2012 - the year the world jumps off a cliff?

Here comes the obligatory New Year post - well, OK, like most things in my life a little too late.

There is again that dash of foolish optimism that I feel at the commencement of each year - which, as the weeks shamble along, duly muddies, then blanches and fades. And one goes about the chores with a heart that secretly (secretly to its owner) bides for another year to rally fresh hopes.

Yet this time it is different - and not in a good way. It is not just me that is in shambles  - but seemingly the whole world. There is a pall of uneasiness, a slippery fog in which we might, I fear, lose our way.In a big way. We are, civilizationally speaking, at crossroads of history -history that is the future. Just our luck that instead of clear thinkers that we need the world is run by dense elites. The fog is in their head. They have lead the world to  this crossroad and they will now take the highway to nowhere. They will reliably fail, the world over, as they always have -but this time the consequences will be history making and shaking.

It is not just me. Look at the year's first covers of these magazines:

2012 could be the year when the fools who brought us to the edge of the cliff jump off -and take us with them.

As American power declines, thanks to Obama, we shall see more and more of these incidents and eventually all out wars -

The (Israel-Cyprus Military)exercises are particularly noteworthy in light of a rumored incident over Cypriot airspace, where Israeli and Turkish planes may or may not have almost had an “aerial encounter.” If there are to be incidents in the area as American influence precipitously declines, the signal is presumably being sent–Cyprus and Israel will be on one side and Turkey will be on the other. Israel and Cyprus’s newly forged ties are in line with recent moves made by Athens and Sofia to solidify their mutual defense interests with Israel.

American decline - sponsored by Barack Obama:

 Instead of hope and change, the Obama presidency has delivered decline and despair on a scale not seen in America since the dying days of the Carter administration. Both at home and abroad, the United States is perceived to be a sinking power, and with good reason. The big-spending interventionist economic policies of the current administration have been little short of disastrous, and have saddled the US with its biggest debts since 1945. The liberal experiment of the past few years has knocked the stuffing out of the American economy. Job creation has been barely non-existent, and millions of Americans are now significantly worse off than they were a few years ago. Even The New York Times has acknowledged "soaring poverty" in Obama's America, citing a Census Bureau report showing the number of Americans officially living below the poverty line (46.2 million) at its highest level for more than half a century, since 1959.

No hope, much change( for the worse).

What is life without the Western Civilization?

Shelby Steele in an excellent article, "Israel and the Surrender of the West"-

.....the entire Western world has suffered from a deficit of moral authority for decades now. Today we in the West are reluctant to use our full military might in war lest we seem imperialistic; we hesitate to enforce our borders lest we seem racist; we are reluctant to ask for assimilation from new immigrants lest we seem xenophobic; and we are pained to give Western Civilization primacy in our educational curricula lest we seem supremacist. Today the West lives on the defensive, the very legitimacy of our modern societies requiring constant dissociation from the sins of the Western past—racism, economic exploitation, imperialism and so on.

West today is battered from without and eaten up from within.It's own leaders -political and intellectual- are hastening the decline. Some unwittingly but others, like Obama, with eagerness and relish.When the Western Civilization, as we commonly understand it, finally dies, it's replacement in the world and in the West won't be a pretty one. Despite all the talk of a multi-polar world, the non-western poles tilt towards despotism, even those that like India have a democratic veneer.

Europe's old soul makes way for another

The Europe is changing drastically.But it's a reincarnation unlike others -where a soul leaves a body and is born into another.In Europe the body for the time being remains the same but its old soul is leaving making way for another.

In the church in Bellinzona (Ticino), the traditional nativity crib with the Child Jesus, is surrounded by minarets

Switzerland: Minarets in manger, schools respect Muslims


The unusual scene is supposed to make people reflect about brotherhood and human rights, after 57% of the Swiss (and 68% in Ticino) recently voted against minarets on mosques. On the crib are verses from the Bible and the Koran on the topic of water.

-------------

The education department in the canton of Zurich adopted new guidelines which take the religious feelings of children of other faiths into account. Activities and songs with religious content, for example those that refer to Jesus as the Son of God, are not allowed. In Islam, Jesus is a prophet but not the Son of God.

What will Europe's new soul do to it? As a libertarian my concern is preservation and expansion of liberties.There I'm not too optimistic about this on-the-spot reincarnation of the continent.

And they came in 140 private jets to stop us from flying

One of the pet fetishes of the global warming panic-mongers is the campaign against us peasants flying in an airplane -that, they tell us, is killing the planet.As one of the most prominent warminger, George Monbiot, put it -

 

Global warming means that flying across the Atlantic is now as unacceptable as child abuse

In that case there is plenty of child abuse going on at the Copenhagen climate summit-

The airport says it is expecting up to 140 extra private jets during the peak period alone, so far over its capacity that the planes will have to fly off to regional airports – or to Sweden – to park, returning to Copenhagen to pick up their VIP passengers.

(as in the previous post about the 1200 limos the page may take a while to load because of all the jets-again it's not my fault, it's Al Gore, Pachauri and their big-dollar pals)

 

Here are 140 private planes-

 

I say – save the children from so much abuse, cancel Copenhagen!