Satanism comes out of the closet in Alaska.

Baphomet

Courtesy of RT:

The mundanity of a local council meeting in Alaska was astonishingly broken when a decision to open up the forum to all religions resulted in a Satanist presenting the opening prayer – to Lucifer. 

When the local government of Kenai Borough decided to welcome other faiths to their assemblies they probably didn’t envisage opening up their doors to the Lord of Darkness. 

On Tuesday, Iris Fontana – reportedly a member of the Satanic Temple organization that views Satan as a symbol for rebellion and rational inquiry – gave the assembly invocation usually reserved for pastors. 

Meeting attendees were reminded that they did not have to participate in the opening ritual.

And look, there's a video.

You know I was somewhat less than thrilled when the Satanic Temple first came along in 2014.

I thought they might negatively impact Atheism, and just be kind of silly.

However I have to admit that many of their public events have been inspired, and they have done a great job of demonstrating how intrusive certain religious rituals and religious icons are in the public arena.

I know you probably read the title and thought this had something to do with Sarah Palin.

But I think we can all agree that the Satanic Temple is a force for good, while Sarah Palin is an evil sorceress who practices the dark arts, sacrifices children, and feeds on hate and negativity.

Perhaps somebody should erect a statue of Baphomet somewhere near her property.

Since you all seemed to enjoy those pictures of Alaska's Byron Glacier the other day, feast your eyes on this.

From the You Tube page:  

A montage of the beautiful scenery and life of Alaska in the middle of July. Filmed around Anchorage and the Kenai Penninsula. 

Somebody wanted to know if I ever traveled around to visit other places.

Would you?

Nothing humorous about the Funny River fire in Alaska.

Courtesy of the NewsMiner:  

A massive wildfire pushed by wind in Alaska's Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage continued to explode in size, leading to mandatory evacuations of 1,000 structures, officials said Sunday. 

The number of people told to flee their homes isn't clear, said Michelle Weston, spokeswoman with the Alaska Interagency Management Team, which includes the state Division of Forestry and federal and local officials. 

Officials said that as of 4 p.m. Alaska time, the fire covered nearly 243 square miles and may continue to grow as it burns in the 1.9 million-acre Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

Reports came in last night that the fire had jumped the Kenai River, putting the town of Sterling in jeopardy as well.

The air quality in Anchorage continues to be pretty bad, and I went outside just now and there is a definite smell of smoke in the air.

The good news is that it is supposed to rain tomorrow, and that should help quite a bit.

At least that is what we are hoping for.