2005 YEAR IN REVIEW: War, Peace, Worthless Celebrity Worship, and Natural Disasters

Ahh...2005. A year of marked by wars, natural and man-made disasters, and numerous other nails added to humanity's coffin. My hope is 2006 brings something better.

That bitch Katrina wrecked havoc on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast - what floodwaters didn't destroy, human stupidity managed to almost obliterate. Winter's arrived in Pakistan and India, so the bodies of thousands will probably rot underneath earthquake rubble before either country gives a damn about the necessity of peace.

Western civilization, in the self-appointed seats of cultural superiority, continue to produce more Marie Antoinettes than Marie Curies. While Paris burned, the media continued to pay attention to some dumbass named Paris Hilton. Tom Cruise went insane, knocked up his baby mama, and starred in a movie about an alien threat; while he got the press, Iran continued its nuclear insanity, played baby-daddy to some processed uranium.

So Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, and other celebrities want to starve to death to fit some bullshit standard of death-camp chic? Fine, let them waste away into nothing. Just make sure their foodstuff ends up in Darfur and other regions faced with unwanted starvation.

Israel and the Palestinian Authority? They'll keep bickering and killing each other, and I'm tired of pretending like any of it matters. Its a stupid family feud and neither side gets my sympathy. Go ahead, keep killing each other. With every suicide bombing in Tel Aviv and with every IDF bullet that takes out some Palestinian teenager, the Holy Land moves a little closer towards its own destruction.

No military aid, no trade, and no economic support until there's a lasting peace accord that includes the creation of two separate, independent democracies and the conditions of United Nations Resolution 181 (II) [1947] are met.

Iraq? I'm embarrassed, as an American, that the initial invasion of Iraq promised to liberate the Iraqi people yet has led to only to the creation of another Banana Republic. Complete and sudden withdrawl at this point would just cause more senseless bloodshed. Its high time the American government quit treating Iraq like it did South Vietnam, quit focusing on propping up an Iraqi government and started focusing on building up the Iraqi people.

Want to get Americans out of Iraq? Then let's pressure our elected officials to sit down and give us a true comprehensive plan for finishing what we started. Too many people seem to believe politicians and militaries create democracies. The truth is everyday people create nations - farmers, educators, carpenters, craftsmen, poets, architects, engineers, artists, theologians, athiests, accountants, and shopkeepers. The U.S. was built by its Whitmans, its Emersons, its Frederick Douglasses, its Susan B. Anthonys, its Babe Ruths - not by its Nixons, Kennedys, or Bushes.

To Old Man 2005, good luck and good riddance. See ya in hell.

I, for one, am glad to see your wrinkled ass hit the highway.