Ain't no time to hate...

The closest I ever got to serious religion was being a fan of the Grateful Dead. I guess I first heard the dead in about 1968 or 9. I started going to shows in 1972. Things really started smoking with the band for me in 1976 and 1977, the latter year one that many of us believe was their best.

I could go to a show at Winterland Auditorium and know about a thousand people there on a first name basis. Things were really cooking, on every level and in the best sense of the word. I stopped counting shows at 200, don't know how many I finally caught but it was a heap.

When all systems were firing, seeing the Grateful Dead was the most intense, spiritually enriching, fun and fulfilling group experience I have ever had. By a long shot.

You could see birds of every color at a show, black deadheads, latino deadheads, white deadheads, purple deadheads, gay deadheads, wharf rats (typically deadheads in recovery programs aka known as friend's of August W), straight deadheads, junkie deadheads, corporate deadheads, intellectual deadheads, stoner deadheads, punk deadheads, jewish deadheads, christian deadheads, pagan deadheads, buddhist deadheads, atheist deadheads, deadheads with ties, republican deadheads, commie deadheads, activist deadheads, rich deadheads, poor deadheads, kind veggie burrito deadheads, I need a miracle deadheads, grubby parking lot deadheads, tapers, spinners, the whole panoply of universal color and expression. They all shared one thing in common. A love for positive energy, great music, an acceptance of everybody else in the alembic and an affirmative answer to the question posed in the song Uncle John's Band, are you kind?

The one kind of deadhead I don't ever remember seeing was a nasty, bigoted deadhead. A Stormfront, white supremacist deadhead. You see, it was all about love and acceptance. And so it pains me to have a hideous creature like Ann Coulter claim to be one of the tribe. She engaged in one of her nasty race baiting routines this week. She has said in the past that she thinks that jews should be converted and "perfected." She is a homophobe hater, the worst freaking kind, see disown your kid for being gay. She believes that we should invade foreign countries and convert them to christianity. She has spat the most vituperative messages of hate conceivable. Her politics are anathema to the shared tenets that I perceived in the dead experience. While it is a dangerous proposition to speak for the departed I am fairly certain that old Uncle Jer' would have no use for the hate cartoon that is Ann Coulter.

We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.
Ann Coulter


My libertarian friends are probably getting a little upset now but I think that's because they never appreciate the benefits of local fascism.
Ann Coulter 


If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president.
Ann Coulter 

She says that she never got high. I believe her. Because she would have been zapped by a karmic thunderbolt beyond measure if she had pulled her regular nasty shit and hatred at some of the shows I attended. Acid had a way of separating those people that couldn't get along and dropping them on their heads. I doubt that she was at as many shows as she claims (67) and I also seriously doubt that anything tangible ever sunk in.

I call on Phil, Bobbie, Mickey and Bill to tear the tie dyed epaulets off of her uniform and let her know that she is no longer a deadhead. Like Gandalf casting Saruman out of the order. Ann, your staff is broken. You are 86'd. You are a very bad trip.