Link Palin to Tucson

In Kurtz's article he finds the "explosion of conservative comments on Twitter trying to tie his alleged rampage to ... liberals." and goes on to say:

That's right, even with three people dead, one wounded and a manhunt under way, the ugly game of ideological finger-pointing was under way.

Is this not exactly what Kurtz is doing in this very article? He is quick to defend the media against the right whom he characterizes as "nuts." Sounds like a finger point to me. Kurtz moves on to describe the comments of Brent Bozell, the president of the conservative Media Research Center, to Fox's Sean Hannity which is what Nolte cites as his 2nd point. This is what Kurtz writes:

"This is very telling that you've got a direct association of liberal luminaries with this killer," Brent Bozell, president of the conservative Media Research Center, told Fox's Sean Hannity.

Actually, it's not telling at all. At least Bozell added that the luminaries should not be held responsible for Dorner's actions just because his screed invoked their names.

Nolte is right in saying that Kurtz makes a very lukewarm argument by immediately acknowledging that the media should not be held responsible for the actions of one of their murderous viewers. Kurtz us right that this is not telling since what one individual feels about a massive industry doesn't lead to a very direct association at all. I watch Democracy Now regualrly and hold personal views about Amy Goodman but I wouldn't say that I have any direct association with her.

So far I would have to say that Nolte's first two points hold water if you take into account what Kurtz said in his article. That doesn't mean that the right didn't blame the media, it is possible but without a doubt Kurtz never bothered to piece together any information to support his point. The guy makes $600K a year so I would think he would at least back up his assertions.

In his 3rd point Nolte states:

Only in Kurtz's sheltered, provincial media-bubble does being an admirer of Democrats and media-approved Republicans mean you’re "all over the map" politically.

 Here I would have to say Kurtz proved enough of his point to warrant his "all over the map" insight. In addition to the "media approved" people on the left Dorner's manifesto also mentioned a soft spot for Chris Christie, George H W Bush, and Colin Powell. Dorner may limit himself to the "media approved" personalities across the spectrum but he does stretch across the map enough to give Kurtz his point here.

The 4th Nolte point is how Kurtz uses anonymous tweets as the reasoning behind his right blames the media for the Dorner rampage. Nolte jumps to the 4th tweet cited and dubs Kurtz's reaction as more than pathetic. Since we are tossing around insults I guess it is safe to say that it is more than pathetic that Nolte deems it unimportant to even mention the other tweets used by Kurtz. Here are all 4 of the tweets as presented by Kurtz:

"Would you care if he loved Fox News, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh?" one Twitter user asked. "My guess is you would, hypocrite."

"Entire MSM would feed on this if it were linked to any right-wing cause."

Oh, and someone said I was "a sick, twisted freak and a liar" for saying that Scarborough, the former Republican congressman turned MSNBC host, is a conservative.

Some blatantly promoted the notion of payback: "You guys smeared Palin over Tucson. Now it's your turn to be linked to a murderous madman. Only this time the link's legit."

Nolte is right that these tweets don't prove Kurtz's Conservatives are blaming the Left media for Dorner's killing spree. He very conveniently though jumps right to the one that leads him into his next point about Palin being attacked by the entire mainstream media after the Tuscon Giffords shooting. As if we have been running in place we now end up once again where we revolved the whole time which is at the mudslinging end of the spectrum only this time with an event of 2 years ago thanks to both Nolte and Kurtz. I guess it is safe to say that this Dorner killing spree truly is opening old wounds.

In terms of points I'd say Nolte made a little more sense than Kurtz but when viewed as a whole that isn't really saying much.

Eyes On Steubenville Case

By now if you haven't heard about the Steubenville High School rape case then you are living under a rock. Partially due to the work of hackvist group Anonymous the lid is blown off the proceedings centered around this event which happened back in August.

The Nation Blog is running a liveblog of the ongoing events:


Tuesday January 8, 2013 Updates
Monday January 7, 2013 Updates
Sunday January 6, 2013 Updates


Earlier today the former legal guardians of Ma'lik Richmond appeared on the Today show defending the 16 year old defendant claiming he is not capable of the crime and that he needs to be tried in court not by social media.



Via the Dayton Daily: The out of town Judge allowed one of the Steubenville rape suspects to attend the Rose Bowl with his former legal guardians earlier this month while supposedly on house arrest.

Contained in this link is also the uncut raw version of an interview between Anonymous member @KYAnonymous and reporter Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) 

Anonymous helping to bring this case to a wider audience:



Links:

Goddard's Blog: Original Blogger On This Case
Local Leaks Description of the Event

This is the horrific 12 minute plus video that Michael Nodiano made hours after the alleged incident. (Note: this material is disturbing in a callous and heartless manner)


Michael Colin Nodianos Admitting To Rape from Commander X on Vimeo.

Newspeak in Usage

The vlogger FeverIAm suggested in his very first video back in 2008 on his YouTube account that viewers needed to do 2 things.

1. Think for themselves
2. Get a Copy of George Orwell's 1984 and read the Appendix entry on "Newspeak"

He provided this info by way of 2 videos on his channel which I've embedded for you here:

Newspeak Video #1



Newspeak Video #2



Now that you have an idea of what Newspeak is as opposed to conventional English which would be considered Oldspeak I wanted to give a few examples of Newspeak in everyday usage.

• Politburo: this a Russian committee that represents multiple Communist political parties and is arrived at by contracting the 2 words: Political Bureau. Also in use in Russia at one time or another is: Orgburo (Organizational Bureau) & Comintern (The Communist International)
• Torture becomes Enhanced Interrogation thus eliminating the unsavory aspects of the original word. You can see this also with the term Collateral Damage which is a remod (threw a little Newspeak of my own in to give you some extra flavor) of Civilian Casualties. The revised version now eliminates the murderous connotations from the expression. Friendly Fire reeks of Newspeak as the sudden terrible instance of being killed by your own peers is suddenly an exchange between friends.
• In the Tobacco Industry teens are referred to as starters in the language used internally
• Some have claimed Political Correctness is a form of Newspeak but this is debated since others say PC is just a way of speaking politely.
• You see Newspeak techniques in terms like: estate tax as opposed to death tax, pro-life and pro-choice which paints the opposition as being anti-life or anti-choice
• Excessive use of Abbreviations in the form of Acronyms is seen as another Newspeak technique
• The current usage of Communism is seen as a form of Newspeak in that is stripped of its origins to become synonymous with "evil" & bad" when taken in a Cold War context.

Please leave in the comments any words or techniques you know of in real life that could fall under the classification of Newspeak.

Who is Fever I Am?

FeverIAm aka Mike Radmann is a vlogger with an eye on world events. Two months ago he put his videos back to public on YouTube which resulted in them flooding his subscribers as if they were all new material. Didn't know that happened when You Tube restrictions changed. Fever is a great resource for keeping an abreast on the unfolding of our world's politics and economies. In the past year he has been relatively dormant as other things have taken his attention away.

In his very first video from 2008 he encourages his viewers to find their own truth. He is referring not only to what you will find on the internet but age old truths in the arena of free thought and free will. Fever warns that we have to increase our ability to think for ourselves and be wary of so-called authorities force feeding us what they want us to think. Another suggestion is to get yourself a copy of 1984 by George Orwell and begin by reading the Appendix focusing particular attention on learning about Newspeak and what it means. 

Here embedded below is the aforementioned video:

 

NRA Press Conference Generates Much Talk

Decided to run through some of the comments on the National Rifle Association's Facebook page post where they announced their press conference after a week of very little response subsequent to the horrific Sandy Hook massacre. Many of the early comments ranged from "hold the line" to "stay strong." Before the press conference several members threatened to revoke their memberships if they didn't hear what they wanted. As the speech from Wayne LaPierre got into full swing many commenters claimed they joined the NRA for life, including signing up family members for the holidays. 

I found the following comment interesting because it appears the commenter either forgot to add "don't" to his comment or doesn't know what condone means:

Support the NRA and your rights as a Gun Owner, the NRA has always condoned violence and they are horrified by the actions of a few. They support Gun Owners, not disturbed individuals that channel their aggression in a violent manner.

One mother demanded answers from the NRA, and she was treated to a steady stream of questioning what type of answers she was looking for. One commenter said that the NRA bears no responsibility for what people with guns do with their guns. This makes me wonder how can you ignore the fact that their policies allow these guns to get in the hands of these "irresponsible" individuals.

This comment made minutes before the start of the press conference wants examples of where "guns have saved lives" Interesting use of double speak here. Guns saving lives, as if the gun isn't what is actually taking the lives.

You better kick ass... detail where guns have SAVED lives. These sheep need it spelled out for them. Mass media has fed them sensationalist stories for so long, they wouldn't know reality if it rose up & bit them in the ... well, you know.

As the conference begins a protester interrupts the proceedings, and one commenter hopes he "gets his ass kicked." Another comment advises us he is:

I would say with 90% accuracy that he was a governmental implant.

Not sure I have ever heard the word "plant" shifted to "implant", but perhaps I am not hip to this new speak. Another commenter suggested they "hang" the protester. At least we have made it to the actual conference in comment land…

Another commenter marveled at the "composer" of the speaker:

Wow what composer the speaker showed! let the nut job show true liberal hatred towards those of us who remain calm.

I'm assuming they are trying to say composure and it is a predictive text thing, let us hope, because otherwise I would be looking for the conductor and orchestra.

Here we have an org by the name of Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners commenting:

Note that everything Wayne is saying is SPOT ON. Those who disagree will simply say he's "wrong" without articulating their beliefs. We cannot come to the table with unreasonable people who lack critical thinking skills.

This is an interesting POV because it is blaming their opposition preemptively for lacking critical thinking and the ability to hold reasonable positions.

As the violent video game position came out it seemed to rub some of the NRA's own supporters the wrong way. This appeared to be fracturing their own base. I wonder if this is a universal thing or just localized to today's FB commenters. One commenter supports self-deportation for the anti-gun commenters:

For those anti gun idiots posting on here.. Feel free to move to Mexico where guns are illegal and enjoy the safety I am sure you will feel there

In other comments I saw suggestions to head to China or Canada if one doesn't like the situation here in America. 

Here we have the support of placing blame on the media:

Watching right now. THANK YOU WAYNE FOR YOUR TRUE WORDS. BLAME THE MEDIA AND THIS SOCIETY NOT INANIMATE OBJECTS.

I find this comment interesting because it almost gives a myriad of corporations and institutions the sense that they are somehow a being. I wonder if the people that disagree with the NRA do this as well, begin seeing the organization in a personified manner. Here we find gun owner responsibility and keeping the guns away from children in fear they may be mentally ill as a possible solution:

and i also think all weapons should be in a locked box all time. and anyone with teen agers they can have no weapon within the home but belong to a gun club untill these teenagers are 25 yrs old. and can show there just not mental cases and or stupid

This surely doesn't come across as a very popular opinion when taking into account what we hear from the other commenters. As I go through this exercise I begin to see how the membership base of the NRA is very clear in their expectations and must make any semblance of a moderate response from their own hierarchy to this current Sandy Hook crisis difficult. Here is another comment from previously referenced org:

Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners: This is why you can't have a real discussion about this issue with liberal extremists; they are incapable of much more than the thoughtless, emotional response of "ban things", and holding signs.

Check this comment:

Video game bans are stupid. Either objects cause crime, (Guns, tv shows, video games), or people do.

There is this common expression that "guns don't kill people, people kill people." And now we are seeing this "video games (influence) people to kill people" subtext. This to me seems to fracture the argument coming from the pro-gun side of things. I think this is why it is rubbing so many of the NRA's own members. It puts them in a cake and eating it too position which weakens them. I'm interested in hearing what people think of this idea.

Once again we get what is clearly becoming a major talking point from them the following comment:

Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners: Note that nearly every detractor who is posting here is not explaining why they think "we're crazy" or the "NRA is wrong". They certainly have opinions...but getting them to articulate those opinions is impossible. They should stick to what they excel at in life...holding signs.

Agree or disagree you must give them credit for consistency as they punctuate the same point every 20 minutes or so. I realize this is a typo but I find the way they distort people's assertion quite entertaining, for instance:

the head of th IRA should run for president..ohh rahhh sir..I stand behind you.

Or this one:

And it is not all liberals that ate the enemy.

The comments go on endlessly and I have gleaned enough for now from this exercise.In summation I find people are going to believe what they believe and it is a long road to changing their minds. People also like to see things in a black and white landscape because gray areas are frightening to people. We as a species are most comfortable with certainty, and holding staunch positions becomes comforting to the great unknown. Name calling is a common technique when faced with people that disagree with you. The NRA is in a tough spot between satisfying their powerful interests and not completely pissing off a hurt American populous. 

This whole liberal media thing is particularly interesting to me because how can the media maintain such a liberal bias if it is run by conservative corporations? I always wonder how this could be possible. It seems like once something becomes a catch-phrase talking point it becomes much easier to throw it around like hand grenades rather than taking the time to build your own opinions devoid of sound bytes and parroting.

I'm very curious how others feel about what I am finding and asserting here in this post and welcome ALL of your comments.

London Riots

What a mess, so the riots that flared through Tottenham were caused by the shooting of Markc Duggan a 29 year old with 4 children. There is a report out that police shot and killed him without them ever being fired upon, now with the gun found at the scene apparently not fired by Mark Duggan tensions could once again boil over into the streets.

Look at one man's take on the riots and what could have caused such civil unrest.



Here is a link to the story

Characters of the James Ray Trial: Amayra Hamilton Edition

Let us leave Michael Hamilton, and turn our attention to his wife Amayra Hamilton, who is originally from Holland. She advised Defense Attorney Luis Li that she ran a business for 10 years importing and exporting essential oils when he inquired about her previous business experience.

From the Angel Valley website here are some highlights:
• moved from Holland to Sedona in 1997 <<< Met Michael in Holland
• …in the early 1980’s…she began her study of spiritual psychotherapy. She learned color therapy and chakra balancing. She expanded…to the use of essential oils, massage and body/energy work and included sound healing…, using a variety of instruments…
• works with crystal skulls <<< Here is a link to a crystal skull essay featuring Amayra
• Mayan Calendar and Mayan Signatures…
• The death of her 28-year old son in 1999 was a life altering experience…She added grief guidance to the assistance she provides.
• a non-denominational ordained minister and performs weddings and commitment ceremonies.
• focus is to create and encourage heart connections, honoring the Divine feminine.

Additonal Modalities (also from the Angel Valley Website)
• Healing through Art
• Holistic Energy Work & Reiki
• Intuitive Coaching
• Tai Ji
• Vortex & Angel Walks

A February 16th NPR report (which Li harped on as the start of the trial but had been conducted earlier) yields this from Amayra regarding the decline in visitors to Sedona since the 2009 James Ray lodge.

"I think most of it all has to do with people being unsure what exactly happened," says Amayra Hamilton, who runs Angel Valley with her husband. "So there's uncertainty."

And here is some more Crystal Skull Discussion on New Age Fraud:

Smatterings of Writing on the James Ray Trial

Debbie Mercer:

… took the stand to tell her version of the horrific details of James Ray’s 2009 sweat lodge.

As she recounts, about 15 minutes after the ceremony, she ended up at the back of the lodge finding Kirby Brown and James Shore lying beside each other holding hands with their faces white and their lips blue. She made the discovery with her daughter Sara, who pointed out they were holding hands. Debbie said, “I know, we got to get them out of here.” They were able to get Kirby Brown out by each grabbing an arm, and needed help with James Shore who was larger.

With no cell phones on site (except JAR) she drove a golf cart home to get her husband Ted’s phone and call 911. She called back because the dispatcher advised her to call back if anything changed.

When asked why she took the pictures after one of the earlier lodges she advised to show her friend from Switzerland who wanted to see, ”what these crazy Americans are up to.”

(#1 … written 4/9/11 after reading LaVaughn’s Celestial Reflections Blog: James Ray Trial Day 26 … revised 4/24/11)

Sweaty Hauntings

Civility is getting thrown out the window in the most recent days of the trial. Allowing in the prior acts has certainly opened up the flow of the proceedings and the judge himself has stepped up and said he has had enough with all the finger pointing. Judge Darrow is ready to move on, so while Li can argue endlessly on points that are not even entirely clear, at least not to the uninitiated. Now we got Kelly becoming an objection machine. Ms. Polk is forced to be ever vigilant in how she phrases her questions because the defense contends she is leading the witnesses.
The defense has even gone so far to present their case for prosecutorial misconduct. The move towards a mistrial got squashed sot he defense wants to be heard by a higher court.

The judge is trying hard to remain calm, and stick to his naturally laid back demeanor but these days that is getting ever-more difficult.

(#2 …written 4/9/11 after reading Tom McFeeley’s Blog: Prior acts…)


Sacred Morph Channels

In my travels to unearth the most up to date info I came across this entry from March 24th on the miracles awake blog. This is a blog run by ACIM practitioner. As I read the entry which is couched in CIM jargon, which in itself is awash in the language of Christianity. What comes to mind as I read this alien sounding diatribe?
The post defines sin in a way that is unfamiliar to me. It states it is the sense of something being wrong. I feel that is a trait of the Miracles Course is that it carries its message using language that is very familiar to Christians even if the way it is presented falls from the state of traditional meaning. This is what is so dangerous to Christians I would believe it is the morphing of their religion onto a channeled new age concept. This sits about as well with the traditional Christians as I would think the Mormons do. Here you have a religion which very clearly prays to Jesus but points to a history that falls very far from the mark of their belief system.

Is this the same type of veracity we are seeing form the Native Americans who are so up at arms at the sacrilege associated with the cherry picking approach of these self-help or new age luminaries. The one difference I see is that the Christians are still in a control position within this American society, even if at the moment their brand may be losing a little market share to the modern day new age interlopers. The Native American population is another story. Here you have a remarkably sophisticated and sustainable culture decimated by greed and hate. The whites that landed on North America systematically destroyed the native populations they happened upon as they began to settle on this land, and you can be certain the newfound settlers were founding their unchecked hatred and brutality through Christian belief systems, albeit misguided, and an obvious distortion of teachings that in their essence talk of creating harmony not destruction.

(#3 written 4/9/11 after reading Reja CIM’s blog post ***looked for original post but appears is no longer available)

Crosstalk Crosswalk

I took a new gander over at the Droid trial updates and see he changed how things are done on his massive page which he takes credit for 20% of it. I wonder if that estimate comes from the number of comments or commenters? Either way, he is now reserving the main trial updates page for broad brush strokes and using the daily twitter rehash for the finer details to fill in as deemed appropriate.

The community is going full blaze in the comments sections and people are finding lots to discuss some of the recurring topics center around the criteria of a sociopath, the desecration of sacred rituals, and lack of training and understanding of the meaning and rituals associated with Native American Sweat Lodges.

People also exhaustively trash the defense, remarking about Li’s temper, Kelly’s bullying, and the machine gun-like rapid fire delivery of Do, or her pouting when things don’t go her way.

Then of course we are forced to go down many sidebars in such inane topics as fire ants, vegetarian food, rat poison, construction wood, and the list goes on…

(written 4/9/11 after perusing Salty Droid’s James Ray Trial Updates)

Lives Get Threatened Over at James Ray Website

A lot happens in 24 hours, and for Genaro that means going off the deep end. This morning I checked back in on things in Ray Land not expecting to see death threats. These threats are not to anyone in particular but more of an all out-off the deep end cry to the ether sort.

It all started like this, I decided to catch up on the Salty Droid comments and saw Bethann commented there is a "serious case of crazy" with the people posting on the James Ray Site. Jean D. advised they "are ALL Lee Kuan Major." Jamo added that he is "going off the deep end" on the JAR Site.

I subjected myself to a Lee Kuan exchange on Huffington Post from a year ago. He could have been talking to himself, staging the back and forth for god knows why. I managed a slight chuckle when he concluded his post with, “The truth is about to be known, Hold on to your potatoes, Dr Jones!”

He showed his ire to the Camp Verde Newspaper when he left this love note:

You obviously only want to read bad things about James Arthur Ray. That is why you will not post my comments.

It will come back around for you. James Arthur Ray is NOT the simple fool you seem to think he is.

YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE UNIVERSAL LAW!!!

From Lee Kuan we move back to the ranting of Genaro, who very well might be the same person anyway, right? At first we begin with a kindler gentler Genaro here from Beliefnet:

October 14, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Gossip is the way of things, and part of the tragedy is that judgments, without good information or personal witness to these deaths and injuries, fly about and are even propogated by this blog in the first place. Who among us was there? Who knows any detail at all much less all of the details. Refrain from gossip, be impeccable with your words, spread compassion and white magic, don’t make this personal by issuing forth your underinformed and overentitled opinions, make no assumtions…. Let us pray and not adjudicate, let us bring our higher selves, and know that it is likely that the organizers of this event are also in pain from such tragedy. Speak and think from love.

Beginning yesterday at 10:07 PM Genaro posting on the James Ray Site turned his rage on Angel Valley calling them scum and hoping something worse happens to them. 20 minutes later after an extended rant about waivers Genaro's rage turns to Easter Bunnies, Santa Claus, and the Tooth Fairy, or at least the people that perpetuate such myths. A half hour later brings another post, followed by yet another 10 minutes after that. The volume is really turned up as his ire turns against the people that think he is secretly James Ray. He says James Ray is a nice guy and he is crazy like everyone say he is. BTW, I am convinced that Genaro is not a woman, because right now there is no way in my mind (like I said before, ulitmately I have no idea).

Anywho - this dude Genaro threatens to kill people with his bare hands, no joke. Ummm, admin? Where did admin go? There was an admin person over there removing comments, and moderating things because they wanted to keep things "positive"? Positive? Positively jarring, I don't care who that is, such behavior in my opinion is dangerous, and provides no benefit to anyone, so no matter where you see this trial I would suggest it be addressed, quickly.

Top 10 Attributes of a James Ray Comment Bomber

1. People are just jealous, and want to tear down James Ray because he is successful and charismatic. Alex Rodriguez of the NY Yankees made a similar point when he said, "I can't help that I'm a bright person...I can't pretend to play dumb and stupid...When people write [bad things] about me, I don't know if it's [because] I'm good-looking, I'm biracial, I make the most money, I play on the most popular team...."

2. Quick to mock and laugh at people’s beliefs. No qualms about using the outrageous to get attention. A Strong desire to be heard, and the idea that in order for a joke to be funny it needs to be insensitive and mean. Along with an excessive use of all caps

3. Lack of checking facts, whether it is about the trial, Native American culture, or Bible verse, you name it.

4. Lack of compassion for the people that died from the 2009 James Ray sweat lodge, and most anyone that is not James Ray for that matter. I guess here would also go all of the feigned my-heart-goes-out-to-the-families talk, in between people are ultimately responsible, the ever popular free will argument

5. Complete faith in the legality of waivers regardless of what happens after those waivers are signed.

6. Constant lobbing of rhetorical questions designed to get a “we all agree 100%” type response. In group think, sensitivity to group approval.

7. A bulldog sense of eradicating anything that goes against their beliefs.

8. An off the cuff tendency to make complex assumptions about how people in the legal profession need to be doing their jobs

9. Comment bombing, posting successively so it becomes a form of talking to oneself. The act of thinking the comments section has somehow become your very own personal blog.

10. Angel Valley duped James Ray and are the ones truly responsible. You could add here also the whole James Ray is just as upset as everyone else about what happened, and just wants to keep helping people.

Argument Breaks Out In James Ray Comment Thread (Go Figure)

I am going to look at another commenter real quick from the same stream and see if this 3^rd individual can round out what is the overall vibe over on the James Ray Website. This person is posting under the name of “ford” on April 11^th they begin with:

Wow,
I’ve been reading all the great posts. It seems that everyone is in agreement: – All participants are responsible for themselves, the Angel Valley is responsible for the sweat lodge.

Yes it would seem that JAR is responsible for absolutely nothing!
Even the contract that people signed says so. (see below) Hell, he could have murdered them all and still not been responsible, go figure! Wow, a new way to kill and get off scott free!

So once again everyone is in complete agreement, or at least that is what they are telling each other, in their ever-perpetuating vacuum, how strange. Angel Valley is responsible and James Ray is not, as a matter of fact according to ford once that contract got signed James Ray could have murdered them all, scott free. This ford person quickly sounds like at the most a psychopath, and at the least an extremely insensitive individual.

The next day ford confirms his correctness and posts about being real excited that the defense filed for a mistrial, and he can’t wait to find out who they blame now that it is so clear James Ray isn’t responsible.

A new poster jumps in and also shows a deep affinity for ALL CAPS. His name is Keith and he tells ford the only reason why everyone is in agreement is because dissenting comments are being deleted. Now a supposed third poster comes into the fray with the ingenious screen name: To Keith, and he proves the existence of Keith’s comment staying in the stream as proof of being wrong (Ahh, such a mature argument stacking up). To Keith also mentions that Salty Droid deletes dissenting comments and what do you think of that smartypants, huh, huh.

But where did ford go? He arrives just in time to inject a little humor into the thread with this comment:

Sealing completely a sweat lodge with rubber would be not unlike sealing one’s self in a plastic bag. LOL. Just a bit of humour for the moment.

He goes on to express his opinion that the contract should have been clearer about the possibilities of death but that doesn’t negate the responsibility of the participants while following a “fake God”, as ford refers to James Ray.

We end this exchange with our 4^th participant Patricia (now 6th person in total) who has something to say to both ford, and Keith, because they need to get a grip on some constitutional law baby. I repeat her response made to Keith (as opposed to made to To Keith) to show everyone how Patricia truly feels, and of course we got to have some ALL CAPS loving in the process:

You just can’t seem to get this through your twisted head:

James Arthur Ray DID NOT kill those people. THEY chose to go into the sweat lodge and THEY chose not to leave until it was too late for them. It was THEIR CHOICE, not Mr Rays!!!!!!!

Okay Patricia, I think it is clear how you feel about things thank you very much.

Characters of the James Ray Trial: No Apologies, You Know Who Is Guilty

I decided to look at additional comments from the same page and went further back to a comment from Sarah Lansing on April 9, 2011 at 12:02 pm who tells us “not to lose sight” of what the James Ray trial sums up to. To Sarah it all boils down to waivers. She feels if the people signed the waivers then they are liable for anything that happened. As a matter of fact this is what they paid big money for. She says if you do your research you will learn that is what it takes to get the altered states of vision questing without tripping hard.

Sarah like Genaro is a big fan of the ALL CAPS thing and uses it freely to provide emphasis. Along the way she concludes that most of the people in the lodge were hunky-dory, and we need to keep this in mind. Sarah finishes off her post on James Ray’s website with this:

This is all that matters. With that much testimony in favor of Mr Ray the jury will know that Mr Ray did not conduct the sweat lodge in a reckless manner and there are no grounds to break those ironclad liability waivers the people signed promising to take full responsibility for their actions should they participate in the activities of the workshop. Mr Ray is…NOT GUILTY of manslaughter. Those people who suffered and died are guilty of refusing to have the good sense to listen to their bodies and get out of the sweat lodge when they had reached their limit, like that one lady did.

CASE CLOSED!

It is oh so very clear cut for Sarah with the iron clad waivers, and the clearly non-reckless behavior of James Ray. I’m not sure what trial she is watching if she is not witnessing anything reckless about the way Ray conducted his lodges. She tells us that the victims are guilty, not Ray. That they needed to listen to their bodies, and that without that common sense in play, they are guilty as charged with whatever Ray concocts, once the waivers are signed of course.

I am going to look at a few more comments, and then brainstorm a Top 10 from their perspective as I am seeing it. I’m truly curious about whats bubbling up from that camp right now.