Uncommon Commentary #311: UC #239 Follow-Up

The cable-television network H2, affiliated with the History Channel, has been airing a series called Countdown to Apocalypse; the episodes have titles like "Countdown to 12/21/12: Nostradamus", "Countdown to 12/21/12: Four Horsemen", &c.  This is perhaps the most egregious example of what I wrote about in Uncommon Commentary #239.  It would be bad enough if people were merely made nervous over the Winter Solstice for no reason, but the effects of this fear-mongering could even prove deadly; if something like the mass suicide by Heaven's Gate cultists in the 1990's should occur, such persons as the makers and broadcasters of Countdown to Apocalypse, and of other programs in the same genre, would bear considerable responsibility for the tragedy.