Prelude to the End of the World

The Name Game.

2013-05-24T22:22:00.000-04:00

Joey Buttafuoco, Bernard Madoff, Mark Weiner, is it me, or has anyone else recognized the seemingly strange connection between ones name and ones character? We all remember Mr. Buttafuoco, and how he butt fucked not only Amy Fisher, but his wife, and who knows how many others!! Sure adds new meaning to the surname, (which actually means to emit flames)Butta...fucko And good old Bernie Madoff, who ironically (Made Off) with millions...of others hard earned cash, but was mercifully...(Found out). Mark Weiner...no explanation needed. I'm sure you get my point! I have looked into my own surname...Carbone, which in Italian means coal. I am not sure if any of my ancestors in Italy were coal miners, but a diamond is simply coal under extreme pressure. I have lived my entire existence under such pressure, that I have considered changing my name to Diamonte, (Diamond) and finally dropping the ex's name Crosby, which means (Cross Bearer). A resurrection of sorts, after matrimonial crucifixion.

I've recently met a very nice man whose surname is Woodhouse. And lo and behold, Todd is a contractor who builds homes...works with wood...Woodhouse. I find these connections fascinating and coincidental. Sure, one might say that is how most of us have gotten our surnames, old world occupations, but if that were the case, what might Weiners ancestors have been employed at? Madoff? Buttafuoco? Junk food for thought maybe, but I have had fun pointing these strange connections out to friends. Sure, they laugh and even scratch their heads with silly wonder,but mostly question my minds need to ponder such musings.I tell them,"Boredom is a playground for creativity" I simply amuse myself with mental games. I find stories in a name as one would an experience...so many of my experiences are in my head! Most of my decisions start there also.

Take for example my need to find a new doctor. Not only do I look for their credentials and years in practice, and their interest in listening to their patients, but I now look at their name! I found a doctor in the town of Branford recently his name is Steven Goodkind. Ahhhh, I thought, this sounds promising, turns out he is a plastic surgeon...who knows, I may need him one day when I finally need that face lift!Avoid at all cost any doctor with the name Payne! Now dear reader, please take a minute and find the connection in your own name. By the way, can anyone find a connection to the name and the girl...Lovelace? I'm stumped!

Medical Incompetence

2013-05-24T15:04:00.000-04:00

Medical Incompetence. If the average individual, with no prior knowledge of anatomy and physiology were to question the very intricacies that a body requires, to sustain homeostasis, it would not only blow their minds, but quite possibly create a sense of panic each time one felt, well...not quite right.

As a medical professional, I have had to study and learn some of the most complex mechanisms of the body, and my knowledge is such, that it would fit on the head of a pin, with room left for more! Some of the greatest minds in medicine possibly still scratch their heads when dealing with the bodies many complex riddles and diseases. A staggering puzzle at best.

One of the most complex systems is our very framework . The Skeletal System. This system is made up of 206 bones, along with tendons, ligaments, and cartilage...that connect the bones. The main job of this system is to provide support for our body. Without this system, you'd be a puddle of skin and guts on the floor. Your skeleton has over 200 joints. Joints are where bones come together. Ligaments are very strong inelastic bands of connective tissue that hold bone together at the joints. Where the bones come together, there is a cushion of cartilage to protect them from rubbing together and wearing down the bone.

Because I had been exposed to a virus years ago called Fifth disease or Parvo...yes humans get Parvo too, but not the same Parvo as dogs do. I have sustained severe damage to my joints, which is a tell tale sign of Parvo in adults. This virus eats away at the cartilage that protects bone and creates major damage. To get an accurate diagnosis for Parvo, all that is required is a simple blood test. What is the standard treatment? Hahahaha, that's a laugh! Why? Because after bi-lateral knee replacements, and a cervical fusion with hardware...oh that was not successful, I might add, not one fucking doctor could give me an answer as to why my joints were rapidly degenerating.

Years of blood testing for rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, Lyme disease, and every known disorder that could create such symptoms were continually ruled out. I was simply told that every pain I was living with and having to endure was in my head! I have had to create a very tough skin to deal with some of this assholes that call themselves doctors. I have had to research symptom after symptom to possibly find the culprit. I had to depend on myself for answers, and that is a sad commentary on our medical community.It seemed no one cared to take the time and learn more, I was simply another file, and a check waiting from the insurance company. If I hadn't become proactive with my own health, it's quite possible I'd be dead today, if not from this insidious condition, then suicide...for sure.

I have had to give up my career in nursing, and believe me, that was not a very difficult decision, considering the fact that I had to work daily with many of the assholes I mentioned above. Arrogant little men who hadn't a clue at times. Men who would walk into the operating room at 7 am, reeking of bourbon and whiskey, asking me to pass the scalpel. Men who thought most women were fueled by emotion and no intellect, and any pain they experienced was rooted in their pea brains! I have lost all respect for the medical community because of such arrogance and negligence. I have suffered with intractable pain at times, and have been simply turned away and suspected of being a drug seeking crazy lady.

So why am I writing this? To make others aware of this condition, Parvo, that most think only exist in animals. If you are suffering with joint pain, and most conditions associated with these symptoms all rule out, ask for a blood test for Parvo. You are probably wondering, what is the point if there is no treatment. Well after much reading and research,I have found where the most comprehensive treatment is now available. This is a condition that must be treated by a reputable hematologist. If positive for Parvo, one is then given IV gamma globulin...immunoglobulin is a class of blood plasma proteins, most notably including the antibodies that help fight infection and disease. One must also give up the delusion that doctors are gods...they certainly are NOT!!! You must take the time to listen to your body, know when something is just not right...and become PROACTIVE!!!

The Price of Refreshment or The Law VS Arizona Iced Tea

2013-05-24T01:11:00.001-04:00

Terrifyingly Delicious

I am no scientist. My intelligence, like my taste in music, is constantly being questioned. So of course when I am left to my own whims and decide to do research, the findings should be taken with multiple grains of salt. I have had this hunch for a few weeks now. I’ve decided to scour the internet because most other types of fact finding would require pants and social interaction. My hypothesis is that there is a terrifying connection between two seemingly unrelated concepts that is so obvious that those involved have overlooked it. I’ve come up with one common factor in two tragic or infuriating stories involving young men being shot, arrested, and otherwise attacked by those claiming authority. The common thread in these vicious attacks is the seemingly innocuous, yet undeniably refreshing, Arizona Brand Iced Tea.

The most famous and crushing example of Arizona Iced Tea in the news is the case of Trayvon Martin. This is a dark and devastating ordeal that deserves tact and respect. However, you may not know that there is another case that is less dire that also involves unjust intervention as well as the high fructose power house we all know and love. For instance, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, while drinking Arizona Iced Tea in a liquor store parking lot. One Christopher “Xtrav” Beatty, was waiting for friends to buy drinks for a party and amateur music video, when he was accosted by a plain clothes police officer who admitted to not having his badge. The officer demanded to inspect the Arizona Brand Iced Tea, later discovered to be an Arnold Palmer concoction with pink lemonade instead of the traditional lemonade. Christopher Beatty wisely resisted the urge to allow a complete stranger who could not prove himself to be affiliated with law enforcement to inspect his drink. What followed was Beatty being commanded to leave. After ignoring the command he was wrestled to the ground and arrested. It should be noted that throughout the confrontation the entirety of his beloved Arizona Iced Tea remained in its distinctive can.

The innocent aren’t the only people who enjoy one of the most delicious and cost effective beverages known to man. In Sparta, New Jersey, two men were found in possession of Heroin hidden in an Arizona Iced Tea can. Details are few, but we can all assume the can was empty and somehow still attracting an accusing eye…also the guys were on heroine…so there’s that. Other news stories involve Arizona trucks getting stuck in tunnels and tipping over and losing their contents. It was not mentioned if police were already following the trucks in anticipation of trouble.

Granted my evidence is flimsy at best. I’m still not a scientist. For all I know there could be some other glaring, obvious, and completely unmentioned factor that these people have in common that would make them targets. The only thing I know for sure from personal experience is that Arizona Iced Tea tastes great and is inexpensive and readily available. Is it worth the threat of violence to attempt to enjoy such a drink? I for one think so. I know that I’m going to keep an eye on this hypothesis of mine, because for some reason I can’t shake the idea that there is something besides iced tea attracting violence and accusations.

Just Fucking Do It.

2013-05-23T02:12:00.001-04:00

by Jim Kopetz

What are you so afraid of? Just fucking do it already!

What do you want to do with your life? Do your ambitions hang over your head like a thousand nooses? Well guess what? Get the fuck up and get over it.

Whatever you want to do, do it. Don't let anyone tell you you're wrong, or you're an idiot to try. Tuck your sack in and get the fucking job done. This isn't an easy life, but it's also not a dictated life.

You need inspiration? Go sleep on the street. Snort some coke. Chat with a homeless man. Fuck a stranger. Whatever your gig is, go out and do it. And don't let any motherfucker tell you otherwise.

This is the prelude to the end of the world.

Guilt Trips, Acid Trips, Road Trips

2013-05-22T02:30:00.002-04:00

Ive taken every one of these trips. Some behind the wheel of my car, others simply in my head. If I had to say which were the most fascinating, I would have to say, the daily road trips which have stoked my imagination, and interestingly provided a life time of illusory memories.

Just the other day, I took a mental road trip with a strikingly handsome man driving the "Meat without Feet" truck.While sharing the road and briefly flirting, within the safety of my Santa Fe, I was happily married, and then happily divorced to this man, and had a life time supply of lobster and shrimp. Haha

Soon after I passed a young woman with two infant seats in the back of her car. Twins, I suspected. Plates from New Hampshire, and instantly I had her story. She just left her husband, who had spent their monthly mortgage payment on sex toys and ruffies. I looked over at her with compassion, I thought I saw tears, but turns out they were mine. I wanted to tell her she'd be ok once she hired a hit man to knee cap the bastard, But I was startled out of my head by the blare of a horn coming from the 18 wheeler driven by my next muse.

This vehicle was carrying pool water. The driver appeared to be in his 30's. Not strikingly handsome, but nice looking in a rugged kind of way. I was mentally straddling this man, surprisingly at the next truck stop in his tiny cab.
He's complaining about all the rich bitches in Southport, he'd like to fuck, while their husbands are hiking in the mountains with their concubines, and have pools the size of hockey rinks that are awaiting his arrival. I marry this man also, and have a life time of clean pool water, but somehow never get the pool.

Suddenly a car passes me to my left, and it's a large man of maybe 65 with a cigar dangling from his lip. We look at each other and he gestures with his cigar, fellatio...bitch? I make believe I vomit, and hit the gas pedal. I am roaring with laughter, and sickened simultaneously. I think of making large signs on sticks that read...fuck you, eat shit, drop dead, and flashing them at the next pervert.

A short way up the road, I spot a little gray haired old lady whose head barely sees over the steering wheel. I'm suddenly standing graveside at her funeral. Wow...that was weird. So I speed up and pull along side a van that reads "Call And We'll Haul. Call Spike at...203-???-????. I think they might be hauling away dead husbands and whatever else one finds useless. I immediately want to call the number on the van and ask if they would haul away my boring existence.

My exit quickly approaches, and I am jerked out of my head. I realize
That my daily trips along this highway have provided a much richer inner life than my own, and I laugh to myself. I also realize that yearning, dreaming, and pretending, is so much better than the actual having, and I feel fortunate that I have such a weird brain. The brain that has gotten me into so much trouble has also taken the bite out of reality when reality has become unbearable.

I amuse myself with these day dreams, and wonder how the hell I managed to not kill myself, nor ticketed for excessive mental wondering!

The days of guilt tripping are mostly gone, but I am a mother, so occasionally I find myself on that bumpy road. Acid trips are a thing of the past, but I secretly wonder if I have damaged my brain so long ago on the few I've traveled. But road trips...it's amazing the full life one can safely have from behind a steering wheel! Happy Trails!

Ode to a Titan: Deftones

2013-05-18T01:29:00.000-04:00

by Jim Kopetz

"You taste, foreign."

It all started with seven words...

Taught you how to hold your head up...

Taught you how to go back to school...

How it felt to be a passenger...

The death of Chi Cheng, may he be where he dreamed of being.

And the anthem for those of the next generation...

Bonus:

Fuck Everybody. Amen.

2013-05-16T01:27:00.003-04:00

by Jim Kopetz

No one wants to hear about my misery...

Amen.

Hasty Decisions

2013-05-14T19:05:00.001-04:00

I am lucky enough to have witnessed kindness, and empathetic enough to imitate that kindness in my daily life. But standing in a slow line at a local McDonalds has reminded me as many of us must be reminded every so often, that kindness is always the best option but not always the option we choose. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve encountered my fair share of injustice and other categories of unpleasant treatment. I have braved Racism, abuses of authority, ignorance, and random acts of brutal violence with hints of intentional humiliation on a busy street in a state capital and much more (Still not over that one.). But still, I force my neurosis addled mind to maintain that the way I treat those around me is a badge that I wear that hopefully reminds people to give that same treatment to those around them and admittedly myself when I am around them. This brings me to the line at McDonalds.

The smell of a sticky soda fountain fills the brown tiled room with a familiar yet slightly shameful comfort. The spindly teen behind the counter in all of his overly polite, taking deep breaths between customers to stave off nervousness glory, had already taken my order. A simple bacon ranch salad with no dressing because I’ve gotten fat, and a large coffee, black, no sugar, because I’ve gotten lazy and fat. I noticed a man standing behind me in the, “I’m waiting for my food” line. So of course I took a step to my left and said, “I’m sorry, I’m not in line” after a brief pause while gears in his head turned and he came to understand the situation. He responded, “Did I ask you?” The man had ventured to meet my innocuous interaction with venom. I ignored this, but while waiting for my salad to arrive I realized that my awkward friend would be interacting with this surly man next.

I took the deep breath at the same time as the teen behind the counter. The room seemed to dim and grow quiet. The sun had formed a sort of spotlight on the duo as they acknowledged each other. Part of me pleaded with the universe for my salad to arrive before things took a turn for rude. Another part of me was planning a way to stall at the counter because that part of me wanted to see a show…badly. The rude patron, without making eye contact pointed to the board behind the thin almost-adult man. He uttered something heard by the counter-person but obscured from me by the pulse spiking screech of children in the indoor play place. The unfortunately bodied youth turned to confirm the selection when seemingly unprovoked, the irate man bellowed, “You look at me when I’m talking to you!” At this point I had gotten my show, and my salad.

I slowly walked towards the shrieking of the play place in case there would be something better to blog about there and because that’s where the power outlets were and my laptop needed to be charged. But before I walked out of earshot, the pubescent student driver summoned his courage and asked, “Do you want that with or without cheese?” I cringed as everyone in the room awaited the man’s answer. Now realizing he had gained attention he answered begrudgingly… slowly… deliberately, “I want it how it is supposed to come.”

Something about that response filled me with a sense of obligation for some reason. If you asked me why I did what I did, Even sitting here typing about the situation on my trusty Compaq of Righteous Fury, I would have no adequate answer for you. All I could think was that my plan of treating every person well and being kind to everyone I come across was put on hold for time of the interaction I would have with this one man. I could not and would not be kind to this person. I sat down my dry salad, still holding my extremely hot coffee that I was in fact cautious of. I walked over to this rude fully developed adult man who luckily was about my height and build, but older than me by maybe five years. I gesticulated casually with my large coffee and said, “How bad is your life that you have to take it out on this guy.” Then, I called him the names that adults call each other as I walked into a McDonalds play place full of impressionable children, because I make bad choices seemingly all the time.

Mountain Top Water Drop

2013-05-14T03:04:00.001-04:00

by Jim Kopetz

One of the most moving and underrated films of the past decade deserves it's time to shine. Edward James Olmos in "I'm Still Here".

Joaquin's commitment to the role of a drug-addled, deranged version of himself is worth the watch itself. Dancing around as he pours out cocaine that he declares, "I scored! I scored! Not you you little bitch!"

It is full of moments that make you tear up, both in laughter and in pain. And it is a beautiful, insane idea that never shies from the madness.

The Pain of Silas Greene

2013-05-12T18:24:00.000-04:00

by Jim Kopetz

Silas Greene had abstained from sex and relationships altogether for three years. It wasn't a lack of attraction or an absence of loneliness; they were as strong as ever. It was himself. He was a poison. He drained every ounce of feeling that any love had had for him until they finally walked out, fed up with his pain, his self-loathing, his addictions. It was three years ago to the day that he realized the source of all his relationship problems, and he hasn't engaged a woman since. After all, he was a poison.

He never intended for his life to turn out this way but shit happens, as a wise man once said, and he refused to allow anyone else to suffer because of him. No one could get close and the loneliness spread throughout his body like a malevolent virus, only making him all the more insufferable. He reinforced this by drinking copious amounts of booze, whiskey being his drink of choice, and consumed any substance put in front of him. It seemed to make things bearable. But what Silas Greene did not know is that all the sorrow and pain and resentment leads him into redemption, not religiously but as a human. By being alone he becomes a man. But he can not write.

Did I mention he was a writer? Maybe I just assumed that you, dear reader, would assume his occupation simply by the description of his predicament. But back to the story. In those three years he hadn't written a word. And this was a boy who used to write three poems a day, yet not a word was written. He couldn't. He had no muse, no inspiration. Every good writer had a strong woman/man behind them. Silas had neither which is what he wanted.

His anger would only hurt those who put their trust in him. His existential nightmares would burden her. His lust could never be satisfied and his member would engorge itself only by the smell of bourbon as it's poured upon her belly.

It was as if he saw the tsunami coming and instead of running, held up a bottle and chugged as the world was about to end, cursing and throwing the bottle into the sea. That, for lack of a better analogy, was Silas Greene.

to be continued...

Stand, By Me.

2013-05-12T02:39:00.000-04:00

by Jim Kopetz

Stand. By Me. Yes. Stand. By Me.

There are moments in life that break one's heart, but there are also moments of levity. This is one of those moments.

While watching 'Stand By Me', my cat Lars von Trier could tell I was heavily invested in the film. This is our moment.

A Mothers Day Wish...for hope!

2013-05-11T21:24:00.000-04:00

By Michelle Crosby

I am a mother, therefore I love, I hurt, I suffer, I hope. My identity has been established around this very fact. My life has revolved around my child, through out the good times and bad. I orbit her world, and gather warmth and sustenance. I am nurtured by this love, and also deeply affected by its occasional rotational imbalance. From time to time I am thrown out of this orbit and then desperately try to regain my position. Love, at times, has no equilibrium, nor does our world, as we think we know it.

The circle of our life is sometimes broken by unrealistic beliefs and false perceptions. We suffer, yet we hope!

My daughter's name is Natalie. She is beautiful, intelligent, hardworking, and kind. Yet one vital element, within her, seems to be in a constant state of inertia....a healthy sense of self. To know Natalie is to beg the question...why? And this question has run circles around my head with dizzying affects. I too wonder...I too suffer, yet I hope!

We live in a society that places unrealistic demands upon both men and women for perfection, and we all fall short. My daughter Natalie suffers from a debilitating eating disorder...Bulimia. Self image becomes so distorted...like viewing oneself in a warped fun house mirror, and is sadly perceived by external projections, that are anything but funny or real! A terrible symptom, possibly caused by such unrealistic demands.

Yet we are bombarded daily with unrealistic images of half starved models, and muscle bound men that set the standard for beauty, and we are sadly a society that is easily manipulated by falsehoods, and misrepresentation.

Can I say with absolute certainty why this condition has made a living hell of our lives? Is there more to this disease than a society that has succeeded on most levels to manipulate every young man and woman's self image? No I cannot, but as a mother I have repeatedly asked myself what I could have possibly done differently to have at best prevented this suffering my daughter must now endure and undo herself. I place blame upon myself also, yet not fully understanding how I might have failed.

I understand all too well that love is not always enough. I suffer, yet I hope!

The very words I have written cause pain. It makes it all too real! But I write with the hope that others will understand the pain, the secrecy, the guilt and embarrassment these individuals also endure. If you should suspect a love one may be suffering silently, please make every effort possible to reach out and lend not only help, but HOPE!

In conclusion my greatest wish for myself, and every mother with a child afflicted with an eating disorder is Hope for recovery on this Mother's Day!

Eating Disorders Statistics

General:

• Almost 50% of people with eating disorders meet the criteria for depression.1

• Only 1 in 10 men and women with eating disorders receive treatment. Only 35% of people that receive treatment for eating disorders get treatment at a specialized facility for eating disorders.2

• Up to 24 million people of all ages and genders suffer from an eating disorder (anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder) in the U.S.3

• Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.4

Students:

• 91% of women surveyed on a college campus had attempted to control their weight through dieting. 22% dieted “often” or “always.”5

• 86% report onset of eating disorder by age 20; 43% report onset between ages of 16 and 20.6

• Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among adolescents.7

• 95% of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25.8

• 25% of college-aged women engage in bingeing and purging as a weight-management technique.3

• The mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate associated with all causes of death for females 15-24 years old.4

• Over one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and taking laxatives.17

• In a survey of 185 female students on a college campus, 58% felt pressure to be a certain weight, and of the 83% that dieted for weight loss, 44% were of normal weight.16

Men:

• An estimated 10-15% of people with anorexia or bulimia are male.9

• Men are less likely to seek treatment for eating disorders because of the perception that they are “woman’s diseases.”10

• Among gay men, nearly 14% appeared to suffer from bulimia and over 20% appeared to be anorexic.11

Media, Perception, Dieting:

• 95% of all dieters will regain their lost weight within 5 years.3

• 35% of “normal dieters” progress to pathological dieting. Of those, 20-25% progress to partial or full-syndrome eating disorders.5

• The body type portrayed in advertising as the ideal is possessed naturally by only 5% of American females.3

• 47% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures.12

• 69% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape.13

• 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner (Collins, 1991).

• 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat (Mellin et al., 1991).

Collins, M.E. (1991). Body figure perceptions and preferences among pre-adolescent children. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 199-208.

Mellin, L., McNutt, S., Hu, Y., Schreiber, G.B., Crawford, P., & Obarzanek, E. (1991). A longitudinal study of the dietary practices of black and white girls 9 and 10 years old at enrollment: The NHLBI growth and health study. Journal of Adolescent Health, 23-37.

For Women:

• Women are much more likely than men to develop an eating disorder. Only an estimated 5 to 15 percent of people with anorexia or bulimia are male.14

• An estimated 0.5 to 3.7 percent of women suffer from anorexia nervosa in their lifetime.14 Research suggests that about 1 percent of female adolescents have anorexia.15

• An estimated 1.1 to 4.2 percent of women have bulimia nervosa in their lifetime.14

• An estimated 2 to 5 percent of Americans experience binge-eating disorder in a 6-month period.14

• About 50 percent of people who have had anorexia develop bulimia or bulimic patterns.15

• 20% of people suffering from anorexia will prematurely die from complications related to their eating disorder, including suicide and heart problems.18

Mortality Rates:

Although eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental disorder, the mortality rates reported on those who suffer from eating disorders can vary considerably between studies and sources. Part of the reason why there is a large variance in the reported number of deaths caused by eating disorders is because those who suffer from an eating disorder may ultimately die of heart failure, organ failure, malnutrition or suicide. Often, the medical complications of death are reported instead of the eating disorder that compromised a person’s health.

According to a study done by colleagues at the American Journal of Psychiatry (2009), crude mortality rates were:

• 4% for anorexia nervosa

• 3.9% for bulimia nervosa

• 5.2% for eating disorder not otherwise specified

Crow, S.J., Peterson, C.B., Swanson, S.A., Raymond, N.C., Specker, S., Eckert, E.D., Mitchell, J.E. (2009) Increased mortality in bulimia nervosa and other eating disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry 166, 1342-1346.

Athletes:

• Risk Factors: In judged sports – sports that score participants – prevalence of eating disorders is 13% (compared with 3% in refereed sports).19

• Significantly higher rates of eating disorders found in elite athletes (20%), than in a female control group (9%).20

• Female athletes in aesthetic sports (e.g. gynmastics, ballet, figure skating) found to be at the highest risk for eating disorders.20

• A comparison of the psychological profiles of athletes and those with anorexia found these factors in common: perfectionism, high self-expectations, competitiveness, hyperactivity, repetitive exercise routines, compulsiveness, drive, tendency toward depression, body image distortion, pre-occupation with dieting and weight.21

Home

Resources

It is estimated that 8 million Americans have an eating disorder – seven million women and one million men
One in 200 American women suffers from anorexia
Two to three in 100 American women suffers from bulimia
Nearly half of all Americans personally know someone with an eating disorder (Note: One in five Americans suffers from mental illnesses.)
An estimated 10 – 15% of people with anorexia or bulimia are males

MORTALITY RATES

Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness
A study by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders reported that 5 – 10% of anorexics die within 10 years after contracting the disease; 18-20% of anorexics will be dead after 20 years and only 30 – 40% ever fully recover
The mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate of ALL causes of death for females 15 – 24 years old.
20% of people suffering from anorexia will prematurely die from complications related to their eating disorder, including suicide and heart problems

ACCESS TO TREATMENT

Only 1 in 10 people with eating disorders receive treatment
About 80% of the girls/women who have accessed care for their eating disorders do not get the intensity of treatment they need to stay in recovery – they are often sent home weeks earlier than the recommended stay
Treatment of an eating disorder in the US ranges from $500 per day to $2,000 per day. The average cost for a month of inpatient treatment is $30,000. It is estimated that individuals with eating disorders need anywhere from 3 – 6 months of inpatient care. Health insurance companies for several reasons do not typically cover the cost of treating eating disorders
The cost of outpatient treatment, including therapy and medical monitoring, can extend to $100,000 or more

ADOLESCENTS

Anorexia is the 3rd most common chronic illness among adolescents
95% of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25
50% of girls between the ages of 11 and 13 see themselves as overweight

80% of 13-year-olds have attempted to lose weight

To Forge Strength

2013-05-09T19:42:00.001-04:00

by Jim Kopetz

We've all felt pain. It might be the single most important thing that binds us a human beings. But it doesn't need to be that way.

We've lost many along the way, but fight the good fight. It's easy, the other way; the way of the cross. But taking your pain, your hatred, and using it, embracing it. That is the path. That is truth.

This is the prelude to the end of the world.

Hate vs. Love

2013-05-09T00:55:00.003-04:00

by Jim Kopetz

I hate my job. I hate my longing for the good old days. I hate all the customers who whine and bitch and complain about their food when it is their lives that are choking them.

I hate the people, and I use the term loosely, that brood constantly and have nothing in their lives and take it out on the world. I hate the lack of respect for others. I hate their god. I hate so much that it hurts.

But I also love. I love writing, and literature. I love film. I love comedy and dark humor. I love madness. I love whiskey and beer and tequila and red wine and grapefruit vodka. I love substances. They balance the pain and the hatred. Love and hatred. Love and war. Gods and Monsters.

This is the prelude to the end of the world.

From God, His Blistered Lips

2013-05-07T01:13:00.002-04:00

by Jim Kopetz

You're so contagious,
when you laugh.

Your outfits,
so stylish.
Your infantile
melancholy.
Your childish,
outbursts.
Your gods,
and your monsters.

You wish for,
something better.
You wish for,
something more.
And you work,
as a lush,
with blushing cheeks.

What will come next?
And infant,
suckling god.
Will he stress?
Will he regress?
With blood,
dripping,
from blistered lips.

So she ran.

Ticks and Insects

2013-05-05T00:57:00.001-04:00

by Jim Kopetz

Ticks and insects set upon the masses.

Sipping blood and
spreading young illness as you
fill me. As I want to.

You consecrate my flesh and
burn as a candlestick.
Your laughter,
my disaster is loose.

You loved me,
with your awe.
When you stuck me,
with your straw.

And I want to...

Mark Sanford is a Fraud and Joel Sawyer is a Ghost.

2013-05-04T23:00:00.000-04:00

by Jim Kopetz

I tried reasoning with them. I tried getting an answer to the question that plagues us. What are these politicians doing to inspire the "new generation". The answer: Fuck the "new generation".

It's a sad state of affairs when an ex-governor posts his cellphone number in an open letter to not only his constituents, but the entire world. The act itself is borderline insane and takes guts. I called him at 2:30 am, not expecting an answer but low and behold the man picks up. I could tell immediately that he was drunk, but so was I, so I expected good conversation. Unfortunately I was dispirited.

"Hello?" he said. "Is this Mark Sanford?" "Yes." "Holy shit, I mean, I apologize. How's life? I admire the passion you exude in both your professional and personal life." "Thanks for the kind words." "I'd love to interview you about your political comeback. I'm sure you have a lot to say." "Contact Joel Sawyer."

I called. And called. And called. Nothing.

Are you scared, Mr. Sanford?

Are you real, Mr. Sawyer?

Show your scrotums and invest in the people. You ask for the voice of the people yet you tease those of us who care with perverted sex talk and immoral tales of lascivious gratuity. This is the prelude to the end of the world:

Experiments in the Wild

2013-05-04T00:29:00.002-04:00

by Jim Kopetz

A trailer for Experiments in the Wild. A Prelude to the End of the World production.

Actors/actresses please contact preludetotheendoftheworld@gmail.com for information on auditions, plot, required nudity, etc...

Mark Sanford: Man of Mystery

2013-05-02T01:30:00.003-04:00

by Jim Kopetz

Mark Sanford is a complicated man. One can't help but admire his passion in both politics, and personal life; but is he as open as he declares...

He recently released his cellphone number: (843)367-1010

Say what you will but that's a ballsy move for a politician. I myself didn't believe it until I called the number and had a five minute conversation with the former Governor. It was surreal and eye-opening. I was quite inebriated on Old Crow but managed to keep it together, although I did question if it was truly Mark Sanford I was speaking to at least three times. He was patient, to say the least.

Anyway if you'd like to read an interview with Mark Sanford on Prelude to the End of the World, please contact Joel Sawyer at (864)266-9925 and request an interview. You won't be disappointed.

Sensationalism vs. Sense

2013-04-27T20:52:00.000-04:00

First of all: if you happen to be from Boston, hats off to you.

As a writer living in this city, I was completely amazed at how this community handled the most violent day in its modern history. The people of Boston didn't just show compassion and bravery in the days following it - they demonstrated those qualities as a knee-jerk reflex. Bombs exploded, and people ran toward them, just seconds after. Three people were killed, but first responders saved dozens of lives in the following moments. The medical tent at the finish line was rearranged for triage. Marathon personnel, who initially signed up to treat dehydration and exhaustion, were called upon to hold tourniquets on the stumps of shredded limbs. A marathon runner, having just finished the 26.2 mile stretch, ripped his shirt off and used it to stem the bleeding of an injured spectator.

Seeing all of this affected me in a way that no other tragic event ever has before, having lived in this city for almost eight of the past nine years. For five of those years, I worked about a hundred yards from where the first bomb went off. I used to get coffee from the Dunks in between where the two explosions occurred. I've had dinner with my girlfriend just feet from where the second detonation happened. Knowing that ground, that sidewalk that I walked over for five years, is stained with blood and scorch marks, hits home in a way that cannot be conveyed to anyone that hasn't themselves experienced it. I, like many I know personally, became obsessed with the capture of whoever would do such a horrible, gutless thing. The news was my lifeline and my tormentor the same, and I couldn't stop watching it.

Were there any photos of Boylston Street when the bombs went off? Hundreds of photographs poured in, showing up on Reddit, 4chan and other online forums. Makeshift memorials formed at the perimeter of the enormous void now present in the heart of our city, cordoned off for the gathering of evidence. Plates with food, credit cards, bags - all eerily left as they were on that sunny Monday afternoon, now ensconced in a veritable hive of law enforcement from all around the country. During that week, friends on my Facebook news feed would post cell phone photos of the military vehicles parked at the edge of Berklee, and in Back Bay.

And then Alex Jones, conspiracy theorist and professional 9/11 "truther", decided that this would be an excellent time to post on his Twitter account about how he thought this tragedy "smells like a false flag".

Not that I'm implying he's the first. No, it would be impossible to identify the individual asshole deserving of that distinction. There were so many, in so many parts of the country, that decided to voice the same thing. Many of my friends from my small hometown in Connecticut often make online postings of the many ways the government is trying to "take away our freedom". A couple of them wasted no time in suspecting that some subversive plot was amiss.

One of my friends linked to a video, shot by a southern man on his Tivo, of a news clip showing the crime scene. A red blur in the corner, described by our amateur journalist as a piece of "blood or gore or whatever", is in the lower right hand corner of the screen. An emergency worker walks in front of it, and it's gone when he has walked past. "Make of it what you will", says our narrator.

Now, I've already come to the conclusion that there are people on my Facebook feed that will be offended and/or unconvinced of anything I say to them in an effort to disprove these fallacies they promote, no matter how much logic or composure with which I approach them. But this pissed me off, personally, so I decided to say something.

"What you're seeing here is what obviously appears to be a piece of cloth that coincidentally blew out of view when the guy walked by."

If you've had this argument with people on the internet before, you already know how he responded:

"I actually don't know what it is, neither do you. Thus the choice of words "obviously appears", which I think are interesting when juxtaposed like that. I just think the video is interesting."

He apparently hadn't noticed the caption underneath the video, which read "Amerikkka master of the inside-job". He chastised me for criticizing what he viewed to be an innocuous blog posting, said that he wasn't purporting any conspiracy theory, and told me that I shouldn't be afraid to ask questions. Another person interjected with the truth - that it was, indeed, a fabric flag on the sidewalk that had been pulled aside as a person walked by in the foreground - but he then claimed that my friend "shouldn't be condemned or feel guilty for expressing his suspicions".

He continued: "Every individual's observations are different; alternative possibilities should never be discounted until disproved through overwhelming evidence - which can only come through motivated inquiry.

It is factually evident that the (full) truth is rarely what is reported. It's imperative that people investigate, interpret and question events that occur. Such activities may be sensitive to some, but it is the general responsibility (but not always interest) of society to reveal the realities around us, as it is the intention of others - outside or above the public - to construct it to their advantage."

Am I alone in thinking that both of these people were full of shit? While he makes a convincing defense of the consideration of alternative ideas, he's ignoring the obvious implications of the initial posting, and how a quick Google search would have invalidated said post in the first place. Where's the rapturous defense for integrity when it comes to propagating ideas? Where's the concern in verifying these stories before spreading them?

This kind of lazy speculation, made public through online forums, is far from harmless. The New York Post ran a full-front-page photo of an olive-skinned young man in a blue jacket, carrying a duffel bag, who they (and a majority of online "sleuths") assumed to be the culprit. Any one of the reporters at the newspaper, or any one of these anonymous online commentators, should have noticed that there are no photographs of this man dropping his bag before the explosion. An innocent seventeen year old kid - the subject of all these rumors - was traumatized as the result of being incorrectly identified, by today's version of an unruly mob, as the Boston Bomber.

Even though we now know the two people who did this, there are still doubters who allege foul play. This speculation is raised despite a murdered 26 year old police officer, a car-jacking, testimony from the car-jacking victim, a lengthy gun battle, complete with homemade grenades, the eyewitness accounts of several witnesses at the marathon (one of whose legs were blown off by the bag set next to his feet), bombs and bomb making materials found at one of the suspects' apartments, along with several photographs and a video that show the suspects clearly dropping the bags at the sites of the explosions. One would think all that would be enough to convince anyone with an active neuron that the two people implicated in this crime were guilty.

Unfortunately for us, it seems as if there is no question too stupid for the internet to answer.

It isn't even a week after they caught the 19 year old kid who did this with his 26 year old now-dead brother, and already, people are saying he's been framed - that the government hired his older brother to run intel for them; that the CIA commissioned them to bomb the marathon, and then turned him in through the FBI; that the "true culprit" is still out there, and that the kid can't speak because they tortured him. Photos of the bombing circulate through online forums, overwritten with "17 Unanswered Questions About The Boston Marathon Bombing The Media Is Afraid To Ask" (all of which are composed of circumstantial associations and twisting of information). It doesn't really help that the mother of these brother culprits cries in every interview about how "her sons couldn't do this" and how "America took my sons away from me".

What the hell could possibly be politically advantageous in all of this? If the U.S. Government is behind this, what could their motive possibly be? To wound the American psyche to the point of submission? To beat us into a state of fear, in which we can be corralled into a tightly regulated socialist bureaucracy?

Do you honestly believe elected officials are that subversive? And even if they are, do you think that we are that stupid?

I'll tell you what I think.

I think all of these people crowing about the "conspiracy" in Boston are bored. I think they're a collection of shut-ins - social malcontents that have nothing better to do than to find conflict in others' lives, to make up for the lack of conflict within their own. And I think the internet provides a forum for these idiots to converge on a series of unfounded ideas that would get them laughed out of most real-life discussion circles.

If we look at the two suspects involved, we can see the dangers of this social isolationism. The Boston bombings weren't just an example of what happens when two young adults form a mutual hatred against the society they live in - it shows what can happen when impressionable individuals find communities with which to validate unfounded, irrational mental constructs. I'm not saying that conspiracy theorists are bound to be terrorists - that would really be overreaching. But I am saying that if there's a stupid idea out there, there's somebody else just as stupid, who's going to be vocal about it. And we now live in an age where the relative isolation of these ideas is no longer a hindrance to their endorsement amongst other people.

My girlfriend, my sister, and my family all criticize me for engaging these people, as I've been vocal with issues such as gun control, vaccinations, and health care. While they agree with my sentiments, they say things like "you're only wasting your time", and "you're throwing your energy into a vacuum". After a couple years of acclimating to the social networking monstrosity that is Facebook, I've come to the conclusion that: yes, my folks are correct and; no, I have no ability to convince these people that their delusional musings only hurt the chances of an enlightening exchange of ideas actually taking place. But the furor over the Boston bombings has rekindled the indignant anger I feel towards this willful ignorance.

Who the hell do these assholes think they are? These are people that never bothered to move more than twenty miles from where they grew up, and they think they've got the qualifications to determine what happened hundreds of miles away? Hell, Alex Jones lives in Texas - what gives him the right, or the gaul, to say that the Boston bombings were plotted by the CIA? Who at Blacklisted News or Endthelie.com is even remotely informed enough to say such a thing? Does it strike anyone as even remotely suspicious that these organizations interpret every national tragedy - 9/11, the Newtown massacre, the Aurora shootings, the Sikh temple shootings - as a secret false-flag scheme, planned by our government, to take our civil rights away?

Please keep in mind, that since the bombing has taken place, the government has decided that this kid should, and will, be given a trial. He will get to defend himself in court just like any other citizen of this country would. Despite all the musings of these sensationalist websites and Google-pundits, and despite the very real efforts of a few militaristic Republican legislators, he will be granted the same civil liberties as the people he murdered, as the people whose legs he destroyed, whose hands he mangled, whose lives he has irreparably altered. And that is as it should be, because we are a civilized nation. We will enforce justice, not revenge.

And yet, a determined few demand that we view this tragedy through the lens of skeptical distrust of "the system".

If you still can't understand why all of this fear-mongering conspiracy is offensive, then consider this hypothetical situation:

A close relative has just died, suddenly and without warning. The doctors at the hospital inform you that they died of an aneurism, that there was nothing that could be done, and that there is no discernible precursor as to why that would happen - but they show you the MRI taken before death which shows the burst blood vessel. After a long week of grieving, talking with family members, and consoling with your siblings, you feel as well as to be expected - depressed, but resolved, and more at peace with what happened.

And then, at the reception after burial, one of your friends comes up to you. With passionate insistence, he explains that what really happened to your dead relative was that they were the victim of an experimental vapor, being pumped out by airplanes in contrails all over the U.S., and that the government is behind it.

There is no logical rationale for your friend's assumptions. His evidence consists of a series of pictures of vapor condensation left by airplanes, with time signatures showing how long they last in the air; a series of unsubstantiated studies, that claim there are new compounds being found in the atmosphere that defy rational explanation; testimony of several anonymous internet witnesses, who speak of people they know of that suffered the same fate; all of this, of course, he shows you on his phone.

"I'm just asking questions. We have to ask questions in order to get to the real truth. Otherwise, we're just living the lie they want us to believe."

If your reaction is anything other than striking your friend in the face, hats off to you.

You have more patience than I.

Jacque Fresco

2013-04-21T21:59:00.004-04:00

The Greatest Talk of Jacque Fresco.

Yes men, it's this easy!

2013-04-12T11:45:00.000-04:00

For every man who has ever asked the moronic question. "I don't know what women want"?
Well guys, here it is in a nutshell.

We are not as complicated as you make us.
Our needs are as basic as your own.

Haha, I, however, yet to meet a man who can read a diagram, and comprehend its
literal meaning!

Good Luck Men!

Our Nation's Shame

2013-04-11T20:56:00.000-04:00

On the morning of December 14, 2012, I was cutting frames in Cambridge, listening to a beat up old radio on a shelf next to my chop saw. As the anchors and their guests were gossiping about some news story in Boston, one of the female hosts interrupted to deliver a news flash. "Apparently, there has been a shooting in at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. No word on injuries yet, but rumors are suggesting there is at least one fatality."

As soon as I heard Newtown, I stopped cutting and stared at the radio. I can't remember how many times I've been to the place - whenever I did deliveries to the galleries and shops in New York, we'd stop off on exit 10, off 395 southbound, to get a quick breakfast at the Blue Colony Diner, and get gas at the Mobil station next door. I would associate Newtown with my own hometown of Colchester: a sleepy New England community, beautiful in its relative rural isolation, and no more to most than a rest stop between two cities that make the news on a regular basis. A school shooting? Probably some disgruntled monster who shot his wife in front of a bunch of students. The gabbers on the radio thought the same thing. Couldn't be another Columbine.

Two hours later, the same newscaster interrupted. But this time, she sounded slightly more distraught. "I'm sorry folks, I just got information from Sandy Hook. Twenty-seven dead, including the shooter." Everybody on the show just gasped. I dropped the molding on the table with my jaw agape. The daily meeting was just about to begin, and I had just learned of a tragedy, in my home state, in a town I've been to countless times, that can only be described as unthinkable. Twenty-seven people. This was a staggeringly high number, and these were elementary school students. Everyone I told was just as bewildered as I was at hearing it. Later, we would learn that his mother's corpse would bring the total to twenty eight.

When I got back from our meeting, a tearful Dan Malloy was delivering word of the specifics: a single shooter, a young white male, gained access to the school. He murdered 6 staff members, and 20 students, all of them first-graders. There was a separate murder scene, where the victim's mother was found. The shooter was also dead, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Speculation floated around that his mother was the school psychologist. Only later in the day did we find out that, not only was she not the school psychologist - she wasn't associated with Sandy Hook Elementary at all.

The shooter, for all we know, was a socially-isolated only child with visible psycho-social deficiencies. The closest theory we have towards a motive is that his mother was planning a move to Florida against his will, and that he committed the massacre in an attempt to cause as much of a gut-wrenching public impact as he could before he ended his own life.

If one looks through any discussion thread on the internet that day, they will find at least one person that brought up the issue of gun control, even before the full extent of the incident was revealed to the public. And within just a few responses to that comment, there would inexorably be an indignant retort: "You can't even wait for the bodies to be cold?"

No, we can't.

I don't quite understand the significance of letting time pass after such horror takes place, nor do I accept that the temperature (and the incredibly insensitive acknowledgment) of the aforementioned corpses have anything to do with what happened here. What I understand even less, is the ability of some people to reconcile the scale of this massacre with the idealistic literal interpretation of a law that no longer applies to the time we live in.

I have a lot of questions for these people, but let's start with this one: where the hell in the Bill of Rights does it say that every American, regardless of legal background or professional qualifications, has the right to own a weapon specifically designed for military (i.e. human killing) purposes? While 18th century muskets were certainly empowering to a "well-armed militia", they did not endow individuals with the ability to kill dozens of targets without having to reload.

Which brings me to my next question: if you TRULY believe our second amendment rights are there to protect us from a totalitarian government takeover, do you also believe that you and your personally amassed arsenal are capable of taking on the Army? Keep in mind, our government is in possession of a great many devices for crowd control; many of which are non-lethal and far more effective at subduing large crowds of angry protesters than guns; and more of which are totally lethal, and are far more powerful than any weapon you could legally purchase in even the most lenient state. If the government were hell-bent on prying your gun from your cold, dead hands, it would have done so LONG ago.

Of course, it follows that another fallacy with gun ownership is the element of "personal protection" it provides. Most revolting are the Facebook posts I see with frightened women, cowering in corners, contrasted with proud, attractive models with Bushmasters. Underscored are the captions, in the same order: "How gun control advocates fight rape/ How REAL women fight rape". So many idiots I knew from high school are crowing about the armed bystander who stopped a store robbery (by killing the robber); about the Texas woman who shot her assailant six times in the back, and when questioned by a judge about why she did so, as he was running away with her purse, she responded "because my magazine doesn't hold seven" (and was released free of charges); about how you never hear these stories of individual "heroism" because the "news agencies don't want you to hear about it", and how all they care about is the "shock and awe" stories.

Did it ever occur to these people that the weapons themselves play an essential part in this drama? Does it ever dawn on them that the very point-and-click nature of a gun could be what is primarily responsible for the frequency and the severity of the violence in our country? Are they aware the United States has the highest per capita gun death rate in the civilized world? What about the fact, proven time and time again through repeated independent studies, that a gun is far less likely to assist in the prevention of a crime (less than 10%) than it is to serve in the commission of one?

Another thing I keep hearing is the claim that even if we had gun laws as strict as assault weapons bans or universal background checks, it would not have prevented the Newtown tragedy from happening. After all, these culprits are breaking the law in the first place. Well, then, wouldn't it stand to reason that we need to go further? What exactly is it about allowing the single mother of an undiagnosed psychotic time bomb to own a military-grade weapon that makes our communities safer?

And let's not forget the REAL issue, right? Mental health? Is it not transparent to anyone with a working brain that the NRA's sudden advocacy of mental health treatment is an obvious attempt at redirecting American public focus, regardless of the fact that mental health care is, indeed, an issue that needs to be addressed? Do gun rights advocates really believe that it's easier to overcome the difficulties in our mental health care system, than it is to simply regulate what type of firearms are available to the general public?

But here's the question I most need the answer to, because I cannot, for the life of me, conceive a possible answer: could you look one of those parents in the eyes, and tell them that their fear, of the very type of weapons that killed their children, is unfounded and misguided? Could you tell them, to their faces, that their motives are fear-based, and therefore irrational? Would you tell them it's wrong to use their personal tragedy to rationalize "nonsensical and overbearing" restrictions on your "civil rights"?

A New York Times columnist compared our national gun culture to an ancient sacrificial ritual, in which a tribe would kill children to please a deity responsible for good fortune. They weren't far off.

We, as a people, should be disgusted by the very thought of approaching this tragedy with anything but the utmost consideration to the parents, the friends, the family and community of these murder victims. It's been almost four months since, and although Connecticut has just passed the strictest gun laws in the country, 10 states have responded to the contrary by loosening firearms restrictions. While the new laws send a message, Connecticut is a state so small that one could traverse it in a car in three hours, the long way. Nothing is stopping a determined maniac from driving two and a half hours north to New Hampshire and buying whatever they want to commit their own massacre. We need a national response, but we've instead allowed the devotees of deadly force to hijack the national dialogue.

At the Blue Colony Diner, they've got pieces of construction paper, with painted hand prints and notes written by students of Sandy Hook Elementary, taped on the glass doors of the entrance. The atmosphere, only a few weeks after the shooting, was notably solemn. Black ribbons lined the ceiling around the diner. A family in formal wear sat across from me and my coworker. Two small children sat among them. As the family got up after their meal, the mother leaned down to her son, and said "Aren't you happy you got the day off of school?" I wondered to myself, were they attending a memorial for one of their classmates? Or did mom and dad take them out of school, for some old unknown relative's funeral, just so they didn't have to put them on that school-bus again, to what is now an uncertain fate?

Across the street, a makeshift memorial stands next to a large sandwich board sign that says "PRESS PARK HERE". The news vans are long gone. A lone woman tends the tented shrine, and stands solitary among the candles, the photographs, the various effigies made to represent the victims. A big crane stands next to the tent, and hanging underneath the bucket is a wind-tattered American flag. "We Are Sandy Hook". "Newtown Chooses Love".

Apparently, not even the horrifying mass murder of twenty innocent six- and seven-year-olds, and six wonderful educators, is enough to make us reconsider the pro-gun mindset as one that is not only non-sensical, but dangerously irrational. If there is anything to be learned from the Newtown tragedy, it is that we as a nation have become slave to a set of ideals that we as a people do not fully comprehend.

We should not be proud of this. We should be ashamed.

David Icke...Truth or Fear

2013-04-09T20:20:00.002-04:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

David Icke
Icke in 2008
Born	David Vaughan Icke 29 April 1952 (age 60) Leicester, England
Residence	Ryde, Isle of Wight
Occupation	Writer and speaker
Known for	Football, television sports, books on global politics
Political party	Green Party (1988–1991)
Website
davidicke.com Icke's YouTube channel.

David Vaughan Icke (pronunciation: /aɪk/; ike, born 29 April 1952) is an English writer and public speaker, best known for his views on what he calls "who and what is really controlling the world." Describing himself as the most controversial speaker in the world, he is the author of 19 books and has attracted a global following that cuts across the political spectrum. His 533-page The Biggest Secret (1999) has been called "the Rosetta Stone for conspiracy junkies."^[1]

Icke was a BBC television sports presenter and spokesman for the Green Party, when in 1990 a psychic told him that he was a healer who had been placed on Earth for a purpose, and that the spirit world was going to pass messages to him. In March 1991 he held a press conference to announce that he was a "Son of the Godhead" – a phrase he said later the media had misunderstood – and the following month told the BBC's Terry Wogan show that the world would soon be devastated by tidal waves and earthquakes. He said the show changed his life, turning him from a respected household name into someone who was laughed at whenever he appeared in public.^[2]

He continued nevertheless to develop his ideas, and in four books published over seven years – The Robots' Rebellion (1994), And the Truth Shall Set You Free (1995), The Biggest Secret (1999), and Children of the Matrix (2001) – set out a moral and political worldview that combined New-Age spiritualism with a passionate denunciation of totalitarian trends in the modern world. At the heart of his theories lies the idea that a secret group ofreptilian humanoids called the Babylonian Brotherhood controls humanity, and that many prominent figures are reptilian, including George W. Bush, Queen Elizabeth II, Kris Kristofferson, and Boxcar Willie.^[3]

Michael Barkun has described Icke's position as "New Age conspiracism," writing that he is the most fluent of the conspiracist genre. Richard Kahn and Tyson Lewis argue that the reptilian hypothesis may simply be Swiftian satire, a way of giving ordinary people a narrative with which to question what they see around them.^[4]

[edit]Personal life and career

[edit]Early life and education

Icke was born in Leicester General Hospital to Beric Vaughan Icke and Barbara J. Icke, née Cooke, who were married in Leicester in 1951. Icke was the middle child; there was a brother seven years older, and another seven years younger. Beric had wanted to be a doctor, but his family had no money, so he joined the Royal Air Force instead. He was awarded a British Empire Medal for gallantry in May 1943 after helping to save the crew of an aircraft that had crashed into the Chipping Warden air base in Oxfordshire. Along with a Squadron Leader, he ran into the burning aircraft, without protective clothing, and saved the life of a crew member who was trapped inside.^[5]

After the war, Beric became a clerk in the Gents clock factory, and the family lived in a slum terraced house on Lead Street, near Wharf Street in the centre of Leicester. When Icke was three, they moved to a housing estate known as the Goodwood, one of the 1950scouncil estates the post-war Labour government built. "To say we were skint," he wrote in 1993, "is like saying it is a little chilly at the North Pole." He remembers having to hide under a window or chair when the council man came to collect the rent; after knocking, the rent man would walk round the house peering through the windows to see whether anyone was at home. His mother never explained that it was about the rent; she just told him to hide, and Icke writes that he still gets a fright whenever he hears a knock on the door.^[6]

He was always a loner, spending hours playing with toy steam trains, and preferring to cross the street rather than speak to anyone. He attended Whitehall Infant School, then Whitehall Junior School, where he spent most of his time feeling nervous and shy, often to the point of almost fainting during the morning assembly and having to leave before he passed out. The family doctor suggested a referral to a child psychologist, but his father put his foot down.^[7]

[edit]Football and first marriage

Personal information
Icke (right) in goal in the early 1970s, for Coventry City
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Youth career
1967–1971	Coventry City
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps^†	(Gls)^†
1971–1973	Hereford United^[8]	37	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

He made no effort at school and failed at practically everything, but when he was nine, he was chosen for the junior school's football team. It was the first time he had succeeded at anything, and he came to see football as his way out of poverty. He played in goal, which he writes suited the loner in him and gave him a sense of living on the edge between hero and villain.^[7]

After failing his 11-plus exam in 1963, he was sent to the city's Crown Hills Secondary Modern, rather than the local grammar school, where he was given a trial for the Leicester Boys Under-Fourteen team. He decided to leave school at 15 after being talent-spotted by Coventry City, who signed him up in 1967 as their youth team's goalkeeper. He also played for Oxford United's reserve team and Northampton Town, on loan from Coventry. Rheumatoid arthritis in his left knee, which later spread to the right knee, ankles, elbows, wrists, and hands, stopped him from making a career out of football. Despite often being in agony during training, he managed to play part-time forHereford United – including in the first team when they were in the Fourth Division of the English Football League, and when they were promoted to Division Three – before the pain in his joints forced him to retire in 1973 at the age of 21.^[9]

He met his first wife, Linda Atherton, in May 1971 at a dance at the Chesford Grange Hotel near Leamington Spa; she was working as a van driver for a garage in Leamington. Shortly after they met, Icke had another one of the huge rows he had started having with his father – always a domineering man, his father was upset that Icke's arthritis was interfering with his football career – so he packed his bags and left home. He moved into a tiny bedsit and worked in a local travel agency during the day, travelling to Hereford twice a week in the evenings to play football.^[10]

He and Linda were married on 30 September that year, four months after they met. A daughter was born in March 1975, followed by a son in December 1981 and another in November 1992. Though the couple divorced in 2001, they remain good friends; she runs his publishing arm, David Icke Books, and produces his DVDs.^[10]

[edit]Sports presenter

The loss of his position with Hereford meant that he and his wife had to sell their home, and for several weeks they lived apart, each moving in with their parents, but he found a job in 1973 as a reporter with the weekly Leicester Advertiser, through a contact who was a sports editor at the Daily Mail. He moved on to the Leicester News Agency, and through them did some programmes for BBC Radio Leicester, then worked his way up through the Loughborough Monitor, the Leicester Mercury, and BRMB Radio in Birmingham.^[11]

Icke (top right) with the BBC's first Breakfast Time team, c. 1983. Clockwise from top left:Francis Wilson, Debbie Rix, David Icke, Nick Ross, Selina Scott, Frank Bough

He worked for two months in Saudi Arabia in 1975, helping them run their national football team; it was intended to be a longer-term position, but he missed his wife and new daughter so much that he decided not to return after his first holiday back to the UK. He got his job back at BRMB, then applied successfully to work for Midlands Today at the BBC's Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham, and in 1981 moved on to become a sports presenter for the BBC's national programme, Newsnight. The following year he achieved his ambition when offered a job co-hosting Grandstand, at the time the BBC's flagship national sports programme.^[12]

He moved in 1982 to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, somewhere he had always wanted to live. He appeared on the first edition of British television's first national breakfast show, the BBC's Breakfast Time, on 17 January 1983, presenting the sports news for them until 1985. He also published his first book that year, It's a Tough Game, Son!, about how to break into football.^[13]

He continued to work for BBC Sport until 1990, often on Grandstand and snooker programmes, and also at the 1988 Summer Olympics, but despite his professional success – he was by then a household name – a career in television began to lose its appeal for him. He wrote in Tales from the Time Loop (2003) that he was beginning to find television workers insincere, shallow, and vicious, with rare exceptions.^[14] His contract with the BBC was terminated in August 1990 thanks to a political row, when he refused to pay his Community Charge, a controversial local tax introduced that year in England by Margaret Thatcher. He did end up paying it, but his announcement that he was willing to go to jail rather than pay prompted the BBC, by charter an impartial public-service broadcaster, to distance itself from him.^[15]

[edit]Green Party, meeting with psychic healer

Icke had begun to flirt with fringe medicine and New Age philosophies in the 1980s in an effort to find relief from his arthritis, and this encouraged his interest in Green politics.^[16] He wrote his second book in 1989, It Doesn't Have To Be Like This, an outline of his views on the environment, and became involved with the Green Party from 1988 to 1991, rising to become one of their four Principal Speakers, a position the party created in lieu of a leader. The Observer called him "the Greens' Tony Blair."^[17] He was regularly seen at high-profile events. He was invited in 1989 to debate animal rights during a televised debate at the Royal Institute of Great Britain, alongside Tom Regan, Mary Warnock, and Germaine Greer, and in September 1990 his name appeared on advertisements for a children's charity along with Audrey Hepburn, Woody Allen and other celebrities.^[18]

Despite his success, he wrote that 1989 was a time of considerable personal despair for him, and it was during this period that he began to feel a presence around him.^[19] In March 1990, while standing in a newsagent's, he felt that a magnetic force was pulling his feet to the ground, and said he heard a voice tell him to look at a particular section of books. One of the books was by Betty Shine, a psychic healer in Brighton. He decided to visit her to ask for help with his arthritis.^[20]

Icke said he had a mystical experience near this pre-Inca burial site in Peru.

Shine told him during their third meeting that she had a message for him from the spirit world. She said that he had been sent to heal the Earth, and would become famous, but would face opposition. The spirit world was going to pass ideas to him, which he would speak about to others, sometimes not understanding the words himself. She said he would write five books in three years; that in 20 years there would be a different kind of flying machine, where we could go wherever we wanted and time would have no meaning; and there would be earthquakes in unusual places, because the inner earth was being destabilized by having oil taken from the seabed.^[21]

In February 1991 Icke visited the pre-Inca Sillustani burial ground near Puno, Peru, and while there felt drawn to a large mound of earth, at the top of which lay a circle of waist-high stones. As he stood in the circle, he said he again felt his feet pulled to the earth as if by a magnet, and an urge to outstretch his arms. His feet started vibrating, and his head felt as though a drill was passing through it. Two thoughts entered his mind: that people will be talking about this in 100 years, and then, "it will be over when you feel the rain." He said his body started shaking as though plugged into an electrical socket and new ideas began to pour into him. Then it started raining and the experience ended. He described it later as the "kundalini" – a term from Indian yoga describing a libidinal force that lies coiled at the base of the spine – exploding up through his spine, activating his brain and his chakras, or energy centres, triggering a higher level of consciousness.^[22]

He returned to England and began to write a book about the experience. At a Green Party conference in Wolverhampton on 20 March 1991, he resigned from the party, telling them he was about to be at the centre of "tremendous and increasing controversy," and winning a standing ovation from them after the announcement.^[23]

[edit]Turquoise period

What followed was what Icke calls his "turquoise period." He writes that he had been channelling for some time, and had received a message through automatic writing that he was a "Son of the Godhead," interpreting "Godhead" as the "Infinite Mind."^[24] He now began to wear only turquoise, which he saw as a conduit for positive energy. He had met Deborah Shaw, an English psychic living in Calgary, Alberta, in August 1990, and after he returned from Peru, they began a relationship, which led to the birth of a daughter in December 1991. At one point, Shaw moved in with him and his wife. Shaw changed her name to Mari Shawsun, while Icke's wife became known as Michaela, which she said was an aspect of the Archangel Michael. They became known in the press as the "turquoise triangle."^[17]

In March 1991, a week after he resigned from the Green Party – and shortly after his father died – the three of them held a press conference to announce that Icke was a son of the Godhead. He said the world would end in 1997, preceded by a number of disasters, including a severe hurricane around the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans, eruptions in Cuba, disruption in China, a hurricane in Derry, and an earthquake on the Isle of Arran. Los Angeles would become an island, New Zealand would disappear, and the cliffs of Kent would be under water by Christmas. He told reporters the information was being given to them by voices and automatic writing.^[25]

He wrote in 1993 that he had felt out of control during the press conference. He heard his voice predict the end of the world, and was appalled. "I was speaking the words, but all the time I could hear the voice of the brakes in the background saying, 'David, what the hell are you saying?'" His predictions were splashed all over the next day's front pages, to his great dismay.^[26]

[edit]Terry Wogan interview

Icke is greeted by Terry Wogan on 29 April 1991.^[27]

The headlines attracted an invitation to appear on the BBC's prime-time Terry Wogan show,Wogan, on 29 April 1991. When asked if he was claiming to be the son of God, he did not disagree, and amid laughter from the studio audience, he repeated that Britain would soon be devastated by tidal waves and earthquakes.^[28] He also talked about politics and the environment:

When you survey the world today ... when a child dies in this world of preventable disease every two seconds, when the economic system of this world must destroy the Earth simply for that system to survive; when you see all the wars, and when you see all the pain, and when you see all the suffering, is it a force of love and wisdom and tolerance that is in control of this planet?^[29]

The interview proved devastating for him. The BBC was criticized for allowing it to go ahead, Des Christy in The Guardian calling it a "media crucifixion."^[30] Wogan interviewed Icke again in 2006, acknowledging that his comments during the first interview had been "a bit sharp."^[28]Icke disappeared from public life for a time, unable to walk down the street without people mocking him. His children were followed to school by journalists and ridiculed by schoolmates, and his wife would open the back door to get the washing in only to find a camera crew filming her.^[31] He told Jon Ronson in 2001:

One of my very greatest fears as a child was being ridiculed in public. And there it was coming true. As a television presenter, I'd been respected. People come up to you in the street and shake your hand and talk to you in a respectful way. And suddenly, overnight, this was transformed into "Icke's a nutter." I couldn't walk down any street in Britain without being laughed at. It was a nightmare. My children were devastated because their dad was a figure of ridicule.^[27]

[edit]Writing and lecturing

Icke said the interview had been the making of him in the end, that the laughter had set him free. He wrote that every bridge back to his past was ablaze, giving him the courage to develop his ideas without caring what anyone thought of him.^[32] His book, Truth Vibrations, was published in May 1991, and he continued to write, turning himself into a prolific and popular author and speaker, and setting up his own publisher, Bridge of Love Publications, later called David Icke Books.^[33] He met his second wife, Pamela Leigh Richards, in Jamaica in 1997. He and Linda Atherton divorced in 2001; he married Pamela the same year and the couple separated in 2008. He remains friends with his first wife, and she is involved in the management of his publishing business.^[34]

Icke addressed the Oxford Union in 2008.

Lewis and Kahn write that Icke has produced a consolidation of all conspiracy theories into one project with unlimited explanatory power, his work cutting across class lines and political divisions.^[35] By 2006 he had lectured in 25 countries, his lectures were attracting audiences of several thousand, his books had been translated into eight languages, and his website was getting 600,000 hits a week. The Biggest Secret was reprinted six times between 1999 and 2006, and Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Center Disaster (2002) became a top-five seller in South Africa.^[33]

He has become known in particular for his lengthy lectures, sometimes speaking for up to nine hours, then selling DVDs of the talks produced by Linda Atherton. In February 2008 he was invited to address the Oxford Union, the University of Oxford's debating society. His book tour for Human Race Get Off Your Knees: The Lion Sleeps No More(2010) encompassed lectures in Australia, Croatia, the Netherlands, and the United States, and ended in October 2012 with a talk at London's Wembley Arena. During the tour, in November 2011, he received a standing ovation in New York after an eight-hour lecture to a 2,000-strong crowd at the Nokia Theater in Times Square.^[36]

He stood for parliament in the UK in July 2008 as "Big Brother—The Big Picture" in the Haltemprice and Howden by-election, coming 12th with 110 votes and losing his deposit. He explained that he stood because, "if we don't face this now we are going to have some serious explaining to do when we are asked by our children and grandchildren what we were doing when the global fascist state was installed. 'I was watching EastEnders, dear' will not be good enough."^[37]

[edit]Key ideas

Icke combines discussion about the universe and consciousness with conspiracy theories about public figures being satanic paedophiles, and how apparently unconnected events are really attempts to control humanity. He argued in The Biggest Secret that human beings originated in a breeding program run by a race of reptilians called Anunnaki from the Draco constellation, and that what we call reality is just a holographic experience; the only reality is the realm of the Absolute. He believes in a collective consciousness that has intentionality, in reincarnation, in other possible worlds that exist alongside ours on other frequencies, and in acquired characteristics, arguing that our experiences change our DNA by downloading new information and overwriting the software. We are also able to attract experiences to ourselves by means of good and bad thoughts.^[38]

[edit]Global Elite

Further information: New World Order (conspiracy theory)

Icke argues that humanity was created by a network of secret societies run by an ancient race of interbreeding bloodlines from the Middle and Near East, originally extraterrestrial. Icke calls them the "Babylonian Brotherhood." The Brotherhood is mostly male. Their children are raised from an early age to understand the mission; those who fail to understand it are pushed aside. The spread of the reptilian bloodline encompasses what Norman Simms calls the odd and ill-matched, extending to 43 American presidents, three British and two Canadian prime ministers, various Sumerian kings and Egyptian pharaohs, and a smattering of celebrities such as Bob Hope. Key Brotherhood bloodlines are the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds, various European royal and aristocratic families, the establishment families of the Eastern United States, and the British House of Windsor. Icke identified the Queen Mother in 2001 as "seriously reptilian."^[39]

The Illuminati, Round Table, Council on Foreign Relations, Chatham House, the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg Group, theInternational Monetary Fund, and the United Nations, are all Brotherhood created and controlled, as are the media, military, CIA, Mossad, science, religion, and the Internet, with witting or unwitting support from the London School of Economics.^[40] At the apex of the Brotherhood stands the "Global Elite," identified throughout history as the Illuminati, and at the top of the Global Elite stand the "Prison Wardens." The goal of the Brotherhood – their "Great Work of Ages" – is world domination and a micro-chipped population.^[39]

[edit]Reptoid hypothesis

Icke introduced the reptoid hypothesis in The Biggest Secret (1999), which identified the Brotherhood as descendants of reptilians from the constellation Draco, who walk on two legs and appear human, and who live in tunnels and caverns inside the earth. He argues that the reptilians are the race of gods known as the Anunnaki in the Babylonian creation myth, Enûma Eliš.^[41] According to Barkun, Icke's idea of "inner-earth reptilians" is not new, though he has done more than most to expand it.^[42]

The Draco constellation from Uranographia by Johannes Hevelius, 1690. Icke's "reptoid hypothesis" posits that humanity is ruled by descendants of reptilians from Draco.^[43]

Lewis and Kahn write that Icke has taken his "ancient astronaut" narrative from the Israeli-American writer, Zecharia Sitchin, who argued – for example in Divine Encounters (1995) – that the Anunnaki had come to Earth for its precious metals. Icke argues that they came specifically for "monoatomic gold," a mineral he says can increase the carrying capacity of the nervous system ten thousandfold. After ingesting it, the reptilians can process vast amounts of information, speed up trans-dimensional travel, and shapeshift from reptilian to human form.^[44] They use human fear, guilt, and aggression as energy. "Thus we have the encouragement of wars," he wrote in 1999, "human genocide, the mass slaughter of animals, sexual perversions which create highly charged negative energy, and black magic ritual and sacrifice which takes place on a scale that will stagger those who have not studied the subject."^[45] Lewis and Kahn argue that Icke is using allegory to depict the alien, and alienating, nature of global capitalism.^[46]

Icke writes that the Anunnaki have crossbred with human beings, the breeding lines chosen for political reasons, arguing that they are the Watchers, the fallen angels, or "Grigori," who mated with human women in the Biblical apocrypha. Their first reptilian-human hybrid, possibly Adam, was created 200,000–300,000 years ago. There was a second breeding program 30,000 years ago, and a third 7,000 years ago. It is the half-bloods of the third breeding program who today control the world, more Anunnaki than human, he writes. They have a powerful, hypnotic stare, the origin of the phrase to "give someone the evil eye," and their hybrid DNA allows them to shapeshift when they consume human blood.^[47]

In Children of the Matrix (2001), he added that the Anunnaki bred with another extraterrestrial race called the "Nordics," who had blond hair and blue eyes, to produce a race of human slave masters, the Aryans. The Aryans retain many reptilian traits, including cold-blooded attitudes, a desire for top-down control, and an obsession with ritual, lending them a tendency toward fascism, rationalism, and racism. Lewis and Kahn write that, with the Nordic hypothesis, Icke is mirroring standard claims by the far right that the Aryan bloodline has ruled the Earth throughout history.^[48]

[edit]Dimensions

The reptilians not only come from another planet, but are also from another dimension, the lower level of the fourth dimension, the one nearest the physical world. Icke writes that the universe consists of an infinite number of frequencies or dimensions that share the same space, just like television and radio frequencies. Some people can tune their consciousness to other wavelengths, which is what psychic power consists of, and it is from one of these other dimensions that the Anunnaki are controlling this world – although just as fourth-dimensional reptilians control us, they are controlled in turn by a fifth dimension. The lower level of the fourth dimension is what others call the "lower astral dimension." Icke argued that it is where demons live, the entities Satanists summon during their rituals. They are, in fact, summoning the reptilians.^[49] Barkun argues that the introduction of different dimensions allows Icke to skip awkward questions about which part of the universe the reptilians come from, and how they got here.^[42]

[edit]Problem-reaction-solution

In Tales From The Time Loop (2003), Icke argues that most organized religions, especially Judaism, Christianity and Islam, are Illuminati creations designed to divide and conquer the human race through endless conflicts, as are racial, ethnic, and sexual divisions. He cites the Oklahoma City bombing and 9/11 as examples of events organized by the Global Elite.^[50] The incidents allow the Elite to respond in whatever way they intended to act in the first place, a concept Icke calls "order out of chaos," or "problem-reaction-solution." He writes that there are few, if any, public events that are not engineered, or at least used, by the Brotherhood:^[17]

Image by Neil Hague from Icke'sInfinite Love is the Only Truth (2005), showing Queen Elizabeth II, George W. Bush and Tony Blair as "Red Dresses," the highest level of the Brotherhood.

You want to introduce something you know the people won't like. ... So you first create a PROBLEM, a rising crime rate, more violence, a terrorist bomb ... You make sure someone else is blamed for this problem ... So you create a "patsy," as they call them in America, a Timothy McVeigh or a Lee Harvey Oswald. ... This brings us to stage two, the REACTION from the people – "This can't go on; what are THEY going to do about it?" ... This allows THEM to then openly offer the SOLUTION to the problems they have created ..."^[51]

[edit]Red Dresses

In Infinite Love is the Only Truth (2005), Icke introduces the idea of "reptilian software." He says that there are three kinds of people. The highest level of the Brotherhood are the "Red Dresses." These are "software people," elsewhere called "reptilian software," or "constructs of mind." They lack consciousness and free will, and their human bodies are holographic veils.^[52]

A second group, the so-called "sheeple" – the vast majority of humanity – have what Icke calls "back seat consciousness." They are conscious, but they do whatever they are told and are the main source of energy for the Brotherhood. They include the "repeaters," the people in positions of influence who simply repeat what other people have told them. Doctors repeat what they are told in medical school and by drug companies, teachers repeat what they learned at teacher training college, and journalists are the greatest repeaters of all. The third group, by far the smallest, are those who see through the illusion; they are usually dubbed dangerous or mad. The "Red Dress" genetic lines keep obsessively interbreeding to make sure their bloodlines are not weakened by the second or third levels of consciousness, because consciousness can rewrite the software.^[52]

[edit]Moon Matrix

The Moon Matrix is introduced in Human Race Get Off Your Knees: The Lion Sleeps No More (2010), in which he writes that the Earth and the collective human mind are manipulated from the Moon, a spacecraft and inter-dimensional portal controlled by the reptilians. The Moon Matrix is a broadcast from that spacecraft to the "human body-computer," specifically to the left hemisphere of the brain, which gives us our sense of reality. He writes: "We are living in a dreamworld within a dreamworld – a Matrix within the virtual-reality universe – and it is being broadcast from the Moon." Unless people force themselves to become fully conscious, their minds are the Moon's mind, an idea further explored in his Remember Who You Are: Remember 'Where' You Are and Where You 'Come' From (2012).^[53]

[edit]Reception

[edit]Protests

In The Robots' Rebellion (1994), Icke introduced the idea that the Global Elite's plan for world domination was laid out in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a hoax published in Russia in 1903, which supposedly presented a plan by the Jewish people to take over the world.^[54] According to Mark Honigsbaum, Icke refers to it 25 times in the Robot's Rebellion, calling it the "Illuminati protocols."^[55]

In his 2001 documentary about Icke, Jon Ronson cited this cartoon, "Rothschild" (1898), byCharles Léandre, arguing that Jews have long been depicted as lizard-like creatures out to control the world.^[56]

The Protocols portrays the Jewish people as "cackling villains from a Saturday matinee," as Jon Ronson put it in his documentary about Icke, David Icke, the Lizards and the Jews (2001).^[54] It was published in English in 1920 by The Dearborn Independent, Henry Ford's newspaper, becoming mixed up with conspiracy theories about anti-Christian Illuminati, international financiers, and the Rothschilds, a Jewish banking dynasty. After it was exposed that year as a hoax by The Times of London, Michael Barkun writes that it disappeared from mainstream discourse until interest in it was renewed by the American far right in the 1950s.^[54] Barkun argues that Icke's reference to it is the first of a number of instances of his moving dangerously close to antisemitism.^[57]

Icke's use of the Protocols was greeted with dismay by the Green Party's executive. They had allowed him to address the party's annual conference in 1992, despite the controversy over his Wogan interview, but in September 1994 decided to deny him a platform.^[58] Icke wrote to the Guardiandenying that The Robots' Rebellion was antisemitic, and rejecting racism, sexism and prejudice of any kind, but in the same letter insisted that whoever wrote the Protocols "knew the game plan" for the 20th century.^[59] Barkun argues that Icke was trying to have it both ways, offended by the allegation of antisemitism while "hinting at the dark activities of Jewish elites."^[60]

Alick Bartholomew of Gateway, Icke's former publisher, said that an early draft of And the Truth Shall Set You Free (1995) contained material questioning the Holocaust, and that Icke was dropped because of it.^[55] Sam Taylor wrote in the Observer in 1997 that, having read the material, he did not believe it was antisemitic, but argued that Icke was "tapping into a seriously paranoid, aggressive strain in U.S. society."^[61] Louis Theroux cautioned in 2001 that it might not only be unfair to Icke to allege that he is associating Jews with the Global Elite, but it also lends a seriousness to ideas that would otherwise not deserve it.^[62] Icke said it was "friggin' nonsense" that his reptiles represented Jews. "There is a tribe of people interbreeding," he told Jon Ronson in 2001, "which do not, do not, relate to any Earth race ... This is not a Jewish plot. This is not a plot on the world by Jewish people".^[63]

Icke was briefly detained by immigration officials when he entered Canada in 2000, after his name was added to a watch list because of complaints from the Canadian Jewish Congress.^[64] His books were removed from Indigo Books, a Canadian chain, and several stops on his speaking tour were cancelled, as was a lecture in October 2000 at Blackheath Concert Halls in London, for the same reason.^[65]Human rights lawyer Richard Warman, working at the time for the Canadian Green Party, took credit for much of this in Jon Ronson's documentary about Icke, which catalogued some of the cancelled appearances.^[66]

[edit]Academic views

Michael Barkun, professor emeritus of political science at Syracuse University, writes that Icke is the most fluent of the conspiracy writers.^[67]

Michael Barkun sees Icke as a professional conspiracy theorist of the Alex Jones variety, and the most fluent of the genre.^[67] He calls Icke's work "improvisational millennialism," with an end-of-history scenario involving a final battle between good and evil. Because everything is connected in the conspiracist world view, Barkun writes, every source can be mined for links. The greater the stigma attached to an idea, the more attractive it becomes, and the vehemence with which the mainstream rejects an idea is almost a measure of its validity. For Icke, the widespread ridiculing of the lizard theory is a guarantee that there's something to it, Barkun argues.^[68]

According to Barkun, Icke has actively tried to cultivate the far right. In 1996, he spoke to a conference inReno, Nevada, alongside opponents of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act – which mandates background checks on people who buy guns in the United States – including Kirk Lyons, a white nationalist lawyer who has represented the Ku Klux Klan.^[42]

Barkun argues that the relationship between Icke, the militias, and the Christian Patriots is complex because of the New Age baggage Icke brings with him, and he stresses that Icke is not actually a member of any of these groups, but he has nevertheless absorbed the world view of the radical right virtually intact. "There is no fuller explication of its beliefs about ruling elites than Icke's," he writes.^[69] Icke regards Christian patriots as the only Americans who understand the truth about the New World Order, but he also told a Christian patriot group: "I don't know which I dislike more, the world controlled by the Brotherhood, or the one you want to replace it with."^[70]

Tyson Lewis and Richard Kahn see Icke differently, more as a spiritual philosopher, arguing that it's not clear he believes in the reptilians himself. They write that there is an almost obsessive-compulsive element to his writing, which includes anything he can find to support a narrative that connects ancient Sumer to modern America, in a way that "defies the laws of academic gravity," and which they say offers unlimited explanatory power. They argue that the lizards may be allegorical, a Swiftian satire intended to alert people to the emergence of a global fascist state. In Children of the Matrix, Icke writes that, if the reptilians did not exist, we would have to invent them. "In fact," he says, "we probably have. They are other levels of ourselves putting ourselves in our face."^[71] Lewis and Kahn make use of Douglas Kellner's distinction in Media Spectacle (1995) between a reactionary clinical paranoia – a mindset dissociated from reality – and a progressive, critical paranoia that confronts power. They argue that Icke displays elements of both, writing that what they call his "postmodern metanarrative" may be a way of giving ordinary people a narrative structure within which to question what they see around them.^[72]

[edit]Works

Books

It's a Tough Game, Son!. Piccolo Books, 1983. ISBN 0-330-28047-3
It Doesn't Have To Be Like This: Green Politics Explained. Green Print, 1989. ISBN 1-85425-033-7
Truth Vibrations. Gateway, 1991, 1994. ISBN 1-85860-006-5
Love Changes Everything. Harper Collins Publishers, 1992.ISBN 1-85538-247-4
In the Light of Experience: The Autobiography of David Icke. Time Warner Books, 1993. ISBN 0-7515-0603-6
Days of Decision. Jon Carpenter Publishing, 1993. ISBN 1-897766-01-7
Heal the World: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Personal and Planetary Transformation. Gateway, 1993. ISBN 1-85860-005-7
The Robot's Rebellion. Gateway, 1994. ISBN 1-85860-022-7
...And the Truth Shall Set You Free. Bridge of Love Publications, 1995. ISBN 0-9538810-5-9
I Am Me, I Am Free: The Robot's Guide to Freedom. Truth Seeker, 1996, 1998. ISBN 0-9526147-5-8

Lifting the Veil: David Icke interviewed by Jon Rappoport. Truth Seeker, 1998. ISBN 0-939040-05-0
The Biggest Secret: The Book That Will Change the World. Bridge of Love Publications, 1999. ISBN 0-9526147-6-6
Children of the Matrix. Bridge of Love Publications, 2001. ISBN 0-9538810-1-6
Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Center Disaster. Bridge of Love Publications, 2002. ISBN 0-9538810-2-4
Tales from the Time Loop. Bridge of Love Publications, 2003. ISBN 0-9538810-4-0
Infinite Love Is the Only Truth: Everything Else Is Illusion. Bridge of Love Publications, 2005. ISBN 0-9538810-6-7
The David Icke Guide to the Global Conspiracy (and how to end it). David Icke Books Ltd, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9538810-8-6
Human Race Get Off Your Knees: The Lion Sleeps No More. David Icke Books Ltd, 2010. ISBN 978-0-9559973-1-0
Remember Who You Are: Remember 'Where' You Are and Where You 'Come' From. David Icke Books Ltd, 2012. ISBN 0-9559973-3-X

Videos

The Robots' Rebellion (1994)
David Icke: Turning of the Tide (1996)
The Reptilian Agenda (1999)
David Icke: Revelations of a Mother Goddess (1999)
David Icke: The Freedom Road (1999)
David Icke: Secrets of the Matrix (2003)
David Icke, Live in Vancouver: From Prison to Paradise (2005)
Freedom or Fascism: The Time to Choose (2006)

David Icke: Big Brother, the Big Picture, (2008),
recorded for the Haltemprice and Howden by-election.
Beyond The Cutting Edge (2008)
David Icke Live at the Oxford Union Debating Society (2008)
The Lion Sleeps No more (2010)
David Icke: Return to Peru (2012)

[edit]See also

Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa

[edit]Notes

^ For "who and what is really controlling the world," and "most controversial speaker," see "David Icke Biography 1", Davidicke.com, accessed 8 June 2011 (archived).
- For the rest, see Barkun 2003, p. 98ff, 103.
- For the Rosetta Stone comparison, see Lewis and Kahn 2010, p. 75; for his following, see Lewis and Kahn 2005 (courtesy link, p. 3).
^ For the encounter with the psychic, see Barkun 2003, p. 103.
- For his appearance on the Terry Wogan show, see Ronson (Channel 4) 2001, begins 5:50 mins.
- For "Son of the Godhead," see Icke, In the Light of Experience, pp. 190–194.
- Also see Wogan's introduction to "David Icke on Wogan", BBC, 1991 and 2006; see 2:24 mins for Icke describing how the interview changed his life.
- That it changed his life, also see Channel Five 2006, from 02:20 mins.
- For another 1991 interview in which he says he is a son of the Godhead, see Britton, accessed 1 June 2011.
^ For mention of those four books, and "New Age conspiracism," see Barkun 2003, p. 103.
- For the ideas and names, see Ronson (Guardian) 2001.
- For the names, also see Offley 2000a.
^ Barkun 2003, pp. 71–72, 98ff; for "New Age conspiracism," see p. 163.
- Lewis and Kahn 2010, p. 73ff; for the Swift analogy, p. 83.
- Also see Lewis and Kahn 2005, (courtesy link, pp. 12–15).
^ For his background and brothers, see Icke, In the Light of Experience, p. 28.
- For his father's medal, see "1479714 Leading Aircraftman Beric Vaughan Icke, Royal Air Force", RAF website, taken from the London Gazette, 14 May 1943. The citation reads:
  "One night in March, 1943, an aircraft crashed on a Royal Air Force Station and immediately burst into flames. Squadron Leader Moore (the duty medical officer) saw the accident and, accompanied by Leading Aircraftman Icke, a medical orderly, proceeded to the scene. Squadron Leader Moore directed the removal of the rear gunner, who was dazed and sitting amongst the burning wreckage, to a place of safety. The aircraft was now enveloped in flames and ammunition was exploding. Nevertheless, despite the intense heat and the danger from exploding oxygen bottles this officer and airman entered the burning wreckage in an attempt to rescue another member of the crew who was pinned down. Without any protective clothing they lifted aside the burning wreckage and, with great difficulty, succeeded in extricating the injured man. Squadron Leader Moore rendered first aid to the rescued man. Squadron Leader Moore sustained burns to his chest and hands in carrying out the operation. This officer and airman both displayed courage and devotion to duty in keeping with the highest traditions of the Royal Air Force.
  
  "Acting Squadron Leader Frederick Thomas Moore, B.S., F.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. (23417), Reserve of Air Force Officers was awarded the MBE for his part in this action."
^ Icke, In the Light of Experience, pp. 29, 33.
- Also see Icke, Tales from the Time Loop, pp. 2–3.
^ ^a ^b Icke, In the Light of Experience, pp. 36, 38.
- Also see Icke, Tales from the Time Loop, pp. 2–3.
^ David Icke Coventry City
^ Icke, In the Light of Experience, pp. 44, 46, 54, 58, 60–70.
^ ^a ^b Icke, In the Light of Experience, pp. 61–66, 82, 96.
^ Icke, In the Light of Experience, pp. 72, 75–83.
^ Icke, In the Light of Experience, pp. 83–95.
^ David Icke filmography, British Film Institute, accessed 14 November 2009.
^ Icke, Tales from the Time Loop p. 4.
^ Guardian, 14 November 1990.
- For the BBC not renewing the contract in August 1990, see Kennedy (Guardian) 1991.
^ Grossman (Institute for Social Ecology) 1991.
^ ^a ^b ^c Taylor 1997.
- For the daughter, see Icke, In the Light of Experience, pp. 221–223.
^ For the animal rights debate, see Icke 1989, accessed 12 December 2010.
- For the ads, see Weekend Guardian, 22–23 September 1990.
^ Icke, Days of Decision, p. 19.
^ Observer, 12 January 2003.
^ "David Icke Biography 1" (archived).
- For the five books in three years, earthquakes and flying machine, see "David Icke Biography 2", davidicke.com, accessed 12 December 2010 (archived).
^ Icke, Tales from the Time Loop, pp. 12–13, 16.
- Also see Barkun 2003, p. 103.
^ Kennedy (Guardian) 1991.
^ For "Son of the Godhead," see Icke, In the Light of Experience, p. 190, and for the "Infinite Mind," see p. 208.
^ Ezard (Guardian) 1991.
- For the death of his father, see Icke, In the Light of Experience, p. 188; for the press conference, see p. 193.
^ Icke, In the Light of Experience, p. 193.
^ ^a ^b Ronson (Guardian) 2001, part 1, part 2.
^ ^a ^b "David Icke on Wogan", BBC, 1991 and 2006, courtesy ofYouTube.
^ David Icke on Wogan, 29 April 1991, in "Still crazy after all these years", at 4 mins, 11 secs, accessed 30 March 2011.
^ Christy 1991.
^ Channel Five 2006, from 02:20 mins.
^ Icke, Tales from the Time Loop, pp. 14, 17; Channel Five 2006.
^ ^a ^b For the details of his lecture tours, website numbers, countries lectured in, see Channel Five 2006.
- For the reprintings and South Africa reference, see Lewis and Kahn 2010, p. 75; also see Lewis and Kahn 2005, (courtesy link, pp. 3–5).
^ Clarke (Daily Mail) 2012.
^ Lewis and Kahn 2010, p. 75.
^ For Oxford Union, Evans (New Statesman) 2008.
- Icke, David. "Live at the Oxford Union", February 2008.
- Also see Marre (Guardian) 2008.
- For the book tour and New York, see Leonard (Daily Mail) 2011.
^ VoteWise, accessed 12 December 2010.
- Naughton (Times) 2008.
^ For law of attraction/magnetic energy and satanic involvement, see Icke, Children of the Matrix, p. 291ff, and The Biggest Secret, pp. 30–40.
- For other possible worlds/frequencies, see Icke, The Biggest Secret, pp. 26–27.
- For changing DNA, see Icke, Infinite Love is the Only Truth, pp. 78–84, 148.
^ ^a ^b Barkun 2003, p. 104.
- For the "odd and ill-matched," see Simms 2002, p. 33.
- For the names, see Ronson (Guardian) 2001; Offley 2000a, and Icke, March 2000 (archived).
- For the ideas, see Icke, The Biggest Secret, pp. 1–2; And the Truth Shall Set You Free, p. 8; Children of the Matrix, pp. 19, 79, 251, 368.
^ Icke, Children of the Matrix, p. 339.
- Lewis and Kahn 2005, (courtesy link, p. 11).
- For the London School of Economics, see Icke, Human Race Get off Your Knees, pp. 134, 646; and Kay 2011, p. 180.
^ Icke, The Biggest Secret, pp. 19–25.
^ ^a ^b ^c Barkun 2003, p. 106.
^ Barkun 2003, p. 105.
^ Lewis and Kahn 2010, p. 81.
^ Icke, The Biggest Secret, pp. 30–38, 40.
- Icke, "Mono-Atomic Gold", Bibliotecapleyades.net, accessed 12 December 2010.
- Lewis and Kahn 2005, (courtesy link, pp. 8–9).
^ Lewis and Kahn 2010, p. 82.
^ Icke, The Biggest Secret, pp. 40–45.
^ Icke, Children of the Matrix, pp. 19, 79, 251.
- Lewis and Kahn 2005, (courtesy link, pp. 9–10).
^ Icke, The Biggest Secret, pp. 26–27.
^ Kay 2011, pp. 72, 179–180.
- For Icke's views, see Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Center Disaster, 2002, e.g. pp. 154, 205.
^ Icke, News for the Soul, accessed 12 December 2010.
^ ^a ^b Icke, Infinite Love is the Only Truth, pp. 78–84, 148; also see Channel Five 2006.
^ Icke, Human Race Get Off Your Knees, 2010, pp. 618, 627, 632.
^ ^a ^b ^c Barkun 2003, pp. 49–50.
- Ronson (Guardian) 2001.
- The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was written around 1897, probably under the direction of the Russian secret police in Paris, and purports to be transcripts of 24 addresses given to a group of Jewish elders. See United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the museum's timeline.
  It was exposed as a hoax in 1920 by The Times of London, which wrote that it was a work of plagiarism derived from two sources: The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu (1864) by a French satirist, Maurice Joly, which had nothing to do with Jews; and Biarritz (1868), an antisemitic novel by a German writer, Hermann Goedsche. See Barkun 2003, pp. 48–50.
- For more background, see Kay (National Post) 2011.
^ ^a ^b Honigsbaum (Evening Standard) 1995.
^ Ronson (Channel 4) 2001, 06:12 mins.
^ Barkun 2003, p. 104.
- For more on this, see Simms 2002, p. 33ff.
^ Independent 1994.
- Chaudhary (Guardian) 1994.
- Goodwin (Independent) 1994.
^ Icke (Guardian) 1994.
^ Barkun 2003, p. 144.
- Icke writes: "I strongly believe that a small Jewish clique which has contempt for the mass of Jewish people worked with non-Jews to create the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the Second World War. This Jewish/non-Jewish Elite used the First World War to secure the Balfour Declarationand the principle of the Jewish State of Israel in Palestine (for which, given the genetic history of most Jewish people, there is absolutely no justification on historical grounds or any other). They then dominated the Versailles Peace Conference and created the circumstances which made the Second World War inevitable. They financed Hitler to power in 1933 and made the funds available for his rearmament. See And the Truth Shall Set You Free, pp. 120–121, cited in Offley 2000a.
^ Taylor 1997.
- See Icke, "Master races", chapter seven, And the Truth Shall Set You Free.
^ Theroux 2001.
^ Ronson (Channel 4) 2001, from 4:26 mins.
^ Ronson (Guardian) 2001.
- During a debate in 1999 about whether to allow him to speak at the University of Toronto, law professor Ed Morgan wrote toRobert Prichard, the university's president, describing Icke's work as "precisely the type of vilifying material with which the Supreme Court was concerned in its decision regarding the Criminal Code of Canada ban. The publications praise classic antisemitic tracts, and are replete with references to a secret society carrying on a global conspiracy led by a manipulating Jewish clique"; see Jabbari 1999.
- Also see Kraft 1999.
^ Cowley (Independent on Sunday) 2000.
^ Ronson (Channel 4) 2001. Warman appears at 0:21 mins.
- Also see Gillis 2008, pp. 4–5.
- Icke, Children of the Matrix, p. 412.
^ ^a ^b For comparison with Alex Jones, and for the view that Icke is the most fluent of the genre, see Barkun 2003, p. 98ff, 163.
- For "professional conspiracy theorist," see Barkun 2011, pp. 71–72.
^ Barkun 2003, pp. 106–108.
^ Barkun 2003, p. 108.
^ Barkun 2003, p. 107.
^ Icke, Children of the Matrix, pp. 423–424.
- Lewis and Kahn 2005, (courtesy link, pp. 12–14).
- Lewis and Kahn 2010, p. 75.
^ Lewis and Kahn 2010, p. 88ff.
- Lewis and Kahn 2005, (courtesy link, p. 15).

[edit]References

Books and papers

Barkun, Michael. A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. University of California, 2003.
Barkun, Michael. Chasing Phantoms: Reality, Imagination, and Homeland Security Since 9/11. The University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
Icke, David. It's a tough game, son!. Piccolo Books, 1983.
Icke, David. In the Light of Experience, Warner Books, 1993.
Icke, David. Days of Decision. Jon Carpenter Publishing, 1993.
Icke, David. And the Truth Shall Set You Free. David Icke Books, 1995.
Icke, David. The Biggest Secret: The Book that Will Change the World. David Icke Books, 1999.
Icke, David. Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Center Disaster, Bridge of Love Publications, 2002.
Icke, David. Tales from the Time Loop. David Icke Books, 2003.
Icke, David. Infinite Love is the Only Truth. Bridge of Love Publications, 2005.
Icke, David. The David Icke Guide to the Global Conspiracy. David Icke Books, 2007.
Icke, David. Human Race Get Off Your Knees: The Lion Sleeps No More. David Icke Books, 2010.
Kay, Jonathan. Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America's Growing Conspiracist Underground. HarperCollins, 2011.
Lewis, Tyson and Kahn, Richard. "The Reptoid Hypothesis: Utopian and Dystopian Representational Motifs in David Icke's Alien Conspiracy Theory", Utopian Studies, Vol. 16, 2005 (courtesy link).
Lewis, Tyson E., and Kahn, Richard. "The Tail Behind the Tale: Toward a Reptoid History," Education Out of Bounds: Reimagining Cultural Studies for a Posthuman Age. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Simms, Norman. "Anti-Semitism: A Psychopathological Disease", in Piven, Jerry S. et al. (eds.). Judaism and Genocide: Psychological Undercurrents of History, Volume 4. Writers Club Press, 2002.

Video

Britton, Fern. Interview with David Icke, 1/3, 2/3, 3/3, BBC's Coast to Coast People, 1991.
Channel 5. "David Icke: Was He Right?", David Icke: Was He Right?, 12 December 2006.
Icke, David. "Does the Animal Kingdom need a Bill of Rights?", Royal Institute of Great Britain, 1989, YouTube, accessed 12 December 2010.
Ronson, Jon. "David Icke, the Lizards, and the Jews", Channel 4, 6 May 2001.
Wogan, Terry. David Icke interviewed by Terry Wogan, BBC, April 1991 and again in 2006.

News and other articles

Chaudhary, Vivek. "Greens see red at 'Son of God's anti-Semitism'," The Guardian, 12 September 1994.
Christy, Des. "Crucifixion, courtesy of the BBC," The Guardian, 6 May 1991.
Clarke, Natalie. "Divorced from reality", The Daily Mail, 7 January 2012.
Cowley, Jason. "The Icke Files", The Independent on Sunday, 1 October 2000.
Evans, Paul. Interview: David Icke, New Statesman, 3 March 2008.
Ezard, John. "'Son and daughter of God' predict apocalypse is nigh," The Guardian, 28 March 1991.
Gillis, Charlie. "Righteous Crusader or Civil Rights Menace?",Macleans, 9 April 2008.
Goodwin, Stephen. "Icke factor could thwart Greens' serious message", The Independent, 29 September 1994.
Greenslade, Nick. "The ten worst sportsmen in politics", The Observer, 5 September 2004.
Grossman, Wendy. "Green Party Cofounder Icke Goes New Age", Skeptical Inquirer, 1 January 1991.
Guardian, The. "Protester David Icke finally pays community charge," 14 November 1990.
Honigsbaum, Mark. "The Dark Side of David Icke", London Evening Standard, 26 May 1995.
Icke, David. "Down but speaking out among the Greens," letters to the editor, The Guardian, 14 September 1994.
Icke, David. "Problem-reaction-solution", News for the Soul, accessed 12 December 2010.
Icke, David. David Icke part 1, part 2, Davidicke.com, accessed 12 December 2010.
Icke, David. "Was Hitler a Rothschild?", DavidIcke.com, accessed 12 December 2010 (archived).
Icke, David. "Mono-Atomic Gold", Bibliotecapleyades.net, accessed 12 December 2010.
Independent, The. "Greens bar Icke", 12 September 1994.
Jabbari, Dorsa. "U of T provides accused anti-Semite with mike", Varsity News, 12 October 1999.
Kay, Jonathan. "The enduring influence of The Protocols of Zion", The National Post, 10 May 2011.
Leonard, Tom. "The second coming of David Icke", The Daily Mail, 28 November 2011.
Kennedy, Maev. "Icke resigns Green Speaker and parliamentary roles," The Guardian, 20 March 1991.
Kraft, Frances. "New Age speaker set to talk in Toronto", The Canadian Jewish News, 7 October 1999.
Marre, Oliver. "Pendennis", The Observer, 20 January 2008.
Mitchell, Ben. "This much I know", interview with David Icke,The Observer, 22 January 2006.
Naughton, Philippe. "Reptilians beware - David Icke is back!",The Times, 27 June 2008.
Observer, The. "The 10 worst decisions in the history of sport, 12 January 2003.
Offley, Will. "Selected Quotes Of David Icke", Political Research Associates, 23 February 2000.
Ronson, Jon. "Beset by lizards, part 1", part 2, extracts from Ronson's book, Them: Adventures with Extremists, The Guardian, 17 March 2001.
Taylor, Sam. "So I was in this bar with the son of God ...," The Observer, 20 April 1997.
Theroux, Louis. "Stranger than fiction: Are 12ft lizards running the world?", The Guardian, 7 April 2001.
Votewise. "David Icke stood for the None (No Party)", accessed 12 December 2010.
Whitney, Nicole. "Interview with David Icke", News for the Soul, 2004.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", accessed 12 December 2010.

[edit]Further reading

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: David Icke

DavidIcke.com.
Banyan, Will. "The Big Picture" A review of Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Center Disaster (pdf), Paranoia Magazine, October 2003.
Kay, Jonathan. "When paranoia goes intergalactic", The National Post, 12 May 2011.
Offley, Will. "David Icke And The Politics Of Madness: Where The New Age Meets The Third Reich", Political Research Associates, 29 February 2000.
Shermer, Michael. "Illuminati, The New World Order & Paranoid Conspiracy Theorists (PCTs)", The Skeptic's Dictionary, 2006.
Shermer, Michael. Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. Mjf Books, 1997.

Audio/video

Icke, David. Presenting snooker, BBC, 1980s.
Icke, David. "Does the Animal Kingdom need a Bill of Rights?", Royal Institute of Great Britain, Arena, BBC 2, 1989.
Icke, David. "Live at the Oxford Union", February 2008.
Icke, David. "Still crazy after all these years", from The Lion Sleeps No More DVD, 2010.
Kent, Arthur. "Secret Societies," interview with David Icke, History Channel, 2001.
Maher, Bill. Interview with David Icke, Religulous, 2008.
Ventura, Jessie. "Interview with David Icke", Conspiracy Theory: The Reptilian Agenda, 2012, from c. 31:40 mins.

[show] v t e Articles on 9/11 conspiracy theories

Authority control	VIAF: 151766814

Tomorrow Never Knows

2013-04-07T21:42:00.000-04:00

by Jim Kopetz

Eat more. Your diet is unhealthy.

Do you really want to die young or is that a facade you've created to explain your failures? Start working out. Why should women want you?

- I think I'm a good person. -

Who the fuck cares about that anymore? Do you really believe that morals play into a fantasy? No. You're an asshole. You think you deserve a good life because you've studied a few books? Enough childish behavior. Build muscle.

- I've been building a mental muscle. -

So fucking what?! So just because you can make someone laugh you think you're worth their time?

- Yes. -

Are you kidding me? What are your financial prospects?

- I'm not sure. -

Do you have any ambition whatsoever?

- I write. -

And how has that worked out for you?

- All right, I guess. -

Grow up. Start working out. Become desirable.

- I don't know how. -

Tomorrow is the beginning of the rest of your life. Or the beginning of the end depending on one's view. Don't ask yourself why you're not wanted. Ask yourself, why should I be? What do I have to offer? Love? Knowledge? Laughter?

This is the prelude to the end of the world.

Prelude to the End of the World

The Name Game.

Medical Incompetence

The Price of Refreshment or The Law VS Arizona Iced Tea

Just Fucking Do It.

Guilt Trips, Acid Trips, Road Trips

Ode to a Titan: Deftones

Fuck Everybody. Amen.

Hasty Decisions

Mountain Top Water Drop

The Pain of Silas Greene

Stand, By Me.

A Mothers Day Wish...for hope!

General:

Students:

Men:

Media, Perception, Dieting:

For Women:

Mortality Rates:

Athletes:

To Forge Strength

Hate vs. Love

From God, His Blistered Lips

Ticks and Insects

Mark Sanford is a Fraud and Joel Sawyer is a Ghost.

Experiments in the Wild

Mark Sanford: Man of Mystery

Sensationalism vs. Sense

Jacque Fresco

Yes men, it's this easy!

Our Nation's Shame

David Icke...Truth or Fear

Contents

[edit]Personal life and career

[edit]Early life and education

[edit]Football and first marriage

[edit]Sports presenter

[edit]Green Party, meeting with psychic healer

[edit]Turquoise period

[edit]Terry Wogan interview

[edit]Writing and lecturing

[edit]Key ideas

[edit]Global Elite

[edit]Reptoid hypothesis

[edit]Dimensions

[edit]Problem-reaction-solution

[edit]Red Dresses

[edit]Moon Matrix

[edit]Reception

[edit]Protests

[edit]Academic views

[edit]Works

[edit]See also

[edit]Notes

[edit]References

[edit]Further reading

Tomorrow Never Knows