For the last month, there have been too many disasters like Earthquakes, deadly cyclones, Tornadoes, & floods happening all over the country.

Here it goes;

1. Earthquake in the Midwest

2. Deadly cyclone in Mynamar or however the place is spelled.

3. 7.8 Earthquake in China.

4. Tornadoes back to back in Oklahoma & Missouri.

5. Floods somewhere along the East Coast.

Other than the natural disasters,

There's

1. Rising Gas Prices & Food Costs.
2. War
3. People getting chaotic
4. More people like what DMD 2.0 was talking about.
5. Global Food Crisis

Too much is happening all at once.
It's never happened this way before.
As time goes one, things get worse.

I'm a strong Christian who has read the Book Of Revelations. Jesus said to his disciples that this kind of disaster would happen & increase as time goes on until he returns. This is supposedly called the Rapture.

One thing I have to ask,

"Does anybody believe that we're living in the Last Days?"

I can only answer what we can control-

There wouldn't be an Economic Crisis if George W. Bush left well enough alone. Okay, we went to war which made us seem like bullies and then we decided to spend billions on occupying Iraq when we should be spending that money here to help our economy instead of someone else's. Just throw in "Terrorists or Terrorism" in a speech full of lies and then everyone will listen (Back then. Now people are a little wiser).

The oil prices are "artificially inflated" to bring down our economy on purpose. Food and gas rises thanks to this inflation. Some people turn to thievery and don't care if they're caught because they think they're "in the right" to do so. Because our economy sucks, we cut corners on production and then trade with other countries start to suck and that brings us to our American Dollars to get weak which affects other countries. The bad U.S. economy which affects other countries along with natural disasters lead to Global Food Crisis.

Do I think there are people involved in this chaos? Yes. They "artificially inflated" the oil prices for one thing. What we need to help out the economy is an alternate fuel source which is compatible to our motor vehicles. Yes, they have them now but there is too much "political red tape" that prevents it from reaching us now.

Look at Brazil. They were once a country that was poor and their money was so weak that anyone in the U.S. could go down there and live for practically nothing! It all turned around when their alternate fuel source (Canola based) was available throughout that country. Now look at how much their money is worth compared to ours! That's progress without the "political red tape" to get in the way!

I'll start believing this is the "End of Days" when an earthquake separates (California or the states along the East like NY or FL) from the rest of the United States.

Here's a separate rant-
I feel our president hurt us economically and prevented us from making progress. Look at stem cell research...or the alternatives to getting stems cells that have nothing to do with baby fetuses. Bush talks about a "moral dilemma" about killing lives in order to save it and yet look at him and his war! The alternatives to baby fetuses are fat cells and other cells we could extract but yet there is very little funding to make any progress. To me, George Bush is no different from those cult leaders whose misinterpreted use of the Bible is used to justify their means. As for what the Pope says, Pope John Paul II made his decision based on what information was given to him (probably the embryonic stem cells). Pope Benedict XVI was okay with it based on the information given (think "new" and "updated"). Of course, Bush probably would still veto any stem cell bill without even reading it because of his "morals" (or lack of).

This is the same president who owns oil wells and then says that "America is too dependent on oil" but yet does practically nothing to help in this situation.

People have believed we were living in the End Days since the beginning of days. Actually, to think the end of the world is coming is just wishful thinking.

I'll handle this point by point.

1. Earthquake in the Midwest

Earthquakes occur more frequently than you might imagine in the Midwest, though most of them not strong enough to be felt. We get one like that about every 20 years, and we were overdue. It was hardly a 'disaster'.

2. Deadly cyclone in Myanmar

Cyclones occur in this region of the world every year. The reasons for the high death tolls in this particular one are 1) poor infrastructure and flood control, 2) little to no warning system for such things, 3) the short-sighted government of Myanmar disallowing aid from other countries.

3. 7.8 Earthquake in China.

China is also quite seismically active, and given the relative poverty level in this area and the population density, it's no surprise that a) buildings collapsed and b) lots of people were in them. This is not out of the blue or unheard of. It's unfortunate that it happened shortly after the Myanmar situation, but to suggest, based on two disasters, that we are in the End Days is taking it a bit far.

4. Tornadoes back to back in Oklahoma & Missouri.

Yup. Happens every year.

5. Floods somewhere along the East Coast.

Again, flooding is not an uncommon occurance in many areas of this country. Nor are wildfires.

1. Rising Gas Prices & Food Costs.
These are related. Fuel prices make it more expesnive to harvest and transport food, thus when fuel rises, so does food. Additionally, the production of ethanol in the wake of the oil crisis has led to decreased food production, in favor of corn for ethanol, further raising food prices.

2. War

There's always a war. We've had something like 7 years total of global peace for the past 3000 years.

3. People getting chaotic

That's pretty vague.

4. More people like what DMD 2.0 was talking about.

Again, there are no statistics to back this up. Are there more? Or are we hearing about it more?

5. Global Food Crisis
See above.

None of this is surprising or unexpected.

The increased cost of fuel has a lot more to do with the falling value of the dollar than it does with supply or OPEC conspiracies. The falling value of the dollar is directly tied to the tremendous amount of debt we've accumulated over the past 25 years. The value of the dollar is based soley on the 'faith and trust in the US Government', which has gone decidedly downhill, as we cannot pay our debts, and continue to take out loans and print more money to cover them.

The war in Iraq accounts for $800 billion dollars total. Our debt since the beginning of the Bush Administration has risin by $4 TRILLION. The Iraq War is a drop in the bucket compared to the general fiscal irresponsibility of the US Government.

Why am I the only one not surprised that we're paying the price for it now?

As my colleagues above stated, the causes of these problems are based on logical causes and not due to some biblical premonition.

Every generation has thought it lived in the "End Times" because of a series of events that took place. I'm sure during the two world wars people thought it was the end of the world.

All these natural disasters occur all the time, all year, every year. Take Hurricane Katrina for example. It was such a big deal that such a large hurricane hit New Orleans. I remember people claiming it was God's wrath on the sin of New Orleans and the media, the government and meteorologists making such a big deal about it.

Frankly, I refused to believe it was the first time a category 4/5 hurricane ever hit New Orleans. And it was such a tragedy because many people refused to leave, despite the length of time that it was bei monitored. And what happens afterwards, they rebuild in the same place...a location below sea level.

Places like Maynar do not have the facilities that the US does and from what I've read, the country has refused aid. Doesn't sound biblical to me, sounds more like stupid human arrogance.

Who needs nature to wipe us out, we do a pretty damn good job ourselves.

Everybody's been saying the End is coming since the dawn of history. There has always been a war going on somewhere, someone taking advantage of someone else. Technology allows new methods of doing them, and in the Age of Information, we are more aware of everything that happens than any other of our predecessors.

I get a kick out of people citing the Mayan Calendar: if they were so good at predicting things, why didn't they see the conquistadors coming?

As for New Orleans, when you live in a geographic bowl right next to an ocean in a period of rising sea levels...I wonder what's going to happen to the bowl? It's gonna fill up? *Gasp* Why oh why do the laws of physics taunt us so? It must be the End of Days!

Myanmar is pretty much a government that holds the current World Record for the least subtle "we-don't-give-a-rat's-arse-about-you-guys" domestic policy. The junta is keeping the food aid for themselves and serving rotting rice to the victims instead.

As for the global food issues, that's more evidence of how as a collective animal species we FAIL at foresight but get summa cum laude grades for procrastination. We ignore things until they become a problem, because, let's face it, we only do something AFTER we complain about it first. Complaining is the quintessential part of the human condition.

LOL It's conversations like these that fuel my love for the Flying Spaghetti Monster phenomenon.

Just weighing in on one issue DMD brought up.

Gas prices are not artificially inflated right now. Prices were artificially kept low for years to please the American market. Europe has been paying $4 a gallon for years. What we are seeing now is the market correcting itself. Eventually it'll level off.

quote:

Originally posted by Otakushan1:
Just weighing in on one issue DMD brought up.

Gas prices are not artificially inflated right now. Prices were artificially kept low for years to please the American market. Europe has been paying $4 a gallon for years. What we are seeing now is the market correcting itself. Eventually it'll level off.

But isn't most of the European price due to taxes that fuel social programs, or are you calculating the cost before the taxes? Most of that price is not profit. If I knew a chunk of my gas money was going towards education or health insurance and not towards a gold-plated car for the CEO's son, I'd probably sit better: at least I'd be getting my money back in some way. Here in the US, the taxes are minimal, what 16 cents federal, 30 state? Plus, the Euro currency makes a $4 gas, what, 2.58 Euro?

If Shell can perfect that oil shale technology it would certainly help, but that's years away

Mother Nature seems to love screwing with us.

The other factor driving fuel prices is the emerging countries like China and India.

A lot of the price that Europeans pay for gas is tied up in taxes, but the price the US was paying for oil was lower, as the dollar was strong, and Oil is traded globally in terms of US Dollars. A weakening dollar dramatically affects this price, as do factors of demand. Domestic demand has not risen significantly, but global demand has.

On the subject of the 'gas tax holiday' proposed by certain members of Congress: If you think this is going to help you, guess again. What will happen is that the additional taxes paid by oil companies to cover this 'holiday' will be reflected in the price at the pump, netting us precisely squat. The oil companies know what they can charge for gas, and it's basically 'whatever they want'.

We need to just break away from these bastards. They've been getting rich off of the common man for over a century.

I believe someone has been arrested for starting the wild fires in Florida.

And it was discovered that someone started the last set of wild fires in California.

And my mommy always told me not to play with matches.