Riots? what riots?

I was listening to a talk radio host the other day, and his apocalyptic harangue reminded me of something.

Does anyone remember the predictions of street riots that were thrown around earlier this year?

What happened to all that? Did I miss something?

I remember growing up with the conviction that the world would end any day now. There was even a real estate developer whose sign claimed that the rapture was sure to occur in the 1990s. As the decade came and went, the sign changed to,

Rapture: next major event in Church history.

You'd think that having that kind of sign outside your real estate office would be bad for business, but I dunno, maybe it worked out well for him: people figured they wouldn't have to repay the mortgage. By now some of them have paid off the mortgage along with the loan they took out to build and stock a bunker for when The Great Day came.

I don't get it, myself. Sooner or later such people have to realize that this is counter-productive. I speak from experience; Bible Prophecy fascinated me as a teenager, and obviously led me into a lot of anti-Catholic territory. The notion that those who were wise would understand what was written in the apocalyptic prophecies appealed greatly to me. I quickly learned that I wasn't very wise at all.

Anyway, when I hear dire, apocalyptic prophecies of street riots, I compare those to the interpretation of Bible prophecies that I heard as a child. Bah. Exaggerated warnings of demons that disgust us (but possess the Others) blind us to the demons that attract us.