Apocalypse Watch

Jeff Sharlet is one of the sharpest reporters out there on the motivations and permutations of what some call fundamentalist Christianity, and his current review of "Have a Nice Doomsday" in the New Statesman will bring you quickly up to speed on the current state of apocalypse lust and on the motivations of those religious leaders who see the nuking of Iran as the surest route to a world-wide conflagration and the rapture of true believers.

The unknown in all this is the extent to which some government officials (the neo-con residue, still occupying high office) might decide to hasten sundown by attacking Iran prior to the last gasp of George W.'s second term.