"Because Nostradamus told me so"

Yesterday I was in Long Beach attending a big Italian luncheon at the house of a friend of a friend of mine. There were like ten of us there. Afterwards, all of us went to the back patio so that some of us could have a post-meal smoke. We started talking about various topics.

At one point, the conversation drifted to the AIDS epidemic, and how it is believed by many, that the HIV virus entered the USA in the summer of 1976, during the time of the bicentennial festivities, and that for 5 years, people were having unprotected sex and unknowingly spreading the unknown HIV virus, which started to transform into AIDS in 1981, thus making its presence known to the world.

Well, a guy sitting across from me stated that the HIV virus was created by the U.S. government in an attempt to wipe out gay people. It was created by using the Hepatitis virus, and it was done purposely, ordered by Richard Nixon, most likely.

This brought an awkward pause in the conversation. I ventured to speak.

"How do you know this?" I asked.

"Because Nostradamus told me so." he said.

A long pause. I looked in his eyes, as did the others. His eyes told it all: he was totally serious. Another pause. I proceeded with caution, and delicately asked him,

"Nostradamus? He died in the 1500s, didn't he?"

"Yes, but he still speaks to us today."

"He speaks to you? Nostradamus speaks to you?"

"Well no, not to me. He speaks to a woman that I know. She's a medium. He speaks to her, and she tells me what he says. He speaks to the world through her."

"So you think that the U.S. government invented HIV purposely, because a psychic woman you know told you that Nostradamus had told her so?"

"Yes." he said

"Okay." I said, and left it at that.

I decided not the press the topic. I mean, the guy looked to me like someone who, over the course of his life, has smoked enough marijuana to de-forest the Amazon. Enough said.

But I will say this: In the future, if anybody ever asks me why I believe something, I'm gonna say, "Because Nostradamus told me so."