What Conspiracy Theory?

Now that I'm older, I find myself spending more time thinking when I'm in the shower. I've been thinking of what to blog about next, waiting for inspiration to hit me...and it did! At about 3 minutes, 33 seconds into the rinse cycle!

Conspiracy Theory! YESssssssssssssssssssssss!

Crewmember Ericswan mentioned something about us delving into conspiracy theories the other day. And last night I was watching "Banned from the Bible" on The History Channel (THC...hehe). And something I saw on that program stuck in my head: The subtopic being discussed in this segment of the show was the Book of Jubilees, a book that gives somewhat more detail to the Old Testament Book of Genesis, and pulls in some details from another enigma, the Book of Enoch with it's rich account of the Watchers and Giants in the land. Interesting stuff...to me and many of us here, though not seemingly related to space or science.

If you're a regular viewer of THC, you know that they drag out many of the same 'experts' for a given genre' of program. Many on this program have been in the programs on Decoding DaVinci or the Holy Grail. The usual suspects/debunkers were present here as well. But one expert's performance came to mind whilst in the shower... not so much what he said ("...Well, *chuckle* *chuckle*, it's clear why this was not included into the Biblical Canon *yuk* *yuk*...") but the body language and smirking involved, none of which made it clear why this book had not passed the biblical censor. And that was it? What's "clear" about this? Nothing, dammit!!!

This was what stuck in my mind...that this performance was typical of how conspiracy theories are 'explained' away by mass media... without anything ever being explained. And certainly not to my satisfaction especially given the gravity of the subject. C'mon! We're talking about the Bible here!!! People have died, been tortured and defamed because of the interpretations and exhortations listed in this work. which was compiled by men who needed to ensure the right doctrine was being published so as to ensure stability for those in power ! We're not just talking Area 51 or Free Energy or ETs or Who Killed JFK! It's the freaking BIBLE and effects human lives on a daily basis! Yet all it takes is a smirking no-name Doctor of Religion with the 'right' credentials to supposedly 'debunk' the issue for the viewing public? Nothing enrages me more.

Being an avid student of several conspiracy theories, there is another thing I hate. There are countless numbskulls who think it the height of wit to admonish anyone with a conspiracy theory that cannot be 'easily' debunked to "'go put on your aluminum foil hat". Well, on cool thing about an aluminum foil hat, is that it can be re-worked into a P-SHOD (Personal ShitHook of Death), used with impunity, then (after some cleansing) worked back into the hat shape, effectively and conspiratorily hiding the evidence of the brutal reaming of said numbskull!

Human beings have conspired together since time immemorial...Whether it's to get the best haunch of gazelle or to affect a coup d' etat for control of a superpower nation, it has happened and will continue to happen until "the next Big Bang", to quote Crypt0. Robert Heinlein (or maybe his fictional character Lazarus Long) said "Never underestimate the value of human stupidity". I would add to that ignorance, for as long as humans remain stupid or ignorant and fail to ask the right questions and demand the answers (be it in a public forum, or at the point of the sword), other humans will be able to realize success and profit and gain from all manner of conspiracy. Only the blind fail to see it happening around us daily, and on such a grand scale! Alas, there are so many blind among us.

The members of this 'crewe' do, and should, pride ourselves as being individuals who work to break the bonds of ignorance, to cast aside conventional wisdom when it is no longer wisdom, to "'stand on the shoulders of giants" who have gone before us and who stand beside us today ... to be able to see clearer and farther, the better to ask the 'right' questions and demand answers and accountability... all in the age-old quest for Truth!

Brrrrr...this water's getting cold and...HEY! WHERE'D IT GO?!?

I better get outta here!

A Future Lost

"Countless individuals have noted that the President's death affected them even more deeply than the death of their own parents. The reason, I believe, is that the latter situation most often represented a loss of the past - while the assassination of President Kennedy represented an incalculable loss of the future." - Ted Sorenson


John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States was assassinated 42 years ago today, on November 22, 1963. That day was a turning point on several levels: in my life, in the soul of the United States, and in the impact on world events, extending to even today.

I was 9 years old, attending Westmoreland Elementary School in Westmoreland, WV, near Huntington. I remember it was a cloudy, cold day. We had come in from lunch and recess, into the little portable classroom. The announcement that the President had been shot and killed in Dallas came over the loudspeaker and we were told classes were over for the day. We were all shocked beyond words and deeply saddened. I sat in the back of the class on the far left; on a blackboard on the far wall, directly facing me, was the picture you see above you. It was spooky, because it felt like the eyes of our President were looking into my soul. On the way home my friends and I, even at our tender age, were discussing the possibility of a nuclear attack from either Russia or Cuba...we vividly recalled the Cuba missile Crisis and instinctively knew that our leaderless country was vulnerable.

The rest of the weekend was dreamlike. It stayed cold and rainy, like the skies were weeping, too. Driving to Huntington, there was a florist shop on the right side of the street. In their window they had a large painting, of the picture above no less, in the window...illuminated and surrounded by black bunting. It is burned in my memory. On the night of the 23rd, I saw a blurry ghostlike image of the President's face in the corner by the ceiling...Although I was sure it was just a reflection from vehicles moving down the street, I wasn't so sure. I remember the extended family gathered at my Grandma's house for Sunday dinner...we were getting ready to eat and the TV had some horribly out of tune small-church choir rendering some baleful dirge. Grandma said "Let me get this junk off the TV" and she turned the channel...just in time for us all to witness the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, right before our eyes! To this day, I recall the cadence played by the drums during the funeral procession.

America just wasn't the same after that. There were good things, but the spirit of America changed. War in Vietnam, riots, the Manson Murders, the Speck Killings in Chicago...the 60's...what I think Heinlein often meant when he wrote about 'the Crazy Years'. The Golden Age of Camelot was never realized, the dream would not become a reality, because a man who dared to stand up to a growing power was sacrificed on the altar of greed and power, an example for those of like mind to heed.

That power has matured and become sophisticated in it's techniques, with resources human and fiscal to an extent beyond imagination, with confidence arrogant and bold. That same system is alive and well today. You will not see the real power on TV or hear them on radio...only their minions, but those minions have strolled the halls of power and steered the ships of greed for all the generations of this, my life. I have known of them and felt them, for many years...through my personal investigation about the assassination of the man pictured above. It was only in early 2003, that my eyes were fully opened and I finally understood that America was now firmly in the grip of the forces that seized power that fateful day in 1963, the day a much brighter future was lost.

Can we ever regain that future?

CALL TO ACTION

by DarkWood

We devote a great deal of time and effort here to discussion of the lack of disclosure by our government in many matters that negatively impact our minds, our health and our lives. We talk about 'black ops' and 'psy ops' and 'chemtrail ops', and I get a little mad sometimes.

Okay, now I'm PISSED!

I was listening to Coast To Coast A.M. on Thursday night / Friday morning and one of the guests early on the show was Alex Jones. Now, Mr. Jones has made it his job to investigate and report on various conspiracies and conspiracy theories that get thrown around about the government. Now, love him or not (and, quite frankly, I have to assess every story he discusses on a case-by-case basis), one thing to be said about Mr. Jones is that he thoroughly investigates his stories and does seem to try to be as honest about what he's reporting as possible. Yes, some of his stuff is fairly sensational and tends to stretch believability pretty thin, but I do not doubt that Mr. Jones believes what he says wholeheartedly.

Anyway, during his spot on Coast to Coast, Mr. Jones began discussing allegations that the EPA intended to pass rulings that would actually allow for pesticide testing on mentally deficient children! Now, obviously I was rather skeptical on hearing this since, being a reasonable human being, I can barely conceive that this level of sheer madness would actually be condoned by federal agency. So I decided to do a little poking around of my own.

Sure enough, I was able to find a formal proposal on the EPA's website titled Protections for Subjects in Human Research. Innocuous enough, right? An initial overview also doesn't show anything out of the way:

With respect to human research conducted by EPA (``first-party
research''), or by others with EPA's support (``second-party
research''), this proposed rule would: (1) Categorically prohibit any
intentional dosing studies involving pregnant women or children as
subjects; and (2) adopt the Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS) regulations that provide additional protections to pregnant women
and children as subjects of other than intentional dosing studies.

This extremely lengthy document continues along pretty much the same lines. Lots of discussion about absolute prohibition of any testing involving pregnant women or children as subjects. Line after line of proposals, talking points and extremely tiresome legalese. I was beginning to think that Mr. Jones had finally gone completely off the deep end. Until I neared the end of the document:

In determining whether children are capable of assenting, the
IRB shall take into account the ages, maturity, and psychological state
of the children involved...If the IRB determines that the capability
of some or all of the children is so limited that they cannot
reasonably be consulted...the assent of the children is not
a necessary condition for proceeding with the research. (emphasis added)

WHAT, WHAT, WHAT?!?!?! Let me get this straight, if a child is determined to be so limited in capability that they cannot clearly consent or refuse, they can then be tested on ANYWAY?

Where parental permission is to be
obtained, the IRB may find that the permission of one parent is
sufficient for research to be conducted...

Oh, so it only takes one unethical parent out of a pair to get proper go-ahead for this crap to boot? Nice. Now the proposal goes on to include pretty language stating that ANY actual testing on children will not be allowed or tolerated. I must ask, however, if the feds are not going to allow for any testing on any children, why the HELL do they need sneaky exceptions and provisions such as the ones listed above? And why place these kind of provisions towards the very end of a document if this is all really as above board as is presented? Something is absolutely NOT RIGHT here at all.

Folks, I encourage you all to double check this for yourselves 'cause I understand just how insanely ridiculous this all sounds. Links to both Mr. Jones' article and the EPA proposal are contained in text above. If you would rather pull up the document in question for yourself rather than trust my link, then go to the EPA's Federal Register of Environmental Documents at the following URL: http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr, and do a search for the official document ID which is fr12se05-11. Then please contact your representatives and request, nay demand, that these sneaky provisions be removed and voice your concerns that ANY pesticide testing on ANY children WILL NOT be tolerated in any way, shape or form. I would even go so far as to suggest that any representative not willing to follow this up and take these concerns seriously needs to be voted the hell out of a job at the earliest available election cycle. Period.

This article originally posted on November 18, 2005 over at my blog -DarkWood

Things Fall Apart

On March 30, 2005, the NBC series "West Wing" aired an episode titled Things Fall Apart , which introduced a sub-plot where-in the International Space Station (ISS) has experienced a leak and is losing oxygen. The astronauts cannot repair the leak.

Later a NASA administrator briefs C.J.,

"A rescue operation is obviously called for but the space shuttles are grounded right now pending an uncompleted safety review and retrofit."

Kate adds, "And the Russians can't get a launch together in time."

"How long have they got?" asks C.J.

"Assuming the present rate of oxygen loss, in three weeks they'll be dead."

"Can't a shuttle be pressed into service not withstanding the review?"

"One's missing half its wing assembly and the other one's undergoing a complete tile replacement. Now, we can speed up repairs---"

Kate voices the unspoken thought, "The concern would then be losing the shuttle crew and the space station crew."

"---No, that's the civilian shuttle.", blurts the administrator.

This indication is obviously a surprise to C.J.

Eventually we are given hints of a surprisingly sophisticated craft much like the DoD artwork seen above, the FALCON. The Secretary of Defense doesn't want this covert program used, because the Russian on the ISS would see it and the President has to think it over.

There followed a line that made me roar....

POTUS says, "Wernher von Braun's autobiography was titled, 'I Aim for the Stars';

Mort Sahl joked he should have added, 'only sometimes I hit London'."

Does the US DoD have their own secret, black ops Space Shuttle? I wouldn't be surprised!
But here's some info from FootNoteTV:


U.S. Space Programs (last updated March 30, 2005)
It is no secret that the United States has been seeking to develop space capabilities in recent years, though there were no reports as of early 2005 that it has developed its own space shuttle for secret military use. Developing a military-operated space shuttle probably would not violate international treaties, but some of the other actions contemplated by the Defense Department in this episode - developing bombs and other weapons that could be dropped from orbit, as well as letting astronauts die - arguably could violate a treaty that the United States entered into in the 1960s.

Developing something like a space shuttle for military use was proposed in a 2001 report by a commission examining how U.S. space activities were organized and managed in support of national security. The Commission expressed concern about a "Space Pearl Harbor," an attack on U.S. satellites or civilian assets, and pointed out "warning signs of U.S. vulnerability" such as a 2000 report by the Xinhua news agency that China's military was "developing methods and strategies for defeating the U.S. military in a high-tech and space-based future war."
The commission recommended that one objective of U.S. space security policy should be "assured access to space and on-orbit operations," which a space shuttle would help achieve. The commission stated that U.S. interests "depend critically on assured and timely access to space" and that the United States "should continue to pursue revolutionary reusable launch vehicle technologies and systems."

Still, it does not appear that the Defense Department has actually put money into developing its own space shuttle.

Military budgets (available on-line

here) show that the Defense Department has devoted millions of dollars in recent years to programs for launching satellites and payloads, but none to developing its own reusable launch vehicle, or something like a space shuttle. The following table shows the space programs identified in the FY 2006 budget (on-line as a PDF here) :

Service Program
Description FY 2006 Budget Amount (in millions)

Army Ground Systems
Super-high frequency beyond-line-of-sight communications to deployed forces $66.5

Navy Mobile User Objective Satellite System
Narrow-band communications $470

Air Force Advanced Extremely High Frequency Satellite
Worldwide communications $1,194.3

Air Force Defense Support Program
Early warning of missile launches and detonations $42.7

Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle
Launch of medium-to-heavy-weight satellites $864.4

Air Force Medium Launch Vehicles
Launch of medium-weight satellites $111.2

Air Force NAVSTAR Global Position System
Global system of satellites for navigation purposes $719.6

Air Force Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) - High
New technologies for detecting strategic and tactical ballistic missile launches $756.6

Air Force Transformational Satellite Communications
Worldwide communications $835.8

Air Force Space Based Radar
Worldwide surveillance through satellites, first of which planned for FY 2015 launch $225.8

(Forgive the sloppiness of the table....My fault! sunking)

It is worth noting that the space shuttles operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have brought military payloads into orbit in the past.

As noted above, the United States is a party to the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, better known as the Outer Space Treaty (on-line here). Article IV of this treaty does not prohibit the development of a military-operated space shuttle, but it does prevent the United States from installing any weapon of mass destruction in orbit around the Earth or on the moon and it limits the use of any lunar bases to peaceful purposes. Article V holds that states "shall render to [astronauts] all possible assistance in the event of accident, distress, or emergency landing on the territory of another State Party on the high seas."

Sources: The Report of the Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization was released on Jan. 11, 2001 and is on-line here; Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's May 8, 2001 response is on-line here. The Defense Department's FY 2006 budget is on-line here; information on space programs was taken from the Program Acquisition Costs by Weapon Systems document on-line as a PDF here. The Outer Space Treaty is on-line via the State Department here.

The Senatorial Response

A few weeks back a Crewe-member posted on the comment board about the removal of funding for the Voyager program. Voyager has performed it's humble mission well and continues to do so, far beyond expectations. Inasmuch as Voyager is the farthest-traveled artifact of Humankind to date and is now approaching areas beyond the edge of our Solar System, I feel rather strongly that the $4 million dollars in question is a small price to pay for any data we might gain in return. Accordingly I sent an email to Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), being a fellow Floridian, to express my opinion. Here is the response:

"Dear Mr. Sunking:

Thank you for contacting me regarding funding for NASA. As a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, and a member of its Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space, this issue is very important to me. Since its inception in 1958, NASA has accomplished many great scientific and technological feats in air and space. NASA technology has been adapted for many non-aerospace uses by the private sector. The agency remains a leading force in scientific research and in stimulating public interest in aerospace exploration, as well as science and technology in general. More importantly, our exploration of space has taught us to view the Earth, ourselves, and the universe in a new way. While the tremendous technical and scientific accomplishments of NASA demonstrate vividly that humans can achieve previously inconceivable feats, we also are humbled by the realization that Earth is just a tiny "blue marble" in the cosmos.

I strongly support increased funding for NASA. Our country must continue its strong commitment and leadership in space exploration. Recently I spoke before the full Senate conveying my support for our civil space program: "I want to express my concern that if we starve NASA of the funds it needs, particularly with regard to the space shuttle upgrades, that could endanger the safety of the space shuttle program. ... [NASA] shares the character of the American people, which is, by nature, we are explorers; we are adventurers. ... We want to continue to explore into the unknown, but we have to do that with the utmost of safety."

The tragic loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia as it returned to Earth on February 1, 2003 cannot deter the United States from pursing its destiny in space. Space flight is a dangerous undertaking, and the loss of seven brave astronauts on the Columbia serves as a sad reminder of the enduring challenges and difficulties involved in space exploration. To honor the Columbia seven and the other astronauts who have given their lives in the U.S. space program, it is imperative that Americans recommit to adequate funding for NASA and space exploration. I will continue to fight for more funding for all NASA programs, including human space flight.Thank you for your interest in NASA. Be assured that I will continue to be a strong advocate to provide adequate funding to continue our country's commitment to space exploration."


Well, not a word about the Voyager Program, but he's either still committed to a failing technology and the funding to pay for it...or his staff hasn't upgraded this e-form letter to coincide with the year 2005. But at least I got a response that had the words 'space" and "NASA" in it and not the word 'donation'. I expect many of those in 2006, now that I'm on the mailing list. I think I'll follow-up and press him for a response to the specific question about Voyager.

By the way, a Googling of all the terms "Voyager", "NASA" and "JPL" and clicking "news" returns only the following news item....from the New Zealand Herald (?).

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10350226

Write those elected representatives folks. Election year coming up. Let them know how you feel. I care about what you think (well......), but can't do anything about it! Stand up for what you believe in!!!

For The Record

The following is the text of a letter I faxed to Richard yesterday:

Dear Richard,
Not knowing your status and in consideration of the fact that the size of the Comments Section of your last blog at the Captain’s Blog has made discourse amongst members of your loyal crew bandwithally burdensome, I have taken the bold move of brazenly filching your blog layout, complete with logos and links, and creating a new blog under my blogspot account called "Captain’s Blog – Drydock". At the top of the blog page, I have placed a disclaimer noting that this blog is not approved by you or officially recognized by The Enterprise Mission. I have placed messages in the Comments Section and in other areas frequented by the Crewe to notify them that I was doing so and many have come over to this new blog.

Note that this was only done to make things easier for posting and to allow many who have only dial-up access to be able to participate, hoping to increase said participation and keep interest in your blog and Enterprise Mission alive. I fully expect that upon your return, ‘shore leave’ will be cancelled and all hands will report to their official duty stations and ‘The Enterprise" will put out from Drydock.

I pray this meets with your approval or, at the least, does not meet with your disapproval.
I have done this only with honorable intentions and with the best interests of The Enterprise Mission and the Crewe in mind.

We eagerly await your return.

Respectfully,
Sunking

ATTENTION ALL HANDS

This is temporary quarters. This is not mutiny or sedition, just a reaction to cramped quarters. Hopefully this will do.

If someone wants to post a blog, let me know and I will figure out how to grant you rights to post one.

Until then, carry on with my compliments.

Your humble servant and crewemate,
Sunking