I read that article, about lucky 7's. Given its written by someone in Atlantic City (Wayne Parry), I thought its far more likely to be a clumsy attempt at promoting the cities casinos. Sure enough thats what the article seemed to promote the most.
Come to Atlantic City and spend your hard earned cash on rigged games. You could get lucky.
Patriot Act Game Pokes Fun at Government
Mar 18 08:14 PM US/Eastern
By WAYNE PARRY
Associated Press Writer
HAMILTON, N.J. (AP) - In this send-up of "Monopoly," players don't pass "Go" and they don't go directly to jail—they go to Guantanamo Bay.
Instead of losing cash for landing on certain squares, they lose civil liberties. And the "Mr. Monopoly" character at the center of the board is replaced by a scowling former Attorney General John Ashcroft.
"Patriot Act: The Home Version" pokes fun at "the historic abuse of governmental powers" by the recently renewed anti-terrorism law, according to its creator's Web site.
But while it may be fun, creator Michael Kabbash, a graphic artist and Arab civil rights advocate, is serious about how he feels the law has curtailed Americans' freedom.
The object of the game is not to amass the most money or real estate, but to be the last player to retain civil liberties.
"I've had people complain to me that when they play, nobody wins. They say `We're all in Guantanamo and nobody has any civil liberties left,'" he said. "I'm like `Yeah, that's the point.'"
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8GEA4PG0&show_article=1Another of Wayne Parry's articles.
Heres a brief bio
Wayne Parry named Atlantic City correspondent for The Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Wayne Parry, a reporter for The Associated Press in Newark, has been promoted to correspondent for the news cooperative in Atlantic City.
Parry will be the AP's primary reporter covering Atlantic City, southeast New Jersey and the Jersey shore.
The appointment was announced Feb. 5 by New Jersey Chief of Bureau Richard Brack. Parry succeeds John Curran, who was named the AP's correspondent in Montpelier, Vt.
Parry is an award-winning reporter with 23 years of full-time journalism experience in New Jersey. He joined the AP in Trenton in 1998 after working at four daily newspapers in the state: The Daily Journal of Elizabeth, The News Tribune of Woodbridge, the Asbury Park Press of Neptune, and The Star-Ledger of Newark.
Parry was assigned to the AP's Newark bureau in 2001, where he covered the state's response to the Sept. 11 attacks. He has received numerous awards for his post-Sept. 11 coverage of the Muslim community in New Jersey and across the nation.
A native of Elizabeth and lifelong New Jersey resident, Parry graduated from Columbia University in 1984 with a bachelor of arts degree in English.
Contact: Jack Stokes, AP Corporate Communications, 212.621.1720
http://www.ap.org/pages/about/pressreleases/pr_020907d.htmlAnd another
Parry
Published on: Jun 19, 2006
Wayne Parry is a reporter in the Newark, NJ bureau of The Associated Press, where his beat includes coverage of Islam and Muslims in New Jersey and across the nation. His articles have been published or broadcast in media outlets around the world. He has won more than 60 journalism awards in a 20-year career, and most recently attended the April 2003 Knight Center seminar "Islam and America" at the University of Maryland. He is currently trying to relearn Arabic phrases he picked up shortly after September 11 while wandering around Arab-American neighborhoods knocking on doors with a notebook and pen, including "I am NOT and FBI agent."
http://programs.ssrc.org/intmigration/outreach/nyti/parry/
That last website sure looks "interesting".
Here's some of his articles:
http://www.pelicanfile.com/reporter.cfm?ReporterID=1039
So far I can't find anything to connect him to Disneyland, and i'm not gonna try any more.
Hugh I think there might be something in your idea, but it needs more rigour and alot more work on your part to really test it out. I think alot of hat Pan is saying is actually trying to push you in that direction, not, as you seem to think, an attempt to distract and discredit your writings cos they have hit the nail on the head.
But anyway here's a little story that hapened to me that kind of relates to what you are saying.
Many years ago in the early 90s I bumped into a mate from work, he had recently left work, and I hadn't seen him since. We scored some weed and went to his place to have a sesh (ie a session). I got rather wasted and was disappointed that he put on Neighbours, an aussie soap that some readers of RI might be familiar with (tho hopefully not too familiar with).
There was one character, an unsympathetic one, and at the time in general society there was a move to educate the public about certain dangers of heart disease. So this particular exact topic came on the show, and the unsympathetic character was resistant to following the advice of everyone, and getting some particular check up, whatever the specific heart disease initiative at the time was.
All the other characters were paying him out, (there's enough behaviur modification there) anbd putting pressure on him to check his health, but that wasn't what tripped me out. I felt like every ime he was on screen and talking there was a really nasty "vibe" coming from the tv. It was really powerful although I put it down to the weed. It seemed to be balanced by these beautiful feel good vibes that came whenever the other characters were talking about the health check, and the switch between the two, ie from the good while positive talk about the health check was on, to the nasty, while the unsympathetic character was quite jarring and unpleasant. I thought it was some Skinnerian mind control coming out of the TV. That was the first and last time I ever watched neighbours.
WTF was that - too much mull, something else that I only noticed cos I was wasted? Who knows. I have never really noticed that phenomonen since, but I don't watch the sort of shows I would associate it with (usually soaps like neighbours or east enders, ones everyday people could relate too).
I wouldn't even begin to know how to test for it if it was a real phenomonen, not just my stoned way of inerpreting the writers attempts to manipulate the viewers.
I think there are definitely attempts to control opinion and thinking in tv, and possibly even on the level I experienced or via your keyword hijacking concept, but many of your examples just don't seem to fit. They don't ring true. Equating Strangelove with Hogan's Heros for example, what funny Nazi's? Those people are insane and in charge of nuclear weapons, and have fascist tendencies. Thats what i got from that movie, the complete opposite of any of the meme reversal you refer to.
Most of what you refer to i have never seen or even heard of, so I couldn't comment, but thge thing that always gets me with keyword hijacking is that associations form in all directions. Hearing the Paperclip story (about the Holocaust memorial) and then hearing about operation paperclip ... wouldn't that have the reverse effect, making people more likely to take notice of the name and details? Oh here's one thing that refers to Paperclip and nazis, oh here's another. the connection is reinforced not diluted, Imo anyway.