tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55368718712385081502024-02-06T21:49:31.058-05:00Conspiracy Theories and Secret Societies For DummiesChristopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.comBlogger93125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-76878878687071229422013-04-30T01:11:00.002-04:002013-04-30T01:11:34.124-04:00Holocaust Denial Up 77% in CanadaHolocaust denial is on the rise, and at an astonishing rate. Have a look at this article from <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/167532#.UX9RsZXQ_fg">Israel National News</a>.com:<br />
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<i><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Anti-Semitic incidents in Canada rose by 3.7 percent in 2012, and Holocaust denial rose 77 percent, revealed the<span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD4" style="background-attachment: scroll !important; background-image: none !important; background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: repeat repeat !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 204) !important; border-bottom-style: dotted !important; border-bottom-width: 1px !important; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static;">Audit</span> of Anti-Semitic Incidents released by the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada.<br />According to the audit, there were 1,345 anti-Semitic incidents in Canada in 2012, up from 1,297 in 2011.<br />“We are particularly concerned about this year’s findings of increased participation in these incidents by perpetrators self-identifying as Muslims who are apparently supportive of Islamist ideologies of hate and violence. But we are encouraged by the many Muslims with whom we work closely, who are prepared to expose antisemitism in their community,” said Frank Dimant, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada.<br />“The Audit shows an overall decrease in vandalism and violence, but an increase of 10.6% in incidents of harassment,” he said. “Jews were targeted in their homes and at their workplaces, on their way to synagogue or returning from school. The language has moved from ‘F-- the Jews’ to 'Kill the Jews’, with Holocaust Denial cases soaring by 77%, and threats becoming more ugly, explicit and open.”<br />“The League is also warning that youth culture is being infiltrated by the lyrics of hate, extremism from abroad through online propaganda, and cyberbullying directed to a victim’s <span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD1" style="background-attachment: scroll !important; background-image: none !important; background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: repeat repeat !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 204) !important; border-bottom-style: dotted !important; border-bottom-width: 1px !important; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static;">smartphone</span>,” Dimant stated.<br />“The Audit has set out an <span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD3" style="background-attachment: scroll !important; background-image: none !important; background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: repeat repeat !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 204) !important; border-bottom-style: dotted !important; border-bottom-width: 1px !important; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static;">Action Plan</span> to counter hate, but it will only achieve its goals if all sectors of Canadian society work together whenever and wherever expressions of hate are brought to light,” he added.<br />According to a new <span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD2" style="background-attachment: scroll !important; background-image: none !important; background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: repeat repeat !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 204) !important; border-bottom-style: dotted !important; border-bottom-width: 1px !important; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static;">report</span>, published by Tel Aviv University's Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, in cooperation with the European Jewish Congress, the year 2012 registered a 30% increase in anti-Semitic acts compared to 2011.</span></i></blockquote>
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Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-20351539643868538572013-04-03T21:52:00.001-04:002013-04-03T21:52:30.634-04:00US Poll on ConspiraciesPublic Policy Polling has done a poll of Americans and their attitudes on conspiracy theories. From the <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/newyork/news/2013/04/03/wonder-why-politicians-are-so.html">New York Business Journal</a> today:<p><p>
<i><blockquote>Did you know that 4 percent of Americans believe that "shape-shifting reptilian people control our world by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate our society"?<p><p>
So if you think President Barack Obama speaks with a forked tongue, that could be why. Of maybe it's a sign that he's the Antichrist -- 13 percent of Americans (and 20 percent of Republicans) believe that.<p><p>
These numbers are courtesy of a recent poll conducted by Public Policy Polling, a Raleigh, N.C., firms that often works for Democrats.<p><p>
Dean Debnam, the firm's president, noted that "even crazy conspiracy theories are subject to partisan polarization," but he seems to find it reassuring that "most Americans reject the wackier ideas out there about fake moon landings and shape-shifting lizards."<p><p>
I'm not reassured. If you're like me, you probably come into contact -- or at least walk in close proximity -- to 100 people a day. The fact that four of these folks think shape-shifting lizards are running things scares me.<p><p>
And there's a lot more support for other ideas that have little, or no, basis in reality:
28 percent of registered voters believe that "a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian world government, or New World Order."<p><p>
15 percent believe "media or the government adds secret mind-controlling technology to television broadcast signals."<p><p>
15 percent believe "the pharmaceutical industry is in league with the medical industry to 'invent' new diseases in order to make money."<p><p>
11 percent believe "the United States government knowingly allowed the attacks on September 11, 2001, to happen."<p><p>
The poll also found that 37 percent of Americans (including 58 percent of Republicans) think global warming is a hoax. That one's worth a healthy debate, but most climate scientists think it's real.
</blockquote></i>Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-62405695757886676752012-08-10T16:41:00.000-04:002012-08-10T16:41:37.687-04:00"UFO Chasers" Trash Show<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Television tends to homogenize its subjects, but it's pretty rare when stars of a show actually come out and trash their own show. The stars of NatGeo's "Chasing UFOs" are less than enthused with the way the show turned out.<p>
From the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/24/chasing-ufos-national-geographic-_n_1699547.html">Huffington Post</a>:<br />
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<blockquote>The National Geographic Channel premiered "Chasing UFOs," an eight-episode reality TV show last month, focusing on a trio of investigators traversing America in search of the truth of unexplained UFO reports, alleged alien abductions and reported military cover-ups.<p>
On the heels of less-than-positive reviews and viewer comments, two of the show's stars -- James Fox and Ben McGee -- revealed their own dissatisfaction with "Chasing UFOs," complaining that the show had placed more emphasis on entertainment value than a serious look at the UFO subject.<p>
<i>Fox: "I know how disappointed all of you are. I am too. It's not the show that was sold to both myself and scientist Ben. Two months into it, we were off to a great start; good locations, solid witnesses and some opportunities for Ben to apply his field research as a geologist at some crash sites. Very exciting stuff. Unfortunately, when we actually got out in the field, we began to realize that they were more interested in poking around at night than allocating the time necessary during the day as, apparently (so we were told), Americans love watching others sneak around at night from the comfort of their couches. For the most part, it was gratuitous nighttime baloney. ... I promise I'll either quit or change my position within the show because at least I can make it all make some sense. The show does get a bit better further down the road, but not a lot. ... My credibility and reputation has, deservedly, taken a serious hit."</i><p>
McGee: <i>"When we were brought onboard, the project certainly had a much harder inclination than its final realization, and as a career scientist, I was excited that NatGeo was at the helm (unaware of their desire for a major shift in programming flavor). Our intentions were very sincere. ... James and I both had expectations and (for our own reasons) hopes of an ultimately serious product. We both saw the project heading in a different direction as time went on and were powerless to influence it. Injecting science into mainstream media is also problematic, and I am suffering heat in my own circles for the lack thereof on the show."</blockquote>Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-23941409855115602192012-02-05T02:01:00.002-05:002012-02-05T02:06:09.073-05:00ABC To Make Conspiracy Theory Series<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN74uBC3arsDgtj2xz75t7T8lYHIvufurGOGG6vt1yPJjQfuP-pf6Ie_NXDbNdFmMldNLwvReW7wVk1yuZ0T00SOVsaBhQOf_P-97C_HoKjvikd0RUu73eXd_1Wf-7EanqHwji1LosWg/s1600/ABC-Logo-180x179.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 179px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN74uBC3arsDgtj2xz75t7T8lYHIvufurGOGG6vt1yPJjQfuP-pf6Ie_NXDbNdFmMldNLwvReW7wVk1yuZ0T00SOVsaBhQOf_P-97C_HoKjvikd0RUu73eXd_1Wf-7EanqHwji1LosWg/s200/ABC-Logo-180x179.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705544240170957218" /></a><br />It seems the public just can't get enough of conspiracy theories. From <a href="http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/319010">Digital Journal</a> by Tim Sandle on February 4th:<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style:italic;">The television network ABC has announced plans to pilot a new series which will center on conspiracy theories. The network have also devised three other new shows.<br /><br />ABC, in drawing up their later 2012 TV schedules, have announced that one of the intended shows will be called "Zero Hour". "Zero Hour" involves a man who, in a bizarre twist of fate, is pulled into one of the most compelling conspiracies in human history after spending 20 years as the editor of a sceptics magazine. The driving force behind this one is "Prison Break" creator Paul Scheuring.<br /></span></blockquote>Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-20898723620304918682011-09-28T12:09:00.003-04:002011-09-28T12:17:07.983-04:00Al Qaeda Wants Iran to Stop Spreading 9/11 Conspiracy Theory<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4fikALDRV3n1H8iiqU_chfLnqsYUIYVMPf0J3w5GhTfAE8n8TeEwcH27mKvOZqRCv-h5FfNQCB6uz_oSpGjfktZQ2lR03oG4T722C1jIqHcjfIoLQwCKA1VAIg860mX27dLleZvDWeg/s1600/InspireSeptember2011_Page_01-791x1024.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 154px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4fikALDRV3n1H8iiqU_chfLnqsYUIYVMPf0J3w5GhTfAE8n8TeEwcH27mKvOZqRCv-h5FfNQCB6uz_oSpGjfktZQ2lR03oG4T722C1jIqHcjfIoLQwCKA1VAIg860mX27dLleZvDWeg/s200/InspireSeptember2011_Page_01-791x1024.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657444918080022162" /></a><br /><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/al-qaeda-iran-ahmadinejad-stop-spreading-911-conspiracy/story?id=14620643">From ABC today</a>, it seems that al Qaeda is sick of the "Truthers" as well.<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style:italic;">The terror group al Qaeda has found itself curiously in agreement with the "Great Satan" -- which it calls the U.S. -- in issuing a stern message to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: stop spreading 9/11 conspiracy theories.<br /><br />In the latest issue of the al Qaeda English-language magazine "Inspire", an author appears to take offense to the "ridiculous" theory repeatedly spread by Ahmadinejad that the 9/11 terror attacks were actually carried out by the U.S. government in order to provide a pretext to invade the Middle East.<br /><br />"The Iranian government has professed on the tongue of its president Ahmadinejad that it does not believe that al Qaeda was behind 9/11 but rather, the U.S. government," an article reads. "So we may ask the question: why would Iran ascribe to such a ridiculous belief that stands in the face of all logic and evidence?"<br /><br />Though Iran was the first of the two to use the "Great Satan" as a synonym for the U.S., the author claims that Iran sees itself as a rival for al Qaeda when it comes to anti-Americanism and was jealous of the 9/11 attacks.<br /><br />[snip]<br /><br />Ahmadinejad has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. was behind the 9/11 terror attacks, recently during the somber observance of the tenth anniversary of those attacks and then again in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly last week. That speech triggered a walk-out by the U.S. and several other delegations.</span></blockquote><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Inspire</span> is an English language online magazine reported to be published by al Qaeda. <br /><br />No, I won't bother linking to it.Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-35768606319655400042011-08-09T01:55:00.006-04:002011-08-09T02:20:26.278-04:00Britain's 'Air Force Ayatollah' Is Holocaust Denier<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1vqNxLKMlLww3cZfzVqArJ95SzfX11bnHsG0H7wXfnN9iXtnYgcZhxYsxmiIxjpItw6xg6zAxzcepwK8E_p8pomxkXEhlum_BwbunsDBYyME0lTXTORkMLBWIet9DYhDFm63jfXUB-Q/s1600/article-2023246-0D484E6500000578-385_468x419.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 358px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1vqNxLKMlLww3cZfzVqArJ95SzfX11bnHsG0H7wXfnN9iXtnYgcZhxYsxmiIxjpItw6xg6zAxzcepwK8E_p8pomxkXEhlum_BwbunsDBYyME0lTXTORkMLBWIet9DYhDFm63jfXUB-Q/s400/article-2023246-0D484E6500000578-385_468x419.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638733726076167106" /></a>
<br />The top academic at the Royal Air Force academy in Cranwell, UK, has become something of an embarrassment to RAF top brass. Dr. Joel Hayward is a new Zealand-born convert to Islam, and the dean of the college at Cranwell. (He's is actually employed by King’s College, London, which runs academic courses at Cranwell, and not the RAF.)
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<br />It seems that Hayward is a longtime Holocaust denier, along with writing a recent article in an Islamic magazine criticizing his own military's actions in Libya and Bosnia.
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<br />From the Daily Mail, <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023246/RAF-academic-head-Dr-Joel-Hayward-Muslim-convert-criticises-Libya-air-strikes.html">Ayatollah of the RAF</a></span><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023246/RAF-academic-head-Dr-Joel-Hayward-Muslim-convert-criticises-Libya-air-strikes.html"> by Ian Gallagher</a>:
<br /><blockquote><span style="font-style:italic;">Dr Hayward has previously expressed remorse after appearing to claim that far fewer Jews were killed by the Nazis than generally thought and that the gas chambers of the Holocaust were British propaganda.
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<br />In another article recently he likened Churchill to Mohammed.
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<br />The magazine article on Libya was published under the headline ‘The West runs the risks of its good intentions (and inconsistencies) leading to distrust’.
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<br />Dr Hayward wrote: ‘When western aircrafts began to destroy tanks and a downpour of missiles wrecked Libya’s air force and air defence system, various leaders congratulated themselves for preventing an “atrocity” or “slaughter” - evocative words which conjured up images of a Srebrenica-style massacre [the 1995 killing of Bosnian Muslims].
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<br />‘Yet we do not know that his army would have “slaughtered” civilians in a Srebrenica-style massacre.’
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<br />Dr Hayward also takes issue with the UN Security Council resolution authorising ‘all necessary measures’ to protect civilians from the dictator’s forces.
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<br />Describing the resolution as ‘elastic’, he says: ‘Strangely, that resolution condemned human rights abuses and torture to which the world (and the UN) had turned a blind eye for decades.’
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<br />His views and behaviour have caused disquiet among senior officers at RAF Cranwell, Lincolnshire, where he is the most senior academic and taught Prince William.
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<br />In a letter to The Mail on Sunday entitled The Air Force Ayatollah, one senior officer expressed concern that Dr Hayward was focusing more on ‘Islamist activities that are nothing to do with the RAF’.
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<br />He also accused him of giving Muslim cadets preferential treatment and making other students take a ‘softly, softly line when writing about Muslim terrorists/Islamist extremists’.
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<br />Another officer claimed cadets and lecturers ‘are in fear’ of expressing anything that might be construed as anti-Muslim sentiment. ‘Anyone who fails to follow the line that Islam is a peace-loving religion is hauled into his office for re-education,’ he said.
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<br />Last night Dr Hayward said he did not ‘recognise’ the allegations.
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<br />The Mail on Sunday understands that Dr Hayward’s views have embarrassed RAF chiefs, who feel that while he is entitled to his opinions, it was unwise for him to air them in a Muslim magazine.
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<br />Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, former chairman of the Commons counter-terrorism sub-committee, said: ‘I am delighted that the dean is not restricted in what he can say, as he would be in Islamist societies.
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<br />‘However, I very much hope that his views don’t conflict with any of his professional duties when teaching Her Majesty’s officers.’
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<br />It is not the first time the New Zealand-born academic has attracted controversy. In 2000, he was accused of denying the Holocaust after the publication of a thesis he had written in 1993 questioning the number of Jews killed. He claimed the idea of gas chambers being used was propaganda invented by Britain, the US and Jewish lobbyists. He has since expressed remorse over the ‘mistakes I made as an inexperienced student’.
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<br />Dr Hayward has frequently challenged claims of Islamic aggressiveness. Most recently, he wrote on the subject for the Cordoba Foundation, described by David Cameron as a front for the Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood. In that article, Dr Hayward likens the prophet Mohammed’s inspirational qualities to that of Sir Winston Churchill. He said Mohammed had to go to extra lengths – just as Churchill did in the Second World War - to exhort his people to believe in victory and fight for it.
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<br />Dr Hayward was appointed to RAF Cranwell in 2007, but was investigated the following year over complaints of ‘harassment and bullying’. It is not clear what became of the investigation.
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<br />Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-17809364981238824452011-07-05T09:28:00.000-04:002011-07-05T09:28:00.543-04:00Scientology Runs Afoul of Russians<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSbdCDfvkR0uhI0ypGsyZ0VBGdIJnoMepvd1wHDkM6L8esUuyt3_VT4YKeRDtAmsHUxdc-FRjprE-3Xq2DF4iUKdZMdyl9pDfsTlARDfq6vOHb_fA-gvYcsBm5kz8YOw3F_NfE98yzHA/s1600/23854603v1_225x225_Front.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSbdCDfvkR0uhI0ypGsyZ0VBGdIJnoMepvd1wHDkM6L8esUuyt3_VT4YKeRDtAmsHUxdc-FRjprE-3Xq2DF4iUKdZMdyl9pDfsTlARDfq6vOHb_fA-gvYcsBm5kz8YOw3F_NfE98yzHA/s320/23854603v1_225x225_Front.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5625676559760296066" /></a>A regional court near Moscow has decided that books and brochures by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard constitute extremist material, and have now been officially banned from circulation in Russia for inciting hatred. The appeals case came in the wake of nearly two dozen Scientology essays by Hubbard which were removed from the nationwide ban list back in April<br /><br />From The Moscow Times, <a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/scientology-literature-declared-extremist/439845.html">"Scientology Literature Declared Extremist"</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>The Shchyolkovo town court, at the request of local prosecutors, ruled that Hubbard's book "What Is Scientology?" and "several other" brochures "call for extremist activities" and include "humiliating characteristics" of people depending on their social status, the statement said.<br /><br />Hubbard's essays are "aimed at forming an isolated social group" whose main task is to "fight the rest of the world," it said.<br /><br />The works should now be placed on the <a href="http://www.minjust.ru/ru/activity/nko/fedspisok/">Justice Ministry's federal list of extremist materials</a> and banned from distribution in Russia.<br /><br />Inciting hatred can be punished by up to five years in prison.</blockquote>Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-23755393899618704652011-03-22T16:36:00.008-04:002011-03-22T17:48:13.170-04:00Sammy Hagar & the Aliens vs. Hugo Chavez & the Martians<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8-5pq-3G0sfJGFvaQXn5Kgj5oQipCzYNGf3v5yQfAc2tg8eNBL0zHBvI4_8VsAN5AHlgPNbdnuusAHIoBkWNorP-aMEcgscqCGQNy7C5KY5ahcTadn-3uSFe7eNMWZEecSbb-zHbUqQ/s1600/Alien-Abduction-Festival-Poster.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 309px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8-5pq-3G0sfJGFvaQXn5Kgj5oQipCzYNGf3v5yQfAc2tg8eNBL0zHBvI4_8VsAN5AHlgPNbdnuusAHIoBkWNorP-aMEcgscqCGQNy7C5KY5ahcTadn-3uSFe7eNMWZEecSbb-zHbUqQ/s400/Alien-Abduction-Festival-Poster.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5587009452504073330" /></a><br />It's been quite a week, and it's only Tuesday. <div><br /></div><div>Sunday was <a href="http://www.ehow.com/how_4788989_celebrate-extraterrestrial-abductions-day.html#ixzz1HH233VNO">Alien Abduction Day</a>. And there you sat with nothing about it on your iPhone calendar. Rocker Sammy Hagar marked the auspicatory occasion by telling MTV that he was abducted by space aliens 20 years ago.<br /><br />From the <a href="http://www.ufodigest.com/article/sammy-hagar-abducted-aliens-20-years-ago">UFO Digest website</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style:italic;">“I saw a ship and two creatures inside of this ship… And they were connected to me, tapped into my mind through some kind of mysterious wireless connection,” explains Sammy Hagar in his new book, Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock. The brief memoir, whose release coincides with "Alien Abduction Day", is not the first instance in which the former Van Halen singer has offered public disclosures of ET contact. A new report from a Vancouver audio lab suggests that Sammy Hagar was covertly communicating about alien abduction as early as 1991. A secret message encrypted backwards in Mr. Hagar's 20-year-old remarks stating how “Aliens abducted me,” is the subject of a new Secret Message Report – Podcast Edition episode, produced in Vancouver by Vancouver UFO Examiner, Jon Kelly.</span></blockquote><br />Next up: Today is World Water Day—Who knew? To celebrate, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez muses that capitalism destroyed a once-great civilization. On Mars.<br /><br />From <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/22/us-venezuela-chavez-mars-idUSTRE72L61D20110322">Reuters</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style:italic;">"I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet," Chavez said in speech to mark World Water Day.</span></blockquote><br />That's just silly. Everybody knows it was really a tragic Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator accidental detonation.<br /><br />(Poster from the 2008 Alien Abduction Festival, sponsored by <a href="http://www.happyworker.com/abductme#wrap">HappyWorker.com</a>)<br /></div>Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-41102773649759291442011-03-09T17:29:00.003-05:002011-03-09T17:52:03.502-05:00The New Doomsday Bunkers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTD09YjaH1Tm1Cp-x_poVe_61O3Z_yYAoZ6SgPpV6JNyNTqATucdJgQJEKeZXk_-g-c-jhqKqU3mo2NfBKy8dHBy1tP2c3Xs8G1-VXBsrGVetIb4YCwwRcrXoA2mjfK8ALrUxoD9YS7A/s1600/Worlds-End-Final-2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTD09YjaH1Tm1Cp-x_poVe_61O3Z_yYAoZ6SgPpV6JNyNTqATucdJgQJEKeZXk_-g-c-jhqKqU3mo2NfBKy8dHBy1tP2c3Xs8G1-VXBsrGVetIb4YCwwRcrXoA2mjfK8ALrUxoD9YS7A/s400/Worlds-End-Final-2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582214689151995554" /></a><br />Underground bomb shelters and survival bunkers were all the rage in the 1950. As apocalyptic 2012, oil and food riots, and other "end is nigh!" hysterical predictions continue to rise, there's money in them thar hills for manufacturers of a new generation of reinforced holes in the ground,<br /><br />From the <a href="The secret world of doomsday shelters">Secret World of Doomsday Shelters</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style:italic;">If suppliers' reports are a gauge, the market is small but growing. Unlike 1950s-era fallout shelters and newer aboveground "safe rooms," meant to protect against storms and home invasions, bunkers are buried at least 6 feet under, in part to shield occupants from nuclear radiation.<br /><br />You can buy a bare-bones shelter for $38,000 uninstalled or spend tens of millions of dollars — and a surprising number do — on a lavish, custom-made subterranean sanctuary.<br /><br />Bunker builders cite a long list of client fears, from war and terrorism to megastorms and epic earthquakes. But the customers themselves aren't talking. "Secrecy is their defense," says shelter manufacturer Walton McCarthy, of Radius Engineering in Terrell, Texas. Shelter owners don't want neighbors and strangers pounding on the entry hatch in an emergency, he explains.<br /><br />Also, many have installed shelters without building permits. While city and county authorities may disagree, McCarthy maintains that his prefabricated shelters fall outside building codes. "These have no foundations, so technically don't come under building code. They're self-contained and are not hooked up to the grid."<br /><br />To sidestep nosy neighbors and building authorities, contractors may disguise the projects as swimming pool installations. "The hole is dug on Friday," McCarthy says. "We get there Friday at 5, by Monday it's in, and the neighbors can call whoever they want."<br /><br />The home-bunker movement probably is not large. In 30 years, Radius has sold 1,100 shelters, from the six-person variety to ones big enough for 500. McCarthy says that business has doubled in the past five years, though, and that he's planning to nearly quadruple his 58-person work force and add a second plant.</span></blockquote><br /><br />In the market? See these:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.hardenedstructures.com/">Hardened Structures</a><br /><a href="http://www.missilebases.com/properties">Missile Base Silos for sale</a><br /><a href="http://www.severeweatherpods.com/">Severe Weather Pods and Deep Earth Bunkers</a>Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-56991821259427790552011-03-06T02:13:00.004-05:002011-03-06T02:22:59.710-05:00UK Releases 8,500 Pages of UFO MaterialThe British government has released the biggest document dump of UFO files in history. The U.K.'s Ministry of Defense and The National Archives have released about 8,500 pages of UFO-related documents and more dating from the 1960s up through 2005.<br /><br />From ABC News.<br /><br /><img style="visibility:hidden;width:0px;height:0px;" border=0 width=0 height=0 src="http://c.gigcount.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.0NXC/bT*xJmx*PTEyOTkzOTU4NDc2MDYmcHQ9MTI5OTM5NTg*OTk5NSZwPTEyNTg*MTEmZD1BQkNOZXdzX1NGUF9Mb2NrZV9FbWJlZCZn/PTImbz*wYmJjMzBiY2Y3M2Q*YjFlODFmMmQyYTk1N2YwY2VjYSZvZj*w.gif" /><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,124,0" width="344" height="278" id="ABCESNWID"><param name="movie" value="http://abcnews.go.com/assets/player/walt2.6/flash/SFP_Walt_2_65.swf" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowNetworking" value="all" /><param name="flashvars" value="configUrl=http://abcnews.go.com/video/sfp/embedPlayerConfig&configId=406732&clipId=13055156&showId=13056491&gig_lt=1299395847606&gig_pt=1299395849995&gig_g=2" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://abcnews.go.com/assets/player/walt2.6/flash/SFP_Walt_2_65.swf" quality="high" allowScriptAccess="always" allowNetworking="all" allowfullscreen="true" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="344" height="278" flashvars="configUrl=http://abcnews.go.com/video/sfp/embedPlayerConfig&configId=406732&clipId=13055156&showId=13056491&gig_lt=1299395847606&gig_pt=1299395849995&gig_g=2" name="ABCESNWID"></embed></object><br /><br />The archives can be seen <a href="http://ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk/">here</a>.Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-39828060602553016122011-01-11T05:15:00.002-05:002011-01-11T05:30:47.812-05:00Obama To Make UFO Admission (!)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuyCwlsJFTNX3tmkyPzgVE3NBQSk8YP2ejxvM8eZ9CjXeyAE5BsLmxXhDD0MwwvMppNoa6bTRtlpM03tDouB0kO_TN30YkMv2nnBzl-3Kw-mhDdpM9KoQveYRP0KMSeOEEgZnq_Do9OaA/s1600-h/OBAMA.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuyCwlsJFTNX3tmkyPzgVE3NBQSk8YP2ejxvM8eZ9CjXeyAE5BsLmxXhDD0MwwvMppNoa6bTRtlpM03tDouB0kO_TN30YkMv2nnBzl-3Kw-mhDdpM9KoQveYRP0KMSeOEEgZnq_Do9OaA/s200/OBAMA.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274959838451358738" /></a><a href="http://www.allnewsweb.com/page1199999462.php">Michael Cohen at All News Web</a> (sounds legit, doesn't it?) is reporting that President Obama will be announcing to the world that the U.S. has been visited by UFOs.<br /><br />No, really.<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style:italic;">All News Web has received information from government insiders close to the US President that Barack Obama has been given the go ahead to make an important "off the cuff" announcement regarding UFO visits and US contact with aliens.<br /><br />Allegedly DARPA has given this move the green light. The comments by the President will be made within the next month.<br /><br />Our sources claim this will not be outright admittance of UFO visits and contact with aliens, however the comments will come as close to admittance as any President has to date and will be made in the context of a speech on an entirely different matter.<br /><br />From what we understand The President will concede that there is 'some evidence' to suggest aliens might have attempted to contact Earthlings.<br /><br />All of this is said to be part of a warm up program leading to eventual outright admittance of knowledge of UFO and alien visitation by major world governments within three years.</span></blockquote><br /><br />Looks like donating all that pelf to the <a href="http://www.x-ppac.org/">Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Committee</a> paid off.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d682xV0n1YY">Laugh while you can, monkey boys.</a>Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-22725413987593711472011-01-10T05:31:00.001-05:002011-01-11T06:06:17.752-05:00History Channel Won't Air Kennedy Series<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpCcKGDc3QL4ZteanQYmq5T4MpYHuGi2xaOXBAlD2jP0Vv5MnLwtO97_FW2Su90aylo-zUCNBZP0KmI3iblAmM5B7fzbtPiq_hwOBDjCCrbKieAkzqAm0fiT-50B09IfB0f5S1KHXxA/s1600/kennedyposter-thumb-354x480-26317.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 236px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpCcKGDc3QL4ZteanQYmq5T4MpYHuGi2xaOXBAlD2jP0Vv5MnLwtO97_FW2Su90aylo-zUCNBZP0KmI3iblAmM5B7fzbtPiq_hwOBDjCCrbKieAkzqAm0fiT-50B09IfB0f5S1KHXxA/s320/kennedyposter-thumb-354x480-26317.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5560881173044890962" /></a><a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/caroline-kennedy-maria-shriver-helped-69764">The Hollywood Reporter</a> and other sources are relating the role of members of the Kennedy clan in squelching the History Channel's miniseries, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Kennedy's</span>. On January 7th, AETV networks announced the long-awaited and not inexpensive 8 part show was not appropriate for the network. The official statement from AETV was, "after viewing the final product in its totality, we have concluded this dramatic interpretation is not a fit for the History brand." <br /><br />As opposed to <span style="font-style:italic;">Ice Road Truckers, Pawn Stars, Ax Men, MonsterQuest, Top Gear, </span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">American Pickers</span>. <br /><br />The series stars Greg Kinnear as JFK and Katie Holmes as Jackie Kennedy, and was helmed by <span style="font-style:italic;">24</span> co-creator Joel Surnow.<br /><br />But why was it killed at History? The program's script was vetted for accuracy by History Channel's folks, but Kennedy apologists <a href="http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/is_the_history_channel_smearing_the_kennedys_20100217/">leapt upon</a> the association of "conservative" Surnow with the project. Why, it <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/caroline-kennedy-maria-shriver-helped-69764">almost sounds like a conspiracy...</a><br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style:italic;">None of History's advertisers or sponsors complained about the miniseries. But behind the scenes, members of the Kennedy family strongly lobbied AETN to kill the project since it was announced in December 2009, according to a source close to the situation. In recent weeks, those efforts intensified.<br /><br />AETN is owned by a consortium including the Walt Disney Co., NBC Universal and Hearst. The source said that Disney/ABC Television Group topper Anne Sweeney, who serves on the AETN board and is said to hold tremendous sway over its decisions, was personally lobbied by Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy. Caroline Kennedy has a book deal with Disney's Hyperion publishing division, which announced in April 2010 that it will publish a collection of previously unreleased interviews with the late Jackie Kennedy timed to the 50th anniversary of the first year of JFK's presidency this fall.<br /><br />Caroline has agreed to edit the untitled book, write an introduction and to help promote it, including making an appearance on Disney/ABC's Good Morning America, among other outlets.As part of the promotion for the book, Caroline is expected to reveal some of the 6.5 hours of previously unheard audiotapes of the former First Lady that form the basis of the book.<br /><br />But that level of cooperation might have been unlikely if History had gone ahead with the Kennedys project, which was championed by AETN president and CEO Abbe Raven and History and Lifetime president and general manager Nancy Dubuc.<br /><br />Kennedy scion Maria Shriver also has close ties to NBC Universal, where she worked for years as an employee in its news division. She is said to have voiced her displeasure with the project to outgoing NBCU execs Jeff Zucker and Jeff Gaspin. Gaspin serves on the AETN board, as does Scott Sassa for Hearst.<br /><br />Shriver also is a friend of Sweeney, who serves on the board of the Special Olympics, founded by Shriver's mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Sweeney and Shriver both attend the same church in the Los Angeles area, and a source said Shriver criticized the Kennedysproject to Sweeney after a leaked early script was attacked in the New York Timesas "vindictive" and "malicious" by a former JFK aide (though the final shooting script is said to have been vetted for accuracy by History's in-house historians).<br />A rep for Sweeney referred THR to the AETN statement. AETN declined to comment further.</span></blockquote><br /><br />According to the UK <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8251074/JFK-mini-series-may-never-be-shown-in-US.html">Telegraph</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style:italic;">Among the most controversial parts of the film were scenes depicting JFK as a "sex fiend" and telling his brother of his need to sleep with women other than his wife.</span></blockquote><br /><br />The hope is that Showtime will pick up the show. In the meantime, it will air in Canada. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9BtrLw7x-g">See the trailer here.</a>Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-27891780042913388292010-12-23T16:10:00.002-05:002010-12-23T16:18:02.279-05:00Mayan Calendar Mania: 729 Days and Counting<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi43_r1PhyphenhyphenpkiMvjffDghfmw2hRi9fIw1W-tC5AqU9L0PtsTyEtKJqM-V1OnPnE5SzRk50H-V4o6bYeO9S7-WjcjMenvpmOCxLgqK0lvzFP-En2DPWDHuULNlmNcyzLnm9PDbhCpYRmzw/s1600/Bugarach.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi43_r1PhyphenhyphenpkiMvjffDghfmw2hRi9fIw1W-tC5AqU9L0PtsTyEtKJqM-V1OnPnE5SzRk50H-V4o6bYeO9S7-WjcjMenvpmOCxLgqK0lvzFP-En2DPWDHuULNlmNcyzLnm9PDbhCpYRmzw/s400/Bugarach.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553990036548757602" /></a><br />And now the Mayan calendar "End of days" mania begins. But two years out is an awful long time to be camping in the Pyrenees. And who sent the Mayans picture postcards from France?<br /><br />Of course, the whole problem with eschatological predictions is what do you say the next morning when it didn't happen?<br /><br />From a <a href="http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/international/armageddon-fearing-pilgrims-flock-to-french-village-20101223-ncx">syndicated Newscore article</a> today:<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style:italic;">Armageddon-fearing pilgrims were flocking to a village deep in the southern French hills after a countdown was started to the end of the world, which stood Thursday at a mere 729 days to go.<br /><br />Followers of the Mayan calendar believe the mountain in the Corbieres hills overlooking the village of Bugarach, east of the Pyrenees, was endorsed by aliens as a safe place to survive the demise of civilization.<br /><br />The countdown began Tuesday, exactly two years until Dec. 21, 2012 -- the movement's assigned Judgment Day.<br /><br />The mythical status bestowed upon the 4,045 foot high rock above Bugarach has inspired legends since the Middle Ages and attracted generations of hikers.<br /><br />But the French locals were left bemoaning the sudden deluge of New Age pilgrims, who they accuse of setting up camp in the village to cash in on the fears of impending doom.<br /><br />"It may be necessary to call in the military to control the crowds," said Bugarach mayor Jean-Pierre Delord, who anticipated "chaos" in the next 24 months. His deputy, Gilbert Cros said the new influx "gives us a bad image."<br /><br />Police said they were looking into crowd control plans, while Miviludes, a state agency that tracks dangerous cults, said it was keeping close watch on the village and the “apocalypse movement."</span></blockquote>Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-29465304507393023702010-12-21T01:29:00.007-05:002011-07-05T17:15:00.496-04:00Charlotte Bank of America Murals<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-UoynPzoJXBi4c6mm3tgWI600ziUtLWbPbKu9qD5xj5c_vnyXMVDR_t07lWxsBt8YoxrcUX-zhmq8rid3MBejTRQgB_yaB8sxZXPseWExFgbFLchyphenhyphenW9P7COJJOmVCARzntuaRQVMk9g/s1600/mural1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 309px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-UoynPzoJXBi4c6mm3tgWI600ziUtLWbPbKu9qD5xj5c_vnyXMVDR_t07lWxsBt8YoxrcUX-zhmq8rid3MBejTRQgB_yaB8sxZXPseWExFgbFLchyphenhyphenW9P7COJJOmVCARzntuaRQVMk9g/s400/mural1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553019249710632482" /></a><br />And you thought the <a href="http://illuminatifordummies.blogspot.com/2009/04/denver-airport.html">Denver Airport</a> had creepy murals.<br /><br />"The Vigilant Citizen" over at the <a href="http://inpursuitofhappiness.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/analysis-of-the-occult-symbols-found-on-the-bank-of-america-murals/">In Pursuit of Happiness blog</a> has a loopy study of the "shocking" frescos at Bank of America's Corporate Center (originally the NationsBank Corporate Center) in Charlotte, North Carolina. Created in 1992 by artist <a href="http://benlongfineart.com/">Benjamin Long</a>, the paintings are described as centering around themes of “making/building, chaos/creativity, and planning/knowledge in a “daring blend of abstract and realism, set off with touches of gold“.<br /><br />Naturally, Mr. Vigilant believes they are full of occult, alchemical and Masonic symbolism, which he then connects back to—you guessed correctly—the Denver Airport murals.<br /><br />The Vigilant Citizen bills his site with the tag line "symbols rule the world, not words nor laws," and he's the same navel gazer who <a href="http://vigilantcitizen.com/?p=5145">peered deeply at the Chilean mine cave in</a> and rescue in October and discovered it all to be a symbolic Masonic cornucopia.<br /><br />A video about the Bank's fresco and their creation by Ben Long can be seen <a href="http://www.storytellersmediagroup.com/video/Window128.wmv">here</a>.Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-69672030114506197802010-12-21T01:12:00.005-05:002010-12-21T01:26:56.557-05:00JFK: Oswald's Coffin and A Secret Service Agent's BookA couple of stories this past week for JFK conspiracists to chew on. <br /><br />First, Lee Harvey Oswald's original wooden coffin was sold at auction for $87,469. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaRCZFnIizlFaEXXGgknIhhlai_VCW6OFLaFZQvbu5oKvXTQufC0iLyJ4ygHb7ijq7AyvWDgJpGWAk6NeXl_oppJ1Fr4eXIAcOgbLp5zfpCiqQGUUZCAfcr7tGc1-1fUxex763niS3eA/s1600/58093179.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 245px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaRCZFnIizlFaEXXGgknIhhlai_VCW6OFLaFZQvbu5oKvXTQufC0iLyJ4ygHb7ijq7AyvWDgJpGWAk6NeXl_oppJ1Fr4eXIAcOgbLp5zfpCiqQGUUZCAfcr7tGc1-1fUxex763niS3eA/s400/58093179.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553015874682997330" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oswald-casket-20101205,0,4901389.story">According to the LA Times</a>,<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><blockquote>Oswald's body was exhumed from Fort Worth's Rose Hill Memorial Park on Oct. 4, 1981, to resolve a dispute between his widow, Marina Oswald, and his brother, Robert Oswald. They had argued over a conspiracy theory that alleged that Kennedy's killer was actually a look-alike Russian agent who had taken Lee Harvey Oswald's place.<br /><br />Dental records and other physical features proved that Oswald was indeed in the grave. But the coffin, damaged by water, was replaced with a new one before his remains were reburied.<br /><br />Funeral home owner Allen Baumgardner, who had assisted in the original embalming of Oswald, kept the old casket, along with an erroneous death certificate and the 1963 funeral home log book. On Page 525 are the details of the original $573.50 mortuary fee and $135 cemetery plot. Oswald's coffin cost $300, and the leaky vault that enclosed it was $200.</blockquote></span><br /><br />And Gerald Blaine, a formet Secret Service officer who was a part of JFK's security detail, has just written a new book about his experiences before and after the assassination. In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kennedy-Detail-Secret-Service-Silence/dp/1439192960?tag=chrishodappsf-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1569757739&adid=0CH8BG8NTCE3GWTV0XZF">The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence</a>, he and other agents take the *shocking* viewpoint that Oswald was the only shooter, and acted alone. We live in a strange world where that is considered the radical concept.<br /><br />From an <a href="http://www.contracostatimes.com/columns/ci_16904486?nclick_check=1">article in the Contra Costa Times</a>:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><blockquote><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicXau9PVZjIe9ZETtx8VMm4onC_3MQ5Mz7ZWFfB4Uk-9sFNLrPLxtQM9k9uFVZFXAGm2y-hkJxpz3P-BGgmHffnpHaps_GQHB_LvHbwAczoYjzpImCrlqJrMv8Dy9vYadpAj2uF3wRZg/s1600/The+Kennedy+Detail.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 151px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicXau9PVZjIe9ZETtx8VMm4onC_3MQ5Mz7ZWFfB4Uk-9sFNLrPLxtQM9k9uFVZFXAGm2y-hkJxpz3P-BGgmHffnpHaps_GQHB_LvHbwAczoYjzpImCrlqJrMv8Dy9vYadpAj2uF3wRZg/s200/The+Kennedy+Detail.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5553017553776610370" /></a>Blaine, 84, said he went years without talking about JFK's death -- not even to his family.<br /><br />"I didn't want to bother the family," he said, "and I didn't know how to deal with it. I found out that was consistent with every agent who worked for President Kennedy. Not one of them talked about it."<br /><br />Blaine is certain that Lee Harvey Oswald worked alone. His marksmanship skills were more than adequate, and he perfectly fit an assassin's profile.<br /><br />"He had psychiatric problems when he was a young man," Blaine said. "He had problems in military service and problems holding down a job. He even had a problem when he tried to defect, and he had a marriage that failed.<br /><br />"Also, about a month or two before taking a shot at the president, he took a shot at a general in Texas. The bullet just missed, but it was traced back to Oswald's rifle."<br /><br />Kennedy was shot while riding in an open-top car -- a president rides only in bulletproof vehicles today, Blaine said -- but that was in keeping with his personality. He wanted to see and be seen by the people.<br /><br />The fateful Dallas appearance marked the last of several southern stops, including Tampa, Fla., San Antonio and Houston. Earlier in the trip, Secret Service agents rode on the back of the presidential limousine, which likely would have obstructed Oswald's aim. Kennedy stopped that.<br /><br />"The president told us, 'I've got to use my political style, and my political style is to be among the people, to greet them and have them be able to see me,' " Blaine said.<br /><br />The assassination still torments the former agent, but what makes matters worse is what he regards as misrepresentation of what he knows to be true.<br /><br />"How many of you saw the movie 'JFK'?" he asked, referencing a film that reinforced conspiracy theories. "Unfortunately for our youth, that seems to be their history book.<br /><br />"An article last month in USA Today said 82 percent of young people between 18 and 29 believe that President Kennedy's assassination was a conspiracy. "<br /><br />He said he has no illusions of transforming the doubters, but he hopes his book, which includes input from fellow agents, will at least put facts on the table.<br /><br />"If we make history out of the wild stories," he said, "you'll never trust history again." Blaine said he knows the truth about what happened in Dallas. He's had to live with it for 47 years.</blockquote></span>Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-22000205528547074522010-12-11T17:54:00.003-05:002010-12-11T18:10:21.235-05:00Did a UFO Crash in the Alps?The <a href="http://www.austriantimes.at/news/General_News/2010-12-08/28984/%27UFO_crash%27_concerns_rock_Tyrol">Austrian Times reports</a> that a man spotted a "glowing fireball" cruising across the sky in the Tyrolean Alps last week, according to the German Central Research Centre for Celestial Phenomena (CENAP).<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style:italic;">The centre quotes the man as saying: "I saw an extremely bright fireball cruising in the sky from east to west. It was much brighter than Jupiter. A long time went by before it eventually disappeared. I think I heard a hissing sound at the end."<br /><br />CENAP, which is based in the city of Mannheim, has called on other eyewitnesses of the alleged sighting to come forward. The group of hobby researchers did not say whether the quoted witness caught the incident on camera.<br /><br />This comes on the heels of news that an Ukrainian group of UFO researchers planned to build a monument in the memory of aliens who perished while trying to establish contact with humans.<br /><br />Oleksandr Nalysman, a spokesman for the Berdychiv-based group, told local media contacts with alien civilisations were an "indisputable fact". He said: "We don’t pay enough attention to the fates of visitors from other planets who died on earth."</span></blockquote><br /><br />My, how those technologically advanced civilizations who can travel hundreds or even thousands of light years do seem to have trouble with the actual landing bits. How can aliens hope to open diplomatic relations with us lowly Earthlings of they keep smashing into mountains and deserts?Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-78001299750789000632010-12-02T14:56:00.007-05:002010-12-03T00:44:03.451-05:00When You Wish Upon A Star<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ1fYjZaTLuygfykt5LeqNxiK8R8h4BtAvBS1lPNKDaM9iwqNLJTS4jRgsAvNUuENK1m66JDSIhdSr0ckrIoBNIb_Ji1V-yXaaRcJddqLjM16syU61wCnipekQ5ZqqOWBCZjVscRw_mg/s1600/Iran.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 311px; height: 188px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ1fYjZaTLuygfykt5LeqNxiK8R8h4BtAvBS1lPNKDaM9iwqNLJTS4jRgsAvNUuENK1m66JDSIhdSr0ckrIoBNIb_Ji1V-yXaaRcJddqLjM16syU61wCnipekQ5ZqqOWBCZjVscRw_mg/s400/Iran.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546178150339447442" /></a><br />If you live in the Islamic Republic of Iran and you are the sort of person who believes there is a Jewish Conspiracy at work in the world, Google Earth has given you more fodder for your perennial nervousness.<br /><br />From the<a href="http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=197395"> Jerusalem Post</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style:italic;">Regardless of whether it was happenstance or an act of architectural subterfuge, government officials in Iran were incensed this week when they discovered the outline of a Star of David atop the roof of the headquarters of Iran Air, Al- Arabiya reported on Monday.<br /><br />The six-pointed star was discovered by an eagle-eyed Google Earth user recently, over three decades after the building that houses the national airline of the Islamic Republic was constructed by Israeli engineers.<br /><br />Israel and the Shah’s Iran maintained good ties until the Islamic Revolution of 1979 ended the relationship. Before 1979, Israel brokered arms deals with Iran, and there were regular flights between Teheran and Tel Aviv.<br /><br />Once the existence of the Star of David was reported in Iranian media, government officials called for the immediate removal of the apparently offensive Jewish symbol.</span></blockquote><br /><br />Hard to say whether it was an intentional Easter egg (to mix in a third religious metaphor) left by Israeli engineers 30 years ago, or just a coincidental artifact of the building's design.<br /><br />Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.oyetimes.com/news/middle-east/7778-iran-air-stars-of-david-in-the-heart-of-teheran">Oye!Times reports</a> that, back in August, some sharp-eyed gazer discovered to their horror that a newly constructed monument to the Revolution in downtown Tehran was covered with hundreds—<span style="font-style:italic;">hundreds</span>!—of Stars of David, causing outrage and calls for its demolition. Probably a more rational solution than forcing everyone who gazes upon it to pluck out their eyeballs. No one knows if it was intentional, or just dumb luck of using geometric patterns. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6AKfnYtVSYyv4LJcx0wmD93ovTzjS5Tp1k8yk56SzqG0LpcGSfalLCYDwL3YoYTTqiuh6EuwEFYsZ-3aw4D6y8vWy3l9THVEqZ-0MH-dcLFYtcbbhy65PLQk4i8aQ7JB7kKmPdMCGeQ/s1600/Iran2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6AKfnYtVSYyv4LJcx0wmD93ovTzjS5Tp1k8yk56SzqG0LpcGSfalLCYDwL3YoYTTqiuh6EuwEFYsZ-3aw4D6y8vWy3l9THVEqZ-0MH-dcLFYtcbbhy65PLQk4i8aQ7JB7kKmPdMCGeQ/s400/Iran2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546179726445585314" /></a><br />Photo from an Iranian blogger showing how to spot the offending symbol.<br /><br />Happy Hanukkah.Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-9318984059391562462010-10-12T06:54:00.005-04:002010-10-12T07:40:16.060-04:00"The Secret World" Dark Days Are Coming<span style="font-style:italic;">"Imagine if every myth, conspiracy theory and urban legend was true."</span><br /><br />Thus begins the preamble for Funcom's new online multiplayer game, <a href="http://www.darkdaysarecoming.com/">The Secret World</a>. The game invites you to "Join the Illuminati, the Templars or the Dragon - the three secret societies that pull the strings of our world. Work your way to the top, earn titles and rewards, and play a key role in the battle for world domination."<br /><br />Take the online initiation and discover which secret society you are best suited to join. <br /><br />Mine was the Templars. <br /><br />And you figured I'd be the Illuminati.<br /><br />(H/T to Rob Mountain)Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-77251316507392944552010-09-30T15:07:00.002-04:002010-09-30T15:27:27.853-04:00Big Week For UFO Stories<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwVTewpLpRziqlc29r9MLs5pymGciN7DYwOrtcDBPuKz8RGmk1eoezTSX-sCOWh57R0KClXOyogyMrH_1WcpwXXF0N-Fjf1_HAYyohm3bZeMdQawEimI8FoMnZLxOpFyr3n2089PmzOds/s1600/MadMarsHare2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 324px; height: 260px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwVTewpLpRziqlc29r9MLs5pymGciN7DYwOrtcDBPuKz8RGmk1eoezTSX-sCOWh57R0KClXOyogyMrH_1WcpwXXF0N-Fjf1_HAYyohm3bZeMdQawEimI8FoMnZLxOpFyr3n2089PmzOds/s400/MadMarsHare2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5522784174509141938" /></a><br />Driving back home from Valparaiso, Indiana last night, I caught <a href="http://www.enterprisemission.com/">Richard "Face On Mars" Hoagland</a> on <span style="font-style:italic;">Coast To Coast</span>. He's always good for a chuckle (Apollo crews recovered a severed C3PO-like robot head on the Moon and have spent the last 40 years trying to communicate with it. That kind of stuff.)<br /><br />But it did come out in the course of the talk that three UFO stories hit the mainstream news last week, and not just college kids spotting glowing objects shaped like blunts over their dorms. These involved things at a slightly higher level. And Hoagland is convinced they all point to a struggle in the closed rooms of government over whether to finally admit to the public that Earth has been visited by aliens, and the slave ships are on their way.<br /><br />On September 21st, Guy Consolmagno, a trained astronomer and planetary scientist at the Vatican observatory, told the Guardian newspaper that he would happily baptize an alien, “no matter how many tentacles it has.”<br /><br />From <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/09/21/popes-astronomer-baptize-aliens/">Pope's Astronomer Would Baptize Aliens</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style:italic;">Though he concedes the odds of finding and communicating with other intelligent life is essentially zero, Consolmagno would welcome the event. “Any entity -- no matter how many tentacles it has -- has a soul,” he said. Asked whether or not he’d baptize an alien, Consolmagno replied: “Only if they asked.”</span></blockquote><br /><br />A financial scandal at the Vatican's bank also erupted last week, and Hoagland naturally sees some sort of connection between the two. A juicy scandal would effectively shove this "important" leak about the Vatican admitting there are aliens to the back page.<br /><br />Next up was an announcement that the United Nations has named 58-year-old astrophysicist Mazlan Othman, the current head of the UN’s Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa), as an envoy for any future extraterrestrial contacts.<br /><br />From <a href="http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/un-to-appoint-earth-contact-for-aliens/story-e6frfku0-1225929498742#ixzz10inE5GqY">UN to appoint Earth contact for aliens</a>:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><blockquote>The United Nations was set today to appoint an obscure Malaysian astrophysicist to act as Earth’s first contact for any aliens that may come visiting.<br /><br />Mazlan Othman, the head of the UN's little-known Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa), is to describe her potential new role next week at a scientific conference at the Royal Society’s Kavli conference centre in Buckinghamshire.<br /><br />She is scheduled to tell delegates that the recent discovery of hundreds of planets around other stars has made the detection of extraterrestrial life more likely than ever before - and that means the UN must be ready to coordinate humanity’s response to any “first contact”.<br /><br />During a talk Othman gave recently to fellow scientists, she said: “The continued search for extraterrestrial communication, by several entities, sustains the hope that some day humankind will receive signals from extraterrestrials.<br /><br />"When we do, we should have in place a coordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject. The UN is a ready-made mechanism for such coordination.”<br /><br />Professor Richard Crowther, an expert in space law and governance at the UK Space Agency and who leads British delegations to the UN on such matters, said: “Othman is absolutely the nearest thing we have to a ‘take me to your leader’ person.”</blockquote></span><br /><br />Then on September 23rd, the National Press Club hosted a presentation by retired air force personnel who made the claim that UFOs have been neutralizing US nuclear missile sites for decades.<br /><br />From <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/09/23/aliens-monitoring-nukes-worry-ex-air-force-officers/">Aliens Are Monitoring Our Nukes, Worry Ex-Air Force Officers</a>:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><blockquote>Captain Robert Salas was on duty in Montana in 1967 when a UFO shut down the nuclear missiles on his base. And he's hardly the only one to make such a claim.<br /><br />On Monday, six former U.S. Air Force officers and one former enlisted man will break their silence about similar events at the National Press Club, all centering around unidentified flying objects and nuclear missiles. They plan to urge the government to publicly confirm the incidents, stating that they were ordered never to discuss the events.<br /><br />"We're talking about unidentified flying objects, as simple as that," Salas told FoxNews.com. "They're often known as UFOs, you could call them that," he added. Salas, a former U.S. Air Force nuclear missile launch officer, will host the event along with researcher Robert Hastings, author of "UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites.<br /><br />According to the pair, witness testimony from more than 120 former or retired military personnel points to an ongoing and alarming intervention by unidentified aerial objects at nuclear weapons sites, as recently as 2003. In some cases, several nuclear missiles simultaneously and inexplicably malfunctioned while a disc-shaped object silently hovered nearby. </blockquote></span><br /><br />Then there's the news that the SETI program has been shut down (no, it hasn't - most of it is privately funded) and that giant "ark ships" are headed towards Earth <span style="font-style:italic;">right now</span>! According to Pat Parrinello at <a href="http://www.bombshock.com/aliens-and-ufos/giant-spaceships-heading-towards-earth.html">Bombshock</a>, <br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style:italic;">At the present time the object(s) are beyond the orbit of Pluto. It is estimated that the objects are in the neighborhood of 150 miles across by 30 to 50 miles wide. Not long ago a Russian Mars probe photographed an object fitting this description just before it was destroyed for unknown reasons. Later, an American Mars probe was destroyed just before it reached that planet.<br /><br />The people that were associated with SETI are in a unanimous opinion that, yes, we are not alone in the universe. A few of those people are now continuing SETI with private funding. However, reports indicate that some antenna sites have been taken over by government and those antennas in particular are heavily guarded.<br /><br />It is reported that the US Navy in conjunction with the NSA are attempting to keep the public unaware of what is going on. A few people who are in the know are concerned that the Navy, as a first line of defense may be attempting to convert the antennas for military purposes. It is a fact that some frequencies in the microwave band have been known to affect UFO’s and destabilize their propulsion systems. It stands to reason that such measures may be true in light of Ronald Reagan’s statements about the need for the star wars program and his inference that we may soon have to face something from “out there!”</span></blockquote><br /><br />Finally, a so-called "Goldilocks Planet" has been detected ("This one is juuuuuust right!") that might be able to sustain life. From the AP story <a href="http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1501ap_us_sci_new_earths.html">Could 'Goldilocks' planet be just right for life?</a>:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><blockquote>It is about three times the mass of Earth, slightly larger in width and much closer to its star - 14 million miles away versus 93 million. It's so close to its version of the sun that it orbits every 37 days. And it doesn't rotate much, so one side is almost always bright, the other dark.<br /><br />Temperatures can be as hot as 160 degrees or as frigid as 25 degrees below zero, but in between - in the land of constant sunrise - it would be "shirt-sleeve weather," said co-discoverer Steven Vogt of the University of California at Santa Cruz.<br /><br />It's unknown whether water actually exists on the planet, and what kind of atmosphere it has. But because conditions are ideal for liquid water, and because there always seems to be life on Earth where there is water, Vogt believes "that chances for life on this planet are 100 percent."<br /><br />The astronomers' findings are being published in Astrophysical Journal and were announced by the National Science Foundation on Wednesday.<br /><br />The planet circles a star called Gliese 581. It's about 120 trillion miles away, so it would take several generations for a spaceship to get there. It may seem like a long distance, but in the scheme of the vast universe, this planet is "like right in our face, right next door to us," Vogt said in an interview.</blockquote></span><br /><br />Not exactly a vacation spot. And in spite of zero evidence of any kind of thing even remotely qualifying as "life" being discovered on any other spinning rock in the universe apart from our own, co-discoverer Steven Vogt of the University of California at Santa Cruz made the somewhat remarkable remark, "It's pretty hard to stop life once you give it the right conditions."<br /><br />Or the imagination, for that matter.Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-87068095319812992942010-09-06T01:05:00.005-04:002010-09-06T01:39:23.171-04:00Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Over Geronimo's Skull<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0aG4nbvw8xBmO89u4P5BZztj1ydZIEyF6UXqMtBSlkFWw_JzymzU0D3SiykKw5Gf5cudOp0qcFzhc2dBpHaOV1AJApyYU1ntoGjjI_MlCJd5kamWT9cnIRu770tTd1P2CQtM5OKQy4A/s1600-h/1_21_geronimo.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 156px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0aG4nbvw8xBmO89u4P5BZztj1ydZIEyF6UXqMtBSlkFWw_JzymzU0D3SiykKw5Gf5cudOp0qcFzhc2dBpHaOV1AJApyYU1ntoGjjI_MlCJd5kamWT9cnIRu770tTd1P2CQtM5OKQy4A/s200/1_21_geronimo.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304772359700197378" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">A longtime story goes that Yale University's famously secretive </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Skull and Bones Society</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"> has in its windowless campus home, known as the Tomb, the skull of Apache chief Geronimo. Back in early 2009, descendants of Geronimo attempted to sue Skull and Bones, Yale, and the federal government for the return of the warrior's skull. Because Geronimo’s grave was originally on a U.S. military base, the plaintiffs also named President Barack Obama, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of the Army Pete Geren as defendants in the suit. Under the theory of never sue anyone poor or not famous. But on July 27th, a District of Columbia judge dismissed the case.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">The plaintiffs were 20 descendants of the legendary Native American chief, and their attorney was Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General under Lyndon Johnson, whose previous client list has included Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /><br />The story goes that back in May of 1918, a group of Bonesmen were all serving in the Army together at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, site of the mouldering remains of the Apache chief who had died in 1909 from pneumonia. It's no secret that S&B prides itself on its creepy collection of frat house decor, and the skull of an Indian chief whose name is synonymous with intoxicated white people jumping off cliffs would make a dandy addition to their "tomb." So (allegedly), Prescott Bush (father of George H.W., and grandfather of George W.), Henry Mallon, Ellery James and Charles C. Haffner, dug up the grave and stole the skull, a few bones, and a horse bit, and spirited them off to the Skull & Bones Tomb at Yale. Over the years, they have (allegedly) been in a glass display case.<br /><br /></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaa52jkQIbWsxh8rdBG5Gyoz2etKxJHCap4G-2gDKAcQgaXYaIIoKNYC6cHJazvE2ZLo8yDj5WiGaTr8s08uyu7s0fmFKceV-vxW4XliF7gMJYHMvht0t_ZyTTcZ7o6339HHuHyCVL-g/s1600-h/SkullBones1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaa52jkQIbWsxh8rdBG5Gyoz2etKxJHCap4G-2gDKAcQgaXYaIIoKNYC6cHJazvE2ZLo8yDj5WiGaTr8s08uyu7s0fmFKceV-vxW4XliF7gMJYHMvht0t_ZyTTcZ7o6339HHuHyCVL-g/s400/SkullBones1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304772939521643570" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /><i></i></span></span><center><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">The Skull and Bones "Tomb" on the Yale campus.</span></span></i></center><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /><br />The Geronimo skull is a longstanding piece of Skull & Bones folklore, but several members of the (alleged) grave robbing team gave conflicting accounts of the raid. Towana Spivey, director of the Fort Sill National Historic Landmark and Museum, is quoted as saying he has never believed the story. Still, there </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">is</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"> a skull in the S&B Tomb in New Haven known commonly as Geronimo.<br /><br />This public imbroglio started back in 2007 when Harlyn Geronimo of Mescalero, New Mexico, wrote to President George W. Bush for help in returning the skull of his great-grandfather. Bush didn't bother to answer, and the lawsuit followed. During the 2004 presidential race, Bonesmen Bush and Deomocratic nominee John Kerry both reacted to questions about the secretive society (one of about a dozen on the Yale campus) by saying that it was so secret they couldn't talk about it. Obviously, Bush admitting the chief's skull was in the Tomb would be in violation of the Society's oath. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">From </span></span><a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2010/aug/09/judge-dismisses-apache-suit-against-skull-and/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3333FF;">"</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 25px; "><a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2010/aug/09/judge-dismisses-apache-suit-against-skull-and/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3333FF;">Judge dismisses Apache suit against Skull and Bones"</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">in the Yale News on August 9th:</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px; font-family:Times;"><p face="Georgia" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; line-height: 20px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); "></p><blockquote><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background- line-height: 20px; font-family:Georgia;color:transparent;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">If [Clark] had won his case, he and his clients would have dug up the grave at Fort Sill, and if, as the story about Prescott Bush suggests, some of the remains had been missing, they would have turned to Yale and Skull and Bones.</span></span></span></i></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background- line-height: 20px; font-family:Georgia;color:transparent;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Before anyone can take legal action against the U.S. government, the government must consent to the proceedings by waiving its sovereign immunity. District Judge Richard W. Roberts said he dismissed the case because the plaintiffs had failed to establish why immunity should be waived in this case. He also said that the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), under which the prosecution was suing for ownership of the remains, only applies to burials, grave robberies and other incidents that took place after it was passed in 1990 — making the act irrelevant to this case.</span></span></span></i></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background- line-height: 20px; font-family:Georgia;color:transparent;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">But Clark said he does not think Roberts is correct on this last point.</span></span></span></i></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background- line-height: 20px; font-family:Georgia;color:transparent;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">"It doesn't seem like that act would have much relevance if it cut off everything before that date," Clark said.</span></span></span></i></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background- line-height: 20px; font-family:Georgia;color:transparent;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Still, Clark said the fact that he tried to take the case straight to court, without first arguing his clients' claim to their ancestor's remains in front of the relevant government agencies, might be why the government never waived its immunity. Clark said he pursued litigation first because it was the fastest route, allowing him to take on all relevant parties — those in the government and those in New Haven — at the same time. Now, he said, he and his clients will turn to agencies in the executive branch and the Department of Defense that they previously tried to bypass. He added that he will eventually reopen his cases against Yale and Skull and Bones if need be, but not until after the Fort Sill remains are exhumed.</span></span></span></i></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background- line-height: 20px; font-family:Georgia;color:transparent;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Yale has said it does not possess the remains, but that it cannot say whether the secret society — a separate entity — might have them. A representative of Skull and Bones has declined to comment on the matter.</span></span></span></i></p></blockquote><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; line-height: 20px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></p></span></div>Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-65025386432995057202010-08-17T19:41:00.007-04:002010-08-18T00:59:31.748-04:00Russian Scholar Says US May Be Cooking Russia With Secret Ray<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh51ZS8JiVhvN_F_49DsOAxTAMfrhnMmiEDfIbeiKxGlJ6zFKpGlvxsGSj_cz-Pni1yPFplATSf40VYa1gFF7rJ_cC-cB6DWWKAkpoU8K8ImcGAFMUfUdgCOqxX8NnMJbADlYSeT_iyeA/s1600/Chandu.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 322px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh51ZS8JiVhvN_F_49DsOAxTAMfrhnMmiEDfIbeiKxGlJ6zFKpGlvxsGSj_cz-Pni1yPFplATSf40VYa1gFF7rJ_cC-cB6DWWKAkpoU8K8ImcGAFMUfUdgCOqxX8NnMJbADlYSeT_iyeA/s400/Chandu.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506586160447164322" /></a><br />So now evil American scientists are apparently cooking the Russkies with our secret death ray. The US is not the only place that swims in the shallow waters of conspiracism, not by a long shot.<br /><br />A June 30th article from Radio Free Europe, <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/Russian_Scholar_Warns_Of_Secret_US_Climate_Change_Weapon/2114381.html">"Russian Scholar Warns Of 'Secret' U.S. Climate Change Weapon"</a> by Ashley Cleek:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CCFFFF;">A Russian political scientist has claimed the United States may be using climate-change weapons to alter the temperatures and crop yields of Russia and other Central Asian countries.<br /><br />In a recent article, Andrei Areshev, deputy director of the Strategic Culture Foundation, wrote, "At the moment, climate weapons may be reaching their target capacity and may be used to provoke droughts, erase crops, and induce various anomalous phenomena in certain countries."<br /><br />The article has been carried by publications throughout Russia, including "International Affairs," a journal published by the Foreign Ministry and by the state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.<br /><br />In an telephone interview with RFE/RL, Areshev appeared to back off from claims he made in the article, saying that he was merely positing a theory.<br /><br />"First of all, I would like to say that what I wrote in that article, even the citations, does not in any way claim to a be final truth. It is, if you will, speculation, in other words, the definition of an hypothesis," Areshev said.<br /><br />Moscow is currently sweltering under record temperatures. On July 29 Moscow suffered its hottest day ever, with temperatures hitting 39 degrees.<br /><br />[snip]<br /><br />In the article, Areshev voiced suspicions about the High-Frequency Active Aural Research Program (HAARP), funded by the U.S. Defense Department and the University of Alaska.<br /><br />HAARP, which has long been the target of conspiracy theorists, analyzes the ionosphere and seeks to develop technologies to improve radio communications, surveillance, and missile detection.<br /><br />Areshev writes, however, that its true aim is to create new weapons of mass destruction "in order to destabilize environmental and agricultural systems in local countries."<br /><br />Areshev's article also references an unmanned spacecraft X-37B, an orbital test vehicle the Pentagon launched in April 2010. The Pentagon calls X-37B a prototype for a new "space plane" that could take people and equipment to and from space stations. Areshev, however, alleges that the X-378 carries "laser weaponry" and could be a key component in the Pentagon's climate-change arsenal.<br /><br />The Pentagon was not immediately reachable for comment. </span></blockquote></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4fme3fRLfCR8-V72Yi7kArm765FGeBS8VYUo7di2nHd62B1pe5rUOEd375WVOABHokkdpWCQJiqhKBh_KGDv4n5EwfvkBdbXSkQ8ezxbh167x4po8Ik4r9tWgL2TXH9JTlHl3WCp22Q/s1600/haarp2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 271px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4fme3fRLfCR8-V72Yi7kArm765FGeBS8VYUo7di2nHd62B1pe5rUOEd375WVOABHokkdpWCQJiqhKBh_KGDv4n5EwfvkBdbXSkQ8ezxbh167x4po8Ik4r9tWgL2TXH9JTlHl3WCp22Q/s400/haarp2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506586882882975090" /></a><br /><br />H.A.A.R.P. is the more manageable acronym for the <a href="http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/">High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program</a> facility near Gakona, Alaska. Constructed in the 1990’s, HAARP’s official purpose is to study the effects of electromagnetic energy on the ionosphere. The way it accomplishes this is to direct 3.6 million megawatts of electricity into a transmitter and pump it out of an antenna straight up into the atmosphere, and to take readings from satellites. The effect seems to be that the ionosphere gets toasted by the beam of energy, similar to the effects of solar flares, albeit in a very tiny way (since 3.6 million megawatts is a pinprick compared to the electromagnetic energy hitting the earth from the Sun). That’s the 10¢ explanation of the official mission.<br /><br />Conspiracists say that the military designed HAARP with a far more sinister intent. It is claimed that the facility is a weapon being developed to knock out enemy satellite and radio communication by bombarding the atmosphere with massive electromagnetic waves. Or worse. Some have claimed that the 1993 power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada was triggered by a blast from HAARP.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5IWZlMsBFlDPomHUeefwEJhznH1Hht_4LCxteBNsuFDScoHwj1vDFEGg-gPv9qltKQdPvcB-y43-rKxrtMMxWJoSyHhgYZBK9uw-nhR_FRN_IGMWOTSOVB1TUf00HhaUCXco9rvposA/s1600/haarp.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5IWZlMsBFlDPomHUeefwEJhznH1Hht_4LCxteBNsuFDScoHwj1vDFEGg-gPv9qltKQdPvcB-y43-rKxrtMMxWJoSyHhgYZBK9uw-nhR_FRN_IGMWOTSOVB1TUf00HhaUCXco9rvposA/s400/haarp.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506586872656301874" /></a><br /><br />In the 1980’s, physicist Bernard Eastland proposed technology similar to what was built at HAARP as part of the so-called “Star Wars” defense shield (known in military circles as the less Hollywood-ish Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI). Eastland built upon the theories of famed electrical pioneer Nikola Tesla and proposed a high frequency, electromagnetic “shield” that could be used to electronically jam incoming Soviet nuclear missiles and knock out enemy satellites. When the government actually built HAARP, they claimed Eastland’s patents were not used, in spite of the similarity of the basic principles.<br /><br />That has not silenced critics who claim that HAARP is quietly sitting up in Alaska just waiting to be used by the military as a “death ray.” The belief is that the mild doses of electromagnetic pulses sent into the ionosphere are merely test firings, in anticipation of the really big jolt. A few of the very nervous have suggested that HAARP could direct its rays anywhere on Earth, and can be used to do anything from create major weather catastrophes on demand or cause earthquakes, to causing mass brain damage on a global scale by frying brain cells.<br /><br />It should be noted that HAARP is not technically a U.S. military research site, and has a large complement of civilians working on the property. However, the project IS managed by a division of <a href="http://www.darpa.mil/">DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)</a>, the Defense Department’s super high-tech “gee whiz” office that works with industry and universities to develop sophisticated technologies that might have a defense application (like the Internet, before Al Gore claimed it for himself).Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-9312826637380734882010-08-10T14:09:00.006-04:002010-08-10T15:34:49.589-04:00More Canadian Radio - CFAX 1070AM in Victoria<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Z6QaI0nrG8FKSRX2rL039E4LextcDMS5Ph1oiXO3VHo1n3tNJa4cjNRvdjYCVf52mN-d5RtLhza6J3Rb_LtNT-2xdfEo5k3LwIhteBZMSe0xg1h2wGNZYqH2eVonbSsNUO1S3UtD6g/s1600/CFAX1017.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 367px; height: 144px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Z6QaI0nrG8FKSRX2rL039E4LextcDMS5Ph1oiXO3VHo1n3tNJa4cjNRvdjYCVf52mN-d5RtLhza6J3Rb_LtNT-2xdfEo5k3LwIhteBZMSe0xg1h2wGNZYqH2eVonbSsNUO1S3UtD6g/s400/CFAX1017.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503845113191853506" /></a><br />I'll be interviewed this afternoon by <a href="http://www.cfax1070.com/personality.php?personalityId=43">David Dixon</a> at <a href="http://www.cfax1070.com/">CFAX 1070AM</a> in Victoria B.C. It will air at 5:40pm PST. Hear it at <a href="http://www.cfax1070.com">www.cfax1070.com</a> <br /><br />More about conspiracy theories and the Bilderbergers.Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-24294702070807875412010-08-09T23:58:00.005-04:002010-08-10T04:19:35.204-04:00CKNW 980AM in Vancouver Tuesday Morning<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-lMnXqtNBMR13pvM2XYzSNcYQ7neLueoW7nbjAnw5ese9Asp-BGzVS_08jr_g6aKKnQW0pdJNOjN8KEcxnRP3LuN_bp2yvYp_brzonJ9Ull5MMULwF15E8fWqVD3fGeArl3qVsxsf0EQ/s1600/CKNW_LOGO_NEW_header3.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 178px; height: 97px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-lMnXqtNBMR13pvM2XYzSNcYQ7neLueoW7nbjAnw5ese9Asp-BGzVS_08jr_g6aKKnQW0pdJNOjN8KEcxnRP3LuN_bp2yvYp_brzonJ9Ull5MMULwF15E8fWqVD3fGeArl3qVsxsf0EQ/s200/CKNW_LOGO_NEW_header3.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503623089762539426" /></a>I'll be appearing on <a href="http://www.cknw.com/">CKNW AM-980</a> in Vancouver Tuesday morning at 10AM PST, talking with reporter Michael Smyth on the Bill Good Show about the <a href="http://illuminatifordummies.blogspot.com/2010/06/bilderbergers-meet-in-sitges-spain-june.html">Bilderberg Group</a>. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.gordoncampbellmla.bc.ca/">British Columbia's Premier, Gordon Campbell</a>, was a delegate at this year's Bilderberg conference in Spain. Mr. Campbell is essentially the equivalent of a state governor in the United States, and a dustup in the press has expressed the usual gamut of fear, outrage and controversy over anything that is connected to the Bilderbergers. In Campbell's case, <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/gordon-campbells-trip-to-elite-bilderberger-conference-cost-bc-thousands/article1666122/">they are zeroing in on his $6,400 travel expense</a>, but there is also the usual paranoia over why the premier of a seemingly small potatoes Canadian province would get invited to hobnob with this impressive super-secret group of New World Order masters. Sounds like some folks in Vancouver have an inferiority complex. If I were Campbell or a resident of BC, I'd be miffed that there is an attitude that they are just too insignificant to be hanging with the big noises in the Bilderbergers.<br /><br />Campbell was among the 130 invited folks to the June gathering in Sitges, Spain, along with Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger, former U.S. treasury secretary Robert Rubin, and Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.<br /><hr><br />I spoke with Michael Smith on Monday and he quotes me in his article this morning. See <span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://www.theprovince.com/Airfare+record+premier+discussion/3379352/story.html#ixzz0wBn2imjQ">Airfare is on record, but premier's discussion isn't.</a></span></span>Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-88267416740217686792010-08-09T17:30:00.000-04:002010-08-09T17:32:34.538-04:00National Review Online - "The Corner"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZBh7UBkEicQz88LCznG-uTF5Spr4oQ3ZmahGEXUlWGDCRLnC-TXmpIZzX2wGzQi4tiXLW9GPPK-PVc-7nqgKg1JQn21-ZsQAqPS_eMutM0bmN4wXdDU7e68oRVQy6Tv3Pd_ythOcD95A/s1600/NRO_Corner_Masthead1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 397px; height: 385px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZBh7UBkEicQz88LCznG-uTF5Spr4oQ3ZmahGEXUlWGDCRLnC-TXmpIZzX2wGzQi4tiXLW9GPPK-PVc-7nqgKg1JQn21-ZsQAqPS_eMutM0bmN4wXdDU7e68oRVQy6Tv3Pd_ythOcD95A/s400/NRO_Corner_Masthead1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503525496244632962" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner">National Review Online</a> has a running editorial blog called "The Corner", where the regular editors and contributors to the biweekly conservative magazine post their daily and hourly observations, as the news may dictate.<br /><br />Last week they announced that they were hunting recommendations for a logo for the top of the web page. My submission is featured this week. <br /><br />When asked what my inspiration was for the design, I quoted Jefferson: "To place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent." It doesn't get much plainer than a "right turn only" sign, with dark clouds to the left, and a brighter future to the right.<br /><br />Anyway, it will be on their website all this week. It's my little brush with the late William F. Buckley, Jr.Christopher Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201859873755654395noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5536871871238508150.post-12528528187942669682010-08-08T01:14:00.000-04:002010-08-10T01:15:42.806-04:00The Aaron Burr Conspiracy<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH4moGMkOtlqhZs_yHBtU0kRCydMmqIMgLyywS_KpLd5AuBd7iwriCR8aIMRdHEP7y5sMKy-8F2mikwSZYIgo9CrIospoLOY2VxmKUz15lD5gnGnIWB6wiSAlOGMesrzVnQFRVkO3JpOs/s1600/455884_f260.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 178px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH4moGMkOtlqhZs_yHBtU0kRCydMmqIMgLyywS_KpLd5AuBd7iwriCR8aIMRdHEP7y5sMKy-8F2mikwSZYIgo9CrIospoLOY2VxmKUz15lD5gnGnIWB6wiSAlOGMesrzVnQFRVkO3JpOs/s200/455884_f260.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5501371075579861154" /></a>In the summer of 1806, America’s third president, Thomas Jefferson, received a long and disturbing letter out of Nashville from Andrew Jackson, who would one day be president himself. Jefferson’s mail pouch had been bulging for more than a year with ominous letters warning him about his former Vice President, Aaron Burr. There were rumored plots to create a new empire carved out of the Western territories, including the newly acquired lands of the Louisiana Purchase, with Burr as its emperor. Some of the letters had been signed, and some had been anonymous, but all of them were disturbing. It was the one from Jackson that finally got Jefferson’s full attention.<p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Aaron Burr had been Jefferson’s first-term vice-president, but it had not been a happy marriage. The presidential election of 1800 had been the first and last Electoral College tie – Burr and Jefferson had gotten <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">exactly</i> the same number of votes. In the earliest days of the United States, presidential candidates picked their vice-presidential running mates, but it was a gentlemen’s agreement, something understood. The actual election was a true popularity contest. Whoever got the most votes was president, and the second place candidate became vice-president, regardless of party affiliations.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Jefferson had run for president on the Democratic-Republican ticket, and had picked Burr to be his vice-presidential running mate. But when the votes were counted, they’d gotten <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">exactly</i> the same amount of electoral votes. Constitutionally, that meant the tie had to be decided by the House of Representatives. The House had to vote and revote until at least one elector changed sides and the tie was broken. Jefferson was furious because Burr knew full well he was meant to be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">vice</i>-president. If he wanted to be president, let him serve four years as the ‘Veep’ like his predecessors had. But instead of bowing out with a short and gracious speech, Burr kept quiet for weeks, with one deadlocked vote after another. After an incredible 36 ballots, one weary elector finally changed his vote. Jefferson was declared the winner, and Burr’s political career was officially dead – he had little choice but to go get buried. Traditionally, the second-place guy got to pass out his own share of perks and appointments, but Jefferson, scalded to the core, shut him out completely. Not a single plum political office would be Burr’s to give over. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpPqOVWcYsNHgr0JSrMQjh9CR1kEReNsXFKp6BoOb93fNcif_jjPqJJNUVzpHPZvri2dWew5yoV8sJ0DWqs_Gqf9FvYSh1ty8Bri5w4ATTwXFn8mQe4WLPuQ2TNi1kUTsm9zqJ3o5hRp0/s1600/bigAARON-BURR.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 154px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpPqOVWcYsNHgr0JSrMQjh9CR1kEReNsXFKp6BoOb93fNcif_jjPqJJNUVzpHPZvri2dWew5yoV8sJ0DWqs_Gqf9FvYSh1ty8Bri5w4ATTwXFn8mQe4WLPuQ2TNi1kUTsm9zqJ3o5hRp0/s200/bigAARON-BURR.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5501400410020757650" /></a>Then came his infamous duel with Alexander Hamilton, leader of the Federalist party, and very nearly George Washington’s surrogate son. As young men, both attorneys in New York, Hamilton and Burr had been very nearly friends. But as the years passed, for a variety of reasons, they became bitter enemies. (For the juicy details, read historian Thomas Fleming’s absolutely riveting book, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Duel-Alexander-Hamilton-Future-America/dp/0465017371?tag=chrishodappsf-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1569757739&adid=191YBNF18419XTNRN4CB&">Duel</a></i>.) After an exchange of letters that started with a remark of Hamilton’s about Burr to an acquaintance over dinner, the fur started flying, the seconds were drafted, and at dawn on July 11<sup>th</sup>, 1804, the two men rowed across the Hudson to Weehawken, New Jersey, where dueling was still legal, and shot it out. Both men fired at about the same instant – Hamilton missed, and Burr didn’t. It took Hamilton an agonizing day and night to die, and when he did, the city of New York was overwhelmed with the sort of grief they’d only expressed at the death of George Washington. With dark talk of a murder indictment, Aaron Burr decided to absent himself from the scene. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Meanwhile, Jefferson’s star was rising. In 1803 he had acquired the crown jewel of his administration, the Louisiana Purchase. He had doubled the size of the country overnight, without firing a shot; all he had to do was write a check. Sixteen million is what he paid, or a measly 3 cents an acre for 828,000 square miles, give or take a mile or two. In fact, when Robert Livingston, our man in Paris, expressed confusion over the exact borderlines, the wily Talleyrand, Napoleon’s foreign minister, merely shrugged and said, “You have made a noble bargain, and I assume you will make the most of it.” We did. In the long run, there was no way the weakened Spanish could go on holding the Floridas in the East, as well as Mexico, Texas, etc. in the West, when we had just bought everything in between. And the real jewel in this crown was the rich trading port of New Orleans. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">So Jefferson was riding high. The Constitution was amended to get rid of the president/vice-president popularity vote problem in time for the 1804 elections, and Jefferson ran for a second term, this time dumping the disgraced Burr as his running mate. Between the 1800 election fiasco, killing Hamilton, and several other political missteps, the once-prominent Burr had destroyed his political influence in the East. He decided the real golden opportunities were in the West. But he had no intention of starting all over again at the bottom. In fact, what Burr had in mind was to start at the top – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">all</i> the way at the top. In the spring of 1805, Burr traveled to Pittsburgh, built himself a very comfortable flatboat (2 bedrooms, kitchen with fireplace – like a water-borne Airstream) and headed 2,200 miles down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans, stopping incessantly along the way to check out the land militarily, and to make contacts. Initially he traveled incognito, under the startlingly unsubtle <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">nom de treason</i> Aaron King. </p> <p class="MsoBodyTextIndent">From what historians can gather, Burr had a Plan A, B, C – maybe all the way to Z. England’s King George just about dropped his tea set when he read a little missive in 1804 from his American contacts that the vice-president of the United States had just offered to betray his country if Britain would give him some ready cash and a few frigates to help him steal the West from the U.S. government. This was Plan A, Burr’s favorite, although as time passed, it was clear that Britain’s king either wasn’t real interested, or didn’t trust him. (Gosh, how could you not trust him?) </p> <p class="MsoBodyTextIndent">Plan B was a plot to get cozy with the Spanish, and set up some sort of alliance with them, where he’d get to be emperor over a new kingdom carved out of the Mississippi Valley, in exchange for being their solid ally against the constant encroachments of the new American nation into remaining Spanish holdings. </p> <p class="MsoBodyTextIndent">Plan C also involved holding hands with the Spanish, but no kissing, by enlisting their aid before he betrayed them and led his hardy band of frontiersmen into either Florida or the West to carve out a new empire for himself. He had lots of other plots, but these were the major ones, including Plan Q, which involved a scheme to cheat his greengrocer on the bill. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">During his first two visits to Nashville, (Nashville was a popular jumping-off point from land to river traffic) Burr had thoroughly charmed Andrew Jackson, Tennessee’s most important figure, courting him like a prospective bride. He’d also hit on Jackson’s Achilles’ heel, because he knew that Jackson wanted the British, the Spanish, the French, the Indians, and everyone else out of the West; it belonged to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">us</i>. So Burr’s talk of making war on Spanish occupiers found an interested pair of ears. Everything he said fell on interested ears. Burr was doing what all overthrowers of nations do, right out of the Machiavelli playbook – he was rambling around looking for men with money and power, particularly if they had a bone to pick with the present administration. And though they would stand up in federal court and lie their heads off, the documentary evidence proves that Burr had succeeded in gathering about himself a corps of such men, all ready to move upon receiving his coded signal. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Burr was very good at sizing up his intended victim and saying what they needed to hear in order to end up on his side. Everyone who wrote about their encounters with the man spoke of his eyes, shining eyes so dark they appeared to be black, and so intense that they seemed to draw people in against their will. But he had the smooth tongue of a lawyer, as well. Many times, for example, he implied that he had a sort of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">unofficial</i> official blessing for his plans to drive Spain out of either Florida or the West, or both. Well, after all, he was the vice-president, or had been until a few months before. Why wouldn’t you believe him? And they did, for a time, anyway. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">But as Burr faced various setbacks, his talk grew more daring and ever more treasonous. To several prospective shills he spoke airily of taking over the West, as if it were a done deal, and then of turning his army about to invade and take Washington, D.C.; he even spoke of assassinating Thomas Jefferson. Which brings us back to Andrew Jackson’s letter to the president. Jackson brilliantly outlined in great detail what he thought Burr’s scheme was. He also mentioned a “certain general,” never by name, as being Burr’s vital henchman in the plot. Probably he used no name because he had only rumor and surmise to go on, with no direct evidence. But everyone knew the general he was talking about. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">James Wilkinson had been an American officer during the Revolutionary War. So was the courageous and glory-hungry Aaron Burr. Strangely enough, both young men had fought in the Quebec campaign under America’s most notorious traitor, Benedict Arnold. Maybe it was something in the water. Anyway, in 1787 Wilkinson was out of the army, and planning on becoming a merchant as well as freelance adventurer. In that year he left Kentucky with a flatboat full of hams and tobacco, headed for New Orleans. During this brief period, before Napoleon got it back, New Orleans and the Louisiana Territory belonged to the Spanish. When Spanish officials refused him a passport, a tactic they’d been using lately to strangle American trade, Wilkinson brazenly left without one, bribing his way downriver. </p> <p class="MsoBodyText2">When he finally arrived in New Orleans, the purpose of his trip became clear. He went straight to the Spanish territorial governor and said the people of Kentucky were sick of being denied access to the river, and sick of the Federalists in New England who didn’t care, so long as their Atlantic merchant ties with Europe were safe. He said that the West was ripe to do what the 13 colonies had done before them – declare themselves a separate nation. Wilkinson then offered himself up with all the subtlety of a five-dollar hooker to be a Spanish agent in Kentucky, working toward a rebellion perhaps, but a rebellion that would be allied with Spain. He was promptly put on Spain’s payroll, and given the name in government correspondence of “Agent Number 13.” How James Bond-y can you get? </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Some people are just born plotters, and this was something Wilkinson and Burr recognized in one another almost at once. As for this scheme in the West, they’d been plotting it literally for years, sending long coded letters to one another, meeting in the dark of night, etc. That kind of thing is bound to get out, even if people don’t know just <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">what</i> it is you’re plotting. Personalities aside, it was an element of fate that, within ten years’ time of selling himself to Spain, Wilkinson would find himself not only back in the army, but the commanding general over all of America’s land forces. Ironically, in 1804 he was even promoted to the territorial governorship of the northern Louisiana Territory that he intended stealing. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">But in the late autumn of 1806, the traitorous General Wilkinson had reached the point of no return. He’d given his fealty to the United States government, to the King of Spain, and to Aaron Burr. And there he sat, upriver from New Orleans, facing a force of Spanish soldiers on the eastern side of the Sabine River, the side that supposedly belonged to America. They were obviously getting ready for a showdown over the border, perhaps even an attempt to take back territory that we’d bought in the Louisiana Purchase. Wilkinson was ordered from Washington to stop them by force if they tried, this Spanish army whose possessions in America he’d sworn to protect. Wilkinson was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">also</i> supposed to wait where he was for Aaron Burr’s forces, gathering on Blennerhassett Island in Virginia to make their trip down the Ohio and Mississippi to meet up with him. Then they would cross the lines to meet the Spanish officers with whom Wilkinson had remained chummy, and together they would invade New Orleans, cutting the heart out of the Louisiana Purchase, and betraying Jefferson. Well, it might work. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Yet, Burr’s constant delays, for lack of funds, had given Wilkinson too much time to get cold feet. When Burr’s letter came, proclaiming that the attack was not some far distant dream date, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">now</i>, Wilkinson decided to re-think the matter. If he betrayed Aaron Burr and gave him up to the president, he would have the government’s eternal thanks. And if he made out to the Spanish that Burr had been planning to double-cross them, that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Burr</i> had been their real enemy all along, but on-the-ball Wilkinson had been there to stop him from stealing Spanish territory, he’d be a hero with his Spanish paymasters, as well. He decided this would be a better plan all around, and betrayed the man who’d been his close friend and brother-in-arms since the revolution. Nice guy. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">So, Wilkinson wrote to Jefferson to tell him all about it. Of course, he had to be a little vague, since if he wrote too much, someone might have the common sense to ask, “Hey, how do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">you</i> know so much about it?” He gave over just enough information about the “widespread conspiracy” of which he’d been a part to finally propel Jefferson to take action. The president sent the Virginia militia to go downriver and arrest Burr and his men. Being the dead of winter, and being short on funds, Burr hadn’t been able to raise quite the force he’d wanted, but they’d all met and set out for the grand adventure, unaware that the feds were in hot pursuit. They finally caught up with him in Natchez, Mississippi, tantalizingly close to New Orleans. Burr toyed with the idea of defiance, until he discovered that Wilkinson had betrayed him. At that point, he hid his weapons, claimed to be leading an innocent party of settlers to land he’d purchased in Louisiana, then gave himself over to the territorial governor of Mississippi without a fight. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Burr’s trial took place that summer in Richmond, Virginia. By another simple twist of fate, Aaron Burr ended up with the most subtle legal mind of the century sitting the bench in his case – Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Marshall. In those days, federal judges were expected to “ride the circuit,” handling federal cases all over a particular jurisdiction, in the same way that other magistrates did. Although Richmond was Marshall’s home, he was the circuit judge to whom the case happened to fall. This would take the trial beyond merely interesting. Marshall was a first cousin to President Jefferson, as well as being his mortal political enemy. Of course, this didn’t mean Burr was automatically going to walk. First of all, Justice Marshall was too honorable for that. And second, Burr happened to be the murderer of Marshall’s close political ally and friend, Alexander Hamilton. This one was going to get weird. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">And it did get weird, with a dream team for both the prosecution and the defense who spent days on end arguing legal points, with famous lawyers drafted onto the jury who interrupted to ask questions of their own, and a crowd so large that the trial had to be moved to the House of Delegates in the Capital building; the crowds still spilled onto the steps and the street, standing on anything handy to get a peek through the windows. It was your basic, O.J. Simpson-style three-ring circus. But unlike Judge Ito, John Marshall, always calm and controlled, did not let any of the sideshow throw him. His instructions to the jury interpreting the Constitution stated that he saw no evidence of an “overt act” of treason, nor had the state produced the necessary two witnesses to such an act. Therefore, he did not see that Burr could be convicted of “levying war” against the United States, as the law was written. The jury agreed, but delivered a somewhat queer verdict – they said they found that the charge had not been proven, and so had no choice but to declare the defendant “Not Guilty.” This harked back to British common law, in which a middle-road verdict of “Not Proven” is sometimes permissible. But Burr and his attorneys were not happy, asking that the addendum to the “Not Guilty” verdict be stricken from the official record. It was. Burr was a free man. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Jefferson, of course, was livid, but he had his share of satisfaction. Burr would never again hold public office, and for the rest of his life would be marked a traitor. He spent the next two decades before his death quietly practicing law in New York. But if Burr got off in court, he paid in other coin. He was a widower with no son, although a ladies man to the end, but his closest relationship was with his daughter Theodosia, a girl he’d raised from the cradle to think like a man. She was his official hostess and closest confidant. The two were inseparable, and historians have often pondered just how close their relationship was. But within a few years of the trial, his beloved grandson Aaron, the heir apparent, died of a fever. On the heels of that tragedy, his treasure, Theodosia, would be lost at sea, attempting to travel home to New York because she was so fearful over her father’s grief about the loss of her son. Burr was alone, and would remain so until his death in 1836 at the age of 81. </p> <!--EndFragment-->Alice Hodapphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04940915475623275803noreply@blogger.com2