2008
Hey, don't look at me like that - everyone's doing it. That end of the year wrap it all up into some sort of piece that gives it all meaning. So that we don't feel as though we've stumbled through yet another year half blind and confused, not knowing where the heck we're going or where we came from. We started the year as confused as usual these days, wondering who had killed Benazir Bhutto at the end of December, watching the price of a barrel of oil hit $100 for the first time, and looking at a late January stock market plunge that experts tied to something called "subprime mortgages."
We survived more signs of irreversible (and unanswered by Bush admin) climate change, renewal of Patriot act "spy on Americans" as a new and still toothless Congress sat by. Bill Gates left Microsoft to concentrate on helping humanity and Robert Mugabe "won" reelection in Zimbabwe and continued to thank his people by driving the nation further into the dirt. Michael Phelps let everybody forget their troubles for a while as we watched in him amazement. Texas won the year's hurricane lottery when Ike plowed through the state.
Frozen water was found on Mars and scientists were finally able to take a shot in a particle accelerator, one more step in helping us understand how we all got here in the first place. At about the same time, a Gallop pole showed that 44% of Americans think that God created man "in present form" and 36% think God merely "guided" man's development.
2008 was definitely not the year to stay in a hotel in Pakistan or India. A suicide truck bomb destroyed Islamabad's Marriott Hotel, killing 60 and injuring 266. From November 26-29, 173 were killed and 308 injured in the Mumbai attacks that included hotels Taj Mahal and Oberoi Trident.
And, of course, Obamamania turned out to be a national fever, even as a mal-speaking, right-wing fevered beauty queen flew in from the far north to energize the psycho right.
Finally, we end the year watching our retirement funds disappear and those who still have jobs being grateful for that. And peaking out tentatively from under the blankets in our darkened bedrooms to ask - what will 2009 bring?
We survived more signs of irreversible (and unanswered by Bush admin) climate change, renewal of Patriot act "spy on Americans" as a new and still toothless Congress sat by. Bill Gates left Microsoft to concentrate on helping humanity and Robert Mugabe "won" reelection in Zimbabwe and continued to thank his people by driving the nation further into the dirt. Michael Phelps let everybody forget their troubles for a while as we watched in him amazement. Texas won the year's hurricane lottery when Ike plowed through the state.
Frozen water was found on Mars and scientists were finally able to take a shot in a particle accelerator, one more step in helping us understand how we all got here in the first place. At about the same time, a Gallop pole showed that 44% of Americans think that God created man "in present form" and 36% think God merely "guided" man's development.
2008 was definitely not the year to stay in a hotel in Pakistan or India. A suicide truck bomb destroyed Islamabad's Marriott Hotel, killing 60 and injuring 266. From November 26-29, 173 were killed and 308 injured in the Mumbai attacks that included hotels Taj Mahal and Oberoi Trident.
And, of course, Obamamania turned out to be a national fever, even as a mal-speaking, right-wing fevered beauty queen flew in from the far north to energize the psycho right.
Finally, we end the year watching our retirement funds disappear and those who still have jobs being grateful for that. And peaking out tentatively from under the blankets in our darkened bedrooms to ask - what will 2009 bring?
posted by Anonymous at 11:00 AM
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