It must be the End-Times: the devil is stomping around Artesia this very moment.

New Mexicans will recall we used to have a state highway numbered ‘666’. Ah, but primitive superstition was too much for some. So, we spent public money changing the number to appease them. Church trumps State again, as ignorance does reason. mjh

[mjh: the following is a good in-depth article on the history of this lunacy.]

A Date With Destiny or Just Another Day? By K. Connie Kang, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

As for associating Satan with 666 and the antichrist, that’s the result of Christian authors writing about Satan so much, said J. Gordon Melton, a Methodist minister based in Santa Barbara and author of the “Encyclopedia of American Religions.”

“Satanism is itself largely a product of Christian paranoia,” Melton said.

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | The Nick of time By Stephen Tomkins

Vexen Crabtree, the Minister of the London Church of Satan, plans to go to one of the alternative clubs that are celebrating 06/06/06. “My official take on it is that 666 is really only a Christian number,” he explains. “But any excuse for a party is a good one.” …

The book “Is George Bush The Antichrist?” was published in 2004 in the US. The answer was yes, showing all kinds of ways of doing the maths to get the president to equal 666.