President Barack Obama has signed into law a five-year extension of the U.S. government's authority to monitor the overseas activity of suspected foreign spies and terrorists.

It’s also known as WARRENTLESS WIRETAPPING…

*And he did it behind closed doors. How nice.

President Barack Obama has signed into law a five-year extension of the U.S. government's authority to monitor the overseas activity of suspected foreign spies and terrorists.

Drudge going football crazy tonight .. How odd for him

Secretary Clinton has a blood clot but he has no siren?? Hmmm….
Maybe he thinks this is fake too

Hillary Clinton blood clot.. Developing story

Hillary Clinton blood clot.. Developing story

2013 PREDICTIONS

Some really great things happened in 2012. We landed a rover on Mars, with success, and we now have the potential to beam back information in real time. Images of the red planet appear more like a Southwest desert. That is absolutely amazing.. 

There were some other great things in 2012. But it seemed shrouded by those events that were not so great. 

I wonder what amount of media influence takes place to keeps us from seeing the bright spots in life. 

Yes there is war, chaos, climate change, and fraud. But there is also honesty, goodness, love, and beauty. It abounds. 

People have fond memories of the past. Often their recollection isn’t 100% correct. Some people think they 80s were fun. Others recall poverty and constant fear of nuclear war. Some think the 90s were great. But others lost their jobs due to NAFTA and worried about the year 2000. It’s all relative. Before I get into this year’s predictions, I want to review last year’s predictions. I wrote,

Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee. Newt Gingrich will crash. Ron Paul will run as a third party… but won’t be a major factor. Barack Obama will be the president for the next four years after his victory in November 2012.
North Korea will launch missiles to threaten the United States. Kim Jong Il dead.. Un here. Ugh. 
The tension in the Middle East will dramatically escalate in 2012. Iran, Israel.. Syria.. No nation will appear stable. 
Lots of people will begin to think the end times are upon us. Not only due to the Mayan calender end in December 2012 but because of strange world events Gas prices will soar.
The stock market will have major upticks and downward crashes. 
Unemployment claims will continue to fall.. Maybe to 8% or lower. But the real unemployment number will surge into the 30% range. The economy will look like it’s recovery but it will not.

Not bad! Mitt Romney did lose. North Korea did try to elevate their threat level with missile launches, Israel and Syria did become crisis areas, and the real unemployment is surging. I was wrong on gas prices, and on the stock market. 

2012 over. 
2013 here we come. 

Predictions for the new year, in no particular order:

• The fiscal cliff will not be avoided. Congress and the White House will become wreckless in their political partisanship. While economic turmoil will not be avoided, it will not be as bad as some predict. Though taxes will go up on everyone in some manner. 


• North Korea will amplify their threat. They will attempt to scare their neighbors to the South and could elicit a forceful response from the world.


• 2013 is not a year of luck. March may be the worst. 


• Bad weather will dominate news in 2013. Hurricanes will strike the United States. Tornadoes will be abundant. Large snowstorms will hit in the winter. But the drought will continue and food prices will surge.


• Technology will take surprisingly huge advancements in 2013. Don’t be surprised if by next December the biggest gift of the year will be something that gets implanted in the human body. 


• A comet in November will be as bright as the moon. End of the world groups will latch on to it. Unfortunately some suicidal end of the world groups may go too far in their fears..


• By next Christmas we will have fewer malls, fewer stores, and fewer jobs. There are no big employment surges that will occur. Instead, state governments throughout the nation will suffer big layoffs. 
  
  The final prediction: In 2014, God willing, we will be here, judging that happened in 13. And when we do, we will lament another quick year. We will kiss as the ball drops. We will all be another year older. And we will all wonder what 2014 will bring. 
  Time does, after all, go by rather fast..

Creepiest tabloid story of the year
In gossipy news of the year, Justin Bieber was roughed up by paparazzi. And a kidnap gang was busted. Their plan was to steal Bieber and kill him, plus get $2,500 per testicle. I feel icky even typing about it. So I will stop now.

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Strangest concert moment of the year
Just when you thought it was safe to have glasses on, Madonna decided to take off most of her clothing. Who can stop her now?

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Most annoying tabloid gossip of the year
If it wasn’t Madonna it was the new Madonna, Gaga. They appeared nude this year. But then later in the fall she didn’t look quite the same. Rumors flew.. was she pregnant? Or just eating too much pasta. Later in 2012 she vanished from the entertainment scene. She exists on Twitter. And decides often to wake me up by Tweeting late night barages of messages to her millions of fans.. But the media enjoys having it both ways on the issuye of weight. They cry and wine about young girls who think too much about it, and say we worship thin people way too much. At the same time, though, they will publish articles being critical of any female star who gains a few pounds. Leave Lady Gaga alone. She was born this way, babaaay..

Scariest weather of 2012 that will impact 2013
2012 was another hot year. Really hot. So much so that parts of the Mississippi River had to be closed off because it was running dry.. barges couldn’t even use it. The nation saw one of its worst droughts in decades. It continued for most of the year. The harvest in 2012 was predicted to be quite nice, early on. That is before the rain stopped. And it never started. Going in 2013, some of the same regions plauged by dry conditions are still in the same bad situation… Food prices will soon reflect that..

Worst campaign of all time
Paul Ryan fell in love with Mitt Romney. But America didn’t. He tried in 2008, but he never caught on. Why did he think he would in 2012? I don’t know. As in ‘08, no fire in the belly erupted in Republicans. Instead, he lost in quite a disastrous election for the Grand Old Party. But their fire in the belly is turning quickly into aged distress. How grand are they? How old have they become? Not even Mitt’s mom jeans could save them in ‘12..

Least Chrsitian Catholic of the year
The Pope began tweeting in 2012. And when he did, lots of other Twitter users mocked him accordingly. Perhaps he was trying to re-tweet a new image of his Pontifcate since earlier in 2012, the biggest story about the Church was that of the Pope’s butler spilling the religious beans on secret affairs inside the Vatican. Mutiny in the Church! a butler locked away! Of course by the end of the year, the Pope pardoned his Butler. SO perhaps that Christian in Benny is coming through after all. LOL RT..

Most historic weather of the year
A storm turned super in 2012. Hurricane Sandy become an immense storm.. it battered and shattered the East Coast and destroyed so much of New Jersey and New York.. It was spoken of as a sign of storms to come..

Most distressing stories of 2012
The world was not a place for children in 2012. It was the year kids lost innocence.. The tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School moved a nation to question a lot.. the tragic shooting in Aurora Colorado did the same.. the DARK KNIGHT rose at theaters but was shadowed by a tragic scenario..

Children were killed in Syria. And a lot of them. According to reports throughout the entire year, massacres were happening on a regular basis. The world stood by as the regime in the nation took all internet users off the grid. Fears of chemical weapons being used came next.. And so it goes.. And innocent children sadly suffer every time.

Best justice of the year
There was justice served in the Jerry Sandusky saga. He was found guilty and will be locked away most likely for the rest of his life.. It is a small consolation to the countless lives he destroyed by his actions. He also helped ruin a reputation of a once heralded institution. But was justice served in its entirety? Probably not. It also brought up interesting questions about what we, as people, value. Football reigns supreme. Even higher than education. In the case of Penn State, and Joe Paterno, football and the school reputation was much more important than the lives of children raped by Jerry Sandusky.

Worst food story of the year
In May, the story of the Miami Muncher was on everyone’s mind. A man on bath salts in Florida began eating another man. Both were naked. Jokes were made.. but also, the horror was showcased on nightly news with images of both of their nude legs. Weeks later, the victim’s face was shown and the wounds he suffered were horrendous..

2012: THE YEAR THAT DID NOT END

It was a year of madness. 

Chaos.. 

While some predictable things did happen, the rest came as shocks to the system.. 

Weather instability all throughout the globe—mixed with strange rumbling beneath the crust and in the sky, as well. 

Madness and mayhem in movie theaters, schools, parking lots, homes.. Shootings from sea to shining sea. Are we simply a more violent culture? Then again, when you see history and notice that the most violent school rampage took place before 1930, it redefines your perspective on this year’s handgun and military assault anarchy.. 

There was a big sinkhole this year. I bet you didn’t hear about that. 
But there was a presidential election. We heard way too much about that..

It seemed like yesterday, and ages ago all at the same time, that the Olympics graced billions of TV sets. Unfortunately not as many showed for the actual seating in London, but the games were great. 

Who were we this year? 
We were worried. 
Constantly wondering if the end was near.. and worrying so much about Armageddon that we forgot some basics. 

The globe still spins here in late December. We made it through. So we’re fine. 

The Mayan end times scenario was just a scenario that helped Coast to Coast AM and some DISCOVERY CHANNEL late night TV survive for the past ten years. I guess they can’t replay reruns asking if the world will end in ‘12 since it did not. Of course there will be a mighty large comet in the sky in November 2013—outshining the moon is a possibility. So maybe the end time will happen then.. 

But even though it wasn’t the end of time this year, there were sure moments when it felt it. 

The madness that took place in a school in Connecticut only weeks before Christmas was horrific. It was disgusting.. it was thoroughly depressing. It really affected the nation’s national psyche. Also the media did a tragically poor job in reporting it, taking misinformation from Twitter and talking about it as though it was fact, naming the wrong guy as the shooter and blasting his photo across news wires, and misreporting that Adam Lanza’s mom was a teacher. Maybe we will forget those details of the day, but we surely will never forget the day when innocent 6-year-olds were gunned down by a madman..

While adults though the end was nigh, children didn’t know what hit them. 2012 was a tragically bad year for children.. From the United States to Syria, Russia and China, kids who deserve better got the worst of 2012. They laugh in the same language, and cry in it too. This year they cried a lot. Adults need to get themselves off the wasteland of fast-paced nonsense on gadgets and phones and realize that a generation could waste away if they have a few more years like 2012.. It did not seem like a day went on this year that was absent a heartbreaking story about a child being gunned down, bombed, droned, or wasted away by society as we knew it.

But it’s over now. 
It’s gone. It came fast and seemed to go even faster.

From Mitt Romney’s mom jeans to moms carrying their children in battle, it’s all gone..

Perhaps not a moment too soon, either. 

2012 was a year like all other years: It was mixed with wonderful stories of humanity at its finest and deplorable stories of creatures who cannot be human. This is the planet earth, after all. So what else is new..

Here’s to some memories of ‘12, and the best for ‘13. We just keep marching on, don’t we?

2012. Hope the Mayans start working on a new calender. 
We made it.

A view from my window. Hope yours is as nice.. I love Saturdays when it snows.

I am working on a year in review. I hope you'll like it.

Coming soon. Probably today.
Putting some finishing touches on it.

Good snowy morning. 12 almost over. Heralding in lucky 13 with a winter weekend.

Happy end of 2012.

Because of our fine folks in Congress we are about to go into uncharted economic territory.. The fiscal cliff upon us. Enjoy the ride, I guess. The outcome may just not be pretty.

George H.W. Bush in ICU

Bush is surrounded by family.. President Obama is being updated in his condition.

George H.W. Bush in ICU

2013: The of the comet

Ison is coming. It may be brighter than the full moon..

2013: The of the comet

A family photo of the Zuckerbergs is now being seen all over the net .. It appears that Randi Zuckerberg became a victim of the ever changing Mark Zuckerberg privacy settings on Facebook. Someone tweeted the photo, Randi Zuckerberg responded in anger, and …asked the Twitter user to delete the original tweet. It is too late now that media all over the world has the photo at their disposal.. 

Oh, and it’s worth noting that Randi Zuckerberg wanted to everything to rethink privacy online 2011. She said, in part, 

I think anonymity on the Internet has to go away. People behave a lot better when they have their real names down. … I think people hide behind anonymity and they feel like they can say whatever they want behind closed doors.

I don’t think anyone can escape the irony on this way.