Ray (of Ray's X-Blog) relates his mysteriously failed attempt to contact renowned UFO researcher James Moseley. (Have the dreaded reptilians infiltrated the US postal system?)

Ray also mentions my own experiences with the meddling incompetents formally known as the Dep't of Homeland Security. In what I can only interpret as a positive development, Homeland Security has ceased opening my international mail, if my last two packages from Canada are any indication. I never had anything to hide (except, perhaps, an odd taste in books), but the regular sight of bright yellow tape on my FedEx deliveries had become both tiresome and ominous.

Am I off their list, assuming they had one? I guess. And I hope it stays that way.

Slum Fights: The Pentagon Plans for a New 100 Years' War

According to journalist Rick Weiss, demonstrators at protests in Washington DC and elsewhere have been independently reporting large "dragonflies" (with a bizarre "row of spheres, the size of small berries, attached along the tails") hovering near their rallies. ("'I'd never seen anything like it in my life,' the Washington lawyer said. 'They were large for dragonflies. I thought, is that mechanical, or is that alive?'")

Speaking of paranoia, today I got a FedEx package emblazoned with yellow tape bearing the Department of Homeland Security emblem. Not only had they opened the package, they'd neatly cut into each of the envelopes inside. (The package was overnighted from Toronto and contained books.) Should I be concerned . . . ?

Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Scientists at Work on Robobugs.

Some suspect the insectlike drones are high-tech surveillance tools, perhaps deployed by the Department of Homeland Security.

Others think they are, well, dragonflies -- an ancient order of insects that even biologists concede look about as robotic as a living creature can look.

No agency admits to having deployed insect-size spy drones. But a number of U.S. government and private entities acknowledge they are trying.

(Via The Keyhoe Report.)

On a curiously similar note, check out Wikipedia's entry on the debunked "rods" phenomenon.

Minority Report Reality: 'Pre-Crime' Detector Shows Promise

Last year, New Scientist revealed that the US Department of Homeland Security is developing a system designed to detect "hostile thoughts" in people walking through border posts, airports and public places. The DHS says recent tests prove it works.

Well, if the DHS says so it's good enough for me.

This one's from February. I found it at Unknown Country (surprise!) and have no idea if it's legit or so much fear-mongering. Frankly, I've always attributed talk of Nazi-esque railcars and massive secret prisons to paranoid delusion. Comments welcome.

Rule by fear or rule by law?

Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees.

According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of "all removable aliens" and "potential terrorists."

Fraud-busters such as Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, have complained about these contracts, saying that more taxpayer dollars should not go to taxpayer-gouging Halliburton. But the real question is: What kind of "new programs" require the construction and refurbishment of detention facilities in nearly every state of the union with the capacity to house perhaps millions of people?

Video: Dragonfly Drones in Flight

A must-see. These things are essentially indistinguishable from insects.

On another paranoid note, my latest FedEx delivery was opened (and presumably rummaged through with bureaucratic glee) by Homeland Security. That's two in a row, so I'm dumping my "random inspection" hypothesis. Either everything coming to the U.S. from Canada is getting opened or I'm on a list.

Would Fear of Alien Invasion Trigger Mass Psychogenic Illness?

One might wonder about unintended consequences of revealing our world has been visited by an extraterrestrial presence -- perhaps there should be a psychogenic/extraterrestrial threat assessment division at the Department of Homeland Security! (We were contacted by someone affiliated with DHS who expressed an interest in UFO-related phenomena, but assumed this was merely a personal inquiry.)

Is the fear of an alien invasion be enough to trigger a mass psychogenic illness?

Having recently endured several airports (where the Homeland Security Advisory threat level is always "orange"), I couldn't help but appreciate this patently moronic attempt to foster paranoia. We're living in a post-ironic era; Orwell himself couldn't have done it better.

Another FedEx package opened by the tireless folks at Homeland Security. Maybe I'm a starry-eyed idealist, but for once I'd like to be the first person to look at my own mail.

The case of the missing Mars books continues! Here's an excerpt from an email I received today:

I too noticed the lack of AFTER THE MARTIAN APOCALYPSE copies around. Infact, I had mine STOLEN not too long ago. Seriously. I lent it to my cousin who was heading to atlanta. According to her, after she picked up her bags she noticed one of them had been opened. She later examined her contents and didnt notice anything missing. It took her 2 days to realize my book was gone!

"After the Martian Apocalypse" confiscated by Homeland Security?

US begins building treaty-breaching germ war defence centre

The National Biodefence Analysis and Countermeasures Centre (NBACC), due to be completed in 2008, will house heavily guarded and hermetically sealed chambers in which scientists simulate potential terrorist attacks.

To do so, the centre will have to produce and stockpile the world's most lethal bacteria and viruses, which is forbidden by the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. Three years before that treaty was agreed, President Richard Nixon halted the production of US biological weapons at Fort Detrick in Maryland. The same military base is the site for the new $128m (£70m), 160,000 sq ft laboratory.

The green light for its construction was given after the September 11 attacks, which coincided with a series of still-unsolved anthrax incidents that killed five people. The department of homeland security, which will run the centre, says its work is necessary to protect the country.

(Via PAG E-News.)

And after all, nothing can go wrong!

Paul Kimball has his hands full documenting the anti-Semitic leanings of radio host Jeff Rense. Now another drooling anti-Semite, David Icke, is scheduled to appear on Whitley Strieber's Internet radio show.

Icke's schtick is clever in that he takes pains to distance himself from known Nazi sympathizers, opting instead for a peculiar mix of New Age love and Homeland Security paranoia; his racism is disguised (albeit thinly) by his tenet that interdimensional predators known as "reptilians" have infiltrated world government at the highest levels. Interestingly, "reptilian" is more or less synonymous with "Jewish" in Icke's frothing-at-the-mouth cosmology.

Icke professes to espouse peace and love, but his writings are laced with the same vibes that typify the conspiracy yarns of personalities such as the late Bill Cooper. In a nutshell (pun not intended), it's "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" liberally blended with choice scenes from "V." How many times do we have to hear it?

Terror! Terror everywhere!

FBI, ATF address domestic terrorism

"'The Department of Homeland Security spends over $40 billion a year to protect the home front,' Sen. Frank Lautenberg said. After listing al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah, the Democrat from New Jersey wanted to know who else the law enforcement agencies considered terrorists: 'Right to Life? Sierra Club?'"

Asteroid Warnings Toned Down

"Like the Department of Homeland Security's terror alert system, the Torino scale uses five different colors that correspond to the severity of a potential impact. The colors haven't changed from the old system, but the explanation of what each color means has. Asteroids in the green section used to be deemed 'events meriting careful monitoring,' but now are considered "normal." And a level 6 object was described as capable of causing 'global catastrophe.' Now these, too, only merit the concern of astronomers."

Give me a break. Must everything in our gutless consumer society be "toned down"? Must everything -- even the prospect of planetary destruction -- be couched in lamely reassuring language lest the glassy-eyed masses experience a shade of genuine fear?

Bush Administration "Guidelines" for Postponing or Canceling the November Presidential Elections

"Secretary Tom Ridge has said that he is 'against the guidelines.' What he does not say is that various procedures have already been carefully worked out by Homeland Security analysts, who have simulated precise red code alert scenarios including situations, implying the cancellation or postponement of elections."

Yeah, I know -- another political post. I said I wouldn't do it. I'm appalled, yet can't look away.

It's a lot like gaping at a particularly bloody car accident.

Al Qaeda letter warns of new attacks on US

"A letter in Arabic claiming responsibility for the Madrid train bombings on behalf of al Qaeda has reinforced fears of another imminent attack on the United States, Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge says."

If this happens before November, everything changes. There will be no pretense of an election. The Bush administration will try to convince United States citizens that it needs to "finish what it's started," and we will have begun the fall into a politically crippled, xenophobic police-state. (Even now, anti-Bush demonstrators must take their signs to conveniently distant free-speech zones designated by the Secret Service.)

Patriot Act Two will be quickly and unceremoniously made law. The inevitable policing of U.S. dissidents may very well be "outsourced" to private contractors unrestrained by Constitutional triviality. And bad news for Ashcroft-haters: You'll be seeing a lot more of his cadaverous jowls and hungry reptile eyes on TV . . .

I just realized a couple hours ago that today is the second anniversary of -- what was it again? Something to do with Syria?

By the way, take a look at this. It's abdundantly obvious that the US is becoming a virtual dictatorship, but is it too much to ask for the Department of Homeland Security to lay off the swastika motif?

I was browsing Barnes & Noble the other day and found the official US guide to resisting terrorist attacks. It's an overproduced mass-market paperback and goes for a cool $10. Is it just me, or shouldn't the government be falling all over itself to hand this information out for free? It can be argued that the same information contained in the book is available via Internet, but there's the "digital divide" to consider; not everyone has easy Net access. Hell, I own a computer and live in more or less constant fear that it's going to crash just when I need it most. In the event of a nuclear attack, computers are going to be lobotomized by the EMP blast anyway.




"What? No more ESPN?"


This isn't to say that the hints contained in the book are all that useful. Or even intelligible. For example, here's a sagely bit of Bush Administration advice in case of a terrorist nuclear attack: "Use available information to assess the situation." Well, what else are you going to do? Use unavailable infomation? Isn't that logically impossible?

Along with the "Sobig" virus scourge that threatens to flood my in-box, there are also some interesting anonymous political messages circulating (under hijacked email addresses). I just got this one, seemingly from a proprietor of a website devoted to weird Mars images:

Personal Message:
Terrorist sympathizer, you are being watched.

With Regards,
saudi_4u.

One theory about "Sobig" and related plagues is that they're permitted to roam free so that Bush Regime cohorts like John Ashcroft will have a ready-made excuse to advocate increased Internet monitoring. The "terrorist sympathizer" message now making the rounds is just menacing enough to accelerate plans to crack down on Net traffic. Ultimately, of course, the Department of Homeland Security will be satisfied with nothing less than hidden webcams in the homes of computer-users everywhere.

I started reading my autographed copy of Anne and Whitley Strieber's reprinted "The Communion Letters" tonight. It's fascinating stuff. I should finish "Perdido Street Station" tomorrow.

On the way out the coffeshop tonight I saw the Kansas City Star's front page: this week's squalid heat was -- surprise! -- a new record. Of course, in twenty years people will look back on 110+ degree weather with utter, consummate longing. This is nothing.

Guess what woke me up in the middle of the night last night? Loud beeping from my phone! I was too out of it to count them but I think it's a safe bet there were nine of the damned things.

The Dep't. of Homeland Security (or whatever it calls itself) has unveiled www.ready.gov, your one-stop online source for endless anxiety. Don't have time to wade through the government's meandering list of precautions? Try these simple steps instead!

1. In case of a terrorist nuclear strike, run screaming into the streets brandishing bibles and frothing at the mouth.

2. In case of a terrorist chemical strike, run screaming into the streets brandishing bibles and frothing at the mouth.

3. In case nothing at all happens, run screaming into the streets brandishing bibles and frothing at the mouth.

But most of all -- be ready!