February 20, 2005 will be a day that will live in infamy for me. That was the day one of my heroes, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, committed suicide. Ever since he made the conscious decision to end it all, we have not had someone like him willing to take on the authoritarians from either side of the political aisle. At least in the modern day mainstream media.
In this age of 24 hour news cycles, we have the likes of Glenn Beck and Rachel Maddow skewering one another while acting as apologists for their favored candidates. The Good Doctor was one of a kind. He took his digs at authoritarians of all stripes and political parties while championing the cause of personal freedom with no apologies. Dr. Thompson never saw the world through the eyes of Left vs. Right. Instead, he saw the world in the eyes of Right vs. Wrong.
There are some who would say that his drug use and willingness to push the envelope in his personal behavior makes him an immoral person and a terrible role model. But what about the person who preaches virtue while engaging in the behavior that they claim to abhor? Isn’t hypocrisy and dishonesty just as immoral, if not more so? Say what you want about The Good Doctor. At least he was open and honest about his behavior and probably possessed a greater moral compass than most Democratic or Republican party politicians and their assorted hanger ons/cronies.
Regardless of his personal appetite for destruction and debauchery, we live in a world where we don’t have a radical visionary like Dr. Hunter S. Thompson holding our elected leaders accountable for their actions and asking the hard questions. Instead, we have male and female cheerleaders masquerading as “journalists.” Whether they live in the realms of Fox News or MSNBC, there is no one in the media that is willing to lay it all on the line like Dr. Thompson did. No one who is willing to look beyond their rose colored partisan glasses and is not afraid to tell it like it is with no apologies and no regrets. Glenn Greenwald may be the lone exception to the current rule of today’s media.
Right now, we are engaged in three wars and a crumbling economy while our civil liberties are being whittled away slowly but surely. All in the interest of “national security” or “political correctness” according to the powers that be. And yet, we are more concerned about making nice with others and not hurting other people’s feelings than we are about having an open and honest dialogue about the direction of this country. Unfortunately, that is the state of today’s media and the only outlets that are willing to ask the hard questions are ones that aren’t beholden to the whims of GE, News Corp or Viacom. At least most of them are. There are a few notable local exceptions that are nothing more than mere cheerleading sites for politicians who are perceived by the authors to be without fault or flaws.
It’s time to abandon the pom poms and take a return trip to the edge. I think this quote from the good doctor sums it all up for me.
Now excuse me while I make a visit to Bat Country.
Gonzo blogging has been our formula at FFFF.
Actually, I think it the FFFF formula has been more like malignant douchebaggery.
Whatever it takes, brutha.’
If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right….buy the ticket, take the ride.
We were somewhere near Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold…
We can’t stay here…this is bat country!
Bat Country. Crossroads of Opportunity
The perpetual broken eight day clock….can certainly be considered right at least thrice a month! “We have met the enemy…..and they are us?” “The biggest problem in the world
can be solved when it is small!” “Winning!” “I’ve met Lindsay Lohan….and you are no Lindsay Lohan!” “You are not Britney Spears either!”
Guy Fawkes….you are right on. We have never seen the like of theatre on so-called News
Television. “We knew someone that lived in Libya once……that was enough!” “We know two
elected officials……and they don’t always know much!”….”We have walked through the valley…and we still love Nick Cage.”
The reality is: When sponsors pay for news programming……the viewers pay twice!
Isn’t it great that Downtown Jerry Brown is our Governor? Just the thought of John McCain
visiting Sacramento to see Meg Whitman…..gives us a chill.
And finally, who is in charge of the Republican Party in California again? If you find out,
let us know….we want to interview them for our next Cutting Edge – a talk show!
I vote the Winships as the OJ writers that most often SOUND like they’re on as many hallucinogens as Hunter took.
Pass the tincture…I need to read the Winships response again.
Thompson’s successor at Rolling Stone’s National Affairs Desk is Matt Taibbi. Check him out: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog
And buy his books.
I doubt he has Thompson’s tolerance for ether and Wild Turkey, but he’s pretty good.
I don’t have much tolerance for Wild Turkey either anymore. Alcohol is dangerous compared to my safer choice of recreational and medicinal indulgence. A form of recreation that has killed no one.
Just read “Why the Fed is bailing out Qaddafi.” Might be worth buying the next issue.
Two of my favorite Taibbi quotes from his book “Smells Like Dead Elephants” (2007). On the Lay/Skilling/Enron trial, musing that anybody who could steal a billion dollars,
“must be a very interesting person on some level. . . . [but] Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling just weren’t interesting people. Lay was your typically unremarkable mealy-executive type, the the kind of person you would expect to be eaten first in any lifeboat situation, while Skilling was just an ordinary corporate egomaniac, the kind of dime-a-dozen asshole you see just about everywhere in America, holding forth with his sleeves rolled up about the ‘art of selling’ for crowds of drooling junior associates in an Applebee’s or a Sheraton ballroom somewhere.”
On George Bush: “Bush in person always strikes me as the kind of guy would ask a woman for a hand job at the end of a first date. He has days where he looks like she said yes, and days where the answer was no.”
On Sarah Palin: “The candidate sauntered to the lectern with the assurance of a sleepwalker — and immediately launched into a symphony of snorting and sneering remarks, taking time out in between the superior invective to present herself as just a humble gal with a beefcake husband and a brood of healthy, combat-ready spawn who just happened to be the innocent targets of a communist and probably also homosexual media conspiracy. She appeared to be completely without shame and utterly full of shit, awing a room full of hardened reporters with her sickly-sweet line about the high-school-flame-turned-hubby who, ‘five children later,’ is ‘still my guy.’ It was like watching Gidget address the Reichstag.” (Rolling Stone, 2008)
If I could come up with stuff like “watching Gidget address the Reichstag,” I could die a happy man.
That Palin stuff is just great. Made my day and horrified me at the same time.
i booked the concert talent at the coach house from 1985-99. we did occasional spoken word events, in addition to the concerts – my two faves of this genre were g.gordon liddy & timothy leary who sparred for a couple of hours on stage and were a real hoot. and hunter s. i picked up hunter s. at the oc airport once, to take him to the gig that night – and it was a zany 20 minute ride from the plane to the club. i said three words on the drive down the 5fwy, and hunter spewed out about thou. it was my first and last sober acid trip. hunter s. was good to us, and liked the club enough to repeat a couple of times. i would say, rest in peace, to the spirit of hunter s., but….. that ain’t happenin’…
Speaking of Liddy, did you ever read Thompson’s “Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ’80s?” Read the chapter “They Called Him Deep Throat” where he claims that Gordon Liddy was “Deep Throat.” One of his most hilarious pieces ever written.
I actually used that book and chapter as one of my reference sources in a political science class I took at Chapman University. The class was called Watergate Revisited. I made a very convincing argument to the class that Deep Throat was indeed Gordon Liddy. Despite the misgivings of the humorless professor (Fred Smoller, now with Vanguard University), I ended up getting an “A” on the presentation.
you see that ben bradlee and bob woodward are speaking at the nixon library april 18?
too bad mr. felt is gone. and hunter s.
Ben Bradlee is still alive? He’s got to be pushing 90 by now.
Might be worth a trip to beautiful downtown Yorba Linda.
ben is pushing 90. in august, he gets there. you think he has seen much, in his previous 89?
Haldaman and BB Robozo…….G. Gordon and Hunter Thompson? Why Nixon never burnt the tapes explains in exquisite detail……how messed up Dickie Boy really was.
Odd couples all…….one day liberal, next day conservative…….one day democrat…next day republican……..
What we always wanted to know was: What did Spiro Agnew spend all the kids milk money on? Tough to get a straight answer…..when Spiro was just the patsy!
“Leaving Las Vegas”…..is still way too trippy for underage kids to see!
You mean “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” I take it. “Leaving Las Vegas” was with Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue and a depressing movie. I even wanted to drink myself to death after that movie.
Bat Country Rules!
The writings of his attorney were more influential on me. Don’t get me wrong. Hunter is this shit, but he has spawned to many xerox copies. The best way to be like Hunter is to be nothing like him.
Like Hunter I am a charter member of D.A.R.E. (Drugs Are Recreational Enjoyment)
Ah the esteemed Dr Gonzo played so well by Benicio Del Toro. I think he was … Samoan, or something.
A.K.A. Civil Rights attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta. MIA since 1974.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Zeta_Acosta
“One of God’s own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.”
—Hunter S. Thompson, Rolling Stone December 15, 1977
Exactly the quote I was trying to remember. What happened in 74, he died? Or disappeared? Or retired?
“As your attorney I advise you to get us a bunch of drugs and two motorcycles.”
Dr. Gonzo disappeared in Mexico in 1974. His body has not been found to this day. His son seemed to think he mouthed off to someone, got into a fight and got killed.
If that’s true, major props to him for going down swinging.
Oscar Acosta was Chicano! And a fantastic writer in his own right. “The Revolt of the Cockroach People” is a must!
I know he was a Chicano. Hunter used to jokingly say “I think he’s Samoan or something.”
Didn’t we have this discussion at Steamers? haha
Really, we did? I don’t remember. That was the night Bushala put some liquid cannabis derivative called “tincture” in my wine. WAY too strong. Guy Fawkes can probably handle it though.
Tincture is some real powerful shit…it’s a good alternative to smoking.
“when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro”
*Fear and Loathing…..was x-rated and we couldn’t watch it over 15 times without having LSD
flashbacks! Come on now…..”Leaving Las Vegas” was actually a cover for a very great movie with Warren Beatty and Elizabeth Taylor called: “The Only Game in Town”. It was actually Elizabeths big comeback from Cleopatra and was the vehicle which put her into Butterfield 8 and her Academy Award. “Only Game in Town” was really hot…..not depressing. “Leaving Las Vegas” was a payoff to Cage for “Conair” which was a great movie……but action and therefore unworthy of the Academy’s review.