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Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard announced yesterday that they're expecting a baby. I'm staying at Duana's right now in Toronto and when I told her this on Monday morning she got all giggly and happy and immediately started researching due dates. It's a Veronica Mars thing.
As you know, Du and I disagree on K Bell -- she adores her and I find her insufferable. Will she be less so now that she's carrying a baby around? It hasn't been a great start.
Oh look! They just happened to release a statement about their pregnancy on the day that Dax is scheduled to appear on Jay Leno! Coincidence or conspiracy?
Oh look! Here's the first photo of K Bell with a tiny bump - click here to see - conveniently published on the day of the announcement even though it was actually taken A WEEK BEFORE by Startraks, the photo agency that also does all of Blake Lively's set-up shots. Coincidence or conspiracy?
Why hold off for a week?
Please. Don't you remember what happened last week? Sandy cockblocked everyone. They pushed it back to get maximum coverage right out of the weekend. They're not the first and they won't be the last. Pregnancy is a PR device now. Which is fine, I guess. Because for some reason, we keep fame-rewarding people who have babies. But once you give away the privacy, you don't get to ask for it back, right? I get to be all up in Kristen Bell's personal business now. And she doesn't get to complain.


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Judge Orders Baby's Name Changed From 'Messiah'
A Tennessee judge ordered a baby's name changed from Messiah to Martin last week, after the boy's parents went to court to fight over their son's last name. The boy's mother, Jaleesa Martin, says she was shocked by the decision and that she'll appeal the judge's order to rename her baby Martin DeShawn McCullough.
"The word Messiah is a title and it's a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ," says Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew, in an interview with Knoxville's WBIR TV.
Ballew said the 7-month-old boy's birth certificate should be changed to reflect both of his parents' names — and omit the name they chose for him. After he was born in January, the boy was named Messiah DeShawn Martin, which his mother said she thought went well with his siblings, Micah and Mason.
His parents had asked the court in Newport, Tenn., to rule only on what the boy's last name should be.
"I was shocked. I never intended on naming my son Messiah because it means 'God,' " Jaleesa Martin tells WBIR, "and I didn't think a judge could make me change my baby's name because of her religious beliefs."
The name Messiah has steadily grown in popularity since 2005. As a check with the Social Security Administration's database of baby names shows, the name was in the top 400 for 2012, after being ranked outside the top 1,000 names in 2004 and earlier years.
According to the SSA, the surge in naming babies Messiah put it fourth on the list of the fastest-growing names in 2012 — just behind Jase. But Judge Ballew says she believes the name could put an unfair burden on the boy later in life.
"I thought out into the future," she tells WBIR, explaining that the name "could put him at odds with a lot of people."
Asked what she thinks of parents who name their child "Jesus," Ballew said, "I thought about that as well. And that's not relevant to this case."
It's unclear what Judge Ballew would have made of the name of God Shammgod, the former pro basketball player who starred in the NCAA Tournament for the Providence College Friars back in 1997.

subset: commoncrawl


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The legendary Stronglight A9 headset has gone out of production. This was one of the best all around headsets ever produced. From VO's product description:
The roller bearing Stronglight A9 headset is one of those special components that defy time. It's roller bearings last for ages, it is very light, it does not develop indexing, it has classic good looks, and it is reasonably priced. In fact, it makes you wonder why anyone else bothers to make headsets.We've sold hundreds of these. I can't imagine why such a popular component would be discontinued. I was told that a replacement headset would be available in spring.
1-inch threaded; weight: 82 grams; stack height 37mm.
You may remember the Delta headset that was discontinued last year. It was like the legendary A9 headsets and used the same roller bearing, but the Delta had improved seals for cyclo-cross and mountain bikes. They are one of our all time favorite headsets. Well we found a small stash of them, but only in French thread.
I suppose it's time to look for a new headset to stock.


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Sen. Ted Kennedy died shortly before midnight Tuesday at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass., at age 77.Michelle Malkin says:
The man known as the "liberal lion of the Senate" had fought a more than year-long battle with brain cancer, and according to his son had lived longer with the disease than his doctors expected him to. . . .
A hardworking, well-liked politician who became the standard-bearer of his brothers' liberal causes, his career was clouded by allegations of personal immorality and accusations that his family's clout helped him avoid the consequences of an accident that left a young woman dead.
There is a time and place for political analysis and criticism. Not now.OK, I'll risk the Boss's umbrage and explain why I've so often used that "could not be reached for comment" line I stole from Ann Coulter.
Yes, there will be a nauseating excess of MSM hagiographies and lionizations -- and crass calls to pass the health care takeover to memorialize his death.
That's no excuse to demonstrate the same lack of restraint in the other direction. Not now.
It has often been written that Mary Jo Kopechne "drowned." She didn't. The cause of death was asphyxiation -- there was an air pocket inside the overturned car, and Mary Jo lived long enough to breathe the last remaining oxygen in that air pocket. And while Mary Jo was breathing her last . . . what did Ted Kennedy do?
Well, among other things, he began trying to concoct a cover-up story: "Why couldn't Mary Jo have been driving the car? . . . Why couldn't she have let him off and driven to the ferry herself and made a wrong turn?" His own cousin, Joe Gargan, talked Ted out of attempting to get away with that.
Kennedy beat the rap. Multiple witnesses have testified that Kennedy had been drinking all day. It was a clear-cut case of vehicular manslaughter, but he was allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of an accident.
The media will forgive liberals anything. Just look at the passive-voice construct in his obit: "an accident that left a young woman dead."
Forgiven by the media, liberals are shameless about such things. And so, in subsequent years, Americans were often subjected to the shameful spectacle of Ted Kennedy, the Chappaquiddick swim champ, lecturing us in moralistic tones about this, that and the other.
Whenever Kennedy would inflict his pompous self-righteous liberal moralizing on us, I'd always hear Ann Coulter's immortal words: "Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment."
And so I've used that line for the last time. And the knowledge of that finality is the only sadness I feel about Ted Kennedy's death.
UPDATE: Carol at No Sheeples Here has a fitting tribute to the kind of Irish drunk who gives Irish drunks a bad name.
UPDATE II: Jules Crittenden reports from Boston, where they love them some Irish drunks:
Regarding Kennedy himself, they don't exactly need to fire up the hagiography. Ted Kennedy's image enhancement has been a life-long project that only requires the bow of a national funereal extravaganza. Served in the Army, 51-53, didn't go to Korea, overcame a Harvard cheating scandal, slid into his big brother's seat, held for him till he was old enough, dodged responsibility in the death of Mary jo Kopechne, though whether he dodged consequences is debatable.I'm just grateful the old fraud finally had the decency to die, so that the torch could be passed to a new generation of decadent overprivileged swine.
UPDATE III: I have no idea why some of the commenters here are complaining that I have failed to be appropriately reverent toward the Kennedy mythology. It's not as if there were any shortage of media reverence out there:
In the quiet of a Capitol elevator, one of Edward M. Kennedy's fellow lawmakers asked whether he had plans for a family Thanksgiving away from the nation's capital. No, the Massachusetts senator said with a shake of his head, and mentioned something about visiting his brothers' gravesites at Arlington National Cemetery."Heir to a legacy"! Or, as Time magazine calls him, "The Brother Who Mattered Most." Well, he certainly was the one who mattered most to Mary Jo . . .
In his half-century in the public glare, Kennedy was, above all, heir to a legacy -- as well as a hero to liberals, a foil to conservatives, a legislator with few peers.
UPDATE IV: I'm called a "gutless little coward" by an anonymous blogger, but apparently I'm enough of a role model to be linked and quoted by a new blogger with a dilemma: "My first night blogging and Ted Kennedy dies. I don't have much good to say about Kennedy," says A Conservative Shemale. NTTAWWT.
Prominently featured on her blogroll: Ace of Spades. NTTAWWT.
UPDATE V: Bob Belvedere is appropriately mournful, and my heart was stirred by this touching tribute from Reaganite Republican:
[T]his man was a complete and utter fraud as leader of any kind . . . oft-tipsy Teddy was a comprehensively irresponsible and selfish fake.Uncork the champaign, says G.J., who recalls Ted's career as a clandestine pro-Soviet subversive:
This letter which details Senator Edward Kennedy's offer to help the Soviet Union defeat Reagan's efforts to build up the nuclear deterrent in Europe was unearthed by a Times of London reporter in the 1990s after the KGB files were opened.Drunken Commie-loving traitor, R.I.P. And I hereby declare this Mary Jo Kopechne Memorial Day.
It got little or no attention, however, until the publication of Paul Kengor's book The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism.


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Condition Basics
What is a heel or bone spur?
A heel spur is a type of bone spur (osteophyte) that develops on the heel bone (calcaneus). Most people think of something sharp when they think of a "spur," but a bone spur is just extra bone. It's usually smooth, but it can cause wear and tear or pain if it presses or rubs on other bones or soft tissues such as ligaments, tendons, or nerves in the body. In addition to the heel, other common places for bone spurs include the spine, shoulders, hands, hips, and knees.
What causes it?
A bone spur forms as the body tries to repair itself by building extra bone. It typically forms in response to pressure, rubbing, or stress that continues over a long period of time.
Some bone spurs form as part of the aging process. As we age, the slippery tissue called cartilage that covers the ends of the bones within joints breaks down and eventually wears away (osteoarthritis). Also, the discs that provide cushioning between the bones of the spine may break down with age. Over time, this leads to pain and swelling and, in some cases, bone spurs forming along the edges of the joint. Bone spurs due to aging are especially common in the joints of the spine and feet.
Bone spurs also form in the feet in response to tight ligaments, to activities such as dancing and running that put stress on the feet, and to pressure from being overweight or from poorly fitting shoes. For example, the long ligament on the bottom of the foot (plantar fascia) can become stressed or tight and pull on the heel, causing the ligament to become inflamed (plantar fasciitis). As the bone tries to mend itself, a bone spur can form on the bottom of the heel (known as a "heel spur"). Pressure at the back of the heel from frequently wearing shoes that are too tight can cause a bone spur on the back of the heel. This is sometimes called a "pump bump," because it is often seen in women who wear high heels.
Another common site for bone spurs is the shoulder. Your shoulder joint is able to move in a number of directions due to its complex structure. Over time, the bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments that make up your shoulder can wear against one another. The muscles that allow you to lift and rotate your arm (called the rotator cuff) start at your shoulder blade and are attached to your upper arm with tendons. As these tendons move through the narrow space between the top of your shoulder and your upper arm, they can rub on the bones. Bone spurs can form in this narrow area that, in turn, pinch the rotator cuff tendons, resulting in irritation, inflammation, stiffness, weakness, pain, and sometimes tearing of the tendon. This condition, rotator cuff disorder, commonly occurs with age and/or repetitive use of the shoulder. It is also common in athletes, especially baseball players, and in people such as painters who frequently work with their arms above their heads.
What are the symptoms?
Many people have bone spurs without ever knowing it, because most bone spurs cause no symptoms. But if the bone spurs are pressing on other bones or tissues or are causing a muscle or tendon to rub, they can break that tissue down over time, causing swelling, pain, and tearing. Bone spurs in the foot can also cause corns and calluses when tissue builds up to provide added padding over the bone spur.
How is it diagnosed?
A bone spur is usually visible on an X-ray. But since most bone spurs do not cause problems, it would be unusual to take an X-ray just to see whether you have a bone spur. If you had an X-ray to evaluate one of the problems associated with bone spurs, such as arthritis, bone spurs would be visible on that X-ray.
How is a bone spur treated?
Bone spurs do not require treatment unless they are causing pain or damaging other tissues. When needed, treatment may be directed at the causes, the symptoms, or the bone spurs themselves.
Treatment directed at the cause of bone spurs may include weight loss to take some pressure off the joints (especially when osteoarthritis or plantar fasciitis is the cause) and stretching the affected area, such as the heel cord and bottom of the foot. Seeing a physical therapist for ultrasound or deep tissue massage may be helpful for plantar fasciitis.
Treatment directed at symptoms could include rest, ice, stretching, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen. Education in how to protect your joints is helpful if you have osteoarthritis. If a bone spur is in your foot, changing footwear or adding padding or a shoe insert such as a heel cup or orthotic may help. If the bone spur is causing corns or calluses, padding the area or wearing different shoes can help. A podiatrist (foot doctor) may be consulted if corns and calluses become a bigger problem. If the bone spur continues to cause symptoms, your doctor may suggest a corticosteroid injection at the painful area to reduce pain and inflammation of the soft tissues next to the bone spur.
Sometimes the bone spurs themselves are treated. Bone spurs can be surgically removed in some instances but oftentimes, surgery is not required.


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When Scott Van Duzer welcomed President Obama to his pizza shop Sunday with a massive bearhug, it was the beginning of the end of his anonymity.
Van Duzer, a registered Republican who plans to vote for Obama in November, found himself — and his pizza — entangled in a political firestorm, with reactions displayed in the form of Yelp reviews. So far, Big Apple Pizza has received more than 3,000 reviews from partisans on the left and right.
The Fort Pierce, Fla., restaurant reportedly had just two reviews on Yelp before the president dropped by. One of them, from Aug. 31, 2010, called it "one of the best places to eat in the area!"
But after images of Van Duzer's embrace went viral, the Yelpers got political. Some reviews have reportedly been taken down because they didn't meet Yelp's "content guidelines." Those that remain posted show that during an election year, everything — even a slice — is fair game.
A sample vitriolic, one-star review comes from "Rick B.": "If you were a real republican you would have body slammed the socialist President Obama."
Of course, the president's supporters have also rushed to "rate" Van Duzer's pizza joint. One five-star review even attempted to bring the conversation back round to the pizza before swerving back to the politics: "I have never eaten at Big Apple Pizza...but the people who have seem to LOVE IT!", wrote "Acton C.," adding: "Scott...you are exactly what this country needs...A hardworking independent minded voter!"
All of which has left Big Apple Pizza with what Businessweek.com cheekily called the "least helpful Yelp profile ever." A spokesperson for Yelp tells NPR the site is on the case:
"Although most instances like these do not reach the level of media attention received by Big Apple Pizza, Yelp has proven policies in place to deal with such events: once brought to Yelp's attention, our user operations team will remove reviews determined to violate our Terms of Service and Content Guidelines, including reviews that only attack a business's perceived political ideologies. This way, people can continue to find great local businesses — and even a good slice — based on evaluations of consumer experiences, and not political views."
It's not the first time politics has inspired a gastro-backlash this election cycle. This summer, supporters of same-sex marriage called for a boycott of the fast food chain Chick-fil-A after its president voiced opposition to gay marriage. This time around, it was conservatives who called for a boycott of Big Apple Pizza.
The Yelp war has led to a string of media appearances for Van Duzer, who told The DailyBeast: "Everyone's entitled to their opinion, and you don't have to be ugly with yours."
Though the backlash prompted by the bearhug has been "pretty negative," as one Big Apple Pizza employee told The Salt Tuesday, "the good is outweighing the bad." The restaurant says it has received supportive calls from out of state, and Florida residents are calling in deliveries for their local fire departments and police stations. And while the restaurant wouldn't provide specifics, it says since Sunday, pizza sales are up.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Made with OEM style cork based materials. Stack height measured to reset clutch as new. If you need to replace worn original plates these are exactly the same technology, size and shape and drop right into your clutch basket. Plates must be oil soaked using standard drive case oil for a few hours before install to avoid heat scorching.
Always replace tired clutch springs and check for wear on driven (non lined) plates. If clutch has been slipping before replacement a full DRC or DRCF kit may be a better choice.


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Bio Credits Manson's Terrible Rise To Right Place And Time
California parolee Charles Manson arrived in San Francisco in 1967, when the city was full of young waifs looking for a guru. In Manson, Jeff Guinn argues that if the cult leader had instead been paroled in a place like Nebraska, he likely would not have been so successful.
Related Topics
September 18, 2013
Guest: Jeff Guinn
TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross.
THE BEATLES: (Singing) Helter skelter, helter skelter.
GROSS: Lots of stoned listeners read all kinds of messages into the Beatles' "White Album," but nothing compares to the album's impact on Charles Manson. He heard it as a message directed especially to him and his followers, who were known as The Family, that an apocalyptic race war was soon to begin in which blacks would rise up against their white oppressors and enslave them.
This battle would be set off by an event called Helter Skelter. Manson planned on leading his followers into the desert, where they would remain in hiding until the chaos ended. That's just one example of Manson's bizarre thinking. Many more examples are in a new Manson biography by my guest Jeff Guinn. Among the many people Guinn spoke with are Manson's sister and cousin, who had never before given interviews; a former prison cellmate and two of his former followers who are now in prison serving time for murder.
Manson and his followers, who were known as The Family, were responsible for nine murders, including the murder of Roman Polanski's pregnant wife, Sharon Tate. Jeff Guinn, welcome to FRESH AIR. So for our listeners who may be too young to remember the Charles Manson story, or for listeners who have simply forgotten the details, just refresh our memories about why Charles Manson is so infamous.
JEFF GUINN: In the late 1960s, Charles Manson put together a family of followers who were either emotionally broken or drug-addled enough to buy into him as the second coming of Jesus Christ and themselves as the instigators of an apocalyptic race war.
On August 9th and 10th, 1969, The Family murdered seven people in horrific ways, and two others died at their hands before he was arrested. Helter Skelter is probably the most famous criminal trial in America because of that.
GROSS: And that was his trial.
GUINN: Yes.
GROSS: Why did you want to write about Manson after having written earlier books about the shootout at the OK Corral and Bonnie and Clyde?
GUINN: What I do in all my nonfiction books is I try to pick an era in American history that I want to write about. Once I pick that era, then I try to find some iconic individual or event. The theme, the theory behind all my books, is that history doesn't happen in a vacuum. So I look for interesting times in our nation's history when all the different threads of things would come together to make one moment possible, be it a wonderful moment, be it something horrific like the Tate-LaBianca murders.
But really the purpose of the book is to, through Charlie Manson, show the context of the 1960s.
GROSS: Oh, well, thanks for showing the '60s through the eyes of Charles Manson.
GUINN: Well, he had an interesting view.
GROSS: Yes. Well, you know, one of the things so interesting about Charles Manson in the '60s is that he's drawing on all these things that are the opposite of what he was. He's drawing on all these '60s counter-cultural ideals of, you know, open sexuality, living together in groups, forming families that aren't your own family.
And he's using it to create himself into a demonic, cult leader. Is that what interested you about connecting him to that period?
GUINN: The most fascinating thing about Manson is that he certainly did what you describe in the 1960s, but by then he had already been doing the very same thing in the 1940s, in the 1950s. He was a lifelong sociopath who would take the best, most interesting things of cutting-edge culture and turn them to his own devices.
For instance in prison in the early 1950s, he got the basis of the street rap he would use later in Haight-Ashbury by cribbing lines, word for word, from Chapter 7 of Dale Carnegie's "How To Win Friends and Influence People."
GROSS: Which is an incredibly mainstream book.
GUINN: Well, it was at the time, I think, one of the most popular books in America. Dale Carnegie permeated every part of our culture. But it's Charlie Manson, this uneducated hick from West Virginia, who figures out ways to use Dale Carnegie precepts in the most horrible ways imaginable.
GROSS: Give us an example.
GUINN: I interviewed Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel, two of the convicted Tate-LaBianca murderers, in their women's prison in Corona, California. And when I came to see them - and I interviewed them separately - I asked right away what could Charles Manson possibly have said to you, when you first met him, that made you think this is an interesting man who seems to understand me; I want to talk more to him, I want to get close to him?
And they would say, well, Charlie said this, and he said this, and he said this, word for word from "How to Win Friends and Influence People." I got a copy of the textbook that Manson used in prison, and he cribbed those lines directly from it. So...
GROSS: What are some of the lines?
GUINN: He said - one of his philosophies was always make the other person think that the idea is his or her own. That's straight out of Chapter 7. And Leslie Van Houten talked about how when she first meets Manson, he starts talking to her about how wonderfully intelligent she is, and she understands the Bible, and she's got all these great skills. She was a Kelly girl. And Manson was thrilled that she knew shorthand because he liked to make up song lyrics on the spot, and then he'd forget them.
So her first assignment was to follow him around with a notebook and in shorthand scribble down all the song lyrics he was improvising. But he intrigued her working straight from Chapter 7. With some of the men that he recruited, Carnegie wrote that the things that interest people most are the sex drive and the urge to be famous. And Manson promised the men who followed him all the sex they wanted, and if they stuck with him, they were going to not only be famous, they would rule the world after the apocalyptic race war he called Helter Skelter.
So he's tying in these ideas from the 1940s with the cultural events of the 1960s. And the thing we have to say about Manson is yes, he's uneducated, yes, he had problems reading, but the guy is smart. He's smart in devious, terrible ways, but in his way he is a master manipulator.
GROSS: And he also included into his approach to manipulating people, something he learned from pimp philosophy, which is make the woman love you and fear you. He knew pimps in prison. Did he ever work as one himself?
GUINN: Oh, that was originally his plan for his life's work.
GROSS: To be a pimp?
GUINN: When he first goes to prison for car theft, he thinks this is a great opportunity to study at the feet of some of the great pimps, who for whatever reason or another, find themselves in prison with Charlie. And they teach him about separating women from their families and loved ones, beating them enough to scare them but being loving enough to make them feel valued, cut them off from every type of communication except your own.
And he just knew, instinctively sometimes, how to find a woman's weakness, whether it was a bad body image, whether she had serious issues with her father. He could exploit and would exploit anything like that.
GROSS: And he knew how to find vulnerable women. Like when he got - after his years in reform school and then prison, when he gets out, he goes to the Haight-Ashbury, and he basically looks for teenage runaways who were already in a very lost and vulnerable position.
GUINN: And this is what I mean again by how the threads of history come together to make something possible. Charlie Manson is paroled from prison in California. Now if he's in Nebraska, let's say, and he gets out of prison, and he goes to live in Omaha, if he tried to pull this shtick with the daughters of the farmers of Nebraska they'd have stuck him on a pitchfork and left him in a field as a scarecrow.
But Haight-Ashbury is the place where as many as 300 teenage waifs a day are drifting in.
GROSS: This is 1967.
GUINN: Right. And Haight-Ashbury is overflowing with children who don't know where they're going, what they're going to do, what they're going to eat next, but they've come in search of some guru to be able to tell them what to do and make their lives better. And that's who Manson preys on.
Any other time, any other place, it could not have worked. But unfortunately for the world, he was in the perfect spot to exploit his very terrible gifts.
GROSS: And his audition, so to speak, of these young girls, he would ask the young girl to perform oral sex on him, and if she refused to do that, then he knew this was not a girl who he could keep under his thumb.
GUINN: Well, to Manson that sex act was so basic that any woman who wouldn't perform it clearly was not worthy of his attention. And he would try to break down all their sexual inhibitions. It's a sad thing to hear described by some of the participants now, how virtually every day there would be some sort of group gathering, and Manson would be orchestrating everything, taking part sometimes himself, but even more so trying to make sure that the women and men who followed him didn't become emotionally attached to an individual in the group, that everybody got passed around from family member to family member.
GROSS: Scientology figures into this, too, and he learned about Scientology in prison, where he also learned about Dale Carnegie. So how did Scientology figure into the creation of his cult following?
GUINN: Well, when we talk about the timing in history again, the year Manson goes to prison is the same year that the American penal system changes its philosophy. Before, it was always retributive justice: make them suffer so much in prison they'll never want to repeat a crime and come back. But Manson comes in just when the new philosophy is let's have courses and programs to help inmates acquire social skills and some emotional stability so they'll succeed in the world when they get out in it.
That's why they have Dale Carnegie. That's why they encourage various religious groups. Manson glommed onto Scientology, not because he thought it was the perfect faith, but because he loved the way he would recruit people, telling these broken kids you're beautiful, you're perfect the way you are. If your families don't love you, it's because they're not accepting you for who you are, like I do.
And he cribbed a lot of that by twisting some of the things he learned about Scientology in prison.
GROSS: And of course he used the Bible, too. And let's talk a little bit about his grandmother. His grandmother was a fundamentalist Christian. His mother rebelled against the grandmother. But what was the relationship of the grandmother to Charles Manson, and how much did she talk to him about the Bible and taking it literally and its importance? Do you know anything about that part of their relationship?
GUINN: Oh, quite a bit. We were fortunate in researching this book to find Manson's sister and his cousin, neither one of whom had ever been interviewed before, about his life. And through them they shared family letters, photographs. And I even have Charlie's grandmother Nancy Maddox' Bible study guide that she would make Charlie pore over because she thought if there was ever a child that needed good Christian values, it was him.
And she would underline in ink on the pages in the book the passages she thought were most important for Charlie to learn. And they attended a very fundamentalist church in McMechen, West Virginia. That was part of his grandmother's deal when he got out of reform school, he can live with her, but he has to go to church with her, and he has to join the Nazarene Church Youth Group.
And there Charlie heard, over and over, the Book of Revelation, about the end of times. And he had a good memory when he wanted to, and he memorized many passages out of the Book of Revelation, which thrilled his grandmother at the time. But really, Charlie was just storing knowledge for later use, and when he was discussing Helter Skelter and the apocalypse that's coming in 1969 and getting his followers to do some pretty warped things because of that predication, he was pulling a lot of it right out of the Book of Revelation.
His grandmother loved him. She thought if she could just pound the Bible into him enough, that god would change him. Well, he learned a lot about the Bible, but just as he twisted Dale Carnegie's words, he twisted the passages in the Bible, too.
GROSS: My guest is Jeff Guinn. He's the author of the new book "Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson." Let's take a short break here, and then we'll talk some more. This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Jeff Guinn. We're talking about Charles Manson, who's the subject of Guinn's new book "Manson." The Beatles were so important in his mind, and when "The White Album" came out - what year was "The White Album", the Beatles' White Album?
GROSS: Thank you. He saw that as having all kinds of secret messages, including secret messages to him. What did he read into "The White Album" and particularly to the track "Helter Skelter"?
GUINN: Actually what Manson did with "The White Album" was, just as he used the Book of Revelation to brainwash his followers, he would use The Beatles' music for the same reason. He didn't allow them to listen to much outside music. It was either The Beatles' albums or Charlie singing his own songs. And he also had a soft spot for Steppenwolf 's song "Born to Be Wild," for all your listeners who are old enough to remember it.
What Manson did over the winter of 1968 and the early months of 1969, was have his followers listen to "The White Album" over and over again and ask them to interpret for him what the songs were saying. And the songs in particular he wanted them to listen to were Helter Skelter, a song called "Piggies," another song called "Blackbird," and they had all these different wild guesses.
But whenever someone would say, well, I think "Blackbird" is maybe about the black people rising up in America, Charlie would say that's the most wonderful insight, I never thought of that, you're brilliant, when of course that's what he wanted someone to say all along.
And with "Helter Skelter," he claimed that this was The Beatles predicting an imminent race war, that blacks had been held down in history for so long, and now they were going to rise up. And when they did, they would massacre the white population. Charlie had been afraid of armed blacks ever since he ran into the Black Muslims in prison and the Black Panthers when he got out. He had a real fear of armed black men and believed they were coming for him anytime, if not for the rest of the world.
So he's saying that we're going to have this apocalyptic race war. When it breaks out, our family will go out into Death Valley, where as the Bible has said, there is a bottomless with a great city underneath. We're going to go down in that pit, and we're going to wait out the war. And when the war is over, and the blacks have won, because they're intellectually inferior, they won't be able to rule themselves. So they're going to have to turn to Manson and the family to rule the world.
And it says, I think, how indoctrinated his followers were, that most of them bought into at least part of the story. Charlie told them really they had a choice between sticking with him and something much worse. He said if they don't stay with him, when the race war comes, the blacks will either kill them or enslave them.
GROSS: So when you talked to Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel, who were both followers of Manson, what did they tell you about how they saw his vision of Helter Skelter?
GUINN: They thought, as the rest of the family did, that at this point Manson knew everything; that if he predicted this was happening, it was going to happen. Patricia Krenwinkel, more than Leslie Van Houten, was also physically afraid of Manson. One of the things he would do to the women who were his followers to make them prove they were loyal, is he would have them stand against a tree, and he would throw knives into the tree trunk over their heads.
If they flinched, that meant they didn't really believe in him and therefore weren't worthy. And Krenwinkel thought that Manson might very well throw a knife, accidentally on purpose, and hurt her badly. He would hit the women, yank their hair. So Patricia said, more than anything else, she went along with him because of fear. Leslie Van Houten said she liked the drugs very much, and Charlie had promised that while they were in the underground city waiting out Helter Skelter, that they could change their bodies at will to become whatever they wanted.
And Leslie at this point in life thought it would be great to be an elf with wings. And after they were arrested and were in cells awaiting their indictments, she actually was afraid because she thought the wings were growing on her back, and they were growing out too soon. So that shows the kind of confusion that he had carefully crafted in his followers.
GROSS: And that kind of confusion could really be helped along, really encouraged, by hallucinogenic drugs. If you're taking hallucinogenics under the guidance of somebody who's crazy, you're being exposed to some really scary and - you'd be very impressionable in a way that you might not otherwise be. Bad trips can be very contagious in that respect.
So what did they tell you, what did the two Manson followers who you interviewed, tell you about what LSD sessions were like with Manson?
GUINN: Not only the two of them, but some other people who participated described these sessions. Manson would hand out the LSD and take a much smaller dose than anybody else. Then everyone else except Charlie was required to sit in a chair while Charlie sang or preached.
Quite often Manson would act out himself being crucified in front of them to strengthen the belief that he was Jesus coming in. If someone in the middle of the trip took a bad turn and started to make noise or move around, Manson would be furious, and he was pretty likely to hit him with something.
He actually - people said that a couple times he actually took a chair and smashed it into somebody's back and kept hitting them until they would sit quietly again. Again the LSD trips were all part of Manson's overall plan. I mean, he had these people isolated all the time. There's a reason he picked isolated Spahn Ranch. There's a reason he wanted to take them out to Death Valley. He didn't want them being influenced by anyone other than himself.
GROSS: Jeff Guinn will be back in the second half of the show. His new biography is called "Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson." I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross, back with Jeff Guinn, author of a new biography of Charles Manson. Manson was the leader of a small cult group, known as The Family, that was responsible for nine gruesome murders - including Sharon Tate, the pregnant wife of film director Roman Polanski.
Earlier, we were talking about Manson's vision of "Helter Skelter." He thought that track on the Beatles' "White" album was intended to send a message to him about a forthcoming apocalyptic race war, signaling Manson to lead his followers to the California desert, where they would be safe until the chaos ended.
So, you know, getting back to Death Valley and his vision of "Helter Skelter," how did he have his followers prepare for the Death Valley days?
GUINN: There were several things that he had them do. The first was they began stealing cars by the dozen and trying to convert them into dune buggies. And it was about this time that Manson tried to recruit any number of biker gangs into The Family, in hopes that they could serve as sort of a personal cadre of protectors for him, because he was predicting, you know, the Black Panthers were going to come pouring out over the horizon any time now. They stole guns. They had knives. Charlie carried a sword, actually. And on the side of his dune buggy, he welded a scabbard, so he could have his sword handy, should he ever need it.
He made the members of The Family stand guard at night with guns, telling them that any minute now, they might be attacked. And then, when they found an isolated ranch out in Death Valley, during the day, he would keep them busy, telling them they had to go out and try to find the bottomless pit in the desert. Meanwhile, the women were expected to gather edible plants and prepare them for meals. Charlie said that, as women, they should know how to do that. And they're in the middle of Death Valley. At one point, they nearly starved.
Krenwinkel remembers when a day came that they had a small bag of rice, a little powdered milk and a jar of cinnamon. That was all the food they had. So Manson is having to commute back to L.A. and try to beg money from people to buy food to feed The Family out in the desert. It was a very confusing, awful situation. But by that time, The Family members were so physically worn down that they really just didn't have the strength to insist that they go back to more hospitable climes.
GROSS: Let's talk a little bit about music in Manson's life. He wanted to be Jesus or a rock star, or some combination of both. And he must've thought he was good, that he really had talent. And what he wanted to do was meet, like, famous rock stars or other famous people in the music industry and parlay that into a record contract so that he could find his audience and reach the fame he knew he was destined to have. And he was pretty successful at becoming friends with Dennis Wilson, the drummer of, you know, in the Beach Boys. How did he get to know Dennis Wilson?
GUINN: Well, Charlie's music roots actually go all the way back to his childhood, when he was the orneriest, most disagreeable little boy in McMechen, West Virginia. And the one good trait he had was that he had a nice singing voice. And when he would be forced to go to church by his grandma, at least when the time came to sing hymns, Charlie would be outstanding. And later on, he fell in love with the music of Frankie Lane.
GROSS: That amazed me in your book.
GROSS: It's, like, made me wonder, did Frankie Lane ever know that? Like, he liked Perry Como.
GUINN: Mm-hmm.
GROSS: He liked Frank - like, Frankie Lane was his hero when he was young.
GUINN: Right. Do not forsake me, oh, my darling. Charlie liked to sing that a lot.
GROSS: Oh, I wasn't thinking about that. Right. The theme from "High Noon."
GUINN: Right. But when Charlie's in prison, and he's in the workshop in 1964, 1965, suddenly, every other song on the radio was by this band called the Beatles. What got Charlie was not just the music, but the effect The Beatles had on everybody. Suddenly, you know, everybody's talking about them. Everybody's looking up to them, and Charlie wanted some of that for himself. So he had a guitar, and for the first time, he started writing songs. And he was positive when he got out of jail, if he could just get somebody powerful in the record business to hear him play his songs, he would get a record deal right away, would sell millions of records and become more famous than The Beatles.
So, when he moved his family to L.A. from Haight-Ashbury, he sent his women out to troll for rock stars. And it was a very heady time, when everybody was having sex with everybody else and sharing drugs. And it was just a matter of time until a couple of The Family women ran into Dennis Wilson, who invited them back to his palatial mansion off Sunset Boulevard.
He told them he wanted them to come with him to have some milk and cookies. And he actually meant it. He gave them cookies and raw milk, which was the only kind he'd drink. They didn't know who he was, because The Beach Boys', you know, sort of sunny, happy music was not the kind of music that Charlie allowed his followers to hear.
But they get back to Spahn Ranch, and Manson says, well, you know, did you find anybody? Did you find anybody? They said, well, yeah. You know, this guy picked us up. He said he was the drummer in some band you probably never heard of. They're called The Beach Boys?
And the next thing the women knew, Manson was insisting they bring him and the whole family back to Wilson's house. Wilson gets back from a recording session that night, and there's Charlie and The Family inviting him into his own house. But they have The Beatles on the record player. There were plenty of drugs, and most of the girls were naked, and Dennis liked that a lot.
And Manson and The Family members pretty much moved in for a while. Wilson listened to Charlie's songs, and Dennis was a nice guy. The Beach Boys had a label called Brother Records, and Dennis thought, well, maybe they'd record Charlie. But the rest of The Beach Boys thought he was a talentless bum, and so that didn't work out.
Manson moved on a little bit. Neil Young was impressed enough with Manson's music - his improvisations - to suggest that his label give Charlie a listen. But they weren't interested. John Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas passed. Rudy Altobelli, who was an agent for a lot of music stars, including Buffy St. Marie, didn't think Manson had anything special to offer.
So Manson set his sights on the one guy in L.A. who, if he liked Manson's music, Manson had a record deal right away. And that guy's name was Terry Melcher, the son of actress Doris Day and the boy wonder producer of rock and roll hits in Los Angeles. And Manson became obsessed with impressing Terry Melcher.
GROSS: Terry Melcher was producing The Byrds at the time.
GUINN: The Byrds. And he also - Melcher had this ability to sort of pick obscure performers and elevate them. Like, he found a garage band, dressed them up in Revolutionary War stuff, called them Paul Revere and the Raiders. And over the course, I guess, of three or four years at Columbia, Terry Melcher ends up producing about 80 hit singles.
So if he had thought Manson had talent, Manson would've gotten signed by Columbia Records. But when Manson auditioned for Melcher out at Spahn Ranch, Melcher's private reaction was this guy is nothing more or less than 100,000 other longhairs trying to pretend to be The Beatles. He has no sales potential. And he told Charlie in the politest way, you know, you're interesting, but I just wouldn't know what to do with you.
And when that happened, Manson's dream of becoming a rock star was essentially over, and that meant he had failed in front of his followers, who thought he couldn't fail. So he had to come up with something that would be audacious enough to bind them to him. And so that was one part - not all of it, but one part - of the reason for the Tate-LaBianca murders.
GROSS: Before we get to those murders, I want our listeners to hear some of Charles Manson's music. He wrote a song called "Cease to Exist," you know, he hoped would be recorded. And Dennis Wilson was, you know, actually recorded it, got it recorded on The Beach Boys album, "20/20," which was released, I think, in '69?
GUINN: Maybe '68.
GROSS: Maybe '68. Yeah.
GUINN: Late '68.
GROSS: OK. OK. So the lyric, the way Charles Manson sings it, includes the lines: Pretty girl, cease to exist. Just come and say you love me. Give up your world and be with me. Submission is a gift. Give it to your brother.
And it's, like, whoa. That's almost like his philosophy. Like, girl, cease to exist? Give up your world and be with me? Submission is a gift?
GUINN: Very much so. And that was the reason Manson was furious with Wilson, not just for claiming complete authorship of the song himself...
GROSS: Yes. If you look on "20/20," it just has, you know, it's just credited to Dennis Wilson. There's no Charles Manson credit.
GUINN: But what really hacked Manson off was the fact that Wilson had the nerve to change Charlie's lyrics. He had always told Wilson, you can change my music anyway you want to, but you can't change the lyrics. Because if Charlie said it, it must be true. And, as you said, the whole idea cease to exist, is that's Charlie throwing out his philosophy of life to any young woman listener. But Wilson changed all that around.
GROSS: But the line cease to exist is still in The Beach Boys' version, isn't it, even though that's no longer the title?
GUINN: Right.
GROSS: The title is "Never Learn Not to Love"?
GUINN: Right. But Wilson changed the tone of the song. And he might be addressing anyone, and not just a girl, that he wanted to get - come submit to him. And Manson hated that.
GROSS: What I'd like to do is play the Manson version back to back with The Beach Boys version so our listeners can hear both of them. Any comments before we do that?
GUINN: I think you're going to see that Charles Manson actually was not quite the gifted musician he believed himself to be.
GROSS: I'm with you on that. This is, it's really not...
GROSS: It's not a good recording. OK. So here's Charles Manson doing a song "Cease to Exist," and then The Beach Boys doing a version that was titled "Never Learn Not to Love."
CHARLES MANSON: (Singing) Cease to exist. Just come and say you love me. Give up your world, come on, you can be. I'm your kind, oh, your kind, I can see. You walk on, walk on. I love you, pretty girl.
THE BEACH BOYS: (Singing) My life is yours. I'm your kind. I'm your kind, and I see. Never had a lesson I ever learned. I know I could never learn not to love you. Come in, now, closer. Come in closer, closer, closer, ah. Submission is a gift given to another.
GROSS: So that was Charles Manson singing his song "Cease to Exist." And then we heard the version that The Beach Boys recorded, but it was under a different title, called "Never Learn Not to Love." And that was on their album "20/20." And my guest, Jeff Guinn, is the author of a new book about Charles Manson, called "Manson."
Let's take a short break, and then we'll talk some more. This is FRESH Air.
GROSS: This is FRESH Air. Let's get back to my interview with Jeff Guinn, about his new biography of Charles Manson, the leader of a small cult group known as The Family. They were responsible for nine murders. Just to let you know, this part of the interview includes some pretty gruesome descriptions.
So, you were telling us that Manson really wanted to get a recording contract, but when everybody turned him down - including Terry Melcher, a very successful producer, who's also the son of Doris Day - he realized at some point he had to give up on his dream and continue to impress his followers with something else. So how does that lead to murder?
GUINN: Gurus can't be seen to fail by their followers. That's when the followers start to drift away. And some of Manson's followers were leaving him, some of his long-term people that he counted on and depended on. So he needs to do something spectacular. And here's where the other threads come in. Los Angeles is a hotbed of racial tension, maybe the worst in all major American cities in that year, in that hot summer. Watts had been just a few years before, and all across America, there's race riots. It's a terrible, tense time. And that permeates through the city, and Manson sees a way to use that.
At the same time, a drug deal has gone wrong, and Charlie has shot a man he believes to be a Black Panther, who was owed money by The Family for some drugs. And Charlie expects that the Black Panthers are going to come storming onto Spahn Ranch any time and attack. So there's that pressure on his followers.
And finally, there's a murder, a music teacher named Gary Hinman. The Family believes that Hinman has reneged on a drug deal with them. Bobby Beausoleil, a friend of Manson's, but not a member of The Family, and a couple of the Manson women go down and torture Hinman. They think he's got money. He swears he doesn't. Manson comes in the middle of the night with his sword, cuts off part of Hinman's ear, leaves and later tells Beausoleil you know what to do, meaning kill him and try to make it look like the Black Panthers did it.
Beausoleil is arrested for Hinman's murder shortly afterward. He's driving a car stolen from Hinman, and he's got the bloody knife he used to kill Hinman in the wheel boot. Manson is worried that Beausoleil is going to flip on him, turn him into the police. He can't have that happen, either.
So here, these things are coming together, and Manson helps The Family think: You know what? If there were copycat murders with signs again that black militants had done it, then the cops - because Bobby's in jail - would figure Bobby hadn't done it, and they'll have to let him go. Manson thinks that they need to kill famous rich people to get the kind of attention he wants. And if they can make it look like black militants did it, he tells everybody this will start Helter Skelter. This will make the whites mad, the blacks retaliate. We'll be in the desert. This is the beginning of the time that we're going to become masters of the world.
So they have to pick a place to go, and the reason they pick the house on Cielo Drive where Terry Melcher once lived is not because they think Melcher still lives there. They know he moved. But they also feel that only somebody really rich and famous could afford to live in that spectacular house at the top of a hill.
And Tex Watson, who Manson sends out that night with three of the women -Linda Kasabian, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel - knows how to get to that house in the middle of the night, because they visited it before. So they picked this house not because they think Terry Melcher lives there, not because they know Sharon Tate is there, but because they know how to get there. It's location that decides the fate of five people that night.
GROSS: And Sharon Tate was the pregnant wife of the film director Roman Polanski. And she and four other people were murdered by Manson people. And then - go ahead.
GUINN: We were able, in the book, to have new information again about this night of murder. Patricia Krenwinkel, who had never given a full statement ever before, decided to finally tell the story, and she walked me through it, hour by hour. And it is horrific. It's horrible, horrible stuff.
GROSS: What horrified you most about what she told you?
GUINN: She told me about chasing Abigail Folger out on the lawn to the house.
GROSS: One of the victims.
GUINN: Right. And how she was stabbing her over and over, and how, when her knife would hit bone, it would hurt her hand, but when it hit organs, it felt more comfortable.
GROSS: Part of the reason why people were butchered in the way that they were was that Manson wanted these murders to be spectacular, not just like any murder. They had to be extraordinary and get a lot of media attention.
GUINN: Manson not only orchestrated these murders in advance, but afterward, when the killers get back to Spahn Ranch, he's waiting for them at the gate. And he questions them: Did you do this? Did you do that? How'd you leave everything? And he's furious, because he thinks they haven't make it spectacular enough.
He gets in the car and drives back to the house where these murders have occurred and changes things around. In particular, Manson found a large American flag in another part of the house, and he took it over to the sofa and draped it theatrically on the sofa. On the floor beside the sofa was the butchered body of Sharon Tate. And he was convinced that was going to be the visual that was going to start bringing down - not necessarily Helter Skelter, I don't know that Charlie ever bought into that himself. But if it could trigger even a small race riot in Los Angeles, then he can point to that to his followers and say, see, I told you we have the power to make these things happen.
So Manson orchestrated the murders beforehand, and he went back, and he changed things around afterward.
GROSS: How did he try to pin the murders on the Black Panthers?
GUINN: He believed that if you left Black Panther signs, and they tried at the Hinman house to leave a bloody paw print on the wall, they thought the Black Panthers referred to the cops as pigs, which they did. But, of course, a lot of the young white revolutionaries did the same thing. So that's why they wrote the word pig in Sharon Tate's blood on the door of Cielo Drive. They thought these would be the signs that would make the cops think it was the Black Panthers.
And, of course, nothing like that happened at all, which is why Manson, furious on the morning of August 10th, decided they would have to go out and do it again that night. This time, he was going to come along the whole way, to make sure it was done correctly.
GROSS: And that's when Rosemary and Leno LaBianca were murdered.
GUINN: And, again, it was not a case of Manson specifically picking individuals. He and a lot of The Family members had attended parties at a house next door to the LaBianca's. And so, again, they knew how to get there at night. It was just the LaBiancas' misfortune that they were there then.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Jeff Guinn. He's the author of the new book "Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson." Let's take a short break, and then we'll talk some more. This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. My guest is Jeff Guinn. We're talking about his new book "Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson." Are any of Charles Manson's followers in touch with you, and have you gotten any intimidating messages from any of them who maybe don't want to see the story told?
GUINN: Well, Manson very kindly shared my contact information with some of his current followers, and I'm heard from quite a few of them. They're an interesting mix, and some of them are actually interesting folks. I thought that, you know, they wouldn't be, shall we say, exceptionally bright, but some of them are intelligent people who I think have just chosen the wrong person to admire.
GROSS: I mean, do they threaten you, or just try to reason with you?
GUINN: Not - the reasonable ones didn't threaten me. I've gotten a couple of direct threats, but they're from the kind of folks who use crayons when they write. So I'm not too concerned.
GROSS: About how many followers of Manson's are still out there?
GUINN: They must number in the hundreds, and they're all over the country.
GROSS: Really? Oh. What qualifies as being a follower at this point? And it sounds more like a fan than a follower.
GUINN: Well, Manson doesn't really differentiate, but he communicates with lots of folks. He likes to stay in touch with people who are fairly worshipful of him, and a lot of them hope someday he will be released and actually come out to be their leader.
GROSS: I would like to hear you describe why you think some people would choose to follow him now, when we know he's behind the murders of - eight?
GUINN: Nine.
GROSS: Nine, thank you. Like, now that we really know the story, why would somebody want to follow him?
GUINN: They don't accept that as facts. If Manson says I never killed anybody, that's all they want to hear. There are people in this world who are going to believe what they want to, and aren't going to let the facts get in the way.
GROSS: You tried to interview Manson and wrote him, what, like, 40 requests. What kind of response did you get?
GUINN: Well, I didn't hear anything for a long time, and finally, he wrote me a letter. It was not a pleasant letter. He did not want me to write the book. And I'm sure he had an idea that I was finding people who'd never talked before, and the book was going to be able to point out all the lies he's told about himself all these years.
So he wrote me a letter telling me off. But later, when I asked to use some of his prison art in the photo section of the book, he gave me his permission. At any rate, Manson has loved this. He has always wanted to be famous, and if instead of being famous he has to be notorious, he'll settle for that. And, again, I think if we can just understand who this man is, he'll lose something of the magic that people have somehow imbued him with over all these years since.
GROSS: What is the magic that he's been imbued with?
GUINN: Manson fed into the national paranoia at a unique time in our history. When I interviewed Tom Hayden for this book, he said he didn't think there'd ever been a period in American history like 1968, '69, when something momentous seemed to happen virtually every day, something unbelievably good or horrifyingly bad, everything from assassinations, race riots, a very unpopular war that was dividing the nation.
At the same time you've got this amazing creative explosion in movies, in music and literature. A man walks on the moon. The New York Mets win the World Series, which at that time, people would have believed was far less possible than man walking on the moon.
Every day, something is happening, and we're reeling emotionally, and we were not yet used to horrific murders. There was something unique about these, an evil hippie guru sending his addled followers out. And now, of course, I think most Americans in the street can't remember the names of the kids who were the Columbine killers or the man who shot up Virginia Tech University.
We've seen so many mass murders in the most horrible of ways, it's kind of like Charlie established himself as the first king of that particular crime, and has held the title ever since. He's a terrible, terrible human being, but there's nothing mystic or magic about him.
GROSS: Jeff Guinn, thank you so much for talking with us.
GUINN: It's been a pleasure. Thank you.
GROSS: Jeff Guinn is the author of "Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson." You can read an excerpt on our website, freshair.npr.org, or you can also download podcasts of our show.
Transcripts are created on a rush deadline, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of Fresh Air interviews and reviews are the audio recordings of each segment.


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"This is everything to me. Winning another fight means everything for me, and I feel like I'm going to go in there and make a statement." - Dustin Poirier
Dustin Poirier's loss to "The Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung in May wasn't the catalyst for him to change camps. It was more like the final piece of data that convinced him it was indeed time to uproot from his home base of Lafayette, Louisiana and find a new place to settle down.
Throughout his climb up the ranks in the WEC and UFC, the 23-year-old featherweight trained under Ultimate Fighter alum Tim Credeur as the star student at his Gladiators Academy gym. The partnership had worked pretty well, with Poirier first gaining recognition for his UFC 125 upset of Josh Grispi, and then his starring turn in the outstanding documentary Fightville.
Two more wins moved "The Diamond" into contention in the 145-pound ranks, and set him up opposite Jung in a main event showdown in May on FUEL TV. The entertaining affair ended with Poirier getting submitted in the fourth round, and a few months later, he announced a change of address.
"It was a hard decision, but we were talking about it before my last fight; we knew it was getting to that time," Poirier said of the decision to depart his long-time home. "I didn't have the guys to show up every day and push me, and I needed to be around top-caliber guys. Tim knew that, and I knew that too.
"That's not saying that the guys at Gladiators aren't good, but it's different when you're training with those guys and then you get in the cage and fight the best guys in the world. You want to be seeing that on a daily basis. That's what we knew had to happen, and that's why I moved here."
"Here" is Coconut Creek, Florida and American Top Team, the revered fight camp that has produced a constant stream of top contenders across a number of organizations over the years, including former WEC featherweight champion Mike Brown, Thiago Alves, and Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva.
It's a major change for Poirier, both personally and professionally.
Rather than pack his bags for Florida when it came time for him to prepare for a fight, Poirier and his wife Jolie opted to relocate permanently. Deciding to leave home was difficult, but it was something the driven and motivated young featherweight knew was necessarily in order to further his career and work towards achieving his ultimate goal.
"It's a huge sacrifice," offered Poirier. "Everything I love and everything I have was in Louisiana, where I'm from and grew up. My family is there – just the security of being comfortable, knowing everybody, and stuff like that – but these chances don't come over and over again.
"I'm in the UFC, and I want to be a world champion, so I decided to do what I had to do, and make sacrifices. I'm selling my house in Louisiana, and just completely moved out here.
"I'm a guy that trains year-round," he continued. "After a fight, I might take a week off at the most and then I'm back in the gym, so I just felt like doing training camp somewhere – I would be prepared for fights, but I wouldn't be getting better all around. If you just do camps and you don't train between that, you're just getting into shape and sharpening what you already have. Between fights, you can learn new stuff, try new stuff, and have some fun, so it was important for me to be around those kinds of guys all the time. That's why I'm here."
The first chance Poirier has to showcase the improvements he's made since filing his change of address forms comes this weekend against Jonathan Brookins. Like Poirier, the enigmatic TUF winner is in need of a reset, having lost his last outing and two of his first three since besting Michael Johnson by unanimous decision to enter the fraternity of Ultimate Fighter winners on Season 12.
Though he gives Brookins' praise without prompting and knows there are areas where his upcoming opponent is dangerous, the quietly charismatic and always entertaining Poirier is chomping at the bit to return to the cage and get back into the win column.
"He's a grinder; he slows the pace down in his fights and wears guys down; he presses them up against the fence, beats them up, and grinds out wins. He's dangerous there. I think he's a lot stronger than he looks. He's a big '45er – he's tall and long and he has really good wresting, so I have to use my wrestling and my boxing to keep a good distance, and I have to keep my back off the fence.
"This is going to sound cheesy, but this is my passion," remarked Poirier, laughing at his use of a timeless cliché. "Every day I wake up and try to better myself. All day, every day, everything I do is to be a better fighter. This is my job, my hobby; this is everything to me. Winning another fight means everything for me, and I feel like I'm going to go in there and make a statement.
"I have a bunch of amateur fights and 14 pro fights, and I've never lost two fights in a row in my life. I can't even picture myself losing another fight. I'm trying to stay relevant, and I'm trying to be a name people want to see fight – someone the UFC puts on main cards. I'm trying to provide for me and my wife, and the only way to do that is to win fights."
While the loss to Jung wasn't the reason Poirier decided to relocate, it does serve as daily motivation for the intensely driven featherweight with the 12-2 record. He's watched it numerous times, dissecting every second of the back-and-forth affair to figure out what he did right, what he did wrong, and where he could have pressed harder in order to try and put away the resilient "Korean Zombie."
The loss eats at him; talking about it increases the sharpness of his words and the force of his delivery. He has designs on establishing himself as one of the best in not only the featherweight division, but the sport as a whole, and doesn't want to feel the sting of defeat again.
"It sucks to have (another) loss on my record – I can never have that back. It's another person who defeated me. He conquered me that night. I can never get that back, and that hurts me because I'm a warrior – I want to battle, and I want to win every fight. I want to be a legend, so I have to take it and learn from it. I feel like one day I'm going to get my chance to fight him again, and I'm going to do what I should have done in the first fight. Looking back on it, it was a huge learning experience for me, and I'm hoping to not make those mistakes again."
That's why this weekend's bout with Brookins is so important.
The featherweight division continues to grow deeper with each passing month as lightweights move down the scale and promising young talent keeps climbing the ladder. Back in May, Poirier was on the brink of a title shot. Seven months later, he's buried behind a list of contenders that doesn't look like it will be getting shorter any time soon.
As a result, Poirier plans on making the most of his return to the cage to expedite his return to title contention in the featherweight ranks.
"The ref is going to be ripping me off of him," Poirier offered flatly. "I'm going to hurt him with hard shots, he's going to cover up, and the ref is going to be pulling me off of him. I'm coming to defeat Jonathan Brookins by any means necessary."


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Product Details
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By MUNIR AHMED and SEBASTIAN ABBOT
In this Monday, April 15, 2013 photo, Pakistan's former President and military ruler Pervez Musharraf addresses his party supporters at his house in Islamabad, Pakistan. Police arrested former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf overnight at his home in the capital, where he had holed up following a dramatic escape from court to avoid being detained, officials said Friday. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf criticized allegations against him as "politically motivated" Friday, following his arrest in a case involving his decision to fire senior judges while in power.
Musharraf was arrested a day after he made a dramatic escape from a court in Islamabad on Thursday to avoid being detained. Musharraf fled the Islamabad High Court in a speeding vehicle and holed up in his home on the outskirts of the city after a judge rejected his bail and ordered his arrest.
It was a new low in Musharraf's troubled return from self-imposed exile last month to attempt a political comeback in the upcoming parliamentary election.
There were conflicting reports about how Musharraf was arrested Friday.
Police said they arrested Musharraf overnight from his home and delivered him to a magistrate in Islamabad on Friday morning. But the secretary general of Musharraf's party, Mohammed Amjad, claimed the former military ruler surrendered himself before the magistrate.
Local TV video showed Musharraf entering the court surrounded by a heavy security detachment of police and paramilitary soldiers.
The magistrate instructed police to keep Musharraf in their custody and present him before an anti-terrorism court, said one of his lawyers, Malik Qamar Afzal.
Police then returned Musharraf to his home on the outskirts of Islamabad, where he was held for several hours under house arrest, said police officer Mohammed Rafique.
He was later taken to a rest house the main police headquarters in Islamabad, where he will be held until he is presented before an anti-terrorism court, said two police officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters. He is expected to appear before a court in the next 48 hours, they said.
"These allegations are politically motivated, and I will fight them in the trial court, where the truth will eventually prevail," Musharraf said in a message posted on his Facebook page Friday after he was arrested.
Musharraf's arrest ended an awkward situation in which the former military ruler was being protected by security forces for hours while holed up in his house, but none of them made a move to detain him. They were likely awaiting orders from senior officials trying to figure out how to deal with the delicate situation.
Pakistan's temporary caretaker government has been reluctant to wade into the controversy surrounding Musharraf since he returned last month, especially given his position as a former chief of the army, considered the most powerful institution in the country.
His return also presents complications for the current army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who may have to decide whether to intervene to protect Musharraf, sparking a new conflict with the judiciary, or watch him be prosecuted. If Musharraf is sent to prison, it would be the first time an army chief has been put behind bars in the country's 65-year history.
Musharraf seized control in a coup in 1999 and spent nearly a decade in power before being forced to step down in 2008. Despite legal challenges and Taliban death threats, he returned last month after four years in London and Dubai.
But he has received paltry public support, and earlier this week he was disqualified from running in the May 11 election because of his actions while in power. A court has also barred him from leaving the country.
The upcoming vote is historic because it will mark the first time in Pakistan that parliament has completed its full five-year term and handed over power in democratic elections. The country has experienced three military coups and constant political instability since it was founded in 1947.
Thursday's case before the Islamabad High Court involved Musharraf's decision to dismiss senior judges, including the chief justice of the Supreme Court, when he declared a state of emergency and suspended the constitution in 2007. He was concerned the judges would challenge his re-election as president, citing the growing Taliban insurgency in the country as justification for the state of emergency.
Musharraf's crackdown on the judges outraged many Pakistanis and fueled a nationwide protest movement by lawyers that eventually resulted in him stepping down under threat of impeachment.
Musharraf is facing a raft of other legal challenges, including allegations before the Supreme Court that he committed treason while in power. He has not formally been charged with treason because the government would have to file charges, which it has not done.
The Senate passed a unanimous resolution Friday demanding Musharraf be tried for treason, Pakistan state TV said.
Musharraf also faces legal charges in two other cases. One involves allegations that Musharraf didn't provide adequate security to former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was killed in a gunfire and suicide attack in 2007. The other relates to the death of a nationalist leader in Baluchistan in 2006.
Given the legal challenges and Taliban threats against Musharraf, many experts have been left scratching their heads as to why he returned. Some have speculated he misjudged the level of public backing he would get, while others suggested he was simply homesick.
Associated Press writer Zarar Khan contributed to this report.


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Motorola's new Moto X phone doesn't cost more to make simply because it's assembled in Texas, research firm IHS said Wednesday.
The Moto X is the first smartphone to carry the "Made in the U.S.A." designation. Labor costs are higher in the U.S. compared with Asian factories, where phones are typically made. But IHS said the Moto X is about 5 percent cheaper to make than Samsung Electronic Co.'s flagship Galaxy S4 phone. The firm said the Moto X's overall production cost is just 9 percent more than that of Apple's iPhone 5.
The findings come as little surprise, as the labor cost of a phone is just a small part of its production cost. IHS estimates that labor and other assembly costs Motorola $12 per phone for the Moto X, bringing the production cost to $226. That compares with $207 for the iPhone 5 and $237 for the Galaxy S4. IHS said Motorola is able to keep the cost of parts low by using standard components that don't break much new ground.
By assembling the phone in Fort Worth, Texas, Motorola is able to let customers order custom designs online for delivery within four days. Standard black or white models are available immediately at retail stores.
"With the Moto X, Motorola is reaping the public-relations and customization upsides of producing asmartphone in the United States, while maintaining competitive hardware costs," said Andrew Rassweiler, senior director for cost benchmarking services at IHS.
IHS said the estimated $12 for assembly is about $3.50 to $4 more than other leading phones.
"Our initial estimate suggests the additional costs of onshoring the Moto X are relatively low," IHS said.
The phone went on sale last Friday, starting with AT&T. It's coming to other carriers, including Verizon this week. The Moto X's price is about $200 with a two-year service agreement.
The Moto X is Motorola's first phone designed from the start under its new owner, Google Inc. The Internet search company bought Motorola Mobility for $12.4 billion last year.


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Finally, wrestling has come back to Dolores High School.
For the first time in seven years, the Bears wrestling team hosted a dual meet.
And the Bears won, too.
After spotting visiting Ignacio 18 points off of forfeits, Dolores lined the Bobcats up and knocked them down, pin by pin.
The end result was Dolores, 36; Ignacio, 30. The Bears are 2-0 in duals this season.
"The guys came out and wrestled real tough," first-year Dolores coach Leo Garand said. "We spotted them 18 points, but you know we were able to make up that ground and then some, and come out on top."
State title contender Wyatt Wade looked solid at 145 pounds. Ignacio's Iaasic Pena battled Wade tough in the first period and only trailed 3-2.
But in the second period, it was all Wade, who is ranked No. 2 in 2A at 145 by Coloradopreps.com.
"I shut down one of his takedowns, but he got me on the second one," Wade said. "I reversed right out of it, and smacked him down and got him into a standing cradle."
A quick takedown was just what Wade needed. He secured the pin at the 1:08 mark of the second.
"He was pretty good. He was good on his feet," said Wade, who is comfortably wrestling up from 126 pounds, the weight he competed at a season ago. "I feel great. It's (145) a good weight for me and I'm going to take state."
It was a satisfying win for the four-year senior, who was wrestling at home for the first time.
"It's awesome to have a home dual," Wade said. "Especially, to win it. It's going to be really cool to have them all back for leagues."
Thursday, Feb. 7, is when the 2013 San Juan Basin League Championships come to DHS.
In other Friday night wrestling action, fellow Dolores senior Wyatt Mattausch made quick work of David Cooper at 132, winning by fall in the first round.
Guy Wallace pinned Trever Sivers in the first period at 138. Luke Murefield scored a second-round pin over Kyle Bailey at 126. Deano Valdez earned a hard fought third-round pin over Ruben Velasquez at 152 to round out the Bears scoring.
"It's nice to get these first couple (meet wins) under our belt," Garand said. "We get into the meat of the season come January. What we're really looking at, is February, because that's when state is. It's nice to come out and win a couple dual matches, and get these guys' confidence up."
On Saturday, Dolores traveled to the Piedra Vista Invitational in Farmington, N.M. Wade went 5-0, Valdez went 4-1, Kacee Davis went 4-1 and Wallace went 3-2. The Bears competed in five duals on the day and won three.
Garand is pleased with how his team performed heading into Christmas break.
[email protected].