Reptilians from Area 51 control the weather using sweet iced tea served by O.E.S. worthy matrons

The friendly folks over at Welcome to the Machine wrote the other day about a new game they've invented. For lack of a better title, it's called "The Conspiracy Theorist Nutjob Game."

Simply put, you earn points in the game by going onto conspiracy theorist forums, websites, and blogs, and engaging conspiracy theorists in dialog. You earn five points, for example, by getting someone to call you "sheeple," and three points if you're called a "lemming." Getting a conspiracy theorist to admit he's wrong about something is worth 20 points, but getting him to actually change his mind gets you 500 points.

Inspiring a conspiracy theorist to use the phrases "psy ops," "mind control," or "thought police" gets you 10 points each. If they use the phrase "JFK," "Area 51," or "Freemason," you only get one point, since conspiracies involving these topics are so common and intertwined.

The Burning Taper occasionally receives comments by a few anti-Masonic conspiracy kooks, but mostly, this site has become a free-for-all where Masons attack and insult other Masons.

I thought maybe we could at least have a little fun with it here while every one is still hell-bent on bashing each other. I mean, the terms "sock puppet" and "racist" and "clandestine" and "real Mason" and "unmasonic" and "obligations" get bandied about here so often they should be worth a couple of points each time they're used, or provoked. "Douchebag," which one Mason recently called another Mason here, is another word that points should be awarded (or deducted) for.

And of course, per Godwin's Law, the first person who mentions Hitler or Nazis loses.

Calling Bro. Ed King names, or being called names by him, isn't worth much, it's been done so much. What would really be worth a couple of hundred points would be for Bro. King to actually show the world his brotherly side and write something venom-less on his website or blog about anyone outside his personal circle of lodge brothers and junior steward lackeys.

Likewise, GOUSA members who want to tell the world that Grand Orient Masonry is better than Grand Lodge Masonry could probably earn more points in the minds of regular Masons — or stop collecting so many — if brotherly love for those who disagree with them seemed to be one of their tenets.

I haven't yet decided if earning these points makes you a winner or a loser.

Masons | Conspiracy Theory | Ed King | Freemasonry | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

A good guide to shadowy organizations that rule the world

Next time those pesky conspiracy theorists start ranting in your face about Freemasons, Bilderbergers, Trilataterists and Skull and Bonesmen, send 'em packing with some words of wisdom from the Good Guide to the Shadowy Organizations that Rule the World.

In the guide, for example, you'll learn (not that you didn't already know) that while Freemasons are perceived by the masses as the wizards behind the curtain, our real power is next to zero. In fact, it's right next to zero — a one. On the Guide's scale of power, Freemasonry has a Mythical Power of Nine, but an Actual Power level of One.

Check out the hype and the hooey about not only the Masons, but all those other spooky secret cabals.

Masons | Trilateral Commission | Bilderbergers | Freemasonry | Bohemian Grove | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

I want to believe

It's Conspiracy Day at The Burning Taper. Worry and paranoia over everything is just a click away these days. Cult propaganda, government cover-ups, the secret agenda of tour guides — it's all waiting for you online.

Here are few articles that recently caught my eye.

The Wiccans are taking over the minds of youthful members of America's evangelical churches, thanks to Harry Potter, according to a shill for Tim and Beverly LaHaye. Tim, of course, has made a fortune selling his Left Behind series of Christian mythology about what happens on Earth after Jesus returns.

A columnist for Collegiate Times has debunked all conspiracy theories as "laughable myths." Obviously, he's an apologist for the Illuminati.

Philadelphia tour guides have been belled and collared with "registration," and are programmed to tell "hilarious lies" about the history of the City of Brotherly Love.

Here's a link to brief histories of a devil's dozen secret societies, sponsored by the International Institute of Social History. Now does that sound like an Illuminati front group, or what? You'll be an expert in disinformation once you've read these "Cliff Notes" of The Conspiracy.

And get ready to enjoy the new exploits of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. The as-yet-unnamed The X-Files movie sequel hits the big screen on July 25.

Masons | Masonic Conspiracies | Left Behind | Freemasonry | Wicca | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Still fuzzy on the details

Today I got an Instant Message from an old friend who was catching up reading the Taper.

She wrote, "I just read your latest blog entry on BT. Damn, you can write something about almost nothing and make it sound interesting!"

Not today. Can't think of a thing to write, so I'll just point you here. This guy said more funny stuff about nothing than I could ever aspire to.

Lunar Eclipse | Conspiracy Theory | Freemasonry | Grand Lodge of Georgia | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Rosalind Brodsky: The delusional time-traveler

The other day in a comment to the article Rituals, Pop Stars and Conspiracy Theory, someone called Freeman a conspiracy poet.

Today brings us a conspiracy artist.

From The Prague Post (of the Czech Republic):

Suzanne Treister's "Hexen 2039" is a fantastical and perpetually expanding art project involving the artist’s alter ego, Rosalind Brodsky — a para-scientific researcher of the future who is occupied with new military-occult technologies being developed for use in psychological warfare. Like some character out of a novel by Thomas Pynchon or Umberto Eco, Brodsky is a delusional time traveler who works for IMATI (Institute of Militronics and Advanced Time Interventionality) in the year 2039, investigating ancient and contemporary systems, especially occult and military histories.

Through drawings, diagrams, videos, a Web site and site-specific interventions (or “performances” in art lingo), Brodsky mines the complex and seemingly endless links between conspiracy theories about behavior-control experiments by the U.S. government, Soviet brainwashing experiments, British intelligence agencies, occult groups, Hollywood, Disney, witchcraft in Eastern Europe and neuroscientific research connected to the U.S. military's Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations (PSYOP) program.

If that's not enough, she also ties in Aleister Crowley and the occult group Ordo Templi Orientis, Disney's Fantasia, MGM's Stargate and The Wizard of Oz, Russian biophysicists, the composer Mussorgsky (made re-famous by Emerson, Lake and Palmer's 1971 Pictures at an Exhibition), Chernobyl, the British spy group MI5, John Dee's crystal ball, Pavlov's dogs, the Illuminati, and, of course, those dastardly Freemasons.

Her show is now winding down in Prague, after a tour of San Francisco, Philadelphia, Brazil, Great Britain, and Germany.

Image: Rosalind Brodsky in her Electronic Time Travelling Costume to rescue her Grandparents from the Holocaust ends up mistakenly on the set of "Schindler's List," Krakow, Poland, 1994. From her website.

Masons | Hexen 2039 | Conspiracy Theory | Freemasonry | Suzanne Treister | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

The Grand Unified Conspiracy Theory

Finally, a Grand Unified Conspiracy Theory.

Well, it ignores the JFK assassination, "all your base are belong to us," and AIDS, but other than that, it's all here, rolled into one conspiratorial disinformation campaign that would make Eris ("All Hail Discordia!") wet her pants with pride.

According to this video, the 9-11 tragedy was a "mega-ritual" involving the Twin Towers as the Masonic pillars Boaz and Jachin, coordinated by Aleister Crowley's grandson, George W. Bush, to open a stargate between the Abrahamic mega-cults and the god Pan.

Throw in some off-the-wall references to Adam Weishaupt and the Bavarian Illuminati, Egyptian pyramids, The Simpsons, Grey aliens, the Grand Mosque of Mecca, corporate sculpture, Kaballah, Isis, Atlantis, Masonic tracing boards and the Blazing Star, the film Fight Club, the "cuboid" Ark of the Covenant, and to not only the shape of the wizard's head in the original film The Wizard of Oz but to the set of 1978's The Wiz (starring Michael Jackson and Diana Ross), and you have yourself a bizarrely entertaining 10-minute video that leaves you with the distinct feeling that there are some amazingly creative and insane people out there with basic cinematic editing skills.

Thanks to McBlogger for pointing out this video.



Masons | Conspiracy | Twin Towers | Freemasonry | Pan | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Paranoid anti-Mason conspiracy nut shoots neighbor to death

A paranoid anti-Mason in Milwaukee, Wisconsin shot and killed his neighbor last week, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.

The victim, Mark A. Wright, was a "god-fearing man who went to church every Sunday," a member of his church told reporters. There is no mention of whether Wright was a Freemason.

A second story from the same newspaper reported that the alleged killer

Rene Stermole decided some time ago that Wright was not only a terrorist in touch with Libyan despot Moammar Gadhafi, but also was tied in with Mafia members, biker gangs, El Rukn street gangsters from Chicago and various other figures out to do him harm. Stermole had worried for many years that his shadowy enemies would come after him and guarded himself accordingly: They threatened to attack his wife, so he never married, and they used Wright to stalk him, so he got a digital camera to document it, he told police.

Stermole has been associated with the anti-Masonic website TheForbiddenKnowledge.com for the past ten years.

Apparently Stermole is a Christian believer in "end-times" prophecy, and blames all sorts of bogeymen for the world's woes. His website indicates he suffers from major paranoia, and lists as "partners" FreemasonryWatch.org, Illuminati-News.com, and a group called Wake Up America. His site includes a link to audio files by the late paranoid conspiracy theorist / UFO nut William Cooper, author of Behold a Pale Horse.

Stermole himself apparently has written a 13-chapter book titled "America's Subversion: The Enemy Within, which can be found here.

On this page you'll find his diatribe against Bro. Ed King of MasonicInfo.com. Stermole begins his rant by saying "Ed King's website is full of lies and deceit. He fails miserably in disproving Freemasonry is Satanic to the core." Here's a link to Bro. Ed's mocking, giggling article "exposing" Stermole's anti-Masonic website Bible Defense.

Image: Sonny Rene Stermole

Masons | Masonic Conspiracy | Paranoia | Sonny Rene Stermole | Ed King | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Conspiracy nuts on parade: '666, the Pope, Anti-Christ & Vatican — for Dummies!'

Sometimes religiously-inspired conspiracy nuts are interesting. Sometimes they're just weird.

An entry on the blog 666, the Pope, Anti-Christ & Vatican — For Dummies! yesterday called "The Roots of Evil in Jerusalem — The New Masonic Israeli Supreme Court" is a little bit of both. But it's the photos that make it worth looking at.

It's a rambling piece, reprinted from 2004, by a Jew who seems to be expecting the imminent return of Jesus. He begins by worrying his "report will shock and upset some; it is one I have put off for over 4 years. After struggling with it I have decided now is the time to write it." Pretty deep emotional territory there.

Then he launches into a fearful diatribe about dark Satanic conspiracies involving Freemasons, the Illuminati, the Rothschilds, the Federal Reserve and the New World Order. There's some weird jibberish about the number 20, where he says three years equals 750 days. He's especially concerned about the diabolically-designed architecture of the Israeli Supreme Court building, built along "ley lines" in close proximity to the Foreign Ministry and the Central Bank of Israel in Jerusalem.

Ley lines, he says, are "lines in geographical places that Witches, Warlock, and Wizards walk claiming for the Devil."

Like I said, this is the stuff of Conspiracy Theory 101.

But it's the pictures that feed the imagination. The complex contains a pyramid with the All-Seeing Eye as well as a Washington Monument-like obelisk and what he identifies as Hindu altars.

Noting there are 30 steps in one part of the building, he writes:

For a moment lets go back to the top of the 30 steps, as we know there are 33 degrees in Free Masonry but the last three are the ones of higher learning and preparations to enter the Illuminati. So as we move from the top of the stairs towards the Pyramid we see a great library with three tiers to those three levels of higher learner. They three final steps in Free Masonry and after that if ones choose to go higher and have been accepted they enter the highest levels of the Illuminati. It is also important in this building to note that the 33rd level ends at the base of the Pyramid.

He calls an oval staircase a "fertility symbol always present in any illuminati structure, often hidden but always there. Much can be said about this symbol and the symbol of the masons with the compass and square with the 'G' in the middle."

Do conspiracists have software that just randomly generates this kind of stuff?

He closes with "Shalom," and asks you to pray for his "ministry."

Masons | Masonic Symbols | Jerusalem | Freemasonry | Conspiracy Theory | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Wacko website proves Masonic worldwide conspiracy: Smirnoff logo looks like Scottish Rite emblem!

I usually ignore the anti-Masonic wacko websites; I seldom find anything new or creative.

Today, though, I found a site that ties all those 33rd-degree sorcerers to what is gushingly, almost worshipfully called "the largest multinational beer, wine and spirits company in the world! It's NOT a coincidence they choose to use that Double-headed Eagle/Phoenix, WITH A CROWN on it!... And what sneaky tactics, they've named their company to not sound UK owned...."

Noting the similarity between the symbol for Smirnoff vodka and the double-headed eagle of the Scottish Rite, the blog "Post Modern Research," whose mixed-metaphor tagline is "exposing the beast, one brick at a time," has conclusively shown us that alcohol rules the world, and that Freemasonry rules alcohol, or alcohol rules Masons, or something like that. I mean, all the "captains of industry" of the world are Masons, right, and....

The site points out that Diageo is a British company, oh my! And of course, Freemasonry came from England and "the United Kingdom is at the top of the world's power structure, even WE bow down to the UK!" I assume "we" is the US of A; conspiracy nuts always believe the conspiracies are aimed at "good ol' reglar Mericans."

They worry a good bit about Freemasonry's control of the New World Order. The blog has over 30 articles about Masonry, and another eight exclusively about those top-level Masons, the Shriners. Most of the articles lately seem to be fretting about Masonic imagery in computer games. In fact, the entire site seems to be quite concerned with how images are inserted into human consciousness, which could indeed be an interesting thing to investigate, if only all the stories weren't about past master's jewels in video games and Shriners in old Beavis and Butthead movies.

The good ol' reglar Mericans at Post Modern Research are kind enough to list all of Diageo's alcoholic products; it's quite an exhaustive and thirst-enhancing list: "Guinness, Red Stripe, Johnnie Walker scotch whisky, Smirnoff vodka, Ciroc vodka, Gordon's gin, Captain Morgan rum, Bulleit Bourbon, J&B scotch whisky, Seagram 7 Crown, Crown Royal Canadian Whisky, VO Canadian Whisky, Bells scotch, Bundaberg, Tanqueray gin, Bushmills, George Dickel, Don Julio, Baileys, Archers, Pimm's, Sterling Vineyards, Beaulieu Vineyard, Blossom Hill. Diageo also distributes Jose Cuervo tequila products."

Amazing what sort of conspiracies people will believe....

Well, we all have to believe in something; I believe I'll have another drink.

Masons | Masonic Conspiracies | International Freemasonry | Freemasonry | Conspiracy Theory | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Paranoids unleashed: The sinister Masonic New World Order secret base at the Denver airport

I love a good conspiracy theory. I just don't believe them much anymore.

Denver, Colorado's airport, built in 1994, has inspired the more paranoid among us to declare it "Denver's Masonic Underground Airport." I've found three shorts on YouTube.com that explore this theme.

This one is rather long, with lots of overdubbed wide-eyed paranoia bemoaning "Multi-culturalism!" and the [non]fact that the airport is shaped like a swastika [it isn't]. It does the best job of explaining what the images are in the various murals, but then overanalyzes the bejeebers out of it. The movie gets rather worked up over the whole New World Order thing, so much so that it eventually becomes funny.

This one is my favorite. No talking, just images, with a few stupid captions, but it does have some enjoyable, uncredited rock music as accompaniment.

This one also has few captions, and a more sinister, spooky, almost pompous soundtrack.

Check 'em out. The artwork at the airport is stunning, obviously full of meaning, and even a bit creepy. I like it.

These paranoid videographers may well be right. Maybe Masons really do rule the world!

PS: I'm surprised no one has pointed out the date on the Masonic captone adds up to all sorts of spooky numbers!

1. March 19 = 3 + 1 + 9 = 13, the Witch's number ("Oh, my stars!" Samantha Stevens, everyone's favorite witch, would say sarcastically)
2. 1994 = 1 + 9 + 9 + 4 = 23 (See Jim Carrey's current film The Number 23 for more on this mystical number)
3. 19th + 1994 = 1 + 9 + 1 + 9 + 9 + 4 = 33 (The number of the degree of those "high level" Masons who really run the world)
4. And of course, you can surgically remove all three of the nines from the date, turn them upside down, and scare yourself silly when you realize it's 666, the Number of the Beast.
5. The remaining digits (1 + 1 + 4) add up to an additional 6.

And thusly, the Law of Fives is fulfilled.

Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!

Masons | Denver Airport | New World Order | Freemasonry | BurningTaper.com | Masonic Capstone | Conspiracy Theory | Burning Taper