Monday, August 29, 2005

F*** You, Headmaster! - Language Tolerance In The U.K.

Today, from the London Daily Mail. Click here to read the entire story.


A secondary school is to allow pupils to swear at teachers - as long as they don't do so more than five times in a lesson. A running tally of how many times the f-word has been used will be kept on the board. If a class goes over the limit, they will be 'spoken' to at the end of the lesson.

The astonishing policy, which the school says will improve the behaviour of pupils, was condemned by parents' groups and MPs yesterday. They warned it would backfire.

Parents were advised of the plan, which comes into effect when term starts next week, in a letter from the Weavers School in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.

"Within each lesson the teacher will initially tolerate (although not condone) the use of the f-word (or derivatives) five times and these will be tallied on the board so all students can see the running score," he wrote in the letter. . .

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Emmett Till Was Murdered Fifty Years Ago Today -- Songs by Bob Dylan & Phil Ochs


Fifty years ago, on Aug. 28, 1955, Emmett Till, an African-American teenager from Chicago was abducted from his uncle's home in Money, Mississippi, by two white men.

He had allegedly whistled at a white woman. He was found in a river, brutally murdered three days later.

The men charged with Till's murder—Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam—were acquitted at trial.

They later confessed in a magazine article to beating and shooting Till .

Emmett Till's body was displayed in an open casket; it had been monstrously brutalized. The contrast with the handsome kid was appalling. Songs (like the two below, written a few years later, in the early 60's), and plays and articles focused on the death of Till and what it symbolized about Missisippi, the south, and America in general... This had to be one of the early moments that crystalized the civil rights movement.

_____________________________

Too Many Martyrs
by Phil Ochs

In the state of Mississippi many years ago
A boy of 14 years got a taste of southern law
He saw his friend a hanging and his color was his crime
And the blood upon his jacket left a brand upon his mind


CHORUS:
Too many martyrs and too many dead
Too many lies too many empty words were said
Too many times for too many angry men
Oh let it never be again

His name was Medgar Evers and he walked his road alone
Like Emmett Till and thousands more whose names we'll never know
They tried to burn his home and they beat him to the ground
But deep inside they both knew what it took to bring him down

Chorus

The killer waited by his home hidden by the night
As Evers stepped out from his car into the rifle sight
he slowly squeezed the trigger, the bullet left his side
It struck the heart of every man when Evers fell and died.

Chorus

And they laid him in his grave while the bugle sounded clear
laid him in his grave when the victory was near
While we waited for the future for freedom through the land (*)
The country gained a killer and the country lost a man

Chorus
_____________________________

The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan

'Twas down in Mississippi not so long ago,
When a young boy from Chicago walked through a Southern door.
This boy's fateful tragedy you should all remember well,
The color of his skin was black and his name was Emmett Till.

Some men they dragged him to a barn and there they beat him up.
They said they had a reason, but I disremember what.
They tortured him and did some things too evil to repeat.
There was screamin' sounds inside the barn, there was laughin' sounds out
on the street.

Then they rolled his body down a gulf amidst a blood red rain
And they threw him in the waters wide to cease his screamin' pain.
The reason that they killed him there, and I'm sure it was no lie,
Was just for the fun of killing him and to watch him slowly die.

And then to stop the United States of yelling for a trial,
Two brothers they confessed that they had killed poor Emmett Till.
But on the jury there were men who helped the brothers commit this awful
crime,
And so this trial was a mockery, but nobody seemed to mind.

I saw the mornin' papers but I could not bear
To see the smiling brothers walking down the courthouse stairs.
For the jury found them innocent and the brothers they went free,
While Emmett's body floats the foam of a Jim Crow southern sea.

If you can't speak out against this kind of thing, a crime that's so unjust,
Your eyes are filled with dead men's dirt, your mind is filled with dust.
Your arms and legs they must be in shackles and chains, and your blood it
must refuse to flow,
For you'd let this human race fall down so God-awful low!

This song is just a reminder to remind your fellow man
That this kind of thing still lives today in that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan.
But if all of us folks that thinks alike, if we give all we could give,
We'd make this great land of ours a greater place to live.
---o0o---

Saturday, August 27, 2005

The Human Zoo, Or, I Am An Admitted Homo Sapien


Homo sapiens, London Zoo's newest exhibit are seen in their enclosure in London, Thursday Aug.25, 2005. "The four day exhibit made up of volunteers runs from 26-29 August and highlights the spread of earth's most adaptable species."

Naturally, they were hot-looking, buff homo sapiens in bathing suits, thongs, and fig leaves.
---o0o---

Painting: Land Ho!: Alien Landing Party No. 2

click painting to enlarge...
I created the background, sky, and mountains in Terragen--an application I mightily struggle with. The band of aliens I created for a poster I did for a department at my office. The flying disc is a scan I made a couple of years ago of the "classic" UFO flying saucer.
---o0o---

Friday, August 26, 2005

More Wisdon From Rev. Pat Robertson


"Lord, give us righteous judges who will not try to legislate and dominate this society. Take control, Lord! We ask for additional vacancies on the court."

"Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It is the same thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians."

"Well, I totally concur." [Agreeing, after the Sept. 11 attacks, wit Jerry Falwell, who said, "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say: "You helped this happen." ]

"I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that's the way it is, period."

"That was never in the Constitution, however much the liberals laugh at me for saying it, they know good and well it was never in the Constitution! Such language only appeared in the constitution of the Communist Soviet Union." [re: the constitutional separation of church and state]

"Maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up" [on "nuking" the State Department]

---o0o---

More All This Is That Navel Gazing


This chart shows which continents All This Is That readers hail from. . . at least over the last two days.
---o0o---

Thursday, August 25, 2005

The Reverend Robertson: "I Didn't Say That." "Oh Wait. I Did. But I Didn't Really Mean It."

Reverend Robertson has this week either broken or advocated breaking two of the ten commandments--so far. And those are just two he broke openly. . .there's no telling what goes on behind closed doors, considering the kind of half-witted, hateful gibberish he's willing to talk about publicly.

Facing a firestorm of excoriating criticism and abuse from the liberals, middle-of-the-roaders, and his fellow evangelical Christians, conservative broadcaster Pat Robertson apologized Wednesday for calling for the assassination of President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.

The apology could well mean that the 700 Club is being hit hard in the collection plate.

Not only did he apologize, he initially denied ever using the word "assassinate."

On his television program, Reverend Robertson said his words had been misinterpreted by The AP; he never spoke of assassination. "I said our Special Forces should 'take him out,' " Mr. Robertson told his audience on "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network. " 'Take him out' could be a number of things, including kidnapping."

The video of Monday's 700 club, available on hundreds of internet sites, put the lie to this whopper. The Reverend can be clearly seen and heard: ". . .if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

The World Evangelical Alliance issued a statement saying: "Robertson does not speak for evangelical Christians. We believe in justice and the protection of human rights of all people, including the life of President Chávez."


Following are a few of the other public comments Rev. Robertson has made in the last few years:


''I think (federal judges) are destroying the fabric that holds our nation together. ... The gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than, than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings.''

''When lawlessness is abroad in this land, the same thing will happen here that happened in Nazi Germany. Many of those people involved in Adolf Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals -- the two seem to go together.''

''I would warn Orlando that you're right in the way of some serious hurricanes and I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face.''

"[widespread gay activity] will bring about terrorist bombs. It'll bring earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor.''

"[the] 'feminist agenda. . .is not about equal rights for women. . .it is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.''

---o0o---

poem: Tetuan - "No Paranoia, My Friend"


The moon's in tune,
Stars turn on
And clouds drape themselves
Around the sky.

Terra cotta sebsis sizzle
With Rif Mountain leaf.
The muzzein and the night's prayers
Buzz in the mosque.

Fog drifts into the room.
His anxious heart echoes
The drumbeats from the medina
As his brain unfolds.

A circle of swallows
Spins outside the window.
The air thickens with fiction
And sorcery.
---o0o---

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

The Stress Test

This was pretty interesting. My Dr. wanted me to take a heart stress test due to my family history. So I went to the cardiologist for a stress test (after the usual preliminary visits). It was actually kind of fun.

You start out in a room with a battery of machines, and never less than three and up to five technicians present. They take your blood pressure and heart pictures and sounds constantly. Your chest is shaved and they attach eight or ten electrodes (is that the right word?) with some kind of gum. The EKG machine is fired up and starts printing out for the rest of the test. The nice sonogram person arrives and she begins taking pictures of my heart, which is as big as my head on screen. She measured the valves and other heart plumbing. They do another blood pressure test. They ask me if I feel good. " Does your chest hurt at all?" "Are you ready?"

Now I get on the treadmill. You walk moderately at first on a slight elevation. Every three minutes the pace increases and the elevation gain on the treadmill increases, and they take your blood pressure every three minutes...right before the machine cranks up a notch. About once a minute someone asks you how you're feeling. "Tired? Short of breath? Any chest pain?" They are exceedingly cautious. But then it probably is a little unseemly if a patient keels over on the treadmill at the cardiologist's office...

After minute six the Physician's Assistant said "Most people quit smiling by now, you know. You don't have to be macho." The grin ended when they notched it up to the last setting, where you are jogging up a steep hill and hanging on to that bar for dear life.

Suddenly they say "OK, you're done in five seconds." I have to stop dead in my tracks, which is a little bit of a shock. They guide you, wobbling and panting over to the table again for five more minutes of heart sonogram work, blood pressure, and EKG work, post-stress.

I won't find out the "results" until Friday, but all the techies and the P.A. said everything looked great. There's that, eh?
---o0o---

A Note From An Anonymous Grey Conspiracy Theorist

Yeah, yeah. I'm just about off this alien jag, and soon to return to more lofty arts, rants, and political confabulations and speculations. But I bumped into this in my archives...a message I snagged from A MUFON website years ago...

"In 1973 , during the Nixon Administration, the NSA hooked up with the Jason Society, a top-secret body that liaises with the extraterrestrial beings known as the Grays. This gave them an immediate infusion of mathematical theory, as the grays have developed mathematics to a level which we cannot completely comprehend. In return, the grays were given two more bases in New Mexico and a 15% increase in the number of people that they may abduct per year for analysis and extraction of vital fluids.

"The Grays have reneged on their abduction quota agreement, and are abducting many more people than before. Most of these are returned, after being implanted with a device which allows the grays to have total control over their thoughts and actions. Approximately 40% of Americans now carry one of these devices, which are impossible to remove without killing the host. "
---o0o---

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Rev. Pat Robertson Calls For The Assassination of President Chavez


Once again, the Christian Coalition advocates breaking the Sixth Commandment. If only they were as rabid and diligent about the Sixth Commandment (thou shall not kill) as they were about the Seventh Commandment (thou shall not commit adultery). . .
/jack

WASHINGTON D.C. (Reuters) - Conservative U.S. evangelist Pat Robertson called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez yesterday, saying the leftist leader wanted to turn his country into "the launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."

The founder of the Christian Coalition said during the Monday night television broadcast of his religious program, "The 700 Club," that Chavez, one the most vocal critics of President George W. Bush, was a "terrific danger" to the United States.

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said.

"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it."
---o0o---

Jackie Gleason, President Richard Nixon And The Men From Mars



On February 19,1973, according to White House records, President Richard Nixon met Jackie Gleason on the 18th green at the Inverness Golf and Country Club. He was there to help kick off a charity golf tournament run by Gleason. If the rumors are true, Nixon also came to Florida in 1973 to show Jackie Gleason the bodies of extraterrestrials (knowing, he too, believed there was something out there).

Whether it's true or not, it's a good story. . .Dick Nixon and The Great One driving in the dead of night, without Secret Service protection, to the cooler where they kept the recovered alien bodies.

Timothy Green Buckley said in an interview once: “I'm afraid I am a bit of a fence setter. All this could be real or none of it could be!” What follows is his strange and funny article from UFOs Among the Stars.

Mixing Richard Nixon, Jackie Gleason, conspiracy, and Aliens together, and how can you really go wrong?


Jackie Gleason & The Little Men From Mars

by Timothy Green Beckley

Way back in the mid-1960s, I got a letter in the mail from Jackie Gleason Productions, Hollywood, Florida, ordering a copy of a mimeographed booklet I had put together relating to UFOs. This, to me, was confirmation of what I had heard rumors about for a long time ... that "the Great One" was personally involved in researching UFOs. Supposedly - and I've since found out that this is true--Gleason had one of the greatest UFO book collections in the world. This is where the tale gets a bit wilder. A story circulated by Gleason's ex-wife, Beverly, has Jackie actually viewing the bodies of several aliens who died when their craft crashed in the Southwest.

The story was carried originally in the National Enquirer, and though Beverly Gleason later confirmed it to members of the press who were able to track her down, independent confirmation of Gleason's supposed experience could - for the longest time - not be certified.

Now with the striking revelations of a young man who knew Gleason personally, it can safely be said that such an event did take place...


Larry Warren was an Airman First Class stationed at Bentwaters Air Force Base in England (a NATO installation staffed mainly by US. servicemen) when an incredible series of events took place over Christmas week of 1980. A UFO was picked up on radar and subsequently came down just outside the perimeter of the base in a dense forest.

On the first of several nights of confrontation with the Unknown, three security police ventured into the area across an eerie-looking object hovering just above the ground. One of the MPs was mesmerized by the UFO and was unable to move for nearly an hour. While in this mental state, he received some sort of telepathic message that the craft would return. For the next few nights, up to 80 U.S. servicemen, British bobbies, as well as civilians from some nearby farms, witnessed an historic event. According to Larry Warrenwho stood within feet of this craft from another world-three occupants came out of the ship and actually communicated with a high ranking member of the U.S. Air Force.

This close encounter at Bentwaters has become the subject of several books (see "From Out Of The Blue", Jenny Randles, Inner Light Publications) and has been given wide publicity on CNN, Home Box Office and more recently "Unsolved Mysteries." Warren has, in a sense, become somewhat of a celebrity himself as he remains in the public eye, willing to talk about what he observed.

"Jackie Gleason was interested in hearing my story first hand," Warren offers as a means of explaining how he met the famous comic in May, 1986. "At the time I was living in Connecticut and both CNN and HBO had run pieces on the Bentwaters case. Through mutual friends who knew members of his family, I was told that Gleason would like to talk with me privately in his home in Westchester County, and so the meeting was set for a Saturday when we would both have some time to relax'".

After being formally introduced, the two men ventured into Gleason's recreation room complete with pool table and full-size bar. "There were hundreds of UFO books all over the place," Warren explains, "but Jackie was quick to tell me that this was only a tiny portion of his entire collection, which was housed in his home in Florida." For the rest of the day, UFO researcher and UFO witness exchanged information.

"Gleason seemed to be very well informed on the subject," Larry says, "as he knew the smallest detail about most cases and showed me copies of the book "Clear Intent" that had just been published, as well as a copy of "Sky Crash", a British book about Bentwaters that was published, actually, before all the details of this case were made public. I remember Gleason telling me about his own sightings of several discs in Florida and how he thought there were undersea UFOs bases out in the Bermuda Triangle."

But it wasn't till after Warren had downed a few beers and Gleason had had a number of drinks--"his favorite, Rob Roys"-that conversation really got down to brass tacks. "At some point, Gleason turned to me and said, 'I want to tell you something very amazing that will probably come out some day anyway. We've got em!' 'Got what', I wanted to know? 'Aliens!' Gleason sputtered, catching his breath."

According to Warren, Jackie proceeded to tell him the intriguing set of circumstances that led him to the stunning conclusion that extraterrestrials have arrived on our cosmic shores. "It was back when Nixon was in office that something truly amazing happened to me," Gleason explained. "We were close golfing buddies and had been out on the golf course all day when somewhere around the 15th hole, the subject of UFOs came up. Not many people know this," Gleason told Warren, "but the President shares my interest in this matter and has a large collection of books in his home on UFOs just like I do. For some reason, however, he never really took me into his confidence about what he personally knew to be true... one of the reasons being that he was usually surrounded by so many aids and advisers."

Later that night, matters changed radically, when Richard Nixon showed up at Gleason's house around midnight. "He was all alone for a change. There were no secret service agents with him or anyone else. I said, 'Mr. President, what are you doing here?' and he said he wanted to take me someplace and show me something." Gleason got into the President's private car and they sped off into the darkness--their destination being Homestead Air Force Base.

"I remember we got to the gate and this young MP came up to the car to look to see inside and his jaw seemed to drop a foot when he saw who was behind the wheel. He just sort of pointed and we headed off." Warren says that later Gleason found out that the secret service was going absolutely crazy trying to find out where Nixon was. "We drove to the very far end of the base in a segregated area," Gleason went on, "finally stopping near a well-guarded building. The security police saw us coming and just sort of moved back as we passed them and entered the structure.

There were a number of labs we passed through first before we entered a section where Nixon pointed out what he said was the wreckage from a flying saucer, enclosed in several large cases." Gleason noted his initial reaction was that this was all a joke brought on by their earlier conversation on the golf course. But it wasn't, as Gleason soon learned. "Next, we went into an inner chamber and there were six or eight of what looked like glass-topped Coke freezers. Inside them were the mangled remains of what I took to be children. Then - upon closer examination - I saw that some of the other figures looked quite old. Most of them were terribly mangled as if they had been in an accident."

According to Larry Warren's testimony (regarding Gleason's lengthy conversation about UFOs and space visitors), "I forget whether he said they had three or four fingers on each hand, but they definitely were not human...of this he was most certain!" For three weeks following his trip with Nixon to Homestead Air Force Base, the world famous entertainer couldn't sleep and couldn't eat. "Jackie told me that he was very traumatized by all of this.

He just couldn't understand why our government wouldn't tell the public all they knew about UFOs and space visitors. He said he even drank more heavily than usual until he could regain some of his composure and come back down to everyday reality." Larry Warren is convinced that Gleason wasn't lying to him. "You could tell that he was very sincere - he took the whole affair very seriously, and I could tell that he wanted to get the matter off his chest, and this was why he was telling me all of this." And as far as Larry Warren was concerned, the Great One's personal testimony only added extra credibility to his own first hand experience with aliens while he was in the service.

"Jackie felt just like I do that the government needs to 'come clean,' and tell us all it knows about space visitors. It time they stopped lying to the public and release all the evidence they have. When they do, then we'll all be able to see the same things the late Jackie Gleason did!" Hopefully this day may arrive soon.

---o0o---