First and foremost, happy new year! My resolution is to even more finely hone my craft of pissing off Republicans, to the point of doing so daily, with an op-ed a week.

Iraq returns fire on Blackwater, even if it’s just in the courtroom. This reminds me of the time I almost got in a bar fight with a Blackwater “employee”. I’m not joking about this, either. When I brought up this case, and I mean this very case, only to have the contractor, who had never been outside the US with the company (or hadn’t yet), get ready to beat me with a chair before I could talk him down. Sure, I may have goaded him a bit, but this doesn’t seem like the kind of market that attracts a mentally “sound” workforce.

Rush Limbaugh is 100% not dead.

The new year started off strong for couples in New Hampshire. At 12:01, gay marriage became legal. Being allowed to get married is a hell of a good new years gift, with some resolutions implied.

Should technology be a bigger factor in terror prevention? Michael Chertoff says yes, and we’d better get ready to argue about it. I wonder if it was ever viewed as an infringement on personal liberties when inmates were strip searched before being placed in a confined space with other, possibly dangerous people and no way to escape. No one wants to be seen naked(-ish) be a complete stranger, barring some attention desperate types, but if you don’t want to deal with it, don’t fly. I don’t want to have to explain everything in my bag to a (sadly) glorified mall cop, so when I go to California, I don’t bring produce over state lines, and I don’t buy cigarettes in Canada. If I were to do those things and be searched, or have my car searched, I would not be angry. These are trade offs we make for being allowed to use someone’s airplane for a few hours; they make sure we’re not going to kill off their clientele or destroy their investment. It’s not like the middle aged woman waving the fancy wand over your wife is going to start questioning her worldview over your heavyset wife.

Cancer breakthroughs coming faster then expected, at least with the now endangered Tasmanian Devil, who has seen a 70% decline in population since being marred by the disease.

Mousavi and Iran’s revolution are alive and kicking, even though he’s preparing to die for the cause.

Animal rights activist= paid plaintiff? Championing a cause is a pretty silly way to spend your life, i suppose.