I for one am heartily glad that the millennium (and its attendant madness) is well behind us. I'm glad that the millennium comes only once in a, well, millennium. The major reason for my relief is that I became sick of "Millennium Fever" and the doom-saying prophecies that (mercifully) did not come to pass. 

End of the world prophecies are nothing new, of course. They were around for centuries before our Lord was born. They exist in most major religions and cults. And every time a new disaster -- of natural origin or human construction -- is inflicted on the world, a fresh spate of doomsday predictors makes the rounds. The cynic in me figures that someday, someone is bound to guess right. It was weirdly refreshing to hear one recent prophet of doom apologize for misreading "the signs of t…