Happy New Year, everyone

And I do mean everyone. I've been blogging for all of six months or so, and have met enough interesting people to stuff a Rolodex. To those on my side of the political fence, I wish us the thousand small and large victories that will move us all forward in the coming year. To those on the other side of the fence, or on it, or even above it--rest assured, we shall have some interesting discussions in the year to come.

Internationally, Bolivia will be interesting to watch, as the American empire crumbles just a little more. And, with any luck, the Butcher of Santiago will do a little time before he expires. Our complicity in torture and political imprisonment in Haiti will deserve some on-going scrutiny as well. And Iraq, of course, always Iraq--will the Kurds finally wrench a northern homeland out of the Bush experiment? So many places, so relatively little time to comment.

Closer to home, I look forward to justice for the Lubicon and proportional representation, keeping the Conservative wolves at bay and trying (talk about uphill battles) to keep the Liberals honest. Out-of-the-box ideas are starting to be heard in the midst of the current political holding pattern. A couple of folks have suggested, for example, in all seriousness, a Conservative-NDP alliance. Any idea what such an unstable compound might look like, and what joint policies might emerge before the thing disappears in a flash of gamma radiation?

I have added three intelligent right-wing blogistas to my blogroll. Among the acres of mudslingers, name-callers and knee-jerk, hateful so-cons out there, a few bright and civil voices emerge now and then. While I find much of their world-view uninhabitable, I recognize and salute their ability to write, think and analyze. Such people would be an asset were they to undergo a Damascene conversion on the road to Ottawa, as it were. Being on the left, I remain an eternal optimist.

Ms. Dawg, our younger whelp and I have just returned from a rural celebration of New Year's Eve, where for once no one woke up with a hangover. Below is the morning scene, New Year's Day 2006. Pretty beautiful country we live in, eh?