| EDITOR AND STILL SUPREME COMMANDER: James W. Moseley
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR:
|
NON-SCHEDULED NEWSLETTER Volume 50, No. 10 December 1st, 2003 |
MAILING ADDRESS: P. 0. Box 1709 Key West, FL 33041 |
We welcome your correspondence, pro or con, well-reasoned or otherwise,
but please keep in mind that while Saucer Smear is on the Dreaded Internet, your humble
editor is NOT! So, if you wish to receive a personal reply to your letter, or wish to
have any chance of seeing it printed on Our Glorious Pages, please print it out, put it in an
envelope, affix a stamp thereto, and SNAIL mail it to:P.O. Box 1709 Key West, FL 33041 It's simple and loads of fun! Ask your grandma if you don't remember how to do it! We thank you! |
|---|
Please make checks or money orders out to the editor by name, not to "Saucer Smear". And remember, THERE WILL NOT BE A SECOND NOTICE. If there is an "X" after your name on the envelope in which you received this issue, this is it!
Try to get something off to us while the idea is firmly in your mind, and before the Christmas Rush. We will indeed be most sincerely appreciative, even though we probably won't be able to thank you individually. And keep your Eye on the Sky during this Yuletide Season, as always!
They actually pay for articles, amd thus attract professional writers from both sides of the Atlantic. Our esteemed Contributing Editor has written for them several times in recent years, including a cover story about the real U.S. government documents (not NJ-12!) that should convince any thoughtful person that the Roswell Incident was not an interplanetary event.
The title "Fortean Times", as many of you know, comes from the name of the late, great eccentric writer named Charles Fort, who died in 1932. Fort literally went almost blind doing research in libraries and chronicling strange events which the science of his day could not explain. With tongue in cheek, he suggested that anomalous things in the sky might be spaceships from another planet. But though his research was careful and accurate, his theories were whimsical, intended to entertain rather than indoctrinate. Most UFO buffs, at least in the United States, are not really Forteans, because -like the scientists they dislike- they are wedded to specific theories, and adjust the evidence accordingly.
The newsstand price is a bit high - 3.20 British pounds, which comes to about $5. It is also available by subscription, but if the subscription price is given, we have not been able to find it in this issue. A phone number is given for "subscribing to 'Fortean Times' in the USA", but we get only a whine out of it, like a line used for fax rather than voice. A different number is given for "subscribing to 'Fortean Times' outside the United Kingdom". Funny, we have always felt that the USA is outside the United Kingdom! Those of you on the Net can try: www.forteantimes.com. It's worth the trouble and expense, as there is no other zinc just like it to be found anywhere on this planet!
Your editor has lectured twice, in 1997 and 2002, at their annual "UnConvention" in London. There we were delighted to meet some highly evolved intellectual people.
Finally, our special reason for liking "Fortean Times" is the way they have never complained about the way we often snip out short items from their magazine for use in ours...
Helping in this re-investigation is UF0/paranormal researcher Stan Gordon, who has long lived very near Kecksburg, and did a preliminary study of the case very shortly after it happened. Gordon believes the object was truly unknown, and not a Russian space vehicle as has been conjectured by many people. The case is quite complicated, but fortunately not as much so as Roswell.
While news organizations routinely pursue Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the Government, it is rare for a cable TV channel, especially one focused on fantasy- not the gathering of news- to pursue such a course of action. But a spokesman for the channel says it is just part of their effort "to find the line between science fiction and science fact". Lots of luck!
On the other hand, another Biblical scholar named Mike Heiser considers Carlyle's material "utterly bogus" and states that "there are hundreds of artistic representations of the merkabah throne from Ezekiel's day (and prior and after), and none look anything like a modern UFO of any type."
The next article in the October MUFON Journal is a wild attempt to resurrect the credibility of Frank Scully's classic 1930 book "Behind the Flying Saucers". Long story here, but in essence the attempt fails completely!
As a loyal MUFON member, and having achieved the exaulted rank of Journal Subscriber in that esteemed organization, your "Smear" editor merely wishes they would do a better job!
To make matters more complicated, there is a store front called "Alien Resistance Headquarters", located directly across the street from the Museum. Guy Malone of that organization believes that greys are evil entities of some sort, not necessarily space aliens. He is somehow involved in the "no aliens" stickers we often attach to our envelopes - see sample below, right.
Guy's group has a speakers program for the July 2nd - 4th festival period, under the title "Ancient of Days", which apparently attempts to tie in the whole alien mess with the Bible. Ann Druffel, local chairperson of the 2003 NUFOC convention in North Hollywood, California, will be one of their speakers, as their theme seems to tie in neatly with her recent book called "How to Defend Yourself Against Alien Abduction". Incidentally, Guy Malone cam be reached at: www.AncientofDays.net. We met him recently, and he seems like a really nice Guy!
Julie Shuster is angry at your "Smear" editor for having called attention to the fact that her friend Bob Durant is promoting his pro-Roswell video "Roswell - Yes!" with the help of sexy bare-breasted females. Yet this video is sold at the Roswell Museum gift shop, amd is presumably endorsed by the Museum. ("Saucer Smear" is not sold there, and needless to say, is not endorsed.)
You can be sure that we will have more to say about all this in the near future...
Another Blast from the Past: On the nostalgia front, we have had a highly unexpected phone call from a young man named Chris Barker, who is a grand-nephew of the late, great Gray Barker; Chris was only a child when the Bard of Clarksburg, W. Va. died in 1984, but he has apparently inherited Gray's house near Flatwoods, W. Va - the town which was the site of the famous monster sighting many years ago (1952).
Chris also has a large amount of Barker's books, papers, and photographs, which are unknown to the Clarksburg Library, where a room has been set aside for Gray's UFO files, etc. We hope to obtain a few memory-laden photos out of this connection, and if & when we do, we will share them with cur "Smear" readers. Gray Barker left this planet 19 years ago this month, and we still miss him as much as ever!
NEVADA CONVENTION REHASH
At the press conference, each lecturer gave a very short summary of his or her topic. The real press, with the possible exception of Fox News, was nowhere in sight. After the summaries, Ryan Wood hesitated for some reason before allowing any questions, and thereafter only three questions were asked - one of them by your fearless "Smear" editor. We asked, in effect, why it is that the press, public, and especially the U.S. government, don't take more of an interest in these sensational "leaked" MJ-12 type documents that the Woods claim to have. The answer is, supposedly, that the government doesn't come after the Woods because doing so would merely give their efforts the appearance of legitimacy. Well, maybe so, though we really can't believe this excuse! The speakers, in addition to Bob Wood, included Kenn Thomas, Art Campbell, Stan Gordon, Nick Redffern, Matthew Williams, Peter Robbins, Greg Bishop, Grant Cameron, Hichael Lindermann, and - inevitably - Stanton Priedman. Most of the talks were at least vaguely on the MJ-12 and Crash Retrieval themes.
What did we learn by attending? We didn't listen to all thc lectures, but of those we heard, perhaps the most interesting tidbit of information was Art Campbell's detailed description of a small shoe he found at a supposed UFO crash site on the Plains of St. Augustin in New Mexico. This shoe was so small and narrow that it could not possibly fit any earth person, even a child. Thus by implication it may have been worn by a small humanoid from a flying saucer. Whee!
On Saturday evening there was a banquet, followed by an excessively long and incredibly boring talk by Michael Lindermann, who is a very good speaker but somehow managed to let his topic get away from him - or whatever.
Following the banquet, there was a small party in the hotel room of one of the speakers, and free wine & beer was provided. Shockingly, a woman came by with a small amount of marijuana, and later another attractive young lady indulged in a little harmless necking with some of the male attendees. Your editor took a few pictures, only to find out later that the film had been literally ripped out of the camera when he wasn't looking! We are about 99% sure who did this and why, but we decided not to make a scene.
One of the most colorful attendees at the Convention was former CIA pilot John Lear, son of the famous aviation pioneer. After several years of relative Silence, Lear appeared on the Art Bell radio show on November 2nd- shortly before the Woods' Nevada conclave - and really "spilled the beans". Among his milder allegations: "Abductions occur on a daily basis throughout the U.S. to at least 10% of the population". We had a great photo of your Smear editor embracing John Lear (though not his far-out views) but this picture was lost in the great Film Confiscation already mentioned!
Another attendee was kindly old Bob Girard of Arciurus Books, who managed to set up his wares right outside the lecture hall. Said he, in an E-mail to Karl Pflock: "The conference was pretty good, though not financially. I had my stuff right at the door of the meeting room, so for the first time in 24 years I was able to hear some of the papers. I thought some of them were very interesting, and it actually perked up my flagging hopes about ufology, book buyers, and even the human species." Egads!
Of course the slot machines were nearby all weekend, and of course your editor had to test his luck, which has always been incredibly bad- worse, in fact, than the laws of chance would dictate. Sure enough, we dropped twenty dollars in about three minutes, and we then decided to let it go at that. We were accompanied in Henderson by non-ufological friends from Phoenix, Arizona, named Ted and Phyllis Hunt. They managed to win modestly at the cursed slots!
All in all we enjoyed the Convention, in spite of Lindermann's interminable speech (which literally put a few people to sleep) and in spite of the unkind slot machines. Our next foray into the convention scene will probably be at next year's NUFOC - if there is a NUFOC next year.
In the photos above, taken at the Henderson Con , we see (Left to right): Smug, arrogant Budd Hopkins grasps the microphone as if he owns it; Sweet, etheric Linda Noulton Cowe stands modestly far away from the mike; Granite-faced Ryan Wood presides over the assembled masses. (Pictures courtesy of Carlos Mentira.)
DID A NINETEENTH CENTURY SECRET SOCIETY BUILD MYSTERIOUS FLYING MACHINES?
Hilberg's material came from a Houston artist named Peter Navarro, who obtained copies of some of the notebooks. Navarro then disappeared for several years, but now has surfaced as co-author of a 300-page book called "The Secrets of Dellschau - The Sonora Aero Club and the Flying Machines of the 1850s". The other co-author is Dennis Crenshaw, former editor of a cleverly-named offbeat zine called "The Hollow Earth Insider". This book will be available next summer from a small publisher called CyberPulp Houston/USA.
Meanwhile, if you are as interested in this somewhat esotaric stuff as we are, you can still obtain Hilberg's booklet from: UAPA, 377 Race St., Berea, Ohio 44017. The price is eight dollars.
Now's the time for all loyal "Smear" non-subscribers to cough up their maximum Love Offerings. 'Tis also the season for saucer columnists to unveil predictions for the coming year. Ready or not, here are mine:
In vne above photo, your humble "Smear" editor sits with Contributing Editor Karl Pflock in a Key West bar, during the latter's visit here with his wife this past September. Neither of us can recall why the bottles on the table were the object of our attention. (Photo by Mary Martinek)
"Your Holiness:"I am so consumed with outrage over Karl Pflock's homage to Phil Klass in the last issue of 'Smear' that I can hardly speak, hence my decision to type this note rather than shout it to you.
"How dare Pflock conduct such an outrageous personal attack upon me, implying that I am not a stink bug!
"On to lesser matters: As for his opinion of Phil, I might quibble with a few things he said. Okay, with a lot he said. But specifically, I would request that he document his charge that Phil conducted a 'truly outrageous personal attack' upon James McDonald.
"Phil did indeed bring to light that McDonald was spending government atmospheric research funds for his personal UFO-related travels. Is that the 'truly outrageous attack' to which Pflock refers?"
We would think that "atmospheric research" would include UFOs, but what do we know? On the other hand, Posner's printed stationery ,does identify him as a "Senior Fellow" of "Stink Bugs of America". Weird! - Editor
"I've just read your weird valentine to Phil Klass in 'Saucer Smear'. May we next expect a comparable tribute to Joe McCarthy whom (sic) more than any other figure in ufology's history Klass resembles?"Sorry, but he's your skunk, not mine."
We're glad to see that Jerry is enjoying "Smear" as much as ever! - Editor.
"...Have abductions now petered out, as they seem certain to do at some time? Of course, the old ones will keep turning up, but whether they're still occurring is what I would like to know. (The predictions of Jacobs, Mack, and Strieber all seem doomed to non-fulfillment, as does that of Ray Fowler, who sees a natural extinction of homo sapiens in the very near future.) The beings responsible for the abductions surely can't come up with any phenomenon even more startling and unbelievable, so they are bound to let them drop eventually..."
"...I have enclosed a clipping about the Oregon Vortex. Maybe some of your readers have the money to invest in it. I visited the Vortex back in 1980 or so. Although there is a hokey, obviously faked 'house of mystery' there, with slanted floors and so on, just like in many amusement parks, and although the literature passed out includes some nonsense...about other vortices being in places like Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids, nonetheless I can attest that many of the anomalies are real. I watched my father and mysister switch places (as in the photo in the clipping) and saw as my sister, who is much shorter, became taller than my father. And you can really stand a broom up on its bristles there. There is one spot where, if you stand and then look down, your feet seem to be way behind your center of gravity, due to a slanting that objects and people and plumb-bobs adopt. I don't know how much serious science has been done on the place, but under all the hokum there seems to be a genuine anomaly..."I fear that there will be more obituaries than actual interesting reports - or emergent, colorful personalities in ufology - in the coming years. The internet has sucked in all of ufology and turned it into anonymous conspiracy theor!es and abduction memoirs. No one even expects to see a good old saucer in the sky anymore."
And yet, Filer's Files grinds out a number of mediocre sightings every month. - Editor.
"You're getting old and soft, and UFOs are too - unless we really want to believe otherwise."Thanks for your write-up of 'The Phaselock Code: Through Time, Death, and Reality, The Metaphysical Adventures of the Man Who Fell Off Everest' the book I'm encouraging everyone to buy (because it's great). It seems like one of your Internet connected friends was nice enough to pass on to you my email-only promotion. Gosh, I never thought it would get smeared in print! 0nly you got the author wrong: The book is not written by famous author Jon Krakauer, but by first-time author Roger Hart. Krakauer doesn't need the promotion!~ Hart's book, by the way, is about reality creation, something that fits quite well into your 3 1/2-D theory of UFOs."
"...So Ellen Crystall has died. I do not have good memories of her - she having been a speaker at one of John White's UFO conferences in Connecticut one year, and not having gone over too well (very contentious gal; she was right in all things and only fools and incompetents questioned her opinions), she was not invited to speak the next year. She showed up anyway and spent most of her time there carping and whining about not having been invited to speak again. Still, I would not wish cancer on her - simple laryngitis would have sufficed..."
"This is a fast note to let you know that Palomar Gardens (home of the late George Adamski) survived the fires burning in the San Diego back country. The Paradise Fire burned the Valley Center area, then headedeast toward the mountains. The closest it came to what used to be Palomar Gardens was about a half mile or less. The fire remained on the south side of Highway 76, and did not jump the road."I don't know if you are aware of this, but the old Palomar Gardens site is still active. It is now called Oak Knoll Campground, and is at the base of the South Grade, just up the hill from where it joins Highway 76.
"The total area burned in the Paradise Fire (as of the morning of November 4th) was 56,700 acres, with 176 houses, 192 outbuildings, and 406 vehicles destroyed. Two civilians were killed, with 25 injured."
"...You asked me what I thought UFOs were. 25 or 30 years ago, I would have said they were visitors from another planet, but today I know that is not true. The closest I csm come is to say that they are closer to a poltergeist than to a helicopter. That is to say they are what we think of as paranormal but at the same time, they seem to have a physical existence also. But this doesn't define their position in the world by a long shot!"The 'paranormal' is just a vague reference to something we do not understand.~
We guarantee that every dollar you donate to "Smear" will forever remain out of the hands of terrorists, anarchists, Free Thinkers, and other Undesirables! Every cent of your Donation will go to our own personal use, for necessities such as Scotch, Gin, Rum, and Coca-Cola. Make your check or money order out to the editor personally. Two E's in Moseley, please, though one will do!
Saucer Smear Index
|
 Please note that letters for Smear editor James Moseley should be snail-mailed to PO Box 1709, Key West, FL 33041, insofar as Cdr. Moseley is proudly computer-illiterate and determined to stay that way. |
Own a genuine artifact of ufological history!
Line your birdcage for pennies a sheet!
Back issues available for the last 46 years!