"Who are you?"

Why do people ask this? That's like asking someone to describe a color. Everything you would want to know is on this blog. Take a look around, read. I'm a writer, that's who I am. By this point, I've made it clear where I stand on most issues, political, cultural, and otherwise. Beyond my book Let the Dead Bury the Dead, most of the answers to your questions are here.

The rest you don't get to know because all men are islands and all the self-help gurus can't get their shit together either.

Postscript: I make no claims of perfection.

2012 was the year...

This was quite a year for me, perhaps a watershed in some ways, but one that will at least allow me to truly move forward in my life and to be a free of the terrible stress expediting the completion of a historical account. There are no rules for that, and only a few guidelines. In the end, you're the only one who knows what you experienced, and even then, that's not always a given. You know what you were told. You know what information was conveyed to you. You know what you experienced during these interactions, but they're fragmented, obscured, and questionable in one way, completely credible in others. That's navigating a labyrinth. 

This wasn't just 2012 for me, it was the last five years of my life. What was real? I discovered many things that were, many more that were not, and more than all that combined that remains a mystery to myself and others. The terrible part is to then extricate yourself from the narrative continuum to continue on with your own life. There are apparently some out there who don't want this to happen, but I have news for them. It is going to happen.

I'll promote the book, and I'm open to interviews, all that's fine. However, I won't be dragged into other people's agendas, and there have already been attempts to do this, right out of the gate of the release of Let the Dead Bury the Dead. When else would it occur? There will be more. Interestingly, the phony cease and desists have halted, a form of harassment that I've experienced from the beginning of my involvement with Jeane's case to the present, several months ago, then once more just weeks ago. The fact that they've now become silent in their legal harassment from the shadows tells me what I always assumed: it was all predicated on scaring me out of publication. That was never going to work in a nation where prior restraint has been ruled unconstitutional so many times that it's solid precedent. A first year law student would know this, and so too would many millions outside of legal profession. Were I to discover their identity, I could sue them in a civil court, and maybe even hit them with criminal charges of harassment--that is, if it's not the government, then the funhouse rules come into play.

Is this a story many don't want to be told, Jeane's story, the information that I and others came into possession of? It was uncanny how often the information was coming to me, not the reverse. There were many times that Jeane would mistakenly send me entire email-chains between herself and counsel and others, and doing so when I wasn't even part of the defense as a researcher. Was she trying to let me bear witness? Sometimes, she was, unquestionably, but I don't think the chains always were. When she Cc'd her exchanges with journalist Jason Leopold, whom I bear no ill will mind you, she was most definitely doing this. There were other occasions, sometimes to bounce my opinion off of things counsel was conveying to her. What did I think of this crafted motion? Did I trust counsel? Did I know more about their and numerous other players' backgrounds, sometimes collective, interconnected ones? The answers were always varied. Sometimes I was able to find out, many other times, she was simply asking the impossible out of desperation. This all had to be written down and chronicled before it gradually vanished from my memory, and the memory of others, because so much is lost to history when this kind of action isn't taken immediately. It escapes into the Aether, subsumed by darkness, assimilated into the Abyss. You can bet that a lot more is sitting on a hard drive at some "fusion center" in the continental United States. An FOIA isn't going to free it up anytime soon.

I'll continue to answer questions to the best of my ability on the subject, because I think it was a far more important case than most of us realized at the time. It took a great deal of after-the-fact research on my part, a lot of reflection on what happened when Jeane was alive, what my role, my place, in it all really was, and to question, question question, and that includes myself, my assumptions. It turned out that many of my earliest ones were either correct, or that I was on the right trail.

The public has a right to know what's being done in their name and how their taxes are being spent. This is why my account is important. Besides being a historical chronicle for the historical record, it can be a starting-point for further inquiry. Because of the information I came across, I'm not naive enough to believe that this is going to happen. Our political system is in what I consider terminal crisis that's borne out of the natural lifecycles of democratic societies. They have a shelf-life, and we're around the time of the expiration date. 

The cycle, as one would imagine, is a circle. I recommend looking at the democratic and republican experiments in ancient Greece and Rome. Western societies appear to begin with warrior king leadership that grows into some general form of feudalism, then to forms of republicanism where it's primarily based around land ownership, often headed by a senate, some parliamentary structure, and on into wider forms of democratic franchise, popular democracy of some sort. Unfortunately, and the ancients saw this firsthand, democracy is also the most fertile soil and prerequisite for tyranny, either by the masses or a dictatorship. Because the general population is usually uneducated, ignorant, stubborn--holding all the human frailties related to pride--there's a tendency towards an overemphasis on the military. Appetites, often arising out of inequality, must be fed in order to rule, and so, it's not simply leadership that demands empire, it's the people, the working-class wage slaves, the populi, the plebes. Military adventurism becomes a virtual inevitability. 

Because of the social reality of a minimum degree of democratic rights, the franchise, the vote, a say in how things are done, we must have bread and circuses, the mob must be placated and diverted away from a real voice in the operation of society ruled by some form of aristocracy. More often, people want to be told what to do thinking that it's easier, and too often, they want a strongman leader to show them the way. Sadly, I see us at the end of this cycle and heading towards dictatorship. The American public will hold just as much of the blame as the current rulers when things disintegrate into this. Can something better arise out of this? Eventually, if we can survive. The Greeks are still waiting for democracy, so there's a good idea of how long it might take.


Do I see much change in our course in the United States, to avert what no other democratic society was able to endure, besides maybe the Swiss? No, I'm afraid not. We're going to continue our military adventurism, until there's no more money left in the Treasury--what happened to Athenian democracy--or someone creams our ass, more likely a combination of both, which has many precedents. Democracies die of neglect. When the 17th and 18th century liberal thinkers spoke of revolution, it was as a warning, not a threat, that there must be reform or that things will collapse into chaos and violence. This is what the social contract is about. We either work together, looking out for each others' well-being, or we will surely die together. Apathy and indifference towards others is a ticking bomb, and it's why I have a serious problem with American Libertarianism, a subject barely worthy of comment for its obvious irrationality. Thinkers such as John Locke were saying that breakdowns of order happen when a society becomes so dysfunctional from misrule, and the missing-ingredient is the public, that people begin killing each other. But the public too often is unaware of their power. They're apathetic, divided over petty squabbling, generation after generation, making the exact same mistakes. Worse still, the public is very often wrong like their rulers. Now, you, the thoughtful reader, will know why my book is only going to reach so many people. The truth hurts. And now on to other related things that happened in my life this year...

2012 was the year that I:

...finished and published the manuscript of my experiences in the DC Madam case (and beyond it, stories never end, or ever die). Let the Dead Bury the Dead can be traced back to an exchange in the New Testament between Jesus and a disciple who said that he needed to bury a loved one before he could go with them on the road. I was unaware of this at the time I decided on the title. It has become an idiomatic phrase throughout the world over the centuries, and there is no agreement on what Jesus meant by it. Some say he meant to let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead in a dead, fallen world. Others say that it means to move on from the past, to not dwell on it, to not live in the past. I don't claim to know what he meant or originally said, but I think all the meanings relate to me and the book. This is when you begin to realize that you've hit on some very fundamental truths, and not merely artistic truth, but truth itself. So much of this has been serendipity to the point that it cancels itself out, it is no longer coincidence, but the truth, however terrible, liberating, or great. I can only feel humbled by it all.

...was asked to research the Wikileaks StratFor emails cache, along with many others of course. This didn't come to be, unfortunately, over technicalities I'll go into one day. To be asked was very exciting. My opinion of Assange is yet to be finalized. On an interpersonal level, I'm sure he can be a pushy asshole. On the other hand, it's probably worth it to kick people who aren't serious to the curb, which he has done on numerous occasions. The amount of information coming out of governments around the world? I can tolerate a lot there. The people Wikileaks is working against are the worst in the entire world.

...began watching the great works of cinema as much as I'd been wanting to for a very long time, and when I purchased a Blu-ray player when my old DVD-player croaked. Watching a cinematic classic in HD is maybe one of the few great technological achievements of the current era. If it serves the dissemination of the arts, information of value, in a better way, I'm all for it. There is nothing more important than cultural expression when it's the truth.

...noticed that for some reason I'm aging well. This is probably because I rarely drink and smoke and get regular exercise. Why stress didn't contribute more might have to do with the fact that my family has naturally low blood pressure. The other good side is that the more I grow older, the great my resemblance to Oscar Wilde, and that's not a jest.

...realized how wonderful my mother's parents really were, and how their home is truly my home. America is my home, I cannot leave her. As fucked up as she is, I still love her, or I wouldn't be trying to save her from herself. At some point, it doesn't matter what the odds are. You must act out of decency and honor, armed with knowledge and a sense of persistence and the long view.

...found that many of my fellow Americans are a pathetic embarrassment that far exceeded my worst opinions of them. This includes many Democratic voters and supporters who refuse to criticize the president for committing war crimes and wrecking the Constitution, all but gutting the 4th Amendment, the right to privacy. He has yet to restore habeas corpus. We are not facing the threat to public safety and order that President Lincoln had to when Southern politicians and officers committed treason over his election in 1861. Why doesn't anyone become alarmed by this? Congress just re-authorized the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program for another five years. See how well they can all get along when they want to? What the hell's wrong with the public, where's the outrage over these encroachments on our rights? Much of it is ignorance, but it's also the desire for a strongman leader who has "taken-off the gloves," who is no longer restrained by the law. These people are the worst kind of citizens of any society, in any era of human history, and are scoundrels. Many American look at politics like it's a football game. This makes these people incredibly stupid assholes.

...realized how much I value living outside of cities in what could be best described as a "light rural" area. I've been here for over a decade now and love the lack of many people.

...realized what a genius Pier Paolo Pasolini truly was, one of the greatest artists in the span of Western civilization.

...installed my Tor browser (thanks Wikileaks). I suggest everyone do the same and to learn more about encrypting your online communications.

...got to know my wonderful niece Zofia better. Picking her up from the bus stop every day for the first five months of the year is something that I'll always treasure. It showed me a little window into how my late grandparents, especially my mother's mother, loved spending time doting over us. She's a great kid, very intelligent.

...learned that blood not only isn't thicker than water, but that it's often the consistency of liquid-shit.

...remembered why I hated school, church services, and anything so boring that it begins to kill your soul: it's someone controlling your life, and wasting your precious time.

...recalled what an inhuman asshole my ex-wife really was in-sum.

...learned how much I love our new miniature schnauzer, Lily.

...found a lot of old books I thought I'd lost.

...stopped trusting almost anyone outside of my family and a small circle of friends.

...felt vindicated when former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was found guilty on over forty counts of being a pedophile. For anyone who's been a victim of this, you know what I mean. I'm hoping the SOB gets shanked in prison, or beaten to death. There's no reason to show mercy to these terminally-pathological pieces of shit. They should be watched and tracked all of the time once they've been identified by society.

...saw the combined effects of de-institutionalization of the mentally ill and the wide-availability of heavy weaponry on the lives of 20 schoolchildren, and six of their adult caretakers, in Newtown Connecticut. The time to reopen our state mental health institutions is now. We have no real mental healthcare system, and it must be part of a socialized medical infrastructure. 

...still hate the idea of ever going back to Seattle for any reason.

...was reminded that most so-called "upstanding citizens" are more criminally-minded than so-called "criminals." To be accused is not to be guilty. We have something called the right to due process. The public and the press seem to have no concept of this. Put the 6th Amendment on the same critical-list as the 4th, and more recently, the 1st with the attacks on dissent and independent journalism.

And there was more. There was a lot more. Wish us all luck in the next year, because we're going to need it.

let the dead bury the dead @ Amazon.com

In case you didn't see the link elsewhere, for the USA: http://www.amazon.com/Let-Dead-Bury-Madam-account/dp/1480297437/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1353888194&sr=1-10&keywords=Let+the+Dead+Bury+the+Dead

a message to a certain class of people in let the dead bury the dead

I will be pushing this book into forever, if only casually. Other than Mr. Sibley and couple of others in it, you're going to have to buy the book to find out what I wrote about you, most of which is my opinion, the rest fact. Your hunches are correct: the fact that some of you are going to have to buy it to find out delights me to no end, fuck you very much. I'm not naming names here. You know who you are. My book aside, I hope you do for your own sake know who you are.

Let the Dead Bury the Dead is now available in the EU!

And here it is for the UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Let-Dead-Bury-Madam-account/dp/1480297437/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355242478&sr=1-1

Amazon France:  http://www.amazon.fr/Let-Dead-Bury-Madam-account/dp/1480297437/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355243316&sr=8-1

Amazon Germany: http://www.amazon.de/Let-Dead-Bury-Madam-account/dp/1480297437/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1355243200&sr=1-1-catcorr

And Amazon Italy: http://www.amazon.it/Let-Dead-Bury-Madam-account/dp/1480297437/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355243385&sr=8-1

Exciting!

Also available @: https://www.createspace.com/4056731

Upcoming Book Contest & Other issues from the flesh

I haven’t worked out all of the particulars yet, but I’ve set aside a few copies of the book for later. As you might have expected, I’m not making the parameters effortless, or easy for the contest. There will be a few hoops, but the winners will receive a free signed (as opposed to singed, what some of Palfrey’s former clients probably want) copy of the book, and my blessing, the latter of which means absolutely nothing whatsoever. Anyone capable of proving the DC Madam doesn’t need anything from me, not that I think that’s ever going to happen, like Jesus returning, nutty, crazy primitive-minded shit like that.

We’re only in the first week of the release of the book and I’ve already brushed up against more high weirdness. This brings me to other matters…

As a result of these little elves, pixies, and gremlins flitting about me yob, I’m going to make things crystal clear: I will not continue to live this nuttiness surrounding the Palfrey case and narrative. I am turning my back on it with the completion of this text. I will be more than happy to answer any serious questions. However, I don’t want to hear your gossiping about people who were part of or related to the case itself. Any logical corrections that can be proven/corroborated (your job, not mine) will be appreciated and noted. I don’t give a shit anymore about the story and owe nobody nothing regarding the DC Madam. That responsibility was discharged writing the book.

My role in this is over, done, unless there’s some burning reason otherwise. If you have questions, ask the book first, consult it. This isn’t to slam anyone with good intentions. I will discuss the case and am open to interviews. However, I’m not tolerating any bullshit, and it’s literally no effort for me to ignore you, the easiest thing in the world in fact. This isn’t my usual jokiness, it’s dead serious. If you don’t get it, I don’t care, but you’re going to be humiliated twice, first by yourself, then by me, and I will air it publicly naming names.

Anyone I’ve communicated with recently has nothing to worry about. The book is the best bargain the American public are likely to have for some time. You’re most welcome. Witche, ye haave been foun' guilty 'a commerce with thee Devile.

Will there be an e-book? (And errata)

Yes, there will indeed be an e-book, and it's coming soon, perhaps within the month. There have been issues with formatting, and I want any e-book edition to be of a good quality like the hard copy version. It will also be available from Amazon. Let the Dead Bury the Dead isn't an easy book to format, and this is my Luddite bias rearing its head here, but it has far more impact as a pretty effective physical copy book, if I do say so myself, and I do. The fact is, I want this book to reach motherfuckers from here to Irkutsk, no bullshit, far and wide. I consider that the book is a return of historical writing as literature. 

People want to read something that's alive, not leaden and overly formal--too academic. I could have footnoted, yes, but why is that necessary in a historical account? That question hit me early-on in the process, and while I do direct the reader to where sometimes secondary information is from, a lot of the book is primary information being published for the first time, or at least outside of my blog. I didn't wait long after Jeane's death to begin sharing that information with the public, most of it emails between us, others, and any number of permutations of correspondents. There are also excerpts from public documents, Palfrey's trial transcripts, affidavits, from her case and those of others, online exchanges, and shots from slavering right-wing trolls out of the shadows of electronic aether, a lot of communications mediums, too many. No matter how you cut it, I prefer traditional books. They never crash, only burn, at four hundred and fifty degrees fahrenheit.

A great deal of effort was expended trying to preserve the original layouts of emails and public documents during formatting, and while you can only do so much, most of them look essentially as they did. Some of this will inevitably be lost in formatting for various e-book platforms, but anything PDF will be unchanged. With the Kindle, I'm almost certain that it should turn out well, however, some of the impact of the original will be lost. Regardless of that, I believe the book will stand on its own legs.

One Final Shot Across an Asshole's Bow Before Pulling the Trigger...

"I look forward to fourth coming litigation, marathon deposition sessions of every blogger that had made a post regarding Jack Burkman and the loves of his life! Win,Lose it doesn't matter! Its going to be very expensive for all parties involved! Or, you can shut this site down as soon as possible!

Dennis G. Brewer Sr. And Associates, P.C.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012 12:27:00 AM EDT"

And I look forward to kicking your tiny dick in the dirt--what of it? Your mother sucks cocks in hell, eat a leper, do your best/worst. Blow me, asshole...

Proofing

The proof arrived today. It looks excellent. What surprised me the most was how great the cover came out. There's a teaser of it on the book's new blog @ http://letthedeadburythedead.wordpress.com. I also have a Twitter account under my name @ https://twitter.com/MJanovic. The book itself will be available at Amazon.com. I will be announcing a price and release date within a few days, no more than a week. The price of the book is not unreasonable and was determined looking at time and labor invested, printing costs, length of the text itself, and other related issues, a big book, a large trade paperback. I'll be putting it on sale, reduced, for a time, then periodically after that, either by Amazon, or me. I'm edging towards holding-off on an e-book right now, but I won't keep anyone waiting long on it. 

 I'm very interested in getting Let the Dead Bury the Dead into university collections and onto library shelves.

The book will also be available in the European Union. Regardless of what I do, the mainstream media's sure to go out of their way to avoid covering its existence. If serious journalist want to speak with me, I'm open to it. Now, if we can find any in the continental United States...

Without being too prolix: I will not speak to the conspiracy nut crowd, and yeah, you know who you are. Talk to the hand, read the book, interrogate it, and be sure not to waste my time on your way out. I shit on your opinions, show me facts, not what you want to believe, and the latter goes for everyone. I'm not concerned about them unless they're educated ones.

Will I be censored? For the most part, prior restraint isn't allowable in the United States, while libel and defamation cases are notoriously difficult to establish effectively. The outcome is rarely in favor of the plaintiff, and I'm not even taking into account how full the dockets are these days. There have already been attempts with the phony cease and desists. Someone has no respect for the First Amendment whatsoever and wants me to pull things out of the book and to take down most of what's related to the DC Madam from this blog. I will not be stopped. This book will go wide, as-is. There are no lies coming from me in this historical account. Are there inaccuracies, am I wrong about some things? It would be impossible for that not to be so, I am a man, not a god, and neither are any of us, contrary to moronic conceits making the rounds this aeon. As much as a human being can be, I was sincere, honest, and forthright in writing this book, and, it's my right to publish on it because these were my experiences. That's including my interaction with all of the information contained within it. Because I was a player in the case, neither the information and my interaction can be separated, they are one, finis. The book is as much me as it is the case. If there's something wrong with that, I must be, technically speaking, illegal. The public has a right to know, and will. No one's going to stop that, and I mean no one, none born of woman on this earth.

Most of my day was spent looking over how the proof turned out. As I wrote, it's looking very close to what I hoped for. Title page, table of contents, chapter headings, paragraphing--they all look up to a level of quality that I can live with. I believe this book is something to be proud of. With virtually no resources, I was able to accumulate some extraordinary information on Jeane's prosecution, and not merely my part of it, there were too many players to even begin mentioning. That would take another book by itself, as well as one on Montgomery Blair Sibley, who, I think, the culture should pay a little more attention to, since he's unquestionably an interesting man. Most Americans don't really know who he; is; the answer always comes from who your ancestors were. I believe his questioning of the validity of President Obama's birth certificate is wrong-headed, but his family history is our nation's. Maybe one day I'll write a book on one of the Sibleys, or Blairs. I have no intentions of writing another book on the DC Madam. I do hope that others involved in the case, the escorts most of all, would come forward with more information. So far, none of them have in any meaningful sense.

 A number of people have come forward to help me--I thank you all, and to my sources as well. All told, including additional research, editing, and revisions, the book required four years to write. In reality, there was just me, that is, Matt, and no three droogs. I had to do everything. Working in the case while it was happening was unpleasant enough, but to add on more years is prison. Real writers write because they have no choice. I had no choice. To not have written this, to not have gotten what happened off my chest in this manner, would have killed me, I found the whole thing so terrible, so tragic. Jeane didn't need to die, but now I can bury her, me, the living. 

Expect a release date within a few days. We might be pulling the trigger before the end of the month on this.

Ladies & gentlemen, if there are any left out there, be forewarned: I spare nobody in my account. Not even myself. If you are easily frightened; and if you have a tendency towards anxiousness, nervousness, and paranoia; this ride is not for you. Keep your hands and feet below the marked safety bar. Watching a national mythology come crashing down before one's eyes is never easy, I know. Enjoy the ride, when there's no more road left on dead end street, yo, top that.

media & prospective interviewers

As I've made clear in these past postings, I'm running the show. There will be review copies sent by request and no preview copies. I'm not concerned about your opinions on that either. This will be accompanied by an agreement not to illegally disseminate copies. I have a way of tracking this too, so don't think it's going to float if you have any weird ideas about that.

To sum it up: Any question I don't care to answer, I won't. If you push the issue, the interview is over, done, forever, don't contact me again. Serious inquiries only. Mainstream media--if any bother to cover this, which I doubt for reasons that are expanded upon in the book--will have to go buy a copy, unless they can give me a compelling reason why not. I have close to zero respect for any of that, like the rest of the public, I don't trust you, and go "balance" yourself to check yourself.

Not that I expect anyone to do their homework as I have on this subject, and we're talking five years running now,  how exactly can any of you accurately assess what I experienced? That comes down to who you trust and what you uncover. Yes, there are likely many more pieces of information I haven't, and there are other players in the event with their own opinions who were privy to other parts of the story, we know this. You're objective, neither am I, and don't insult my or anyone's intelligence trying to kid us that you are, or that you're more objective, you're not. I'm not a nihilist, but you're not going to find the ultimate truth of whole swaths of this case. With the state of journalism today, I'm on solid ground. Ever attempt has been made to corroborate what's in the book.

If you want to conduct interviews, I'm here, contact me via the profile page.