2009: My Year in Review

I must say that 2009 has been a fascinating year, for better or worse. It was the year of Obama and Pelosi, who have been behaving like kids in a candy story since they assumed control of the Whitehouse, Senate, and House or the first time in a long time. In Canada, the average person could be fooled into thinking we had controversy after controversy, even if they were all contrived by an opposition desperate to reclaim power. When a nurse in a small community in the north ordered too many body bags, that meant that Stephen Harper wanted aboriginal people to die, at least according to Michael Ignatieff.

Meanwhile, while all of these contrived faux controversies were being pumped by the CBC on a daily basis, the TSX was up 4000 points since March and none of the mud slinging stuck to the Prime Minister, at least according to poll numbers. Now we enter 2010 with an opposition that has cried wolf so many times and in so many ridiculous situations that they have reduced themselves to a caricature of folly. I suppose nobody told them that crying wolf has diminishing marginal returns. Some folks have to learn the hard way.

In the news of the World, the people of Iran are trending in the right direction, and Pakistan is trending in the wrong direction. Iraq is the same as it was a year ago, as Barak "hope-a-dope" Obama really didn't do anything in that theatre. Hugo Chavez is just as nuts as ever, and we are preparing for the arrival of Kim Jong Ill jr. With Iran becoming more desperate and facing domestic pressure, they will likely tap Hezbollah to increase hostilities with Israel, though somehow I suspect Hassan Nasrallah is at least a little bit nervous about pissing off Benny Netanhyahu.

I just saw on the CBC that apparently the Richard Colvin testimony was the story of the year because "it blew apart the secrecy that the Harper Government is operating under". Thanks for that CBC. I suppose the successful economic recovery for what was heralded as the Great Recession was not a major story. The TSX adding 50% in value since March is not as newsworthy as a disgruntled bureaucrat passing on second and third hand information about something that happened 4 years ago.

2010 is shaping up to be a far more interesting year than 2009.  The year of Obama has been about what I expected it would be, though the premature ejaculation of the Nobel Committee was unforseen.

In 2009 I grew my first grey hairs, turned 30, and my website is still not accessible in China.