Dear Steve,

Just to clarify a few points:

1) A cure for cancer will be found within the next five years...
What I'm betting on here is my life. I was diagnosed with cancer
last year.

3) Men and women of conscience will enter Australian politics.
I am refering to people of the calibre of the late Charlie Perkins, Australia's Martin Luther King. It was Charlie who led the 'freedom rides' of the sixties into Australia's equivalent of the American Deep South, chaining himself to the turnstiles of swimming pools that refused to admit black children. Then there's Mick Dodson, one of a group of Aboriginal activists who understands more about white society than it understands itself. He's a lawyer, he was Justice Commissioner, and served on the Royal Commission into deaths in custody. People of the calibre of Maxine McKew...

4) Alternative sources of energy will be utilised ...
Of course I'm referring to more fuel-efficient cars, better built homes, wind turbines, biofuels like ethanol, subsidized rooftop solar panels et cetera.

6) There will be no more war - I remember reading what Richard Perle, a cold-war planner of the Reagan administration in the US had to say, "This is total war.
We are fighting a variety of enemies. There are lots of them out there. All this talk about first we are going to Afghanistan, then Iraq, this is entirely wrong...we should just wage a total war... our children will sing songs about us years from now..."
I'm betting on sanity - on the re-election of a sane government in the US. One that will listen to its people.

7) Finally, We also need to examine the common use of the term 'we,'
and its appropriation by great power. If we are to fight 'terrorism,'
then we must call on the US to end its terror in the Middle East, Columbia, and elsewhere. Only then can 'we' make the world a safer place.

How much am I betting on this list? Everything I have Steve - for me and for you - because I think we're worth it!

SCOTTY gee your posts thrill me! every time , reminding me of why we dumped your mob, however I will bet you.
$1000 by election 2010 one national system of IR, no side likes it all no side wants it scrapped.

$1000 by that time some extremist unions will be trying to reinvent themselves forgetting the long memory's of those they hurt including ex members they will look for the gentlemen unionists tag.

More Iraq's yes sorry but America will do it again no other option weakness is no option when faced with blind hate.
$10.000 real dollars if you match it Labor has a very clear win in next election.
I like a bet have done so from my 5th birthday these bets are money for jam.

I’ll bet that many of our current folk heroes will shortly be “consigned to the dust bin of history”

Within fives years:
-Maxine McKew, in the absence of the disparate support base of
everything-and-everyone anti-Howard will be just another hack, and will not be re-elected.
- Hugo Chavez, will be seen for what he really is, a petroleum-primed little ponce – and will be long gone.
-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( ditto comment about Hugo Chavez)

Within 50 years:
-Ayatollah Khomeini will be out of fashion , as secularism reclaims his host country
–Martin Luther King ( ditto comment on Khomeini)

Within 500 years:
-And everyone will be able to name their pets Mohammed –even in Sudan – and people will ask who was ‘Mohammed’ ?

A first century Jewish preacher was God? :) mate.. if only you saw the irony of your 'wager'. Let me quote from that Preacher :)

Mark8:34

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said:

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.
36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

Now lets see... behind those words.. are the following real events:

-Water to Wine
-Walked on Water
-Healed the crippled from birth.(Many witnesses)
-Gave sight to the blind from birth.(many witnesses)
-Enabled the deaf and dumb to hear and speak
-Calmed storms with his word alone.
-Raised the dead.

Pretty impressive stuff you might say..but the TRULY impressive one is this Steven,

In spite of all that 'power'..... He: (from your own Jewish scriptures. Isaiah53)

he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all

and then... rose from death. Halelujah!

I'm sorry to hear about your illness Foxy and I hope you win your bet.

Your point 4) – Agree on the whole except for biofuels. I think they're a BIG mistake.

Horus

I think the US will start reducing GHG emissions. But, as you point out, Not China and India.

Runner wrote:

"You display more blind faith and ignorance than most."

And why is that runner?

Horus

I wish I could agree with you about the seventh century Arabian warlord. However he's been around a while and my guess is he'll still be going strong in 500 years.

However Islam itself may have changed by then. Belief systems do evolve. My favourite example is the Catholic church that burned Giordano Bruno at the stake for heresy in 1600 and today campaigns against the death penalty.

Who's "folk hero" is Hugo Chavez?

Will Castro's executioner, Che Guevarra, still be a "folk hero?" My guess is yes. I think in Che worship we're seeing the birth of a new religion.

There is something about South American wackos that seems to attract airheads. Look at Eva Perron

Will insurance companies inure us against there not being a god?You bet they will,because if there is,you'll only know when you're dead.Result; no payout.

If there isn't,there is no way of disproving an intangible concept that exists on another plane.Still no payout.

The Christians thought they were being smart by having Jesus as the son of god instead of just a meagre prophet.This opens them up to absolute ridicule if facts are ever found to the contrary.It is safer to be a prophet since,who is ever able to dispute a conversation you had with your god.This is where the Muslims have it over the Christians.