I've been poking around a bit on Prison Planet lately, thats a website run by Alex Jones, a radio talk show host who has been described as a "paleoconservative" whatever thats supposed to mean. Paleo means old, so I assume it's being used to create a distance from the "neocons" (meaning New Conservatives) who were neither new nor really conservative in the first place. The first story I ran into over there was titled Louisiana Cops Plan for “End of the World” Scenario which goes on to describe how the program includes access to a .50 caliber vehicle mounted machine gun to help put down looters and rioting in the event of a crisis. I got a little further into the article and it is suggested that cities across America are beginning their own war training in preparation for the coming apocalypse in 2012. No, not the fabled Mayan end of the world, this refers to a prediction by a "futurist" named Gerald Celente.

As a youth I was very interested in the occult and I studied about a lot of futurists, but I've been too busy living my actual life lately and hadn't even heard of this guy.

The article has a handy link to a Youtube video of Celente (who finds his way onto lots of TV shows), predicting "riots and unrest during a Fox News broadcast in November, 2008". Fascinating! So I gave it a quick watch, and come to find... hunh? he makes no such prediction at all, at least not in that video. FOX put up a couple bullet points at the beginning which included the prediction of a "Tax Rebellion" marked by riots and tax revolts, but in the video? He basically says nothing about doom and gloom. He suggests that people will bake cookies for each other for Christmas instead of continuing the retail orgy of old. Not a big prediction in the middle of a recession? In fact - he ends by suggesting that if your kid is thinking of majoring in art history or psychology that you should try to convince them to go into the health field because its really growing and will continue to do so. WTF? I did a little more investigation into this guy, since Prison Planet is claiming that he's always right - and come to find, guess what? He's no different from any other astrologer, psychic, or faith healer you'll ever meet - always leaving just enough room in his answers to wiggle out of them. He never says anything concrete and instead lets the media paint whatever pictures they want. As long as the media can keep making money by scaring the shit out of you, they will continue to pay people like this to spout generalist nonsense. How hard is it to predict that people are going to pissed off about high taxes? The Tea Party movement was based on Ron Paul's fundraising events for the 2008 campaign which started morphing into its own movement shortly afterward in 2007 (building on years of anti-tax work in the 90s!) so it's not like he was predicting anything, it was already happening.

I wondered what kind of place Bossier Parish is that a Sheriff there might think that he's got to plan for an orgy of looting and devastation due to food shortages and tax riots. Turns out, he's got his hands full. The average salary in nearby Shreveport (just on the other side of the Red River and considered part of the same place) is only about $28K. Its all service economy now that the oil businesses have gone out. Whites are in the minority there, its the deep south where racial injustice was the norm and some kind of prejudice is just about a given. But suggesting that a mobile assault vehicle would be called out on looters or rioters, if indeed that's what he's suggesting, is bound to have some negative PR fallout, dontcha think? Of course, sometimes just waving the big stick at the dog is enough to make it run away. We're in a massive economic upheaval - its likely things will continue to get bad in some places before they get better. Alex Jones, through Prison Planet is trying to suggest in this article that the poor PR decision of a small time Sheriff in one of the most destitute cities in America, in one of the poorest states in the union means the end of America as we know it.

Alex Jones is an agitator. I respect him for speaking his mind, and for not pulling punches. I respect agitators since it was people like that that founded America in the first place - but if you have to use smoke and mirrors, pay a charlatan to spout some BS, or use outright deception to win me over to your cause you obviously either don't have much to offer, or you're just in it for the money. I realize everybody has to make a living. At least you're not in the Jesus business, Alex. I'd find that really distasteful.