Martindale, the Pope, and the Aircraft Carrier

[pausonne]

Hey, All!

It's been a few years since I last checked in to see what was going on and I don't recall if this particular topic had been mentioned back then or not but I saw the rather sarcastic mention of this episode of Martindale's from back, oh, in the early 90s I think it was.

From reading some of the most recent posts and discussions, I know there are still many folks who seem to go into screaming heebie-jeebies if they ever see Martindale's name mentioned in a non-negative context and I am sorry that so much pain was brought about by one man. But, whatever else he may have been, he was absolutely correct on this issue. I know because I was the one who sent him the article he referenced.

My name is Keith Gardner, I have been free of TWI since 2000 and had spent about 25 years with them at that point. Sadly, my brother still works at HQ and my sister in law sings in the Singing Ladies. So, I'm not a plant shilling for Martindale. :)

I am retired Navy and was stationed in Norfolk, VA in the 90s. I can't recall exactly when it was I saw the article but it was printed in a local base newspaper that the Hampton Roads ship yard, one of the largest ship building outfits in that area, had been approached by representatives of the Vatican to find out about building a small aircraft carrier. I vividly recall thinking to myself, "What the hell does the Vatican need with an aircraft carrier?!" The article stated that the reps were concerned about the safety of the Pope when traveling abroad!

The article was a small one on the second or third page of the paper and I never saw anything after that on the subject but, it was indeed there and it did happen. What's the point of bringing up something so far back, you may ask? I don't know, maybe catharsis. Same reason everyone else comes here to vent, I guess. But also, anyone even modestly acquainted with the history of the Roman church knows it has been working since the Reformation to bring the rest of the world back under its control. So, what's to stop them continuing to try? It has nearly done that to the current EU working, once again, through its proxy, the Germans. So, again, whatever else Martindale may have been, I can only say I think he was pretty right on to see if there was any further information on that particular incident. I would surely want to know if the Vatican were up to something like that!

Well, hello to anyone out there who I may know or who knows me! I recall hearing from some people who knew my brother or had worked with my sister in law. If you are still on here occasionally, hello to you!

Edited June 18, 2008 by pausonne

[TheHighWay]

Hi pausonne,

I'm one of those folks that know your brother and sister-in-law... sorry to see they are still at HQ...

Anyway, I'm glad you posted this. It has come up before that Craig made the claim and then never followed it up and folks have pretty much chalked it up to "just another one of Craig's rantings" so I'm glad to hear the facts of the matter. There are plenty of REAL things to place at Craig's feet without adding bogus ones...

THW

[GarthP2000]

S-o-o-o, ..... how about posting said article re: the Pope and the aircraft carrier here on the message board then? Either the whole article or, if its too long, the link to where it's stored?

Not that I don't necessarily believe you outright, ... but I don't believe you outright.

Why? Because if that actually happened where the Pope actually was going about shopping around for an aircraft carrier, ... well, you just can't keep something like that out of the news. ... Any news. Now, it could be that we're like a lot of other people, supposedly blinded by the 'drive by media' (gotta love ol' Rush! Such a sense of humor. ), and we never saw said proof of the Pope's wanting to build a navy.

Well, this is where you come in. If you would be so kind enough to provide us with this article of yours (either by link or text), and this will clear everything up.

Hopefully you'll see where a good number of us are coming from as regards this and other topics re: the Great Foreheaded One, and that its not necessarily from a standpoint of mindless 'screaming heebie-jeebies'.

[Caveman]

I thought you were going to tell a joke. I'm still looking for the punch line. :blink: :unsure: <_<

[GarthP2000]

The joke being that there are (evidently) still some people who believe that 'Pope-was-gonna-buy-an-aircraft-carrier' claptrap.

:blink: :unsure: <_<

[waysider]

I saw an article some years ago (can't remember where now) that said the Pope had a special transmitter fitted in that rather large piece of head wear he sports, that enables him freely to commune with celestial aliens (or secretly infiltrate the thoughts of Non-Catholic riff-raff in a plot to take over The World.) via a special brain wave frequency generator. It wasn't a very large article, only made the second or third page. (First page was already taken by an amazing story of a pig with three heads that roams the streets of Upper Bullsheetskava after the Sun sets. I never heard anything else about it.

(The transmitter, that is.)

[WordWolf]

S-o-o-o, ..... how about posting said article re: the Pope and the aircraft carrier here on the message board then? Either the whole article or, if its too long, the link to where it's stored?

Not that I don't necessarily believe you outright, ... but I don't believe you outright.

Why? Because if that actually happened where the Pope actually was going about shopping around for an aircraft carrier, ... well, you just can't keep something like that out of the news. ... Any news. Now, it could be that we're like a lot of other people, supposedly blinded by the 'drive by media' (gotta love ol' Rush! Such a sense of humor. ), and we never saw said proof of the Pope's wanting to build a navy.

Well, this is where you come in. If you would be so kind enough to provide us with this article of yours (either by link or text), and this will clear everything up.

Hopefully you'll see where a good number of us are coming from as regards this and other topics re: the Great Foreheaded One, and that its not necessarily from a standpoint of mindless 'screaming heebie-jeebies'.

Just wanted to mention....

I did a search for such an article, and no such article came up.

A search on ""vatican" "aircraft carrier" "hampton roads" "safety" "pope" showed 132 webpages, but none of them was related to this story.

[Ham]

Roads ship yard, one of the largest ship building outfits in that area, had been approached by representatives of the Vatican

a few names would likewise help..

I would imagine you wouldn't get in to make a bid without at least presenting a calling card..

[Ron G.]

Shortly after LCM said that, I heard something about it on one of those 'wierd news' things on a California radio station. I didn't pay much attention either time, tho.

I remember seeing a decomissioned aircraft carrier for sale on ebay a couple of years ago. I may have even posted a link to it here at the GSC.

I would have bought it, but it was $25,000,000 as I recall and egg sales were a little slow that year and I had no place to park it.

I thought I might bury it and it would make one helluva storm shelter.

I would imagine the Pope could get pretty much whatever he wanted from ebay, if the Vatican has a Paypal account.

[Ham]

would have bought it, but it was $25,000,000 as I recall and egg sales were a little slow that year and I had no place to park it.

You just need a few more volunteers to chop and sell fire wood, Ron..

[pausonne]

Yes, I understand and sympathize with the skepticism and disbelief. I have been digging to see if I could indeed find the article myself. But, given that this was over 15 years ago, I don't rightly know how far back the paper keeps those copies. The paper was the on base paper for Naval Base Norfolk, available for anyone to purchase who lived in the area, military or not, but was not like the big commercial newspaper, so it is easy to see why it turned up no internet hits.

I never saw the article about the pope trying to communicate with aliens! Where was that! I would love to have read it! LOL

So.......proof? If I can find the article again. Was there such an article, yes, there was but, hey.....we can't prove everything!

[Ham]

Is it possible it was an April first issue?

[JavaJane]

This is where I find all the best Pope news... My favorite paper...

The World's ONLY Reliable Newspaper.

Good article on Vampires this week. Ham may want to take a look...

*edited to try and get the darn link to work... nevemind. See my next message...

Edited June 19, 2008 by JavaJane

[Ham]

JJ, could you post the link again? all I got was a board error message..

[JavaJane]

Try www.weeklyworldnews.com

Not so good with link messages and stuff - sorry about that, Ham!

[nick]

local librarys keep newspapers on file. i was able to find the paper from the day of my birth- there was a large octapus washed up on the shore of japan as the front page story.

i imagine wherever that article was it could be found the same way.

[pausonne]

local librarys keep newspapers on file. i was able to find the paper from the day of my birth- there was a large octapus washed up on the shore of japan as the front page story.

i imagine wherever that article was it could be found the same way.

Thanks, Nick, I hadn't thought about the library since it was a base paper but, the base library might just have a copy.

Hope nobody took the octopus as some kind of bad omen!! LOL

Edited June 19, 2008 by pausonne

[socks]

No offense, but I'm not getting why this is important.

That LCM - heard about this story - which is believed to be true - and had concern....that the Popester was shopping aircraft carriers...so Craig was right about this one thing, if nothing else, which was to be concerned about the Vatican's interest in aircraft carriers.....

Not that that isn't important. Imagine all of those poor priests and cardinals trying to work a ship on the water in those long cassocks and robes. That's just downright dangerous.

But honestly Keith (I knew some Gardners back in Ohio - do you guys remember Bruce and Maureen? That's not me, but knew them too, and I think it was through them I met your brother, and you. My memories shot, so I may be mistaken)...

...Craigster had more important things he should have been working on than worrying about what the Pope was doing. What's he give a ratz azz for? Does Shelby Co. have some waterfront access I'm not aware of?

Sounds like a redirect to me. Smokescreen, mirrors. "Don't look at me - look at - look at the Pope guy! Yeah, he's really bad and weird! Yeah!!!"

I'd be as interested in what he was really doing himself at that time while all of this nefarious Pope Activity was going on.

Edited June 19, 2008 by socks

[RumRunner]

As a ludicrous aside - anyone here ever read the book "Snow Crash" - world religious leader ends up with an aircraft carrier... decent (not great) read - would seem to fit this thread in a comical way.

[JavaJane]

...Craigster had more important things he should have been working on than worrying about what the Pope was doing. What's he give a ratz azz for? Does Shelby Co. have some waterfront access I'm not aware of?

Sounds like a redirect to me. Smokescreen, mirrors. "Don't look at me - look at - look at the Pope guy! Yeah, he's really bad and weird! Yeah!!!"

It's the Pope's hat that really gets to me... something wrong with that thing... WAAAAAY too pointy, you know?

As for waterfront access... maybe he was concerned about that lake over in St Mary's?

[Ham]

What I wonder.. just suppose the pope acquired an aircraft carrier, set sail for New Knoxville to initiate a new inquisition.. what was the loyster gonna actually DO about it? Put on another set of tights?

To make war on foreign soil nowadays you need at least three things, at least my history prof claims:

1. Have to have a navy that can go into "blue" water..

2. be able to bomb the *%^#& out of the other country with missles, at least inter-continentally..

3. have long range bombers.

I really don't think a used aircraft carrier qualifies as a threat, exactly..

I think loy's reaction to this rumor, whether true or not, was ludicrous.. typical of insane paranoia.