Alien Lore No. 98 - UFOs Over Charlotte

PHOTO BY CHARLES MILLER;
cropped and lightened by Charlotte.com for clarity

According to Charles Miller: "Last night just after 8:30, I was in the backyard smoking a cig and saw a light coming in toward Kings Mountain from the south-southeast. ... I went in the house and got my camera and came back out in the front yard to shoot it. "

"Emergency dispatchers around Charlotte handle wacky 911 calls each night. But Wednesday, agencies got the same type of unusual call: A hovering light was in the sky. Others described it as a plane that might be in trouble. A blueish glow. A fire in the sky. A light moving too slow to be a plane. The calls came into Iredell, Lincoln, Mooresville and Huntersville emergency dispatchers around 8 p.m. -- with even a dispatcher's dad calling in a sighting and one Lincoln County officer reportedly seeing it. "

There were, however, "No immediate reports of little green men with ray guns." read the entire story in The Charlotte Observer.
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Why I Deleted The Comments From The Toxic Doctor Story

The editors of Al This Is That have deleted all 13 comments from this thread, as well as the stories that engendered all the comments. The whole thing has become a tilt-a-whirl ride of people pretending to be other people; people attacking other people who were pretending to be other people; people posting with aliases stating only who they were not; and a raft of accusations and cross-accusations; moves and countermoves; posing, posturing, lies, and delusion. You probably know I don't place a high premium on The Truth, or more accurately, what often passes for The Truth, because The Truth is usually not all it's cracked up to be.

If you know me "in real life," you know that truth may now and then take backstage to a knee-slapper or a twisted, 98% fictional, and often libelous, side-trip. There are some things better than the truth. No. 1?: The music of human laughter. This whole Michael Toubbeh trip suddenly became a karmic burden, and the vibes were beginning to stink the place up.

Once I start editing comments and removing stories, well. . .then, it's no longer All This Is That, but a blog for everyone who agrees with me, where those victims of parody, or targets of stories, can't respond. Democracy is for everyone, and I'm just not ready to change the name of the blog to Some Of This Is Sort Of That Sometimes.
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When you strike at a king, you must kill him

“When you strike at a king, you must kill him” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If you come at the king, you best not miss" - I can't figure out who said this (tell me!).

People claim Machiavelli said: "It's the downside of conspiracies that they have to succeed." I don't think downside was au courant in Machiavelli's time. It's either a bogus quote, or a shabby translation.


click Old King by Georges Rouault to enlarge...

Every one of these quotes are really about the consequences of failure. I've seen this dilemma in office politics more than once. If you're going to attempt to take out the guy above you, or many levels above you, you do not want to strike to wound. When you wound your target, the consequences of failure are catastrophic.

We're often told that police are trained to shoot to kill. Or you don't shoot.
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Happy Birthday to canned beer!

It was 72 years ago today that canned beer was first sold to the public. Eventually canned beer led to the demise of the literally thousands of local breweries, as the big national breweries were now able to ship their product all over the country.

In 1935, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger's Finest Beer and Krueger's Cream Ale to the thirsty in Richmond, Virginia. It mushroomed from there, and today half the beer sold in this country comes in cans.



To learn more, go to This Day On History. They even have a canned beer video. Indeed, there is even a Canned Beer History website.
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Lyrics to Jimmy Driftwood's Tennessee Stud

Here are the lyrics to one of my favorite bluegrass songs by one of my favorite bluegrass performers. Doc Watson performed a masterful version with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?," the album that hooked me on the 'grass.


Tennessee Stud
by Jimmy Driftwood


Along about eighteen and twenty-five
I left Tennessee very much alive
I never would have got through the Arkansas mud
If I hadn't been a-ridin on the Tennessee stud

I had some trouble with my sweetheart's pa
One of her brothers was a bad outlaw
I sent her a letter by my Uncle Fud
And I rode away on the Tennessee stud

CHORUS:
The Tennessee stud was long and lean
The color of the sun and his eyes were green
He had the nerve and he had the blood
And there never was a hoss like the Tennessee stud

One day I was ridin' in the beautiful land
And ran smack into an Indian band
They jerked their knives with a whoop and a yell
But I rode away like a bat out of hell

Well I circled their camp for a time or two
And showed what a Tennessee hoss could do
And them redskin boys never got my blood
'Cause I was a-ridin' on the Tennessee stud

CHORUS

We drifted on down into no man's land
We crossed the river called the Rio Grande
I raced my hoss with the Spaniards bold
Till I got me a skin full of silver and gold

Me and a gambler we couldn't agree
We got in a fight over Tennessee
We jerked our guns, he fell with a thud
And I got away on the Tennessee stud

CHORUS

Well, I got as lonesome as a man can be
Dreamin' of my girl in Tennessee
The Tennessee stud's green eyes turned blue
'Cause he was a-dreamin' of a sweetheart too

We loped on back across Arkansas
I whipped her brother and I whipped her pa
I found that girl with the golden hair
And she was ridin' on a Tennessee mare

CHORUS

Stirrup to stirrup and side by side
We crossed the mountains and the valleys wide
We came to Big Muddy and we forded the flood
On the Tennessee mare and the Tennessee stud

Pretty little baby on the cabin floor
Little hoss colt playin' 'round the door
I love the girl with golden hair
And the Tennessee stud loves the Tennessee mare

CHORUS

©1958 Warden Music Company, Inc. (BMI)
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The Seattle Olympic Sculpture Park Opens!

Last weekend's New York Times article told the story. NYC has sculpture park envy! And well they should. Somehow Seattle assembled nine acres of prime land and beach north of Pier 70. We couldn't get our act together to build a train or subway system, or to fix our decrepit Viaduct or the Rosselini Floating Bridge, but that's another rant. This is a time to celebrate. The park is a home run, as much for the sculpture as the park itself—a tour de force of architectural landscaping. WEISS / MANFREDI Architecture created this z-shaped park running from Western Avenue to Elliott Bay. The PACCAR Pavilion has sweeping views of the Olympic Mountains. My only regret about the park is that they couldn't somehow level one office building so you could view the Seattle P.I. globe, just up the block from the park. It's a nineteen-ton pop masterpiece.

We attended the park's grand opening on Sunday. Online, you can take an interactive tour or visit the Seattle Art Museum's web site.

Unfortunately, none of the photographs I've seen of the park do it justice. If you follow the trails, the park leads, eventually, to a beautiful pebble beach, with piles of driftwood to arrange and rearrange into forts and ad hoc sculptures. The beachfront includes a salmon haven (habitat?) of some sort.

There are three levels of art at work: bridges over the road and railroad tracks, trellises, native plantings (I think Salal and Oregon Grape, etc.) , cool benches and walkways and paths up the hills and down to the beach; sculptural works by the likes of Louise Nevelson, Mark di Suvero, Alexander Calder, Richard Serra, and many others, and installations and exhibits in the pavillion. Is this cool, or what?
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Poem: Changes 29/The Abysmal

1
Every step forward or backward
Leads into danger
With no hope of escape

Only survival
Like a manacled prisoner
Behind grey concrete walls

2
The abyss
Is filled to the rim
And action only mires

You in danger
Plunging you further
Into the abyss

3
To survive you must be like water
Surging in over around and through
Filling up all the places

Through which it flows
From the cataracts
To the waterfalls

In your cage you must be you
Where nothing makes you
Lose the way

Where nothing
Makes you
Lose yourself.
---o0o---

For Pete from NYC, Robert Hershon's poem Ichabod

Responding to Pete's comment here.

I seem to recall a poem you published once (in email I think, not in the literary sense) that ended something like 'the shitheads that run the show.' Always like that one. How about reprise? --Posted by Pete to all this is that at 1/21/2007 07:03:23 PM

Alas, it wasn't mine, but the poem of Robert Hershon, a guy we knew in NYC, a poet, publisher, and editor. He has published over 10 books of his own poems, and through his press, Hanging Loose, published hundreds of other folks. Hershon's Hanging Loose does two incredible things: 1) They never ever let a book go out of print; and 2) Their literary magazine always includes the works of fledgling poets (high school students). Bob writes some of the most trenchant and funny poetry I have ever read. This particular poem was written at least 20 years ago, but it might very well have been written about the current Presidential Administration. Here is his poem Ichabod.


Ichabod

Everyone's first name means
Beloved of the Lord
or Bearer of Glad Tidings
or Valiant in Battle

except Ichabod
which means The Glory
has Departed

and must be considered
the name for the future
along with The Liar is Thriving
Unbearable Cruelty and
The Shitheads are Running the Show

- Robert Hershon

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Index to Jack Brummet poems on All This Is That

The I-ching poems (18-28 are new):

Changes One/Action
Changes Two/The Receptive
Changes Three/Trouble Ahead
Changes Four/The Young Shoot
Changes Five/The waiting
Changes Six/Conflict
Changes Seven/The Army
Changes Eight/Holding Together
Changes Nine/The taming power of the small
Changes Ten/treading
Changes Eleven/Peace
Changes twelve/standing still
Changes 13/Fellowship
Changes 14/Possession
Changes 15/The Armies Of The Night
Changes 16/Enthusiasm, or, the king begins to falter
Changes 17/Following
Changes 18/Fixing what has spoiled
Changes 19/The Approach
Changes 20/Contemplation
Changes 21/Biting Through
Changes 22/Grace
Changes 23/Splitting Apart
Changes 24/The Turning Point (for S.A.D.)
Changes 25/The Unexpected
Changes 26/The Taming Power of the Great
Poem: Changes 27/Taking Care
Poem: Changes 28/ Ta Kuo—Preponderance of the Great

New Poems (i-ching poems 18-28 are also new):

Poem: 3 A.M.

I'm agnostic about atheism

Snow Day In Kirkland, Washington

Squirrel poem

Going Mad Might Be Like A Bad Eight Track Tape Deck

Fall Haiku

Jericho & How Joshua Caused The Walls To Come Tumbling Down

The Orgy In The Pantry (starring Duncan Hines, Betty Crocker, Pilsbury Dough Boy, Aunt Jemima, Chef Boy-Ar-Dee and more)

Poem:With Or Without The Words

Hello. . .My poem is. . .

_____________________________

Previous poems:

You Gather Your Friends
The Way We Were
Scarred for life
The White Flag
The Cover-up
The Good German
Dream Of The Grey
Torches & Pitchforks
The Red Flag
Don't look back
The Tenth Planet (Or An Incredible Facsimile?)
Anger management is a slippery slope
the vault
The Moon's In Tune
Another politician resigns in disrace
Changes Nine/The taming power of the small
Rub-a-dub
Tendrils
The Candidate
Reds
Making Room
The revolt in heaven
Found Poem: The Richmond Hill Oracle Poem (and painting): The Robot Wars
I don't believe I'm here
Ten ways of looking at lies
The Broken Chord
With our heads in the sand during the transit and eclipse
the sun plays its red song
Litany
Poem: The Developers
A raindrop's life
The mystery of the first amendment to the Ten Commandments
The Bay Of Delusion
Mad Song
Reasons To Keep On
Conspiracy Theory The Moon Race
Mr. Flue's Grave In Hillcrest Cemetary, Kent, Wash.
The World Seems Especially Calming And Verisimilitudinous Today
Kent, Washington
Rollover
[It's the Lee Harvey Oswald smile]
Zombie Breakdown
Heaven
The Variations
You Rehearse Dying
Sonnet For Hari
Defensive Daydreaming
The Dream
Dogpaddling
The Prostethic Head & The Absence Of Blood
Tetuan - "No Paranoia, My Friend"
The Grey Visitors & Painting:
The Grey Ambassador
The Bad Movie
The Bucket
The Man In The Mirror
Liftoff
Optimism
Perspective A Flight Of Swallows
Audioblog - The Prevaricator
Weather Report
Your Wooden Leg
The Revelations Sermon At The First Church Of The Mojo Apocalypse
Dosvidaniya, Ivan Ivanovitch The Late Excavation (Text And Audio)
Jack Kerouac, Meet John Barleycorn
The Gideon Bible In My Nightstand
At The Acropolis
When Aliens Land, Or, The Return Of The King
The sous-chef is a sociopath]
James Wright
Falling
[Life Is Not A Hardy Novel]
Seven
Coyote Comes Home Like A Salmon
Shorts For Jerry Melin ca. about 1988
Bird
Monism
The Golden Rule
The Countdown
When Aliens Land, Or, The Return Of The King
AT HILLCREST CEMETARY IN KENT, WASHINGTON, I WALK BY THE GRAVE OF SAM THE GRASSEATER
Notes On Flying
Daybreak
Explosions
Not Past Tense Yet
the glass is not half-full
It's Getting Crowded Here
Li Po In Disgrace
The Clock
A Love Song
Bad Timing
The Killer
The Absence of Footprints Growing Up
Gone Fishing
The M.D.s
A Poem - Acrylic
The Marriage
Driving Home To Seattle, We Watch Deer Drinking from the Skookumchuck River
---o0o---

Poem: Changes 26/The Taming Power of the Great

A good horse
Follows the others
Because they have somewhere to go

It furthers one
To cross the great water
Because Heaven lies within

Heaven lies
Nestled deep within
The windswept snowcapped mountain
---o0o---

Poem: Changes 25/The Unexpected

If someone is not as he should be
He develops
The reverse Midas Touch

Under heaven
Thunder rolls
Thus the old kings

Fostered everything
With a heartbeat
We cannot lose

What really belongs to us
Even when we throw it away
The gathering winds

Blow through my heart
Reverberating in the echo chamber
Of regret.
---o0o---

Alien Lore No. 97—Air Force Colonel Sees A UFO In Arkansas

photo by Col. Brian Fields - click to enlarge. The yellow lights in a
triangle were seen on Jan. 9 near Van Buren, Ark. The red lights
are from a local radio tower


WorldNetDaily.com has reported a retired Air Force Colonel, Brian Fields, spotted a UFO in Arkansas last week. This UFO sighting follows closely on the heels of the very recent Chicago sightings.

"I believe these lights were not of this world, and I feel a duty and responsibility to come forward," Col. Brian Fields told World Net Daily. "I have no idea what they were."

Just before 7 p.m., on January 9th, he saw two bright lights as he looked to the southeast close to the horizon.

"At first I thought they were landing lights from an aircraft," he said. "As I continued to observe them they began to slowly disappear, then suddenly one reappeared, followed by two, then three. On at least one occasion four or five appeared. Each time they would slowly fade and eventually disappear. This occurred several times and when they would reappear they might do so in differing numbers and in different positions, sometimes in a triangular shape, sometimes stacked on top of each other, sometimes line abreast, etc. When the objects appeared they might stay illuminated 10 or more minutes."

Fields' wife thought the lights may have been ground-based, but Fields says he's certain they were airborne. The retired colonel spent close to 32 years in the military, flying F-16s as a member of the 188th Fighter Wing of the Arkansas Air National Guard.

"I'm certain it wasn't an aircraft [from Earth]," said Fields. " Click here to read the entire story on WorldNetDaily.com.
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Poem: Changes 28/ Ta Kuo—Preponderance of the Great

1
The ridgepole sags to the breaking point
The wood is stout
At the center of gravity

But the pressure
Is at the margins
You cannot change the pine

Because it is what it is
So you must change
The triggering condition

But you
Are not
God

2
The lake rises
Over the treetops
Caution 'though it seems exaggerated

Is no mistake
The enterprise cannot succeed
Without caution

In laying the foundation
And bracing
The ridgepole

3
You must go through the water
Even when it goes over your head
Even when you surrender life

So goodness
And the right prevail
There are things more important

Than life
Or so they say
But I can't think of what they might be.
---o0o---

Is this cool or what? 4D scanning...

Triplets: in utero

A new, highly developed form of ultrasound is allowing us to see things we've never seen before. The fascinating article, with picture gallery is here.
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The majority of women are now living without a spouse

According to a New York Times analysis of census results, in 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000.

"In 2005 married couples became a minority of all American households for the first time, the trend could ultimately shape social and workplace policies, including the ways government and employers distribute benefits.

"Several factors are driving the statistical shift. At one end of the age spectrum, women are marrying later or living with unmarried partners more often and for longer periods. At the other end, women are living longer as widows and, after a divorce, are more likely than men to delay remarriage, sometimes delighting in their newfound freedom. "

As Aimee Mann wrote:

"You fucked it up
You should've quit
Till circumstances
Had changed a bit

You fucked it up
You jumped the gun
I swore you off but
You climbed back on

And when you said
Of course you know
Could I be blamed
If I'd wished it so
I don't think so."
---o0o---

The C.I.A. and the creation of Osama bin Laden

The illuminati conspiracy archive recently published a fascinating article by Norm Dixon on how the C.I.A. created Osama bin Laden, and his nefarious operations.

“Throughout the world ... its agents, client states and satellites are on the defensive — on the moral defensive, the intellectual defensive, and the political and economic defensive. Freedom movements arise and assert themselves. They're doing so on almost every continent populated by man — in the hills of Afghanistan, in Angola, in Kampuchea, in Central America ... [They are] freedom fighters.”

Is this statement from a bin Laden fatwa, or from the Taliban? Not so much. This encomium of the terrorist bin Laden and his Taliban stooges was uttered by President Ronald Reagan on March 8, 1985. The “evil empire” was, of course, the Soviet Union, and other Third World groups fighting US-sanctioned colonialism, apartheid and dictatorship. . .in the third world.



We created the monster and we engendered the toxic fundamentalist theology that lead to the war in Iraq, the savage deaths of thousand of Americans, and has us waiting for the other shoe to drop. As horrorific as 9/11 was, it was just a ride on the tilt-a-whirl compared to what might happen next.
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President Bush's secret plan to go down in the history books revealed

In the spring of 2006, President Bush came up with a plan to salvage his presidency in the history books. Phil Ronson of the All This Is That National Affairs Desk in Washington, (1580 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington, DC 20003), was informed earlier in the week of White House conversations that have apparently guided Administration policy for the last year.

A highly placed Administration aide told Ronson that the President told a group of advisors that if he couldn't be remembered as one of the great Presidents, at least he might be remembered as the worst. "OK, so things haven't exactly gone according to plan," he told the meeting of political aides, "well then we might as well be remembered as the worst." Two other White House personnel independently confirmed the tenor of that meeting.

"We'll give Grant, Harding, and Nixon a run for their money," President Bush said. "By the time I'm through, people will barely even remember those c***suckers!"



According to the leaker, White House staffers all agree the plan seems to be quite successful.
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Photograph: The Mannequin Factory

. . .click photograph to enlarge. . .
---o0o---

Painting: Birds Of Prey

click painting to enlarge
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Dave Stodden Takes Polygraph Test In The Murders Of His Wife And Daughter

Following up a sad story from last summer, investigators in the deaths of Mary Cooper, and Susanna Stodden, including the FBI, have pushed Dave Stodden to take a polygraph test. Once he took the test, they wanted him to take another. Invetigators have apparently uncovered nothing in the last half year. You never know what really lurks in the heart of men, but Dave Stodden was my daughter's soccer coach for many years. From everything I know of this gentle man, you are more likely to be guilty of this terrible crime than he is.


Dave Stodden

According to The Seattle Times today:

"David Stodden has come to accept that Snohomish County sheriff's investigators might suspect he had a role in the slayings of his wife and an adult daughter while the women were hiking last summer near Mount Pilchuck.


Mary Cooper front, Susanna Stodden back

"Stodden, 58, knows that spouses are often the first suspect in homicide cases, which he says is why he said he never pushed detectives for more details about their investigation into the July 11 slayings. When he was asked in November to take a polygraph test, Stodden said, he was angry but eventually agreed.

"But now, after undergoing questioning by a polygraph examiner on Wednesday — the results coming back inconclusive — Stodden says his patience with the investigation's focus on him is wearing thin.

"Nonetheless, Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart wants Stodden, of Seattle, to take the test again in hopes of obtaining a conclusive finding. But Stodden says he doesn't want to.

"I've done everything they've asked me to do, and I want the focus to be on the investigation and not me," Stodden said Friday. "I want them to solve the case. I think if I told them 'I'm not going to do this,' it could become their focus."

Earlier update: Detectives keep pursuing leads in hikers' deaths
---o0o---

The Tears Of A President

click the weeping president to enlarge

What would cause The President to weep? Click here to find out.
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Texas teacher charged with felony for zooming in on wrestler's nether regions

A Grand Prairie, Texas high school teacher has been charged under a Texas' peeping-tom law with videotaping girls' wrestling matches for sexual gratification. Sergeant John Brimmer claimed David Ware, 28, took numerous close-up shots of the wrestler's crotches.

"Improper visual recording" is punishable by two years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The 2001 law is supposed to protect people from small cameras shooting in bathrooms or up women's skirts. Filming a person without consent for sexual arousal is a felony under the law.

Ware shot two hours of videotape, drawing the suspicion of a coach. Sergeant Brimmer claims the close-ups are "a purposeful act of zooming in." Ware's school was not entered in the tournament; his lawyer says Ware was just interested in girls 'rasslin.

It seems unlikely this law is constitutional. How DO you determine intention in a case like this? To prove sexual gratification would require the police to catch the culprit in flagrante, performing the gratification. And, in fact, schoolteacher Ware was not focused on the genitals at all, but the clothing covering those genitals—a maddening 1/4" beneath those tights.

Ware's attorney, Scott Palmer, asked "If you go to a Cowboys game and take a close-up shot of their cleavage, are you committing the same offense because you think that has sex appeal?" Would all the paparazzi in the world be guilty?
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The Arctic Blast Continues

I know how laughable it is to many of you to hear what kind of chaos an inch or two of snow can cause in the northwest. We just don't have much experience. There is a narrow band of temperature here—the overall average is 52°F, the August average is 66°F, and the coldest month (January) averages 41°F. In our last cold snap, everyone's power was off; at least we have juice this time!
---o0o---

Poem: Snow Day In Kirkland, Wash.

In silhouette
Against blue bisque skies,
Crows bounce

On white tree branches,
Shaking snow to the ground.
They survey the valley

For prey
In stark relief
Against the powder-white fields.
---o0o---

One More Reason Why I Am Scared Sh**less To Fly: Video Of Fixing A Jet's Wing With Duct Tape

If this video doesn't play—and, for some reason, they don't
always want to play—just go here on YouTube to see the clip.
Or go to Turbanhead's blog to the clip.


This is one of the reasons I need to be well-medicated to even approach an airport. I have flown more in the last few months than I have in all my life, and I have even made some of the flights without Xanax or any other sundry pharmaceuticals I beg from my Doctor and various people I know. A second reason I am terrified of flying is that about half of my high school classmates ended up as shoprats at Boeing. Knowing who actually builds these 'planes might give you pause as well, dear readers. . .
---o0o---

Alien Lore No. 96 - Alien Sex: Antonio Villas Boas' Mad Night Of Alien Debauchery

23-year-old Antonio Villas Boas is the star of what is probably the most famous case of sex with aliens. It all went down on October 16, 1957, although Antonio believes he had seen the alien ship(s) for about two weeks prior to his abduction.


The grey temptress as described
by Boas

The ploughboy was working a field on his family farm when the engine of his tractor died and purple lights came down from the sky.

Greys in spacesuits emerged from a flying saucer and took him into their craft, and ran him throhgh a battery of what seemed to be medical tests. They took his clothes off (a recurring theme in most of these stories), spread a strange liquid over him and took a blood sample. And then, a beautiful, fair-haired, naked woman appeared.

Without speaking or kissing, they made love. She growled like a dog. Perhaps due to the alien liquid (a sort of interstellar Viagra?), Antonio was soon ready for seconds. "Before leaving she turned to me, pointed to her belly, and smilingly pointed to the sky."



Post-coitus, the aliens gave Antonio a guided tour of the spaceship. It was about 5:30 in the morning when Boas returned to his tractor, by his reckoning four and a quarter hours from the time he had been picked up. Antonio become a successful lawyer and still stands by his story 50 years later.

To read a detailed account of Antonio's wild night of Grey love, go to one of my favorite paranormal/conspiracy sites, the Illuminati Conspiracy Archive. There is a link to the main site on my links sidebar. You might also want to check out one of these books that also cover the story:

Architects of the Underworld: Unriddling Atlantis, Anomalies of Mars, and the Mystery of the Sphinx, by Bruce Rux; pp. 109-116

Passport to Magonia: On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds, by Jacques Vallee; pp. 113-115

Beyond Earth: Man's Contact with UFOs, by Ralph Blum with Judy Blum; pp. 182-184

If you read Spanish, check out this web site: LA ABDUCCION DE ANTONIO VILLAS BOAS.
---o0o---

Alien Lore No. 95 - Are The Greys Out There Watching The Sopranos?

TV signals will be sent into space in 2008, according to Scotsman.com, to establish whether aliens—if they are indeed Out There—are watching television. Astronomers will search 1,000 nearby stars for TV broadcasts and other signals that may indicate extraterrestrial life. A Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics spokesperson said the project, will use a new radio telescope to search for radio traffic.

Our current efforts to smoke out extraterrestrial life are almost always focused on searching for messages beamed across space, which would miss a civilization that is not actively seeking contact, as some of our earth folk do.

David Aguilar, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics director of communications, said: "We may pick up spurious signals from people that never meant for us to hear them and get an inkling that something's going on."



A telescope under construction in Australian will avoid most terrestrial radio interference. The project will detect signals within roughly 30 light years of earth (about 1,000 stars).

This project will be rolled out right here in Seattle, at a conference of the American Astronomical Society this Wednesday.
---o0o---

The Pat Robertson Coloring Book

The Pat Robertson coloring book is now available. What are you waiting for?!


Some other recent Pat Robertson mentions on All This Is That:

God Warning of big storms
Islam is Satanic
Jesusland in Jeopardy?
Assassinate President Chavez?
Pat Robertson keeps his foot out of his mouth for two weeks!
More wisd0m from Pat
I didn't say that? Did I?
---o0o---

President Bush sets new goals for Iraq

click photograph of The President to enlarge

According to The New York Times on Sunday, President George W. Bush President will establish "a series of goals that the Iraqi government will be expected to meet to try to ease sectarian tensions and stabilize the country politically and economically, senior administration officials said Sunday. "

Wait, didn't we do that two years ago? The difference is this time we really really really mean it.
---o0o---

Poem: Changes 27/Taking Care

1
Pay heed to nourishment
And with what a person seeks
To fill their own mouth—

2
To know what anyone is like
Observe how they bestow love and mercy
And what part of their nature

They nurture
A person of goodness takes care
In order to take care of others

3
At the foot of the mountain
Thunder—
An image of nourishment

Thunder and lightning
Feed into the earth
And charge it like Frankenstein's monster

4
You let the magic turtle go
And train your sharp eyes
Like a tiger with a craving

5
Awareness of danger
Brings good fortune
As you cross the great water.
---o0o---

Lyrics to The Band's (And Marvin Gaye's) Don't Do It

The Band came to this tune late in their career. And when they did, they owned this song (with all deference to the late, great Marvin Gaye, who covered the song in the first place). It was the opener at the fantastic Rock Of Ages New Year's show, and brought down the house. The Band often played this song as their encore, as they did in The Last Waltz, where the song plays at the beginning of the movie, over the credits.

Levon and Rick sang the song, sometimes in dual leads, and sometimes with Danko coming in mostly on the chorus. It's a very piano-ish song, with a great rumbling bridge by Richard Manuel on piano over Helm's lead vocal. There is a spirited live version on the compilation The Genuine Bootleg Series - Crossing The Great Divide 1961-1991 in addition to the Last Waltz and Rock of Ages versions. It opens The Last Waltz movie, but they did not put the song on the soundrack--at least on the more common 2 CD set. It did appear on the 4 Disc Last Waltz box set. The Last Waltz version, alas, only includes one verse. They were eager to get off stage. As that song died down, things would never be the same again.

Don't Do It
By Brian Holland/Lamont Dozier/Edward Holland, Jr.


Baby don't you do it, don't do it
Don't you break my heart
Pleeeeease don't do it, don't you break my heart

A sacrifice would make you happy if nothing for myself
Now you wanna leave me for the love of someone else
My pride is all gone whether I'm right or wrong
I need you baby to keep on keepin' on

You know I'm trying to my best
Oh i'm trying to do my best
Don't do it, don't you break my heart
Pleeeeease don't do it, don't you break my heart

My biggest mistake was loving you too much and letting you know
Now you got me where you want me and you won't let me go
If my heart was made of glass well then you'd surely see
How much heartache and misery, girl, you've been causing me

While I've been trying to do my best
Well I've tried to do my best
Don't do it, don't you break my heart
Pleeeeease don't do it, don't you break my heart

Go down to the river and there I be
I'm gonna jump in girl, but you don't care bout me
Open up your eyes
Can't ya see I love ya?
Open up you heart, girl
Can't ya see I need ya?

Oh baby don't do it, do it, do it
Don't you break my heart
Pleeeeease don't do it don't you break my heart

My biggest mistake was loving you too much and letting you know
Now you got me where you want me and you won't let me go
If my heart was made of glass well then you'd surely see
How much heartache and misery, girl, you've been causing me

While I've been trying to do my best
You know I've tried to do my best
Don't do it, don't you break my heart
Pleeeeease don't do it, don't you break my heart
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I apologize. . .

I apologize for all the broken links on any (ahem, all) of the audio posts I've made over the last year and a half. The guys who hosted those links went belly up, and the sound files went with them.

I put up a few interesting poems of mine, recordings of kids, snippets of speeches by President Bush, and Hitler, and Mario Cuomo, as well as recordings I'd made in the 70s and 80s of Jerry Melin, and the New Years 1980 recordings of Colin Curran, Keelin Curran, Kevin Curran, Nicholas Dogfish Gattuccio, Sean Curran, and Jerry Melin.

I'll find a new way to host these audio files, and repost them, along with some other nuggets I never got around to putting up in the first place. . . Love & Mercy, Jack.
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President Ronald Reagan once said the nine most terrifying words in the English language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help"

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President Ronald Reagan once said the nine most terrifying words in the English language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help"
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Be afraid, or rejoice: Grateful Dead fans Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are now at the center of power

click photograph to enlarge


The Senate Majority leader, Harry Reid, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are—as it turns out—huge Grateful Dead fans. Harry Reid told a reporter from KLAS-TV "Here, I'll show you the bathroom. This is my prized possession, a signed poster of the Grateful Dead."



One of The Speaker's celebrations includes a band of former Grateful Dead members, including Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir, and Bruce Hornsby, along with Warren Haynes, and Mike Gordon. They performed a passel of Dead (and other) classics:

Shakedown Street—"Don't tell me this town aint got no heart... You just gotta poke around"
Truckin'
End of the Innocence
Touch of Gray—
The Way It Is (Bruce Hornsby solo)
Come Together
U.S. Blues
Iko Iko
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Alien Lore No. 94 - Exopolitics

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This is a link to a fascinating article on expolitics by Stephen Bassett, founder of the Paradigm Research Group, Executive Director of the Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Committee (X-PPAC), author of the Paradigm Clock website, and a
columnist.



Exopolitics is: 1: the art or science of government as concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy toward extraterrestrial phenomena and extraterrestrial beings. 2: exopolitical actions, practices, or policies. 3: the exopolitical opinions or sympathies of a person. 4: the total complex of relations between the human race and non-human, intelligent beings).
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Democrats Take Control Of Congress!

It's a new dawn. I hope.
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Alien Lore No. 93 - President Jerry Ford, UFOs and The Greys

click letter to enlarge

"Congressman Gerald Ford got on the UFO bandwagon. It was pure politics and he made the national news by demanding that either the Science and Astronautics Committee or the Armed Services Committee schedule hearings on the subject of UFOs....Congressman Ford did get his wish, a congressional hearing was imminent. Someone should ask Congressman Ford what it cost the American taxpayer to hold that hearing and ask him if he would like to reimburse for the expense; because that hearing was totally unnecessary."

Although Gerald Ford had earlier expressed strong interest in studying the UFO phenomenon, once he became President (after Richard Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974), Ford never again mentioned UFOs, until he left office.

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A Statement by House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich. On the Air 2 P.M., March 25, 1966:



"I believe Congress should thoroughly investigate the rash of reported sightings of unidentified flying objects in Southern Michigan and other parts of the country.

"I feel a congressional inquiry would be most worthwhile because the American people are intensely interested in the UFO stories, and some people are alarmed by them.

"Air Force investigators have been checking on such reports for years but have come up with nothing very conclusive.

"In the light of these new sightings and incidents near Ann Arbor, Michigan, and elsewhere, it would be a very wholesome thing for a committee of the Congress to conduct hearings and to call responsible witnesses from the executive branch of the government and other witnesses who say they have sighted these objects.

"I think the American people would feel better if there was a full-blown investigation of these mysterious flying objects, which some persons honestly believe that they have seen. " [1]

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Ford News Release Regarding 1966 Michigan UFO Sightings

Congressman Gerald R. Ford
House Republican Leader
News Release
For Release Tuesday, P.M.
March 28, 1966



NOTE TO ALL NEWS MEDIA: House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford, R-Michigan, today sent the attached letter to the chairman and the ranking Republican members of the House Committee on the Armed Services and Science and Astronautics, urging that one committee or the other investigate the subject of Unidentified Flying Objects. (UFO’s)

Ford is not satisfied with the Air Force explanation of the recent sightings in Michigan and describes the "swamp gas" version given by J. Allen Hynek as "flippant."

Ford has recently received a number of telegrams and letters from individuals anxious to see a congressional investigation of UFO’s.


March 28, 1966


George P. Millar, Chairman Rep. L. Mendel Rivers, Chairman
Science and Astronautics Committee Armed Services Committee
U.S. House of Representatives U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C.

Dear Chairman Millar and Rivers:

No doubt you have noticed the recent flurry of newspaper stories about unidentified flying objects (UFO’s). I have taken special interest in these accounts because many of the latest reported sightings have been in my home state of Michigan.

The Air Force sent a consultant, astrophysicist J. Allen Hynek of Northwestern University, to Michigan to investigate the various reports; and he dismissed all of them as a product of college student pranks or swamp gas or an impression created by the rising crescent moon and the planet Venus. I do not agree that all of these reports can or should be so easily explained away.

Because I think there may be substance to some of the reports and because i believe the American people are entitled to a more thorough explanation that has been given them by the Air Force to date, I am proposing that either the Science and Astronautics Committee or the Armed services Committee of the House schedule hearings on the subjects of UFO’s and invite testimony from both the executive branch of the government and some of the person’s who claim to have see UFO’s.

I enclose material which I think will be helpful to you in assessing the advisability of an investigation of UFO’s.

May I first call your attention to an column by Roscoe Drummand, published last Sunday in which Mr. Drummond says, " Maybe all these reported sightings are whimsical, imaginary or unreal: but we need a more credible and detached appraisal of the evidence we are getting."

Mr. Drummond goes on to state, " We need to get all the data drawn together to one place and examined far more objectively than anyone has done so far. A stable public opinion will come from a trustworthy look at the evidence, and not from belittling it."

"The time has come for the President or Congress to name an objective and respected panel to investigate, appraise, and report on all present and future evidence about what is going on."

I fully agree with Mr. Drummond’s statements. I also suggest that you scan the enclosed articles of six articles by Buckley Griffin of the Griffin-Larrabee News Bureau here. In the last of his articles, published last January, Mr. Griffin says, " A main conclusion can be briefly stated. It is that the Air Force is misleading the public by it’s continuing campaign to produce and maintain belief that all sightings can be explained away as misidentification of familiar objects, such as balloons, stars, and aircraft."

I have today just received a number of telegrams urging a congressional investigation of UFO’s. One is from a retired Air Force Colonel Harold R. Brown, Ardmore, Tennessee, who says, " I have seen a UFO. Will be available to testify."

Another from Mrs. Ethyle M. Davis, Eugene, Oregon, reads, "Nine out of ten people want the truth of UFO’s. Press your investigation to the fullest."

Ronald Colier of Los Angeles, who identifies himself as " a scientist from M.I.T.," urges that you " do everything in your power to make the Air Force Project Blue Book ( The AF name for its study and verdicts on UFO reports) known to the people."

Are we to assume that everyone who says that he has seen UFO’s is an unreliable witness?

A UPI story of of Ann Arbor, Michigan, dated march 21, 1966, states that " at least 40 persons, including 12 policemen, said today that they have seen a strange flying object guarded by four sister ships land in a swamp near here Sunday night."

Matt Surrell of Station WJR, Detroit, cites an eye witness account of a recent UFO sighting near Emile Grenier of Ann Arbor, an aeronautical engineer employed by Ford Motor Company. He points out that an aeronautical engineer can hardly be considered as an untrustworthy witness.

In the firm belief that the American public reserves a better explanation than thus far given by the Air Force, I strongly recommend that there be a committee investigation of the UFO phenomena.

I think we owe it to the people to establish credibility regarding UFO’s and to produce the greatest possible enlightenment on this subject.

Kindest person regards.

Sincerely,

Gerald R. Ford, M.C.
GRF:plr
Enclosures
================================

Ford Radio Broadcast Regarding 1966 Michigan UFO Sightings

Radio Tape for Fifth district Stations March 30, 1966 [3]

My friends of the fifth congressional district, this is your congressman, Jerry Ford, speaking to you from the nation’s capitol.

As you know, I have requested a congressional investigation of unidentified flying objects, UFO’s, as they are called.

I am most serious about this; this is the kind of subject that lens itself to some flak, a little criticism, and a shower of compliments.

One day this week, I felt an unidentified flying object whiz past my ear--my right ear naturally. Upon close inspection, I had no more trouble identifying this particular UFO than the Air Force did in telling the people of Michigan they have been seeing swamp gas.

The UFO I encountered was a brickbat tossed by an irate gentleman who believes Congress could use its time to much better advantage than in investigating what he calls "UFO hysteria."

But this is one of the few criticisms I encountered in the more than 50 letters that I received since first proposing that UFO’s be investigated by either the House Armed Services Committee or the House Science and Astronautics Committee.

Many of the letters I have received are from Michigan — from Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Algonac, Petroskey, Port Huron, Utica, Grosse Pointe, Bay City, and other points.

But there is interest all over the country, and everyone but the weilder of the aforementioned brickbat is urging that I follow up on my proposal that there be a congressional investigation of UFO’s. I fully intend to do so.

A few of the letters are pretty far out — like the one which suggested that UFO’s caused the failure of the Gemini 8 spacecraft, the electric power blackout last year in the East, and the recent Boeing 727 airplane accidents.

This letter writer informed me that planet people are piloting the UFO’s, have superior abilities, have the anti-gravity secret, and fly about in spacecrafts that travel at 50,000 miles an hour or better. He wants a Minute Man alert whenever UFO’s are sighted anywhere in the country.

Another gentleman sent me a copy of a letter he had dispatched to a friend of his in the Central Intelligence Agency.

He wrote, " Well, the Air Force has done it. By its ridiculous ‘solving’ of the UFO’s in Michigan in a day or two, they may have doomed the Air Force. Brilliant, Absolutely brilliant. They ( the planet people) were trying to establish their reality...for it must be done, if they are trying to help us. Now they are angry at being called ‘swamp gas’ and are going on the record that they are going to harass the Air Force just as they have been doing to NASA. Knowing what I do, if I were the Air Force, I would be scared witless. But, of course, who ever heard of marsh gas being dangerous/ To make it clear, The SI’s ( Saucer Intelligences) are now going to teach the Air Force a lesson it will never forget. They are turning their attention to harassment of the Air Force in a big way."

Now, Dr. Hynek and the Air Force may not be disturbed by that letter, but they’d better beware of some astronomers in the nation. A chap in Seattle, wash., says he has absolute proof that the Air Force was dead wrong in describing Michigan pictures of an alleged UFO as " The rising crescent moon and the Planet Venus."

Well, happy landing to the Air Force. And I do think that the American people want a better explanation of UFO’s than they have been getting. If my mail is any indication, there are many, many people who find it extremely difficult to believe some of the stories put out by the government on this and other subjects.

This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, saying--so--long for now, and I’ll see you nest week at this same time, same station.

=================================

Congressman Gerald R. Ford
ReleaseFor Sunday A.M. Release April 3, 1966

Statement by House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford, R-Michigan [4]


As I had expected, some persons have been ridiculed by the call for a congressional investigated of unidentified flying objects (UFO’s). These people are a fraction of those who have given their reaction to my proposal. The overwhelming majority of those expressing a view in letters to me believe a congressional investigation would be useful and is needed.

Those who scoff at the idea of a congressional investigation of UFO’s apparently are unaware that the House Armed services Committee has scheduled a closed- door hearing on the matter Tuesday with the Air Force and that rep. Joseph E. Karth, D-Minn., headed a three man sub-committee which held two days of hush-hush hearings five years ago on behalf of the Science and Astronautics Committee. Karth has confirmed in conversation with a member of my staff that he conducted these secret hearings.

The present Science and Astronautics Committee chairman, Rep. George P. Millar, D. Calif., has shied away from the UFO problem at this time, saying his committee does not have the jurisdiction over the Air Force. But the late Rep. Overton Brooks, D.La., obviously had different ideas because he tapped Karth to summon Air Force witnesses and question them after a flurry of sightings in 1961.

Karth has informed me that his subcommittee made an oral report to the full committee but never released anything to the public. According to Charles F. Ducander, the committee staff director, no record was made of the conversation between Karth subcommittee and the Air Force witnesses. The hearings, he said, took place in Karth’s congressional office.

I have never said that I believe any of the reported UFO sightings indicate visits to earth from another planet. Apart from the pranks and natural phenomena, some of these objects may well be products of experimentation by our own military. If this is so, why doesn’t the Air Force concede it and in this way reassure the American people/ There would be no need to go into detail on the nature of the experiments.

=============================

Congressman Gerald R. Ford House
Republican Leader
For Release Thursday, P.M. April 21, 1966

Statement by House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford, R-Michigan

The Air Force has informed me it is arranging for a study by high-caliber scientists of some of the UFO sightings which have never been explained.

This study will be placed under contract soon after July 1, start of the new fiscal year. It will be carried out by a university which has no close ties with the Air Force so that the findings will be completely objective, Air Force officials tell me.

Those people engaged in the study will be high-caliber scientists who have never taken a position on UFO’s, the Air Force said. It will be made clear to them that they are not being hired to come up with findings in support of previous Air Force statements regarding UFO’s, I am informed.

The Air Force said there is too much effort involved to ask these scientists to make this study without pay.

The report will definitely be made public, The Air Force assured me. The whole purpose of the study is to make clear the air as far as the public is concerned.

This, of course, was my purpose in recently requesting that public hearings on the subject of UFO’s be conducted by either the Armed Services Committee or the House Science and Astronautics Committee.

It was as a result of my call for a congressional investigation that the Air Force now is arranging for a study of UFO’s by topflight scientists not connected in any way with the Air Force.

I would have preferred a congressional investigation with witnesses to include reliable persons from among those who say they have seen UFO’s. I still think this would be beneficial. But the UFO study by a panel of scientists, with the report to be made public, is a step in the right direction.

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[1] Press Secretary and Speech File, Ford Congressional Papers 1947-1973 Box D37
[2] UFO Folder 1966, Press Secretary & Speech File 1947-1973 Box D9
[3] Jerry Ford Papers, Press Secretary& Speech Files 1948-1973, Weekly Radio reports, Box D35
[4] Jerry Ford papers, 1947-1973, Folder UFOs 1966, Press Secretary & Speech File Box D9
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New Year Painting

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Romney and Edwards Jump Into The Fray; Hillary Clinton's Numbers Plunge

Over the last week, Ex-Senator John Edwards, and now, with Mitt Romney (filing papers forming "an exploratory committee," )we add two more to the Presidential Herd. . .not that they were a surprise. With Obama outpolling her and John Edwards showing some decent numbers, Senator Hillary Clinton's polling numbers have taken a serious plunge. She has plunged from front-runner to the middle of the pack. Maybe even the bottom of the middle of the pack.

Click here for All This Is That's recent tally of the Presidential candidates.


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