Totally Irresponsible Rumors of the Apocalypse

I've heard some spicy rumors about the coming apocalypse that can't possibly be true, and therefore must be spread like wildfire throughout the internet as quickly as possible. I know I'm doing my part.

A good friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, has a friend who is apparently an internationally renowned doctor, who shall also remain nameless, who has worked with and has contacts within some of our national security agencies, which will themselves remain nameless, who have told this doctor some highly disturbing stories about what the near future holds for this semi-precious little world of ours.

To establish this doctor's contacts' bonafides, my friend told me that the doctor had been warned shortly before 9/11 to stay out of New York on or around that day. At first, this seemed a red flag for crackpot theorism, for which I have only marginal tastes. It sounded as if the inference was that this fellow's contacts in the government were in on the 9/11 attacks, which I consider a true sign of crackpot mentality, and I was inclined to dismiss entirely anything related to such notions. However, in talking with other friends of mine this information could have a much more rational explanation. Namely, it has been established through the 9/11 commission and the accounts of people like Richard Clarke that the US intelligence agencies did indeed have advance warning through foreign channels of the general danger of some kind of terrorist attack, likely in New York, and likely right around the 9/11 date. That was part of the scandal - that such warnings were known of within the government, but not taken seriously enough to prevent the attacks. So it's possible that this doctor's contacts were merely basing their warnings to him on this insider information, rather than from knowledge of some kind of nefarious plot within the government to create a faux attack on the US.

All of which is simply a long way of saying that maybe there's a tiny bit of credibility to what was passed along to me. But maybe not.

So what's the message? Oh, nothing short of a warning that a major biological attack is on its way, related to the possibility of an Avian flue pandemic in the offing. This doctor has apparently been told by his contacts in the security agencies, the same ones who warned him about 9/11, that there is an unnamed group of individuals, associated with an unnamed government, who have developed a lethal biological weapon which they are set to deploy in the relatively near future. According to these people, the warnings about the potential for Avian flu mutating to a human transmission vector and causing a worldwide pandemic is merely a smoke screen for the real threat, which will be a humanly design bioweapon which will cause even more widespread death and mayhem than Avian flu could be expected to account for. The message is that the Avian flu is itself some kind of artificially induced infection that is not likely, in itself, to become a serious disease, but which will give cover for the real threat that will be unleashed on the world. In other words, when this greater pathogen is released, people will think it is Avian flu, and not suspect that it is actually of human origin. All of which is so that people will not realize who is behind this Dr. Evil plot and take action against them.

And who are these people? Not named. The usual suspects could be trotted out: some secret division of maniacs within our own intelligence agencies, Al Qaeda, the Iranians, crazed apocalyptic Saudi billionaires, Dick Cheney, Hillary Clinton, fiendish Nazi scientists, fiendish North Korean scientists, fiendish Fijian Gurus resembling Marlon Brando, you name them.

The idea is absurd, the rumor utterly irresponsible for me to repeat, but this is of course the internet, so what better place to report the absurdly irresponsible? It's not like anyone is going to fact check me. I don't give it much credibility at all, but then again I'm in a perfect situation to survive just such a plague - living in a remote area of Northen California far from the maddening crowds. Others are not so fortunate. Nonetheless, one of my children goes to college at Berkeley, about as major a disease vector as one can find, and another is going to UC Santa Cruz in the fall, and I'm not planning on changing those plans. However, let's just say that if I hear that some major disease outbreak is reported somewhere in Asia anytime soon, I will probably have them come up here for a while just to be safe. And maybe invite a few friend to stay as well.

As it also happens, there are similar rumors travelling around the Adidam community. Not about this disease idea specifically, but apparently Adi Da himself has been recently warning his devotees that a major readjustment in the world is coming down the pike over the next few years, and that people should move out of major metropolitan areas and head for rural areas, particularly, as it happens, the Humboldt County area where I now live. At present there's only a tiny Adidam community in this area, but apparently that may change soon. A minor invasion may be in the works. Or so I hear. Could get amusing around these parts.