Actually, two weeks earlier. No particular reason, I guess it finally sunk in for me as I watched the course the Afghanistan War was taking. 'Insane' rant I wrote then:

The new century gets continually worse. I seem to witness the death throes of the USA, while jackals pop up all around the rest of the world. The actual crumbling may still be 50 years away, but blinded by their military and economic might, its leaders destroy its foreign influence and positive image, and dismantle it from within, all the while totally convinced of the opposite, yet with majority support. And each major alternative is not just worse, but also gets itself worse. It's like the fall of Rome, and Christianity again plays a prime role. Shit, will I have to remember the nineties as the Golden Age?...

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Well, my bad feelings started in the summer of 2000, and on that Tuesday I thought the same especially after checking out my regular internet forum to find some friends turned into raging genocidal lunatics, but I don't think either you or I expected a protracted, building-up destruction that involves other power centres of the world too - more like some insane acts in quick reaction.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}