Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Brief updates

Seems my last post evaporated into the cyberbnetic ether. Blogger has been problematic of late, as many of my readers have reminded me. Well, I'll try to recreate what I wrote. Most of it was relatively unimportant...

Gabe Caggiano: Remember him? He's the Fox reporter who scored a number of interviews with "Jeff Gannon." Critics viewed these as softball interviews with a softball-tossing "journalist." Caggiano also has a rep, in some circles, as a "TV terrorist." Weirdly, he also looks a lot like Gannon/Guckert. (See the photo comparison below.) Indeed, the resemblance is so striking that a few wags have wondered if Caggiano and Gannon are one and the same.

I received a rather nice note from Caggiano, who insists that he isn't as bad as all that, and that a number of people in the broadcast news business respect his work. His acting career, it seems, was just a brief lark.

Incidentally, he says he was on the set of "The Crow" when Brandon Lee was shot -- a factoid that a truly hard-core conspiracy theorist might twist into a scenario worthy of Chris Carter.

The Gannon story leads down many a strange byway -- but right now, I'm convinced that the Caggiano path isn't all that interesting. Although the resemblance is kind of freaky.

Mann Coulter: The Ann's-a-man meme continues to thrive -- for proof, all you need to do is fire up Google and type in the phrases "Ann Coulter" and "Adam's apple." For a wickedly funny take on the controversy, check out the Strap-On Veterans for Truth, who claim that Ann Coulter was born Jeremy Levinsohn.

You can even order a "Bring me the Adam's apple of Ann Coulter" refrigerator magnet.

Readers should understand that I find this entire argument unpersuasive. In order to put these irresponsible accusations to rest once and for all, I propose that we do everything we can to make sure that Ann Coulter issues a denial. The world will be a better place if she directly states that she is not, in fact, a man.

(On a related note: You may want to check out this contest devoted to naming Coulter's next book. The entry I like best is "Propaganda: Nice People Swallow.")

On a cinematic note: I recently viewed Woody Allen's Bananas and Monty Python's Life of Brian for the first time in many years. Surprisingly, the two film (which hold up very well) share the exact same plot: An apolitical nebbish joins a revolutionary group in order to impress a girl. After accidentally becoming the group's leading figure, he is captured by the empire and subjected to an unfair trial, only to receive an unlikely pardon.

Even so, I don't think Allen will be suing Cleese and co. any time soon...

Noreen Gosch: A fellow blogger has been attempting to function as a go-between in order to arrange an interview with the mother of Johnny Gosch. However, now that the Gosch-to-Guckert-to-Gannon rumor has been scotched once and for all (thanks to the discovery of Guckert's high school yearbook photos), there may not be a pressing need for such an interview. I've received a couple of private emails which reminded me of why I do not want to get anywhere near the ritual abuse controversy in this blog. Even so, I wish Ms. Gosch all the best, and I hope one day she discovers the full truth at the heart of her family tragedy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I heartily sympathize with your distaste for getting involved with the "ritual abuse" thing. The Authorities have made it a political weapon to get at people they want to do in legally and morally; at a guess nine-tenths of the "ritual abuse" accusations flying around are bogus.

But ritual in another sense is at the core of what goes on. Some of the Upper Crustians have their ritualistic preoccupations...some of that comes out in its abusive practices... and that in turn may be a source of evidence about what they're doing. By their rituals shall ye know them?

I'd say "ritual abuse" is in good part another of the many Upper Crust projections of its own evil habits on its enemies. We can glimpse ritual playing an important part in Rovian, Bushian and other filthy-rich-power-bastard political activity. See, for example, the strange numerical correspondences of 9/11---worthless to the rest of us, but apparently fascinating to the perpetrators.

By their rituals shall ye know them. Ordinary everyday people are too busy getting and spending to fool with ritual (except maybe in church), but the rich are bored, and a few kingpins seem to find ritual tons o' fun, particularly when abusing their power over others.

So their preoccupation with ritual rates investigation. It might yield a payoff.