LEAVE IT TO PEEVER

 

The crystal ball seldom fails

 

– Bumper sticker of the week: We all live downstream.

– Quote of the week: "It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure." Joseph Campbell

– We blow Iraq into the 12th century, and now it's the IraqisÕ fault because they won't take charge of the mess we've made. There's not a person alive that should be blaming the Iraqis for what we've done, much less the politicians. They're the one's who authorized this stupidity. The House and Senate voted on Oct. 10-11, 2002, to allow the U.S. to use the Armed Forces against Iraq. Of the current candidates wanting to become President, and Commander in Chief, Clinton, Edwards, McCain, Biden (out), Thompson, Dodd (out), and Hunter all voted yea. Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul voted nay. The other candidates were not in Congress. All the yeas are now blaming everyone but themselves. Typical.

– Hard-line Republicans for Jesus: Extremist Christian morality begins to surface in the 2008 Republican primary race. At the forefront are Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, both vying for that "old tyme religion" vote. Each claims to be "the enlightened one," mixing up the gospel with the preaching of the party. The founding fathers made it very clear in the Constitution that there was to be no religious test for officeholders in the New Republic. I assume that's Bush & Co. proceeding to dismantle the Constitution. It doesn't fit into their misguided theology. This all begs the question: Did Jesus make a mistake not being a Republican?

– The right-wing Supreme Court is back in session. Here we go: No steps forward, and ten steps back.

– "It is not enough to say 'we must not wage war.' It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it." Martin Luther King, Jr.

– What the crystal ball has to say about 2008:

¥ We will have a new President elect.

¥ Galesburg's population will continue to fall.

¥ During 2008, the Knox County Board will make a decision.

¥ The Galesburg mayor will quit. So might a number of others.

¥ The Democratic nominee for President will show up in Galesburg before the election.

¥ The economy is going to tank.

¥ The war in Iraq and Afghanistan will continue unabated.

¥ An individual or group from Galesburg will make it big in the music industry this year.

¥ Swedough's will reopen.

¥ Wal-Mart will face a unionization attempt.

¥ GREDA will fold up shop and move to China, where they may have better luck, but the crystal ball is not clear on that.

¥ Real estate taxes will go up, but no one will be able to explain why.

¥ And finally, in a stunning development, the city council will vote to put Galesburg up for sale on eBay.

You might be saying to yourself at this point, where does he get all this crap? But just you wait and see. In all the years I have been doing predictions, my crystal ball has only failed me twice. I admit, I didn't win the Pulitzer Prize, and God has still not made an appearance, but otherwise, I'm good.