Year in Review: Top World Events

As a Republican, and as a human being, 2009 was a rather depressing year for the world. The most talked about, and notable, events of 2009 were Obama ruining this country and then tons of famous people dying. Not exactly the stuff great years are made of. Ultimately, this is going to lead to a rather depressing Top 10 list. But such is life...I cannot yet affect the news cycle, I only read it and report back here at the end of the year. Doesn't mean we can't have some fun with this, though.

First, I'm implementing a new item to my World Events Year in Review...and that is Q's Person of the Year. Everyone else seems to have a Person of the Year, so its only fitting that I have one as well. And no, it's not Barack Obama.

Q's Person of the Year: Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III. This is the pilot that successfully landed US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River after the plane lost both its engines after running into a bunch of birds. No one was killed or hurt. Just impressive as hell. With all these stories, 9/11 being the big one, but also some small commuter planes crashing and everyone dying, and that Air France flight from Brazil, its nice to see a plane crash with a happy ending. Sully stayed calm in the face of danger, and used the knowledge he had in order to make informed decisions and safely land the plane to ensure no one would die. If that's not a hero, I don't know who is! In a year full of downers, Sully's heroic landing was definately a story worth noting.

Top 10 World Events of 2009:

10. Obama Wins a Completely Undeserved Nobel Peace Prize. OK, lets start the Obama mocking right off the bat. For some reason, the people who choose the Nobel prize winners decided that Barack Obama did enough in the last year to be named the Peace Prize winner. Let's take a look back at what Obama did in the last year. First, nominations were submitted in February, so he was nominated for things he did prior to that. In the year prior to that he...um, campaigned for President. Then he won the presidency. Oh, wait, I got it! He campaigned for the Presidency on a platform of ending the war in Iraq! That's, um, peaceful...I guess. If I'm getting this straight, Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize...the Prize that once honored greats like The Dali Lama, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandella, and Martin Luther King Jr, PEOPLE WHO HAVE ACTUALLY DONE SOMETHING...for campaign speeches! Ridiculous. Today it just seems like the award goes to the person who hates George W. Bush the most (see, Gore, Al...2007). What a shame. The award has become a sham, which I think is the larger story here.

9. Iranian Elections. Iran held Presidential elections this year. I use the term elections loosely, as they were rife with fraud. Unsurprisingly, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won re-election with 62% of the vote or so. Which seems pretty ridiculously high. When voters started protesting the results, claiming that it was a sham, Ahmadinejad did what all good presidents do in the face of a scandal, I guess...he sent out riot police to kill protesters and arrest his opponent. Amazing. I'm so glad Iran is treating their people with respect and listening to their concerns and wishes. Oh, wait, thats America (sometimes...unless Democrats are in charge and decide we're all stupid and that only they know whats best). Anyways, the elections in Iran were just more proof that the U.S. needs to keep an eye on them.

8. The Fort Hood Massacre. On November 5, 2009, Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army major serving as a psychiatrist, entered his workplace, the Soldier Readiness Center, where personnel receive routine medical treatment immediately prior to and on return from deployment. According to eyewitnesses, he took a seat at an empty table, bowed his head for several seconds, and then stood up and opened fire. Initially, Hasan reportedly jumped onto a desk and shouted: "Allahu Akbar!", before firing more than 100 rounds at soldiers processing through cubicles in the center, and on a crowd gathered for a college graduation ceremony scheduled for 2 p.m. in a nearby theater. In all, 13 people were killed, and another 30 were wounded. One of the 13 killed was pregnant, so really it was 14 killed.

Hasan is currently charged with premeditated murder and attempted murder and is awaiting trial. Current speculation for his modivation is that he had become rather upset with the U.S.'s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and had joined up with some radical Islamic groups around the world. Hasan is an American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, who had on a number of occasions expressed radical beliefs, and had communicated by e-mail with Anwar al-Awlaki. While this shooting is tragic, and the loss of life was great, it also showed a gaping hole in our ability to track and monitor potential terrorist threats. More tragedies such as this will occur if we are not vigilant in our stand against terrorism threats...both foreign and domestic.

7. Somali Pirates up their attacks. In what is becoming an increasing problem on Africa's eastern shores, Somali priates stepped up their attacks this year, capturing many large vessels. This ended up in the news more prevalently in April as, on April 8, 2009, four Somali pirates seized the Maersk Alabama. The ship was carrying 17,000 metric tons of cargo, of which 5,000 metric tons were relief supplies bound for Somalia, Uganda, and Kenya. On April 12, 2009, United States Navy SEALs snipers killed the three pirates that were holding Captain Richard Phillips hostage aboard a lifeboat from the Maersk Alabama after determining that Captain Phillips' life was in immediate danger. This was the first major attack where Americans were taken hostage.

After this, the U.S. started getting a bit more heavily involved in trying to help control the region. Brian Murphy of the Associated Press reports that Rear Admiral Terence E. McKnight, U.S. Navy, is to command a new multi-national naval force to confront piracy off the coast of Somalia. However, pirate attacks have continued, in an ever expanding area of influence. These attacks have led to rapidly rising shipping costs, as ships have started needed military escorts through the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. This is a story that is probably not going away anytime soon.

6. The War in Afghanistan continues. Casualties on all sides mounted as U.S. forces, with their Afghan and NATO allies, battled the resilient and resurgant Taliban. President Obama, after lengthy deliberations, opted to send 30,000 more troops. This was actually the first thing Obama did that I've agreed with. We need to help solidify the region. It's worked in Iraq, and they're starting to govern themselves pretty well. Afghanistan can too, if we're willing to put the effort in. Unfortunately, Obama's speech when he announced the increased troop presence sounded like an obituary, and it no way inspired confidence. He never talked about victory, and took a very defeatist attitude. Not exactly what I'd like to hear out of our COMMANDER IN CHIEF! Ugh. At least its a start. Afghanistan's going to be in the news for a while as U.S. troops try to quell the instability in the region.

5. The Health Care Debate rages on. To be perfectly honest, I have no fucking idea what's going on in Congress right now. I have literally no idea what the current health care legislations being debated in the House and Senate say. But from what I can gather...no one else does either! And this worries me. We're about to pass a bill that spends an absolute butt-ton of money over the next many years, and no one knows exactly what that money is going to do. The House bill is 1017 pages long. It is knee-deep in legalese and references to other federal regulations and laws. And, from what I can tell, may or may not be a worthwhile bill to actually solving health care issues in this country. I don't know what to say. I guess I'll say that unless they are actually going to pass a bill that legitimately and successfully reforms health care in a way that is beneficial to all Americans, I'd rather they do nothing. Otherwise we'll just end up throwing money at a problem with no real solution in mind. I guess that is the Democrats' way, though. I'll deal with it. I'm pretty sure it won't affect me one way or the other...for now.

4. The Unreported Climate E-Mails. So it turns out Global Warming might be a farce after all. In November, a string of hacked private e-mails between global climate change scientists in the U.S. and Europe came to light, casting doubts on the very science of which Global Warming is based. The e-mails show some of the world's top experts decided to exclude or manipulate some research that didn't help prove global warming exists. 1998 was the hottest year since record-keeping began...but the temperature went down the next year, and it's only spiked a couple times since. An e-mail exchange in 1999 shows scientists worked hard to demonstrate an upward trend. They talk of using a "trick" to "hide the decline" in global temperatures. It worked like this: when temperature readings extrapolated from tree rings showed what looked like a decline in temperatures from the 1980s to the present, the scientists added in measurements taken later by more modern instruments, which gave them the answer they wanted.

So, basically, there has been no evidence of climate change over the recent few decades. Environmentalists just wanted to scare the crap out of us so that we'd give them money! It all makes sense! Unfortunately, the liberal media and the super liberal White House decided to ignore this (you know, since environmentalists give them money too), and very little was made of this very startling find. I'm not sure what's the bigger story...that Global Warming may indeed be a myth, or that the White House is doing its damndest to cover it up.

3. Obama Spends us into record levels of debt. The National Debt is higher than it ever has been. Ever. This year alone, the Obama Administration and Democratically controlled Congress managed us to a deficit of a record $1.42 trillion, more than triple the record set just last year. Yes, that's right. Obama's debt is TRIPLE Bush's record debt. And is the economy rebounding with all this massive spending? Eh, kinda. Really no faster than a normal economic cycle would predict. Basically, if the government had done nothing, its very likely that the economy would be rebounding at about the same rate. But our debt wouldn't be nearly as high. Unfortunately, Obama decided to spend. And spend he did...on banks, on auto makers, on homeowners who were in homes they shouldn't be affording anyways. And despite a $787 billion federal stimulus package, much of the U.S. economy continued to sputter throughout the year. The jobless rate topped 10 percent, scores of banks failed, the federal deficit tripled to a record $1.4 trillion, and stocks fell to their lowest levels since 1997 before rallying. Yet investment banks' profits surged, triggering public anger and efforts in Washington to crack down on Wall Street bonuses. Sounds like those Democrats really have a handle on this economy thing, eh? Ugh. 3 more years of this might kill me.

2. It was a bad year to be a celebrity. Moving away from bashing Democrats and Obama for a while, it was a sad year in the celebrity world as well, as scores of famous people met their end. The most famous of these deaths was, of course, the death of Michael Jackson. The "King of Pop" died at the age of 50, triggering grief and nostalgia among his legions of fans around the world. His doctor became the focus of a Los Angeles police homicide investigation after telling investigators he administered propofol, a powerful operating room anesthetic, to help the pop star sleep. He was just about to start a 50 concert stint in England...and tapes and reports out of rehursals are that he looked and sounded just as good as ever, lending creedence to the belief that his doctor, unknowingly or not, may have killed him.

Michael Jackson wasn't the only notable death of the year, though. The following is a sampling of what I believe are the most notable deaths of 2009: Senator Edward Kennedy, Billy Mays, Farrah Fawcett, Walter Cronkite, Patrick Swayze, Les Paul, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Ed McMahon, David Carradine, Jack Kemp, Bea Arthur, Paul Harvey, Ricardo Montalbán, Steve McNair, Chris Henry, Brittany Murphy.

Thats a lot of famous people. The latest death was the shocking passing of actress Brittany Murphy, who was only 32. The investigation into that death is still ongoing. Billy Mays' death was shocking as well, and struck a particular cord with me. His late night hocking of shit will be missed. Steve McNair and Chris Henry were discussed in the sports write up. David Carradine's death was probably the most amusing, as he seems to have died by auto-erotic asphyxiation...yup, he was found hanging in his hotel room closet with another rope around his dong. Sad sad stuff. Angel of the 70s and 80s Farrah Fawcett finally succumbed to her cancer, as did the dirty dancer himself, Patrick Swayze. All in all, a sad year for the famous. They will be missed.

1. Barack Obama is inagurated as the first African American U.S. President. This was my number one last year too...not the inaguration, but him winning the election. Now, as then, I felt it important to put aside my political feelings on how abysmal Obama has been as a President and recognize the historic significance of this election. 150 years ago, African Americans were still kept as slaves. 100 years ago, African Americans were still looked down upon as less than human in this country. 46 years ago, segregation and race relations were still so terrible in this country that Martin Luther King Jr. had to give his I Have A Dream speech in which he was still hoping and striving for equality. And today we have an African American President. If that's not progress, I don't know what is.
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That's it for the World this year, at least in my eyes. As always, if you think I missed something important, then feel free to chime in. It was a rough year for the World, but was not without its bright spots! And in January we had a historic inaguration, so there's always that.

The only thing left for my annual Year in Review is the rundown of my personal events of the past year. I've already written it, and its fairly entertaining, if I do say so myself. So tune in Wednesday for the exciting conclusion to my yearly recap!