Rest in Peace Philip Coppens

I am very saddened to hear that Philip Coppens has passed on. Philip was a frequent guest on Ancient Aliens and a great researcher. I, like many others in the Fortean-paranormal-esoterica realms, respected Philip very much. An intelligent, genuine writer and researcher, and a nice person as well. We have never met but we did correspond a little; he was always very gracious. My heart goes out to his wife and his family. Please send what love, energies and prayers you can to them. Thank you Philip for all the wonderful stories and insights you've brought to us.

Santa Guest on Coast to Coast

Santa is the guest tonight on C2C, with host George Noory.
Christmas Eve Special - Shows - Coast to Coast AM

Medieval Nun Vampire? Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

From Beachcombing's Bizarre History, this preview of a vampire legend, ".. . courtesy of Chris from Haunted Ohio books."

Medieval Nun Vampire?  Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog: Once when the lay-brothers of our Order were taking midday rest in the dormitory during the summer, the devil, in the shape of a Benedictine nun, went round the beds of all, standing a while by some, and passing haste by others. When she came to a certain lay-brother she bent over him, and putting her arms round his neck, pressed kisses upon his mouth. One of the brethren, a truly pious man, saw this, and how the nun then vanished; and, stupefied, both at the appearance of such a person, and at such an act in such a place, he got up and went to the bed of the lay-brother, whom he found fast asleep indeed, but lying in a fashion that was both immodest and exposed.

The Vicar's Lamp: Of Vampires & Rasputin

The Vicar's Lamp: Of Vampires and Rasputin: Vlad Tepes himself is the perfect exemplar of this predatory nobleman, but for the obvious fact that most of what we have been told about him is in the form of propaganda composed by the Catholic Church in order to prevent the Wallachian - and later Romanian - national hero from garnering too much support and sympathy. The Holy Mother does a fine job of criminalizing those she has helped to betray.

Haunted house of God? - Hannibal, MO

(via The Anomalist for link)

Haunted house of God? - Hannibal, MO - Hannibal Courier - Post - Hannibal, MO: "I went up three floors, sometimes in the dark, to get up to the loft. Once you got into the loft it was like you got transported to some other place," he said. "I literally had times during that three years I heard babies crying. Kind of weird. And the one most distinct kind of experience was literally someone giving a sermon. It was like you heard it coming from the sanctuary. It was just a raised voice.
"It didn't scare me necessarily, but it was kind of weird. I heard organ music twice. There was no organ left in that church. It was classically-based, pipe organ sound. As a musician, it sounded really good."
Downstairs though, there was more going on between the living and the suspected living impaired.
Hannibal Community Theatre, the current owners and operators of the building, had their productions in the church basement. A number of their members, past and present, experienced something more than once and they're convinced.
"People have heard and seen things, different voices," HCT Vice President Stephen Boltinghouse said. "I think we've got a number of people that would not come in here by themselves."

The Incredibly Insensitive Things The Disconnected Fools Say:Connecticut school shooting: Westboro Baptist Church Plans to Picket

Connecticut school shooting: Westboro Baptist Church planning to picket - Oklahoma City Top News | Examiner.com

Mike Huckabee: Newtown Shooting No Surprise, We've 'Systematically Removed God' From Schools

Words cannot convey what I think about this, except that, oh forget it. None are needed, speaks for itself:

Mike Huckabee: Newtown Shooting No Surprise, We've 'Systematically Removed God' From Schools: "We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools," Huckabee said on Fox News. "Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?"

Jesus In Shower Mold: The Strangest 'Sacred Sightings' Of 2012

Jesus In Shower Mold: The Strangest 'Sacred Sightings' Of 2012: God is everywhere, believers say, but some of the places where he shows up can make even the most devout person say, "Oh Lord."

For instance, earlier this year, Jesus' image reportedly appeared on a moldy shower curtain in Houston, Texas, and a stingray near James Island, S.C.

Meanwhile, the Virgin Mary appeared on a log in Utah and the wall of a Hamburger Mary's restaurant in Ybor City, Fla.

Some strange images were more open to interpretation, such as the crab found near Snohomish County, Wash., that looks, depending on your opinion, Jesus Christ or Osama Bin Laden.

Lady Gaga Threatened With Arrest, $50,000 Fine For Promoting Gay Rights In Russia

I remember when I was a kid, back in the last century, that "commie Russia" was a threat, and the main reason Russia the USSR/make that Soviet Russia, was a threat: atheists! Of course, it was the Cold War and this was in Catholic school. Now, while no doubt Russia is still atheist in the sense the powers that be don't give a fuck about human rights, love, peace and harmony for the people, they have been very concerned about "blasphemy." (ie, Pussy Riot.) Now Lady Gaga is being pressured to shut up about gay rights during her stay there, or be fined and arrested:

Lady Gaga Threatened With Arrest, $50,000 Fine For Promoting Gay Rights In Russia: Lady Gaga is the latest artist to offend Russian conservatives, who have accused the pop star of spreading "pro-homosexual propaganda" in the country.

Gaga championed gay rights while performing at the SKK Arena in St. Petersburg, Russia, during a weekend concert, the Guardian reports.

'Monsignor 007' and the Pope

Mitja Leskovar, 'Monsignor 007,' To Introduce New Protocols For Pope's Security, Confidential Documents: Known as "Monsignor 007," Mitja Leskovar, the Pope's new right-hand man is a Slovenian priest and anti-espionage expert in charge of reforming security procedures at the Vatican by Jan. 1.

The move comes on the heels of the "Vatileaks" scandal earlier this year, when Pope Benedict XVI's butler at the time was arrested and charged for allegedly leaking papal documents to an Italian journalist.

According to the Telegraph, the new protocols will affect thousands of staffers at the Vatican who will now face much more scrutiny in their daily work.

Alber Saber Convicted Of Blasphemy By Egyptian Court; Sentenced To 3 Years In Prison

While we have our share of religious psychos in the U.S., mostly they just blather. Not to diminish the horrors of the murdering anti-choice or homophobic fanatics. But in some parts of the world, as we know, letting your opinions about religion can be a dangerous act if you disagree. Pussy Riot performance artists end up in prison for "blasphemy" -- at least here we don't have that. Yet. And in Egypt, Alber Saber was sentenced to three years in prison for "blasphemy."

Alber Saber Convicted Of Blasphemy By Egyptian Court; Sentenced To 3 Years In Prison
Saber was arrested Sept. 13, after neighbors complained he had shared on Facebook the amateur film made in the United States that sparked protests across the Muslim world. His arrest came during a wave of public outrage over the film, produced by an Egyptian-American Copt.

At the time, an angry mob surrounded Saber's house, calling for his death and accusing him of heresy, atheism and of promoting the "Innocence of Muslims" – the short film that portrays the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, womanizer and buffoon.

The God Glut - NYTimes.com

Excellent article.
I support Blake Page, even though I don't share his beliefs -- I am not an atheist. Nor am I a Christian. But Blake had every right to be treated with respect and not harassed; it's always an ironic as well as damn scary fact that some Christians, believing in a loving god, will persecute, often violently, those that don't share their beliefs.

The God Glut - NYTimes.com: Last week, a fourth-year cadet at West Point packed his bags and left, less than six months shy of graduation, in protest of what he portrayed as a bullying, discriminatory religiousness at the military academy, which receives public funding.

The cadet, Blake Page, detailed his complaint in an article for The Huffington Post, accusing officers at the academy of “unconstitutional proselytism,” specifically of an evangelical Christian variety.

On the phone on Sunday, he explained to me that a few of them urged attendance at religious events in ways that could make a cadet worry about the social and professional consequences of not going. One such event was a prayer breakfast this year at which a retired lieutenant general, William G. Boykin, was slated to speak. Boykin is a born-again Christian, and his past remarks portraying the war on terror in holy and biblical terms were so extreme that he was rebuked in 2003 by President Bush. In fact his scheduled speech at West Point was so vigorously protested that it ultimately had to be canceled.

Page said that on other occasions, religious events were promoted by superiors with the kind of mass e-mails seldom used for secular gatherings. “It was always Christian, Christian, Christian,” said Page, who is an atheist.

Henry "Mad" Makow: Aliens Have Abducted Our Women

Jeff Rense kicked Makow off awhile back. Not sure what it was all about but Rense's once darling of the homophobic-anti-Semitic rant pissed him off, and so, Makow is no longer linked to over at Rense. So, curious about what Mad Henry Makow is up to, I visit his blog, and find this headline in bold: Aliens Have Abducted Our Women.

Now, Makow is paranoid, and all about the Illuminati NWO, but he's never come right out and gone the alien UFO Fortean route. So I got excited for a moment, just a very brief moment, for Makow wastes no time at all in getting to the point. It's not aliens from outer space we need to fear, it's feminist Jew commies. Or some such. That's Makow's dependable hobby horse. So, while he disappoints in one sense -- no aliens, damn it -- he does deliver:

henrymakow.com - Exposing Feminism and The New World Order: Western men (and women) should be very angry at Illuminati Jewish bankers and their Masonic lackeys. Like alien invaders, they abducted our women, brainwashing them to become lesbian and frigid. This vicious satanic attack on society by our traitorous "leaders" has been marketed as "women's rights." Feminism is elite social engineering masquerading as grassroots social change.

So, like, oy.

76 things banned in the Bible, most of which are punishable by death - Boing Boing

76 things banned in the Bible, most of which are punishable by death - Boing Boing

Among them, "cross breeding animals" which has one wondering about the ancient alien angle: DNA, GMO and all that genetic manipulation and tweaking.

Pope Starts Personal Twitter Account - NYTimes.com

Oh yes, it is so. The Pope has a twitter account. (Is it too surreal to twitter about the Pope's twittering?)

Pope Starts Personal Twitter Account - NYTimes.com: On Monday, the Vatican announced that the 85-year-old pontiff would begin posting messages on Twitter next week under the handle @pontifex, a term for the pope that means “bridge builder” in Latin. Within hours, he had more than 250,000 followers.

Benedict is expected to send his first post at a general audience at the Vatican on Dec. 12 — a response to questions about matters of the faith that he is now accepting via the hashtag #askpontifex, officials said.

: NEVADA: Seven Year-Old Boy Killed By Parents For Not Reading The Bible

Another tragic story of religious fanatics and their sick interpretation of religion killing a child. And why, if abuse was known, were these psychotics allowed to continue to have the child in their custody? Joe. My. God.: NEVADA: Seven Year-Old Boy Killed By Parents For Not Reading The Bible

Debunker of 'Weeping Jesus' Exiled

While he's a skepti-dick, still. Exile seems extreme. Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com