Not So Secret "Secret Base..."!

Sometimes you have to wonder just why so many secret bases were built in the United States, especially when they aren't kept secret.

I know there must be a reason for these bases, but I can't imagine just what it could be. I wonder if this is like hiding in plain sight?

Pennsylvania’s (Not So) Secret Underground Base

By Anthony Sfarra on Sunday, February 28, 2016

Raven Rock Mountain Complex is a military base in Pennsylvania that has been referred to as an “underground Pentagon.” Security is tight, but the base itself isn’t very well-hidden. Razor wire fences and guardhouses stand out clear as day. Personnel allowing visitors to use guardhouse phones and posting information about conferences at the base hasn’t helped, either.

Raven Rock Mountain Complex (RRMC), also known as Site R, has been referred to by government employees in the know as an “underground Pentagon.” The “secret” base is inside Pennsylvania’s Raven Rock Mountain, located near the Maryland border and not too far from Gettysburg. It’s also only 11 kilometers (7 mi) from Camp David.

Below the surface, RRMC is said to have five three-story buildings, caves filled with computers, and its own underground water reservoir. New subterranean construction has been indicated as recently as 2006.

RRMC was built in the early 1950s as a backup command center in the event of nuclear war. Dick Cheney was said to have relocated to Raven Rock after the 9/11 attacks. He was also alleged to have gone there for reasons unknown at other points during George W. Bush’s presidency.

Security remains tight to this day. Heavily armed soldiers guard the main entrance, and other areas feature guardhouses and razor wire. People inside the base are instructed to avoid discussing RRMC with outsiders.

Intended security and secrecy aside, RRMC isn’t particularly well-hidden. Although author James Bamford’s book, A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America’s Intelligence Agencies, has been credited with exposing the existence of the complex in the early 2000s, local residents knew it was there years beforehand.

It’s not hard to see signs of the base’s existence. A mass of antennae and satellite dishes sits on top of Raven Rock Mountain. From nearby Route 16, a pair of gigantic metal doors on the side of the mountain can be seen through the trees. Local postal workers know of several entrances to RRMC, though they’re not responsible for delivering the base’s mail. The aforementioned razor wire fences and guardhouses aren’t particularly subtle, either.

Even if every entrance to RRMC was perfectly camouflaged and its communication equipment looked like trees, it wouldn’t make up for the negligence of its personnel.

In 2004, a reporter drove up the back road leading to the main entrance. He needed to make a phone call, but there was no cell phone service. (On top of that, his phone mysteriously shut itself off.) One of the guards kindly let him into a guardhouse to use the phone.

The reporter made his call, but by then, the guards had begun to look nervous, perhaps realizing they shouldn’t have let anyone in.

The reporter said he’d wait a bit in the car, and the guards told him that they’d let him know if he got a call back.

About 10 minutes later, one of them came out and told the reporter that he’d seen more than he was supposed to and that he shouldn’t describe any of it to anyone. He warned, “Everything here is classified.” Fines and possible jail time were mentioned.

If that mistake wasn’t enough, in 2006, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) posted information on its public website about a conference to be held at RRMC. Tours of the site would also be provided.

Writers for Wired, surprised at such an open announcement of a conference at a “secret” base, emailed the conference’s contact person and asked for information about the conference. The DTRA obliged, and Wired received a conference schedule and information for visitors to RRMC. A few days later, the announcement was no longer on the DTRA’s website, and it was clarified to Wired that press were not invited to the conference. As Wired put it, “Somewhere inside the halls of DTRA, we suspect someone was being reprimanded.”

The information they received detailed security inspections that guests would face, warned of the secret nature of conference information, and instructed all guests not to talk to reporters or to post information about RRMC on the Internet. (At least one DTRA employee forgot this bit.) The packet also included directions to RRMC from Gettysburg, where most conference guests would be staying, and provided a bus schedule to and from the historical town.

In fairness, even today, there doesn’t seem to be much information on what goes on inside Raven Rock Mountain Complex, but it clearly exists. Google even drove a Street View car up to at least one entrance in August 2012.

Like I said, I'm sure there is a good reason for this, but Lord only knows the reason.

Coffee out on the patio this morning, even if it rains!

The Hoop Snake Myth...!

From the earliest days of settlement in America, there has always been a rich source of legends and myths. Most. of course, are not true.

The fact that they are false doesn't mean that their are completely made up. Remember that all myths have some kernel of truth hidden inside!

Hoop Snakes

Photo credit: williamdefalco via YouTube

“Hoop snakes” have supposedly been sighted since colonial times in North America. It is believed that this particular snake grabs its own tail with its mouth and rolls like a hoop after its prey at great speed. The hoop snake is also said to have a venomous stinger in its tail which it uses to finish off its victims.

It is thought that the myth of the hoop snake originated from the behavior of the real-life mud snake, which can be found along the coastal plain of America. The mud snake is passive and does not bite. But it often presses the tip of its tail against its captor’s skin, which has led to the false assumption that it stings.

Many qualities have been attributed to the hoop snake: It is inflated, it glows at night, and it squirts poison from its tail. Nevertheless, although people have claimed to have seen this peculiar creature, no real evidence of the hoop snake exists.

You have to wonder what person gave the snake it's name and started the whole thing. Some very active imagination for sure!

Coffee outside this morning...patio is calling me!

Remembering The Drive In Movies...!

I'd be willing to bet that most of us went to the drive in regularly, am I right?

I spent many pleasant evenings there in the company of a young girl. Only way to go to the movies back then! Got to watch a movie, get some popcorn, and maybe make out a bit with a pretty girl!

1938

Miami drive-in debuts

American drive-in movie theaters experienced their golden era during the 1950s, but some Floridians were watching movies under the stars in their cars even before then: The city of Miami gets its first drive-in on this day in 1938. The Miami drive-in charged admission of 35 cents per person, which was more than the average ticket price at an indoor theater, and soon had to trim the price to 25 cents per person.

America’s first-ever drive-in opened near Camden, New Jersey, on June 6, 1933, and was the brainchild of Richard Hollingshead, whose family owned an auto parts company. The inaugural feature was a 1932 film called “Wives Beware,” and admission was 25 cents per car and an additional 25 cents per person. The sound for the movies was provided by three large RCA speakers next to the main screen. (The quality of the drive-in experience improved during the 1940s with the advent of the in-car speaker.)

Following World War II, the popularity of drive-in theaters increased as America’s car culture grew. By the early 1950s, there were more than 800 drive-ins across the United States. Although they earned a reputation as “passion pits” for young couples seeking privacy, most drive-in customers were families (parents didn’t have to hire babysitters or get dressed up and their children could wear pajamas and sleep in the car) and often featured playgrounds, concession stands and other attractions. Some drive-ins were super-sized, including Detroit’s Bel Air Drive-In, built in 1950, which had room for more than 2,000 cars, and Baltimore’s Bengies Drive-In, which opened in 1956, and claimed the biggest movie screen in the U.S.: 52 feet high by 100 feet wide. Over the years, attempts were made to develop a daytime screen that would enable drive-ins to show movies before it got dark, but nothing proved successful.

At their peak in the late 1950s and early 1960s, there were some 4,000 drive-ins across America. However, during the 1970s and 1980s the drive-in industry went into decline and theaters shut down, due to such factors as rising real-estate values (which made selling the land for redevelopment more profitable than continuing to operate it as a drive-in) and the rise of other entertainment options, including video recorders, multiplex theaters and cable television. By 1990, there were around 1,000 U.S. drive-ins. Today, they number less than 400 (states with the most remaining drive-ins include Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York).

New Jersey has the distinction of being the home of not just the first drive-in but also the first fly-in theater. In June 1948, Ed Brown’s Drive-In and Fly-In opened in Wall Township and had space for 500 cars and 25 planes.

I had no idea that the drive in had been around that long, but I'm glad that it was there for me to enjoy. Many pleasant memories stemming from the good ol' drive in!

Coffee out on the patio this morning.

Putting Animals On Trial...!

No...I'm not talking about the two legged animals but the four legged kind.

Back in the old days, they would actually put some poor creature on trial. As you might guess, they lost more than they won. Wonder why?

When Animals Were Put On Trial In The Middle Ages

By Lance David LeClaire on Wednesday, February 24, 2016

An amazing, and seemingly superstitious, part of the legal systems throughout the medieval period in Europe involved the question of how animals should be treated by the law. Animals of all kinds, from pigs to birds to insects, were sometimes put on trial—just like people. A fascinating 1906 book, called The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals, gives us a window into this little-known aspect of the medieval world, where animals were granted public defenders and legal papers were left where they would conveniently find them.

Medieval animal trials mostly took place in Western Europe and from the late medieval to early modern period. To understand this practice, it’s useful to know how legal proceedings involving animals were separated. Domesticated animals—considered members of their owner’s household—were handled by civil authorities, while vermin (who could not be seized and imprisoned) were dealt with by the church.

In the latter cases, animals “appeared” before ecclesiastical courts, who determined a course of action. For example, was a locust swarm was an act of God (not to be interfered with) or possession by demons or evil spirits? If an animal tried by the Church was involved in murder, it was turned over to secular courts if guilty, the way heretics were.

Since possession was part of the typical worldview among medieval men and women, it isn’t surprising that this was reflected in legal proceedings.

Animal prosecution had connections to scripture based upon Old Testament admonitions to stone oxen that had killed (Exodus 21:28), but there were also secular factors. Because they were a part of daily life, medieval law had to determine how animals fit into a legal framework, how disputes involving animals were resolved, how victims of someone’s animal were compensated, and so on. Many trials were attempts by institutions to assert order and keep control.

One 1386 trial involved a sow accused of murder. The pig had partially eaten a child who was sleeping, who died thereafter. Found guilty, it has been said that the sow was dressed in male clothing, given an armed escort, and was mutilated with a knife before being hung, although there is no evidence for the embellishments beyond the fact of the execution.

Another case involved Bartholomew Chassenee, an important legal figure in French law. He defended the rats of Auten, who were devastating crops. Chassenee hit upon a brilliant argument for the rat’s failure to show in court, and it formed the basis for legal standards in use today.

Chassenee argued that the “non-appearance of his clients [should be excused] . . . on the ground of the length and difficulty of the journey, and the serious perils that attended it, owing to the unwearied vigilance of their mortal enemies, the cats, who watched all their movements, and with fell intent, lay in wait for them at every corner and passage.”

Chassenee used variations of this defense to successfully defend human clients.

Bizarrely, rats and other vermin were sometimes served a “writ of ejection.” To ensure that the papers were perused by rodents, they were greased (to provide an attractive odor), rolled up, and placed within rat holes. This practice continued throughout Europe and parts of the United States until at least 1892.

Sometimes, simple revenge against animals was to blame. Egbert, Bishop of Trier, issued an anathema against swallows because they had a habit of “chirping and chattering, and [they] sacrilegiously defiled his head and vestments with their droppings when he was officiating at the altar.”

Superstition was a factor, as when roosters were accused of laying eggs. In 1474, a rooster was actually executed for this crime.

One of the longest animal trials documented was brought before Francois Bonnivard against a species of green weevil, which was devastating vineyards throughout a region of France. The defense maintained that, as God created all things, and supplied food not just for humans, but also for animals, the court must consider the insect’s affairs.

The Church decided to exorcise the insects and insisted that villagers help maintain harmony (and pay their tithes). According to accounts, the insects departed.

Here the Church used the animal world and the law to exert control and influence over earthly affairs, including filling the holy coffers.

But 30 years later, the insects returned. This time, the case went to trial. The defense remained, but the plaintiff insisted that the land and lower creatures were subordinate to man and that it was therefore permissible to order them off land set aside for his use. After a drawn-out case, a plot was picked for the weevils’ use—if the advocate approved.

Unfortunately, the advocate wasn’t satisfied. How did it end? We don’t know. The last pages of the documentation were eaten by insects!

I'd say that we had better be careful trying insects. They might just eat all the evidence!

Coffee out on the chilly patio this morning, OK?

Samuel Colt For Western Wednesday...!

First let me explain what happened yesterday. I got lazy!

No nice way to put it ...I was too lazy to post I'll try to do better. Today I want to talk about Samuel Colt. Quite the inventor!

In 1836, Connecticut-born gun manufacturer Samuel Colt (1814-62) received a U.S. patent for a revolver mechanism that enabled a gun to be fired multiple times without reloading. Colt founded a company to manufacture his revolving-cylinder pistol; however, sales were slow and the business floundered. Then in 1846, with the Mexican War (1846-48) under way, the U.S. government ordered 1,000 Colt revolvers. In 1855, Colt opened what was the world’s largest private armament factory, in which he employed advanced manufacturing techniques such as interchangeable parts and an organized production line. By 1856, the company could produce 150 weapons per day. Colt was also an effective promoter, and by the start of the U.S. Civil War (1this861-65) he had made the Colt revolver perhaps the world’s best-known firearm. He died a wealthy man in 1862; the company he founded remains in business today.


Coffee inside today. Very high winds on the patio

No Post Today...

Due to some unavoidable circumstances there will be no post today.

Sorry

Headless Body For Monday Mystery...!

One thing worse than finding a dead body is to find one missing a head as well! Especially if he was related, ya know?

I found this murder mystery over at Listverse. Credit where credit is due, ya know?

Robert Hollis

On the afternoon of June 4, 2015, 75-year-old Robert Hollis’s son was checking in on him after neighbors grew concerned because they hadn’t seen the elderly man, affectionately nicknamed “Mr. Bojangles,” in a few days.

When the son entered his partially blind father’s Inglewood, California, apartment, he made a gruesome discovery: His father was dead and decapitated. Even more disturbing, the killer took Hollis’s head when he or she left the apartment. It has never been found.

Hollis’s family is unsure who would have killed the elderly man because he didn’t have any enemies. He was even friends with his ex-wife. His family also said that valuables in the house were untouched.Police are still looking into the death. The mayor of Inglewood also arranged a $50,000 reward for information regarding the murder. Despite this, no arrests have been made.

Pretty gruesome way to go, abd the question we always ask is...WHY?

Coffee inside as it is starting to rain. Bummer!