Clowns of America

Oh, yes, it exists. here it is the website of the "Clowns of America".

The purpose of Clowns of America International Website is to share, educate, and act as a gathering place for serious minded amateurs, semiprofessionals, and professional clowns. COAI provides its membership with necessary resources that allow them to further define and improve their individual clown character.  Visitors who are interested in the clown arts will find a variety of resources that will stimulate their interest, foster their curiosity and offer pathways to valuable information.Clowns of America, InternationalP.O. Box 1171Englewood FL 34295-1171Toll Free: 877-816-6941941-474-4351

But the news is the peculiar bemoaning of its President, Glen Kohlberger, against the topos of the evil clown (like Twisty in American Horror Story; Freak Show):

Hollywood makes money sensationalizing the norm. They can take any situation no matter how good or pure and turn it into a nightmare.

With membership in the organization dwindling — its aging base is made up of 2,500 clowns, down from 3,500 in 2004 — Kohlberger, whose big-shoed alter ego is Clyde D. Scope, takes a hard-line stance against characters like Twisty. 

"We do not support in any way, shape or form any medium that sensationalizes or adds to coulrophobia or 'clown fear,' " Kohlberger says.  

Ok, "coulrophobia": Let's record it.

How Many Devils Are There?

The answer is:

15,018,498

... as we can read here:

Le texte reproduit par Wier signale également, d'une façon lapidaire, que chaque légion comprend 6 666 démons – référence évidente à 666, le chiffre de la Bête de l'Apocalypse. Cela implique, étant donné que les démons de la Pseudomonarchia dirigent au total 2 253 légions, que le nombre des démons susceptibles de sévir en ce bas monde se monte à 15 018 498, chiffre bien inquiétant pour un chrétien du temps des Réformes... 

The Weirdest Movies Ever Made. An interesting choice.

This list deserves cinéphile's respect. Enjoy it.

Survive style 5+

Che il mondo sia santamente bizzarro, lo dobbiamo anche a opere come questa:

Caro, vecchio Nessie

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/04/19/loch-ness-monster-pictures_n_5178163.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Eresie

Sono un po' in conflitto di interessi, ma devo proprio segnalare questo spassoso libello.

http://www.quodlibet.it/schedap.php?id=2180#.U07EU1V_uiA

Mauro Orletti

Piccola storia delle eresie

Diceva Tolstoj che l’eresia è una rivolta contro l’inerzia dei princìpi della Chiesa e che ogni passo avanti verso l’intelligenza è stato fatto da eretici.

Il libro racconta vita e dottrina, usi e costumi di gruppi eretici più o meno noti, dal primo secolo dopo Cristo fino al grande scisma del 1054; una piccola storia delle eresie, che accoglie senza raddrizzarle le faziosità e le falsificazioni dei vincitori del conflitto, i padri della storiografia ecclesiastica.
Un panorama incredibilmente variegato e bizzarro, che comprende sette eretiche che si considerano immortali, oppure angeli discesi dal cielo; che venerano Caino e tutti i dannati dell’Antico Testamento, che pregano senza sosta il Dio che li ha messi al mondo, che girano sempre scalzi, che fanno il voto del silenzio perpetuo, che praticano l’autocastrazione, o si abbandonano a orge rituali, che accettano la Trinità, oppure credono in una Santa Quaternità; che adorano Maria offrendole pane biscottato, o mettono in dubbio la sua verginità…
Tutti – chi più chi meno – hanno dato il loro contributo prezioso alla formazione sul versante opposto dell’ortodossia.

The amazing Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency

Il sito della "Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency" (FVZA) offre un'interessante sezione storica, dove leggiamo (stupefatti & ammirati) quanto segue:

Vampires arrived in the United States with the first European settlers and followed the general population shifts of Americans in the early days of the Republic. During this time, fighting vampires was a task left to individual bounty hunters and local militias known as the Vampire National Guard. As the country grew and became increasingly urbanized, a more ambitious vampire abatement program became necessary. The Copper Creek Seige of 1855, in which vampires took over an entire California mining town, underscored the country's need for an organized, well-trained force to combat the growing plague. The Civil War delayed implementation until 1869, when President Ulysses S. Grant officially formed the Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency.
Initially, the FVZA was a specialized branch of the Armed Forces, modeled after similar troops in France and Great Britain. The troops were known as the "Vanguard," a contraction of Vampire National Guard. They worked mostly in large cities. By day, they scoured likely vampire/zombie hiding places; by night, they patrolled areas of high vampire/zombie activity (slums, waterfronts, parks, etc.). Though they were underfunded, ill-equipped and often shuttled off to fight wars on foreign soil, the FVZA made some strides in controlling resident vampire and zombie populations. However, the huge surges of immigrants coming to America helped increase the U.S. vampire population to 300,000 by the turn of the century.
In 1897, President William McKinley moved the FVZA into the Department of Justice. The Agency was split into two groups: a scientific team in Washington, and a military unit with bases all over the U.S. In 1901, new President Teddy Roosevelt hired his friend Hilton Dickerson as FVZA Director. Dickerson ruled the FVZA with an iron fist for the next 34 years. When the zombie vaccine was created in France in 1911, the FVZA administered vaccination programs in the U.S., while the "Vanguard" focused on destroying remaining zombies.
With zombies largely eradicated, the focus of the FVZA shifted to vampire research and abatement. A 1935 Supreme Court ruling declaring that vampires have the same rights afforded to all citizens complicated the FVZA's job greatly. In response, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Emergency Relief Act in 1936. The Act converted the Agency to an undercover operation. Roosevelt also put together the Zozobra Project, which brought the best medical minds in the world to a secret lab in New Mexico to work on a vampire vaccine. The Project was operated by the FVZA and reaped its greatest success with the creation of a vampire vaccine in 1950.