A Republican hero: Washington State's Maureen Walsh

By Jack Brummet, Washington State Editor

A Republican in our state, Representative Maureen Walsh, gave a courageous and emotional speech in favor of the same sex marriage bill wending its way through our legislature.  This couldn't have been an easy thing to do as a Republican, and she did a great job, stating correctly that this is not an issue of parties, but an issue of conscience.

She is being celebrated across the nation (and certainly also being vilified in the darker corners) today for her courage and straight-ahead plain thinking.  Thank you Rep. Walsh!

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Watercolor: a study for Armada

by Jack Brummet

I found this painting folded up in the middle of a long-dormant pile of cast aside art.  It's from 23 years ago.  I think I am going to try to actually do this painting now. . .

click to enlarge

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Digital Art: Eight Robots

By Jack Brummet

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Pants on fire: Mitt Romney tells another whopper today

by Jack Brummet, primary and caucus stringer

“I am the only candidate in this race, Republican or Democrat, who has never worked a day in Washington,” Mitt Romney said in a speech today.  “I don’t have old scores to settle or decades of cloakroom deals to defend.”

Mitt has plenty of deals to defend.  Just this week, he said he'd a been a fool not to look for Federal money.  Today, in The Morning Call, Colby Itkowitz writes:  "In a 2003 article in Boston-based Commonwealth Magazine, Romney’s chief of legislative and intergovernmental affairs, Cindy Gillespie, discussed the state’s Washington lobbying office and is quoted saying it “exists for one reason: to increase the amount of federal funding coming back to the state.”

In the same Commonwealth article, Gillespie says Romney’s team in Washington would seek aid from the federal highway bill and new homeland security funds.  Of course, Romney also fought hard for (and won) federal funding for his Big Dig project in Boston.

The bottom line is, Mitt Romney, when he was Governor, often worked in Washington, usually trying to cajole money for Massachusetts from the President and Congress.  The record shows many dozens of trips to Washington by Mittens during his governorship.  He wasn't going there for the parties and nightlife in Georgetown.

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Alien Lore No. 220 - The Ariel School UFO/Grey sighting in Ruwa, Zimbabwe

By Jack Brummet, Unexplained Phenomena and Alien Lore Editor

[Thanks to Jeff Clinton for the "news tip.]

On September 14th, 1994, a UFO blew across the skies of Southern Africa.  Days later, something fell, or landed, in a Ruwa, Zimbabwe schoolyard, as well as a few smaller objects, according to journalist (and book author, and UFOlogist) Cynthia Hind, and Harvard psychiatry professor John Mack.  This episode would later become a chapter in her book UFOs Over Africa (Horus House, 1996). 

One eyewitness, Barry D., said he saw three objects fly over, with flashing red lights. The UFOs disappeared, but then reappeared almost immediately, in another location.  This happened about three times. He said the objects then came and landed near some gum trees not far from the school.

Four of the eye witnesses Cynthia Hind interviewed

The most interesting part of this story is that UFOs were witnessed by 62 school children, none or few of who had ever seen or heard stories about aliens or UFOs.  Cynthia Hind interviewed them the day after the encounter and got them to draw them draw pictures of what they had seen.  A prominent Harvard researcher and professor of Psychiatry, John Mack, also traveled to Ruwa and conducted extensive interviews.

Many researchers call the Ariel School story the ultimate "nondebunkable" piece of alien lore.  It is a tantalizing UFO/Grey sighting to UFOlogists because of the large number of people who witnessed it, and because UFO researchers like Hind were quickly on the scene to report on it, take interviews, and collect sketches and eyewitness accounts.  Hind was able to interview around a dozen of the older children and was able to get them to create sketches of what they had seen. 

Many serious and experienced researchers call this case one of the most believable of all documented close encounters.  Almost everyone calls it one of their "favorites."  One poster on Paracast wrote: "A recent poster asked for our favorite (?) UFO case. I opted for Ruwa and its school children. This merely reinforces that choice. I thought I'd seen every clip of the children being interviewed until I watched this. I want someone at CNN to run those clips and come on afterword, with eerie music and take pokes at those kids' credibility or sanity. The public would fire-bomb their Atlanta offices."

"These children are (were), at least in my opinion, the most credible UFO/Alien witness' I've ever seen interviewed. The shock, trauma, terror and confusion manifested in their words and their eyes would be near impossible for anyone to fake so convincingly- let alone young, rural children. We are not talking about 'lights in the sky' here. These children say that they had close contact with these things and that there was some sort of communication. . .that they can't even comprehend." 

some of the sketches created by the Ariel schoolchildren

The editor of Paracast agreed, saying "These are some of the most believable Close Encounter testimonies on record,and it's a real shame that the case hasn't received more attention here in the West.Let's hope that this all changes once the new documentary premieres.It'll be fascinating to see how these children (now young adults) have managed to assimilate this experience into their lives,and what they think of it now - 15 years later."

The now deceased Cynthia Hind had deep experience in investigative reporting and was well-respected in the UFO community. 

A photograph of the Ariel School grounds

At the end of this story, I have included some video footage from YouTube showing some of the interviews and background on the story.
Here is the initial report by Cynthia Hind in the UFO AFRINEWS, 1994:

"On Friday 16th September, at approximately 10:15, 62 children from Ariel School, a private primary school in Ruwa (about 20 km from Harare) were in their playing field for the mid-morning break. Suddenly, they saw three silver balls in the sky over the school. These disappeared with a flash of light and then reappeared elsewhere. This happened three times and then they started to move down towards the school with one of them landing (or hovering) over a section of rough ground made up of trees, thorn bushes, and some brown-grey cut grass with bamboo shoots sticking up out of the ground. The children are not allowed in this area although it is adjacent to their playing field and is not fenced off, because of snakes, spiders and perhaps other harmful creatures. One can soon disappear from view while walking here, and there is only one very rough track used by tractors in an attempt to clear this area.

"There is a line of electricity pylons and according to one boy, the object followed along this line prior to landing.

"There is also some controversy as to whether the object _landed_ on the ground or hovered above it. On Tuesday, 20th September, I went out to the school with a BBC reporter and their television equipment, as well as my son and Gunter Hofer, a young man who builds his own electrical equipment, viz, a Geiger counter, a metal detector and a magnetometer, to try and see if the object left any traces behind.

"The headmaster of the school is Mr. Colin Mackie, who was most co-operative, and although he had never been involved with UFOs or a believer in them, said that he believed the children had seen what they said they saw.

"I was able to interview about 10 or 12 older children and this was recorded for BBC television.

"One eyewitness, Barry D., said he had seen three objects flying over, with flashing red lights. They disappeared, and reappeared almost immediately, but somewhere else. This happened about three times. Then they came and landed near some gum trees; Barry said the main one (object) was about the size of his thumb nail held at arm's length. The reports were similar although some children were more observant than others. The consensus of opinion was that an object came down in the area where they indicated, about 100 metres from where they were at the edge of the school playing field. Then a small man (approx 1 metre in height) appeared on top of the object. He walked a little way across the rough ground, became aware of the children and disappeared. He, or someone very like him, then reappeared at the back of the object. The object took off very rapidly and disappeared."

"The little man was dressed in a tight-fitting black suit which was 'shiny' according to one observant girl (11 years of age). He had a long scrawny neck and huge eyes like rugby balls. He had a pale face with long black hair coming below his shoulders.

"I had suggested to Mr. Mackie prior to visiting the school and before the children had been interviewed, that he let the children draw what they had seen and he now has about 30-40 drawings, some of which are very explicit and clear, although some are rather vague. The children's' ages vary from 5/6 to 12 years. I have 22 photocopies of the clearer drawings as Mr. Mackie kindly allowed me to page through the pictures and choose those I wanted. Most of the descriptions are similar but some of the craft are very obviously 'flying saucers', and I wonder how many of these children have had access to the media. Others are crude but more or less in this saucer shape.

"The children vary in cultures: there are black, white, coloured and Asian children. One little girl said to me, 'I swear by every hair on my head and the whole Bible that I am telling the truth.' I could see the pleasure on her face when I told her that I believed her. The smaller children from 5-7 years were very frightened at the time and ran shouting 'Help me, help me.' When the older children asked why they were saying this, the reply was, 'He is coming to eat us.' I should think this applied more to the black African children who have legends of tokoloshies eating children.

"Their teachers were in a meeting and did not come out. When I queried the headmaster about this he said the children always shouted and yelled during their playtime and no-one thought there was anything unusual going on. The only other adult available at the time was one of the mothers who was running the tuckshop. When the children came to call her, she did not believe them and would not come out: she was not prepared to leave the tuckshop with all the food and money.

"Gunter and the men thoroughly examined the ground around where the children had seen the object, but could get no reaction on the Geiger counter or any other equipment. If the object was hovering perhaps nothing would show. I walked, on my own, along the electricity pylons for quite a away, caught up in thorn bushes, trampling blithely over snake holes and discarding all caution. I found no place where some object could have landed and pressed down the foliage. In fact, I should think the bamboo stumps would have been a deterrent. The day was hot, around 33 C (91F)...

"Dr John Mack was visiting Zimbabwe at the time of the event, and he spent two days at Ariel School with the children. He also spoke to the Headmaster, Colin Mackie, the teachers and some of the parents. John and his fellow researcher, Dominique Callimanopulos, were able to get through to the parents and teachers and convince them that even if they did not believe the children, it was counter-productive to accuse them of lying. Listen and think about what they were saying, he advised. His particular interest in child psychiatry was also of great use during the questioning and many former hidden memories came to light, something John is sure to make public when he has had a chance to reassess his interviewing."

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The Twilight of Newt Gingrich

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor

Newt is spending today in Ohio, whistling past the graveyard

After three contests today where he achieved total irrelevancy, Newt has been spending his time in Ohio, in hopes of salvaging his candidacy. 

But. . .not only Newt is on the ropes.  Suddenly, and unexpectedly, Rick Santorum swept all three contests today...just after Ex-Governor Romney scored back-to-back wins in Florida and Nevada.  Those two victories led most pundits to predict that Romney was on a straight march to the nomination.  Wednesday will be an interesting day.  Maybe not everything has changed, but much has changed.

As for Newt himself,  he'll hang in for a while, and go through the motions in Washington State, Arizona, Maine, Michigan before Super Tuesday on March 6th.  In fact he claims--but, then, don't they all?--that he is staying in throughout the primary-caucus season, all the way to the convention.  But sometime between tomorrow and that convention, he will drop out, get to give a dramatic speech at the convention, and then become become a revived, if not beloved, senior statesman, and go to work for a think tank or as a sort-of-but-not-really-lobbyist.

The end of the road?  Or on the trail to Comeback Number Three?

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nothing can hurt me: the Big Star story (trailer)

A trailer from a forthcoming documentary on the legendary band Big Star. The trailer itself has some great footage of the survivors talking about Big Star and Alex Chilton. . . /jack

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It was four years ago, almost to the day, that Mitt Romney ended his first quest for the White House

By Mona Goldwater

Four years ago yesterday, Mitt Romney bailed out of the 2008 Republican Presidential contest.   The people had spoken.

Things were looking better than they did back then until Mittens took a serious body blow in the heartland of America last night.  Sure, they shrug off these primaries and caucuses off beauty contests, but that's not what they were saying last week. . .

What are his spinmeisters saying tonight?  "It's always darkest before the dawn," or "we've only begun to fight?"  The Missouri and Minnesota losses weren't that shocking--these folks are going to vote mainly for the conservative candidate.  But Colorado?  What the Eff happened?  A few days ago, Romney was polling ahead in the double digits.  And tonight, Ex-Senator Rick Santorum whipped him by more than 5%.  Romney had plummeted 16% in a few days?  Maybe you can attribute this to his recent comments about the poor, or his recent financial disclosures, on top of his earlier verbal slips?  Or maybe people are just finally coming to their senses?  But that's not it, because those votes are going to Rick Santorum.

Mitt has been regularly tarred and feathered by his opponents as practically a Molotov-cocktail throwing Bolsheviki, or at best, a shameless flip-flopper and closet liberal, he walks into these next contests almost crippled.  As Bob Dylan wrote "It's not dark yet/but it's getting there."

In the battleground states, however, Mitt Romney and President Obama are polling neck and neck.  And, in the end, the battleground states are all that matter.   The center of the party would like to get focused on Romney and away from the opponent du jour.  But those damned voters keep getting in their way.

This could change rapidly, but in general, Romney now has to score in Arizona, Washington State, and the other states that vote/caucus before Super Tuesday, not necessarily to win, but to at least show he has some stuffing left.  But Super Tuesday is where his focus will be.  Super Tuesday is not as big as it has been in the past, but ten states is a pretty significant data point.  It may tell all.  But that's hard to know in this genuinely fragmented and bizarre nomination contest.

If anything, as a political dweeb,  this is all great news.  We now see the race, presumably with all four candidates, head into the next primaries and Super Tuesday.  No one is going to bail out before then, not now.

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Painting: The Pioneer

By Jack Brummet
[hand-drawn (marker, watercolor) on card stock and scanned]

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digital art: Old Glory

By Jack Brummet

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In hot water: the mineral springs of Desert Hot Springs (and photos of others we've visited--Breitenbush, Sol Duc, Esalen, Fairmont, Gold Fork, and The Boiling River)

By Jack Brummet, Geothermal Editor

The Hacienda Hot Springs

Over the years, I've written about some of our visits to hot springs, like Esalen, the Boiling River, Fairmont Hot Springs (one in B.C., and one near Butte, Montana), Sol Duc, and others, mostly on the west coast, Idaho, and Montana, but also one we visited in Turkey (an amazing Olympic-size pool that they opened up just for our family that night).

This map shows the locations and temperatures of the underground mineral springs in Desert Hot Springs.  The Hacienda, where we stayed, is in the 150 degree zone, and allegedly has the best water, because the hotter water dissolves more minerals as it rises to the surface.  They add water from a nearby cold water mineral spring to cool the water down to 100 for the pool, and around 106 or so for the hot pool.  It was some of the silkiest mineral water I've ever felt, with virtually no sulfur smell (which I actually don't mind).

My son Del, and nieces Mackenzie and Melanie in the Boiling River at Yellowstone

the beautiful pools at Esalen, on a cliff over the Pacific

We met a woman, Anne, at The Hacienda, who was looking to buy an old spa, or a piece of property/house in the spa zone (it costs around $30,000 to drill down to the hot springs and create a pipe and valve for on demand hot mineral water). 

Chico Hot Springs in Montana

At Breitenbush Hot Springs in Oregon, where Keelin goes twice a year for retreats, they also sit on top of a hot springs.  They have tapped into the springs and use it to heat their entire complex--via radiators and in floor piping.  I don't know if they also use the hot water to generate electricity. . .

The hot springs at Sol Duc, on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State

Breitenbush Hot Springs in Oregon

Fairmont Hot Springs

Gold Fork Hot Springs near McCall, Idaho

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Rocks: rocks and rock formations in and around The Mojave Desert

By Jack Brummet, Travel Editor

I was fascinated by the rock formations we saw in, and around, The Mojave desert this week.   There are many more I wanted to see, but time was limited.  Here are some of my favorite rocks:

That's Keelin in the center of the photo

Split Rock

a view of the Coachella Valley - you can see The Salton Sea in the center below the clouds

These last shots are of my favorite, Skull Rock

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