A Trelawney Moment...

[blpurdom at yahoo.com]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., meboriqua at a... wrote:
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Sister Mary Lunatic" <klaatu at p...> 
> wrote:
> 
> > Is there any evidence, anywhere, that ANY public psychic 
accurately predicted the WTC/Pentagon/PA disasters before they 
happened?  You always see people claiming AFTERWARDS that they 
predicted some event, but is there a list that was generated at the 
beginning of 2001, that hasn't been altered since Sept 11?>
> 
> Hmmm, does anyone know anything about Nostradamus?  I remember 
> watching a special about him when I was a kid and it terrified me.

This makes me think of the Nice and Precise Predictions of Agnes 
Nutter, in "Good Omens" by Gaiman and Pratchett.  The silly-sounding 
predictions in Agnes' book were impossible to make out for people who 
didn't have any clue about the technology we have today, or the 
political situations.  The characters were only able to make out what 
the predictions were as they were living them.  

Even if anyone as far back as Nostradamus predicted anything 
acurately, one would never be able to tell until after the fact, 
probably by twisting the original words pretty severely.  And what 
good is figuring it out after the fact?  You could probably take a 
lot of very old (or even more recent) writings and say they were 
predicting this, but what good is that?  

The most frightening thing I saw on television recently was a retired 
airline pilot, shaking and clearly very disturbed by recent events, 
recounting the hijacking training that flight crews had been given 
over the years.  The assumption everyone always had was that if you 
cooperated with the hijackers, no one would get hurt.  And by and 
large, this was true.  No one was prepared for suicidal hijackers 
with piloting training.  No one thought to keep intruders out of the 
cockpit.  This completely blindsided everyone, and we can say (I know 
I did) afterwards, "Why can someone just WALK INTO THE COCKPIT?"  The 
answer is that it never presented itself as a danger before.

I had my Moody say you have to think like dark wizards to catch dark 
wizards.  I think you also have to think like terrorists to be a step 
ahead of them.  The trouble is, who wants to think like a terrorist?  
Who wants to get into that mindset?  Politicians lately have been on 
television talking about our having to do business with some pretty 
unsavory people if bin Laden is going to be caught.  I think this is 
what they mean; the US may have to deal with the devil to catch the 
devil.  This is almost as terrifying as continuing to experience 
terrorist attacks, to my mind.  I'm torn.  Lie down with dogs, get up 
with fleas....

--Barb