Undescended Spectacles

Mummies? Politics? World crises? Hey, isn't this blog about UFOs?

It is, but not as much as it was. The truth is, when I initiated these pages in 2007, my intention was to post documents from my old UFO-related files, and this I have done.

Am I trying to be funny? Sometimes. Am I funny? That's up to the readers to decide. My only claim to comedy fame is writing and selling two (count 'em, two) jokes to professional comedy writer Robert Orben back in the seventies for two dollars each. At that price, no, I don't even remember the content.

Do I take UFO reports seriously? Yes, I do. I did. For decades. But it's somebody else's turn to stay current, to take the calls, to fill out the forms, to buy or review the new books. I can only be the past, and others among you the future. Oh, I can still scan and put up some older things on occasion, and I hope you find them of interest, but as you can plainly see by visiting many of my linked Web sites, updated information and "now" stuff resides there.

I'm especially proud of our "U.F.O." movie blog (see link), and though I've scanned and put up a wealth of scans and background information, it is still occasionally updated with new material, thanks primarily to contributions from Barry Greenwood.

My Air Force blog reflects four years which I, to say the least, didn't see coming until a military draft notice received during the Vietnam years welcomed me (not exactly in those words) to participate in the chaos of that era, though as a medical airman, enlisted in the Air Force, I served in stateside hospitals (darned Air Force recruiter promised me photography school. . .) .

The dog tribute blog (see link), begun for reasons unfulfilled, never progressed beyond a few nice pictures of my departed Pekingese. I was going to take it down but, surprisingly, was contacted by people who loved the pics. . .and Pekes. It stays.

Which brings me back to the subject of UFOs. I can't really add much comment to almost four years of blog entries, but I can look to the current day: UFO books continue to be written -- some good ones, too, from what I've heard.. Leslie Kean, Richard Dolan, and then names with which I'm unfamiliar. Major U.S. UFO organizations have dwindled, but some remain. MUFON, for one.

I subscribed for many years to the MUFON Journal, but never considered myself a "member," Now, there's apparently so much in-fighting (and out-fighting), what a shame. The late Coral Lorenzen (APRO) was never a fan of MUFON -- quite the opposite. Regarding the MUFON of years ago, she ridiculed the organization for existing as an entity whose membership seemed overwhelmed by gee-whiz teenagers, rather than true investigators. And Coral insisted to me that a MUFON official had accessed (that's not the word she used, but I'll be kind here) APRO membership lists with intentions of luring away a number of people better suited to investigate UFO reports and enhance membership totals. Unfortunately for MUFON, some of those approached about jumping the APRO ship squealed to Coral. I've a feeling that Coral would look upon the current MUFON and say, "Told you so."

So now what? Dedicated Americans such as Robert Hastings and Robert Salas have done everything but stage a Broadway musical to gain wide public and Congressional interest in UFOs and the phenomenon's peculiar relationship with nuclear missiles, and serious researchers in several countries work their investigative talents to the bone to alert people to the evidence. What changed? What will change?

Really?

I joined NICAP in 1964, always certain that the organization's extensively documented UFO evidence and lobbying efforts in D.C. would crack the UFO mystery wide open. Not. Didn't. Infiltration by the spooky element was no help either, as the organization slowly fell apart. Okay, NICAP is gone, but the NICAP Web site (see link) is a winner. You want UFO evidence and reliable history? NICAP.org is the place.

But. . .still we wait for the fireworks. I joined the APRO membership in 1965 and later became a field investigator. Nothing ultra-dramatic there, but I did what I could. APRO was the place to go in the U.S. to swoon over important UFO reports gathered from all over the world, incredible accounts of UFO encounters that astounded researchers in the fifties who had wondered for years whether UFOs were a global phenomenon. They were. They are.

So. Nearly 50 years have elapsed since I took an active interest in UFOs, encouraged by an uncle's significant library of books on science, science fiction and the strange and UFOs. And Charles Fort. Space travel. Analog Magazine. Archaeology. Shelves filled with dusty volumes about antiquities and the future and Edgar Cayce and pilots who chased UFOs and pilots who disappeared while chasing UFOs. My uncle's telescope, set up in the back yard on evenings, an atmosphere far less encumbered by civilization's light sources than today.

And there were memberships to INFO and SITU, and subscriptions to publications such as Gordon I.R. Lore, Jr's UFO Research Newsletter, a superb and fascinating round-up -- while it lasted -- of important UFO events.

The mystery endures, the publications grind on and proper funding continues to elude the best of intentions, but still the crucial rule-changing, jaw-dropping spectacles have not materialized. We are impatient, and the world doesn't give a damn.. UFO solutions remain unrevealed. Chances seem reasonable that none of us living long or born today will ever crack the egg. Maybe we aren't supposed to know, and if Betty Hill had it right, we really AREN'T supposed to know.

So I'll bring on the mummies, the humor, the sarcasm, I'll bring on diversions and let those who obfuscate continue to revel in obfuscation, because the world is on fire and rational thought has come down to whose religious tenets seem the least crazy.

What the heck, I live in a country apologized for and watched over by a weak president, and a pathetically indecisive Administration schooled more in intellectualism and give-away diplomacy than the blood-and-guts approach the world craves from us here and now. I watch in awe as cowardly state legislators flee their own states, afraid to vote and obviously paid for lock, stock and barrel by dangerous and increasingly powerful public labor unions whose main purpose involves demanding more and more from the voiceless taxpayer.

We have, but won't use, our strong military to destroy Somali pirates and thugs, even though the world knows exactly where the roaches live. The strongest evidence ever indicating invasion of our southern borders by radical Muslims and potential suicide bombers should be trumpeted from coast to coast, but I live under an Administration afraid to utter the politically incorrrect words, radical Islamic terrorists, and the best my "leaders" can do about Mexican drug lords is to offer useless words of sorrow at the funerals of border agents and dedicated members of our intelligence community -- as it cowers in silence while the ACLU sues the FBI over an alleged infiltrated mosque situation.

My president tells me that fossil fuels are the fuel of the past, yet we have little alternative for now or the immediate future except nuclear plants that aren't built yet, windmills whose blades freeze solid during brutal winter weather (as England discovered this year) and sunlight that can't be relied upon (in parts of the Northeastern U.S. our last full day of sunlight was almost six months ago). The greener things get, the more the idiocy blooms -- helped along, as new research appears to suggest, by frequent use of cell phones whose radiation lights up one's brain scan like flashlights in a rat den. Yes, our children are the future, maybe with compromised brains unable to properly learn or think. Or maybe we're already there, just look around.

I live in a nation currently run by the most incredibly inept and gutless Administration I have ever known, and I long for a presidency filled for a few decisive months by a crusty, no-nonsense four-star -- no, make that a nine-star -- general with wartime experience who knows how to go after international thugs like an attack dog, with deadly, uncompromising force. Surprised at my attitude? Me too, but the times, they are-a-changin.' And by changin' I don't mean hope and change.

Meanwhile, the fighting among UFO "personalities" continues, the evidence reposes and, as a recent TV automobile commercial advises, "you can have this, or you can have that."

Sorry, but I think I'll put my money on "that," because I've had more than enough of "this."

Egypt Unwrapped, Mummies Rejoice

(No UFO information today. . .but we do have Egypt in our sights as the world burns. Somehow, I don't think all of this will end well, but what do I know?)

Well, we'll see if the liberated people of Egypt, intent upon a new country and lives drenched in freedom, find what they seek. O' course, we hope also that those new freedoms don't involve a radical element determined to cover Egypt's women from head to toe, whilst simultaneously honing beheading skills and conducting routine finger and hand disarticulations.

Obviously, with freedom comes choice, and with choice come freedoms previously unimagined. Unfortunately, there's also some indication that the particularly voiceless in Egypt will also embrace the absence of restraint: We're talking mummies here -- mummies, ancient Egyptians hankering to walk the streets again. Remember what the wise pharaohs knew all too well: What heals or awaits another life under the bandage can also fester under the bandage. And I'm betting that the mummified dead were none too happy centuries ago when their brains were extracted through their noses. Grumpy, who wouldn't be! Like zombies, mummies will likely be scavenging throughout the cities and countryside in search of new brains.

Here at the blog, we urge Egyptians to remain friends with the USA and to shun factions wishing to enslave Egypt's masses, but -- for the sake of global safety and your own lives -- please, we beg of you, on Election Day in Egypt, whenever it occurs, DO NOT vote for the PPMP (People's Progressive Mummy Party). Why make a bad situation much worse?

SPEAKING OF A BAD SITUATION: We wish to praise that courageous Egyptian TV journalist who resigned from her job rather than report lies fed from the ruling party. Even more striking was the sight of American TV reporters, whose words often appear heavily scripted to politically pretty up, disregard or condemn the truth every day, openly admiring her position. We sure would like to see Brian, Diane or Katie announce some evening: "And before we leave you tonight, I want you sheep to know that much of what we feed you on these newscasts is slanted, irrelevant, meaningless, presumptuous and hardly worth a rat's butt, and most of what you see here in high def is about as nutritious for your mind as poisoned Chinese dog food. I can't do this anymore and I resign, effective immediately. Thank you for tuning in here night after tedious night. Have a good evening, and keep grazing right here on your local station."

UFOs: The Joint Resolution

A UFO conference held in Fort Smith, Arkansas in October, 1975 was an important event, and certainly crucial for me -- though I wasn't even there. This, you see, was a meeting well attended by numerous UFO researchers, scientists and technical personnel. This was also a time when I was putting together a magazine article about the 1956 United Artists documentary motion picture, "UFO," and it was vital for me to locate former Air Force Maj. Dewey J. Fournet, Jr. who acted as monitor for the Air Force's UFO project in the early 1950s. Fournet was prominently portrayed in the movie by an actor. By the mid-seventies I had no idea where Fournet himself could be found (remember, there was no public Internet then, and locating people could be an expensive or fruitless venture).

However, fortunately, researchers Richard Hall and Jim and Coral Lorenzen, who knew that I wished to interview Fournet, encountered him at Fort Smith and contact was made. If you haven't visited my blog regarding the movie, please check out the link on the right, and among numerous entries inserted over the years are letters posted from the late Maj. Fournet and others.

The Fort Smith conference, as we stated, was an important event, a bold attempt to entice UFO researchers and organizations to share information and conduct their work employing the highest scientific and ethical standards. Coordinated by Bill Pitts, the three-day conference enlisted several guest speakers, and attendees received a copy of "A Joint Resolution," a clarion call drafted specifically for the sessions by Dr. Richard F. Haines, whose books and current affiliation with the organization NARCAP (see link on the side) are well recognized.

The legendary two-page document is displayed here for your interest. Its message is no less relevant 36 years later, and actually far more so, though some of the major UFO organizations and involved people (so many names) are now long departed. In some ways, the Resolution ultimately turned out to be more of a harbinger of ideas, methods and people drifting apart over time than a rock of cooperation among various factions.