Happy New Year!!!

For what it is worth, for this microscopic speck in the universe 2006 was a good year. Considering how ruthless the world and universe has been, of late, I consider myself blessed. For those who have any doubts about the ruthlessness and/or insanity that seems to be running rampant check out the Harpers Yearly Review . Ya just gotta love the year in bullets, snippets of news stories worth much more than a cursory glance.

Because I am one that believes that in every dark cloud there is a silver lining (somewhere) my top three bullets for black humor reasons are:

(1) "I can drink beer out of my leg," said Matthew Braddock, a 25-year-old National Guardsman who lost his left foot and nine inches of his left leg to a mine in northern Iraq. "How many people can do that?" You can find the whole story here.

I am sure he could win many a bet in bar rooms by making such a statement. May the condition NOT drive him to drink...

(2) The Pentagon classified homosexuality as a mental defect akin to retardation... You can find the whole story here

If you read the article, you will find the finding has no impact on the "don't ask, don't tell" policy of the military toward homosexuality. If a draft is reinstated, perhaps more folk declaring themselves gay would make for a failed draft.

(3) Dick Cheney was retaining fluids. One of many versions of the story can be found here.

My curiousity got the best of me on this one. Googling the sentence took me to some interesting websites. So much info, so little time... I looked a little into Homeland Stupidity , a Harpers Cheney timeline and a group called Mindfully.org. The mindfully Cheney commentary is here. I am not quite sure what the silver lining in this item is.

What is your favorite Harper news item? Post a comment on this site or e-mail me offsite.