Killer Whale Attacks!

I was just down at the pantry at work, getting my morning Coke, and on the TV was CNN spending about five minutes on yesterday’s old news of a killer whale attacking its trainer during a show at Sea World in California. Does this warrant so much coverage? The guy didn’t even croak. Another distraction/head game the cryptocracy is pulling, trying to get us not to think about really important things? Killer Whales, The New Sting Rays! (and sting rays were the new alligators, which in turn were the new sharks). As James Shelby Downard would say, ‘It’s an aaah-cult charade!”

Cornwall Can Be a Strange Place

Sally described what they had seen: “It was like a big owl with pointed ears, as big as a man. The eyes were red and glowing. At first, I thought that it was someone dressed up, playing a joke, trying to scare us. I laughed at it, we both did, then it went up in the air and we both screamed. When it went up you could see its feet were like pincers”

For more on the Owlman of Cornwall, click here.

The Dwarf God

How things have changed: nowadays, dwarfs, or little people as they like to be called, have a hard time getting someone to look them straight in the eye. But back in the day, in Ancient Egypt, dwarves and pygmies were looked upon as lucky, had their own dwarf-god, Bes, and were held in high esteem by the rulers. They often danced and otherwise entertained the court. To get the same attention these days, dwarfs sometimes grease themselves and hit the wrestling mat. I hope the pay is just as good (adjusted for inflation, of course).

Drunk With the Lord

You gotta see this clip. Why do they think it’s the Lord and not some demon possessing them?

Top 10 Reasons for Cryptozoology Hoaxes

Money, notoriety, and general knuckleheadedness, obviously. Full list is here at Cryptomundo.

Snake-Handling Mishap in Kentucky Church

Woman bitten by snake at church dies
SERPENTS ARE HANDLED THERE, NEIGHBORS SAY
By Shawntaye Hopkins
A London woman is dead after being bitten by a snake during a Sunday church service, the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said yesterday.

Neighbors near East London Holiness Church on Smith Brewer Road, which officials said the 48-year-old attended, said the church practices serpent handling.

The name of the woman was withheld yesterday as the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office investigated the death, which police described as accidental.

Friends escorted the woman to a local hospital Sunday afternoon, Lt. Ed Sizemore said.

“She said she was bitten by a snake at her church,” Sizemore said.

The woman was taken to University of Kentucky Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 11:30 p.m., almost four hours after the bite was reported.

Sizemore said he thinks the woman was bitten by a timber rattlesnake. He did not know if the woman practiced snake handling.

Snake handling is based on a passage in the Bible, in the Gospel of Mark, that says a sign of a true believer is the power to “take up serpents” without being harmed.

It is illegal in Kentucky to handle reptiles as part of religious services. Snake handling is a misdemeanor and punishable by a $50-$100 fine.

Opal Wagers lives near the church on Smith Brewer Road and said it’s been two or three months since she last visited the church, but said she’s witnessed snake handling there.

“I don’t have no dealings with those snakes,” Wagers said. “But they seem to handle them pretty good.”

She said people fill the church at least one Sunday each month to handle snakes. Wagers said members from Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia bring in the snakes.

Police said they had not received reports about snake handling at the church.

No church officials could be reached for comment last night.

In 2000, the Herald-Leader reported that the last person to die in Kentucky from a snakebite sustained during a religious service was in 1997.

The death of Daril R. Collins, 23, of Barbourville, was the sixth such death in the state since 1980.

New Age Conspiracy

Perseus Alderpax* enumerates the ways that New Age philosophies may keep us from the truth and could be as used COINTELPRO**, the FBI’s counterintelligence programs, to hypnotize us into a false sense of happiness that keeps us from getting too close to the truth, according to in his Oct. 16 blog, complete with his own list of links that give historical back-up.

*use Find and hit October 16 to get past a very nice list of truth movies, if you don’t have myspace
**Man, those FBI guys are snappy linguists and should go into business naming new designer drugs.