August 2012: Hell Freezes Over!

Is the mainstream media's hot love affair with President Obama over?  Maybe a little?

Newsweek?  Well, it certainly took long enough for big liberal media to go after its own.  The Boston Herald also ran an article critical of Obama, and ABC-TV's news reporter Jake Tapper (whose words this blog has loved and respected since the "balloon boy" incident) struck a little awe in listeners of "The Laura Ingraham Show" when he opined that this White House is too distant from the people it serves.

When Obama proclaimed just before assuming Office that the United States would be "fundamentally transformed,"  little did citizens raised with American values suspect the chilling intent behind those words.  Remember?  His wife helpfully confessed pride to be an American for the first time in her life.  For the first time.

Barack Obama took an oath to uphold the Constitution.  We assumed that would be the U.S. Constitution, not some invent-it-as-you-go game plan.  Or somebody else's constitution.

Maybe he just doesn't understand the country, having been so ingrained with anti-capitalist views while growing up far away from the USA.  My question might be, what names behind the scenes backed his ascension to a position where he would run for the highest office in the land?

Barack Obama, with the hands-off assistance of a pathetic do-nothing Congress, has had his way more than a spoiled child. 

Like the Reverend Wright's chickens, some of it is coming home to roost.  Military and law enforcement personnel are increasingly aghast at his policies -- and the border agents have a lawsuit going on because his new policy on illegal immigrants keeps them from doing the work they are sworn to do.  They, too, took an oath, but theirs obviously meant more to them than his oath means to him.  We seem to have reached some weird tipping point where terrestrial criminal alien invaders reflect more value to Mr. Obama than legal citizens.

If elected, the Republicans will host their own monsters, and closet their worst the best they can, as they have before.  But for now, we can only witness wicked and wacky ideas and personalities flapping haphazardly from Democrat cocoons.

The Congressional Budget Office now assures us that if taxes and spending go up next year, the USA is looking at a recession, higher unemployment and a propensity for misery all around.  Obama wants higher taxes for some, of course.  O and his willing minions must not return to office, it's a no-brainer as simple as that.  

I was raised to respect the President.  Sorry, I have to sit this one out.  Any respect I can muster will come about if he waves goodbye in January, when I shall respectfully wave to my TV screen as his entourage departs and I whisper, good riddance, and take ineffectual Attorney General Eric Holder, your wife who wasn't proud of her country until her husband was elected, and the damned criminal United Nations with you.  Oh, and don't forget Janet Napolitano and her ladies, speaking of lawsuits.  The only "fundamental transformation" I crave for the U.S. is the absence of even the slightest essence of Obama rule in January.

And no, Barack Obama is not leaving the UFO community any gifts this or any other year, either.  No revelations, no studies, no disclosure in the Christmas stocking.  All he can leave are failed policies and a treasure trove of bad decisions and executive orders.  Politically, he is a desperate man serving a desperate party, and there is probably still time for them to do desperate things.

Surprised?  Why?  These wizards are lizards.

It remains to be seen whether the major TV networks and influential daily newspapers will -- even now -- get off their perpetually liberal asses and remove the self-blinders, for the good of the country, to announce that the Obama gang has poisoned the national well.  No, not all by  themselves, but the ideology sure helped.  The community organizer has organized us into a deficit beyond comprehension.  The great commander-in-chief hosts a fraud, a joke without laughs.

President Obama can blame Europe and George Bush all he wants for the nation's ills, but he's still  The Man almost four years later, and his legacy of -- beneficial -- accomplishments has never been more questionable.  Energy exploration, the economy, illegal immigration and neutered border patrol agents, education, agriculture, war, social spending, regulations, executive orders -- the list goes on, all handled badly.  Brilliant maneuvers from the intellect, sprinkled with cheers from revolutionaries.

As young military men and women continue sacrificing lives and sound minds in Afghanistan for reasons I'll never understand, we as a nation witness the foolishness of Obama, Hillary Clinton and others proclaiming how wonderful it was to watch Middle East dictators being overthrown (with our help and money) by "the people" as democracy breaks out everywhere -- only to see that the Muslim Brotherhood and extremist Islam will be the dominant victors throughout the area, shackling one and all to the horrors of Sharia law.  Democracy, far from innocent in the world of semantics. is a word long embraced by dictators, moulded to their own expectations.

And now we have the American government whisking a former active duty combat -- decorated -- Marine away for psychiatric examination and confinement because of a Facebook posting.  Not even a warrant for arrest was obtained.  The First Amendment vs. government psychologists with a forced agenda.  We are in hell.  We apparently fancy Russian-style psychiatric intervention when individual politics don't go politically correct.   Who will break us out?  We will.  We must.  How can this stuff happen when 13 soldiers are gunned down at Ford Hood by a Muslim extremist who persistently delays the inevitable (?) by hiding behind a must-have beard he didn't sport when he originally took an oath to defend the country?

These are dangerous times, engineered in no small way by either the encouragement or self-ignorance of a leadership proven unworthy of our trust or support.  Far more comfortable we might be if mere incompetence were the culprit. But it's not incompetence.  Cunning might be the accurate word.

Let's vow to dump the Obama bunch in November's elections, and let us make a solemn pledge to give other people a chance in politics, folks who don't return over and over with names such as Obama, Bush or Clinton.  Let's open our eyes and look at the Kennedy family, swallow hard and realize that the Kennedy family's political best have been picked clean and the remainder shrivel on the vine.  Surely, the USA boasts fresh political talent erupting from the owners of human DNA yet undiscovered?

As for the Romney/Ryan/Republican/conservative/Tea Party infiltrators -- when will you people ever learn to leave women's reproductive issues out of your pursuits?  None of your business, so keep your female-domination intentions to yourselves and let the ladies and the medical profession deal with such matters.  Frankly, I don't care whether you think ending a woman's right to choose an abortion will somehow get you closer to whatever god or afterlife paradise you worship.  Worry about your own personal lives, busybodies.  The wisest Republicans of years past echoed the warning, and it reverberates still:  Keep the Religious Right at arm's length and concentrate on the issues, not the bedroom.

The political lizard wears many faces, all disguised by one comfortable mask of assurance and incredibly smooth oratory.  When that mask slips away and words of deception crumble at last, leaving lizards convulsing in the winds of hope and the dust of change, last-minute venomous actions can become dangerous for all of us.  But if journalists actually are re-awakening to their responsibility to reveal a plethora of government betrayal (politics and cocktail parties in D.C. be damned), maybe there's still a chance and a way out of an apparent pre-revolutionary tempest engulfing segments of our jeopardized society.

Gasp from the Past

We all (that would translate comfortably to "y'all" for fans of Vice-Prez Joe Biden) encounter things now and then capable of making us say "wow," if only for a few seconds.

When my mother died several years ago, she left behind a few things from her childhood, inconspicuously stored in an old cardboard gift box.  Among the contents were elementary and high school graduation certificates, report cards and a little artwork.  Things become a little fragmented here because some of the contents included drawings accomplished by an aunt who was only a few years older than she, and it's sometimes impossible to know who drew what.

Nevertheless, in the box were some old tracings (?) performed on paper thinner than standard onionskin -- paper of a quality akin to old sheets of women's dress patterns, very fragile. 

A specific image grabbed my attention immediately when I saw what appears to be a representation of some critter, perhaps a praying mantis, grasshopper or other insect. Are those wings?  I suppose instead that a frog or some amphibian may be involved, based upon what appear to be feet.  The triple-digit front extremities are interesting.  The image instantly reminded me of those rare UFO encounter cases where witnesses pen drawings of insect-like creatures associated with their experiences.  Actually, the critter even seems vaguely to resemble depictions of  John Keel's "Mothman" reports.  And yes, to me, something about the image bears a chilling resemblance to an emblem used by the Nazis in later years (no, my mom wasn't a Nazi, and she would have had to travel through time to become one -- I need to point that out because there are those out there who take me much, much too seriously when least expected or intended).

My best estimates would place the age of this artwork somewhere in the 1920s, maybe in the early thirties at the latest.

The scans here show the original fading, yellowed page, and then I've reproduced it in various other formats, including a close up view, to aid in comparisons.  Comparisons to what, I can't imagine.  We could raise a question about images perceived among the populace via the collective unconsciousness from eons ago, but I'm not ready for a trip to Amateur-Psychologists-R-Us today. 

Obviously, there's probably nothing significant to see here, but I reserve my right to induce panic in the streets.

UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry

I haven't reviewed books in years, and my last attempts at reviewing really culminated in the Web pages of "UFO Updates," when researcher Wendy Connors (now retired) offered magnificent samples from her extensive UFO-related historical audio collection on compact discs.

But today I'm willing to take a giant step in blindly recommending a book I haven't even read, based simply upon knowing who was involved with its publication.

UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry ($29.95 trade paperback, 594 pages, 350 illustrations) is edited by Michael Swords and Robert Powell, names familiar to level heads in the UFO inquiry arena, and draws upon the work of U.S. and international UFO researchers who never fail to have something constructive to say about the phenomenon.  Jan Aldrich, Bill Chalker and Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos will instantly be recognized for their efforts, and I am very pleased that contributors include veteran researcher and author Barry Greenwood, who generously provided historical material for my blog (see link) about the 1956 United Artists documentary motion picture, "U.F.O." 

Because I won't actually review the book here, I'll shamelessly borrow directly from the Anomalist Books advertising blurb:

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Governments around the world have had to deal with the UFO phenomenon for a good part of a century. How and why they did so is the subject of “UFOs and Government,” a history that for the first time tells the story from the perspective of the governments themselves. It’s a perspective that reveals a great deal about what we citizens have seen, and puzzled over, from the “outside” for so many years.

The story, which is unmasked by the governments’ own documents, explains much that is new, or at least not commonly known, about the seriousness with which the military and intelligence communities approached the UFO problem internally. Those approaches were not taken lightly. In fact, they were considered matters of national security. At the same time, the story reveals how a subject with such apparent depth of experience and interest became treated as if it were a triviality. And it explains why one government, the United States government, deemed it wise, and perhaps even necessary, to treat it so. Though the book focuses primarily on the U. S. government’s response to the UFO phenomenon, also included is the treatment of the subject by the governments of Sweden, Australia, France, Spain, and other countries.
This book is the result of a team effort that called itself the UFO History Group, a collection of veteran UFO historians and researchers who spent more than four years researching, consulting, writing, and editing to present a work of historical scholarship on government response to the UFO phenomenon.

___

Okay, it's me, Robert again.  The other irresistible thing about this book seems to be a glowing foreword from researcher Jerome Clark.  Any book held in good graces by Jerry Clark, himself a prolific author, must be something special.  Olympic gold medal stuff.  Again quoting from the Anomalist Books ad:

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From the foreword by Jerome Clark: “While UFOs and Government revisits an often unhappy history, the reading of it is far from an unhappy experience. The authors, eloquent, intelligent, sophisticated, and conscientious, provide us with the first credible, comprehensive overview of official UFO history in many years… Most of the current volume deals with U.S. military and intelligence responses to the UFO phenomenon, but it also features richly informative chapters that expand the story across the international arena. If you’re looking for an example of a nation that dealt productively with the UFO reports that came its official way, you will take heart in the chapter on the French projects… From here on, every responsible treatment of UFOs and government will have to cite UFOs and Government prominently among its sources… this is the real story as accurately as it can be reconstructed in the second decade of the new century. I expect to keep my copy close at hand and to return to it often. While it cannot be said of many books, UFO-themed or otherwise, this is among the essential ones. Stray from it at your peril.”

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And what's between the covers?  All of this, per Anomalist Books:
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CONTENTS
Foreword by Jerome Clark vii
Preface x
Prologue xii
Chapter 1. World War II and the Immediate Post-War Era 3
Chapter 2. Ghost Rockets 12
Chapter 3. The Flying Disks and the United States 30
Chapter 4. A Formalized UFO Project 48
Chapter 5. Grudge 71
Chapter 6. Duck and Cover 90
Chapter 7. Transition 112
Chapter 8. Tacking Against the Wind 139
Chapter 9. The CIA Solution 170
Chapter 10. Intermission 204
Chapter 11. A Cold War 208
Chapter 12. Something Closer This Way Comes 238
Chapter 13. Battle in the Desert 271
Chapter 14. The Colorado Project 306
Chapter 15. After the Close of Blue Book 336
Chapter 16. The Swedish Military’s UFO History 361
Chapter 17. The Australian Military and the Official Government Response 373
Chapter 18. UFO Secrecy and Disclosure in Spain 423
Chapter 19. UFOs and France—Beginnings of a Scientific Investigation 439
Chapter 20. Glimpses of Episodes in Other Countries 456
Epilogue 468
Appendix 472
Illustration and Photography Credits 530
Bibliography 540
About the Authors 559
Name Index 561
Subject Index 569
UFO Event Index 577

Intriguing, what?  As soon as you get over the astonishment of Leslie Kean's, Robert
Hastings' and Robert Salas' books of recent years, sober readers of UFO literature will want to check this one out.

Bits & Pieces for August 2012

NASA COMES THROUGH as Curiosity lands successfully on science fiction's Angry Red Planet, a.k.a. Mars.  How long before the Chinese hack in and steal everything we learn, or will the Prez just let 'em sit in?

THE WISCONSIN SIKH TRAGEDY was another naked demonstration of the need for making it easier for law-abiding people to procure firearms for protection.  Shame on and curses upon lawmakers currently climbing aboard the well-worn bandwagon which eternally rolls along to take away gun rights and interpret the Second Amendment per agendas of the moment.  The nation's crazies generally seem to seek out gun-free areas where the pickings are easy and almost guaranteed.  This is the USA, not Europe and not anywhere else where such personal protection is denied whilst criminals and crazies have the upper hand in determining the fate of the innocent.  The term, easy as shooting fish in a barrel, has acquired an entirely new meaning as these multiple executions take center stage and, unfortunately for the self-enlightened deniers among the elite, the only logical answer is more guns, not less.

Interesting to note that the Southern Poverty Law Center was tracking the shooter for years.  Anybody been tracking the history of the Southern Poverty Law Center in years past?  There seems to be this strange little incident where they helped one or more illegal immigrants achieve riches beyond their wildest dreams at the expense of a U.S. rancher who dared to detain and show 'em what-for when they invaded his property.  Guess who won big in court?  Check it out. 

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION smells a lot like Venezuela or Cuba these days, can't quite figure out why.  I was raised to respect government and even served in the military, but I suggest without prejudice that this bunch appears the most corrupt, devious and deceptive I have ever seen in politics.  Liars?  Power grabbers?  Impeachment?  Hmm.  How about. . . a fair trial for likely suspects followed by imprisonment in the Federal pen?  This President took an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution and -- for starters -- what do we get?  Illegal immigrants (probably many of whom carry TB, whooping cough and other diseases we almost had under control) who enter at will as border patrol agents are administratively handcuffed and told to look the other way.  I see new voters being herded in for a specific political party.

U.S. citizens have become second class citizens as success and wealth are condemned, while efforts are made by this out-of-control Admin to share the wealth among people who don't belong here.  Remember the king's words -- you didn't build that.  No, apparently the socialist collective built that, and individualism be damned.

And we get the Muslim Brotherhood, whose members couldn't be more extreme and absolutely committed to bringing Sharia Law to the world -- submit to Allah or die.  There is no third choice.  This is the same Muslim Brotherhood welcomed into the White House with open arms.  In whose best interest?  I think we have a president who mistakes dangerous emissaries of world domination for bringers of world peace.

Our energy future hovers near disaster as our "green" president and his minions condemn traditional sources, while pathetically unable to produce acceptable replacements in time to avert calamity, and through all of this the idiotic Dept. of Energy does little worth its existence, and the over-restrictive Environmental Protection Agency just sucks up and fines every presumed obstacle in its path.  Then there's the useless Dept. of Education, a miserable, cash-drunk bureaucratic sot whose very conception may well be classified the 8th wonder of the world.

Obama, man of mystery. Who is he?   No, really -- who is he? Why have we never seen his college records?  What's the buzz about his Social Security number being issued in Connecticut, when he never lived there?  Why has the media never insisted upon seeing Obama's credentials, and why has he allegedly gone to tremendous trouble and expense to keep various papers regarding his past locked away?

By the way -- when will Army Major Hassan's trial begin -- you know, the un-alleged Fort Hood mass murdering Muslim psychiatrist?  One would almost believe that somebody is putting this off until after the elections.  Nah, couldn't be.  And the verdict is . . .guilty as hell.  The penalty:  Death, preceded by being licked and kissed by a filthy pack of dogs and pigs.  Now, that's justice. (UPDATE:  The trial may start in two weeks.  Or maybe not.   We'll see.)

THE DEMOCRAT PARTY HAS ATTRACTED weird little things that even Democrats with the best of intentions never expected.  Like a sticky doughnut rolling across an unswept floor, the party of  FDR, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy has become afflicted, infiltrated and laden with a highly organized union & street thuggery, anarchists and groups intent upon harming or "transforming" the government by hook or by crook.  I used to vote solidly for these folks, as an Independent voter.  Dope & change.

YES, BUT MITT ROMNEY HASN'T PAID TAXES FOR 10 YEARS.  If Romney had failed to pay taxes, don't you think the Internal Revenue Service -- THIS Internal Revenue Service -- would have called him on it long ago?  The man would either be in prison or perhaps minus the requisite arm or leg demanded by tax collectors in nightmares.

THE TEA PARTY IS MAKING STRIDES, for better or worse, because it isn't staffed by the liars so cherished by the Dems and, yes, the Republicans.  I'm concerned about the Religious Right and the rabid compulsion among many of its members to take away a woman's right to choose, but the attack-dog attitude about fiscal matters, auditing the Fed and placing blame for economic crimes perpetrated in the country is fine with me. 

PARENTS UNITE AND MAKE SURE your kids grow up tough, smart and ready for anything.  Handing out trophies to everybody on the team to obliterate the concept of losing was a dumb idea from the start, because now we have a generation of young folk who expect instant success and no disappointment.  There are yet enemies we must confront in the future, enemies who grow strong due to the lessons of pain and failure, not from childhood fantasies assuring that everybody is an instant winner.  Instant winners get their asses kicked every day by seasoned winners who simmered carefully in a methodical brew.

ATHEISTS CURRENTLY DEMANDING THE REMOVAL OF CROSSES IN MILITARY CEMETERIES AND OTHER AREAS:  Um. . .you folks can go to hell.  Personally, I don't believe in hell, but because you one-track-mind idiots are so bent upon destroying religious icons, traditions and music which don't physically harm you, thus identifying yourselves as nothing more or less than Thought Police, you deserve to be run over on highways by religious retreat buses crammed with believers -- and, believe me, some of those dilapidated church buses can do a real number on bystanders as well as occupants! 

GAY MARRIAGE AND CHICK-FIL-A.  Everybody is free to choose his or her religion, or no religion at all in the USA, and everybody, including the CEO of Chick-Fil-A, has the right to express an opinion.  As my readers are aware, in these blog pages I expressed my support for the the rights of gay and lesbian people to serve in the military (I even reproduced a letter received from the Clinton White House on the subject).  However. . .

I kinda thought, once that absurd barrier was finally crossed, maybe gay folk would just go ahead and. . .serve like other military people.  I didn't envision in-your-face parties or rude acting-out as if rubbing the faces of non-gay service people in dog poop.  Just. . .be.  I can empathize with all of those non-gay military people who were subsequently forced to go to DIVERSITY TRAINING regarding "acceptance."  I have always hated the concept of diversity training, and from what I've experienced, such events would only make me hate what I probably didn't hate prior to being forced to attend such nonsense.  Diversity training stems from some group's agenda of fear or loathing, an in-your-face way to make one human submit to another, and equality ultimately has little to do with it.

Were I to teach a diversity training class, I would merely say, "Remember only this -- all men are created equal.  That means women, too, except o' course the obvious body parts in each are a little different.  Okay -- that's your freakin' diversity training.  Now, get out of here, and behave!"

And now comes the part where I hang myself from the tree of flamboyance.  Ladies and gentlemen of the country Homosextralia (yet to be discovered, but certainly "out there"), may I say in addition -- I don't get the gay marriage thing.  Sure, gay partner relationships should have the rights and benefits of heterosexual couples legally married, but -- come on -- wouldja just leave SOMETHING for heterosexual people?  The ceremonial marriage thing just doesn't work for me, but who cares what I think?  Who cares what the chicken guy said?  At least now we know what mayors of what cities border on fascism because of their comments about not wanting Chick-Fil-A in their towns, a reprehensible slap to the face of the Constitution. Folks, those mayors need to be rejected, not re-elected.

AND SPEAKING OF GAY. . . I see the Olympics are on everybody's mind.  The original Olympics of ancient times, you should recall, involved athletic events performed in the nude by beautiful young men, and the whole affair was very, very gay, probably mostly of interest to old guys among the ruling class because they, um, became winners in their own way after their favorite boys displayed their, um, abilities both on the field and off.  Were there any nudity in modern events, one would never witness it because rampant commercials would dominate the screen most of the time.

ELECTIONS DRAW CLOSER, WHO SHOULD WE VOTE FOR?  How should I know?  I certainly wouldn't vote for more of. . .this. . .but the choice is yours.  I guess, if you're as turned off about the whole process this year as I, you could vote for your dog, for your best friend or even for your own private parts.  But -- Obama?  Thanks, but NObama for me.