What is Coal?

The fossil fuel known as coal is the largest source of energy for the generation of electricity worldwide. And, as it just so happens, Kentucky's chock-full of the stuff. It's sprinkled throughout the state but is especially pocketed in two major deposit areas that take up half of Kentucky.

But what is coal?

According to Wikipedia, "Coal begins as layers of plant matter accumulated at the bottom of a body of water. For the process to continue the plant matter must be protected from biodegradation and oxidization, usually by mud or acidic water. The wide shallow seas of the Carboniferous period provided such conditions."


Everything we do today, around the world, depends on the continued mining of this dessicated metamorphosized prehistoric plant material from the days of the proto-dinosaurs.

But coal is essentially carbon, which is in itself the basic building block of all life on Earth. Although it's theoretically possible that there could be other forms of life out there in the Universe, such as silicon-based life, it's purely within the realm of speculation. For our purposes here on Earth, everything is based on carbon.

In very ancient times, mankind's world was revolutionized by the simple discovery that carbon could give us Carbon Black, a material derived by charring organic materials such as wood or bone, for the purposes of ink for writing and pigment for art. From this man progressed from the spoken word to the written word, and language and communication took a quantum leap into becoming something tangible, something you could save and have and hold and touch. Veritably, "the word made flesh".

Those who find significance in the number 666 as being representational of evil and Satanic forces might then find it troubling to know that the atom of elemental carbon is comprised of 6 electrons, 6 protons, and 6 neutrons. As they say, the Devil is in the details.


And since the number 666 is supposed to be connected to a future "Mark of the Beast" that is placed on every person's body, it's also interesting to note that most black tattoo inks use carbon black ("the word made flesh" again). Could the Mark of the Beast be, literally, a tattoo that inserts carbon into your skin cells?

(Short answer: yep. Take a look at U.S. Patent 5,878,155, issued to Houston inventor Thomas W. Heeter, described as a "Method for verifying human identity during electronic sale transactions" — by tattooing a bar code on an individual.)

And what does this Satanic interpretation of coal mean when symbolically applied to the notion of Santa Claus who, like Krampus before him, places coal in the stockings of "bad" children?

Meanwhile, some researchers in China have discovered that coal specifically from the Permian-Triassic mass extinction is especially toxic and harmful to humans today. As the American Chemical Society press release puts it: "The volcanic eruptions thought responsible for Earth’s largest mass extinction which killed more than 70 percent of plants and animals 250 million years ago is still taking lives today." Interestingly, part of what is making the extinction-coal-dust so harmful is the high level of silicon.

Coal dust, being essenially carbon, is forever lodged in not just the lungs but many other internal organs of many Kentuckians. It also has a tendency to remain trapped in the skin and other tissues. Just as I wonder about the ubiquitous corn molecules that are permeating all human tissues, I also wonder about the long-term consequences for us as a species having greater and greater amount of coal being permanent parts of our own personal ecosystems. It isn't just for coal miners anymore.

The Algonquins tell us that all substances and all things have a separate spirit, an entity that represents that thing and pervades it, called a Manitou. If so, the Manitou of carbon, the Manitou of coal, and even the Manitous of the prehistoric plants who once were these atoms are inside us, touching us, within us all even as we speak.

And what is their intent for us?


If there is an answer that we have chance of gleaning, it probably lies deep underground, in the coal's natural habitat, where dust-drenched Kentuckians endure the sulphurous reek of the hellish subterranean mines.

Blocked!

So, as I type this, I'm in the "Business Center" in the clubhouse at Garden Gate Apartments where I live, which is basically a large conference room with computers. I'm the only one I know who uses it for business purposes, though - it seems universally utilized by other residents for porn, sports, myspace, facebook, mojo, celebrity gossip, video games, and other idle pursuits of the masses.

Recently they've installed some sort of internet filter on their system which renders the internet unusable for anyone doing any type of research. I noticed a bad link to an Eckankar site on a previous UnK post and was fixing it, when I found that Google is now blocked:


Google.com is tagged "Hate and Discrimination"? WTF?

Although Google is blocked, Yahoo is permitted, which is kind of weird since Yahoo carries way more avenues to malicious spyware and havoc-wreaking code on its front page than Google's plain, no-frills site. So I go through Yahoo to get the Eckankar link I sought, and guess what? It won't let me access the Kentucky Eck site because it says they're a cult.


Now forget for a moment that Eckankar isn't really much of a cult - they're more like a new age meditation-hum club - but even if they were a cult, why would cults be automatically blocked just on general principles? Apparently someone somewhere thinks Christianity is the only religion people should be allowed to read about. Sure enough, almost all of the religious groups I linked to in this post are blocked.

Kookier still, the Church of Satan's website is blocked with the additional tag "militant/extremist/terrorist". That's beyond wrong, since Anton LaVey's idea of a Satanist was someone who mainly led a quiet, non-confrontational existence, and sat around alone at home listening to Rudy Vallee 78s while wearing a dime-store plastic halloween horned hat. There are plenty of dangerous and psychotic Satanist-wannabe occult groups out there, but LaVey's group is not among them. Diamanda Galas, like many other "more-demonic-than-thou" types, has dismissed it as "Las Vegas Satanism"... which actually sounds like a compliment to me.


It didn't take me long to realize that in addition to banning specific sites that offended some unknown person's sense of decorum, an apparent secret list of keywords prevents one from accessing the websites of products like the famous Naked Juice health drink and L'eggs Nude Pantyhose.

Most baffling of all, when I tried to search for sites for amateur telescope aficionados, that was banned as well, and the reason given being "pornography"!

Why? I have no idea. Perhaps someone's only frame of reference for the term "amateur" was amateur porn?


I'm not sure what bunch of genuises are responsible for this block-happy net-nanny, but the bottom of each block warning says "SECURESPOT is a registered trademark of D-Link Systems, Inc. Copyright© 2009 Bsecure Technologies, Inc."

This isn't the first time I've encountered computer-related idiocy on this grand a scale, alas. Awhile back, one of our associates found her workplace banning access to virtually the entire internet, which begs the question: why even have the internet, then? Her boss - who knew about as much about the internet as, say, Dilbert's boss - was only following the advice of a company handling his computer services, NetGain (Or, as it was known around the office, "NetLoss"). Reportedly, he was paying an absurd sum for these services which left him with an internet that none of his workers could use - not even for the specific purposes within their job description.

Someday the little children will ask you why civilization collapsed. Tell them it was because we were afraid of information, afraid of people we disagreed with, afraid of ourselves, afraid of everything. A nation of wusses.

Rapist Pastor Blames Satan

Around 5am on Sunday morning, Jody Lusk, a Logan County preacher wanted in connection with the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl, turned himself in to police.

He reportedly picked the girl up after school on Friday, had sex with her at an Illinois campground, then returned her to her home Saturday afternoon. Lusk maintains the sexual contact was consensual.

Lusk had attempted to make it appear that he had been kidnapped by sending his wife a text message at 3pm Saturday. The message said, "KY license plate 744frm Briggs Lake". The FBI investigated but discovered the license plate belonged to an abandoned vehicle that had nothing to do with the case. I'm not sure why he did all this, or where he was going with the phony disappearance angle. Was he going to bug out, hit the road and disappear forever? Or was it just a temporary diversionary tactic? Or just a really poorly-executed bit of psychological "dazzle camoflage"?

His own vehicle - with windows broken - was found at Briggs Lake, where he had told his wife he would be fishing. Additionally, his bicycle was found abandoned on another road further out and his canoe was floating empty in the lake. This led police to fear that he had drowned, and extensive measures - underwater cameras and sonar - were employed to try to find his body.


He released a statement to WBKO-TV which reads, in part:

"I am deeply sorry for my sinful actions and I am in deep shame. I have been asked what could possibly motivate me to do such a thing. I can't quite explain why. Satan blinds us to sin and what it is and what it really does. Being a preacher I know that God's Word warns us about Satan and his ways. Unfortunately, until I experienced that first hand I didn't fully grasp it. I was on a spiritual high as 2009 began but I let it all come crashing down, I let Satan have his way with me. My faith wasn't as strong as I thought it was. Looking back on all that I've done it's hard to believe this was me doing this... Satan wants all of us to think that some sins are OK. But what seems like a small sin will always progress and lead to other sins. Don't let him fool you. I ask for everyone to forgive me - my family, her family, my brethren, my friends, and my community."

Lusk also has a welcome statement on the Google-cached copy of Auburn Church of Christ's website (the actual one has been yanked down):

I have been with the church in Auburn since April 1, 2007. I have been preaching the gospel for about 10 years and have worked with churches in Alabama and Kentucky. I grew up near Boaz, AL and became a Christian in 1995, after leaving the denominations of men and obeying God's plan of salvation. Very soon, I had the desire to preach the gospel, but being new to the faith, I knew it would take time to be ready. I spent the next 3 years studying hard and preparing myself to work full-time as a preacher. I had the help of some fine gospel preachers in my preparation, such as George Hutto and Carroll Sutton. During this time, I preached any time I had the opportunity, anywhere I had the opportunity. In January 1999 I began my first work with the Millertown church of Christ in the Dot community in Logan County, KY. In July 2001 I moved back to Alabama and worked with the Alexandria Rd. church of Christ in Jacksonville, AL. After being there for almost 6 years, I then moved here to Auburn. My wife, Shannon, and I have 3 children- Hollie, Zachary, and Elijah. If I can help you in any way, please don't hesitate to ask!

Maybe he should have just blamed it on The Danes.

"Sign of the Horns" Grave?

Here's an interesting grave: one with the sign language symbol for "Love" on it.

Of course, some people associate this hand sign with the "Sign of the Horns", which is supposedly (yawn) Satanic. Although popularized in rock and roll by musicians such as Gene Simmons, Ozzy Osbourne, and Ronnie James Dio, it dates back to antiquity - something that seems lost on the authors of the Wikipedia article linked to above.

A certain breed of conspiracy theorists also love to look for the sign - or any vague variation of it, be it thumb in or thumb out - in photos of world leaders. Apparently this somehow proves that they're all agents of an occult global elite of technocrats who control the planet. (Which, you know, they probably are - but not just because they use this hand sign.)


Not wishing to encourage doofuses to start spinning a "Satanic" myth around this grave - like they have with Ada Armstead's - I think I'll refrain from identifying the who, what and where of this particular grave.

Natasha Cornett's Satanic Cult

What is it about Kentucky that seems to foster crew after crew of dangerous teenage Goth-loser-wannabe occultists? In 1998 the activities of yet another gang of self-styled spawns of Satan made national headlines, as 19-year-old Natasha Cornett and her Pikeville posse pleaded guilty to a triple homicide.

In April 1997, Vidar and Delfina Lillelid, along with their 6-year-old daughter Tabitha, were driving home from a Jehovah's Witnesses event when they stopped at a highway rest area. It was here that they were accosted by Cornett and her Korn-listening kooks. The entire family was later found, shot to death, in a ditch along a dark rural gravel road a few miles away.

The gang - Natasha Cornett, 19, Crystal Sturgill, 18, Karen Howell, 18, Jason Blake Bryant, 15, Dean Mullins, 20, and Joe Risner, 21 - were caught and arrested near the Arizona-Mexican border a few days later, driving the stolen Lillilid family van.

In police custody, Cornett declared herself to be "the daughter of Satan", and confessed to a blood-letting satanic ritual at the Colley Motel in Pikeville. Self-mutilation was a key part of the sect's activities, and when arrested, Cornett had around 20 cuts on her right arm and around 50 on her left. The group believed that communication with Satan was only possible during these self-cutting rituals.

Cornett also confessed that it had been the group's intent to carry out a cross-country murder spree, and specifically named the film "Natural Born Killers" as an influence.

A documentary about the kids, entitled Six, is available on DVD. The film raises a number of disturbing points, such as the fact that Cornett had previously been committed to the Charter Ridge mental hospital in Lexington and diagnosed as bipolar and dangerous, yet was released because she had no insurance.

Salem Cemetery

According to a rather dubious online source, if you drive by the Salem Cemetery (also known as Gilead Cemetery) at night, you can see "two orange colored eyes looking at you", and also that the site where the Salem Baptist Church currently stands was once home to a "Satanic Church".

We have difficulty swallowing that, but there is a very creepy energy to this place, and there are a lot of interesting graves that make my internal spook-o-meter point north. Several of them hint at unusual or tragic deaths, like the graves of the daughters of Squire and Lizzie Williams - which bear the birthdate but list the death date as "unknown". This often indicates some sort of circumstances where the bodies were found a long time after death, making the exact year of death uncertain.

Interestingly, Squire's grave is also in the cemetery, but Lizzie's is not.

To get to Salem, KY (this is the one in Madison County, not the one near Paducah) you follow the old Barnes Mill Road out to the fork in the road (at a bridge over a creek with a waterfall). Take the left fork over the bridge and just keep going. You'll see the cemetery on your right after about 10-15 minutes.

Disputanta Post Office

Disputanta, KY is a spooky little place in the mountains of Rockcastle County. Aside from its rural residents, there isn't much left here except a church, a graveyard or two, and this lovely old abandoned post office.

There is an old legend that Satan comes to visit Disputanta every Autumn, and novelist Johnny Payne used this legend as the basis for his play "The Devil In Disputanta".