In this Monday’s edition of my weekly exploration log, I got curious about marijuana propaganda and decided to dig into who is behind all the billboards popping up in weed-legal states. The answers, as you might expect, range from complete mysteries to right-wing muscle groups to hair-raising teen-torture scared-straight camps. JWZ, world’s biggest fan of They Live(1988), would have been proud of me. I felt just like this:
Anti-Drug billboards sponsored by Straight Incorporated founders
And seriously, I’m not kidding about teen-torture camps. Some of them are sponsored by “Drug Free America Foundation,” no surprise, but that foundation was founded by the same husband and wife team behind Straight Incorporated. Sample review:
“Straight, Incorporated was a very destructive, highly controversial and extremely abusive cult that shamelessly and dishonestly, masqueraded as a drug rehab for teenagers in several parts of the United States from 1976 to 1993.”
“These teenagers who were incarcerated in all of these savage Straight locations usually ranged in age from 13 to 20 years of age. The Straight cult had these Warehouse type facilities which operated in states such as California, Virginia, Texas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Georgia, Maryland, Ohio and Florida. Contrary to the mythology and propaganda endlessly perpetuated by Straight, these kids were not clients! These teenagers were hostages. While on First Phase they were imprisoned and held against their will physically,emotionally and psychologically (and sadly in so many cases, all three,) at the Straight Facility during the day and at night they were shuttled and transported (against their will) to various foster homes where they were held against their will there as well.”
The hair-raising tales of torture, rape, brainwashing, and even deaths in these American teen-torture camps rival many a horror story from the Holocaust, and it’s going on right under our noses right now, nobody knows. Start digging here, and here, and here. Bring your barf bag. This industry has gone on with no oversight, no regulation, for decades now, without once breaking the news. Remember when Mitt Romney was running against Obama? He was financed by WWASP. The teen torture industry has some deep ties to US religions that have an unusual interest in UFOs, which might explain why the closer to Utah you go, the creepier the anti-marijuana billboards get.
And speaking of UFOs (he said provocatively)…
NYT harbors UFO conspiracy theorist, doesn’t care
I am sick, sick, sick, to death, death, death, of the UFO cult of America, and I just began to lash into it at my GeekyDomain gig. Starting with the mangy reality-dodgers like the Area-51 truthers and going through the certified stupid Scientologists and Mormons, all the way up to a reporter at the NEW YORK TIMES who is given complete liberty to fill the front page of the newspaper of record with his drooling raving twaddle about UFOs.
Even after consistent, repeated incidents where Blumenthal made a completely unsubstantiated claim that was retracted later, the NYT just keeps on letting him embarrass them. What does this guy have, Mafia connections?
Apparently, everybody is too intimidated by Ralph Blumenthal’s journalism portfolio to call him out. Well, if you’re all too chicken, I guess that’s why I’m here, isn’t it?
An open letter to The New York Times: Ralph Blumenthal is a crazy idiot posting misleading, sensationalist headlines and has been given far too much leash without anyone choking him back. FIRE THE PIECE OF SHIT ALREADY! We have enough problems with anti-science in this country as it is, we don’t need to be fighting off UFO conspiracies from an established Pulitzer Prize publication too.
Seriously, people, is this the optics you want on your newspaper? You’re looking at crap tabloid fiction:
…and saying “Oh yeah, that’s our journalist standard to shoot for!” Because Ralph Blumenthal is the Pied Piper of crap who will lead you down that trail!
Supplementary reading: Rolling Stone noticed the UFO culture taking over too, seems downright charmed about it.
Now that you’ve survived the opening outraged screaming, here’s some sweet little entertainment:
Crazy times call for crazy heroes : Kaiketsu Zubat
At my geeky domain gig I showered my adoration upon Kaiketsu Zubat, a Japanese tokusatsu TV franchise that’s part of the henshin-superhero genre. Sort of. It’s difficult to explain. See, “tokusatsu” just means “live action,” so any non-animated show qualifies. Then there’s “henshin,” which means “transform,” as in what the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers do. But Zubat doesn’t do much henshin-ing, even though the show clearly belongs to this genre.
Oh, by the way, you know what else belongs to this genre? Japanese Spider-Man! Yes, I cover it in that article too, by way of talking about Zubat’s home genre.
A spaghetti western diversion…
I also mention that Zubat in his civilian / cowboy guise is reminiscent of Italian spaghetti westerns right down to some of the sight gags and stunts. After The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, the next most famous branch of spaghetti westerns is when they started morphing into comedies, especially with a series of slapstick western films starring Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. The Spencer / Hill partnership spawned a mini-franchise with They Call Me Trinity (1970), Now listen to this theme song:
Which modern audiences will recognize, because Quentin Tarantino borrowed it for his spaghetti western tribute Django Unchained (2012). And now you know the rest of the story.
One more bit of Spencer / Hill potpourri: There’s a game on Steam of all places called “Bud Spencer & Terence Hill – Slaps And Beans.” It’s this old-school arcade graphics beat-em-up, which is currently on sale. Caveat: Reviewers there lament that the game has never updated since its 2017 release. Weird how you’d get this incredibly tight niche fandom and then just hit and run.
Now you’re not going to believe me when I say I’m not a spaghetti western fan, and really not much of a western fan at all. As I mention in my Keoma (1976) review, westerns are just too conservative a genre. Despite this, my name is on several western-ish movies over at 366Weird, like Cannibal! The Musical (1993) and Zachariah (1971). Honestly, you can trade ’em all in for El Topo (1970) far as I care.
My other duties call, so join us here again next week my friends, you’re sure to get a smile. From seven stranded castaways, here on…
