"Dark Shadows": (Warner Bros. 2012). Director: Tim Burton; screenplay: Seth Graham-Smith (Pseudonym?); based on the television series created by Dan Curtis; Director of Photography: Bruno Delbone (Oscar!); Johnny Depp (Barnabas Collins); Helena Bonham-Carter (Dr. Julia Hoffman); Eva Green (Angelique Bouchard); Jacquie Earle Hailey (W. Loomis); Johnny Lee Smith (Roger Collins); Lila Heathcote (Victoria Winters); Michelle Feiffer (Mrs. Collins).
Note: "Mrs. De Winters" is the central character in Hitchcock's "Rebecca."
Based on: Lara Parker, Dark Shadows: Angelique's Descent (New York: Tor 1998).
Reviews:
Manohla Dargis, "A Vampire Thirsty and Bewildered," in The New York Times, May 11, 2012, at p. C1. (Ms. Dargis is bewildered, as usual, and missed the association with "Rebecca" together with the point of the movie. Manohla Dargis may also be "Carlotta Gall.")
"Dark Shadows," in The New Yorker, June 28, 2012, at p. 19. (The reviewer identified as "A.L.," I believe, is also one of the persons writing under the name "Manohla Dargis." Steven Holden? Please see "'The Reader': A Movie Review" and "'Revolutionary Road': A Movie Review.")
Computer crime prevents me from using italics or bold script at this site. At the moment, I am able to write only for about 45 minutes per day. Recent cybercrime has cost me several days' worth of writing time. If I am able to continue acccessing this blog and posting texts, I will add a list of sources to this text that may interest those attracted to the themes in this film. I am prevented from printing my essays today through hacks into the NYPL computers. I will try, again, tomorrow to print my work. Alternatively, I will try to print from more expensive public print shops.
I. "You're Weird!"
Tim Burton's films are descents into childhood dreams. Often these dreams are surprisingly sad and scary. I do not know much about Mr. Burton's life. I see and relish the humor and playfulness in Mr. Burton's work. The sense of a broken childhood and massive loss is overwhelming in Mr. Burton's entertaining movies -- movies that, like all art, provide compensatory pleasures as a balm for our wounds in life.
"Dark Shadows" is Mr. Burton's most Romantic work to date. As with any hipster -- Mr. Burton seems curiously concerned to preserve his hipster credentials -- a cynicism about ideals and values is always on display, even as lush melodic gestures are common in his art (as is, paradoxically, a passionate or idealistic personality for which we constantly receive his abject apologies).
It's O.K., Tim, you're allowed to read Byron and Shelley, even to like Opera. I am sure that Mr. Burton is a good painter in addition to his cinematic work who should study and who has already absorbed El Greco and Goya, Di Chirico and Dali, Picasso and Magritte.
The "Manerist" elongation of figures that Mr. Burton favors suggests a fondness for the Baroque Master Painter of Toledo ("El Greco") on the part of our director along with a hint concerning the "distortions of perspective" inherent to camera and screen as well as to these characters' views of life.
Like Barnabas Collins and myself, Mr. Burton is "really weird!"
Clearly, Mr. Burton feels affection for the "schmaltzy" movies and t.v. shows that he no doubt consumed -- like White Castle "rat burgers" -- as a very young man. This movie is a tribute to those campy films and shows from OUR misspent youth.
I am fast approaching, I am told, great antiquity and a corresponding decrepitude. I actually remember "Dark Shadows" (WOR or ABC on afternoon television). I recall, distinctly, running home from school to marvel at the perfect breasts of "Lara Parker," a nubile blond on the original show, who is now a Vassar-educated writer in her post-"Dark Shadows" life.
Bad acting and God-awful writing was part of the fun to be had with the old "Dark Shadows" -- along with tantalizing glimpses of the pale flesh of young actresses appearing on the show as distinct from the menacing vampire, Barnabas Collins.
Mr. Burton's tongue is stapled to his cheek as he reconstructs this world filled with artificially-induced smog and bodices ripping.
Mr. Burton widens his perspective to encompass Alfred Hitchcocks's "Rebecca," a movie that "haunts" this work. Angelique has replaced Mrs. Danvers as impediment to our star-crossed and undead lovers. Hell hath no fury like a horny and pissed-off former lover who is several centuries old.
One of the defining characteristics of witches was said to be sexual appetite and jealousy resulting in erotic power over men. (Horrors!) Many women burned as witches in Medieval Europe were whores and some were early scientists studying the body and its mysteries.
The mythology of possession or unhealthy love ("obsession" is not just a fragrance by Calvin Klein!) in a Hollywood-generated context is celebrated. Waves crash into the rocks and cliffs, again and again -- oh, the horror of it all!
The horror is only compounded as we are subjected to the Carpenters' alleged music on the historically correct soundtrack along with the agony of late seventies' disco music to which I once danced, enticingly, without revealing my body to more than a fortunate few:
"The infamous witch-hunting manual 'Malleus Mallificarum,' published in 1486, barely mentions the Sabbat [other sources remedy this defect] making only slight refrence to a 'congress of women in the night time' and a 'ceremony ... when witches meet together in a conclave on a set day.' The key features of the classic Sabbat are that it occurred at night [midnight -- the "Witching Hour"] the witches gathered to pay hommage to the Devil, renounce Christ and make pacts; and that feasting and OBSCENE [i.e., orgies] antihuman behavior took place. This behavior usually involved ... indiscriminate orgies and other perverse sexual activities, including the obscene kiss, [lots of oral sex] ..."
Lois Martin, The History of Witchcraft (London: Pocketessentials, 2002), p. 33.
All of this sounds, distressingly, like Hollywood today.
II. "They tried stoning me, my dear. It didn't work."
One of the pleasures afforded by this movie is the opportunity to wallow in absolute "drek" from another era, as I have noted, except that Mr. Burton -- like most good artists -- manages to say some important and true things about romantic relationships between the lines, as it were, of this cinematic text without diminishing the fun and games on screen.
Sexy Eva Green, as evil witch "Angelique," is clearly based on Mr. Burton's real-life love, Helena Bonham-Carter. Ms. Bonham-Carter plays a supporting role as a psychiatrist seeking immortality and setting us up for a sequel. ("He's in denial!")
The seventies was the era of "psychobabble." Ms. Green's character -- unlike the British thespian who, I hope, inspires this director -- is unable to love, but she does desire. Ms. Green is French and was last seen in "Casino Royale." Who needs James Bond when there is Barnabas Collins?
The dreadful banalities of Leo Buscaglia and pop-psychology's golden age of drivel ("I'm O.K., You're O.K.") rise from the grave recalling the flawless prose of Manohla Dargis in The New York Times.
Possession and will-to-power, yearning that leads to smoking hot sex choreographed to the silken baritone voice of Barry White " ... my everything" -- all of this "schlock" is a way of traipsing down memory lane for Mr. Burton and many of us pondering the gray hair that has mysteriously appeared in the mirror. We are back in Studio 54, floating in champagne bubbles and balloons as Bianca Jagger enters the room on a white horse.
Persons unable to love what they desire (Baron Scarpia? Iago? Manohla?), which may also frighten them, often long to control, torment, or otherwise affect, somehow, the love-object or desired person. Rollo May is eloquent in describing these forms of pathology and sadism in "Love and Will."
The desired person cannot be allowed to escape the would-be "mistress" seeking to enslave him or her. The film hints, subtly, at a twisted master/slave dialectic that is entirely routine in today's East Village of Manhattan or in the disco era of the seventies. Mr. Burton is boringly normal, after all, preferring the Vicky side of his lover to the very distinct Angelique side of his lady who certainly has her virtues -- two of them in fact! (Please see Ms. Bonham-Carter's performance in "Twelfth Night" then "A Room With a View.")
A central metaphor in the film is the "fall" (Albert Camus) from a great height -- as in "Rebecca" and at the same location -- which suggests not only journeying in or through time (how long has Mr. Burton been married?), but also the initial collapse into passionate romantic love. Ascent after such a fall may be interpreted as completing Carl Jung's metanoia journey, which is also the hero's journey in art and mythology. Sacred versus profane love, Mr. Burton?
The most powerful symbol in the film is visual and surreal in the form of the dead witch's offer of a dried-up and shattered heart to the object of her desires. This powerful image is a serious comment amidst the humor on the inability of many persons to love, selflessly, in an age of false values and, as Manohla would say, "pointless" consumption. The loss of passion and enthusiastic love has become a plague today. Meaningless sex is as plentiful as ever. ("Manohla Dargis Strikes Again!")
Visually, the film is a feast. Michelle Feiffer is amused throughout the movie at Johnny Depp's deliciously hammy performance. Mr. Depp is munching on the scenery recalling the stage performances of "Fabian Hardakre." ("What You Will ..." and "Serendipity, III.")
Mr. Depp is funnier than I thought possible for this dramatic Hollywood male lead.
The photography has given the actors a translucent glow that defines "star quality." Colors bleed, fade, and are restored to full intensity echoing the themes of the film -- death and resurrection, based on primal red (eros) and black (death).
Mr. Burton has read Schopenhauer and Freud as well as Byron and Shelley, to say nothing of Christina Rosetti, whose verses will close my essay. In addition to Hitchcock, Cocteau gets a nod alongside Roger Korman and Christopher Nolan as well as the MGM masterpiece, "The Wizard of Oz."
III. "Release me from this prison!"
Tributes to various films -- the "Times" reviewer noticed only a few of them -- are offered in service of a final warning about erotic possessiveness against the human need for freedom. We need freedom to love those persons who are essential in our lives because they allow us to "become the persons we are." We also need liberty of commitment to the arts or studies for which we feel a special vocation and gift. ("Master and Commander" and "God is Texting Me!")
Writing and reading is such a need for me. Evidently, money-making and success for the "Collins Enterprises" is important for Barnabas, increasing Angelique's envy.
Is Barnabas Collins a Republican? No, it cannot be. The horror would be too great.
Angelique's broken heart symbolizes romantic wisdom concerning the danger in losing the capacity for love as distinct from sex. Love always opposes death. Before Freud, Edgar Allan Poe made this point. Angelique/Vicky is "Annabel Lee."
Mr. Coppola's film of Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and the silent film classic, Murneau's "Nosferatu," have influenced Mr. Burton's work. America's Noir tradition in cinema as well as pop-horror phenomenon, Steven King, are brought together with Woody Allan's humor in "Dark Shadows."
Mr. Burton has finally revealed himself as the postmodern-aesthetic vampire that he obviously is. Bring a crucifix and some garlic to any future encounter with this man. (See "The Nightmare Before Christmas.")
More interesting is Mr. Burton's Dickensian fascination with childhood -- also a traditional subject for the Romantics -- and memory as the source of art:
"In simple terms, the Freudian child suffers, so to speak, from an intensity of desire and an excess of vulnerability; and it was not, as [Phillipe Aries] was the first to show, that this was news about childhood. The news was in the need, beginning in the eighteenth century, to make the child an object of systematic knowledge."
Adam Philips, Equals (New York: Perseus, 2002), pp. 151-152.
Traumatized children REMEMBER differently from most adults (and this is true throughout their lives) by projecting much more of the content of their subconscious minds into shared images, often tapping into archetypal forms in Jungian terms. Typically, these children draw very well. I am sure that Mr. Burton can draw and paint as well as being highly responsive to symbolist poetry and impressionist music, from Debussy to Miles Davis. ("The Northanger Arms on Park Avenue" and "The Sleeping Prince" then "God is Texting Me!" and "What you will ...")
For Mr. Burton -- in Lacanian terms this time -- the movie screen is the mirror of the subconscious that, like the mother in infancy, reflects for the filmaker and audience members the realm of fantasy, desire, and fear from which those fragile fictions we call "selves" are made. ("'Unknown': A Movie Review" and, again, "Serendipity, III.")
Finally, I reserve special praise for Ms. Green's escape from the Bond woman trap as the beguiling and sad witch of this narrative, whose single flaw (inability to love) is her undoing even as love is shown, yet again, to be the greatest and most powerful magic. Mr. Burton is still in love with his leading lady. Waves crash into the rocks as I type these words.
Come to me in the silence of the night;
Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
As sunlight on a stream;
Come in tears;
O memory, hope, love of unfinished years.
Oh, dream how sweet, too bitter sweet;
Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brimful of love abide and meet,
Where thirsting longing eyes
Watch the slow door
The opening, letting in, lets out no more.
Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
My very life again though cold in death:
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
speak low, lean low,
As long ago, my love, how long ago!
-- Christina Rosetti.
Sources:
Books:
1. Nina Auerbach, Our Vampires, Our Selves (London & Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995).
2. Clive Barker, The Damnation Game (New York: Berkeley, 1985).
3. Clive Barker, Mister B. Gone (New Yorker: Harper, 2007).
4. Glen Duncan, I, Lucifer (New York: Grove Press, 2005).
5. Frank Kermode, Romantic Image (London: Routledge, 1957), esp. pp. 11-13.
6. Frank Kermode, Pieces of My Mind: Essays and Criticism 1958-2002 (New York: Farrar-Staruss, 2003), esp. pp. 32-40.
7. Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera (New York: New American Library, 1987).
8. Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Faustus (New York: Signet, 1969).
9. Lois Martin, The History of Witchcraft (London: Pocketessentials, 2002).
10. Rollo May, Freedom and Necessity (New York: W.W. Norton, 1981), pp. 109-131. (Updates "Love and Will" in "Witchcraft and the Projection of Destiny.")
11. Rollo May, The Discovery of Being (New York: W.W. Norton, 1983).
12. Lauren Paine, Sex in Witchcraft (New York: Taplinger, 1972). ("Women's Erotic Power as Black Magic.")
13. Adam Philips, Equals (New York: Perseus, 2002). ("The Child and Memory.")
14. R.D. Rosen, Psychobabble (New York: Avon Books, 1975). ("You're in denial as coenabler of your inner child!")
15. David J. Seal, ed., Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula From Novel to Screen (New York: W.W. Norton, 1991).
16. Beryl Schlossman, Objects of Desire: The Madonnas of Modernism (Ithaca & London: University of Cornell Press, 1989).
17. Montague Summers, A Popular History of Witchcraft (New York: Causeway, 1973).
18. Montague Summers, The Vampire: His Kith and Kin (New York & London: University Books, 1960).
19. Corey Wilkins, A Little Treasury of Love Poems (New York: Avenel, 1980), p. 83. (Christina Rosetti.)
20. Charles Williams, Witchcraft: A History of Black Magic in Christian Times (New York: New World Pub., 1959).
Films:
1. Nosferatu.
2. Dracula (1930, 1979, 2000, etc.).
3. The Wizard of Oz.
4. Beauty and the Beast. (Cocteau)
5. Bell, Book, and Candle.
6. Bedazzled.
7. Dr. Faustus.
8. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
9. Dark Shadows -- Television Show.
10. Interview With a Vampire.
11. The Hunger.
12. The Man Who Fell to Earth.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Judge Solomon Goes to New Jersey Supreme Court.
Kim Lueddeke, "Comp Time Under Fire: Garfield Police Chief Logs 400 Hours in 4 Years on Top of $168,000 Salary," in The Record, August 14, 2012, at p. A-1. (Chief Kevin Amos is "on the tit.")
Janet Renshaw & Mary Ann Spoto, "Solomon is Christie's Pick for High Court: Superior Court Judge is Former Prosecutor Who Once Headed BPU," in The Star Ledger, July 17, 2012, at p. 1.
AP, "F.B.I. Raids The Home of the Mayor of Trenton," in The New York Times, July 17, 2012, at p. A24.
Mr. Christie has grown tired of grandstanding by Democrats concerned (please don't laugh) about judicial "integrity" and "independence" all of a sudden in opposing the governor's judicial nominees.
Mr. Christie has done his homework and found the most impeccable choice for a spot on the high court: Lee Solomon is Christie's guy.
I do not know Mr. Solomon. He was reputed to be "competent" as a prosecutor with good political skills. These qualities are rare on the New Jersey Supreme Court these days. As they say in Trenton, "who is Solomon's godfather?" Mr. Norcross? Mr. Sweeney? Party affiliation may mean nothing. ("Is Stephen M. Sweeney, Esq. a Liar?" and "George E. Norcross, III is the Boss of New Jersey's Politics and Law.")
I am not aware of any rumors or allegations against Mr. Solomon. This is also unusual with regard to N.J. political and legal officials. Mr. Solomon may be the only candidate for the New Jersey Supreme Court on whom George E. Norcross, III and Chris Christie agree. But then, in the words of Assembly Speaker Oliver, Christopher Christie, Esq. is "mentally deranged and a liar." ("Is Chrisopher Christie 'Mentally Deranged' and a 'Liar'?")
New Jersey politics makes for very strange bedfellows. The recent romance between Christie and Norcross is just plain weird. ("Is there a gay marriage right?")
I am sure that Judge Solomon (aptly named!) will be loyal to his political protectors. This is often the problem with New Jersey judges -- an unofficial system of loyalties and tribute at the expense of the law and its public processes. ("Law and Ethics in the Soprano State" and "New Jersey's Politically-Connected Lawyers On the Tit.")
Will Mr. Norcross call on Judge Solomon for favors? If he does, will Mr. Solomon be able to refuse favors for his political godfather(s)? I doubt it.
Is this soiled system and tainted legal reality the so-called "judicial independence" that prevents the governor from asking judges to share in financial pain like all other public servants, Chief Justice Rabner? ("No More Cover-Ups and Lies, Chief Justice Rabner!")
An F.B.I. raid at the home of the Democratic mayor of Trenton, Tony Mack, (attorney?) suggests levels of cronyism and corruption worthy of Union City:
"Agents also searched the home of Mr. Mack's brother, Raphiel Mack, and Joseph Giorgianni, ["Joey-Lollipops"] a convicted former sex offender" -- Mr. Giorgianni did time for having sex with a 14 year-old girl who may be a friend of (or supplied by) Diana Lisa Riccioli -- "who was one of the mayor's biggest campaign donors." ("Trenton's Nasty Lesbian Love-Fest!" and "Jennifer Velez is a Dyke Magnet!")
Trenton's "business administrator" under Mr. Mack pleaded "guilty to [theft] ... Mr. Mack's housing director quit after it was learned he had [also] been convicted of theft. The mayor's chief of staff was arrested after being accused of trying to buy heroin on the street. [Does the OAE's Mr. McGill know Trenton's Mayor Mack?] His half-brother, Stanley David, pleaded guilty this year to official misconduct for directing Trenton Water Works crews to perform private side jobs using city equipment and billing the city."
I'd call that misappropriation of city equipment "theft." ("New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System" and "New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics.")
Business as usual in New Jersey. Right, John Bruno? Good luck with your ethics troubles, Mr. Bruno. I wonder whether John Bruno visited my sites at the request of officials or politicians?
A list of sources detailing further corruption and incompetence in New Jersey politics and law will be attached to this essay in the days ahead. If more than two days pass without a new post from me, it means that I am prevented, illegally, from writing on-line.
Sources:
Richard Cowen, et als., "Police Find Woman in Locked Room: Alleged Gang Member Charged With Restraint Cops Say Lasted 2 Years," in The Record, August 14, 2012, at p. A-1. (Michael Mendes, possible supporter of Senator Robert -- "Big Bob" -- Menendez and friend of many police officers in West New York and Elizabeth, perhaps, is facing kidnapping charges. "Justice For Mumia Abu-Jamal.")
Anthony Campisi & John Reitmeyer, "Shroeder Urged to Resign: Democrats Call on Bergen GOP to Return $45,000 Donations," in The Record, August 14, 2012, at p. L-1. (Time to go, Mr. Shroeder. Bob Yudin, what do you say? Is Terry Tuchin your guy, Mr. Yudin? "An Open Letter to My Torturers in New Jersey, Terry Tuchin and Diana Lisa Riccioli.")
Stephanie Akin, "Zisa Will Ask Judge to Void Verdict: Claims Misconduct by Prosecutors," in The Record, August 14, 2012, at p. L-3. (Zisa family "connections" to Diana Lisa Riccioli are not denied to my knowledge.)
Melissa Hayes, "Developer Seeking Answers on $6 Million Investment: Says Accused Legislator Could Not Produce Paperwork," in The Record, August 10, 2012, at p. A-1. (How much of the $6 MILLION was used for bribery of New Jersey politicians? Is that why Shroeder can't produce the paperwork?)
Pete Yost, "Goldman Sachs AVOIDS Justice Prosecution," in The Record, August 10, 2012, at p. A-1. (An investment firm bearing much responsibility for the fiscal crisis and economic suffering of millions -- not only in the U.S. -- which was "serviced" by a number of prominent New Jersey law firms, will not be prosecuted for what appears to be "obvious fraud." Mr. Corzine will probably not face ANY criminal inquiry, despite testimony by his colleagues concerning his "appropriation" of client funds to cover "shortfalls" at MF Global and the insulation of Mr. Corzine's funds before the crisis that Mr. Corzine claimed he "did not see coming." I will be writing about these matters at greater length very soon. Mr. Corzine is the former governor of New Jersey who appointed Stuart Rabner as Chief Justice and is represented by several "politically connected" N.J. law firms, including the DeCottis firm: "New Jersey's Politically Connected Lawyers On the Tit" and "Corrupt Law Firms, Senator Bob, and New Jersey Ethics." Do you speak to me of "ethics," Mr. Rabner?)
Adam Liptak, "Scalia Says He Had No 'Falling Out' With Chief Justice," in The New York Times, July 19, 2012, at p. A21. (Credibility issues for Nino who also auggested that the U.S. Supreme Court is "not political." "Law and Morals" and "Law and Morality.")
Adam Liptak & Allison Kopicki, "Public's Opinion of Supreme Court Drops After Health Care Law Decision," in The New York Times, July 19, 2012, at p. A21. (41% of Americans approve of the Supreme Court's performance. Most people -- 51% -- believe that U.S. Supreme Court's decisions are based on partisan politics. In New Jersey, about the same number believe that corruption has more to do with judicial results than law: "New Jersey's Feces-Covered Supreme Court" and "Law and Ethics in the Soprano State" then "New Jersey Supreme Court's Implosion" and "New Jersey's Legal System is a Whore House.")
Susan K. Livio, "Investigation Widens Into Allegedly Dangerous Research at State Centers," in The Star Ledger, July 17, 2012, at p. 1. (Patients subjected to "dangerous research" or "experimental treatments" without their consent or knowledge. Have they been raped? Assaulted? Stolen from? "Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture" and "Psychological Torture in the American Legal System" then see the sources quoted in "'Inception': A Movie Review.")
James Quirk & Kim Lueddeke, "Shooting Case Was Balancing Act for Prosecutor," in The Record, July 12, 2012, at p. A-1. (Cover-up of targeting African-Americans in Bergen County is alleged.)
Kim Lueddeke, "New Look at Teens' Shooting: Garfield Chief Defends Police Response," in The Record, July 12, 2012, at p. A-1. (ANOTHER shooting of an African-American child? More cover-ups and indifference from Mr. Christie, Mr. Chiesa, Mr. Rabner.)
Janet Renshaw & Mary Ann Spoto, "Solomon is Christie's Pick for High Court: Superior Court Judge is Former Prosecutor Who Once Headed BPU," in The Star Ledger, July 17, 2012, at p. 1.
AP, "F.B.I. Raids The Home of the Mayor of Trenton," in The New York Times, July 17, 2012, at p. A24.
Mr. Christie has grown tired of grandstanding by Democrats concerned (please don't laugh) about judicial "integrity" and "independence" all of a sudden in opposing the governor's judicial nominees.
Mr. Christie has done his homework and found the most impeccable choice for a spot on the high court: Lee Solomon is Christie's guy.
I do not know Mr. Solomon. He was reputed to be "competent" as a prosecutor with good political skills. These qualities are rare on the New Jersey Supreme Court these days. As they say in Trenton, "who is Solomon's godfather?" Mr. Norcross? Mr. Sweeney? Party affiliation may mean nothing. ("Is Stephen M. Sweeney, Esq. a Liar?" and "George E. Norcross, III is the Boss of New Jersey's Politics and Law.")
I am not aware of any rumors or allegations against Mr. Solomon. This is also unusual with regard to N.J. political and legal officials. Mr. Solomon may be the only candidate for the New Jersey Supreme Court on whom George E. Norcross, III and Chris Christie agree. But then, in the words of Assembly Speaker Oliver, Christopher Christie, Esq. is "mentally deranged and a liar." ("Is Chrisopher Christie 'Mentally Deranged' and a 'Liar'?")
New Jersey politics makes for very strange bedfellows. The recent romance between Christie and Norcross is just plain weird. ("Is there a gay marriage right?")
I am sure that Judge Solomon (aptly named!) will be loyal to his political protectors. This is often the problem with New Jersey judges -- an unofficial system of loyalties and tribute at the expense of the law and its public processes. ("Law and Ethics in the Soprano State" and "New Jersey's Politically-Connected Lawyers On the Tit.")
Will Mr. Norcross call on Judge Solomon for favors? If he does, will Mr. Solomon be able to refuse favors for his political godfather(s)? I doubt it.
Is this soiled system and tainted legal reality the so-called "judicial independence" that prevents the governor from asking judges to share in financial pain like all other public servants, Chief Justice Rabner? ("No More Cover-Ups and Lies, Chief Justice Rabner!")
An F.B.I. raid at the home of the Democratic mayor of Trenton, Tony Mack, (attorney?) suggests levels of cronyism and corruption worthy of Union City:
"Agents also searched the home of Mr. Mack's brother, Raphiel Mack, and Joseph Giorgianni, ["Joey-Lollipops"] a convicted former sex offender" -- Mr. Giorgianni did time for having sex with a 14 year-old girl who may be a friend of (or supplied by) Diana Lisa Riccioli -- "who was one of the mayor's biggest campaign donors." ("Trenton's Nasty Lesbian Love-Fest!" and "Jennifer Velez is a Dyke Magnet!")
Trenton's "business administrator" under Mr. Mack pleaded "guilty to [theft] ... Mr. Mack's housing director quit after it was learned he had [also] been convicted of theft. The mayor's chief of staff was arrested after being accused of trying to buy heroin on the street. [Does the OAE's Mr. McGill know Trenton's Mayor Mack?] His half-brother, Stanley David, pleaded guilty this year to official misconduct for directing Trenton Water Works crews to perform private side jobs using city equipment and billing the city."
I'd call that misappropriation of city equipment "theft." ("New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System" and "New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics.")
Business as usual in New Jersey. Right, John Bruno? Good luck with your ethics troubles, Mr. Bruno. I wonder whether John Bruno visited my sites at the request of officials or politicians?
A list of sources detailing further corruption and incompetence in New Jersey politics and law will be attached to this essay in the days ahead. If more than two days pass without a new post from me, it means that I am prevented, illegally, from writing on-line.
Sources:
Richard Cowen, et als., "Police Find Woman in Locked Room: Alleged Gang Member Charged With Restraint Cops Say Lasted 2 Years," in The Record, August 14, 2012, at p. A-1. (Michael Mendes, possible supporter of Senator Robert -- "Big Bob" -- Menendez and friend of many police officers in West New York and Elizabeth, perhaps, is facing kidnapping charges. "Justice For Mumia Abu-Jamal.")
Anthony Campisi & John Reitmeyer, "Shroeder Urged to Resign: Democrats Call on Bergen GOP to Return $45,000 Donations," in The Record, August 14, 2012, at p. L-1. (Time to go, Mr. Shroeder. Bob Yudin, what do you say? Is Terry Tuchin your guy, Mr. Yudin? "An Open Letter to My Torturers in New Jersey, Terry Tuchin and Diana Lisa Riccioli.")
Stephanie Akin, "Zisa Will Ask Judge to Void Verdict: Claims Misconduct by Prosecutors," in The Record, August 14, 2012, at p. L-3. (Zisa family "connections" to Diana Lisa Riccioli are not denied to my knowledge.)
Melissa Hayes, "Developer Seeking Answers on $6 Million Investment: Says Accused Legislator Could Not Produce Paperwork," in The Record, August 10, 2012, at p. A-1. (How much of the $6 MILLION was used for bribery of New Jersey politicians? Is that why Shroeder can't produce the paperwork?)
Pete Yost, "Goldman Sachs AVOIDS Justice Prosecution," in The Record, August 10, 2012, at p. A-1. (An investment firm bearing much responsibility for the fiscal crisis and economic suffering of millions -- not only in the U.S. -- which was "serviced" by a number of prominent New Jersey law firms, will not be prosecuted for what appears to be "obvious fraud." Mr. Corzine will probably not face ANY criminal inquiry, despite testimony by his colleagues concerning his "appropriation" of client funds to cover "shortfalls" at MF Global and the insulation of Mr. Corzine's funds before the crisis that Mr. Corzine claimed he "did not see coming." I will be writing about these matters at greater length very soon. Mr. Corzine is the former governor of New Jersey who appointed Stuart Rabner as Chief Justice and is represented by several "politically connected" N.J. law firms, including the DeCottis firm: "New Jersey's Politically Connected Lawyers On the Tit" and "Corrupt Law Firms, Senator Bob, and New Jersey Ethics." Do you speak to me of "ethics," Mr. Rabner?)
Adam Liptak, "Scalia Says He Had No 'Falling Out' With Chief Justice," in The New York Times, July 19, 2012, at p. A21. (Credibility issues for Nino who also auggested that the U.S. Supreme Court is "not political." "Law and Morals" and "Law and Morality.")
Adam Liptak & Allison Kopicki, "Public's Opinion of Supreme Court Drops After Health Care Law Decision," in The New York Times, July 19, 2012, at p. A21. (41% of Americans approve of the Supreme Court's performance. Most people -- 51% -- believe that U.S. Supreme Court's decisions are based on partisan politics. In New Jersey, about the same number believe that corruption has more to do with judicial results than law: "New Jersey's Feces-Covered Supreme Court" and "Law and Ethics in the Soprano State" then "New Jersey Supreme Court's Implosion" and "New Jersey's Legal System is a Whore House.")
Susan K. Livio, "Investigation Widens Into Allegedly Dangerous Research at State Centers," in The Star Ledger, July 17, 2012, at p. 1. (Patients subjected to "dangerous research" or "experimental treatments" without their consent or knowledge. Have they been raped? Assaulted? Stolen from? "Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture" and "Psychological Torture in the American Legal System" then see the sources quoted in "'Inception': A Movie Review.")
James Quirk & Kim Lueddeke, "Shooting Case Was Balancing Act for Prosecutor," in The Record, July 12, 2012, at p. A-1. (Cover-up of targeting African-Americans in Bergen County is alleged.)
Kim Lueddeke, "New Look at Teens' Shooting: Garfield Chief Defends Police Response," in The Record, July 12, 2012, at p. A-1. (ANOTHER shooting of an African-American child? More cover-ups and indifference from Mr. Christie, Mr. Chiesa, Mr. Rabner.)
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Book Chats and "Chits."
August 15, 2012 at 2:01 P.M. I am unable to access the list of posts for "Against Dark Arts," which is left blank by some criminal obstruction to my writings. However, I am able to create a new post. I hope.
A second essay dealing with New Jersey corruption will be posted, eventually, if I am able to regain access to my blog posts at some time in the future. I am writing at the Morningside Heights branch of the NYPL. I cannot make use of italics or bold script at these blogs. Harassments and obstructions are continuous as I struggle to write at my blogs. Nevertheless, I will continue to write.
Martin Amis, "Why I Left England," in The New Republic, August 23, 2012, at p. 3. (Will England survive Mr. Amis' departure? Will Britain survive the Olympics as well as the loss of Naughty-Novelist and "Sherlock" to the Hitch's "Watson, Martin Amis? Rest assured, America: There will always be an England. On the other hand, will Brooklyn and America survive the presence of Martin Amis? No one knows. Several leaders of the Labour party have sought political asylum in the Honduran Embassy in London. Mr. Assange's presence has left the Equadorian Embassy too crowded for further guests. The British Foreign Secretary has recoiled from the suggestion that the U.K. may invade a sovereign country's embassy in London when reminded that there are British embassies in many strange parts of the world -- like the United States of America and France.)
Andrew Ferguson, "Gore Vidal's Fan Club: What Exactly Did They Admire About the Man?," in The Weekly Standard, August 13, 2012, at p. 20.
"The most puzzling thing about the career of Gore Vidal, who went toes up last week at 86, was the reverence in which he was held by people who might have known better. He was famous for anouncing 'the death of the novel'" -- Vidal's point concerned the loss of the READER of serious fiction -- "as an art form, and as if to prove the point he kept writing them. No one who survived a reading of 'Kalki' or 'Myron' or 'Creation' or 'Duluth' will recall the experience with anything other than revulsion and self-loathing. It is true that, when sober, he could be good on television, and few talents nowadays are more highly prized. And it's true that, as an essayist, he could sometimes impress the reader with a kind of goofball charm; [Vidal was a "mere dabbler," perhaps?] ... However, when you measure these achievements from a career spanning seven decades, they amount to no more than a handful, soon to turn to dust." ("'Revolutionary Road': A Movie Review" and "'The Reader': A Movie Review.")
In a brief (but not brief enough!) article "ANDREW FERGUSON," allegedly, dips his pen in venom to attack a great writer who is no longer around to defend himself. Are behind-the-back smears a specialty, Andy? (Is this the work of "Manohla Dargis"? Or of "Brooks Barnes," perhaps? "Carlotta Gall?")
It is no longer worth dying, it seems, since wriggling and hideous creatures slither out from beneath their rocks in the media to attack one's reputation. Is it ethical for journalists to cooperate with censorship and cybercrime efforts, Ms. Dargis? Mr. Ferguson? I wonder whether Mr. Ferguson has visited my sites and/or debated me at the behest of Republican friends? ("Manohla Dargis Strikes Again!")
The person who actually wrote this review -- whoever he or she may be -- has opened Mr. Vidal's coffin in order to relieve him- or herself in it. Luckily, it was the wrong coffin. I shudder to think of the fate of Mr. Buckley's remains at the hands of this monster. ("Saying Goodbye to William F. Buckley, Jr.")
What we admire about Gore Vidal -- or William F. Buckley, Jr. for that matter -- is literary skill or even genius in the case of Mr. Vidal. Envy defines the writer of this vicious and offensive attack upon a great novelist whose life-work includes at least two masterpieces, "Myra Breckingridge" and "Lincoln." It takes little courage to attack a deceased polemicist. About the dead one should speak only the truth. ("Dormi Bene, Gore Vidal.")
In addition to these novels, of course, Vidal is generally regarded as the finest American essayist of the twentieth century, possibly the best English-language master of the essay form in our time. This is to say nothing of the most poignant and beautifully-crafted memoir that I have read, "Palimpsest."
I had the good fortune to meet and discuss some things with Mr. Vidal. I cannot claim to have been a friend of his. However, Vidal was certainly a friend of mine. He will remain a presence in my thoughts and writings for as long as I live. ("An Evening With Gore Vidal" and "Abrazo.")
Sadly, not only would this disgusting diatribe not surprise Gore Vidal, but he expected such treatment after his death from lunatic Right-wingers, like Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan, or their employees. I urge all readers to ponder Vidal's critique of Ayn Rand.
Mr. Ferguson will never write anything to compare with Vidal's prose nor is he capable of reading that prose very well. Vidal suggested, accurately, that serious or literary fiction was losing the general reader to the movies in the late twentieth century. This observation is now a demonstrable statistical fact. Nonetheless, Vidal recommended that we continue to read and write good novels. Some of us plan to do just that -- reading and writing until the last bugle calls, as it were. ("Shakespeare's Black Prince" and "Master and Commander.")
The "Angel of Ravello" also mourned the loss of education among his fellow citizens and the decline of journalism into paid political advertising, as demonstrated by Mr. Ferguson.
There are those who believe that Mitt Romney wrote this essay attacking Gore Vidal. Happily, Mr. Romney has explained that, due to all of the big words in the article, he could not even read it. This may prove Mr. Vidal's point concerning the "average" person's abandonment of the novel to television commercials. Mr. Rubio is fond of sports. Iliana Ros-Leghtinen favors "The Reader's Digest" condensations of abbreviated books. Paul Ryan is a member of the Ayn Rand fan club whose members get together to deny food to the poor on Thanksgiving Day.
I believe the Republican presidential nominee-to-be on this issue. I herewith absolve Mitt Romney of all blame for this excretion by Mr. Ferguson and for the rag in which it appeared.
Mr. Ferguson, please take your medications, regularly, and remove your soiled underpants rather than sharing their contents with your unfortunate readers.
A second essay dealing with New Jersey corruption will be posted, eventually, if I am able to regain access to my blog posts at some time in the future. I am writing at the Morningside Heights branch of the NYPL. I cannot make use of italics or bold script at these blogs. Harassments and obstructions are continuous as I struggle to write at my blogs. Nevertheless, I will continue to write.
Martin Amis, "Why I Left England," in The New Republic, August 23, 2012, at p. 3. (Will England survive Mr. Amis' departure? Will Britain survive the Olympics as well as the loss of Naughty-Novelist and "Sherlock" to the Hitch's "Watson, Martin Amis? Rest assured, America: There will always be an England. On the other hand, will Brooklyn and America survive the presence of Martin Amis? No one knows. Several leaders of the Labour party have sought political asylum in the Honduran Embassy in London. Mr. Assange's presence has left the Equadorian Embassy too crowded for further guests. The British Foreign Secretary has recoiled from the suggestion that the U.K. may invade a sovereign country's embassy in London when reminded that there are British embassies in many strange parts of the world -- like the United States of America and France.)
Andrew Ferguson, "Gore Vidal's Fan Club: What Exactly Did They Admire About the Man?," in The Weekly Standard, August 13, 2012, at p. 20.
"The most puzzling thing about the career of Gore Vidal, who went toes up last week at 86, was the reverence in which he was held by people who might have known better. He was famous for anouncing 'the death of the novel'" -- Vidal's point concerned the loss of the READER of serious fiction -- "as an art form, and as if to prove the point he kept writing them. No one who survived a reading of 'Kalki' or 'Myron' or 'Creation' or 'Duluth' will recall the experience with anything other than revulsion and self-loathing. It is true that, when sober, he could be good on television, and few talents nowadays are more highly prized. And it's true that, as an essayist, he could sometimes impress the reader with a kind of goofball charm; [Vidal was a "mere dabbler," perhaps?] ... However, when you measure these achievements from a career spanning seven decades, they amount to no more than a handful, soon to turn to dust." ("'Revolutionary Road': A Movie Review" and "'The Reader': A Movie Review.")
In a brief (but not brief enough!) article "ANDREW FERGUSON," allegedly, dips his pen in venom to attack a great writer who is no longer around to defend himself. Are behind-the-back smears a specialty, Andy? (Is this the work of "Manohla Dargis"? Or of "Brooks Barnes," perhaps? "Carlotta Gall?")
It is no longer worth dying, it seems, since wriggling and hideous creatures slither out from beneath their rocks in the media to attack one's reputation. Is it ethical for journalists to cooperate with censorship and cybercrime efforts, Ms. Dargis? Mr. Ferguson? I wonder whether Mr. Ferguson has visited my sites and/or debated me at the behest of Republican friends? ("Manohla Dargis Strikes Again!")
The person who actually wrote this review -- whoever he or she may be -- has opened Mr. Vidal's coffin in order to relieve him- or herself in it. Luckily, it was the wrong coffin. I shudder to think of the fate of Mr. Buckley's remains at the hands of this monster. ("Saying Goodbye to William F. Buckley, Jr.")
What we admire about Gore Vidal -- or William F. Buckley, Jr. for that matter -- is literary skill or even genius in the case of Mr. Vidal. Envy defines the writer of this vicious and offensive attack upon a great novelist whose life-work includes at least two masterpieces, "Myra Breckingridge" and "Lincoln." It takes little courage to attack a deceased polemicist. About the dead one should speak only the truth. ("Dormi Bene, Gore Vidal.")
In addition to these novels, of course, Vidal is generally regarded as the finest American essayist of the twentieth century, possibly the best English-language master of the essay form in our time. This is to say nothing of the most poignant and beautifully-crafted memoir that I have read, "Palimpsest."
I had the good fortune to meet and discuss some things with Mr. Vidal. I cannot claim to have been a friend of his. However, Vidal was certainly a friend of mine. He will remain a presence in my thoughts and writings for as long as I live. ("An Evening With Gore Vidal" and "Abrazo.")
Sadly, not only would this disgusting diatribe not surprise Gore Vidal, but he expected such treatment after his death from lunatic Right-wingers, like Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan, or their employees. I urge all readers to ponder Vidal's critique of Ayn Rand.
Mr. Ferguson will never write anything to compare with Vidal's prose nor is he capable of reading that prose very well. Vidal suggested, accurately, that serious or literary fiction was losing the general reader to the movies in the late twentieth century. This observation is now a demonstrable statistical fact. Nonetheless, Vidal recommended that we continue to read and write good novels. Some of us plan to do just that -- reading and writing until the last bugle calls, as it were. ("Shakespeare's Black Prince" and "Master and Commander.")
The "Angel of Ravello" also mourned the loss of education among his fellow citizens and the decline of journalism into paid political advertising, as demonstrated by Mr. Ferguson.
There are those who believe that Mitt Romney wrote this essay attacking Gore Vidal. Happily, Mr. Romney has explained that, due to all of the big words in the article, he could not even read it. This may prove Mr. Vidal's point concerning the "average" person's abandonment of the novel to television commercials. Mr. Rubio is fond of sports. Iliana Ros-Leghtinen favors "The Reader's Digest" condensations of abbreviated books. Paul Ryan is a member of the Ayn Rand fan club whose members get together to deny food to the poor on Thanksgiving Day.
I believe the Republican presidential nominee-to-be on this issue. I herewith absolve Mitt Romney of all blame for this excretion by Mr. Ferguson and for the rag in which it appeared.
Mr. Ferguson, please take your medications, regularly, and remove your soiled underpants rather than sharing their contents with your unfortunate readers.
Monday, August 13, 2012
New Jersey Judges Protect Their Own.
August 14, 2012 at 2:30 P.M. The device to reserve computers, downstairs at the Morningside Heights branch of the NYPL was disabled today. I was forced to use the services of a librarian to make a reservation. I cannot say whether this will allow "others" access to these texts or opportunities for further vandalism of these sites.
Monsy Alvarado, "Ex-Pal Park Cop Accuses Chief and Captain: Alleges Payoff, Filing False Reports," in The Record, August 4, 2012, at p. L-3. (Terry Tuchin filed false reports that are now covered-up by the OAE, allegedly. Right, John McGill, Esq.? Any reports filed with the N.J. Supreme Court and/or OAE and/or any other entity by "therapist" Diana Lisa Riccioli, Debbie Poritz? Was Diana still involved in a sexual relationship with Marilyn Straus when she filed those reports? Was Diana involved in a sexual relationship with then Chief Justice Deborah T. Poritz when she filed reports to be considered by the Poritz Supreme Court? Why have these reports not been shown to me?)
Vivian Yee, "Court Exempts Judges From New Jersey's Curbs On Benefits," in The New York Times, June 25, 2012, at p. A22. (New Jersey judges protecting their wallets at the expense of the public interest.)
Salvator Rizzo, "Jersey's Jobless Rate Skyrockets: At 9.6 Percent, State is Highest Above National Average in Decades," in The Star Ledger, July 20, 2012, at p. 1. (Why Christie is making cuts and taking drastic actions to control spending and waste.)
John Petrick, "Attorney Faces 4-Year Sentence After Admitting to Client Thefts," in The Record, June 25, 2012, at p. L-1. (CARLO COPPA, 62, allegedly of the Ethics Committee of the New Jersey Bar Association and, probably, connected to Jaynee LaVecchia or other members of the judiciary and/or politics, faces 4 years in prison and disbarment for life for STEALING $1 MILLION in client funds. I never took a dime from a client. A number of attorneys who engaged in illegal efforts against me, allegedly at the request of the OAE, may have done some similar dipping into their trust accounts: Edgar Navarete? Jose Ginarte? Gilberto Garcia? Ramon Gonzales? Do you boys have ethics troubles? Persons like Mr. Coppa and John McGill, Esq. of the OAE -- Mr. McGill may also be facing ethics and/or criminal charges -- call me "unethical." I call them unethical. What do you think?)
James Quirk, "Friends and Family Plan," in The Record, June 27, 2012, at p. A-1. (Group of family friends all on the public payroll, some with MULTIPLE PAYCHECKS, scooped $2 MILLION in New Jersey taxpayer-provided salaries.)
"New Jersey judges and justices are constitutionally protected from a new law requiring state employees to contribute more toward their health and retirement benefits, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled on Thursday, damaging one of Gov. Chris Christie's signature legislative victories and creating the awkward spectacle of judges taking action TO PRESERVE THEIR OWN COMPENSATION." (emphasis added!)
New Jersey's judges are forbidden by their own ethical standards from ruling in matters where their personal gain is at issue. This wage cut situation looks (to me) like it involves judges' self-interest.
Ignoring this important ethical provision as well as broader conflict of interest principles, the Rabner Supreme Court in Trenton essentially decided that the governor's austerity cuts that will affect all other public servants -- including teachers, cops, firefighters, secretaries -- cannot affect judges. (New Jersey's Legal System is a Whore House" and "New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System.")
Judicial salaries and "perks" are sacred. This is in addition to any alleged cash-in-an-envelope type payments which are not exactly unheard of among members of the New Jersey judiciary. The "little people" can eat cake. ("New Jersey's Feces-Covered Supreme Court" and "New Jersey Supreme Court's Implosion.")
Judges are among the best and highest paid public servants in the Garden State. Blue collar workers -- who are taking a hit already -- are much less well-insulated, financially, to absorb the hardship. ("New Jersey's Judges Disgrace America" and "New Jersey's Unethical Judiciary.")
Judges earn considerably more than the majority of struggling public workers, workers already living with the effects of dire financial conditions in New Jersey -- including a hell of a pension burden, often due to persons drawing several pensions while holding down multiple full-time government jobs. (See my list of sources below.)
Worse are the economic effects of years of mismanagement, waste, THEFT, corruption and cronyism in Trenton that the state's judges have too often ignored or benefitted from. ("Law and Ethics in the Soprano State" and "New Jersey is the Home of the Living Dead.")
Judges will not share in the civil service burden because, says the Supreme Court, their "independence" and "apolitical" role may be threatened if the governor asks them to accept a pay cut. Rabner recused himself from the proceedings for the sake of "appearances." ("Christie Rails Against New Jersey's Judges" and "Deborah T. Poritz and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey" and "New Jersey Supreme Court's Implosion.")
The ostensible rationale for the decision -- get this! -- is concern for the "independence of the judiciary" in the state with the most politically-tainted appointment process for judges in the nation. This so-called "reason" for the court's decision is absurd or laughable. ("Judge Alexander Carver, III Plays Ball" and "Jay Romano and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey.")
Mr. Rabner, allegedly, discussed the decision with Angelo ("The Horn") Prisco and George E. Norcross, III before orchestrating the result from behind the scenes, "independently." ("Stuart Rabner and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey" and "No More Cover-Ups and Lies, Chief Justice Rabner!" then "Jaynee LaVecchia and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey" and, again, "New Jersey's Supreme Court's Implosion.")
The decision is self-serving and hypocritical. It is also ridiculous. Judges salaries are already set in a highly political process, as indeed every aspect of judges' lives is INTENSELY political in New Jersey, from appointment to retirement, creating loyalties among judges to various "bosses" and politicians who insure their continued employment or the opposite. ("George E. Norcross, III is the Boss of New Jersey's Politics and Law" and "New Jersey's Judges Disgrace America" then "Virginia Long's Departure" and "Helen Hoens and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey.")
"Mr. Christie [has] called for a Constitutional Amendment that could allow the governor's office and Legislature to reduce judges' salaries."
Mr. Christie described N.J. judges as "unelected, unresponsive, public servants."
He left out: "Greedy, selfish, corrupt, incompetent, unfeeling and unethical."
I will do my best to add a list of sources to accompany this text in the days ahead.
Usually, after a controversial essay, New Jersey-based hackers prevent me from writing for several days. I will try to write every day at this location or some other site on-line. If more than two days pass without a comment from me, it means that I am prevented from writing illegally.
Sources:
James Quirk, "Retirement Didn't Keep Ex-Chief Off the County Payroll," in The Record, June 21, 2012, at p. A-1. (Retired Bergen County Police Chief -- who is already drawing a FULL pension -- comes back on the payroll as a police captain [$163,555.00] after being paid for 115 sick days [$56,000]. How long can New Jersey keep bleeding money like this?)
Julie Hirshfield-Davis, "Obama Leads in National Polls: Romney Seen as Out of Touch," in The Record, June 21, 2012, at p. A-5. (Ryan will not help or hurt with key voters in crucial electoral states -- Latinos, women, weel-educated non-professionals who are often unemployed as a result of Romney-like "vulture capitalism.")
David Lightman, "Hispanics Hold the Key in Swing States for Election," in The Record, June 21, 2012, at p. A-5. (Polls in August, 2012 confirm vital role for Latinos. Obama's lead is increasing in these communities. In my opinion, Mr. Biden beats Governor Romney in the Latino community. Senator Rubio has zero effect on these numbers.)
AP, "Website Used for Prostitution is Legal: Retired FDU Professor [N.J.] Among Those Charged in the Case," in The Record, June 21, 2012, at p. A-10. (Some of the so-called prostitutes were "underage" -- 12 years-old, allegedly -- yet the activity was never a problem in the Garden State. "New Jersey's Child Sex Industry" and "Is Senator Menendez For Sale?")
Susan K. Livio, "State Suspends Doctor in Probe of Improper Study: Allegedly Used Disabled Patients," in The Record, August 4, 2012, at p. A-3. (Human experimentation on unsuspecting cancer patients by suspended physician. "Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture.")
Melissa Hayes, Zach Patberg, Chris Harris, "A $400,000 'Mistake' -- Lawmaker Accused of Writing Bad Checks," in The Record, August 4, 2012, at p. A-1. (Assemblyman ROBERT SHROEDER wrote $400,000 in bad checks. In 14 years of law practice not one of my trust account checks bounced.)
Karen Sudol, "Hawthorne Man Posed as Officer, Police Say," in The Record, August 4, 2012, at p. L-1. (Some N.J. lawyers like to call a colleague's clients pretending to be someone they're not. Right, Gilberto Garcia? John McGill? Ms. Kriko? Edgar Navarete?)
Melissa Hayes, "Assemblyman Sued Over $500,000 Investment: It's Latest Legal Issue With His Finances," in The Record, August 8, 2012, at p. A-1. (Thank goodness these public servants are caring for N.J.'s economy.)
"Phony Cops Rob Men of Cash in North Bergen," in The Record, August 8, 2012, at p. L-3. (Since genuine cops are stealing in Hudson County, why not do a little stealing yourself in you're a criminal. In fact, many cops do a little crime or "favors" on the side to make ends meet. "North Bergen is the Home of La Cosa Nostra.")
Monsy Alvarado, "Ex-Pal Park Cop Accuses Chief and Captain: Alleges Payoff, Filing False Reports," in The Record, August 4, 2012, at p. L-3. (Terry Tuchin filed false reports that are now covered-up by the OAE, allegedly. Right, John McGill, Esq.? Any reports filed with the N.J. Supreme Court and/or OAE and/or any other entity by "therapist" Diana Lisa Riccioli, Debbie Poritz? Was Diana still involved in a sexual relationship with Marilyn Straus when she filed those reports? Was Diana involved in a sexual relationship with then Chief Justice Deborah T. Poritz when she filed reports to be considered by the Poritz Supreme Court? Why have these reports not been shown to me?)
Vivian Yee, "Court Exempts Judges From New Jersey's Curbs On Benefits," in The New York Times, June 25, 2012, at p. A22. (New Jersey judges protecting their wallets at the expense of the public interest.)
Salvator Rizzo, "Jersey's Jobless Rate Skyrockets: At 9.6 Percent, State is Highest Above National Average in Decades," in The Star Ledger, July 20, 2012, at p. 1. (Why Christie is making cuts and taking drastic actions to control spending and waste.)
John Petrick, "Attorney Faces 4-Year Sentence After Admitting to Client Thefts," in The Record, June 25, 2012, at p. L-1. (CARLO COPPA, 62, allegedly of the Ethics Committee of the New Jersey Bar Association and, probably, connected to Jaynee LaVecchia or other members of the judiciary and/or politics, faces 4 years in prison and disbarment for life for STEALING $1 MILLION in client funds. I never took a dime from a client. A number of attorneys who engaged in illegal efforts against me, allegedly at the request of the OAE, may have done some similar dipping into their trust accounts: Edgar Navarete? Jose Ginarte? Gilberto Garcia? Ramon Gonzales? Do you boys have ethics troubles? Persons like Mr. Coppa and John McGill, Esq. of the OAE -- Mr. McGill may also be facing ethics and/or criminal charges -- call me "unethical." I call them unethical. What do you think?)
James Quirk, "Friends and Family Plan," in The Record, June 27, 2012, at p. A-1. (Group of family friends all on the public payroll, some with MULTIPLE PAYCHECKS, scooped $2 MILLION in New Jersey taxpayer-provided salaries.)
"New Jersey judges and justices are constitutionally protected from a new law requiring state employees to contribute more toward their health and retirement benefits, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled on Thursday, damaging one of Gov. Chris Christie's signature legislative victories and creating the awkward spectacle of judges taking action TO PRESERVE THEIR OWN COMPENSATION." (emphasis added!)
New Jersey's judges are forbidden by their own ethical standards from ruling in matters where their personal gain is at issue. This wage cut situation looks (to me) like it involves judges' self-interest.
Ignoring this important ethical provision as well as broader conflict of interest principles, the Rabner Supreme Court in Trenton essentially decided that the governor's austerity cuts that will affect all other public servants -- including teachers, cops, firefighters, secretaries -- cannot affect judges. (New Jersey's Legal System is a Whore House" and "New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System.")
Judicial salaries and "perks" are sacred. This is in addition to any alleged cash-in-an-envelope type payments which are not exactly unheard of among members of the New Jersey judiciary. The "little people" can eat cake. ("New Jersey's Feces-Covered Supreme Court" and "New Jersey Supreme Court's Implosion.")
Judges are among the best and highest paid public servants in the Garden State. Blue collar workers -- who are taking a hit already -- are much less well-insulated, financially, to absorb the hardship. ("New Jersey's Judges Disgrace America" and "New Jersey's Unethical Judiciary.")
Judges earn considerably more than the majority of struggling public workers, workers already living with the effects of dire financial conditions in New Jersey -- including a hell of a pension burden, often due to persons drawing several pensions while holding down multiple full-time government jobs. (See my list of sources below.)
Worse are the economic effects of years of mismanagement, waste, THEFT, corruption and cronyism in Trenton that the state's judges have too often ignored or benefitted from. ("Law and Ethics in the Soprano State" and "New Jersey is the Home of the Living Dead.")
Judges will not share in the civil service burden because, says the Supreme Court, their "independence" and "apolitical" role may be threatened if the governor asks them to accept a pay cut. Rabner recused himself from the proceedings for the sake of "appearances." ("Christie Rails Against New Jersey's Judges" and "Deborah T. Poritz and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey" and "New Jersey Supreme Court's Implosion.")
The ostensible rationale for the decision -- get this! -- is concern for the "independence of the judiciary" in the state with the most politically-tainted appointment process for judges in the nation. This so-called "reason" for the court's decision is absurd or laughable. ("Judge Alexander Carver, III Plays Ball" and "Jay Romano and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey.")
Mr. Rabner, allegedly, discussed the decision with Angelo ("The Horn") Prisco and George E. Norcross, III before orchestrating the result from behind the scenes, "independently." ("Stuart Rabner and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey" and "No More Cover-Ups and Lies, Chief Justice Rabner!" then "Jaynee LaVecchia and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey" and, again, "New Jersey's Supreme Court's Implosion.")
The decision is self-serving and hypocritical. It is also ridiculous. Judges salaries are already set in a highly political process, as indeed every aspect of judges' lives is INTENSELY political in New Jersey, from appointment to retirement, creating loyalties among judges to various "bosses" and politicians who insure their continued employment or the opposite. ("George E. Norcross, III is the Boss of New Jersey's Politics and Law" and "New Jersey's Judges Disgrace America" then "Virginia Long's Departure" and "Helen Hoens and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey.")
"Mr. Christie [has] called for a Constitutional Amendment that could allow the governor's office and Legislature to reduce judges' salaries."
Mr. Christie described N.J. judges as "unelected, unresponsive, public servants."
He left out: "Greedy, selfish, corrupt, incompetent, unfeeling and unethical."
I will do my best to add a list of sources to accompany this text in the days ahead.
Usually, after a controversial essay, New Jersey-based hackers prevent me from writing for several days. I will try to write every day at this location or some other site on-line. If more than two days pass without a comment from me, it means that I am prevented from writing illegally.
Sources:
James Quirk, "Retirement Didn't Keep Ex-Chief Off the County Payroll," in The Record, June 21, 2012, at p. A-1. (Retired Bergen County Police Chief -- who is already drawing a FULL pension -- comes back on the payroll as a police captain [$163,555.00] after being paid for 115 sick days [$56,000]. How long can New Jersey keep bleeding money like this?)
Julie Hirshfield-Davis, "Obama Leads in National Polls: Romney Seen as Out of Touch," in The Record, June 21, 2012, at p. A-5. (Ryan will not help or hurt with key voters in crucial electoral states -- Latinos, women, weel-educated non-professionals who are often unemployed as a result of Romney-like "vulture capitalism.")
David Lightman, "Hispanics Hold the Key in Swing States for Election," in The Record, June 21, 2012, at p. A-5. (Polls in August, 2012 confirm vital role for Latinos. Obama's lead is increasing in these communities. In my opinion, Mr. Biden beats Governor Romney in the Latino community. Senator Rubio has zero effect on these numbers.)
AP, "Website Used for Prostitution is Legal: Retired FDU Professor [N.J.] Among Those Charged in the Case," in The Record, June 21, 2012, at p. A-10. (Some of the so-called prostitutes were "underage" -- 12 years-old, allegedly -- yet the activity was never a problem in the Garden State. "New Jersey's Child Sex Industry" and "Is Senator Menendez For Sale?")
Susan K. Livio, "State Suspends Doctor in Probe of Improper Study: Allegedly Used Disabled Patients," in The Record, August 4, 2012, at p. A-3. (Human experimentation on unsuspecting cancer patients by suspended physician. "Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture.")
Melissa Hayes, Zach Patberg, Chris Harris, "A $400,000 'Mistake' -- Lawmaker Accused of Writing Bad Checks," in The Record, August 4, 2012, at p. A-1. (Assemblyman ROBERT SHROEDER wrote $400,000 in bad checks. In 14 years of law practice not one of my trust account checks bounced.)
Karen Sudol, "Hawthorne Man Posed as Officer, Police Say," in The Record, August 4, 2012, at p. L-1. (Some N.J. lawyers like to call a colleague's clients pretending to be someone they're not. Right, Gilberto Garcia? John McGill? Ms. Kriko? Edgar Navarete?)
Melissa Hayes, "Assemblyman Sued Over $500,000 Investment: It's Latest Legal Issue With His Finances," in The Record, August 8, 2012, at p. A-1. (Thank goodness these public servants are caring for N.J.'s economy.)
"Phony Cops Rob Men of Cash in North Bergen," in The Record, August 8, 2012, at p. L-3. (Since genuine cops are stealing in Hudson County, why not do a little stealing yourself in you're a criminal. In fact, many cops do a little crime or "favors" on the side to make ends meet. "North Bergen is the Home of La Cosa Nostra.")
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Erasing Painful Memories.
Jerry Adler, "Erasing Painful Memories," in Scientific American, May, 2012, at p. 56.
Benedict Carey, "Paralyzed, Moving a Robot With Their Minds," in The New York Times, May 17, 2012, at p. A17.
Ian Hacking, Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1984).
Richard Wollheim, The Thread of Life (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984).
This essay was posted several times at Google Groups in an effort to protect the text from inserted "errors" and other attempts to destroy it. It is not my intention to embarass "Jerry Adler" who may also be "Larissa MacFarquhar" and/or "Jim Holt." Nevertheless, the assumptions made in this essay in Scientific American are deeply mistaken and, with all due respect, offensive to basic human dignity. I feel an obligation to respond to this author. ("The Mind/Body Problem and Freedom" and "Incoherence in The New Yorker.")
No italics or bold script are available to me after the alterations of my blogger dashboard. It is a small miracle that I am able to post this essay here -- if I succeed in doing so. Cybercrime and alterations of texts are always expected. Interruptions in my writing efforts are also anticipated. I have chosen not to place titles in quotation marks despite lacking italics. I regret the circumstances under which this work is written. I will try to make corrections of "errors" that continue to be inserted in the text.
I.
Among the errors committed by purported brain scientists is "category mistakes" (Gilbert Ryle) concerning the nature of memory. Deleting or removing painful memories is probably an impossible or absurd goal for scientists to pursue. Worse, it may be idiotic, psychologically and morally, even to attempt such a thing. (See my forthcoming essay "'Total Recall': A Movie Review" and "'Unknown': A Movie Review.")
Memory altreration is likely to be a harmful practice for persons to attempt or engage in, particularly for those lacking a sophisticated understanding of the workings of memory or the mind, consciousness, or the development of identity as an unfolding or interpretation of memories over time. To remove a hurtful memory -- a memory which may be meaningful or happy at the same time! -- is to damage or diminish identity. ("Is it Art?" and "Bernard Williams and Identity.")
Reacting to the latest bundle of confusions on this issue, I am struck by three objections to this project of removing painful memories: Several assumptions are shared by those engaged in the effort to "alter minds." For the sake of brevity I will ignore technical distinctions in philosophy or social theory relevant to this analysis. I will assume, for the purposes of this discussion, that readers are familiar with the necessary distinctions among humanists as well as scientists. (See my forthcoming essay "What is Memory?" and "John Searle and David Chalmers on Consciousness" then, again, "The Mind/Body Problem and Freedom.")
The first objection focuses on the conceptual confusions surrounding memory and memories. The concept of memory is not defined in Mr. Adler's discussion and analysis, nor is any effort made to accomodate the literature on the role of memory in mental life from Wittgenstein and Freud to Anscombe and Gardner, Bergson and Ricoeur.
Tensions in psychological, neurological, philosophical understandings of memory relevant to what, allegedly, can be removed from recollection -- to say nothing about how we should go about doing so -- are ignored by Mr. Adler. Perhaps Mr. Adler's assumed name was inspired by Alfred Adler who would have been horrified at the suggestion that ANY painful memory should be "removed."
Psychoanalysis seeks not the removal of painful memories, but exactly the opposite: Where there is suppression, the analysand and analyst struggle to bring the light of conscious AWARENESS to what is denied conscious existence in order to begin healing. This process can never take place with an analyst serving a mixed agenda or, say, the state rather than the subject of analysis.
The pain associated with traumatic recollections must be, simultaneously, accepted and rejected in the effort of "transcendence through archetypal displacement" recommended by Carl Jung and R.D. Laing. Hence, the importance of art and the shadow puppetry of cinema, for example, as a means of redeeming repressed memories. ("'The Reader': A Movie Review.")
A single painful memory cannot, as a practical matter, be isolated from other memories (painful or not), good or bad, nor from the values and shaping influences that determine or create character as a product of our choices within constraints. Indeed, we are often forced to choose within insurmountable and tragic constraints in order to remember so as to become the persons we are. (See William Styron's "Sophie's Choice" and John Fowles' "The Magus.")
Existentialist psychologists (Karl Jaspers, Rollo May) and Jungians (Judith Singer, Marie Luise Von Franz) will be helpful on these issues. ("Derek Parfit's Ethics" and "What is Enlightenment?")
The mind is like a system. Memory is akin to an eternal process in that system. A single memory may impact on the entirety of the psychic system or self, especially when it is traumatic or important -- sometimes for joyful reasons -- setting in motion a network of associations that are affective and temporal. A crucial memory cannot be isolated -- like a marble -- in a specific corner of the non-material entity that is the mind as distinct from the brain making that mind possible. ("Consciousness and Computers" and "Mind and Machine.")
This is NOT to deny in any way, the necessity of the brain working properly to the mind's healthy existence and functioning, as I readily acknowledge -- including cerebral or biochemical processes to the powers of recollection -- but it is to insist that the brain is not alone sufficient to UNDERSTAND memory, nor is the mind or memory reducible to cerebral chemical functions. Language and social-cultural functions -- for example, boundary questions -- are crucial to both mind and memory. ("The Entanglements Are Primary" and, again, see my forthcoming essay: "What is Memory?" Specifically, the discussion of "representational theories" of memory is recommended.)
Removal of a painful memory, therefore, may result in severe and unexpected harm to all aspects of the affected psyche, notably to the formulation of an integrated or unified identity or self. The personality of a victim of such an invasion may disintegrate. ("'The Adjustment Bureau': A Movie Review" and "'Unknown': A Movie Review.")
Blunders and lack of clarity concerning what is at issue in the attempt to biochemically (drugs) or, insanely, SURGICALLY (yes, this has been suggested quite seriously!), worse is behavioristically, to remove memories of traumatic events in a person's life result from an archaic, if persistent, logical atomism or positivism and reductivism as well as materialism among some alleged brain scientists unable to transition to a new scientific paradigm in biology and elsewhere. For example, a scientific paradigm emerging in chemistry and physics, also linguistics and hermeneutic theory, brain science, too -- sees cerebral functioning and mental life even more so -- as "integrative and holistic" systems that are mutually dependent. In other words, "narratives." ("Ted Hondereich Says: 'You Are Not Free!'")
Current scientific thinking in terms of networks and holograms sees memory as INTEGRATIVE in identity-formation and -preservation. This connective essence of memory suggests that removal of memories may be like pulling on a thread that unravels a fine cloth -- until there is nothing left of the cloth. The "cloth" being the delicate matter of the self. ("'Dark Shadows': A Movie Review.")
Each memory is colored with affect or meaning -- again, this is especially true of traumatic memory -- impacting on all other recollections and powers of the psyche, or on the future capacity to recall anything in the afflicted person. Memory preservation and INTERPRETATION is always a present action (now) that is reactive to changing conditions as core elements of the self are conveyed into the future. The contrast between realist, critical realist, constructivist and hermeneutic theories of memory is unrecognized by Mr. Adler who simply fails to display expert knowledge on the subject of memory. (Martin Gardner and Howard Gardner should be quoted, Mr. Adler.)
I cannot explain how or why "Mr. Adler" has managed to place this essay in Scientific American. What is more, Mr. Adler seems to assume, unknowingly, CONFLICTING theories of memory in his discussion. ("The 'Galatea Scenario' and the Mind/Body Problem" then "Immanuel Kant and the Narrative of Freedom.")
Richard Wollheim's "The Thread of Life" -- also Charles Rycroft and R.D. Laing -- may prove to be very helpful on these issues. I call the reader's attention to the early work of Dr. Laing in British army hospitals with victims of severe trauma and memory loss. The novels of Pat Barker are also highly recommended, especially "The Eye in the Door" and the works of Aldous Huxley. Much recent scholarship in the archives of neurology and psychology has focused on this issue of memory loss and recovery through "form" or narrativity. (Please see my short stories "The Soldier and the Ballerina" and "God is Texting Me!")
Sadly, I am unable to quote much of this scholarship due to space limitations and the usual harassments. I was unable to write at all yesterday due to obstructions. I suggest to therapists that they make use of cinema and literature in their efforts to assist persons seeking to recover memories after traumatic experiences. By discussing the actions of characters on stage or screen, in novels or drama, issues afflicting individual sufferers can be examined or modelled. In this way workable solutions to personal dilemmas can be found. ("R.D. Laing and Evil" then "Behaviorism is Evil.")
II.
A second objection to Mr. Adler's argument concerns the issue of respect for persons, autonomy rights and ethical constraints on experimentation which are treated disdainfully by this author.
Persons are not "rats on a carousel" whose minds may be violated without their consent as part of some ill-advised effort to remove or rearrange memories to test a crackpot theory of mind/brain identity. Persons are entitled to respect and privacy under the law and applicable ethical standards. ("Psychological Torture in the American Legal System" and "Dehumanization.")
The most likely result of the sort of chemical brain alteration discussed by this author is severe HARM to victims. Perhaps this is what persons proposing such hideous experiments desire -- to damage persons for life. Psychoanalysis and psychology must not be used as "weapons" to harm persons.
Although this issue has been recognized by the American Psychoanalytic Association (APA), which condemns any and all cooperation by psychotherapists in torture or forced interrogation, American psychologists have deployed causistic methods and distinctions to make it very vague indeed whether or when a psychologist may assist government in torturing persons. Many American psychologists have assisted in such atrocities, both at home and elsewhere. ("American Doctors and Torture" and "Is America's Legal Ethics a Lie?" then "An Open Letter to My Torturers in New Jersey, Terry Tuchin and Diana Lisa Riccioli.")
Victimized persons may be destroyed, as persons, through alterations of brain chemistry. There are profound and pervasive effects from even well-intentioned (if badly understood) interventions in neurological networks. Mumia Abu-Jamal writes of witnessing the chemical lobotomization of inmates as a means of inmate control in America's prisons. "Behavioristic lobotomization" is also attempted in prisons and elsewhere. ("Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal" and "Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal.")
The brain's ability to compensate in unsuspected ways for traumatic injury indicates that social-therapeutic, linguistic, and other factors -- physical and non-physical -- are involved in cerebral/mental life. It is also abundantly clear that physicians are still learning about the brain and hardly in a position to declare certainties about the consequences of experimental procedures. Under such circumstances, using human beings to learn "what will happen" is barbaric and evil. ("Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture" and "Behaviorism is Evil" then "Brian Greene and The Science of Memory.")
What we remember has much to do with our linguistic capacities, including the image-based and syntax-like connections between events recalled and meanings or interpretations associated with those events. A useful contrast for philosophers is provided by A.J. Ayer and Elizabeth Anscombe as against Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur as well as R.D. Laing and Jean-Paul Sartre. ("Out of the Past.")
Affect colors all memories and is related to the brain's healing powers that redefine the meanings of memories all the time, every day, through every act of recollection. ("'The English Patient': A Movie Review" and "'Unknown': A Movie Review.")
A reduction of memory to a single neurochemical state or process in a small region of the brain is ludricous as well as bad science. The suggestion is also philosophically incoherent and bad psychology. Compare Henri Bergson and Edmund Husserl with Ludwig Bingswanger and Michel Foucault for a different understanding of what is meant by "bioethics" in the context of therapeutic relations. (See Foucault's interest in the case of Ellen West as analyzed in James Miller's biography of Foucault.)
III.
A third objection to Mr. Adler's argument is the "psychological continuity" problem which suggests that painful memories -- whether desired or not -- may be essential to preserving relationships which are fundamental to survival for a person. Again: a memory may be both painful and happy or desired. For example, recalling the birth of a child by her mother or that same child's departure for college as remembered by her father.
To remove a painful memory from the mind -- something which may be impossible, even in theory -- would be like dimantling or interrupting the narrative of the self in time, as a "project of self-realization." ("Immanuel Kant and the Narrative of Freedom.")
The so-called "virtues" of character emerge from dialectical evolutions or interpretations in a moral direction that are only possible for individuals who decide on the meanings of their memories. All selfhood is about the realization of identity in time through form. By "form" is meant art or some other expressive endeavor -- like philosophy or science, law or medicine. (''In Time': A Movie Review" then "Shakespeare's Black Prince.")
Removal of memories may produce false consciousness or distorted recollections of the past leading to deformations of the psyche making any kind of self-realization or survival, for that matter, impossible. What we remember doing and how we judge our actions will determine possible developments of character:
"Any experience modifies consciousness. Be it subliminal or traumatic, there is no psychic or physical happening which does not alter the complex of our identity. [Hypnosis?] In the flux of the instantaneous, the impact, like that of the charged particles streaming through our planet, is infinitesimal and unperceived. But personal being is process; it is in perpetual change. ..." (Steiner, p. 25.)
Memory was described by the ancients as the "mother of the muses." The creation of art drawing on memories provides for the articulation of the ego. Accordingly, memory is the only possible mother of the self. By memory here is meant all recollections of what constitutes a life -- painful memories very much included. Perhaps painful memories are especially crucial to the making of art as well as identities. The fashioning of a self may be a work of art. (Nietzsche, Bradley, Kierkegaard.)
It is the things and persons whose recollection are most entangled in affective relations that we must treasure if we are to learn the meaning of the "stories that we are." (Gadamer, Ricoeur.)
No doubt the effort to prevent me from writing or speaking is about denying me the use of form for survival or self-realization in a "high-tech" torture chamber. ("What is it like to be tortured?" and "How censorship works in America.")
To prevent any human being from writing or creating art is to seek to destroy that person's inner meanings or expressive contents. Censorship negates the humanity of persons. Torture destroys that humanity. ("Censorship, Again?" then "How censorship works in America" and "Censorship and Cruelty in New Jersey.")
The price in terms of emotional suffering for recollection of traumatic or painful memories may be very high, but we must choose the suffering in order to earn the meanings we desire for ourselves and our loved-ones, so that we may become the persons we are. ("Bernard Williams and Identity" then "Friedrich Nietzsche on Self-Realization.")
The pain from loss of persons we love, or from sharing in their sufferings, is part of the joy and intimacy we derive by loving them -- against the world if necessary. Evelyn Waugh suggests that to know and love one other human being is the beginning of all wisdom. ("The Allegory of the Cave" then "'Brideshead Revisited': A Movie Review" and "What is it like to be plagiarized?" and see "Shadowlands.")
For Plato -- and his admirer, St. Augustine -- memory is the repository of that fundamental emotional wisdom of humanity associated with the process of individual recollection, as when a baby "remembers" that the smiling face before her belongs to her parent, and social recollection, as in the writing of history. In this "fountain of recollections" at the center of the self we discover what Augustine called: "the divine in ourselves." ('''The Fountain': A Movie Review.")
I recall a Holocaust survivor and scholar making a similar point in urging students to "remember" the events of the Holocaust. As a college professor, he showed a film of the Holocaust that was very graphic because it depicted events in his own difficult life. The tears in his eyes were overcome by a sense of the importance of discussing and sharing his impressions of the historical events in which all of our lives are implicated. I believe that this is one of Tolstoy's most important lessons to his readers concerning the meaning of history and (for him) religious faith: "We must remember to remember."
Suffering "recalls" us to our humanity and to the deeper or shared sources of that humanity in culture or language. Far from wishing to forget the traumatic memory of his imprisonment, for example, Alexander Solzhenitsyn thanked God for the clarity of his remembered pain:
"All the writers who wrote about prison but did not themselves serve time there considered it their duty to express sympathy for prisoners and to curse prison. I ... have served time there. I nourished my soul there, [Nelson Mandela?] and I say without hesitation: BLESS YOU PRISON, for having been in my life."
The Gulag Archipelago (New York: Harper & Row, 1973-75), Vol. II, p. 615.
Benedict Carey, "Paralyzed, Moving a Robot With Their Minds," in The New York Times, May 17, 2012, at p. A17.
Ian Hacking, Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1984).
Richard Wollheim, The Thread of Life (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984).
This essay was posted several times at Google Groups in an effort to protect the text from inserted "errors" and other attempts to destroy it. It is not my intention to embarass "Jerry Adler" who may also be "Larissa MacFarquhar" and/or "Jim Holt." Nevertheless, the assumptions made in this essay in Scientific American are deeply mistaken and, with all due respect, offensive to basic human dignity. I feel an obligation to respond to this author. ("The Mind/Body Problem and Freedom" and "Incoherence in The New Yorker.")
No italics or bold script are available to me after the alterations of my blogger dashboard. It is a small miracle that I am able to post this essay here -- if I succeed in doing so. Cybercrime and alterations of texts are always expected. Interruptions in my writing efforts are also anticipated. I have chosen not to place titles in quotation marks despite lacking italics. I regret the circumstances under which this work is written. I will try to make corrections of "errors" that continue to be inserted in the text.
I.
Among the errors committed by purported brain scientists is "category mistakes" (Gilbert Ryle) concerning the nature of memory. Deleting or removing painful memories is probably an impossible or absurd goal for scientists to pursue. Worse, it may be idiotic, psychologically and morally, even to attempt such a thing. (See my forthcoming essay "'Total Recall': A Movie Review" and "'Unknown': A Movie Review.")
Memory altreration is likely to be a harmful practice for persons to attempt or engage in, particularly for those lacking a sophisticated understanding of the workings of memory or the mind, consciousness, or the development of identity as an unfolding or interpretation of memories over time. To remove a hurtful memory -- a memory which may be meaningful or happy at the same time! -- is to damage or diminish identity. ("Is it Art?" and "Bernard Williams and Identity.")
Reacting to the latest bundle of confusions on this issue, I am struck by three objections to this project of removing painful memories: Several assumptions are shared by those engaged in the effort to "alter minds." For the sake of brevity I will ignore technical distinctions in philosophy or social theory relevant to this analysis. I will assume, for the purposes of this discussion, that readers are familiar with the necessary distinctions among humanists as well as scientists. (See my forthcoming essay "What is Memory?" and "John Searle and David Chalmers on Consciousness" then, again, "The Mind/Body Problem and Freedom.")
The first objection focuses on the conceptual confusions surrounding memory and memories. The concept of memory is not defined in Mr. Adler's discussion and analysis, nor is any effort made to accomodate the literature on the role of memory in mental life from Wittgenstein and Freud to Anscombe and Gardner, Bergson and Ricoeur.
Tensions in psychological, neurological, philosophical understandings of memory relevant to what, allegedly, can be removed from recollection -- to say nothing about how we should go about doing so -- are ignored by Mr. Adler. Perhaps Mr. Adler's assumed name was inspired by Alfred Adler who would have been horrified at the suggestion that ANY painful memory should be "removed."
Psychoanalysis seeks not the removal of painful memories, but exactly the opposite: Where there is suppression, the analysand and analyst struggle to bring the light of conscious AWARENESS to what is denied conscious existence in order to begin healing. This process can never take place with an analyst serving a mixed agenda or, say, the state rather than the subject of analysis.
The pain associated with traumatic recollections must be, simultaneously, accepted and rejected in the effort of "transcendence through archetypal displacement" recommended by Carl Jung and R.D. Laing. Hence, the importance of art and the shadow puppetry of cinema, for example, as a means of redeeming repressed memories. ("'The Reader': A Movie Review.")
A single painful memory cannot, as a practical matter, be isolated from other memories (painful or not), good or bad, nor from the values and shaping influences that determine or create character as a product of our choices within constraints. Indeed, we are often forced to choose within insurmountable and tragic constraints in order to remember so as to become the persons we are. (See William Styron's "Sophie's Choice" and John Fowles' "The Magus.")
Existentialist psychologists (Karl Jaspers, Rollo May) and Jungians (Judith Singer, Marie Luise Von Franz) will be helpful on these issues. ("Derek Parfit's Ethics" and "What is Enlightenment?")
The mind is like a system. Memory is akin to an eternal process in that system. A single memory may impact on the entirety of the psychic system or self, especially when it is traumatic or important -- sometimes for joyful reasons -- setting in motion a network of associations that are affective and temporal. A crucial memory cannot be isolated -- like a marble -- in a specific corner of the non-material entity that is the mind as distinct from the brain making that mind possible. ("Consciousness and Computers" and "Mind and Machine.")
This is NOT to deny in any way, the necessity of the brain working properly to the mind's healthy existence and functioning, as I readily acknowledge -- including cerebral or biochemical processes to the powers of recollection -- but it is to insist that the brain is not alone sufficient to UNDERSTAND memory, nor is the mind or memory reducible to cerebral chemical functions. Language and social-cultural functions -- for example, boundary questions -- are crucial to both mind and memory. ("The Entanglements Are Primary" and, again, see my forthcoming essay: "What is Memory?" Specifically, the discussion of "representational theories" of memory is recommended.)
Removal of a painful memory, therefore, may result in severe and unexpected harm to all aspects of the affected psyche, notably to the formulation of an integrated or unified identity or self. The personality of a victim of such an invasion may disintegrate. ("'The Adjustment Bureau': A Movie Review" and "'Unknown': A Movie Review.")
Blunders and lack of clarity concerning what is at issue in the attempt to biochemically (drugs) or, insanely, SURGICALLY (yes, this has been suggested quite seriously!), worse is behavioristically, to remove memories of traumatic events in a person's life result from an archaic, if persistent, logical atomism or positivism and reductivism as well as materialism among some alleged brain scientists unable to transition to a new scientific paradigm in biology and elsewhere. For example, a scientific paradigm emerging in chemistry and physics, also linguistics and hermeneutic theory, brain science, too -- sees cerebral functioning and mental life even more so -- as "integrative and holistic" systems that are mutually dependent. In other words, "narratives." ("Ted Hondereich Says: 'You Are Not Free!'")
Current scientific thinking in terms of networks and holograms sees memory as INTEGRATIVE in identity-formation and -preservation. This connective essence of memory suggests that removal of memories may be like pulling on a thread that unravels a fine cloth -- until there is nothing left of the cloth. The "cloth" being the delicate matter of the self. ("'Dark Shadows': A Movie Review.")
Each memory is colored with affect or meaning -- again, this is especially true of traumatic memory -- impacting on all other recollections and powers of the psyche, or on the future capacity to recall anything in the afflicted person. Memory preservation and INTERPRETATION is always a present action (now) that is reactive to changing conditions as core elements of the self are conveyed into the future. The contrast between realist, critical realist, constructivist and hermeneutic theories of memory is unrecognized by Mr. Adler who simply fails to display expert knowledge on the subject of memory. (Martin Gardner and Howard Gardner should be quoted, Mr. Adler.)
I cannot explain how or why "Mr. Adler" has managed to place this essay in Scientific American. What is more, Mr. Adler seems to assume, unknowingly, CONFLICTING theories of memory in his discussion. ("The 'Galatea Scenario' and the Mind/Body Problem" then "Immanuel Kant and the Narrative of Freedom.")
Richard Wollheim's "The Thread of Life" -- also Charles Rycroft and R.D. Laing -- may prove to be very helpful on these issues. I call the reader's attention to the early work of Dr. Laing in British army hospitals with victims of severe trauma and memory loss. The novels of Pat Barker are also highly recommended, especially "The Eye in the Door" and the works of Aldous Huxley. Much recent scholarship in the archives of neurology and psychology has focused on this issue of memory loss and recovery through "form" or narrativity. (Please see my short stories "The Soldier and the Ballerina" and "God is Texting Me!")
Sadly, I am unable to quote much of this scholarship due to space limitations and the usual harassments. I was unable to write at all yesterday due to obstructions. I suggest to therapists that they make use of cinema and literature in their efforts to assist persons seeking to recover memories after traumatic experiences. By discussing the actions of characters on stage or screen, in novels or drama, issues afflicting individual sufferers can be examined or modelled. In this way workable solutions to personal dilemmas can be found. ("R.D. Laing and Evil" then "Behaviorism is Evil.")
II.
A second objection to Mr. Adler's argument concerns the issue of respect for persons, autonomy rights and ethical constraints on experimentation which are treated disdainfully by this author.
Persons are not "rats on a carousel" whose minds may be violated without their consent as part of some ill-advised effort to remove or rearrange memories to test a crackpot theory of mind/brain identity. Persons are entitled to respect and privacy under the law and applicable ethical standards. ("Psychological Torture in the American Legal System" and "Dehumanization.")
The most likely result of the sort of chemical brain alteration discussed by this author is severe HARM to victims. Perhaps this is what persons proposing such hideous experiments desire -- to damage persons for life. Psychoanalysis and psychology must not be used as "weapons" to harm persons.
Although this issue has been recognized by the American Psychoanalytic Association (APA), which condemns any and all cooperation by psychotherapists in torture or forced interrogation, American psychologists have deployed causistic methods and distinctions to make it very vague indeed whether or when a psychologist may assist government in torturing persons. Many American psychologists have assisted in such atrocities, both at home and elsewhere. ("American Doctors and Torture" and "Is America's Legal Ethics a Lie?" then "An Open Letter to My Torturers in New Jersey, Terry Tuchin and Diana Lisa Riccioli.")
Victimized persons may be destroyed, as persons, through alterations of brain chemistry. There are profound and pervasive effects from even well-intentioned (if badly understood) interventions in neurological networks. Mumia Abu-Jamal writes of witnessing the chemical lobotomization of inmates as a means of inmate control in America's prisons. "Behavioristic lobotomization" is also attempted in prisons and elsewhere. ("Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal" and "Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal.")
The brain's ability to compensate in unsuspected ways for traumatic injury indicates that social-therapeutic, linguistic, and other factors -- physical and non-physical -- are involved in cerebral/mental life. It is also abundantly clear that physicians are still learning about the brain and hardly in a position to declare certainties about the consequences of experimental procedures. Under such circumstances, using human beings to learn "what will happen" is barbaric and evil. ("Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture" and "Behaviorism is Evil" then "Brian Greene and The Science of Memory.")
What we remember has much to do with our linguistic capacities, including the image-based and syntax-like connections between events recalled and meanings or interpretations associated with those events. A useful contrast for philosophers is provided by A.J. Ayer and Elizabeth Anscombe as against Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur as well as R.D. Laing and Jean-Paul Sartre. ("Out of the Past.")
Affect colors all memories and is related to the brain's healing powers that redefine the meanings of memories all the time, every day, through every act of recollection. ("'The English Patient': A Movie Review" and "'Unknown': A Movie Review.")
A reduction of memory to a single neurochemical state or process in a small region of the brain is ludricous as well as bad science. The suggestion is also philosophically incoherent and bad psychology. Compare Henri Bergson and Edmund Husserl with Ludwig Bingswanger and Michel Foucault for a different understanding of what is meant by "bioethics" in the context of therapeutic relations. (See Foucault's interest in the case of Ellen West as analyzed in James Miller's biography of Foucault.)
III.
A third objection to Mr. Adler's argument is the "psychological continuity" problem which suggests that painful memories -- whether desired or not -- may be essential to preserving relationships which are fundamental to survival for a person. Again: a memory may be both painful and happy or desired. For example, recalling the birth of a child by her mother or that same child's departure for college as remembered by her father.
To remove a painful memory from the mind -- something which may be impossible, even in theory -- would be like dimantling or interrupting the narrative of the self in time, as a "project of self-realization." ("Immanuel Kant and the Narrative of Freedom.")
The so-called "virtues" of character emerge from dialectical evolutions or interpretations in a moral direction that are only possible for individuals who decide on the meanings of their memories. All selfhood is about the realization of identity in time through form. By "form" is meant art or some other expressive endeavor -- like philosophy or science, law or medicine. (''In Time': A Movie Review" then "Shakespeare's Black Prince.")
Removal of memories may produce false consciousness or distorted recollections of the past leading to deformations of the psyche making any kind of self-realization or survival, for that matter, impossible. What we remember doing and how we judge our actions will determine possible developments of character:
"Any experience modifies consciousness. Be it subliminal or traumatic, there is no psychic or physical happening which does not alter the complex of our identity. [Hypnosis?] In the flux of the instantaneous, the impact, like that of the charged particles streaming through our planet, is infinitesimal and unperceived. But personal being is process; it is in perpetual change. ..." (Steiner, p. 25.)
Memory was described by the ancients as the "mother of the muses." The creation of art drawing on memories provides for the articulation of the ego. Accordingly, memory is the only possible mother of the self. By memory here is meant all recollections of what constitutes a life -- painful memories very much included. Perhaps painful memories are especially crucial to the making of art as well as identities. The fashioning of a self may be a work of art. (Nietzsche, Bradley, Kierkegaard.)
It is the things and persons whose recollection are most entangled in affective relations that we must treasure if we are to learn the meaning of the "stories that we are." (Gadamer, Ricoeur.)
No doubt the effort to prevent me from writing or speaking is about denying me the use of form for survival or self-realization in a "high-tech" torture chamber. ("What is it like to be tortured?" and "How censorship works in America.")
To prevent any human being from writing or creating art is to seek to destroy that person's inner meanings or expressive contents. Censorship negates the humanity of persons. Torture destroys that humanity. ("Censorship, Again?" then "How censorship works in America" and "Censorship and Cruelty in New Jersey.")
The price in terms of emotional suffering for recollection of traumatic or painful memories may be very high, but we must choose the suffering in order to earn the meanings we desire for ourselves and our loved-ones, so that we may become the persons we are. ("Bernard Williams and Identity" then "Friedrich Nietzsche on Self-Realization.")
The pain from loss of persons we love, or from sharing in their sufferings, is part of the joy and intimacy we derive by loving them -- against the world if necessary. Evelyn Waugh suggests that to know and love one other human being is the beginning of all wisdom. ("The Allegory of the Cave" then "'Brideshead Revisited': A Movie Review" and "What is it like to be plagiarized?" and see "Shadowlands.")
For Plato -- and his admirer, St. Augustine -- memory is the repository of that fundamental emotional wisdom of humanity associated with the process of individual recollection, as when a baby "remembers" that the smiling face before her belongs to her parent, and social recollection, as in the writing of history. In this "fountain of recollections" at the center of the self we discover what Augustine called: "the divine in ourselves." ('''The Fountain': A Movie Review.")
I recall a Holocaust survivor and scholar making a similar point in urging students to "remember" the events of the Holocaust. As a college professor, he showed a film of the Holocaust that was very graphic because it depicted events in his own difficult life. The tears in his eyes were overcome by a sense of the importance of discussing and sharing his impressions of the historical events in which all of our lives are implicated. I believe that this is one of Tolstoy's most important lessons to his readers concerning the meaning of history and (for him) religious faith: "We must remember to remember."
Suffering "recalls" us to our humanity and to the deeper or shared sources of that humanity in culture or language. Far from wishing to forget the traumatic memory of his imprisonment, for example, Alexander Solzhenitsyn thanked God for the clarity of his remembered pain:
"All the writers who wrote about prison but did not themselves serve time there considered it their duty to express sympathy for prisoners and to curse prison. I ... have served time there. I nourished my soul there, [Nelson Mandela?] and I say without hesitation: BLESS YOU PRISON, for having been in my life."
The Gulag Archipelago (New York: Harper & Row, 1973-75), Vol. II, p. 615.
Saturday, August 4, 2012
New Jersey Attacks!
August 4, 2012 at 1:51 P.M. I attempted to sign-in using my NYPL card at the Morningside Heights branch of the library. I was assigned to computer number #4. I was denied access to the Internet and a pop-up indicated "Windows Not Working." This is the second time I am typing these words as they were previously deleted.
My hand shakes as I type these words from anxiety and anger at these violations of my rights and yours. I will continue to write. ("How censorship works in America.")
I do not know whether I will be able to use my library card to sign-in to or reserve a NYPL computer again, after today. I will try to do so. I am currently using a guest number. If necessary, I will make use of guest numbers, every day, to write for 45 minutes per day. I have lost 25 minutes before being able to post these words. If this is not censorship, I cannot imagine what would constitute censorship.
The goal of psychological torture is to generate a nervous breakdown with a display of emotions, preferably publicly, that can be used against the victim. Happily, I am and will remain quite serene. I will try to deal with the heightened stress and frustrations as well as anxieties with extra exercise and more reading of quantum physics as well as philosophy. I read these seemingly arcane books about math and physics, philosophy, history, jurisprudence strictly for the sexy parts.
Mary Jo Layton, "Questions Arise at For Profit Hospital," in "The Record," August 1, 2012, at p. A-1. (Money disappearing, again.)
James Quirk, "Bergen Caps Merger Study Seen as Model Elsewhere," in "The Record," August 1, 2012, at p. A-1. (Has Union County Sheriff Ralph Froelich visited my sites and/or contributed in any way to the cybercrimes and censorship against me? Perhaps the Sheriff has acted on behalf of Anne Rodgers or Theodore Romankow?)
Zach Patberg, "County in a Bind Over Pay in a Pair's Rehiring," in "The Record," August 1, 2012, at p. L-1. (Former Paterson officials who nearly doubled their salaries with bogus overtime were rehired, involuntarily, but won't be paid by the county. Smart. This way the two scam artists will earn exactly what they're worth.)
James Aury, "Police in Bergen County Face Tampering Probe," in "The Record," August 2, 2012, at p. A-1. (Cops fabricating evidence and obstructing justice -- like the OAE -- to prevent their own apprehension and frame a "suspect.")
Two civil lawsuits have been filed against Bergen County, "one seeking $17 MILLION and the other $3 MILLION in damages."
"Investigators are probing the actions of two Bergen County Police Officers who pursued [robbery] suspects. And the criminal investigation of the officers has created strife between County Executive Kathleen Donovan and Prosecutor John Molinelli."
If I am able to continue writing, I will comment further on this matter and review "Total Recall."
As best I can make out, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli is trying to determine whether the suspect officers removed evidence from a crime scene or otherwise tampered ("fabricated") evidence -- put something there -- in order to cover their asses, as it were, in any future investigation of a car chase and shooting of robbery suspects. It's the cover-up, stupid, that will get you in a jam.
The OAE engages in similar tactics when they screw up. However, the Attorney General James Chiesa is not interested in dealing with this little "bru-ha-ha" because he doesn't want an ethics problem for himself. ("New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System" and "New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics.")
Mr. Froelich in Union County is also alleged to engage in similarly "creative" police work aimed at hurting minority defendants. The accusations of racism in that county are well-established. Perhaps a federal or state takeover is called for to deal with the problem because Romankow and Froelich are pretty tight. ("Larry Peterson Cleared by DNA.")
"The allegations are that after the shooting, both Roberts [Chief Justice John Roberts is not involved in this matter, the Bergen cop's name is Roberts,] and Baksh allegedly took measures to hide that a shooting took place, and took actions to frustrate not only our office but their own office in investigating the shooting," Molinelli said, referring exclusively to the Bergen County cops and investigation.
This is what gives defense counsel headaches: You, as a police officer, are involved in a shooting of robbery suspects (no one heard anything or saw you at the scene?) after a high speed chase through several towns and may have a VALID reason for the shooting. However, by engaging in the cover-up, you have committed a crime (obstruction of justice) and cast doubt on the legitimacy of the original shooting. This is not smart.
Meanwhile back at the ranch: "A supervisor at a residential treatment facility for disabled and emotionally disturbed children has been arrested on charges of sexually abusing a teenage girl when she lived there."
Abbott-Koloff, "Sexual Abuse of a Girl Alleged," in "The Record," July 25, 2012, at p. L-1.
This sexual abuse matter is one of several instances in which it is alleged that officials -- like those nervous Bergen County cops -- may have attempted to cover-up or make this matter go away, despite the sexual abuse of a mentally impaired CHILD, in order "not to look bad" to state regulators. Now you "look bad." Not only that, but the cover-up may create a criminal problem for officials engaging in it who had nothing to do with the original incident. ("New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics.")
Abuse of a confined young woman in a mental health facility went unpunished for too long because of such concerns. Sexual assaults of young women have become routine in a number of penal and health care institutions. Is this an example of New Jersey government's institutional "ethics," Mr. Rabner? Mr. Chiesa?
Sources:
John Petrick, "Halledon Must Pay Chief's Legal Fees," in "The Record," August 1, 2012, at p. L-1. (Police Chief told the truth about drug use BY POLITICAL OFFICIALS and was subjected to a legal action because he would not engage in a cover-up. New Jersey's "cover-up" culture must be reformed. This includes the OAE's self-preservation tactics. Right, John McGill, Esq.? Ms. Rodgers?)
Marlene Noones, "Man Charged in Attempt to Lure Child," in "The Record," August 1, 2012, at p. L-2. (MATHEW ALFIANO, 35, sought a sexual encounter with a girl he believed to be 12 years-old. Is the investigation being derailed because of "connections." "Judges Protect Child Abuse in Bayonne, New Jersey.")
Lindy Washburn, "Chiropractor Faces 125 Fraud Counts: Allegedly Faked Insurance Claims for Victims in Car Accidents," in "The Record," August 1, 2012, at p. L-2. (LAWYERS and chiropractors scheming to defraud insurance companies. Edgar Navarete? Jose Ginarte? Any ethics troubles, boys? Is this New Jersey's legal ethics, Mr. Rabner?)
"Names of the Dead," in "The New York Times," August 4, 2012, at p. A5. (Since writing on August 1, 2012 the number of American causalties has grown to 2,053 and the number is still rising. Mr. Obama, please bring our troops home.)
Matt Friedman, "New Jersey's Voters May Get to Decide in Judges' Pay: It's Pension Reform for All, Lawmakers Say," in "The Star Ledger," July 22, 2012, at p. 1. (Voters may insist on a Constitutional Amendment to require fairness in judicial pension contributions. No one escapes -- or should escape -- the burden of hard times.)
My hand shakes as I type these words from anxiety and anger at these violations of my rights and yours. I will continue to write. ("How censorship works in America.")
I do not know whether I will be able to use my library card to sign-in to or reserve a NYPL computer again, after today. I will try to do so. I am currently using a guest number. If necessary, I will make use of guest numbers, every day, to write for 45 minutes per day. I have lost 25 minutes before being able to post these words. If this is not censorship, I cannot imagine what would constitute censorship.
The goal of psychological torture is to generate a nervous breakdown with a display of emotions, preferably publicly, that can be used against the victim. Happily, I am and will remain quite serene. I will try to deal with the heightened stress and frustrations as well as anxieties with extra exercise and more reading of quantum physics as well as philosophy. I read these seemingly arcane books about math and physics, philosophy, history, jurisprudence strictly for the sexy parts.
Mary Jo Layton, "Questions Arise at For Profit Hospital," in "The Record," August 1, 2012, at p. A-1. (Money disappearing, again.)
James Quirk, "Bergen Caps Merger Study Seen as Model Elsewhere," in "The Record," August 1, 2012, at p. A-1. (Has Union County Sheriff Ralph Froelich visited my sites and/or contributed in any way to the cybercrimes and censorship against me? Perhaps the Sheriff has acted on behalf of Anne Rodgers or Theodore Romankow?)
Zach Patberg, "County in a Bind Over Pay in a Pair's Rehiring," in "The Record," August 1, 2012, at p. L-1. (Former Paterson officials who nearly doubled their salaries with bogus overtime were rehired, involuntarily, but won't be paid by the county. Smart. This way the two scam artists will earn exactly what they're worth.)
James Aury, "Police in Bergen County Face Tampering Probe," in "The Record," August 2, 2012, at p. A-1. (Cops fabricating evidence and obstructing justice -- like the OAE -- to prevent their own apprehension and frame a "suspect.")
Two civil lawsuits have been filed against Bergen County, "one seeking $17 MILLION and the other $3 MILLION in damages."
"Investigators are probing the actions of two Bergen County Police Officers who pursued [robbery] suspects. And the criminal investigation of the officers has created strife between County Executive Kathleen Donovan and Prosecutor John Molinelli."
If I am able to continue writing, I will comment further on this matter and review "Total Recall."
As best I can make out, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli is trying to determine whether the suspect officers removed evidence from a crime scene or otherwise tampered ("fabricated") evidence -- put something there -- in order to cover their asses, as it were, in any future investigation of a car chase and shooting of robbery suspects. It's the cover-up, stupid, that will get you in a jam.
The OAE engages in similar tactics when they screw up. However, the Attorney General James Chiesa is not interested in dealing with this little "bru-ha-ha" because he doesn't want an ethics problem for himself. ("New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System" and "New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics.")
Mr. Froelich in Union County is also alleged to engage in similarly "creative" police work aimed at hurting minority defendants. The accusations of racism in that county are well-established. Perhaps a federal or state takeover is called for to deal with the problem because Romankow and Froelich are pretty tight. ("Larry Peterson Cleared by DNA.")
"The allegations are that after the shooting, both Roberts [Chief Justice John Roberts is not involved in this matter, the Bergen cop's name is Roberts,] and Baksh allegedly took measures to hide that a shooting took place, and took actions to frustrate not only our office but their own office in investigating the shooting," Molinelli said, referring exclusively to the Bergen County cops and investigation.
This is what gives defense counsel headaches: You, as a police officer, are involved in a shooting of robbery suspects (no one heard anything or saw you at the scene?) after a high speed chase through several towns and may have a VALID reason for the shooting. However, by engaging in the cover-up, you have committed a crime (obstruction of justice) and cast doubt on the legitimacy of the original shooting. This is not smart.
Meanwhile back at the ranch: "A supervisor at a residential treatment facility for disabled and emotionally disturbed children has been arrested on charges of sexually abusing a teenage girl when she lived there."
Abbott-Koloff, "Sexual Abuse of a Girl Alleged," in "The Record," July 25, 2012, at p. L-1.
This sexual abuse matter is one of several instances in which it is alleged that officials -- like those nervous Bergen County cops -- may have attempted to cover-up or make this matter go away, despite the sexual abuse of a mentally impaired CHILD, in order "not to look bad" to state regulators. Now you "look bad." Not only that, but the cover-up may create a criminal problem for officials engaging in it who had nothing to do with the original incident. ("New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics.")
Abuse of a confined young woman in a mental health facility went unpunished for too long because of such concerns. Sexual assaults of young women have become routine in a number of penal and health care institutions. Is this an example of New Jersey government's institutional "ethics," Mr. Rabner? Mr. Chiesa?
Sources:
John Petrick, "Halledon Must Pay Chief's Legal Fees," in "The Record," August 1, 2012, at p. L-1. (Police Chief told the truth about drug use BY POLITICAL OFFICIALS and was subjected to a legal action because he would not engage in a cover-up. New Jersey's "cover-up" culture must be reformed. This includes the OAE's self-preservation tactics. Right, John McGill, Esq.? Ms. Rodgers?)
Marlene Noones, "Man Charged in Attempt to Lure Child," in "The Record," August 1, 2012, at p. L-2. (MATHEW ALFIANO, 35, sought a sexual encounter with a girl he believed to be 12 years-old. Is the investigation being derailed because of "connections." "Judges Protect Child Abuse in Bayonne, New Jersey.")
Lindy Washburn, "Chiropractor Faces 125 Fraud Counts: Allegedly Faked Insurance Claims for Victims in Car Accidents," in "The Record," August 1, 2012, at p. L-2. (LAWYERS and chiropractors scheming to defraud insurance companies. Edgar Navarete? Jose Ginarte? Any ethics troubles, boys? Is this New Jersey's legal ethics, Mr. Rabner?)
"Names of the Dead," in "The New York Times," August 4, 2012, at p. A5. (Since writing on August 1, 2012 the number of American causalties has grown to 2,053 and the number is still rising. Mr. Obama, please bring our troops home.)
Matt Friedman, "New Jersey's Voters May Get to Decide in Judges' Pay: It's Pension Reform for All, Lawmakers Say," in "The Star Ledger," July 22, 2012, at p. 1. (Voters may insist on a Constitutional Amendment to require fairness in judicial pension contributions. No one escapes -- or should escape -- the burden of hard times.)
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Dormi Bene, Gore Vidal.
Eliza Gray, "Ties That Bind," in "The New Republic," June 7, 2012, at p. 15. (Gore Vidal's fears for America realized: Vice President Marco Rubio?)
Charles McGrath, "Gore Vidal: 1925-2012 -- Prolific, Elegant, Acerbic Writer," in "The New York Times," August 1, 2012, at p. A1.
On Tuesday, July 31, 2012, at his home in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA -- the pen fell from the hand of Gore Vidal.
Mr. Vidal will be remembered as America's finest essayist in the twentieth century and one of our greatest novelists of all time. I have posted a long essay examining Vidal's work and life at Mind Games. I see no need to repeat myself here.
I write these words after being prevented from writing at all yesterday, at public computers, against harassments and computer crimes that even Mr. Vidal could not have envisioned during the worst days of McCarthy's terrors or the final days of his struggle against the totalitarianism that he saw engulf the nation he served in the military and adored -- a nation that I still love and worry about.
In what little time I have left today, I wish to recognize what I take to be Vidal's unique importance to American letters and recommend his writings to young people busy at this very moment "twittering" about Kristin Stewart's love-life. Whatever. ("Whatever!" and "Nihilists in Disneyworld.")
Summarizing 86 years in the life of a man of genius, perhaps the final contributor to the American tradition of the novel of manners and ideas, is impossible under these circumstances and limitations. It is possible, however, to point out that Vidal has added several works ("Washington, D.C." and "The Golden Age") to a top shelf that contains the best of Henry James, Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Luis Auchincloss.
Aside from Edward St. Aubyn in England and Alan Hollinghurst in New York, I cannot imagine any other English-language novelist today creating comparable social tapestries or an equally beautiful "dance to the music of time." Vidal claimed to be saving Anthony Powell's masterpiece for his old age. Did he get around to those books? I don't know.
Vidal's historical novels -- notably "Lincoln" and "Julian" -- are the best by an American writer in my lifetime. Socially, Vidal's brave efforts to defend the rights of gays and lesbians to equal treatment under the law were way ahead of his time. Gore Vidal was also a quiet supporter of the civil rights struggle led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- including providing financial support for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Vidal's amused contempt for subliterary ramblings by the politically correct thought police were expressed, appropriately, in several novels -- for example, "Duluth" and "The Smithsonian Institution."
Vidal opposed all forms of control over the minds of men and women, like Thomas Jefferson, whose administration was detested by Vidal's Arron Burr, but admired by the West Point-born and Fellini-dubbed "Gorino" as one of the best in our history. I concur.
Vidal's concern for justice for the powerless masses victimized in America's wars of "conquest and theft" in South Asia or in search of Middle East oil, were costly in terms of his career (especially when it came to reviews in the "Times"), but morally correct.
As I write these words, 2048 U.S. soldiers have died in Afghanistan, new bombings orchestrated by Al Qaeda with Pakistani intelligence and/or Haqqani clan "assistance" have taken place in Baghdad, Al Qaeda has spread to Bharain, Yemen and Saudi Arabia, as Iran develops nuclear weapons. Nearly 10,000 Americans have died in Iraq, over 100,000 wounded in all struggles -- so far.
Vidal's hatred of abuse of power and corruption were combined with genuine passion for America's enshrining of fundamental rights in the best Constitution the world has ever known, a document which he came to see as endangered and, perhaps, made meaningless by the "Bush/Cheney junta" (Vidal's term) towards the end of his long life.
I hope Vidal is mistaken about that loss of the Constitution, but all the evidence suggests that he may be correct in this judgment. Our freedoms of speech and assembly, thought and worship, or the right not to worship, may be gone.
Vidal's sword wielded against the "military industrial complex" -- a "fearsome dragon" was his description of the American tendency toward fascism -- struck some forceful blows. Sadly -- no, TRAGICALLY -- I am also confident that Vidal's dismay in his final years resulted from the suspicion that the "dragon of totalitarianism" had mostly won in America. I agree.
The damage to civil liberties will not be easily undone. I cannot imagine many people bother to deny this concern today. My life and literary experiences on-line attest to its accuracy. Our traditional freedoms -- setting all rhetoric aside -- are a quaint memory or archaic feature of old films starring Mickey Rooney or James Stewart. ("Manifesto For the Unfinished American Revolution.")
Literature as a vital force in the public square along with the inheritance of high civilization for the bulk of the population that was to be "well and truly educated" (Thomas Jefferson) has dissipated and preceded Vidal into the grave. Most Americans do not read serious fiction or books of any kind, do not enjoy the fine arts, nor do they have any interest in science or philosophy, history or political theory. Americans enjoy something called "The Simpsons" and "Dance Moms From Miami."
Does this decline in the quality of our culture or civilization foreshadow a decline in military power and wealth? I suspect so. Every empire or civilization which has declined in cultural importance has also fallen in military power. One has merely to witness the sad spectacle of Mr. Mitt Romney in Britain, shortly before the Olympics, to see this point illustrated: "I like the Olympics!" Mr. Romney said: "I like sports! Even if these games do not seem well-organized."
No one can recall Mr. Romney's discussion of a single work of literature or philosophy during the entire campaign. Gore Vidal would add: "Let us be grateful for small favors."
In concluding the masterpiece "Myra Breckingridge," Gore Vidal offered his readers a slim hope for happiness in a world that then contained horrors like Truman Capote and the Vietnam War:
"Incidentally, I noticed a question scribbled in one of the margins of the notebook. Something she (I hate to say 'I') copied from some book about Jean Jacques Rousseau. I don't suppose it's giving away any secrets to say that like so many would-be intellectuals back East [,] Myra never actually read books, only books about books. Anyway the quotation still sort of appeals to me. It is about how humanity would have been a lot happier if it had kept to the middle ground between the indolence of the primitive state and the questing activity to which we are prompted by our self-esteem! [Prometheus in Beverly Hills or Ravello?] I think that is a very fine statement and one which, all in all, I'm ready to buy, since it is a proven fact that happiness, like the proverbial bluebird, is to be found in your own backyard if you just know where to look."
Gore Vidal, "Myra Breckingridge" (New York: Ballantine, 1967), PP. 276-277.
Gore Vidal has now found that happiness in heaven, I am sure, with Jimmy Trimble and Howard Austen, close friends like Paul Newman, and his beloved William Shakespeare, and many more friends and admirers. If I get to heaven (which is doubtful), I hope that I will receive an invitation to one of Gore Vidal's dinner parties.
Truman Capote, eat your heart out.
Charles McGrath, "Gore Vidal: 1925-2012 -- Prolific, Elegant, Acerbic Writer," in "The New York Times," August 1, 2012, at p. A1.
On Tuesday, July 31, 2012, at his home in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA -- the pen fell from the hand of Gore Vidal.
Mr. Vidal will be remembered as America's finest essayist in the twentieth century and one of our greatest novelists of all time. I have posted a long essay examining Vidal's work and life at Mind Games. I see no need to repeat myself here.
I write these words after being prevented from writing at all yesterday, at public computers, against harassments and computer crimes that even Mr. Vidal could not have envisioned during the worst days of McCarthy's terrors or the final days of his struggle against the totalitarianism that he saw engulf the nation he served in the military and adored -- a nation that I still love and worry about.
In what little time I have left today, I wish to recognize what I take to be Vidal's unique importance to American letters and recommend his writings to young people busy at this very moment "twittering" about Kristin Stewart's love-life. Whatever. ("Whatever!" and "Nihilists in Disneyworld.")
Summarizing 86 years in the life of a man of genius, perhaps the final contributor to the American tradition of the novel of manners and ideas, is impossible under these circumstances and limitations. It is possible, however, to point out that Vidal has added several works ("Washington, D.C." and "The Golden Age") to a top shelf that contains the best of Henry James, Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Luis Auchincloss.
Aside from Edward St. Aubyn in England and Alan Hollinghurst in New York, I cannot imagine any other English-language novelist today creating comparable social tapestries or an equally beautiful "dance to the music of time." Vidal claimed to be saving Anthony Powell's masterpiece for his old age. Did he get around to those books? I don't know.
Vidal's historical novels -- notably "Lincoln" and "Julian" -- are the best by an American writer in my lifetime. Socially, Vidal's brave efforts to defend the rights of gays and lesbians to equal treatment under the law were way ahead of his time. Gore Vidal was also a quiet supporter of the civil rights struggle led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- including providing financial support for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Vidal's amused contempt for subliterary ramblings by the politically correct thought police were expressed, appropriately, in several novels -- for example, "Duluth" and "The Smithsonian Institution."
Vidal opposed all forms of control over the minds of men and women, like Thomas Jefferson, whose administration was detested by Vidal's Arron Burr, but admired by the West Point-born and Fellini-dubbed "Gorino" as one of the best in our history. I concur.
Vidal's concern for justice for the powerless masses victimized in America's wars of "conquest and theft" in South Asia or in search of Middle East oil, were costly in terms of his career (especially when it came to reviews in the "Times"), but morally correct.
As I write these words, 2048 U.S. soldiers have died in Afghanistan, new bombings orchestrated by Al Qaeda with Pakistani intelligence and/or Haqqani clan "assistance" have taken place in Baghdad, Al Qaeda has spread to Bharain, Yemen and Saudi Arabia, as Iran develops nuclear weapons. Nearly 10,000 Americans have died in Iraq, over 100,000 wounded in all struggles -- so far.
Vidal's hatred of abuse of power and corruption were combined with genuine passion for America's enshrining of fundamental rights in the best Constitution the world has ever known, a document which he came to see as endangered and, perhaps, made meaningless by the "Bush/Cheney junta" (Vidal's term) towards the end of his long life.
I hope Vidal is mistaken about that loss of the Constitution, but all the evidence suggests that he may be correct in this judgment. Our freedoms of speech and assembly, thought and worship, or the right not to worship, may be gone.
Vidal's sword wielded against the "military industrial complex" -- a "fearsome dragon" was his description of the American tendency toward fascism -- struck some forceful blows. Sadly -- no, TRAGICALLY -- I am also confident that Vidal's dismay in his final years resulted from the suspicion that the "dragon of totalitarianism" had mostly won in America. I agree.
The damage to civil liberties will not be easily undone. I cannot imagine many people bother to deny this concern today. My life and literary experiences on-line attest to its accuracy. Our traditional freedoms -- setting all rhetoric aside -- are a quaint memory or archaic feature of old films starring Mickey Rooney or James Stewart. ("Manifesto For the Unfinished American Revolution.")
Literature as a vital force in the public square along with the inheritance of high civilization for the bulk of the population that was to be "well and truly educated" (Thomas Jefferson) has dissipated and preceded Vidal into the grave. Most Americans do not read serious fiction or books of any kind, do not enjoy the fine arts, nor do they have any interest in science or philosophy, history or political theory. Americans enjoy something called "The Simpsons" and "Dance Moms From Miami."
Does this decline in the quality of our culture or civilization foreshadow a decline in military power and wealth? I suspect so. Every empire or civilization which has declined in cultural importance has also fallen in military power. One has merely to witness the sad spectacle of Mr. Mitt Romney in Britain, shortly before the Olympics, to see this point illustrated: "I like the Olympics!" Mr. Romney said: "I like sports! Even if these games do not seem well-organized."
No one can recall Mr. Romney's discussion of a single work of literature or philosophy during the entire campaign. Gore Vidal would add: "Let us be grateful for small favors."
In concluding the masterpiece "Myra Breckingridge," Gore Vidal offered his readers a slim hope for happiness in a world that then contained horrors like Truman Capote and the Vietnam War:
"Incidentally, I noticed a question scribbled in one of the margins of the notebook. Something she (I hate to say 'I') copied from some book about Jean Jacques Rousseau. I don't suppose it's giving away any secrets to say that like so many would-be intellectuals back East [,] Myra never actually read books, only books about books. Anyway the quotation still sort of appeals to me. It is about how humanity would have been a lot happier if it had kept to the middle ground between the indolence of the primitive state and the questing activity to which we are prompted by our self-esteem! [Prometheus in Beverly Hills or Ravello?] I think that is a very fine statement and one which, all in all, I'm ready to buy, since it is a proven fact that happiness, like the proverbial bluebird, is to be found in your own backyard if you just know where to look."
Gore Vidal, "Myra Breckingridge" (New York: Ballantine, 1967), PP. 276-277.
Gore Vidal has now found that happiness in heaven, I am sure, with Jimmy Trimble and Howard Austen, close friends like Paul Newman, and his beloved William Shakespeare, and many more friends and admirers. If I get to heaven (which is doubtful), I hope that I will receive an invitation to one of Gore Vidal's dinner parties.
Truman Capote, eat your heart out.
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