What Caught My Eye Today - 2010 In Review

Fred's Note: Just a quick note of thanks to my friends at the Associated Press, Reuters, BBC, The Week Magazine and a host of other media outlets for turning a blind eye to my blatant plagiarism. Without these fine organizations and institutions, this blog would not be possible.

2010 - As 2010 draws to a close, and what a year it was, I thought I would join in with all those media outlets that I've "borrowed" content from and come up with my own list of top headlines for 2010.

January - A massive earthquake devastates the island of Haiti, killing 230,000 people, injuring another 300,000, and leaving more than a million homeless. And perhaps you will recall, 9 days later George Clooney hosted one heck of a benefit concert that broadcast on nearly every broadcast network raising more than $66 million in one night.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, declared that the age of privacy has ended. The new “social norm,” says Zuckerberg, is to share one’s personal information “more openly and with more people.” Speak for yourself, homeboy. Just because you are Time magazine's Person of the Year, doesn't mean you speak for the masses. I, for one, still value what little privacy I have left. By the way, loved you in "The Social Network".

February - The populist conservative movement known as the Tea Party holds its first convention. The keynote speaker—for a $100,000 speaking fee—is Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate. Speaking from notes written on her hand, Palin rips into President Obama, inquiring of the boisterous crowd, "How’s that hopey-changey stuff working out for ya?" Ah yes, a proud day for all Americans. Though give these guys credit. Despite the likes of Sarah Palin, the Tea Party has certain struck a chord with a pretty sizable chunk of the American population, as demonstrated by the number of Tea Party endorsed legislators getting elected to Congress in November.

March - President Obama signs into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the first major expansion of social welfare since Medicare in 1965. Not a single Republican votes for it. Call me crazy, but I'm thinking we haven't heard the last about this. A South Korean warship, the Cheonan, sinks after a torpedo strike—most likely from a North Korean submarine—killing 46 seamen. Things sort of went downhill from here.

April - In my humble opinion, April quite possibly was the lousiest month of the year, though that deal in Haiti back in January is pretty tough to beat. A military airliner crashes in Russia, killing Polish President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of Polish officials. President Obama is due to attend Kaczynski’s funeral, but the trip is canceled when the Ejyafjallajokull volcano in Iceland erupts, spewing potentially engine-clogging ash into the atmosphere. The ash cloud lingers for weeks, grounding millions of passengers in Europe and costing the global airline industry around $200 million a day. 2010 wasn't exactly a banner year for air travel in Europe. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signs into law a controversial bill empowering state police to demand the papers of anyone they have a “reasonable suspicion” of being an illegal immigrant. Incidentally, girlfriend won re-election in November by a landslide, so you cannot argue that she wasn't looking after the interests of the people she represents. In the Gulf of Mexico, BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig explodes, killing 11 oil workers and injuring another 17 before sinking to the ocean floor. And that was just the tip of the iceberg.

May - BP raises its estimate of how much oil is flowing into the Gulf to 5,000 barrels a day, making this already the worst man made environmental disaster in North American history. Days later, the U.S. Geological Survey ups the figure to between 12,000 and 19,000 barrels a day. Even then, they weren't even remotely close to how much oil was spewing into the Gulf. President Obama nominates Solicitor General Elena Kagan, 50, to replace Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. Debate rages over whether or not Kagan’s sexuality is fair game for public scrutiny, until the White House reveals that despite never marrying, and having once been photographed playing softball, Kagan is in fact heterosexual. I don't know, dude, seems like a bit of a stretch to me. I mean why else would you play softball if you weren't gay?

June - Israeli troops board a relief ship headed for Gaza, and when they’re met with resistance from club-wielding activists, the commandos open fire, killing 10. The outraged international reaction leads Israel to loosen its strict blockade of Gaza and the 1.5 million Palestinians who live there. And we wonder why the peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians never seem to make much progress. Here's a thought--stop killing each other! In the Gulf, BP engineers finally succeed in fitting a "containment cap" to the ruptured oil well that will capture up to 15,000 barrels of oil a day. But government experts revise their flow rate to 60,000 barrels a day. It took two months, but the estimates are finally getting closer to the mark.

July - Spain wins soccer’s World Cup. Facebook announces it now has 500 million users. WikiLeaks, an anti-secrecy website, publishes 92,000 classified U.S. military documents from the ongoing war in Afghanistan (yeah, those dudes were just getting warmed up), revealing intense frustration by commanders on the ground over Afghan corruption and the Taliban’s military resiliency. In the Gulf of Mexico, BP engineers finally stanch the flow of oil from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon rig, but not before an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil—206 million gallons—have spilled into the water. President Obama signs into law a sweeping package of new regulations on the financial industry. "Thanks to this bill," says Obama, "the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s mistakes." Right. Until the next time it happens. Controversy erupts around plans to build an Islamic cultural center in Lower Manhattan, two blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center. Sarah Palin, weighing in via her Twitter account, calls on Muslims to "refudiate" the planned mosque, explaining—when it’s pointed out that there is no such word—that "Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!" I don't know about you, but if I had a nickel for every time I found myself comparing Sarah Palin to William Shakespeare....

August - In Washington, Fox News’ Glenn Beck holds a rally to "Restore Honor" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. "Restore Honor" or "Boost One's Public Image"? I always get those two confused. Voting largely along party lines, the Senate confirms Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Amazing. I thought that softball deal was the final nail in coffin. In California, a federal judge overturns Proposition 8, a state ballot initiative banning gay marriage, though he imposes a stay on his own ruling in anticipation of appeals. Honestly, don't we have enough "softball" players already without encouraging them to live together like...God forbid...those of of use who don't play "softball"? In Chile, a cave-in at a copper mine traps 33 miners nearly a half-mile underground, and they are feared dead. 17 days after the cave-in, workers drilling an exploratory bore-hole in the search for the missing miners find a note taped to the end of their drill-bit: "We are alive in the refuge." This ranks pretty high up on my list of feel good stories of the year, few that there were..

September - After a seven-year campaign that cost the lives of 4,400 U.S. troops and at least 100,000 civilians, the last U.S. combat unit leaves Iraq. With 50,000 "support troops" remaining in the country—and mindful of his predecessor’s premature declaration of "Mission Accomplished"—President Obama describes the pullout only as "a milestone in the Iraq war." Dude might not be very popular at the moment, but you have to give Obama credit for choosing his words a bit more careful than some of his predecessor's have.

October - After 69 days underground, the 33 Chilean miners return to the surface, one by one, in a specially designed rescue capsule, stepping out to the cheers and hugs of jubilant family members and the glare of media superstardom. My money is on Lifetime Network producing the first made-for-television movie. WikiLeaks publishes a trove of 400,000 classified U.S. military documents, this time from the war in Iraq. Now we're talking! Anyone can publish 92,000 classified documents, but 400,000? That takes skill, my friends. Computer-security experts tell the world of an ultra-sophisticated computer virus named "Stuxnet," seemingly engineered to locate and destroy the industrial centrifuges being used in Iran’s nuclear program. Here's a interesting question to ponder. Which is a more effective deterrent, a computer virus or the threat of "shock and awe". If you base your decision on pure entertainment value, I'm thinking you have to go with "shock and awe". Think about it. How riveting would it be to watch a computer virus?

November - The Republican Party cleans up in the midterm elections, seizing back the House of Representatives with a record net gain of 63 seats. In the Senate, the GOP wins 24 of 37 races, leaving Democrats with a meager six-seat majority. A visibly shaken President Obama describes the results as a "shellacking." For me, "shellacking" should be a contender for word of the year along with the likes of "austerity" and "chimichanga". But then again, I have a bias toward words that actually exist, though the fact that some dictionary publishers suggests that "refudiate" is well on its way to achieving word status. No word yet on "hopey-changey". North and South Korea exchange artillery fire, raising tensions along their disputed border to their highest level in more than a decade. I'm thinking these guys are probably going to appear rather regularly in the 2011 headlines.

December - WikiLeaks publishes another massive trove of documents: 251,000 secret diplomatic cables containing a wealth of sensitive and embarrassing revelations. Is anyone besides me wondering just how secret these diplomatic cables really are? WikiLeaks has published close to 750,000 so far, and apparently has loads more to reveal. In a scene from Sarah Palin’s Alaska that chills vegetarians and Democrats everywhere, Palin clubs to death a huge halibut that one of her family members caught, and then triumphantly holds up its still-beating heart. There's a disturbing image. In a TV interview, Palin says she’s confident that she could beat President Obama in 2012. If other Republicans "don’t have a shot at winning," Palin says, "I would offer myself up." Lucky us.