Empire of the Odd

Jon Ronson

July 21, 2006 12:22 PM
These past few weeks, politicians and newspapers and business leaders have been falling over one another to support the NatWest Three, the bankers extradited to the US to stand trial for their alleged part in the Enron collapse. And as they do, I think: what about north London hacker Gary McKinnon? He’s about to be extradited, too. Why is nobody interested in Gary McKinnon?

The NatWest Three have secured the services of a PR company; Gary McKinnon hasn’t: he can barely afford to pay his phone bill. People such as Sir Digby Jones, the former director general of the CBI, have been giving speeches about how US-UK business relations are suffering in the wake of the NatWest Three’s extradition; nobody is giving influential speeches in support of Gary McKinnon. The only people who seem to care much about him – besides the odd Lib Dem MP – are his fellow stoner UFO nerds. And who is going to listen to them?

Finally, though, there seems to be some mainstream interest in Gary’s plight. This evening he is due to appear on Richard and Judy. This really is his big – and last – chance to win the support of the nation.

US federal prosecutors want to extradite Gary for perpetrating, in their words, “the biggest military computer hack of all time. [He] caused damage and impaired the integrity of information … The US military district of Washington became inoperable and the cost of repairing [the shutdown] was $700,000 … These [hacking attacks] occurred immediately after 9/11.” And so on.

You probably don’t know this, because it only got a few paragraphs, but on July 6 the home secretary, John Reid, ruled that Gary could be extradited. The next stage is an appeal to the high court, but suddenly the stages are running out. The prison sentence the US justice department is seeking is up to 70 years. What Gary was hunting for, as he snooped around Nasa and the Pentagon’s network, was evidence of a UFO cover-up.

More…..

Fear of upsetting spirits keeps island society on best behaviour

By Mark Magnier
The Los Angeles Times
Taipei, Taiwan (Jul 19, 2006)Chin Wei considers a blockbuster American ghost movie and scoffs.

“I saw Ghostbusters, but that’s not how it’s done,” says the author of several ghost books and the host of radio and television paranormal programs. “You can’t get rid of ghosts that easily, especially with those funny, weird machines. That’s just comedy.”…
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“Well,” I say, standing to leave. “This has certainly been an interesting afternoon.”

Mary Sutherland stands. She is trembling, I think. Just a little. I extend my hand and thank her for her graciousness. She has been gracious. Not exactly the huckster I had anticipated.

“We should hug,” she says, and she embraces me.

She says: “Don’t make me look silly.”

And I say, “I’ll try.”
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Roswell: Ross Savedra fought aliens to rescue his girlfriend, then popped the question in an out-of-this-world proposal. Savedra, 32, staged his elaborate proposal on Sunday afternoon for Ariana Ash, 23, with the help of family members and Roswell’s UFO Museum.

Savedra and Ash were touring the museum when a silver-suited, masked alien from an exhibit called “alien autopsy” suddenly abducted Ash from in front of a group of tourists. Savedra dashed through the crowd, fought two aliens and rescued her. Then he dropped to his knees, presented her a ring and asked her

to marry him. Savedra, a Roswell native, chose the museum for his proposal because of its uniqueness. “She’s always calling me her alien man,Savedra said of his FIANCEE.

Source

By Ed Bark

The Dallas Morning News

(MCT)

PASADENA, Calif. – Heralded by a Comedy Central news release that childishly spews an expletive in its headline, “South Park” turns 10 this fall without really growing up.

Its foul-their-nests fourth-graders, now roughly the same age as the show, continue to vex the suits at the network’s mighty corporate parent, Viacom. Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, now comfortably rich, remain unbowed if a little bruised.

“This is `South Park.’ And we absolutely rip on everyone in really horrible, terrible ways,” Parker matter-of-factly told TV critics Thursday.

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Other than some stranger blatting a bunch of frustrated inanities into a new web log, somone who SOUNDS a lot like my darling Red Queen (now calm down ReaganI’m not the only one who thinks so.) What is really hilarious is, that whomever this person is actually clams to be a new Rich Remolds! That’s a little like Vladimir Putin claiming to be the Joe Stalin of the 21^st century. What a foot bullet!

Not that I blame her (or any of the other characters in the Odd Empire.) It’s got to be maddening that their TV based fantasy worlds don’t just come true. I can only imagine what it would feel like if the evil government suddenly came clean and said, ‘“hey good people, yes aliens have been infiltrating the Earth for generations. They have technology we can’t match, they abduct millions of people for foul sexual experiments and anal probes. If your real lucky they’ll just make soup out of you! But, Its OK, your government is negotiating a deal with the aliens. Only 2% of you will be chopped up or sexually assaulted in exchange for us political types getting the secret for better hair growth! A real bargain!”

Alas, the gritty reality sets in and they realize that the world is pretty much the way it was yesterday, no aliens no vast government conspiracies to poison the air or make their teeth fall out. It’s just life you know? Not aliens. Well, there are LOTS of marketing people and advertisers, those are the real evildoers (*brrr!)

Most notable thing this week? Paul Kimball’s planning to host a UFO Symposium in Halifax, Nova Scotia this October.

A UFO Symposium? A wild Greek party where guys in chitons will drink lots of wine, watch dancing girls and flick the dregs at each other?

Oh, you don’t mean that kind of Symposium (rats!) You mean a sober get-together where folks will talk about the state of UFOlogy such as it is. Get to know each other and maybe hove into to the local watering spot for some more spirited conversation.

And the strange thing about all this? So far, not an alien or contactee in sight. That’s right my incredulous audience! This as yet unnamed Symposium is not about what the strange bug-eyed creatures plunged into someone’s bunghole. It sounds more like a sober, rational look at the state of UFOlogy and how this rather exotic field can be pulled into the scientific community so that some real work can be done.

This mght turn out to be exactly what the woo-woos hate. Actual communication! An exchange of ideas. Leave your egos and pet beliefs by the door kind of stuff. Is that even possible? In this world of reflexive hard-nosed beliefs which do not tolerate descending opinion (narrow mindedness in so many words.) is it possible to that Kimball has the right stuff to make this happen? Can he do all that AND make a profit?

Stay tuned!

….probably not!

I got this off of James Gilliland’s daly screed.

It’s the latest comedy coming out of the venerable Exopolitics Institute. Get ready for the Hawaii Declaration on Peaceful Relations with Extraterrestrial Civilizations, you can sign the petition here, tell them the Odd Emperor sent you!