This year in review, in review, again

We have all seen those articles with a title like "This Year In Review" or maybe "The 10 top [whatever] of 2010" and similar stories. They do it every year, and we always look at them and we either laugh, cry, reflect, or even vow to make a New Years' resolution to do something about it. Right?

It does, of course, have a lot to do with who made up the list in the first place. If you are reading a site about Hollywood and entertainment, you would expect to see the 10 biggest Hollywood idiots, because that is entertaining. If you were reading a page about something a little more serious, then you would probably have different expectations. And Letterman has a now-famous top-ten list that he reads backwards, for additional entertainment value. This one is always good for a laugh.

No, we are not going to offer our "ten best" list here. You need to go and find that yourself. But we would ask that as you do, keep some of those things in mind as you read those lists.

We could apply the standard question to any statement they make, which might be "why are you telling me this?" That is a fair question to ask, whether it's a Top 10 List or for any other story, for that matter.

I was more than a little curious to know why the Brady anti-gun organization has given 48 out of the 50 states an "F" rating and only California and New Jersey got a barely passing "D" grade. I am also thinking that President Obama used to be a school teacher, and people think that this is a way to make something clear to a school teacher: put a "grade" to it. I also know that President Obama has given himself a grade on his own performance as a president. So who was he telling it to? Another teacher?

No. These people are trying to make it "easier" for us to understand. They presume that we don't know the big boy numbers, so they simplify the data for us by giving it a "grade". And this probably works just great for children in school, and even for adults who dropped out of school. But what about those of us who already understand some of these things?

"We hold these truths to be self-evident." This is the way the founders explained things to us, and they elaborated on the details. They didn't dumb it down; they elaborated.

Is it possible that this administration thinks it is talking to a classroom full of children? In that case, a reasonable person would probably ban all guns from the classroom as well.

But we are not children. We are "The People" mentioned in the first three words of the Constitution, and the last three words of the Last (Tenth) Amendment.

And we, the people, keep trying to tell our elected officials what we want them to do in fulfilling their job requirements. I think that their top ten list that they come back with, darn sure better be a list of job requirements that they have satisfied.

We have an unusual opportunity to hear those very elected representatives read their job requirements at the opening of the 112th Congress, And we can spend all of 2011 watching to see how well they do, and how well they do in telling us the truth.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/republicans-call-rules-running-house/stor...
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/12/30/constitutional-know-nothings/
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_715653.html
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/12/what_the_tea_party_w...
http://patriotpost.us/opinion/linda-chavez/2010/12/31/good-governance/pr...
http://www.newser.com/story/108651/in-gop-led-house-the-constitution-is-...
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/135201-dems-blast-budget-co...
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/young-conservative-a...
http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/12/30/new-watchdogs
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2010/12/former-rep-tom-davis-says-bipar...