What the candidates aren't talking about

As you may know, the ancient Mayans drew up an incredibly accurate calendar that runs out at 11:11 pm, Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. At that point, the sun will be aligned with the center of our galaxy for the first time in roughly 26,000 years. While some contend the Mayans simply lost interest in making calendars, many believe this date marks the beginning of the apocalypse, though no one is sure exactly how. Theories about earth's magnetic poles shifting, hyper-viruses, megatsunamis, ice ages and other global catastrophes abound. Personally, I am pulling for our solar system to get sucked into the giant black hole that resides at the center of our galaxy.

Now, as you can tell, December 2012, conveniently falls just after the next presidential election, so whoever wins the big prize next year potentially will have the end of the world on his or her watch. But do we hear the candidates talking about it? Of course not.

Let's face it: We live in a frantic, day-by-day, minute-by-minute world. 2012 is more than five years away – and that's a lifetime for politicians and people born in Darfur or Detroit. So, naturally, planning for impending cosmic doom is nowhere near the to-do lists of pols and the main stream media, as last night's Democratic Halloween Ball (the candidates dressed as vertebrates) proved. (Don't let the alien encounter red herring fool you, either: Lib-loving Tim Russert knows Rudy Giuliani has the interstellar warfare hawk vote locked up tighter than a cross-dresser's jewelry box, but his softball round of good cop vs. bad cop between Dennis Kucinich and Barrack Obama won't pull any Anakins over to the dark side.)

But 2012 is coming. That's a fact, but since it falls after the next election, what's to gain by talking about it? Whoever wins will be either on his or her way out or safely entrenched after being reelected, so it's a non-starter that – like so many other important issues (like esperanto and eagles) – gets swept under the rug. It's timing, really. Bad timing, and for this, I blame the Mayans, who obviously hoped to slide their apocalypse-agenda stone-dagger of pre-colonial revenge through our ribs without us noticing. Unfortunately for us, it's working.