Max Klinger would have never stood for such nonsense!

On Thursday of last week we here at Anomaly Magazine commented on several odd run-ins with the law taking place in the state of Ohio. Not to be outdone, Toledo’s mayor has two odd stories in the news this week.

The first involves the 70 year old mayor, Carty Finkbeiner (and no, we didn’t make that name up, but we wish we had) breaking up a fight between teenagers in the park, even going as far as to call one kid back with “Come here fatso.”

The other story, one that we can’t believe we missed for the Thursday round up of “don’t Buckeye police have anything better to do”, involves the mayor and the city ticketing folks who parked in their own gravel driveways based on an odd law against parking on unpaved surfaces.

Not surprisingly the three term mayor is reportedly facing a special recall election in November.

This is what we think of your "community service", Buckeyes!

So, we missed the “because it’s Thursday” feature last week. Sorry about that. I had a whole thing on weird law enforcement planned, but I read Mack’s articles on the tasering of grandmothers and thought to myself “this is too serious an issue to dilute with frivolous arrest stories.”

But this week we’re back, and leading off with the neatest free, educational game I’ve seen in a while; Wolf Quest. I mean, where else are you going to find a game that encourages kids to “harass grizzly bears with your mate” and pee on things?

You can check out the promotional video here.

Now, on to the pre-empted police insanity; it seems that cops in Ohio really have too much time on their hands. I mean you’d think that with a failing economy, rising unemployment, and a prescription drug problem that had reached epidemic levels BEFORE the recession put everyone in crisis and desperation mode, they’d have bigger fish to fry. But not so. No, Ohio is intent on excercising all due dilligence to ensure that responsible citizens learn to stay in their place! And that place is apparently NOT contributing to the good of their communities.

First, we have the 81 year old Akron man, a retired construction worker, who dared share his experience with road crews and even give them a hand prepping a pothole in front of his house for patching. His reward? A charge for criminal damaging.

Not to be outdone by their colleagues in Akron, Sandusky police arrested a man for mowing the grass in a public park after the cash strapped city had to cut back on seasonal maintenance. But while those charges may be dropped, the state still isn’t done embarassing itself or its citizens.

In the southern Ohio town of Reading, for example, the police are earning the citizen’s tax dollars by harassing business people over their decorations. Specifically a bikini clad mannequin that has the prudish elements of this Cincinnatti area enclave fuming. I suppose when you’re bitter that your gerrymandering to get rid of a popular Democrat Congressman not only doesn’t work, but that same Congressman leaves the House of Representatives and takes over the Governor’s seat, you got to get your kicks where you can*. Good on you Cincinnatti. Now you can be known for something besides your racism and disappointing sports franchises.

Finally, wrapping up our Ohio weirdness, we have a 90 year old widow from the Columbus area causing a stir when she attempted to donate a WWII artillery shell to the Motts Military Museum in Groveport. Although her husband had held it in their home as a souvenir, without incident, for over 60 years after receiving it in appreciation for his service during the war; her donation led to the bomb squad being called out until it was confirmed that the shell was safe.

Luckily for her, Ohio broke its pattern of punishing a sense of community and history and didn’t arrest her.

*For those from outside the state or region, there have been several attempts to kill the working class Democratic hold on the southeastern portion of the otherwise red state, usually from redistricting to dillute the  strongly Democratic portions of the state by placing small swathes of them in largely Republican districts, as occured when the western part of Scioto County, where Strickland’s ancestral home stands, was moved from his Sixth District into the strongly Republican Second District of then Congressman Rob Portman.

I would like to plead for my right to investigate natural phenomena without having guns pointed at me. I also ask for the right to be wrong without being hanged for it. — Wilhelm Reich, father of the concept of orgone energy and inventor of the orgone accumulator

Wikipedia

Wilhelm Reich Museum

(a “because its Thursday” special)

So, Oprah Winfrey recently ended her “21 day vegan challenge” and decided to cap it all off by buying everyone chicken from KFC.

I’m not even going to point out the obvious “WTF?” factor in this action. I’m not vegan by a long shot. As a dedicated omnivore, I’ve no intention of giving up my cheese or the occasional hamburger. But my girlfriend is a vegan chef, and a very talented one at that (food photos here, NOM NOM), and so eating vegan at most of my meals is not only NOT a big deal, I frankly don’t “miss” anything. And I’m sure someone of Oprah’s resources had the best of ingredients at her disposal as well. Maybe she really was craving chicken after her 3 meat-free weeks (again, for me the biggest challenge would be cheese, as there are very few cheese substitutes that can emulate the taste and mouth feel of real cheese, but I digress.) However her publicity stunt crowded mind has launched a ship that’s sinking fast.

See, Oprah didn’t just want you to participate in her self-imposed vegan flogging (that is totally what I see her short flirtation with veganism as), she also wanted you to revel in your inner cave-man right along with her… haunch of flesh gripped between your greasy mitts while teeth tear through gristle and tendon. So, she decided to buy everyone in America a piece of chicken. (But grilled skinless chicken, because grilled fast-food chicken is somehow healthier than fried chicken maybe?)

The stunt, I’m sure something both Oprah and Kentucky Fried Chicken parent company Yum Brands thought was genius, has turned into a fiasco of epic proportions with customer’s rioting at understocked stores, and even staging sit-ins.  That is, its been a fiasco for those customers who could get the coupon for free chicken to print.

Remember that back in 1928, during the run up to that other economic crisis Herbert Hoover promised a “chicken in every pot”, and we all know how well that worked for him.

Maybe the next volume Oprah reads for her book club should be some kind of a history book?

I received the below e-mail from a friend. A very talented photographer, and a fine writer in her own right.  She wrote to inform us that her friend, poet Craig Arnold, went missing yesterday while exploring on Kuchino-erabu-shima, a small volcanic island in Japan.  She is asking that we take a minute to write our congressmen and ask them to petition the Japanese government to keep the search active.  Please, if you have a moment, click the link, below, enter you zip code, and paste the form letter into your congressman’s mail program. Or, if you feel so inclined, write one yourself. Craig’s friends and family would appreciate it.

Hello all,

I am writing with a very personal request. My sophomore year in college, I took a creative writing class at UT with Craig Arnold where my love of writing poetry was solidified. He was a mentor to me and his encouragement and feedback was absolutely critical in helping me to find my voice (as cheesy as that might sound). After that class, we became friends and kept in touch over the years. Last year, we reconnected when I took the author photo for his book “Made Flesh.”

Yesterday I found out that Craig has gone missing. He had been hiking around a volcano in Japan and never returned to the inn he was staying at. The search for Craig is supposed to go through Sunday, but if they don’t find him by then, they might not keep looking. I’m writing to ask you to please write your Congressperson to request that they keep the search going as long as it takes. It might be futile but it is the only thing I have any power to do to help him right now and I figure by getting as many of my friends, family, and colleagues to write as possible, maybe the extra pressure could help even if it’s just a fraction. I feel absolutely sick over this and just hope that there’s still some chance he’ll make it home alive.

If you are open to writing, you can visit this link (https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml) to figure out who your congressperson is, and I’m pasting a form letter into the email below.

Thanks in advance,
Amanda

Links to news reports:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103675357
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/04/30/japan.missing.professor/
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/books/entries/2009/04/30/craig_arnold_missing.html
http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/missing-poet/
http://www.pw.org/content/american_poet_on_fellowship_missing_in_japan

Form letter (You may copy and paste this when writing your congressperson.)

“I am writing to you to express my concern for an exceptionally talented American poet, Craig Arnold, who has gone missing on a small volcanic island in Japan called Kuchino-erabu-shima while on a creative exchange fellowship. Craig, an experienced explorer of volcanoes, never returned to his inn after leaving alone to research the island’s active volcano for the afternoon. The authorities are on the fifth day of searching for Craig, and are scouring the small island (of only 160 inhabitants) with dogs and helicopters. If he is not found by Sunday, the authorities will call off the search. We cannot let there be a lag in this search while finding Craig alive is still a real possibility.

I am writing to ask for your help in pressuring the JAPANESE STATE DEPARTMENT TO CONTINUE THE SEARCH. WE ALSO NEED HELP SPARKING MEDIA ATTENTION FOR THIS STORY, WHICH WE ALSO HOPE MIGHT INCREASE PRESSURE ON JAPANESE AUTHORITIES TO FIND CRAIG.

Craig Arnold is a national treasure of the arts and letters, an inspiring and exciting poet who must be found. Any pressure we can put on the Japanese to continue the search is critical to our efforts. Time is of the essence. The island and areas surrounding the volcano are small enough that an extended search will surely lead to Craig’s discovery.

Thank you so much, Congressperson ___________ , for your interest, support, and help.”

Proposed Police Programs Put Your Privacy at Stake

Austin’s police chief proposes a policy of mandatory blood withdrawals for drunk driving suspects who refuse a breathalyzer test.

Now the chief favors video surveillance across the city, new requirements for DNA samples for detainees, and police checkpoints, making everyone a suspect.

Is this the end of privacy as we know it?

Join a Public Forum, March 30th.

Panelists include: Art Acevedo - Austin Chief of Police, Deborah Russell - American Civil Liberties Union, Karen Housewright - Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Mike Martinez - Austin City Council, John Bush - Texans for Accountable Government.

Austin City Hall

301 W. 2nd Street, Austin, Texas 78701

Forum Begins at 6pm in Council Chambers

Parking available in garage under City Hall.

Sponsored by Texans for Accountable Government

For more information, call (318) 617-8292

www.TagTexas.org / www.StopVampireCops.wordpress.com

Every Tuesday over at Anomaly Television is “Science & Technology Tuesday” when I and my friend Floyd Anderson post the latest videos related to those topics. Well last Monday night Brave New Bookstore featured an important speaker (whose radio show I sometimes carry at Anomaly Radio). Dr. Katherine Albrecht is the leading expert in America fighting for your and my freedom from rampant surveillance society, prison planet, techno tracking and taxation. She was just here in Central Texas to fight the new MANDATORY pet-chipping happening just down the road in San Marcos. I went to the bookstore event hoping to catch her lecture, show my support and maybe even finally meet her face to face. However, the event was so successful that I took one look around, saw no place to sit (it was standing room only and there were a LOT of people standing), turned around and left. I’m not phobic of crowds but I just couldn’t deal with standing around for the next two hours after a long day of work. But thankfully, my friend Floyd Anderson was undeterred and managed to get video of the entire event. As Katherine begins her lecture she estimates there were about 200 people crammed into Brave New Bookstore. Wow! Thank each and every one of you that showed up. Anyway, check out the entire lecture available over at Anomaly Television dot com.

- SMiles Lewis

Part One

Katherine Albrecht speaks on microchips at Brave New Books in Austin, Texas along with Randall Mock, Lisa Marie Coppoletta, Judith McGeary, and Sheila Dean.

Watch all the videos here at Anomaly TeleVision » Blog Archive » Dr. Katherine Albrecht Speaks on Microchips at Brave New Books 3/2/2009

Because it can’t all be about ghost and goblins all the time.

And because, frankly, as far as I’m concerned there isn’t anything more anomalous than a sytem that gives wads of cash to the uber-wealthy as a reward for inefficiently running a business that exploits the most desperate and needy members of the workforce.

(Anomaly Editor’s note—This article, and all opinions and conjectures expressed therein, are those of the author of this work and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs, opinions, or ideas of Anomaly Magazine, its various writers and contributors, or the editors. JDW)  

Gary McKinnon Is Right

Guest Article By Harv Howard

Does anyone with any knowledge about space hardware and our government’s denial of UFOs believe that we don’t have any war vehicles or weapons in space? Are we to believe that we have nothing better aloft than the shuttle that was on the drawing boards for 10 years before it made its first flight in 1981?

Gary McKinnon, to recap the on-going saga, is fighting extradition from the UK to the US to stand trial on charges that he intentionally hacked his way into 90 US military computers and destroyed files, causing thousands of dollars in damage. He has admitted to deleting some email files but hardly to the extent of the charges. 

What has attracted many observers to his case is that when he was initially charged he responded by saying he was only looking for data on UFOs. He claimed that what he found was the real reason he was being persecuted. His most amazing claim is that he found files containing the names of “spaceships.” With a bit of investigation, he claims to have determined that they were actually spaceships and not ships at sea. According to McKinnon, the files were not in themselves exciting, but contained routine information such as details of crew rotations for the ships, etc. 

Read more »

I found this item about those crazy Raelians on Huffington Post thanks to Chez Pazienza over at Deus Ex Malcontent.

For those not familiar with the Raelians, they are a saucer cult founded by French race car test-driver turned spiritual guru Claude Vorilhon. The Raelian ideology is the standard ancient astronaut world seeding theory, with heaping dollops of late 60s and early 70s free love, and generically spiritual “war is bad” platitudes. They have been in the news most recently for their support of, and claim that they had succeeded in, human cloning. Vorilhon, who currently goes by the name Rael and claims to be the son of an earthly mother of an extraterrestrial father, founded his religion after an alleged close encounter in 1973 where he met his father and learned the truth behind our creation myths.

That all may be true. Or it could be that after failing as a pop-singer (under the name Claude Celler) and as a race car driver, and with his youth fading as quickly as his car in his competitors’ rear-view mirrors, Vorilhon decided the only sure fire way to continue getting laid by a different woman every night was to start a free love cult.

The truth is for more devoted seekers than me to puzzle out.

But for now, enjoy the links. Pull out your old UFO paperbacks and look in the index for anything on Vorilhon and Rael. Enjoy your holiday. And try not to be too upset at the lost opportunity for deliciously comic irony that could have been found in a group celebrating the season when we remember the virgin birth of the Prince of Peace, with a World Peace Orgy.

Merry Christmas. Happy Chanukah. Festive Festivus. Happy New Year.