For my friends:

Amanda and I were watching the news last night (the good ol’ Newshour) and a story ran about how strong McCain is looking in New Hampshire for today’s primary. They made a big deal about how well he was doing in New Hampshire “despite” his fourth place finish in Iowa. I groaned and said to Amanda, “You know he didn’t campaign at all in Iowa.” And she says, “I know.” Look at her, becoming all political junkie on us!

I really have no idea whom I’ll be voting for in November, or whom I want to become the next president. I do think that all the candidates in the (exceptionally wide) field would make perfectly competent presidents. I’m also betting on there being at least one viable independent or third-party ticket emerging after the primaries.

I have leanings toward Ron Paul. I have to say, though, this article on him published online today in the New Republic has me troubled. He has been producing a quarterly newsletter since 1978, and the reporter dug up some of the lost pre-1999 issues. The key paragraph from the article: “What they [the newsletters] reveal are decades worth of obsession with conspiracies,
sympathy for the right-wing militia movement, and deeply held bigotry
against blacks, Jews, and gays. In short, they suggest that Ron Paul is
not the plain-speaking antiwar activist his supporters believe they are
backing–but rather a member in good standing of some of the oldest and
ugliest traditions in American politics.”

What better way to look back on 2007 in public life than with Harper’s Yearly.

It’s three paragraphs of just the facts, ma’am, but the magic is in the arrangement:

“Eighty percent of Iraqis were reporting ‘attacks nearby’ and it was estimated that 90 percent of Iraq’s artists had fled the country or been killed. Halliburton announced that it would add 13,000 jobs, and President George W. Bush underwent a colonoscopy.”

“Drought was driving tens of thousands of snakes into Australian cities, female koalas in Australia were ignoring males in favor of five-bear lesbian orgies, and developers were planning to open a Hooters in Dubai.”

Happy new year, everyone. May your days be merry and bright.