Well, it seems that history does indeed repeat itself. I’ve been reading extensively about our early fight for independence and European history lately. Tactics of the times were mind boggling. Tens of thousands of men and boys marching in hollow squares or vast parallel lines while their commanders watched from a safe distance. No regard to loss of life unless it exceeded that of the enemy. Gentleman warfare with breaks for care of casualties, inclement weather, holidays, whims of kings or the “Elite”, and sundry nonsensical reasons. Marching men across open fields to avoid wooded terrain. I could go on and on with idiotic examples but it is not pertinent to my intent with this short essay.

World War II was as close to being a true war as any in our recent (Last 100 Year) history. It was fought with one goal, “To Win”. In every conflict since then we have had the ability to win decisively but were held back for many reasons. Politicians more concerned with being re-elected, peaceniks with no understanding of war and human nature, religious zealots, concern for the feelings of those that hate us, offending anyone’s rights (except our own), power and control of the masses, etc.

We have advanced weaponry that can win any conflict without ground troops involved. These battles could be won in minutes, not months and years. Are you aware of the neutron bomb? This is already outdated technology and if it has been used it was done in secret. All living organisms are killed with no damage to any structures. It can be confined to relatively small areas with no residual harmful effects. Why do we continue to develop weapons to win without loss of our troops and sign pacts and treaties not to use them. If our enemies get the technology, they will damn well sure use it on us. We don’t need additional troops, we need the ability to actually use the weapons we have.

Why do these politicians, actors, actresses, and filmdom elite always threaten to leave our country but only do so to make a movie (More money) or take a vacation (Spend it freely)? They cherish capitalism, freedom, and our way of life, but only for their peers. They actually believe the rest of us are sheep and unable to make our own decisions.We do not have an immigration problem because America is a bad place. We have an immigration problem because this is the best country to live in on the entire planet.

I think we need to worry more about our politicians and communist ideologists working to promote remorse and shame for our past success overseas and pay more attention to the loss of our freedoms and the incessant push for socialism in the United States. My father and six uncles fought for our freedoms in WWII. Because of the values held by that generation we do not goose step and we do not speak German. Dammit folks, wake up, we know the enemy and he is us!

If you support government control of your life, cradle to grave, please move to Cuba or Venezuela and be sure to keep us updated on your new found freedoms and the bliss we are missing.

Today this is freedom of speech and thought. What about tomorrow?

GHOST TOWNS: First up is a link to the most desolate and abandoned cities around the world:

BIG SURPRISE: The Fourth Kind hits theaters today… and is a big fake. Didn’t see that one coming…

BEATLE BUGS: Next, bigger than Jesus might not qualify, since this Beatle is only the size of a water droplet

TURN LEFT AT THE (GIANT) FORK IN THE ROAD: Super-sized silverware in Pasadena

HOSPITAL HELL-LETTER: Overhaul of health care is needed in more ways than we realize

GROWIN’ SHARPIES: Encouraging spikes to grow on an abandoned naked hedgehog

A RENDEZVOUS WITH DEATH: Man shows up at his own funeral in Brazil

Tonnies (left, photo courtesy of Greg Bishop) was an American ufologist and futurist, whose books After the Martian Apocalypse and his much anticipated masterwork dealing with “Cryptoterrestrials” helped broaden the views regarding UFOs, strange creatures, and how they relate to time, space, and mankind.

My own interaction with Mac was somewhat limited… we would occasionally email one another, though arguably, one of the sincerest compliments I ever received came from my pal Red Pill Junkie at the Daily Grail who in his article Mario, Micah and the Midnight Oil compared Greg Bishop, Nick Redfern and I to Tonnies, saying that like the Mac-Man, we were “not afraid to have a broader view of all these phenomena, instead of desperately trying to keep them separate and compartmentalized.”

It was for this very reason, in my own heart and mind, that Mac will be so badly missed. I had looked forward to so many collaborations with him, and always found comfort in knowing that while Mac was among us, the world seemed a little smaller. A truly great mind indeed; you will be missed.

Finally, here are some of Greg Bishop’s words on the matter:

Nick (Redfern) just called to tell me that our friend and colleague Mac Tonnies was found in his apartment this (Thursday) afternoon, apparently dead of natural causes. There was no evidence of foul play or suicide according to a close friend.

It is hard to find the right words to describe my feelings at this moment.

The last time we talked was just after his appearance on Coast To Coast on September 28th. He asked if I thought he had done a good job. I said he hit one over the fence. Tentatively, I asked if he would consider collaborating on a fiction project, and he liked the idea. Now, I don’t really know what to do or say.

The manuscript of Mac’s last book was apparently complete and ready to be delivered to the publisher.

Nick will have his feelings and more details to follow, but Mac’s family have been informed, and we wanted to get the news out to people who either knew Mac, or were inspired by his original and highly intelligent contributions to the study of UFOs and other anomalies, as well as many aspects of leading-edge science and technology.

UPDATE: I’m receiving a lot of general info, memories, and statements from folks in the paranormal community regarding Tonnies’ passing. Please feel free to email your insights to info@gralienreport.com if you’d like me to post them here at the site.

That being said, my friend and fellow researcher Wm Michael Mott set this along moments ago:

*******

I was stunned and saddened to see the news about Mac Tonnies on your web site today.

As with so many other writers and researchers, Mac and I were internet “friends.” We had corresponded off and on for quite some time, due primarily to the fact that his theory on “cryptoterrestrials” was very similar to my own theories as expounded upon in “Caverns, Cauldrons, and Concealed Creatures,” yet with very original differences. We were going to exchange signed books when his in-progress work on “Cryptoterrestrials” came out soon.

Some time back I sent him the contact info for various radio talk shows and their hosts, and was heartened to see that he had gone on to appear on many of those programs. He was a gifted, brilliant, original thinker, and the community of fortean researchers and writers has suffered a severe loss. I hope that Greg Bishop, Paul Kimball, or Nick Redfern, who all knew Mac “in person,” will somehow make sure that his research and writing on cryptoterrestrials goes on to publication.

God bless and peaceful dreams, Mac. Sorry we never got to sit down for that beer.

*******

Nick Redfern also shares this at the UFO Mystic blog:

The news that good friend, fellow author and Fortean writer and researcher Mac Tonnies has passed away suddenly at the age of only 34, is tragic, mind-numbing and overwhelmingly saddening.

It’s difficult (as it always is in such situations) to put my thoughts and feelings into words. But, my first thoughts are, of course, with Mac’s family at this terrible time.

I first came across Mac in 2004, when Paraview-Pocket Books published his book, After the Martian Apocalypse, which is a very good, and highly balanced, study of the Face on Mars controversy. I interviewed Mac not long after the book came out for the now-defunct Phenomena Magazine, and we stayed in touch, and soon became friends – albeit at the time purely by email and sometimes by lengthy night-time phone-calls, during which we would chat about Forteana, music and more.

Then, in late 2006 – at Paul Kimball’s New Frontiers Symposium in Halifax, Nova Scotia – we got to meet up, along with Greg and several others for a weekend of Forteana, UFOs, Cryptozoology, and general high-strangeness.

Needless to say, it was a fun few days, and I have a lot of good memories of Mac from that gig – he gave a fine presentation, everyone had a great time, and there was a cool vibe in the air.

After that, me and Mac continued to stay in regular contact. Indeed, only a couple of months ago I interviewed him for an upcoming project, about which he was very excited – and now he’s gone; which I am still finding hard to believe and accept.

Mac was a great thinker and a thoughtful individual. He was a person with much to say and who had the skills to say it, too. And, with the manuscript of his planned book The Cryptoterrestrials nearly completed, I truly believe that Mac was about to come into his own in the Fortean field on a very large scale indeed.

He was also my friend, and I’ll greatly miss him.

Mac was taken far too early; so let’s always remember the man, the friend, and the work that he left behind. That’s really all I want to say right now.

*******

Jeremy Vaeni at the UFO Magazine Blog shares the following:

I always liked Mac. I won’t say we were great friends but I’ll bet we would have been if we’d lived closer to each other. He always struck me as a fish out of water: sharp guy into alternative things struggling to get by with a crap job in a small town. I urged him to move to New York where he’d be appreciated but he just didn’t have the funds. (I also practically begged him to write for UFO Magazine until he thankfully caved!)

His untimely death is that jarring reminder of all our mortality but to me it’s something else too. Mac had just completed his new book. He’d just gone on Coast To Coast for the first time. He earned the respect of those who paid attention to his work and was on his way to breaking out of obscurity. For the public at large, that would have meant a refreshing, intellectually honest and level voice in a field where such is nearly extinct. For Mac, that might have meant an end to the financial struggle and the personal struggle to be heard above the droning noise churning from the stagnant minds around him.

New directions for him. New directions for us. Greater freedom for all.

Gone.

Gone but not forgotten. Remembered for what he gave us. Remembered for where he was bringing us. His is the story of a man with his whole future ahead of him and not distantly so. No, right at his fingertips, actually. He was an artistic thinker, arguably poetic, and this is the fitting ending to that general story, tragic though it is for those of us who knew and appreciated Mac and for those who loved him.

On that note, my heartfelt condolences to Mac’s family and his good friends, Greg Bishop and Paul Kimball. Mac has passed into that good night but you know better than the rest of us he was a man with a flashlight. Wherever he is now, take comfort that he’s doing just fine.

*******

MEN AT WORLD’S EDGE: Joshua (right) and I stand at the edge of a 200-foot cliff adjacent to Wiseman’s View in the Lineville Gorge. Though smiling, the fingers of Josh’s right hand were actually crossed, as we both prayed a sudden, strong gust of wind wouldn’t blow us into a corresponding 200-foot drop to oblivion below.

Fortunately, weather was perfect for the outing, and the majestic Lineville Gorge wilderness was just beginning to ride the crest towards the “peak” color season here in beautiful Western North Carolina while the film crew, along with members from L.E.M.U.R., worked at solving the ever-intriguing mystery of the Brown Mountain Lights. These strange manifestations comprise strange “ghost lights” seen throughout the region, particularly within the vicinity of Brown Mountain and the nearby Table Rock. With sightings dating back as far as the year 1200 according to Indian legends, it is one of the nation’s most enduring legends, of both historical and (perhaps) scientific merit. The L.E.M.U.R. team (of which I am an investigator) has spent more than a decade studying the phenomenon. For more information on Joshua P. Warren’s theories and the research we have conducted together over the years, visit L.E.M.U.R.’s Brown Mountain Lights website.

ABOVE: Christopher McCollum (far left) and I (far right) are shown an advanced thermal imaging camera by Ben, one of the producers with the National Geographic crew. L.E.M.U.R. hoped to use this to help determine if the Brown Mountain Lights produced significant heat sources when manifesting (photos by Dean Warsing).

Nick Redfern’s Science Fiction Secrets From Government Files and the Paranormal is one of my favorite new offerings from Britain’s finest Gonzo journalist of paranormalia. From strange FBI tales involving the apparent paranoia of Sci-Fi writers like Phillip K. Dick, to weird parallels he draws between the terrorist attacks of 9-11 and television programs that predicted the disaster before it happened, this  book is a mind bender in the first degree, and will leave you wondering how soon Anomalist Books will be asking for “round two.”

One of my favorite chapters deals with Ray Palmer, a fascinating little dwarf who published the Sci-Fi pulp magazine Amazing Stories back in the late ’30s and into the ’40’s. Palmer was perhaps known best for his publication of the long running and controversial “Shaver Mystery” stories, based on accounts (allegedly true in some capacity) related by a machine welder turned “psychic” named Richard S. Shaver. Palmer’s support of the truth of Shaver’s stories, which dealt with notions that the world is controlled subversively by wicket, inbred inhabitants of the hollow earth called Deros, was controversial in the science fiction community. Many felt Palmer published the stories because of the literal “shock value”, although readers soon flooded the mailbox of Amazing Stories after the initial publication of Shaver’s offerings, spinning their own yarns of assault and capture by real-life Deros from underground worlds.

Redfern brilliantly unveils a variety of parallels regarding Palmer’s involvement in lapsing the realms of Sci Fi and reality, as well as the likes of Issac Assimov, and Arthur C. Clark. Rocket scientist Jack Parsons comes into question, as well as the infamous Roswell UFO crash of 1947. The old adage “truth is stranger than fiction” comes to mind often when reading this gem, and if you ever doubted it, this will be the manuscript that will finally change that perception. Read it, enjoy it, and be prepared to never see the world around you quite the same way you once did.

Tomorrow night from 8 to 11 PM EDST I’ll be filling in for Joshua P. Warren on his radio program, Speaking of Strange. During the second hour of the broadcast, our guest will be author and researcher Christopher O’Brien, who will discuss his new book Stalking the Trickster. If you have any stories that are newsworthy, please consider emailing them to me by clicking the link below:

Send a News Tip

To listen to the broadcast, visit wwnc.com and hover over “Listen Now” in the toolbar. Then select “Listen Live” to activate the live streaming. Or, if you’re old fashioned (and living in the Southeastern United States), you might try dialing 570 AM on your radio dial. Participate in the program by dialing 1-800-570-9962.

A Cavalcade of Paranormal Beer Selections

How many have you tried? Arguably, after trying ALL these at once, you’d be likely to see some spirits yourself! Remember: drink responsibly!

Purple Mountain Observatory and Chinese Academy of Sciences Fellow Ji Hai-sheng said “at present it is impossible to speculate what the unidentified object is…. however, research has started.’ Below is a video depicting various photographs of the UFO (although there is no translation from the Chinese as of yet):

The sighting occurred in broad daylight over Deqing in the Guandong Province. Reports say that “dozens of students claimed to have seen the object”, witnessed by the students as it flew overhead during a rooftop observation of the July 22 solar eclipse. At present, nine of the students are believed to have photographed the alleged UFO, which appeared to to change color and shape. Witnesses described that the object had initially appeared to be glowing blue, and later darkened. The images in the video above indicate a small, round object of purplish color, as well as a “saucer-shaped” dark object, although reports describe the UFO as appearing cigar-shaped.

Click here to read the British Daily Mail’s complete article.

Interdisciplinary Paranormalistics

Greg is a good buddy, and we always enjoy discussing a wide variety of topics. In this interview, Greg and I run the entire gamut on a variety of strange subjects that range from modern Ufology to the current state of science and how it relates to unexplained phenomena. An enlightening conversation, with several fun and slightly silly moments to enjoy along the way.

Science Fiction Secrets

Here’s what the editorial reviews had to say:

ALL THE INGREDIENTS FOR A HIGH STRANGENESS STEW: Mix two parts science fiction with one part high-level government secrecy. Add a liberal helping of the paranormal. Then let Nick Redfern heat and serve. The result is far, far stranger than anything that you could ever begin to imagine. SCIENCE FICTION SECRETS presents some mind-bending answers to a number of highly intriguing and thought-provoking questions, including: — Did the U.S. Government secretly assist Steven Spielberg in the production of his groundbreaking science fiction movies “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial”? — Why were special agents of the FBI so deeply interested in the life, career, and activities of science fiction author Philip K. Dick (of “Blade Runner” fame)? — How did “The X-Files” spin-off series “The Lone Gunmen” anticipate months in advance the terrible tragedy of 9-11?

Why was the top brass of the U.S. Air Force so secretly interested in, and concerned by, the UFO-related tales of a relatively anonymous 1950s science fiction movie-maker who died in poverty in the early 1980s? — Did a nightmarish scenario presented in one of H.G. Wells’ novels prompt Soviet Premier Josef Stalin to clandestinely embark upon a secret and diabolical experiment designed to create a super race of monstrous, half-human half-ape soldiers? — Has the military managed to successfully perfect human teleportation of the type that was most graphically and famously shown in “Star Trek” and “The Fly”?

Nick seems to advocate the idea that “truth is stranger than fiction”… no doubt, readers of this book will walk away feeling utter agreement with this statement. If anything, the weirdest thing imaginable on film likely already do exist in some capacity, as revealed when we begin probing such realities as those outlined in Science Fiction Secrets: From Government Files and the Paranormal. To purchase the book at Amazon.com, follow the link below:

Science Fiction Secrets… Buy it Now!