Alright. I was going to take time off from Josh Against the Machine in the wake of the recent attacks on the United States. I mean really, who wants to hear me complain about the tiny details in life at a time like this? But I just can't hold off on this one. Not when I keep getting messages like this:

>"In the year of the new century and nine months,
>From the sky will come a great King of Terror...
>The sky will burn at forty-five degrees.
>Fire approaches the great new city...
>There will be a great thunder,
>Two brothers torn apart by chaos,
>While the fortress endures,
>The great leader will succumb,
>The third big war will begin when the big city is burning."
>Nostradamus

This is a hoax. Outright. Much like Bill Gates and Walt Disney Jr giving you free Gap cargo pants for forwarding their e-mail. Yes, Nostradamus is real, or was real, in the 1500s. But no, this ain't real. First off, he didn't write full on paragraphs like this. He wrote all of his "prophecies" in four line poems (quatrains).

Here's the real verse that someone added on to:

Century 6, Quatrain 97

The sky will burn at forty-five degrees.
Fire approaches the great New City.
Immediately a huge scattered flame leaps up
When they want to have proof of the Normans.

Keep in mind that this is translated (he wrote in French and Latin and Italian) so it could be wrong. Does this refer to September 11, 2001? Who knows, there's no date on it. See sometimes Nostradamus actually give dates or at least celestial timeframes when the prophecies will happen. The prophecies are said to be valid until 3700 something AD. So what if in the next 1700 years we build a New City, closer to the 45 parallel (New York City is on the 40th) that burns - because of the Normans (French)! That would make more sense, for you do have to wonder what the French have to do with the World Trade Center attack. (Of course tonight on the news no doubt they'll have found Osama bin Laden in Paris, just to refute me!)

Now I'm not saying that Nostradamus didn't foresee this terrorist attack. I'm just calling for a healthy dose of skepticism. Each line, each word of Nostradamus' writings mean something. We can't just discount the first and last sentences and say, "Look - he said it was gonna happen!"

And honestly, if Nostradamus did predict this, it's not forewarning. We have something like a thousand of these really vague quatrains that are only good in hindsight. And even then, they're still sketchy.

Like this one. Does this refer to JFK's assassination?

Century 6, Quatrain 37

The ancient work will be accomplished,
And from the roof evil ruin will fall on the great man:
They will accuse an innocent, being dead, of the deed:
The guilty one is hidden in the misty copse.

Would this one mean France's King Henry II, who when jousting with Count Gabriel de Montgomery got a poke in the eye that splintered into his temple, causing him to die ten days later?

Century 1, Quatrain 35

The young lion will overcome the older one
On the field of combat in single battle
He will pierce his eyes through a golden cage
Two wounds made one, the he dies a cruel death.

Century 3, Quatrain 35

In the deepest part of Western Europe,
A child will be born of poor family,
Who with his tongue shall seduce many people
His fame will increase in the Eastern Kingdom.

Century 8, Quatrain 77

The Antichrist very soon annihilates the three,
Twenty-seven years the blood of his war will last.
The unbelievers are dead, captive, exiled;
With blood, human bodies, water and red hail covering the earth.

Century 10, Quatrain 72

The year thousand nine hundred ninety nine seven months
Of heaven shall come a great King defrayer
To bring back to life the great King of the Mongols,
Before and after Mars to reign by good luck.

- Josh Edwards