WEIRD_FEB_2012

Richard Dolan & “The Breakaway Civilization”

By Sean Casteel

Richard Dolan and “The Breakaway Civilization”

By Sean Casteel Richard Dolan is one of the most respected figures in the UFO community. In a field crowded by fringe believers and ludicrous contactees, Dolan has firmly established a reputation as a researcher and author who relies primarily on public and proven sources, or at least sources whose backgrounds can be verified in real-world terms. He has written two very influential books on the government cover-up of the UFO phenomenon, “UFOs and the National Security State,” Volumes One and Two, that provide thorough research into the history of the clandestine, black budget response of the US military and intelligence community to the alien presence.

I recently interviewed Dolan for a work-in-progress book that deals with the secret space program, its classified efforts to put cities on the moon and Mars and its struggle to replicate the technology found in recovered crashed flying saucers. This is admittedly a little more of a leap into “high strangeness” than Dolan usually makes, but he told me that he has heard such things spoken of by insiders who he has come to trust completely.

Dolan told me, “One of the ideas I’ve been kicking around for the last few years is that of a ‘breakaway civilization.’ I think that is something that is real.

Now, my theory of it is that it originated really in post-World War II society, but there’s nothing preventing such a thing from having happened earlier.

“The basic idea of a ‘breakaway civilization,’” he continued, “is simply that you have a secret group, a classified group of people, with access to radically advanced technology, radically advanced science, and they just don’t share it with the rest of the world. One scientific breakthrough leads to another, and that leads to another and so on. So the next thing you know you’ve got a separate group of humanity that is vastly far beyond the rest of the world.”

Dolan explained why this is not such a radical idea.

“In our own official world history,” he said, “you go back 200 years and compare levels of technology from Europe to, say, Central Africa, and you’re talking about two very different ways of understanding the world. So really, what is the difficulty in understanding that a classified, secret scientific community would make radical breakthroughs that they wouldn’t share? I don’t think it’s outrageous, and I do think that this has happened since World War II. One of the breakthroughs that they’ve made is in what we could call ‘antigravity technology.’

“I have speculated privately many times,” Dolan went on, “whether there has been a secret breakaway group going back to ancient times. When you look at some of the really

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puzzling mysteries of our ancient world, whether it’s the Great Pyramid of Giza or Machu Pichu, there are elements of those and other architectural sites that have been left behind that to me don’t make a whole lot of sense in the context of human society as it then was supposed to have existed. The Great Pyramid doesn’t make sense to me in terms of 2,500 years ago ancient Egyptian culture.”

Dolan said he wonders if this was a human construct at the time, and if so, what human civilization are we talking about?

“So I leave open the possibility,” he said, “that some great secret would be understood by a very small, elect group of people.

And they would hide this from the rest of the world for obvious reasons – power, and just not wanting to share. It all comes down to evidence for me, but I do think that’s an intriguing theory.

But it is inconclusive one way or the other.”

Would our own presidents be members of or even know about the “breakaway civilization”? According to a CIA-connected source that Dolan says he cannot name, whether the presidents had knowledge of the secret space program and its alien components depends on which

president you’re referring to.

“He made it clear to me,” Dolan said, “that Jimmy Carter was briefed. He’s 99 percent sure that Ronald Reagan was briefed. He was very confident but not 100 percent certain that George Herbert Walker Bush was briefed thoroughly on this. After that, he said, the matter becomes a little more muddy. It was his own opinion that, from Clinton onward, it’s less of a sure thing that these presidents have been briefed thoroughly.

“One of his statements was, ‘Look, presidents come and go; the bureaucrats who run this, they stay. And presidents are not always reliable. Some presidents are very dedicated, others are a little more distracted.’ He didn’t have a lot of confidence in the abilities of the presidency as an institution to manage this problem. What do presidents really do? They’ve got to kiss babies; they’ve got to meet and greet dignitaries.

DAWN OF THE NEW MILLENNIA

They’ve got all these political issues they have to deal with. The president is basically a spokesperson for the government.

“And it’s very difficult for a president to be on top of the whole mass of covert operations going on within the intelligence community. He can’t be.

It’s just not possible physically, logistically. And for a president to be aware of this particular problem? No. Sometimes it’s better that he not be aware of it, so he can do his job in other realms of government.”

Is it possible that a breakaway civilization exists, a group so secret that knowledge of it is kept even from the president, the commander-in-chief? What kind of huge advances in science and technology are being withheld from us, the American public? These are the kind of unanswered questions that can stagger the mind, and will likely continue to do so for a very long time.

A Decade in Review A DECADE IN REVIEW “THE MILLENNIA

BY J. FRANCO CHAVEZ

the rest of the “scene”

become of my generation, awesome.

3. Radiohead “Hail to the Thief” 2003, Trancy, droning and heart felt, with topics of government stupidity and sad moments of humanity, all wrapped in a warm blanket of hope.

9. Gnarles Barkley “St. Elsewhere” 2006, Funky, trippy, and melancholy, Cee lo Green and the gang, knew exactly what they wanted to accomplish, and they did.

4. The Mars Volta “ De-loused in Comatorium” 2002, A Texas size Prog. slap in the face, and with some help from Jon F. (Red hot chili peppers), an epic and driving release.

5.Mastadon “Remisson” 2003, I was able to catch them on there 2003 tour w/ Cephalic, Bongzilla,...., and at that moment i knew this was a new era to come.

1. Cephalic Carnage “Lucid Interval” 2002, A serious turn for the Grind/death metal genre, Weed soaked and intelligent, a glimpse of what was happening to us (the world) at the time, and what we could possibly do to save it.

2. Underoath “Changing of Times” 2002, This album reminds me of when i first “started” “toking” herb, I would sit in the middle of the yard, my headphones blasting, truly taking in the entire album, it was defintly a change in my life then and for

6. Today is the Day “Sadness will Prevail” 2001, Emotional, intense and sorrowful, dubbed by some as “the Radiohead of the prog/noise/hardcore scene”, truly a must for those who enjoy the path less taken.

7. Megadeth “The world needs a Hero” 2002, Although two songs were catchy at best, the rest of the album was a true testament that Megadeth had truly surpassed the other “Big four” members, with longevity and song craft.

8. The Locust “Plague Soundscapes”, 2003, Wowza! I was lucky to catch them on that tour, along with Dillinger...., and i thought, fuck!, is this what has

10. S.P.M “Never Change” 2001, A true poet and wordsmith of the HipHop/Rap genre, a “real” young man from the streets who was more creative than his counterparts, and had a great ear for melodies and composition, and in my opinion, he was our Texas version of Notorious B.I.G, to bad the “man” wouldn’t let him be...

11. Jimmy Eat World “Bleed American” 2001, I still own the cd printed with the original album title(shown), but don’t tell the government, they might mark me a terrorist, hey yoooo, i digress....

Hard rockin and romantic, and it doesn’t hurt that the guitar solo on the hit single “the Middle” sounds like the Los Lobos version of La Bamba”, yeah!

I remember tripping on “Magic” brownies to this album, along with Pungent Stench’s “Been caught Buttering”(both on recorded cassette), hahaha, I was laughing,crying, and dancing at the same time you’ll always have a place in my heart J.E.W, wow i just realized that it spells out jew, pretty cool.

12. Dillinger Escape Plan “Calculating Infinity” 2002, Just by the album title you know your in for something different, a definite influence on what was to become the next wave, progressive,jazzy, and Heavy as Fuck!

13. Deeds of Flesh “Path of the Weakening” 2001, Its concept, title and cover art based on actual events, along with its Dark,Doom,Grind sound, it tells the story oh so well!, and if your the kind of person who thinks “Slipknot” is the heaviest band in the world, this album proves that you are dead wrong!, a true Extreme classic 14. System of a Down “Toxicity” 2001, Just what the “mainstream” needed at the time, and a great farewell to the “Nu Metal” genre, pretty cool i thought so!

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By Franco Chavez

15. Axe of Vengeance “Angels Blood” 2001, forming in 1999 and new to the underground scene. Listed as one of the Top 10 “Demos” in Texas that year by an internet source, by no means was this CD reinventing the wheel, but definitly proving that the Death/Black Metal genre can be Fresh and Creative.

16. Deceased “Supernatural Addiction” 2000, This band is what “Cult” is all about, Heavy, thrashing, and inspiring, and after 14yrs(then), Deceased was still showing us “kids” how it was done.

17. Cynic “Traced in Air” 2005, A perfect sequal to their 1993 “Focus” album, continuing what they mastered then and making it into a modern art form.

I was lucky to catch them on there “comeback” tour, and there performance was breath taking, to say the least.

18. Iron Maiden “Brave new world” 2000, A new release that year by the legendary artist, and a very solid release at that, and with tracks like “Fallen Angel” there was the realization that Eddie and the boys were not done yet.

19. The Dears “No cities left” 2004, Gentle and sweeping, yet powerful and foward, a definte stand out in the “indie” rock genre.

20. Coheed and Cambria “In Keeping secrets of silent Earth” 2003, With its detailed concept and percise performance, taking note from greats, such as, Jethro Tull, Rush, King Crimson and Iron Maiden, I felt then, along with Mastadon and the Mars Volta, that this was the New wave of prog rock, even though most of there fans had no idea what progressive rock was.

10 Technologies That Congress Tried to Kill 10 Technologies That Congress Tried to Kill Coming soon, the Senate could be meeting to vote on the Protect IP Act (PIPA), the bill that many people are warning could damage the Internet. It’s a horrible prospect — but this isn’t the first time that Congress has tried to sacrifice a technology at the behest of corporate lobbyists.

Here are 10 other technologies that Congress tried, at one time or another, to legislate out of existence.

1. Video Cassette Recorders (VCRs) Who Wanted it Killed: The movie studios, mainly. The MPAA’s Jack Valenti famously testified before Congress that “the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.”

How it Worked Out: No fewer than six bills were introduced in Congress to control the VCR. The MPAA finally dropped its demands that VCRs be outlawed, but instead supported bills that would require licensing of VCRs, royalties on the sale of blank videocassettes, and a copyright owner’s permission before renting out video tapes.

In the end, Congress decided to wait and see what the Supreme Court decided in the famous Sony Vs. Universal case. And then, in 2002, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act required all VCRs to include “automatic

gain control,” thus making Macrovision copy protection an integral part of all VCRs. 2. The Phonograph Who Wanted it Killed: John Philip Sousa, the guy who wrote “Stars and Stripes Forever.” He testified before Congress that both the gramophone and the player piano would put musicians out of business. And that they would stifle composers from writing new music by removing “all incentive to further creative work.” In marathon hearings, Sousa and the American Copyright League argued in favor of a bill which would have given copyright owners control over all sales (including resale) of their work.

How it Worked Out: In the end, Congress passed a milder bill, which simply assured musicicans and composers royalties from recordings. Sousa was satisfied, and in 1923, he told Thomas Edison, “You have made the art of the musician immortal, Mr. Edison.”

3. Genetically modified food Who Wanted it Killed: Environmentalists and food safety advocates. Congress has tried many times over the years to regulate or ban certain types of genetically modified foods, and many bills have been introduced over the years.

Most recently, as the Food and Drug Administration has been deciding whether to allow the sale of AquaBounty Technolo-

gies’ genetically modified salmon in the U.S., the House of Representatives voted to block FDA approval of the “AquAdvantage” salmon.

How it Worked Out: In general, U.S. laws remain laxer than those in most other countries.

Regarding the salmon issue, it doesn’t look as though the House provision has passed the Senate, or gotten President Obama’s signature. Meanwhile, the FDA still hasn’t made a decision about the “frankensalmon.”

4. Internet gambling Who Wanted it Killed: The Feds themselves. The Justice Department was very alarmed by the rise of online gambling, especially as run by offshore operators, and concerned that this gambling could serve as a cover for money-laundering.

How it Worked Out: Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which didn’t outlaw online gambling, but did bar U.S. banks and credit card companies from processing payments to gambling sites. Since then, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) has been trying to restore the legality of online gambling, arguing that we could tax it and generate a lot of revenue, at a time when budgets are under strain.

5. The Whizzinator Who Wanted it Killed: Pretty much everybody. After Minnesota Vikings running back Onterrio Smith was caught at an airport with one of these devices, which is basically a fake penis that allows you to fool drug urine tests, Congress held hearings on May 17, 2005.

Rep. Bart Stupak held up Whizzinator advertising and spoke against the national scandal of simulated urination. “How will we stop the flow?” demanded Stupak, as the room exploded in unintended giggles.

How it Worked Out: There was no Federal law against manufacturing such devices, so states were powerless to go after the makers. In the end, the feds never managed to pass an antiWhizzinator law, but federal prosecutors were able to go after the manufacturers for selling drug paraphernalia.

6. Mp3 players

Who Wanted it Killed: Actually, this is more like a random casualty of a reckless shooter.

Congress has tried to pass a few laws to protect copyright owners in the past, which were so broadly written that they would have banned a wide range of technologies, including mp3 players. There was the Induce Act, which would have banned any technology that induces people to violate copyright.

Earlier, there was the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, which banned any devices that could be used to read digital content that didn’t have Digital Rights Management (DRM) built in.

How it Worked Out: So far, none of these bills has passed, so your iPod is safe.

human embryos are created, destroyed or put at risk of harm. This law, which remains on the books, essentially prevented most embryonic stem cell research.

How it Worked Out: In 2001, then-President George W. Bush announced a new policy in which 61 cell lines of existing embryonic stem cells would be allowed for federally-funded research. Congress tried to pass a bill expanding this policy, but Bush vetoed it. Since then, President Obama has tried to abolish the Bush policy, but Obama’s executive order has been tied up in federal courts.

(In a related issue, Congress has repeatedly voted to ban human cloning.)

7. Margarine

9. DAT (Digital Audio Tape) recorders

Who Wanted it Killed: The dairy farmers. Margarine was introduced in 1874, after a French chemist named Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès figured out a way to make a cheap butter substitute from beef fat. The dairy industry freaked out, because the much cheaper margarine threatened to drive smaller dairies out of business.

They tried passing various state laws, but some of those were shot down in court.

Who Wanted it Killed: The music industry, yet again. Congress held hearings throughout the late 1980s over whether to stop this digital technology from coming to consumers.

Music industry lobbyists demanded that DAT players be fitted with technology that would degrade the sound quality of any music copied on them, or that sales of DAT tapes include a royalty payment to the music industry.

How it Worked Out: The dairy farmers went to Congress, and there were hearings that culminated in the Margarine Act of 1886, which imposed a tax of two cents per pound on margarine — although the original bill called for a ten cent tax instead. This was followed by the Margarine Act of 1906, in which the federal government raised that tax for margarine that was dyed yellow to look like real butter. (Some state laws required margarine to be dyed weird colors, like pink or black.)

The state and federal anti-margarine laws were on the books for decades. (For more about the margarine saga, click here or here.)

How it Worked Out: As Stanford’s Mark Lemley puts it, “Digital audio tapes were then subject to a compulsory licensing scheme and were never heard from again by mass-market consumers. The technology flopped once it was put under the control of the content industry.”

8. Embryonic stem cells Who Wanted it Killed: Pro-life advocates, mainly. In 1996, Congress passed the DickeyWicker amendment, which bans any federal research in which

10. Assault weapons Who Wanted it Killed: Gun control advocates. The ban on semi-automatic weapons in 1994 was a major achievement of the Clinton Administration’s first two years — and probably a huge reason why the Democrats lost control over both houses of Congress that year.

How it Worked Out: The federal assault weapons ban was scheduled to sunset after ten years, and it did. The ban expired in 2004, and attempts to renew it were unsuccessful.

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UFOs and the Kennedy Assassination

UFOs and the Kennedy Assassination

By Philip Coppens In 1991, Milton William ‘Bill’ Cooper was one of the trendsetters of what became a whistleblower movement, with a book called “Behold a Pale Horse”. A former member of Naval Intelligence, he offered information about the government’s inner secrets – or so he claimed – including their attitude towards UFOs. Specifically, he claimed that Kennedy was assassinated because he was about to reveal the truth about UFOs – that we had been visited by extra-terrestrial beings and that this was a secret the government had kept for too long.

When Cooper made these claims in the early 1990s, I was investigating the Kennedy assassination myself. Though I had heard about UFOs and had of course seen such movies as “ET” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, I knew little to nothing beyond that. I did know, however, things about the Kennedy assassination and so it was clear to me that I could explore the truth and depth of this whistleblower’s claims based on that knowledge. If his information about the Kennedy assassination was correct, then the same would likely apply to the UFO aspect of his revelation.

Cooper claimed that Kennedy learned portions of a truth about how the CIA was involved

in an international narcotics empire. This is quite possible, considering that those most deeply involved in the plots to kill Castro – an operation run by the CIA for many years, without any real effect no matter how inventive some of the scenarios to kill Castro were – had been equally ferociously involved in the drug trade. Kennedy apparently also learned that part of the profits of this trade was used to continue a coverup about alien crashed disks whose crash sites had been ‘cleaned up’ by the military. In short, there was a section of the US government, which was a rogue operation: though apparently government employees, their money came from international organized crime and because they did not rely on Washington for money, they were out of reach of the Administration. That is what Kennedy found out.

Some of the details of these UFO crashes were more than interesting. Apparently, alien bodies (one possibly alive) had been recovered from these crashed disks. Kennedy forced the CIA to end their involvement in this drug trafficking network and threatened to reveal the truth about the presence of aliens and alien technology to the people within the next year (before the summer of 1964) if they did not comply. He apparently commissioned a plan to implement this decision. MJ12, which according to Cooper was a group of people that had been installed as ‘supervisor’ over the ‘alien cover-up’, had been confronted with this ultimatum and, again according to Cooper, decided they had to get rid of Kennedy. It would be another few years before I understand that there was no MJ-12, that this had been part of a disinformation campaign against UFO researcher Paul Bennewitz, who had stumbled upon secret communications the government did not want anyone to know about. To make sure he did not learn the truth of the nature of these communications, he was fed a series of lies, claiming the communications were to do with alien intelligences and UFOs. On page 27 of “Behold a Pale Horse”, Bill Cooper claimed: “On the day that I learned that the Office of Naval Intelligence had participated in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and that it was the

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Secret Service agent driving the limo that had shot Kennedy in the head, I went AWOL with no intention of ever returning.”

It seems no-one ever charged Cooper with this desertion, though.

William Greer In the early 1990s, I knew little about Cooper, UFOs, and MJ12. But I did know about the Kennedy assassination. Cooper claimed that the man who killed Kennedy was the driver, Secret Service agent William Greer. He somehow turned around, to shoot the president.

When confronted with the fact that the Zapruder film doesn’t show this is how Kennedy was killed, Cooper claimed that the Zapruder film had been doctored. Of course, the theory presented by Cooper failed, as even if the Zapruder film was somehow changed, at no point on the film is there a means to remove such an event. The extent to which the film had supposedly been doctored, simply was impossible. And there are several logistical problems too.

For one, Governor Connally sat between the driver and Kennedy, and how he could the shot reach Kennedy as a result? It is a question Cooper never was able to answer.

Cooper came to this conclusion: “When I saw Operation Majority while serving in the Navy I believed the alien threat was real just like everyone else. It was not until I had performed many years of research that I was able to fully understand exactly what it was that I had seen. It was extremely difficult for me to believe that my government and the United States Navy had used me, especially since I had dedicated my life to government and military service.

Most government and military personnel cannot and will not believe such an idea.” Operation Majority was MJ-12 – more commonly known as Majestic 12. But as it was clear that Cooper was totally wrong on the means through which Kennedy had been murdered, it meant that even if he somehow had stumbled upon the right motive for the assassination, there was no evidence in his claims to prove this. If anything, Cooper’s claims did the UFO possibility a discredit, as Cooper was exposed as a mythmaker. It seemed that he had combined two popular conspiracy theories, the Kennedy assassination and UFOs, and had quickly tied

them together.

So what was Cooper’s alleged evidence? Originally, he “claimed to have read documents” about multiple races of alien beings the US government had encountered or signed treaties with, but he never provided the documents or gave any other useful information. For seven years, he spoke about the UFOs to anyone who wanted to listen, then said the government had given him bogus information and that nothing was true. It seems Cooper had found out that the MJ-12 papers were being exposed as a disinformation campaign, and he distanced himself from the entire story.

Of course, after seven years of spreading this “information” about, today, Cooper’s claims continue to influence the conspiratorial minds.

But is there a UFO connection to the Kennedy assassination?

Cooper’s story is in marked contrast with that of Dorothy Kilgallen. Kilgallen was a major reporter hanging around the Kennedys and she had also been interested in UFOs and crashed disks, particularly the controversial story about a UFO crash in Aztec, New Mexico.

Kilgallen identified General George C. Marshall, Secretary of State in 1947, as one of the major key persons behind the cover-up. Cooper, meanwhile, alleges that it was McGeorge Bundy, Kennedy’s Secretary of State, was part of the Alien Study Group.

Having known the Kennedys, she was obviously interested in the President’s assassination and showed her interest when Jack Ruby went on trial.

During his trial, she had asked Judge Brown whether she could deliver a message to Ruby from a personal friend, “who could be a singer” – none other than Frank Sinatra, it is assumed.

The judge consented Kilgallen and Ruby enjoyed each other’s company for about eight minutes, eight minutes in which none of Ruby’s four bodyguarding deputy sheriffs were sitting next to him. The result of her meeting appeared in her column of April 14, 1964, in the “New York Journal American”.

Though she apparently did ask some embarrassing questions, she only discussed the true nature of her conversation with Ruby with some close friends.

She told them that “this has to be a conspiracy! I’m going to break the real story and have the biggest scoop of the century”.

Dorothy Kilgallen She never did. In March 1965, Kilgallen fractured her shoulder, officially caused by “a fall”, and was hospitalized twice, once for three weeks. Her doctors declined to comment, but it is possible she was on drugs and alcohol at that time and that the fall was a result of being intoxicated. Of course, whether this was the result of the information she had just received or whether she was a drunk before and hence fabricated wild claims about Kennedy, is another matter. She had told Mark Lane, who tried to defend Oswald in front of the Warren Commission, that her phone was tapped. Recovered from her fracture, she published her last item on the assas¬sination on September 3, 1965, in which she wrote that “even if Marina explained why her late husband looked so different in an official police photo and the widely-printed, full-length picture featured on the cover of Life Magazine, it would cause a sensation”. Perhaps she had found out more about the assassination, she surely hinted she knew more. cont nerxt . . .

UFOs and the Kennedy Assassination

UFOs and the Kennedy Assassination

By Philip Coppens

Dorothy Kilgallen On November 8, 1965, her 52 year-old, dead body was found in her home. The first conclusion was that she had died of a heart attack, but this was changed to an overdose of alcohol and pills. Her death certificate, dated November

15, listed “acute ethanol and barbiturate intoxication”, but they couldn’t determine the circumstances in which this had occurred. Detective John Doyle says she had taken a maximum of two Seconal pills. She and her husband, Richard Kollman, had separate bedrooms and she was not found in her own, but in the master bedroom, sitting, not lying, in bed.

Shortly before her death, she said she was going to New

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Orleans to “open this case”: “They’ve killed the President, the government is not prepared to tell us the truth and I’m going to do everything in my power to find out what really happened.”

Two days after her death, her close friend, Mrs. Earl Smith, was also found dead, of “undeterminate causes”. Did someone fear that Kilgallen had said something to her? Possibly.

Even though Kilgallen was very much interested in both the Kennedy assassination and

UFOs, at no point in time did she connect the two together, for the likely reason that there is no connection between the two topics. Though there are conspiracies on both subjects, it does not mean that all conspiracies are interrelated, as the likes of Cooper and a few others since have argued. Kennedy was killed for a number of reasons, but UFOs was not one of them, or at the very least, not the main one.

Kyle Flea Market:

Great Deals at a local treasure. around. Some of the vendors that have been here longer than me, have told me their profits have doubled since I took the helm. As for the market, it has been here for quite some time.

W: So people can rent out a booth or storefront from you guys for as low as $25 bucks I hear.

W: Welcome to Weird Magazine, how you guys doing out there in Kyle?

Greg Kyle Flea Market: You know, Russell, we are really doing grand! The market is at an all time record with new and old vendors filling up the booth spaces. We have been remodeling the market and cleaning up the unused booths. The restrooms are clean enough for a grandmother’s inspection!

any department store. W e have David sharpening knives and a great selection of knives; Jim, a fabulous artist, has oil paintings, comic books and toys.

Wayne is doing lawnmower and related equipment sales and repair. This guy does great work.

Elisa is doing Face Painting in her used book store. There are lots of great deals and many different types of items. We have over 40 vendors on site and additional vendors in the yard area. All I can say is wow!

People need to come by and check it out for them selves.

W: Tell us about the great deals on all kinds of things out there in Kyle at the Flea Market ?

W: How long have you guys been there?

Greg Kyle Flea Market: You are right, the deals are great.

In fact, the hardest part of my job is not spending all of my paycheck on all the cool stuff.

Just last week, I bought a gas grill, a crossbow, a nice western shirt, and out door furniture.

The prices are way less than

Greg Kyle Flea Market: I became the manager of the market in July of 2011. The place was dirty and run down.

There were holes in the roof.

Hell, there were even raccoons living inside the building. In the last six months, the market has made a 180 degree turn-

Greg Kyle Flea Market: That is correct ,Russell. Inside booths start as low as $25 a week for a 10’ x 15’ space. These booths include: shelving, a table, good lighting and electrical outlets (padlock not included). We also have $45, $65 and $85 booths available for weekly rental, as well as, inside tables for just $10 a day. To help the economy, I have dropped the price for the yard area tables to just $5 per day. To make it an even better deal, vendors can set up in the yard area for FREE the first weekend of each month. The response to the market growth has been so good, we have built more tables and are getting ready to add even more. You have see our yard area, Russell, it’s huge! The market is turning into a big West Coast Style Swap Meet. I just love it.

W: What are some of the unique items people can purchase there at Kyle Flea Market?

Vintage Records, Collectibles, Used Books, Clothing, Costume Jewelery, Toys, Furniture, Antiques, DVDs, CDs, Appliances, Electronics, Art & Picture Frames, Shoes, Purses, Housewares, Toys, Games, Knickknacks, Spanish Movies,

Baby Items, Comics, Paintings, Hand Painted T-shirts, Action Figures, Game & Sports Cards, Tools, Bedding, Hand Made Bird House & Ashtrays, Video Games, Blue Rays, Media, Dolls, Candles Holders, James Avery, Coins, Gold & Silver Jewelery, Stereos, Sports Memorabilia, Seasonal Decorations and an assortment of “parts and pieces” for everything collected by Sonny our favorite “junk” collector W: How can people contact you?

Greg Kyle Flea Market: I can be reached at 512-656-5958 or you can check out our website at kylefleamarket.com The Flea market is located at 1119 N. Old Highway 81 Coming from Austin (IH 35 South) Take exit 213 at Conoco, Turn right, market is behind Conoco Coming from San Antonio (IH 35 North) Take exit 213, turn left on 150 (Main Street) go over bridge, turn right at 4 way stop by CVS, take Old Highway 81 north, turn left before Conoco Give me a call or come on down.

W: What are you hours on the weekends?

Greg Kyle Flea Market: We are open 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Saturday & Sunday. We are also open Wed. & Fri. from 9 am until noon for vendors.

W: If I want some old school star wars toys, or some electronics, you guys have it?

We have these items, as well as those items you “just have to have”. Items change weekly.

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Come early for the best deals.

The early bird catches the worm. Hey Russel, Hank from State Farm just walked in.

W: Hank, what do you have going on that you’d like the readers to know?

Hank: We can give you quotes right on the spot with discounts up to 40%. We are the largest insurance company in Texas.

Come on out to get your free quote.

W: Are you planning any special events?

Greg Kyle Flea Market: Currently, we have an Auction the first Saturday of the month, starting at 11:00 am; planned activities include: an Indian Pow Woe, Kite Flying Contest and Art Showings W: What would you like folks to know about you guys out there in Kyle Greg?

Greg Kyle Flea Market: Free Parking, Handicap Accessible,Super Clean Restrooms with a new Baby Changing Station and Live Entertainment where entertainers can bring their act to center stage and pass the hat for tips.

It’s really all about having fun and making money. We have two on site security officers on the property 24/7. We also are expanding the parking lot and are in the process of adding 10,000 square feet of new booth space for inside vendors.

W: Thanks for your time Greg, see you out there on SAT or SUN.

Animal Train: LOCAL PUNKS speak to weird want to do and accomplish.

We work at keeping the egos out of it and we all respect and care about each other. At the end of the day we know it is meant to be fun, it is punk, and we like to keep it real, focused on the things that are important to all of us.

Weird Magazine: Introduce the band members.

Animal Train:

W: Welcome to Weird Magazine.

Animal Train: Thanks so much for the interview and for supporting the D.I.Y. punk scene.

Weird Magazine: Tell us about Animal Train?

Animal Train: AT started in 2007 when CJ was taking drum lessons. We wanted to put out some straight up, high energy, stripped down punk, very minimalist sounds. Our intent is to be a band that has fun and plays out a lot. We began writing songs and putting together our EP Chicken Burn. Once we had some songs together we were ready to play live, CJ moved over to bass and we found a drummer. After 3 years playing around on the East Coast with many good friends, we released our first 7” split with NZ punks The Pukes. In early 2011 work relocation lead us down to Austin. Prior to moving I had started talking to Jeremy about being our drummer. It was a perfect match, we got into Austin on a Tuesday met up with him at a rehearsal space on Thursday. We did our first show together the next weekend in Houston. Jeremy has the drum style and energy we were always looking for, along with just being a great person and a fellow vinyl collector. Within a couple of months, we met Chris through Jeremy, they had been long time friends. CJ wanted to just focus on singing so we could get a more solid backline, again perfect timing to add him into our band. We recorded and released our 2nd EP and 7” in September. We kid around that we are a dysfunctional family of misfits. We have fun and share a common goal for what we

CJ: Vocals Rich: Guitar Jeremy: Drums, Vocals Chris: Bass, Vocals Weird Magazine: We saw some youtube video of the food drive at Trophy’s last Nov. How was that gig?

Animal Train: This was our first benefit for the Austin Area Capital Food Bank, they do outstanding work in the community. The need for help is so great with many people unable to find work, children and elderly going without. We have been fortunate and our friends feel the same as we do. They helped us make this show a success, ANTI-CLIMAX, Mr. Patrick, Inches To Pixels, Say Revenge, Suicide Drive & Beaver all donated time, money, cans, and helped us bring people to the show. It was a fun time; we collected 208 pounds of food, as well as cash donations from raffled off prices. It was a good beginning; but of course we look forward to it growing even more this year. We have plans for the follow up shows in July and November. We hope to get additional sponsorship and bring in even more donations.

Weird Magazine: Name some of the band’s influences.

Animal Train: Sonic Youth Patti Smith Ramones Sex Pistols Nirvana Angry Samoans Misfits Black Flag Germs Dead Kennedys The

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Damm SNFU Social Distortion Clash Minutemen Stooges Butthole Surfers Queers Screeching Weasel Sham 69 Crass Dictators Circle Jerks Tad Poison Ivy Mudhoney Melvins.. and so many more when budgets are under strain.

Weird Magazine: What venues can we see you perform at around Austin this Feb or March?

Animal Train: 02/01 Beerland (Austin) 02/11 The Music Ranch Punx Picnic (Austin) 02/25 Wake The Dead (San Marcos) 01/12 Trophy’s (Austin)

03/03 Headhunters (Austin) 03/24 Flamingo Cantina (Austin)

opportunity to show someone your true feelings. Love Hard and Love Long and remember it is not how much you spend it’s what you give of yourself. It is Cupid’s choice to put that arrow through your heart or your arse !

Weird Magazine: Why the name “Animal Train”?

Weird Magazine: Vampires, Zombies, or Aliens from Space?

Animal Train: The name pays homage to a good friend Billy Keith Leatherwood a Dallas, Texas drummer who played the punk scene in many bands including one called Animal Train.

RIP Billy.

Animal Train: Zombies.... or Alien Vampire Zombies bloody and gross..hell yea!

Weird Magazine: What advice does Animal Train have for Lovers this Valentines Day? Animal Train: Keep it coming from the Heart. Never resist the

Weird Magazine: Thanks guys! Keep it sick ! See you at Punkz Picnic!

Animal Train: Oi! Thanks again Weird Magazine!!

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INTERSTELLAR TRANSMISSIONS Interview: By Commander Keel SOMEWHERE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GALAXY . . .

W: (Static) . . . . . . .

Is there anybody out there? Are you reading me? Over? (static resumes) . . . . . . Repeat. Any life forms out there?

Over? (more static) This is Commander Keel of the GLOBAL SPACE FORCE . . . . . (static) . . . . . . .

Interstellar Transmissions: Yes, hello Commander! We read you loud and clear, your magazine too...

Weird Magazine: Greetings and Salutations from the Planet Earth.

Space time 0128.2012 Where are you from, tell us about your group and musical escapades?

Interstellar Transmissions: We are a conglomeration of starseed beings from various galaxies that agreed to meet here on Earth and share some time and music to quicken the evolving consciousness of the entire Universe... ;) Weird agazine: Introduce the members of your space capsule and their instrument of choice?

Interstellar Transmissions: We have Admiral Gavin Robert McGowen on double neck and baritone Ovation Guitars and self-tuning Custom Transperformance Gibson Les Pauls, Captain Nathan Wilson on an invisible chrome TAMA drumset, Chief Officer William Jerome on Nord/Motif/Korg keyboards and synth, and Commander Ishani Ishaya on Egyptian doumbek drum, belly dancing and spinning the element you call fire...

Weird Magazine: Glad to have you aboard our ship of Weirdness!

(laughing . . . . . ok I can’t keep this going through this whole interview . . . . . .

Welcome IT what’s going on guys?

Interstellar Transmissions: Hey thanks so much for having us!

Weird Magazine: Yeah, by the way are the fire dancers just as much apart of the band? Do they perform at every show?

Interstellar Transmissions: Austin has such an amazing fire spinning scene with so many extraordinary performing artists that we always welcome spinners when the venue allows. Ishani is our primary fire dancer along with William when he hops off the keyboards, and our Interstellar space brethren Breeze.

Weird Magazine: Speaking of shows, I hear you got one coming up at Tantra again out in San Marcos?

Where else are you performing in Feb or March?

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Interstellar Transmissions: Yes we are definitely looking forward to our Tantra show this weekend! We’ll be screening an enlightening documentary along with a galactic fire show!

We’re also super happy to be playing Austin’s official Burning Man Hookahdome Valentines party Friday, February 10th at Copa, downtown Austin, sharing the night with Hookahdome DJ Jef Stott, Atash, Sunray Project, SoundShaman, Ex Stus, and Relac Soundfactory.

After that we’re heading to New Orleans for Mardi Gras for a full week to test out the new stage on top of our Mothership bus!

Weird Magazine: Describe the very eclectic sounds of Interstellar Transmissions in your own words.

Interstellar Transmissions: We call it Carnivalesque Shamanic Tribal Rock Space Fusion with elements of Middle Eastern, Classical and Jazz AvantGarde We also tune our music to frequencies beyond the standard A 440hz concert pitch you hear on the radio in order to

awaken different parts of the psyche. It is not the frequency however that is as important as the intention behind the sound.

All frequencies are sacred and contain the divine blueprint like a hologram of Source intelligence. Music is a vehicle for healing, awakening and unlocking the human potential and we have composed Interstellar’s music specifically to uplift, awaken and inspire. Musically there is nothing off limits as we seek to find the wordless poetry, meaning and melody in any and all configurations of notes, tonalities or rhythms.

It’s an adventure! For example we will take a combination of notes that at first may seem incongruous, incompatible and disharmonious but the secret is to keep digging deeper and listening and listening until you can unlock the code, explore the mystery, reveal the parallels, understand the dialect, move about freely and fluently within it’s context and embrace the symmetries. It has a story it wants to tell and there is beauty and magic to be found everywhere.

Weird Magazine: How long have you guys been together as a band?

INTERSTELLAR TRANSMISSIONS you have traveled far and wide on your journey. Where all have you guys performed?

Interstellar Family, we post all upcoming shows there, also our email is interstellartransmissions@gmail.com

Interstellar Transmissions:

Weird Magazine: (Statcic resumes) . . . . . . . Can you hear me . . . . . . . ? Name your next few shows if you can hear me .....?

(Static) . . . . . .

Asheville NC, Austin, Corpus Christi, Fort Worth, Dallas, San Marcos, Big Bend, New Orleans, Black Rock City Nevada, Death Valley and San Francisco...more to come Weird Magazine: Any thought ever of scoring film or the movie business?

Interstellar Transmissions: Absolutely! We’d love to.

Interstellar Transmissions: Gavin has been experimenting with modal based tunings and original arrangements since the early 90’s, his unique sound attracted Ishani in 2007 and they started performing together in Asheville NC. They moved to Austin in 2009 and met Nathan at Burning Man offshoot fest Orfunner in 2010, then William came aboard in 2011 and the formation was complete.

Weird Magazine: Do you think their is intelligent life out in the depths if space?

Interstellar Transmissions: Absolutely, with out doubt the Universe itself is intelligent, alive and sentient and humanity is finally waking up to it’s inherent unified consciousness and the understanding that there is no such thing as an “alien”.

All things are reflections of the same thing experiencing itself through all seeming other things simultaneously. In a very real sense we are all aspects of the same Cosmic Entity and our ability to communicate and convey information and ideas transcends words and symbols; we are telepathizing with one another at all times. Here and now, if we are subtle, still and quiet enough we can hear the Symphony of the Universe in its all of its awe-inspiring genius, beauty and majestic complexity being played all around us to perfection. Music

is the most profound of all languages. It speaks of something ancient and eternal. It goes places words alone cannot. It reaches out and touches the soul directly.

Weird Magazine: Your sounds are ambient, intertwining, melodies, that take the ear on a journey across the galactic rift.

Name some influences for this band.

Interstellar Transmissions: Prokofiev, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Alexander Scriabin, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson, Pink Floyd, Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Franz Liszt, Rachmaninov, Beethoven, Hans Zimmer, King Crimson, Django Rienhardt, Keith Emerson, Chick Corea, John Barry, John Williams, Jean Michel Jarre, Miles Davis, Coltrane, Mingus, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Ravi Shankar, Saint-Saëns, Sibelius, and all the gypsies and innovators of all cultures and times who have brought forth original imaginative musical expressions for the world to marvel over.

Weird Magazine:Are the band members fans of Science Fiction?

Interstellar Transmissions: We all have different eclectic tastes, when we get together to watch a movie it’s usually documentaries like HOME,

Thrive, Project Mahem 2012, Solfeggio Frequencies, Ascension, Ancient Aliens, stuff about the Occupy movement, history of the banksters , and movies about ending the Federal Reserve.

Weird Magazine:How did you come up with the name Interstellar Transmission more than why, is the better question here?

Weird Magazine: How can WEIRD Magazine readers learn more about Interstellar Transmissions ?

Interstellar Transmissions: You’re ind of utting out.... ummm 2/5 TANTRA, San Marc... 2/10 HOOKAHDooooome....COPA...Austinnnnnnn Seeeee yooooou therrrrrrrrrre...

Weird Magazine: Thanks guys . . . . and good luck . . . wherever the cosmos takes you!

Interstellar Transmissions: Light to yoooou as well :)

Interstellar Transmissions: Facebook is the best way we’ve found to connect with our

Interstellar Transmissions: We wanted to have a name that gave us something to live up to!

Pure music and art in its highest form is a channeling of something Greater. It causes one to transcend the individual ego and tap into the Cosmic Collective Mind. Interstellar encapsulates the vast undefinable and limitless reality that pulls us out of our microscopic viewpoints to perceive, receive and communicate with that which is the beautiful and benvolent beyond.

As the drop once again embraces its ocean-ness, the little self in a moment of epiphany and elation remembers its true origin and begins to see, hear and experience through the eyes, ears and hands of the Cosmic Self. We are transmitting this excitement of existence; the sheer delight of being passionately, autonomously and unapologetically alive. It is a sound infused with gratitude, love and power.

Weird Magazine: I hear

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FEBRUARY 2012 CROSSWORD PUZZLE

By Jay Abazi Across

1. Sudan lake 5. Town 9. Yugo. leader 13. Land areas 17. Mr. (ger.)

18. Opposed 19. Pertaining to a poem 20. Judah’s descendant 21. Dies ____ 22. Blackjack 24. Ger. city 25. Card game 27. Cornish name prefix 28. Chinese board game 30. Massager 32. Skater Harding 33. Spherical 36. Proscuito 37. Convert into leather 38. Coal 42. Goatees 44. Deep brown 46. Daft 47. Conclusion 48. Auricle 50. Slangy affirmative 51. Eggs 52. Mil. officer (abbr.)

53. Table game 56. Sordid 58. Swiss river 59. Common contraction 60. Buzzer 62. Epoch 63. Follower (suffix) 64. Martin, to his friends 66. Leather 68. Board game 72. Behave 73. Dance step 74. Genetic material 76. Mature 77. Love (Scot.)

78. Some grins 80. Clues 82. Wildcat 84. Tedium 85. Fish eggs 86. Direct 88. Fragrant 89. Wagered 91. Cowardly 93. Shooter’s game 96. Communication (abbr.)

97. Card game 101. In addition 102. Card game 105. Singer Fitzgerald 106. Star 107. Bitters 108. Fre. ladies 109. Fastener 110. Fall month (abbr.)

111. Posterior

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112. Foam 113. Lazy Susan

Down

1. Stylishness 2. Gr. deity 3. Seir’s descendant 4. Wishful thinker 5. Matted masses 6. Dirty again 7. Thoroughfare (abbr.)

8. Card game 9. Some children’s games 10. Wedding words 11. Wizard of Oz character 12. Indian ____ 13. Stoppages (2 wds) 14. Cookie 15. Sea swallow 16. Hitch

23. Hill 26. Makes unhappy 29. Strand wolf 31. Water (fre.)

32. Gob 33. David’s grandfather 34. Nevada city 35. Backyard game 37. Tent 39. Bar billiards game 40. Electric power (abbr.)

41. Actress Russo 43. ___ Paulo 45. Coach 46. Vine 49. Puzzle game 51. Nebraska city 54. Jap. admiral 55. Discover

57. Curve 58. Enquire 61. Comedian Griffin 63. Glacial 64. Engagement 65. Image 66. Articulate 67. School subj.

69. Self-importance 70. Treasure 71. Cobblestone 73. Ampule 75. Word game 79. Harbor vessel 80. Turf 81. Evildoing 83. Factor 85. Restore a shoe 87. Berthed

90. Tablelands 91. Communication co. inits.

92. Consecrate 93. Le ___ 94. ____ vera 95. Invite inits.

96. Database 98. Winged 99. Pelvic arch 100. MTV icon Carson ___ 103. Pasture 104. Baking pit

weirdmagazine@gmail.com

Lights Go out on 6th Street 1-28-12 . . .

The National Security Debate: How Low Can it Go?

By Cameron Cutrone

freedome-files.blogspot.com

those who have been interested in the subject only recently, it can be simply too overwhelming to bare. Yet, there are actually people out there who still have this void in their lives, that somehow the government should be doing more! More checkpoints, more groping, more data mining, more warrantless surveillance. To these I must ask, what is your ideal state of alertness? What more could possibly be done to make you feel “safe?”

What if the government had a camera in every room of every house, apartment, church, business, and public space?

Would that make you feel safer?

Senator Harry Reid promised once as a campaign ploy to repeal the Patriot Act if the people made the Democrats the majority in the Senate.

Where are you now Harry? Late last year, he actually called Rand Paul’s filibustering of the Patriot Act a “danger to the American people,” and that this could “invite another terrorist attack.” Oh what a difference five years can make!

The National Security Debate: How Low Can it Go?

by Cameron Cutrone

If you have kept track of the discourse around national security for the last ten years, it’s hard to be shocked anymore. And yet, every piece of legislation regarding this issue continues to astonish me. For

Now we actually have people talking about strengthening the Patriot Act! That’s right, Newt Gingrich wondered aloud recently in a GOP presidential primary debate if there was some way to add more teeth to a bill that can, in sections 801-803, already have anyone, anywhere, for any reason, be designated as a national security threat and thus summarily executed with no judicial process, legal council, or even a charge! How does one even build on that? Should the whole nation commit mass suicide because one of us, some day, might become violent? At the risk of sounding redundant, allowing ourselves to be put in such a self-inflicted straightjacket would amount to nothing less than national suicide.

“Ok”, you might be thinking, “but that was signed under Bush’s tenure in office, right?”

Correct, and subsequent Democratic majorities have since reauthorized it. And though Bush Jr. did continue to reauthorize the general State of Emergency originally declared on Sept. 11, 2001 on an annual basis, it has been under Barack Obama’s presidency that such a tradition has continued.

A general State of Emergency when declared by a president can effectively suspend any mode of constitutional government the president chooses. Moreover, it also can be used by the president to garrison, control, exploit, or appropriate any private resource he or she deems necessary for the reason of restoring order, or under the dubious guise of “ensuring domestic tranquility.”

How could anyone of a control freak mindset possibly improve on that?

Well, the recent National Defense Authorization Act has tried, if you can believe it.

Signed by Obama on December 31, 2011, sections 10311032 specifically spell out how anyone, American citizens included, can be detained indefinitely without any habeas corpus rights if they are believed to have any link to AlQaeda, or any other related organization.

The definition of a terrorist gets ever more broad in today’s lexicon. So we have to throw away over 200 years of law to defend us from an

organization that has less than 200 followers in Afghanistan right now, according to our own National Intelligence Estimate (NIE). A colossal mistake that will be hard to undo.

I was talking to a Canadian friend recently, and he asked a very good question: What do the Republicans have on Obama? What can they grill him on in a debate? It took some thinking, because I immediately thought of dozens of bills and actions over the last four years that could make him vulnerable in a contest for reelection. But I settled on a far more disturbing answer after stewing it over.

“Nothing,” I somberly submitted, “Obama has already implemented all of the Republican’s ideas.”

Where does that leave US? When it comes to making our nation safe, we have reached a tipping point. Our national security is not a matter of how many levers and buttons of power we can give the government, it is dependent on how many we can deprive it of.

Cameron Cutrone’s articles are archived at freedome-files.

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Why The Silent Majority Remains Silent As fear continues to drive the War on getting drunk on alcohol.

Why The Silent Majority Remains Silent - as fear continues to drive the War on America. A rambling of thoughts by Jamie Balagia I attended an open forum meeting recently at a local bar that was sponsored by SANORML that was well attended by a friendly group of concerned citizens. I observed the lively discussions of the people as they talked but still... I wondered about the various positions and opinions that the people attending had on the idea of the legalization of marijuana. I also pondered what differences they might have in the reasoning and thinking processes about the issue. I did not ask anyone about this issue at the meeting because other business was at hand. I will bring it up at a future meeting and then i will write about those discussions. This particular writing is not in favor of the use of marijuana nor is it against the use of marijuana, it is intended to make the reader think about the issues discussed and then reach their own decision about the legislated illegality of a plant.

I am constantly reminded of the underlining fear that grips people when the topic of the legalization of marijuana is mentioned. At the above meeting everyone was relaxed and having a good time because everyone present supports the legalization of marijuana and it is easy to be relaxed when you are in a comfort zone. Most Americans now support the legalization of marijuana but most of those supporters are fearful to take their view public.

This fear is a reality because anyone that actively and publicly supports an unlawful activ-

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ity opens themselves up to the watchful eyes of the authorities.

As a criminal defense attorney I am afforded some leeway in voicing my opinion but many of my colleagues question whether I should be so public in my mission. But I encourage all of you who support the legalization of marijuana to start voicing your opinion publicly.

At parties, at the coffee pot, at lunch with co-workers and friends, at lunch after church you need to let others know that it is high time we change the laws and stop making criminals out of our family members, friends and neighbors.

If someones argues that marijuana leads to other crimes then call that persons bluff and force them to support their statement with facts. And if someone who uses marijuana violates other laws then they can be charged with those other crimes. Yes, some criminals use marijuana but the majority of marijuana users violate no other laws than the prohibition of marijuana law. In 13 years as a cop and 20 years as a defense attorney i have never arrested or represented ANYONE who was charged with a violent crime caused by the use of marijuana. I have represented a number of persons accused of vehicular homicide but not one was high on marijuana. They were all under the influence of alcohol or have been drinking alcohol. Most marijuana users are not out in public committing crimes to my knowledge, except for possessing marijuana.

And if they get high IN PUBLIC or drive high they can be arrested for public intoxication or DWI (marijuana) if necessary.

A lot of my clients would get in less trouble if they would smoke some WEED instead of

San Antonio is South Texas and there is no doubt that South Texas and Arizona are the boiling points of the War on Drugs (WAR ON America). As a criminal defense attorney I have an interesting vantage point of the battlefield. Everyday, i see our fellow citizens being dragged in front of the Misdemeanor and Felony judges in courtrooms throughout Central and South Texas as well as the Federal Courts where the big boys play. I have considered how many lives have been disrupted and some destroyed not by the use of marijuana but by the criminal sanctions that are applied to persons who use marijuana. I believe that our government took a potential problem (drug use in the ‘70s) and created a festering infection with deadly consequences (as they always seem to do).

How many “criminals” were created by our policy of sending young non violent drug offenders to prison? Where would your life journey have taken you if you have been imprisoned with violent sex offenders because you got caught with a single joint in the ‘70s?

his 20s so the next one would be a felony. And he enjoys a few hits on a joint every now and then on a Friday night. This guy pays his bills, pays his taxes, is a good neighbor and a great dad. He is also looking at losing his job because if he pleas guilty to a “drug charge” he will lose his job. There is a rule against being on probation at his work place so even if he gets a deferred disposition his job is gone. He will have to go on welfare or other government assistance to pay his mortgage and feed his kids. Of course, his future job opportunities are limited by the drug charge so his ability to get another well paying job is limited. How does this benefit society?

In a typical Texas courtroom we can witness a 17 year old accused of possessing enough marijuana to fill a small bong bowl being sentenced to 180 days in the County Jail. This same County Jail is where they house convicted felons awaiting transfer to maximum security penal institutions. Some of these people are violent gang members faced with spending the rest of their lives in prison. I wonder how they look upon the 18 year old in the cell next door. I wonder how that 18 year and see if that makes you feel better about society if he is victimized while in the secure custody of the County Jail. That victimization could be in the form of intimidation, physical beatings and/or sexual assault. I will devote a future writing on the absolute failure of our jail and prison system to protect our fellow citizens that are incarcerated. For now I just wanted to put this reality into our thought process.

The government estimates that the Drug Cartels makes 60% of its profits from the sell of marijuana with the other 40% coming from cocaine, methamphetamine, crack, weapons sales and other illegal activities.

What business could survive if it lost 60% of its profits overnight. The Cartels would never be able to recruit new members or continue to spread bribes to ensure its success if they lost 60% of its income. One of the biggest reasons for the success of the Cartels is because the UNBELIEVABLE PROFIT THEY MAKE FROM THE sale of marijuana supports all other aspects of its existence. We would also be able to cut the amount of money we spend fighting the Cartels because they would be financially crippled if the United States government took over the regulation of marijuana GROWING AND dispensing in our country.

Overnight we could eliminate the “corner drug stores” that we see RUN BY VIOLENT GANG MEMBERS in our ghettos and barrios. We would also open up employment opportunities in the growing and dispensary businesses. And instead of laying off all the DEA agents we could move them into civilian jobs overseeing the new programs and catching marijuana tax cheats. Or we can continue to lose the War on Drugs as we continue to wage war on our own citizens. How does that benefit society?

But what if the defendant in the courtroom is a real adult? Let’s say a 35 year old male who works at a local auto dealership, is married and has three kids.

This guy quit drinking because he got busted for DWI twice in

I won’t spend a lot of time writing about the Medicinal Marijuana issue because it is worthy of a couple of articles on its own. We have allowed our government to do us great harm by restricting medical re-

search into the use of marijuana for the treatment and cure of many diseases and sicknesses.

Many medical and treatment breakthroughs have been occurring in other countries due to the research that is encouraged regarding marijuana’s medicinal characteristics. Many of the most vocal opponents of the use of marijuana will one day be forced to admit their ignorance has caused much pain, heartache, wasted lives and death.

To think that we are denying ourselves the opportunity to bless ourselves with life saving remedies is a cruel slap in the face. Please take the time to Google medicinal marijuana and read about the many life changing advances that we are seeing through the use of THC and other marijuana related medicines. How could that benefit society?

I know that many people will attack my writing by stating that all people have to do to avoid all the bad things mentioned above from happening is to “just say no” to drugs. And yes they use the term drugs instead of calling out pot all by itself. Why would they want to allow pot to be disassociated from “drugs”? I will limit my response to that suggestion to only two issues. First, all you have to do is look at the number of persons that the government says is using marijuana to know that the “just say no” program is not working and never will.

Secondly, because marijuana is illegal in most of our states and against Federal Law in all states you have to associate with “criminals” to obtain marijuana. So if I want to buy a small amount of marijuana for my migraine headache I have to go where the drugs are to get that marijuana. Now if the government regulated and oversaw the distribution of marijuana like they do alcohol and prescription drugs then i could get my marijuana from a legitimate and safe source.

Instead, I have to go where the guys sale cocaine, crack and heroin to get my marijuana.

And yes, they offer me the harder stuff for free at first just in case I might take a chance and use it. So I am led to the hardest of unregulated drugs because the government lumps marijuana in the same category as the killer drugs.

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Threat of a false flag event has never been greater Infowars Issues Emergency Terror ALERT sinate a Saudi ambassador on U.S. soil as a sign that, “Some Iranian officials — probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime.”

Infowars Issues Emergency Terror Alert Threat of a false flag event has never been greater Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones Infowars.com Tuesday, February 7, 2012 Given the fact that the US and Israel are both yearning for a casus belli to launch an attack on Iran, added to recent history where a staged provocation was considered, and in addition to the innumerable examples of false flags overseen by the Obama administration alone, the threat of staged terror has never been greater.

Unlike the plethora of fake terror alerts that former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge admitted were issued for political propaganda, this one is very serious indeed.

The American public are being bombarded with the same propaganda in two similar but separate formats, one that Iran is looking to launch a terror attack on U.S. soil, and two that domestic extremists also pose a violent threat.

However, as recent history tells us, it is the government itself which routinely stages and facilitates violent events in pursuit of its political objectives, therefore the same interests should be the number one suspects if and when violent events occur.

US intelligence officials last week upped the rhetoric against Iran during congressional testimony by claiming that Tehran is prepared to launch reprisal attacks inside the United States.

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. cited the alleged Iranian plot to assas-

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As we documented at the time, according to retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer, no information concerning the supposed plot even existed within FBI channels, strongly suggesting the story was manufactured by the Obama administration. The New York Times also reported that the dubious nature of the plot caused “a wave of puzzlement and skepticism from some foreign leaders and outside experts.”

Advocates of an attack on Iran have implied that the US could stage a provocation as a pretext for a military assault. In January 2008, Dick Cheney’s office considered staging an incident to be blamed on Iran wherein US ships patrolling the Strait of Hormuz were attacked.

Despite the sordid history of lies that were manufactured about weapons of mass destruction, Niger yellowcake and dodgy dossiers to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003, we’re seeing history repeat itself as the US seeks to exploit another artificial crisis as a pretext to back the Israeli attack on Iran.

Numerous examples since Obama took office illustrate how his administration, and the intelligence agencies that surround it, are by no means reticent to brazenly lie and stage events for political purposes.

Despite the Obama administration’s best efforts to characterize Operation Fast and Furious, an ATF program that sought to put U.S.-based firearms into the hands of Mexican drug smugglers, as little more than a ‘screw up’, the most damning evidence strongly indicates that the whole operation was

in fact an attempt to launch a false flag assault on the second amendment rights of the American people.

Indian man, on Christmas Day 2009.

Obama himself told gun control advocate Sarah Brady last year that his administration was working “under the radar” to sneak attack the second amendment, just months before the Fast and Furious scandal leaked, and at the same time as administration officials were blaming violence in Mexico on the second amendment, when in reality the administration itself was responsible for arming the drug cartels.

It later emerged that the State Department was ordered not to revoke Abdulmutallab’s visa by “federal counterterrorism officials” even though the accused bomber had known terrorist ties, in addition to the fact that his own father had warned U.S. intelligence officials of the threat posed by Abdulmutallab a month before the attempted attack.

A further example of a false flag attempt under the current administration involves the Christmas Day underwear bomber, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, who was helped through security, despite him being on a terror watchlist with no passport, by a well dressed

While the public is being told that terrorists are about to strike on U.S. soil, the U.S. government itself has armed and funded Al-Qaeda terrorists in Libya to overthrow Gaddafi and is now backing Al-Qaeda groups in Iran to carry out bombings and assassinations in an effort to undermine the Ahmadinejad government. The same terrorists used in Libya were also subsequently airlifted into Syria as part of an effort to depose President Bashir Assad.

It is crystal clear that the gigantic anti-terror apparatus itself, created in the aftermath of 9/11, is now being used against the American people, with citizens being trained to

spy on each other under the auspices of Homeland Security’s See Something, Say Something campaign. To illustrate the absurdity of how far this reaches, hot dog sellers at the recent Super Bowl were trained by the TSA to spot terrorists.

Both the DHS and the FBI are also characterizing mundane behavior, such as paying for a cup of coffee with cash, using a video camera, talking to police officers, wearing hoodies, driving vans, writing on a piece of paper, and using a cell phone recording application, all as indicators of terrorist activity.

To top it all off, the Obama administration was also instrumental in passing a provision of the NDAA bill which authorizes the military to kidnap and incarcerate US citizens without trial, merely on the accusation that they may be terrorists.

The environment of fear and paranoia that has been created as a result of all this makes fertile ground for the government to stage a crisis or manufacture an emergency situation that will be used to rally the American people around a number of different domestic and geopolitical agendas.

Mysterious Radio Signal Detected in Deep Space Lets not forget that there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the Universe, which means the Universe may actually be teeming with life.

Some years ago, in 2008, astronomers announced they picked up a mysterious signal from outer space. It was not the last time they heard the mysterious sound.

SETI and other astronomers were excited about the news, but they were also worried the signal may never be completely decoded.

Mysterious Radio Signal Detected in Deep Space A mysterious signal coming from a region of space between the constellations Pisces and Aries has been picked up on three different occasions by the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico.

The signal is very puzzling and does not resemble any known astronomical phenomenon.

Researchers who have studied its frequency pattern do

not believe it is natural interference or noise.

Was the signal transmitted deliberately by an extraterrestrial civilization on a distant planet?

Scientists remain cautious but we cannot dismiss the possibility.

Astronomers believe there are about 10,000 intelligent civilizations in our galaxy alone.

“We probably won’t be able to decode it. We’ll know something’s out there, but we won’t know much about their civilization, “ said Dan Wertheimer of the UC Berkeley SETI Project.

SHGb02+14a, as the signal has been named has been heard on three occasions adding up to about a minute. This is not long enough firmly to establish its source, but its frequency of 1420 megahertz has interested scientists, as it is a main frequency at which hydrogen, the most common element in the Universe, absorbs and emits energy.

Scientists have various opinions about the nature of SHGb02+14a.

Eric Korpela of Berkeley, who has analyzed the signal, said: “We are looking for something that screams out artificial. This doesn’t, but it could be because it is distant.”

Dr. Korpela point out that the interference with the Arecibo telescope could also make the signal look like it is always coming from the same point. “Perhaps there is an object on the ground near the telescope emitting at about this frequency.”

David Anderson, director of Seti@home, said: “It is unlikely to be real, but we will definitely be re- observing it.”

Jocelyn Bell Burnell, of the University of Bath, said that the signal could be a previously unknown astronomical phenomenon, such as a pulsar she detected in 1967. “It may be a natural phenomenon of a previously undreamt-of kind like I stumbled over,” she said.

Woodruff Sullivan, of the University of Washington in

Seattle, said the research suggests that a message from an advanced alien civilization could already be lurking undetected in the solar system.

“This scenario is reminiscent of Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which a monolith discovered on the Moon has been left by extra-terrestrials.

If archaeologists were to find such an object, it would hardly be the first time that science fiction had become science fact,” said Sullivan.

Of course, even if astronomers somehow manage to decode the signal, they will face another problem - What should we reply to an alien civilization? How can we communicate with these beings?

We still don’t know if someone has been trying to contact us, but the signal coming from a galaxy very away remains intriguing and we hope we may one day find out whether it is of artificial origin or an unknown natural phenomenon.

Source: Message to Eagle

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Creating Marijuana Activists and NORML Members By Karli Duran

Creating Marijuana Activists and NORML Members On February 1st last year almost a dozen individuals, many who were meeting each other for the first time, gathered at Buck’s Deer Saloon discuss forming a NORML chapter in San Antonio. There have been San Antonio NORML chapters in the past, starting as early as 1991, but I am not familiar with the why the chapters did not succeed. It is important to San Antonio NORML to include

our members and supporters in as much of our activities as possible. It is important for us to be in involved in community services, fundraisers, events, etc. It is also important for us to have our own events, fundraisers, public meetings, quarterly member meetings.

We need dedicated individuals willing to dedicate their time to locate, create, organize, and/ or coordinate these community activities and volunteer their time. We need people who are willing to speak up in a room of strangers and say “I support marijuana legalization… Do

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you?” We need an organized committee called our Freedom Fighters who are dedicated to passing out NORML flyers, the 420Dude’s business cards, packets, brochures, recruiting businesses and sponsors, seeking donations, taking surveys, and a variety of other creative services. NORML is about people who believe it is wrong to prosecute an adult for possessing and using marijuana. We believe marijuana is a harmless medicine that should not be kept from the sick and dying. We believe that marijuana should be cultivated in the United States for fuel, food, clothes, food, paper, and a variety of other uses.

There are 3 types of people to convince marijuana is an important topic to discuss and marijuana laws are important to change: 1) Marijuana users 2) Those afraid to break the law 3) Those who were brainwashed by our government’s propaganda and lies. The first type is the easiest to convince.

If someone smokes marijuana, they already know how great it is and have probably already done their research. Marijuana users just need to be convinced to join to be a member, meet some new people at some public meetings, come to some events, and spread the word… the rest will fall into place. Those afraid to break the law may want to smoke, but they are scared of the criminal penalties that NORML and other activists are trying to change, making them worth trying to recruit for the cause. These type of people maybe less likely to come to a public meeting, but it is not unusual to get a membership or generous dona-

tion. The 3rd type of people is the hardest to convince, but I have seen it happen. People who have been brainwashed by government propaganda and lies do not even want to listen… until it affects them personally.

For example, I know a retired Constable that actually worked with Lamar Smith who a year ago was anti-marijuana. After getting skin cancer and meeting someone who was able to convince him to use hemp balm on the cancer, the cancer was GONE after only 5 days. He admits the cannabis mixture saved his life and has even attended a public meeting.

It is not enough just to convince people to discuss marijuana, they need to vote for it too.

Vote against representatives and bills that oppose marijuana reform, vote for representatives and bills that are for marijuana decriminalization and legalization. San Antonio NORML also stresses the importance of voting and is trying to help other Texas NORML chapters with a political campaign called “Reaching Out to Our Reps”.

This campaign consists of making and sending informational

packets regarding decriminalizing/ legalizing marijuana, medical marijuana, and industrial hemp to our members and representatives. We will then have a team follow up with each representative to record their stance on marijuana. This information will be published on our website and distributed throughout San Antonio with the help of our NORML members and supporters.

Why should you be a part of the marijuana movement happening around the country? People have discovered that they have been deceived by the government, and Americans are not only being denied a profitable industrial plant, but citizens are also being denied a medicine. Regardless if someone wants marijuana legal for profit, medicine, or recreational use, it is a harmless plant that has never caused one single death in history. It has been used for many purposes including medicine and relaxing for thousands of years. The time has come to free marijuana and all of the non-violent criminals locked up for it, and we need people like you to make this happen.

The Prison System and Non-violent Drug Offenders By Karli Duran

The Prison System and Nonviolent Drug Offenders

By Karli Duran Since Richard Nixon declared the War on Drugs in 1971 America has spent over $2.5 trillion dollars trying to fight this unwinnable war, but maybe the war is not really about winning or losing… maybe it’s about money. Perhaps it is the product of corporate greed, government conspiracy, and brainwashed American citizens.

Despite our government’s efforts to fight a war with no clear enemy, drug abuse among Americans has risen and now almost tops 20 million people in the United States. More than half a million people are behind bars for drug offenses in the United States according to numbers from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. While incarceration statistics have skyrocketed, crime rates have increased much more slowly.

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In fact, from 1975 to 1985, the serious crime rate actually decreased by 1.42 per cent while the number of state and federal prisoners nearly doubled. Drug crimes account for 21% of state prisoners and 55% of all federal prisoners.

The huge costs associated with the choice to deal with enforcing the war on marijuana costs taxpayers an estimated $10 billion annually and results in the arrest of more than 829,000 individuals per year… far more than the total number of arrests for all violent crimes combined, including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Social problems by mass imprisonment are a fundamental part of the drift toward private prisons.

Leading private prison companies essentially admit that their business model depends on high rates of incarceration. Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the larg-

est private prison company, stated: “The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by . . . leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices . . . .” In 2010, the two largest private prison companies alone received nearly $3 billion dollars in revenue, and their top executives, according to one source, each received annual compensation packages worth well over $3 million. Private prisons make profit by supporting political accomplices and supporting strict sentencing laws and tough-on-crime legislation.

The three main private prison companies have contributed over $800,000 to federal candidates and over $6 million to state politicians.

Corporate-owned prisons need a steady flow of inmates to maintain profits. Mandatory minimum sentences, life terms for “three strikes,” and sentencing juveniles as adults resulting in growing prison populations and obscene profits.

In Texas, private prison companies have given over $130,000 to candidates for public office since 2006.

Texas has more privately operated correction facilities than any other

state in the country.

“The availability of huge federal anti-drug grants incentivizes departments to pay for SWAT Team armor and weapons, and leads our police officers to abandon real crime victims in our communities in favor of ratcheting up their drug arrest stats,” said former Los Angeles Deputy Chief of Police Stephen Downing. Downing is now a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an advocacy group of cops and prosecutors who are calling for an end to the drug war.

So while our federal and state prisons are overcrowding and

costing taxpayers billions of dollars annually, our law enforcement is concentrating on non-violent drug offenders because our politicians are being bought by the prison systems. If America is the “land of the free” then why do we have more people incarcerated than any other country in the world?

Write your representative and ask them if they support incarcerating non-violent drugoffenders. marijuana has no medical value, why does the government own a medical marijuana patent, harvest a marijuana crop, and distribute marijuana to sick people?

Interview With MEDIUM & Paranormal Researcher ORION SILVERSTAR

S.P.I.R.I.T. online

how you got started.

Orion Silverstar: Yes, in fact it was two Angels /entities that told me that they wanted me to at first start up a YouTube page, but as I say I really did not want to at first.

S.P.I.R.I.T.: How long have you been actively investigating and researching the paranormal?

Orion Silverstar: I have been actively researching now for about 2 years. I started out studying E.V.P and then later moved on to receiving spirit images and photography.

S.P.I.R.I.T.: Being that you’re out of Australia. Do most of the EVP’s you capture have an Australian accent?

interview with Austrailan Paranormal Researcher and Medium Orion Silverstar S.P.I.R.I.T.: We want to give a warm welcome to Orion Silverstar, spirit medium, paranormal researcher, and founder of Silverstar Paranormal from Melbourne, Australia for this online interview.

Orion Silverstar: Thank you for inviting me here!

S.P.I.R.I.T.: Excited to have you on and get into some fascinating topics. Let’s start off with a little bit about your group and

Orion Silverstar: Ok, well...I have had spirits around me all my life, felt them and at times seen them from an early age.

I was not going to start up a group at first as there are so many groups out there but they (the spirits) wanted me to do this.

S.P.I.R.I.T.: Did you get the message to start a group through mediumship or via electronic means?

Orion Silverstar: I received this message through mediumship to do this.

S.P.I.R.I.T.: What exactly was the message and did the spirit identify who he/she/it was?

Orion Silverstar: No. In fact a lot of my E.V.P recordings have an American accent and sometimes English, rarely Australian. I remember when I first started recording, I was getting nothing coming through for weeks and I was about to give up. Then I started to get one or two very faint words, after sometime these words became sentences. I guess what I’m saying is if you have just started out do not give up if you receive nothing for the first few weeks or longer.

S.P.I.R.I.T.: Let’s get into some of the conclusions you’ve reached about EVP’s based on your research and evidence?

Where do you think the voices are coming from? Parallel universes, other dimensions, ET communication, etc.?

Orion Silverstar: In all honesty, I really think it could be a bit of both. I know which is from those that have passed away as they are often asking for my help or commenting on my animals and more. Those that are entities often talk in a voice that is very powerful and often give me advice about my life on a personal level.

S.P.I.R.I.T.: When you hear the voices come through do you ever get a mental image of what they are or what they look like?

Orion Silverstar: Recently I had an interesting message come through that said “I`m just recording the message” which made me wonder if some of what we are receiving are humans in the future or even time travelers. I’ve also had a

recording that came through in a electronic robotic voice unlike I have heard before.

S.P.I.R.I.T. : Do you ever get the sense it could be aliens or cyborgs talking?

Orion Silverstar: I really believe this as it is very different to any of the other recordings that I have received. What if they where already in communication with us and not through the government, but through every day people like you and me.

If I was to communicate with humans, what better way than through our technology.

S.P.I.R.I.T.: Do you feel some people get better results based on their psychic abilities, intuition, perception, consciousness, etc.?

Orion Silverstar: This is a very interesting question...see I have seen those that are non - spiritual get just as good results.

Thing is if the spirit world wants to get in touch with you it will and can use different means to do it. I know that the spirit world is not limited like this world and can communicate in many different ways. I do however think that if you are already opened up to the spirit world it helps.

S.P.I.R.I.T.: Based on the evidence and videos you’ve presented on your youtube channel it’s evident you’re convinced there’s an afterlife. Do you feel it also supports or contradicts the belief in a heaven and hell?

just the beginning, in fact it has changed my life. I really do not think it supports or contradicts the belief in heaven or hell as there is not enough evidence yet. Going by my own messages that have come through from the spirit world, I had a message from a spirit saying that they were with the Angels, as to where that is I’m not sure.

I have also listened to other recordings talking about a “place of the souls” S.P.I.R.I.T. : Can you please give out your official website and youtube channel to the public.

Orion Silverstar: Sure I can do that for you. http://www.youtube.com/ MysticalWitch68 http://www.facebook.com/ Silverstar.Paranormal S.P.I.R.I.T. : That’s great!

We look forward to hearing more about your evidence and research. We want to give you a big thanks Orion for joining us tonight on this very interesting online interview.

Orion Silverstar: Thank you again Spirit for having me here.

Hope you’ll enjoyed that which I had to say, again thank you and I look forward to my radio interview on S.P.I.R.I.T TALK Paranormal Radio.

To listen to the upcoming live interview with Orion Silverstar stay tuned on -http://blogtalkradio.com/spiritinvestigators

Orion Silverstar: Based on the evidence and videos I have presented, I’m convinced there’s an afterlife and this world is

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Unicycle Football League gears up for seventh season, works on expansion to Austin