Happy New Years to everyone. The Gazette staff and I wish everyone a prosperous new year.

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My intention to compare the accomplishments of the previous city council and the new majority of the present city council will take longer than expected. So, that project has to be postponed for a few weeks. I would appreciate your patience.

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As a kid I recall the “old-timers” making historical references to the first decade of the twentieth century. For example 1906 would be referred to as “Ott-6. To a 10-year-old kid it sounded like they were talking about ancient times. Now that I have finally become an old-timer the “Otts” don’t seem so long ago. But, what a dynamic first decade of the second millennium it has been.

I wish I could be more optimistic about the near future, but the realities of the world condition make that impossible. Perennial problems, like feeding and clothing the hungry and defending the innocent and helpless, seem only to have gotten worse.

What compounds the seriousness of the situation is America’s now in-grown habit of Political Correctness – having to be accepting of everything whether obviously and intrinsically evil (resurgent communist governments, murderous Muslim Jihadists, or a corrupt American government, led by a radically socialist president).
We’re in the middle stages of a global perfect storm. As usual, we are unprepared, and in denial of what is approaching at full speed.

Whatever may be America’s fate it has been brought upon itself by an ignorant, indulgent electorate. We have elected (and re-elected) the most crooked and incompetent bunch of grifters ever in our history. The sweep of the problem is almost incomprehensible.

Can I take comfort in the recent ravings of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s statement that the “system worked” in preventing the latest airline catastrophe? I’ve begun to think that the whole American way of life is based upon the incompetence of our fifth column enemies; the enemy’s trigger devices have recently saved us by failure of design, for now. Our economy, our government, our moral compass are all out of plumb.

Thanks to 54 percent of the American electorate, in my opinion, the country we have known for going-on three centuries will be (without immediate attention) mostly gone within the next three years.