For all of you tired of the 2012 hysteria, try pointing the next panicked individual in the direction of this National Geographic article, which addresses several of the common claims involved in this mad rumor.

The article doesn't address the issue of Nostradamus predicting 2012, nor does it touch upon claims of Biblical prophecy. For these, I challenge people to actually find a quote from either source that actually mentions 2012. (You can also read more on the ludicrousness of Nostradamus theories over at Paranormal Phenomena.)

Last week, a French court found this Church of Scientology guilty of organized fraud, CNN reports.

The Church responded by comparing the French court to the Inquisition, even though the French court ruled that the Church could continue to operate in France so long as it did so legally. The historic Inquisition was specifically to identify heretics, spiritual deviants who would be expected to conform to religious norms or face punishments up to and including death.

In the 1920s, author H.P. Lovecraft created what is commonly known as the Cthulhu mythos through a series of occult stories dealing with fictional dark elder gods and the horrible things that happen when mortals attempt to access them.

These stories have significantly influenced pulp fiction perception of occult horror, and their content has fueled multiple hoaxes. The most famous is the Necronomicon, a book Lovecraft invented but which was subsequently written and published by multiple other authors ans sometimes referenced by anti-occultists. (the most recent Necronomicon foray can be found here, published by a 27-year-old who boasts having studied the occult for 15 years. Yes, do the math on that one.)

On the lighter side of things, I now bring you Adventures of Lil' Cthulhu, just to prove that anything can have a cute and humorous side on the Internet.

What, did you expect me to always be serious?

It's interesting how different writers can portray the same incident. The San Antonio Express reports on a man "accused of creating a 'secret society' to lure teenage girls into having sex with him".

Meanwhile, KENS5 reports that sex was being used to bait students into the occult order. That is to say, the implication is the students were being pressured into occultism, rather than being pressured into sex with a mature adult.

The San Antonio Express's version rings much more true. Unfortunately, this isn't a unique incident. While most occult organizations are entirely consensual and limited to adults, periodically some sicko comes along promising magical powers or mystical insight into the universe to anyone willing to mystically unite with him, aka have sex. Targeting teenage girls is fairly common in these scenarios. They're naive, vulnerable, and relatively easy to control.

These people aren't occultists. They're scam artists. They promise what they can't provide in order to have sex, and sometimes to collect a fawning fan base. This isn't a plot to ensnare people into a shadow organization. It's a plot to obtain sexual gratification.