Because it can’t all be about ghost and goblins all the time.

And because, frankly, as far as I’m concerned there isn’t anything more anomalous than a sytem that gives wads of cash to the uber-wealthy as a reward for inefficiently running a business that exploits the most desperate and needy members of the workforce.

In a recent forum discussion (Triangle ufo at Rigorous Intuition forums) someone brought to my attention video of an alleged triangular UFO that shoots a red beam of light. The video is posted online at several websites: Zwamneus Report, YouTube, LiveLeaks and others.

(“weird black triangle UFO with red lights” – YouTube)

The information posted at these video links alleges that the footage is connected to the recent article posted at the Irish Independent News website headlined We’re not alone . . . politician and pilot spot UFO that states:

“Footage, filmed on a camera phone at 10.35pm on August 3 near Dunboyne was also played and replayed to over 70 delegates who attended the fifth Irish International UFO conference in Carrick-on-Shannon.

The triangular shaped image, with lights at each point, which appeared to send a red laser-type light towards earth, drew gasps of amazement from the 70 or so delegates who attended the world premiere of the footage.”

The above quote does sound a lot like the footage in the video at the cited video sites. But the text at the YouTube link (recently updated) makes the claim that the footage was “found along a trail near the North Carolina / Tennessee border. It was found before the Irish video was announced. I only put it up when I heard about that one because it sounded like the same thing.” The poster goes on to say that he has given the camera and footage to a “UFO / Paranormal” researcher and that they will be posting the full, higher quality video online this weekend. [As of this weekend, it has indeed been updated to confirm our suspicions.]

Somehow I serendipitously came across the website for the Hoax Research Center and when I clicked through the headline UFOs: Phoenix Lights Effect Reproduced I (re)discovered the Annual Speaking of Strange UFO Experience and Fake UFO Contest organized by paranormal author, researcher and radio personality, Joshua P. Warren. And what should I see on that page but a picture of Jeff Wilson’s First-Place Winning UFO from last year’s 3rd Annual Speaking of Strange UFO Experience, which looks strikingly similar to the video in question:

(Photo by Sarah Harrison of the AshevilleParanormalSociety.com)

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That last post about Sarah Palin’s involvement with Pastor Thomas Muthee got a lot of us talking about witchcraft, the ongoing belief in, and fear of, witches in various parts of the world, and the consequences of mob rule and even legislating faith and morality. I’ve recently been reading “Passport to Magonia” and I’m sure the various writings of Jacques Vallee, no doubt, could place this in a greater historical context than I could hope to do in a simple blog post. The fact remains though, that occurrences that most of us would attribute to happenstance, coincidence, or, if it were something truly spectacular, maybe even to UFOnauts or extra-dimensionals, are still interpreted as witchcraft by others (and not just in far off, exotic locales like Kenya, although reports from Africa are more common, either because the media ignores such claims in the US press, relegates them to the “strange news” queue, or because social pressures keep more people from discussing their beliefs openly).

At some point in the future, I may even tell you about some of my own family’s stories regarding contact with malignant spirits they attributed to witchcraft (for instance my late grandmother Bailey always attributed misplaced objects in the home to “those little imps”, a clear ideological descendant of the brownies, boggarts, and house sprites her Scots and Irish ancestors would have believed in), but for now, we’ve got witchcraft links.  Below you will find several links to news stories discussing witchcraft in these various forms.

On the political front we have Palin blessed to be free from witchcraft.

In the cultural differences department, we’ve got African albinos persecuted as witches and witchcraft rumors sparking a soccer riot.

We’ve got a little of both, a smattering of xenophobia, and that legislation of faith and morality we discussed, with a witch trial in Saudi Arabia.

Finally we come full circle, and back to our concerns about separation of church and state, and legislating faith (an issue that concerns me, too, as that rare beast, a progressive, liberal Christian) with this commentary on, and video of, Pastor Thomas Muthee praying for Sarah Palin to help tear down the barriers that separate church and state. (Also embedded below.)