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Feb. 8, 2013
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Jewish World Review
June 15, 2012/ 25 Sivan, 5772
World not ending, but maybe it should
By
Dale McFeatters
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Although we won't know for sure until Dec. 22, the assertion that a Mayan calendar calls for the world to end this Dec. 21 has been pretty well debunked. Astronomers say the world will indeed end, but not for another 4 billion years, putting a real strain on mankind's reserves of procrastination. We'll get around to working up a solution to Doomsday tomorrow, maybe next week, certainly no later than Labor Day. But nonetheless, just as in the Book of Revelation, a series of ominous omens may portend something really bad about to happen. On a macro level, somehow the fate of Europe seems to have been put in the hands of the Greeks, whom you would think would be nobody's first choice for that honor. Greece may renege on its debts and jump, fall or be kicked out of the eurozone, Europe's monetary union. The euro would be replaced by the drachma, a currency the Greeks had little faith in then and, judging from the speed with which they're trying to get their savings out of the banks and out of the country, even less faith now. If Greece goes, the fear is that Portugal, Spain, perhaps Italy and maybe Ireland, too, will be next. Lithuania, however, is looking pretty solid. That would leave Germany pretty much in charge of Europe's economy, but Germany, which so badly wanted to control Europe in the late '30s and early '40s, now doesn't want any part of it. The worry is that the European economic contagion could spread here, if Congress doesn't succeed in wrecking the country first. Thanks to a budget deal the two parties reached last summer and House Republicans promptly reneged on, much to the embarrassment of their leaders if no agreement is reached on taxes and entitlements by the end of the year (10 days past Mayan Doomsday), $1.2 trillion in automatic, across-the-board budget cuts would take effect. The military would be hit especially hard. Nobody in authority really wants to quantify the damage to our defense posture, but let's just say we might have a hard time defending ourselves against Lithuania. If there's one lesson the recession should have taught us it's that "too big to fail" is a hollow expression. The Chinese economy is slowing, and some economists think the only choice in outcomes is whether it comes in for a hard or soft landing. China is not too big to fail; in fact, it's failed many times. Let us not forget that, under Chairman Mao's Great Leap Forward, China did a great national face plant from which it took years, and Mao's death, to recover. Indiana Indiana (, for heaven's sake became the first state in the nation to make it legal for people to shoot public officials, like police officers, whom residents believe have entered their homes illegally. This should be a great help to the "stand your ground" laws in thinning out the population. Inevitably, a man in Texas set up a video camera, confronted his neighbor, shouted for the benefit of the camera that he was in fear of his life but "I'm standing my ground," and then fatally shot his neighbor. The dispute was over noise from a party. Not to needlessly alarm you, but have you noticed the spate of stories about cannibals like the guy in Miami who chewed off the face of a homeless man or the stories about a drug called "bath salts" that causes users to run naked through the streets randomly attacking strangers? That's not to say the nation is ignoring its more pressing problems. According to a front-page story in USA Today, a lab in Tennessee has developed a test that, as the headline writer delicately put it, "links the dog to its doo," meaning owners who don't clean up after their pets can be tracked down and fined unless, of course, the pet owner chooses to stand his ground and defend his doo and shoot the guy from animal control. Somewhere, wherever it is that Mayans go after they die, an astrologer is quietly cackling to himself.
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Previously:
• 06/13/12 Make the nation's laws; no experience necessary
• 06/11/12 The highway bill to nowhere
• 06/07/12 Planet Mars slated to become reality show
• 06/06/12 Spy agency magically produces two space
• 06/05/12 Make parties pay for conventions
• 06/04/12 Revised date for end of the world
• 05/31/12 Needed: A kinder, gentler . . . TSA
• 05/30/12 Keep U.N.'s hands off the Internet
• 05/25/12 Observe Memorial Day; it will only take a minute
• 05/24/12 Taxpayers taken for ride on subsidized EAS flights
• 05/23/12 Worsening traffic is a sign of recovery
• 05/17/12 U.S. needs a good third party
• 05/16/12 Earmarks quietly looking to make a comeback
• 05/15/12 Some good in war
• 05/14/12 Mayan discovery: It's safe to make plans for 2013
• 05/10/12 Save those 'Hillary!' buttons
• 04/18/12 Government service can be fun. Really.
• 04/17/12 Scandal, yes, but Cartagena had summit, too
• 04/16/12 When your car is smarter than you are
• 04/13/12 Lenders tiptoe back into world of credit risks
• 04/12/12 What do you mean you don't want a driver's license?
• 04/11/12 Smartphone anti-theft plan seems, um, smart
• 04/10/12 Bizarre process to choose a veep
• 04/09/12 From remote exurbs, cities don't look so bad anymore
• 04/06/12 We do want the fake Romney, not the 'real' one
• 04/05/12 Heaping even more indignities on air travelers
• 03/29/12 Blown away in Washington, D.C.
• 03/28/12 At the nuke summit an inadvertent moment of candor
• 03/27/12 A worse unemployment problem
• 03/23/12 The federal budget: A game of make-believe
• 03/21/12 In Iraq, blame the U.S., but drive American
• 03/20/12 Too late, bin Laden realized killing Muslims was a mistake
• 03/16/12 Hu and Wen leaving. China asks: What next?
• 03/14/12 Tide, favored by housewives and drug dealers alike
• 03/09/12 'Spring forward' obsessives and seasonal purists
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• 03/06/12 Putin 'carousel voting' victory
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• 02/27/12 Every candidate has to have a tax-reform plan
• 02/23/12 Au revoir, mademoiselle: It's been bonne
• 02/21/12 A new way of attacking food-stamp fraud
• 02/20/12 Feds don't want you driven to distraction
• 02/15/12 Putin has found can't lose campaign issue: Promoting a randier Russia
• 02/14/12 Obama's budget lays down battle lines for the fall
• 02/10/12 Filming in D.C. creates hassle for Hollywood
• 02/08/12 At Lake Vostok, Russia taps into new realm
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• 01/30/12 National Defense Authorization Act indefensible
• 01/23/12 Barbie sparks fear among Iran's mullahs
• 01/19/12 From overseas, U.S. industry is looking good
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• 01/16/12 Planets and roaches
• 01/13/12 Not exactly a biblical plague, but certainly an annoyance
• 01/12/12 Fewer young Americans interested in driving
• 01/05/12 Majoring in unemployment
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• 01/02/12 Pragmatic look at top words
• 12/22/11 Basketball the way to Kim's heart and nuclear weapons
• 12/21/12 Speculation and wishful thinking can get scary
• 12/20/11 A third Kim has North Korea by the throat
• 12/19/11 Congress pats itself on back for budget bill
• 12/15/11 The U.S. government is cashing in its chips, literally
• 12/14/11 TSA might try trusting its own people
• 12/12/11 That $1.2 billion? It's around here some place
• 12/09/11 State Department Creates Virtual Embassy For Iran
• 12/08/11 If you've ever tweeted, you're in the Library of Congress
• 12/07/11 Discoveries go to the core of what makes us humans
• 12/06/11 Stealing elections badly in Russia
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• 12/02/11 When the U.S. truly became one nation
• 12/01/11 Last chance to snap up a Maybach
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• 11/29/11 Surprise! Spider-Man may weave a profitable web
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• 11/24/11 Congress Quietly Abolishing Friday
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• 11/22/11 Jailing minors with adults adds to problems
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• 11/04/11 Feds must stop scam of stealing from dead children
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• 10/31/11 NATO should not be a victim of its success
• 10/28/11 Iran mulls getting rid of president and presidency
• 10/27/11 Bienvenidos a Dayton and bring your businesses with you
• 10/26/11 Archivists long for Obama's teleprompter
• 10/25/11 United Nations to run the Internet?
• 10/24/11 Attention, world: You've got the cash. We've got the houses
• 10/19/11 Oil pipeline must be in America's future
• 10/18/11 U.S. plans limited mission in an Africa with no limits
• 10/17/11 Social Security's grave mistakes
• 10/12/11 NASA's help-wanted sign for astronauts
• 10/10/11 Saving Thomas Jefferson''s chimneys
• 10/06/11 Uncle Sam's answer to deadbeats --- robo-calls
• 10/04/11 Christie should ignore jibes on his weight
• 10/03/11 Iran says its warships will head for Jersey shore
• 09/29/11 Europeans bristle at Obama's lectures
• 09/28/11 Jessica Rabbit for the defense
• 09/27/11 Russia learns outcome of next March's presidential election
• 09/26/11 Another try at leaving no child behind
• 09/23/11 This generation needs a job more than a name
• 09/22/11 In the lane next to you: A driverless car
• 09/20/11 Cloudy, cool, chance of falling satellite
• 09/14/11 Humanitarian extortion
• 09/13/11 Paging Dr. Watson; he's there in 3 seconds
• 09/09/11 Forecasting 100 percent chance of heavy metal
• 09/08/11 A jobs program at Obama's doorstep
• 09/07/11 Iran's government afraid of the water
• 09/06/11 Congress returns, tanned, rested and testy
• 09/05/11 Space nations must clean up after themselves
• 09/02/11 Osama bin Laden died a failure and he knew it
• 09/01/11 Time to retire political pie in the face
• 08/31/11 Labor Day celebrates what, exactly?
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• 08/25/11 When in an earthquake, block traffic
• 08/23/11 A case for discretion in deportation arrests
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• 08/16/11: Super Committee starts facing reality
• 08/15/11: World's fastest plane disappears even faster
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• 08/11/11: Relax. There is no Death Star
• 08/10/11: House pages run final errands
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• 08/05/11: Most 9/11 victims not on federal death records
• 08/04/11: Russian PM calls U.S. a parasite. He should be so lucky
• 08/03/11: Congress goes from one bind to another
• 08/02/11: D.B. Cooper may no longer be a mystery
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• 07/29/11: He'll always be known as Hot Wheels Handler
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• 07/22/11: Bachmann's admirable medical candor
• 07/12/11: Social Security's grave mistakes
• 07/08/11: Debt crisis need not be constitutional crisis
• 07/07/11: Startups entice new talent with kickball, treehouses
• 07/05/11: Stranded tourists get rare treat
• 06/30/11: The dollar Americans refuse to spend
• 06/27/11: The hangman doesn't cometh
© 2011, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
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