A CRYPTO BIRTHDAY MESSAGE!!!

Are those salacious internet rumors true? Yes, according to all available evidence, it is now my BIRTHDAY! Last year, various and sundry admirers sent me such commonplace gifts as a genetically-engineered strain of the Zika virus, a severed clavicle formerly belonging to a leading member of the little-known but ruthless Punta Allen Cartel, and a vintage 1941 Captain Midnight decoder badge. What can one do with such ephemeral objects? Very little! If you want to do something truly special, why not consider voting for me in the 23rd Annual Rondo Awards? Did you know that ANYONE can vote in the Rondo Awards? My first short story collection CRYPTOPOLIS & OTHER STORIES (seen below, for some strange reason, inside a hallway of the Haunted Mansion) has been nominated in the "BEST FICTION" category.  YOU CAN VOTE FOR CRYPTOPOLIS & OTHER STORIES IN 3 EASY STEPS...

1. Copy-and-paste the ballot below into an e-mail.
 
2. Choose CRYPTOPOLIS & OTHER STORIES in the BEST CLASSIC MONSTER FICTION category.
 
3. Then email to David Colton (taraco@aol.com) by midnight on April 20th, 2025.

Don’t forget to include your name in the e-mail!

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12) BEST CLASSIC MONSTER FICTION:
— CRYPTOPOLIS AND OTHER STORIES, by Robert Guffey (Lethe Press, softcover, 370 pages, $23). Stories of ancient horrors taking new shapes, magics, and religions.

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A Thousand Thank You's!!!

CRYPTONECROLOGY: Jessica Aber, R.I.P.

From Ronny Reyes' 3-23-25 NEW YORK POST article entitled "Jessica Aber, US Attorney Found Dead at 43, Was in Charge of High-profile Cases Targeting CIA Leaks, Russian Fraud":

The former US Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia who was found dead Saturday morning had been in charge of some of the biggest cases targeting leaks in the CIA and Russian nationals carrying out fraud in America.

Officials are investigating Jessica Aber’s cause of death after the 43-year-old was discovered unresponsive at her home by Alexandria Police Department officers just before 9:20 a.m. Saturday morning.

Prior to her resignation in January as President Trump took office, the Biden-nominated attorney saw one of her biggest wins in court when ex-CIA analyst Asif Rahman, 34, pleaded guilty to leaking top secret documents about Israel’s plan to strike Iran last year [...].

Aber also led the case against Eleview International Inc., a Virginia-based company whose two senior executives were accused of running “three different schemes to illegally transship sensitive American technology to Russia,” according to the Department of Justice.

Executives Oleg Nayandin, 54, and Vitaliy Borisenko, 39, were accused in November of illegally shipping out more than $6 million worth of goods, including telecommunications equipment, to Russia through ports in Turkey, Finland and Kazakhstan as a means to bypass US sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

The case came just two months after Aber secured indictments against two Russian nationals accused of fraud and money laundering.

Sergey Ivanov and Timur Shakhmametov, who had a $10 million reward for their arrests, were allegedly behind one of the largest money laundering operations online that “catered to major cybercrime marketplaces and ransomware groups, and to prolific hackers responsible for some of the largest data breaches targeting critical U.S. financial infrastructure,” according to the Secret Service.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

Censorship Corner: 2025 TX SB13

From Christine Sanchez's 3-23-25 SPECTRUM NEWS article entitledTexas Senate passes bill to control which books are allowed in school libraries Texas Senate passes bill to control which books are allowed in school librariesTexas Senate passes bill to control which books are allowed in school librariesTexas Senate passes bill to control which books are allowed in school librariesTexas Senate passes bill to control which books are allowed in school lib"Texas Senate Passes Bill to Control Which Books Are Allowed in School Libraries":

The Texas Senate passed a bill this week that would leave decisions on a school library’s catalog mainly up to parents and board members instead of librarians.

Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, authored Senate Bill 13, which would create school advisory boards made up of parents that are appointed by school board members.

SB 13 would allow school boards to determine the types of books that make it into school libraries. It’s part of a growing movement among Republican politicians to pass control of what is taught in schools to parents.

The bill heads to the Texas House next.

Book bans have gained momentum across the U.S. in recent years. A report from PEN America says Texas ranked third in the nation in book bans, banning 538 books from 12 districts in the 2023-2024 school year. Florida and Iowa followed.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

The White House Faith Office

From Aamer Madhani and Peter Smith's 2-7-25 PBS.org article entitled "Trump Signs Executive Order to Establish a White House Faith Office":

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday to establish the White House Faith Office as part of the Domestic Policy Council.

The order renames the existing White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The order says the new office will consult with faith leaders on topics including “defending religious liberty” and the promotion of adoption and foster care programs.

It will advise on policy implementations throughout the federal government and help faith-based organizations procure government grants, among other responsibilities.

Trump said Thursday that he wants to root out “anti-Christian bias” in the U.S., announcing that he was forming a task force led by Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the “targeting” of Christians [...].

Trump’s new task force drew criticism from Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

“Rather than protecting religious beliefs, this task force will misuse religious freedom to justify bigotry, discrimination, and the subversion of our civil rights laws,” said Rachel Laser, the group’s president and CEO.

At the Capitol, Trump said he believes people “can’t be happy without religion, without that belief. Let’s bring religion back. Let’s bring God back into our lives” [...].

Trump [...] reflected on having a bullet coming within a hair’s breadth of killing him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, telling attendees, “It changed something in me, I feel.”

“I feel even stronger,” he continued. “I believed in God, but I feel, I feel much more strongly about it. Something happened.” Later at the prayer breakfast sponsored by a private group, he remarked, “It was God that saved me.”

He drew laughs at the Capitol event when he expressed gratitude that the episode “didn’t affect my hair.”

To read the entire article, click HERE.

HAPPY EQUINOX!

 "THE INVISIBLE BARRIER BETWEEN GOOD... AND EVIL!"

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MANLY P. HALL!

Yesterday, I posted a brief excerpt from Manly P. Hall's 1946 pamphlet, ATLANTIS: AN INTERPRETATION. Since today marks what would have been Manly P. Hall's 124th birthday, I suggest celebrating the occasion by listening to Hall's 12-6-81 lecture entitled "Atlantis and the Gods of Antiquity"...

Manly P. Hall: Atlantis and the Gods of Antiquity:

 

ST. PATRICK VS. THE SERPENTS OF ATLANTIS!

"The thought of the serpents is not so far-fetched when we remember that the Arab geographers always referred to Antilla, or Atlantis, as the Dragon’s Isle. Was the dragon the great King Thevetat, the mysterious spirit who ruled Atlantis from the air, unseen at any time, and according to the ancient traditions, whose agents upon the earth were the serpent-kings who carried his feathered scepter as a symbol of their regency? If so, then the natural symbol for this dragon-king, Lord of the Seven Cities or Nations, would be the seven-headed serpent which is perpetuated, as the seven-headed Naga of Cambodia. Similarly, the Atlantean empire is represented by a strange dragon whose heads represent the sources of the race and whose long coils reveal the migrations of the Atlanteans in their serpentine path across the world.

"The account of Atlantis being under the dominion of a great invisible being may have given rise to certain Celtic legends, particularly those dealing with the account of how Ireland was originally peopled by an invisible race and ruled over by an aerial king. These myths may have come to Ireland by way of the 'men from the sea,' accounts of whom have been preserved in their traditions. Their descendants, the Druids, were the 'snakes' whom St. Patrick is supposed to have destroyed."

 --MANLY P. HALL, ATLANTIS: AN INTERPRETATION, 1946