The following is a mix of sincere predictions for '08 and satire.  You get to decide which is which.

In the year 2008:

- The US will elect it's 1st African American president
- Gas prices in the North East will rise above, and not fall below, $3.50 a gallon
- The US will conduct special forces operations in Iran
- Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker will star in Rush Hour 4, a TNT/TBS "exclusive movie"
- TNT/TBS will play Rush Hour 4 25% of the time in '08
- The New England Patriots will go undefeated and win their 4th superbowl in this decade
- Deval Patrick will allow casinos in MA
- Al Gore will upgrade his robot body, adding 2 new legs in hopes of defeating Manbearpig
- Roger Clemens will be found guilty of doping
- The Boston Celtics will lose in the NBA finals to the San Antonio Spurs in 6 games
- Deval Patrick will push to raise the state's sales tax to 10% claiming the state's lack of revenue
- Children of illegal immigrants will receive a free ride to any MA state college
- ESPN will broadcast the World Series of Rummy 500 on ESPN2 for 2 months straight, sponsored by Milwalkee's Best Light Ice Dry
- Peyton Manning will do commercials for such prescription drugs as cialis, sinutab, propecia, and valtrex, and join Wilfred Brimley in the hunt for cheap diabetes medication
- MA will remove the sales tax on all alcoholic products
- Ted Kennedy will push for stronger guard rails leading up to the states bridges and overpasses
- The US dollar will continues to lose ground on the Euro
- Windows Vista will finally become a feasible option as an operating system
- Tom Cruise will marry Lindsey Lohan and adopt an albino Ecuadorian daughter
- A low yield nuclear device will be set off in either Spain or France by terrorist forces
- The writers strike continues and Fox becomes an all reality TV network
- Bono becomes the self proclaimed king of the world
- Oprah Winfrey becomes the self proclaimed queen of the world
- Chris Berman is inflicted with a terrible new disease named "jocksniffatitus"   A vaccine will be administered to others at the ESPN studio
- Ricky Henderson will sign with the Royals
- TO will eat popcorn watching replays of his loss to the New York Football Giants
- And finally, '09 will be celebrated on all TV networks with the reanimation of Dick Clark.

As we approach an election year, I fear that I will be facing the same problem all of us faced 3 1/2 years ago, is anyone worth voting for?

For me, our nation's energy policy is going to supercede any other issue in '08.  How can we face the chalenges of tomorrow if we have no clear plan on how to obtain the resources needed to maintain our current standard of living?  Government exists to provide those things for us that we cannot provide for ourselves (ie: roads, schools, firestations, defense, etc...)  Does energy not fall into that category as well?  Can any of us go out on our own and hunt and gather electricity?

Every day we see more and more of a swing in gas, oil, and natural gas prices.  Up to this point, the nation has been able to stomache these swings in price, but how much longer do we have left?  I see an opportunity for government to step in and help pay for the (short term) cost of making ourselves less vunerable outside influence when talking energy.  Retrofitting gas stations to be able to handle alternative fuel sources (just one example) can't be out the question.  The technology is there to make our nation self reliant once again, we just need to make the initial investment.  In the coming months, if anyone reading this comes across a candidate that seems to believe this would be their number one issues once in office, please let me know. 

    I know I've tried this once before and never really made any progress, but I'm making a second attempt to post my thoughts on the world around me.  At this point, I'm only going to try a bi-weekly posting, but who knows.  Definitely check back and if I fall behind, give me hell.  Enjoy.