Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
H. L. Mencken

What is appropriate for New Year's, contemplating the past year or dreaming of the new year? I guess it depends if you're a ponderer or a dreamer. I guess I'm a dreamer, but my dreams tend to shift easily into nightmares.

The more easily 2005 is forgotten, the better I think we'll all be. The year started off with Abu Ghraib, and the rights abuses spread right to the US mainland. The magnitude of the dishonesty with which led to the invasion of Iraq is now so common that everyone has forgotten about WMD's.

Chalabi, the second man hailed by the US government as the saviour of the Iraqi people has been rejected. Apparently the man who has the administrator, hand picked by the Bush crew, hasn't even won enough seats to be a representative in the congress in the new, improved Iraq.

I'm betting in the next few months we'll see some changes to the rules to allow Chalabi to be in the government.

Looking forward to 2006 isn't much help either. However my disappointment I'm sure will shift from the White house and capitol hill to the Vox Populi. If people aren't already in the streets in protest, I'm not sure what will provoke them. Years ago in my youth I read Daniel Goldhagen's book "Hitler's Willing Executioners" and thought to myself that human psyche had evolved that we could never let that happen again. I'm afraid I was wrong. The circumstances are set for a repeat of massive human rights violations in the western world. We are prepared for the suspension of Habeas Corpus, unless the Padilla situation is resolved. We are prepared to accept executive decisions regarding suspension of constitutional rights. We are prepared to accept 24/7 sureveillance of our comings and goings.