Awfully Long Hiatus; New Years Cheer?

Sorry, FFB readers, if there are any of you left. But I'm back from my Christmas travels and ready to start a new year of blogging. There's a whole lot to blog about. But just as an opening thought, I find myself looking forward to the New Year with a fair amount of dread. It's pretty clear, at this point, that 2007 will almost certainly see an escalation of the Iraq war, and it's a real possibility that we will be approaching 4000 U.S. dead in that war by this time next year. The number of Iraqis who will die violently, in the next year, will be much, much greater. This escalation, or the folly of this escalation, is the story of the year.

And yet, our news media will continue to cover the Duke rape case, missing Mt. Hood climbers, and any missing white woman as though they are stories of national import.

2007 will be a year without progress on a range of important issues. Climate change, widespread environmental degradation, health care, rising inequality--all these things will get a little bit worse in the coming year. "A little bit," if we're lucky.

But that's enough doom and gloom. More later. I promise.