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What an odd week. For some reason, by mid-week, I was just exhausted and confused. I'm not quite sure what happened. I'm just now starting to get out of the funk, thankfully, so maybe things will return to normal here @ BoA HQ. We've been hard at work on BoA : Audio, Season Two and some teasers for the new season are right around the corner, I swear.
But first, in this week's edition of the binnall report, we look back at the past week's Coast to Coast AM offerings, which included Walid Shoebat in an outstanding episode and Art Bell's response to the Greer / SETI fiasco. We look ahead to what's on tap for next week, including discussions on "mind parasites" and "noise". We dip into the mailbag with comments on Gary McKinnon and Ian Punnett. We look back in C2C history to hear what Sylvia Browne was talking about 7 years ago and Art's thoughts on the Pahrump sheriff election of 1998. And, Noory tries to clean up competitive cycling with The Tour de Noor in Hot Newz.
After last week's heated and controversial week, I'm hoping that we can all move onward. Yes, I was disappointed in The Noor, but we've had our ups and downs over the last 2 years of the binnall report, so I expect he'll win me back in due time. Will he amend his stance or did he mean what he said ? That will be revealed as time goes on as well. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and see where it all goes. No hard feelings, Noory, as you like to say, "We're in this together."
Now lets get into it.
The Week That Was
We left off last week with Noory about to bring it the purported reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe, Sherrie Lea Laird, and her shrink, Dr. Adrian Finklestein. As much as this sounds like a real horror show, I skipped out on it, because it sounded all too nonsensical for me. Noory kept the theme going with a "reincarnation" hotline for the final two hours of OL.
After quite a few requests from binnall report readers, I decided to make time in my schedule to check out "Ian", after missing it for quite a few weeks. This past week's "Ian" featured Dr. Steven Miles talking about the ethics of torture. And, I must say, the hype surrounding Ian's performance lately has been justified. He is in the zone. Miles brought a lot of good insight to the table and Ian had a lot of excellent questions for Miles, including an interesting discussion on how doctors fit into the chain of command in the military and also why Miles didn't go to Iraq to check out the prisons there. After this showing, I'll have to make more time for Ian, because he is doing top notch work right now.
Saturday on C2C proper, Art responded to the Greer / SETI fiasco from the previous week. He pretty much blew Shostak's response to Greer right out of the water, as he pointed out an article that said SETI would sit on a signal to determine what it should do about it. I only wish The Noor had stepped up and brought this sort of line of questioning to Shostak last week, instead of apologizing for that wacky Greer.
For the rest of the episode, we turn it over to Lesley's C2C Rewind @ the Debris Field, "His guest for the rest of the show was Lauren Weinstein talking about computer privacy. I only got to hear the first hour of Weinstein, but it seemed like a pretty good show that I may get around to listening to the rest of."
Sunday on Coast, Art brought in another of his favorite guests, Howard Bloom, to talk about terrorism and aeronautics. I only caught the portion on terrorism, but what I heard was the usual solid stuff from Bloom. I may not agree with him, outright, but I respect his opinion and like his style. Good episode.
Monday, The Noor welcomed Robert Sarmast to talk about Atlantis. Apparently, Sarmast thinks Atlantis was somewhere near Crete. Some interesting stuff here, but it was lacking something, I'm not quite sure what. It was a tad bland. Around the middle of the interview, Richard C. Hoagland called in and claimed he might be able to get Sarmast funding and pretty much blew smoke up his posterior. I think RCH may have gotten a Joshua Tree plug in there, naturally. Good episode if you are an Atlantis fan, but otherwise it wasn't too groundbreaking.
Tuesday, in the TBA slot, it was Nick Begich to talk about HAARP. He spent the first half hour or so talking about Alaska and oil problems up there, which was mildly interesting. Then he moved on to talk about HAARP some, which was run-of-the-mill at best. I listened to some of it, but drifted off after a while. I hear there was some good discussion on mind control, but I was zapped after the first hour of the interview, so I missed it. Sounds like it started out slow, but got better towards the middle and end.
The pop-in was Jerry Corsi, making his 9th appearance in 2006, officially making him 2006's C2C Flavor of the Year. Apparently, Bernard Lewis made some warning of a potential Iranian nuke strike against Israel on 8.22 and Corsi was on to discuss that. Despite the dubious reputation of Bernard Lewis, Corsi defended him and seemed to think his warning had some credence to it.
Wednesday on C2C, The Noor locked the doors and turned out the lights for Full Moon Open Lines. Douglas Hagmann was the pop-in to talk about terrorism. Noory and company must have gotten a hot tip as the news broke on the overnight of a big terror bust. Hagmann wasn't really on to warn about that, but he may have alluded to something along those lines. I skipped out on Open Lines, but I hear JC called in, so I'll have to track that down.
Thursday, the first hour guest was Peter Lance. Lance was reacting to the big terror bust that happened on the overnight the previous night. Lance was breathless, as usual, but more tolerable than usual. He finally admitted to being open to the LIHOP (Let It Happen On Purpose) take on 911, which is a start for a staunch non-believer like Lance. He finished up his appearance with more obscure name-dropping and a plug for his new book.
We rounded out the week with easily the best episode of Coast in quite some time, as the full show guest was Walid Shoebat, former member of the PLO. Just an absolutely riveting three hours of C2C. Shoebat had some astounding first hand experiences with being a child in Palestine and joining the PLO, then doing more research and becoming a Jew instead. Stunningly graphic stuff on the PLO's activities and also Shoebat's family turning on him after he left the PLO. Giving credit where credit is due, Noory was excellent in this episode, giving Shoebat the floor and asking solid on-point questions. Excellent episode.
There you have it. A rather "bleh" week, until the end, when things got good. Too much filler stuff, throughout, including the TBA and Open Lines in mid-week, which sort of killed any momentum the show had going on. Also, the overabundance of Middle East related 1st hour guests was kind of a downer.
The Week That Is
Wonders never cease, as this week's Friday into Saturday Open Lines will be guest hosted by Ian Punnett, instead of The Noor. I figured Noory would be all about 2 OL episodes in one week, so I'm pretty stunned that he's missing this one. Should be a nice change of pace to hear an unfettered Ian and it ought to be a rare memorable Open Lines.
Saturday on "Ian", IP welcomes Simon. Yes, he just has one name and it's "Simon". Simon will be on to talk about the necronomicon. I confess to knowing nothing about the necronomicon, despite it owning a small niche in esoterica. I'll be checking out this one and hopefully I'll be brought somewhat up to speed.
Saturday night on C2C proper, Art Bell's guest will be Neal Adams. Adams is somewhat of a pioneer in the world of comics and now has some expanding planets theory. I recall his last appearance with Noory and the part of the show about comics was much more entertaining than the bizarre cosmology stuff. We'll see how much Bell talks about comics and how much he talks about cosmology and that will probably determine how good the episode is.
Sunday on Coast, Bell is reunited once again with Sir Charles Shults. Shults is a Bell standard and usually they produce some memorable radio. Last time out they had a fascinating discussion on artificial intelligence and it looks like they will continue that line of thinking with this episode. I'm predicting a great to excellent one here.
Monday, The Noor kicks off the week with a wild one. Jonathan Zap is all about mind parasites, whatever the hell that is. Zap says they are responsible for serial killers and religious fundamentalism. No word on if they are the cause of professional wrestling. Unless Zap is the studious type (i.e. boring) this should be fantastic. I'm hoping he's an all out nutter, which will make it all the more entertaining.
Tuesday, it's another TBA. Could be anyone. I just wish C2C would dress up the TBA a little more and call it "Wildcard Wednesday" or something and make it a set thing, since they have one almost every week.
Wednesday, Noory welcomes Tom Horn to discuss End Times and how we may be near the proverbial end. Sounds like some fun discussion on esoteric topics like interdimensional portals and stuff. Should be good to great.
Thursday, Bart Kosko, known affectionately around these parts as "nanoman" will be on to talk about "noise". Not sure where he is going with this one, but it should be good. Kosko is an old pro and he is working with a new topic, so it ought to be gold.
So it's an on-paper strong week for Coast. We'll see if the guests can deliver the goods.
binnall report mailbag
Letter #1
If I may make a suggestion - you really need to start listening to Ian's "Coast To Coast Live" shows. While I very much enjoy George's programs, Ian's shows are consistently the best thing going on Coast right now. If you have to choose between getting caught up on George's shows and listening to Ian, I strongly suggest you hop on the Ian train first. It is well worth your time, trust me.
Whatever you decide to do, keep up the great work. We appreciate you out here in in Coast-land...
- Stone Bryson I actually alluded to this letter in last week's "binnall report", but I wanted to give it some due here in the mailbag as well. Also, anytime we can get some praise for Ian, we try to include it in our weekly musings.
As you can see from my review of the past week, I did manage to slip Ian into the rotation and gave him his proper due. Given my consternation with The Noor lately, perhaps it is time to focus more attention on C2C's bastard child, Ian Punnett.
IP, we've been apart so long, but can we try and make it work one more time ? I'm game if you are.
Letter #2 :
feedback regarding g.mckinnon interview
Redundant use of the word 'hack'. Otherwise, an excellent and much-needed interview.
DuyHac Ho Thanks for the feedback. I've noticed that at times I end up beating a word or phrase to death during one of my interviews. I'll try to keep those instances at a minimum for this upcoming Season.
Questions ? Comments ? Send them to tbinnall@hotmail.com
This Week in C2C History
8.11.2005 : The venerable Lionel Fanthorpe was the guest, this time around, he was sharing his stories of Paranormal Britain. Sounds like a classic. Check out this tale that Fanthorpe laid on The Noor, "Fanthorpe recounted the tale of the mermaid of Zennor (a coastal town of Cornwall). She was described as having a fish-like tail and it was said she raised a family in an underwater cave. And supposedly, one day the mermaid asked a sea captain to move his ship because his anchor was blocking the entrance to her home." (c2c.com)
8.11.2003 : Dr. Bruce Goldberg, creator of the infamous and laughable Dexter Monterey, joined the show to talk about time travel. Using some newfangled means, Goldberg talked about how time travelers go wherever they want and investigate the past at will, "Not only do time travelers journey to our era, but also to the ancient lands of Lemuria and Atlantis, Goldberg said. Through hypnotic sessions with a subject named "John," he learned of "electric wars," that took place in Lemuria, where "thousands of people were dematerialized at one time."" (c2c.com)
8.11.1998 : Art Bell proves that all politics is local, "Art talks about the Sheriff election coming up in Pahrump and discusses the good job the current Sheriff is doing. He likes his town and doesn't want it to be ruined by liberal law enforcement." (artbell.com cd rom)
8.11.1999 : Hilarious stuff as we look back at a Sylvia Browne episode that I wish I could hear today, "Sylvia Brown, one of the world's greatest psychics, joins Art in this hour. Art begins by asking her about the recent weird weather and his predictions in his book, The Quickening. Sylvia says we will be living in domed cities to protect us from atmospheric conditions someday. " Only on C2C moment, "Another caller asks Sylvia for her insight on the state of American politics. A caller asks Sylvia to identify the man who is killing cats in her neighborhood. " (artbell.com cd rom)
End Notes
Thus concludes yet another edition of the binnall report. Thanks for joining us on this prowl through the underbrush.
Plugs : Tomorrow @ binnallofamerica.com, it's Hoags to Hoags AM updated plus the debut of an all new BoA C2C counter. Be there for the historic unveiling. Sunday, it's Lesley's C2C Rewind @ The Debris Field and smoker dave updated. Monday, Ralph checks in with his 2nd edition of "Tall Tales", titled "What is intelligence ?" Tuesday, Lesley's Grey Matters. Wednesday, Khyron's K-Files. Thursday, Hot Newz. And Friday, we do it all again with the binnall report.
binnallofamerica.com ... experience the difference.
Luckily, we've wrapped it up with plenty of time to spare here on a sweet Friday afternoon / evening. I hope you all have a stellar weekend and an outstanding week. Until we meet again, this is binnall ... signing off.