Paul
Ibrahim
Read Paul's bio and previous columns
December 29, 2008
Worst Stories of 2007,
One Year Later
At
the end of 2007, I wrote two columns examining the top stories of 2007.
One looked at the
worst stories of 2007, and the other listed the
best. Revisiting these columns a year later is a worthy exercise
that can tell us a lot about our politics and our world – and,
importantly, about our individual and collective minds. This week we
will take a look at some of the worst stories of 2007, reserving the
best stories for next week.
Some behavior seems too stubborn to change, even when its madness is
pointed out year after year. The 10th worst story of 2007, for instance,
was the politically correct symbolism of the University of Illinois’
ditching of its mascot, Chief Illiniwek, despite the fact that
four-fifths of Native Americans approve of the use of Indian names in
sports. But academia managed to outdo itself this year, with the worst
story coming out of Carleton University, where the Students’ Association
voted to drop fundraising for a cystic fibrosis charity because the
disease primarily affects white men, and thus is not “inclusive” enough.
Another of the 10 worst stories of 2007 was Al Gore’s Live Earth
concert, the environmental costs of which, ironically, were the
equivalent of cutting down 100,000 trees. But these costs might be fine
after all, because in 2008 things were very much pointing in a direction
that renders the quasi-religious cause of Gore and Hollywood somewhat
unwarranted. For one, this past year was cold – very cold. So cold that
even the global warmists were forced to revise their theory by claiming
that we will see a cold period before global warming kicks in (but it’s
still coming, for serious!). Unfortunately for them, hordes of
scientists are increasingly coming out against the theory of global
warming, pulverizing any suggestion of a consensus on the issue.
I
don’t claim to know the answer, but I do know that global warming, as
advanced by the Gore types, is not a certainty. And I know that there is
even much less evidence that global warming, if it is occurring, is
caused by human behavior, and by behavior that could be reversed through
suffocating government regulation.
The subprime mortgage crisis was another top story in 2007. We were
worried – at the time – that the government might bail out some of the
“victims” who were themselves the cause of the crisis. Little did we
know that by the end of 2008, the government will have been bailing out
everyone from banks to unions for amounts totaling in the 13 digits.
And finally, the worst story of 2007 was that of the Democrats taking
the U.S. Congress under the leadership of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.
We gave the Senate to a man who declared the Iraq War to be “lost” just
as our troops were building the victory we have today. We gave the House
to a woman who, in one of her first acts, appointed as Chairman of the
House Intelligence Committee a congressman who did not know whether Al
Qaeda was a Sunni or Shiite organization.
Yet they promised the “most ethical Congress in history.” Of course, the
scandals soon started spilling out. And the exchange of political favors
through earmarks and other tools moved ahead at full steam. And they
have since treated none of the ethical violators as badly as they have
treated Sen. Joe Lieberman, who was involved with no scandal but chose
to act on his conscience and endorse a Republican for public office.
No
wonder congressional approval ratings are in the single digits. If these
congressmen were the worst story in 2007 and not much better in 2008,
one can only wonder what will come out of a Democratic Congress in 2009,
under a president that is one of their own.
© 2008 North Star
Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
Click here to talk to our writers and
editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.
To e-mail feedback
about this column,
click here. If you enjoy this writer's
work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry
it.
This is Column # PI146.
Request
permission to publish here.
|