Monthly Archives: June 2014

Humor, Uncategorized

Fostering Paranoia (Brewing The Perfect Conspiracy cont..)

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The good stuff. Lies and trails to nowhere. Disinformation, subterfuge and disingenuous relationships. The good stuff. The fun stuff.

Any good conspiracy or at least one worth a book or hollywood movie contains the good stuff.
The good stuff organizes the people that have taken notice of strange goings on and points them in several directions at once.

Its the original ‘hey look over there’ gag with the part of your uncle played by a group whose goal is something a little more nefarious than stealing your french fries.

A good campaign of disinformation can foment paranoia among those that think they are on to something. When this happens, the odds that the conspiracy will be successful goes up tremendously.

Those that are suspicious will start to see conspiracy in every nook, cranny and shadow around them.

Once the phrase “but that’s what they want you to
think” is uttered, their credibility, if they had any, is totally blown.

If they are lucky they can get a book deal, if not they may find themselves spending hours in therapy with an occasional trip to the pharmacist forsome ‘calming’ medication.

Capitol Hill bathed in the shadows of the afternoon sun. It was late
August and the Hill was doing something it did well, making people sweat and spreading corruption. Quite often the two are related.

A ceiling fan lorded over the patrons in a nondescript bar a few blocks from Capitol Hill. It rotated at a teasing rate that said,

“Yea, maybe I can turn
faster. Wouldn’t you like to find out.”

Beneath the fan sat two gentlemen each nursing a beer. Both were
wearing the same gold and black signet ring. Both had the same build and were around the same age. But for the beard of one and the Panama hat of the other they would be hard to tell apart.

“So what’s on the agenda today. I hope its the good stuff. I have been
waiting quite a while for the good stuff,” said Panama.

The Beard opened a manilla envelope and pulled out one sheet of 4×5 notepad paper. “It says here that we are getting some attention and need to start our previously discussed campaign of disinformation and paranoia.”

“Alright. The good stuff,” exclaimed Panama.

Fun with the good stuff.

Fathers Day

Good Men and Celluloid Heroes

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I watched a few movies last night that I had seen before. What they were doesn’t matter. What they were about was pretty simple. Just everyday guys being good men.

I had seen both movies before but I needed to see them again. The dozen or so previous viewings did not seem enough. I should own them I thought. Close friends had told me as much. Then I realized that  I did not need to own them. I had a good guy playing the role of hero in my life since 1961.

A good man, the definition of which expressed with words seems to devalue the meaning. We all have a definition that lies within our hearts. For my heart that definition was and always will be my Dad.

We see the world with glasses tinted by our parents and for the most part I see silver screen heroes trying to live up to the standards of the heroes that  I have been blessed with in my life. So on this fathers day give the Dad in your life a hug or a glance towards the stars and thank him for providing those celluloid heroes with something to shoot for.*
*Yea I’m ending a sentence with a preposition. I’m giving the english teachers out there a chance to whip out their red pens. Enjoy.

Humor

The Orchestrated Effort (Brewing The Perfect Conspiracy cont..)

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At a nondescript bar two blocks from capitol hill, the nondescript bartender stood behind the bar pondering the world and everything.

He was beside himself, not literally of course, he hadn’t done that since the mid seventies.

He had just served a beer to a man with the same funky ring as the companion whose table he joined.

The second key concept of a good conspiracy is the “orchestrated effort”. It is the concept that manages the whole conspiracy. Without an orchestrated effort there would be just be a bunch of people meandering aimlessly and not having much of an impact on anything.

Kind of like the Chicago Cubs. It’s ok I can say that, I’m a lifelong Cubs fan.

You may ask yourself, if the organizations are not known to each other than how can the effort be orchestrated?

This is where the ringmaster comes into play. The ringmaster is the one person who has set the whole thing in motion and knows all of the players. He or she is the one person that sets up the meetings between the parties involved and the only person that knows the conspiracy statement or the ultimate goal of the conspiracy.

Through the use of the ringmaster the hidden agenda remains hidden from the rest of the participants. The ringmaster allows the participants plausible deniability. Since they have no idea of the ultimate goal they can’t really spill the beans if called before Congress,the Senate or the NBI*.

The ringmaster is the caterer of the  whole party. He provides fuel to the conspiracy right down to and including the cellulose condiments.

* The National Banking Institute or the National Baking Institute. I’m not sure there is much of a difference.

Next: “Fostering Paranoia“

Humor

The Ingredients to a Good Conspiracy (Brewing The Perfect Conspiracy Theory continued…)

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Two blocks from Capitol Hill a man , rather nondescript of course, takes refuge from the afternoon sun in a doorway across the street from a neighborhood bar. He has an appointment in said bar but is experiencing some trepidation about the meeting.

He was told to come here by a ham salad sandwich. Well, a note in the sandwich told him to come here. Sandwiches quit talking to him in the mid seventies.

The man, deciding there is no time like the present, crosses the street and enters the bar. He is met by a web of scattered sun rays forcing him to pause and surmise the patrons looking for one wearing the ring.

One of the key elements of the conspiracy presented in the first installment of this series is the conspiracy statement. The statement I crafted was the following;

“We pledge to make sure the penny is coined as a part of the US monetary system no matter how cost ineffective it is. We plan on realizing this by holding true to our exaggerated self importance and by fostering paranoia through an orchestrated effort to disseminate false information, half truths and downright illogical conclusions. We will do this through a cabal made up of three organizations with a hidden agenda and whose members are not known to each other.”

Take note of the following words used in the conspiracy statement;”cabal“, “orchestrated effort” and “three secret organizations.”

The word cabal works well for conspiracy theories on an international level. Since an international conspiracy to keep the penny in circulation seems unlikely even for a conspiracy theory we might want to substitute the words “trilateral commission”.

If we throw in the UN as one of those three organizations than we can keep the cabal. The UN is a very popular element in many conspiracy theories. I bet ole Woodrow Wilson would have a hard time wrapping his head around that one.

Note the appearance of the number 3. Numbers are an important part of the conspiracy theory and you want to choose a number that would be hard pressed to prove.

Who bothers to challenge a claim of “third best _____ ____ in the world.”

Odd numbers greater than one are perfect. It is takes less work to discount a theory involving one or two organizations than it is three or more The beauty of a finely crafted conspiracy theory is that the harder it is to prove the harder it is to disprove.

A conspiracy theory becomes more plausible if the number or numbers in use are prime. Prime numbers put up an additional road block to investigation. Prime numbers are somewhat mystical, people hear them and think “wow that conspiracy has some deep , mysterious, roots.”

A good conspiracy courts mystery at every turn and prime numbers are a good ingredient for that. It doesn’t hurt that people are lazy, a conspiracy theorists counts on that.

Up next the “orchestrated effort”.

Humor

Brewing The Perfect Conspiracy Theory

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Two blocks from capital hill at the end of an unassuming street sat a neighborhood bar. In a sparsely lit corner of the bar a small table is occupied by a rather nondescript gentleman. A narrow shaft of light cuts across his chin, arcs across the table and exposes a weathered hand that has raised quite a few toasts over the years. A sparkle of light flashes from his ring finger as he raises a cold glass of freshly poured ale.

Behind the bar a young man is prepping garnishes for the happy hour rush. A twinkle in the corner of the bar catches his eye. He remembers the ring the man wore and figured that as the source of the flash. Nothing about the man was remarkable but the ring and its strange carousel symbol was interesting enough to lodge in his memory.

The man had mentioned that he was meeting up with someone and they should be here shortly. The young man wondered if his confidant would also be wearing a strange ring.

That would be cool, he thought. Maybe some kind of conspiracy is afoot

Continue reading Brewing The Perfect Conspiracy Theory →