---o0o---
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Is Barack Obama An Intentional One Term President?
By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor
We've written about this before here. . .In his first year and a half in office, BHO took on a lot of difficult tasks, and succeeded at many of them. Notably, while in the middle of pushing for financial reforms and trying to prop up a faltering economy, he tackled health care reform. He has taken on a number of other reforms. He has already in his first two years, successfully seated two nominees on the Supreme Court. George W. Bush also placed two nominees--in eight years. On the other hand, President Bush also failed in one nomination--the disastrous and almost laughable nomination of his White House Counsel Harriet Miers. Bill Clinton also placed two people on The Supremes. BHO has also taken on some almost pointless issues, like bringing his old professor and a cop to the White House for a mediation over beers on the lawn. Or, when he recently spoke out about the proposed Muslim center in downtown Manhattan (about which he was absolutely right, but had nothing to gain) which is unlikely to ever be built, since they only have a few thousand dollars in the bank. He has nothing to gain, and is unlikely to really even influence people on these sorts of wedge issues.
Almost out of the gate, President Obama seemed to act as if a second term didn't really matter. The U.K.'s Telegraph had an interesting article this weekend, "Does Barack Obama want to be re-elected in 2012?" While I doubt the veracity and analysis of a British 'paper analyzing the U.S. Presidency, they have a point.
Almost everything Obama does these days suggests that he doesn't care much about being re-elected. He may want to be re-elected, but it feels like he isn't really sweating it one way or the other. Strange as it might seem, perhaps he wants to be a one-term president. And, let's face it, in an eight year term as President, you spend at least three of those years either running for re-election or functioning as either a virtual--or real!--lame duck.
---o0o---
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Ben Lee performs Catch My Disease live at an awards show
Ben Lee performs his great tune Catch My Disease live. This tune is also the theme song of the great radio show and podcast [imaginary radio show] TBTL by Luke Burbank...
---o0o---
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Friday, August 20, 2010
Alien Lore No. 178 -- Was Disney Onto Something Here? Does Disney Believe?
By Jack Brummet
Paranormal and Alien Lore Editor
"Mankind is in the midst of the most profound event in history – actual contact with intelligent life from other planets. For nearly 50 years, officials have been documenting routine alien encounters here on earth, and thousands of people have seen or experienced this alien presence. Yet many others still refuse to acknowledge the obvious evidence all around them. From beyond the boundaries of our perceptions, intelligent beings are beckoning mankind to join the galactic community."
-- Walt Disney Television special on aliens and UFOs titled Alien Encounters
Check out the entire Disney video/program here.
Walt Disney Television televised a most pretty cool one-hour special on UFOs in 1995, titled Alien Encounters from New Tomorrowland. This special discusses UFOs and alien visitation to earth not as some sort of fruitcake alien lore story, but as a fact. You can't buy it, but someone did record it on their VCR back in the day. It's fascinating.
At first glance, this show focuses on a New Tomorrowland ride that was about to be unveiled at Disney World. The program opens with an, in retrospect, strange, segment by Disney CEO Michael Eisner.
But this story is partisan. At no time do they even question the existence of UFOs or a major UFO cover-up. In face, the show almost seems to pity the D.A.s among us who doubt UFOs, or Visitors.
Excerpts from a transcript of the program:
Robert Urich [Intro sequence over various UFO photos and film]: This is not swamp gas. It is not a flock of birds. This is an actual spacecraft from another world, piloted by alien intelligence – one sighting from tens of thousands made over the last fifty years on virtually every continent on the globe. Intelligent life from distant galaxies is now attempting to make open contact with the human race. And tonight, we'll show you the evidence.
Disney CEO Michael Eisner [standing in front of what looks like a military hangar, guarded by armed troops]: Tonight we celebrate the New Tomorrowland at Walt Disney World in Florida with a television special that's out of this world. Hello, I'm Michael Eisner, head of the Walt Disney Company.
At a top secret military installation somewhere in the United States, there are those who believe that the government is hiding the remains of an alien spacecraft that mysteriously crashed to earth. With more and more scientific evidence of alien encounters and UFO sightings, the idea of creatures from another planet might not be as far-fetched as we once thought. In fact, one of you out there could have the next alien encounter. Enjoy tonight's special. I'm going to walk over and see if I can sneak a peak. [soldiers raise weapons] Maybe not!
Robert Urich: Scientific verification of extraterrestrial life forms routinely arriving on earth; top secret reports from ongoing military investigations; compelling home videos of alien craft captured within the last few months; world figures who have gone public with their own extraterrestrial experiences; the shocking history of government misinformation programs designed to prevent widespread panic; and personal accounts of those who have been abducted and studied against their will.
From beyond the boundaries of our perceptions, intelligent beings are beckoning mankind to join the galactic community. It's an invitation which is both wondrous and terrifying. This is the nature of alien encounters.
Mankind has the unique ability to ignore the obvious, especially when the facts reveal a disturbing truth. We once believed the sun revolved around the Earth. When Galileo demonstrated the reverse is true in 1634, he was charged with heresy and placed under house arrest for the last eight years of his life. The charges were later dropped – 342 years later.
Now as we approach the new millennium, mankind is in the midst of the most profound event in history – actual contact with intelligent life from other planets. For nearly 50 years, officials have been documenting routine alien encounters here on earth, and thousands of people have seen or experienced this alien presence.
Yet many others still refuse to acknowledge the obvious evidence all around them. What is it like to be confronted by a creature whose intelligence and skill is far beyond the comprehension of mankind? Would it be enlightening? Would it be an exercise in terror? Or perhaps both?
Here in the New Tomorrowland at the Walt Disney World resort near Orlando, Florida, these concepts are brought to life as guests experience their own alien encounter, a sensory thriller from Disney and George Lukas. We'll give you a sneak preview later in the show. But first, we must prepare you for the future with some shocking insights from the recent past.
Alien ships seem to arrive in waves, and if the last few years are any indication, planet Earth is experiencing a tsunami of sightings. For the last few months of 1994 and lately in 1995, Gulf Breeze, Florida has been ground zero for alien encounters. Especially during the day, extraterrestrial craft have become common ornaments in the uneasy skies. You would think these alien sightings would be front-page news. So why have they received almost no national attention? The answer is simple. For governments determined to maintain their authority, extraterrestrial contact is pure dynamite.
Capt. Kevin Randle (retired air force intelligence officer): There's beings from another planet. We don't know where they come from. We don't know what they're doing here. There's nothing we can do about it. Any time a technologically superior civilization comes in contact with a technologically inferior civilization, the technologically inferior civilization ceases to exist – not necessarily through conquest, not necessarily through invasion, but because the technology changes the underlying social structures of that civilization, and it disintegrates.
Urich: Those fears are reflected in a 1960 federally funded study by the Brookings Institution, which warned that public knowledge of alien life could cause civilization to collapse.
Why have aliens chosen to visit our small blue planet, hidden on the distant fringes of an insignificant star cluster? Well, we invited them here.
There have been reports of alien encounters throughout recorded history. But since the end of World War II, alien encounters have adopted a darker, more menacing demeanor. No longer just spirited lights dancing in the sky, UFOs turned more brazen, announcing themselves with surprising ferocity.
Most alien activity on earth in this century seems to have been sparked by the single most profound technological achievement in human history. The atomic bomb did more than blow away every conventional notion of combat. It also saddled mankind with the awesome responsibility of life and death for the entire planet.
But what the world didn't know in 1945 was that the atomic bomb's brilliant burst of energy would also be mankind's cosmic calling card, announcing to the universe that a technological society had evolved on a small blue planet in the backwaters of the stars. So as the world celebrated the war's end in 1945, aliens who heard man's atomic trumpet were already charting their course toward earth, responding to our open invitation.
As early as 1947, the large alien ships began to arrive, navigated by living creatures. Their advanced physics allowed them to traverse the galaxy and pierce earth's atmosphere with amazing speed. The U.S. military immediately went on the alert against the unknown menace. Sightings were perceived as threats to the security of an America still reeling from the edgy consciousness of war. And the sightings were taking place all across the country.
More than one alien craft crashed and was recovered for secret U.S. military research. The most famous case took place in July of 1947 just outside the community of Roswell, New Mexico – famous, because local officials openly admitted they had retrieved an alien ship before their commanders instructed them to keep the story confidential. What you can't explain, they reasoned, you must deny.
This is the actual site where the Roswell saucer was discovered, along with the bodies of three extraterrestrial missionaries who didn't survive the collision. The debris and the dead were impounded and taken away for top secret study, while a classified investigative committee called the Majestic Twelve was organized by President Truman, and a government cover-up was initiated with a calculated disinformation campaign.
But while the Pentagon refused to publicly admit aliens had arrived on earth, their top secret internal memos told a different story, even detailing the various ships and the creatures they had autopsied.
By the early 1960s, UFOs were having a chilling effect on our defense operations. Their tremendous speed often caused them to be misidentified as incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles, putting American air bases on red alert. There needed to be some way for the U.S. and the Soviets to distinguish between nuclear attack and alien visitors.
Clifford Stone [retired army officer]: The Hot Line between Moscow and Washington was set up so that they could go ahead and make last-minute pleas, that "We're not attacking you, and you're not attacking us." The purpose of this was to insure that a nuclear war would not be touched off by a UFO appearing on the scopes and being mistaken for enemy aircraft.
Urich: The Hot Line eased some international tensions, but it didn't halt the interaction between the military and the aliens, which continues to this day.
Stone: [In] November of 1975, essentially every SAC [Strategic Air Command] base in the United States was visited by UFOs. We have reason to believe that the UFOs went ahead and had some effect on changing the codes within the missiles, within the launch control facility, to change where the missiles would hit.
1976, September, Iran, two F-4s try to intercept a UFO and shoot at one of the UFOs. The weapons systems of the planes go dead, the communications systems go dead. These are just two examples of cases which sound like they came out of science fiction, but in reality, they're from government documentation, documents released by the State Department.
Urich: Indications are that government, military and scientific leaders will soon release nearly a half-century of official documentation of ongoing alien encounters on earth. Perhaps they feel it would be too embarrassing not to reveal the truth, before the truth reveals itself. But these FBI files acquired through the Freedom of Information Act outline nearly fifty years of UFO reports investigated by federal agents all across America, overwhelming evidence that something sinister is at work.
This particular report from October of 1969 was filled out by Jimmy Carter. He was still Governor of Georgia at the time he witnessed a luminous object suspended in the twilight sky. Later, when he assumed the office of President of the United States, his staff attempted to explore the availability of official investigations into alien contact. As this internal government memo illustrates, there are some security secrets outside the jurisdiction of the White House.
Planet earth has always been a laboratory for alien life forms which can drop in from space or slowly mutate into bizarre fleshy organisms at our feet [holding a large mushroom]. Understanding the nature of these strange creatures from above, and below, is the greatest challenge of our age. We now know that our future, indeed the future of earth itself, rests in the balance of the solid and the ethereal, of common sense and the irrational, in our relationship with alien life as grotesque as a fungus, or as glorious as the heavens.
---o0o---
Paranormal and Alien Lore Editor
"Mankind is in the midst of the most profound event in history – actual contact with intelligent life from other planets. For nearly 50 years, officials have been documenting routine alien encounters here on earth, and thousands of people have seen or experienced this alien presence. Yet many others still refuse to acknowledge the obvious evidence all around them. From beyond the boundaries of our perceptions, intelligent beings are beckoning mankind to join the galactic community."
-- Walt Disney Television special on aliens and UFOs titled Alien Encounters
Walt Disney Television televised a most pretty cool one-hour special on UFOs in 1995, titled Alien Encounters from New Tomorrowland. This special discusses UFOs and alien visitation to earth not as some sort of fruitcake alien lore story, but as a fact. You can't buy it, but someone did record it on their VCR back in the day. It's fascinating.
But this story is partisan. At no time do they even question the existence of UFOs or a major UFO cover-up. In face, the show almost seems to pity the D.A.s among us who doubt UFOs, or Visitors.
______________________________________________
Excerpts from a transcript of the program:
Robert Urich [Intro sequence over various UFO photos and film]: This is not swamp gas. It is not a flock of birds. This is an actual spacecraft from another world, piloted by alien intelligence – one sighting from tens of thousands made over the last fifty years on virtually every continent on the globe. Intelligent life from distant galaxies is now attempting to make open contact with the human race. And tonight, we'll show you the evidence.
Disney CEO Michael Eisner [standing in front of what looks like a military hangar, guarded by armed troops]: Tonight we celebrate the New Tomorrowland at Walt Disney World in Florida with a television special that's out of this world. Hello, I'm Michael Eisner, head of the Walt Disney Company.
At a top secret military installation somewhere in the United States, there are those who believe that the government is hiding the remains of an alien spacecraft that mysteriously crashed to earth. With more and more scientific evidence of alien encounters and UFO sightings, the idea of creatures from another planet might not be as far-fetched as we once thought. In fact, one of you out there could have the next alien encounter. Enjoy tonight's special. I'm going to walk over and see if I can sneak a peak. [soldiers raise weapons] Maybe not!
Robert Urich: Scientific verification of extraterrestrial life forms routinely arriving on earth; top secret reports from ongoing military investigations; compelling home videos of alien craft captured within the last few months; world figures who have gone public with their own extraterrestrial experiences; the shocking history of government misinformation programs designed to prevent widespread panic; and personal accounts of those who have been abducted and studied against their will.
From beyond the boundaries of our perceptions, intelligent beings are beckoning mankind to join the galactic community. It's an invitation which is both wondrous and terrifying. This is the nature of alien encounters.
Mankind has the unique ability to ignore the obvious, especially when the facts reveal a disturbing truth. We once believed the sun revolved around the Earth. When Galileo demonstrated the reverse is true in 1634, he was charged with heresy and placed under house arrest for the last eight years of his life. The charges were later dropped – 342 years later.
Now as we approach the new millennium, mankind is in the midst of the most profound event in history – actual contact with intelligent life from other planets. For nearly 50 years, officials have been documenting routine alien encounters here on earth, and thousands of people have seen or experienced this alien presence.
Yet many others still refuse to acknowledge the obvious evidence all around them. What is it like to be confronted by a creature whose intelligence and skill is far beyond the comprehension of mankind? Would it be enlightening? Would it be an exercise in terror? Or perhaps both?
Here in the New Tomorrowland at the Walt Disney World resort near Orlando, Florida, these concepts are brought to life as guests experience their own alien encounter, a sensory thriller from Disney and George Lukas. We'll give you a sneak preview later in the show. But first, we must prepare you for the future with some shocking insights from the recent past.
Alien ships seem to arrive in waves, and if the last few years are any indication, planet Earth is experiencing a tsunami of sightings. For the last few months of 1994 and lately in 1995, Gulf Breeze, Florida has been ground zero for alien encounters. Especially during the day, extraterrestrial craft have become common ornaments in the uneasy skies. You would think these alien sightings would be front-page news. So why have they received almost no national attention? The answer is simple. For governments determined to maintain their authority, extraterrestrial contact is pure dynamite.
Capt. Kevin Randle (retired air force intelligence officer): There's beings from another planet. We don't know where they come from. We don't know what they're doing here. There's nothing we can do about it. Any time a technologically superior civilization comes in contact with a technologically inferior civilization, the technologically inferior civilization ceases to exist – not necessarily through conquest, not necessarily through invasion, but because the technology changes the underlying social structures of that civilization, and it disintegrates.
Urich: Those fears are reflected in a 1960 federally funded study by the Brookings Institution, which warned that public knowledge of alien life could cause civilization to collapse.
Why have aliens chosen to visit our small blue planet, hidden on the distant fringes of an insignificant star cluster? Well, we invited them here.
There have been reports of alien encounters throughout recorded history. But since the end of World War II, alien encounters have adopted a darker, more menacing demeanor. No longer just spirited lights dancing in the sky, UFOs turned more brazen, announcing themselves with surprising ferocity.
Most alien activity on earth in this century seems to have been sparked by the single most profound technological achievement in human history. The atomic bomb did more than blow away every conventional notion of combat. It also saddled mankind with the awesome responsibility of life and death for the entire planet.
But what the world didn't know in 1945 was that the atomic bomb's brilliant burst of energy would also be mankind's cosmic calling card, announcing to the universe that a technological society had evolved on a small blue planet in the backwaters of the stars. So as the world celebrated the war's end in 1945, aliens who heard man's atomic trumpet were already charting their course toward earth, responding to our open invitation.
As early as 1947, the large alien ships began to arrive, navigated by living creatures. Their advanced physics allowed them to traverse the galaxy and pierce earth's atmosphere with amazing speed. The U.S. military immediately went on the alert against the unknown menace. Sightings were perceived as threats to the security of an America still reeling from the edgy consciousness of war. And the sightings were taking place all across the country.
More than one alien craft crashed and was recovered for secret U.S. military research. The most famous case took place in July of 1947 just outside the community of Roswell, New Mexico – famous, because local officials openly admitted they had retrieved an alien ship before their commanders instructed them to keep the story confidential. What you can't explain, they reasoned, you must deny.
This is the actual site where the Roswell saucer was discovered, along with the bodies of three extraterrestrial missionaries who didn't survive the collision. The debris and the dead were impounded and taken away for top secret study, while a classified investigative committee called the Majestic Twelve was organized by President Truman, and a government cover-up was initiated with a calculated disinformation campaign.
But while the Pentagon refused to publicly admit aliens had arrived on earth, their top secret internal memos told a different story, even detailing the various ships and the creatures they had autopsied.
By the early 1960s, UFOs were having a chilling effect on our defense operations. Their tremendous speed often caused them to be misidentified as incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles, putting American air bases on red alert. There needed to be some way for the U.S. and the Soviets to distinguish between nuclear attack and alien visitors.
Clifford Stone [retired army officer]: The Hot Line between Moscow and Washington was set up so that they could go ahead and make last-minute pleas, that "We're not attacking you, and you're not attacking us." The purpose of this was to insure that a nuclear war would not be touched off by a UFO appearing on the scopes and being mistaken for enemy aircraft.
Urich: The Hot Line eased some international tensions, but it didn't halt the interaction between the military and the aliens, which continues to this day.
Stone: [In] November of 1975, essentially every SAC [Strategic Air Command] base in the United States was visited by UFOs. We have reason to believe that the UFOs went ahead and had some effect on changing the codes within the missiles, within the launch control facility, to change where the missiles would hit.
1976, September, Iran, two F-4s try to intercept a UFO and shoot at one of the UFOs. The weapons systems of the planes go dead, the communications systems go dead. These are just two examples of cases which sound like they came out of science fiction, but in reality, they're from government documentation, documents released by the State Department.
Urich: Indications are that government, military and scientific leaders will soon release nearly a half-century of official documentation of ongoing alien encounters on earth. Perhaps they feel it would be too embarrassing not to reveal the truth, before the truth reveals itself. But these FBI files acquired through the Freedom of Information Act outline nearly fifty years of UFO reports investigated by federal agents all across America, overwhelming evidence that something sinister is at work.
This particular report from October of 1969 was filled out by Jimmy Carter. He was still Governor of Georgia at the time he witnessed a luminous object suspended in the twilight sky. Later, when he assumed the office of President of the United States, his staff attempted to explore the availability of official investigations into alien contact. As this internal government memo illustrates, there are some security secrets outside the jurisdiction of the White House.
Planet earth has always been a laboratory for alien life forms which can drop in from space or slowly mutate into bizarre fleshy organisms at our feet [holding a large mushroom]. Understanding the nature of these strange creatures from above, and below, is the greatest challenge of our age. We now know that our future, indeed the future of earth itself, rests in the balance of the solid and the ethereal, of common sense and the irrational, in our relationship with alien life as grotesque as a fungus, or as glorious as the heavens.
---o0o---
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Drawing: Panels [Open-minded; the bolt of love; abduction!; The Jury; Here Fido!; Lean On Me; Sex; The King; Mob; A Shout In The Wilderness; The Boss; The Look Of Love; Isolation; The Huddle; Happy; Drunk]
Drawing by Jack Brummet - Open-minded; the bolt of love; abduction!; The Jury; Here Fido!; Lean On Me; Sex; The King; Mob; A Shout In The Wilderness; The Boss; The Look Of Love; Isolation; The Huddle; Happy; Drunk. [click to enlarge]
---o0o---
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Notes on the trial and "conviction" of Ex-Governor Rod Blagojevich
By Jack Brummet
Ethics and Social Mores Editor
What to do when you're facing dozens of charges of criminal corruption (including racketeering, conspiracy, and wire fraud)? Well, you might appear on a reality TV show like The Apprentice. Blagojevich was fired by Donald Trump after mismanaging a project (due to his inability to communicate...he cannot use a computer or send text messages, which left his team in the dark). When reality TV didn't work out, he would make numerous appearances as an Elvis impersonator.
Voir dire - Everyone seems to be wondering if the attorneys for the prosecution fell down during Voir dire. "In the United States, it now generally refers to the process by which prospective jurors are questioned about their backgrounds and potential biases before being chosen to sit on a jury." [Wikipedia]. The holdout juror doesn't appear to be a nutcase or fruitcake. . .she seems to have honestly believed that the government had not proved its case except the one count of lying to the FBI. She would have easily slipped through the voir dire process. It happens. It's why we require unanimous verdicts. . .a little insurance for the possibility of reasonable doubt. Clearly the government will reprosecute this one, perhaps with a less complicated case, and becoming a little more serious about jury selection.
It is Chicago, so some of us wonder if the fix was in with the hold-out jury member? Or was she mobbed up? Again, on the surface, she seems legit. She simply didn't buy the government's case. And it does look like the prosecution may have cut some corners due to overconfidence in their case. Who can really blame them--he was practically caught with his hand wedged in the cookie jar.
If you're Rod Blagojevich, after you are convicted on one count, and the prosecution announces it's intention to refile on the other 23 cases where the jury hung. . .what then? Well, The Ex-Gov has mounted a bizarre counterstrike in the media.
Blagojevich appears to be broke again, and is pondering a return to reality TV as he awaits The Blago Corruption Trial: The Sequel.
---o0o---
Ethics and Social Mores Editor
What to do when you're facing dozens of charges of criminal corruption (including racketeering, conspiracy, and wire fraud)? Well, you might appear on a reality TV show like The Apprentice. Blagojevich was fired by Donald Trump after mismanaging a project (due to his inability to communicate...he cannot use a computer or send text messages, which left his team in the dark). When reality TV didn't work out, he would make numerous appearances as an Elvis impersonator.
It is Chicago, so some of us wonder if the fix was in with the hold-out jury member? Or was she mobbed up? Again, on the surface, she seems legit. She simply didn't buy the government's case. And it does look like the prosecution may have cut some corners due to overconfidence in their case. Who can really blame them--he was practically caught with his hand wedged in the cookie jar.
If you're Rod Blagojevich, after you are convicted on one count, and the prosecution announces it's intention to refile on the other 23 cases where the jury hung. . .what then? Well, The Ex-Gov has mounted a bizarre counterstrike in the media.
Blagojevich appears to be broke again, and is pondering a return to reality TV as he awaits The Blago Corruption Trial: The Sequel.
---o0o---
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Slate's Excellent Mock Ad: Levi Johnston for Mayor
By Pablo Fanque
National Affairs Editor
This mock ad for Levi Johnston's mayoral campaign is just great. Slate's slogan is even better: "Levi Johnston: Building A Bridge To Somewhere."
---o0o---
National Affairs Editor
This mock ad for Levi Johnston's mayoral campaign is just great. Slate's slogan is even better: "Levi Johnston: Building A Bridge To Somewhere."
---o0o---
Seattle Black Panthers, armed on the Capitol Steps circa 1969
[click to enlarge photograph - courtesy of the Wash. State Digital Archives]
In this photo (courtesy of the Washington State Digital Archives), you see armed members of the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party on the steps of the Legislative Building.
The Seattle Black Panthers, led by Elmer Dixon gathered on the steps of the Capitol in Olympia in February 1969 to protest a bill that would make it a crime to exhibit firearms “in a manner manifesting an intent to intimidate others.”
No one was arrested, apparently there were no confrontations, and they left under their own power when they were finished. It kind of makes you wonder what would happen if someone did this today, forty years later. I get the feeling it might not have turned out so well. . .I mean, you can hardly even build a mosque these days. . .
---o0o---
In this photo (courtesy of the Washington State Digital Archives), you see armed members of the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party on the steps of the Legislative Building.
The Seattle Black Panthers, led by Elmer Dixon gathered on the steps of the Capitol in Olympia in February 1969 to protest a bill that would make it a crime to exhibit firearms “in a manner manifesting an intent to intimidate others.”
No one was arrested, apparently there were no confrontations, and they left under their own power when they were finished. It kind of makes you wonder what would happen if someone did this today, forty years later. I get the feeling it might not have turned out so well. . .I mean, you can hardly even build a mosque these days. . .
---o0o---
Monday, August 16, 2010
Interesting: who's channeling whom?
My friend Hira found this on the wall of an examining room at Yale (she's in medical school, becoming a PA). She had seen it numerous times, but one day realized the characters resembled the ones in my (Jack's) faces drawings series...the faces all similar to mind, and done in the same sort of format--squares on a grid, with each portrait a shoulders-up head shot. It is a little eerie, but easily explainable when two people who like to draw, but being unschooled, use an approach more closely rooted in comics and folk art than in the studio portrait tradition. It will look like this (artist unknown--click to enlarge):
Or this:
(jack brummet drawing - click to enlarge)
---o0o---
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Not a proportional response: Tila Tequila driven offstage at Insane Clown Posse festival & pelted with feces, water bottles, and fireworks
By Jack Brummet
Ethics and Social Mores Editor
At a festival this weekend (the annual Gathering of the Juggalos), organized by Insane Clown Posse, ICP made the apparent mistake of booking Tila Tequila. Ms. Tequila was pelted with rocks, various pieces of garbage and cascades of human excrement while fans badgered her to take her top off (and when she finally did, the barrage only increased in frequency and vehemence). The hecklers/assailants used nearby Port-a-potties as a source of ammo.
Tequila ended her performance quickly and ahead of schedule. A witness told CNN: "the crowd of about 2,000 was immediately angry toward Tequila and she was unable to turn them around. She was taunting them,” he said. “She didn’t know how to handle them. She didn’t understand the dynamic. She took her top off and they got really violent,” he said.
Ms. Tequila tweeted this weekend that she would be suing the organizers (e.g., Insane Clown Posse) for everything she can get her hands on.
This was not a proportional response to either her cheesy reality show persona, or her undoubtedly bad singing and rapping. For more information on proportional responses, read this.
---o0o---
Ethics and Social Mores Editor
At a festival this weekend (the annual Gathering of the Juggalos), organized by Insane Clown Posse, ICP made the apparent mistake of booking Tila Tequila. Ms. Tequila was pelted with rocks, various pieces of garbage and cascades of human excrement while fans badgered her to take her top off (and when she finally did, the barrage only increased in frequency and vehemence). The hecklers/assailants used nearby Port-a-potties as a source of ammo.
Tequila ended her performance quickly and ahead of schedule. A witness told CNN: "the crowd of about 2,000 was immediately angry toward Tequila and she was unable to turn them around. She was taunting them,” he said. “She didn’t know how to handle them. She didn’t understand the dynamic. She took her top off and they got really violent,” he said.
Ms. Tequila tweeted this weekend that she would be suing the organizers (e.g., Insane Clown Posse) for everything she can get her hands on.
This was not a proportional response to either her cheesy reality show persona, or her undoubtedly bad singing and rapping. For more information on proportional responses, read this.
---o0o---
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Hurting Inside, putting up signs outside
We saw these signs at the home of a homeowner on Seattle's Lake Union. Clearly this is someone who is hurting inside. These photos maybe capture half of the signs we saw there...
click images to enlarge...
click images to enlarge...
---o0o---
The Northern Lights a/k/a Aurora Borealis in Seattle
Alas, no northern lights, but this week we did get the Perseid meter shower...
---o0o---
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Dan Quayle's Spawn Ben calls BHO "worst President in history." Wasn't one Quayle enough?
By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor
One-term Vice President Dan Quayle's son Ben says Obama is the worst President ever. BQ is running against a dozen candidates for the US House of Representatives in Arizona's 3rd congressional district. [Thanks Jeff Clinton for the news tip].
The 33-year-old says "my generation will inherit a weakened country." He asks the voters in his ad, "What's happened to America?" Asking for their vote, he says "I love Arizona. I was raised right."
Quayle, a Scottsdale attorney, calls himself as a family man. He was recently photographed with two kids for a recent campaign flyer. But then, he later had to admit that they weren't actually his young 'uns. . .
All This Is That National Affairs Editor
One-term Vice President Dan Quayle's son Ben says Obama is the worst President ever. BQ is running against a dozen candidates for the US House of Representatives in Arizona's 3rd congressional district. [Thanks Jeff Clinton for the news tip].
Dad
The 33-year-old says "my generation will inherit a weakened country." He asks the voters in his ad, "What's happened to America?" Asking for their vote, he says "I love Arizona. I was raised right."
"Somebody has to go to Washington and knock the hell out of the place."
Son
Quayle, a Scottsdale attorney, calls himself as a family man. He was recently photographed with two kids for a recent campaign flyer. But then, he later had to admit that they weren't actually his young 'uns. . .
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
"I take one everywhere I take my penis" - a Public Service Poster from Seattle
Apparently this poster was created as a PSA sort of thing in Seattle, according to http://www.shtig.net/muses/condom_subvert.jpg, "my uncle worked on the design team for that, and I got a framed original. They were for a community thing in Seattle promoting condom usage and only around 2,000 were printed, so it's a pretty rare artifact."
The work was crreated by Art Chantry. . .this is his website.
The work was crreated by Art Chantry. . .this is his website.
---o0o---
September 3, 2010: Machete!
I am really looking forward to this movie. Less than a month to go!
Lindsay Lohan ... April Benz
Robert De Niro ... Senator McLaughlin
Jessica Alba ... Sartana
Michelle Rodriguez ... Luz
Steven Seagal ... Torrez
Tim Roth ... Agent Ringo Orange
Danny Trejo ... Machete
Rose McGowan ... Cherry Darling
Sacha Baron Cohen ... Colonel Weathers
Don Johnson ... Lt. Stillman
Daryl Sabara ... Julio
Cheech Marin ... Padre Benito del Toro
Lindsay Lohan ... April Benz
Robert De Niro ... Senator McLaughlin
Jessica Alba ... Sartana
Michelle Rodriguez ... Luz
Steven Seagal ... Torrez
Tim Roth ... Agent Ringo Orange
Danny Trejo ... Machete
Rose McGowan ... Cherry Darling
Sacha Baron Cohen ... Colonel Weathers
Don Johnson ... Lt. Stillman
Daryl Sabara ... Julio
Cheech Marin ... Padre Benito del Toro
---o0o---
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
All This Is That has returned to using word verification for comments
All This Is That has returned to using word verification for comments. It kind of cuts against our ideas of creative anarchy and freedom, but we are seeing increasing--and skankier--spam all the time. So, you'll have to answer the word challenge to post a comment. Sorry about that.
---o0o---
Remembering Jerry Garcia
Fifteen years ago, Jerry Garcia passed away. We got to see him a couple of times on his last tour with the dead, in Seattle in May, 1995. The photo below is from that show, I still miss the man and the music.
A few Garcia quotes:
"Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil. "
"For me, the lame part of the Sixties was the political part, the social part. The real part was the spiritual part. "
"I'm shopping around for something to do that no one will like. "
"Nobody stopped thinking about those psychedelic experiences. Once you've been to some of those places, you think, 'How can I get back there again but make it a little easier on myself?' "
"Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us. "
"It's pretty clear now that what looked like it might have been some kind of counterculture is, in reality, just the plain old chaos of undifferentiated weirdness. "
"I read somewhere that 77 per cent of all the mentally ill live in poverty. Actually, I'm more intrigued by the 23 per cent who are apparently doing quite well for themselves."
"What we do is as American as lynch mobs. America has always been a complex place. "
---o0o---
A few Garcia quotes:
"Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil. "
"For me, the lame part of the Sixties was the political part, the social part. The real part was the spiritual part. "
"I'm shopping around for something to do that no one will like. "
"Nobody stopped thinking about those psychedelic experiences. Once you've been to some of those places, you think, 'How can I get back there again but make it a little easier on myself?' "
"Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us. "
"It's pretty clear now that what looked like it might have been some kind of counterculture is, in reality, just the plain old chaos of undifferentiated weirdness. "
"I read somewhere that 77 per cent of all the mentally ill live in poverty. Actually, I'm more intrigued by the 23 per cent who are apparently doing quite well for themselves."
"What we do is as American as lynch mobs. America has always been a complex place. "
---o0o---
Monday, August 09, 2010
Alien Lore No.177 -- The Antikythera Mechanism: Greek, or Grey?
The Antikythera Mechanism has buffaloed scientists and technologists ever since sponge divers found it on a sea floor almost 110 years ago. As a largely unexplained mystery, it has also inflamed the UFOlogists. Was it the work of brilliant ancient Greek Scientists, or a gift from our cousins, The Greys? Well, I'm really good either way. As an even potential contribution from the Greys, it qualifies for inclusion as another tidbit of Alien Lore. . .
The Antikythera mechanism may be an ancient Greek sort-of-clockwork device that has taken longer than a hundred years to understand. And we still don't really understand it. The mechanism is housed in the Greek National Archaeological Museum in the Greek capital and is regarded to be the single most complex antiquity in existence. I saw it at the museum in Athens two years ago, but really didn't think a lot about it until Jeff Clinton recently pointed out several articles and videos about the science and origins of the device.
The question you have to ask: were the ancients really smarter than us (in that we haven't figured it out yet), or was the device something left behind by Our Cousins, The Greys? Anytime we can't really explain why or how something happened, there is a group of people who will attribute it to aliens, or The Greys. Gene Rodenberry was particularly cranky about this--saying something to the effect that every time we can't explain something, or we find something particularly brilliant and ancient, people say it came from the aliens. It's didn't, he said, we're smart!
The Great Pyramids are often attributed as the work of Visitors. Rodenberry believed this happens because we somehow can't accept that our forebears weren't just knuckle-dragging troglodytes. They were, in fact, smart--wickedly smart. So smart that this device used some of the same techniques and technology that we wouldn't come around to until we began to construct the first serious and powerful analog (e.g., mechanical) computers in the 20th century.
Research is still ongoing--we keep learning from and analyzing the device. The device is stunningly complex. People originally thought it was some sort of clock, but when Greek inscriptions were found using advanced technology, it turned out to be an engine for predicting eclipses and moon phases and the positions of the planets. Scientists say it seems to be 1,000 years ahead of its time.
On the other hand, the device seems to mainly track the five planets known at that time. Wouldn't The Greys, having flown to earth, been aware of the other planets in our little solar system?
The Antikythera mechanism may be an ancient Greek sort-of-clockwork device that has taken longer than a hundred years to understand. And we still don't really understand it. The mechanism is housed in the Greek National Archaeological Museum in the Greek capital and is regarded to be the single most complex antiquity in existence. I saw it at the museum in Athens two years ago, but really didn't think a lot about it until Jeff Clinton recently pointed out several articles and videos about the science and origins of the device.
The question you have to ask: were the ancients really smarter than us (in that we haven't figured it out yet), or was the device something left behind by Our Cousins, The Greys? Anytime we can't really explain why or how something happened, there is a group of people who will attribute it to aliens, or The Greys. Gene Rodenberry was particularly cranky about this--saying something to the effect that every time we can't explain something, or we find something particularly brilliant and ancient, people say it came from the aliens. It's didn't, he said, we're smart!
The Great Pyramids are often attributed as the work of Visitors. Rodenberry believed this happens because we somehow can't accept that our forebears weren't just knuckle-dragging troglodytes. They were, in fact, smart--wickedly smart. So smart that this device used some of the same techniques and technology that we wouldn't come around to until we began to construct the first serious and powerful analog (e.g., mechanical) computers in the 20th century.
Research is still ongoing--we keep learning from and analyzing the device. The device is stunningly complex. People originally thought it was some sort of clock, but when Greek inscriptions were found using advanced technology, it turned out to be an engine for predicting eclipses and moon phases and the positions of the planets. Scientists say it seems to be 1,000 years ahead of its time.
On the other hand, the device seems to mainly track the five planets known at that time. Wouldn't The Greys, having flown to earth, been aware of the other planets in our little solar system?
From various articles, you learn that the machine was able to perform computational tasks 1400 years or so before the time when crude machines of this sort probably appeared. What sort of tasks? Well, using 37 gears or so, it can do subtractions, multiplications and divisions to show the cycles of the moon, predict eclipses, and who knows what else? It even has an adjustment you can make for Leap Day, since the calendar it employs requires you to catch up with reality once every four years.
From The Wikipedia: The mechanism is the oldest known complex scientific calculator. It contains many gears, and is sometimes called the first known analog computer,[8] although its flawless manufacturing suggests that it may have had a number of predecessors during the Hellenistic Period which have not yet been discovered.[9] It appears to be constructed upon theories of astronomy and mathematics developed by Greek astronomers and it is estimated that it was made around 150-100 BC.
The most recent findings of The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project, as published in the July 30, 2008, edition of Nature also suggest that the concept for the mechanism originated in the colonies of Corinth. We know the Corinthians were no 'tards.
When a date was entered via a crank (which we did not recover), the mechanism calculated the position of the Sun, Moon, or other astronomical information such as the location of other planets. Not bad,
---o0o---
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Candidate Dr. Rand Paul? Pothead? Kidnapper? Mocker of religion?
By Pablo Fanque
National Affairs Editor
As you probably know by now, Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul helped *allegedly* kidnap a female student and tried to force her to smoke marijuana in a "prank" during his days at Texas's Baylor University, a GQ article reported.
Paul, with another member of a "secret liberal society" targeted a woman who was a teammate on the swim team. The kidnappers were members of the NoZe Brotherhood, an organization of liberal-minded students at the Waco, TX Baptist college.
The woman told GQ "He and Randy [Paul] came to my house, they knocked on my door, and then they blindfolded me, tied me up, and put me in their car. They took me to their apartment and tried to force me to take bong hits. They'd been smoking pot."
Later, they drove her to a creek in the countryside and forced her to worship a bogus God. "They told me their god was 'Aqua Buddha' and that I needed to bow down and worship him," the woman said.
"The whole thing was kind of sadistic. They were messing with my mind. It was some kind of joke."
Paul campaign manager Jesse Benton told Slate.com it was weighing its options, including legal options. “We will not tolerate drive-by journalism by a writer with a leftist agenda." Benton never explicitly denied the story. That is telling in itself.
You have to wonder how Dr. Paul can possibly wiggle out of this one. This can't play too favorably with his base, whoever they are. . .
---o0o---
National Affairs Editor
Paul, with another member of a "secret liberal society" targeted a woman who was a teammate on the swim team. The kidnappers were members of the NoZe Brotherhood, an organization of liberal-minded students at the Waco, TX Baptist college.
Later, they drove her to a creek in the countryside and forced her to worship a bogus God. "They told me their god was 'Aqua Buddha' and that I needed to bow down and worship him," the woman said.
"The whole thing was kind of sadistic. They were messing with my mind. It was some kind of joke."
Paul campaign manager Jesse Benton told Slate.com it was weighing its options, including legal options. “We will not tolerate drive-by journalism by a writer with a leftist agenda." Benton never explicitly denied the story. That is telling in itself.
---o0o---
Saturday, August 07, 2010
Friday, August 06, 2010
Thursday, August 05, 2010
The Worst Boss Ever (nawwww....but he's way up there): Edward Mike Davis and the Tiger Oil Memos
By Jack Brummet
Social Mores Editor
First, thanks to regular tipster Dean Ericksen for pointing out this treasure trove!
The excellent blog, Letter of Note, has just released a fascinating compendium of Edward Mike Davis's Tiger Oil Company memos. This guy makes Buddy Rich look look warm and cuddly. He is consistently angry, tyrannical, and unintentionally humorous.
As I also wrote about that Johnny Carson egg sketch with Dom DeLuise, this makes 30 years ago seem like a long, long time. Jump over to Letters of Note and check out these gems.
The website also includes transcripts of all 22 memos. Wow. Many years ago, I had one boss nearly this bad, at Carl Fischer Music Publishers in NYC. What kept him in check was that he was not actually the owner of the company, although he liked you to believe he was. He was like a zeppelin in a hurricane, straining at his moorings. It seemed like any minute he could go completely crackers...He had a frightening, but in retrospect, awesome and wonderful pompadour. He was from Staten Island, natch.
Social Mores Editor
The excellent blog, Letter of Note, has just released a fascinating compendium of Edward Mike Davis's Tiger Oil Company memos. This guy makes Buddy Rich look look warm and cuddly. He is consistently angry, tyrannical, and unintentionally humorous.
As I also wrote about that Johnny Carson egg sketch with Dom DeLuise, this makes 30 years ago seem like a long, long time. Jump over to Letters of Note and check out these gems.
The website also includes transcripts of all 22 memos. Wow. Many years ago, I had one boss nearly this bad, at Carl Fischer Music Publishers in NYC. What kept him in check was that he was not actually the owner of the company, although he liked you to believe he was. He was like a zeppelin in a hurricane, straining at his moorings. It seemed like any minute he could go completely crackers...He had a frightening, but in retrospect, awesome and wonderful pompadour. He was from Staten Island, natch.
---o0o---
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Alien Lore No. 176 -- More X Files from Europe
Thanks to a good friend of All This Is That, Dr. Stephen Clarke-Willson, for another great tip.As you know from previous Alien Lore stories here, over the last year or so, Russia, France, and England have opened up and begun releasing their UFO/Grey/Alien files. Literally thousand of documents have already been released by these three countries, with many thousands more queued up for release as I type this.
The Brits just released their latest batch--including a letter saying that Winston Churchill ordered a 50 year cover-up of a wartime encounter between a UFO and military pilot.
The files, published by England's National Archives, "span decades and contain scores of witness accounts, sketches and classified briefing notes documenting mysterious sightings across the country," according to Reuters.
An unidentified letter writer in 1999 says that a Royal Air Force plane returning from a mission in Europe during World War Two was "approached by a metallic UFO." The author says his grandfather attended a wartime meeting between Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower during which the two expressed concern over the incident and "decided to keep it secret." The Ministry of Defence was unable to find any primary source materials regarding this claim: and , in addition, "... the MoD does not have any expertise or role in respect of 'UFO/flying saucer' matters or to the question of the existence or otherwise of extraterrestrial lifeforms, about which it remains totally open-minded."
An earlier release--an ATIT Alien Lore post,--details a 1995 sighting. A plane approaching Manchester airport experienced a near-collision with an "unidentified object," in which a witness claimed he saw a UFO "20 times the size of a football field." (Just about Independence Day-sized). An investigation failed to turn up anything.
"Prior to the demise of the Former Soviet Union, aircraft were scrambled some 200 times annually to intercept and investigate uncorrelated tracks penetrating the UK Air defence region (AKADR) from the north..." it said. The last scramble was in September 1991 -- just about the time the Soviet Union imploded.
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