Archives for March 2013

When Pope John Paul II visited Miami in 1987 a T-shirt maker printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the visit. Instead of “Vi el Papa (I saw the Pope)” the shirts read “vi la papa (I Saw the Potato).” Let’s hope we can do better when the next pope comes to town. Because, let’s be honest, this new pope will come to America. Pope Francis is from South America and Latins are the largest group of Catholics in the world. More importantly, for us Gringos, is that many of those faithful have migrated to our beloved Casa del Norte. In a day filled with papal firsts, (1) 1st pope from the Americas, (2) 1st Latin pope, (3) 1st Jesuit pope, it was also a day that was steeped in tradition. Pope Francis is not going to wander far from church doctrine but he will be far more involved with the laity than any pope in modern history. Which would make him more of a traditionalist than any pope since about 1600.

He takes over a church that is awash in scandal and intrigue. I see no reason to wander down that rat hole now. The facts are known well enough. What is less known is that the traditional Italian hierarchy isn’t actually the history of the church. There had been African and Greek popes until about 800 AD. Well, Jesus was from the Middle East (next door to Africa) and the original Bible was written in Greek.

But then the Italians, essentially, wrested control and outlawed anyone not Italian from holding any position higher than priest. The alleged exception to that would be the Frankish Pope John VIII. I’ll deal with her later.

This was during the dark ages. Far from being the light that led the masses out of their turmoils, the church dramatically reduced access to knowledge, printed materials and money. It became a corrupt power broker. Regular readers already know how that held true until people learned to read thanks to porn.

Molly Oldfield and John Mitchinson, the brains behind the BBC quiz show Q1, took some time out of their busy day to gather some background on the whole pope thing.

I admire the Pope. I have a lot of respect for anyone who can tour without an album. Rita Rudner

Holy Father
“Pope” comes from the Greek “pappas” meaning father. The term used to be applicable to all bishops, but gradually came to denote the Bishop of Rome. The Pope also holds several other titles: Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of Apostles , Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the State of Vatican City and Servant of Servants of God. The word papa means pope (Italian), father (English), shark (Swahili), arse (Maori) and potato (Quechua).

Becoming Pope
Theoretically any male, baptised Catholic who has reached the age of reason, is not a heretic, not in schism, and is not “notorious” for simony can become Pope, although for th past 600 years the cardinals have selected one of their own number. The last non-cardinal was Pope Urban VI, elected in 1378.

Dressing the Pope
The newly elected Pope addresses the crowd from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica but as there is so little time between the election and first appearance there must be three different sets of Papal robes on hand – small, medium and large – which nuns will speedily alter to ensure the new Pontiff looks impeccable for his first public appearance. Benedict XVI sparked a flurry of media attention when it was suggested that his signature red loafers were made by Prada. The Vatican’s newspaper l’Osservatore Romano declared the claims “frivolous” and added that the Pope “does not wear Prada, but Christ”.

Transporting the Pope
The Pope travels in specially adapted cars which allow as many people as possible to see him. John Paul II asked the press to avoid the word “popemobile” as he thought it was undignified, but his wishes were widely ignored. The popemobile he used to travel around Ireland in the 1979 is now owned by the Dublin Wax Museum, who hire it out for around €300 plus VAT. In 2005 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, sold his 1999 VW Golf for $13,000. It was reported to be in “well-cared-for condition” and was later resold on eBay for $244,000 to the Golden Palace casino of Austin, Texas as a “celebrity status item”.

Antipopes
The antipopes were acclaimed by a large section of the Catholic church to be legitimate candidates for the papacy, while a rival was already in place. As they were unofficial, records aren’t as sturdy as the papal records, but it is thought there were more than 37 antipopes between 217 and 1439.

Four Popes
Fourteen different years have seen three popes hold their position, but 1276 saw four different popes following the death of Gregory X. Innocent V became the next pope; he introduced the wearing of white cassocks (a tradition from the Dominican order he belonged to) but died five months into the job. Adrian V was then elected but died five weeks later. The fourth Pope that year was John XXI, who lasted into 1277 before being crushed to death when his study’s ceiling collapsed.

Pope John XX
There was no Pope John XX. The mistake arose when historians in the 11th century thought there had been another Pope John between the antipope Boniface VII and the true Pope John XV. The latter Johns were adjusted to hold their correct numbers but John XXI and XXII kept the numbers they had taken themselves, as they believed there had been 20 Johns before them.

Papal pay
In 2001, Vatican spokesman Joaquín Navarro-Valls ended speculation about the Pope’s personal wealth by saying: “The Pope does not and has never received a salary.” The Pope-elect’s private property is either donated to the Church or, if it’s hereditary property, transferred to another relative, used to endow a foundation, or placed in trust. When John Paul II died in 2005 he left no possessions and asked that his personal papers be burned.

The Vatican
Vatican City has one of the highest crime rates in the world (608 crimes, 500 people in 2002). The small size (just 0.44sq km) accounts for the anomaly but also means the country has two Popes per sq km.

Let’s wander back up to the whole Pope John XX thing. The reason the numbering is off is because, up until then, the church admitted that there had been a Pope John VIII a/k/a Pope Joan. In fact, most of the modern dogma comes from the church’s dealings with a world that was changing in the 1300s. Gay saints and married popes were accepted until around then.

Many people point to Liber Pontificalis (Book of Popes) as proof that Pope Joan never existed. However, that book is so rife with political alterations and factual errors that it is rendered meaningless as a historical document.

Given the amount of circumstantial evidence, excellently compiled by Donna Woolfolk-Cross in her fiction book Pope Joan (she is a historian, not an idiot), it is far more likely that there was a female pope. Admittedly one elected by accident.

This pope, however, is no accident. If he can emulate Sister Mary Clarence and evangelize the populace, then there may be hope for more than just us after all.

Hope isn’t such a bad thing to have.

Vaya con Dios Padre.

MATER SUSPIRIA VISION – Seduction of the Armageddon Witches {2011} from Diego Barrera on Vimeo.

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I know you’re just sitting around eating your triple decker bacon burger, with extra cheese, and a side order of cheese fries with a 32 oz Mountain Dew while begging for sweet oblivion to take you away. You aren’t even alone in that regard. Not that I’m joining you any more, I’ve altered my life a little and seem to be on the path to live longer than previously expected. Actually, according to Death Date, I died in 1993. So I may have pushed the edges already. Anyway, I’m alive and hoping to stay that way. However, for those of you who aren’t so hoping, I may have some good news. My pal Suzanne Shelton reminded me of a great yarn that used to get told in church when I was a kid. Long story short, the election of the next pope will signal the end of the world or the end of the Catholic Church.

Or something like that.

For those of you who weren’t raised Irish-Catholic Huffington Post has some history for you.

After Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation, those familiar with a 12th-century prophecy claiming the next pope will be the last questioned if Judgment Day is quickly approaching. Scholars, theologians and churchmen, however, all treat this “prediction” as fiction passed off as reality.

The “Prophecy of the Popes” is attributed to St. Malachy, an Irish archbishop who was canonized a saint in 1190, according to Discovery News. In his predication, dated 1139, Malachy prophesied that there would be 112 more popes before Judgment Day. Benedict is supposedly the 111th pope.

The foretelling offers brief descriptions about each pope, and some of them appear to align with reality in some way. For example, Benedict is apparently denoted as the “glory of the olive,” and the Olivetans are affiliated with Benedictine Order, NBC News notes.

Curiously, the “Prophecy of Popes” stops at the 112th pope and ends with a cryptic warning of doomsday.

In the extreme persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit … Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations: and when these things are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the terrible judge will judge his people. The End.

Following Benedict’s resignation, theorists began questioning if Malachy might actually be right.

However, although Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana might bear the same name as the person mentioned in the prophecy, there are no Roman-born cardinals in the running to be Benedict’s successor.

“There are no Pietros among the living cardinals; two Pierres (as second name): Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir and Jean-Pierre Ricard; and one Pedro: Rubiano Sáenz,” according to librarian Salvador Miranda, creator and producer of the website The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church.

Like any good conspiracy theory, there are many holes in the lore of St. Malachy, according to Father James Weiss, a professor of church history at Boston College.

First of all, there is no original manuscript of the prediction. Malachy’s vision was allegedly discovered and published by Benedictine Arnold de Wyon in 1590. Prior to that date, there is no mention or record of it, Weiss told The Huffington Post.

Reputable church historians and clerics have considered it a forgery since the 18th century.

“Between the summer of 1590 and the fall of 1592, there were four popes [elected during] a period of rapid turnover,” Weiss said during a phone conversation with HuffPost on Wednesday. “It was also a point at which there was intense rivalry between France and Spain to control the papacy for their own political reasons.”

The prophecies surfaced after the first of the newly elected popes died. “It is widely thought, also given who the author was and his relationship, [that the prophecies] were published to establish the case for election of one particular cardinal,” he added.

Text from St. Malachy’s “Prophecy of Popes.” Story continues below.

Another point Weiss raises is the line between the prediction for No. 111 “glory of olive” and No. 112 Petrus Romanus.

“It reads, ‘In the extreme persecution in the Holy Roman Church there will sit…’ It’s an incomplete sentence,” Weiss said. “Apparently a lot of scholars believe that line is an incomplete sentence indicating that there will be unidentified popes between the [“glory of olives”] and Peter the Roman.”

Despite the fascination surrounding it, Malachy’s prophecy is regarded as malarkey by church officials and scholars.

“Theologically and organizationally, the church pays no attention to this,” Weiss said. “The only thing that you would say to someone who was obsessed or curious about it would be, ‘Our times are in God’s hands and we can trust God’s providence.’ But that won’t satisfy a lot of people.”

Weiss is certainly not alone in his stance on St. Malachy’s prophecy.

Dr. Thomas Groome, chair of the Department of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry at Boston College, has a similar notion.

“For myself — and even as a native Irishman — the ‘Prophecies of St. Malachy’ are a grand old fun tale that have about as much reliability as the morning horoscope,” he told HuffPost in an email Wednesday.

Thomas J. Reese, SJ, of Georgetown University, had only this to say about the buzz: “St. Malachy’s prophecy is nonsense.”

Nonsense? NONSENSE?????

Well, yeah, I guess it is.

The prophecies are very accurate up to the time they were “discovered.” Or written down. Or whatever. After that they tend to fall apart. Simply put it’s pretty easy to prophesize what’s already happened.

But, hey, what about Petrus Romanus? Since there are no Romans named Peter in the conclave that proves the prophesy is wrong.

Oddly enough, that’s the one part that could prove it right.

You see Peter, on whose bones the Catholic Church is literally built, wasn’t a Roman either. He was a Jew who was executed in Rome. Also, ever since the 1600’s popes have chosen their names after they are elevated to papal status. Whatever their name is now is meaningless. Still, prior to that there was never a second pope named Peter.

The next pope named Peter would be living in Italy since that’s where the Vatican is. Using the map locations as they were known by St. Malachy, and others, such a pope would be in Rome. Therefore, any Pope Peter would be Peter the Roman.

Feel free to mess with people’s heads with that tiny fact.

KILLER NUN (Giulio Berruti, 1978) (NSFW) from Spectacle Theater

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While the nice people at WalMart may think that they are a great place to shop and that people go there because it’s a great way to save 19% versus shopping at Jewel, the reality speaks otherwise. In Illinois, for example, you get a lot of people who wear tinfoil bikinis or big fuzzy bird outfits. These people, while bizarre as hell are usually harmless. The same applies to the folks out in Wyoming or Nevada (where bunghole fingering seems to be a state wide hobby). While you might not want to shake hands with these people, and you certainly wouldn’t let them near your food or your children, there’s no real reason to call 911 upon sight. Let’s be honest, for all their talk about reasonably priced, deep fried, frozen foods they are really just a destination for folks in need of cheap guns and bad flannel jammies. And people often wear the latter when purchasing the former.

But, in Florida the reality is far darker. When WalMart opened the day after Thanksgiving several people were shot while arguing over parking spaces. Yes, you read that right. Of course your shock level goes way down when you realize that a Google search for meth labs inside WalMarts turns up 277,000 hits. That is considerably more than tap dancing Islamic fundamentalists by the way. Just in case you wondered what the real threats to our land are.

Police in Orange City Florida are still sorting out the story of the guy who unloaded a full clip into a moving car in a crowded parking lot because he wanted to mark it for the cops.

A man arrested for opening fire in a busy Walmart parking lot said he was trying to stop a shoplifter and is now defending his actions.

Orange City police arrested Jose Martinez, 35, after they said he unleashed at least five bullets in the parking lot of the Walmart on Veterans Memorial Parkway.

Martinez told Local 6, he was defending himself from a shoplifter who nearly ran him over and injured him.

“The guy put me in danger and other people,” said Martinez as police hauled him off to jail Wednesday evening. “He tried to run me over.”

But police said Martinez only was bumped by the shoplifter’s getaway car because he was chasing after the car and even tried to open the door to the moving vehicle before he opened fire.

Eddie McKee, 42, was caught shoplifting groceries at the Walmart and took off when security confronted him, knocking down a woman, according to police.

Several other people chased after the alleged shoplifter, Eddie McKee, and another man was armed but he never drew his gun. McKee was arrested in DeLand shortly after.

Police said McKee then jumped in his car and took off, but bumped into another car in the parking lot, that’s when police say bullets started flying.

“If the shoplifter was an aggressor towards him, then yes. If he wasn’t, then no, he shouldn’t have discharged his firearm,” said Tasha Olkowski.

“I saw one black gentleman running from the parking lot, he dove in his car. And there were two older gentlemen chasing him down. One drew a gun, ripped open the guys car door and screamed, ‘Freeze, freeze, don’t move!’ And then fired shots,” said one 911 caller.

As the bullets hit the getaway car — piercing the trunk and shattering the back window — police said bullets also hit at least two other cars.

Martinez said to Local 6, he thought nobody else was in danger by his gunfire and he was surprised police arrested him. Martinez started opening fire because he said he wanted to mark the suspect’s car as he fled from the scene. He has his concealed weapons permit but has been charged with two felonies, aggravated assault and shooting into an occupied vehicle.

After reviewing store security video, police said Martinez’s story doesn’t add up. They believe he was never in danger because the shoplifter was driving away from him and everyone else.

The one good thing that has come out of the Trayvon Martin affair is that Florida cops are far less likely, for now anyway, to write off hunting black people as acceptable. We take our progress where we find it.

Where we don’t find it is in Crawfordville, Fla. That is where a nice WalMart customer pulled a .38 on the staff because they wouldn’t honor a bogus coupon.

Some people will do anything to save a buck — even wave a gun at a Walmart employee.

Officials in Crawfordville, Fla., say when Mary Frances Alday, 61, was told she couldn’t use an Internet coupon at Walmart, she got angry. Real angry.

She allegedly called the manager who denied the dollar-off coupon “a bitch,” and then intentionally stuck her with a shopping cart, according to The Smoking Gun.

Alday was escorted out of Walmart, but she went to her car, grabbed a loaded Smith & Wesson .38 Special and came back in the store and threatened employees with it, WTXL-TV reported.

She left the scene, but was later arrested during a traffic stop, and reportedly had to be tased to get her out of her 2011 Ford Escape. She also allegedy hit the investigating officer several times, according to the arrest report obtained by The Smoking Gun.

Alday faces four counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, one count of battery, one count of battery on a law enforcement officer, and resisting arrest with violence.

Reports are still not clear but, as best as I can tell, the coupon was expired and for a different chain.

So there you have it kids. WalMart is a dangerous place if you’re in Florida and a silly one everywhere else.

Fuck Me, I’m an Artist – by STEVE FOX from Steve Fox

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I have written about the impending Armageddon so often that it should have it’s own sub-site up here. And when I have avoided Armageddon I’ve written about various forms of the Apocalypse that may befall us. And that’s okay. Everyone needs a good laugh now and then. And God knows the varying responses to the numerous apocalie (is that a word? it is now) have provided gut busting guffaws for the masses. My heroes are still the fun loving, if not all that smart, folks who planned on riding out the last apocalypse in mobile homes. Still and all, much of the gloom and doom associated with those stories has been hypothetical, at best. Rational people knew full well that the Mayans had predicted nothing, that there was no planet Niribu going to slam into us, there are no comets large enough to destroy our sun and so on. Simple physics can prove 99% of the idiots wrong and common sense takes care of the rest.

Until today.

Ms. Marion Webster, no relation to the dictionary, has been fined by an English judge for using her form of vigilante justice to try and stop ninja squirrels from destroying her flowers.

Go ahead and read that again. I didn’t get any of it wrong.

This is pretty nuts.

Marion Webster, a 78-year-old U.K. woman found guilty of tearing up flowers in her neighbor’s garden, may have done it because she believed her own garden had been destroyed by a trained squirrel.

Webster, who has been dubbed a “neighbor from Hell,” according to the Birmingham Mail, was found guilty last week of criminal damage and ordered by a judge to keep the peace for six months.

Prosecuting attorney Kaya Ball told Solihull Magistrates Court that the flowers were not “just an isolated incident.” Since 2002, the West Midlands Police have received more than 40 complaints about Webster’s behavior, a spokeswoman told the Birmingham Mail. Reported incidents have included allegations of Webster yelling and swearing at passers by with no provocation.

“She is very proud of her garden,” one neighbor said, according to the Daily Mail, “and she got it into her head that someone had it in for her and was jealous of her flowers … she became convinced a resident had trained a squirrel to enter her garden after dark and tear up her flowers.”

Ha ha ha, of course the crazy lady is crazy, right?

Maybe. Maybe not.

As has been noted up here before, Chinese scientists, who have way too much time and money, have been trying to genetically alter mice so they can sing. Once they can sing it is hoped they will be able to vocalize. In other words, intelligent, talking mice will be roaming the planet.

Suddenly flower killing ninja squirrels don’t sound so crazy.

And over in Iran, as if our troops don’t have enough problems, various companies have been dumping radioactive waste and other pollutants into the soil and now there is a species of rat that is bigger than a lot of dogs.

Too bad Iran can’t Photoshop its way out of this problem.

Although Tehran has had a decades-long struggle with rats, its rodent problem seems to have grown to epic proportions as of late. Giant rats that have been flushed out of their nests by melting snow are the focus of a renewed extermination effort in the Iranian capital, according to several reports.

Some of the rodents reportedly weigh as much as 11 pounds.

The International Business Times quoted Tehran city council environment adviser Ismail Kahram, who told Iranian news website Qudsonline.ir that the rats “seem to have had a genetic mutation, probably as a result of radiations and the chemical used on them.”

“They are now bigger and look different. These are changes that normally take millions of years of evolution. They have jumped from 60 grams to five kilos, and cats are now smaller than them,” Kahram said, according to the outlet.

The Huffington Post reached out to several rat experts to assess the validity of Kahram’s claim. Dr. David Baker, laboratory animal veterinarian at LSU, told HuffPost that it’s unlikely the rats got super-sized as the result of a mutation.

“Nearly all genetic mutations identified across the field of biology are harmful and confer a disadvantage to the species rather than an advantage. It’s not like in the sci-fi movies,” Baker said in an email.

However, he pointed out that there are several species of “giant” rats found around the world that can achieve the sizes described by Kahram. Because their growth plates don’t fuse after puberty, Baker explained, even common black rats can get very large.

“During the Middle Ages, black rats in Europe reportedly grew large enough — and children were small enough — to carry off babies. Those had to have been some big rats,” Baker wrote.

Regardless of size, Tehran is reportedly ramping up its response to the rodents. Apparently a team of army snipers is now hunting the rats by night, using rifles equipped with infrared scopes. IBT reported that 2,205 rats have been killed so far.

It’s like a warped bonus round of “Big Buck Hunter,” except the only ones scoring points off this emergency are the media. The Times of Israel made a “Princess Bride” reference in its coverage about the rats, whereas the Times of London took aim at Tehran’s “experience when it comes to [exterminating]… its political opponents.”

Whether Tehran’s rats are mutated or not, some scientists have reported that certain rat populations are becoming resistant to poison. In 2012, a researchers in Britain published findings that estimated 75 percent of rats in West England were resistant to rodenticide.

Is it just me or does it make you get all squishy inside knowing that the giant rat killer is a Sox fan. No wimpy Cubs fans for a job like that, no sirree Bob. You got something from a low buck horror flick crawling out of the ground you want a Sox fan to deal with that ….. stuff.

And here’s the scary part. Right here in the U.S. of A. we have the genetic cousins of rats and our little monsters weigh in at around 100 lbs. No, that’s not a typo. Capybaras, the worlds largest rodents, have migrated from their South American jungle homes to Southern California and they have infiltrated the water system.

Yet another reason to stay the hell out of California.

TENEMENT (Roberta Findlay, 1985) (NSFW) from Spectacle Theater on Vimeo.

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The mind of a child is a wonderful thing. It sees the fairies and the goblins of the world and does not dispute their existence. It can, without effort, turn a pencil into a rocket ship or a piece of lint into an angry bug. It parses the universe not into black and white but into brilliant rainbow hues with each color hiding a different source of joy. The artists among us, and I mean that to include the mathematicians who envision the heart of the universe and share their visions, retain some of those attributes help them see the unseeable. These people contribute mightily to the human condition. They buoy it in beauty and unforeseen truths. Whether its Harlan Ellison’s paragraph on how jelly beans can be used to foment rebellion to Maya Angelou’s look at the meaning of freedom, these people give us new insights into our world that we might have otherwise missed.

These are the minds that probe and question and love getting answers. They look at the universe and realize we are a young race on a young planet. Might there be elder species roaming the stars? They tend to lean towards answering yes.

But for every Yin there is a Yang. Some do not see the wonders of the world but the horrors of the dark. They are quick to cry “WITCH” at anything they do not understand. If it is beyond their ability to create then it must have been done by supernatural or alien forces. Never mind logic or facts, they knew this to be true. James Fox is one such person.

He creates movies that rational people never see. And now he is offering a reward for whoever can prove him right.

Nearly every day, videos, photos and eyewitness accounts of UFOs pop up on the Internet.

Some are hoaxes. Some are quirks in the weather. Some sightings are never explained and forevermore remain UFOs.

The photo (herein), taken by Hannah McRoberts on Vancouver Island in British Columbia in 1981, is considered one of the most credible UFO pictures.

Still, never has there been widely accepted positive proof of an extraterrestrial spacecraft, though there are those who believe various government agencies around the world have conspired to hide the truth.

Now, however, if someone can prove otherwise, they will be $100,000 richer.

Filmmaker James Fox will make this announcement as part of the promotion for his upcoming movie The 701, inspired by the Air Force’s two-decade UFO study, Project Blue Book.

The massive study into 12,618 UFO sightings, which ended in 1969, was able to explain away all but 701 of these sightings.

Fox, who previously directed Out of the Blue (2002) and I Know What I Saw (2009), will reveal the $100K challenge at the 22nd International UFO Congress (IUFOC), which begins Feb. 27, in Fountain Hills, Ariz.

“One of the aspects that sets our film apart is the producers’ commitment to bringing forth never-before-seen evidence. As part of this effort, we’re offering a $100,000 reward for the best proof that some UFOs are alien spacecraft,” Fox told The Huffington Post exclusively.

“This material can be in the form of a photograph, video or film footage or debris from an alleged crash site. But it must be able to withstand scientific scrutiny by our chosen panel.

“Our intent is not to create another television UFO documentary, but to produce a feature film for worldwide theatrical release — ‘The 701’ — the most compelling film ever produced on UFOs,” Fox said.

“701 is the number the government doesn’t want you to know about. The U.S. Air Force had a serious problem, starting in the late 1940s. Technological devices were invading our airspace with total impunity. Glinting, metallic discs, which could accelerate and maneuver in ways hard to imagine, were being seen in incredible numbers by reliable witnesses. Many of them were pilots.”

Fox, one of the co-stars of National Geographic’s Chasing UFOs, will be sharing the IUFOC podium over the five-day event with former nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman; ex-FBI Special Agent (and host of the Syfy Channel’s Fact, or Faked) Ben Hansen; skeptical research scientist Ben McGee; former UK Ministry of Defense officer Nick Pope; and regression therapist Barbara Lamb, among others, presenting a compelling variety of topics, including:

• Ancient Astronauts and Technologies
• Physics of Space Travel
• A New Look At The Cosmos
• ET/Human Hybrids
• Close Encounters of The 4th Kind: ET Contact

Oh man, where do I begin. How about the obvious? If anyone had verifiable proof of alien life they would be instant millionaires. The reward is just a cheap PR stunt from a talentless hack.

Are the 701 unexplained instances interesting? Absolutely. Are they proof of interstellar visitations? Not even a little bit. As for his assertion that the number 701 has been kept secret by the evil government people who all wear black suits and talk in monotone syllables, he’s just a touch mistaken. That information has been available to the public, and often cited, since 1970 when the FBI declassified a bunch of stuff.

But, let’s be honest here, the people who find idiots like Fox credible are the same ones who believe that the Earth is hollow or flat (it’s 50/50 either way for them). People like Fox prey on ignorance for profit. They know there is no way to prove them wrong since they cite nothing but rumors as evidence. And people like Alejandro Rojas who give these tools free press are just as culpable to the idiocy that washes up on our shores daily.

While I can’t educate the world with a single blog I can ask that my readers do this; when someone states that they KNOW ….. make them fill in that statement with facts. Real facts, not “I read it on the Internet” kind of stuff. If they are unsure of the difference, point them here and let them read about the differences between hunches and theories and facts.

It’s worth a shot.

WHAM! BAM! THANK YOU SPACEMAN! (William A. Levey, 1975) (NSFW) from Spectacle Theater on Vimeo.

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