ANNUAL CERTIFIABLE ROCK ART PREVARICATION (CRAP) AWARD:

.  THE 2016 C.R.A.P. AWARD GOES TO  .

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2016


2016 C.R.A.P. AWARD GOES TO UTAH SENATORS ORRIN HATCH AND MIKE LEE, AND CONGRESSMAN JASON CHAFFETZ:

It is once again time for RockArtBlog to award the coveted annual C.R.A.P. (Certifiable Rock Art Prevarication) award for what is one of the year's biggest rock art related prevarications. This year's 2016 award goes to Utah senators Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee for their legislative attempt to block the creation of Bear's Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah, to protect uniquely beautiful lands as well as amazing cultural resources including a large quantity of rock art. A late addition to this prestigious pool is Utah congressman Jason Chaffitz. 


Rock art in proposed Bear's
Ears National Monument.
http://img.deseretnews.com

According to Thomas Burr of the Salt Lake Tribune (published on September 15, 2016) "Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee introduced the legislation Thursday to exempt the state from a law allowing the president to designate new national monuments, but critics dismissed the move as a desperate 'Hail Mary' in trying to halt protection of the Bear's Ears region in southeastern Utah."

"The measure would prohibit the president's use of the 1906 Antiquities Act within Utah, extending a loophole that now covers Wyoming, as part of an effort to keep President Barack Obama or his successors from using the unilateral power to create national monuments."
Rock art in proposed Bear's
Ears National Monument.
Photo: Shanna Lewis, httpwww.cpr.org

Senator Lee stated "New Yorkers would not appreciate it if Utahns came in and told them what they could and couldn't build in Manhattan, and Utahns don't like it when out-of-state special-interest groups tell us how to use our land either. Over 50 years ago, the state of Wyoming was granted protections from Antiquities Act abuse in their state, and all Utahns are asking is for that same protection to be extended to their state. (The 1950s legislation creating an expanded Grand Teton National Park was passed with the significant concession to opponents that the Antiquities Act would not again be used in Wyoming without the consent of Congress.)" (Burr 2016)

Rock art in proposed Bear's
Ears National Monument.
Photo: Tim Peterson,http://d1jrw5jterzxwu.cloudfront.net

Hatch explained his opposition to the monument with the statement "today, we are again faced with the threat of a unilateral designation of another 1.8 million-acre monument in southeast Utah," Hatch said. "Such a designation would far exceed the purpose of the Antiquities Act, which was written specifically to protect special cultural sites and objects limited to the smallest compatible area necessary." (Burr 2016)


Rock art in proposed Bear's
Ears National Monument.
natgeocreative.com, Public Domain

A representative for the pro-designation effort explained that"Senator Lee confuses private land in New York for the public lands in Utah that belong to all Americans," said Jen Ujifusa, legislative director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "The Utah delegation had three years to develop a meaningful and reasonable conservation solution with the Public Lands Initiative, but squandered that opportunity by listening only to industry and parochial interests. This last-ditch Hail Mary shows they know the PLI has failed." (Burr 2016)

In a related internet report on Newsmax.com, on December 29, 2016, Karl Nelson, quoted Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz "The midnight move is a slap in the face to the people of Utah." (Nelson 2016)

"Obama said in a statement that the monument will 'protect some of our country's most important cultural treasures, including abundant rock art, archaeological sites, and lands considered sacred by Native American tribes.'" (Nelson 2016) Please note the wording in President Obama's statement above. This might be the first time that the President of the United States has said the words "rock art" in a press conference, a historic occasion!

It seems to me that this opposition is somehow missing the point. The National Monument designation is intended to protect this wonderful place from mining and petroleum production, uncontrolled four-wheel driving and dirt-biking, and pot-hunting and vandalism of cultural remains and rock art. How is protection a bad thing? Hatch, Lee, and Chaffitz, for their support and advocacy of vandalism and destruction, in this case, are awarded the RockArtBlog 2016 C.R.A.P. award. Congratulations gentlemen.

NOTE: The photographs illustrating this story were retrieved from the internet through a search for "Bear's Ears rock art public domain". If any of them were used mistakenly without permission I apologize.

PS: As of December 29, 2017, President Obama has signed the order to make Bear's Ears a National Monument. President-elect Trump and the Republicans in congress are vowing to overturn it after the change of office in January. I may have to enlarge the recipient pool of the C.R.A.P. award to include the whole Republican party.


REFERENCES:

Burr, Thomas,
2016     Hatch,Lee seeking Utah exemption from monument-creating Antiquities Act, WWW.SLTRIB.COM, Sept. 16, 2016.

Nelson, Karl
2016     Chaffetz Slams Obama 'Midnight Land Grab', Newsmax.com.
      .  .  .  .  .  . AND THE 2015 WINNER IS  .  .  .  .  .  .

FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 2016



2015 CERTIFIABLE ROCK ART PREVARICATION (CRAP) AWARD GOES TO - CONGRESSMAN ROB BISHOP:



Congressman Rob Bishop,
of Utah's first Congressional
District, Chairman of the House
 Natural Resources Committee


CONGRESSIONAL HOUSE CHAIRMAN BISHOP CALLS NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIFACTS "BULL CRAP - NOT AN ANTIQUITY"

The examples of rock art shown here (below), and many, many more, were called "Bull Crap" by House Natural Resources Committee Chair Rob Bishop, who represents Utah's first Congressional District.

Reported by the staff of Native News Network on July 13, 2015, the story reads:
"WASHINGTON - House Natural Resources Committee Chair Rob Bishop, dismissed the historical value of Native American artifacts as a basis for establishing national monuments last Friday (July 10, 2015), as first reported by Greenwire in a story about President Obama's designation of three new national monuments:
"There is nothing that Obama did today that had anything to do with antiquity," Bishop said. "There are criteria for using the act. There is nothing Obama announced that had anything to do with the criteria." (nativenewsnetwork)


Rock art at Basin and Range
National Monument, Nevada. www.protectbasinandrange.org

When he was asked about the Native American artifacts at the Basin and Range National Monument site in Nevada, including cave paintings, he said, "ah, bull crap. That's not an antiquity." (nativenewsnetwork)

Ranking commitee member Raul M. Grijalva released the following statement in response.


Rock art at Basin and Range
National Monument, Nevada. www.protectbasinandrange.org

"The natural and cultural resources protected by these designations are, in fact, antiques; species and trees and rocks and cave paintings and beautiful landscapes are all quite old. We want them to remain antique, House Republicans want them to become extinct." (nativenewsnetwork)


Rock art at Basin and Range
National Monument, Nevada. www.protectbasinandrange.org

"Grijalva thanked and congratulated President Obama earlier today for his designations of Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in California, Waco National Monument in Texas, and Basin and Range National Monument in Nevada." (nativenewsnetwork)

When we are faced with such staggering ignorance and insensitivity what can we do but keep trying to preserve the beauty and knowledge. What can we do? I can designate congressman Rob Bishop as the 2015 recipient of the coveted and prestigious Certifiable Rock Art Prevarication (CRAP) award for his stupidity. Congratulations Mr. Bishop, winner of the 2015 CRAP award!


REFERENCES:

https://www.facebook.com/nativenewsnetwork

https://www.protectbasinandrange.org
- - - -AND THE 2014 WINNER IS  - - - -


www.examiner.com

2014 CERTIFIABLE ROCK ART PREVARICATION (C.R.A.P.) AWARD:

After deep research and careful consideration, the coveted 2014 C.R.A.P. award goes to www.examiner.com for seeing through the NASA cover-up and breaking the story of the discovery of rock art on Mars by our Martian rovers. The first example is the petroglyph of a human as recorded in a photograph taken by the Martian rover Curiosity.

Martian petroglyph of a human figure.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com
“A video posted to YouTube (as seen above) by UFOvni2012 shows the petroglyph and compares it to several of the Earth engravings and paintings, noting its stunning similarity to terrestrial carvings from ancient Egypt and other millennia-old civilizations. Highlighting the humanoid image and its bracketing lines (one below the stick-man, two above, and all parallel), the video suggests that the petroglyph may well be part of a stone column of some sort.” (www.examiner.com) The author of this story noted its stunning similarity to terrestrial carvings from ancient Egypt and other millennia-old civilizations.(www.examiner.com)

Martian petroglyph of an encircled Celtic Cross.
It is not just this one particular image either; But Curiosity isn't alone in producing photos that capture remarkable images. Last week, NASA's Opportunity rover, an exploratory vehicle that has been on Mars now for a decade, photographed an image that looked every bit like an encircled Celtic or Irish cross.” (http://www.abovetopsecret.com)

Isn't that the darndest thing, that looks sort of like the sort of artifact I would expect if the end of Curiosity's rock drill had been forced into a layer of dust on that rock surface? Luckily I have the savants at www.abovetopsecret.com to straighten me out and help me interpret it correctly - thank you colleagues!
In light of the ongoing cover-up of the truth of UFOs and Ancient Aliens by our government it is very surprising that they let this slip through into the media. It makes me wonder how they could have kept so many other important secrets for so long.
NOTE: RockArtBlog wants to apologize to all the other wonderful sites that picked up the stories of the rock art on Mars and ran with it. You all deserve to be included in this 2014 C.R.A.P. award; I am sorry I just could not compile a full list of resources on this subject, but you have all truly earned a full share of C.R.A.P.
SOURCES:


http://www.examiner.com/article/photo-ancient-petroglyph-of-human-found-on-mars-rock-by-curiosity-rover-video.
 - - - - AND THE 2013 WINNER IS - - - -

America Unearthed, Season 2, Episode 1, “Ark of the Covenant”History2 Channel


Petroglyph identified as a picture of the Ark of the
Covenant by Scott Wolter on America Unearthed.
Near Puerco Ruin, Petrified Forest Nat. Park,
AZ. Photograph: Peter Faris, June 1993.

Announcing the initiation of an annual award for the greatest nonsense in rock art for the year. The CERTIFIABLE ROCK ART PREVARICATION (CRAP) award will be given to the most outstanding example of twisting and distorting rock art to match the recipient's agenda that I can find. Nominations are always welcome.

This year the selection was easy, thanks to the History2 television channel series America Unearthed. They have broadcast enough silliness to appeal to fringies of every stripe, and some of it was based upon rock inscriptions and rock art. Given the broad ranging nonsense that the host, Scott Wolter, has broadcast on this series you would think I might have trouble deciding which episode was the dumbest, and I might have if I hadn’t seen the first episode of season 2, the “Ark of the Covenant.”

I knew I was in for a good show when Wolter compared himself with “Indiana Jones.” I don’t want you to think that I totally reject everything Wolter says on America Unearthed. I can be fair and I couldn’t agree with him more about this comparison. Both he and Indiana Jones are pretense, running around through fictional situations in made-up sequences that pretend to be based upon archaeology. I think that they are very comparable.


The Stone of Destiny, Edinburgh Castle, Scotland. Wikipedia.

In the Ark of the Covenant, November 30, 2013, episode we learned that when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 597 BC, and the temple of Solomon was destroyed, the Ark of the Covenant was spirited out of Jerusalem by the prophet Jeremiah and an Egyptian princess. They brought it to Tara Hill in Ireland for safe-keeping. Apparently they also brought the “Stone of Destiny,” the block of rock upon which Jacob rested his head when he saw the vision of the stairway to heaven. These were both later sent to North America by Jonathan Swift, the Anglo-Irish satirist, pamphleteer, and dean of St. Patricks Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland. (Wikipedia) (Yes, that Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver’s Travelsthe book about people’s amazing gullibility, ironic isn't it).

The Stone of Destiny ended up on a farm in Virginia where Wolter visited it. This has to be a big surprise to the people of Scotland who believe that they have the Stone of Destiny in Edinburgh Castle (Wikipedia) but they will just have to get over their disappointment. Wolter, then believing that it was one of the world’s greatest and most sacred ancient religious artifacts, committed vandalism by cutting a piece of it off to take home and analyze in his laboratory.

Later Wolter visited the Petrified Forest in Arizona to view the petroglyph of the Ark of the Covenant illustrated at the top of this column. If some of these connections seem tenuous blame me, I just wasn’t up to following the sophisticated trail of evidence presented. A stirring adventure to say the least, and one which certainly qualifies for the 2013 C.R.A.P. Award (http://www.history.com/shows/america-unearthed/episodes).

REFERENCES:

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