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.