never been there

Yes, those wacky aspiring flying saucer pilots in the snazzy (if cliched) white robes are trying to get attention again. If you're in the States, you may have encountered the Raelians when they did their <a href="http://www.clonerights.com/testimony_of_rw_to_congress_20001.htm" target="_blank">pro-cloning presentation to your Congress</a>.

<a href="http://www.rael.org/int/press_site/english/pages/us_congress/28march01.html" target="_blank">And from Rael himself!</a>

They do sound more and more like Heaven's Gate with a more international perspective. They got their initial foothold in Quebec, where the suddenness of the church's vanishing into irrelevance yanked the rug out from under the more vulnerable.

Now, they're in the news for hanging around outside Catholic schools advocating apostasy (which of us hasn't thought of that?) and handing out little wooden crosses to burn (lots of reasons why not to do that). School board has a legal responsibility to protect its confessional schools, not to mention a reasonable fear of what will happen the next time a comet comes around. So it's freak-out time in Montreal.

<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/10/04/raelians021004" target="_blank">Montreal schools try to ban anti-Catholic group </a>

or for local flavour, en franc,ais:

<a href="http://www.cyberpresse.ca/reseau/chroniqueurs/relkouri/relk_102100143234.html" target="_blank">De Raël à Edgar</a>

Strange people. They talk a good game, but it took them a decade or more to realize that a logo that combines a swastika and a star of David was going to limit their expansion. Oh, by the way, they say they're atheists

Starboy

Funny, the Christians can dish it out, but they can't take it. I hope they give them hell!