Assassinating John Wayne

Marion Robert Morrison was born in Winterset, Iowa, on May 16, 1907. At age four, his family moved to Los Angeles. He was a gifted athlete who lost his football scholarship at USC due to a body surfing accident. Soon, he found work in small bit parts at local film studios, where he eventually changed his name to John Wayne. John Wayne appeared in 142 motion pictures, often in Westerns as a heroic character, and won an Academy Award for his role as a U.S. Marshall in the movie TRUE GRIT. Throughout his life, John Wayne was a staunch political conservative, opposing communism and politically liberal viewpoints. He passed on to the Great Beyond in 1979 due to stomach cancer. According to a book titled JOHN WAYNE -- THE MAN BEHIND THE MYTH by Michael Munn, there were three assassination attempts on Wayne's life. In 1949, Joseph Stalin (communist dictator of the USSR) learned about John Wayne's anti-communist fervor from Russian filmmaker Sergei Gerasimov during a peace conference in New York. Stalin soon decided Wayne should be killed. The plot to assassinate John Wayne was also reported by Russian filmmaker Alexei Kapler (who had been imprisoned by Stalin) and Russian filmmaker Sergei Bondahuck, later confirmed by Gerasimov. According to Munn's book, John Wayne's good friend, legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt, had "saved his life" in the early 1950s. The FBI had discovered that Russian agents were being sent to Hollywood to assassinate Wayne and notified him of the problem. Supposedly, Wayne told the FBI to let the agents show up and he would deal with it. Wayne then devised a plan, with help from a screenwriter named Jimmy Grant, to dissuade the assassins from carrying out their plans. While the details of the incident were never revealed to Munn, the prevailing rumor was that a group of stuntmen abducted the agents and drove them to a beach where they staged a mock execution. Thereafter, the agents supposedly remained in the USA and worked for the FBI. Subsequently, Wayne rejected any FBI protection and relocated with his family to a more secure house surrounded by a large wall. In addition, a group of Hollywood stuntmen pals infiltrated communist cells in America and learned of additional plots to kill Wayne In 1953, another attempt on Wayne's life was initiated in Mexico by a communist cell when Wayne was filming the movie, HONDO. This plot also failed. Joseph Stalin died in 1953 whereby Nikita Krushchev became the new communist leader of the USSR. In a private meeting in 1958, Krushchev told Wayne that he had cancelled Stalin's orders to assassinate him. "That was a decision of Stalin during his last five mad years. When Stalin died, I rescinded that order." The third attempt on Wayne's life occurred in 1966 when he was visiting U.S. troops in Vietnam. An enemy sniper who had been captured claimed, "There was a price on John Wayne's head, put there by Mao Tse Tung (communist leader of China)". To some John Wayne was a grand hero, emblematic of American values. To others, he was a symbol of what was wrong with America, as a self-righteous bully who conquered others through force. From FEAR AND LOATHING IN AMERICA by Hunter S. Thompson -- "John Wayne is a final, rotten symbol of everything that went wrong with the American dream -- he is our Frankenstein monster, a hero to millions… The brainwaves of 'The Duke' are like those of the Hammerhead Shark… He is a ruthless stupid beast with only one instinct -- to attack, to hurt & cripple & kill… John Wayne, a cowboy movie actor whose only real talent was an almost preternatural genius for brainless violence. The Duke wasn't satisfied with just killing people; he beat them into bloody, screaming hamburger." Love him or hate him, John Wayne was bigger than life. He was a proud American who understood that communism was a form of human slavery, serving the bureaucratic masters who rule the Government Plantation. More government control means less individual freedom. Power does not corrupt people -- positions of power attract corrupt people. Those who yearn to control others, even if they regard it as benevolence, are simply demanding the right to create their own version of heaven on earth. The struggle for freedom never ends. Whether or not John Wayne was a hero is debatable. Perhaps the true heroes are those who go gently through life treating others with tolerance, compassion and forgiveness. ___________ Quote for the Day – "Life is tough -- it's even tougher if you're stupid." John Wayne ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains in the Land of Ark with a few dogs and where stupid is as stupid does. ___________ - -

A Dragonfly Tattoo

Women are a mystery -- the ones that are easy on the eyes are never easy on the nerves. They speak several languages, one of which is verbal. I once stood in line in at Wal-Mart behind an attractive woman who had a tattoo of a dragonfly on the small of her back. I asked her if she knew the significance of the dragonfly whereupon she asked me if I knew the significance of minding my own business. As relationships go, it was remarkably short. Dragonflies, much like tattooed women, have their fair share of weirdness. They make themselves invisible to airborne prey by using a system called “motion camouflage.” It tricks the victim’s retina into perceiving the dragonfly as a stationary object blending into the background. Thus, the dragonfly becomes “invisible” even though it’s moving forward. Often, the pursuing dragonfly will fly away from its target rather than toward it to maintain the disguise. I had become familiar with the dragonfly years earlier when I lived in the Arizona desert where a man who claimed to be a shaman gave me a reading using 44 Native American Indian medicine cards. He explained that as we come into the Earth Walk, there are seven directions, each aligned with a particular ability or challenge, surrounding our bodies -- East, South, West, North, Above, Below, and Within. Then I drew seven medicine cards representing the seven directions in my Earth Walk. • East – Wolf. The wolf awakens the teacher within to understand the Great Mystery of life. • South – Armadillo. The armadillo teaches us to define our boundaries or space. • West – Dragonfly. The dragonfly reveals the illusionary facade of physical reality. • North – Hummingbird. The hummingbird encourages us to enjoy the succulent nature of life. • Above – Bat. Bat medicine teaches that to become your future, you must die and be reborn. • Below – Whale. Whale medicine people have the psychic ability to tap into the universal mind. • Within – Antelope. The antelope empowers us to honor the gifts sent from the Great Mystery. The West medicine card reflects the internal solution to your present life challenges and reveals how to reach your desired goals. In my case, this is represented by the dragonfly. According to the shaman, this world is full of nature spirits. Dragonfly medicine indicates knowledge received from the spirits of the four basic elements of air, earth, fire, and water. Dragonfly medicine is the essence of the winds of change. Messages of enlightenment and knowledge were supposedly being communicated to me, especially during the dream-time, causing a transformation where illusion was being replaced by true wisdom. I was indeed going through a transformation at the time. The physical world seemed more like a robotic world of worker bees toiling in a giant rat race to maintain an economy that seemed more like a pyramid scheme than an intelligent way of life. Humanity was being duped into a self-perpetuating system of servitude to a formation of suffocating governments and mega-corporations whose only purpose was to ensure their own growth. For a government or mega-corporation, it meant survival -- to an individual human being seeking peace of mind, it was madness. When I returned home from Wal-Mart, a dragonfly was perched on my mailbox, reminding me to always be aware of the world around me. For example, a woman who wears a tattoo is a woman who wants to be noticed. And a woman who wants to be noticed is a woman who wants to be admired. But the moment you express a hint of admiration, the same woman will instinctively reject you. Men may rule the world but women rule the men. A dragonfly tattoo is a subtle form of camouflage – you can admire it but must pretend you don’t notice it. ___________ Quote for the Day – "You think I am a fool, but you are a greater fool." Sitting Bull ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and an imaginary girlfriend named Tequila Mockingbird. ___________ - -