Regardless, the year is finally coming to a close and next year sees light at the end of the tunnel hopefully. We shall see.

I will make some predictions tomorrow.

UPDATE: Fixed the major problems and added a bunch more pictures to the comics pages. Will keep doing that. Working on a photo gallery now.

Aristotle was also one of the founders of the science of ontology which is the study of reality. What is real and what is not? These are things that have been argued and discussed ever since. But as philosopher Martin Heidegger suggested, human beings in this modern age are largely losing their identity to popular culture which is telling them how and what to think. This is nothing new, as religions and rulers have been doing that for ages. But in the age of mass media, images and programs are showing us a reality which is largely artificial. And people are buying into it, trying to conform to the standards being set. Yet those who set the standards have to be incredibly screwed up creatures. Just look at what a mess people are today. Families are disintegrating, societies are in turmoil. Politics all over the world is poisonous.

People are increasingly turning away from political parties and are sick of being manipulated by the media. They are seeking their own truths in places like the internet where you can find all sorts of views and not just the limited pablum dished up on the networks. Alas, many people just go to websites where their own prejudices and narrow opinions of reality are reinforced rather than challenge themselves. You have a mind and you should exercise it like any other part of your body. It may be the part that needs exercise the most.

I’m often accused of taking sides in our political cartoons, but as I said, I am an independent. I am not political, I am anti-political. What I do is a reaction to what I perceive as false ideas and arguments being presented to us. I think, however, arguing over the details of political issues is something others have way more interest and time than I do. So I want to focus more on areas where I can have a unique point of view. To that end I am going to try to take some of my discussions here to different places, more philosophical and less seemingly partisan.

To me, the most important thing a person can do is question everything they are told, just like a child. A kid wants to know how the world works. But for some reason they stop at a certain point. I never wanted to stop asking questions. So I will continue to look at the world many take for granted. I will if what we’re being told is truly the facts or is it just someone else’s fiction.

As a writer of fiction for decades, I know fiction when I see it.

I’ve also added some more chapters to the writing section for my book, which I am determined to get out this year. I settled on a publisher and just need to finish it. It’s about 85% there. I’ll be adding more chapters to the writing section above. There is also a table of contents now.

And I plan on cleaning up some of the other pages as well, which was long over due. I added some material to the Aftermath page.

1. Obama will cause a constitutional crisis due to his executive orders circumventing US Constitutional law (which is illegal). He has already done this here and elsewhere. When the administration allows international law enforcement to supersede US sovereignty, there will be a huge backlash and they will have to back down, or they will become seriously damaged as a result. I suspect it will be over a terrorist related issue.

This specifically didn’t happen too much, but the president has done a lot of unconstitutional things this year. Most recently circumventing congress and the courts on the EPA and FCC power grabs.

2. Democrats will suffer epic losses in November, despite a slew of outrageous voting shenanigans involving the usual suspects. The Senate may go to Republicans and the House will be close to flipping. This will be aided by many Democrats changing parties in 2010.

Yes, except the Republicans won 63 seats in Congress not the Senate. The Dems barely held that. But it was a historic win for the Republicans in any event. Not too many Dems flipped parties except in state houses where it was more common.

3. But a third party conservative movement continues to grow as tea parties get larger through the year. Some congressional seats will go to these candidates.

Yes, the tea party made some gains and if the Republicans fail to stick to their promises, they will have to fight them in 2012.

4. The health care bill will not sustain the internecine politics of the Democrats and public opinion. So Obama care will fail, barely.

It was passed over the will of the people. Hopefully it will be killed next year. It is still very unpopular.

5. Obama will poll consistently in the 40s, and then in the 30s toward the end of the year. A growing anger toward his administration will begin to dominate the news cycle. Rumors that he won’t run in 2012 will circulate.

He is in the 40s and has been in the 30s. The rumors that he won’t run in 2012 have also been circulating.

6. Obama’s second stimulus will not help the economy. Unemployment continues to be bad. Housing sales will be sluggish due to continuing lending problems and defaults.

Yes, all of this happened.

7. Obama’s “cool” demeanor will slip publicly more than a few times. He will be openly mocked by the press that once lionized him Especially when they they sense he can’t recover his popularity and theys tart to blame him for his party’s fall from grace.

This also happened, but they came back to his side in the last few weeks calling him the “comeback kid” despite the fact it was the Lame Duck Congress that did all the work.

8. Many top Democrats will lose their seats including Dodd, Reid, Boxer, Nelson. “Blue dogs” will be especially vulnerable.

Blue dogs were decimated. Dodd retired. Reid and Boxer survived.

9. The stock market will continue to have sucker’s rallies, but it will also have more bear sessions.

Yes, and it’s still not looking safe.

10. A commercial real estate crash will continue to harm the economy.

Yes, it has.

11. Obama will try to claim we came out of the recession only to go into a “double dip” recession again. At this point most of the press will lable it the Obama recession after all his failed polices and empty rhetoric.

The press is trying to tell us we’ve been out of the recession for a year. Reality says otherwise. As for a double dip recession, it feels like that has happened but since the government runs the reports it says otherwise.

12. Massive protests around the world due to unemployment and inflationary problems that will be blame on US spending policies. Obama will get a lot of fire for his spending, which he will try to claim he is cutting back. But it will be too little too late.

Yes, this happened also.

13. Apple’s tablet PC will be a hit when it debuts next year. Tablet PCs will become a vogue form of PC use. Comics will make major inroads there.

Yes they were a solid success and other tablets are making their way into the market now.

14. Climate Change will continue to die a slow painful death in the public’s mind and certain proponents of it will come under increasing disfavor and even lawsuits. Politicians will start back peddling on it. More climate scandals will erupt.

The warm mongers refuse to give up. Too much at stake. But the brutal winter is making a mockery of their claims.

15. There will be more terrorist attacks on the US and the administrations attempts to PC whitewash the Islamic aspect will start to incite a backlash.

Yes, this has happened in a small scale.

16. The Obama birther issue will not die. It will grow. More calls for his background documents like college, etc, to be disclosed will grow louder.

Yes, even Chris Matthews recently called for his birth certificate.

17. Growing calls for impeachment will start to echo across the land.

Yep.

18. Hillary Clinton will quit the Obama administration and start to become a critic, trying to distance herself from it. But she will not be able to recapture her political power.

Not yet.

I will probably do my 2011 predictions tomorrow. But this year’s were mostly on target.

Despite the problems, I still love WordPress. It’s rarely given me any problems. They usually come from add ons. And it’s really a fantastic CMS (content management system) I use it to control the whole site now.

I will probably add a graphic next to them soon.