2006 is over and done with

So the Iraqis have executed Saddam Hussein. I'm opposed to the death penalty, so I don't like the idea of his having been killed. But, like so many things in Iraq, there seems to be no good answer to the problem. If he had been sentenced to life in prison in an Iraqi jail, would he have been summarily executed by one faction or another? Or would he have been liberated by another faction? Given the chaos in Iraq, I think that there always was a possibility that Saddam would return to power. And I'm sure that he had a list of people that he was planning to torture to death if given the chance.

One thing from the Globe's article caught my attention, and showed how bad things really are in Iraq these days:

There was no sign of a feared Sunni uprising in retaliation for the execution, and the bloodshed from civil warfare on Saturday was not far off the daily average — 92 from bombings and death squads.

Not far off the daily average. Whoa.


One of today's spam messages contained a paragraph that reads like a description of a Dali surrealist painting:

A light bulb related to the wedding dress prays, and the unstable support group reads a magazine; however, a bowling ball around a dolphin pours freezing cold water on a pork chop. A soggy bullfrog seldom throws an apartment building around the polar bear at a graduated cylinder for the ball bearing. Furthermore, the purple bowling ball self-flagellates, and a turkey feverishly is a big fan of a jersey cow inside a chestnut. Sometimes a green submarine hides, but a girl scout always sanitizes the paper napkin! Indeed, another fried judge figures out an avocado pit defined by a short order cook. A pig pen starts reminiscing about lost glory, and an obsequious crane takes a coffee break; however, the chestnut living with the tomato makes love to an ostensibly stoic customer.

I want some of whatever they're smoking.


Okay, now I'm really worried about the weather. The forecasted highs for Toronto for the next few days are 5, 7, 3, 6 and 8C. This is winter we're talking about here. I hope that we humans haven't totally screwed up the planet, and there's still time to fix things up.


So it's the end of another year. 2006 was a weird and difficult year for me and a lot of people I know - I, for one, will be glad to see the end of it. I don't make New Year's resolutions - if I could change my behaviour that easily, I'd have done it already - but I hope that I can help make 2007 a better year both for me and for the people that I care about.