No Bangs, Just Whimpers . . .

That's how 2007 will end around here, no bangs, just whimpers.

I missed Festivus (just not feeling the grievances), and I'm not in a retrospective mood, so pretend that I was and that I agree with your picks of your own favorite posts from the past year that you read here, usually this blog is a dictatorship, but it doesn't have to be.

2008 should be an interesting year. Finally, after this endless election cycle, people will be casting actual votes and actual delegates will actually get selected. Ought to be fun. Outside of politics you have interesting times in the local big industry, Hollywood, with a big effort by the studios to break the various unions and get costs under control. It worked for the NFL, and the NBA, didn't work so well for the NHL or MLB. The music industry is in flux, with more and more artists learning how to abandon the labels and market directly to their fans. Big isn't better anymore in the music industry, and either the labels will adjust to the new reality, or continue to flail and fail. 2007 seemed to be the year of 'pop wrecks' from Britney, to Paris, to Lindsay (with the spectre of a Anna-Nicole like flameout hanging over their heads if their behavior continues as it is now), but that's all just a side show. I don't mind poking fun at the freaks, when the freaks are well compensated, it's much more distasteful when it's the early rounds of American Idol style freak show where they revel in the humiliation of slightly odd (or very odd) 'regular folk'.

Also, the international scene seems more chaotic than ever, but the reality of it is that 2007 was the most peaceful year in recent times with fewer conflicts, fewer deaths, fewer famines, and more people living in fat, happy prosperity than ever before. No reason to expect that trend to change in 2008. There's still a very real risk that some group of backward assholes will get lucky and pull of a spectacular mass casualty attack in some major Western city, but that's a threat that's going to hang over all major populations and free societies for decades to come. Doesn't mean that resistance against these crazies is futile, just means that their bar for 'success' is much lower. We're winning this war, it's only a matter of time, and will.

I'm hoping to blog a lot more in 2008, no promises, but the plan is to post 4-5 quick Instapundit style pointers to good stuff each day, and 3-4 longer pieces of varying kinds each week. It's not a big goal, and it may not create any new traffic towards this site, but it'll keep me busy and out of mischief (or into even greater mischief, depending on the nature of the posts), so that's something.