Alright folks, on to the second half of the year. The Jan-Jun list of grievances and anti-grievances can be found here.
July 2006
A July Grievance goes out to the weasels at Agence France-Presse. Jealous Much?
A July Grievance was well earned by another Frenchman for his Infamous Head Butt. Again, all I can do is quote Ren, "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEdiot".
The July Anti-Grievance was well earned by Mustapha at The Beirut Spring blog for calling out Aljazeera on their pro-Hezbollah bias during the conflict in Southern Lebanon (and doing so in a humorous way).
August 2006
An August Grievance goes out to the good people of the United States of America for staying away from Snakes on a Plane in droves. It was a fun film, you would have enjoyed it.
An August Grievance goes out to John Mark Karr (enough said).
An August Anti-Grievance goes out to Porkbusters.org, among others who tracked down which Senators were placing secret holds on legislation that would make Congress a little more transparent. It was good work, but much, much more needs to be done.
September 2006
A September Grievance goes out to Pres. Bill Clinton for the whining, and behind the scenes pressure he put on ABC because of problems he had with his portrayal in their Path to 9/11 drama. That episode encapsulated all that was wrong with his presidency, his overwhelming need to be loved and well regarded led to bad policies from time to time. His need to continue to polish his image since he left office has also been very unseemly, and un-presidential.
A September Grievance goes out to the Usual Suspects over the usual "Muslim Outrage". This month's edition was over Pope Benedict XVI's rather tame and scholarly speech. Again, EEEEEEEEEEdiots!!!
A September Anti-Grievance goes out to the Bush Adminstration. The fifth 9/11 anniversary passed without a follow-on attack. Many folks (especially those in the fourth estate) would like for us to believe that their actions had nothing to do with this, but hopefully the American people know better. They've done something remarkable in preventing all subsequent attacks in the homeland, if you don't believe that Al Qaeda has desired a spectacular follow up these past five years, then you're a deluded fool.
October 2006
An October Grievance goes out to Kim Jong Il. Is your penis that small that you have to blow up a nuclear bomb to feel like a man? Well the bomb seems like it was a bit of a dud, just like you.
An October Grievance was well earned by The Lancet for publishing an astoundingly off base estimate of total casualties in Iraq. You can be against the war, but don't make up ridiculous numbers using specious methods and try and convince us they're "facts".
An October Anti-Grievance goes out to the South Park fellas. They continue to rock, and rock hard. The episodes they put on in October were all pretty great (especially the one involving Satan). They've maintained a level of excellence that's impressive over ten seasons of shows.
November 2006
A November Grievance goes out to President James Earl Carter and his poorly reasoned, poorly researched tome released in this month. I really have no words to express my disgust, but the pounding he's been getting from many sources over this has been gratifying (and the worship he still gets from other sources is mind boggling).
A November Grievance goes out to President George Bush for firing (I'm sorry, Rumsfeld "resigned") Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld after the election. If firing was inevitable, it should have been done in September when it might have effected the election. To say the firing wasn't politically motivated in the aftermath of the election results seems like a lie. Rumsfeld has served well and was well liked, by most accounts, by the front line troops (but not so much by the generals). Dumping him when you did, the way you did, does not match the dignity of his service.
A November Anti-Grievance goes out to the good folks of the United States of America for turning out and voting. I may not like the results in most cases, and fear what the Democrats may do with their committee chairs, but I respect the desire for change. Also a mini-anti-grievance to the voters of California for rejecting many bad propositions and re-electing Arnold as the Governator. He's done a fine job, and will do us proud for another four years.
December 2006
A December Grievance goes out to the management team at GM. You've run an American institution and corporate behemoth into the ground, with a huge assist from the UAW. News articles began surfacing this month, and Toyota acknowledged, that GM's position as the globe's volume leader in car sales will be supplanted next year. There have been many missed opportunities in the past decade to prevent this from happening, but boring designs, union intransigence, reliance on truck sales for profits, and a general inability to cut through the entrenched bureaucracy within the corporation have lead to this sad moment. I have no solution, and no real desire to see GM overtake Toyota again. Toyota gets it and makes great cars, big, small, luxurious, econobox, and they make pretty good trucks, too. Still even with that it's sad to see GM get passed by.
A December Grievance goes out to Time Magazine for your ridiculous choice in your annual Personage or Entity of the Year edition. It's just more silly navel-gazing, and the internet has plenty of that, already.
December's Anti-Grievance goes out to You. I know I'm in Time Magazine territory here, but the few dozen folks that show up here on a regular basis, and the hundreds more who find themselves here while searching for bizarre things (like Kat Dennings Bra Size, or ...land of funk to the land of funk...lyrics) are reason enough to keep on doing this well into 2007 and beyond.
Hope you've had a Happy Festivus, and that the rest of your holidays are equally Festive and Joyous.
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