Once again, we have reached New Year's Eve. To paraphrase John Lennon, soon another year will be over and a new one will begin. As usual, I acknowledge that we are still living in interesting times. I have a feeling that the times will continue to be interesting in the new year.
As usual, there are many events of the soon-to-be-past year that I could recall, but I can never recount all the those which deserve to be recounted. Even so, I'll mention a few things. Perhaps most notably, Hamas attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7th and Israel has been fighting back ever since. The war has inspired numerous protests that have been ostensibly pro-Palestine but in my view, they're really pro-Hamas. Meanwhile, Hamas's leaders are not in Gaza, but were in Qatar as of early November, but may have since then gone elsewhere. In possible support of Hamas, the Houthi rebels in Yemen have attacked commercial shipping in the Red Sea, in order to prevent such ships from reaching Israel. Recently, the U.S. Navy has repelled one such attack, sinking three Houthi ships.
Former President Trump had a very interesting year, being indicted in plural jurisdictions for various alleged offenses, and being sued for fraud relating to allegedly inflating his wealth and assets. Meanwhile, the Colorado Supreme Court removed him from the state's primary ballot, but stayed the decision as Republicans appealed it to the U.S. Supreme Court. Similar efforts in other states failed, but were successful in Maine.
U.S. congresscritters certainly had an interesting year. They took 15 ballots to choose Kevin McCarthy (R-Cal) to be their speaker, and later ousted him and replaced him with Mike Johnson (R-LA). They also expelled George Santos (R-NY).
In the matter of foreign affairs, Argentina elected a right-winger named Javier Milei to be their president. After he took office, he abolished a number of government agencies.
In the matter of scientific affairs, the James Webb Space Telescope has presented information that challenges theories of how the early universe evolved, and has taught us about various other things.
To read some much better lists of events in 2023 than I could ever make, go to The Fact Site, CNBC TV18, Visual Capitalist, On This Day and Britannica.
Among the celebrities who passed away in 2023 were actors Suzanne Somers, Matthew Perry, Paul Reubens (of Pee Wee Herman fame), Raquel Welch, Alan Arkin, Ryan O'Neal, Stella Stevens and Cindy Williams; TV writer Norman Lear; TV hosts Bob Barker and Jerry Springer; musicians Jimmy Buffett, Tina Turner, Tony Bennett, Sinéad O'Connor, Harry Belafonte, Lisa Marie Presley, Burt Bacharach, Gordon Lightfoot, Myles Goodwyn (of April Wine), Tom Smothers, Gary Wright (of Spooky Tooth), Robbie Robinson (of The Band), Astrud Gilberto, David Crosby (of the Byrds and CSNY), Jeff Beck (of the Yardbirds and later his own group) and Gary Rossington (the last original member of Lynyrd Skynyrd); NHL player Bobby Hull; televangelist Pat Robertson; diplomat Henry Kissinger; former First Lady Rosalynn Carter; and retired (and first-ever female) Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. For more about those who left us in 2023, go to Reuters, CBS News, Variety, TMZ and People.
I'm happy to see that my alma mater Virginia Tech won a bowl game for the first time since the 2016 season.
On a personal note, if you've been regularly reading this blog, you know that during this year, I've been able to travel to Arizona, California, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and some new places in Virginia. I've even been able to hike up to the highest point in my adopted home state of Maryland, the trail starting in West Virginia.
So once again I must reiterate my belief that the interesting times will continue into 2024. I'd say that whatever happens, I'm not going to get bored. To all who read this blog and whoever might stumble across it, have a Happy New Year.
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