Top 10 news stories of 2011

[PDJane]

3. Disagree.

The top story is one that hasn't been given news treatment remains the environment: Carbon emissions have increased more this year than at any time since the indistrial revolution. Methane Plumes in the arctic. Fish kills and flammable water due to fracking. The tar sands and the pollution it is causing in an area that covers a sensitive environment. The disaster that the xl pipeline will do do the aquifiers in both the US and Canada.

Japan's triple disaster I do agree with, as I do the Arab Spring.

My next top two have to do with systemic problems in the US military; about 1/3 of women who have served in the military have been raped and/or subjected to harassment, and More Iraq veterans committed suicide lat year than those on active duty died in combat.

Then comes the economy in Europe and in the US; the punishment of those who caused it remains an unlikely thing.

The wealth disparity is just now becoming an issue, but the number of children and adults in poverty is absolutely astounding.

The showdown in congress isn't the story; the lockstep stupidity of the GOP is.

The Occupy protests are important; the fact that they seem to be changing the public discourse is the issue, as is the police overreaction to the protestors. Is there a musical number to go with "It looks like a Police State from here?"

Gabby Giffords is as good as anything to end the list with, although the real story is the way that guns are so readily available to all and sundry, and the fact that the US is a manufacturer and trafficker in weapons.