RSSTop News Stories Of 2012
Dec 28
News 2012, Apocalypse, Elections, Olympics No Comments
A lot of sites are highlighting the top news stories of 2011. It’s pretty easy to do them in hindsight – how about a look forward at the top news stories of 2012.
Here are my three news stories to follow in 2012.
The presidential election
Hundreds of millions (or even billions) of dollars will be spent to obtain a job that pays a mere $400,000 per year. Since I live in Iowa, I’ve been deluged with commercials for many months. I can’t wait for the caucuses to be over, so that the politicians can focus on New Hampshire. My prediction is that the economy will bounce back and Obama will ride the economic uptick to a re-election. I’m not saying that he’ll cause the recovery, just that he’ll get the credit for it (which is fair, since presidents also get blamed for things they don’t cause.
In addition to the presidential election, there will also be elections for all of the seats in the House of Representatives and 1/3 of the seats in the Senate. These don’t get as much attention, but they are just as important. While the political writers on The Soap Boxers will cover the serious political news, I’ll handle the snarky stories (which coven will Christine O’Donnell join in 2012) on my new site, Donkey and Elephant Show.
The world will end
December 21 is just 359 days away. If you happen to be in Australia on November 13 and fear that the end of the world has arrived early, don’t worry – you’re just seeing a total solar eclipse. You’ve still got 38 days to live.
I’ve given some advice for the end of days. Sadly, I do expect that quite a few people will saddle themselves with debt under the assumption that the world will end on December 21 and they won’t have to repay the money. If the sun rises on December 22, we may see a spike in the number of bankruptcies. (Sadly, I’m not kidding).
Olympics
I’m an Olympic junkie. During the 2012 Summer games in London, I will once again learn the nuances of many sports that I pay no attention to at any other time (kayaking?). Of particular note to me is that fact that 2004 Olympic gold medalist Cael Sanderson will attempt to win another gold in 2012.
Not only are the Olympics a great showcase for sports, but it’s also a great way to learn about other countries and cultures. Certainly we’ll learn a lot about London during the Games, but also about countries like Trinidad and Tobago. Have kids who hate geography but love sports? Let them watch the Olympics and they’ll pick up some geography (and maybe even learn something about world politics).
While I’ll like watch just about anything, my main focus will be on track and field, especially since baseball has been dropped as an Olympic sport (sigh).
Your thoughts
What stories will you be following in 2012?