2009 was certainly not a year of triumphs for mankind nor human kindliness. The world economic crisis is neither diagnostically nor therapeutically on the way to a solution. The theatres of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the caves of Waziristan and the bitter feuds in the Middle East between Israel, the Palestinians, the terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah are still in the headlines. The Iran crisis is the most serious trial of strength for the 'open society'. Were a peaceful solution to fail a costly war might be inevitable. Yet left unresolved a bloody day of judgement later on would exact much greater casualties.
For Europe, 2009 was in a certain sense a year of limited success, since the Lisbon Treaty became at last a reality. Yet the old continent is far away from being capable of acting in unison. The old triangle, Germany, France, Great Britain, has once again shrunk to a strengthened axis: Berlin-Paris. Though Frau Merkel and Monsieur Sarkozy might not be temperamentally ideally suited their closer collaboration is influenced by the uncertain political situation in London which limits the effectiveness of Gordon Brown's leadership. Elections next May will very probably bring David Cameron's young Tory crew to power. The governing Labour party is far too preoccupied with its own future. The Conservatives have unfortunately no constructive foreign policy and their relationship with the United States is incomparably cooler than it was with Tony Blair. Republicans mistrust Cameron's critical attitude to the Bush regime and the Democrats feel that the Tories are still ideologically far from Obama's position.
As for Europe, the Tories' uncompromising Euro-scepticism and their exodus from the Conservative bloc at the Strasburg parliament, where they joined forces with radical Right Poles and Balts, embittered influential conservative groups, notably Germany's CDU and CSU.
Tony Blair's failure to become President of the European Union harmed Great Britain because he, more than any other candidate, had, through his charisma and energy, been an influential British voice in Europe. The election of a pale Labour lady from the British House of Lords as Europe's Foreign Minister with increased powers as successor to so weighty a personality as Spain's Javier Solana was certainly no compensation. All the more so as the French, through Michel Barnier's appointment as Commissioner for Europe's Internal Market, will now have a decisive influence on the important financial sector and the trading of the City of London.
In southern Europe we may expect critical developments next year. Silvio Berlusconi's Government seems to be more firmly anchored than many assumed. The assault on the Prime Minister, which has been compared to a similar bodily attack on Mussolini, has helped more than damaged his public image. His Opposition offers few alternative leaders and is less than united. In Greece, unrest and street demonstrations presage a serious political crisis. The gulf between rich and poor has never been greater. Poles and Czechs were aggrieved when President Obama rescinded his earlier decision to establish a system of rocket launchers on their territory against attacks from Iran, which openly boasted that the range of their missiles would now reach the whole of central Europe. America took this step as a concession to the Russians, who regarded it as unquestionably directed against their country. Although Moscow reacted positively to Obama's gesture the Kremlin also made it clear that so far the young American President has in no way convinced them that he is genuinely and decisively prepared to change his policy towards Russia. In fact Obama, in spite of all his calming, self-critical and friendship-protesting speeches and gestures, has failed so far to rally America's enemies to his side.
The disappointing results of Obama's missionary work in the field of climate change was the failure of the Copenhagen conclave. Best case result might be a delay of a year until a further marathon conference in Mexico City. Worst case result would be a clear demonstration of how divided rich and poor - including newly rich and seemingly unrescuably poor - nations have become, even when the future of the planet is in question. Significant cry of fury from a Sudanese Deputy, who accused the great powers of culpability for a second Holocaust. This quotation is all the most interesting as it comes from a State, the Sudan, high on the list of Holocaust deniers.
December 31, 2009
The End Of A Decade: We Are All Harry Whittington
A few weeks ago, Newsweek produced a video, which condensed the major news events of the past decade into one seven-minute mashup video. This interested me! So, I merrily sat down at my desk, queued it up, and prepared to watch it unfold. At the time, I thought: "Oh, this will be fun."
It was not fun. Not at all. You know what? This past decade was pretty terrible!
The good thing about memory is that it protects you from realizations like this. And the nice thing about history is that it unfolds very slowly as you page back through it, with an emphasis on patiently allowing the reader to make sense of it all. But as I watched the decade replay itself before my eyes, it was a weird combination of warp speed images and strangely elongated memories as the "what I lived through" and the "how I lived through it" attempted to co-exist in my brain at the same time.
As the video began, the first big event was the Y2K concerns that everyone had at the beginning of the decade. This was a breezy, easy way to begin. I recall, perhaps incorrectly, that Y2K was this big concern that was rather easily surmounted, and maybe wasn't that big a deal to begin with. For an instant, I smiled inwardly. I relaxed, just a little bit. I allowed myself to lower my guard.
That was a big mistake! Because a few instants later, the decade was off and running, it's awfulness blooming anew in my face. September 11th. Katrina. Lehmann Brothers. War, collapse, ruination, privation, recession. This decade, and its relentless pummel, was coming at me hard, like a shot to the face. And as an audience to it and participant in it, I could do nothing else but take it.
And damned if after it was all over, I didn't think to myself, "Wow. This must be like how it felt to be Harry Whittington."
Let's cast our minds back to Saturday, February 11, 2006. Harry Whittington was, at the time, a 78 year old lawyer who lived in Texas, and whose life, as far as history was concerned, was largely unremarkable, save for one thing: he was an intimate of Vice President Dick Cheney. And on that day, Whittington and Cheney were members of a hunting party, casting after quail at the Armstrong Ranch in Texas. The two men were reportedly friends. Maybe even BFFs -- I do not know. What's important is that on the morning of February 11th, Harry Whittington awoke safe in the knowledge that Dick Cheney was among his well-wishers. That's not nothing! There are billions of people across this planet who Dick Cheney literally wishes to be visited with some sort of indiscriminate harm.
Now, something should be said about the "hunting" that the two men were engaged in that day. Cheney's hunting party was not actually on a painstaking hunt for elusive quail. If I recall correctly, the Armstrong Ranch was some sort of hunting facility that invited hunting parties and then provided them with quail. I seem to recall that the whole point of the enterprise was that the quail were really easy to shoot -- maybe they were drugged, or bred for stupidity, or literally placed in front of men with guns.
The point is, the task of hunting wasn't supposed to be hard. It was to be like a fishing charter, where hooks are baited with marlins, and people cheer as you heave them out of the water. These were the Y2Quail of the avian universe -- an easily surmountable challenge, that wasn't that big a deal to begin with.
And so, Dick Cheney and Harry Whittington and four other hunters went out for quail that day, and by the end of the day, Dick Cheney had shot his friend in the face.
Now, there are all sorts of diverging accounts about what happened, who was standing where, who was drinking what, whose fuck-up set off the whole unfortunate chain of events. The official summary of what happened goes like this: "Whittington downed a bird and went to retrieve it. While he was out of the hunting line, another covey was flushed and Cheney swung on a bird and fired, striking Whittington in the face, neck and chest."
Whittington ended up hospitalized for his wounds. On Monday, he was moved out of the intensive care unit. The following morning, Whittington suffered a small heart attack because of shrapnel that had strayed too close to his heart. He was subsequently moved back into intensive care and treated anew. With the Christmas Crotchfire attack fresh in our memories, should I point out that the Bush administration waited a day to inform the world that the second in line to the Oval Office had shot a guy? No? Okay. Moving on!
The most extraordinary thing about this whole story occurred on February 17, when the finally discharged Whittington held a press conference, and said this:
My family and I are deeply sorry for everything Vice President Cheney and his family have had to deal with. We hope that he will continue to come to Texas and seek the relaxation that he deserves.
That's right. Harry Whittington, late of being shot in the face, went in front of the press and apologized for that time he allowed his face to get in front of somebody else's bullets. Gosh! My bad!
Look, look: accidents do happen. And you have to concede the ambiguity of the incident. You just have to. What I'm saying is that no one in the wide world would have thought any less of Harry Whittington if he had declined to cast himself as the guilty party, let alone take responsibility for ensuring that the State of Texas would continue to receive Dick Cheney's tourism dollars.
But you know what? I get Harry Whittington. I really do. He was just going with the flow of the times in which he was living. By 2006, we had all become inured to the conditions this decade was setting. Whatever bad stuff had happened to us, this decade taught us one indelible thing about it: we were wrong, and it was our fault.
After September 11th, when we wanted to seek out and destroy the murderers who had greenlit the most awful attack on our country in our recent memory, we were told, after a brief, furtive attempt to do the right thing, "No, no. You're wrong. What's needed is for us to wage war against a country of people who had nothing to do with that. If you want to be thought of as serious, you'll go along." After Hurricane Katrina had devastated the Gulf Coast, when we cried that it was FLAT OUT INSANE that we couldn't adequately take care of our own fellow citizens, we were told, "No, no. You're wrong. We're actually doing a heck of a job. How dare you say otherwise! You are bad, and you should feel bad."
Did you lose your home this decade, and suspect you were taken in by some shady mortgage broker? Well, this decade told us, "Shut up, you. That's your fault. Do you want Rick Santelli and a gang of traders from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to stab you in the eyes, with pitchforks? Because that's what will happen if you keep bitching."
Did you want some measure of justice to be meted out after all the torture and detention and surveillance and rampant immorality that occurred during the Bush administration, and you had voted for a guy who said All That Would Change? Well, you were told: "Shut up, you. Do you really want to put the country through that sort of pain? All of that happened in order to protect you, you goddamned ingrates. So if you know what's best for you, you'll shut up and Move Forward."
And tell me, after the entire economy collapsed under the weight of what could be charitably called a cascading series of interconnected, interplanetary fuck-ups at the hands of the most amoral greedheads that Wall Street had ever produced, did you want to INSIST that a pound of flesh, at the very least, be taken from all of those people responsible? Well, you know how that worked out: "No, no. You're wrong. You need to let the sage geniuses who run the show for the Bush and the Obama administration put an unbelievable amount of your money into sacks, so we can cart it off and give it to those very same interplanetary fuck-up greedheads as a burnt offering to fix the damage, because you are all too damn stupid to understand the Dark Mysteries of the Economy. How dare you act like you know better! This was all your fault in the first place!"
That was the story of this decade. We got shot, in the face, again and again, and it was always our fault, we were always wrong.
In a few hours, this decade will come to a merciful end. Maybe the Tweens (And can we all agree to call the next decade the Tweens? Because that eloquently captures where this nation is in terms of maturity level.) will be better. Maybe it won't. But the time for moving on is nigh.
Still, it's not too late to do the right thing. Why don't you all take one of these final passing moments to look this passing decade in the face before it departs, and, at long last, apologize to it?
[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]
It was not fun. Not at all. You know what? This past decade was pretty terrible!
The good thing about memory is that it protects you from realizations like this. And the nice thing about history is that it unfolds very slowly as you page back through it, with an emphasis on patiently allowing the reader to make sense of it all. But as I watched the decade replay itself before my eyes, it was a weird combination of warp speed images and strangely elongated memories as the "what I lived through" and the "how I lived through it" attempted to co-exist in my brain at the same time.
As the video began, the first big event was the Y2K concerns that everyone had at the beginning of the decade. This was a breezy, easy way to begin. I recall, perhaps incorrectly, that Y2K was this big concern that was rather easily surmounted, and maybe wasn't that big a deal to begin with. For an instant, I smiled inwardly. I relaxed, just a little bit. I allowed myself to lower my guard.
That was a big mistake! Because a few instants later, the decade was off and running, it's awfulness blooming anew in my face. September 11th. Katrina. Lehmann Brothers. War, collapse, ruination, privation, recession. This decade, and its relentless pummel, was coming at me hard, like a shot to the face. And as an audience to it and participant in it, I could do nothing else but take it.
And damned if after it was all over, I didn't think to myself, "Wow. This must be like how it felt to be Harry Whittington."
Let's cast our minds back to Saturday, February 11, 2006. Harry Whittington was, at the time, a 78 year old lawyer who lived in Texas, and whose life, as far as history was concerned, was largely unremarkable, save for one thing: he was an intimate of Vice President Dick Cheney. And on that day, Whittington and Cheney were members of a hunting party, casting after quail at the Armstrong Ranch in Texas. The two men were reportedly friends. Maybe even BFFs -- I do not know. What's important is that on the morning of February 11th, Harry Whittington awoke safe in the knowledge that Dick Cheney was among his well-wishers. That's not nothing! There are billions of people across this planet who Dick Cheney literally wishes to be visited with some sort of indiscriminate harm.
Now, something should be said about the "hunting" that the two men were engaged in that day. Cheney's hunting party was not actually on a painstaking hunt for elusive quail. If I recall correctly, the Armstrong Ranch was some sort of hunting facility that invited hunting parties and then provided them with quail. I seem to recall that the whole point of the enterprise was that the quail were really easy to shoot -- maybe they were drugged, or bred for stupidity, or literally placed in front of men with guns.
The point is, the task of hunting wasn't supposed to be hard. It was to be like a fishing charter, where hooks are baited with marlins, and people cheer as you heave them out of the water. These were the Y2Quail of the avian universe -- an easily surmountable challenge, that wasn't that big a deal to begin with.
And so, Dick Cheney and Harry Whittington and four other hunters went out for quail that day, and by the end of the day, Dick Cheney had shot his friend in the face.
Now, there are all sorts of diverging accounts about what happened, who was standing where, who was drinking what, whose fuck-up set off the whole unfortunate chain of events. The official summary of what happened goes like this: "Whittington downed a bird and went to retrieve it. While he was out of the hunting line, another covey was flushed and Cheney swung on a bird and fired, striking Whittington in the face, neck and chest."
Whittington ended up hospitalized for his wounds. On Monday, he was moved out of the intensive care unit. The following morning, Whittington suffered a small heart attack because of shrapnel that had strayed too close to his heart. He was subsequently moved back into intensive care and treated anew. With the Christmas Crotchfire attack fresh in our memories, should I point out that the Bush administration waited a day to inform the world that the second in line to the Oval Office had shot a guy? No? Okay. Moving on!
The most extraordinary thing about this whole story occurred on February 17, when the finally discharged Whittington held a press conference, and said this:
My family and I are deeply sorry for everything Vice President Cheney and his family have had to deal with. We hope that he will continue to come to Texas and seek the relaxation that he deserves.
That's right. Harry Whittington, late of being shot in the face, went in front of the press and apologized for that time he allowed his face to get in front of somebody else's bullets. Gosh! My bad!
Look, look: accidents do happen. And you have to concede the ambiguity of the incident. You just have to. What I'm saying is that no one in the wide world would have thought any less of Harry Whittington if he had declined to cast himself as the guilty party, let alone take responsibility for ensuring that the State of Texas would continue to receive Dick Cheney's tourism dollars.
But you know what? I get Harry Whittington. I really do. He was just going with the flow of the times in which he was living. By 2006, we had all become inured to the conditions this decade was setting. Whatever bad stuff had happened to us, this decade taught us one indelible thing about it: we were wrong, and it was our fault.
After September 11th, when we wanted to seek out and destroy the murderers who had greenlit the most awful attack on our country in our recent memory, we were told, after a brief, furtive attempt to do the right thing, "No, no. You're wrong. What's needed is for us to wage war against a country of people who had nothing to do with that. If you want to be thought of as serious, you'll go along." After Hurricane Katrina had devastated the Gulf Coast, when we cried that it was FLAT OUT INSANE that we couldn't adequately take care of our own fellow citizens, we were told, "No, no. You're wrong. We're actually doing a heck of a job. How dare you say otherwise! You are bad, and you should feel bad."
Did you lose your home this decade, and suspect you were taken in by some shady mortgage broker? Well, this decade told us, "Shut up, you. That's your fault. Do you want Rick Santelli and a gang of traders from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to stab you in the eyes, with pitchforks? Because that's what will happen if you keep bitching."
Did you want some measure of justice to be meted out after all the torture and detention and surveillance and rampant immorality that occurred during the Bush administration, and you had voted for a guy who said All That Would Change? Well, you were told: "Shut up, you. Do you really want to put the country through that sort of pain? All of that happened in order to protect you, you goddamned ingrates. So if you know what's best for you, you'll shut up and Move Forward."
And tell me, after the entire economy collapsed under the weight of what could be charitably called a cascading series of interconnected, interplanetary fuck-ups at the hands of the most amoral greedheads that Wall Street had ever produced, did you want to INSIST that a pound of flesh, at the very least, be taken from all of those people responsible? Well, you know how that worked out: "No, no. You're wrong. You need to let the sage geniuses who run the show for the Bush and the Obama administration put an unbelievable amount of your money into sacks, so we can cart it off and give it to those very same interplanetary fuck-up greedheads as a burnt offering to fix the damage, because you are all too damn stupid to understand the Dark Mysteries of the Economy. How dare you act like you know better! This was all your fault in the first place!"
That was the story of this decade. We got shot, in the face, again and again, and it was always our fault, we were always wrong.
In a few hours, this decade will come to a merciful end. Maybe the Tweens (And can we all agree to call the next decade the Tweens? Because that eloquently captures where this nation is in terms of maturity level.) will be better. Maybe it won't. But the time for moving on is nigh.
Still, it's not too late to do the right thing. Why don't you all take one of these final passing moments to look this passing decade in the face before it departs, and, at long last, apologize to it?
[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]
10 Years Ago: How Doodlings Helped Me Survive Y2K
I've always loved writing. I grew up writing short stories, making up characters and plots, and just letting my imagination run wild.
Fiction was my favorite. But in late 1999, I tried my hand at something different and far too "real": chronicling the final 100 days of Planet Earth. You know, just in case.
I was 13 years old and you know how kids are...impressionable. So all the Y2K talk in the media got to my head. I was hoping my words -- if it really was the end -- could serve as an archive of human history, what life was like before the extinction. (And I'm not kidding. I sincerely thought that when I started the project.)
Funny thing is I was documenting what mattered to ME, so it's a rather humorous look into my past (the life of a 13-year-old), and hardly an archive for mankind as I intended.
Jokes aside, it was therapeutic for me in a sense. Every night, the pen and paper helped keep me sane as my mother stocked up on water and food, and the media constantly focused on the implications of Y2K.
A decade later, I thought it appropriate to look back on these entries, which began Sept. 27, 1999. Here are some excerpts, particularly as the "end" drew near.
*******************************
Sometimes the entries were so plain and matter-of-fact, it's almost comical.
Tuesday, Nov. 23, 1999 -- 37 days left:
-Woke up at 7:00 a.m.
-Went to school at 7:40 a.m., dismissed early (because of mass)....8:31 a.m.
-Play practice (music) at school today, 10:30-11:20. I'm Nick, if you didn't know
-Did Language/Religion homework
-I played NFL Quarterback Club 98 (N64) with dad, he was the NY Jets, beat me, the Buffalo Bills, 76-65!
-I watched "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire"...again! Last day of that show is tomorrow!
-It's 9:55 p.m. now.... YAWN!!!! Oh, 9:56 p.m. now. Over and out.
For those also from Buffalo, N.Y., one bullet a few days later made it CLEAR it was the 90s:
Sunday, Nov. 28, 1999 --- 32 days left:
-Bills won over the Patriots 17-7, now 8-4! Moulds touchdown, Gash touchdown, Christie field goal.
My family's journey into high-speed Internet (at least "high speed" at the time) was documented.
Saturday, Dec. 4, 1999 --- 26 days left:
Adelphia PowerLink was hooked up today! I tried it! It's sooooo fast and soooo neat! You can listen to any radio station in the world. And, over 1,000 music videos at www.launch.com! Plus the phone line is never tied up. I'm so glad we got this!
Another big moment in my life came a few days later. (It was a crazy time -- with the world ending, might as well do everything at once, you know?)
Wednesday, Dec. 8, 1999 --- 22 days left:
It's in stone now: I'm getting glasses to see better for objects far away. I picked out a really nice brown frame. I am near-sighted.
I'm not going to lie. I was also kind of a loser (I was 13).
Saturday, Dec. 11, 1999 --- 21 days left:
Actually 1:25 a.m. (Sunday) now, just got off the computer. I fought a good fight from 9:30 p.m.-1:18 a.m. in a long, tiring game of Jezzball. I made it to level 35 and totaled up over 2.5 million points. My old record was only 1 million. WOW! What a game. I simply got tired in the end. I have 15 screenshots of the game too! It was so exciting!
Further evidence (but remember! I was only 13)...
Sunday, Dec. 12, 1999 -- 20 days left:
I met someone new today online. Cory and Brett's cousin, Sam. They live in Clarence, NY. They gave me Brett's screenname too.
And since we're talking about AOL instant messenger (the Twitter of the day):
Wednesday, Dec. 15, 1999 --- 17 days left:
Got more screennames, now I have 37! i emailed a list of all my screennames to Rob, Cory, Becca, Monica and Danielle F.
I may have been a little obsessed. But with the world ending, wanted to enjoy every last moment with this awesome technology.
Tuesday, Dec. 21, 1999 --- 11 days left:
I got Danielle and Robert to download and install AOL IM. Now we can all chat together at once! Rob's new screenname is B0B02000 and Danielle's new screenname is BASKETBAL1393.
On Christmas Day, I listed every Christmas gift I got. Every single one, including the "2 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups" and "2 Peanut Butter And Cheese Crackers." I won't bore you with those, but I will tell you about my favorite new gift, NHL 2000.
Saturday, Dec. 25, 1999 --- 7 days left:
Played lots of NHL 2000 Hockey, especially with uncle Brian who was at our house today for Christmas! Also through NHL 2000 and the Internet, I was able to play people from all over the world. I played 3 games: one against a kid from Toronto (he beat me 6-4), one against a kid from Granby Quebec (he beat me 4-3 in overtime), and then the kid from Quebec again (he beat me 1-0 in overtime).
Excitement grew as the end of the year drew near.
Thursday, Dec. 30, 1999 -- 2 days left:
Can't believe how time flies, New Year's Day is like a blink of an eye away! It's great - I can't wait!
And then...
Friday, Dec. 31, 1999 -- 1 day left:
I spent the last day of the millennium playing on the computer and especially watching the countdown around the world for the year 2000. So far I saw Japan, China, Australia, Indonesia, and Thailand enter the new year. They're all still alive. I will watch Russia, Italy, France, England and US very soon.
It's 2:08 p.m. now, only 9 hours, 52 minutes until the year 2000 for us; Buffalo, N.Y. We go to family friends to celebrate the new year and the country. That's it for this millennium, I will not write anymore until the year 2000! GOOD BYE 1999, 1990's, 1900's, EVERYTHING, GOOD BYE!
May the new millennium bring much happiness and great times. Signing off for the 20th century, 2:11 p.m. Good bye!
My first words of 2000 were not genius.
Saturday, January 1, 2000
WOW! ALL I CAN SAY IS SIMPLY, WOW! IT IS 2:02 A.M. NOW. Yes the new millenium. For 16 hours now, I've been watching ABC and the new year marching in for each region.
Ah, to be a kid again.
Just kidding. I like life the way it is now. And tomorrow, Jan. 1, 2010, I won't think backward again. But today, just today --- it's just fun to look back.
By the way, if you're online tonight, quick plug -- you may want to watch the ball drop live in New York.
Fiction was my favorite. But in late 1999, I tried my hand at something different and far too "real": chronicling the final 100 days of Planet Earth. You know, just in case.
I was 13 years old and you know how kids are...impressionable. So all the Y2K talk in the media got to my head. I was hoping my words -- if it really was the end -- could serve as an archive of human history, what life was like before the extinction. (And I'm not kidding. I sincerely thought that when I started the project.)
Funny thing is I was documenting what mattered to ME, so it's a rather humorous look into my past (the life of a 13-year-old), and hardly an archive for mankind as I intended.
Jokes aside, it was therapeutic for me in a sense. Every night, the pen and paper helped keep me sane as my mother stocked up on water and food, and the media constantly focused on the implications of Y2K.
A decade later, I thought it appropriate to look back on these entries, which began Sept. 27, 1999. Here are some excerpts, particularly as the "end" drew near.
*******************************
Sometimes the entries were so plain and matter-of-fact, it's almost comical.
Tuesday, Nov. 23, 1999 -- 37 days left:
-Woke up at 7:00 a.m.
-Went to school at 7:40 a.m., dismissed early (because of mass)....8:31 a.m.
-Play practice (music) at school today, 10:30-11:20. I'm Nick, if you didn't know
-Did Language/Religion homework
-I played NFL Quarterback Club 98 (N64) with dad, he was the NY Jets, beat me, the Buffalo Bills, 76-65!
-I watched "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire"...again! Last day of that show is tomorrow!
-It's 9:55 p.m. now.... YAWN!!!! Oh, 9:56 p.m. now. Over and out.
For those also from Buffalo, N.Y., one bullet a few days later made it CLEAR it was the 90s:
Sunday, Nov. 28, 1999 --- 32 days left:
-Bills won over the Patriots 17-7, now 8-4! Moulds touchdown, Gash touchdown, Christie field goal.
My family's journey into high-speed Internet (at least "high speed" at the time) was documented.
Saturday, Dec. 4, 1999 --- 26 days left:
Adelphia PowerLink was hooked up today! I tried it! It's sooooo fast and soooo neat! You can listen to any radio station in the world. And, over 1,000 music videos at www.launch.com! Plus the phone line is never tied up. I'm so glad we got this!
Another big moment in my life came a few days later. (It was a crazy time -- with the world ending, might as well do everything at once, you know?)
Wednesday, Dec. 8, 1999 --- 22 days left:
It's in stone now: I'm getting glasses to see better for objects far away. I picked out a really nice brown frame. I am near-sighted.
I'm not going to lie. I was also kind of a loser (I was 13).
Saturday, Dec. 11, 1999 --- 21 days left:
Actually 1:25 a.m. (Sunday) now, just got off the computer. I fought a good fight from 9:30 p.m.-1:18 a.m. in a long, tiring game of Jezzball. I made it to level 35 and totaled up over 2.5 million points. My old record was only 1 million. WOW! What a game. I simply got tired in the end. I have 15 screenshots of the game too! It was so exciting!
Further evidence (but remember! I was only 13)...
Sunday, Dec. 12, 1999 -- 20 days left:
I met someone new today online. Cory and Brett's cousin, Sam. They live in Clarence, NY. They gave me Brett's screenname too.
And since we're talking about AOL instant messenger (the Twitter of the day):
Wednesday, Dec. 15, 1999 --- 17 days left:
Got more screennames, now I have 37! i emailed a list of all my screennames to Rob, Cory, Becca, Monica and Danielle F.
I may have been a little obsessed. But with the world ending, wanted to enjoy every last moment with this awesome technology.
Tuesday, Dec. 21, 1999 --- 11 days left:
I got Danielle and Robert to download and install AOL IM. Now we can all chat together at once! Rob's new screenname is B0B02000 and Danielle's new screenname is BASKETBAL1393.
On Christmas Day, I listed every Christmas gift I got. Every single one, including the "2 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups" and "2 Peanut Butter And Cheese Crackers." I won't bore you with those, but I will tell you about my favorite new gift, NHL 2000.
Saturday, Dec. 25, 1999 --- 7 days left:
Played lots of NHL 2000 Hockey, especially with uncle Brian who was at our house today for Christmas! Also through NHL 2000 and the Internet, I was able to play people from all over the world. I played 3 games: one against a kid from Toronto (he beat me 6-4), one against a kid from Granby Quebec (he beat me 4-3 in overtime), and then the kid from Quebec again (he beat me 1-0 in overtime).
Excitement grew as the end of the year drew near.
Thursday, Dec. 30, 1999 -- 2 days left:
Can't believe how time flies, New Year's Day is like a blink of an eye away! It's great - I can't wait!
And then...
Friday, Dec. 31, 1999 -- 1 day left:
I spent the last day of the millennium playing on the computer and especially watching the countdown around the world for the year 2000. So far I saw Japan, China, Australia, Indonesia, and Thailand enter the new year. They're all still alive. I will watch Russia, Italy, France, England and US very soon.
It's 2:08 p.m. now, only 9 hours, 52 minutes until the year 2000 for us; Buffalo, N.Y. We go to family friends to celebrate the new year and the country. That's it for this millennium, I will not write anymore until the year 2000! GOOD BYE 1999, 1990's, 1900's, EVERYTHING, GOOD BYE!
May the new millennium bring much happiness and great times. Signing off for the 20th century, 2:11 p.m. Good bye!
My first words of 2000 were not genius.
Saturday, January 1, 2000
WOW! ALL I CAN SAY IS SIMPLY, WOW! IT IS 2:02 A.M. NOW. Yes the new millenium. For 16 hours now, I've been watching ABC and the new year marching in for each region.
Ah, to be a kid again.
Just kidding. I like life the way it is now. And tomorrow, Jan. 1, 2010, I won't think backward again. But today, just today --- it's just fun to look back.
By the way, if you're online tonight, quick plug -- you may want to watch the ball drop live in New York.
CNN’s Sanchez Grills Ensign On His Affair (VIDEO)
Some generally awkward television took place Thursday afternoon when Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) -- invited on CNN to discuss the botched Christmas terrorist attack -- was quizzed about ethics allegations that he set up and aided the husband of his mistress with a lobbying gig.
The Nevada Republican insisted throughout the segment that he had done nothing unethical or untoward in arranging for his former staffer Doug Hampton to join a political consulting firm and then setting him up with clients. But with each attempt at evasion, host Rick Sanchez came back with another the excruciating question.
"Did you help [Hampton] get a job because you felt bad for him or because you had been sleeping with his wife and you wanted to get him out of the way," the CNN anchor asked at one point.
For his part, Ensign didn't walk off the set. But it seemed pretty clear that the senator and his staff had secured a promise from CNN beforehand that the topic of his affair would not be discussed.
Here is video courtesy of Talking Points Memo:
"I commented all I was going to comment on that," said Ensign. "And we told you when we were going to come on here that I'm going to be focused on health care, I'm going to be focused on the economy... You can ask it all the ways you want to ask it."
Ensign largely dropped off the national political scene after his affair with Hampton's wife, Cynthia Hampton, became public this past June. The CNN appearance was his first on the network since the story broke, Sanchez said.
But a New York Times story months later raised the possibility that the senator skirted ethics rules in order to outfit his mistress's jilted husband with a consulting gig, one in which he was allowed to lobby Ensign's staff. In addition, the senator reportedly encouraged friends and associates to give Hampton business when money started going dry.
Asked by Sanchez whether the arrangement violated restrictions on staffers lobbying their former bosses, Ensign replied, succinctly: "That's his problem. That's not my problem.... I believe that based on facts, the ethics committee will clear me and I will go on being a senator."
Sanchez would persist, but get little further. "I will applaud you for your efforts but I told you before, I have answered the questions I'm going to answer," said Ensign.
The Nevada Republican insisted throughout the segment that he had done nothing unethical or untoward in arranging for his former staffer Doug Hampton to join a political consulting firm and then setting him up with clients. But with each attempt at evasion, host Rick Sanchez came back with another the excruciating question.
"Did you help [Hampton] get a job because you felt bad for him or because you had been sleeping with his wife and you wanted to get him out of the way," the CNN anchor asked at one point.
For his part, Ensign didn't walk off the set. But it seemed pretty clear that the senator and his staff had secured a promise from CNN beforehand that the topic of his affair would not be discussed.
Here is video courtesy of Talking Points Memo:
"I commented all I was going to comment on that," said Ensign. "And we told you when we were going to come on here that I'm going to be focused on health care, I'm going to be focused on the economy... You can ask it all the ways you want to ask it."
Ensign largely dropped off the national political scene after his affair with Hampton's wife, Cynthia Hampton, became public this past June. The CNN appearance was his first on the network since the story broke, Sanchez said.
But a New York Times story months later raised the possibility that the senator skirted ethics rules in order to outfit his mistress's jilted husband with a consulting gig, one in which he was allowed to lobby Ensign's staff. In addition, the senator reportedly encouraged friends and associates to give Hampton business when money started going dry.
Asked by Sanchez whether the arrangement violated restrictions on staffers lobbying their former bosses, Ensign replied, succinctly: "That's his problem. That's not my problem.... I believe that based on facts, the ethics committee will clear me and I will go on being a senator."
Sanchez would persist, but get little further. "I will applaud you for your efforts but I told you before, I have answered the questions I'm going to answer," said Ensign.
How the Top Ten Animal Stories of the Decade Reveal the Connection Between Animal Welfare and Public Health
This past decade was, arguably, the decade of animals. More news stories covered animal welfare issues than ever before and some of the major events of the past decade involved animals. Animal protection has become a considerable social issue. But there is more to animal protection than the well-being of animals; human welfare is integrally tied with it and during this past decade, this connection was highlighted in unprecedented ways. The following top ten animal stories of the past ten years, listed in no particular order, reveal just how connected human and animal welfare and health are:
1. Michael Vick and dog fighting. Vick's conviction for running a dog fighting ring brought unparalleled attention to the underground world of animal fighting and the immense cruelty involved. The human welfare connection was also illustrated as animal fighting is associated with other illegal crimes. Up to two-thirds of those who commit animal cruelty also commit at least one other criminal offense, including violence towards other humans, particularly women and children.
2. Hurricane Katrina. In 2005, the world watched, horrified, as many people refused to evacuate their homes and in some cases, risk death to avoid losing their companion animals (who were not welcome in local shelters). Indeed, the most common reason people return to evacuation sites is to rescue their animal. Post-Katrina studies show that the loss of companion animals worsened the mental trauma many people suffered. This was a wake-up call for emergency rescue agencies to take animal rescue seriously.
3. and 4. Swine and Avian influenzas. It's now apparent that what happens on the farm doesn't always stay on the farm. When avian (H5N1) influenza spread rapidly across poultry farms in Asia in 2003 and jumped the species barrier to infect humans, questions were raised about the potential for the next pandemic to originate from animal farms. The current swine (H1N1) flu pandemic, though relatively mild, confirms that animal agriculture can play a significant role in the emergence of new, deadlier strains of flu viruses. Animals raised for food are increasingly crammed into intensive animal operations or "factory farms", living in profoundly unhygienic and stressful conditions. The animal's reduced immunity, due to prolonged stress and high crowding, create perfect breeding grounds for new diseases.
5. and 6. Exotic pet attacks. The horrendous 2009 attack of a woman in Connecticut by a "pet" chimpanzee and the 2003 tiger attack against Roy Horn of the "Siegfried and Roy" animal act underscored the dangers of keeping exotic animals as pets or for entertainment. No one knows why these particular animals attacked, but exotic animals raised as pets or used for entertainment are too often kept in deplorable or inadequate housing conditions or are subjected to other forms of abuse. Exotic animals can't be handled safely and can carry infectious diseases, posing immense public health risks.
7. Hallmark Meat Packing investigation. The California cow slaughter plant investigation revealed egregious abuses of cows too sick to stand (labeled "downed" cows), leading to the largest meat recall in U.S history in 2008. Despite regulations against the use of downed cows for food because of fears that they may be sick with bovine spongiform encephalopathy or "mad cow" disease, these cows were slaughtered and sold for human consumption. Considerable concern was raised about the safety of our food supply, particularly because approximately 1 million land animals are slaughtered for food every hour in the U.S, making regulatory oversight formidable.
8. The melamine pet food contamination. The 2007 worldwide recall of pet food imported from China contaminated with melamine followed after possibly thousands of animals died. The public outrage that ensued was tremendous. Additionally, since some of the tainted pet food was also fed to animals processed into human food, the need for greater regulatory oversight of food fed to animals for the protection of both humans and animals became evident.
9. The health benefits of companion animals. While not a single news story, this past decade saw more published reports of the benefits animal companions provide for human health than ever before. From lowering blood pressure, stress, and cardiovascular disease risk, to facilitating communication by children with autism, to helping people with Alzheimer's disease, numerous medical studies revealed how mutually beneficial the human-animal bond is.
10. Climate change. Perhaps one of the most significant news stories of our time. Partly due to reports from the Pew Charitable Trust in 2008 and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 2006 and, most recently, to the highly publicized book "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Saffran Foer, the connection between what we eat and climate change is now widely acknowledged. The unprecedented worldwide demand for meat and the subsequent rise in immense, intensive animal operations is impacting our climate in significant ways. In addition to severely compromising animal welfare, modern animal agricultural practice is one of the main contributors of greenhouse gas emissions and environmental pollution. The human health impact is tremendous.
These news stories, viewed together, tell a larger story, one of human and animal interconnectedness, and that public health and animal welfare are not separate issues.
If we really want to promote human well-being, we can't forget the animals.
Aysha Akhtar MD, MPH is a fellow of the Oxford Center for Animal Ethics and a neurologist and public health specialist with the Food and Drug Administration. She is the author of the forthcoming book, Humans and Animals: The New Public Health Paradigm.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not represent the official position of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the U.S. government.
1. Michael Vick and dog fighting. Vick's conviction for running a dog fighting ring brought unparalleled attention to the underground world of animal fighting and the immense cruelty involved. The human welfare connection was also illustrated as animal fighting is associated with other illegal crimes. Up to two-thirds of those who commit animal cruelty also commit at least one other criminal offense, including violence towards other humans, particularly women and children.
2. Hurricane Katrina. In 2005, the world watched, horrified, as many people refused to evacuate their homes and in some cases, risk death to avoid losing their companion animals (who were not welcome in local shelters). Indeed, the most common reason people return to evacuation sites is to rescue their animal. Post-Katrina studies show that the loss of companion animals worsened the mental trauma many people suffered. This was a wake-up call for emergency rescue agencies to take animal rescue seriously.
3. and 4. Swine and Avian influenzas. It's now apparent that what happens on the farm doesn't always stay on the farm. When avian (H5N1) influenza spread rapidly across poultry farms in Asia in 2003 and jumped the species barrier to infect humans, questions were raised about the potential for the next pandemic to originate from animal farms. The current swine (H1N1) flu pandemic, though relatively mild, confirms that animal agriculture can play a significant role in the emergence of new, deadlier strains of flu viruses. Animals raised for food are increasingly crammed into intensive animal operations or "factory farms", living in profoundly unhygienic and stressful conditions. The animal's reduced immunity, due to prolonged stress and high crowding, create perfect breeding grounds for new diseases.
5. and 6. Exotic pet attacks. The horrendous 2009 attack of a woman in Connecticut by a "pet" chimpanzee and the 2003 tiger attack against Roy Horn of the "Siegfried and Roy" animal act underscored the dangers of keeping exotic animals as pets or for entertainment. No one knows why these particular animals attacked, but exotic animals raised as pets or used for entertainment are too often kept in deplorable or inadequate housing conditions or are subjected to other forms of abuse. Exotic animals can't be handled safely and can carry infectious diseases, posing immense public health risks.
7. Hallmark Meat Packing investigation. The California cow slaughter plant investigation revealed egregious abuses of cows too sick to stand (labeled "downed" cows), leading to the largest meat recall in U.S history in 2008. Despite regulations against the use of downed cows for food because of fears that they may be sick with bovine spongiform encephalopathy or "mad cow" disease, these cows were slaughtered and sold for human consumption. Considerable concern was raised about the safety of our food supply, particularly because approximately 1 million land animals are slaughtered for food every hour in the U.S, making regulatory oversight formidable.
8. The melamine pet food contamination. The 2007 worldwide recall of pet food imported from China contaminated with melamine followed after possibly thousands of animals died. The public outrage that ensued was tremendous. Additionally, since some of the tainted pet food was also fed to animals processed into human food, the need for greater regulatory oversight of food fed to animals for the protection of both humans and animals became evident.
9. The health benefits of companion animals. While not a single news story, this past decade saw more published reports of the benefits animal companions provide for human health than ever before. From lowering blood pressure, stress, and cardiovascular disease risk, to facilitating communication by children with autism, to helping people with Alzheimer's disease, numerous medical studies revealed how mutually beneficial the human-animal bond is.
10. Climate change. Perhaps one of the most significant news stories of our time. Partly due to reports from the Pew Charitable Trust in 2008 and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 2006 and, most recently, to the highly publicized book "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Saffran Foer, the connection between what we eat and climate change is now widely acknowledged. The unprecedented worldwide demand for meat and the subsequent rise in immense, intensive animal operations is impacting our climate in significant ways. In addition to severely compromising animal welfare, modern animal agricultural practice is one of the main contributors of greenhouse gas emissions and environmental pollution. The human health impact is tremendous.
These news stories, viewed together, tell a larger story, one of human and animal interconnectedness, and that public health and animal welfare are not separate issues.
If we really want to promote human well-being, we can't forget the animals.
Aysha Akhtar MD, MPH is a fellow of the Oxford Center for Animal Ethics and a neurologist and public health specialist with the Food and Drug Administration. She is the author of the forthcoming book, Humans and Animals: The New Public Health Paradigm.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not represent the official position of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the U.S. government.
The Best Behind-The-Scenes White House Photos From Obama’s First Year
Whatever your opinion of President Obama's first year in office, it's undeniable that 2009 produced some amazing behind-the-scenes White House photography. Here are the best pictures of the president, his family and staff at work and at play. Take a look and tell us your favorite:
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Arianna Says Obama’s Focus On Wall Street Rather Than Main Street At Root Of Public Anger (VIDEO)
President Obama's support for Wall Street, rather than Main street, is behind the public anger and frustration, Arianna argued on Morning Joe.
She weighed in on the president's job performance during a taped appearance that aired Thursday morning. Obama, she says, campaigned on a platform of change, but instead of real change many of his policies have bolstered the status quo. Now, he is surprised with the results.
"...[Obama], after all, painted a very dark picture of what was happening, a broken system, the special interests dominating everything, and he said yes we can change that. And he also said in Denver, remember, that the greatest risk would be to surround ourselves with the same people, playing the same political game, expecting different results. And then he went into the White House and did exactly that. He surrounded himself with the same political people, you know Larry Summers, Rahm Emanuel, he kept Gates, he kept Bernanke, he played the same political game and he expected different results and he didn't get them. And in the middle of all that, he basically decided that he was for Wall Street, rather than Main street. The anger is very clearly about that."
David Gregory agreed with Arianna's questions about Obama and the middle class, explaining that it's hard for Americans to see record profits for Wall Street firms while experiencing some of the highest unemployment numbers in decades.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
She weighed in on the president's job performance during a taped appearance that aired Thursday morning. Obama, she says, campaigned on a platform of change, but instead of real change many of his policies have bolstered the status quo. Now, he is surprised with the results.
"...[Obama], after all, painted a very dark picture of what was happening, a broken system, the special interests dominating everything, and he said yes we can change that. And he also said in Denver, remember, that the greatest risk would be to surround ourselves with the same people, playing the same political game, expecting different results. And then he went into the White House and did exactly that. He surrounded himself with the same political people, you know Larry Summers, Rahm Emanuel, he kept Gates, he kept Bernanke, he played the same political game and he expected different results and he didn't get them. And in the middle of all that, he basically decided that he was for Wall Street, rather than Main street. The anger is very clearly about that."
David Gregory agreed with Arianna's questions about Obama and the middle class, explaining that it's hard for Americans to see record profits for Wall Street firms while experiencing some of the highest unemployment numbers in decades.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Arianna Calls Out Kudlow For Dow ‘50,000′ Prediction, Urges People To Ditch Bailed Out Banks (VIDEO)
Arianna was on CNBC's "The Call" today to discuss the Move Your Money campaign. Host Larry Kudlow challenged the idea of switching money from big banks to community banks. Arianna countered that she's not sure why anyone is still listening to Kudlow, given his previous predictions that have turned out to be wildly off-base, including his statement in 1999, "By 2020, the Dow index will reach 50,000, and the 10,000 benchmark will be reduced to a small blip on a large screen."
Kudlow repeatedly denied ever having made that prediction, actually claiming that it was Jim Glassman who had. But in the second segment, Arianna read Kudlow's direct quote from his March 18, 1999 Wall Street Journal article back to him.
Seeking Alpha has more.
WATCH: Part 1
WATCH: Part 2
Here is Kudlow's full statement:
The dominant event of the late 20th century is the bull-market prosperity of the 1980s and 1990s. This was caused largely by a shift back to free-market economics, a reduction in the role of the state and an expansion of personal liberty. At the turn of a new century, taking the right road will extend the long cycle of wealth creation and technological advance for decades to come. By 2020 the Dow index will reach 50,000, and the 10,000 benchmark will be reduced to a small blip on a large screen.
Kudlow repeatedly denied ever having made that prediction, actually claiming that it was Jim Glassman who had. But in the second segment, Arianna read Kudlow's direct quote from his March 18, 1999 Wall Street Journal article back to him.
Seeking Alpha has more.
WATCH: Part 1
WATCH: Part 2
Here is Kudlow's full statement:
The dominant event of the late 20th century is the bull-market prosperity of the 1980s and 1990s. This was caused largely by a shift back to free-market economics, a reduction in the role of the state and an expansion of personal liberty. At the turn of a new century, taking the right road will extend the long cycle of wealth creation and technological advance for decades to come. By 2020 the Dow index will reach 50,000, and the 10,000 benchmark will be reduced to a small blip on a large screen.