Hellish economic predictions and concerns over massive social upheaval are usually the things you hear from Tea Party conservatives like Ron Paul or Glenn Beck. The Old Media ignores these prophets of doom and holds them at arms' length as if they were infected with ebola.

I'm curious what journalists think when the exact same dire predictions come out of the mouths of mainstream experts who are frequently cited in their stories.

The Ventura County Star routinely calls upon California Lutheran University's Center for Economic Research and Forecasting for comments on business and economic stories. The center just released a forecast today that said California is on a fast track to a "postindustrial hell."

Did Glenn Beck get a job there or something? No, it's the center's executive director, Bill Watkins, who said the data is "disturbing."

That's the sort of reaction you get from the lead government scientist in when he realizes the giant asteroid might be headed straight for earth.

Watkins even expects the European Union will break up by the end of 2012, leading to another financial crisis.

Can we avoid this fate?

Watkins said the outlook for California is "pretty grim" and likely to get worse unless politicians in Sacramento recognize there is a problem and start doing something about it.

"At the very least, they need to do a comprehensive review of the cost-benefit analysis of the regulatory environment that we have," he said.

Oh, California is on a fast track to hell because of all the Progressive-inspired laws that stifle business. Now where have I heard that before--oh yeah, from every single Republican and conservative in the state.

 I would love it if it weren't up to just me and other conservatives to make this connection, but if we want politicians in Sacramento to "recognize there is a problem and start doing something about it," I think the mainstream media leads the way.

I saw the headline in the Star that Cal Lutheran University named its first peace prize recipient, and I thought to myself, "I'm not going to like what I'm about to read about my alma mater."

About 10 paragraphs later, my suspicions were confirmed.

Salvatierra, a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is being honored for her work with Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice.

Economic justice, as every good conservative knows, is liberal slang for wealth redistribution. It's unjust that some people are rich and some people are not, so economic justice advocates call for that wealth to be moved from one person's pockets to another's. It's a sibling of social justice, which just a euphemism for Progressivism, itself a euphemism for socialism.

I continued to read.

Salvatierra, who lives in Los Angeles, serves as executive director of the statewide faith-based movement for social justice that helps low-income workers fight for living wages and fair working conditions.

Eww, there it is, social justice. Alarm bells are going off. Here's a way of putting this succinctly--Social Justice is Just Socialism. What is CLU doing? There are other little lefty code words hidden in that paragraph. "Low-income workers"--really, are they all working? Or are they not working and getting financial assistance from the government? "Living wages"--I think in America the Left think that you don't have a living wage until you can afford an iPad.

The group is also a coordinating agency of the New Sanctuary Movement, which supports immigrant workers and their families facing deportation.

Ah, my favorite Leftist euphemism for illegal aliens. "Immigrants." We were all immigrants at some point, weren't we? Yes, but only some of our immigrants came here illegally. And I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the ones facing deportation fall into that category.  I'm also going to assume that "sanctuary" means that CLU supports the harboring of illegal immigrants and hiding them from the authorities.

All the warning signs are there. Economic Justice. Social Justice. Sanctuary. CLU is entering the waters of the loony Left, and seems to be trying very hard to be the religious equivalent of Berkeley.