We now return you to the countdown to our regularly scheduled Rapture

Remember back in 1994 when Harold Camping promised us that the End Times were upon us?

That Apocalypse sure rolled in with a whimper instead of a bang, didn’t it?

Justin Bieber was born in 1994, so there’s that.

Last year, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Camping’s End Times as he geared up for a shiny new Armageddon he could call his own:

Harold Camping lets out a hearty chuckle when he considers the people who believe the world will end in 2012.

“That date has not one stitch of biblical authority,” Camping says from the Oakland office where he runs Family Radio, an evangelical station that reaches listeners around the world. “It’s like a fairy tale.”

The real date for the end of times, he says, is in 2011.

The piece goes on to outline his mathematical methodology, but I’ll leave it to you to go explore that on your own.

I mention Camping and his Family Radio crew because they rolled into DC a few days ago with a big caravan of fancy buses and a desire to punish us all or save our souls.Or maybe punish us and then save our souls.

They’re only here until tomorrow, apparently. If I’d known I wouldn’t get another chance to take a picture of the caravan I would have taken the time to do it today. Oh well. Live and learn.

It’s not really clear why they’re in Washington, DC and the members of the group don’t seem to have very clear messaging beyond telling me that the end is near (again) and I should repent.

Or that it’s maybe too late to repent.

Like I said, they don’t seem to be very clear about their mission, other than that it’s from God.

The fact that they keep saying this makes me snicker every time. I must admit I find a way to work it into every conversation I get stuck having with them.

I know, I know, I’m going to Hell. Or maybe I’m not. Guess I’ll find out next month.