This is the time of the year for retrospectives and, in the unlikely event that you’re looking for one, I’d recommend Dave Barry’s. Here’s a sample. In October
… the federal government, in an unthinkable development that we cannot even think about, partially shuts down. The result is a catastrophe of near-sequester proportions. Within hours wolves are roaming the streets of major U.S. cities, and bacteria the size of mature salmon are openly cavorting in the nation’s water supply. In the Midwest, thousands of cows, no longer supervised by the Department of Agriculture, spontaneously explode. Yellowstone National Park — ALL of it — is stolen. In some areas gravity stops working altogether, forcing people to tie themselves to trees so they won’t float away. With the nation virtually defenseless, the Bermudan army invades the East Coast, within hours capturing Delaware and most of New Jersey.
By day 17, the situation has become so dire that Congress, resorting to desperate measures, decides to actually do something. It passes, and the president signs, a law raising the debt ceiling, thereby ensuring that the federal government can continue spending spectacular quantities of money that it does not have until the next major totally unforeseeable government financial crisis, scheduled for February 2014.
This was definitely a year in which the best alternatives were to laugh or to cry. If you’d prefer to laugh, read Dave Barry’s recap of the year. More hits than misses.
If you’d rather cry, there’s always the state of Illinois’s financial report.
Dave Berry was one of my son’s favorite humorists when he was a teenager — must have read all his books.
As for laughing or crying over this past year — it seems both emotions are appropriate. Another good read, tinged more with irony than humor, was written by Victor Davis Hanson entitled Crashing and Burning in 2013. It nicely goes through all the curve balls, yin’s and yang’s of our great leader and his leadership.
It will surprise no one that I long ago came to the conclusion that big government was just a bunch of buffoons who couldn’t make it in the private sector………….except to come back as lobbyists. The current crop are just (way) more buffoonish.
So don’t cry, laugh – life is short…………but vote your empirical observations and your best judgment on the potential efficacy of a government solution, not your blind ideology or hope beyong all common sense that it will work “this time for sure.” That would make you a Cubs fan…….
Me? I’m basking in the glow of the new home purchase in Naples.
Great, another goddamned Yankee polluting my state. Air conditioning is clearly the worst thing to ever happen to Florida.
Sorry, ice. But you can keep your distance in Orlando. However, if some time you would care to visit………