What Caught My Eye Today

NATO - Lest you had forgotten that the world continues to function in spite of the upcoming U.S. Presidential election and the global economic meltdown, I give you the following item. President Bush signed papers Friday to formally declare U.S. support of NATO membership for Albania and Croatia — two countries that he said were once in the "shackles of communism." Bush said the U.S. looks forward to the day when NATO embraces all the nations of the Balkans, including Macedonia. He also reiterated U.S. support for prospective NATO members Ukraine, Georgia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bush added, "The door to NATO membership also remains open to the people of Serbia should they choose that path." Not to mention the fact that this is sure to piss off Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to no end.

That being said, let's be real. The election and the economy are pretty much all anyone is talking about these days.

2008 Presidential Campaign - So we're down to the home stretch. Election day is just 11 days away, which can mean just one thing. The stories making the headlines are getting more and more outlandish. Here's a case in point. A McCain campaign volunteer made up a story of being robbed, pinned to the ground and having the letter "B" scratched on her face in what she had said was a politically inspired attack. She initially told investigators she was attempting to use a bank branch ATM on Wednesday night when a 6-foot-4 black man approached her from behind, put a knife blade to her throat and demanded money. She told police she handed the assailant $60 and walked away. Then she said she suspected the man then noticed a John McCain sticker on her car. She said the man punched her in the back of the head, knocked her to the ground and scratched a backward letter "B" into her face with a dull knife claiming that he was going to "teach her a lesson" for supporting the Republican presidential candidate, and that she was going to become a supporter of Democratic candidate Barack Obama. She could provide no explanation for why she invented the story. Let me take a stab at one...Girlfriend is certifiable nuts. All kidding aside, the disturbing thing about this story is that as much as we publicly say that race doesn't matter, you don't have to look very far to find some rather divisive feelings about the 'color' of the two candidates running for President. And that is just plain sad.

Economy - You know things are bad when a 300 point loss for the Dow Jones Industrial Index is considered a good day. If ever a 300-point loss on Wall Street could be a good thing, it was today. Wall Street started the day with a nervous eye on how far stocks would have to fall before triggering emergency trading halts. They ended the session relieved, even though the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 312 points--its lowest finish since the financial crisis began six weeks ago. Stock markets in Europe and Asia had plummeted, and oil prices plunged past their lows for the last year on growing fears of a global recession. Major indexes declined more than 14% in Russia, and were ordered closed until next week. Dow futures — a bet, before trading opens, on where stocks would go — had plunged 550 points triggering a temporary trading halt. You all may just want to skip ahead to the next story...this only gets worse. The Dow closed at 8,378, its lowest finish since 8,306 on April 25, 2003. In the last six weeks, the Dow has experienced triple-digit moves in 27 of 30 trading sessions. Total losses in the Dow Jones Wilshire 5,000 since the market's Oct 2007 high are $8.8 trillion, or 44%. So this is how the end of the world starts, huh?

Armageddon - Okay maybe the economy isn't that bad...or maybe it is. The point is "no one knows the day or the hour." And that just happens to be the tag line for this enterprising--yet thoroughly eerie--web site You've Been Left Behind.com. First a description from the fine folks at Maxim. When Armageddon comes, good Christians will be yoinked to heaven before Jesus blows up the planet. If you're one of them, you can pay this site $40 to send a goodbye e-mail to your heathen friends when you disappear. I'd say that's a rather succinct description of the site. Here's how the nut jobs who runs the web site describe it. We all have family and friends who have failed to receive the Good News of the Gospel. The unsaved will be 'left behind' on earth to go through the "tribulation period" after the "Rapture". Imagine how taken back they will be by the millions of missing Christians and devastation at the rapture. They will know it was true and that they have blown it. There will be a small window of time where they might be reached for the Kingdom of God. We have made it possible for you to send them a letter of love and a plea to receive Christ one last time. You can also send information based on scripture as to what will happen next. Each fulfilled prophecy will cause your letter and plea to be remembered and a decision to be made. Um, yeah. Whatever, dude. For my $40 bucks, if the world is going to come to an end anyway, I'm getting some booze and going out with a nice buzz.