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Illegal Aliens and The Phoenix (Border) Lights

7/27/2014

5 Comments

 
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The NASA press conference Mulder always wanted to see.
Show of hands: What was the biggest news story of the last three weeks?  Your choices include:

  • Thousands of illegals being trained, bussed, and dumped into the USA - with Obama's approval?
  • Russian-backed terrorists shooting down a passenger airline - with no American backlash?
  • The growing IRS scandal, and the jaw-dropping abuse of power that it represents?
  • The fact that Obama is so corrupt, even Democrats want impeachment?
  • Gaza attacking Israel and/or Israel attacking Gaza?
  • The appearance of drug-resistant African ebola?
  • Joan Rivers storming off CNN?

This past July had so much crazy shit going on that a major announcement - a story that commanded the Drudge Report headline (in red) - was barely even mentioned by most news organizations:  
"NASA: Humans Will Prove We Are Not Alone In The Universe Within 20 years."  (Spitting out my coffee.)  Did anyone else see that story?  Does anyone else think that's a really big deal?
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I've written before about my belief in extraterrestrial life, and my prediction that our government will finally acknowledge ET's existence within the next 2-5 years.  With that in mind, I believe NASA's announcement marks the beginning of disclosure - and "20 years" is an arbitrary number that can be changed on a moment's notice.  Twenty years, twenty minutes..."eh." (Shrugging shoulders.) At this point it wouldn't surprise me if Obama took to the podium tonight.  As a Chicagoland Republican, I'm used to breaking news stories being used to distract from corruption.  It's a shame Blagojevich is still in prison.  I'd love to see him hired by the administration as the spokesman for extraterrestrial life - and how Republicans are responsible for abductions.

Seriously though, I can "feel" disclosure coming in months, rather than years.  There's such a degree of chaos in the world, and I can't help but feel that everything is related - and that just when we think that the Earth will erupt in war, an announcement will be made that brings us all together. In the final years of his Presidency, Ronald Reagan discussed disclosure's possibility in his address to the United Nations on September 21, 1987: "I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world."  Personally, I don't think it would take a "threat" to unite us.  I honestly believe that just knowing that life is out there - via a formal government announcement - will be enough to bring much of the world together, allowing mankind to  look to the stars.  (Chuckling.)  You can tell I grew up on a steady diet of Star Trek.  When I look at the sky, not only do I see stars, I also see warm fuzzies. 

That being said, I don't want to discount the seriousness of news-making events - and the impact they have within our daily lives.  Every time we turn on a television, computer, or smartphone, we're hit with the news of vanished airplanes, exploded airplanes, or the Presidential airplane being used as the family minivan.  I was standing in line at Jewel this morning, reading a TIME article about Israel's  incursion into Gaza, when I heard Joan Rivers talking about the exact same thing; the "Premiere Retail Network TV" was playing her YouTube clip, right before letting me know that Jewel also offered Stamps and garbage stickers.  I was tempted to ask the cashier her opinion on impeaching Obama, but then I got distracted by her mullet.

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Years ago, radio host Art Bell described the speed at which our world was evolving as a concept called "the quickening."  To my knowledge, Art was one of the first to explore the nature of humanity-vs-technology, and how global science was growing exponentially faster than  our ability to understand it.   Originally published in 1997, The Quickening was outdated by the time it hit the shelves.  It's observations had gone from "revolutionary" to "duh" in just the time it took to edit the manuscript, and the book had become it's own definition of irony.

But the Quickening's story is one we know too well: the world is evolving so  fast, even our kids can barely keep up.  I mean, think about what our race accomplished within the last decade: Humanity - literally - went from riding horses to riding spacecraft in less than one hundred years!   We went from candles to compact fluorescents, typewriters to virtual keyboards...and from 19th Century erotica to porn so realistic, jerking off can often be better than sex.  And when you consider the flying saucer craze of the 50s (and what that craze has become in today's books, TV, movies, and websites), we also went from being Earth-centric to becoming aware that the galaxy is full of life...and humanity is just a very small part.  I think that's amazing.

But though humanity is intelligent, we don't always act with the smarts God gave us - and certain rapid jumps in knowledge are accompanied by fear and over-reaction.  We're luckily passed the days of burning heathens at the stake, but imagine what will happen when - within the next two-to-five years - Jesus, Buddha, Allah, and L Ron Hubbard are proven to be just "local" representations of  a greater  galactic consciousness (in an already-populated universe)?  Pun intended: All hell will break loose!  Forget the spiritual crises in my immediate neighborhood's churches, think about the dilemmas within those faiths across the world who spread their gospels with guns?  What...a...mess.  And regretfully, in my opinion, we can already see its signs beginning within the daily news cycle.

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In the same year of Art Bell's The Quickening, Phoenix, AZ experienced what might have been the greatest mass-UFO sighting in history.  For over two hours, a dark V-shaped object with a distinctive pattern of lights hovered/slowly moved over the city's valley - and was witnessed by thousands of residents.  The object's timing was perfect, as most sky-watchers were already prepared with telescopes, binoculars, and cameras - taking advantage of a beutiful night to observe the passing of a comet.  But what they witnessed was anything but, and though most saw/filmed the object in Phoenix, initial sightings began in Prescott - many miles upstate.   The object was clearly an extraterrestrial craft, but officials dismissed it as "flares" - an explanation as ridiculous as a weather balloon.  I mention this sighting because the Phoenix Lights is one of the best-documented (alien) encounters in history, and most of its videos are available uncensored across the internet - including YouTube.   This was an event that our government cannot deny, and there's just no way a rational person can look at it and not imagine what kind of life is in the heavens.  Disclosure is just...inevitable.  And it ain't going to take no twenty years...
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So, what was the biggest news story of the last three weeks?  I believe it was the beginning of what will become the biggest story in human history.  When will it happen, how will we react, how will the announcement change our perceptions of ourselves is anyone's guess. But disclosure is part of our destiny.  And though Star Trek made for 50 years of good TV, deep down inside, we all crave more...and NASA's about to make that happen.

Let's say it all together, now: "To infinity, and beyond!"

5 Comments

Puppetized Closet Vagina-Monsters

7/5/2014

3 Comments

 
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"Quick! Toss me the Summer's Eve!"
This morning I woke up with Arthur Resnick's/Joey Levine's "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy" in my head....only Edward was singing to Bella: "Yummy, yummy, yummy, I've got blood in my tummy - and I'm happy cuz that blood came from YOU!" I realized - to my horror - that my nocturnal brain had been writing TWILIGHT: THE MUSICAL while I slept...with rewritten covers from Zevon, Blue Oyster Cult, Guns & Roses, and ABBA's "The Visitors."

Full Disclosure: this isn't the first time this has happened.  Other examples include, POLTERGEIST: THE MUSICAL, featuring a puppetized closet vagina-monster singing - in the spirit of the plant from Little Shop of Horrors - Phil Collins', "Dance Into the Light."  HALLOWEEN: THE MUSICAL includes an aging Jamie Lee Curtis singing - in the spirit of Glen Close in Sunset Boulevard - Norma Desmond's, "New Ways to Scream." And who can forget Bill & Hillary's intertwining duet, with Bill crooning "Forever In Blue Jeans" intermixed with Hillary's, "Don't Cry For Me, Arkansas?"  The production's name is, of course, LIVING HISTORY: THE MUSICAL.

Picture"Here's to hard choices!"
My brain - like a dog - gets into all kinds of trouble if left unsupervised.  Sleep tends to be my primary refuge from anxiety, but I often forget that it's my brain's refuge too - and the night allows the both of us to decompress.  I'm the textbook example of "sleep on it," and no matter how large a problem, I always wake up in the morning with some type of solution.   It's creepy to think about how "compartmentalized" my head can be - and how both my conscious and subconscious mind behave like two totally different entities.  I sometimes wonder if this is how serial killers are created? Hopefully, if I do have a Jekyll/Hyde-thing going, my alter ego will be more like Jerry Lewis's The Nutty Professor, rather than Jeremy Irons in Cronenberg's Dead Ringers.  I've never had any desire to give a woman a kinky gynecological exam, so I think I'm probably safe.

That being said, on those nights when I fall asleep quickly (and without worry), the end result is that my imagination gets to play - in ideas, rather than dreams.  That's the one and only time when anxiety/depression is genuinely FUN: I go to sleep hearing nothing but the breeze, but I wake up with Leslie Neilson in my skull...as the Captain of the Titanic, singing the theme to The Love Boat.  Or in the case of this morning, Robert Pattinson singing a silly sixties song.  I should also mention that both scenarios included about 40 backup dancers.

PictureKatherine Helmond from BRAZIL
It's no secret there's a link between creativity and mental illness, and scholars, psychiatrists, and folks with "Doctor" before their names have written countless papers exploring the connection.  Their common theme is simple: crazy people think outside the box, which gives them a different perspective in how they experience the world.  And "mental illness" doesn't just mean the heavy stuff (autism, schizophrenia, sociopathy, etc)...it can be something as simple as depression, which alienates someone just enough to keep their imagination active in adulthood. 

I suspect that when it comes to considering new ideas, most "normal" people are restricted (to various degrees) by their cultures, belief systems, and desire to fit in with everyone around them.   We chuckle at the past, when folks thought that the sun revolved around the Earth, but we also forget how scientists of the time were executed by the church for ideas that didn't fit society's norm.  We think that such ignorance is behind us now, but in the Arab/Muslim world, wars are still fought to defend outdated ideas of Islamic law.  We might not be so violent in the US, but consider how polarized we've become between something as simple as political beliefs.  I'm not a violent person, but when Nancy Pelosi talks down to Republicans, I've often fantasized about that scene from Mars Attacks, where Congress is reduced to smoldering red skeletons...and the only thing left of our shrill minority leader is a steaming puddle of Botox.   And yes, that scene includes back-up dancers as well.

PictureMiracle Grow
Anyway, going back to Edward's serenade to Bella, I was lucky in that what I saw was just a single "number"...and not a full-blown production. The title of this blog refers to my Poltergeist idea...where Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, and Zelda Rubenstein (squeaking like she did in Sixteen Candles) all dance in a chorus line mambo/Vogue...with a giant vagina-puppet behind them, animated, gyrating, and singing "Dance Into the Light."  The scene in my head is as vivid as a movie, and I can actually see the vagina's little mouth flaps, wet and icky, like the Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.  But like a modern day Giordano Bruno, I suspect that our world might not be ready for such musicals...Poltergeist, Twilight, or others.  And with that we have the downside to creativity: not only can creative people imagine new ideas, we can also imagine people's REACTIONS to our ideas...and though burning at the stake may seem a bit "1600," it seems very real to us.   

Especially when one wakes up with Edward (along with 40 backup dancers) singing Blue Oyster Cult's, "I'm burning, I'm burning, I'm burning for YOU."   

3 Comments

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