Categories
Update

How Weird Can It Get?

Yesterday’s update was about what we are now supposed to call the “UAP” question, but which in times past was known popularly as “UFO” for “Unidentified Flying Object.” The coiner of the term, Air Force Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, wanted it pronounced “you-foe,” not “you eff oh,” but that stalled at lift-off.

And it wasn’t the only term that had trouble at the beginning. Its replacement term, “UAP,” started life as “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena,” but because no small part of UFO lore had objects going into and out of bodies of water, the term was expanded to mean “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.” Not a few people who are known as “ufologists” suspect that the name change wasn’t for accuracy but as part of some propagandistic effort to hoodwink the masses, to pretend that the phenomena are new, not very, very old.

And one of the problems with all the disclosure talk in Congress is they never seem to ask pertinent historical questions, say about the infamous “Twining Memo.”

As yesterday’s update was published, a new story broke. Shane Galvin produced another article for the New York Post, “Congress demands Dept of War release 46 secret UFO videos: ‘You’re gonna see some weird f–king s–t’.”

“Those with knowledge of the long list of videos — which include titles like ‘Several UAP in vicinity of Columbus OH airport” and “UFOs in formation over Persian Gulf’ — said the clips are shocking,” Galvin’s article explained. “‘You’re gonna see some weird f–king s–t,’ a source who has viewed the videos told The Post.”

To ramp up to X-Files levels of paranoia, the article concluded that “Congress is not going into this request blind — with two sources telling The Post moles within the intelligence community have eyes on the files being requested and they’ll blow the whistle if the videos are moved, altered, or deleted by anyone.

“The Department of War is expected to hand over the clips by April 14, according to the letter.”

It may be worth noting that last year’s “drones” panic, while no longer making the news, continues. That is, mysterious drones continue to be seen on the eastern seaboard and over military bases, and the several debunking articles devoted to the “drones” subject, heavily promoted last year, seem to be quite off point. 

In February the President had instructed the Pentagon to prepare to release UFO files. We’ll see if that happens. President James Earl Carter, Jr., had promised UFO disclosure, and did next to nothing; Hillary Clinton ran on disclosure and somehow failed to be elected. UFOs have been subjected to official denials, curious silences, and contradictory psy-op affirmations over seven decades. Many people have no hope for government to come clean. Events, they think, must force a disclosure. 

But amidst all the contradictions, what of substance could be said? For most of us, it is all guesswork. But note: if this is all a big nothing, some folks behind the scenes have been cooking up a lot of something about nothing.

Categories
Thought

Descartes

Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed; for every one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usually desire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess.

René Descartes, Discourse on the Method (1637).

Categories
Today

Veto No. 1

On April 5, 1792, George Washington exercised the first presidential veto of a congressional bill, a new plan for dividing seats in the House of Representatives, which would have increased the number of seats for northern states.

Washington vetoed only one other bill during his two terms in office, an act that would have reduced the number of cavalry units in the army.

Categories
Today

UFOs in Orbit

UFOs exist. Not just hearsay or fuzzy photos of unidentified, apparent aerial phenomena — and not mere testimony from government officials, as in the case of but actual scientific evidence of artificial shiny objects in orbit around Earth.

In the 1950s. Before Sputnik.

So, more accurately, it appears that, at the very least, UFOs existed!

In orbit, before the Soviets sent up the first satellite (as we have read in the history books and what some of us remember from the news when we were young).

“The studies by Dr. Beatriz Villarroel and her colleagues have identified bright ‘transient’ objects that appeared in photographs but were not present in photographs taken soon thereafter,” explains The Washington Examiner. “The transient nature of these lights strongly suggests they are not stars.” Indeed, Dr. Villarroel and her colleagues go much further, weeding out any natural explanations. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of examples of these transients not only appear on photographic plates from the 1950s taken from the Palomar Observatory.

Since these studies hit the news a few years ago, we haven’t heard much on it from major news sources despite its obvious news value and historic importance. But Dr. Villarroel has not stopped working on the project, and has maintained a fairly heavy podcast presence.

Now a new paper from Ivo Busko, late of NASA, appears to confirm Villarroel’s results, using plates from a different astronomical observatory.

Meanwhile, Representatives Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) have made news regarding their work in Congress investigating UFOs (the Deep State calls them “UAPs” now). When Rep. Luna called for defunding AARO, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, because she says it keeps lying to Congress, Burchett leaped quickly on board.

And Burchett said this to Ross Coulthart:

I’ve been briefed by just about every alphabet agency there is, and I’ll just tell you this: if they would release the things that I’ve seen, you would stay up — you’d be up at night worrying about or thinking about this stuff.

We just need to disclose it all. I’m sick of it. Well, I was briefed — I’ll just tell you this — I was briefed last week on an issue, or excuse me, two weeks ago, and it would have set the earth on fire.

This country would have come unglued, I think, if they would have heard all that I heard. They would demand answers.

And we need to — but you know, it’s never going to get — unfortunately, it just keeps getting covered up and covered up, and the people that know are dying or disappearing, as the case may be.

Paul Jacob has been covering the ongoing UFO disclosure story for some time, demanding transparency:

Categories
Thought

Heinlein

If a country can’t save itself through the volunteer service of its own free people, then I say: Let the damned thing go down the drain!

Robert A. Heinlein, Guest of Honor speech at the 29th World Science Fiction Convention, Seattle, Washington (1961).

Categories
Today

Tippecanoe & Tyler (too)

On April 4, 1841, William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia, becoming the first President of the United States to die in office and the one with the shortest term served (he died on his 32nd day as president). A renowned Indian killer (having risen to fame for his part in 1811’s Battle of Tippecanoe), a proponent of the expansion of slavery into Northwest Territories, and a Whig, Harrison won the presidency in part by turning the Democrats’ “log cabin and hard cider” aspersions on his character as the basic symbols of the campaign.

Though hardly a “limited government man,” some libertarian history buffs proclaim him the Greatest President, on the ostensibly droll and possibly cynical grounds that he spent so little time in office.

The campaign slogan of 1840, “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too,” proved an actual campaign promise, as Vice President John Tyler took over the job of the presidency, establishing a precedent on presidential succession that would later be enshrined into constitutional law, in the form of the Twenty-fifth Amendment.

Categories
defense & war general freedom ideological culture Internet controversy national politics & policies

Deuce Bigelow, Political Philosopher

Americans have not endured a military draft since the 1970s. Our bodies and very lives aren’t conscript. Just our fortunes.

Not perfect, true, but as political trades go it’s better for equal freedom than slightly lower taxes and a return of the draft, which conscripts some* to benefit (the story runs) “all.”

The all-volunteer force has produced the world’s best military . . . without “slave” labor.

Comedian Rob Schneider thinks differently.  

“We must once again recommit ourselves to one Nation under God, indivisible,” he posted to X recently. “Therefore, we must restore the military draft for our Nation’s young people.

“Each and every American, at eighteen years of age, must serve two years of military service. They could also choose to serve part of that time overseas or in country in a volunteer capacity,” he went on.

“Unlike in today’s Universities, our young people will learn how truly great their country is and how unique and incredible are the Freedoms that this Nation bestows upon them.” But wouldn’t the best place to learn of American freedoms be living free in America? 

Other criticism leaned to mockery, such as the parody movie poster of Deuce Bigelow Joins the Army

Schneider later clarified that he aims for less military action: “A military with EVERY SEGMENT OF SOCIETY REPRESENTED would make the DEPLOYMENT of TROOPS and foreign wars LESS likely as there would be MORE accountability at the highest levels of power.”

This notion is, explains The Epoch Times, “part of a public appeal for Americans to return to traditional values.”

But surely the all-volunteer service is more traditional, the norm for most of our history, and, especially in the sense that freedom to join, or not, embodies liberty better than coercion does. 

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


* The all-volunteer force is admittedly not an exact replica of our society, representing “every segment.” It is better than that. Better educated. Better motivated. In better shape. Consider that the military cannot use at least 12 percent of the population for any purpose.


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Categories
Thought

Adam Smith

Beneficence is always free, it cannot be extorted by force, the mere want of it exposes to no punishment; because the mere want of beneficence tends to do no real positive evil.

Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1776), § II, Ch. I.
Categories
Today

To the Mountaintop

On April 3, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech.

Categories
initiative, referendum, and recall partisanship

Against Fairness?

I’m against fairness?

Nah, it’s just Democrats who think that, because I won’t vote for their proposed constitutional amendment allowing the legislature to redraw my state’s congressional districts. 

The official question on the April 21 ballot reads: “Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?”

What, exactly, is “fair” about this amendment? 

“If approved, Virginia’s 11 districts would likely go from six Democratic to five Republican leaning seats to 10 Democratic seats and one Republican seat,” explains WJLA, ABC’s Washington, D.C., affiliate. “The new map would draw heavily blue urban areas in Northern Virginia, with rural Republican areas far away.”

Democrat House Speaker Don Scott argues that “levels the playing field.” 

Well, it would be a fairer map if the commonwealth’s electorate were comprised of 90 percent Democrats and less than 10 percent Republican voters. Yet, in 2024, Democrat Kamala Harris garnered just 51 percent of Virginia’s vote for president. Even in last year’s blowout gubernatorial election, Democrat Abigail Spanberger won only 58 percent. During that campaign, Spanberger expressed skepticism of this district map . . . but then, as governor, signed on. 

Democrats, always selective in applying “fairness,” are outspending Republicans “by about 14 to 1 on advertising” and holding the vote for this constitutional question early, in April, with low voter turnout expected — for the first time in state history.

In the minds of Democrats, this maneuver is fair because President Trump has urged Republican states to engage is such partisan redistricting. That’s their case.

But arguments in favor of a measure do not belong in the wording voters see on their ballot as they make their decision. 

That’s unfair.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob. 


Note: In the quoted ballot question, emphasis added.

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