Was it a good year for America?  For you, personally?  What about the coming year?

Poll time again, in the good old United States of Avoidance.  And all that's missing is a good dose of truth serum so that we could have some confidence in these self-reports from anAP-AOL News poll conducted by Ipsos:

It is a matter of debate whether Iraqis are now worse off than under Saddam's dictatorship. The chaos in their country, however, has produced one undisputed winner: an unchecked Iran, more menacing today than in Ayatollah Khomeini's time.

You don't have to pass an intelligence test to live in any given state.  And Texas seems to have far more than its share of residents who appear not to have passed any intelligence test lately.

I don't expect a lot of objectivity from most people, and I'm rarely disappointed in my expectations.  But this is really pretty sorry: A John Birch commentator manages to completely miss a major point on a study of pre-marital sex in America while excoriating the study, its author, and the institution for which the author works.

Sometimes you need to look at more than one source to get a feel for the reality of a situation.  Consider these two lines, from two recent news stories:

In honor of the coming new year, Media Matters has collected 2006's most outrageous comments by conservative "commentators."  My favorites (use th link for the entire list):

The Republican party and its adherents maintain numerous web sites devoted to their brand of reality. Needless to say, some of the statements found on those sites are a little...interesting.

Among the many absurdities that keep the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave from being the Land of the Fair is financing of schools.

Direct from the Federal Reserve Board itself, the stats on consumer credit outstanding during the years of the Bush:

During visits to the concentration camps, the bordellos and the crematoria are not to be shown. Visitors also are not to be told anything about these facilities.

Managing perception and massaging the message; the more things change....

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