[Rainwalker99]

The older I get, the more I'm convinced that the key to happiness is starting every day, if you can, with a clean slate; an “out with the bad, in with the good” kind of thing. It’s probably just as important before the start of every New Year to consign the trash to the dustbin.

And so, with hearts and minds skewed well to the left, and in the spirit of the season, and with a careful eye cast to Canada's neighbour to the south, here is my list of things from 2005 that I wish never happened or that I’d love to forget…

Boxing Day Tsunami: On December 26 2004, Southeast Asia was rocked by a massive tsunami. A wall of water up to 10 meters high swept into Indonesia, the coast of Sri Lanka and India, along southern Thailand, the Maldives and even as far away as the east coast of Africa. The final death toll was put at over 200,000. (Although the tsunami took place in late December 2004, its destruction and ongoing social and economic effects have been felt throughout 2005 and will no doubt be felt for some time to come by those directly affected.)

Tom Delay, the Texas Republican, who was linked to a lobbying scandal and stepped down as House majority leader after being indicted on a conspiracy charge involving the misuse of campaign funds.

Bill Frist, video diagnostician. Bill Frist, stock market genius. Bill Frist.

Bill O’Reilly’s enemies list

That the US president thought Harriet Miers was the most qualified candidate for the Supreme Court; that Harriet Miers thought George Bush was the most brilliant man she ever met

That the New York Times held off running the NSA spying story (The US Government is spying on its own citizens) for over a year.

David Ahenakew, the former head of the Assembly of First Nations (a body of aboriginal leaders in Canada whose aims are to protect the rights, treaty obligations and claims of First Nations of Canada people) was convicted of promoting hatred and stripped of Order of Canada. In 2003, he told a reporter that Jews were "a disease," and tried to justify the Holocaust.

The note President Bush passed Condoleezza Rice asking if it was okay to take a bathroom break during a UN Security Council meeting.

The missing $9 billion the U.S.-led occupation government in Iraq can’t account for.

In Australia, gang riots reached new levels when thousands of people turned out to a rally called after two lifesavers were attacked at Sydney’s Cronulla beach. People of Middle Eastern appearance became targets of violence and ethnic gangs retaliated with attacks on whites.

Jeff Gannon, White House correspondent -- aka Jeff Guckert, hotmilitarystud.com.

That 493 U.S. soldiers have died since Dick Cheney declared the insurgency was in its “last throes”.

That Dick “5 deferments” Cheney was willing to go toe-to-toe with John “5 years as a POW” McCain over the issue of using torture on prisoners.

That voters could have gone to the polls in 2004 knowing that Bush was spying on Americans, that a key White House aide was charged with felonies, and that the initial reasons for invading Iraq were bogus -- but didn’t, thanks to the timidity of the mainstream media.

The whole ugly Terry Schiavo fiasco: The life and death of 41-year-old Terry Schiavo hit the world's headlines in March. Schiavo was badly brain damaged and had relied on tube feeding for 15 years since suffering a heart attack that left her in what courts declared a "persistent vegetative state". After years of wrangling between her husband who wanted to let her die and her family who wanted her kept alive a decision was made by a Florida court to remove her feeding tube and allow her to die. But that wasn't the end of it. In an historic move the US Senate unanimously passed legislation aimed at prolonging her life. The case went back to the federal court but the tube was again ordered to be removed. Schiavo's parents repeatedly appealed to the Supreme Court to get the decision overturned, but were unsuccessful. Schiavo died quietly 13 days after her feeding tube was removed.

*****
I say this now to all Christians and congresspersons and right-to-lifers and anyone else who thinks they know God but really seem to know only fear and sanctimony and sad religious myopia, should I ever find myself in the condition of poor late Terri Schiavo, please, please do not pray for me.

Not that you would, I know, because I'm not exactly your type, given how I'm such a happy sinner, more of a Zen Atheist Buddhist Taoist Pagan Commie Pinko Faggot Orgasmican than a Christian and I vote left and read books and I am not, according to current evangelical Christian doctrine, going anywhere near heaven. Not your heaven, anyway. But still.

So, no prayers. No vigils. No camera crews. No snarling attacks on my partner or my friends and family or my cat. Just a few loved ones meditating calmly and maybe some Sarah Vaughan or Chopin nocturnes or a Bossa Nova tune playing softly in the background as a large dose of Bombay Gin pumps quietly through the intravenous and a warm-hearted spiritual healer/energy worker sits nearby to help point me to the correct Exit sign leading to the warm afterlife. That's all.

Just let me go, in peace. This is all I ask. This is all any of us should ask.
*******

Tom Cruise vs. Brooke Shields; Tom Cruise vs. Matt Lauer; Tom Cruise vs. Oprah’s couch

That, in a 60s flashback, the Pentagon is once again spying on the activities of anti-war activists.

Hillary Clinton’s shameless attempts to rebrand herself as a red state friendly Democrat -- including her decision to sign on as a co-sponsor of an anti-flag burning bill.

Intelligent Design vs. Evolution.

That Phil Cooney, an oil-industry-lobbyist-turned-White House official, did extensive rewrites on government reports to make is sound as if global warming weren’t really that big a problem.

The death of Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955, became the spark that ignited the civil rights movement in the U.S.

That Paul Wolfowitz, one of the key architects of the Iraq war, has been successfully repackaged as the warm and fuzzy poverty-fighting president of the World Bank.

London Bombings: On July 7 London's transport system was targeted by Islamic terrorists, killing more than 50 people and injuring 700. Within days the bombers were revealed via CTV camera footage. They were four British born Muslims, who acted as suicide bombers in the first such attacks outside of the Middle East.

Bush strumming his guitar, Condi taking in Spamalot, and Cheney shopping for luxury digs -- all while New Orleans flooded.

That Bush waited five days before visiting the Gulf following Katrina. And that once he got there, he joked about his hard-partying days, congratulated Mike Brown on doing a "heck of a job," and promised to rebuild Trent Lott’s house. Brownie’s resume -- especially his stint as commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association.

That the first round of Katrina cleanup and reconstruction contracts went to that old gang from Baghdad: Halliburton, Bechtel, Fluor, and the Shaw Group.

The Post-Katrina Quote Hall of Shame:

· “I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of levees” -- G. W. Bush
· "Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?" -- Tom DeLay to young evacuees in the Astrodome
· “Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.” -- Former First Lady Barbara Bush on Katrina evacuees
· “If you’ll look at my lovely FEMA attire you’ll really vomit. I am a fashion god.” -- Mike Brown in an email sent in the immediate aftermath of Katrina.

Scooter Libby, novelist. Scooter Libby, letter writer. Scooter Libby, tree expert. Judy Miller's non-entangled "entanglement" with Scooter Libby.

That the New York Times wrote 15 editorials depicting Judy Miller as Judy of Arc, compared her to Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, and claimed "If Judy Miller loses this fight, we all lose."

The wall-to-wall, over-the-top, and utterly uncritical TV coverage of the interminable internment of Pope John Paul II.

That, with the war on terror in full-swing, the FBI has a squad exclusively devoted to cracking down on sexually explicit material involving consenting adults.

That instead of meeting with Cindy Sheehan, President Bush went fishing, took two-hour bike rides, cleared brush, attended a Little League ball game and raked in millions at a GOP fundraiser.

Karl Rove's claim that "liberals saw the savagery of 9/11" and wanted to "offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."

The British Labour Party, at its meeting in Brighton, is accused of being heavy-handed when peace campaigner Walter Wolfgang, 82, is manhandled from the conference hall for shouting "nonsense" during a speech by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. After furor in the media and among party activists he is readmitted to the hall the following day, to loud acclaim.

That, for the fifth year in a row, President Bush couldn't find the time to address the annual convention of the NAACP.

The illogical but endlessly repeated lie that we have to fight the terrorists over there, so we don't have to fight them over here.

That Osama bin Laden is still on the loose.

Pakistan earthquake: In October an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 centred in Pakistan controlled Kashmir rocked Pakistan and India to its foundations. In November authorities put the death toll from the quake at over 70,000 and millions were left homeless. Continued bad weather, aftershocks and the harsh Kashmiri winter made the situation for survivors even more dire. The United Nations, which is heading the international relief effort, says donors have failed to provide sufficient funds for emergency aid work. It says that as many people as died in the quake could perish in the winter unless help reaches them fast.

The Movie Multiplex from Hell: "The Dukes of Hazzard," "Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo," "Son of the Mask."

All the precious media oxygen consumed by coverage of the Michael Jackson trial and the Natalee Holloway story.

The World Bank identifies "extreme poverty" as being people who live on less than US$(PPP) 1 a day, and "poverty" as less than $2 a day. On that standard, about 1.1 billion humans (21% of the world's population) was in extreme poverty, and more than half the world's population were poor in 2001.

The endless magazine covers devoted to the breakups of Nick and Jessica and Brad and Jen

The quiet death of Cole Porter, a fine, fine cat that shared my live for too few years.

That the Kyoto Protocol took effect -- and that the United States was not a part of it.

That the USA passed the 1,000 mark of people executed in the U.S. since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.

Pat Robertson, assassination advocate, Bill Bennett, criminologist

That a company that makes snoring remedies paid $37,375 to have its logo temporarily tattooed on a 20-year old Nebraska man's forehead.

The United Nations-backed oil-for-food scheme that enabled Saddam Hussein to export oil to pay for essential humanitarian aid to help the Iraqi people cope with UN sanctions imposed in 1991. Options to buy barrels of Iraqi oil were alleged to have been given as rewards for supporting Saddam Hussein. The former Iraqi leader sold the vouchers at below market prices to favoured parties, who were able to sell them on at profit. The highlight of that fiasco was the US Senate hearing appearance of British MP George Galloway who devastated the committee investigating his involvement.

That Nicolas Cage named his son Kal-el.

The death of Pat Tillman. And the way the US Army tried to cover up the truth behind his death.

The over-hyping of the role "A Purpose Driven Life" played in the surrender of courthouse escapee Brian Nichols -- and the under-hyping of the role crystal meth did.

The BTK killer who terrorized Wichita, Kan., during a 17-year murder spree from 1974 to 1991 was finally caught in February. Dennis Rader received 10 consecutive life sentences — one for each of his victims — for a minimum of 175 years behind bars without the possibility of parole. Rader dubbed himself BTK — which stands for "bind, torture, kill" — as he taunted media and police with cryptic messages about the crimes. Rader had been a full participant in his community, serving as an animal control officer and helping out in local Cub Scouts and churches.

And finally, as a bon-bon for our taste for the bizarre, a Manhattan man's holiday spirits soared to celestial heights on December 23 when a judge gave him permission to change his name to Jesus Christ. Jose Luis Espinal, 42, of Washington Heights, said he was "happy" and "grateful" that the judge approved the change, effective immediately. Espinal, who is unemployed and unmarried and has no children, said, "This was not done for any reason other than I am that person. You're dealing with the real deal."

The Best of the Season to you and yours with hopes that next year, we’ll all have less to forget.

Harold AKA Rainwalker

(With thanks to the BBC, Australian Broadcasting, The Huffington Report, the CBC, and others)

[thaiwonon]

most of those things should be remembered so we can try to stop them being repeated.

Although I think Tom Cruise's love life could be dispensed with as even his fans find it a big yawn. :roll: