Gonzo journalism about cats?
Posted by Kerry Grens
[Entry posted at 26th July 2007 05:07 PM GMT]
Comment on this news story by clicking on the title link above!
This week one of my sources sent me a recent newsletter from Allerca, a "lifestyle pets" company now headquartered in Delaware that claims to have developed hypoallergenic cats. I was interested to read a rant by the company's founder, Simon Brodie, about the "gonzo journalists" who "trumpeted absolute falsehoods and downright lies" regarding the company.
I imagine Brodie might be referring to yours truly. Not because I lied in my investigation of Allerca, but because what I found out about the company was not exactly favorable, and, as far as I can tell, The Scientist and the San Diego Union Tribune are among the few outlets that actually reported with skepticism the wonders of these miracle cats. I left a message with Allerca's press office, asking if The Scientist was included in this gonzo bunch, but did not receive an immediate response.
Brodie claims that these gonzo journalists "went very quiet (surprise, surprise!) once ALLERCA began delivering kittens. They didn't write about ALLERCA when our cats appeared on live national television with allergic individuals who failed to have any allergic reaction (talk about a "trial by fire"!); and they failed to report that ALLERCA had won a TIME Magazine Best Inventions of 2006 award."
But the only customers I've heard from were those who were denied cats because of their particular allergic profiles, and who complained that their refunds did not come back. Shortly after they contacted me, both customers received their refunds. And as far as silence goes, I had called Allerca months ago to ask them about the progress of their cats, and received no word.
Hunter S. Thompson's somewhat autobiographical adventures in gonzo journalism highlight the fact that no reporter can completely divorce himself from his own way of viewing the world. As a science writer, trained in science, I admit to being skeptical of claims that have no vetted data to support them. To me, bringing a cat on a TV show is not scientific proof that its Fel d1 protein has been disabled. A scientific publication is a start, and anything less I consider gonzo.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
The Last of a Dying Breed
The Last of a Dying Breed
By Karen Cole Peralta
Published in "Seattle Downtown News"
Word count: 800
Right here in downtown Seattle are half a dozen old-time newsstands, the kind that tend to be made of wood and painted green or brown, with a simple roof for shelter in a downpour, and a hard-edged lean-to look. Spare and Spartan, such booths have existed here since at least 1919. But the news hawkers are in deep danger of disappearing forever…potentially overnight.
Just as he closed for the day I met with one of the men in the downtown newsstands, peak-chinned and hawklike, green-eyed, small, lithe and sharp as a news hawker should be.
We sipped two dollars worth of coffee at the Turf near First in the Market’s part of downtown as he told me about his particular newsstand at Third and Union in front of the old Woolworth’s building.
“My name is Pat Hickey. I’ve been here since August of 1975.” Twenty-eight years hawking papers from inside an old run-down newsstand. “I manage the stand. My boss is Dennis Hogan.
“It was put up in 1919. The legendary Frank Turco opened up the stand. He ran it until his death in 1966. There have been 85 years of continuous service on this corner.
“Some of our customers are wealthy men who own horses and depend on us to sell their racing forms. We make most of our money selling the racing forms.
“When they built the bus tunnel and narrowed Third Avenue, we lost most of our car trade and never got it back.”
Times and PI sales have fallen off pretty badly over the years on account of so many vending racks on all the downtown corners.
“You see, people don’t depend on newspapers anymore, because they get their news off the television. The truth of the matter is that the downtown newsstand, for decades a fixture in all the major American cities, is going the way of the dinosaur.”
I interrupted Hickey with “I caught you just in time!”
“Well, sort of. Due to the fifteen cents profit per paper. It goes to the dealer or the owner of the vending rack. Ten cents is the wholesale price. We buy it for ten cents and we sell it for twenty-five, hence the fifteen cent profit.”
To clear fifteen dollars one would have to sell 100 papers.
“In the old days selling that many papers was nothing. Now to sell 100, one would have to have hot headlines or a great day.”
Frank Turco, Hickey told me, was middle-aged when he founded the first downtown newsstands.
“He came out from Pittsburgh, PA and he lost a leg in a train accident in Montana. He was quite an industrial entrepreneur. In not too many years, he had newsstands over a good portion of downtown Seattle.”
For a long time, he was one of downtown’s most recognizable faces; people in the thousands knew him by sight. In the 1940’s he ran for city council as a reform candidate.
“A reform candidate is one who’s going to, you know, radically reform the whole system. Politics in the 40s were very corrupt,” Hickey stated significantly. “Frank Turco was very involved in union politics. He was the head of Seattle’s newsboy union.
“It was sort of a closet union…it was set up for the benefit of the union to make money off the newsboys who made peanuts for money. Turco was a newsboy and believed in justice for the working man. You gotta handle that with a little more skill. He was exploiting the newsboys.”
Too soon, Hickey had to get back to his beloved newsstand.
“The idea is, you’re in a dinosaur, and you may be catching the tail end of something that really has a very long history.”
Downtown newsstands are almost as old as the cities. Over the years there have been hundreds of colorful newspaper vendors, such as PI Mary, an eccentric old lady who sold papers down on First. She went back to the Second World War. She would boldly go right into the First Avenue bars, and directly sell papers to the customers.
“We’ve definitely been a part of the fabric of downtown life. Unfortunately, most of the newsboys have been pushing up roses for a long, long time,” Hickey sighed.
When I left the newsstand, an unknown gambler in the booth, whispering to Hickey, “I.M. Anonymous” by name, closed its green doors at me as a definitive sign-off.
By Karen Cole Peralta
Published in "Seattle Downtown News"
Word count: 800
Right here in downtown Seattle are half a dozen old-time newsstands, the kind that tend to be made of wood and painted green or brown, with a simple roof for shelter in a downpour, and a hard-edged lean-to look. Spare and Spartan, such booths have existed here since at least 1919. But the news hawkers are in deep danger of disappearing forever…potentially overnight.
Just as he closed for the day I met with one of the men in the downtown newsstands, peak-chinned and hawklike, green-eyed, small, lithe and sharp as a news hawker should be.
We sipped two dollars worth of coffee at the Turf near First in the Market’s part of downtown as he told me about his particular newsstand at Third and Union in front of the old Woolworth’s building.
“My name is Pat Hickey. I’ve been here since August of 1975.” Twenty-eight years hawking papers from inside an old run-down newsstand. “I manage the stand. My boss is Dennis Hogan.
“It was put up in 1919. The legendary Frank Turco opened up the stand. He ran it until his death in 1966. There have been 85 years of continuous service on this corner.
“Some of our customers are wealthy men who own horses and depend on us to sell their racing forms. We make most of our money selling the racing forms.
“When they built the bus tunnel and narrowed Third Avenue, we lost most of our car trade and never got it back.”
Times and PI sales have fallen off pretty badly over the years on account of so many vending racks on all the downtown corners.
“You see, people don’t depend on newspapers anymore, because they get their news off the television. The truth of the matter is that the downtown newsstand, for decades a fixture in all the major American cities, is going the way of the dinosaur.”
I interrupted Hickey with “I caught you just in time!”
“Well, sort of. Due to the fifteen cents profit per paper. It goes to the dealer or the owner of the vending rack. Ten cents is the wholesale price. We buy it for ten cents and we sell it for twenty-five, hence the fifteen cent profit.”
To clear fifteen dollars one would have to sell 100 papers.
“In the old days selling that many papers was nothing. Now to sell 100, one would have to have hot headlines or a great day.”
Frank Turco, Hickey told me, was middle-aged when he founded the first downtown newsstands.
“He came out from Pittsburgh, PA and he lost a leg in a train accident in Montana. He was quite an industrial entrepreneur. In not too many years, he had newsstands over a good portion of downtown Seattle.”
For a long time, he was one of downtown’s most recognizable faces; people in the thousands knew him by sight. In the 1940’s he ran for city council as a reform candidate.
“A reform candidate is one who’s going to, you know, radically reform the whole system. Politics in the 40s were very corrupt,” Hickey stated significantly. “Frank Turco was very involved in union politics. He was the head of Seattle’s newsboy union.
“It was sort of a closet union…it was set up for the benefit of the union to make money off the newsboys who made peanuts for money. Turco was a newsboy and believed in justice for the working man. You gotta handle that with a little more skill. He was exploiting the newsboys.”
Too soon, Hickey had to get back to his beloved newsstand.
“The idea is, you’re in a dinosaur, and you may be catching the tail end of something that really has a very long history.”
Downtown newsstands are almost as old as the cities. Over the years there have been hundreds of colorful newspaper vendors, such as PI Mary, an eccentric old lady who sold papers down on First. She went back to the Second World War. She would boldly go right into the First Avenue bars, and directly sell papers to the customers.
“We’ve definitely been a part of the fabric of downtown life. Unfortunately, most of the newsboys have been pushing up roses for a long, long time,” Hickey sighed.
When I left the newsstand, an unknown gambler in the booth, whispering to Hickey, “I.M. Anonymous” by name, closed its green doors at me as a definitive sign-off.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
The Eight Dumbest Car Thieves
If you think it takes smarts to steal a car, you're dead wrong. Getting away with it — that's another story.
By Josh Condon of MSN Autos
Despite what Hollywood blockbusters such as "Gone in Sixty Seconds," "Heat" and "Catch Me If You Can" would have us believe, most criminals are not masterminds playing a well-orchestrated cat-and-mouse game with members of law enforcement, while working toward the heist of a lifetime. If movies were made about real criminals, the majority would be far more slapstick, like an episode of "America's Funniest Home Videos," but with guns.
Here are eight real car thieves who prove that those too lazy to get what they want through hard work and determination are prone to costly shortcuts and mental lapses when it comes to committing crimes...(to read the rest of this story, please click on the link in the title above.)
By Josh Condon of MSN Autos
Despite what Hollywood blockbusters such as "Gone in Sixty Seconds," "Heat" and "Catch Me If You Can" would have us believe, most criminals are not masterminds playing a well-orchestrated cat-and-mouse game with members of law enforcement, while working toward the heist of a lifetime. If movies were made about real criminals, the majority would be far more slapstick, like an episode of "America's Funniest Home Videos," but with guns.
Here are eight real car thieves who prove that those too lazy to get what they want through hard work and determination are prone to costly shortcuts and mental lapses when it comes to committing crimes...(to read the rest of this story, please click on the link in the title above.)
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Michigan police shock cougar - a toy one - with Taser
Associated Press
6:48 AM CDT, May 15, 2009
WARREN, Mich. - Police responding to a 911 caller reporting a cougar on the prowl in a suburban Detroit park saw what looked like the big cat hiding in a discarded section of cement drain pipe.
So Warren police on Monday shot a Taser electroshock weapon -- hitting what turned out to be a large toy cougar right in the stuffing.
The Detroit Free Press reports the toy apparently was placed in the pipe as a hoax. About 10 officers responded to Bates Park. The Macomb Daily of Mount Clemens reports the caller said it was a 150-pound cat.
Warren Police Commissioner William Dwyer says the department is "out there to keep the community safe."
This week's incident took place about a month after a 16-year-old from Detroit died after a Taser was used by Warren police to subdue him.
6:48 AM CDT, May 15, 2009
WARREN, Mich. - Police responding to a 911 caller reporting a cougar on the prowl in a suburban Detroit park saw what looked like the big cat hiding in a discarded section of cement drain pipe.
So Warren police on Monday shot a Taser electroshock weapon -- hitting what turned out to be a large toy cougar right in the stuffing.
The Detroit Free Press reports the toy apparently was placed in the pipe as a hoax. About 10 officers responded to Bates Park. The Macomb Daily of Mount Clemens reports the caller said it was a 150-pound cat.
Warren Police Commissioner William Dwyer says the department is "out there to keep the community safe."
This week's incident took place about a month after a 16-year-old from Detroit died after a Taser was used by Warren police to subdue him.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
2 Yellowstone workers fired after watering geyser
A live webcam facing Old Faithful catches seasonal park employees urinating on the famous geyser.
By Bob Moen, Associated Press
Thu, May 14 2009 at 7:34 PM EST
Two seasonal Yellowstone National Park concession workers have been fired after a live webcam caught them urinating into the Old Faithful geyser.
Park spokesman Al Nash says a 23-year-old man on Tuesday was fined $750 and placed on three years of unsupervised probation for urinating, being off trail in a restricted area and taking items from the area. The man also was banned from Yellowstone for two years. The second employee's case is pending.
The park's dispatch center was called after someone watching a webcam on the geyser saw six employees leaving the trail and walking on Old Faithful on May 4.
The geyser was not erupting at the time.
Xanterra Parks & Resorts general manager Jim McCaleb says the former concession workers were hired at the Old Faithful Inn and that such incidents were rare.
Copyright 2009 AP News
By Bob Moen, Associated Press
Thu, May 14 2009 at 7:34 PM EST
Two seasonal Yellowstone National Park concession workers have been fired after a live webcam caught them urinating into the Old Faithful geyser.
Park spokesman Al Nash says a 23-year-old man on Tuesday was fined $750 and placed on three years of unsupervised probation for urinating, being off trail in a restricted area and taking items from the area. The man also was banned from Yellowstone for two years. The second employee's case is pending.
The park's dispatch center was called after someone watching a webcam on the geyser saw six employees leaving the trail and walking on Old Faithful on May 4.
The geyser was not erupting at the time.
Xanterra Parks & Resorts general manager Jim McCaleb says the former concession workers were hired at the Old Faithful Inn and that such incidents were rare.
Copyright 2009 AP News
Friday, May 15, 2009
Study finds cocaine in the air of Spanish cities
Wed May 13, 2:07 pm ET
Yahoo! News
MADRID (AFP) – Spanish scientists have detected the presence of cocaine in the air of Madrid and Barcelona by using a new technique for the first time, a research institute said Wednesday.
The scientists looked for 17 components in five different types of illegal drugs -- cocaine, amphetamines, opiates, cannabinoids and lysergic acid.
The results revealed cocaine is the predominant drug in the air of the two cities, the CSIC institute said.
It was found in concentrations of 29 to 850 picogrammes per cubic metre of air. A picogramme is one trillionth of a gramme.
The study is the result of the first use of a new method for the detection of drugs in the air, adapted specifically for the researchers, who are to publish their results in the review "Analytical Chemistry".
"Heroin was also found in detectable levels in the samples taken in Madrid, but not in those from Barcelona," the CSIC said.
This it explained by the fact that the area of Madrid where the sample was taken is close to a district where drug dealers are suspected of operating.
The scientists also reported a higher concentration of the components during the weekend, "suggesting higher consumption this time."
But it said there was no reason for the public to be concerned.
"Even if we lived 1,000 years we would not consume the equivalent of a dose of cocaine through the air," said one of the scientists, Miren Lopez de Alda.
Yahoo! News
MADRID (AFP) – Spanish scientists have detected the presence of cocaine in the air of Madrid and Barcelona by using a new technique for the first time, a research institute said Wednesday.
The scientists looked for 17 components in five different types of illegal drugs -- cocaine, amphetamines, opiates, cannabinoids and lysergic acid.
The results revealed cocaine is the predominant drug in the air of the two cities, the CSIC institute said.
It was found in concentrations of 29 to 850 picogrammes per cubic metre of air. A picogramme is one trillionth of a gramme.
The study is the result of the first use of a new method for the detection of drugs in the air, adapted specifically for the researchers, who are to publish their results in the review "Analytical Chemistry".
"Heroin was also found in detectable levels in the samples taken in Madrid, but not in those from Barcelona," the CSIC said.
This it explained by the fact that the area of Madrid where the sample was taken is close to a district where drug dealers are suspected of operating.
The scientists also reported a higher concentration of the components during the weekend, "suggesting higher consumption this time."
But it said there was no reason for the public to be concerned.
"Even if we lived 1,000 years we would not consume the equivalent of a dose of cocaine through the air," said one of the scientists, Miren Lopez de Alda.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005) on the Iraq War & the Bush Presidency
February 23, 2005
Amy Goodman and Mary Suma
On Sunday the founder of ‘gonzo’ journalism, died at the age of 67 of an apparent suicide. Today we are air a Jan. 2003 interview Thompson gave on KDNK in the Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado. An excerpt: “Bush is really the evil one here and it is more than just him. We are the Nazis in this game and I don’t like it. I am embarrassed and I am pissed off. I mean to say something. I think a lot of people in this country agree with me–a lot than that are saying anything…we’ll see what happens to me if I get my head cut off next week—it is always unknown or bushy-haired strangers who commit suicide right afterwards with no witnesses.”
Today we pay tribute to one of America’s best-known journalists and authors–Hunter S. Thompson. He shot himself Sunday night at his home in Woody Creek Colorado. He was 67 years old.
He first became well known during the late 1960s and early 1970s while working for Rolling Stone where his drug-induced books Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail were first serialized. Thompson once said, “I hate to advocate weird chemicals, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone … but they’ve always worked for me.”
Thompson identified the death of the American Dream as his reporter’s beat. He called his style of writing “gonzo” journalism. He said, “Objective journalism is one of the main reasons that American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long.”
Hunter S. Thompson was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1937. He served two years in the Air Force where he was a newspaper sports editor. He later wrote unpublished fiction and made his name after publishing an article in Harper’s magazine about the Hell’s Angels who he had rode with for a year.
In 1970, he ran unsuccessfully for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, on the “Freak Power” ticket. His platform included changing the name of Aspen to “Fat City” and decriminalizing drugs. During his campaign, Thompson shaved his head and denounced his Republican rival who sported a crew cut as “my long-haired opponent.” He lost by a handful of votes.
He is the author of a dozen books, his latest was titled “Hey Rube: Blood Sport, The Bush Doctrine and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness.” He once said “By any accepted standard, I have had more than nine lives. I counted them up once and there were 13 times I almost and maybe should have died.”
Thompson killed himself this past Sunday. He reportedly stuck a .45 caliber handgun in his mouth and shot himself while his wife listened on the phone and his son and daughter-in-law were in another room of his house. His lawyer for the past 15 years told the Boston Globe that he wanted to be cremated and his ashes to be blown out of a cannon across his ranch.
Today, we hear Hunter S Thompson in his own words talking about President Bush, Iraq and much more. He was interviewed on community radio station KDNK in the Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado. Former KDNK station manager, Mary Suma, began by asking Thompson about him saying that “the idea of war is not just wrong but borders on insanity.” This is Hunter S. Thompson.
AMY GOODMAN: Today we hear Hunter S. Thompson in his own words talking about President Bush, Iraq, and much more. He was interviewed on community radio station KDNK in Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado in January 2003. Former KDNK Station Manager Mary Suma began by asking Thompson, saying the idea of war is not just wrong, but borders on insanity, a comment of Hunter Thompson’s, he responded.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Of couse, it depends on which vantage point you look at the war from. If you are the president of a huge oil company, no, it’s not insane at all. The war would be quite justified.
MARY SUMA: How do you feel—I’ve read that you were in the streets in the Chicago riots back at that convention? Do you think that we can elicit that sort of passion as it builds? I mean, it really seems to be building up there, the anti-war faction.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Yeah, it does. But look at this. I don’t recall, anyway, a massive depression, economic collapse, at that time, 1968. I was going to say, “Do you?” but, uh… What we have now is a collapse of the economy and a totally unjustifiable war, irrational really, except from the point of view of the oil industry.
MARY SUMA: Did you watch the State of the Union the other evening?
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Oh, boy, I did.
MARY SUMA: What did you think?
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: I was horrified. It was a nightmare of a thing to go through. You know, he rattled off all these “pie in the sky” ideas in the beginning, none of which are going to either work or be funded. He knows that. As a matter of fact, the New York Times today said that already they see that even republicans are admitting that the Medicare—he was talking about the Medicare plan, the $400 billion plan—
MARY SUMA: Right.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Is impossible. Members of both parties expressed doubts about its feasibility today, forcing the administration officials to reconsider important elements of the package. So, none of the domestic issues he talked about are feasible. I don’t even think he can get the tax cut through, which is insane. Cut taxes in a time when the country is going broke. So over the line, I mean, it’s not just the war that’s wrong. I can’t imagine any justification for just going over to Iraq and bombing the place back to the Stone Age like we did before.
MARY SUMA: Why does it seem a good portion of the country is buying into this?
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: That is a really—that’s a disturbing aspect of it.
MARY SUMA: Can we believe the polls? I mean, certainly the applause the other evening, they always say that you can sort of gauge the popularity of a president by the applause at the State of the Union. I don’t know if that’s true or not. But it seems like we’re living in two separate countries.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Well, remember, that Bush’s popularity and the popularity—or the support for the war and two months ago when it was much higher. But these are just daily. These are things that change every day. But I remember writing in—I don’t know, it might have been at least five years ago—it was a, I think, ABC, some serious poll, several of them came up with the findings that the American people, overall, favor giving up some of their freedoms in exchange for more security.
MARY SUMA: Mm-hmm.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: They would rather be secure than free, in other words.
MARY SUMA: Right.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: That really is shocking.
MARY SUMA: It is shocking, and more so today, maybe.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: That’s the answer, I think, for your question is why is the public buying into it. Another reason is that the fear which I—that’s why I tried to address or at least rave about in the book. Fear is an unhealthy condition, living in fear. And as we clearly have been for two years now, it makes the population more obedient, particularly if they’re willing to give up their freedom for security. More obedient, more easier to control, and it’s, well, it is very much like Nazi Germany.
MARY SUMA: Mm-hmm.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Remember the old good German syndrome.
MARY SUMA: Mm-hmm.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: We used to ridicule it, the good Germans who just went along with it because that’s what the Fuehrer wanted.
MARY SUMA: You’ve said the president has destroyed the country, the economy and our relationship with the rest of the world.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Well, I believe that’s true and even the countries that allegedly go along or support us, our allies going into this war, popular opinion in most of those countries, I can’t say this for sure, but in England, certainly, the English people, as a whole, are strongly opposed to the war and to going along with whatever George Bush says. Democracy is on its last legs in this country, and freedom, you know, the Free World?
MARY SUMA: Mm-hmm.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: We’re defending freedom? We’ll fight to the death for freedom? That’s absurd. This country is no more a capital or bastion of freedom now than Nazi Germany was in the 1940s. This country is a rogue nation in a way, but worse than a rogue nation. We’re a war-crazy, war-dependent, really, nation and that leads right to the oil industry. It is ridiculous. And particularly in the media; with the media I noticed. To not discuss the connection between oil and bombs in Iraq is disgraceful. Winston Churchill said, “In times of war, the first casualty is always the truth.” Truth is the first casualty of any war.
MARY SUMA: In lieu of fear.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: You see, I’m a little bit cranked up and fanatical about it.
MARY SUMA: That’s the age group, isn’t it, Hunter, that we want to really—
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Yeah. This is—I mean, if you want to live in a Nazi nation, I wouldn’t want to be 20 years old now.
MARY SUMA: I wouldn’t either.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: I fear for what’s coming and for the welcoming committee of kids that’s going to meet it, saying come on in. No, it’s just ignorance, and well, the media, we’re being deprived of the real news. I’m not going to try to say I have the real news, but just what you said. That’s exactly right.
MARY SUMA: Again, you’re going to be at Pepkey Park on Saturday afternoon. Do you know what your topic is yet? We know the topic, but do you know what—can you give us any preview of what’s going to be said, or do you just stand up there and let it—
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Yeah. I usually just take a—just wing it, freefall, just like I did today. I had no idea what I was going to say today. This is really a disgraceful moment in history and just thinking about the war, or attending the peace rallies, going out in the street, voting with your feet, as they say.
AMY GOODMAN: Hunter S. Thompson speaking with KDNK’s Mary Suma in January of 2003. She then asked him about his book Kingdom of Fear: Loathesome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: It started off—it’s supposed to be a memoir; I think it started off as memoirs. You know, it just sort of—a very quick and active story about how I got to be what I am today, you know, different key adventures in my life. Mainly it is fun. Yeah, I could use a little bit more editing, but everything could. It’s a fun read. It’s a very—pretty savage one. And it’s clearly, not anti-Bush, but anti-war. See, I don’t hate Bush personally. I used to know him. I used to do some drugs here and there.
MARY SUMA: Is that true, Hunter? What about, I didn’t know that you were an unofficial adviser to Jimmy Carter.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Yeah. Weird things happen here and there. I got to know him early, two years before he ran, and he just looked like a pretty good bet to me, because I was a gambler, and I wanted to win. It was important to win at that time.
ANITA THOMPSON: Evan Dobelle, who was, among other things, Carter’s Secretary of Protocol, he held a dinner in Hawaii about two months ago and Hunter was a guest of honor and he stood up to say and thank Hunter because Jimmy Carter would not be president if it wasn’t for Hunter Thompson.
MARY SUMA: Really?
ANITA THOMPSON: Yeah. Isn’t that cool?
AMY GOODMAN: Anita and Hunter Thompson. Anita, Hunter Thompson’s wife, again, speaking with Mary Suma of KDNK in January of 2003. Finally, Mary Suma asked Hunter Thompson about his upcoming trip to New York.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: What I’m going to New York to do is stir up trouble. I’m not going to change hats, yeah, Saturday in the park, Sunday in New York City, Monday night, Conan O’Brian, or something like that. I just believe in this. I’m offended and insulted by the slope of the American people, and that means us. That means these bastards who just sit around—
ANITA THOMPSON: We’re getting there.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Let’s keep hitting on this because I doubt that George Bush is going to go away before the next two years anyway. He should be run out of office. He should resign right now, in my opinion. I did call for his resignation, but I don’t think we would have a groundswell immediately for that. There will be a lot of people who agree with me.
MARY SUMA: Down the road?
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Well, no, in a year. I mean, the—
MARY SUMA: Will we be at war in a year, Hunter?
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: I think so, without a doubt. Like I said, we’ve been at war for 13 years. We’ve been bombing that country that long and we’ve cut off everything, all their food, books, you know, close—cut off all imports of books over there.
MARY SUMA: Have you ever been there?
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Excuse me?
MARY SUMA: Have you ever been over there?
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: I don’t think so. Not in any way that I was impressed by. I probably have gone through it or stopped there. I don’t really know Iraq. I made a point of getting to know it a lot better. It was a very advanced, progressive country, had, what, 90% literacy, health care for the whole entire population. They were doing well, prosperous, high literacy. Many more book stores per capita in Iraq than there are in this country. Many. No more. We bombed their children. We killed their husbands and wives and we bombed them, and we saw her, and we’re going to do it again. Just random killing like that, mass killing to force a population to get rid of Saddam so we can move in and take over and control the oil, God damn it, if that’s not evil, I don’t know what would be. You know, Bush, he’s really the evil one in here. Well, more than just him. We’re the Nazis in this game, and I don’t like it. I’m embarrassed and I’m pissed off. Yeah. I mean to say something and I think a lot of people in this country agree with me. A lot more never say anything. We’ll see what happens to me if I get my head cut off in the next week by—it’s always unknown Bush [inaudible] strangers who commit suicide right afterward. No witnesses. They have a new kind of crime.
MARY SUMA: Is that the CIA kind of crime?
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Oh, absolutely. Anyone who’s a successful criminal has got a crime. Absolutely no witnesses, no records. We can go on and on. I have to be restrained on the subject.
AMY GOODMAN: The late Hunter S. Thompson, speaking two years ago in an interview on community radio station KDNK in the Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado, speaking with then-Station Manager Mary Suma. Hunter S. Thompson died of an apparent suicide this weekend; shot himself Sunday night at his home in Woody Creek, Colorado. His latest book, a collection of his essays called Hey Rube: Bloodsport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness.
Amy Goodman and Mary Suma
On Sunday the founder of ‘gonzo’ journalism, died at the age of 67 of an apparent suicide. Today we are air a Jan. 2003 interview Thompson gave on KDNK in the Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado. An excerpt: “Bush is really the evil one here and it is more than just him. We are the Nazis in this game and I don’t like it. I am embarrassed and I am pissed off. I mean to say something. I think a lot of people in this country agree with me–a lot than that are saying anything…we’ll see what happens to me if I get my head cut off next week—it is always unknown or bushy-haired strangers who commit suicide right afterwards with no witnesses.”
Today we pay tribute to one of America’s best-known journalists and authors–Hunter S. Thompson. He shot himself Sunday night at his home in Woody Creek Colorado. He was 67 years old.
He first became well known during the late 1960s and early 1970s while working for Rolling Stone where his drug-induced books Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail were first serialized. Thompson once said, “I hate to advocate weird chemicals, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone … but they’ve always worked for me.”
Thompson identified the death of the American Dream as his reporter’s beat. He called his style of writing “gonzo” journalism. He said, “Objective journalism is one of the main reasons that American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long.”
Hunter S. Thompson was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1937. He served two years in the Air Force where he was a newspaper sports editor. He later wrote unpublished fiction and made his name after publishing an article in Harper’s magazine about the Hell’s Angels who he had rode with for a year.
In 1970, he ran unsuccessfully for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, on the “Freak Power” ticket. His platform included changing the name of Aspen to “Fat City” and decriminalizing drugs. During his campaign, Thompson shaved his head and denounced his Republican rival who sported a crew cut as “my long-haired opponent.” He lost by a handful of votes.
He is the author of a dozen books, his latest was titled “Hey Rube: Blood Sport, The Bush Doctrine and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness.” He once said “By any accepted standard, I have had more than nine lives. I counted them up once and there were 13 times I almost and maybe should have died.”
Thompson killed himself this past Sunday. He reportedly stuck a .45 caliber handgun in his mouth and shot himself while his wife listened on the phone and his son and daughter-in-law were in another room of his house. His lawyer for the past 15 years told the Boston Globe that he wanted to be cremated and his ashes to be blown out of a cannon across his ranch.
Today, we hear Hunter S Thompson in his own words talking about President Bush, Iraq and much more. He was interviewed on community radio station KDNK in the Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado. Former KDNK station manager, Mary Suma, began by asking Thompson about him saying that “the idea of war is not just wrong but borders on insanity.” This is Hunter S. Thompson.
AMY GOODMAN: Today we hear Hunter S. Thompson in his own words talking about President Bush, Iraq, and much more. He was interviewed on community radio station KDNK in Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado in January 2003. Former KDNK Station Manager Mary Suma began by asking Thompson, saying the idea of war is not just wrong, but borders on insanity, a comment of Hunter Thompson’s, he responded.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Of couse, it depends on which vantage point you look at the war from. If you are the president of a huge oil company, no, it’s not insane at all. The war would be quite justified.
MARY SUMA: How do you feel—I’ve read that you were in the streets in the Chicago riots back at that convention? Do you think that we can elicit that sort of passion as it builds? I mean, it really seems to be building up there, the anti-war faction.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Yeah, it does. But look at this. I don’t recall, anyway, a massive depression, economic collapse, at that time, 1968. I was going to say, “Do you?” but, uh… What we have now is a collapse of the economy and a totally unjustifiable war, irrational really, except from the point of view of the oil industry.
MARY SUMA: Did you watch the State of the Union the other evening?
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Oh, boy, I did.
MARY SUMA: What did you think?
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: I was horrified. It was a nightmare of a thing to go through. You know, he rattled off all these “pie in the sky” ideas in the beginning, none of which are going to either work or be funded. He knows that. As a matter of fact, the New York Times today said that already they see that even republicans are admitting that the Medicare—he was talking about the Medicare plan, the $400 billion plan—
MARY SUMA: Right.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Is impossible. Members of both parties expressed doubts about its feasibility today, forcing the administration officials to reconsider important elements of the package. So, none of the domestic issues he talked about are feasible. I don’t even think he can get the tax cut through, which is insane. Cut taxes in a time when the country is going broke. So over the line, I mean, it’s not just the war that’s wrong. I can’t imagine any justification for just going over to Iraq and bombing the place back to the Stone Age like we did before.
MARY SUMA: Why does it seem a good portion of the country is buying into this?
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: That is a really—that’s a disturbing aspect of it.
MARY SUMA: Can we believe the polls? I mean, certainly the applause the other evening, they always say that you can sort of gauge the popularity of a president by the applause at the State of the Union. I don’t know if that’s true or not. But it seems like we’re living in two separate countries.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Well, remember, that Bush’s popularity and the popularity—or the support for the war and two months ago when it was much higher. But these are just daily. These are things that change every day. But I remember writing in—I don’t know, it might have been at least five years ago—it was a, I think, ABC, some serious poll, several of them came up with the findings that the American people, overall, favor giving up some of their freedoms in exchange for more security.
MARY SUMA: Mm-hmm.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: They would rather be secure than free, in other words.
MARY SUMA: Right.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: That really is shocking.
MARY SUMA: It is shocking, and more so today, maybe.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: That’s the answer, I think, for your question is why is the public buying into it. Another reason is that the fear which I—that’s why I tried to address or at least rave about in the book. Fear is an unhealthy condition, living in fear. And as we clearly have been for two years now, it makes the population more obedient, particularly if they’re willing to give up their freedom for security. More obedient, more easier to control, and it’s, well, it is very much like Nazi Germany.
MARY SUMA: Mm-hmm.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Remember the old good German syndrome.
MARY SUMA: Mm-hmm.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: We used to ridicule it, the good Germans who just went along with it because that’s what the Fuehrer wanted.
MARY SUMA: You’ve said the president has destroyed the country, the economy and our relationship with the rest of the world.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Well, I believe that’s true and even the countries that allegedly go along or support us, our allies going into this war, popular opinion in most of those countries, I can’t say this for sure, but in England, certainly, the English people, as a whole, are strongly opposed to the war and to going along with whatever George Bush says. Democracy is on its last legs in this country, and freedom, you know, the Free World?
MARY SUMA: Mm-hmm.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: We’re defending freedom? We’ll fight to the death for freedom? That’s absurd. This country is no more a capital or bastion of freedom now than Nazi Germany was in the 1940s. This country is a rogue nation in a way, but worse than a rogue nation. We’re a war-crazy, war-dependent, really, nation and that leads right to the oil industry. It is ridiculous. And particularly in the media; with the media I noticed. To not discuss the connection between oil and bombs in Iraq is disgraceful. Winston Churchill said, “In times of war, the first casualty is always the truth.” Truth is the first casualty of any war.
MARY SUMA: In lieu of fear.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: You see, I’m a little bit cranked up and fanatical about it.
MARY SUMA: That’s the age group, isn’t it, Hunter, that we want to really—
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Yeah. This is—I mean, if you want to live in a Nazi nation, I wouldn’t want to be 20 years old now.
MARY SUMA: I wouldn’t either.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: I fear for what’s coming and for the welcoming committee of kids that’s going to meet it, saying come on in. No, it’s just ignorance, and well, the media, we’re being deprived of the real news. I’m not going to try to say I have the real news, but just what you said. That’s exactly right.
MARY SUMA: Again, you’re going to be at Pepkey Park on Saturday afternoon. Do you know what your topic is yet? We know the topic, but do you know what—can you give us any preview of what’s going to be said, or do you just stand up there and let it—
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Yeah. I usually just take a—just wing it, freefall, just like I did today. I had no idea what I was going to say today. This is really a disgraceful moment in history and just thinking about the war, or attending the peace rallies, going out in the street, voting with your feet, as they say.
AMY GOODMAN: Hunter S. Thompson speaking with KDNK’s Mary Suma in January of 2003. She then asked him about his book Kingdom of Fear: Loathesome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: It started off—it’s supposed to be a memoir; I think it started off as memoirs. You know, it just sort of—a very quick and active story about how I got to be what I am today, you know, different key adventures in my life. Mainly it is fun. Yeah, I could use a little bit more editing, but everything could. It’s a fun read. It’s a very—pretty savage one. And it’s clearly, not anti-Bush, but anti-war. See, I don’t hate Bush personally. I used to know him. I used to do some drugs here and there.
MARY SUMA: Is that true, Hunter? What about, I didn’t know that you were an unofficial adviser to Jimmy Carter.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Yeah. Weird things happen here and there. I got to know him early, two years before he ran, and he just looked like a pretty good bet to me, because I was a gambler, and I wanted to win. It was important to win at that time.
ANITA THOMPSON: Evan Dobelle, who was, among other things, Carter’s Secretary of Protocol, he held a dinner in Hawaii about two months ago and Hunter was a guest of honor and he stood up to say and thank Hunter because Jimmy Carter would not be president if it wasn’t for Hunter Thompson.
MARY SUMA: Really?
ANITA THOMPSON: Yeah. Isn’t that cool?
AMY GOODMAN: Anita and Hunter Thompson. Anita, Hunter Thompson’s wife, again, speaking with Mary Suma of KDNK in January of 2003. Finally, Mary Suma asked Hunter Thompson about his upcoming trip to New York.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: What I’m going to New York to do is stir up trouble. I’m not going to change hats, yeah, Saturday in the park, Sunday in New York City, Monday night, Conan O’Brian, or something like that. I just believe in this. I’m offended and insulted by the slope of the American people, and that means us. That means these bastards who just sit around—
ANITA THOMPSON: We’re getting there.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Let’s keep hitting on this because I doubt that George Bush is going to go away before the next two years anyway. He should be run out of office. He should resign right now, in my opinion. I did call for his resignation, but I don’t think we would have a groundswell immediately for that. There will be a lot of people who agree with me.
MARY SUMA: Down the road?
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Well, no, in a year. I mean, the—
MARY SUMA: Will we be at war in a year, Hunter?
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: I think so, without a doubt. Like I said, we’ve been at war for 13 years. We’ve been bombing that country that long and we’ve cut off everything, all their food, books, you know, close—cut off all imports of books over there.
MARY SUMA: Have you ever been there?
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Excuse me?
MARY SUMA: Have you ever been over there?
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: I don’t think so. Not in any way that I was impressed by. I probably have gone through it or stopped there. I don’t really know Iraq. I made a point of getting to know it a lot better. It was a very advanced, progressive country, had, what, 90% literacy, health care for the whole entire population. They were doing well, prosperous, high literacy. Many more book stores per capita in Iraq than there are in this country. Many. No more. We bombed their children. We killed their husbands and wives and we bombed them, and we saw her, and we’re going to do it again. Just random killing like that, mass killing to force a population to get rid of Saddam so we can move in and take over and control the oil, God damn it, if that’s not evil, I don’t know what would be. You know, Bush, he’s really the evil one in here. Well, more than just him. We’re the Nazis in this game, and I don’t like it. I’m embarrassed and I’m pissed off. Yeah. I mean to say something and I think a lot of people in this country agree with me. A lot more never say anything. We’ll see what happens to me if I get my head cut off in the next week by—it’s always unknown Bush [inaudible] strangers who commit suicide right afterward. No witnesses. They have a new kind of crime.
MARY SUMA: Is that the CIA kind of crime?
HUNTER S. THOMPSON: Oh, absolutely. Anyone who’s a successful criminal has got a crime. Absolutely no witnesses, no records. We can go on and on. I have to be restrained on the subject.
AMY GOODMAN: The late Hunter S. Thompson, speaking two years ago in an interview on community radio station KDNK in the Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado, speaking with then-Station Manager Mary Suma. Hunter S. Thompson died of an apparent suicide this weekend; shot himself Sunday night at his home in Woody Creek, Colorado. His latest book, a collection of his essays called Hey Rube: Bloodsport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness.
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