Is there a party at the end of the world?

By now, the majority of us are all too aware of the alleged Mayan predictions of The End of the World on Dec. 21, 2012.

A quick review online at Wikipedia offer that "The 2012 phenomenon comprises a range of eschatological (death and judgment day) beliefs according to which cataclysmic or transformative events will occur on 21 December 2012. This date is regarded as the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. Various astronomical alignments and numerological formulae have been proposed as pertaining to this date, though none have been accepted by mainstream scholarship."

…"December 2012 marks the conclusion of a b'ak'tun — a time period in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar which was used in Central America prior to the arrival of Europeans. In the Maya Long Count, the previous world ended after 13 b'ak'tuns, or roughly 5,125 years."

In other words, our time's up in about eight months.

And it's quite possible, given recent government behavior, those within the administration of the most powerful office on the planet have accepted the Mayan Myth on face value. Or, in this case, faith value.

Consider:

• Obama's secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is dancing (she can't dance, by the way) and chugging beer in South America. She doesn't seem to mind that this is being photographed by the Fourth Estate.

• Obama's Secret Service also has a little too much fun south of the border.

As reported by the AP, "The top U.S. military officer said Monday the nation's military leadership is embarrassed by allegations of misconduct against several U.S. military members at a Colombia hotel on the eve of President Barack Obama's visit over the weekend.

"We let the boss down," Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. He said he regretted that the scandal, which also involved 11 Secret Service agents accused of cavorting with prostitutes at the hotel, diverted attention from Obama's diplomacy at a Latin America summit."

Cavorting with prostitutes will do that to a presidential summit, I suppose.

The agents' reported lack of protocol and alleged failure to spend their money or American taxpayers' money on services rendered brings to mind one of my dad's old jokes about hormones. (Draw your own conclusions, or stop by the HCP office.)

• And then there's the Las Vegas debacle. The now-infamous, million-dollar General Services Administration conference at a Las Vegas resort.

Well, not quite a million. Closer to $823,000. Still more than the average $40,000-a-year worker and taxpayer will earn in 20 years.

As we reported earlier today, Third District Congressman Mike Turner was not impressed with the agency's Vegas Vacation.

We have an online video of the Ohio congressman's obvious look of disdain on our website. Once again, I commend Mike Turner (and we don't even like each other!).

Congressman Turner attended the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s hearing on “Addressing the GSA’s Culture of Wasteful Spending.”

He appropriately questioned where the funds came from to pay for items included in a conference goodie or “swag” bag.

The list of items, many of which contained labels denoting that they had been manufactured in China, came from funds that were supposed to be allocated for repairs to U.S. Government buildings; in other words, our tax dollars at work.

"It would seem to me that we are stimulating China, not the United States," Turner said. "Who had the authority to use taxpayers' dollars to pay for blackjack vests?"

Good question.

Jeff Neely, an Obama administrator in charge of the party, well, he ain't talkin'. He's repeated his Fifth Amendment rights so many times it's beginning to sound like a Mayan Harmonic Convergence at Serpent Mound. (I attended the last one in the 1980s.)

• Last, but not least (and assuming there are no other breaking scandals), we have Secretary of the Senate Nancy Erickson's report that shows the 112th Senate, purportedly led by Harry Reid (of Nevada, no less!) as the laziest Senate in two decades.

Paul Bedard of washingtonexaminer.com writes: "For those who need proof that the Senate was a do-nothing chamber in 2011 beyond the constant partisan bickering and failure to pass a federal budget, there is now hard evidence that it was among the laziest in 20 years…

"For example, while the Democratically controlled Senate was in session for 170 days, it spent an average of just 6.5 hours in session on those days, the second lowest since 1992. Only 2008 logged a lower average of 5.4 hours a day, and that’s when action was put off because several senators were running for president, among them Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain.

"On the passage of public laws, arguably its most important job, the Senate notched just 90, the second lowest in 20 years, and it passed a total of 402 measures, also the second lowest."

Of all these reports, though, I'll withhold my own obvious look of disdain upon our Do-Nothing Senate. Frankly, I like it when politicians in Washington "do nothing." It's far better than the alternative when they try to "do something."

While we all know they cannot follow their own Code of Ethical Standards, perhaps they could simply follow physicians' Hippocratic Oath: "First, Do No Harm."

Of course, those who continue to support the present administration have their own version of the Hippocratic Oath: "What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas."

And the Minute Men are turning in their graves.

Rory Ryan is publisher and owner of The Highland County Press.