Funny..."Fantastic" is how I first saw the title of your thread. I think it fits.
Your sister notes the "president of Iran." He's a good example of another fatalistic religion. But it is interesting how active many of the religious fatalists are. Fundamental Christians are afraid God is going to judge the U.S., so they help God out by beating God to the punch and pass laws punishing homosexuals. "...if we would judge ourselves, God would not have to judge us...."
I have found that many who are panicing because of the "signs of the times," put the cart before the horse. They read what's supposed to happen and go looking for things to make it fit, and often stretch things to make them fit. Here's just one example stretching from what your sister wrote:
"With China now consuming more than a 1/3 of the world's oil supply, and increasing in that;"
This is simply not true. Not even close. The last time I checked this out, about a year ago, the U.S. was the top oil consumer in the world, consuming 18% of the available oil. China came in at 6% and growing. Here are some more recent figures from the Dept. Of Energy
www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/topworldtables1_2.htm
I think that it is people who are willing to stretch things to make them fit their beliefs who pose the most danger to humanity. The president of Iran has weapons of mass destruction at his disposal. Bush has weapons of mass destruction at his disposal. Both are fundamentalists who believe their "God" is going to judge the human race. Do they also believe they could be the "tool" that "God" uses to carry out those judgements? Could this be a self fullfilling prophecy?