With the final days of 2002 ticking away, I was wondering what many of you think the new year, 2003 and beyond will hold.

Now, I don't want far fetched things, but realistic.  The Iraq situation, our rights as Americans and so forth.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!

(Bird is starting to smell good!!!)

[:)] this is the topic of my 1000th post, to which I refeer you [url]http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=157682&w=searchPop[/url]

So, any takers just for the near future?

I think I'll go for an attack on Iraq within 3 months. Most of Saddam's army will be looking for an American to surrender to within a month. Saddam will be out in 2. Democrats who said the war would go badly will look even dumber then last time, since people have more access to more news over the internet.

The Democrats will try to paint more Republicans as racists. They will pick up on the most innocent sounding comments and make a huge deal out of them. More people will realize that it is a load of BS and look for alternate news sources and alternate candidates.

At least one new AW ban bill will be introduced, and will die in committee.

The economy will rebound. The Democrats will lose the only issue that they have been able to campaign on.

Dozens of Democrats will fight for the 2004 presidential nomination. Hopefully, the mud-slinging and infighting will make all of them look even dumber.

Bin Laden will be captured alive in a brilliant operation by US Delta troops. We will sweat enough information out of him to roll up hundreds of terrorists around the world. Liberals will complain that his human rights are being violated and will lose even more credibility.

How's that for starters?

Can't seem to find my crystal ball.... I know it has to be around here somewhere...

If I had to bet, I'd say the democrats push for continued unconstitutional anti-gun legislation.

Sounds like a pretty good year overall...

2003: American invasion of Iraq happens suddenly and with little warning. In less then 36 hours the regime is toppled and a pro American democracy is installed. Oil prices following this event hit a 7 year low. Never before has a conflict been so one sided with only 20 american casualties and no fatalities due to the standard issue of body armor and the unipresence of vision enhancement devices for night fighting on the American side. The vast majority of air strikes are flown from the continental United States in the opening hours of the war. Following the conflict the Air Force finally admits to a hypersonic (mach 6+) aerospace plane the media had dubbed "Aurora"

2004: Assault weapon ban expires. Bill to reintroduce a ban never makes it to the floor. Bush reelected by one of the widest margins in a presidential election. *Gore loses for the second time.

2006: Human pronome mapped, vast new range of medical problems are understood and can now be treated with gene therapy delivered through tailored retroviral gene transcription.

2007: The International Space Station is completed, thanks to a host of private investments. The station is now primarily tasked for growing high quality protein crystals for the biomedical industry and producing galliumarcinide chips for various semi conductor interests.

2009: First self replicating nanoscale micromechanical device built at University of Washington and MIT.

2011: Lockheed Martin unveils the first civilian application of their Aurora's combine cycle ram rockets with their L-1090, an airliner that can fly from New York to LA in 40 minutes for the same fuel cost as a traditional airliner squashing Air Buses new A 3xx ultra wide body in transoceanic market place. Also Space tourism become more wide spread as day trips to a "sky stop" constructed from the external fuel tanks of the old space shuttle now only run around $10,000.

2018: The first series of Hydrogen stations are opened throughout the major cities of the US. GMs 'Autonomy' series cars dominate the market place and for the first time and American car company takes a significant piece of the asian pacific market share. With 150 horse power electric drive motor on each wheel with direct drive the new corvette does 0-60 in 2.9 seconds.

2019: The first human testing of a suite of virus delivered gene therapies designed to vastly increase the human life span begins. All indications are that it works and most Americans will soon be expecting to be active well after their 100th birthdays. In light of this social security is disbanded by the Hanity Administration. Also this year the first 200 tons of automated construction gear, regolith miners and a reactor are sent to mars to prepare and exploration base for the first human expedition.

2021: First humans arrive on Mars, their base is dubbed new Seattle and is the first permanent residents of another world move in shortly after.

2022: LithiumDeturide dust fusion power plants now supply 20% of the power of North America. Conventional fission power plants supply approximately 40% while hydroelectric and new tidal plants account for 10%.

2029: Industrial nanotechnology is now a proven and common part of our daily lives. Most homes are equipped with a manufactory now as current homes have furnaces or air conditioners. Shopping is now done thought the internet to download the specs for an item which is then produced by your home. Everything from clothes to toys to food can now be produced right at home. The large scale burning of fossil fuels is resumed to replace the vast amount of carbon in the atmosphere now being scrubbed out for the nano assembly of food products. Conventional agriculture is becoming limited to the amish. Vast tracks of land in the midwest, now no longer needed for food production are freed for other uses. Some people plant forests. Some let the land return to it's natural state, others reintroduce buffalo. Hunting in the midwest once again become wildly popular.

2031: The terraforming of Mars commences as New Seattle reaches a population of 10,000. Canada petitions for annexation into the United States this year as well. The supreme court rules that the Nation Firearms Act and all subsequent laws regarding firearms ownership unconstitutional.

2045: Tranquility Base on the moon is now a more popular honeymoon destination then Niagra Falls.

2050: Increasing desperate at the growing gap between the standard of living and life expectancy between the West and the Third world breaks into war. While this world war is shorter then the rest it turns out to be the bloodiest of the the three and the most one sided. That happens when you have all of the industrialized world on one side.

2055: Scientist at the Tharsis National Lab on mars discover a way to tap zero point or vacuum energy.

2060: History begins.

They call me The Optimist!
[<]:)]

Prediction #1: Former president Richard Nixon's corpse will crawl out of it's grave and strangle Gerald Ford.

#2: Al Gore will be killed by a giant fireball from outerspace while on a book tour in Arizona.

#3: TV star Drew Carey will be arrested for breaking into a nude beach club in Redondo Cali.

#4: Bill & Hillary will legally separate after Bill is admitted to Cedar Sinai hospital for a sprained penis.

Kick....