Author Hunter S. Thompson Commits Suicide

[qanda]

ASPEN, Colo. - Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counter-culture author of books such as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," fatally shot himself Sunday night at his Aspen-area home, his son said. He was 67.

"Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family," Juan Thompson said in a statement released to the Aspen Daily News.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=4&u=/ap/20050221/ap_on_re_us/obit_thompson

[bluestateguy]

2. link

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=4&u=/ap/20050221/ap_on_re_us/obit_thompson

[qanda]

7. Thank you, I updated.

[gorbal]

212. Now everyone vote up his yahoo story

Some jerks are voting it down-

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050221/ap_on_re_us/obit_thompson

Also, scroll down to where it says "Post/Read Messages" and share your feelings. People are spewing poisonous shit about him.

[ucmike]

221. voting for the story is cool. don't waste time on yahoo messages

their message boards have some entertainment value if you can be thick skinned, but don't think for one second that there is any serious discourse going on there.

[gorbal]

258. It's about sticking up for him and making yourself heard

There are people on their trashing him, hundreds of them.

[chickenscratching]

267. give em a wink and a smile, and pass em by!

i think as long as you have him in your thoughts, that's what's most important. the people saying hurtful things about hst are probably looking for a fight, and chances are, a.) know nothing about him and b.) are not about to change their mind.
i totally know where you're coming from, its immensely frustrating---but as hst in 'where the buffalo roam' stated: "fuck those people bronco." (and that could have been totally misquoted, before anybody jumps down my throat! but it's the meaninggg that counts, ja?)

[chickenscratching]

268. and...

and mostly, hunter wouldn't have been doing his job properly if he hadn't pissed off a gazillion people, i don't think we could love him as much otherwise.

[johnfunk]

78. Additional details in the Aspen Times

Sheriff deputies and an ambulance responded to a call around 6 p.m. for a self-inflicted gunshot wound at Thompson's residence, a neighbor said. By 6:30 p.m., Thompson's home at 1278 Woody Creek Road was sealed off by a sheriff's van.

Shortly thereafter, a counselor with Aspen Counseling Center, a local organization that provides support for victims at crime scenes, arrived at the residence. An unidentified man leaving the property said "there are a lot of hurt family members up [at the house]."

More here.

[johnfunk]

86. From Marketwatch: Larry Kramer on Thompson

Larry Kramer, former Chairman and CEO of MarketWatch, now an executive for Dow Jones... said Thompson "had a better sense of politics and campaigns than anyone I've worked with. He could handicap 50 congressional races and be right on 49."

Kramer also said he remembered, vividly, several incidents working with Thompson.

"One time we got a call from a San Francisco hotel shortly after he had stayed there on a visit to see us," Kramer said. "They wanted us to pay $2,400 for his three nights. When we pressed for a detailed bill, there was a $2,00 item called 'miscellaneous damage' ... something to do with an ice machine that had been shot through with a gun."

The second, Kramer said, "involved a call from a hospital where he had been taken for an emergency appendectomy. They told us they couldn't perform the operation until they had spent a couple days giving him a full blood wash ... apparently his bloodstream was polluted with alcohol and several interesting drugs ... and they were afraid of side effects."

Full article here.

[catzies]

261. That link dead-ends now. Damn, I wanted to read that.

x(

[egoprofit]

299. so is it just me or is it ironic he did this around president's day? n/t

n/

[DemoTex]

3. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

NO! NO! NO! Can't be, say it ain't so!

[DemoTex]

17. Jesus, it is true. RIP HST.

RIP dear fellow. But why?

[lala_rawraw]

157. I hope

He can shower us with angelic stash;)

[egoprofit]

254. he will live forever

unlike most people.

[buff2]

4. Who is he?

I've never heard of him.

[bossfish]

8. A GREAT author and reporter...

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 is one of the best books ever.

Also a long time reporter for Rolling Stone

[buff2]

18. Gosh,I don't recall ever hearing anything about him.....

:shrug:

[Name removed]

253. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[buff2]

281. What a nasty person you must be.

I guess you know everything,and know everybody,don't you? I can't help it because I've never heard of this man. But that doesn't make me an "ignorant" person,either. You've just been put on ignore.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

19. Do a google-search...you'll find quite a bit of information.

[raggedcompany]

30. His book "Hells Angels" about hanging out with the Angels is seminal

reporting. Great stuff.

[auburngrad82]

181. Also, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

and The Great Shark Hunt are both great books. I've read all but the newest book that he wrote. Very opinionated but very intelligent. Luckily for me, his opinions are close to mine politically so I loved his books. I'm sorry to hear of his passing.

[alfredo]

76. You may know him as

Mr Duke in Doonesbury. His real name was Raul Duke. He was an original.

Come to think of it, he lived longer than I thought he would.

[Renew Deal]

5. I wonder if he was suicided.

:tinfoilhat:

[BrklynLiberal]

31. That was my first question..what did he know about the BFEE?

[Selteri]

87. You're not the only one wondering that.

He came out a lot more lately with his interviewing multiple times in the past year including with High Times, even going so far as to say he was on a personal mission still, which suggests to me that he was suicided, not knowing him personally though I cannot say for sure one way or the other.

[hollowdweller]

217. I read started reading him when I was 15. I now live in the country,

used to have peacocks, love politics and guns, hate the right wing and war, and love a few other things he did too. I am truly sad he died, and I just have a hard time seeing him killing himself. I wish there was something I could have done. It makes me sad so many of my heros when I was a kid have died in the last few years, Kesey, Jerry, Ginsburg, Burroughs, and now Thompson. All old style democrats, men of the people with a strong libertarian streak.

[lala_rawraw]

158. BFEE?

me=stupid:(

[sadiesworld]

169. BFEE=Bush Family Evil Empire

You=not stupid :)

[HEyHEY]

260. If Thompson knew ANYHTING about that

It would have been made public long ago.

[NVMojo]

32. he was not a fan of the neocons ....

[qanda]

44. Not in the least

This is what he said about them in 2003, "Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads?" he writes, referring to the people currently occupying the White House. "They are the racists and hate mongers among us -- they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis."

[golden voyages]

67. Nope, doesn't sound like he was a big fan of theirs.

[calimary]

92. Lordy, Lordy he was anything but.

Hated them. Sorta like we all do here.

When the news turned bad in early November, I couldn't get him out of my mind. He'd written this great article in "Rolling Stone" expounding on how great Kerry was - they knew each other - and how much he was looking forward to a Kerry presidency. He said he was eager to wake up the morning after the election, to the news that Kerry had won and that America had awoken from its stupor, and he was firmly expecting it. I wondered, when bush "won," how he felt, and how he'd cope. I guess we know now.

SHIT.

It's not unlike when John Lennon died - on the eve of the Reagan administration. I felt so awful, knowing that we'd desperately need his voice and his perspective and now wouldn't have it. I have similar feelings now.

[Uncle Roy]

124. Another Truth-Teller gone...

We have so few!

[American Tragedy]

143. I thought the exact same thing.

His article in Rolling Stone was the most uplifting of any that I'd read regarding the '04 election. He said that he knew that John was a brave man with a good heart. I really wondered how he must have felt when it was over.

Of course, this only compounds the damage to me. I'll always associate this wretched election with the demise of HST.

[golden voyages]

189. Calimary, that was precisely how I felt after JL's death ... and still do

[leftchick]

187. my very first thought as well

he was very vocal about his hatred of the BFEE.

[goddess40]

269. everyone at my house was wondering the same thing

I hate to think it would be possible but this crowd in the White House have shown they will sink to any level to get what they want.

[panzerfaust]

304. Hunteress and Tin Hatters

People who use drugs and alcohol to excess are slowly committing suicide all the time. Not infrequently they hurry the process along with a gun.

Accepting the truth of that, it is still interesting the number of people who are critical of a certain family who, perhaps from remorse, do choose to commit suicide.

Being a child of the sixties, I of course read Hunteress's early books: but I could never get as interested in his life as he was and F&L Campaign Trail was the last one I read.

He did advocate the involvement of the journalist as a – major - part of any news story. To this degree I do see him as having helped point the way to the situation we now have of reporters breathlessly recounting what they are doing, and interviewing each other. I doubt this was his intent.

He did report the truth as he, however foggily, saw it. It was this commitment to truth that set him apart as a reporter. I cannot imagine any other but he writing of Hubert Humphrey (a former Democratic patriarch) "There is no way to grasp what a shallow, contemptible and hopelessly dishonest old hack Hubert Humphrey is until you've followed him around for a while."

Though I no longer read him, I shall miss knowing that he is there. Just as, though I will never see them, I like knowing that there are lions roaming in the wild.

He was a Lion.

[Sparkle]

6. WTF?

[AlCzervik]

9. oh my god, i'm in shock.

Does anyone know maybe if he was ill, i mean terminally?

[Dulcinea]

184. I was wondering that too.

If he was terminally ill, he'd kill himself before he allowed himself to die a long, miserable, lingering death.

Either way, it's a terrible shame.

RIP HST.

I need to reread "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas."

[Downtown Hound]

10. DAMN IT! DAMN IT! DAMN IT!

That just totally ruined my day.

[DemoTex]

24. OMG.

Mine too. I am in shock. What a loss. Gonzo gone.

[MADem]

11. Wow. Bummer.

I have to say, though, I am not really surprised by this sad news. He spent his life dancing pretty damn close to the flames.

[intheflow]

35. Agreed.

He always seemed like a somewhat tortured soul to me. But it's still a great loss. He was truly original.

[ThereIsNoConspiracy]

12. How awful

What a great writer he was. He will be missed.

[Hans Delbrook]

13. Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god

We were jsut discussing him in another thread - this unf***ing-real!:cry:

[detroitguy]

14. That's terrible!

A unique voice silenced.

[wicket]

I am stunned and very sad

You will be missed Hunter S. :(

[Catch22Dem]

15. That's so horrible!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author=Hunter%20S.%20Thompson/102-6390836-7142556

[Guaranteed]

16. Holy shit. nt

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

20. So sad

[Voltaire99]

21. Terrible news.

What a mad genius he was. He exposed the sordid nature of his time and place like few authors ever do.

RIP.

[Sydnie]

22. Holy shit! Why would he do that?

He wouldn't shoot himself. If he was going to take himself out, he would have taken himself out in a way that would have been a trip. I mean, he would have just expanded his mind until he became part of the universe. I can't imagine that he would have wanted it over in a flash like that.

It just doesn't fit.

RIP Hunter.

[Selteri]

90. Very good point, it would not be unlike him to take a long last trip. NT

[hootinholler]

233. YES, yes that is a good point.

It seems that TMI leads to depression and suicide. I know I've been more depressed lately.

-Hoot

[mountainvue]

237. Maybe he was. The details have been

pretty sparse.

[Swede]

23. Aww fuck.

He was a tortured soul. RIP Hunter.

[thebigidea]

25. w-wh-what?

Agh, is this some joke?

I can't even click on the link. ahghghghghghhg.

damn damn damn damn damn...

it makes me think about what he wrote re: Hemmingway...

gawd, but he was still writing, just got married...

damn damn damn...

he was making loud pig noises to Tim Russert only last year! whos
gonna do that now, Howard Fineman?

what a loss!

NOW I'LL NEVER GET TO READ 'POLO IS MY LIFE'!

RIP, Doc - you were one of the good guys.

[mallard]

154. Re: thanking you for the cherised inspiration....

.... at times most vital, Hunter Thompson, wherever you are.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

26. wild turkey and acid for the house

shit.

[DemoTex]

37. Perfect toast, Scoot ...

Damn his hide for suicide!

Shit .. too. Goodnight Dr. Gonzo. Forever.

Mac

(I am a bummed-out fucker now)

[unpossibles]

55. no shit

wonder if it was voluntary suicide or not....

Maybe he's going after Nixon's ghost. Maybe I should go get wasted and shoot some inanimate object.



btw - what kind of scooter do you ride? '81 Vespa P125 (now a 177) here. Maybe I am assuming too much?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

80. Maybe he was going to be outed as Deep Throat?

Wouuldn't that be a fucking laugh?

As to scooters, I was, until recently a British Bike freak, Triumphs, Nortons, BSA... scooters is their term for them.

I am now a full-fledged convert to Japanese bikes. They don't leak oil, they start when you want them to, they need minimal maintanence, parts are available most anywhere, mechanics too, they are smooth riding and reliable.

[aureolinus]

301. There's new info on Wikipedia about Thompson and Deep Throat

This is hilarious because I've been searching for information and found this site on the first Google page, only to find that people were joking. Well this may be a joke but I'm interested anyway.

This is what's on Wikipedia--

Strange rumors following the death of journalist Hunter S. Thompson in February of 2005 suggested Thompson's possibly possessing knowledge of, or a connection to, Deep Throat. The story likely involves Thompson's 70's era friendship with Nixon staffer Patrick J. Buchanan and circulated in emails leaked February 22, 2005, from a Virginia newsroom. In part, the forwarded memo addressed "speculation regarding identity" and "Thompson's relationship with a prominent Virginian." Recent speculation as to Deep Throat's poor health were also noted. Reports suggest that Thompson was not terminally ill, although his lawyer has stated that he believes the author planned his suicide for some time. Thompson suffered severe pain caused by recent back surgery and an artificial hip



Some days it's wonderful to be a Deep Throat buff, a Thompson fan, and an amateur conspiracy theorist. Well, not wonderful. RIP Duke.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Throat_(Watergate)

[aureolinus]

303. Doesn't seem to be there anymore?

I was getting so into the possibilities......damn.

[kaitykaity]

255. mushrooms please.

I'd hop off the wagon for this one.

Geez.

[Redstone]

27. Go easy, old hoss.

Redstone

[flamingyouth]

28. OMG - this is awful

:cry::cry::cry:

[EFerrari]

161. I know. (Are tickets numbered?) Hail fellow, well met.

:grouphug:

[whistle]

29. I'm finding it very hard to believe this was a suicide....

....shades of mysterious microbiologist slayings, a warning to all writers and journalists that free thinking and writing will not be tolerated any longer!

[TeeYiYi]

33. Suicided more likely . . .

What a terrible loss. RIP Doc.

TYY:(

[AllyCat]

42. That's what my fiance and I were just thinking.

Does anyone know if he was writing a book about Shrubco? He's done it for everyone else and this group was particularly distasteful to him if I understand things correctly.

:tinfoilhat:

Just hard to believe he would end it this way.

What a tremendous loss. A fabulous writer and a brilliant mind.

[theboss]

50. Because a 67-year old coke and booze addict with a history of violence....

..is very likely to go quietly in his sleep. I think Thompson always wanted to be Hemingway. Therefore, this is strangely fitting.

I'm sad that nothing more will be coming from him, but it seems he's been on borrowed time for twenty-five years.

Maholo.

[theboss]

51. Mistake

Oops

[thebigidea]

53. I hope I have people like that at my funeral

"sniff - well, he was going downhill anyway."

if only the corpse could talk. he'd probably say, "it's Mahalo, not Maholo. Man, I only said it four hundred times."

[theboss]

56. Not meant as an insult....

You could just tell something was not right with him over...Christ...the last decade at least.

I'm a huge fan and like a lot of aspiring writers, a lot of the stuff I wrote in college sounded more like Thompson than my own voice. Like I said, I'm sad but not shocked.

And I have a feeling the Doctor would rip anyone who got sentimental about him.

[DWolper]

65. Very true

Not only is what you wrote true - Hunter would have agreed. He lived life on his own terms and oviously chose to end it on his own terms.

[bpilgrim]

70. pfft... they've been saying that about him for DECADES

i will miss him slamming the bush crime family

peace

[bogey18]

74. You nailed it

The man just loved guns and drugs a teeney bit too much. His Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas changed my life, though.

[Patchuli]

172. "Because a 67-year old coke and booze addict with a history of violence...

Does this mean there's hope for * to follow Gonzo???!

ooohhhhhh I'm baaaaaaad.:evilgrin:

[tonywwk589]

305. "Because a 67-year old coke and booze addict with a history of violence...

Are you referring to Thompson? He was William Burroughs' meaner self. The significant difference, Hunter might have said, "Fuck you!", while Bill would surely have said, "Fuck yea, man!"

[KoKo]

34. OMG....that's really terrible. He hadn't written much lately...but

there's just too much of this. I wonder if it's the anti-depressents that are causing this? Thompson was unique and had his share of mad genius but it's still shocking. :-(

[NVMojo]

43. here's what he said about the Bush/Kerry 2004 campaign ...

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/6562575?rnd=1099009920793&has-player=true

[callous taoboy]

236. Thanks, NVMojo-

Pure. God I'll miss him. There are no replacements.

[tonywwk589]

306. there's just too much of this.

I just turned 60, and I think most of the world sucks. If I didn't have this one person who loves me, depends on me, I'd take Hunter's way out gladly. Only Pollyannas can survive the madness.

[PunkPop]

36. A genuis is gone. He knew the evil that was coming

and he knew it immediately.

Fear & Loathing in America
September 12 2001

by Hunter S. Thompson

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/thompson/010912.html

<snip>

And it was not even Bombs that caused this massive damage. No nuclear missiles were launched from any foreign soil, no enemy bombers flew over New York and Washington to rain death on innocent Americans. No. It was four commercial jetliners.


They were the first flights of the day from American and United Airlines, piloted by skilled and loyal U.S. citizens, and there was nothing suspicious about them when they took off from Newark, N.J., and Dulles in D.C. and Logan in Boston on routine cross-country flights to the West Coast with fully-loaded fuel tanks -- which would soon explode on impact and utterly destroy the world-famous Twin Towers of downtown Manhattan's World Trade Center. Boom! Boom! Just like that.

The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now -- with somebody -- and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives.

It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy. Osama bin Laden may be a primitive "figurehead" -- or even dead, for all we know -- but whoever put those All-American jet planes loaded with All-American fuel into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon did it with chilling precision and accuracy. The second one was a dead-on bullseye. Straight into the middle of the skyscraper.

Nothing -- even George Bush's $350 billion "Star Wars" missile defense system -- could have prevented Tuesday's attack, and it cost next to nothing to pull off. Fewer than 20 unarmed Suicide soldiers from some apparently primitive country somewhere on the other side of the world took out the World Trade Center and half the Pentagon with three quick and costless strikes on one day. The efficiency of it was terrifying.

We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once. Who knows? Not even the Generals in what remains of the Pentagon or the New York papers calling for WAR seem to know who did it or where to look for them.

This is going to be a very expensive war, and Victory is not guaranteed -- for anyone, and certainly not for anyone as baffled as George W. Bush. All he knows is that his father started the war a long time ago, and that he, the goofy child-President, has been chosen by Fate and the global Oil industry to finish it Now. He will declare a National Security Emergency and clamp down Hard on Everybody, no matter where they live or why. If the guilty won't hold up their hands and confess, he and the Generals will ferret them out by force.

<snip>

R.I.P. Hunter

[Placebo]

40. Wow, he nailed it alright.

:cry:

[karynnj]

45. He wrote that on Sept 12, 2001

He really saw how it would be

[HamiltonHabs32]

216. Article from Feb 15/05

This is the latest article I could find from him

http://throwawayyourtv.blogspot.com/2005/02/hunter-s-thompson-commits-suicide.html">Golfing will Bill Murray

By Hunter S. ThompsonPage 2

/snip

The death of professional hockey in
AMERICA is a nasty omen for people with heavy investments in NHL teams. But to
me, it meant little or nothing -- and that's why I called Bill Murray with an
idea that would change both our lives forever.
It was 3:30 on a dark Tuesday
morning when I heard the phone ring on his personal line in New Jersey. "Good
thinking," I said to myself as I fired up a thin Cohiba. "He's bound to be wide
awake and crackling at this time of day, or at least I can leave a very excited
message."
My eerie hunch was right. The crazy bugger picked up on the fourth
ring, and I felt my heart racing. "Hot damn!" I thought. "This is how empires are built."

[DemoTex]

47. He absolutely hated the mother-fucker Bu$h.

And for all the right reasons.


RIP HST

[Itchinjim]

38. I raise this shot of Turkey to you Dr. Thompson....

Give 'em hell where ever you are HST

[Selteri]

103. Smoking a big fat bowl for HST, will comemorate something in my art too N

[ClayZ]

39. The world is a worse place without him,

But better off for his having been here!

[Pastiche423]

41. OMG

A gun? That's unbelievable.

Safe and peaceful journey, Hunter.

[wesrose]

46. This is horrible!

Unbelievable! It makes you wonder why, why.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

48. He was a great voice and will be greatly missed.

:cry:

[baldguy]

49. Shit.

Shit. Fuck. Fuck, shit, fuck!

[theboss]

52. Maholo, Doctor

This is a strangely fitting way for Thompson to go. God, I loved the two "Fear and Loathing" books. But it was pretty obvious his skills were in big-time decline and his personal life seemed as crazy as ever.

I bet the story of his last days is a helluva ride, eh?

[MADem]

54. Ya gotta wonder how Johnny Depp is taking this....

He really got into the HST character in FALILV.

Fragile life, fragile world.

[theboss]

57. Probably smoking and drinking Wild Turkey....

The only way to remember him.

[solinvictus]

58. This is damned depressing...

really. My first subconscious thought when reading the news, though, is that he was murdered.

[Miami Liberal]

59. I'm in shock!

R.I.P Gonzo :cry:

[Bonobo]

60. No fucking way!

We are truly doomed.

The weasels finally closed in.

Rep Ipsa Loquitor

[two gun sid]

61. A few words from the Doc

From The Great Shark Hunt:

"...So much, then, for The Road - and for the last possibilities of running amok in Las Vegas & living to tell the tale. But maybe we won't really miss it. Maybe Law & Order is really the best way to go, after all.

Yeah... maybe so, and if that's the way it happens ... well, at least I'll know I was there, neck deep in the madness, before the deal went down, and I got so high and wild that I felt like a two-ton Manta Ray jumping all the way across the Bay of Bengal.

It was a good way to go, and I recommend it highly - at least for those who can stand the trip. And for those who can't, or won't, there is not much else to say. Not now, and certainly not by me, or Raoul Duke either. Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas marks the end of an era...and now, on this fantastic Indian summer morning in the Rockies, I want to leave this noisy black machine and sit naked on my porch for a while, in the sun."

[baby_bear]

153. Thanks, Sid

What a perfect quotation at this time.

b+b

[tkmorris]

62. A hero of mine

I am in shock. A world without Hunter S. Thompson. It simply cannot be.

[lostnfound]

63. Damn, damn, damn, and cheers..

:toast: for a life well-lived.

[skeeters]

64. Raise A Bud For Hunter

Remember all the good times.

In his prime, I would be on the floor laughing with his writings.

In the last four years of Hell his writings on the coming Bush Fascism were painful, and oh so true.

Coming soon, Fear and Loathing in Heaven.

I hope they are ready.

[Selteri]

105. I imagine Fear and Loathing in Heaven...

[MissB]

66. Wow. I'm stunned. (nt)

[Edgewater_Joe]

68. Is This His Final Writing?

If not, it might as well be ...

We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world--a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us...No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we'll kill you.

Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid rich kids like George Bush?

They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are the racists and hate mongers among us--they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis.

And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck them.

It's up to us to rage now - and by God, I'll go down swinging if I have to.

But for tonight, I've got some Jack at my bar and I'll do a shot for the man.

And wake up tomorrow and kick some shit around.

[bpilgrim]

73. got a link?

tia :hi:

peace

[smirkymonkey]

220. Wow. He really got to the heart of the matter.

We have lost another voice of truth on our side.

Why is it that Republicans never committ suicide? Just wondering.

[CabalPowered]

69. This is horrible.... :(

shocked.

[deacon2]

71. RIP, good Doctor. You called it straight and true. n/t

[d_b]

Damn.

The last thing I read of his was his Rolling Stone article prior to the election, about the election. Great article. Sounded like he had high hopes for Kerry.

Sad sad sad.

[Redstone]

72. He didn't look too good

in the most recent pictures. Do you suppose he found out he was sick, and didn't want to linger like Warren Zevon?

He will be remembered. Can any of us ask for anything more?

Redstone

[mike_c]

75. OMG-- NOOOOOOO....

OMFG-- I don't know what to say. Oh shit, not Hunter Thompson. Oh no.

[geomon666]

77. This hit me really hard.

I didn't know the man personally. Never talked to him. Never met him in real life. But I read his words, his books, his thoughts and he captivated me. This man had more insight into humanity and all of its faults than any of us could ever possess. Another great dies before his time.

Fuck....fuck!

[Blue_Tires]

79. speechless

the irony is i was JUST thinking about him less than half an hour ago (the movie) before seeing this thread...the world just became a much less interesting place.

and as funny as it may sound, HST was one of those people i didn't think would ever die...rightly or wrongly, I considered him indestructible in a sense...

[tmooses]

81. May you rest in peace, doc. Hope you raise a Turkey with Warren Z.

You were one of a kind and your own man, from birth to death.

[kodi]

82. R.I.P. dear Gonzo

No one knows what makes a man.

No one knows what makes a man do what he does.

I am sorry for his family and glad Dr. Duke shared his talent with us.

His suicide does not diminish his work or de-legitimize the perspectives on life he shared in his writings.

[PurityOfEssence]

83. Yahoo attributes a Thompson quote about Nixon as Nixon describing HST

I don't think I'm wrong on this, but maybe I am. If I'm not, that's just plain pathethic, or perhaps an attempt to slag the newly-dead who held unseemly beliefs.

Yahoo has this: "Thompson was a counterculture icon at the height of the Watergate era, and Richard Nixon once said he represented 'that dark, venal, and incurably violent side of the American character.'"

The quote as I know it is from "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, '72": "It is Nixon himself who represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character almost every other country in the world has learned to fear and despise."

Am I wrong? It reads (due to "Nixon himself") as if Nixon could have said the quote as Yahoo has it, and then Thompson turned it back on him, but this is the first I've heard of it. Any enlightenment, folks?

[villager]

85. I think you're right, PoE...

Nixon didn't have that kind of articulation. But I'm up in the wilds of NorCal at the moment, still trying to come to grips with this shitty terrible news...

fuck...

[RevolutionStartsNow]

140. Here's what I read on the Yahoo link just now:

"Thompson was a counterculture icon at the height of the Watergate era, and once said Richard Nixon represented "that dark, venal, and incurably violent side of the American character."

I bet they fixed it after someone pointed out how stupid that was.

[daleo]

145. Yes, the quote is backwards.

Probably intentionally. Bastards. The mainstream media had to give one final kick at the corpse. They knew he knew what they really are.

R.I.P. HST. You taught me a lot about politics and the pursuit of power. Also, you were one hell of a great writer.

[American liberal]

84. You will be missed , HST

I am sad for the loss of his era, an era that produced the likes of Ken Kesey ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") and the Merry Pranksters, Andy Warhol, Tom Wolfe (who's still alive and publishing), predecessor Kerouac...I came of age reading their ridiculous and thoroughly enthralling prose. I love their irreverance, their fuck the system stories and let's-learn-the-rules-so-we can-break-them writing styles. Thompson found his own crazy voice and made it work. again and again. It's too bad he never truly grew up like so many of us finally do. It's too bad he couldn't face the pain any longer.

If you really think about it, his was a voice of sanity in an insane world.

You will be missed, Mr. Thompson.

[Chomskyite]

159. And all we have left of them now is Tom Wolfe

And he's turned into PJ O'Rourke in a Truman Capote costume.

Shit.

[solinvictus]

88. Look at Yahoo! photos...

On the last one, the picture taken from last year's election, HST looks gaunt and very sick. I have to wonder if a terminal illness was involved in his decision.

[devilgrrl]

89. I wonder if he was ill...

as in terminally ill, prompting the suicide.

Anyway, it's a drag. :-(

[Toby109]

91. God. Damn. It.

Hunter S. Thompson is one of the reasons that I am a liberal. If anyone can provide the quote where Thompson describes the evolution of America in the 60s with the changing of tides, I would greatly appreciate it.

[old blue]

193. I love that passage

It appears in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." I'm at work and don't have it handy.

The screen treatment, with Johnny Depp's voiceover, really nailed the passage, too. It was a beautiful moment in that film.

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

93. Hunter S. Thompson Commits Suicide

Very sad:

Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counter-culture author of books such as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," fatally shot himself Sunday night at his Aspen-area home, his son said. He was 67.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050221/ap_en_ot/obit_thompson_4

[KingoftheJungle]

well there goes one of favorite authors and counter-culture revolutionary

This shit is unreal

[Kire]

not even on the front page of Yahoo!, but Steven Tyler's separation was

earlier tonight

[Somawas]

Feel like I lost a friend.

He said the things about Nixon that some of us thought. Could not have survived Nixon without the Rolling Stone. He said the things about Reagan and Bush I that most of us thought in Generation of Swine. I can't remember a significant time in my life when his voice was not there.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

[Minstrel Boy]

"Big Darkness, soon come"

"The Bush family must be very proud of themselves today, but I am not. Big Darkness, soon come. Take my word for it." July 22, 2003
http://truthout.org/docs_03/072703H.shtml

[American liberal]

yes, thanks

Had he published anything else since then?

I am sad for the loss of his era, an era that produced the likes of Ken Kesey ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") and the Merry Pranksters, Andy Warhol, Tom Wolfe (who's still alive and publishing), predecessor Kerouac...I came of age reading their ridiculous and thoroughly enthralling prose. I love their irreverance, their fuck the system stories and let's-learn-the-rules-so-we can-break-them writing styles. Thompson found his own crazy voice and made it work. again and again. It's too bad he never truly grew up like so many of us finally do. It's too bad he couldn't face the pain any longer.

If you really think about it, his was a voice of sanity in an insane world.

You will be missed, Mr. Thompson.

[yellozebra]

thanks for the link

I actually discovered your blog, rigorousintution, recently. i like it.

[shance]

There's nothing to say.

Very sad.

[clem_c_rock]

Sh** - this just ended an entire subculture

Completely bummed.


We will always miss you HST.

[Lindsay]

Such a loss.

The dude with the scythe worked overtime this weekend.

RIP, HST.

[tridim]

My favorite HST quote, from "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas"

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda... You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning...

And that, I think, was the handle - that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting - on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave...

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

RIP Mr. Thompson

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

sorry to see him go. Was he healthy or ill lately? anyone know

sad to hear this-
RIP

[eleny]

How very sad

[Rose Siding]

link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1253288

[Gemini Cat]

Whoa!

Oh hell. Another one dead.

RIP HST

[theboss]

You know, I loved his work and am sad...but not shocked or upset

It's weird that this happened, because I had just saw "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" on my shelf this morning and thought that it's sort of amazing that Thompson had made it this far.

He was a giant, but you just can't live like a vampire, subsisting on booze and cocaine for thirty years and not have it catch up at some point. His work and personal life appeared to be in decline for years. The ESPN columns were almost unreadable at times.

If I had to guess, I would think some kind of marital discord was at the route of this. Didn't he get married again just a year ago?

Anyway. Maholo, Doctor.

[DemoTex]

DUPE

.

[DWolper]

Very sad

Thompson will be missed. How awful if Juan (his son) had to find him. As others have said, one cannot be too surprised as Dr. Thompson lived life at all times on his own terms. It only seems fitting that he died on his own terms in Aspen, a place he loved more than life itself. RIP, Mr. Gonzo. A rebel to the end!

[TeeYiYi]

OMG. :(

Suicided most likely. How terrible.

TYY:(

[chookie]

Holy shit!

This is terrible news.

[Name removed]

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[high density]

All I know is that I saw him on Conan O'Brien's show once...

He was horribly fucked up (drunk or something worse.) Somebody had to help him out onto the set. I think there was also a rather funny piece that Conan did with him that involved shooting guns.

That's all I know about the fellow.

[Dover]

Here's an article Salon did on HST's take on 9/11

Hunter S. Thompson
The godfather of gonzo says 9/11 caused a "nationwide nervous breakdown" -- and let the Bush crowd loot the country and savage American democracy.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By John Glassie



Feb. 3, 2003 | He calls himself "an elderly dope fiend living out in the wilderness," but Hunter S. Thompson will also be found this week on the New York Times bestseller list with a new memoir, "Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century."

Listening to his ragged voice, there is some sense that Thompson, now 65, has reined in his outlaw ways, gotten a little softer, perhaps a little more gracious now that he's reached retirement age. "I've found you can deal with the system a lot easier if you use their rules," he says. "I talk to a lot of lawyers."


But do not be deceived. In "Kingdom of Fear" and in a telephone interview with Salon from his compound in Aspen, Colo., Thompson did what he's always done: speak the truth about American society as he sees it, without worrying much about decorum. "Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads?" he writes, referring to the people currently occupying the White House. "They are the racists and hate mongers among us -- they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis."

That's his enduring attitude in this new age of darkness: a lot more loathing than fear.

The godfather of gonzo believes America has suffered a "nationwide nervous breakdown" since 9/11, and as a result is compromising civil liberties for what he calls "the illusion of security." The compromise, he says, is "a disaster of unthinkable proportions" and "part of the downward spiral of dumbness" he believes is plaguing the country.

While the country's spinning out of control, Thompson says his own lifestyle has been a model of consistency. He still does whatever the hell he wants. In fact, his new book was supposed to be a "definitive memoir of his life," a long look back by the man who rode with the Hell's Angels, who experienced the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention, and who has smoked more cigarettes, driven more fast cars, fired more weapons and done more drugs than most living people, let alone most living authors. But the book is much more than memoir.


..cont'd

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/02/03/thompson/

[Rush1184]

287. do you or anyone else have a clip of that show

I would love to see it!!!

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

117. Deleted message

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[thebigidea]

119. hopefully someone can tell you that when a loved one dies.

[Name removed]

123. Deleted message

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118. Deleted message

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[Pachamama]

98. Wow, that's real sensitive of you....

Maybe someone will say the same of you when you die....

[bpilgrim]

108. Mediocrity recognizes NOTHING higher than itself

thanks for outing yourself in public, creep :hi:

peace

[Name removed]

115. Deleted message

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[bpilgrim]

125. exactly

"And he was a genius why?"

thanks for reinforcing my point :toast:

peace

[Name removed]

130. Deleted message

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[RevolutionStartsNow]

133. What's your point? To many of us, he was an icon, and a great writer...

but of course that is all subjective. Some of us mourned the loss of Kurt Cobain, too, as a great songwriter, but others didn't see him as talented.

I read most of what Thompson wrote, and I found his writing to be entertaining, poignant and often dead-on brilliant. He could tell a great story, and he wrote about drug experiences, particularly psychadelics, in a very unique way.

Many of us also loved him because he turned his venom so actuely on the neocons.

If you didn't care for his writing, or his persona, so what? You don't have to get it, and your opinion of him is not particularly relevant to his death. Just as my opinion of the talents of say, Michael Bolton, would not be relevant upon his passing. And it's awfully insensitive of you to jump into this thread and bash the guy on the day of his death.

[ailsagirl]

141. Amen!!! You said it, Rev

Don't forget the Ignore button option

[geomon666]

144. Thank you. If you want to bash Thompson go make your own thread.

This one is for us who loved the man and his writing.

[Name removed]

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135. Deleted message

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[Dover]

Give 'em Hell in heaven.......

http://www.gonzo.org/

[Dr Fate]

R.I.P. you big weirdo- AND DONT COME BACK!!!

!!!!!

[EFerrari]

163. hey, I want that on my stone. cheers. n/t

[Bhaisahab]

shit

as always, the good guys cop it, while the bad live to be 100. :(
i really enjoyed reading "fear and loathing..."
rest in peace hunter.

[Thaddeus]

I'm crushed

so sad...

[iconoclastic cat]

Oh, Mr. Thompson. Too soon, but I respect your self-determination.

I'll miss your work.

Goodbye.

[d_b]

HOLY shit!

Damn Hunter, I can't handle the chimpster either, but it didn't have to come to this. :cry:

[tuvor]

Very sad. n/t

[two gun sid]

How tragic.

He shaped my political thinking. I just finished his newest book. He will be greatly missed.


"When the going gets weird the weird turn pro"

[Gloria]

Jeez, another piece of bad news....

Terrible.

[oldtime dfl_er]

awful

Kind of angers me, in a way. Now the dark side will call him crazy. RIP, gonzo.

www.cafepress.com/showtheworld

[BlueManDude]

94. i'm just blown away - rip hst

:cry:

[johnfunk]

Additional details in the Aspen Times:

Sheriff deputies and an ambulance responded to a call around 6 p.m. for a self-inflicted gunshot wound at Thompson's residence, a neighbor said. By 6:30 p.m., Thompson's home at 1278 Woody Creek Road was sealed off by a sheriff's van.

Shortly thereafter, a counselor with Aspen Counseling Center, a local organization that provides support for victims at crime scenes, arrived at the residence. An unidentified man leaving the property said "there are a lot of hurt family members up [at the house]."

More here.

[lebkuchen]

179. Did the cops have to shoot their way through the dobermans and peacocks?

Just asking.

[John_H]

296. HST Suicide makes perfect, sad sense.

Lets face it, the guy devoted every bit of his creative talent and most of his adult life to ensuring that our democracy would never turn into something far worse than the grotesque charicature of it he painted for satirical effect. And it has.

Sure the drugs probably didn't help, the fact that his writing has been steadily deteriorating over the last few years didn't help--but ultimately I think it was a clear sense that with chimp's "reelection" those old enemies--the nixons, the mccarthies, all of them--have finally won.

[Sean Reynolds]

Nice use of words!

;-)

I'm assuming no pun intended?

[raggedcompany]

"blown away" huh? LOL n/t

[BlueManDude]

completely shocked

this sucks

[johnfunk]

1. From Marketwatch: Larry Kramer on Thompson

Larry Kramer, former Chairman and CEO of MarketWatch, now an executive for Dow Jones... said Thompson "had a better sense of politics and campaigns than anyone I've worked with. He could handicap 50 congressional races and be right on 49."

Kramer also said he remembered, vividly, several incidents working with Thompson.

"One time we got a call from a San Francisco hotel shortly after he had stayed there on a visit to see us," Kramer said. "They wanted us to pay $2,400 for his three nights. When we pressed for a detailed bill, there was a $2,00 item called 'miscellaneous damage' ... something to do with an ice machine that had been shot through with a gun."

The second, Kramer said, "involved a call from a hospital where he had been taken for an emergency appendectomy. They told us they couldn't perform the operation until they had spent a couple days giving him a full blood wash ... apparently his bloodstream was polluted with alcohol and several interesting drugs ... and they were afraid of side effects."

Full article here.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

95. Oh how sad...

:cry:

[NJGeek]

96. that sucks, awesome writer

[Wrinkle_In_Time]

97. Shit. n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

99. Author Hunter S. Thompson, commits suicide/ DUPE

Author Hunter S. Thompson, who penned ``Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,'' commits suicide
Sunday February 20, 2005

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of journalism in books like ``Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,'' fatally shot himself Sunday night at his Aspen-area home, his son said. He was 67.

``Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family,'' Juan Thompson said in a statement released to the Aspen Daily News.

Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis, a personal friend of Thompson, confirmed the death to the News. Sheriff's officials did not return calls to The Associated Press late Sunday.

http://wcbs880.com/national/Obit-Thompson-aa/resources_news_html

[Gman]

100. I used to see him in AOL chat rooms

arguing with immature neocons until he got frustrated with their stupidity and narrowmindedness.

Maybe he said "fuck it. I don't want nothing else to do with this world." after Bush got elected. I wonder if he left a note. I wonder if it said anything about Bush.

[calimary]

101. Damn. After that article he wrote in "Rolling Stone" in which he was

eager to wake up Wednesday morning to hear that John Kerry was our next president, I always wondered how he'd cope when that hope faded.

Damn. There goes another one.

[JI7]

102. FUCK

we needed him.

but i don't really blame him.

he will really be missed.

[Demonaut]

104. Every young man deserves a "Fear And Loathing" roadtrip..... R.I.P

Hunter..you were an inspiration for my 30th birthday.

[LeftofU]

106. *sniff* I'm having a bourbon and a .....

bong hit in mourning.We'll miss you.

[lala_rawraw]

160. ksdjfskjfsieruw#@$%

[Borgnine]

107. God damnit.

May he find a better place, wherever the journey now takes him.

But meanwhile, that's one less ally for us still fighting the good fight on this plane.

[SoCalDemGrrl]

110. Oh my God!! This is really tough to take.....

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

[alfredo]

111. We all owe a debt to him. He gave us permission to be

total whack jobs if the times demand it.

[RadiDem]

112. SHIT ! "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro"

[geomon666]

113. Here's the archive of Hunter's ESPN articles.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/archive?columnist=hunter_s._thompson

The latest was posted on the 15th.

[DoNotRefill]

116. Good for him.

Life on your own terms, or not at all.

RIP, HST

/getting drunk as we speak

[ailsagirl]

121. OMG-- this is terrible. He was one of our most outspoken allies...

What a loss.

[SideshowScott]

122. We are all Fucked!!!!

That was my first thought when i heard the news on the radio..Then came the shock and sadness. Hunter S Thomson was one of the great American writers in History..Not just the 20th..And its my own 2 cents here but I think he was one the best writers in the world. We lost a beacon and a fighter for not just our side but America and freedom and I feel we lost one our MVPs. I will never forget reading his works and will always tresure them. Rest in Peace you crazy bastard...

[Zomby Woof]

126. Goddamn

:cry: He is a cornerstone of my pantheon. A profound influence, and I really can't add much more than that right now...

[Lautremont]

127. Fuckin' hell.

Goddammit to shit.

[praxiz]

131. Damnit... He will be sorely missed.

[American Tragedy]

129. Oh God no, NO. This is horrible news.

:cry:

He made countless people of all ages, even youngsters like me, feel like being weird wasn't so bad, and even could be rather profitable. Freak Power!

I was looking forward to his insight over the next four years. I understand it, though, as I think about it. No doubt he wanted to exit dramatically, rather than continue to fade away.

[jus_the_facts]

132. ~*~ RIP Hunter ~*~

:cry:

[LiberalVoice]

134. Fuck

And to think I was just reading some of "Fear and Loathing" tonight... :cry:

[Chango]

136. He must have taken the news of Sandra Dee very hard...

EOM

[KyndCulture]

137. I am crying my eyes out with anger and grief.... anyone else? nt

[KyndCulture]

138. well now, we're royally FUCKED aren't we? if HST isn't here nt

[readmoreoften]

142. This hits me really hard.

I know HST was a hard-livin fellow, but I feel that he was so politically sensitive that he knew the dark times were upon us. I feel like we really needed him most right now. I feel a little bit like a beacon has gone out.

[VolcanoJen]

139. This is horrible. Just horrible.

God, it's been the most awful year so far. Keeps getting worse.

I raise my glass to you, Gonzo.

:-(

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

146. Wow. That's really sad. His family has my condolences.

[American Tragedy]

147. I have to wonder if this was partially a reaction to the election.

Here on DU it's notoriously common to associate negative events with Bush & Co.

But I remember how hopeful and determined he sounded in that Rolling Stone article. "John Kerry is a good man with a brave heart." I was astounded. I had not seen him offer such a positive appraisal of any politician other than McGovern; and conversely never so negative as his view of Bush.

On the other hand, maybe he just wanted to make a dramatic exit.

[geomon666]

150. From the Doctor's mouth to our ears.

I am no stranger to the anguish of losing a presidential campaign, and this very narrow loss with John Kerry is no exception. It hurt, as always, but it didn't hurt as much as that horrible beating we took with George McGovern in 1972. That was by 22 points, the worst defeat in any presidential campaign since George Washington ran for a second term in 1787.


And the winner that year was a conquering hero named Richard Nixon, who got whacked out of office two years later because he was a crook. We had a very angry Democratic majority in the Senate that year, which is not the case now.

No. Today, the Panzer-like Bush machine controls all three branches of our federal government, the first time that has happened since Calvin Coolidge was in the White House. And that makes it just about impossible to mount any kind of Congressional investigation of a firmly-entrenched president like George Bush.


The time has come to get deeply into Football. It is the only thing we have left that ain't fixed.

[American Tragedy]

151. We think alike. I was reading that very article just before you posted.

Personally, I think this is worse just because it came so devastatingly close. Nobody really though McGovern had a chance.

[AlienGirl]

155. Maybe he knew something even worse is coming

[psychopomp]

148. Hunter Thompson

A great, golden light of the counterculture and elder statesman of American political thought is no longer with us.

RIP HST

[slay]

162. His writing taught me how to think outside the box

I'm really gonna miss him.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

149. In responding to that jerk up-thread...

I realized that one of the things I loved about HST is that he wrote about drugs and politics. Not drugs and sex, not sex and politics -- lots of people write about that -- but drugs & politics.

And I don't know about the rest of you, but until I got clean, those 2 things together were huge in my life. LOL. I'll miss you Hunter.

[0rganism]

152. Another of the Great Ones has left us

Sad as I am, I have to wonder what brought him to it.

Was it a terminal illness, as some have suggested?

Was it bad craziness brought on by a particularly dangerous mix of fry-juice, a final visit from his "attorney"?

Was it something irreconcilable in his personal life, of which we'll never know?

Was it the thought of the USA's final irreversible descent into madness and totalitarianism that brought him to the brink?

So far, this year has sucked in many ways, but I sure didn't see this one coming. I figured that no matter what, at least we'd have HST around to handle the color commentary. So much that was good is gone forever, and now HST joins that august body.

Mahalo, Dr. Gonzo, mahalo. You have become another voice reaching out to humanity from the spirit world, your words whispering across our cultural wasteland like a night wind blowing an ember from a fading cigarette across the empty desert highlands. Some of us will still be listening.

[icymist]

295. Maybe it was the slowly, disappearing story of 'Jeff Gannon'

ace reporter for 'Talon' news that had a pass to the West Wing. This shit depresses me!

[0rganism]

300. In a coming age of Jeff Gannons, will there be room for Gonzo journalism?

As long as reporters are consigned to parroting the rightwing propaganda of their corporate masters, willingly or otherwise, can we still have our Hunter S. Thompsons and Bill Moyerses? Hell, even Phil Donahue was too "controversial" for prime time. The line between news and infotainment has faded away as surely as the line between columnists and prostitutes.

Still, all is not lost. It would seem that the bloggers are the true heirs to the legacy of Thomas Paine and Ben Franklin, and it will be difficult for the mass media presstitutes to muster the credibility required to decry the credibility of blogs. The future will become the present as the present becomes the past and the past withdraws further into the shadows of memory.

[lala_rawraw]

156. Wait just a moment here, I smell a rat...

I normally do not drink, but given that Hunter left the party, I figured what the hell. That said, I am very shocked that he would have shot himself. This is not a person to go out so quickly. Hunter would overdose. Hunter would slowly drug himself to death if need be. A gun is not Hunter. This is what bothers me. I am not a conspiracy theorist, although all facts begin as theories. I am a factualist and given what I know of this person, a gun is not what he would use. Nor would he actually kill himself in such a useless display. He would be overdosing at the White House in a pink dress or something equally lurid, cynical and really a “hell of a thing to do.” Let’s not forget he is a journalist, not only a novelist. He has also reported quite heavily on a certain scandal involving city in Nebraska where kids were the main attraction apparently. Google his work on the current players…see what I mean?

[thebigidea]

165. a gun is not Hunter?

"perhaps he found what he came here for, but the odds are huge that he didn't. He was an old, sick, and very troubled man, and the illusion of peace and contentment was not enough for him - not even when his friends came up from Cuba and played bullfight with him in the Tram. So finally, and for what he must have thought the best of reasons, he ended it with a shotgun."

Hunter Thompson, 1964

[tavalon]

166. Yeah, maybe this is another conspiracy

but Hunter was all about guns. He loved his guns. Whether he was suicided or whether he did the deed himself, doing it with a gun was completely within the way of the Gonzo.

[lala_rawraw]

218. I mean

Gun toward his own head. I was a bit upset and spiked last night.

[EFerrari]

170. Sweetie, maybe we all sleep it off first, before trying to get the story.

Or, it smacks of disrespect.

[BensMom]

180. Nebraska?

Please- more info on the nebraska connection.

[Heidi]

182. Franklin scandal?

I googled around.

[hootinholler]

241. lala, can you post a pointer or two for me?

Or the search you're using. I agree that a gun isn't the obvious choice for him.

-Hoot

[mahina]

245. Agreed 100%, can't have been suicide, this is far too unimaginitive.

But is is quick, and certain, so there is some appeal.
So sorry for his family, and for us all for his lost fearless voice.

[CroixRoussienne]

164. His single greatest work...

I my opinion, his single greatest work was his scathing "obituary" for Richard Nixon:

HE WAS A CROOK
by Hunter S. Thompson


MEMO FROM THE NATIONAL AFFAIRS DESK DATE: MAY 1, 1994 FROM: DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON SUBJECT: THE DEATH OF RICHARD NIXON: NOTES ON THE PASSING OF AN AMERICAN MONSTER.... HE WAS A LIAR AND A QUITTER, AND HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN BURIED AT SEA.... BUT HE WAS, AFTER ALL, THE PRESIDENT.

"And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird."

---Revelation 18:2

Richard Nixon is gone now, and I am poorer for it. He was the real thing -- a political monster straight out of Grendel and a very dangerous enemy. He could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time. He lied to his friends and betrayed the trust of his family. Not even Gerald Ford, the unhappy ex-president who pardoned Nixon and kept him out of prison, was immune to the evil fallout. Ford, who believes strongly in Heaven and Hell, has told more than one of his celebrity golf partners that "I know I will go to hell, because I pardoned Richard Nixon."

I have had my own bloody relationship with Nixon for many years, but I am not worried about it landing me in hell with him. I have already been there with that bastard, and I am a better person for it. Nixon had the unique ability to make his enemies seem honorable, and we developed a keen sense of fraternity. Some of my best friends have hated Nixon all their lives. My mother hates Nixon, my son hates Nixon, I hate Nixon, and this hatred has brought us together.

Nixon laughed when I told him this. "Don't worry," he said, "I, too, am a family man, and we feel the same way about you."

It was Richard Nixon who got me into politics, and now that he's gone, I feel lonely. He was a giant in his way. As long as Nixon was politically alive -- and he was, all the way to the end -- we could always be sure of finding the enemy on the Low Road. There was no need to look anywhere else for the evil bastard. He had the fighting instincts of a badger trapped by hounds. The badger will roll over on its back and emit a smell of death, which confuses the dogs and lures them in for the traditional ripping and tearing action. But it is usually the badger who does the ripping and tearing. It is a beast that fights best on its back: rolling under the throat of the enemy and seizing it by the head with all four claws.

That was Nixon's style -- and if you forgot, he would kill you as a lesson to the others. Badgers don't fight fair, bubba. That's why God made dachshunds.

Rest in Peace Brother

[glaucon]

167. Dear Hunter,

"The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." -Hunter S Thompson


Dear Hunter,

The final passing of an era is nearly complete.

I prefer to believe that some black-ops sonofabitch finally got through your barbed-wire and dobermans. Nixon and Reagan couldn't do it. But these motherfuckers make them look like amateurs.

You opened my eyes in '68, you beautiful bastard. And now the last of the REAL outlaw journalists is gunned down like a fucking rat. The rest is darkness...

In any case, here's to you, Hunter! May the fear and loathing grow to fever pitch.


Peace, bro


------------------
One service more we dare to ask -
Pray for us, heroes, pray,
That when Fate lays on us our task
We do not shame the day.
-Kipling

[Withywindle]

168. Holy FUCKING shit!

Oh God. Not now. we NEED him.


Jesus.

:cry:

RIP, brother. You sure did your part.

[truthisfreedom]

171. rest in peace, gonzo reporter. i'll have to satisfy my pained heart

by imagining you had the big "C" or something equally unacceptable to you. here's a toast to you, old man.

[Patchuli]

173. I'm sad....

I really loved the crazy f***er...you know the world's f***ed up
when Gonzo gives up. Sigh.......;(

Rest In Peace Gonzo.

[readmoreoften]

176. that's a good way to put it.

that crazy bastard touched my heart so deeply... :(

[illflem]

174. My favorite Hunter quote

"In a nation of frightened dullards there is a shortage of outlaws."
from Hell's Angels

[blackcatpgh]

242. one of my favorites:

"...there is not much evidence in history of either God or Justice. The best we can hope for is Truth. Not often, and a pretty thin gruel even then." (1971)

i seriously doubt we'll ever see anyone like him again. and that is a damned shame.

[aureolinus]

302. Does anyone remember his line about Scott Fitzgerald and Brazilians?

It was something like "If Fitzgerald had been a Brazilian they would be dancing to words right now." I always loved that one because I love Fitzgerald as well.

[cleofus1]

175. this is dated feb 15th 2005

I was a big fan too...sure he wacked himself...wasn't going to go down drooling in a cup...after all he was feeling the creaks in the bones...I don't watch sports too much anymore, but I still read hunter's sports collumn...in the end he was just a sports collumnist with an interesting backstory.



"The death of professional hockey in AMERICA is a nasty omen for people with heavy investments in NHL teams. But to me, it meant little or nothing -- and that's why I called Bill Murray with an idea that would change both our lives forever.


It was 3:30 on a dark Tuesday morning when I heard the phone ring on his personal line in New Jersey. "Good thinking," I said to myself as I fired up a thin Cohiba. "He's bound to be wide awake and crackling at this time of day, or at least I can leave a very excited message."

My eerie hunch was right. The crazy bugger picked up on the fourth ring, and I felt my heart racing. "Hot damn!" I thought. "This is how empires are built." Late? I know not late.

Genius round the world stands hand in hand, and one shock of recognition runs the whole circle round.

Herman Melville said that in the winter of 1914, and Murray is keenly aware of it. Only a madman would call a legend of Bill Murray's stature at 3:33 a.m. for no good reason at all. It would be a career-ending move, and also profoundly rude.

But my reason was better than good ..."

[Cooley Hurd]

177. Goddamn it...

:(

Rest in Peace, HST...

[lebkuchen]

178. No book has made me laugh harder than "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"

Thompson and Ralph Steadman were quite the loosely structured team.

[underpants]

183. Almost a year ago exactly in Vegas I made my wife go to CircusCircus

because I wanted to see the rotating bar. Well now it is a juice bar only open on weekends and surrounded by cheap state fair type games and CircusCircus is a complete dump but hey I went.

My brother first turned me onto Hunter Thompson.

I have to say that I am not surprised that his life ended this way-not about the guns just that he took his own life and used a gun to do it.

I raise a glass of orangejuice mescaline and jack daniels with lots of ice to the Doctor these damned lizards are everywhere.

[NoPasaran]

188. A few years ago

I was on a job in LA and a friend of mine was staying at the Sportman's Lodge. I made of point of us eating in the lounge and reflecting on the fact that this was the launching pad for the great savage journey into the heart of the American Dream.

Damn, HST gone. What a shitty way to start the week.

[Supply Side Jesus]

185. Thank you Hunter for everything.

A little under 2 years ago I went to a screening of a documentry about HST call "Breakfast with Hunter." It followed the rascal over a period of many years. Hunter was suppose to go to the screening and a chance for me to meet him seemed ripe. Alas, he cancelled his appearance for one reason or another, and I told myself "Some other time, you'll meet him some other time." Looks like I'll have to wait sometime longer. In the meantime, Thank you Hunter.

[catmandu57]

190. Fuck just fuck

I have to respect HST's decision, he lived life on his terms and died on his terms. I'll miss him.

[blindpig]

186. DOOM

encompasses my being. I feel devastated, for no real good reason. I didn't know the man personally. My original connection with him was Madness, which he made sensible to me. But then he taught me about Politics, and I will never forgive him for that.

Irreplaceable. We will not be allowed to have a voice such as his again until we beat these Bastards down.

[American liberal]

191. Here's a link to one of the local papers

http://www.aspendailynews.com/

[Political_Junkie]

192. Goodbye, Gonzo

:beer:

:cry:

[Goathead]

194. You couldn't invent someone like Hunter S. Thompson

He was a... he was one of a kind. He was a mutant. A real heavyweight water buffalo type... who could chew his way through a concrete wall and spit out the other side covered with lime and chalk and look good in doing it.
So long, Hunter.

[ernstbass]

195. We have lost a great American

It's very sad. I read an interview with him in Vanity Fair last year in which he was advocating for a young woman who was charged and imprisoned for a crime her boyfriend actually committed - Hunter S Thompson was putting alot of time and energy in this woman's case.

[princehal]

196. Hunter S. Thompson dead at 67

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/books/02/21/thompson.obit/index.html

Monday, February 21, 2005 Posted: 8:07 AM EST (1307 GMT)


CNN) -- Journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, who unleashed the concept of "gonzo journalism" in books like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," fatally shot himself in the head Sunday at his home near Aspen, Colorado, police and his family said.

"On February 20, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson took his life with a gunshot to the head at his fortified compound in Woody Creek, Colorado," said a statement issued by Thompson's son, Juan Thompson, to the Aspen Daily News as reported by the Denver Post.

[GCP]

197. A sad loss

RIP Hunter.

[princehal]

198. This bites.

Thompson's writings were part of my growing up.

[dawgman]

199. son of a .... Too bad.

We seem to be dying at an alarming rate.

[hermetic]

200. "He spoke to the world and said what people were afraid to say."

My hero. Suppose the doom finally just caught up with him?

[hippiechick]

201. Duplicate thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1253288&mesg_id=1253288

[TahitiNut]

208. (lol) Gee, d'ya suppose??

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1253288
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1253842
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1253322
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1253319

And in GD ...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=107796
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3151196
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3151719
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3151598
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3149123
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3150838
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3151486
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3151392
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3151543
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3150878
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3151201
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3151133
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3150797
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3151237
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3151160
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3151000
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3143774
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3150659
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3151100
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3151021
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3151056
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3150979
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3150864
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3150751
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3146491

[callous taoboy]

202. A sad loss:

I got to meet and hang with the good Dr. in Eugene, Or. back in the early 90's. He was hilarious in person, and a hell of a nice guy.
We need journalists like him now more than ever.

[confludemocrat]

203. A giant of truth and justice

and a writer of greatness the likes of whom we will not see again in our lifetimes (those of who are baby boomers). His ability to perfectly frame in the most entertaining ridicule the emptiness and idiocy and lying and self-delusion of self-interest-driven politics and it's spawning of death and destruction around the planet. An unmatched critic, polemicist, iconoclast and moralist with an original style. Your works will be repurchased (to better pass down) in hardcover and close at hand for the rest of my life. Rest in peace.

[bread_and_roses]

214. What an eloquent tribute.

He did indeed expose "the emptiness and idiocy and lying and self-delusion of self-interest-driven politics and it's spawning of death and destruction around the planet."

No one else tore away the flesh and revealed the black heart of the beast within any better.

[Bob3]

204. Damn, hell and Damn

One more gone. Shit hell and damn. God I remember the first time I read fear and loathing in Los Vegas - scrambled my brain but good - a giddy sense of freedom that the written word could do anything even to the edge of madness. I am still fond of quoting word for word the opening segment of that book "We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take effect."

RIP

Again Damn. There is just so much out there to fear and Loathe.

[callous taoboy]

207. Fear and Loathing

was my first intro to Hunter S. My friend's stoner brother turned me on to him. My favorite line was when the drugs were taking effect and he turned around to look at the hitchhiker, "admiring the shape of his skull." The whole book makes one feel like you're on acid.

[rocktivity]

205. Was he in ill health?

He seems the type who would see shooting himself as an alternative to a slow debilitating death.

:headbang:
rocknation

[mattclearing]

206. .

[jmcgowanjm]

209. Hunter-"Dreams are on the line"

Let's face it--the yo-yo president of the U.S.A. knows nothing.
He is a dunce. He does what he is told to do--says what he
is told to say--poses the way he is told to pose. He is a
Fool.

This is never an easy thing for the voters of this country
to
accept.

No. Nonsense. The president cannot be a Fool. Not at
this moment in time--when the last living vestiges of
the American Dream are on the line. This is not the time to
have a bogus rich kid in charge of the White House. Which
is, after all, our house. That is our headquarters--it is where
the heart of America lives. So if the president lies and act
giddy about other people's lives--if he wantonly and
stupidly endorses mass murder as a logical plan to make
sure that we are still Number One--he is a Jackass
by definition--a loud and meaningless animal with
no fundamental intelligence and no
balls.

To say that this goofy child president is looking more and
more like Richard Nixon in the summer of 1974 would be
a flagrant insult to
Nixon.

Whoops! Did I say that? Is it even vaguely possible that
some New Age Republican whore-beast of a false
president could actually make Richard Nixon look like a
liberal?

- From Kingdom of Fear, Simon & Schuster, 2003

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=540910&lastnode_id=169667

[kedrys]

210. Aw f*@k.

That is all. I feel empty.

[jmcgowanjm]

211. IMHO-I see Hunter using a revolver, maybe w/ one bullet in the chamber

The shotgun is so inelegant. I'd have to see the
autopsy:

What's the best drug to write on?

You've got dumb questions.

Um, sorry. Have you ever done ecstasy?

Yeah. It seemed kind of mild and talky. I didn't mind it. It's not
in the nature of the kind of drug I am normally accustomed to,
it was a quasi-drug, I guess.

What kind of music are you listening
to?

Let's see. I just got the new Bob Dylan box set from the
Rolling Thunder tour from 1975. It's kind of a big package with
a book and several CDs in there. It's maybe the best rock
and roll album I've ever
heard.

You don't think that was after his peak?

Shit. You really are dumb. You have to listen to it and find out.
If you think that, you really are ignorant. What do you want to
talk about, Eminem?

Is writing still fun for you?

Yes.

What's the best firearm for home security?

Twelve gauge short barrel shotgun.

And what's the best for just fucking around?

Machine guns are kind of nice. You can have a lot of fun
with them. It's like watering the lawn. I don't get to play them
very often.

Ralph Steadman said that you almost killed him in a gun-
related explosion while he was visiting you in Aspen.
What happened?

I don't know that story, but no doubt it's right. I can think of
several times. Ralph is well acquainted with my
lifestyle.

He also said that you claim that you are one of the few
people who should be allowed to own a handgun gun, and
he said that you definitely shouldn't be allowed to own
one.

(Laughs.) Ralph is one person who definitely shouldn't
be allowed to drink whiskey.

Why's that?

I'll wait for his reason why I shouldn't have handguns. Whiskey
is not beneficial for Ralph.

http://www.freezerbox.com/archive/article.asp?id=287

[jmcgowanjm]

213. when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro-My favorite gonzo quote

I got a soft spot in my heart for sports and what the hell, I bet
on it, I'm into it all the time, I might as well make some money
on it. One of the things I think I've learned over time is I have
to make movie on, excuse me, money on, I have to get paid
for my vices somehow, or else its gonna be destructive. If
you're paid for being crazy, then you're not crazy, is that
right?

http://www.freezerbox.com/archive/article.asp?id=287

My Mainman-Hunter's in a better place now. He
had too much sanity to live in this world.

[Name removed]

215. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

231. I'm assuming you mean the now *deleted* post above

...not sure if that's what you are referring to, but here's some insight:

a) It's not "groupthink" when a lot of people agree about something, and defend what they believe. It's "community." Welcome to DU.

b) You didn't come in here just to "disagree with the majority opinion." You said unkind things about a beloved writer who died probably in despair and depression -- you weren't attacked for your opinion, but rather for your insensitivity on the night of his death, in the thread where we came to share our sadness. No doubt some posts would be deleted in response to yours, which was clearly meant only to incite a reaction.

Whatever, your post is gone, thank goodness for the mods.

RIP, HST.

[Name removed]

249. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[tom_paine]

219. Another Free American gone who we cannot replace

HST was one of a kind. A believer in Liberty and the kind of America that was evolving before it's 225-year life was ended in 'homicide' by the Imperial Family Bush*.

:-( :cry:

I understand Hunter's wanting to punch his ticket before all the Bush Fun starts. I still wish he hadn't. For me, for all of us, for the Old American Republic, now gone like Dr. Gonzo, I wish he had stayed.

On the other hand, like Carl Sagan's passing, I am also glad Hunter won't be around to see Phase Two, and Phase Three, the Punltimate transformation of Imperial Amerika.

Free People as great as those two should not have to suffer watching their nations trning into Bootlicking Slaves.

For that reason alone, maybe Hunter "is in a better place".

RIP Hunter. You will be missed by millions.

:-(

[HuckleB]

222. That bloody MOFO!

Shit! I'm a friggin' agnostic-atheistic (i can't quite decide if i'm actually an atheist), but if I'm wrong, and I see that m@#$er f@#%er someday. I'm going to kick his arse!

My brother killed himself 11 years ago this Thursday, on a Thursday, in fact, via shotgun to the head. I just spent the last week spinning in relived grief, and now Hunter Thompson (one of my brother's favorite authors) pulls this stunt. Talk about a kick in the gut.

(Yeah, I'm fully aware of the neurobiological underpinnings of suicide. This is just how I feel right now.)

Rest In Peace, Mr. Thompson. Rest in piece.

[Name removed]

223. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[HuckleB]

239. What?

Since when does suicide equate with "pathetic loser"?

Please educate yourself...

The Neurobiology of Suicide and Suicidality --
http://www.cpa-apc.org/Publications/Archives/CJP/2003/june/heeringen.asp

And this is only one piece of the neurobiological puzzle.

A more in-depth study:

Night Falls Fast : Understanding Suicide --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375701478/ref=pd_sim_b_4/002-3093161-9971241?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance

[Ellen Forradalom]

224. The passing of an era

and the loss of the kind of person we really, really need in times like these. :-(

[otohara]

225. Damn It All

RIP Hunter

[bettyellen]

226. you tend to forget now and then that about half the people you meet live

from one day to the next in a state of such fear and uncertainty that about half the time they honestly doubt their own sanity. These are not the kind of people who really need to get hung up in depressing political trips. They are not ready for it. Their boats are rocking so badly that all they want to do is get level long enough to think straight and avoid the next nightmare."

he was a hero to so many people i've known over the years.
what a loss.

[Name removed]

227. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[HuckleB]

229. Let me get this straight...

you want people to waste the resources these agencies have taking calls of fans, yet you're already worried about them doing a "thorough job"?

[chickenscratching]

228. oh my

its hard to see such an intelligent, crazy, drug advocating, gun toting, versatile individual leave. especially in the times we're in now, this is the time we need you most hunter!
in the future i'm going to look back and think 'damn, if hunter were here, he'd say a few lines to keep us optimistic'
kinda like bill hicks leaving....who is our voice now?
adios hst.

[Merlin]

230. My proposal for the Doonesbury tribute.

Farewell, Hunter. We're all gonna miss you.
:hi:

[Bonobo]

235. Hunter hated that shit for putting him in a cartoon strip.

[callous taoboy]

238. When I saw him speak in Oregon

someone asked him about Duke, and he said he never figured that he'd wake up and find himself "Lil' Abner."

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

240. My proposal: disappear Duke.

An Ambrose Bierce ending, slipping into the desert shadows, fate rumoured and debated but unknown. The end of both sagas. That would really honor Thompson.

Good night, good Doctor. You chose your own path right to the last step.

[markus]

232. Taking the Shark Hunt to the next level

eom

[mountainvue]

234. This is incredibly sad.

My condolences to his family and brother, James Carville.

[Bo]

243. Sigh.... another great one gone...

a tear for you hunter

[DeaconBlues]

244. There have been and will be a lot of imitators

but there will never be another man like him.

[Canuckistanian]

246. Was it HST who said this?

Q: Are you actually advocating the heavy use of alcohol and drugs?

HST: Well, it worked for me.....

[KyndCulture]

251. actually the quote is...

I don't advocate drugs, alchohol or insanity but it always worked for me.....

[Pale_Rider]

247. Good bye HST ...

"Old elephants limp off to the hills to die; old Americans go out to the highway and drive themselves to death with huge cars."
-- Hunter S Thompson

[catzies]

248. Godammit. Fuck.

no words

If he couldn't cope for the next 4 years how in the sweet bleeding fuck are we supposed to????????????

[KyndCulture]

252. that's exactly what I thought when I heard.....

we're stuck here with the guckert clones and Hunter checks out on us....

[peacetalksforall]

250. I had never read his books, but picked up a biography, couldn't

put it down - read another right after. I was hooked.

I hope some day to understand his magnetism.

[Bridget Burke]

256. "Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas...

Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era--the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant . . . .

"You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning . . .

"And that, I think was the handle--that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting--on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum. We were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave.

"So, now, five years later, you can go to a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark--that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679785892/ref=sib_rdr_dp/102-9587680-4748138

From Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas; the whole text is on Amazon. Yes, his work was famous for insane excess & bad craziness; but he really loved America.

[Rush1184]

285. That was one of the most beautiful lines from that film...

you cant help but get a little teary and nostalgic when you hear it.

[anarchy1999]

257. I'll never believe it. Not with a gun. Drugs maybe, a gun, never.

I just sleep in tin foil these days. So sorry for this loss, for the family and for us all. Gun just doesn't add up.

[youngdem]

259. HST, very much into guns..

He was very much a believer in the second amendment and owned a wide variety of guns. At times he would get in "manic" moods and shoot his fax machine. This is a huge loss, he was a great writer, and will be missed.

[HEyHEY]

271. Yeah, there was never any indication he owned guns

[Rush1184]

284. He has always said...

that when things got so unbearable he was going to end it by shooting himself in the head.

[muchacho]

262. what a shame

he is a hero of mine....

[HEyHEY]

263. Damn

:-(

[HEyHEY]

264. THis just in

COlorado Sherrif says Thompson shot himself

[confusa]

265. Another light extinguished

All the greats are now almost gone, Leary, Burroughs, Ginsberg, and now HST. Truly sad that the optimism of the 60's has now passed. Only one prophet left by my counting, Robert Anton Wilson. May we all read and learn.

[HEyHEY]

272. Wolfe is still live

[Chicago Democrat]

266. Goodbye Gonzo! You left as you came, with a bang....

His suicide is a statement. A statement I wish he hadn't made, but he was always doing the crazy thing.

First Spalding Grey and now Hunter S Thompson.

Our brightest lights of a generation, exploding....

These are the darkest of times.

[slutticus]

270. ...

R.I.P. Hunter. :evilfrown:

[yinkaafrica]

273. Oh NO!

[SlavesandBulldozers]

274. RIP Hunter

Here's hoping you're in a better place, or everywhere, now. Did you have to leave us here all alone? BTW im not buying this shit about your writing degenerating - i really dug Kingdom of Fear and looked forward to reading more of your modern thoughts. now youre just another dead hero.

[ezekiel333]

275. "We were somewhere around Barstow..."

[0007]

276. RIP

[understandinglife]

277. I refuse to accept 'suicide.' Period. (nt)

"DO YOU ENJOY BEING A CITIZEN OF THE ROGUE SUPER_POWER?"

[sundaybloodysunday]

278. Favorite HST anecdotes

I am so sad that Hunter is gone. Who's left to "fight the good fight"? Two of my favorite HST stories involve Nixon and William Burroughs.

1. During Nixon's run for the White House, Hunter met him for an interview. From what I remember, Hunter was told that the meeting would be very brief and only to talk about sports, not politics. So Hunter met Nixon on an airport runway inside of a plane. They spoke for a few minutes. When Hunter walked off the plane and shook hands with Nixon, he then decided to light a cigarette right next to the plane fuselage. The security guards almost jumped on him, fearing that he would accidentally blow up the plane.

2. (The following may offend). Hunter visited Burroughs in Kansas. As they were both gun hobbyists, Hunter gave Bill a heavy duty 450 Magnum to try. Burroughs fired the gun and was thrown off his feet due to the force of the weapon. Hunter helped him up and asked if Bill was alright. He was concerned that the bullet might of hit a neighbor's house. In deadpan form Bill replied, "Don't worry. Ain't nothing out there but Christians."

[Tai-chi]

279. Hunter S. Thomson AUDIO-interview on Bush Inc. and 9/11

20 sek. download.

http://www.indybay.org/uploads/hunter_thompson_aug29_2002.mp3

[slay]

282. GREAT HUNTER MP3! Thanks for posting this!

Wow. I never heard this. What an amazing fucking individual he was.

Hunter S. Thompson on George W. Bush - "We have to beat this bastard one way or another."

[Merlin]

280. HST's Legacy: a whole new generation of Gonzo Commentators

(From an email I sent out tonight to friends:)

A cultural icon has passed from the scene with somewhat surprising indignity. (On second thought, although he was insubordinate and untamed to the end, I guess he never was what you would call dignified.)

Yet the character of Hunter S. Thompson towered above that of his arch-villains, R. M. Nixon and G. W. Bush. His columns were always a dark delight. His revelry in machismo surpassed the farcical. If it seemed at odds with his liberalism, perhaps it's because we failed to recognize him as one of the last of the old time populists; a wild west wild man; a Dali-esque showman; oddly hip, yet steeped in the insights and jugular instincts of Jimmy Breslin, whom we also lost just recently.

How much of that reckless abandon and drug-booze haze that were his trademark was real? Was it all for laughs? Who knows?

The greatest and most fitting tribute to HST is found in those who have adopted aspects of his style. The founder of Gonzo "Journalism" has inspired a generation of outspoken, biting and oh, so entertaining commentators, like Mike Carlton of the Sydney Herald, Mark Morford of the S.F. Chronicle, and others.

The link below is to a recent piece of commentary by Carlton written in the unmistakable style of the the master himself.

RIP HST.

http://prague.tv/forum/viewpost.php?id=3263

[Rush1184]

283. I almost cried when I heard it on the news last night...

It is a sad day for american counter culture, and for american literature and journalism in gerneral. Hunter S. Thompson is one of my favorite writers, if not my favorite, amd I am sad to see him go. May he rest in peace.

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."



"He had that rare electricity about him - that extremely wild and heavy presence that you only see in a person who has abandoned all hope of ever behaving 'normally.'"

[rayofreason]

286. Greatest English comic writer of 20th Century....

... is the verdict of Tom Wolfe. Read his view-

http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110006325

[Bridget Burke]

288. Tom Wolfe, as so many others, concentrates on HST's "lifestyle"

Indeed, his image as the Gonzo, drug fueled zany overshadowed much of his work.

HST was a true patriot & a hater of those who would destroy America. The content of his work is dead serious.

Lightweight comments from a stylish fop in a white suit.

[Bonobo]

290. He was no "comic writer".

Unless you only know him from Doonesbury and Where the Buffalo Roam.

[Bonobo]

289. Vonnegut on HST!

(from Wampeters, Foma and Grandfalloons)

Thompson, if he is to be believed, has sampled the entire rainbow of legal and illegal drugs
in heroic efforts to feel better than he does.
As for the truth about his health: I have asked around about it.
I am told that he appears to be strong and rosy, and steadily sane.
But we will be doing what he wants us to do, I think, if we consider his exterior a
sort of Dorian Gray facade. Inwardly, he is being eaten alive by tinhorn politicians.
The disease is fatal. There is no known cure.
The most we can do for the poor devil, it seems to me, is to name his disease in his honor.
From this moment on, let all those who feel that Americans can be as easily led to beauty
as to ugliness, to truth as to public relations, to joy as to bitterness, be said to be suffering
from Hunter Thompson's disease.
I don't have it this morning.
It comes and goes.
This morning I don't have Hunter Thompson's disease.


-- Kurt Vonnegut Jr. on Dr. Hunter S. Thompson: Excerpt
from A Political Disease, Vonnegut's review of Fear
and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72

[peterh]

297. “he is being eaten alive by tinhorn politicians”

combine the above with his quote from post #43….

"Four more years of George Bush will be like four more years of syphilis,"

The disease was very fatal….RIP

;(

[voss]

291. gonzo journalists wanted!

This last year we have suffered journalists who wrote day after day that George Bush is someone whose merits we should mull over, that it's an interesting question whether this mindless yahoo should get to put his finger on the button that sends us all to oblivion. Everyone in this country who still has a soul knew in the depths of it that this is bullshit and vanishingly few people had what it took to say it in print. With that voice stilled it will be that much harder for us to find our own voice.

``I hate to advocate weird chemicals, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone . . . but they've always worked for me.''

If you're insane when you have the courage to tell the truth and the grace to get it through the skulls of people hypnotized many times over, it's time more journalists lost their minds.

I like to picture him today, side by side with Joe Hill, higher than he's *ever* been, screaming down to journalists everywhere: "Don't mourn, you bastards. Just tell the truth!"

[KamaAina]

292. Goddammit Hunter, how could you do this to me?

Can't you see all those goddam fascists out there? They're flying around the country like a bunch of demented bats or something! And you were the first one to spot them, to compare Richard Nixon to Adolf Hitler in public...

Cazart! Now they can see you're gone, and they're circling around and coming after me... I can almost feel the pain as they dig deep into my civil rights... Who was it you said should have his nuts ripped off with a plastic fork?

[icymist]

293. Fuck You You Fucking Fuck Fuck!!!!!

Shitty shitty bang bang! How DARE you leave in such a way (unless you were sucided, then I'll forgive you)!

[readmoreoften]

294. run run run... LOVE YOU GONZO!... stage dive!

[AlFrankenFan]

298. And I just saw "Fear and Loathing" for the first time Friday

RIP Hunter :cry: