That one news story of 2011?

[cariad]

My favourite 2011 news piece (and this was a competitive field this year) has to be this one: http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/06/14/lez_get_real_hoax_second_lesbian_blogger_paula_brooks_turns_out_.html in which not one but two white, heterosexual, middle-aged males were discovered to be blogging as young lesbians.

Top that, Republican debaters.

Anyone else have a 2011 news item that holds a special place in your heart?

[rsudock]

This made me chuckle! Does the Kardashian wedding count or perhaps the Anthony weiner freak show!

[Riki]

I liked Anthony Weiner.  I was sorry to see him go.  What he did was stupid, but I don't think he should have resigned over it.

A few come to mind for me.  The Arab Spring movement, the Occupy movement, the end of the Iraq war, the death of Osama Bin Laden, and the late breaking one, the death of Kim Jong Il

[KarenInWA]

The earthquake in Japan.  I live in the "Circle of Fire" so this one hit close to home for me. Now, various debris is starting to wash up along the west coast. Makes me wonder what all we're going to get from that.

Also, all the other horrific natural disasters that happened here in the US and abroad. Hoping for less of that in the new year, but, not sure that's how it works 

KarenInWA

[jbeany]

The earthquake in Japan.  I live in the "Circle of Fire" so this one hit close to home for me. Now, various debris is starting to wash up along the west coast. Makes me wonder what all we're going to get from that.

The latest Nat'l Geo mag has an article on that, tracking the expected debris path.  It warns beachcombers to be careful and asks them to be respectful, since human remains may wash up as well.  (It particularly mentions shoes with feet still in them, since they float.  I'd be staying off the beaches for a while if I was near them.)

Around here, the biggest news stories were Betty Ford's funeral and pics of the funeral procession as they came from the airport to the museum/burial grounds downtown in Grand Rapids.  It was overlapped by the news stories of the mentally ill man who had went on a rampage just before and killed his young daughter, her mother, and several other people, including another child.  The police chase and hostage taking at the end of it occupied everyone for quite a while. 

For a little comic relief, we had the two idiotic bank robbers who got away with about $70,000, but couldn't manage to get away from the cops in the moving truck they had rented so they didn't have to use their own vehicle as a get-away car.  When it became clear they couldn't possibly drive the giant beast fast enough to elude the police, they started tossing the cash out the window as they drove.  They had ripped the bands loose from a lot of it, so there was a blizzard of hundred dollar bills over that part of town.  A lot of honest people returned what they had found, but about $20,000 was never recovered.  I'm thinking the people in the neighborhood had a lot more interesting time doing yard work for the next few weeks.  "Look, mom - there really is a money tree in the backyard!"

Those stories were followed not long after by a cop getting purposely run over by two fleeing bank robbers as he attempted to deploy stop sticks. Minutes before he joined the chase, he had been on the phone with his wife.  She had just gotten the news that her cancer had returned and the doctors wanted her to restart chemo immediately.  She was sitting in her car crying, just after talking to him  when her fellow teachers at the school where she worked came out to tell her her husband had been killed.  She still had to go for chemo before she went home to tell her two young daughters that their dad was dead.  That was a tough week to read the news around here.

My favorite article from the national news was about Cain and his mistress of 13 years.  Too stinking funny - or maybe it was just the comment from the pundit in the same paper who wondered how come no one was giving him credit for staying that long with the same woman....   

[cariad]

Oh God, jbeany! That cop with the wife with cancer story, there's one to make a person start counting their blessings again.

If I had to pick a serious one, I would pick the Recall Walker protests, since I have not been that much inside of a news story for quite a long time. Our humble PTA meeting with the President of the Milwaukee School Board was what broke the story to the whole city. It was delayed two weeks for the blizzard, which probably turned out for the best in the end because our school board president said things were happening really fast and were much worse than they had been previously warned, so I doubt we all would have known to drop everything and go to Madison had there been no weather delay. My kids received the education of a lifetime in Madison, and to this day my younger boy keeps telling me that he hopes Walker is recalled. It is looking like we will at least get it to the vote as the last unofficial number I heard was over 500,000 and we still have at least another week. They are hoping to get around 700,000 so that they will have enough after pulling out the duplicates and fake names.

For a few months early this year, it was like the whole city was united, and I went to Madison a few times and each time ran into people I knew as if we were back on the streets of Milwaukee. There was so much camaraderie and solidarity there, I would not have missed a moment of it at any price.

[cariad]

I liked Anthony Weiner.  I was sorry to see him go.  What he did was stupid, but I don't think he should have resigned over it.

A few come to mind for me.  The Arab Spring movement, the Occupy movement, the end of the Iraq war, the death of Osama Bin Laden, and the late breaking one, the death of Kim Jong Il

Hmmm, if I remember that story correctly, the college student was not a willing recipient of those photos from Anthony Weiner, so it was crossing a creepy line. Then again, that was such a dark period in my personal life that I may not have got the story straight. Obviously, politically I liked his style, but there was also something about eliminating his district anyway and this episode really messed that up. Plus he lied about it. There seemed to be a few reasons why he was not going to be able to recover from it and since his own party was telling him to go, I think that's an indication that you'd be doing more harm than good by trying to fight it.

All great picks, Riki. One thing I notice, and I mean no insult by this, but they are all stories from outside your country. Did nothing fascinating happen in Canada this year, politically or otherwise?

[Riki]

All great picks, Riki. One thing I notice, and I mean no insult by this, but they are all stories from outside your country. Did nothing fascinating happen in Canada this year, politically or otherwise?

I'm a bit of an American political news junkie, so that's probably why I picked what I did.  We did have a federal election this year, but it was almost predictable.  We had the same prime minister afterwards, but now he has a majority, so I'm expecting the country to go downhill very quickly.  The only man who could have beat him, Jack Layton of the NDP, became the official Leader of the Opposition, a first for the NDP, actually, but he didn't have time to really savor it.  He took some time off not long after the election and died of cancer a few months later.  I can see a CBC two part miniseries being made of that story someday. *L*  They've already done a John A. MacDonald one and a Trudeau one, so why not Jack Layton?

[jbeany]

Hmmm, if I remember that story correctly, the college student was not a willing recipient of those photos from Anthony Weiner, so it was crossing a creepy line.

The funny part of that is his thinking ANY woman wanted a pic of his junk.  Really, next time try flowers instead.   

[Riki]

Hmmm, if I remember that story correctly, the college student was not a willing recipient of those photos from Anthony Weiner, so it was crossing a creepy line.

The funny part of that is his thinking ANY woman wanted a pic of his junk.  Really, next time try flowers instead.   

I thought that all guys thought girls want to see their naughty bits.  One of my ex roommates used to wander around the apartment naked. bugged me, but he didn't care who saw him.

[okarol]

The earthquake in Japan.  I live in the "Circle of Fire" so this one hit close to home for me. Now, various debris is starting to wash up along the west coast. Makes me wonder what all we're going to get from that.

The earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant crisis --- a triple blow to Japan - is something I will never forget. 

[willowtreewren]

For international news I'll go with the earthquake in Japan. We are still feeling repercussions from it.

For national (US) news, my pick is the occupy movement, especially since I have participated locally.

For really close-to-home news, there was an arson/murder a few doors away from our school this fall, which also involved a "kidnapped" child. The child was removed from the house before it was set ablaze and left at a mental health facility not far away. The murder/kidnap/arson has not yet been solved and no one has been arrested. I find this unsettling, to say the least.

I also find the extreme weather patterns both interesting and unsettling.

Aleta

[cariad]

For an international story, I would probably go with the Arab Spring. National, I too like Occupy as we have also participated in a protest and I have been waiting for years for the anger to build into a unified response. I especially like the UC Davis pepper spray scandal, with that eerie video of the University President walking past thousands of students, all of whom sat in total silence. I like 'mic check' because it gives us a glimpse of how politicians react when thrown a (very small) curve. Love the various and sundry ways that the cop pepper spraying everyone has been doctored.

Locally, I already mentioned our collective bargaining battle, though that was actually national news. I think this was the year that a mother turned her own daughter in for being part of a mob shoplifting in a colorful neighbourhood in Milwaukee. That was an encouraging local story that I'll carry with me, and hopefully never need to emulate.

Riki, that's a great (but tragic) story from Canadian politics. I am assuming your current prime minister is very conservative. I hope it's not as bad as you fear.

The funny part of that is his thinking ANY woman wanted a pic of his junk.  Really, next time try flowers instead.   

Despite the humorous nature, this is really wise advice for any males reading right now.... Shame it comes too late to save Riki from the daily spectacle of her none-too-modest roommate. 

[kristina]

The riots in England during 2011 were an interesting news-story from a sociological point of view...

Many youngsters broke into shops and took everything they fancied... just like that...

At first there was no explanation, but later it was revealed that many of these youngsters thought
they "try exactly the same" as they have seen our politicians do : many politicians and other “mentionables”
 “walk away regularly” with computers, cars, apartments, “golden-hand-shakes”,
houses, mansions, etc., by courtesy of the tax-payer...

The young generation grew-up with these politicians as role-models 
and so they raided shops and took everything they fancied,
and walked away with it all because they thought "that's how it is done"...

Heaven help us when these youngsters grow up and have more experience...

[hubbyhatesdialysis]

My favorite news story although so wrong and gruesome would have to be the woman who cut off her husbands penis and then putting it in the garbage disposal  after finding out he was cheating, she said "he deserves it!" 


If you didn't hear about the story this the link to the news clip about it on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF9FHQdGMx4