Jay Currie

215,000 uniques. About half a month’s traffic at Kate’s.

It has been a year when blogging engaged with the world outside. Ezra and Mark lead the charge against the CHRC and s. 13. We went from s. 13 being entirely marginal to s. 13 being the talk of the MSM and the Tory Policy Convention. Kate, Kathy,the National Post, Ezra and Free Dominion got sued by a worm.

Dr. Dawg came into his own as the one relatively rational member of the lefthand side of the ‘sphere who was not Terry Glavin.

The Lying Jackal continued with his mix of fact and fiction.

Politically this was as interesting a year as could be imagined. The Count’s coup has narrowly avoided the final destruction of the Liberal Party of Canada. The “Coalition” concept could have put the Libs under but Iggy is too smart for that.

Harper now has an opponent at least as smart and twice as stylish as he is. Frankly, unless and until Harper starts governing from the right – beginning with s. 13 – if I have to have a Liberal or Liberal-Lite government, I will go with the full bodied, rather stylish, Liberal. I mean what is the point of electing so called conservatives if all they do is bailout auto companies and suck up to vis-mins. Repealing s. 13 should be a complete no brainer – but apparently vast study is needed. Spare us all Steve – keep doing this and I will happily vote for the Count so as not to be embarrassed by the silliness you pretend is conservatism.

On the broader stage, the close of 2008 sees the Israelis taking a swipe at Hamas. I hope they keep going. Someone has to free the Gazans and the Palestinian people from their terrorist masters. The Israelis have made a start – but soon it will be time for the Palestinians to free themselves.

W. leaves office with 0 further attacks in America and Victory in Iraq. (And a deeply tanking US economy but, hey, the One will be able to solve that with a lift of an eyebrow.) I suspect history will be sweetly indifferent to W. There will be little praise but the vitriol of the last six years will fade as well. My own sense is that Bush was far too limited to ever get ahead of the day to day on the job. Great Presidents set agendas, mediocre ones respond to events. W. was a responder.

The world economy has been falling into abyss after abyss. Trillions of imaginary dollars lost. The key word here being imaginary. If two people make a bet on the fall of a raindrop and each puts up, say, their shoes, the bet is a real bet. If they put up cash it is very close to a real bet. IOUs, are not much of a bet. Someone else’s IOUs? Still less of a bet. A good deal of imaginary money is going to money heaven which is sort of like saying that your stuffed animal is dead. As it was never actually alive it is hardly a matter of profound sorrow.

Lots of formerly smart people are running about announcing that the sky is falling, fallen, underground – which may all be true. Or, more likely, it may not be true because for the world, the United States, wayward child that it is, is simply the perfect example of “too big to fail”. America is about to become a good deal smaller as will England, Germany, Italy and China. The Oil states have already shrunk. If a degree of order can be maintained in the face of the deleveraging economy there is every chance that all nations will come out ahead – bubbles bursted – but ahead in the sense that realism will have been restored.

2009, which I will write about tomorrow will likely be about reality. Nasty. Cheap. Hard. But with the flinty taste of real.

Meanwhile, Happy New Year!