all is not lost in 2012

in the Guardian, there is a travel writer called Kevin Rushby.  he is their Explorer.

he went to visit the Mayans at the end of 2011 to see if the end of the world was coming in 2012, and they told him that it was not.

so that's that.

end of season finale for mankind, part 2

after ending the first part of this two-part post on a high (?) note (oh dear, if that was a high note, i fear for the future of our society)... i'm afraid we're going to have to jump back into the decimation that was 2011...

so to May.  the USA were really happy this month, because Osama bin Laden was killed.  what really happened was that he was gunned down by soldiers in front of his family in his own home.  and apparently, because it was Osama bin Laden, that kind of action is okay.  they called it "justice".  well, for the record, the definition of justice is

1. the quality of being just; fairness

2. a) The principle of moral rightness; equity.

b) Conformity to moral rightness in action or attitude; righteousness

JUST SO WE'RE CLEAR.

anyway, what i remember finding the most interesting about this event was the reaction by some to this photograph:

because in a Yiddish Haredi Brooklyn newspaper, Hillary Clinton was not there!

whoa!  magic!

June didn't provide us with much, but i can tell you that in Scotland, we weren't having much of a summer at this point.  so on a whole, June was a bit underwhelming.

but in July, it all kicked off again with Rupert Murdoch and the News of the World hacking scandal!!!!

this was front page news EVERY DAY in the UK.  Lilah and I went to the USA for 3 weeks right after the scandal broke open, and I read the papers and watched the news every day while away, and NOT ONCE did this make front page news.  it was regularly featured on the one page of international news in the Sacramento Bee (that's page 6, by the way).  and I never saw it on any of the news programs.  

is that a bit scary to you americans?  because it should be.  it sure scared the piss out of me! y'all are pretty much owned by the Murdoch corporation.  the UK is as well.  well, not as much as it was before this happened... but he still owns the Sun (another tabloid paper) and Sky (a massive cable network).  difference is, people here are not willing to be bought out by illegal practices, and will speak up for what is right.

so the editor of the News of the World, Andy Carson, resigned twice amidst the scandal.  and then Rupert Murdoch's right hand man, Rebecca Brooks, she took over the editor's position for a while, but then resigned as well, as the paper was forced to shut down publication -- after 168 years running.

you see, it can be done.  

and then Rupert Murdoch was brought to trial for the hacking 

(thank you NY Times for your attention to international news).

and he was hit in the face with a pie during the procedure.

which he deserved.

in August, the London protests started up again and then spread through the city.  there was already a worldwide movement at this point to Occupy Wall Street and it was very, very interesting to witness the different cities and countries reactions to this occupation.  

in London, the Occupy folks were stationed at St Paul's Cathedral.  strangely, the church folk didn't want them to be there... something about making it hard for the tourists to get in... but then, very cleverly, the protesters reminded the church about the story of Jesus and the Money Lenders.  

which brought new life to the question, "what would jesus do?"

and then the church remembered what jesus DID do.  and they let the protesters stay.  and maybe eve brought them some soup.

it had been a while since we heard about any uprising by this point in the year, but never fear, Libya was ready to roll come September, and roll they did.

there were protests, riots, and uprisings all over the place!  crazy Colonel Gaddafi found himself on the run from the Anti-Gaddafi uprising.  during the hunt for Gaddafi, although there were rumours that he fled Libya, he (quite incoherently) addressed the nation from a "rainy" Tripoli, stating that he was there, gave a few interviews to the british press - also quite incoherently, and then

in October, he was found and killed.  i'm not going to post those pictures.  they're pretty vile.

while all this is going on in Northern Africa and the Middle East, there was also the Euro-Crisis to remember.  Angela Merkel (German chancellor) and Nicolas Sarkozy (France's president), although mostly Angela Merkel and the rest of "Secure Germany" are trying to figure out how to bail all the rest of the European countries out of massive debt.

i like this picture

although this is more telling of what the relationship is really like

Greece is pretty screwed.  Spain isn't very well off.  and in November, Italy got in such trouble, that their crazy, corrupt, mafioso prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, resigned after 17 years in power.

anyway, by that time it was December.  nobody had any money for Christmas and everyone was expecting a perfect holiday.

and that, dear reader, is a year for the history books.

i'm just hoping that 2012 is going to be a little less intense than 2011.  and maybe more positive?

(and warmer...)

end of season finale for mankind, part 1

i've been processing 2011 for a few weeks.  i'm not ready to make new years resolutions because i'm still digesting everything that went on.  and i'm going to assume some other people are feeling like me, a little "whoa..." about things.  so to help (?), i'm going to write up the summary provided to the british public by our very own Charlie Brooker

in Charlie Brooker's 2011 Wipe

if you don't know mr. brooker yet, take the opportunity to get to know him.  he'll educate you and make you laugh at the same time.  and he's got no patience for ... well, all things idiotic ... which is refreshing.

anyway.  in January of 2011, Tunisia began the year of the Despot toppling craze with a revolution and subsequent ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

in February, Egypt joined in.  President Mubarak was eventually ousted after huge, major, extremely powerful and significant protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

not to leave out any superfluous celebrities, February also saw the onslaught of mentalness - but definitely NOT drug abuse - brought upon himself by Charlie Sheen.  yeah.  his drug of choice is Charlie Sheen. cause that makes sense...

moving right back to the sensational events of the world, March was not going to be outdone by a couple of revolutions... no... in March, if you'll remember, Japan got completely annihilated by a tsunami.  

as if that wasn't enough, a few days later, the Fukushima Nuclear Plant had a pretty disastrous malfunction. 

and on the other side of the world, in London, protesters marched against government cuts... and then it all turned a bit sour, when people began looting local shops and generally destroying everything they could.

in April, it seemed the world needed a break, so everyone got sidetracked by all the tragedy and spent a few weeks staring at Pippa Middleton's bum.  oh, and the royal wedding gave everyone in the UK another holiday.

everyday should be face-painting day

Lilah the butterfly

later today we're going to paint the Ice Queen...