2013

Dates to mark. They will change the times.

Janu. 11: “Zero Dark Thirty,” which tells the story of the CIA’s hunt for Osama bin Laden, is released to the public. Said to be one of the most effective movies ever made. There is no substitute for success and President Obama killed Osama bin Laden. It will be his story as well.

Jan. 22: Elections in Israel. The New York Sun reports: “In Israel, voters, who will go to the polls in January, are preparing to give a boost to a rising and unapologetic movement of religious Zionists who eschew the old liberal secular sensibility and aim to make Judaism the central feature of the Jewish state … And it seems increasingly the case that the governments in Washington and Jerusalem are moving in different directions.”

Mid-February: The debt-ceiling talks. George Will today writes: “The media, which often are the last to know things because their wishes father their thoughts, say the tea party impulse is exhausted. Scores of House Republicans and seven first-term Republican senators (Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Pat Toomey, Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson, Marco Rubio and Tim Scott) will soon — hello, debt ceiling — prove otherwise.”

Feb. 10: China sends ships to disputed islands claimed by both China and Japan and plans train lines across Laos. The New York Times reports: “The Chinese-financed railway is to snake its way through dozens of tunnels and bridges, eventually linking southern China to Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, and then on to the Bay of Bengal in Myanmar, significantly expanding China’s already enormous trade with Southeast Asia.” It is the Year of the Snake. Get ready.

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