CyberLizard's Collection

Thinking about influenza

2009-05-01T13:23:00.006-04:00

I never paid much attention to the flu in the past. If I caught it, I got sick, ate chicken soup and got better. No biggie. As I get older, however, my asthma seems to react more and more strongly with each bout of flu or cold I get. Last year, for the first time in many years, I had to go get breathing treatments.

Why am I mentioning this?

Every year there are more people who are being diagnosed with asthma as they get older. Every year, more children get asthma. For these people, in whom the flu might not have been a big deal previously, it could now be deadly, or at least more incapacitating than before. Something to think about.

This swine flu thing has a bunch of people freaked out but it also has quite a few media types downplaying the significance of this disease. Yes, people don't seem to be dying of swine flu in the US as much an in Mexico. But this doesn't mean that the disease is mild. It's beginning to appear that this strain might have a similar mortality rate to the regular flu. The old-fashioned garden-variety seasonal influenza kills approximately 30,000 people a year in the USA. Hundreds of thousands more are sickened. Let that sink in. Now think about what would happen if a pandemic hits, where millions of people come down with a disease within a very short period of time. It doesn't matter if the mortality rate of the pandemic disease is only the same as regular flu. That many people all getting sick, being out of work, staying home in fear and, yes, dying, IS going to have an impact on society at large and you in particular.

Pay attention. Wash your hands. Stay home if you're sick. You've heard all this from the government and other sources. What you don't hear as frequently is that it's probably a really good idea to get stocked up on some basic provisions: canned food, bottled water. Keep your car's fuel tank topped off. Think about the impact to your daily life if you got a call that said your child's school is being closed. Can you telecommute to work? Are there any corporate plans to be aware of in the event of a period of isolation?

This isn't being paranoid, it's being practical. Even if nothing happens directly to your or your family, use this as an opportunity to restock your hurricane supplies (FL bias; that's where I live). Talk to your friends and family, especially those that my live alone or have disabilities that restrict movement. What are their plans if they get sick? Who's going to help take care of them? Even if it doesn't kill them, you have to consider the effects of being alone, sick, possibly having the stores closed and having the normal support structures disrupted.

Let's not let this catch us with our pants down. Let's pay attention and deal with this as calmly and as rationally as possible.

Oh, and stop making out with pigs. This thing will spread all on its own, we don't have to help it out.

Some resources:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
CDC Social Media tools
Follow @CDCemergency on Twitter

Some good blogs following this stuff:
Effect Measure
Greg Laden's blog

I think we need waterboarding license plates

2009-04-29T14:18:00.003-04:00

If we're going to have the state sponsor putting a person being tortured on a license plate, I say we need fair representation of all forms of torture. Waterboarding is big in the news, but let's not forget our old favorites like being drawn-and-quartered, getting put in the iron maiden or being staked to an anthill. C'mon, we can do better than crucifixion. It's so hackneyed. Let's get creative on our next license plate.

h/t PZ

Here piggy, piggy, piggy

2009-04-26T13:02:00.002-04:00

Good FSM. I slack on keeping up on my google reader and the next thing I know we're ALL GOING TO DIE FROM THE PIGGY FLU!!!1!11!

Well, maybe not. There is an outbreak of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection in the US, presumably starting from an outbreak in Mexico. Apparently quite a few people have died in Mexico, but it also appears that the infection in the US is not quite as powerful as the one in Mexico. No one has died here and only one person has been hospitalized.

Regardless of how bad this gets, it more than likely will spread. I'm not part of the tin-foil hat crowd nor am I prone to paranoid fantasies. That said, it's always a good idea to be prepared. If you start to have flu-like symptoms, stay home from work. Go to the doctor. Wash your hands alot. Ready your house-containing plastic bubble (you have one of those, right?) Ok, the last one might be a little over the top.

Your absolute best bet is to stay informed from legitimate sources of information (i.e. NOT this blog).

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu
Follow them on Twitter @CDCemergency
The Effect Measure blog, the editors of which are senior public health scientists and practitioners, has had some great, rational discussion of the ongoing outbreak.

Most importantly of all, quit making it with pigs. Seriously, it's freaky enough without the added threat of piggy diseases.

Weekend of Adventure

2009-04-23T16:46:00.002-04:00

The Goddess has taken off for New York. She's having a weekend in the big city with her sister. I'm here with the lizardlings till Sunday night. So far we've played dollies, built with Legos, watched Mario Bros. cartoons and now MK is making me wooden food from her play kitchen. I certainly won't be bored this weekend.

I sometimes have a hard time balancing my attention between the two little ones. MK demands a great deal of attention and interaction. She's a very communicative almost-3 year old. When the Turkey was that age our only focus was on him, so it's difficult to think about how much individual attention he got versus what MK gets. Turkey also requires a lot of attention, but he's 6 so he is much more able to entertain himself. His imagination is tremendous and the bulk of his play is dressing up and pretending to be various characters. He loves to make costumes. Right now, there's a storm trooper tumbling through the living room, complete with paper helmet and a white t-shirt with storm trooper armor drawn on.

One thing that I'm extremely proud of with regard to our parenting is that we actually play with them. My parents never played with my Star Wars figures with me, or built Legos. We participate completely in their play; we dress up, play action figures and create fantasy worlds to explore together. Don't get me wrong, my parents didn't neglect me. We read constantly and discussed the world around us at great lengths. My curious questions were met with, "let's go look it up in the encyclopedia". I would wrassle with my dad and we went to the go-carts almost every Friday night. But actual play was left for me to do by myself.

Now I've got to go and play with the lizardlings. MK is boogie-ing to the new Depeche Mode album. I think it's time for dance party!

Existential Dilemma

2009-04-21T09:07:00.003-04:00

Depeche Mode has a new album coming out today, Sounds of the Universe! Even better, they are touring the US! I haven't missed a Depeche Mode concert since Violator. I was unbelievably stoked when I heard they were coming. Then I saw the dates they would be in Florida: September 4th and 5th. Can you spot the problem? Don't worry, I didn't see it either, at first. Then I realised the horror:

That's the weekend of Dragon*Con!!!

WTF am I going to do? To make it suck even harder, they are playing in Atlanta, which is where Dragon*Con is, on September 1st. So it looks like there's no way I can do both.

FML

How's it hangin'?

2009-04-17T11:12:00.002-04:00

What is the average length of the penis? How about when the penis is flaccid? Or the length of an erect penis? Inquiring minds want to know. Fortunately, science comes the rescue. Penis science. Specifically, the science of the size of penises.

Scicurious over at the Neurotopia blog has the skinny on this paper, Mondaini et al. "Penile length is normal in most men seeking penile lengthening procedures." International Journal of Impotence Research, 2002. Seriously, go read the post.

See? Real science. Important science. The kind of science that can make us dudes feel good about our penis. Check out this graph:

Oh, and for the benefit of the american readers, don't freak at the numbers. They're centimeters, not inches. I know I started to have a panic attack.

*looks down to reassure himself that it's still there*

Ok, guys. Break out the tape measure. You know you want to.

And, ladies, no, I'm not going to tell you where I fall on the nomogram. But I will show you. Just come on over ;-)

P.S. (penis script) - Just to include one more sophomoric reference to penises:

Zack Brown: I'm gonna fuck you with my pecker!

Miriam Linky: Dude... that's really dirty.

Zack Brown: That's too dirty?

Miriam Linky: That offends me.

Zack Brown: Penis?

Miriam Linky: Fine.

Zack Brown: I'm gonna fuck you with my penis!

Sounds like tea bagging left a bad taste in the republican's mouths

2009-04-17T09:25:00.004-04:00

Headline from the WorldNutDaily:

If you can't beat 'em, bad-mouth 'em?
News anchors resort to sexual innuendo to criticize tea parties

"bad-mouth 'em"

*giggles*

Jon Stewart chronicles this sudden reversal of roles in the mainstream media

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

M - Th 11p / 10c

Nationwide Tax Protests

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Economic Crisis

Political Humor

Isn't this just a little over the top?

2009-04-15T22:43:00.003-04:00

A REVOLUTIONARY IDEA
Palm Beach tea party: 'Chains we can believe in'
Americans outraged by Obama's perceived shift toward socialism

C'mon, seriously?!? For real? Our friends at the WorldNutDaily are practically having an orgasm over the hundreds of people who turned out for teabagging today.

Those braving rain showers to sound their objections to President Obama's policies voiced a common theme, one suggesting America is rapidly racing toward socialism.

"We're headed toward socialism, and socialism is anathema to everything this country's ever stood for," said Fritz Breland, a self-employed yacht broker from Boynton Beach. "I'm essentially unemployed because no one's buying."

Well boo-fucking-hoo. A goddamned yacht broker is "essentially unemployed". He's experiencing the results of a financial downturn years in the making by Republican control, but now that the O-man is in office, it's time to revolt. I'm completely over these fuckers. These people have lost their grip on reality in a major way and now they're being whipped into a frothing frenzy by the likes of Glenn Beck and Fox News. Where the fuck was their outrage when previous administrations were shitting all over the rights of the people through illegal wiretapping and goddamned torture? Where was the condemnation of the president when his administration was raping the poor and working class of this country in order to support the bloated carcasses of the oligarchy funding his power-hungry and delusional dreams? Oh, that's right. During the Bush regime if you criticized the president, you were un-American, un-patriotic, a traitor. But now that their good-old-boy white network has been thrown out of power, it's their patriotic duty to criticize the president. In fact, the man who is a constitutional scholar, who has managed to work and sweat and claw his way up through the disgusting process that has become politics, yet still managed to maintain a modicum of rationality, respect for others and a true desire to help people is the one who is destroying America. That's been his plan from the beginning, you betcha, palling around with terrorists and all.

I'm all for criticizing our politicians and calling them on their mistakes. It's called freedom of speech and it's one of the great things about America. What doesn't make any fucking sense is to start talking about secession and inciting revolution just because you lost an election. Hel-lo, that's how the game is played. You people love to look down on those supposed developing countries, with their coups and dictators and all. Yet here you are, after having run roughshod over the country for the last eight years, ready to start another fracking civil war after only 90 days of a new, democratically elected administration? Have you lost your ever-loving minds?

The only positive result of all this teabagging and the like is that the lunatics are finally revealing themselves for what they truly are. They are joyfully revealing themselves as the racist, fanatical greedy bastards that they truly are.

end of rant

Swapping saliva on Facebook meme

2009-04-15T12:35:00.005-04:00

A fairly innocuous question was posed by a Facebook friend this morning. It generated a rash of responses and began evolving, so I figured it was good enough to be a meme all on it's own. Here goes:

Who was your first kiss and how old were you?
How many of the people you have kissed are now your Facebook friends?

If you don't want to name names, that's fine, just describe them (or not. No one's holding a gun to your head here). And to clarify, kissing has to involve the exchange of saliva. Little spin-the-bottle pecks don't count.

Here are my (rather sad) answers:

Who was your first kiss and how old were you?
It was my freshman year in high school. She was in drama club. There was actually an awful lot of kissing going on in that drama club, come to think of it.
How many of the people you have kissed are now your Facebook friends?
Out of the 4 total, 3 are my FB friends.

There, now that I've totally destroyed my reputation as the biggest stud muffin on the block, it's your turn. If you can remember back to your junior high or high school or college :-( days, give it a shot. And if you're not on Facebook, well, you're smarter than I am.

Here's who I'm tagging:
Perky Skeptic
Tiana @ the Enemy Combatants Trailmix Appreciation Club
E/R @ Evolved and Rat/i/onal - 'cause that's got to be a fun story!
AM @ Frogguruami Chasing Chickens

and of course the 3 others out there who read this blog!

Teabagging makes the mainstream

2009-04-15T12:21:00.003-04:00

Nothing like rightwingnuts to get my panties in a wad. All this teabagging has got me all excited. David Shuster nailed it with this quote:

The people who came up with it are a familiar circle of Republicans, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, both of whom have firm support from right wing financiers and lobbyists. … We can only speculate why widespread tea bagging made [Neil] Cavuto think of the Million Man march, unless he got them confused with Dick Armey. And in Cavuto’s defense, if you are planning simultaneous tea bagging all around the country, you’re going to need a Dick Armey.

David Shuster for the double-entendre win! Watch the video:

Lay off the bible-speak, Obama

2009-04-15T11:45:00.004-04:00

This is getting annoying. If it's not opening every fracking public event with an invocation, it's inserting quotes from the bible in his speeches. He gives lip service to America not being a christian nation, but he certainly doesn't make it very convincing when he includes biblical mythology in his appeals to the American people, as he did in today's speech to explain his administration's efforts with regard to the economic crisis.

Now, there's a parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that tells the story of two men. The first built his house on a pile of sand, and it was soon destroyed when a storm hit. But the second is known as the wise man, for when "the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock."

That parable refers directly to the belief in god and basing your life around that belief. What do you think the "rock" refers to? Sure, he attempts to avoid the implications of this parable by reshaping its meaning to apply to the current financial crisis, but we all know where it comes from.

Hey, Obama, lay off the Jesus-speak and just give us what we elected you for. You promised change, but as far as religion goes, it's starting to smell the same as the previous administration.

Science kicks ass!

2009-04-15T10:36:00.003-04:00

I missed my calling in life. I should have been a kick-ass science-musician. Just imagine all the babes throwing their panties up on stage when I performed!

Hat tip: PZ

A New (Cooler) Holiday

2009-04-10T09:59:00.005-04:00

A recent tweet from a really cool guy caught my eye (and brain).

Why do we have an official holiday for the death and reanimation of a fictional character? I say we start one for Gandalf.

Seriously, the basic concept is the same. Let's compare:

Fictional character Jesus dies as a sacrifice (in our place), battles a fiery baddie (Satan) and is brought back to life by higher powers (God) to kick ass once again.
Fictional character Gandalf dies as a sacrifice (in the Fellowship of the Ring's place), battles a fiery baddie (the balrog) and is brought back to life by higher powers (the Valar) to kick ass once again.

Personally, my vote is for Gandalf. There are two very important reasons:

People don't use Gandalf as an excuse for their hatred and bigotry against others, and
Gandalf has a much cooler beard.

There's no saving throw against cancer

2009-04-09T14:52:00.002-04:00

A year ago we lost Gary Gygax, one of the co-creators of the immortal classic Dungeons & Dragons. Today we learn that Dave Arneson lost the battle that no roll of the dice can win. I think that it's only fitting that I've just started my son's first D&D campaign. I hereby dedicate this dungeon crawl to the masters who freed our minds to battle kobolds and fight dragons.

Hoist your d20's to the true Heros. May you find all the platinum pieces, barrels of ale and buxom wenches in chainmail in the hereafter.

Securing Security

2009-04-09T11:19:00.003-04:00

My company has a new security policy. We are required to wear our picture ID badges in a visible location every day. They thoughtfully provided this graphic to illustrate proper positioning of the badges:
So I wonder: do they think we're fucking retarded? Or 2 years old? Srsly.

I'm going to attach mine to my fly. I can't think of a more visible place than my package. 'Cause y'all are checking it out anyway LOL!

One more reason to like Vermont

2009-04-08T14:01:00.001-04:00

Dunno how I missed this yesterday but,

Vermont becomes 4th U.S. state to allow gay marriage

Very cool, Vermont. Welcome to the Intelligent States Club.

The Seductive Mistress of Twitter

2009-04-08T10:32:00.003-04:00

I have a confession to make. I have been cheating on my blog. It's shameful, I know. Twitter has seduced me. It's the age-old story: she's younger, prettier and doesn't demand as much of my time as the old ball-and-chain. At least, at first she didn't demand as much of my time. Now, though, she has become an obsession. I am driven to distraction, constantly thinking about what she's doing, what I will say to her next, pulling out my phone every few minutes to check up on her. Remember Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction? There is something of that in her. She demands that I give in to my immediate desires, just to please her. I don't want to be her slave, but I can't give her up. I want to give love and affection to my blog, but I am beguiled by the instant gratification of a Tweet. It is short and sweet; poignant, yet ultimately disposable. Our relationship leaves no lasting impression on the world, the way that the solid, dependable companionship of a blog does. A blog builds a history of a day, a year, a lifetime. Twitter records the instantaneous; the here and now; the impulsive.

I know that I will probably never be able to give up Twitter entirely. But my blog has expressed a tolerance for an open relationship. She understands my impulsive nature and wants to give me the freedom to experience that world. She has even agreed to be tweeted about. But she'll always be here, waiting to nurture my creative side, waiting to be my steady companion in that tumultuous existence that the internet brings.

So feel free to follow me @CyberLizard. And when you're ready for more than 140 characters of me at a time, come on back here. For I shall never leave my true love.

Go see The Forefathers

2009-03-31T11:53:00.003-04:00

Got this notice in the mail. If you're in the Orlando area, I strongly encourage you to go check them out. Very worth it.

Join The Forefathers this Thursday for the Orlando Museum of Art's 1st Thursday event!

The Forefathers will be performing 3 45-minutes sets of their original World Music Fusion.

From 6 - 9 pm on the first Thursday of each month, OMA showcases a new theme with works by local artists, live music, cash bars serving wine, beer and soft drinks, and café offerings from area restaurants.

Plus, 1st Thursdays guests receive free entrance to the OMA’s exhibitions. Admission to 1st Thursdays is free for OMA members and $10 for non-members. Parking is free at Orlando Loch Haven Park and overflow parking is available at the Orlando Science Center's parking garage for $5 per vehicle.

Orlando Museum of Art
2416 North Mills Avenue
Orlando

407 896 4231

www.theforefathers.com

http://www.omart.org/events/1st-thursdays-5

I've got to stop working

2009-03-31T11:36:00.002-04:00

I mean, look at what I'm missing by doing this whole "work" thing:

1,000+ unread items? SRSLY?!? Y'all gotta slow down with the posting!

Gettin' Dirty

2009-03-30T20:31:00.004-04:00

Damn, am I sore! And dirty. Unfortunately, it's not from getting it on, but rather from diving into the garden. You may recall my confrontation a while back with my HOA. I must confess, I entered quite a depression after that. A great deal of time and energy had been invested in my garden. Well, spring is here, planting time is upon us and it's time to quit whining and start sticking it to the man. The rules say "no vegetable gardens". So what I figure is that if 51% of the plants in a given bed are not "vegetables", then it doesn't qualify as a "vegetable garden". That's a reasonable interpretation of the rules. And if not, fuck 'em. It's an interpretation I'd be willing to fight for.

The paper Watchmen

2009-03-24T22:46:00.004-04:00

I found myself alone in a bookstore tonight after my dad bailed on me, which is totally cool since I completely forgot about him last week. After grabbing a couple of books to peruse I decided to flip through Watchmen. I hadn't read it yet nor had I seen the movie, but there was enough good buzz around it that I figured I'd give it a chance. 3.5 hours later, I finished it. After all the hype surrounding it, it had to be fabulous, right? Meh. I've read better.

* ducks from all the Watchmen fanboi's *

Right off the bat I was wondering which came first, Watchmen or The Incredibles. They both had a similar kind of premise, the whole forced-into-retirement angst of superheros. As expected, Watchmen was much grittier. No kids cartoon, this. My immediate disappointment was with the artwork. It was allright, about what I would expect from DC comics (bias alert: I've always been a Marvel fan). But nothing mindblowing. My previous experience with graphic novels have been with manga; my favorites so far have been the Ghost in the Shell books by Masamune Shirow. The art in Watchmen didn't stack up to those. I figured that the characters and writing would make up for it. They did, to some extent, but not enough to lift my overall impressions of the novel.

To me, the characters seemed fairly two-dimensional. You've got the psycho vigilante (Rorschach) who wouldn't be that out of place in a Virtue sqad in Iran or Saudi Arabia, the way he obsesses over people fornicating. There's the hot butt-kicking babe (Silk Spectre), rebelling against her mother, the previous generation's hot butt-kicking babe. I felt bad at first for the Comedian, but after all the flashbacks, I wasn't real sad that he bit it on the first page, the misogynistic, sociopathic fucker (blowing away your pregnant Vietnamese girlfriend because she pissed you off by calling you on your asshole-ishness doesn't exactly endear you to me). Dr. Manhattan was somewhat interesting, but struck way too many chords of Superman and, to some extent, Michael Smith in Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, the way he was all detached and almost mystical (in a pseudo-scientific kind of way). Night Owl just seemed like a weenie. At least the second Night Owl got some pants and had some cool gadgets, but that Owlship just looked like a flying turd. With eyes. Ozymandeus was a complete caricature so it didn't surprise me in the least when he started monologuing his twisted plan to the heros who had come to stop him.

The ending. *** SPOILER ALERT*** Hmmmm. It was definitely not a happily-ever-after kind of ending. Somehow the wholesale slaughter of half of New York psychically by an asploding giant space squid that wasn't really from space but was end result of a genetically engineered psychic's brain, in order to stop war and bring peace and love to all humanity just didn't do it for me. By then I was just wanting the end to come so I could put it down. It just didn't have the emotional impact that other massive destruction of millions of people did, like in Battlestar Galactica, for instance. And Night Owl's costume at that point just looked stupid. There was a hollowness to the whole ending that just grated on me. Perhaps that was the author's intent, perhaps there was some deeper level that just skimmed right over my head; I dunno.

It wasn't a bad novel. There were many moving parts to the story and deeper levels of meaning revealed through some of the inter-story stories. Overall, it was just meh. I'm not going to put this one up there in my list of top-whatever books to read. I was really hoping that this book was going to be some kind of epic masterpiece who's characters and dialog would be ingrained in the pop-culture geek center of my cerebrum, but, alas, it was not to be. I'll probably still go to see the movie. I think, for once, I might like the movie better than the book.

113th Carnival of the Godless is out

2009-03-22T18:56:00.002-04:00

It's time again for your latest fixin' of godless goodness. The 113th Carnival of the Godless is being hosted by Daylight Atheism. Go take a peek.

Erin go bragh!

2009-03-17T10:06:00.003-04:00

I can legitimately lay claim to this holiday. I'm at least 1/8 Irish. Or is that 1/16? I can't figure out this genetics stuff. Anyway, it doesn't really matter. I like Ireland. And I've actually been fortunate enough to have visited there. Not that I'm bragging, but it directly relates to this post and this holiday. What the hell am I babbling about? Let me try again...

In the spring of 2000 the Godess and I went on holiday to England and Ireland (and we spent the night in Wales, but does Wales really count?) As a result of a complete fluke of scheduling, we ended up driving across the width of Ireland, from Galway to Dublin, on St. Patrick's Day! This was way cool. We drove across the gorgeous contryside and through a number of small towns, many of which were decked out for the holiday. In one town, we even had to stop and wait for the parade to finish going through the one main road through the village. Not that we minded. The awesomeness of driving across Ireland on St. Patrick's Day elevated us above any petty frustrations at traffic delays.

So this holiday has a special place in my heart. Not only because of my imense Irish genetic heritage, but because we discovered that it is a real holiday. It's not some Hallmark bs holiday (although there are certainly elements of that) but a real celebration actually enjoyed in Ireland. Being a generic Anglo-Saxon mutt, it is sometimes difficult to find aspects of my cultural origins to be excited about, but this one is pretty cool.

So forget all that mythical garbage about snakes and saints, put on your green skivvies and hoist a drink for Ireland (and for me)!

That must be some shitty food

2009-03-12T14:39:00.002-04:00

via The Goddess, who is always on the lookout for high-class content for my crappy blog ;-)

THE WORLD'S GOING TO END!!!!111!1ELEVENTYONE!1

2009-03-12T13:32:00.003-04:00

Apparently we're all supposed to be trembling in our boots because delusional ~~prophet~~ theistard David Wilkerson thinks that bad stuff is about to happen. He's written an AN URGENT MESSAGE:

I am compelled by the Holy Spirit to send out an urgent message to all on our mailing list, and to friends and to bishops we have met all over the world.

AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN. IT IS GOING TO BE SO FRIGHTENING, WE ARE ALL GOING TO TREMBLE - EVEN THE GODLIEST AMONG US.

For ten years I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires—such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago.

There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting—including Times Square, New York City.

[The caps are all his. Seriously]

Oh noes! New York City is going to burn! And New Jersey! Wait, is destroying New Jersey a bad thing? Anyway, this whackaloon is spouting his doomsday premonitions like the archetypical loony standing on a street corner with a sandwich board raving about the coming destruction. This would be mildly amusing, perhaps even a little sad, except that people are believing him! This incredibly gullible reporter (and I use the term extremely loosely) for the World Nut Daily, Janet Porter, is telling the world to HEED WILKERSON'S MESSAGE! Because he's already gotten it right once before:

In the fall of 2001, Pastor David Wilkerson, of Times Square Church in New York City, was warned by God that a calamity was coming. For six weeks they felt an intense burden and enormous heaviness. A critical need for intercession was so profound that Pastor Wilkerson canceled everything on the church calendar – mission's conferences, youth events and every guest speaker.
For six weeks, there wasn't a sermon. Instead, there was intercession for our nation with weeping and repentance. They knew something was coming and that something was bad. And that something was soon. So they prayed. And prayed … and prayed.
Then Wilkerson felt God telling him something that seemed rather bizarre. He felt God telling him to make sandwiches – lots of sandwiches. What were they for? Who would eat them? That part wasn't clear, but his church did what they believed God was telling them anyway.
And on the 10th of September they stayed up all night making hundreds and hundreds of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. By morning they had about 2,000 sandwiches. At 8:46 a.m. the first plane hit the World Trade Center and Times Square Church was ready to feed and minister to rescue workers and victims of our nation's worst attack.

What an impressive display of god's power: to be aware of an attack on an innocent city by terrorists that would kill around 3,000 people, and he warns one loony preacher to make fucking sandwiches. Come on, is that the best you can do? Really?

So I have to check this out. I mean, something this ~~retarded~~ amazing, it's got to be all over the intertubes, right? Yup, this story is burning up the forums of the end-timers, rapture-watchers and other assorted and sundry evangelicals. What I was really looking for was confirmation of the sandwich story. Turns out, there isn't any. Wilkerson has nothing about it, the church has nothing about it. At least the usually gullible end-timers have been burned by prophesy enough to be at least a little bit skeptical. Paul Grabill, Lead Pastor of State College Assembly of God, State College, PA actually contacted the chuch for confirmation.
Update: I called Times Square Church (since there was nothing on the website). Everything in the World Net story is true, except the most sensational element--they did not make sandwiches before the fact; they made them after the fact. Rather than take down this post, I figured this clarification would be helpful to all. I'm still praying about what, if anything, I might say on Sunday. I had a stirring on Monday about it, and I'll probably go with my gut
Prophesy FAIL! There's a big difference between providing food for 9/11 workers after the attacks and claiming that you had foreknowledge of it and prepared ahead of time. Either Janet Porter is a fracking liar (which wouldn't surprise me, considering she writes for the WND) or else she's just passing on other lying shitheads' stories with out bothering to do the bare minimum of looking for even the slightest bit of confirmation. Either way, it makes for a big old JOURNALISM FAIL. But that really goes without saying. After all, we're talking about the WorldNutDaily.