The Occasional Solipsist

So I've been discussing the recent re-election of 'Dubbya' into the big office down south with the few people that I can have an intelligent discourse with (mostly my sister and my wife) lately, and figured I'd should throw my two cents into cyberspace.

First things first, I am an unabashed liberal. I am in fact probably 'worse' than your average liberal. I would probably vote for a libertarian candidate if one ever showed up that wasn't a loon and had a hope in hell in winning, so that should tell you most of what you need to know about how I feel about politics in general and politicians in particular. So that being said, the fact that a war-mongering billionaire who very clearly cares little or not at all for the people he is elected to watch out for was recently voted back in for another term to the south, quite frankly scares the piss out of me, and I'm not even American!

During one of the aforementioned conversations about this jackass and the long term damage he is likely to leave the world as his legacy, I was asked to pin down a few predictions for the next four years. So here they are, in no particular order:

There will be a draft in the United States for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War. Not only will this happen in the next 4 years, this one will happen very soon.

A WOMD (to borrow a popular acronym), be it nuclear/biological, whatever will be used against Americans on American soil as part of a terrorist attack, as a direct result of Bush's meddling in global affairs.

Religious dogma will officially dictate US political decisions. This prediction spawns any number of horrifying scenarios, some of which are the rest of my predictions.

Abortion is almost certainly to be outlawed in the US.

Homosexuals are going to run screaming either to the safe islands of more enlightened nations (like Canada) or right back into the closet to avoid persecution.

The Lord's Prayer will be re-instituted in public schools on a national level. This archaic practice can still be seen even in some public schools in Canada (I know - wtf?!?), but only in schools that have received signed approval from parents/guardians of all students. With a zealot like Bush in the white house, this policy will be adopted regardless of religious preference. Freedom my ass.

This last one may not happen within the next four years, but it will happen because of them: The raging debate over the separation of church and state (that the US constitution's first amendment explicitly stated) will come to a head in the form of major bloodshed. I fully expect to see a photo of a bunch of self-righteous standing over the body of some who made the mistake of speaking his/her mind a little too loudly splashed across the cover of a major newspaper in my lifetime. And likely that paper will be celebrating the crime instead of lauding it. And it is that day that will herald the dissapearance of the now almost-invisible line that separates the US from the countries it attacks in the name of enforcing democracy.

So those are some of the things I see coming south of the border soon. Yes, I am oversimplifying, but how very Nostradamus of me eh?