The horizon

I would say I am spiritual, but not religious.

Religion to me conjures up too many negative images...on the bottom scale, some southern United States preacher saying the words Jee-sus, or possibly Ayy-mayn-nah!

On the upper end, you have Islamic terrorists blowing up trains and flying aircraft into skyscrapers.

Somewhere in the middle you have some claiming to be "the chosen people", while others hang out at the airport passing out flowers and asking you if you've found someone..."Uhhh, no dude, was I supposed to be looking? Nobody told me what I was supposed to do".

But I was looking at the world today...something American's usually find boring and not within their purview or busy schedule, and I noticed something very peculiar. While the network news here in the States is focusing on who-told-what-to-who-regarding-who-was-in-the-CIA-and-who-wasn't, the rest of the world seems to be on the brink of falling apart. Personally, I don't give a flying-**** who turned in who, and for what reason - if someone did something wrong, I hope they go to jail for it. What I was wondering about is how the news keeps ignoring the obvious.

For example...

First you have "the chosen people" once again responding to a spitball being thrown at them with an all-out attack on anyone and everyone wearing a pair of sandals and moving. They started with Gaza three days ago, moved further into the West Bank yesterday, and today started an all-out assault on Beirut...yes, the one in Lebanon. All this because a couple of Israelis soldiers were taken captive by the Hizb Allah (and yes, that's the proper transliteration).

Yo! Israelites? Ever heard of the word diplomacy?

And for those of you who think I'm picking on the Israeli's, that's total bullshit. Those people are as much to blame for the problems over there as is anyone else, and it's high time we started calling that spade for what it is. If you're living in Boca Raton, Florida and your name is Berkowitz and you find this offensive - let me tell you something. Those folks in Tel Aviv no more relate to you than some Irish guy in Killarney would relate to me if my name was McNamara...so cut the "my brothers in the old country" crap and get real. You're an American, they're an Israeli. You share the same religion, but your politics are as opposite as battery acid and ice cream. Stop thinking it's otherwise, because it's not.

Then I see a bunch of trains were bombed simultaneously in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) in the exact same fashion as the trains in Madrid were bombed in 2003.

In Iraq, things are much the same in principle, except the violence seems to have escalated and expanded. Obviously, outside groups are having a hey-day there, knowing we have dug ourselves a hole that we can certainly dig out of, but it will be tough.

Kim Il Sung of North Korea is a complete nut-job who is living in and on his own "fantasy island", and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is purported to be in cahoots with North Korea in a cheap oil-for-weapons deal and a potential oil producing countries scam with Iran to keep prices up and damage the U.S. economy. Just in case you don't know it - and you won't learn it watching reality TV - no country in South America has an Army to speak of, so if Chavez stockpiles enough weaponry and builds the force to use them, there is no one to oppose him. Helooooooo!

"You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom."

I do believe I read that in a book somewhere. And I seem to remember this as well:

"Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold"

Well, that one can't be true, because we don't live in a shallow, self-absorbed society...right?

Ok, before anyone thinks I've gone stark, blibbering coo-coo...here is what I'm saying. We need to stop what we're doing...right now, wherever we are...and take a few minutes to do a couple of things.

1) Take a look at our surroundings. Is everything in its place and seemingly normal? If so, you're good to go. If not, do something to fix it.

2) Take a good look at your loved ones and friends. Are they as they seem, normal and functioning properly? If not, fix the loved ones and advise the friends that maybe they could and should re-think their priorities.

3) Pay attention to things that are happening elsewhere. This is two train deals in 3 years. The Israeli's are bombing the Arabs again, and it's pissing the whole lot of them off.

4) Think about the fact that the only reason September of 2001 stands alone is because they haven't figured out how to beat our defenses, our security, or both. It is NOT because they don't want to, or they're going to go away because Woody Harrelson said they would if we just asked them nicely.

5) Again, look at the world and realize this deal is for real, and it doesn't have anything to do with President Bush. He's just the guy that's here right now. This stuff started back when we had President Clinton, but they were just cutting their teeth in the mid to late 90's - even though at the time we didn't know it. They're coming for more, and some of our "allies" are making things harder for us. To be totally honest with you, the only true ally that is also a friend right now is England, and that means if you're keeping score it's us 2, the other team about 400 when you compare country versus country.

Ahhhh hell...never mind. You're not paying attention anyways. You're still too worried about why Chris didn't make it to the finals of "American Idol" to think about the possibility of WWIII. Just remember to give me dibs and props when it happens. You heard it here first.

And trust me on one more thing - you may think our President is a doof (and I do - I really do), but we may find ourselves in a position where we must stand behind him as we fight the ultimate fight, like him or not. He's all we have in the event of a big stand-off - and wishing we had someone else isn't going to get us anywhere.

One more thing - about halfway between the West Bank and Beirut, give or take a few miles - is Megiddo...the biblical site of Armageddon. Take it for what it's worth, it's halfway between the two places the Israeli's are attacking right now.

Like I said in the beginning - I'm not religious, but I am spiritual - and by that I mean I do not necessarily agree with nor do I discount any Bible prophecy...especially the "Book of Revelations".

If we don't take notice now, we all just might be forced to be helpless spectators sooner rather than later.

Peace.