This Monday marks the beginning of the year of the Ox. Perhaps not coincidentally, President Obama was born in the year of the Ox in 1961.

As I have little or no knowledge of how the Chinese Zodiac works and what it all means, I Googled the year of the Ox, and what it might bring for The Prez this year.

According to various sources on the Web, Obama can look forward to a year of slow but steady progress and developments that will be recognized and achieved with much authority. That sounded like a reasonable forecast, so I looked up my own forecast for the year as someone born in the year of the Tiger. The results were less than promising.

I liked the general descriptions for Tigers: we are said to be sincere, generous and very affectionate. We also possess a great sense of humor (hah!). We Tigers are said to like people (for lunch?), involvement,and dedication to humanitarian causes. We seek out adventures (!!!), and at certain points in our lives, we will be very rebellious.

Then came the bad news: evidently, logic does not appeal to Tigers. Tigers want to be comforted, and we will listen sincerely to the advice you give, and then do exactly as they please.

While Tigers are said to be romantic, passionate, and playful, it is also said that we are extremely jealous and possessive. If they do not learn to control their emotions, they could cause themselves much trouble. The lives of Tigers are full of emotional situations, but we love it that way (groan.)

If the CZ has any merit, roughly 500,000,000 of us - one twelfth of the six or seven billion people living on this planet - are out of control.

Sounds like a lot of Oxpoop to me...