Devil's Advocate

I thought I published this once before, years ago. (definitely years ago since the sweetness is gone) Probably as a news group post. But here it is again, slightly updated:

The rotten words have a certain charm,

properly composted they'd grow a farm.

He phrases his words in sweet terms and reasoning,

advocating things he himself doesn't believe

 

Why would he do such a thing?

Is his intent to deceive?

He makes the case so very well,

That the smoke wafting up from hell,

the sulfur odor, seems just another garden smell,

despite the underlying rottenness.

 

He is playing the devil's advocate

But where is the heavenly side?

Where is the Judge to preside?

Where is the truth?

Where is the advocate for truth?

 

The devil's advocate,

advocates to find the truth.

His limits are facts. He never lies.

though he defends vigorously as charged.

Thoroughly airing the truth, examining the lies

puncturing myths, to allow the light;

Satan as God's prosecutor

 

Without the airing of lies,

there can't be any refutation.

Without the action of air and rain,

Lies only kill.

And lies, displayed as myths,

form a crust over putrification

 

But there are people who are the devil's friend

For them truth is not as important as securing the win,

Hiding facts, distorting the truth, advocating for the devil.

Such people are advocating for the devil.

With selfish motives which shred any pretense of integrity.

 

In a poisoned world of lies,

that smell will remain, tightly bound,

Turned into myths, facts pounded down,

Until the crust of lies breaks,

And it will emerge with a noxious plume,

that kills all who are forced to breathe it.

 

Evil see's lies as his friend.

Putrid lies and distortions, anger and conflict,

bring destruction, and misery that never end.

Don't we want the lies to end?

These Devil's advocates are the Devil's friend.

 

Can these people be saved?

Can he change his stripes once he's put on this skin?

Can he get on the mark after missing in sin?

Can be dionysian and at the same time Manichean?

Can his secrets ever be more than lies?

Is one trapped in lies,

when one subverts the truth?

 

If anything they say is untrue.

...though the rotten words have a certain charm...

....they are lies.

....and lies are death

Why Words are not enough

If words were enough

then wordsmiths could architect the world

and we'd have paradise or hell

abundance or poverty,...

 

...all based on a poet's heart.

Imagine greenery based on a prophet's dream

Imagine, utopia on a preacher's scheme

If only we could hear such voices with our inner ear.

Would that bring joy or would it be a thing to fear?

 

If only we could hear

the meaning inside a mother's tear

Would we find a way to stop our wars?

Would we stop stomping on the weak among us?

 

Imagine if cathedrals could grow

seeded by a a preachers sermon

What mighty edifices we could see.

If only words could set us free.

 

But our hearts are deaf and dumb

And our ears are cloyingly numb.

We only hear what we want to hear

and we ignore, even what our prophets preach

 

preferring false prophets to the truth

Many preferring the genocide of a Joshua

To the quiet love of Ruth

When we hear the truth, we stone the prophet.

When we hear their lies, we elevate them to a dais.

 

So it's a good thing our words can't build things of themselves

Or we'd raise prisons with our hatred

And drive staves in each other's hearts.

And half baked ideas would raise Golden idols that cannot long stand.

For we speak a long time before we understand.

 

...and that is why words....

...are not enough my dear.

Christopher H. Holte, not sure when I wrote it. but I'm publishing it today 2/17/2015

Arrest Boehner for violating the Logan Act!

Speaker Boehner is essentially admitting/ boasting that he's violating the logan act. I'm not sure that Obama can arrest him but he certainly can seek an indictment. This is insurrectionary, subversive and traitorous behavior. Arrest Boehner!

Addicting Info reports:

"House Speaker John Boehner committed a crime when he invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to a joint session of Congress, and now he is freely admitting that he not only did so behind President Obama’s back, he did so to sabotage delicate peace talks with Iran." [Addicting Info]

The Logan act makes it a federal crime for anyone to try to influence foreign policy without the permission of the Executive Branch, i.e. President Obama. This is a felonious act. Obama has to take it seriously.

"During an interview on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, Boehner confessed that he knew the White House wouldn’t appreciate a foreign leader being brought in to wreck diplomatic efforts to keep Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, so he did so in secret to prevent President Obama from nixing the GOP plan to undermine him." http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/02/16/boehner-confesses-i-invited-netanyahu-secretly-to-stab-president-obama-in-the-back-and-sabotage-peace-talks-video/

If I were an executive and someone did this to our policy, I'd charge him with violating the Logan Act so fast his head would spin. I wouldn't be able to arrest him because of a provision protecting him in the constitution. But maybe I could arrest some staffers.

[]

Two Generations of Pirates

I've been enjoying two series on the same group of pirates. One of those series, "Black Sails" is essentially a "prequil" to Treasure Island. Many of the characters are drawn from Treasure Island and the events it describes are semi-fictional and thus probably more historically accurate than a direct account would be [more on this later]. The other series is "Crossbones" staring John Malkovich as Blackbeard. The really fun thing about these series is that they just scratch the surface of the fun that is our privateering history.

Both of them have associated books and both are fun to watch:

Black Sails:

As a "Prequil" to treasure Island Black Sails focuses on the capture of a Spanish Treasure ship, "The Urca" and the politics of the Bahamas. It's fictional and focuses on the crew of the legendary "Walrus" under Captain Flint, against other mythical pirates including "Calico Jack" and others. The Politics is probably is as nearly historically accurate about those times as one can get.

Black Sails IMDB: [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2375692/]

Cross Bones:

But in some ways Cross Bones is more cartoonish. It focuses on the myth of Blackbeard and his life beyond that myth. Thus it dramatizes materials covered in a lot of ways by a lot of authors. It has outlandish plot elements like a submarine loaded with gunpowder intended to blow up the Spanish Fleet.

But what is important to me (aside from paying attention to the sets, the backgrounds and the beautiful locations where the series are shot) is the backstories they tell. Fiction frequently illustrates reality. And the story of pirates and privateers is a story of overlapping myths and official violence versus outlaws. Pirates are the "Robin Hoods" of the Sea. Often they are seen as romantic because in some ways, as outlaws, they are more free and their governance more roughly democratic than that of the official pirates who rob and steal for "King and Country" -- and hang the outlaws when not employing them as sailors and warriors to be exploited and discarded. I think the actual pirate captains probably deserve a better reputation than the Captains of the Royal Pirate fleet. I mean the Royal Navy. Our first navies for both countries (Britain and the USA) came from both traditions.

Black Sails

Black Sails is set in Nassau, in the Bahamas. And is fictionalized I think to protect the good name of the descendents of the guilty parties. The Wikipedia article notes:

"Black Sails is an American dramatic adventure television series set on New Providence Island and a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island. The series was created by Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine for Starz that debuted online for free on YouTube and other various streaming platform and video on demand services on January 18, 2014. The debut on cable television followed a week later on January 25, 2014. Steinberg is executive producer, alongside Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form, while Michael Angeli, Doris Egan, and Levine are co-executive producers."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sails_%28TV_series%29

Cross Bones

Cross Bones is set on a fictional Island, loosely based on Nassau and the Bahamas, where an aging Blackbeard holds court. It's set in 1729. And like Cross Bones it is fictionalized with some loose grounding in history. It is meant to be more of a psychological thriller:

"From Neil Cross, the award-winning creator of "Luther," along with James V. Hart & Amanda Welles comes "Crossbones," a compelling new one-hour drama filled with extraordinary action, adventure and intrigue - set in a world where one can never be sure just who is hero and who is villain." [http://www.nbc.com/crossbones]

"It's 1729. On the secret island of Santa Compana, Edward Teach, better known as the barbarous pirate Blackbeard (Emmy winner John Malkovich, "Death of a Salesman," "Red"), reigns over a rogue nation of thieves, outlaws and miscreants. Part shantytown, part utopia, part marauder's paradise, this is a place like no other." [crossbones]

Pirate Families behind the Pirates

I've been looking into the history of privateering so I wanted to research these pirates. I wanted to look at the time line and to compare the narratives. I need money to do it properly. But thanks to the Internet I can do a draft just looking at digitized documents. What I'm finding would make a great job for a prosecutor.

Generations of Pirates

The Earliest generations of Pirates date back to centuries before Sir Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth. From the POV of the world Sir Walter Raleigh was a pirate. Same with Henry Morgan. And so were these ancestral mariners. What I'm finding is that they didn't all hang at the yardarms. A good number disappear from the records, laundered their loot and became nobility. I'll talk about this more in a future post.

Pirates of the Mediterranean

As I research this subject I find that the people of the European Atlantic were doing trade, and piracy, in the Black Sea, in the Baltic and in the Mediterranean, even before Columbus discovered America. English Pirates even featured as "renegados", converting to Islam along with Dutch and other European renegades) and leading pirate fleets all over the Mediterranean. The Barbary pirates raided Iceland, the West Coast of Ireland, and maybe even Greenland. Their goal was to steal slaves and goods. Some family made enough money they became aristocrats. And when other oceans opened up, they were already prepared to shift operations.

Testing the Slave Trade in the Mediterranean

The Slave Trade, Slavery, and the crops involved, were laboring and growing in the Mediterranean centuries before the practice was exported to the "New World." The factory system was about loot. And loot was needed to fight wars, and was made via privatizing the looting done during those wars. Legal Pirates were called Privateers. Privateers hang pirates. Privateers don't share their loot -- they seek great riches, power and status.

Indeed that is the common thread. Both the official accounts and the legends. One can understand the legends. There is nothing more entertaining than a tall tale. But the official accounts are often incomplete, sketchy or even contradictory too. Web sites contradict one another. Books too. Pirates want to depict themselves as Robin Hood. Most were hoods robbing.

Hollywood Pirates

These movies and TV series (from 2/15/2015) reflect multiple generations of pirating and privateering. They are fictional, yet probably the stories are probably more accurate than what is in documentation. Privateers form a class of pirates that one can only call "The Privateering" class. The previous generation of pirates I'm referred to are the as mythic, but more heroically depicted pirates of Henry Morgan's time. While the pirates of Nassau and the Bahamas have a lot of fame, largely because of their connections to North Carolina and the future American Revolution. What fascinated me was the names. The earlier generation of pirates were associated with Henry Morgan.

The next generation, the children of the pirates were admirals, officers and gentry. The first generation may be pirates, but it's all perfectly legal for the children.

John Paul Jones and Robert Morris Pirates

Like the earliest generations of pirates such as Raleigh and Henry Morgan (and later generations such as our John Paul Jones and Robert Morris' entire pirate fleet (our Navy) in the 1770's to 1790). They operated sometimes under "Letters of Marquee" to conduct privatized war. They often took prizes not on the official list [Dead men tell no tale, because privateers could take prizes legally but pirates would get hung if caught.] Sometimes they got away with it; Henry Morgan. Sometimes they got caught and hung anyway; Captain Kid (1645-1701).

I wanted to research these pirates because I had been looking at a lot of pirate families and wanted to understand the time line. What was the relationship between the pirates of the 1700's and earlier generations of pirates? Why were the pirates of Nassau tolerated? Why were they often ruthlessly put down? Why did they use Nomme Du Guerres? And why are the legends about them myth and legend?

Successful pirates like Captain Morgan often are only distinguished from unsuccessful pirates like Captain Kidd by dumb luck. For more on this read:

http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2015/02/trinity-church-and-captain-kidd.html

After all, what does Trinity Church have to do with piracy?

Further reading and episodes:

Black Sails:

http://www.starz.com/originals/blacksails

Cross Bones

http://www.nbc.com/crossbones

I buried other URLs in the notes in the article. But here's the article on William May:

http://www.thepirateking.com/bios/may_william.htm

More on Captain Kidd:

http://www.biography.com/people/william-kidd-17179370#privateering-and-pirating

http://www.blacksheepancestors.com/pirates/kidd.shtml

Roe Versus Wade RIP

West Virginia Outlaws abortion after 20 weeks

No exceptions for Rape and Incest

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/briefs/x1551969531/West-Virginia-House-of-Delegates-OKs-abortion-ban

Todays news is depressing on the personal freedom front. So much for Roe Versus Wade. I believe that abortion is nasty myself. But I also believe it is a private matter for women to have self governance over, not my business unless it is my baby, and even then my role should be more advisory than dictatorial unless they can fashion me a womb and let me bear it to term. In my opinion sticking your nose into private manners and publicizing private things is perversion not moral. I believe that abolitionist/prohibitionists trying to oppress women in the name of "right to life" are perverts. These people are sex offenders not moral people. I know I will offend relatives here. But sorry, oppressing women offends me. And West Virginia:

"CHARLESTON — West Virginia delegates approved a ban on abortions after 20 weeks conception Wednesday, similar to the one Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin vetoed last year over constitutionality concerns." [http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/briefs/x1551969531/West-Virginia-House-of-Delegates-OKs-abortion-ban]

Hopefully this one will be vetoed too.

"The bill bans abortions after 20 weeks, with some exemptions for women in medical emergencies. Rape and incest aren't exempted, despite Democratic members' attempts to include them." [West Virginia Bans Abortion]

They say that people were reciting Bible Versus among the abolitionist prohibitionists. I'd like to myself but the only passage I can find is the one where a woman is made to drink bitter water to prove that she hasn't been untrue to her husband. Considering that water might well be an abortifacient I guess those were known to the ancients. It just isn't my business and I don't know where they get their quotes.

The only good thing once these laws go into effect is that the evidence that criminalization drives abortion underground will mount. The harm done by abolition/prohibition will add up. Folks will blame the victims at first and OB/GYN doctors and women will be killed or go to jail. But eventually the scoundrels behind "right to life" rhetoric will expose themselves for the perverts they are.

That's just my opinion. And I'll ad to this later.

A Hitchiker's guide to US Politics

Last night I had a disturbing dream. I've been praying for a space ship to take me off the earth for quite a while so I could avoid the Vogon Bypass scheduled for the earth. (at least I wasn't wandering naked in Foggy Bottom like some of my other nightmares). And I finally caught it. I have an internet friend who calls himself Zaffod Beeblebrox (you have to read the book to understand the references) and he was there too.

Oh but first was my usual nightmare where I'm running stark naked down the streets in Foggy Bottom. Yes, I can't have a nightmare without that part. This time I was over near the parking areas East of the Saudi Embassy on Virginia Avenue where if you arrive right on time you can snag cheap parking after 6:30 when Rush hour is over. I parked my car and a parking attendant who looked like a Vogon put a ticket on it as I parked. As it was after 6:30 and the signs clearly said "no parking" only between 4:00 and 6:30 and paid parking only from 7:00 AM to 6:30 PM (this is DC after all) I said "Lady, it's after 6:30". To that she took a sheet of paper with a sticky back and pasted it to the instructions sign. The paper said "No legal parking ever." Then she said "you are running around naked and I'll have to fine you for that too." As no one ever notices me naked in my nightmares that was an alarming change. After all I'm "really" in my bed over in far Brunswick Maryland. At that point I realized I didn't have a car either and that wasn't my car she was ticketing. That was a relief. But then squad cars from the DC police and the park police started pulling up all over. And more Vogons got out.

I didn't really run. I didn't really fly either. In my dreams I just kind of swish along with my feet barely touching the ground. I haven't flown in a dream since I met my mother in a tree 30 years ago. But that's another story. I think at this point I had dream clothes on but now I was running from Vogons, and they were chasing me. A crowd of them. Some strangely resembling Republican relatives, Majority House Leader Boehner (who was crying as he ran). McConnell who resembled a Turtle more than a 'normal' Vogon (whatever that is), a bunch of Newt Gingrich Clones and folks who resembled large Babies some of whom resembled Churchill or Rush Limbaugh and others who were just fat. I was starting to panic. Why they were interested in little old me I had no idea. I ran, or rather kind of flew/hovered to the Kennedy Center entrance where I went in and then back out on the lovely side where the Potomac is. At least the door wasn't locked. It was at that point I was beamed up. I could hear Scotty operating the transporter in the background (Dreams never make total strength but that is a good job for him now)

At that point I was beamed up to stand next to Zaffod Beeblebrox, who I guess was picked up having his own version of this nightmare. Or maybe he was taken out of his rubber raft. I don't know. It was my dream. I was standing in front of two vaguely familiar Gentlemen in what looked like a court room chamber. And I was full of Questions.

The gentlemen identified themselves as "The ineffable One, the ruler of life, the living and everything."

There was a panel of Vogons next to him that looked suspiciously like Chief Justices of the US Supreme Court; Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito and Kennedy. All made perfect Vogons. I asked:

"Why Vogons?"

The taller of the two gentlemen:

"Don't worry about them. They have a destiny to fulfil and they obey me."

The shorter gentleman just smiled and nodded his head in agreement:

"They obey me too.

Now a Vogon is described as:

"slug-like but vaguely humanoid, are bulkier than humans, and have green skin. Vogons are described as “one of the most unpleasant races in the galaxy—not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous", and having "as much sex appeal as a road accident" as well as being the authors of "the third worst poetry in the universe". They are employed as the galactic government's bureaucrats." [Hitchhikers Guide to the Gallaxy, taken from Wikipedia for cut & paste purposes]

And certainly these Republicans, many Police and other government officials already fit the description. I asked:

"How do we have Vogons among us. I thought we were all humans."

The ineffable one replied:

You are finally seeing their spiritual essence my friend.

The panel of judges were looking at me with nasty expressions, but just nodded their heads.

"I see. But what can we do about them? They are mucking up the whole planet! I could understand a bypass. But we don't seem to be going anywhere."

The ineffable one replied in a nice manly baritone and with a beatific smile:

"I have a plan. And you are part of it too son. Be patient and it will unfold as it should."

I was starting to feel better. But dumbstuff me I had to keep asking questions:

"But I have to live there too. Can you at least take me with you to some place where there aren't Vogons destroying the planet?"

Be patient my son. I work in mysterious ways.

But Vogons? They make perfect republicans but why not Teddy Roosevelt Republicans? We used to have those. You know smart people. People who care about their planet and it's future. People who care about their own children. Why let them destroy your own creation?

The Tall one said:

"Oh but we don't come from this planet. Our home planet is the planet Kochopia and we are Slitheens from the planet Oileroon, here to hunt oil and money for turning into tar balls we can take home for our children to feast on."

At that point they morphed into the Koch Brothers, the room faded, and I was back in bed sweating terribly and not sure whether to laugh or cry. The last thing I heard was laughter and the words in bad German accent:

"You'll be back.

And this image:

Looks like I can't avoid the Vogon Bypass after all

Pagans of Wall Street

 

They worship the Golden Bull

And fear the Hungry Bear

Their Gods are not our Gods

But when you confront them

You get a blank stare

 

They are the Pagans of Wall Street

More vicious than any motorcycle gang

But they sit in the front rows in Worship

And, pharisees, make a show of worshipping

The ineffable one

 

What do we do with such people?

Remind them of what destiny awaits?

They'd never believe you anyway

They earned their privileges

And all acclaim

What marvelous people they are

 

Christopher H. Holte

Inspired by Pope Francis (though I've written on this before)