Horror Report

Day: April 12, 2015

  • Age before beauty

    Age before beauty

    Let me first say, politics is a blood sport and I really have lost interest of the years. It amazes me that we teach our children not to bully each other, and laws are passed stopping them, but yet politicians have free reign to destroy each other and use NSA secrets or back alley Sallys to their advantage. The more dirt the better.. the more chances a politician can be destroyed in front of the media spotlight.. And then the other guy wins.

    Though I am politically an atheist at this point, I enjoy watching politics from a distance and see how the actors play their roles.
    At times it’s clumsy..at times it’s infuriating.
    And the media? Oh that media..

    Hillary Clinton has announced that she will announce she is running for president. That happens tomorrow, Sunday. The strange part, in my political analyst mind, is that she is choosing to use the internet to feed a video to supporters saying she is going to run for President. No rally or big speech. Instead, a quiet video uploaded to the net.  In a sense, that’s creative. In another, it misses the point. It loses the excitement.

    Hillary Clinton has a lot of work to do. There are Democrats that really don’t want her to be president. And some of the Democrats who don’t want her to actually wanted her to in 2007 and 2008–until Barack Obama started his quest for the White House. The Clinton vs Obama match up was one for the ages. Tears, fears.. “3am ads,” Obama jokes at debates about her being likable. Even Bubba himself reportedly was enraged. And Bill was forced into going to Girardville PA and eating a Tony’s Screamer during the St Patrick’s day Parade, all for the campaign, and something his stomach  may yet not be completely healed from.

    I personally think there is something else that will work against Hillary Clinton. The media is going to start pushing the image of her as an aging war hawk, someone who has seen her years and now has become withered with time.

    Remember this 1995 TIME magazine cover?

    That is Bob Dole. The cover story came early in the campaign. The media summed it up. He was old. Too old. By the time October came when Bob Dole literally fell off of a stage during a campaign event in exhaustion, the media’s prediction came true. He was indeed too old.
    Now keep in mind, Bob Dole was 72 then. He’s 91 now, and still alive. And from interviews I see when him from time to time, he also still has a full mind and spirit.
    Hillary Clinton will face the same. She’s 67, not the same as Dole’s wrinkled banana was at the time he sought the presidency against Hill’s Bill, but she’s aged nonetheless.
    In reading media reports hyping her bid for the presidency, I am confronted by one thing that the Hillary campaign is set to do: The propaganda is going to be amazing. Which is what a good campaign does, don’t get me wrong. Someone needs to tell Rand Paul that, he’s been floundering since he announced and is blaming the media instead of oiling his machine that needs oil internally.
    But with Clinton, the posters and images, buttons and shirts being used are all featuring a much younger Hillary Clinton. They are showcasing her presidential candidacy photos from 2008.. they are living in the past. Take a look at these two AP photos of people inside the Hillary super PAC office. And check Hill’s images being showcased:

     

    Photo number two especially is promoting he younger more energetic Hillary.
    Before the stroke.

    Before Benghazi.
    Before the baggage.

    What is my point?
    My point(s) follow:
    1. The media is going to be a bit biased at first. They won’t call attention to Hillary’s age at first like they did Dole, but they will. They love a good feeding frenzy. And if someone younger and more exciting comes along in the Democratic party, Clinton will suddenly be characterized as an aging beauty of the 20th century, not ready for the new times
    2. The Hillary Clinton campaign is going to use old images of Clinton to create a reality that existed then, but not now. The years are what years are: Unkind. Men and women wrinkle over time. Faces change.. the scars of the planetary revolving get noticed. And yes, we get old. Hillary Clinton is not a spring chicken. But eventually her campaign will have to come to grips with that. It appears they are recycling old images–images that don’t look a thing like Hillary does now.
    While I said before, I don’t like taking sides in political fights because, in reality, I think I am much more nuanced than that. We all are, if we stop and think about it. The political parties are like manmade religions. Ironically, people go to church on Sunday and the political shows also air Sunday morning. (Not that either church or political shows matter anymore, of course.)
    However the nuttiness of the political process, from a distance it’s surely fun to watch.
    I consider presidential campaigns like I do Super Bowls or World Series with teams I don’t like: I love watching the process and not having to take a side. Of course I vote..and often for the lesser of the evils. But don’t we all?
    I am fascinated by how Hillary overcomes her State Department years. Her Benghazi ‘what difference does it make’ comments. Her angry tirade in front of Congress about the terrorist attack. Her email server oddities. And yes. The elephant–or should I say donkey?– in the room: Her age, once it eventually becomes an issue. As we all know it will.
    THE GOOD OLD DAYS. DOLE WAS OLD. HILL WAS 50. The future was ahead of her

     

    The Hillary we know now

     

  • Art Bell and Keith Rowland plan to go it alone, will broadcast independently this summer

    Art Bell and Keith Rowland plan to go it alone, will broadcast independently this summer

    Art Bell, back in his time, had a different take. He did politics for some time. But changing the format equaled a success that has been unparalleled by any in comparison.
    Art Bell is coming back to radio. But will people back to him?

    There are lots of people happy about–including me, to be honest. I have been a proud card carrying member of the BELLGAB.COM forum for several years, joining in a strange arena of general disgust with George Noory and the state of modern radio..
    And speaking of modern radio..
    It’s a cesspool of politics. Constant banter about material items that have useless end results for those who debate them. Issues that really don’t matter. Gay wedding cakes, for one.. And many other things to divide a nation that is already divided into small divisions of divisions that don’t have a chance of ever getting along with each other..
    I think it’s fair to say that Coast to Coast AM, the 1990s and early 2000s version, inspired a nation to accept the paranormal or at least question it. It led to countless ghost hunter shows, added to the aura of creepiness of the X-FILES, and make lots of night shifters and night owls hear something few others did: A bizarre four to five hours of overnight programming focusing on the absurd, the bizarre..the science.. and the shadow creatures. That may or may not exist.
    And Richard C. Hoagland. Who does exist. As does his hair..

     

    But a return of Art Bell?
    In a market saturated by fools and frauds, it is a little difficult for me to see where Bell fits in the new scheme of things..
    Radio is mean and cruel now. Some may say it always was, but regardless of history, it certainly is now. It seems that everyone who has a chip on their shoulders when they call and opine. It would appear that everything–from religion to science–has someone who backs it without prejudice or many times even logic.
    Art Bell did not.
    He created a new category of media that did not exist before his venture into the strange activity late in the night.

     

    When Art Bell returned to SIRIUS XM radio in 2013, something seemed off. The opening intro, the guests.. the format. SIRIUS XM did not seem to be the rightful home for Art Bell. The satellite company’s chief talent, Howard Stern, certainly did not welcome him with open air.. Lots of others poked fun at Bell for disallowing cursing no his unregulated program. And then when Bell chose to ask Sirius to be permitted to broadcast his show on his own website, he seemed to have an inability to grasp the notion of the contract he signed.
    Little did anyone know at the time, of course, was that Coast to Coast AM was working behind the scenes to secure Art Bell’s spot on the INDIE station–the home that Coast still has today on XM..
    Art Bell has been toying with fans in various places for months. On BELLGAB, he has become a regular contributor to the message board site. On Facebook, he drops messages from time to time about his plans.
    Tonight, he posted what seems to be a near-maybe-soon to be decision on his future program, MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT. Bell said,

    Midnight in the Desert

    Here is what I can tell you, Keith and I are going to think about this over this Weekend but it looks like instead of making a deal with anybody else we will do it ourselves. We will be on the Internet and everybody will be able to hear the show on Tune In (free app) Worldwide.
    If we decide to move forward I will be ordering the gear by Tuesday. The music is taken care of and the time of the show will be 9PM-12AM PT M-F.
    The live show will be free, but because we are doing it ourselves we will be depending on people buying membership for 5 bucks a Month which gives you the Podcast and Wormhole and so forth. If they don’t we won’t get very far because we pay music, Bandwidth, Producer Etc.
    We could have signed with a Partner BUT they wanted to put us in a pay wall with other stuff and the price would have been at least double with all kinds of restrictions so we think we will put up the money ourselves and roll the dice. It’s a gamble but so is life.
    Art
    The gamble..
    Keith Rowland and Art Bell will undoubtedly have a tough choice on their hands this weekend. Art Bell said on BELLGAB that Rowland doesn’t have much money for the game. Bell himself even said he wanted to try to save the money has put away for his family, and at the same time hinted about how expensive it will be to buy equipment to broadcast himself and how much money it was going to take to be able to play bumper music.
    Five dollars a month will help him.
    But will it be enough.
    There are two schools of thought in my own head on the return of Art Bell to radio. On one hand, I want him back. I am a little dismayed by most of the ‘paranormal’ talk that is out there–those who fall victim to believing everything or others who simply pretend to understand the paranormal as a means of pretending to be the next Art. And with a return to the radio, there’s a good chance that real talk will return. Questions that matter, speculation based on common sense, a fun spirit of tin-foil-hat wearing paranoia without being too paranoid. And truthseeking with critical thinking instead of gullibility.
    On the other hand.. if a failure occurs, and yet another quick retirement happens, the Art Bell stock will be utterly washed up. Gone. Finished. And a mighty career and industry-changing life will be forced into the background without respect.
    I am biased. As  fan, I hope scenario two never happens. I certainly don’t think it will, but say it only for the purposes of possibility.
    The podcasting world is saturated.
    I have a very tough time keeping up with message boards and blogs that I love. I have an equally difficult time, as of late, finding the time to write as much as I crave doing so. But the podasting world? With a blog or website, you can quickly skim for the best parts. You can see the bold type and read, quickly, what may matter more than the rest of the verbiage. But with podcasting, you can’t really do such things.. it’s much tougher to find a batch of podcasts you really love and find the time to actually listen to them all.
    And that is why Art Bell has to be good.
    He will be successful, I predict, in gaining back the fans who have become weary with Coast to Coast AM. He may even build his audience a bit, based on the fact that so many newcomers to the Coast show have grown equally tired of cue-card questions and borderline stupidity displayed by George Noory. But will Art Bell be able to gather enough of the new generation to listen?
    It’s interesting to think that all of the things popular today, the ghost tales and stories of alien encounters, UFO sightings, and conspiracy, all have a bloodline dating back directly to Art Bell. And few in the new generation of social media or internet broadcasting have a clue as to how their world and subject matter popularity was based off of the hard work of someone who went against the grain in a time when ‘paranormal’ was marginalized and mocked.
    In that sense, Art Bell deserves the respect of the people who buy into the ideas he promoted.
    But we know that what should happen doesn’t always occur.
    I will not be making any predictions on whether there will be success found on MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT. Of course, I will be working 5 bucks a month into my budget. Heck, if I subscribed (for three months) to Sirius, 5 bucks is a bargain.
    Art Bell will need a lot of people like me, however.
    Time will tell to see if he gets them.
    553
  • Water wars coming. The next crime wave is predicted

    Water wars coming. The next crime wave is predicted

    I recall a documentary I saw back in the late 1990s, it was some sort of bad TV special–bad in acting and producing–that predicted what the next fifty or so years of life may be like. Some talked about Nostrodamus, others just predicted based off of scientific research. One particular thing stuck in my mind: The possibility of ‘waters wars,’ with shortages and droughts people would be forced to fight and become adversaries just for a drop of liquid.
    I kept that fearful tale in the back of my mind for years.
    Today, I read this headline and the fear came racing back.
    Dateline, KQED Science section, an article written by Sasha Khokha:
     
    The story comes from the drought scourged California landscape, where water is no where and there’s hardly a drop to drink, or use for farming. Underground aqueducts are quickly becoming clay. It’s getting tense, with Governor Brown announcing tough restrictions on the use of water.
    Meanwhile, golf courses remain green, as do the luxurious yards of the rich and famous. But that’s a whole other story.
    The article linked weaves a troubling tale of what the near future could look like. A maybe those ‘water wars’ fears from that unnamed 1990s special could actually occur.
    From the story, the more important text:
    “They’re taking the water hoses, taking the copper wiring,” says the county’s District Attorney, David Linn. “We’ve even had instances where they’ve come in and stolen the water pumps from the farmers.”
    Linn has recently launched a new task force so rural residents and farmers can reach a deputy district attorney 24-7 to report crime, including illegal well drilling.
    Linn says a hypothetical call might be, “You know over the past two weeks, the water flow on my kitchen sink has continued to decrease. I notice there’s a couple of big drill rigs across the road, looks like they’re very active.”
    An investigator could come out and talk with the well driller to make sure they’re drilling where they should be.
    “We want to stop the wholesale planned attempt by water drillers to essentially tap out entire neighborhoods of homes without proper legal authority,” says Linn.
    If water is siphoned out of a storage tank, or a water pump goes missing, the DA’s office could dispatch investigators to the scene to collect evidence for prosecution.
    Under last year’s landmark groundwater law, local officials will be taking on the primary responsibility for managing groundwater and enforcing new rules.
    The Madera County Task Force also plans to educate farmers about the best kinds of fences and tank enclosures to keep out water thieves.
    Imagine: Water delivery trucks will be threatened. Fire hydrants will be targets.. People will be dying–if things get really, really bad, for just one more taste of life-continuing liquid. Just one more drop of the once abundant resource that we all need to sustain life..
    All of these hypothetical fears are, frighteningly, quickly become more than hypotheticals. They are becoming likely possibilities.
    I recall that scene from the TWILIGHT ZONE episode the Midnight Sun, where water was scarce and the earth was moving towards the sun–before a sudden change in course and it was hurled away. But during peak hot times, the program illustrated the desperate need that law abiding people would have and how they may resort to things that, under fair circumstances, they’d never consider. And that, in the end, is what is tough for us to consider: The prospect of people doing desperate things with the scarce resource of water drying up across the populous state.
    I think the entire country is hoping for rain.
    But forecasters aren’t giving much hope lately.