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We don’t see many programs on UFOs in the mainstream media. But since Anderson Cooper’s ‘360’ featured a half-hour segment in late April,  it’s worth analyzing what he presented. The segment was called “Do you Believe in Space Aliens?”

I guess the term ‘space aliens’ was used to distinguish the subject from border-crossing aliens. That’s understandable, but the term also limits the possibility of where UFOs and their alien crew are coming from. Sure, (outer) space is a possibility. But maybe they are inter-dimensional, maybe they are us coming the future. Who knows, maybe they’re from the past, a destroyed high tech culture, ie. Atlantis, that developed time travel. Maybe there is no one answer about who they are or where they are from.

Anderson Cooper’s story on April 24 focused on UFO sightings from 2008 that were witnessed outside of Philadelphia in Bucks County. Anderson invited an eyewitness who explained how she was awakened by her growling dog to discover glowing lights above her house. It was shortly followed by a sprinkling of metallic-like glitter on her tree, making her think “it was snowing in July.” Apparently, she feared being ridiculed later on so she only used her first name, Denise. Actually, the ridicule would begin within minutes while she was on national television.

But first  Cooper introduced Pennsylvania state Mutual UFO Network director John Ventre to talk about what happened to the tree.

Ventre said MUFON sent leaves from the affected tree to two different labs, both of which reported “high levels of magnesium and boron,” two to three times higher than controlled samples detected on neighboring trees. Furthermore, the leaves had produced anthocyanin, which Ventre accurately described as a plant’s natural defense from heat and radiation. But were those levels of anthocyanin excessive or unnatural? And what gives with the elevated magnesium and boron?

As one Internet critic noted: “This is the part where you bring in one of the lab analysts, right? Or a botanist, maybe?” Time to dig deeper into the physical evidence, right? Nope.

Instead, Cooper brings in a couple of abductees, who have nothing to do with the Pennsylvania story, then debunker John Nickell, who dismisses Denise as a misguided person who saw Jupiter shining in her bedroom window.

“So Jupiter dumped stuff on my tree,” Denise wondered, “is that what you’re saying?”

No, Nickell countered, “I expect the stuff on your tree was, probably, you saw some sand or something in the light.”

Right. But there were still a few minutes left, time to find out more about the hard evidence, the boron or the magnesium or the anthocyanin.  But, no, AC brings on a psychic to talk about star families.

Oh, well. Nice try. But the bottom line was–as usual with this subject in the mainstream media–keep it light and entertaining. Don’t get too serious.

All that said, I want to introduce readers to a blogger from the mainstream media, logging on the site of a daily newspaper, about UFOs. It was that log, called De Void, where I first learned about Anderson Cooper’s UFO report. De Void is a web log from the Herald Tribune of Sarasota, Florida, and is written by Billy Cox. I love the sub-title of De Void:  The Mainstream Media’s Lonely UFO Web Log.

Good going, Billy.

There are three videos here and the second  has some of the clearest images, in daylight.  But all three of them really beg the question: what are these things?

Here’s a report of a mother and son both dying in car-related accidents within hours of each other. After reading the article, it seemed to me there was also another synchro of sorts within the story. Notice how many people were allegedly intoxicated. Is that part synchronicity or just part of the everyday world?

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WEST ALLIS, Wis. — A Wisconsin woman and her adult son were killed in separate traffic crashes just hours apart in a Milwaukee suburb, police said Monday.

Mary J. Moore, 45, died after she was struck by a vehicle on a street in West Allis. A friend was speeding her son, Thomas M. Olson, 22, to the hospital to see her when he struck three parked cars and overturned, West Allis Deputy Chief Charles Padgett said. Olson was killed in the crash about 5:30 a.m. Sunday.

Padgett said Olson knew his mother had been hit, but he wasn’t sure if Olson knew she had died.

“It’s emotional. We want to get there fast and sometimes disregard our safety,” Padgett said. “I use it to remind people that regardless of the circumstances, be aware of the speed.”

The driver of the car Olson was riding in was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. He and two other passengers suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Moore was hit as she lay prone in the street. A motorist following the car that struck her told police it looked as though the vehicle hit a speed bump, according to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s report. The witness did not realize that it was a person until getting closer, the report said.

Padgett said Moore had been drinking before she was hit, but it’s not clear how much. An autopsy on her body was expected to be done Monday.

The driver that hit Moore drove off, but officers later found and arrested the person they believe is responsible. That driver may also have been drinking, authorities said.

“In my 24 years (of law enforcement), I’ve seen a lot of strange things, but don’t specifically remember a case like this,” Padgett said.

When we first saw the movie trailer for The Raven, the film went on our radar as one to see at an actual theater. John Cusack, one of the most interesting and diversely talented actors around, plays Edgar Allan Poe, a writer with whom Rob shares a certain, shall we say, camaraderie.

Here’s the back story on Rob and Poe. At some point in the late 1990s, Rob became sort of obsessed with Poe. He read the short stories, found some strange synchronicities, started taking notes. The notes eventually grew into Romancing the Raven, a wonderful time travel adventure involving Poe, a young New York woman from the late twentieth century, and a romance that spans centuries.

When Rob handed me the manuscript, I think I read it in a couple of days. It pulled at me, the way good stories always do. One of his characters – Uncle Fids – was actually a friend of ours, an eccentric and lovable psychic whom Rob met because of The Rainbow Oracle,  a divination book that he co-authored with Tony Grosso.

In the book, there’s a terrific scene at a tribute in Central Park for John Lennon,  a spot Fids took us to the last time we saw him. “This man wasn’t just a visionary,” Fids said. “He was a prophet.” The three of us sat in the sunlight on one of the benches, staring at the emblem: Imagine. Rob uses that spot a bit differently in the book, but Uncle Fids is there, just as he was in real life.

So on the afternoon of mother’s day -a hallmark holidays, right? -we buy our popcorn and settle in for the movie. Here’s the IMDB synopsis: When a madman begins committing horrific murders inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s works, a young Baltimore detective joins forces with Poe to stop him from making his stories a reality.

But that summary isn’t quite accurate. The murders are practically duplicates of stuff that Poe has written and at this moment in his life, he’s broke, drinks too much, and is madly in love with Emily, whose wealthy father despises him. But when Emily is abducted at a costume ball by this serial killer, the story breaks wide open.

Cusack is terrific in whatever role he plays. He was great in the surreal Being John Malcovich, in the romantic comedy Must Love Dogs, the oddball High Fidelity,  and now, as the misfit Poe.  (And, oh by the way, I love this man’s politics.)

Poe died under mysterious circumstances  on October 7, 1849, at the age of 40. Four days earlier, he had been found on a park bench in a Baltimore, Maryland in great physical distress. The film leads you up to those final hours of his life and is a masterfully executed whodoneit.

The screenwriter obviously did his homework about Poe. I  mean, you would think this would be a given, but too many movies based on real people tend to bend those facts for fictional purposes. The last word that Poe uttered, in real life, was Reynolds. And it’s on that word that the film ultimately pivots.  It’s where speculative fiction must enter in because, in real life, to this day, no one knows who or what Reynolds was to Poe.

Yes, there’s graphic violence in this film. But that certainly fits with Poe’s stories and adds to the general eerie world Poe inhabited, in his own head.  Cusack brings that madness to life on the screen.There are some wonderful twists and turns and surprises in the plot. Rob and I kept whispering to each other, He’s the killer, no that guy is the killer…. And we were wrong.

Rob’s only criticism of the movie was that Poe was depicted as being more athletic than he probably was in real life. In one scene, he races through a foggy woods on horseback; Rob leans toward me and whispers, “No way.”

I had read some reviews of the movie. The Palm Beach Post reviewer thought it was too slow and gave it a B. I guess if you compare it with X-Men or to the trailer we saw for the next G.I Joe movie,  then yes, it’s slow. One review I read said the film was okay, but “creatively bankrupt.” Huh?

We are all critics. What moves me may not move you. What speaks to me, may not speak to you. But to say that the move is creatively bankrupt tells me that whoever wrote this has never created anything. Every writer, artist, actor, entrepreneur,  filmmaker- every person engaged in a creative endeavor – creates from his or her own experience and imagination. Cusack’s interpretation of Poe as a man, a writer, a guy whose lover has been kidnapped by a serial killer duplicating what he writes about in his stories, is pitch perfect.

But if you’re looking for car chases, lasers,  shoot outs, and terrorists with nukes, don’t bother with this movie. The Raven is a film that engages you intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually,  but deep within that dark archetypal night of the soul when your worst nightmares whisper, What if, what if…

Cusack did for Poe in film what Rob does for him in Romancing the Raven. Am I prejudiced? You bet. But don’t take my word for it. See the film. Read the book.  You decide.

Archaeologists have made a fascinating discovery in a mostly unexplored city of Xultun in Guatemala. It’s a small building whose walls display murals of a brightly adorned Mayan king, and also the Mayan long count calendar.

The article in the Washington Post, unfortunately, was written as if it were revealing substantial new information about the calendar, which it isn’t. The article in a somewhat breathless manner, informs us that the new find destroys any notion that the Mayans predicted the end of the world in 2012.

Actually, the Mayans never predicted the end of the world on Dec. 21, 2012, but the end of this phase of the long-count calendar, and the beginning of a new calendar, which initiates a new world.  Of course, in dumbed-down popular culture terms, the end of the world means the end of the world…or no tomorrow.

But all along students of the Mayan long count calendar have said the end of the calendar is a symbolic ending of the Third World and beginning of the Fourth World. The Hopis have a slightly different account of the number of worlds in their mythology, but have also said we are reaching the end of the Fourth World and the beginning of the Fifth World.

There are plenty of signs that we are in a time of great transition, moving from the old ways of stagnant state religions to a more personal spirituality in which we all active participants rather than looking to a spiritual hierarchy and depending on the word of religious texts that have been altered over the centuries to serve the religious power structures.

The crashing of the economies around the world in recent years along with the degradation of the environment have pushed us to the brink. Many are seeing a new future beyond the oil economy, beyond the forever wars, and that precarious future has led to an ardent defense of the powers that be, of the old ways of doing things.

It’s why some people talk about the U.S. Constitution in the same manner they relate to the bible. They twist the Constitution to their own liking just as they manipulate the bible, while referring to both as if they were written in stone. It’s all about fear the fear that if they give an inch, everything they believe is no longer relevant. It’s a last ditch stand and might continue on for awhile. But eventually the blinders will fall away.

There are lots of predictions of catastrophes coming, both natural and man-made that might alter the make up of the planet, in terms of geography, economics,  political entities, and demographics. Such events indeed might be coming. Yet, it’s highly doubtful that there will be one big bang on Dec. 21 of this year. It’s a continual process taking place day by day, month by month, year by year, and yet one day it will appear that the shift to the new world came dramatically and swiftly.

See you there!

…to an Irving Berlin piece. This video is really great. I  first saw it on DJan’s blog.

Before 1967, interracial marriage in certain states in the U.S. was illegal.  Yes, you read that correctly. Whites and blacks weren’t permitted to marry each other. From Wikipedia:

 “Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967),^[1] was a landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, declared Virginia‘s anti-miscegenation statute, the “Racial Integrity Act of 1924“, unconstitutional, thereby overturning Pace v. Alabama (1883) and ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.”

Now here we are in 2012, with another civil rights issue – the right for gay people to legally marry. Legal marriage means you’re able to partake of the same benefits that married heterosexuals do in terms of tax benefits, health insurance, Social Security, raising families and all the rest of it. It’s not just legal recognition, but the emotional and spiritual acceptance that comes from such a union.

On May 8, North Carolina voters approved a state constitutional amendment that declares marriage is only between a man and a woman. It’s the 30^th state with this kind of constitutional provision. The amendment states that such a marriage is the only “domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized by the state.”

It essentially writes discrimination into the state’s constitution.

Two days later, President Obama gave an interview to ABC News in which he stated that he personally believes gays should have the right to legally marry. He’s the first president to ever support gay marriage. Never mind that he should have done it long before now; at least he took the calculated political risk and came out in favor of it.

For opponents of gay marriage, the issue is all mixed up and entangled with religion.  In the U.S. Congress, amendments about gay marriage were actually tacked on to a defense bill at 11:30 at night. Someone  cited Leviticus in the Old Testament, which considers homosexuality an abomination punishable by stoning.

Really?

One day my neighbor and I were talking about this very issue and she cited the same chapter and verse in Leviticus that Congresswoman Scott did. I just stood there, mute with shock that I was hearing this from a woman in the 21^st century.  And this comes from he woman who takes care of our dog and cats when  we’re out of town.  I burst out laughing, I couldn’t help it.

“Tell me you’re kidding,” I said. “Tell me you don’t really believe this.”

“It’s in the Bible, Trish.”

In other words, it’s written in stone and if I don’t get with the agenda, I’m part of the problem.

As a lapsed Catholic of many, many years, I vaguely recall the Old Testament, which we were taught in Catechism – i.e., Brainwashing 101 for children.  I remember listening to a nun talking about a fiery, angry god who “punished” his children when they “sinned.” And wow, there was a long list of sins, everything from disobeying your parents, lying, not attending church on Sundays, and  saying goddamn.

As a practicing Catholic, I was expected to confess periodically so I could receive communion.  So the priest would ask, “What sins do you need to confess?”And my mind would empty, a kind of panic would sweep through me. Hey, I was ten or eleven years old. I couldn’t think of anything, so I would make up sins – thus committing another sin! – and then dutifully say the 5,000 prayers to compensate for my evil life.

But here are members of Congress citing the Old testament while discussing legislation. Big disconnect. Whatever happened to the separation between church and state? What’s the deal, anyway? Why should anyone give a damn about who marries whom? How do gay couples  who marry and raise families present any “danger” to heterosexuals and their families?

I’m reminded of Shirley Jackson’s brilliant short story, The Lottery,  first published by The New Yorker in 1948. The plot is simple. In a small town of about 300 people, an annual ritual ensues to “ensure a good harvest.” One adult is stoned to death by the rest of the townspeople. People don’t like doing it, but they feel compelled to do so because it’s what you do if you live in this town. This same idea is used in slightly different ways in Hunger Games,  The Handmaid’s Tale, 1984, The Matrix, Majority Report.

In much the same way, the Republican party has turned into an extremist bunch who seem to believe they are the country’s moral compass when it comes to gay marriage, women’s health, a woman’s right to choose, and a host of other privacy issues. They cite the Old Testament and extoll the virtues of family life while dismantling the very foundation of what a family means – love, tolerance, acceptance.

They tear apart food programs for the poor, medical care for the poor and the elderly, the sick and the vulnerable, because they refuse to raise taxes on the top 2 percent of earners. These issues fall under civil rights. The constitution, after all, says that we are all created equal. That should mean  that we have the right to marry whoever we love.

Now here’s the twisted synchro, a glaring trickster: before North Carolina voted to ban same-sex marriages, the Democrats had chosen Charlotte, North Carolina as the site of the Democratic National Convention of 2012, where Obama and the VP will be officially nominated. And despite the state’s ban and Obama’s much publicized proclamation about his support of gay marriage, the convention will still be held there.It’s as if the universe is inviting us to recognize that the new paradigm needs an enemy in order to evolve. In the Fifties, we needed the Russians and the Berlin Wall. Now we apparently need  discrimination against blacks, women, and gays before we can reach the ideal – acceptance.

Go figure.