Lessons Learned In 2011

Image via WikipediaIn 2011, we learned that . . .

• just because the economy is improving, it doesn't mean you are.
• Osama bin Laden, Muammar Gadhafi and Kim Jong-il may be gone.  But American citizens can still be poked, prodded and sent away to prison in the name of defending the "homeland".
• in the spirit of Howard Beale, people around the world are taking to the streets and shouting "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more!" at governments and the economies that run them.
• Washington (and some state capitals) has become a "no compromise" zone.
• women politicians are just as capable of losing their jobs due to alleged sexual shenanigans as their male counterparts are, and have more to lose because of it.
• being the beneficiary of a controversial jury verdict doesn't mean you can be allowed to live in peace.
• one man can have an effect on his company, and leave behind a legacy of products people never knew they wanted.
• no secret is safe, now that even classified documents can be put online.
• for all their rantings about being part of the 99%, some liberal commentators take home salaries worthy of the 1%.
• tactics used by some British tabloids make the American media's methods of getting the story seem tame by comparison.
• we didn't know who Kate Middleton was before she married a king in waiting, and we still don't.
• the world's climate may be changing, but the debate about it isn't.
• what didn't kill Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords only made her stronger.
• the space shuttle entered the final frontier--history.
• Minnesota can still produce politicians that make Jesse Ventura look good.
• Sarah Palin and Donald Trump didn't run for President.  But the Republicans had plenty of characters who did.
• Russia's Vladimir Putin is not a lock to win another presidential term.
• Neither is President Barack Obama.
• the use of technology behind the wheel can be just as deadly as getting drunk.
• wars end when you least expect them to.
• in Japan, disaster came in threes.

Class resumes January 1, 2012.