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Coming at you just one day removed from the birthday of binnall, I am binnall, himself, wishing all of you a Happy Birthday and welcoming you back to the binnall report. As an aside, I've found it hilarious to wish other people a Happy Birthday back to them when they say it to me. The look of confusion is priceless. Anyway, I'm a year older now, get over it, I did.
This week, C2C finally relents and releases the guest list for next week. We review a landscape changing week for Coast. We preview this week's BoA audio, featuring Melinda Leslie. We answer questions in the mailbag and look back at the past of C2C. We also meet another of Noory's incarnations : Nanny McNoor in Hot Newz. Yes, you can have your cake and eat it too, I'm living proof.
Let's keep on rockin in what's left of the free world with this week's binnall report ...
The Week That Was
We left off last Friday with The Noor welcoming Linda Moulton Howe back to C2C for the first time in '06. LMH was talking about a 1947 UFO Crash and, from what I hear, was holding Coast as only she can. From the reports I got, this episode was thoroughly enjoyed by many in esoterica. Standard Open lines followed this two hour extended pop-in.
Saturday turned out to be the final Ian Punnett hosted Saturday night C2C. Unless you live under a rock somewhere, you heard that Ian announced that Art Bell would be returning to hosting full weekends on Coast, much to the delight of Bell fans everywhere. We'd later find out that Ian will now be hosting a C2C spin off that will air in the pre-feed slot on Saturday nights. No name for the show just yet, but I have taken to calling it "Ian", in the tradition of great spin offs of the past like "Frasier" or "Maude".
Anyway, the future host of Ian ended up still having to host the Saturday show after abdicating it to Art Bell at the end of the 1st Hour. The guest was Lynn Marzulli, talking about Biblical Prophecy. I missed Marzulli, as I was too shocked by the Bell news to care about the rest of Coast that night.
Sunday ... I don't even know what to say. First off, I don't think I will ever forget that hour of radio for as long as I live. Not a day has gone by since Sunday that I didn't pause at some point and think of that hour. A mere recap cannot do it justice, it has to be heard to be believed and experienced. For those of you just catching up now, it was the return of Art Bell after the stunning and tragic loss of his beloved wife Ramona Bell.
Art took us through the events of the past month with emotionally riveting detail. I'm man enough to admit that I got teary eyed a few times there while Art talked about his loss. Much respect and love to Art for his brave appearance.
After a draining hour like that, only one man can be the full show guest and that is the sensei of Coast, Dr. Michio Kaku. Kaku brought his lofty wisdom on current space events, SETI, and string theory. We also got a glimpse of a fired up Kaku when he was asked about what Lawrence Krauss said about Michio a few months back on Coast. Kaku called Krauss "illiterate in string theory" and, get this, "only an astronomer". Oh, snap ! Lawrence Krauss ... you just got served.
Monday, The Noor donned the stripes for the first ever Skeptics Cage ! This was a landmark episode, so sit down 'cause I've got lots to say. First of all, I love the concept. I'm not a huge fan of pulling this episode off a mere two weeks since Michael Shermer's appearance where the concept was conceived. That said, I'm all for the concept itself. The format of Shermer v. each guest for one hour was good, as I was afraid it would be a free-for-all otherwise.
I was disappointed with the choice of esoteric "fighters", Gary Schwartz, Russel Targ, and Dean Radin. I didn't think they represented C2C as a whole. Lacking were the Ufology and Conspiracy disciplines. I also thought it was amusing that Noory said they needed to find more skeptics, considering both Seth Shostak and Phil Plait sure like to run their mouths when they are on the show.
Now, onto the individual "bouts". Shermer versus Schwartz, I scored as a draw. Schwartz was aggressive as hell, but was too agreeable with Shermer to be considered a "winner". Shermer showed that his attack was limited to asking for huge results and criticizing small details. Some of his points were strong though.
Shermer versus Targ, I scored in favor of Targ. Shermer almost won this one, but Targ's plucky attitude and domination of air time put the hurting on Shermer's chances. We also began to see the faults in Shermer's argument as his continued demand for someone to "find Bin Laden" grew more and more annoying as the Cage Match continued. His response to the government's spending 20 years on remote viewing was the pat hand of "the government pays 100 dollars for a hammer".
Worthy of note was how Noory asked Targ about Ed Dames and Targ ripped Dames big time, including saying that Dames goes on Coast to Coast and never gets anything right. Wow. Noory's Predictions Special is taking a beating once again. You'd think Noory would know better than to ask anyone for their opinion of Dames, considering his dubious nature. Perhaps that is Noory's way of "throwing a bone" to the C2C hardcores who crow on about how phony Dames is.
Finally, in the last bout of Shermer versus Radin, I scored in favor of Radin by a wide margin. Shermer was ranting at this point and his demand for Radin to "find Bin Laden" went against the entire idea of the "Princeton Eggs" experiment. Shermer just looked like a moron who had no idea what Radin was working on. In the immortal words of Stanton Friedman re: The C2C Great UFO Debate : "Absence of evidence, in your hands, isn't evidence for absence, it's evidence of ignorance !" 'Nuff said.
I wasn't a huge fan of the episode, but there is room for improvement and it could be a really killer show if done right. I'd like to see 3 skeptics v. 3 esotericists in individual bouts. Shostak v. a UFO dude (preferably Friedman), Shermer v. a conspiracy guy (Alex Jones perhaps) and Plait v. RCH as the main event (we all know Plait is a coward and won't debate Hoagland, so forget that one). I think the right mix of skeptic and "believer" would make for some awesome radio.
Tuesday, fresh off the Skeptics Cage, Lynn McTaggart joined the show to talk about "The Field", a nebulous concept that seems to tie into remote viewing and psychics and stuff. I wasn't sure, because I could never quite get a read on what the hell The Field was. Pretty boring episode, but it tried.
Wednesday, Noory welcomed Mary Occhino to the show to talk about psychic mediums. This was decent, but I'm still pretty burned out on mediums and what-have-you, since the turn of the year. Occhino had a thick New York accent that was slightly endearing, but her praise for John Edwards left a bad taste in my impression of her. Good episode if you like that fare.
Despite my reservations, John Hogue brought the noise and the funk with a pretty damn good episode. Having not heard Hogue in quite some time and suspending my overall skepticism of Nostradamus stuff, this was great. My one complaint would be that I would like to have heard or seen that video from 1996 where Houge nearly predicted 911. That would have been interesting.
The Week That Is
Thankfully, the good folks at C2C have ended their jihad against the binnall report and have begun listing next week's guests again. Another spiritual victory for "tbr".
We start off tonight with Open Lines, hosted by The Noor, of course. Marc Hartzman will serve as the pop-in, discussing odd stuff found on ebay. Sounds hilarious and informative.
I suppose I'll preview the debut of the C2C spin off, "Ian", from here on out as well. This week, on the premiere of Ian, he's got James Chiles on first, then R. Gary Patterson on for the rest of the show, which I believe is 3 hours, not four. Hopefully, Ian won't ask R.Gary about old '80's hair bands.
Then, of course, we have the return of The Bell Zone after a 6 month absence. First up, it's Nick Begich and Ben Eastlund to talk about HAARP on Saturday. Sounds mildly interesting.
Sunday, it's Glen Steckling to talk about alien bases and George Adamski. Sounds fascinating. Something tells me that Steckling may be crazy as all hell, but I'm not sure.
Monday, The Noor welcomes Lisa Randall to the show to talk about Hidden Dimensions. Sounds bizarre. Could be excellent, but it could also be nebulous and lame.
Wacky "alien hunter" Derrel Sims returns to C2C on Tuesday to talk about abductions. Sims is pretty entertaining, so this should be good.
Wednesday, it a double dose of alt. doctors with Len Horowitz and Phillip Tierno. If you are a hypocondriac, I suggest you skip this episode, lest you go insane.
No word yet on the Thursday guest. May I suggest Richard C. Hoagland, for the simple reason that it is Groundhog Day and he seems most appropriate, given his penchant for C2C appearances. Something tells me Noory has the same reaction to RCH that Bill Murray had to the radio coming on every morning in Groundhog Day.
Looks to be an interesting week. No blockbusters, but Sims is good and the return of The Bell Zone should be fun. Lisa Randall may be a sleeper for a good episode as well.
binnall of america : audio, Season One
This Week : Melinda Leslie (Part 2 of 2). The second installment of my discussion with Melinda Leslie on MILABs (military abductions). We discuss the "minders", those spooky dudes from the government who tend to glom onto abductees. Meanwhile, Melinda shares the chilling story of government harassment that befell her former co-author. Also, what other researchers say about her work, disclosure, "Stepford Abductees", women in Ufology, and much much more.
Next Week : Colm Kelleher, co-author of "Hunt for the Skinwalker" joins BoA : Audio to discuss NIDS, the Skinwalker Ranch, the book, the esoteric community, and tons more.
binnall report mailbag
Letter #1
Hey i was wondering if you you could explain what your site is all about and the relationship to the Binnall's there is.. thanks It would help me out greatly
Tammy Binnall
Every six months or so I manage to get an e-mail from some other binnall out there wondering what I am doing with their name. Sorry, other binnalls, but it is my name too and I will use it as I please. Thankfully, Tammy Binnall didn't berate me like so many other disgruntled Binnalls do.
Tammy, my site is about estorerica (i.e. the paranormal). My relationship to the Binnall's is that I am a Binnall ... the binnall of binnalls. Binnall is my last name, thus the source of the website name and all the various screennames I have online are just "binnall".
Letter #2
binnal,
Did you get Noory's Predictions special yet ?
Janice in St.Paul, Minnesota
No, not yet. My cable provider does not have InDemand, we have TVN. I also haven't had the time to check it out online yet, but I might later on this weekend. Somebody offered to send me a copy of it, so I may wait for that to arrive instead.
Despite not having seen it yet, I'm happy that they didn't try and charge an arm and a leg for the PPV version, a mere 10 dollars is cool by me. That said, Noory couldn't have picked a worse time for a PPV special on Predictions after Sylvia Browne's meltdown at the beginning of the year and then Russel Targ's total ruining of Ed Dames from this past week.
Questions ? Comments ? Send them to tbinnall@hotmail.com
This Week in C2C History
1.27.2005 : The J Lo of crypto, the chupacabra, was the topic of the night with Scott Corrales. Corrales shared some of the more outlandish theories re: the chupa, "In a frightening biological explanation, Corrales proposed that the chupacabras could actually be giant insects. In one incident, a man hit one of the creatures with a machete, and he said it felt like its body may have been hollow inside a hard shell. The insect theory could also account for how the chupacabra is able to fly, drain blood and inject an enzyme that liquefies the insides of its prey, he said. Another theory posits that the creatures live deep within a cave system which may actually be a dimensional portal." (C2C website)
1.27.2003 : C2C welcomed Stan Romanek, who was "haunted by UFOs" and told us so ... "On a dark rollercoaster ever since he experienced this sighting in 2000, Romanek has witnessed and videotaped other UFOs since then. He's also found strange scoop marks on his body a number of times. MUFON conducted tests on them, and discovered his wounds glowed fluorescent under black light. On one occasion Romanek woke up outside his house in the middle of the night, dressed only in his underwear in 20 degree weather and he was clutching a yet to be identified metallic object. There was also a gigantic depressed circle in his yard that permanently killed the grass." (C2C website)
1.27.1998 : Apparently there was some controversy at the time over a UPN TV special, which Art Bell responded to on the show : "Art has finally seen the Lake County video of a supposed abduction. Art is outraged and would like to talk to Stanton Freedman and find out in what way he participated in this UPN program. Art feels maybe Stanton's comments were edited. Art feels this was staged because of the credits that roll at the end." (artbell.com cd rom) Also, take a gander at this description and remember the good old days ... "SURPRISE GUEST - Richard C. Hoagland, discussing the recent NASA decision to terminate all manned missions to the moon and Mars."
End Notes
Wow. That Nanny McNoor is perhaps the creepiest Hot Newz in quite some time. 1000 apologies to those who vomited or fainted. With that, we've arrived at the end of another edition of the binnall report. Hope you enjoyed the ride.
Plugs : Tomorrow @ binnallofamerica.com, it's BoA : Audio with Melinda Leslie (Part 2 of 2) where we wrap up our MILAB discussion. Sunday, smoker dave. We may do something in honor of the debut of "Ian", I'm not sure. Monday, I'll finally get around to updating the Coasties and we'll probably have other stuff as well. Tuesday, Lesley will present Grey Matter in some form or fashion, either a fresh one or a Best Of. Wednesday, the one-year-old K-Files returns to kick off Year 2 of the venerable column. Much congrats to Khyron on his achievement. His work with BoA and khyron.net has been nothing short of stellar. Thursday, Hot Newz. Friday, we do it all again here with the binnall report. binnallofamerica.com ... freshly squeezed esoterica.
Until next week ... this is binnall, signing off.