Ron Hart: 50 shades Of 2012

Here is my annual look back at the year that was:

1.Hillary Clinton denied knowing much about the Benghazi attacks, and then said she had a "concussion" and could not testify. It made us all feel nostalgic to hear a Clinton denying things again.
2.Hillary and the Obama administration blamed an obscure YouTube video for the murder of our ambassador to Libya. She will prove hard to replace; the ability to quickly blame others is what Barack Obama looks for in a cabinet appointee.

3.John Kerry, who is like Al Gore without the flash and sizzle, was quickly appointed secretary of state. Democrats did not want to leave the seat vacant for long for fear Clint Eastwood would start yelling at it. With Kerry, the plan is apparently to bore our adversaries into agreeing with us.

POLITICAL CARTOONS

Guns, fiscal cliff, New Year's and jobs

4.Tension mounted as an increasingly divided country reacted to the most divisive president ever. Many states in the South petitioned the White House to secede. In the South, "Fifty Shades of Grey" is not an erotic novel; it is the new Confederate uniform catalogue. On the bright side, if we do secede, Northern sportswriters might eventually get it right in always ranking Notre Dame number one.

5.Arguments for gun control surfaced again after shootings in Oregon, Colorado and Connecticut. We carry more guns in the South, but there is more gun control in the North. I find it interesting that all the mass shootings are up there. Hmmm.

6.Chicago is our country's murder capital, and it has strong "gun control laws." Gangs kill so many Chicagoans that Mayor Rahm Emanuel runs the only city with a Social Security surplus. Chicago's ban on guns helped it to a 19.4 per 100,000 persons murder rate; the number in gun-friendly San Antonio, Texas is only 8.6. If you want to see where things are heading here, Hugo Chavez' Caracas, Venezuela (which was praised by the UN for its gun control laws) had 130 murders per 100,000 people.

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