PERJURER EXPOSED AGAIN: Evidence is mounting that Elisha Strom, the woman whose perjured testimony and work with the so-called Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) caused false federal charges to be filed against me, had several inappropriate relationships with the local and “terrorism task force” officers she was at first working with — and then turned against, causing her to be arrested for stalking them, harassing them, and interfering with them. Both she and the JTTF avoided a trial full of revelations of their respective characters when a plea agreement was struck in which she plead guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice.
by Däanlea and Kevin Alfred Strom
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
THIS POEM is really two poems by two authors.
The first part was sent to me by an aspiring new poet named Däanlea, whose work really deserves to be published in print one day.
The second part is my response.
This piece begins in a personal vein, and ends with an extension of the personal into the infinite.
We conscious and unconscious beings are all on a journey together. I hope this poem helps the reader capture some sense of that.
Continue reading ‘The Pine’
ART GALLERY RECOGNIZED: The Spanish-language art blog Aquí gobierno yo has added my art gallery to its list of recommended art sites. It’s quite an honor to be linked side-by-side with the Fitzwilliam Museum, the National Galleries of Scotland, and others.
PERPETUAL GROWTH IS IMPOSSIBLE: We’ve all heard the story of the clever merchant who asked the King to pay him with grains of wheat placed on a chessboard. On the first square he was to receive one grain; on the second, two grains; on the third, four grains — doubling with every square up to the 64th. The King readily agreed to pay such a small sum; How much could it add up to in just 63 doublings, after all? The answer is that more grain than exists in the entire world would have to be placed on the 64th square. That is “the magic of compound interest” and it is 1) the reason that perpetual economic growth is impossible and 2) the reason that economies based on the creation of money as interest-bearing debt (read: all modern economies) inevitably go into crisis and fail.
The maverick Jewish writer Israel Shamir has just published Tom White’s extensive treatment of the subject which is well worth reading.
The Learned portrait of Virginia Poe, left; on the right the Traylor Miniature, showing a very young Edgar Poe.
by Kevin Alfred Strom
THIS YEAR marks the 200th birthday of the great poet and thinker Edgar Allan Poe. Today, October 7th, is the day of his mysterious death 160 years ago in Baltimore. And last month marked the 174th anniversary of his marriage to his beloved Virginia.
Not too long after Poe’s birthday in January of this year, someone very dear to me gave me a surprise present: two gift boxes from the Poe Museum in Richmond, one decorated with a reproduction of the famous Learned portrait of Virginia Poe (pictured, left) and the other (on the right) having on its lid an image of a very young-looking and clean-shaven Edgar Allan Poe — an image I had never seen before. The portrait is oval and in a thin oval gilt frame. Inside the lid of the second box is written “Edgar Allan Poe – Robert Lee Traylor.”
I have been a reader and student of Poe since the age of 11, but this portrait was one I had never seen. The only references I could find to “Robert Lee Traylor” and a Poe portrait were as the owner of a very different Poe picture, a daguerreotype.
And exhaustive searches of the ‘Net, comprising thousands of articles and representations of Poe, didn’t come up with this portrait or any reference to it. It seemed quite a mystery to me.
Continue reading ‘New and Rare Images of Edgar and Virginia Poe’
REVILO OLIVER RECOGNIZED: The well-known commentator for the Spectator newspaper in Britain, Taki Theodoracopulos, has just published an essay in his online magazine which, at least tentatively and partially, attempts to restore the place of the great and Menckenesque writer Revilo P. Oliver in the pantheon of 20th century thinkers. Interestingly, the article is published over the byline “Nesta Bevan,” an obvious nom de guerre, since it is the maiden name of the late writer and partisan of our civilization Nesta Webster.
Mahadev Desai (left) and Gandhi meet with other Indian nationalists in 1939
by Kevin Alfred Strom
THIS WEEK Google replaced their normal search page graphic with one depicting Mohandas K. Gandhi, also known as Mahatma (Sanskrit for “Great Soul”) Gandhi, in recognition of his birthday, which is now celebrated as the International Day of Non-Violence. Gandhi’s movement of civil disobedience was a significant factor in India’s successful quest for self-determination and the ultimate withdrawal of Britain from the Indian subcontinent.
Barack Obama praised Gandhi on Friday, saying “Gandhi’s teachings and ideals, shared with Martin Luther King Jr. on his 1959 pilgrimage to India, transformed American society through our civil rights movement. The America of today has its roots in the India of Mahatma Gandhi and the nonviolent social action movement for Indian independence which he led. We must renew our commitment to live his ideals and to celebrate the dignity of all human beings.”
Many people, Obama included if he’s sincere, see Gandhi and his movement in very simplistic and essentially mythological terms: Gandhi’s movement, they believe, was a “struggle for equality” within a multiracial paradigm. Actually it was the opposite of that.
Continue reading ‘Gandhi, Obama, and Race’
ART SITE UPDATED: My online art gallery has been updated recently, with newly-added paintings by Paul Delaroche, Angelica Kauffmann, Louis Janmot, Sophie Anderson, John Everett Millais, Abbott Handerson Thayer, Alexandre Cabanel, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Also added were portraits of Edgar and Virginia Poe, T.E. Lawrence, William Butler Yeats, Nikolai Gogol, Robert Louis Stevenson, Pedro Del Valle, and many more; along with new photographs and digital art pieces.
ANTHRAX ATTACKS AMAZING SEARCH RESULTS: Even though it was only recently restored from a hacker attack, Robert Pate’s The Anthrax Mystery: Solved Web site is garnering top results on Google, indicating a high degree of interest and relevance. A simple search on the words ANTHRAX ATTACKS gives anthraxattacks.net the number five position out of over 600,000 results. A search on the words ANTHRAX MYSTERY gives Mr. Pate’s site the number five position out of almost 400,000.
As analogue TV is phased out, the media moguls have pinned their hopes on over-the-air digital video. But, in time, Internet video will eclipse the moguls and their networks.
by Kevin Alfred Strom
THE LOGO IMAGE I’m using this month on kevinalfredstrom.com is my little tribute to the end of analogue TV broadcasting. Though most of my work has been in the radio and print media, I have produced or appeared in videos, including Richmond, Virginia’s Race and Reason program, the Revilo P. Oliver memorial film, and others.
As we mark the end of analogue television broadcasting in the United States, it’s good to remember its beginning — and its inventor Philo Farnsworth. When his wife Elma Farnsworth, who worked closely with her husband, died in 2006, I published this piece on NationalVanguard.org:
Continue reading ‘Goodbye Analogue TV’
