I’ve never tried this prognostication gig before, but why not? Warning: Do not use my predictions as investment advice or life-planning guidance. Consult your local prophetic future-predictor before making any life-changing decisions.

1. The Underneath by Kathi Appelt will win the Newbery Award in February.

2. Someone will write and publish a book proving conclusively that Barack Obama is the Anti-Christ. (Maybe somebody already has?)

3. Sadly, more bookstores, used and new, will close in 2008.

4. A lot of people are going to be really surprised on or about February 17th when their TV set goes dead. Well, not exactly dead, but no LOST unless you have cable TV or HDTV or a converter. Some people will realize that they don’t miss broadcast TV anyway and just watch movies on DVD or even video.

5. Speaking of LOST, Kate and Jack and the rest of the Oceanic six will spend the 2009 season looking for the island, and Sawyer will find himself another lady friend on-island since Kate’s unavailable.

6. Gas prices will remain low, and other prices will not rise either. But people will still complain about the economy as they fear that the sky is falling because the Chicken Little media tells them that it is.

7. Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, and TIm Pawlenty will quietly go about their jobs as governors of their respective states, but they will nevertheless emerge as leaders of the Republican Party because the old guys (McCain, Romney, and even Huckabee) are old news and tiresome.

8. A lowly blogger from the MIdwest will break open a scandal that involves Obama and others in charges of political corruption. The major media will ignore said scandal, and it will buzz around the internet until the next presidential election campaign begins at the end of 2009.

9. Abortion rates will go up as Obama and his cohorts work hard to make abortion unsafe (for babies), common, and completely legal for anyone, anytime, anywhere, for any reason. (I really hope I’m wrong about this one.)

10. Homeschooling will become more and more popular as parents realize that publicly funded education comes with ideological strings attached. And homeschooling will be easier as educational resources become more and more readily available on the internet and through libraries and even churches.

11. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. . . . we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy. (Whoops, not my prediction, but rather Mr. Biden’s. He may be right.)

12. At least one of my predictions will come true, in which case two of my predictions will be true, this one and one more.

Remember, you read it here first.