Gray Barker once famously wrote “UFO is a bucket of shit.” Actually, he wrote a poem titled “UFO is a bucket of shit.
Its followers: perverts, monomaniacs, dipsomaniacs Artists of the fast buck True believers, objective believers, new age believers Keyhoe believers Shushed by the three men Or masturbated by space men UFO is a bucket of shit The A.F. investigated UFOs And issued a report Couched in polite language Which translated, means: “UFO is a bucket of shit” Meade Layne is a bucket of shit Lex Mebane is a bucket of shit James W. Moseley is a bucket of shit Richard Ogden is a bucket of shit Ray Palmer is a bucket of shit And I sit here writing While the shit drips down my face In great rivulets”
Barker was a rather famous UFO “investigator” (and many might disagree with that) or figure back in the 1950s or 60s, and was the author of “They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers”, the famous Bender case. So, what has this to do with the sentiment about UFO or UFOs being a bucket of shit? Well, this was driven home to me once again.
I left, for the most part, UFO research in late 2006. My wife Vicki and I left our positions at UFO Magazine (Vicki was a founder back in 1986) in 2006, very unhappy at the direction the magazine took under Bill and Nancy Birnes. (The magazine totally then floundered and collapsed in the next couple of years.) I was fed up in large part because there was almost no in-depth research being done by many calling themselves “researchers.” Very few people were “getting out in the weeds” to track down cases, witnesses, and all other things associated with good research. So, what exactly is this little “op-ed” piece all about? Well, by doing absolutely nothing on my part, my name and rep are being bandied about in a derogatory manner by number of reprobates, all over a so called 20 plus years ago “feud” I had with the late Jim Moseley, who died back in 2012. Huh? Yup! Maybe UFO IS A BUCKET OF SHIT.
Back in the early 90s, I took the subject of UFO research in a very serious way. I conducted my investigations pretty much just like I had conducted criminal investigations back when I was a cop. I had gotten pretty deep in the weeds with a number of UFO cases, breaking them open in the magazine and also on quite a few television shows. I took the topic very seriously, and that was about when I first met Jim Moseley. I knew who he was by reputation, the good along with the bad. The bad I refer to deals with his many hoax’s he carried out with people like Gray Barker. I knew about his ‘zine, Saucer Smear, and his laissez faire attitude toward the subject and his constant promotions of the feuds and dark underbelly of the field. (Mostly commentary and so on with various people in the field of UFOs.)
Moseley was well aware of the exposes I wrote that ran in UFO Magazine (we sent him a comp subscription), including my very public exposes on Bill Cooper. Cooper, who was shot and killed by police during a gunfight in 2001, was a vicious sociopath, a plagiarist and liar who would not hesitate to unjustly defame anyone whom he felt had wronged him. Moseley connected with Cooper, who told him that I had not served in the Army or in Vietnam, claiming I “stole valor” as a phony soldier. Moseley broke the first law of any type of journalism or even quasi-journalism … confirmation. He never called me to confirm or deny Cooper’s lies, then ran the false allegations in Saucer Smear. (On a side note, Moseley knew Russ Estes and called Russ and asked him about Cooper’s claim. Estes told Moseley that it was a baldfaced lie, but Moseley wanted to “get me.”) I went lawyer hunting.
As I soon discovered, a lawsuit is a very expensive proposition. I did not have the needed money then and the lawyers I knew would not take it on a contingency basis. (I got screwed twice.) My attitude toward Moseley then was that I would not take a piss on him if I saw him catch fire. (And I stated this on my first Paracast, just after I left UFO research. Gene Steinberg, who interviewed me along with David Biedny, did not take kindly to my sentiment. He was a long-time friend of Moseley’s.)
Well, my friend who informed me of this minor tempest in a teapot was threatened with banishment from the forum for telling this Moseley story with my involvement. Of course, all these “keyboard warriors” did not have the testicular guts to ask me about it personally.. Perhaps I will include this bunch on my “No Piss On” policy. Carry On, Troops ….
Its followers: perverts, monomaniacs, dipsomaniacs Artists of the fast buck True believers, objective believers, new age believers Keyhoe believers Shushed by the three men Or masturbated by space men UFO is a bucket of shit The A.F. investigated UFOs And issued a report Couched in polite language Which translated, means: “UFO is a bucket of shit” Meade Layne is a bucket of shit Lex Mebane is a bucket of shit James W. Moseley is a bucket of shit Richard Ogden is a bucket of shit Ray Palmer is a bucket of shit And I sit here writing While the shit drips down my face In great rivulets”
Barker was a rather famous UFO “investigator” (and many might disagree with that) or figure back in the 1950s or 60s, and was the author of “They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers”, the famous Bender case. So, what has this to do with the sentiment about UFO or UFOs being a bucket of shit? Well, this was driven home to me once again.
I left, for the most part, UFO research in late 2006. My wife Vicki and I left our positions at UFO Magazine (Vicki was a founder back in 1986) in 2006, very unhappy at the direction the magazine took under Bill and Nancy Birnes. (The magazine totally then floundered and collapsed in the next couple of years.) I was fed up in large part because there was almost no in-depth research being done by many calling themselves “researchers.” Very few people were “getting out in the weeds” to track down cases, witnesses, and all other things associated with good research. So, what exactly is this little “op-ed” piece all about? Well, by doing absolutely nothing on my part, my name and rep are being bandied about in a derogatory manner by number of reprobates, all over a so called 20 plus years ago “feud” I had with the late Jim Moseley, who died back in 2012. Huh? Yup! Maybe UFO IS A BUCKET OF SHIT.
Back in the early 90s, I took the subject of UFO research in a very serious way. I conducted my investigations pretty much just like I had conducted criminal investigations back when I was a cop. I had gotten pretty deep in the weeds with a number of UFO cases, breaking them open in the magazine and also on quite a few television shows. I took the topic very seriously, and that was about when I first met Jim Moseley. I knew who he was by reputation, the good along with the bad. The bad I refer to deals with his many hoax’s he carried out with people like Gray Barker. I knew about his ‘zine, Saucer Smear, and his laissez faire attitude toward the subject and his constant promotions of the feuds and dark underbelly of the field. (Mostly commentary and so on with various people in the field of UFOs.)
Moseley was well aware of the exposes I wrote that ran in UFO Magazine (we sent him a comp subscription), including my very public exposes on Bill Cooper. Cooper, who was shot and killed by police during a gunfight in 2001, was a vicious sociopath, a plagiarist and liar who would not hesitate to unjustly defame anyone whom he felt had wronged him. Moseley connected with Cooper, who told him that I had not served in the Army or in Vietnam, claiming I “stole valor” as a phony soldier. Moseley broke the first law of any type of journalism or even quasi-journalism … confirmation. He never called me to confirm or deny Cooper’s lies, then ran the false allegations in Saucer Smear. (On a side note, Moseley knew Russ Estes and called Russ and asked him about Cooper’s claim. Estes told Moseley that it was a baldfaced lie, but Moseley wanted to “get me.”) I went lawyer hunting.
As I soon discovered, a lawsuit is a very expensive proposition. I did not have the needed money then and the lawyers I knew would not take it on a contingency basis. (I got screwed twice.) My attitude toward Moseley then was that I would not take a piss on him if I saw him catch fire. (And I stated this on my first Paracast, just after I left UFO research. Gene Steinberg, who interviewed me along with David Biedny, did not take kindly to my sentiment. He was a long-time friend of Moseley’s.)
Well, my friend who informed me of this minor tempest in a teapot was threatened with banishment from the forum for telling this Moseley story with my involvement. Of course, all these “keyboard warriors” did not have the testicular guts to ask me about it personally.. Perhaps I will include this bunch on my “No Piss On” policy. Carry On, Troops ….