Just the name/word evokes a mental image of hordes of furry rodents plummeting off a cliff into the foamy sea below. (Truth is, scientists have determined that they are not killing themselves on purpose.)
Are we following in the footsteps of lemmings as a species? Our very nature and cultures assign most of us to live lives that are detrimental to our health. One or more of the following things are significant activities in our lives: Drinking water (and other beverages) that we know are not good for us. Injecting ourselves with pestilence; Eating, a growing percentage of us into morbid obesity; or things in quantity that we know are killing us; Big Macs, pork, dripping in fat/cholesterol, super big gulp diet cokes served with greasy cheeseburgers and sloppy chili-cheese fries filled to the max with trans fats; ding dongs, twinkies, sno-cones, chicken made possible by hormones, mad cow beef, super sized sundaes from the dairy drive-in. We know this stuff is bad for us, but we as a species devour it like we've never had it before. Not even the veggies are safe if the crops have been fertilized with the wrong chemicals or feces. None of these are on your list of favorites, right? I guess the vegans are onto something, but they aren't completely safe.
We drive vehicles unsafely in shifting formations across the miles to get to jobs that many of us hate; or we ride in public transit that is subject to calamity because some dumbass failed to notice a certain track is being used already. More and more of us live in cities where the pollutants are in greater quantities; or live in high-crime areas where you can get killed for your basketball shoes by some dead-end punk who has been HIV positive since he/she was ten years old and really doesn't give a flying f--- whether you live or die. We continually vote into office representatives that we know are not listening to us, but to big corporations and big donors. Women want to be skin and bones so they'll look like the anorxic/bulemic models that are seen in magazines. We shave our bodies, colour our hair with toxic substances, submit to surgery to enhace boobs, genitalia, buttocks, faces. We must not be very happy with ourselves.
We aren't lemmings. Those stupid, ignorant, low-on-the-food-chain creatures! THEY don't know what they're doing. WE are the pinnacle of evolution, sending rockets to the stars, providing food to the starving masses, achieving nirvana, oneness, or utopia with amazing feats of mental dexterity. Not only are we made in God's image...some of us seem to think we ARE gods. Humans are far more advanced...we can calculate pi to five hundred thousand digits. Such people wouldn't throw themselves from cliffs high above the foamy surf...would we?
But let a woman drink herself to alcohol toxicity, or let a guy stick a gun in his mouth and eat a 45 caliber bullet with his brainstem...now those individuals are sick and to be pitied, right. We're not lemmings.

Much has been said over the past few centuries about Sir Walter Raleigh having been the authentic William Shakespeare. Does it matter to devotees of classic english literature? According to some, 'ole Bill lived to be about fifty years old. Some have the audacity to claim his parents were named Mary and John! Imagine...and Willie is apparently the most widely read author in the English language. I say that it's a crying shame when so famous a someone whose very existence can be questioned even though only a short span of time has passed.
Now Sir Walter...a rogue and adventurer if there ever was one. If he was not the person whose head was embalmed after his execution, then is that head near to Westminster Abbey that of Jack the Ripper? Alas, poor Yorick.
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This was posted as a satirical response to another posting questioning whether Jesus was a real person or just a fictional character in a symbolic story.

I hope the rest of you folks appreciate this site as much as I do. We get to disagree or agree with anyone we wish. Even though some of the stuff I read here seems outrageous, its still OK to disagree. Doesn't matter if its cerebral or just plain good-natured ribbing, as long as the lines of communication are open, there's hope for us. I find it amazing that people can have strongly held views and opinions that seem so totally off the wall. I'm certain there are those who read the things I write and think "what planet is HE from"?

Hurrah for TDG.

Please forgive me if this is too much of a ramble. I just felt it had to be said. Besides, I haven't posted a real blog for months.
As life unfolds, I am often saddened by how things seem to always be going downhill. Looking at things objectively though, it must be that if something improves for me, there must be an opposite someone for whom things have gotten worse. I'm 55 and have seen a lot of changes I'd rather not have seen. When I was in my early twenties I realized how foolish it was for people to expect perpetual happiness. The psycedelic 60's weren't all peace, love, and happiness as some would have you beleive. There was Johnson, Nixon and Vietnam, drug overdoses and sucides, friends and lovers gone. The seventies brought petrol shortages, marriage, university, and a degree of steadiness. However, creeping into society in the US was a hint of fear. It manifest itself in the Iranian hostage crisis and the Mayaguez incident. What would the future bring?
The eighties continued crisis diplomacy. Reagan ushered the first era of cowboy diplomacy and economic growth. They ended with massive savings and loan failures that were the harbinger of tough times to come. Massive financial frauds occurred that were the precursors to the Enron scandal (Enron was a product of the 80's). Many americans became convinced in the 90's that the goodtimes would never end. The US economy became a national pyramid scheme and evangelicals flexed their muscles in the voting booths so well that many politicians began to walk the line. Republicans won both houses for the first time in decades, but were tempered by Slick Willie's popularity. Good economic times encouraged folks to continue to roll the dice. We were encouraged to "Don't stop thinkin' 'bout tomorrow. A new millenium began with fears that all our computers were going to crash and we'd be thrown into a new "dark age". So much for the predictions of experts. The "oughts" began with a double- whammy...September 11th we were attacked. Our economy was thrown into a maelstrom. The attack came from outsiders. Then in December of the same year, Enron declared bankruptcy, signaling the attack from within. Our own leaders of government and industry were complicit in stealing our wallets and purses. Hundreds (thousands? millions?) of businesses reorganized, downshifted, shut down, whatever. The economic ripples continue around the globe. China booms, the US wallows, the Euro blooms then treads water. Then guess what...the Iranians are back to disrupt things. All we can expect is that "experts" will prognosticate how things will unfold. Likely as not, they will be wrong. Hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst.

I enjoy having a website to go to where the subject matter is "off the beaten path" (sort of). TDG provides information about alternative history, religious, extraterrestrial, paranormal, scientific, etc. Yet, numerous times in the past week I have been tempted to add comment about political matters. I used to enjoy the Rense website before it became overtly political. Now I rarely go there because the material is often very inflammatory and pointless.
I would enjoy seeing TDG retain its focus and would hate to see it become a rap sheet for political views. There are a great number of government/political websites where would-be pundits can argue back and forth. I, therefore, have decided not to add any more political blogs or comments here. I understand that it can be tempting to "fall off the wagon" and join in, but I'm swearing it off.
Not content to let you folks off easy, though, all other material is fair game.

Many months have passed since the world started hearing about "bird flu". I recently got a flu shot here in the heartland of America, but I'm told that it offers no protection from the bird flu. It seems that if the bird flu presents such a dire risk to people around the world, why is there no vaccine?

I am just one man. I don't have unlimited time and resources at my disposal in order to pursue this information. I'm just hoping that someone with the means can investigate this matter.
In December of 1967 the United States detonated a thermonuclear device nearly a mile below the surface of the Earth near Dulce, New Mexico. (This is NOT going any where near the lurid Bennewitz story). After the detonation, investigations revealed that the blast did not really live up to the expectations of the government, which was intended to "free up" fossil fuels from the rock below. The site was monitored and eventually a plaque was erected at the site. (see http://www.atomictourist.com/gasbug.htm)
Here is where the story gets interesting (at least for me). I passed through the area last week on business and took some time to drive along some of the rutted back roads of the area. You would not believe how many drilling rigs and compression stations are now in the area. Here's what I'm getting at: companies are now extracting fossil fuels from the area. Isn't it radioactive? Who is this radioactive fuel being sent to and used by?

I have never seen a so-called crop circle. Whenever I chance upon an article about such, my ingrained response is "crap circles again". I had always felt that they were the products of pranksters as described by Joaquin Phoenix in the move "Signs". No change in philosophy for years. At least until last night. Last night I went to bed early. I guess I reached REM stage sleep and stayed there for a while. I awoke with the memory of activities I dreamed of in my sleep. In my dream I watched as a "sylph" created what I can only describe as a amazingly intricate crop circle in an immense sea of wheat. Normally, my dreams are not so vivid as this. Has anyone had a similar experience?

The gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" is becoming more obvious. For those overseas reading this, I can only surmise that the rise of globalism has had a ripple effect around the earth. In America, retail giant Walmart portrays itself as the store of choice for the working man and woman. I believe the majority of Americans never read the business section of the newspaper. Doing so reveals that Walmart buys so many cheap goods from places like China, many American manufacturing jobs like those of Walmart shoppers are disappearing. Chinese manufacturing jobs pay so little, they hardly amount to more than slave wages...and I have read that some of those jobs ARE slavery. For the businessman, the need to be competetive makes the to move to manufacture goods overseas necessary.
Where is the zero point? Can it be reached? Or is economic collapse inevitable? Are circumstances the same in Oz? Or in the UK?
Case in point- New Orleans; the people with the means got out ahead of the storm. The sub-class, the poverty-stricken, were left to fend for themselves, having been abandoned by elected officials. Americans shy away from "class" discussion, at least I think they do. Can such a sub-class of the "have-nots" grow to a point wherein the only way to obtain a piece of the pie is through armed insurrection? Couple this sub-class to those segments of society that believe that the US tax burden has become too great. At such a point, would class warfare become an option?
Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying something like "the tree of liberty must be periodically refreshed with the blood of tyrants." Forgive me if the quote is inexact.
I just find it extremely disturbing that our country is becoming something our ancestors fought to get away from. My liberties have been taken away by politicians. Governments and corporations are continually watching us with spy cameras. We can receive traffic citations in the post for infractions we were unaware of committing. The FDA regulates drugs so we can be assured they are safe...only to be told years later that what the FDA approved, was in fact, dangerous to our health.
Is the aforementioned ripple effect true, or are these described instances only an American phenomena?
(I can only say that idealism in people over the age of forty is very painful.)

No, George W didn't send Katrina hurtling to the delta. But neither did he send relief immediately. His zealous persecution of the war in Iraq has seriously handicapped our nation's ability to respond to internal strife. How has "W" done so? By channeling National Guard Troops, Reservists, aircraft, vehicles, medical supplies and field hospitals to his Iraq obsession. Four days after the storm hit, troops and supplies are just beginning to arrive in number. Has Bush declared a "freeze" on fuel prices? No. Reason...he has too many influential friends in the petrol business.
His failure of leadership displays the depths of the travesty called Homeland Security. The Bush administration has been blowing so much smoke about how our nation is better prepared to deal with a terrorist attack since 9/11. Katrina's devastation has shown that New Orleans was ill-prepared for anything near this magnitude. There are reports that the Bush administration cut $70 Billion from the Army Corps of Engineers for the New Orleans district in 2004. Then the feds turned over flood planning for New Orleans to a private contractor and gave them a budget of $500 K per year.
Now, I'm no global-warming, sky-is-falling enviro-freak, but it's obvious that Bush hasn't been too concerned about the environment. Just remember, real leadership takes firm control in an emergency...and Bush has not done so.