More Free Online Books at NICAP

Sometimes I think about the vast quantity of American dollars I spent acquiring UFO books decades ago -- well, until I started reviewing books for various publications, when authors and publishers honored me with free copies -- and I remember a few of the clunkers I purchased, the $10, $15 or $20+ books that would have been overpriced even at ten cents.

If only I could have seen the future, when Francis Ridge and associates responsible for the NICAP.org Web site would take some of the best oldies and worthwhile literary newcomers and put 'em up free of charge for the world to download and read.

They've done it again. We previously mentioned numerous entries already posted, and as dedicated NICAP historians and veteran researchers continue to construct one of the best UFO reference sources on the Internet, at least four newbies have been added. Go to NICAP.org, click on the online books section, and you'll now find the additions shown here.

Dr. Richard F. Haines' 1990 volume regarding strange aerial objects observed by flight personnel and others during the Korean War offers further proof that UFOs, UAOs or whatever we wish to call them are an international phenomenon worthy of scientific scrutiny. The rare 1961 book by Richard Hall and Professor Charles A. Maney was one of the earliest to offer some truly critical scientific thinking about UFOs. Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe's 1953 volume published by Henry Holt & Co. joins his earliest book on the NICAP site (as time goes on, perhaps Keyhoe's Flying Saucer Conspiracy and, his last, Aliens From Space will join the lineup). Completing the online book library at this time is Francis Ridge's 2010 report on the death of pilot Capt. Thomas Mantell during a UFO chase. Drawing upon multiple analyses performed by respected researchers and professionals, the long-presumed balloon explanation is thrown into serious question. Just what did Mantell pursue -- and what happened to facilitate his fatal crash in 1948?

It's a new year, and there are new and old classics to read -- for free -- thanks to NICAP.org. Don't miss the most compelling UFO evidence on the Web.

The Summer of '76 Memorialized

June 8, 1976 from the National Enquirer. The sub-heading remains far more interesting than the headline itself. UFOs aside, I want to know more about that aquatic rabbit on a mission who attacked Carter's boat on a strange day when carrots apparently weren't enough to quench the appetite of a terrorist bunny.

Replication Illustration

There are so many things I would love to feature here from the past, yet I constantly worry about copyrights and infringing upon other people's hard work without proper credit or compensation. My only defense, of course, is that I make no money whatsoever with any of my blogs, so what I place before readers is done strictly out of respect or concern for historical perspective. Sometimes I get it right and sometimes I probably don't.

Some of the most amusing UFO-related cartoons appeared in national magazines of the 1960s and 1970s. Many of those formerly stalwart newsstand dwellers are gone forever, victims of the digital age, high expenses and a diminishing readership.

This cartoon, invoking World War II's evil Hitler, graced a page from November 18, 1967's Saturday Evening Post. Despite its vintage, the artist's theme reminded me instantly of researchers such as Dr. David Jacobs and Budd Hopkins. Each has spent years speaking with alleged UFO abduction victims, and some frightening possibilities regarding alien entities interfering with human reproduction have come to light, as many of you already know (you can read their books).

The cartoon almost seems prophetic in a humorously twisted way, and maybe a little scary to anybody familiar with abductee research.

Season's Geekings

Why say anything if I've little to say? Weather here in the Northeastern U.S. is everything I've never wanted, and for now I'm retreating from blog entries. I wish you all a merry Christmas if you celebrate it, and a great 2011, which you'll have to endure even if you aren't looking forward to its arrival. Will we experience government UFO "disclosure" in the U.S. during 2011? Will Elvis return? Does Judge Crater's mummified corpse administer a star chamber?

And to you Wikileaks geeks -- now that we know more about you -- may you all burn in Cyberhell for possibly compromising the lives of Americans (particularly military members) and America's friends around the globe. Many of you seem much too young and hopelessly idealistic about the world. Anarchy (your failed project here in the states?) might seem fun and sexy for a few days, but eventually all the wrong people usually move in to enslave the very folks who open chaotic portals. You pathetic milksops who lounge behind computer anonymity might dislike or even hate the United States, but this nation remains the world's best hope for hope itself. What you fools HAVE accomplished, to my regret, is to encourage calls for more government control of the Internet -- something that nobody should ever desire.

If you Wikileaks enthusiasts were bold enough to try your antics on, say, the Russians, it probably wouldn't be long before you gutless little weasels would find your cups of gruel, insect food, fecal derivatives or whatever you eat seasoned with just a dash of polonium -- which, like yourselves, is tasteless, yet disastrously effective. Start looking over your shoulders, hacking twits, because surely there are people out there working day and night to meet you under appropriately nasty circumstances one fine day, no matter how far and how deep your reach extends. And your youthful stupidity probably won't save you in a world which seems to be more angry, more hysterical and more paranoid than ever. Or maybe it's just me.

Wikileaks Unplugged

Though the extent of any "damage" caused by the Wikileaks project remains up for debate, it is rather interesting to be reminded how governments perfectly content with spying on their own people tend to become rabidly exercised once spied back upon. It might even be argued that the Wikileaks drama subverts America's case against alleged U.S. government computer hacker Gary McKinnon to a microscopic affair.

No Wikileaks UFO surprises? Of course not, that stuff would be classified much higher up. Yet, if we've learned anything the past few days, it's (again) that guarded computer communication and cyber security remain giant variables.

So governments lie, we learn. Wow. But some things we just know, don't we, as if by instinct?

Still, outrageous and damning -- and hilarious, and by now perhaps dead in the waters of Amazon.com -- though Wikileaks revelations may be, we hoped that the OBVIOUSLY condemned people currently hiding out whilst casting forth the world's diplomatic manure would live long enough to give us diplomatic impressions of Russia (they just did, according to news reports referencing the "Russian Mafia," "Batman and Robin" and other delights), China and other disturbing entities whose ruthless leaders have long deserved nothing less than a naked unmasking to reveal their cockroach faces. And if said Wikileaks folk have uncovered sufficient information to portray a fair portion of United Nations members as the virtual thugs and rats they are, more power to 'em. Should all of this be accomplished, the United States will look pretty darned good by comparison. The truth hurts, doesn't it? I fear I would make a terrible diplomat in a world where the U.S. has a plethora of enemies pretending to be friends and friends who want us to cure international ills primarily at our expense, in terms of both lives and money.

FROM WIKILEAKS TO WINTER WEEKS: Despite some of my way-back lineage (e.g., Canadian, for starters), I'm not an immense fan of winter's cold, snow and ice here in the U.S., though I do appreciate wintertime's cleansing effects and the unlikely prospect of attacks by anacondas hiding in snowy treetops. That said, I may not be blogging much during the next 2-3 months. Depends upon wha'sup out there in the real world from Dec-Feb. But, as always, if I'm not here the links certainly are, and if you stay in touch with Billy Cox and all the others you'll be well-informed about UFOs and other things that go bright in the night.