Heretic Habitat

The Attempted Murder of Art and Why it Needs to Be Saved

2018-07-16T14:01:00.001-07:00

Vincent Van Gogh was born in 1853 and created some of the worlds most beloved art. Don McLean was born in 1945 and became a singer songwriter who produced music which influenced a nation. Lori Lieberman was born in 1951 and came to prominence in the 1970s largely for her song "Killing Me Softly With His Song" which was covered with great success by Roberta Flack in 1973 and Lauryn Hill in 1997, the latter earning a Grammy. What's the point? Stick with me.

Don McLean was influenced as an artist by the works of Van Gogh. His song "Vincent" speaks to the personal connection he felt to the artist. The first verse goes:

"Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and grey
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land."

Clearly the emotion and beauty in Van Gogh's painting influenced McLean's own work. In the 1970s Lori Lieberman attended a Don McLean concert and was so touched by his words that she was inspired to write "I felt all flushed with fever / Embarrassed by the crowd / I felt he had found my letters / And read each one out loud / I prayed that he would finish / But he just kept right on." which became the basis for "Killing Me Softly." In 1997 as the Fugees topped the charts with their version of "Killing Me Softly" a whole new generation was touched and inspired by the beauty of this song. young people were brought through difficult times by the beautiful voice of Lauryn Hill and the words of Lori Lieberman.

Sometimes a song is the only thing that can bring a person out of a dark depression. Sometimes a piece of art is the one thing that saves a person's life whether it is the painting they can't take their eyes off of, the song they listen to night and day or even the TV show that calms their mind or inspires them. Imagine a young girl who wants to take her own life, but something in that Lauryn Hill song on the radio makes her feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Not only was that girl's life saved by art, but that moment that turned everything around would not have happened without the works of Vincent Van Gogh more than a hundred years prior. It's amazing when we really think about the lasting impact of our actions during and beyond our lifetime. The issue is that our actions are not us and art is not the artist. This brings us to the problem today.

A Dangerous Time for Art and Artists

Our Culture can no longer accept the separation of art from artist. Further, those in the public eye are expected to be perfect or their work is rejected. Going back to Vincent Van Gogh, his most famous work was painted from inside an insane asylum. He entered the asylum after chasing a colleague with a razor and then cutting off a piece of his own ear. The man suffered from mental illness and ultimately took his own life. The important point is that while he had demons, his work was able to stand on its own for what it was, but today the same rule does not apply. Those artists found guilty in the court of public opinion or the media's representation of public opinion are banished from society and their work is dismissed as well.

When Roseanne Barr came under fire for her poorly thought out and offensive tweets, her show was not only cancelled at ABC but reruns were pulled from syndication. Everyone suddenly forgot that the original series showed middle class life in a way like never before bringing realism of family experience to American TV's. They forget that Roseanne was groundbreaking in dealing with issues like race, feminism and gay rights. Suddenly a decade of promoting dialogue and opening minds on social issues became less important than an individual tweet. All the good that the show had done, and all the entertainment had to be removed from people's screens because of one comment by one person. This would be like museums removing Van Gogh's paintings because razor violence is "Inconsistent with their values."

It is frightening to live in a time where expression is less valued than obedience and art is held hostage by conformity. Understand that when it comes to who is in control in the United States, it is not the President or the Military, the media is in the driver's seat influencing the direction of our culture and society. When someone else has control over what we are allowed to see, to hear and to possibly be offended by, we are not free. We must be able to experience life and art in all its beauty and ugliness if we are to truly understand ourselves and each other. We cannot be held to only view life through the lens of what media and society tell us we are supposed to see and think. We cannot allow the destruction of expression as a punishment for imperfection, because life is not perfection. Life is a beautiful mess, a hundred mistakes for every success, a million brush strokes blending right and wrong, sour notes in a slightly off key love song. Art reflects life and life reflects art. When one is imprisoned, so is the other.

R.I.P America

2018-07-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

The end has now come.

We knew it was coming for a long time. The question we have to ask is how did it happen? Was it the terrorists? The Russians? Climate change? As it turns out it was a suicide.

We should have seen the warning signs. America has been acting different for quite some time. She has been withdrawing from things she used to love like freedom and humanity and engaging in high-risk behavior.

The soldiers no longer fight for freedom. They fight for a government who sends them to fight and then abandons them when they return. The people have traded courage and compassion for Facebook likes and Instagram followers.

We are no longer red, white and blue, but black, white, Republican, Democrat. We were once the land of the free and the home of the brave but now bravery is a microaggression and personal freedom is offensive and not to be tolerated. When we allowed our ideals to die, we put a gun to Lady Linertys head. And this is why America is dead.

The Bullying Problem

2018-04-24T09:04:00.000-07:00

School bullying has always been and always will be an issue. The thing is, however, that it is not the same as it was when most of us were in school. Adults are always saying things like "I had bullies in school when I was growing up. I turned out fine. This generation is too soft." The problem is that this generation is not our generation and modern bullying is not the schoolyard name calling of the old days. What kids deal with now should not even be called bullying because in reality it is psychological torment and abuse to a level beyond anything we experienced as kids.

What's changed? Simply put: Everything. When I was in grade school the tide was beginning to turn, but it had not achieved close to the level of nonsense of today. As a child, I repeatedly found myself in trouble for fighting back. I was told that I should not hit back but tell a teacher instead. The problem was that when I told a teacher I would also be punished while the bully kids could do as they please. This was a bad situation but it was just the beginning of what the system would become.

Now we have a school system that removes children from the classroom for pointing finger guns at each other during recess while a troubled teen who tells people that he wants to shoot up the school gets ignored. We have a system that either goes 100% zero tolerance and utilizes no logic, or ignores the ugly realities of life for kids growing up these days. The bullying issue is discussed all over the place with public service announcements and posters designed to make us feel better. It is a fashionable topic that people like to talk about, but while all the talk goes on, there are still 12-year-olds hanging themselves because no one would listen and no one would help.

The thing that many adults fail to understand is that school bullying is no longer limited to school. It is not Monday through Friday. It is year-round 24-7 abuse and torment. Sure when we were kids we had that one kid that picked on us at school, but we also had a home away from them. Kids now have phones, apps and websites which ensure that their abusers can harass them at all times. Instead of one asshole kid telling a kid at school that she's ugly and should kill herself, there is a whole social network of asshole kids posting and sending constant messages telling one kid that she's ugly and should kill herself. How can we expect young people to take nonstop abuse and not develop issues like anger, depression, anxiety, etc.?

Think about it like this, if you drink water every day, your body is nourished and healthy. If you drink whiskey every day, your body will be damaged over time. If you breath in fresh air, your lungs will be happy and healthy. If you smoke your lungs will suffer. What we put into our mind works the same way as what we put into our body. If negativity is planted then negativity will grow. Young people today are faced with negativity and abuse at every turn. We live in a culture that pretends to care a lot about a lot of things. Unfortunately, our culture thrives on bullying and abuse while pretending to speak against it. Bullies are not a small group, nor are they solely a school issue. Turn on the news and you see liberals and conservatives engaging in the same name calling and verbal abuse as high school students. Go to Youtube and watch virtually any video. read the comments and you will find people threatening each other and mocking each other's religious and political beliefs. Bullying is something ingrained in our culture. It is a part of business, entertainment, politics, religion, and it finds its way into pretty much all aspects of American society. We cannot address the issue of bullying in schools until we accept that it is prevalent in all corners of our society and we all have a responsibility to change the culture of hate. We must recognize our role in the problem and then we can define our role in the solution.

The Missouri Department of Corrections is even worse than you have heard

2018-02-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

Controversy over the Missouri department of Corrections' handling of abuse and harassment became a hot topic in 2016 leading to a change in leadership as department heads were pushed out amid allegations of cover ups and mistreatment of staff. This was when the corruption hit the fan and the department made national headlines. What people don't know is that the level of corruption and mistreatment of staff and offenders is far worse then the little bit that reaches the public. A former employee with over a decade of work behind the barbed wire fences of one of Missouri's largest prisons has come out with some additional information to further shed light on the dark corners of Missouri DOC. What follows is a sample of that report.

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When we look at the structure of Missouri DOC, it is clear that it is a business that exists to keep a small group of people wealthy with little-to-no concern for the safety and treatment of lower level staff and the general public. Department administration is filled with people holding fake positions and earning large salaries. Central office has staff with six paid "assistants" who were given jobs behind the scenes because of who they know. Jefferson City Correctional Center has four Wardens to run one prison. These are examples of created positions to payback political donors and supporters. What makes it worse is that when Anne Precythe was appointed as the new director of DOC, it was to clean up corruption but she has leaned hard into it instead. In late 2017 it was announced that an associate of Director Precythe's from the South Carolina Department of Corrections had taken the position of "Director of Research, Development and process improvement." for the Missouri Department of Corrections. This is a made up job with no purpose and a paycheck in the neighborhood of $100,000 annually. What is most disturbing is that While these department heads are rolling in the majority of the corrections budget for their own personal use they are endangering the lives of offenders and staff working in the prison system by not providing needed resources. Certain decisions made by the department are going to lead to unrest in the prison system in the near future which will likely result in the loss of life. Everyone working in the Missouri DOC is aware that the department has created the perfect storm and that it's about to erupt into chaos. The thing is, Administration will not do anything until after people get hurt because they can use it as a bargaining chip to get more money from the state which the people on the front line will never see. It's hard to understand if you haven't been there so read below for an example.

In 2015 a female staff member was nearly beaten to death at Jefferson City Correctional Center. This 60+ year old grandmother was in a housing unit wing with no back-up when an inmate punched her in the back of the head knocking her to the ground. He then got on top of her and punched her as hard as he could in the back of the head over and over again. He only stopped when other officers arrived. The victim of the attack was rushed out by ambulance and then taken by helicopter for immediate emergency medical care. She spent days in intensive care due to the injuries she suffered. Her coworkers collected money to help with her medical bills but Administration did nothing but cover the incident up. The public relations officer told local media that a staff member suffered "non-life-threatening injuries" even though she went out on life flight and was not guaranteed to survive the trip. While she was lying in ICU the institution held a fundraiser for a retired member of the 'good old boy system.' Staff members spoke out about the lack of assistance and compassion for an employee who was savagely beaten while performing her job duties. Staff speaking out resulted in personnel providing the victim with a Walmart gift card 3 months after the attack. Yes that's right..a Walmart gift card for almost getting murdered. So it's clearly established that the department does not care about staff but what about offenders?

Inmates in Missouri Prisons don't have it great because they are in prison after all. However, The general public probably doesn't know how many perks they do have. The old days of breaking rocks are gone. Today inmates don't have to work, but they get paid every month. Offenders in Missouri prisons have free healthcare (including expensive treatment that people on the outside sell their houses to afford,) free meals, free cable, movies, exercise equipment and musical instruments and coming soon free tablets for every inmate. All of their needs and many of their wants are provided free, but they receive a 'state tip' each month that they can use to purchase candy bars and sodas or even order food from the street on occasion. They also face no accountability for their actions while incarcerated. Female staff are subjected to sexual abuse by inmates on a regular basis and the offenders are not sent up for prosecution. The department allows it.

Missouri DOC is a rotting pit of corruption and will never change willingly. This is just the tip of the iceberg when we start talking about DOC. More information coming soon.

The Truth About The Latest School Shooter

2018-02-20T07:35:00.000-08:00

The recent school shooting in Florida has brought up a lot of questions and some old arguments. While everyone on the internet is arguing about gun control and the "mental health crisis" others are still asking what made the shooter do it? People want to know what motivated him to commit this horrible crime. Well read below for the answer.

Was he a poor bullies kid who was pushed too far and lashed out? No. Was he a right wing nut killing for a political agenda? No. Is he a symptom of our failing mental health programs in this country? No. Do you know what he is? He is a fuck. That's right. This "school shooter" is nothing but a gutless fuck who murdered people in the easiest way he could. You notice that I haven't said this nutsack's name? Know why? Because I don't know it. Whenever these type of events happen I make a point of not seeking out information about the killers. Know why?

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Because I don't give a shit and you shouldn't either. The media wants you to care about him. They want you to tune in everyday to hear the latest about this idiot. They want to report on what his childhood was like, what kind of music he listened to, how often he masturbated and how he feels about pineapple on pizza. They want to build this creep into a celebrity and they want to sell you tickets. Do you know that on the same day as the Florida shooting there was at least one other stupid twat that was arrested after he was turned in for credible plans to carry out a massive school shooting? What was his motivation? He wanted to carry out the biggest school shooting of all time. He wanted to be famous. Had he completed his plan, the media and everyone reading and writing about him online would have given him exactly what he wanted and made him an inspiration for the next generation of dickless wonders who want to shoot up a school.

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We need to stop asking who these people are and what makes them tick. We need to realize that they are pathetic attention seekers and we have to not give them attention and reward their bad behavior. After that jerk off shot all those people in Las Vegas my news feed was full of headlines like: "Who was 'douche bag'" and "What was 'Douche bag's' Last day like?" I didn't click on any of that shit. Why? because fuck him. All I need to know about him is that he sat his coward ass in a hotel room and shot unsuspecting people. He was never worth our time or attention just like this latest school shooter and the next coward that shoots innocent people to get attention. Next time the media tries to sell you on the celebrity of a killer, go read about the people who died instead. Read about the hopes and dreams of those kids who's lives were cut short in their classroom. Read about those who died heroically. These are the people who deserve acknowledgement.

How to Troll an Online Predator

2013-04-08T20:53:00.000-07:00

To catch a predator isn't just for dateline anymore. With the vast army of complete fucking creeps online trying to talk to kids, it's your duty to fuck up their day.

Step 1. Create your character. Go into a chat room or a random webcam site as "12-year-old girl" or "14-year-old boy" Whatever catches the eye of your garden variety creeper.

Step 2. Let them do the talking. Don't "entrap" your creep. They will make their intentions clear fairly quickly.

Step 3. Answer their questions while collecting as much of their info as you can. If they're dumb enough to give out personal information, great. Your info of course will be made up.

Step 4. Make contact. Do not actually contact these people! The last thing you need is your number showing up on a creep ass tree-jumping chomo's phone. If they try to make contact, agree to give them your phone number.

Step 5. Give them this number: (202) 324-3000. You know what that is? That is the number to the FBI national Headquarters. Also, if he was dumb enough to give you his contact info, you could alternatively provide a number to his town's local field office or police department, and, of course, you could provide a heads up that he will be calling.

Happy Trolling!

Our Society Is Sick: Be The Cure

2013-04-08T15:57:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that every generation has asked the same question "What the fuck happened to the world?" One could easily argue that society's ills have always been and that people's concern over the current state of our culture reflects not a changing society but a populace traditionally ignorant of the dark corners of humanity seeing for the first time light shed upon them.

When events happen like mass shootings or horrific crimes splattered across the news, it's easy to forget that atrocities have always existed. However it does seem like something is different today. We have the Westboro Baptist church spreading hate, people using the internet to share videos of everything from child abuse to the torture of animals. We have a culture of sick people doing sick things for entertainment, or for no real reason at all.

There are websites that specialize in "user submitted" content with little or no rules and regulations. These sites give a forum to those who sexually abuse children, support rape and violence and revel in harming the innocent. Have you ever heard of "Animal Crush" videos? Literally videos of people stomping puppies to death! Disgusting evil shit like this exists, and people profit from it. Furthermore, children are at greater risk online than ever before. From people profiting from pictures and videos of child abuse to pedophiles talking to your kids online, the threat is everywhere.

Chat rooms and anonymous webcam sites give sex offenders the opportunity to find new victims without leaving the comfort of their home. If you have children that use the internet unsupervised, be aware that they are subject to being flashed by strangers, being exposed to pornographic material and even being solicited by sex offenders. The ease with which cyber offenders are able to commit their crimes is disturbing and goes largely unreported.

We all know that in society there are bad people doing bad things and this is the way it has always been, so why am I talking about it? What's the point? The point is that our culture has a prevalent sickness that needs to be addressed. I'm not talking about the perpetrators of abuse and violence. I'm talking about the rest of us. We are afflicted with a disease of selfishness. Doctor King spoke a lot about the role of society and our duty to stand for what is right. He said that the silence of our friends will leave a greater impact than the words of our enemies. This is the fundamental problem facing us today.

The problem is not as much the people doing horrible things as it is the people allowing it as they are more concerned with the new iphone than the well-being of others. Abusive content is allowed on websites by moderators who only care about making money. Children are endangered by strangers because of parents who can't be bothered to protect them. It all comes down to selfishness. People hurt others because they only care about themselves. We see it happen and walk on by because we don't want to take the time to do anything.

It's time to change things. It's time for those who care to stand up. If things are going to change, we have to change them. Answer this: How many funny cat pictures have you shared on Facebook? And how many times have you shared something meaningful? Through social media, we have the power to reach millions, but the choice is ours to extend a healing hand for change, or to sit selfishly by and remain sick.

You are the cure. Stand up!