I woke up one day on a city sidewalk in Las Vegas and strangely found myself to be amongst an odd crowd. A disporportionate number of the people around me wore feathered-mullet hairstyles and retro-eighties button up polyester shirts (top two buttons undone of course). I didn't notice one single 2001 or newer make automobile. Come to think of it, I remember how awkward it felt not to see even a single nineties decade body style on the road that day. The cars all seemed boxier and exihibited minimal, if any, sleek and inovative design features. Somehow I was catapulted back to a time when Michael Jackson was topping the charts and the term "desert storm" was recognized more as a weather phenomenon than a famous standoff between a middle eastern tyrant and the world's unrivalled military superpower. But enough with the setting however, I want to talk about a conversation I had with a man. I'd just like to mention he was the only person who noticed me.

He thought he was halucinating, he told me, when he noticed some sleeping guy appear out of nowhere on the walkway before him.

I'd asked him how long I'd been there and how the heck I'd gotten there. He responded "just now and I don't know how in the world ... from nowhere, er ... you just appeared from out of thin air!" I looked around, "when is now?" I asked. "What do you mean, when is now?" "It's 2006, right?" "We must have both hit our heads!" he jeered. "My friend, it's 1983 ... do you need an ambulance?" I stood up and looked around. There the famous Dunes Hotel stood in the background. "What the F..?" I didn't finish the explitive. The Dunes was imploded a long time ago, I remeberred watching it live on TV as my windows shook and loose items rattled a bit. "Are you alright?"...

Cut to later that day as the obvious interesting conversations insued. I had convinced the man that I was in fact from the year 2006 and somehow got "lost" (for lack of a better word and less of an understatement). It wasn't too hard for him to believe, afterall it's not everyday somebody appears out of thin air in front of you with totaly futuristic gadgets on his/her person (miniature flip-phone with video capability, Ipod, atomic watch). Had a live-feed digital sattelite connection signal existed, I think he'd have gotten a kick out of the electronic toys. Actualy not to say the technological means didn't exist, it just wasn't commercialy common or available for casual public use yet.

The most memorable part of our talk was that of the state of the world in my time. As we sat and had dinner, he'd asked me what of the political and econonic situation in my world. Just for kicks and to get a reaction, I explained it this way:

I told him that coming soon, real soon, a president by the name of George Bush would be elected to the presidency of the United States. His one-term administration would be halmarked by a scuffle in the Persian Gulf region sparked by the illegal invasion of Kuwait by a neighboring country. Nothing much would come of it except the testing of a few advanced weapons platforms and a couple of no-fly zones ... oh yes and some sanctions. Not much of a big deal. The reason the discussion had headed in this direction is because the man expressed an interest in what kinds of wars will be fought in the future.

"But that's not the dramatic part of it all," I explained. The man lifted his eyebrow. "By a strange turn of events, Bush's son G. W. will scandalize the nation by manipulating the 2000 elections and rise to power, filling his father's former seat as president. The insult to intelligence is that the entire election hinges on what boils down to be a recount of "acceptable" ballots in Florida where his own brother is Governor and his sitting judge buddies will oversee the whole ordeal. After some stalls, redefinitions of "acceptable ballot", and controversy ... Bush is unsurprisingly sworn in as the new commander in chief and head of the executive branch of federal government."

"What's so dramatic about such an everyday occurance as presidential controversy and some human error? So what!" the man contends. "You made it sound as if this was going to get juicy."

"Well, soon after Bush and his family "elect" / "appoint" him to power, a seminol dramatic event will change the state of the globe forever. You see, two airplanes will fly into the two standing world trade center towers in N.Y. and another plane will crash nose first into the pentagon. As it turns out, 19 middle eastern hijackers orchestrate a terrorist attack of unprecedented proportion against the United States on its own soil. Justifiably, the vicitimized United States declares war on the country that served as a launch pad for these acts of war, namely Afghanistan. Where the story takes an ironic shift is that soon after Afghanistan topples to the awesome omnipotent United States war machine, somehow Iraq is blamed for a portion of the resposnsibility. Since no connection can be found between Iraq and the terrorist attacks, the American public is pyschologicaly manipulated into fearing the weapons of mass destruction capabilities that Iraq is rumored to pose. When no weapons can be proven to exist, as a last resort, they justify an invasion on the moral grounds that the ruler of Iraq is a bad person who needs to be brought to justice."

"Amidst all the turmoil in the middle east other countries are attacked by islamic militants abroad. Spain, Britain, Egypt, Indonesia, Australia, all have their own bombings and threats of bombings to deal with. At some point, the so called "war on terror" spans six continents. Some would call it a war for oil, some would call it an islamic jihad holy war, some would refer to it as a military colonization of the middle east by the global capitalist empire - the United States."

"As time goes on and tensions mount, Iran (another evil middle eastern country) races to produce a nuclear arsenal capable of deterring the imperial United States from inflicting Iraq's fate upon them. Many fingers point blame on Israel for being the United States staunchest ally in the region, and many middle eastern countries refuse to even recognize Isreal as a sovereign state. Rather they look at isreal as some sort of unlawful occupation of biblical holy lands."

By now the man has turned pale as the discussion continues.

"I guess to some it all up in a nutshell, the world will be entrenched in a global holy war centerred on the hatred by Isreal's surrounding nations of the global government called the U.S. or the U.N. and the occupation of sacred holy lands by Israel. Jerusalem will become a central focus of dispute as Iran beefs up to join the club of nuclear capable nations. The U.S. will attempt to secure a military outpost in the middle east (Iraq) to launch continuing attacks on rogue nations that refuse to conform to the emergence of what America's ruler, Bush, refers to as the New World Order. With war centerred around the Tigris and Euphartes rivers region of the middle east, biblical holy lands, and with attacks and bombs going off all over the world, humanity stands by and waits to see some type of peace treaty emerge or cataclysmic climax."

"And that my friend, is the state of the world in the new millenium!"

Hahahaha the guy busts out laughin'!

"You're pullin' my leg. You just got that out of some Nastrodamus book or the last chapter of the Holy Bible. Hahahaha! Nice try you almost had me..." His pale face turns red as he tries to catch his breath.

I started laughin' too. "I almost had ya!" Hahaha...