Last November liquid daddy wrote about Project Argus, a pentagon program that set off atomic weapons in the Van Allen Belt, creating an artificial Aurora and distrupting the earth’s magnetic field. (see Science as Truth, Nov. 28th,’06 ) I had never heard of this before and I was astounded to hear the origins of the electromagnetic pulse weapons we have today. If you recall, some at the pentagon wanted to use these EMP weapons when we invaded Iraq, but cooler heads decided that we were more dependant on computer and communication systems than Saddam was and thus more vulnerable to these devices.

The other day I heard a story on NPR, Gas Drilling Plan Near Nuclear Site Raises Worries, about Project Plowshare, a Atomic Energy Commission “nukes for peace” program that set off 30 underground nuclear tests in the continental United States between 1962 and 1973. Some of these experimental blasts were supposed to make it easier to extract natural gas deposits. They spent $82 million on this project before discovering that nobody wanted to buy radioactive natural gas. Go figure.

Back in those days, Phillip Morris was hiring science to dispute the Surgeon Generals reports, and the chemical industry was hounding Rachael Carson to her grave for questioning the safety of using neurotoxins on insects. Now we have Exxon Mobil spending millions disputing climate science, and schools that forego evolution and instead teach about a talking snake in the garden. The earth is getting flat again.

With history like this, it’s no wonder that people believe conspiracy theories. Seems we’ve tried everything else, maybe we should give the truth a chance. What kills me is that I had never heard some of these stories. I was just a kid, but I was a student, and I read the papers.

Today I remembered something I read in Mad Magazine at the time, a bit of doggerel from Frank Jacobs with a picture of a brass-hatted general with a donut-shaped globe:

“they have a plan to blow a hole
right through the earth,
from pole to pole.
it’s the army’s answer
to birth control”

And I thought it was just a joke!