Apologies Accepted

We take our second deep dive into the topic of UFOs and government cover-ups! 

On March 13, 1997 a huge flying object was reported by thousands of people across Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Sonora, Mexico.  The air force scrambled fighter jets to investigate.  Local and national news stations covered the event, which became known as “The Phoenix Lights.”  It was arguably the most important UFO story of the 1990s.

Former Governor Fife Simington (yes that’s a real name) wants everyone to know that he also saw the Phoenix lights that night.  He just didn’t say anything at the time because he did not want to cause a panic.  To help diffuse tensions, he held a news conference where he brought out a guy dressed as an alien (typical gray and not a reptilian because don’t be ridiculous) and everyone laughed. 

Now, 20 years later, Fife is telling anyone who will listen that he is positive it was a UFO and for sure otherworldly.  He’s semi-sorta-kind-of sorry that some people had hurt feelings over the press conference and thought he was making fun of UFOs – but hey you guys it was funny and really I’m like one of the cool kids and I had to protect the city of Phoenix because that was my job and I’m talking about it now so where’s my hero-award?

Kevin Day was a radar operator for the Navy and working with the latest and greatest radar and tracking technology onboard the USS Princeton on November 10, 2004.  He was highly trained, highly qualified, and highly respected for his skills – so people took notice when he spotted something on the radar that wasn’t supposed to be there.  He reported it up the food chain because that was his job.  November 10 was an important day, four military pilots were conducting training exercises and the new radar equipment was tracking their flight.  It could just be malfunctioning equipment, but if something was up there that wasn’t supposed to be there, the pilots' lives were potentially at risk.  Kevin had no choice but to report the anomaly and the pilots were directed to try and get a look.  They got more than a look.  All four saw the object with their own eyes, and one of them filmed the object.  They all agreed, whatever it was, it was an unknown object flying and defying the laws of physics (damn you and your laws, physics!).

After reporting the incident, and after the US Government landed a black-hawk helicopter onto the air carrier and flew off with the film, Kevin’s career took a hit.  People made fun of him.  His military commander asked him WTF had he been smoking that day.  The incident followed him and kept him from getting promotions – he was “that UFO guy” and that was all it took for him to be labeled a kook.

Then in 2017, 13 years later, the video was leaked online.  It took the US Government another 3 years to say out-loud that the video was authentic, but they finally did in April of 2020 – in the middle of a global pandemic when the entire world was on fire and everyone was praying that American democracy wasn’t going to collapse under the weight of a giant orange crybaby toddler – so no surprise that people were kind of paying attention to other things.

But Kevin noticed, and he’s here to say he deserves an apology for a decade of abuse and scorn for simply doing his job one day in November 2004…

Note: there are 3 unrelated military observations of UFOs and the link to all 3 videos is here: https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/

Kansas State Representative Mark Samsel was just having one of those days – he was working as a substitute teacher ($88 a day!), but the kids weren’t listening, and he was stressed, and gay parents were a thing in the world, and God had been talking to him all morning non-stop…so he did what many teachers have dreamed about, he kicked a kid in the groin and called it a day.  Enough already!  Take that, Satan!

Yes, Mark had just had a no good, rotten, very bad day.  So he did what anyone does when they’ve been caught on film doing something wrong, he blamed a bunch of other people and also God but then also not God and then he said “Sorry” with 1,000 words on Facebook that all said it wasn’t his fault.  By the time he faced a judge in a courtroom he’d had some counseling and actually apologized – and we are here to rate the apology and dive deep into the hellscape that is Wellsville, Kansas (Go Eagles!).

We've all heard about Cancel Culture - but is it a real thing or just a political tool?  Who gets canceled and why?  Can the canceled be uncanceled?  That's three questions in a row and that's the legal limit so buckle up and get ready for the origins of cancel culture, what it gets right, what it gets wrong, and why we should just ignore the fake drama and try and stay on fleek!

Ellipses is a French publisher specializing in textbooks.  Their 2019 textbook, "The History of the 20th Century in Cards" claimed that the CIA was responsible for 9/11.  It wasn't until a French girl studying for her college exams reported the statement to her father, a high-school history teacher, that anyone seemed to care that a French publisher was accusing the CIA of orchestrating 9/11.  Just as with Joan of Arc, France was once again saved by a young French girl!

Was this a proofreading error, or was someone inserting their personal beliefs into college prep material?  The apology was thorough and the publisher issued corrections, but does that matter?  Join us as we evaluate an apology that seemed to advance a conspiracy theory but in the end - violá - may have been a simple error.

A police officer celebrating his 25th year in the force was surprised by his friend with a beautiful cake.  The cake was meant to celebrate the officer’s long career in a pretty tough, sometimes thankless job.  Instead the cake insulted the entire Philly police department.  The cake was decorated with a Philly PD badge, but the PPD slogan “Honor, Integrity, Service” had been replaced with the words “Coffee, Donuts, Corruption.”  The customer (whose name ironically is not Karen) who ordered the cake called the bakery and spoke to the manager to complain and then called a local news station because she felt the bakery was lying.  The local news station took Not-Karen’s complaint very seriously and aired a news story about the cake with the bad-badge.  There was no other news to report that week so the news station was probably very grateful to the customer for calling them and reporting the incident.

The bakery claimed it was an honest mistake.  They had simply grabbed an image off the internet and printed it out without really looking at the fine print on the image.  They are bakers and don’t know that the internet sometimes lies.   Plus, that bad-badge image is one of the first images that pop up when you google “Philly PD badge” so what’s a bakery to do except issue a sweet apology and hope everyone understands that workplace accidents happen when people are overworked because companies are understaffed because of COVID.

Michael Chabon recently learned that people in Hollywood don't play nice, and if you are going to be in the game, you're gonna get hurt.  Michael spent 20 years working with Scott Rudin, a huge Hollywood producer responsible for a ton of your favorite TV programs, movies, and Broadway shows.  Scott was also responsible for throwing things at staff, calling people names, forcing people out of cars, forcing people to work insane hours, screaming to the point that staff would have panic attacks, and one person's mental collapse.  Scott was mean, vindictive, and spiteful.  He was hated by everyone - but he produced hits and made money and in the end that's all that counts!  Michael Chabon had heard all of this but turned a blind eye (like everyone else in Hollywood).  Until something happened that caused Michael to take a step back and really look at who he'd been working with all these years, and he didn't like what he saw.  He penned an apology that is at the heart of this week's episode, alongside Scott's sort of apology

In 1997 President Bill Clinton apologized to a group of 8 black men from Alabama who were the last surviving members of the Tuskegee Experiment.  In the early years of the 20th century it was believed by the medical community that black people and white people experienced syphilis differently.  In 1932 two doctors set about studying how untreated syphilis affected black men in Tuskegee Alabama and lied to them about the study.  The patients/test subjects were told they had "bad blood" and needed treatments that included spinal taps and doses of mercury.  The disease was allowed to develop unchecked while the doctors  continuously lied to the 400 men for over 40 years about what was wrong with them.  The horrific experiment was exposed by a whistleblower who saw parallels to the Nazis, a group of people he felt he knew something about having fled from them in the 30s to come to the US.  The press reported on the study in 1972 and by 1974 everything was wonderful and nothing like this ever happened again.  That is until MK Ultra (which is not a beer) and a handful of other super unethical and definitely illegal experiments were conducted by divisions within the US Government.

Get ready for unethical doctors, surprise LSD trips, and whispers of truth (or are they rumors?) from the world of conspiracy theories!

Comedian Kathy Griffin had a bit of a quiet period in 2017.  She decided to hire a famous photographer to take some “fun snaps” to send out for glorious self-promotion and maybe drum up some business.  That day led to the infamous “Donald Trump as Medusa” photo that set the right-wing media afire and burned Kathy Griffin’s career to ashes.  She apologized, but that didn’t seem to matter to the political right or political left – friends left her in droves and every venue in America canceled future shows.  She was hounded by the press, stalked by crazies, interrogated by the FBI and DOJ, and faced a never-ending tunnel of depression.  But, never one to give up, she did what she knows best and found the funny in the situation, creating a new show and taking it to Europe - to rise like a phoenix out of the ashes and maybe have the last laugh.

Note: This discussion contains mention of attempted suicide.  If you, or someone you know, is struggling with suicidal ideation, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255 available 24/7, free and confidential.

In July 2021 DaBaby performed on stage live and wanted to get the audience hyped up.  He made some comments that quickly went viral and angered not only the LGBTQ+ community, but also other performers he had previously worked with on some pretty big projects.  His comments also made some brands angry.  Oh, and some concert venues which were quick to cancel his upcoming shows.  So DaBaby did what any celebrity does when the "sorry" hits the fan and he made some public apologies using his own words.  His words didn't improve matters, so he said some more words to explain his position and basically people just got madder.  Finally he explained that while his gay fans are awesome, he himself is not a fan of the gays in general.  But hold up, that is said with love and he has a right to say it because gay people are allowed to exist and plus hip hop itself isn't down with the gays so why is everyone freakin out at DaBaby?!

Is homophobia built into rap and hip hop, in the same way that misogyny and sexism are (that's written like a question, but duh).  What about gay rappers, can they be considered rappers?  Can you throw respect at someone who is prejudice against you for at least being honest?

Tech note: This week it is Theo with the audio audio issues and he is blaming everything on Island WiFi.