The good news is that my new boiler was installed yesterday. The bad news is that the old lead water main sprang a leak below the shutoff valve, and the outside cutoff is also broken. The pipes were designed to last 75 years, and they turned 85 this year. Two different plumbers both said I need a new water main installed at an astronomical price. One wanted to remove the front porch to excavate a trench for the new line. Needless to say, it has not been a very good week.
So, anyway, yesterday I linked to an article in the Uniontown Herald-Standard about an upcoming MUFON conference on whether Bigfoot is really a space alien. The question of Bigfoot’s extraterrestrial origins is one I’ve covered before, so I don’t really want to revisit that. Pretty much everything you need to know comes from the words of Bob BeHanna, the Section 6 director for Pennsylvania MUFON, who thinks Bigfoot may be a ghost, alien, or trans-dimensional being: “If you think about it, we’d have found something if it was flesh-and-blood.” Non-existence doesn’t cross his mind, only ever more elaborate rationalizations for how it might exist unseen and un-evidenced.
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It may be true that fringe historians are not themselves racists, but they sure have a following among racists. Take a look at the video offerings from “The Peasant King,” a YouTube user and self-described independent researcher who holds what he says are multiple degrees. His video playlist is a cornucopia of racist, anti-Semitic, and conspiratorial claims, most of which involve fringe history, and all of which he annotates with the kind of commentary that is all too familiar from the radical right and conspiracy culture. Naturally, a disproportionate number of videos are about the Nephilim, who might as well be the mascot for extreme cultural conservatives of a Biblical bent.
Last night Scott Wolter appeared on Jimmy Church’s Fade to Black radio show for a three hour discussion I have not heard since the episode isn’t up online. I expect it will be posted sometime in the next day or so. The Wolter interview caps a week of Church’s conversations with heavyweights (Oct. 6-8 episodes) in the world of fringe history. On Monday he interviewed Nephilim theorist L. A. Marzulli, and on Tuesday he devoted three hours to speaking with Graham Hancock.
I’m not in the mood to write today. Last night my furnace died, and I am (I hope understandably) a bit upset. The furnace was 35 years old, and unfortunately the repair costs would be more than 50% of the replacement costs for the whole unit and they’d only keep it running for another year or two. So, now I need a new furnace, and of course it’s a boiler so it’s the most expensive type. September was a bad enough month, with quarterly self-employment taxes and school taxes due two weeks ago on top of the normal monthly expenses, but adding this massive expense this month on top of all is a pretty big hit.
When it comes to the History family of networks, there seems to be a clear divide now between History and H2 in terms of the crazy fringe ideas they want to promote. On H2 we have Ancient Aliens, where God is an extraterrestrial and New Age spirituality reigns, as well as America Unearthed, where Jesus was just a man and New Age spirituality explains the exalted status of his royal bloodline. Over on History, we have more traditional views of Biblical literalism. They had their scripted miniseries version of The Bible, as well as last year’s series Bible Secrets Revealed, albeit with ancient astronaut theorist and self-proclaimed descendant of Mary Magdalene Kathleen McGowan in a prominent role. The latest entry in that august pantheon is Search for Lost Giants, debuting next month, which is quite clearly meant to appeal to creationists, Biblical literalists, and Christian fundamentalists who take Genesis 6:4 literally.
Last month Nephilim theorist L. A. Marzulli expressed his anger that an unnamed researcher with an upcoming cable TV series on Bible giants allegedly failed to give Marzulli credit for uncovering a photograph of a supposed 8-foot giant from Catalina Island in California. Thanks to a press release from A+E Networks we now know that the researcher is Jim Vieira, who along with his brother Bill has been given a new History Channel series, Search for the Lost Giants, which will debut in the first week of November as part of History’s multi-network fringe history extravaganza. The same week will see the debut of the second season of Secrets of Oak Island on History and the return of America Unearthed on H2.
During the broadcast of In Search of Aliens Friday night, ancient astronaut theorist Giorgio Tsoukalos took the time to engage with his fans on Twitter while they watched their hero discuss his belief that extraterrestrial beings share their DNA with Caucasian human beings, who formed a sort of alien-powered master race in charge of building monumental architecture around the world. In the episode Tsoukalos asserted that DNA testing of a hair from an elongated skull in Peru tied the genetic code to northern Europe, and Tsoukalos concluded that this meant that the skulls were those of actual space aliens, or, as I call them, Space Aryans.
It’s hard to believe that we’ve already reached the first season finale of In Search of Aliens, or that the show already has a December DVD release date—just in time for holiday gift purchases. That doesn’t, however, mean that this unusual final episode, S01E10 “The Alien Code,” took any break from the show’s usual half-truths and distortions. The opening line is itself a half-truth: “The ancient astronaut theory has been around for over 45 years in popular culture.” Here show host Giorgio Tsoukalos is dating the ancient astronaut theory to Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods (1968), even though (a) the ancient astronaut theory has been around since the 1950s in its modern form, and the 1800s in earlier forms; and (b) von Däniken’s version wasn’t a popular culture sensation in the United States until after 1973. But to admit (a) or (b) is to damage the myth of Erich von Däniken as prophet, and of Giorgio Tsoukalos as his apostolic successor.
Filmmaker: Give Me $20,000 So David Childress Can Tell You Why the Olmec Were Actually African10/3/2014 Afrocentrism doesn’t sell as well as Eurocentrism to judge from the miserable performance of a diffusionist Kickstarter campaign promising new claims from a familiar face.
A production starring ancient astronaut theorist David Childress is seeking $20,000 in donations to fund an Afrocentric documentary on the Olmec. In a poorly written press release distributed online yesterday, producer Lee Sullivan announced his and David Childress’s belief that the Olmec became the guardians of the Ark of the Covenant in 600 BCE and directed interested fans to his website, whose URL misspells the name of the Olmec, testifying to the care with which he is approaching this bizarre hypothesis. As of this writing, $325 has been pledged to the campaign since it launched on September 17. William Henry: "I Wanted to Throw Up" Due to Ancient Aliens' Mistakes, "Manipulative Tendencies"10/2/2014 In my blog post about Chad Stuemke’s claims about Detroit, I mentioned that I had done an interview with Stuemke’s friend and colleague, Ancient Aliens pundit William Henry, for Henry’s Revelations radio show and that this interview never aired. Yesterday Henry took the time to stop by my blog and insult me as “psycho” and “creepy” and to claim that he did me a favor by removing audio of the interview he did with me in April 2012. He also wanted to remind my readers that despite the acknowledged similarity between his telephone booth wormholes and Doctor Who’s TARDIS (and between his star gates and the movie Stargate), I am wrong to suggest an inspiration in science fiction:
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AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
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