Friday, December 12, 2008

Unbelievable Times

-We may not remember 2008...particularly the last quarter of it...with much fondness. But one thing's for sure. We will remember it. To wit--The first non-white man in history to gain the nomination of a major political party ran for President of the United States and actually won. The year will be remembered forever simply for that. But look at what else we have--
  • The Governors of two of the nation's most populous states become embroiled in mind-boggling, incredibly-stupid scandals. One resigns. The other??

Directly from Wikipedia-

Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is an American lawyer and former politician of the Democratic Party. He served as Governor of New York from January 2007 until his resignation on March 17, 2008 in the wake of his involvement in a high-priced prostitution ring. Prior to being elected governor, Spitzer served as New York State Attorney General. On March 10, 2008, The New York Times reported that Spitzer was a client of a prostitution ring under investigation by the federal government. Two days later, he announced his resignation as governor of New York, effective March 17, citing "private failings."

Milorad "Rod" R. Blagojevich , born December 10, 1956) is an American politician from the state of Illinois. A Democrat, Blagojevich currently serves as governor of Illinois and previously represented parts of Chicago in the U.S. Congress. He is the second Serbian American to be elected governor of any state of the United States, after George Voinovich of Ohio. On December 9, 2008, Blagojevich was arrested by FBI agents and charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud as well as solicitation of bribery. The Justice Department complaint alleges that the governor conspired to commit several "pay to play" schemes, including attempting to sell President-elect Barack Obama's vacated United States Senate seat to the highest bidder. As a result of the arrest, Blagojevich has faced calls for his resignation or impeachment and removal from office.

No matter What you think of these two guys, you have to be fascinated with the Why and the Who of them. Why do they think they can do these things and get away with them. And Who the hell do they think they are? I'm no psychologist, but it seems that these two guys must have been so drunk with power, and assured of their own superiority, that they thought they could get away with anything.

Speaking of that unfathomable mindset here's the poster boy-

Orenthel James "O. J." Simpson (born July 9, 1947, also known as The Juice) is a retired American football player, actor, spokesman, and convicted felon. He originally attained fame in sport as a running back at the collegiate and professional levels, and was the first NFL player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season, a mark he set during the 1973 season. In 1995, Simpson was acquitted of the murder of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman after a lengthy, highly publicized criminal trial. A 1997 judgment against Simpson for their wrongful deaths was awarded in civil court by a jury, but to date he has paid little of the $33.5 million judgment. In September 2007, Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada and charged with numerous felonies, including robbery with a deadly weapon, burglary with a firearm, assault with a deadly weapon, first-degree kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon, coercion with use of a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit a crime. A jury found Simpson guilty of all charges on October 3, 2008; and he was sentenced on December 5 to at least nine years in prison.

Is it possible that some high-profile personalities need so much to be the center of the universe that they act irrationally and without fear of failure? Must be...Because these clowns will be the prime examples of narcissism for college Psych 101 for as long as they teach it.

Other '08 memories--(and I'm beating the late December news shows to the punch here)

-Stock market goes bust amid mortgage crisis etc. etc. etc. We've heard enough.

-Michael Phelps

-Sarah Palin...and to some degree John McCain

-Tina Fey does Sarah Palin.

-Bailout becomes the word of the year

-W gets all-time low approval rating

-Pirates (not Johnny Depp) rule the sea

-Terrorism strikes again (Mumbai)

-Gas falls to below $2-a-gallon

-California (of all places) votes to outlaw same-sex marriage

And, in my humble opinion, the biggest story that went under-reported-Researchers Decode the Genome of a Cancer Patient: Scientists at the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University report that they have sequenced all the DNA from the cancer cells of woman who died of leukemia and compared it to her healthy cells. In doing so, the experts found mutations in the cancer cells that may have either caused the cancer or helped it to progress. It is the first time scientists have completed such research. They're getting close to figuring it out. And how big, and positive, would that be?

Yep, Twenty-oh-Eight will stick with us for a while and we're not done yet.

1 comment:

William Fink said...

Interestingly, Madison, St. Clair, Cook, and St. Louis (Missouri) are on the Judicial Hellhole list of the American Tort Reform Association. This is a nation-wide listing and the local area has three, counting St. Louis and Illinois has the most number of counties on their top-10 list.