Weird Stuff by Ted Slater on 02/13/2009 at 10:09 AM

I'm drawn to weirdness. Not in the way my wife is (which is more of an attraction to weird people, or, more accurately, a particular weird person), but in a more late-night-talk-radio kind of way.

Some day all will cease to be fuzzy. Some day the Lord will pull back the curtain and let us enjoy clarity. In the meantime, mysteries abound.

So here are the enigmas I find pummeling me this morning:

Chemtrails: Are "they" spraying stuff from the backs of some aircraft in an effort to inoculate us or to experiment on us or to reduce global warming? Don't know.

UFOs: Are they extraterrestrials, or demons, or secret experimental aircraft, or weather balloons, or hoaxes, or drops of condensation sliding off the window of the Space Shuttle thus giving the illusion of a darting flying saucer? Or maybe all of the above? Hm.

Economic attack: More than half a TRILLION dollars was taken out of U.S. money market accounts over the course of an hour or two on Sept. 15, 2008. If the activity hadn't been halted when it was, some $5.5 TRILLION could have been withdrawn, collapsing the entire U.S. economy. Who did this, and why does nobody in our government seem to care? Puzzling.

The two arks. Where did the Ark of the Covenant end up? And where did Noah's ark end up? Hm. Perhaps the Ark is buried outside of Jerusalem, or in Ethiopia, or in Spain, or on Egypt's Elephantine Island. Perhaps the ark was used by Noah and his family for firewood, or to build homes, or maybe it is in Turkey somewhere. Will someone someday upload photos of each to their archeology blog?

The U.S. Census: It's an actual head-count conducted every 10 years, and administered by the Commerce Department. Certain politicians want to change that. They want it run directly out of the White House, under the President, which strikes me as a blatantly partisan power-grab. They also want to adjust the results based on a mathematical formula they come up with, rather than rely on what our Constitution (Article 1, section 2) describes as an "actual Enumeration." What's going on here? Will "they" succeed?

EMP attack: Would we survive an electromagnetic pulse attack? Would our electrical grid and communication infrastructure be rendered unusable? Would my Mac's hard drive be erased, and all the songs on my iPod Touch be gone? Would the databases for Boundless and the Boundless Line vaporize?

Conficker: What is it waiting for? A massive cyberattack? Or simply to send out spams? And who made it? Some foreign government? An anti-virus company?

Surely I can't be the only one drawn to such bewilderments.

Weird Stuff by Ted Slater on 02/13/2009 at 10:09 AM

I'm drawn to weirdness. Not in the way my wife is (which is more of an attraction to weird people, or, more accurately, a particular weird person), but in a more late-night-talk-radio kind of way.

Some day all will cease to be fuzzy. Some day the Lord will pull back the curtain and let us enjoy clarity. In the meantime, mysteries abound.

So here are the enigmas I find pummeling me this morning:

Chemtrails: Are "they" spraying stuff from the backs of some aircraft in an effort to inoculate us or to experiment on us or to reduce global warming? Don't know.

UFOs: Are they extraterrestrials, or demons, or secret experimental aircraft, or weather balloons, or hoaxes, or drops of condensation sliding off the window of the Space Shuttle thus giving the illusion of a darting flying saucer? Or maybe all of the above? Hm.

Economic attack: More than half a TRILLION dollars was taken out of U.S. money market accounts over the course of an hour or two on Sept. 15, 2008. If the activity hadn't been halted when it was, some $5.5 TRILLION could have been withdrawn, collapsing the entire U.S. economy. Who did this, and why does nobody in our government seem to care? Puzzling.

The two arks. Where did the Ark of the Covenant end up? And where did Noah's ark end up? Hm. Perhaps the Ark is buried outside of Jerusalem, or in Ethiopia, or in Spain, or on Egypt's Elephantine Island. Perhaps the ark was used by Noah and his family for firewood, or to build homes, or maybe it is in Turkey somewhere. Will someone someday upload photos of each to their archeology blog?

The U.S. Census: It's an actual head-count conducted every 10 years, and administered by the Commerce Department. Certain politicians want to change that. They want it run directly out of the White House, under the President, which strikes me as a blatantly partisan power-grab. They also want to adjust the results based on a mathematical formula they come up with, rather than rely on what our Constitution (Article 1, section 2) describes as an "actual Enumeration." What's going on here? Will "they" succeed?

EMP attack: Would we survive an electromagnetic pulse attack? Would our electrical grid and communication infrastructure be rendered unusable? Would my Mac's hard drive be erased, and all the songs on my iPod Touch be gone? Would the databases for Boundless and the Boundless Line vaporize?

Conficker: What is it waiting for? A massive cyberattack? Or simply to send out spams? And who made it? Some foreign government? An anti-virus company?

Surely I can't be the only one drawn to such bewilderments.

Comments

[1. Naomi said the following at 10:41 AM on Feb 13:]

1

This. Was. HILARIOUS!

Thanks for being weird. I must be weird, too... because I found so much enjoyment in reading this post!! :)

[2. Dr. Ransom said the following at 10:54 AM on Feb 13:]

2

Hmm, let me attempt some too-simple, single-sentence answer guesses, based on what I've read and heard. Others may find time or motivation to explain further:

UFOs: Are they extraterrestrials, or demons, or secret experimental aircraft, or weather balloons, or hoaxes [. . .]

Every case is different, and given the occult/spiritual nature of many "alien" manifestations, I would guess at times demonic activity is involved; for a great read on the topic, check out Gary Bates' Alien Intrusion (he's one of Those Creation Guys, along with a certain Dr. Jonathan Sarfati).

Economic attack: More than half a TRILLION dollars was taken out of U.S. money market accounts over the course of an hour or two on Sept. 15, 2008.

My money, or what is left of it, is on billionaire and liberal activist George Soros.

The U.S. Census: It's an actual head-count conducted every 10 years, and administered by the Commerce Department. Certain politicians want to change that. They want it run directly out of the White House, under the President, which strikes me as a blatantly partisan power-grab.

Yes, that will be, and it's very bothersome, especially considering I hope to do some Census work this year and next year; however, I hope later to use that money for my own future family and ultimately the cause of Christ.

As for "Conficker," this is the first time I've heard of it (the term sounds like a sci-fi cussword) -- but the bizarre nature of that article's descriptions reminds me to a) update my virus software, and b) consider keeping my computer forever off the internet altogether. ...

[3. obewan said the following at 10:59 AM on Feb 13:]

3

I vote for UFO's could be demons.

When I was in college, the Berkley Spiritual Counterfeits Project did a whole issue on UFO's and science fiction. It was a scholarly piece of work, and featured commentary on famous sci-fi writers and movie producers.

Their thesis was that people in secular society are evolving a belief system focused on life on other planets as a result of exposure to "sci-fi theology". They made the suggestion that people already have been or at some future point will be deceived by demons causing UFO's to appear.

[4. DannieA said the following at 11:01 AM on Feb 13:]

4

I don't keep up with stuff like this but I thought they found Noah's ark a while back.

[5. Melissa S. said the following at 11:07 AM on Feb 13:]

5

Those are all interesting questions. I hadn't heard about the economic attack. Hmm. What I've been interested in for a long time is the possibility of and EMP attack. It's scary how things like that could happen. Adjusting to life after that would be extremely difficult for our culture.

[6. obewan said the following at 11:08 AM on Feb 13:]

6

They still have the issue on UFO’s in print. It is $4. To order one go to the Spiritual Counterfeits Project website, and click on journals. Scroll down to the issue: "UFO’s – Is Science Fiction Coming True?"

http://www.scp-inc.org/

[7. kaj said the following at 11:25 AM on Feb 13:]

7

Cue the "Twilight Zone" theme song! (:

[8. Leann said the following at 11:37 AM on Feb 13:]

8

You're not the only one! I'm not conspiracy theorist, but I love conspiracy theories. They fascinate me. I haven't heard of all of these things, so thanks for bringing them to my attention; I like to ask questions too. My husband applied to work part-time for the Census, so I hope they iron out whatever is going on. I thought they did a fine job the way it's been done in decades passed.

[9. Christina (in green) said the following at 11:54 AM on Feb 13:]

9

#7 kaj -

Funny, I was thinking "Questions for Heaven" by Chris Rice =p

The eery circus music seems to fit =p

[10. Sheri said the following at 11:59 AM on Feb 13:]

10

They did find the ark.
http://www.noahsark-naxuan.com/Slide1.htm

[11. EKB said the following at 12:06 PM on Feb 13:]

11

I love conspiracy theories! The only problem is now I'm going to go waste a lot of time googling these things!

[12. Megan said the following at 12:07 PM on Feb 13:]

12

I vote that UFOs could be demons as well. Why? Take the TV show Ghost Hunters; I believe everything the hunters capture on camera (which is chilling, by the way), EVP recorders, etc. are demons messing with us. The evidence, when not properly explained as demons, gives us a false hope in something OTHER than God. I don't believe it's wrong to necessarily look for these things but it is posing eternal problems for those that do not know God.

If demons have spiritual abilities, then they can deceive humans in many ways. Also, if you are a pre-tribber, when the church is raptured off the face of the earth, where do you think those left here will think we've gone? Abducted by aliens?

[13. Victoria said the following at 12:19 PM on Feb 13:]

13

I thought Noah's ark was found on Mount Ararat in Turkey.

[14. Kari said the following at 1:52 PM on Feb 13:]

14

Oh Slater, you are the best!

Delicious-- I LOVE conspiracy theories/weirdness. A good friend of mine suggested we watch "Loose Change" the other night and I thought it was fantastic.

"Would we survive an electromagnetic pulse attack?" this particular musing sure keeps me up at night!

:)

[15. NeedACatchyName said the following at 3:17 PM on Feb 13:]

15

My take on a couple of them:

1) I've actually heard a lot about this census controversy, and have seen at least a little about it on several major media outlets. While it's certainly generating a lot of arguments, I don't think it's really all that under the radar (given how much I've heard about it), or strange (given that political fighting and underhandedness is nothing new).

2) Conflicker is just the latest and greatest nasty virus attack. It's not all that unusual. It is the largest virus attack to date, but then again, pretty much every new major virus outbreak tends to set the record for "largest virus attack to date," so that's not too terribly special. Information security people are aware of the situation and are taking precautions, at least in the corporate world. In the end if the botnet (the term used to described a large collection of compromised PCs under remote control) is awakened, about the only thing it can do is try a denial of service attack against a major site (which is bad for the major site, but not exactly a big deal in the grand scheme of things), or send spam (which given that there's already a lot of spam floating around, that's not too big of a deal either). Plus when something like this does get activated, ISPs really start moving to block the traffic that the virus generates, thus greatly mitigating it's impact.

[16. HoustonGal said the following at 5:26 PM on Feb 13:]

16

Okay. I can finally admit it....guilty pleasure....

In Ted's "late-night-talk-radio kind of way...."

When I can't sleep, I listen to Coast-to-Coast AM! And thanks to those who are drawn to such bewilderments, Art Bell is a wealthy man today.

[17. Brendan said the following at 6:10 PM on Feb 13:]

17

The ark of the covenant has been found, and it is being handled by "top men."

[18. Nathan said the following at 1:20 AM on Feb 14:]

18

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-movers/2009/02/11/kanjorski-and-the-money-market-funds-the-facts has an explanation of Kanjorski's statement about the "electronic bank run". Short version: it actually didn't happen.

Usually it's the boring answer.

[19. Mike Theemling said the following at 2:53 AM on Feb 14:]

19

I have some answers for you Ted.

Chemtrails: That stuff they are spraying is that "new atmosphere smell" in order to counteract all the foul smelling polutants in the air.

UFO's: I saw this 1970's documentary once entitled "UFO's are Real?" Looked like pretty convincing stuff. However, like someone said, unless the flying saucer lands in my backyard, the alien walks out, and he/she/it shakes my hand I'm not going to believe in them.

The Arks: Noah's Ark probably ended up being used as a giant tool shed for Noah and his family, or as a place to house future in-laws of Noah's sons (oh, wait). And the Ark of the Covenant? That's easy. It's in a warehouse at Area 51 in Nevada.

Census: There have been attempts at using statistical models instead of actual headcounts for awhile now. But the SCOTUS has for the time being has struck that down for apportionment purposes.

EMP: You never saw "Goldeneye" or "Escape from L.A."? The answer is that, 'Yes', a large enough EMP blast could knock out a lot of our infrastructure. The effect from a bomb in space though would vary according to the yield.

Conficker: If I were to guess, it probably originated from Eastern Europe somewhere like so many other worms/viruses. As for it's purpose? My theory is that it's simply trying to test cyber attack counter-measures for the real thing sometime down the road. Not X-files enough for you? OK, then. It's an attempt at generating a new AI using randomization and pre-sentient algorithms much like natural selection does with evolution. One day, the AI will become sentient, and then we will all be forced to become the servants of "Mother SkyHAL".

[20. Jordan C from Canada said the following at 5:48 AM on Feb 14:]

20

Great post Ted. I lol-ed!

Re: the census controversy though, isn't the formula meant to ensure that people like the homeless (who are often missed in a "door-to-door head count") are counted, too?

Or was that just the controversy on the West Wing, and the current, real-world one is totally different?

[21. Tom said the following at 1:50 PM on Feb 14:]

21

I assume you mean "contrails," not "chemtrails." It's short for "condensation trails," left when airplanes pass through certain atmospheric conditions and cause the moisture in the air to condense.

Fun activity: watch some of the old Westerns and look for contrails in the skies of the Old West. Hmm, maybe they were left by UFOs! Fun upcoming movie: Cowboys and Aliens, in which, according to its logline, "warring Apaches and cowboys set aside their squabbles to hound some extraterrestrials out of town." See, Ted, there is a master conspiracy after all!

Speaking of UFOs, if you're ever remotely near Roswell, NM, you must visit the UFO museum there. It's beyond parody.

[22. Ted Slater said the following at 3:04 PM on Feb 14:]

22

Tom (#21) -- I indeed did mean "chemtrail." Click on the link to see what I'm talking about.

[23. Lukas said the following at 11:25 PM on Feb 14:]

23

I like Hugh Ross's book on the subject of UFO's, called "Lights in the Sky and Little Green Men" or something to that effect. He thinks the small fraction of sightings that cannot be explained by natural or man-made phenomena are some kind of interdimensional being. The main reason is the distances between stars are so vast that there is no way according to our current understanding of the laws of physics for a solid object to travel these distances within any reasonable length of time.

[24. Jo said the following at 3:04 PM on Feb 15:]

24

Ah, I'm drawn to weirdness too. Like Leann (8) I don't buy into conspiracy theories but I find them very entertaining / fascinating. The people who do buy into them do sometimes worry me though. A guy from college is completely convinced of the whole Illuminati thing... and thinks I'm naive for believing in Jesus.

Anyway, it strikes me that I hardly ever comment on posts like this, so people like Ted must get a warped view of me because I tend to disagree quite often on the more serious stuff. But I do enjoy the lighthearted posts and I do enjoy the Slater sense of humour... :)

[25. Vincenzo said the following at 10:18 AM on Feb 16:]

25

That explains why I love the X-Files. LOL I believe there is far more to the universe than we think. There is something intoxicating about the unknown, the idea that there is something out there that beckons and calls us to explore further. It is something that does not necessarily fit into our preconceived ideas about reality or fit neatly into our theological boxes. Discovering the truth can be a messy thing. LOL In fact, I think throughout eternity there will always be some unknown to discover, some mystery to delve into.

I recommend the works of the late Antony C. Sutton who was a British economist/historian.

You can also download his books for free. I like him because his work seems to be backed by research and solid documentation. He is no crackpot/nutcase. I warn you though,what he discovered is a bit unsettling and could keep you up nights. LOL

As far as contrails, UFOs and the other stuff, who knows?

[26. Keisha said the following at 9:02 AM on Feb 18:]

26

Ted said:

"They also want to adjust the results based on a mathematical formula they come up with, rather than rely on what our Constitution (Article 1, section 2) describes as an "actual Enumeration." What's going on here? Will "they" succeed?"

This thread is probably dead, but I wanted to offer a brief explanation of this one. Doing a complete enumeration would be extremely expensive... Hiring people to track down every last person who didn't turn in the form? If you complain about "big government" now, you wouldn't even want to consider this. So instead, Census officials do an incomplete enumeration everywhere, where you just hand in the form, and then do a more thorough enumeration of a few small areas and then predict how large their undercount of all areas is by using the levels of non-response in the smaller areas as a guide. This is a very heuristic explanation, but that's basically one of the ways in which statistical methods are currently used in the Census to measure population.

[1. Naomi said the following at 10:41 AM on Feb 13:]

1

This. Was. HILARIOUS!

Thanks for being weird. I must be weird, too... because I found so much enjoyment in reading this post!! :)

[2. Dr. Ransom said the following at 10:54 AM on Feb 13:]

2

Hmm, let me attempt some too-simple, single-sentence answer guesses, based on what I've read and heard. Others may find time or motivation to explain further:

UFOs: Are they extraterrestrials, or demons, or secret experimental aircraft, or weather balloons, or hoaxes [. . .]

Every case is different, and given the occult/spiritual nature of many "alien" manifestations, I would guess at times demonic activity is involved; for a great read on the topic, check out Gary Bates' Alien Intrusion (he's one of Those Creation Guys, along with a certain Dr. Jonathan Sarfati).

Economic attack: More than half a TRILLION dollars was taken out of U.S. money market accounts over the course of an hour or two on Sept. 15, 2008.

My money, or what is left of it, is on billionaire and liberal activist George Soros.

The U.S. Census: It's an actual head-count conducted every 10 years, and administered by the Commerce Department. Certain politicians want to change that. They want it run directly out of the White House, under the President, which strikes me as a blatantly partisan power-grab.

Yes, that will be, and it's very bothersome, especially considering I hope to do some Census work this year and next year; however, I hope later to use that money for my own future family and ultimately the cause of Christ.

As for "Conficker," this is the first time I've heard of it (the term sounds like a sci-fi cussword) -- but the bizarre nature of that article's descriptions reminds me to a) update my virus software, and b) consider keeping my computer forever off the internet altogether. ...

[3. obewan said the following at 10:59 AM on Feb 13:]

3

I vote for UFO's could be demons.

When I was in college, the Berkley Spiritual Counterfeits Project did a whole issue on UFO's and science fiction. It was a scholarly piece of work, and featured commentary on famous sci-fi writers and movie producers.

Their thesis was that people in secular society are evolving a belief system focused on life on other planets as a result of exposure to "sci-fi theology". They made the suggestion that people already have been or at some future point will be deceived by demons causing UFO's to appear.

[4. DannieA said the following at 11:01 AM on Feb 13:]

4

I don't keep up with stuff like this but I thought they found Noah's ark a while back.

[5. Melissa S. said the following at 11:07 AM on Feb 13:]

5

Those are all interesting questions. I hadn't heard about the economic attack. Hmm. What I've been interested in for a long time is the possibility of and EMP attack. It's scary how things like that could happen. Adjusting to life after that would be extremely difficult for our culture.

[6. obewan said the following at 11:08 AM on Feb 13:]

6

They still have the issue on UFO’s in print. It is $4. To order one go to the Spiritual Counterfeits Project website, and click on journals. Scroll down to the issue: "UFO’s – Is Science Fiction Coming True?"

http://www.scp-inc.org/

[7. kaj said the following at 11:25 AM on Feb 13:]

7

Cue the "Twilight Zone" theme song! (:

[8. Leann said the following at 11:37 AM on Feb 13:]

8

You're not the only one! I'm not conspiracy theorist, but I love conspiracy theories. They fascinate me. I haven't heard of all of these things, so thanks for bringing them to my attention; I like to ask questions too. My husband applied to work part-time for the Census, so I hope they iron out whatever is going on. I thought they did a fine job the way it's been done in decades passed.

[9. Christina (in green) said the following at 11:54 AM on Feb 13:]

9

#7 kaj -

Funny, I was thinking "Questions for Heaven" by Chris Rice =p

The eery circus music seems to fit =p

[10. Sheri said the following at 11:59 AM on Feb 13:]

10

They did find the ark.
http://www.noahsark-naxuan.com/Slide1.htm

[11. EKB said the following at 12:06 PM on Feb 13:]

11

I love conspiracy theories! The only problem is now I'm going to go waste a lot of time googling these things!

[12. Megan said the following at 12:07 PM on Feb 13:]

12

I vote that UFOs could be demons as well. Why? Take the TV show Ghost Hunters; I believe everything the hunters capture on camera (which is chilling, by the way), EVP recorders, etc. are demons messing with us. The evidence, when not properly explained as demons, gives us a false hope in something OTHER than God. I don't believe it's wrong to necessarily look for these things but it is posing eternal problems for those that do not know God.

If demons have spiritual abilities, then they can deceive humans in many ways. Also, if you are a pre-tribber, when the church is raptured off the face of the earth, where do you think those left here will think we've gone? Abducted by aliens?

[13. Victoria said the following at 12:19 PM on Feb 13:]

13

I thought Noah's ark was found on Mount Ararat in Turkey.

[14. Kari said the following at 1:52 PM on Feb 13:]

14

Oh Slater, you are the best!

Delicious-- I LOVE conspiracy theories/weirdness. A good friend of mine suggested we watch "Loose Change" the other night and I thought it was fantastic.

"Would we survive an electromagnetic pulse attack?" this particular musing sure keeps me up at night!

:)

[15. NeedACatchyName said the following at 3:17 PM on Feb 13:]

15

My take on a couple of them:

1) I've actually heard a lot about this census controversy, and have seen at least a little about it on several major media outlets. While it's certainly generating a lot of arguments, I don't think it's really all that under the radar (given how much I've heard about it), or strange (given that political fighting and underhandedness is nothing new).

2) Conflicker is just the latest and greatest nasty virus attack. It's not all that unusual. It is the largest virus attack to date, but then again, pretty much every new major virus outbreak tends to set the record for "largest virus attack to date," so that's not too terribly special. Information security people are aware of the situation and are taking precautions, at least in the corporate world. In the end if the botnet (the term used to described a large collection of compromised PCs under remote control) is awakened, about the only thing it can do is try a denial of service attack against a major site (which is bad for the major site, but not exactly a big deal in the grand scheme of things), or send spam (which given that there's already a lot of spam floating around, that's not too big of a deal either). Plus when something like this does get activated, ISPs really start moving to block the traffic that the virus generates, thus greatly mitigating it's impact.

[16. HoustonGal said the following at 5:26 PM on Feb 13:]

16

Okay. I can finally admit it....guilty pleasure....

In Ted's "late-night-talk-radio kind of way...."

When I can't sleep, I listen to Coast-to-Coast AM! And thanks to those who are drawn to such bewilderments, Art Bell is a wealthy man today.

[17. Brendan said the following at 6:10 PM on Feb 13:]

17

The ark of the covenant has been found, and it is being handled by "top men."

[18. Nathan said the following at 1:20 AM on Feb 14:]

18

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-movers/2009/02/11/kanjorski-and-the-money-market-funds-the-facts has an explanation of Kanjorski's statement about the "electronic bank run". Short version: it actually didn't happen.

Usually it's the boring answer.

[19. Mike Theemling said the following at 2:53 AM on Feb 14:]

19

I have some answers for you Ted.

Chemtrails: That stuff they are spraying is that "new atmosphere smell" in order to counteract all the foul smelling polutants in the air.

UFO's: I saw this 1970's documentary once entitled "UFO's are Real?" Looked like pretty convincing stuff. However, like someone said, unless the flying saucer lands in my backyard, the alien walks out, and he/she/it shakes my hand I'm not going to believe in them.

The Arks: Noah's Ark probably ended up being used as a giant tool shed for Noah and his family, or as a place to house future in-laws of Noah's sons (oh, wait). And the Ark of the Covenant? That's easy. It's in a warehouse at Area 51 in Nevada.

Census: There have been attempts at using statistical models instead of actual headcounts for awhile now. But the SCOTUS has for the time being has struck that down for apportionment purposes.

EMP: You never saw "Goldeneye" or "Escape from L.A."? The answer is that, 'Yes', a large enough EMP blast could knock out a lot of our infrastructure. The effect from a bomb in space though would vary according to the yield.

Conficker: If I were to guess, it probably originated from Eastern Europe somewhere like so many other worms/viruses. As for it's purpose? My theory is that it's simply trying to test cyber attack counter-measures for the real thing sometime down the road. Not X-files enough for you? OK, then. It's an attempt at generating a new AI using randomization and pre-sentient algorithms much like natural selection does with evolution. One day, the AI will become sentient, and then we will all be forced to become the servants of "Mother SkyHAL".

[20. Jordan C from Canada said the following at 5:48 AM on Feb 14:]

20

Great post Ted. I lol-ed!

Re: the census controversy though, isn't the formula meant to ensure that people like the homeless (who are often missed in a "door-to-door head count") are counted, too?

Or was that just the controversy on the West Wing, and the current, real-world one is totally different?

[21. Tom said the following at 1:50 PM on Feb 14:]

21

I assume you mean "contrails," not "chemtrails." It's short for "condensation trails," left when airplanes pass through certain atmospheric conditions and cause the moisture in the air to condense.

Fun activity: watch some of the old Westerns and look for contrails in the skies of the Old West. Hmm, maybe they were left by UFOs! Fun upcoming movie: Cowboys and Aliens, in which, according to its logline, "warring Apaches and cowboys set aside their squabbles to hound some extraterrestrials out of town." See, Ted, there is a master conspiracy after all!

Speaking of UFOs, if you're ever remotely near Roswell, NM, you must visit the UFO museum there. It's beyond parody.

[22. Ted Slater said the following at 3:04 PM on Feb 14:]

22

Tom (#21) -- I indeed did mean "chemtrail." Click on the link to see what I'm talking about.

[23. Lukas said the following at 11:25 PM on Feb 14:]

23

I like Hugh Ross's book on the subject of UFO's, called "Lights in the Sky and Little Green Men" or something to that effect. He thinks the small fraction of sightings that cannot be explained by natural or man-made phenomena are some kind of interdimensional being. The main reason is the distances between stars are so vast that there is no way according to our current understanding of the laws of physics for a solid object to travel these distances within any reasonable length of time.

[24. Jo said the following at 3:04 PM on Feb 15:]

24

Ah, I'm drawn to weirdness too. Like Leann (8) I don't buy into conspiracy theories but I find them very entertaining / fascinating. The people who do buy into them do sometimes worry me though. A guy from college is completely convinced of the whole Illuminati thing... and thinks I'm naive for believing in Jesus.

Anyway, it strikes me that I hardly ever comment on posts like this, so people like Ted must get a warped view of me because I tend to disagree quite often on the more serious stuff. But I do enjoy the lighthearted posts and I do enjoy the Slater sense of humour... :)

[25. Vincenzo said the following at 10:18 AM on Feb 16:]

25

That explains why I love the X-Files. LOL I believe there is far more to the universe than we think. There is something intoxicating about the unknown, the idea that there is something out there that beckons and calls us to explore further. It is something that does not necessarily fit into our preconceived ideas about reality or fit neatly into our theological boxes. Discovering the truth can be a messy thing. LOL In fact, I think throughout eternity there will always be some unknown to discover, some mystery to delve into.

I recommend the works of the late Antony C. Sutton who was a British economist/historian.

You can also download his books for free. I like him because his work seems to be backed by research and solid documentation. He is no crackpot/nutcase. I warn you though,what he discovered is a bit unsettling and could keep you up nights. LOL

As far as contrails, UFOs and the other stuff, who knows?

[26. Keisha said the following at 9:02 AM on Feb 18:]

26

Ted said:

"They also want to adjust the results based on a mathematical formula they come up with, rather than rely on what our Constitution (Article 1, section 2) describes as an "actual Enumeration." What's going on here? Will "they" succeed?"

This thread is probably dead, but I wanted to offer a brief explanation of this one. Doing a complete enumeration would be extremely expensive... Hiring people to track down every last person who didn't turn in the form? If you complain about "big government" now, you wouldn't even want to consider this. So instead, Census officials do an incomplete enumeration everywhere, where you just hand in the form, and then do a more thorough enumeration of a few small areas and then predict how large their undercount of all areas is by using the levels of non-response in the smaller areas as a guide. This is a very heuristic explanation, but that's basically one of the ways in which statistical methods are currently used in the Census to measure population.