ANOTHER DOOMSDAY PASSES - TIME TO GET REAL

Recently I published an article attacking the bias of the U.S. press, lamenting the loss of reporters the likes of Walter Cronkite. Often I cite the Jerusalem Post or HaAretz, but unfortunately they are often overly liberal. Over the past year or two I have often gained insight into world events from a surprising source – Al-Jazeera. It may be an Arab news agency, but they seem to have a remarkable ability to actually report the news. The excerpt shown above from their story about the Mayan doomsday predictions is followed by quite an amazing statistic.  Not just 20% of Chinese were worrying about 12/21/2012, but 22% of Americans and Turks are also concerned. In the U.S. some school districts are cancelling classes in light of the fear that there may be violence associated with the day.

WHO IS TO BLAME? There'l-Jazeera tried to clear this up with its article (their text in dark blue) by stating:

       …the Mayan calendar has been misinterpreted. Just like our calendars expire at the end of the year, so too does the Maya's long clock, they say. It doesn't mean the end of time, it simply means the beginning of a new time cycle.

       Believers of this theory suggest the end of the Mayan calendar will usher in a planetary shift towards universal compassion and world peace. Note: we have a name for such an era in Judaism. It’s called the Messianic Age, and it has nothing to do with the end of the world. Thank you Al-Jazeera, although I don’t see any signs that this will actually happen on 12/21/2012.

         An ancient mural was found in Guatemala earlier this year that disputes the theory that the Mayans foresaw Armageddon on Friday.

       "It's important to understand that the ancient Maya predicted the world would continue," lead excavator William Saturno said. "They didn't predict the end of the world. There would be cycles, new beginnings - but never endings … We keep looking for endings. It's an entirely different mind-set."