Blips & Pieces for Feb 2012

No specific theme today, just a few fragments to address. . .

Last week I was almost in scream mode while watching ABC-TV's and other news presentations, when the proliferation of drone aircraft seemed high on inquiring minds. So I'm viewing the usual mainstream media pap, and then they start interviewing people in the airline industry who express concern about the increasing use of drones in congested air space, worried about the potential for deadly collisions.

And the wheels in my head start -- you know, I've always heard about the wheels in our heads, yet never found these in medical textbook illustrations, despite my efforts -- spinning and I almost shout out loud, HEY! HEY! Where are you people when commercial airliners encounter UFOs that damned nearly rock your boat? Where are you airline company representatives when passengers are flung out of their seats because unidentified airborne objects of terror cause frightened pilots to take violently evasive actions? Whose side are airline officials on when their pilots want to tell the media and the world about close encounters in the skies with things that clearly are not drones? Now you worry about drones, when there's so very much more about which to fret? You folks dare to concentrate on drones, when organizations such as NARCAP and NICAP document things equally, if not more, disturbing? The hypocrisy simply astonishes.

Other. . .

Some of you found my comments about autism insensitive. Please read them again. I was not being insensitive to autism, I was being critical of non-autism. Just make sure that the funding for autism research goes to the right places, because even the research people are backing off over the number of autistic individuals. What I should have added to my rant was that one week I was hearing one out of 125 children was autistic, and a few days later TV spots dropped the total to one out of 100. Which is it, if it's either? Apparently, the numbers were increasing so quickly that somebody actually had to infuse common sense, a rare commodity indeed, before funding was jeopardized. And, remember, there is the issue of criminal "facilitators," suspected to be guiding autistic hands themselves from key to key so the autistic may "communicate" via the computer keyboard.

Sports, athletics, are not something I care about in the least, but ESPN's firing and suspension of people involved with the phrase "chink in the armor" regarding an American basketball player with Asian heritage is absurd. Are we to alter on a daily basis the use of innocent words and phrases which have been part of our culture for ages because somebody will be offended? Little by little, our First Amendment seems regarded more as an enemy than a free expression right. On that note -- Asian-Americans, African-Americans, Mexican-Americans -- why not just American? As Europe has discovered and some leaders have said out loud, the multi-culturalism thing doesn't benefit a society, it destroys it. In this country, either be an American or don't, but don't play the I'm-this-and-that game, which only rips the fabric of society to shreds.

How's that President Obama thing going for you? Expensive family vacations, alternative energy companies funded big-time by tax dollars falling like dominoes, energy prices going nuts, government regulators sticking their heads and laws into every nook and cranny of our lives, a non-existent "Arab Spring" encouraged by adding fuel to the fire of radical Islam and enough national debt to keep your children and grandchildren choking on Chinese indebtedness economically for years to come. Yes, Bush started it and Obama built upon it, still blaming Bush for all of it to this day, and Mr. Obama alone has the obscene campaign funds to convince us all the way to November that what is is not. Beware.

At this moment, I expect Mr. Obama to be back for another four years, because the Republicans, those jerks, never learn the lesson, and the lesson ingrained even in many of their supporters' heads is that you don't get out there and start fighting everybody with God. They do it every time. Religion, religion, religion, it's what they throw out in front instead of attacking their opponent on the issues confronting the entire country. Keep it up, fools, and keep invading everybody's bedroom with unwanted reproduction advice. I think a fiscal conservative leaning toward libertarianism could work wonders right now. The Democrats and Republicans merely share the same unlaundered underwear every four years, just turning it inside-out and outside-in.

When the Swiss get around to launching those "janitor satellites" designed to sweep up space junk, another gem from the news last week, maybe they could be programmed to descend a bit and clean up politics, too?

Then there's that latest apology from the Obama Admin, communicated via a general, expressing our sympathy for burning prison Korans from Afghanistan with garbage. I'm sorry, too, sorry that perfectly good trash was mixed in with some really vicious prison literature. Because this occurred at an Air Force base and I'm a former USAF airman, I guess it's up to me to un-apologize, and I can only suggest that the books were burned with garbage because there were no flush toilets available. I particularly loved news videos of the hysterical crowds, shaking their fists and shouting that old mantra, "Death to America." Hey, you radical and crazy Afghan dudes and dudesses, my feeling is mutual toward your Stone Age country, and if my President was more interested in allowing our military to kill, destroy and conduct war instead of conducting sensitivity and diversity training, nation-building and apologies using rules developed by university dwellers who know nothing about battle and winning, there might have been a chance at peace. But now radical Islam will claim your butts -- as it will Syria after we borrow even more money from China to defeat its leaders, so that even more people who detest the United States can move in and claim victory. I never wanted us in Iraq or Afghanistan, but if one wishes to conduct a war, then have a war, not a social construct whose rules of etiquette prove hazardous to American and foreign fighting men and women and favorable to everything we supposedly battle against.

Meanwhile, we have Hollywood painting fantasies and the mainstream media doing pretty much the same thing. I think the studio ("entertainment") execs and media higher-ups not only share the same bed, they've obtained a bigger one to accommodate the deception factory.

And Iran (sigh). I couldn't possibly come up with a better definition of hotheaded insanity in the leadership, and one hopes the Iranian people who deserve better succeed in defeating their demons, though what doubt can there be that radical Islam will still rule the day? Good luck, Israel. Good luck, Europe. Good luck, USA.

Oh dear, I hope I haven't offended anybody. I suspect blogs are deleted for less of a rant.

Look What Dragged the Cat In

When does "meow" turn into Me? Ow!

Whether enigmatic animal (particularly cattle) mutilations are the dirty work of something frighteningly unknown, of Venusian hamster invaders armed with laser scalpels, or of clandestine government agencies which, for some reason, didn't budget enough to purchase their own experimental cows and ranch land, the issue that always diverted my eyes from the obvious evidence of trauma is -- what about nearby animals which appear unaffected by the forces killing and cutting up their companions? Would they be the real focus disguised by the chaos of mysterious mutilation circumstances? Are intruders throwing investigators off track by leaving so much evidence of horror among the dead that living animals dwelling nearby, who may have experienced less invasive but more important encounters, are ignored by the inquisitive?

But forget all of that for now and instead go into panic mode about another potential vessel of terror. . .your cat. Does the litter box harbor microscopic agents of internal hypnosis and biological destruction? Are recognized organisms, already inhabiting earth for a millennia, the stealth mutilators of another variety?

The March, 2012 issue of Atlantic Magazine features an article entitled "How Your Cat is Making You Crazy." Kathleen McAuliffe explores the work of Czech scientist Jaroslav Flegr. Flegr long believed that parasites found in house cats had entered his brain and caused certain changes in his activities. "Could tiny organisms carried by house cats," asks the author, "be creeping into our brains, causing everything from car wrecks to schizophrenia?"

The concern here is a single-celled parasite from the protozoan family called Toxoplasma
gondii (called T. gondii or simply Toxo) and is the microbe responsible for
toxoplasmosis, commonly found in cats. Pregnant women, you may already know, are instructed to avoid this organism.

This parasite, among what are suspected to be a myriad of microbial invaders available from all manner of living sources, appears to excel at entering human and animal brains with the express purpose of changing behavior to its own liking. For instance, studies indicate that rats infected with the parasite through contact with cat feces can be influenced to actually prefer going to places frequented by cats -- and cats, in turn, kill and eat the rats and eventually leave more cat droppings infiltrated with proliferating Toxo "offspring," waiting to infect more rats and other creatures which inadvertently eat the substance.

As far as humans go, the common cat litter box provides everything the Toxo parasite needs for human brain infiltration -- and once that occurs, anything can happen, the research suggests, and the result may occur specifically to benefit the invader. Organically, the effects may devastate a human. Research is just beginning to pull all of this together, though the evidence already in existence provides numerous clues.

The article is online, and I hadn't intended to read more than a few lines, but became captivated by the science, the theories and the implications, especially when the point was driven home that a lot of common disease processes and mental illnesses seem not to have been recorded in history until cats commonly became pets.

The article is fascinating, well worth your time, and if you have a cat -- don't worry, it's probably already too late to worry about feline dangers or litter box jitters. In fact, no matter what variety of pet you may have, it seems almost mandatory that they all carry some parasitic organisms just itching to burrow into our brains and, in the words of the street, make us their bitch. Sort of like what our government does routinely.


The online version is available here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/how-your-cat-is-making-you-crazy/8873/

More Free UFO Classics / Ben Breedlove's Gift

I'm not always as current as I would prefer when checking the link list, but there are a couple of fairly new additions of which you should be aware.

First, if you click on the link for the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies, you will find that downloads of the NICAP UFO Investigator, newsletter of the defunct National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, are now available for free. Previously, there was a charge for this material on CDs, but all issues are now free, each in .pdf format. Additionally, NICAP bulletins and other special published releases are out there for you at no charge. If you're searching for an excellent overview of modern UFO history, NICAP's documents can hardly be beat.

Also, if you hit the link to the official NICAP historical site (nicap.org) and check the free books section, you will find that Francis Ridge and associates just added the complete and exhaustively compiled Colorado UFO report. The official thick hardcover volume has been digitally transformed into numerous chapters to keep you busy downloading and reading for hours, and when you finish you may well do what many UFO researchers did years ago -- scratch your head and wish that Dr. Edward Condon had actually read his own team's report in depth (he didn't) before dismissing the UFO phenomenon's importance.

AND WHILE YOU'RE SURFING THE INTERNET. . .The mainstream media covered this story, generally leaving out the religious references. Still. . .

Be sure to check out the You Tube video from the late 18-year-old Texan, Ben Breedlove. Breedlove (pictured above), whose diagnosis from childhood was (I'm doing this from memory, so I hope I'm remembering correctly) hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, literally died several times while growing up, and he claimed some strange encounters whilst in between "here and there." I know there are medical explanations to explain away -- via brain synapses and the like, and that makes sense -- his observations, but his story fascinates, whether involving scrambled brain neurons as death becomes imminent -- or something far greater. The other weird factor is this: He died on Christmas day last year at age 18 during a family Christmas party, his heart having failed for the last time, and just a week before death he posted this heck of an interesting You Tube video, putting up one cue card after another in front of his face, allowing the words to tell his remarkable story as music plays in the background. I think the video was a surprise even to his family, whose members may not have had a clue that he posted what would become a monumental legacy, one of the most watched videos on You Tube. Breedlove seemed a strikingly beautiful young man in every way who apparently lived life to the fullest, having offered a variety of Internet presentations regarding teenage matters up until his death, and the fact that he appears so healthy on this final video and exhibits total control makes his amazing life's story all the more curious, forcefully told in a unique and surprisingly effective manner. Yes, he believed in God and angels, but his two-part You Tube presentation will impress even those who accept life only as a mystery, privilege, an accident or encumbrance. Check this one out, tell your friends, and assure them that it's okay to cry sometimes, because they just might.

Lucius Farish (1937-2012)

It's awkward for me to post a blog entry (see previous) about the death of an allegedly evil, homicidal person attached, unfortunately, to the UFO subject, and then follow it a few days later with a tribute regarding a truly kind, dedicated man whose name, writing and influence was known among UFO investigators throughout the world for decades.

My first encounter with Arkansas native Lucius Farish occurred in the late 1970s, when he was writing the popular "In Others' Words" column for each monthly MUFON UFO Journal. To my surprise, Lou not only mentioned an article I wrote for one of the national "newsstand" magazines -- he actually praised it. Anybody who would actually say something positive about my writing obviously required questioning, so I immediately sat down and typed out a letter to Lou on one of several old used office typewriters I kept around the house.

Thus began several years of typed correspondence between Lou and I, he at that time the resident of a town called Plumerville, and I came to know him as very well-informed, intimately involved in UFO research and proud as can be of the annual Ozark UFO convention he ultimately put together. His inspiring, articulate letters reflected not only extensive knowledge of UFO history and current events, but an upbeat sense of humor which never failed. His articles appeared in numerous publications over the years, and though some of his opinions may have seemed extreme to some (for instance, he was a bit more supportive of some contactee claims than others may have been, if they accepted any such claims whatsoever), he didn't shirk from taking a stand on issues of controversy, whether involving UFOs or topics of the paranormal. Along with Rod Dyke, he regularly churned out UFO Newsclipping Service issues, a monthly compilation of photocopied newspaper articles about UFO reports throughout the world. [Note: the UFONS issues were eventually published by Farish alone, and years later Dyke reacquired the responsibilities, and UFONS finally ceased publication only recently.]

Years passed and the letters between us became fewer and fewer, and by the time e-mail became routine we were only in contact on rare occasions in recent years. I think the last time was in 2006 or 2007 when I posted information on this blog for people interested in attending the Ozark UFO conference.

I remember asking him years ago about his first name, as Lucius -- an old name -- doesn't seem that common anymore, and I've certainly never met anybody else named Lucius. In response, with laughter, I'm sure, he stated that the worst part about having that name is the letters he sometimes received addressed to Lucille Farish!

And, hmm, oh yes -- seems that Lou once expressed considerable gratitude because the American voting process had succeeded in getting Bill and Hillary Clinton the heck out of Arkansas.

Other than the conferences, Lou Farish avoided occasions enhanced by TV cameras ("I still do radio interviews occasionally, but not as many as I once did," Lou wrote in a 2006 e-mail. "No TV, as my face is much better suited to radio!"), though he did enjoy appearing with Errol Bruce-Knapp on Errol's "Strange Days. . .Indeed!" radio show a few years back. In February of 1979 Lou did a 30-minute interview for the Arkansas Radio Network and, since I carefully noted that factoid on a 3x5 index card, that probably means I have or had a tape of that interview stored somewhere safe. And apparently, so far, invisible.

Of course, Lou will be missed. The losses, the names, appear to pass by faster and faster, each leaving without answers, reluctantly leaving the UFO mystery's solution for others to discover. Maybe.

(To read his obituary, proceed to www.harrisfuneralhomes.net)

His Presence Will Linger

Echoes of Bill Cooper's fatal shootout with the cops apparently reverberated throughout Arizona earlier this month when one Drew Maras -- described as a UFO researcher -- was shot dead by a sheriff's deputy, but not before he allegedly killed another and may have murdered a New Hampshire couple in Arizona as well.

The 30-year-old had written a book entitled Open Your Eyes to 2012 and Beyond some time back, Frankly, I've never heard of Mr. Maras, but then I'm kinda on the sidelines anymore, and the "New Age" stuff never really appealed to me -- particularly the dross wielded by unstable people who seem, nonetheless, as normal as you and I. Whatever normal is. "The World Gone Crazy," as I recall, was a Glen Campbell song, never more appropriate than today (even as famed country singer Campbell has himself fallen prey to Alzheimer's).

William Cooper dead in a shootout. Drew Maras dead in a shootout. Paranormal writer D. Scott Rogo murdered. UFO researcher Morris K. Jessup dead years ago from suicide or murder or suicide or murder or. . .

I hate it when this kind of thing happens. People can point and say, see? I knew those UFO nuts were trouble, crazy, every one of 'em.

No wonder Washington congressional offices treat every letter and package received as if it contains mysterious white powder or something more immediate in the attention-getting department. Can you imagine the welcome afforded communication in any format from UFO "enthusiasts?"

Oh, oh, oh, Mr. Maras, if indeed you killed three people, the trouble didn't end with your homicides. Those of us who find it difficult even to get up the nerve to announce publicly that we gather UFO reports must now live like the undead in the shadow of your horrors. UFO skeptics will shake their heads with disapproval and debunkers will party on.

You, Mr. Maras, are dead, but definitely not gone. I curse your UFO research involvement, and extend my sympathies to the families you've destroyed.

AUTISM AIN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE? The greatest thing about being a non-professional is the freedom of not needing to lick the boots of higher-up authorities to justify my existence. Yes, I have a bachelor's degree, but I don't swing it around like Billy Jack with a bat. Who cares anyway? In fact, when asked where my degree is from, I tend to reply and then, gasping breathlessly, the inquirer's follow-up question is, "Oh my god, you attended Julliard?!" Heck no, I respond, I said I went to Julie-Odd, and that's a whole different place altogether! Yep.

However, I have, during my old USAF years, worked in hospitals, sometimes with profoundly retarded people -- and don't let 'em intimidate you, retarded is a perfectly good word and must remain in all dictionaries of the miserable future.

I mention this because it appears that the folks who look inside our heads for a living -- and for lucrative government research grants -- have apparently decided that diagnosing one in 100 children with autism might be a bit enthusiastic, and revisions will be made in the DSM (the numeric bible of health care) to reflect this. That is, standards for diagnosing autism will be tightened up and as a consequence those who no longer qualify as autistic will probably lose benefits and autism-specific care. Truth be told -- rather, suspected -- I believe that the professional autism peddlers dug a hole so deep that they don't know how to perform self-extrication, except by pulling up and out ever so gradually.

I do accept that autism exists, just as I accept that Down syndrome exists. These are serious medical matters and I applaud health care workers who deal with these diagnoses.

Nonetheless, a little teeny-tiny part of me always teeters on the sidelines and watches psychologists do their deeds. Sometimes I think there are so many psychology students that they must clamor for projects to keep their little minds busily engaged in finding things wrong or different about us so they can convert their brilliance into government grant money and the opportunity to create new numbers for the wretched, yet blessed, DSM. In the DSM, you see, every diagnosis you have is assigned a computerized number. Big government loves the DSM, insurance companies love the DSM, and attorneys love the DSM. The DSM numbers make us what we are, from head to toe, and diversity in diagnosing, despite what you've been told about the wonders of diversity, is a sin. If one lacks a DSM numbered diagnosis, by George, there's a medical professional out there to find one, and the individual will always learn that, in the health care system, one size fits all. Thanks to pharmaceutical companies, there's only so much individualizing, no time for that in today's world.

But. . .yes, autism, and there's that other little disturbing social aspect -- the "facilitators" who assist the autistic in typing out their wishes, desires and responses on keyboards. At first, years ago, facilitators were felt to be almost magical in their ability to draw thoughts out of those seemingly unable to communicate.

Yeah, but then dark clouds began to gather and some peculiar things started to be noted in courtrooms and other institutions. Questions were raised, legitimate questions, over whether the facilitators were, with genius, guiding autistic fingers to type out what the facilitators wanted them to type out. As things stand today, the facilitator's role in some circles is beginning to look like something out of Houdini's book of wonders, to say the least, may we suggest.

So DSM standards are being revised and maybe one out of every 100 kids is indeed not autistic. I predict that ratios and numerical figures will change drastically in the years ahead. They must. How can we have one out of 100 autistic, with exponential expectations that in years just around the turnpike there would be 10, then 25, then 85 out of 100? What society would survive? We suspect the numbers are fudged and the piles of government money tempting. No more.

If these were burn-you-at-the-stake times in human history, I am just about to be smokin' hot, because I'm going to say something so simple, yet so inflammatory, that I already feel like an ash. An ash, not an ass.

Remember high school? Remember elementary school? Remember people you encountered since the day you were born? In my day, there were people merely classified by their communities as one thing: Stupid. Born stupid, and stayed that way. It wasn't anything to be ashamed of, it just was. Stupid.

But, ah, we're in the age of enlightenment now, and everybody has some flaw that must be acknowledged, written up, diagnosed and treated or cured with The Drug Of The Day, with the help of The Gods Of Medical Professionalism. The fact that so many are bent toward psychology and need to get their hands out of their pockets To Help Every Human Or Lose Government Grants Trying is a great thing, isn't it?

They have medications for attention deficit disorder, don't they? You do have attention deficit disorder, don't you, little Justin? You're not just bored or overly creative, are you, little Tom ? They shoot horses, don't they? Come on, kids, it's so much easier just to take your medication and make your teachers' lives in the classroom less headache-prone. Drugs are good for you, just ask the drug dealer on the street or Big Pharma representatives.

Legitimate, serious, death-defying human illnesses and conditions proliferate out there, no doubt about it, and I'm not addressing those here, as I, nevertheless, slowly tighten the noose around my own politically incorrect neck.

Consider the era in which we live. In youth sports, every child often gets a team trophy, no matter their ranking. In fact, on many kids' teams there can be no losers, and sometimes not even winners. Yes, every child gets a trophy and they learn that nobody loses, and nobody wins. Diversity. Equalization. Lies, distortions and rumors have become truth, perhaps as
never before in this country.

But what about the kid who plays no sports? What of children or adults who possess no athletic ranking on some chart or in the trophy room, yet -- yet, they suffer from some condition, some malady, something different from healthier people? Not to despair, there is something they can get, something to verify their existence and status in society. It's called a medical diagnosis. Everybody get something, and currently one can proudly display a medical diagnosis as confidently as a trophy to tell the world, I'm somebody special, darn it, and I have my own DSM number to prove it.

That's why I gaze upon the 1-in-100 autism figure with some skepticism. The more, the better, as far as researchers are concerned. The more the merrier. Autism researchers, like their fellows of other health science disciplines, live and die based upon the acquisition of hefty grants, generally government grants. But, you ask, isn't the research peer-reviewed? Oh yes, it's all "peer-reviewed," usually by peers who themselves depend upon grants to conduct their own particular studies.

Peer-review can be a good thing. You know how your doctor has insisted that you drink a little red wine or grape juice daily or eat red grapes because a substance called Resveratrol is good for you? Hmm, according to news reports, seems that a new review of one researcher's data on that subject has discovered falsification of the findings. Seems that if the main thing red wine is gonna getcha is alcoholism, should you really embrace yet another apparently fallen medical miracle from people with fat money grants? Where was peer-review the first time around? I realize that so far there is only one "minor player" involved, but even one is one too many, and I don't care how vigorously the industry for Resveratrol is hollering at the moment. Now do I sound like such a monster, beating up on the alleged autistic who may be not autistic at all, but perhaps just slower in space and time traditionally, yet encouraged by their caretakers to meet the standards of autism? One jar of ointment and one fly is all it takes.

Remember the point I made at the start. The autism industry -- oops, pardon me -- the autism research people and the government are cutting back on the symptoms of the disorder and firming up the standards. I merely ask, if things weren't quite what the knowledgeables among us touted so loudly, then somewhere there's a very disturbing fly in the healing/curative ointment. May we expect more re-defining of autism and exclusions of more members of this very exclusive club? Anybody consider that too much TV performing babysitting duties for infants and young minds might figure into an early lack of personal communication and socialization? Would it not be best to make sure that funds directed toward autism research not be shuffled to people who are not autistic? Hmm.

Want to get finger-pointy? Think about all the poor nutrition and chemical substances unleashed in the environment over generations. Those factors are probably the chief culprits where genetic alterations are involved -- or it could just be that human DNA is in the process of getting old, cranky, unpredictable and doomed as timed extinction approaches.

I wonder if there's a DSM number for that?

Watering the Taliban

My relationship with the documentation of UFO events ended a long time ago, and I've done my best to scan interesting documents still in my possession (so many other things went to now-defunct organizations), as you'll discover by reading from the very initiation of this blog in 2007. For the moment, there's nothing to add about UFOs, except I've always wondered what would happen if some official government agency admitted to visitations by something extraordinarily intelligent and beyond our understanding. No, I don't think widespread panic would ensue -- but I do expect that the primary "victims" of such revelations would be those of higher (highest) education, suddenly faced with the harsh realization that their efforts have been instantly eclipsed by the much higher knowledge, and consequently cherished professions and credentials are relegated to the evolutionary trash bin. Simply put, the garbage man would be far more valuable to society and content in his work than the theoretical physicist. In fact, theoretical physicists would probably clamor for garbage removal jobs just to survive. Whether they could properly pick up refuse remains to be seen, as they would doubtless spend hours in contemplation over the potential of garbage atoms or something.

So, on to other things today, such as. . .

An observation: Whenever I'm incredibly bored and tune in to watch the Golden Globes or Oscar presentations or some such televised glitter, I'm always dumbfounded at virtually no mention by celebrities of our military personnel serving around the world. I know this sounds trite, but are most Hollywood folk so self-centered or enamored with their own publicity that they can't simply say thanks to our brave young people? I don't know if it involves fear of irritating their peers ("You'll never work in this town again!") or if they just, strangely, hate all the enlisted opportunities America has bestowed upon them. I'm sure there are numerous celebrities who support military charities lavishly, but I just wonder about all the rest who, it would seem, don't care.

Thousands of young men, taken from their families forever, sacrificed their lives and dreams to protect and make it possible for the Hollywood bunch to express themselves safely whilst gaining extraordinary wealth and influence. I hope I'm just missing something here. I can't imagine that a community's politics would silence things that really deserve to be said and deny expressions of appreciation crying out to be stated by those wielding the enormous power of camera and microphone. I'm talking about producers and directors, too, not just the obvious actors. I don't know, maybe some just become too busy and cozy attending White House Halloween parties and dressing like fantasy characters and the like to be bothered.

Now, speaking of Hollywood. . .

In the motion picture, "Oklahoma Crude," there was a tense scene where the character portrayed by George C. Scott walks up to Jack Palance's evil character and, without saying a word, urinates on him. I don't remember the exact words that actor Scott mutters as he finishes, but it's something to the effect that businessmen do this to one another all the time.

I guess, in a way, four U.S. Marines urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban in Afghanistan did nothing more than conduct and extend the business of war.

Frankly, considering what the Taliban have done to our young military people, I couldn't care less if those Marines were joined by all members of the Armed Services in this pissing contest. Urinating on deceased head and limb choppers who possess the morals of insects hardly seems worth a yawn. Besides, urine is generally a sterile fluid, perhaps suitable for cleansing radical Islamic souls before they meet up with obligatory afterlife virgins.

In this instance, official Washington can go to hell. Oh yeah, sure, Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta are shocked, the Marine higher-ups are outraged, and all the biggies want to tar and feather these boys. But, hey, YOU folks in D.C. are conducting a war, w-a-r, and war is never pretty. Maybe these Marines had a real anger problem with those particular Taliban members. Maybe they were tired of their friends getting blown up by IED devices and lost it, who knows? Maybe multiple deployments and inferior equipment set them on this course. Maybe they were tipped off that upon return to the U.S. they'll have no jobs, no money, few opportunities and damned little respect.

Official Washington, the urine belongs on you. I'm outraged when officials make examples of exhausted, abused military personnel, when they should make examples of themselves. Swine. Bastards. Just who exactly deserves criminal charges, punishment and prison time? Hmm? Who profits from our wars as young people are sent to do battle, yet burdened by so many political constraints and whims that their lives are put in jeopardy?

Taliban scum, born killers, their remains watered down, marinating in the hot sun like the predatory criminal weeds they were, nothing more or less.

Maybe these externally hydrated dead are the true "corpse men" referenced by President Obama?

I wonder if a few desks in Congress and White House offices would benefit from a little military urination deployment? Perhaps D.C. brains, safely secured in Pentagon offices, who plot and plan the lives and dangers for military members every day without ever having been in a combat situation themselves should come out of their crevices and support these men.

The video was "deplorable." Inconsistent with American values, says secretary H. Clinton. Wrong! I consistently value American military urine if it can serve a useful purpose on the battlefield. But then, I'm no secretary of state, required to gush over United Nations thugs and the Afghanistan criminal ruling class.

The mainstream media? Don't get me started. Why aren't they showing photos of maimed U.S. military bodies, instead of evoking tears and sympathy for dead killer-torturer roaches?

Republican phonies. Democrat phonies. Phony media. Same old excreted political hairballs, distinguishable only by varying close-ups on TV.

Want to create jobs in America? Let's have a crash program to build water, beer and bottling plants, and load up military transport planes with tons of beverages for our troops in the Middle East so they can pee on dead radicalized vermin 24/7.

The major chill wind that blows these days is the one whispering through the trees, suggesting that our current president will probably be re-elected this year. Okay, great, well, how about if every time he travels the globe and continues to apologize to some world leader for something he thinks the United States needs to be sorry for -- how about if each time he does that the military actively orders large numbers of American military personnel to bestow showers of gold on other dead enemies? Yes, every time. Gonna get pretty darned wet out there with all those apologies and submissive gestures to worldly thugs. Each time the Prez apologizes, we Americans get a urine bath anyway.

What a joke, holding service personnel responsible for the consequences of wars they didn't start. Beginning with Iraq maneuvers and continuing in Afghanistan today, thousands and thousands of U.S. military members have been killed and injured, and the concern that contact with depleted uranium may spiral into military illnesses so widespread that even the VA system will deny debilitating conditions and fatalities far surpasses this little incident.

We already have too many military people homeless or rotting in federal and state prisons, no thanks to a grateful nation infected with factions within who are no better than the enemy without.

The urination issue is "sensitive." What will the world think? Get over it. Much of the world already hates us or harbors intense jealousies toward our way of life. World War II, Korea and other good deeds have been forgotten, with history poised to be rewritten with lies and deletions.

And now we have Homeland Security monitoring journalists' Web sites and maybe even Little Nothing Bloggy People like me. Perfect. China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela and the usual suspects prepare to destroy the U.S. someday, and my idiot offend-nobody government worries incessantly about public political perceptions and four Marines taking a leak on well-deserved targets.

The day I believe the current Administration truly honors and respects all branches of the military over concerns for anybody BUT the military will be a rare day indeed. Urination. Obama nation. Damnation. We are all effectively urine-drenched and politically soaked to the skin, but four weary Marines, experiencing a moment that perhaps only young warriors pushed beyond the limit can comprehend, had nothing to do with it.

Up There, Down There

"Space. . .The final frontier."
-- Risky words introducing old Star Trek TV episodes


I guess the best part about the arrival of each new year is having a pulse. And forget all the romanticism about observing the first robins of spring, you're still better off just having a pulse. Can't write blogs without a pulse, either (and robins don't blog).

Okay, 2012. First of all, I've been thinking about Star Trek because science is discovering so much about the nature of matter and the possibility of other dimensions that I'm not even sure the word "space" has relevance anymore, and space is probably nobody's final exploratory destination. Captain Kirk's "out there" may be no more unreachable than "in here," except for the furniture and plumbing arrangements.

UFOs. I remember sitting in that grassy field in April of 1964, accompanied by a trusty, yet necessarily large and clumsily-sized transistor radio (they weren't pocket-sized then, at least mine wasn't). To a teenager, transistor radios seemed nearly magical, allowing one the freedom of venturing far beyond the restraints of plug-in electricity when listening to a favorite station.

During that April afternoon, radio signals near and far crackled with news reports of the Socorro, New Mexico UFO, most stations dependent upon news wire services and long-distance phone calls for updates. Erupting media chaos over UFOs excited the public from coast to coast before spreading internationally -- even to countries where "saucers" were old and almost routine news.

Almost as many years have passed since Socorro as there are states in the USA, and still UFOs come and go. What do I know about the phenomenon's true identity? Nothing. What do I THINK I know? I think that for all the impressive UFO maneuvers, encounters and near-collisions with conventional aircraft in the skies, there's much more taking place on the ground, and it likely has disturbing and maybe pronounced effects upon human and animal activity for reasons mostly unknown. Nor is it new. We may hold magnifying glasses over ant colonies, but that doesn't make us the sole observers.

I've had the opportunity to hear significant portions of the Betty and Barney Hill hypnosis sessions, truly fascinating as an early multiple witness case, but it was the bizarre Hickson-Parker UFO encounter case from Pascagoula MS in the seventies that makes my hair stand on end -- and no less so when Navy men possibly witnessing a landing UFO at the same time in the same area came to public attention years later.

"Sleep paralysis" may explain some instances of UFO abductions that never happened, but when we're referencing multiple witnesses to an abduction event, the sleep paralysis nonsense embraced by well-credentialed folk who, nonetheless, can't see beyond their own noses goes nowhere. I swear, all too often I fear that either the experts or the "digital revolution" will kill us off quicker than a nuke, I'm just not sure which will finish us off first.

What shall we look forward to in 2012? In the U.S. the population will continue to dumb down, engrossed more in sporting events than in education or the political process, and as a result we'll continue to get exactly the kind of government we deserve, currently pointing us in dangerous directions. Moderately disturbing is a little -- isolated, ha ha -- instance where the EEOC wishes to classify one's lack of a high school education and diploma as a disability, thus forcing employers to hire the superbly unqualified or be sued out of existence. Of course, these little outrages tend to catch fire and become federal legislation before one can react, and if anything will help to encourage the ignorance, lack of common sense and plain stupidity on the part of a growing legion of American idiots, imbeciles and moronic children sired by even more moronic parentage, this is it.

Nor must we fail to give proper credit to religious "relief" agencies which flood this country with untalented and religiously radical detritus, almost acting in unison with the illegal immigration industry for the same result. Sanctuary cities? Please, hand out prison terms for mayors and other public officials who allow this travesty, even though sworn to serve under the Constitution. Word is that, in California alone last year, illegal aliens sent 15 billion dollars back to relatives in Mexico. One hospital in the state -- just one -- complains that illegal immigrants cost them 100 million dollars last year. Guess who pays the difference?

You are aware, aren't you, that pregnant women from China and other countries who can afford to do so fly here to deliver their babies and, with dual citizenship, those grown children can someday bring all their relatives over to the United States? There is a bill in Congress to stop this practice, but the current crop of do-nothings will probably ignore it and the consequences of doing nothing.

I'm not impressed by anybody currently in the running on the conservative ticket -- and though often libertarian in my thoughts, in no way could I imagine Ron Paul as president if he thinks Iran's leadership and other global crazies will play nice with us if we just go away. The world is a vicious place and we humans, whether it's the 80-year-old grandma baking a pie down the street or the eight-year-old playing soccer. . .well, I know what we are, and it's not a pretty sight.

President Obama. Yikes. Nice guy, I suppose, but. . .go, please, just go away after the elections, assuming that voters do more than merely vote for familiar incumbent names. I don't know what this man is about once the teleprompters are turned off, but the professorial/intellectual dream-speak drives me nuts. His desire to regulate everything is a horror story. We the people, our power as individuals is spirited away, little by little. Why did he not issue orders to blow up the drone in Iran? Unless its contents self-destructed in some way we know nothing about, NOT destroying it -- no matter the risk to people around it -- may have put millions more in jeopardy -- and if China, Russia or another of our "good friends" get their hands on it, I guess our wonderful globalization and international partnerships aren't working very well, are they? No, better that the President bail out GM so they can build electric cars whose best consumer feature is their ability to be recalled.

The President who assured us long ago that energy prices must rise substantially. It's working.

The First Lady who admitted pride in her country for the first time in her life only when her husband was elected.

A White House functioning like a king's court, bowing to foreign leaders and apologizing for the U.S.

Will the nightmare end on Election Day, or will another emerge to build upon the basics of alleged corruption, incompetence and arrogance?

You sure you want to continue petitioning the White House for UFO information? This White House? Spinning your wheels uselessly in the sands of time, folks.

There's already war in the streets and the cops are out-gunned, overworked, under-appreciated and stressed out. The war on drugs is a joke. A federal agent is dead because of the "Fast and Furious" ploy and somebody needs to take responsibility. The borders aren't protected sufficiently and now the military itself may be gutted to a degree beyond rational. These are dangerous times, administered by a gathering of pretentious fools in D.C.

So it's 2012. A great time to strengthen not only the First Amendment, but the Second as well.

I am nobody's freaking world diplomat.

Oh, a big 2012 congratulations to the Muslim Brotherhood and particularly Iranian crazies who now have the ability to enslave the entire Middle East with radical Islam. They couldn't have done it without the encouragement of President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Anderson Cooper and all the other political/media types who simply gushed over the emergence of some nebulous crap called the "Arab Spring." A third-grader could have predicted where all of this would go. The much worse is yet to come. Remember who cheered it on.

But look on the bright side, the Administration had its hooks and our money into that wonderful energy magnate corporation, Solyndra. . .which failed miserably and ate up tons of our money. So sorry 'bout that.

Meanwhile, the FCC chief wants cross-ownership of newspapers and TV to become easier so that, apparently, fewer companies can gobble up more media in order to restrict our desires to get all the news and all the views. This has been done before, and the implications are troubling.

Extremist Muslim terrorists are infiltrating our military, gang activity among enlisted personnel is said to be increasing, and if that isn't enough to worry about, "fake" parts from countries such as China are installed in our military equipment, endangering U.S. service personnel.

The global warming faction wants more support from President Obama and your bank accounts so they can pursue science's nonsensical evil research brother, and in the meantime climate will change as it has throughout the history of this planet, despite our activities.

For laughs, don't forget the 2011 revelations that "Sybil" and the multiple personality industry were discovered to involve lies and hoaxes. How many lives ruined? How many members of the professional psycho industry were enriched by treating wisps of nothing? I can hardly wait until sleep paralysis meets a similar fate among pro-fessionals who swear all UFO abductions can be explained away via half-awake minds, illusions and delusions under the bed sheets. Three important words to remember here: Multiple witness events.

Also in 2011, scientists reported that water seems far more abundant throughout the universe than once thought. Heck, I darned well promised the same thing in newspaper letters-to-the-editor decades ago when I said, look, if there's water here there's water there. I think I became convinced after watching all those westerns on TV where somebody always said, "Drink 'em up, boys," though at the time I didn't realize that water had nothing to do with it.

As we were saying, it's a new year. Lunatics everywhere will rejoice.

The Expert Agenda

Growing up, I thought archaeology was just about the coolest science on earth. I remember reading a book about mummies and ancient Egypt, highly impressed at the way those science guys could dig up artifacts and conjure ancient times and ancient lives.

Only years later did I realize how archeologists often fought like cats and dogs to promote acceptance of their particular theories. Books fostered by the late William R. Corliss via his Sourcebook Project certainly left little doubt that one man's expert opinion is another man's nonsense, and before long one can't help but ask, does anybody know what they're talking about? When are scientific mysteries ignored? Embraced? Why? How? Is the hard, cold evidence always a factor, or enough to make a reasonable conclusion? What happens when science goes awry and nobody recognizes the dilemma?

Of course, such questions can easily be addressed to the UFO phenomenon and those who either investigate or deride it. My comedy analogy would involve a UFO "enthusiast" (love that word) claiming that a mere light observed in the sky by neighbors is an extraterrestrial spacecraft, while the amateur astronomer and debunker across the street impresses local TV cameras with instant denials based upon the examination of no evidence or witness interviews whatsoever. Looks like a pretty even match.

Anyway, while we wait for more members of the scientific community to take the UFO seriously, there's that troublesome climate change issue. A few days ago, a huge volume of e-mails again saw release by unknown hands, messages which apparently continue to indict scientists at their worst who have an agenda in presenting flawed -- very flawed -- data regarding global warming.

However, equally as intriguing are the views of Bill Gray, professor emeritus at Colorado State University. Professor Gray, long skeptical about the so-called consensus of international scientists terrifying us all about global warming, apparently emphasized his views in recent months as a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society that the AMS has been hijacked for years by a small percentage of, um, true believers, and he is not happy about the science -- or, rather, lack of science -- involved. To those who say the global warming debate is over, Gray vehemently disagrees.

If I understand correctly, he categorically discerns that computer-generated global warming "facts" and predictions have proven essentially worthless after years of trying to fit square meteorological pegs into round agenda-ridden holes. The climate changes, yes -- but not in the ways upon which entire international multi-billion dollar cottage industries greatly depend.

Gray's particular concern and warning to his associates is that most AMS members, indeed, do NOT accept the global warming assertions tossed out by that small conglomerate of -- shall I use the word again? -- enthusiasts, and Gray urges his colleagues to understand there's a political agenda in force with the issue, and science fact has little or nothing to do with it.

Professor Gray's views are freely available on the Internet. It's always refreshing to find science personnel who break from the herd and go public, sometimes at risk to their own reputations. Never for a moment think all the bullies reside in high school hallways. Sometimes they're adults who become testy when a colleague disturbs their well-crafted agendas. Strange as it sounds, global warming skeptics and UFO research proponents aren't necessarily cut from different cloths.

NORTH KOREA'S RUTHLESS DICTATOR DROPS DEAD: Good for him, it's just too bad the cockroach didn't starve to death the way he's forced millions of his "subjects" to exit. Now, it's just a matter of time before we (again) offer the country food that should rightly go to people in our own nation who can't afford a proper diet, and it won't be long before we (again) offer the "new" regime millions or billions of dollars we don't have, or multi dollars-worth of things we badly need in the USA, and then the N. Korean communists will do what they always do -- lie and return to whatever atrocities they were juggling before the Grim Reaper stopped by to say hi, feeding and enriching only their military and high-ranking official thugs as the obedient masses die. And those "mournful" howls from the actors, oops, I mean the people! I thought I was listening to sounds from a werewolf movie.

THE ARAB SPRING was hailed by the Obama Admin as the greatest thing on the planet. Well, as we predicted when Egypt was in its initial uprising mode a few months ago, things weren't loking so great. No, I'm nobody's national president, but even I could see what was ahead. If you think the Muslim Brotherhood and all the nasties coming along hand in hand with it will be great for the Middle east, good luck. Muslim women will continue to be indistinguishable from farm animals and the worst aspects of Sharia Law will engulf the people like a straitjacket. As always. I think Israel has a pretty good idea of where things are headed.

THE SEASON OF Christmas and Hanukkah (or Chanukah or ?, depending upon the source one consults for proper spelling) is here, and I'll take this opportunity to wish those who embrace either faith pleasant days ahead as 2012 unfolds.. In the spirit of everybody's season, no matter your beliefs, please contribute generously to your local animal shelters. Of all the crazy stuff going on in the world, animals aren't to blame for ruinous decisions the rest of us make every day of the year.

Depending upon the weather in the Northeast, and my ever-changing desires to simply hibernate until spring, the blog will be getting a rest for a bit. However, many of the sources noted in the link list never sleep, so do stay in touch with them.

Yes, It's the Money

This blog is not a sex abuse hotline, but my proximity to Central NY and Syracuse University thrusts the institution's nationally infamous headlines about fired basketball assistant coach Bernie Fine and his accusers in my face every day. And the story never ends, apparently.

As predicted here, national and local legislators are busily legislating "for the children" and the alleged child sexual abuse here has taken a back seat, and now the real issue has popped out of the slime -- money. Syracuse University and head coach Jim Boeheim are now in the cross hairs of a notorious attorney who probably would just be your typical ambulance chaser today if not for continuous publicity on national TV. I mean, why don't we just take this mess and air it on Judge Judy's TV show?

Coach Boeheim, when initially informed of allegations against assistant coach Fine, angrily snapped back in disbelief, accusing Boy Number One and Boy Number Two of lying and just out for financial gain.

It appears that he was at least half right, from what I glean from news reports. Maybe the sex abuse reports were true, or maybe not, but eventually it always happens -- folks start thinking and lawyers show up and before you know it, wham! A lawsuit emerges. Visions of dollar signs.

Strangely, as if forgotten during all of this, Syracuse University fired coach Fine before any evidence against him surfaced, so maybe Fine himself should sue S.U. So could his wife, one supposes, because her alleged sexual relationship with S.U. students and Boy Number One also hit the media minus solid evidence.

So Boys One and Two are suing because they feel their reputations were defamed due to Boeheim's comment. He has already apologized nationally, and several people in the law business seems to believe that winning this case will be very difficult for the boys-turned-men whose allegations of abuse go way back and are no longer covered under the statute of limitations in NY.

What will happen? An out-of-court settlement with the university and Boeheim will probably occur, and the public will know nothing of the monetary figures involved, and both the publicity-grabbing attorney and her clients will depart this situation far better off economically than they were at the start. The cure will be complete. Forget the tears and protests of being done wrong. It's the economy, stupid. It's the money, stupid.

Not that S.U. can't afford the price. Many universities are drunk with endowment monies kept aside for rainy days which never materialize (young people and students currently directing their efforts in mass protests on Wall Street might instead ask institutions of higher learning why their tuition rates continuously hit the roof, making education costs astronomical for murky reasons).

Questions: Yes, child sexual abuse is horrible, and it is not a new phenomenon, as some in the media would have us believe. But are there times when victims become even more victimized because we live in a society that craves victims for financial gain and notoriety? Are there instances when victims wouldn't even consider themselves victims if society didn't throw the victim card in their faces endlessly via TV and other media? When the victimized immerse the psychological pain that will haunt them "forever" into huge financial payoffs, doesn't that become something akin to being paid for sex after the fact?

Funny how money is always thrown out as the cure to end all cures. Funny how the hysterical child sex abuse witch hunt has reached maddening proportions as supposedly rational human beings have become pod people. The power. The money. The panic. The most pathetic human horror story I've seen played out in a long time.

My 2011 Christmas Thoughts

No, I'm not poised to hose my readers down with "holiday" cheer and visions of happy times ahead, sprinkled with fairy dust. The thing is, Christmas is a great time to reflect upon all the **** perpetrated on us as we become more enslaved by and distanced from our government every day.

It would be redundant of me to spotlight corruption in Washington and an apparent majority in Congress (especially per a recent CBS-TV "Sixty Minutes" report) intent upon enriching themselves financially in "insider trading" ways that would put most common folk in prison.

Then we have the Obama Administration, promising to function with an openness rarely witnessed in Washington. Instead, we get secrecy, denials, possible cover-ups that may overshadow the Watergate conspiracy, and the American people are evidently looked upon as morons in need of looking after by government intellectuals whose experience includes nothing more dangerous or hands-on than ethereal concepts pumped into their heads during university classes taught by extreme leftists who don't give a damn about preserving the Constitution. Wow, listen to me. Am I nuts or what?

Sorry (not) to sound sooooooo typically (used to be) American, but my country is currently run by people who trouble me greatly. At first I thought it incompetence, but now I feel otherwise. There's something more. The clever actions of people behind the scenes who wish to change us inch by centimeter aren't so hidden anymore.

In its most simple form, it's a President who refers to military medics (such as myself, long ago) during a speech as "corpse men." Some Commander-in-Chief. In its (so far) most extreme form, it's the murky relationship between the Administration and gun-running in Mexico which resulted in at least one U. S. government agent and many other people losing their lives. Hmm. One wonders if there was a plan here ultimately intended to take away Americans' firearms.

And it's the "Occupy Wall Street" people -- aside from the sincere -- who wish only to destroy the country. Their presence is obvious. The communists, the socialists, the Marxists. They display their signs along with everybody else. And yes, the union-financed groups -- bought and paid for, people never allowed a voice as to what political parties or individuals benefit from the lofty union dues extracted like clockwork from their paychecks. The OWS throngs, whatever the original intent, have become top-heavy with thugs, creeps, hygienic nightmares and even death. Hmm, the OWS people were heavily encouraged by Mr. Obama, Mr. Biden, Ms. Pelosi and the usual suspects, as I recall. Frankly, for me, the existence of the destructive element in OWS is not nearly as puzzling as wondering when hepatitis will show up big time. To you OWS people around the country who protest with love and respect for your country, good for you, but take a good look at the human detritus amongst you. Your message has been usurped, and the results ain't pretty.

My government horror story of the week: The Department of Defense designates the Fort Hood massacre as "workplace violence." In keeping with the pussy-footing Obama Admin's wish never to offend anything associated with Islam, this is what we and the victims' families get. Instead of clearly warning us that this was jihad activity, we get this. Such pronouncements should enrage everybody, particularly this week, as more information surfaces indicating that radical Islam continues to invade our homeland military and, indeed, that homegrown Muslim terrorists stalk returning military members, intent upon killing our service members right here in the USA. One need not be an enthusiastic flag-waver to burn with outrage about this. I hope the 76 virgins to which dead Islamic murderers are entitled in their afterlife are female porcupines. They obviously MUST be some kind of animal -- what virgins would tolerate such human filth? Yes, the world is full of good, law-abiding Muslim practitioners who just want to live in peace, but they are saddled with that other side, and we need make no apologies for calling that side out.

I've no idea who or what will comprise the next Administration in the U.S., but I have a feeling that those wielding new UFO petitions intended for the White House might wish to sit on them for now. The current vacation-lovin' tenants and their staff of superior intellectuals, despite all those fancy speeches and other teleprompter-enhanced shindigs, will provide nothing of substance or assistance, except out of sheer election-eve desperation. They're much too busy writing backdoor regulations to negatively influence the freedom in our lives and assure that the meaning of Christmas doesn't overshadow the religion of hate and every other damned cult that invaded the U.S. since its earliest days.

I'm alarmed by all the politically correct jerks inhabiting the country, and while I make no special efforts to celebrate Christmas, I wish you idiot atheists up in Wisconsin and under other nameless rocks would let those who wish to celebrate it do so. It isn't a holiday tree, it's not a winter school holiday break and the stores aren't having season's greetings sales. It's Christmas, which references Jesus, the Three Wise Men and Bethlehem.

Good grief, if I'm on a rant like this today, I can't wait for New Year's resolutions. Or would that be revolutions?

When a Light From the Skies Puts Things Bright in Your Eyes

It happened previously, and it raises an eyebrow whenever I hear about these instances.

CBS Radio and other sources report that the new "Twilight" movie ("Breaking Dawn Part 1") has caused sporadic episodes of seizures in viewers watching a birthing scene as flashes of red, black and white fire off in rapid succession. Of course, as many of you may remember, the same thing occurred in the nineties as some children watching a TV show went into seizures. Supposedly, TV transmissions of the offending light pattern have been corrected to accommodate what seem to be genetically susceptible viewers. Photosensitive epilepsy is the medical term for this bizarre reaction to certain combinations of light flashes.

These weird little events always make me think about the power of light. Lasers are the best high-tech examples, I suppose, but how interesting it is that mere flashes of light can cause monumental reactions in the brain. Hypnosis obviously comes to mind, and for anybody familiar with alleged UFO abductions and some close encounters, extremely bright lights often seem to play a role. Time and again, abductees and witnesses describe whitish lights of blinding intensity, sometimes in patterns, sometimes in varying colors.

Assuming a high intelligence factor behind whatever force occurs with abductions, as reported in the literature, it's not unreasonable to assume that the influence of light on human brains via wildly unknown optical effects may be substantial, in ways we can only imagine. Under abduction circumstances, does light alter reality? Does it take away knowledge of "missing time?"

The phrase, like a deer in headlights, seems frighteningly appropriate in relation to UFO abduction reports. Time stands still in the light. Motor functions freeze in the light, if not sensorimotor functions. Light can take the pain away, and deprives one of conscious thought. The terror melts away into the light. Bright lights can place one's fate in the hands of another.

If you've ever visited an ophthalmologist to have photos taken of your eyes, you will have at least an uncomfortable hint of light's powers as floodlight-style brilliance converges upon the optic nerve. The light is strong enough to bring forth tears and pain at once. Even a routine eye exam involving the physician's light instruments can prove annoying.

The significance of bright lights in so many UFO sightings and during close encounters may involve much more than coincidence.

The Big Orange vs. The Big Taboo

"Isn't life strange?
A turn of the page
can read like before.
Can we ask for more?"
-- The Moody Blues, "Isn't Life Strange?"


Oh, to be anyplace but New York right now. One would almost think the environs have been invaded by the ghosts of John Gacy, Jeff Dahmer and everybody's fave Texas sex fiend/torturer/murderer, the "candy man" himself, Dean Corll. I know I'm going to burn in hell for writing this, but the child sex abuse thing is kinda right in our faces at the moment (so to speak). Here we go again. Remember when this blog was just about UFOs?

So assistant Syracuse University basketball coach Bernie Fine is in trouble big (joke making the rounds: "I don't know about Bernie Fine, but those boys must have been burnin' fine!") and a cottage industry of people tripping over themselves and others to gain the public eye seems relentless. I don't have any particular love for The Big Orange, though I guess it's my public duty to admit that, yes, during my not-nearly-so-exciting life I completed three courses of study there (all with the grade of "A," natch' -- would you expect less?).

The child sex allegations -- maybe not so much allegations, now that an old tape of Fine's wife speaking with Boy Number One seems to have surfaced on the national level -- have fostered in Syracuse a finger-pointing fest rarely witnessed in the area previously. The Syracuse Police Dept. refused to release old records of its previous negative investigation of Fine to the county district attorney, who responded angrily in front of TV cameras by accusing the police chief of gross incompetency, unwilling even to keep up with the science behind DNA research and other areas pertaining to criminal investigations. Amazingly, the DA also singled out the police division for having something to do with the vandalizing of a DA office associate's car. Not to be outdone, the police chief ordered that any and all pages of police records requested by the DA's office would now cost 50 cents a page.

Then the REALLY crazy stuff happened, as the U.S. Secret Service invaded Fine's home and carted away file cabinets and other Things Of Interest. Suddenly, all the locals cooperated and the police chief released the old investigative files. Now, not content to leave the situation as nuts as it has become, the absolutely worthless U.S. Dept. of Education has entered the fray, investigating Syracuse U's innards, perhaps to appear relevant as well as overblown. Frankly, I'm not sure the ancient Syracuse infrastructure will be able to hold the anticipated crush of out-of-town media, Ph.D.'s, pomposity and child experts. Despite what you've read in the travel literature, let me tell you this in the words of the young, who have deserted this place in droves: This town blows. Some folk are frantically attempting to make it blow less, and it may eventually, but in the meantime. . .

And, oh yes, there was a second supposed victim, and now a fourth, and in between was a third -- a third whose father paints his son as a total and unapologetic liar who never met Fine alone at any time. The son retaliates in the press with accusations of his own about troubled relations with his father.

Those of us who picked up a few bucks writing over the years often encountered subjects we didn't really wish to bother with, sometimes because we know others will handle them better. Or maybe we just don't have enough information. Right now, I'm dependent upon news media stories from such sources as the Syracuse Post-Standard and Central NY TV and radio stations, and as a lowly blogger I certainly can't keep up with developments as they continue to crash earthward. The newspaper has come under fire because it held on to Mrs. Fine's secretly recorded (by Boy Number One) phone conversation tape for years, and some think they should have been turned over to the authorities long ago. I disagree. When the press and the cops become too cozy with one another, that's when we learn to fear, rather than respect, each. I prefer not to live with such apprehension.

Nevertheless, we now learn, in addition to those currently popular phone conversation tapes, that Bernie Fine's wife also may have had a sexual relationship with Boy Number One a few years after his athletic duties as a 12-13 year old, when he reached 17-18 years. Shock, horror! "Mrs. Robinson" for the junior set. And she also apparently confesses to knowing about her husband's relations with the boy. New stories circulating claim that Fine's wife had sexual contact with several (numerous?) S.U. basketball team players as a "rite of passage" in years past. I believe these assertions have been denied by the Fine family. What's truth, what's not? Hey, don't ask me.

Okay, there's no question that child sexual abuse exists, and the results can be horrible for a lifetime, particularly for girls, but no less for boys.

But there's that other side, disturbing to some, to those who bother to open their eyes and see. The problem is that the media would rather focus upon the horrors than other aspects. For instance, what to say about a university athletics dept. "ball boy" who was treated to trips around the country with a top team, enjoying the benefits along the way? It's interesting that a significant number of sexual abuse cases surface only after the good times and money disappear.

And it's fascinating how the number of abuse incidents have skyrocketed since the cottage industry of abuse "professionals" has proliferated throughout society, waving a magic wand and proclaiming all instances of sexual encounters based upon age discrepancies as abuse. Poof! You're abused, now go sue for the big money. It's always about the money, as it may ultimately be for Syracuse University. Sometimes, the "abused" come forward for reasons other than to warn potential victims. It's the economy, stupid. It's the money, stupid.

We demand victims, however defined. And some of those boys, already street-smart for their age, can be smart in other ways, in ways one anticipates only from adults. With the routine availability of texting, sexting, tweeting, image sharing and all sorts of digital opportunities, anything goes now.

There's a time in every young person's life known as coming of age. Strangely, one's personal sex equipment functions very early on, and telling young people that it's because "God is just tempting you" sounds about as crazy as pedophile priests insisting God told 'em to do it. Sex is a weird beast, yet it's the reason we are all here. Sometimes it's beautiful, sometimes it hurts and sometimes it ends in the murder of passion or the passion of murder. Sometimes it's a woman and a boy (the movie, "Private Lessons" certainly exemplified a boy's fantasy) Sometimes it's a man and a boy. Sometimes a woman and man share in the bounty. Sometimes a boy from a broken home meets a man who gives him a good life and an education, and the boy becomes a doctor, lawyer or embraces other professions -- and few would ever know. But the professional sex abuse prevention brigade is out there, keeping us safe from ourselves and presumed devils. As did The Inquisition.

So, The Sexperts increasingly invade our lives, often with religious influence, to establish an agenda of morality via legislation.. One size fits all. And if it's not The Sexperts it's the experts attempting to tame us in other ways -- the global warming crew, for example, who once again were embarrassed a few days ago, when even more old e-mails extolling their lies were released publicly by some renegade force.

As world economies plummet, with more and more young people prostituting themselves on the streets, just what do the sex police intend to offer as an alternative? Hope and change?

Allow me to wrap up some basic observations from the non-hysterical realm, regarding young and older male sexual relationships, without the perfect storybook distortions of which "normal" dreams are made:

Like it or not, since ancient times men have had their boys, and this apparently inherent human activity probably continues today in numbers to astound -- leading the rational mind to ask why. Does anybody really think that ships' captains of days gone by kept cabin boys around simply to act as servants? Military leaders were notorious for their boy attendants. In areas of Melanesia, as we mentioned a few blog entries ago, it is acceptable and encouraged for men to raise boys from ages 7-13 apart from their families, and in doing so to perform invasive sex acts upon them in the belief that it will make the boys better men. There's no prison industry to send the men away for years, and no legal system insistent upon taking away homes and money to provide "cures" and payoffs for attorneys and rats inhabiting a legal system gone wild.

In contrast, our growing child protective industry staffed by "professionals" from various fields continues to make the issue either black or white, excluding historically and socially relevant variations, while at the same time politicians lower than weasels continue to take advantage of the "child abuse" issue to win re-election based upon serving up even more redundant child legislation in a law book jungle already filled with it.

It's not uncommon knowledge that many women are aware if their husbands or boyfriends have boys on the side, and they tolerate, if not embrace the fact, because knowing it's a male and not another woman at least gives them a glimmer of comfort about maintaining their sometimes shaky relationships.

It is pathetic that athletics and every word mouthed by coaching personnel have a strong grip on the daily life-and-death activities of communities -- and, by the way, where would college and professional athletics be without homosexuality at all levels and ages? Remember football star David Kopay? How about Olympics activities, when condoms are requested in quantity, especially among young gay men? Let's not be stupid about the way things have always been. Feel-good attempts to change the leopard's spots through extended bureaucracy, hearsay, public humiliation, arrests, incarceration and additional child legislation will just drive an already clueless, hyper-vigilant, anxiety-ridden society to wolf down even more antidepressant medications, as it begs for increased government surveillance and spending to save us from the inescapable. The things going on are not new, but panic has set in.

When is it child abuse and when is it not? To paraphrase sexual philosopher Bill Clinton, it depends upon the meaning of what is is.

Steve Jobs and the Others

He ranks among the most ingenious inventors of the century, and nobody can disparage the contributions of Steve Jobs (and others of his discipline). Yes, think of what the personal computer has done for us.

Now, think of what the computer has done to us, for the future reeks of cyber-instability.

Governments can track our every move, and so perhaps can your employer. Computer portability deprives us of sleep and assures longer hours working away from the office. Power grids, nuclear power plants, public water authorities, the military and law enforcement personnel -- all apparently susceptible to computer hacking -- are as dependent upon the chip as a baby on the bottle. Does anybody doubt that malicious hackers will always be with us?

The computer is helping China and other nations achieve a dangerous level of power. The computer has assisted criminals in running the U.S. economy into near-bankruptcy at lightning speed.

Young schoolchildren and college students are ruled by the computer, enslaved by its charms, depriving them of socialization and sometimes any emotional contact with reality. Just look at the mental health statistics and medical professionals' need to drug suicidal computer users with medications which, strangely, further their risk of taking their own lives. I think Big Pharma loves computers. I think Big Anything embraces computers to use them against us in some way.

What to do when the sun finally emits that one gigantic burst of energy -- perhaps followed directly by another -- that heads toward Earth and destroys every satellite in orbit? What happens when a rogue country or power at last gets around to launching a few level E1 or roughly equivalent electromagnetic pulsation devices, deadly to every improperly shielded thing running on chips (instant trash beyond repair)?*** Imagine the panic engulfing young people who lack access to computer technology, unable to solve even simple problems as they lack even the basics of common sense and old-fashioned problem-solving methods. Public services may well be replaced by chaos. Predictions that successful deployment of EMP weapons could hurl modern societies back into the 18th century must not be taken lightly.

Perhaps a tiny preview of the future materialized last March, when an American military plane experienced a GPS-disabling electronic attack from North Korea during air warfare exercises.

Computer technology is not an episode of "Star Trek," where advanced gadgetry routinely saves the universe. All is not guaranteed to end well with reliance on computer technology. While we can thank Mr. Jobs for his brilliance and miss his presence, let's not be so sure that such profound technological and corporate acumen hasn't fundamentally, indeed ultimately weakened and doomed us amongst our own robust feelings of strength and accomplishment. Facebook, Zuckerberg, Google, Jobs, Gates and other corporations and names of worship descend upon us. I'm nobody's expert, but I'm wondering if we'll eventually find neither freedom nor salvation in the chip. And who knows, something better may come along to scrap and eclipse the entire computer industry one day, making it as irrelevant as 8-track tape cartridges (though my remaining token 8-track from Radio Shack still works, I confess). In the future, will honored giants of the computer industry be regarded as god-like wizards -- or as just some guys who invented something that was fun and helpful for a while, but didn't quite work out the way folks expected?

*** After I wrote this, the Fox-TV series, "Terra Nova" happened to feature a story depicting widespread computer chip destruction due to electromagnetic effects caused by a falling meteorite -- and all damages were repaired quickly, just in time for the end of the show. Unfortunately, real-life EM devastation would be far worse and not so easily overcome, depending upon the strength and altitude of the offending precipitant. Speaking of "Terra Nova," this series really needs something. I guess the actors are okay, but the storyline and weekly script-writing suffer tremendously. The Guesswhatkindasauruses and the Imgonnachewoffyourlegasauruses are realistic enough, but the "Sixers" add little but a diversion from things that we already badly require diversion from. Now, if the "Sixers" were something like the mutant psycho humans created secondary to a plague in the old movie, "The Omega Man," they might have something besides expensive weekly kiddie fluff and painfully contrived dialogue to show for their efforts. And how is it that the commander's son has managed to live five years outside the gates, hiding out on his own? Seems as though somewhere along the way he would have been eaten by a Gotchagonnadevouryourassasaurus. Calling Godzilla! Where's Godzilla when you need him? Or Billy Mumy? I'd even settle for the "Lost in Space" robot from the TV series over this mess. Or maybe they just need (sigh...) a vampire, like everybody else.

Be True to Your School

Thanksgiving week always brings Thanksgiving memories to some. I can't help much with that tradition, but in honor of all the weird stuff going on with Penn State, Syracuse and other universities, I thought a little sports story might be in order. Yeah, I hate what sports have become, but that's okay. Unfortunately, as many of you know, there have been some real tragedies on the playing -- mostly football -- field at high school and college levels, sometimes ending in death. Yes, occasionally athletes, sports "heroes," die doing what they love most, and society embraces them as the gods many believe them to be. But who cares about the intellectually gifted students? Kids, if you're exceptionally brainy, sports-teamless and feel as loved as a pile of dog poop in your school, this touching story is for you. . .and happy Thanksgiving to all. . .

Though only 16, Jasper's brilliance for science was recognized throughout the high school, but his fellow students looked upon him merely as a curiosity.

However, one day during a science lab session, Jasper discovered astonishing new methods to interpret the mysteries of both celestial mechanics and quantum physics. In fact, he may have stumbled upon the key to the UFO phenomenon's identity, leading his overjoyed science teacher to proclaim him a true intellectual "phenom" -- or at least a phenom problem solver.

Unfortunately, upon exiting the classroom Jasper slipped on a banana peel discarded by a football player and hit his head on the floor, dying instantly, even though the banana from whence it came had been grown organically. Yes, even green can kill. Along with Jasper's passing went his intricate mental scientific calculations, not yet entered into the computer, and now lost forever.

The student body, frankly, wasn't too distraught because nobody really hung out with Jasper, but they visited school "grief counselors" anyway, and the sessions did provide a way to cut classes. The grief counselors were looked upon as comparable to gods or psychic brain surgeons because their talents involved helping girls cry and psychologically draining boys of whatever testosterone society hasn't already confiscated. The grief counselors were obviously special, for they had grazed professionally among the folk who successfully embraced and fine-tuned the Sybil / multiple personality scam for decades and became fabulously wealthy by manipulating unaware patients into becoming even more screwed up than they were to begin with. Grief counselors were almost magical, for they could provide most of the counseling that now-useless parents used to be responsible for.

Peculiarly, local media, which characteristically reported about high school athlete deaths for weeks, seemingly endlessly, barely mentioned Jasper's demise. After all, he could offer the world only genius, and had played no sports.

When the day arrived for calling hours, school staff scraped together -- with tremendous effort -- a small gaggle of students to venture into the funeral home. The grief counselors had to tell them what to say to grieving family members because students were clueless when it came to using powers of speech, and parents who had long ago relegated the teaching of common sense to counselors weren't much help in that respect, either.. "Can't we just text his family?" texted one student to, and in the presence of, a grief counselor, without speaking a word.

Still, only eight classmates showed up for calling hours. Most spoke so softly or inarticulately that Jasper's parents could barely understand them. At the end of this very short receiving line stood two school jocks, the only members of the athletic section present, and as they approached Jasper's parents each struggled for the right words to say, even though grief counselors had written them down on shreds of computer paper. One jock pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and stared at it intently as he read the words to Jasper's parents. "I'm sorry," he said, repeating the note verbatim.

The other athlete, now standing alone as his friend made a hasty exit, unable to find his own grief counselor-inspired message among his pockets, yet confident of his feelings, went ad lib: "Um, yeah, I'm sorry your kid couldn't measure up to be part of our team."

With that, noting Jasper's parents had suddenly frozen where they stood, jock number two rushed for the exit, immensely proud of himself for surely expressing what the whole school must have thought about Jasper, the distant non-athlete whose superior intellect had been as welcome as leprosy. Popularity meant everything, and if Jasper couldn't understand the importance of fighting over the transportation of a ball from here to there on a school playing field, of what use was he?

The next day, things returned to normal at school as cheerleaders cheered hypnotically, colorfully-attired jocks thrilled bleachers replete with fans, and brainy, inquisitive kids who wanted only to learn in a classroom devoid of athletic arrogance and playing-field overkill sat at their desks in silence, feeling like freaks. They knew only too well that if any among them slipped on the next banana peel, organically grown or not, and died without wearing that special high school letter or number, they would never, ever be accepted into the afterlife and, worse, the media would ignore their intellectual legacy, and instead rush off to another high school or college locker room to honor the sweaty practitioners of overblown, ever-fading accomplishments.

On the bright side, however, the smart classroom students remembered reading in recent scientific literature that bananas -- hence banana peels -- may disappear from the face of the earth someday.

Clearly, all they had to do was wait for their moment of safe passage.


(The end, uh-huh)