Rabbit Hole News: Iron Man 3 Theater Scare, Jay Z Time Traveller, Mystery Planes In MA

U.S. Senator confirms that we have Secret Space Marines

It's just heatin' up, Rabbit-Hole News readers: we've got strange planes, secret space marines, fake shooters at an "Iron Man 3" screening, and a lot more!

FALSE FALSE FLAG:

Is this the worst movie theater publicity stunt ever done, or the worstenest? Goodrich Capital 8 Theaters  in Jefferson, MO sent actors DRESSED IN TACTICAL ARMOR AND CARRYING FAKE MACHINE GUNS into a screening of "Iron Man 3."

From ABC 17 News:

John Molock is a retired Army war veteran and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. He told ABC 17 News this most recent trip to the movies triggered memories he never wanted to relive. "We had just finished watching Iron Man 3," said Morlock. "We're just getting into the car when I spotted a man in full assault gear, carrying what appeared to be a modified M-4 and 9 mm on his side."

Because vets with PTSD really need to see a fake Aurora shooting.


IN PLANE SIGHT:

Folks in Quincy, MA have been terrified for the last ten days by mystery low-flying aircraft. From Boston CBS Local:

Every night for nearly the last two weeks, residents have spotted a low-flying aircraft doing loops over the city. WBZ has learned the FAA knows what’s going on, but the agency isn’t telling. “I mean it is strange. I don’t know if they’re looking for somebody, I have no idea,” one resident told WBZ.

I'm sure it's just some harmless aerial tomfoolery.


TIME TRAVEL:
Is Jay Z a time-traveller? A recently unearthed 1933 photograph seems to indicate so:

Or maybe the Illuminati just gave him a secret immortality serum....


I'M NOT SAYING IT'S ALIENS BUT IT'S ALIENS:

Vanity Fair profiles famous UFOlogist John Edward Mack:

...two decades after Mack took alien abduction from the pages of the National Enquirer to the hallowed halls of Harvard, the question remains: why would a pillar of the psychiatric establishment at America’s oldest university court professional suicide to champion the most ridiculed and tormented outcasts of society?

He did it all for the Benjamins, I'm sure.


OFFWORLD AGENDA:

Senator Mike Gravel dropped a bombshell at the Citizen Hearing On Disclosure last week:

"We have a Space Military Force, it is in existence." 

Well...duh!

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Requiem For The Doomed (And All The Mummified Cats)

Two horrible news stories competed for my attention yesterday -- soul-crushing, hideous, gory news stories in which the actual "newsworthiness" to me was debatable.

In the first, a man was pushed to his death in front of a New York City subway train (the train line I use, just for an added fillip of dread). According to an MTA public service poster I noticed coincidentally the same day I later found out about the death, about 40+ people died from being struck by subway trains last year. But what made this particular item of such visceral impact is the way our humor paper, The New York Post, reported the story on its front page:

The altercation that proceeded this poor man's fall onto the tracks was also filmed by one type of mobile device or another -- the important thing is, it was recorded. Recorded, another trifle on the iPhones and tablets and other gadgets. As I've pointed out in a previous post on a knife-wielding man who was shot in Times Square, the citizenry always are sure to record such anomalous events and tragedies on their devices, watch through lenses and screens at the gory drama about to unfold.

Then the Media covers the event, replicates and magnifies certain images for mass consumption. But the NYP cover is probably one of the most blood-curdling, "bread and circuses" tableau I've ever seen.

What is the accumulated mental impact on the populace as the result of being exposed to such horrors?

The second, barely "news" story was a segment on the show "Hoarders," about essentially the Ed Gein of cat hoarders. Cat owners, I will spare you the details, but it was the most disgusting, soul-ripping situation you can possibly imagine. This, coupled with an obviously deeply emotionally ill woman crying, cradling a mummified cat/cat-head in her arms and admitting she has lost all control.

If there is any real news about these two stories, it's about the inadequate mental health services provided to people in this country -- meager resources that are constantly in danger of being cut from governmental budgets. But you'll never see such items framed in such a way. That would be boring.

I write this in the context of a horrible nightmare I had last night. It started with a man, possibly a veteran, returning from war. He looks at all the giant ads and billboards surrounding him, and the symbolism really disturbs him -- triggers off deep post-traumatic stress issues. These are ads and signs not just containing violent imagery, but just deep, symbolic stuff that creates a sense of vertigo and cognitive dissonance.

As the dream continues, the man turns to me and tells me that I am the only one who can unlock the mystery of what has happened to men like him -- people who have been purposely fucked-up and mentally destroyed in these sorts of "experiments." These experiments involve the use of repeated imagery and sound -- I suppose MK-Ultra type stuff. He says the answers are "locked in his head," though there are books and other notes around the room I might be able to get more information from.

Then the scene switches to a room full of people -- regular people you'd find anywhere. A tone is played, and a certain light is flashed, and these people turn on each other, trying to kill each other with their bare hands and anything they find in the room. They become like complete animals. It's like something out of "The Manchurian Candidate," but with regular people not soldiers, and far more brutal.

Which reminds me of "The Walking Dead," and of this recent news story of a man who shot his girlfriend in the back with a rifle over an argument regarding the show. The substance of the argument? The suspect was convinced that a zombie-apocalypse type scenario might happen:

"...he felt very adamant that there could be some type of military mishap that would result in some sort of virus or something being released that could cause terrible things to happen."

I'm going to wind this all up with mentioning once again the "Summer of Shootings" that just passed, starting with the "Dark Knight" one in Aurora and quickly escalating to almost one a week. After a while, we still got those shooting stories...but they weren't big news anymore, barely a Twitter Trend.

Bored again. What will be the new Hotness? The Royal Messiahs? Junk Food Shortages?

Anyway, I also write a blog on Wellness, and really try to focus on strategies to shield oneself -- or at least purge the toxins -- from being exposed to all this. I don't believe in being sheltered. But we need the critical thinking ability to put what we see in context. And we need to Consume Content Consciously.

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Twilight Of The Action Movie Gods

The "Last Supper" for the Action Movie Gods

Warning: this post may contain too much testosterone for you to handle. Discretion is advised.

Our Movie Action Heroes™are rapidly aging: 

Clint Eastwood, 82

Chuck Norris, 72

Sylvester Stallone, 66

Bruce Willis, 57

The type of America they represented is changing. The nation -- and the world -- is evolving. Evolution necessitates new heroes appropriate to the time.

But, to borrow a phrase from one of their own tribe, you'll have to pry the guns -- and the cultural hegemony -- out of the Movie Action Heroes' cold, dead hands:

"I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we -- we own this country."
--Clint Eastwood to the Republican convention

"We’re at a tipping point and, quite possibly, our country as we know it may be lost forever if we don’t change the course in which our country is headed."
--Chuck Norris, "Dire Warning For America" Election 2012 video

A pertinent question for Eastwood & Norris is: who is this "we?"

"WE own this country."

"OUR country as WE know it may be lost forever..."

When they say "we," who are they really talking about?

Are they really talking about you, dear reader?

Norris: not a fan of, in his words, "Pro-Gay Obama"

Further -- in a current state of affairs where there is a mass shooting virtually every week, is all this gun-worshipping, jingoistic bravado juxtaposed with issues of "patriotism" and flag-waving and xenophobia and "us vs. them" really a good idea? When we have people talking of armed insurrection and "civil war" if Obama is reelected? Is having Dirty Harry say his famous catchphrase under a gigantic picture of him holding guns at the RNC a good fucking idea, given the present climate?

News Flash: "Fox News Obsessed Man Threatened To Murder Girlfriend For Being A 'Liberal'":

The deputy who arrested Kappheim said the man told him "he was very conservative, and his girlfriend was liberal and he felt he was going to have kill her."...The same deputy reported that documents found inside the woman's apartment that belonged to Kappheim led him to suspect he was "obsessed" with Fox News and the GOP, and posed a threat to others.

David A. Kappheim, who felt that his girlfriend had to die for being a "liberal."

Over the weekend we just had a case where a serial cyberbully/stalker went on a rampage sending "gang-rape" messages to virtually every prominent female in the comic book industry with a Twitter account. Mixed in with threats of sexual assault was talk of those darn "liberals," as well as a perceived bias against conservatives, men, Christians, and whites. While this man had apparently cyberstalked some of his targets for up to two years or more, something made him recently snap and decide to "unload" his hate in a massive way.

This next passage is from a video rant by "Hero Of The People" Alex Jones, which I've taken the liberty of adding some images to. With a prominent website and YouTube channel, Jones' stated mission is to "is to re-ignite the spirit of 1776":

"It is absolute total war. Economic, psychological, physical, spiritual...toe-to-toe with the Social Engineers. We can beat 'em if we get out of their mind-trick, recognize who they are, read their own white-papers and books where they call us degenerate, dumb scum that they're going to dumb down further, set up a control grid, and kill. Well not me and not my family...not without one hell of a fight. You asked for it, you're going to get one...

"...It starts with a war growl, it starts with gettin' fired up, staring at yourself in the mirror and showing some teeth and saying  I'm a human being and I have dignity, I'm gonna resist, I'm gonna start recognizing the propaganda, I'm gonna break free from it...

"...we're gonna organize, humanity is gonna come together....YAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!! WE KNOW WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!!! WE KNOW IT!!!! WE'RE BREAKING THE CONDITIONING!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! GRRRRRRR!!!! WE'RE COMING FOR YOU, GLOBALISTS! (beats chest) GRRRRRRRR!!! COMIN' FOR YA! COMIN' FOR YA! WE KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!

"(calms down, wipes brow) I'm sorry...I JUST GET FIRED UP WHEN I THINK ABOUT WHAT THEY'RE DOING TO US AND HOW MUCH I WANT TO RESIST THEM...and how easy they are to defeat. (gasps for air) Excuse me. I think my testosterone is going up...this happens every time I start working out a lot again. I swam two miles this morning pretty hard...and ate a pretty big steak last night that's full of hormones and testosterone in its own right."

Steak: a traditional American meal, full of testosterone

So if you're wondering why it seems that recently every nutcase is coming out of the woodwork, deluging your Twitter feed with hate, equating Obama with Hitler or Satan, shooting up theaters and places of worship, stocking up on firearms, talking to empty chairs, getting arrested on conspiracy to take over the government and assassinate our President...

The Action Movie Gods are waning, and are holding desperately to their throne -- manipulating the masses as gods are wont to do. It's a virtual Ragnarok, an event which "Thor" star Chris Hemsworth -- who is also in "Expendables 2" and the upcoming "Red Dawn" -- would only know too well.

Actual EW caption: "Chris Hemsworth and his fellow high schoolers battle commies in Red Dawn"

Will Hemsworth successfully become a new Action God, part of a retro Eighties redux that will bring back Rambo, Rocky, Red Dawn, red-white-and-blue patriotism, a fear of "Commies," and a fatherly Republican in the White House?

And will steak -- a manly, high-protein, all-American food item -- become popular again, defying the agenda of the social engineer liberal communist eco-obsessed foreign-funded pro-gay yoga-practicing egghead interloper traitorous feminazi atheist folk who want to force-feed us soy and enslave us? According to this article regarding the upcoming food crisis -- probably not.

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Anonymous, Pussy Riot, And The Year Of The Mask

Despite "Cosmopolis" director David Cronenberg's recent assertion that superhero movies and themes are for kids, a look at the most provocative news stories of the day suggest otherwise.

Outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, protesters in Guy Fawkes (or, as some media refers to them, "V for Vendetta") masks decry the "persecution" of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange (himself looking like someone from James Bond central casting):

And around the world people are donning ski masks in support of recently-convicted & sentenced Russian punk band Pussy Riot:

Globally, the iconography of the mask is being employed as one of rebellion, free-thinking, anarchy, and protest -- while at the same time co-opted by others as a symbol of darker things, a warning against this very same rebellious impulse in society:

At any rate, the idea that superhero and "comic book" themes do not deserve serious study or treatment is pointedly ridiculous. From political activists to the much-underestimated phenomenon of "real-life superheroes" to mass killers, the imagery of Comics is all around us -- sometimes used to inspire, sometimes used to terrify...and sometimes used as an inscrutable mirror of our own ever-mutating, ever-contradictory selves:

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"It Was Like A Chris Nolan Scene": The Case Of The "Times Square Ninja"

A public act of violence hit a little too close to "home" (or, rather, work) for me last Saturday, as a knife-wielding man was shot dead by police in Times Square.

The man, 51-year-old Darius Kennedy, was allegedly smoking marijuana by the military recruiting station -- which is also right near the NYPD Times Square command center -- when confronted by police. Darius responded by tying a blue bandanna around his head and pulling out a rather large knife, which he waved around. The cops chased him down 7th Avenue, then fatally shot him when he would not stop.

The crowd of locals and tourists largely did what you would guess they'd do in the situation: stand around gawking and shooting video on their iPhone.

This story has been widely reported in the media; significantly, a number of posts contextualize the incident in terms of a "movie-like" event, both in the main post and in the comments section. For example, the New York Times article starts as follows:

"When the tourists and shoppers thronging Times Square on Saturday afternoon first saw the police officers, guns drawn, confronting a knife-wielding man, many thought they had stumbled onto a movie set. But it was quickly apparent this was no celluloid fantasy."

The blog Firedoglake raised eyebrows at this intro, commenting:

"Film critic Roger Ebert wrote in 1968 in an essay on violence in film, which has a troubling resonance today, 'I have no way of knowing whether violence is more common in films today, but it seems to have become more explicit and brutal. Even more disturbing is the new attitude toward violence in many films. No longer is violence exclusively a force of evil. Now it is tolerated as a means toward good ends as well.' The gunning down of a man in Times Square by police, for witnesses, may be just that kind of violence—violence toward good ends. The Times writers suggest the episode people saw seemed legitimate, not out-of-place. Had a film production been unfolding, there would have been no shock that Hollywood has become so good at creating illusion for the screen. People would have resumed shopping and there would be no story to write"

What I haven't seen noted in the articles about the incident is its backdrop. Luckily, for some reason I got it in my mind two weeks ago to take photos of the immensely large billboards decorating the strip where Kennedy took his last steps. The block housing the main 42nd Street subway hubs has been "taken over" with advertising for The Dark Knight Rises. These billboards, which are as high as 10 stories, surround three of the four sides of the block. Here is the imagery which the police & Kennedy ran past:

Now let's take a look at some comments left on Gothamist (pun intended) regarding the event:

"I know that a steady diet of action movies have taught the American people that the police should be able to shoot the gun out of the bad guy's hand, or they should be able to stun him with a witty one-liner or they could have thrown their batarang & left him tied up on the roof for the commissioner. That isn't reality, though. The police are not ninjas. They are not Batmans."

and:

"Wow. The first video is like a Christopher Nolan scene. The last video. man, there is a guy that is following the action that is so entranced by following 20 policeman with their guns pointed out that he tries to get as close to the action as possible and trips before the cops unload. That guy deserves to be shot."

As if to contextualize the story in even more "comic book" terms, Kennedy is then subsequently referred-to  in the press as "The Times Square Ninja": "Kelly: Cops Were Right To Shoot 'Ninja'"

**Well..he was a ninja...and the cops were "Batman"...so...***

What is real and what is a movie here? What's from a "Batman" flick and what are the objective facts of this case? Is this blurring of fantasy and reality harmful, and did it at all influence how the incident at Times Square played out?

Here are more gigantic posters that looked down from their high perches as the scene unfolded:

Again, the question must be asked...how much of a role does being exposed to images of violence have on us as human beings? Darius Kennedy spent most of his recent life hanging around Times Square, amongst the gargantuan posters and glittery mega-stores and scruffy versions of Elmo, Mickey Mouse, and even Batman trying to get a photo opp and "donations." According to reports, he even occasionally dressed like a "ninja" himself, a "character". Similarly -- noting that there is now a question about the justification of deadly force in this situation -- how much did the Times Square imagery impact the cops on the scene?

I have no solid answers or recommendations here; I just think it's interesting that a disputed incident described in not just "movie" terms but "comic book" terms could have been taken place under the shadow of huge Batman signage (one of the very last sights Kennedy might have had was that of "Midtown Comics," right off of 7th Avenue, just blocks away from where he fell).

I leave with a quote from Christopher Knowles, from the excellent blog  The Secret Sun:

"The socioeconomic conditions I wrote about in Our Gods Wear Spandex have only worsened and the kind of escapism that was once the exclusive province of weirdos and outcasts like yours truly has gone mainstream. Jack Kirby has gone viral with The Avengers, Alan Moore with Anonymous and its use of the Guy Fawkes mask and Frank Miller has with his own projects as well as the Dark Knight films that ransack his Batman ouevre. Comic books matter because they are now writing our culture, often in terrible ways like we saw in Aurora."

I happen to agree with him. While censorship of violent content in movies and comic books is not the answer, to pretend that this content has zero impact on our society, politics, and media is to be willfully naive. Comic books are important. As Knowles has put forth in his book, these superheroes are our "new gods." This is why people within the comic industry, as well as fans, fight so much over things like who owns what and what version is "correct." This is why Batman fans leave death threats to movie reviewers. This is why there is so much drama, heart-break, betrayals, and so on in Comics. Because we are not dealing in children's fairy tale characters. We are dealing in gods, archetypes, keys to our primal subconscious. And this iconography is being used right now, in dozens of different ways, to shape what the public thinks and how they react.

I am not defending Darius Kennedy or his history of scuffles with the law, but I am saying that I clearly remember him as a fixture in Times Square. The last time I saw him, he was standing by the "I Love NY" T-shirt stand.

Postscript: As I finish writing this, yet another shooting incident has happened, inevitably dominating the current news cycle as the "ninja" story fades.

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