A New Year

Much has happened since the culmination of the 2010 NCAA March Madness festivities so before the 2011 games commence, I want to take a few minutes to reflect back on the past year.  As Bonhoeffer in his wisdom would say, “just as the capacity to forget is a gift of grace, so memory, the recalling of lessons we have learnt, is also a part of responsible living.”  Here we go:

…BP inadvertently did a stand up PR job for the auditing profession.  We [collectively] warned them:  you built too fast without proper procedures… you can’t ignore the fire alarms… you need to have a contingency plan for when things go wrong.  But they disregarded our audit findings.  They laughed at our action plans.  I hate to use the words “epic fail” but… Lesson Learned:  The chance that my line of work actually matters is one in a million billion but there is that one.

http://www.thedailygreen.com

…In an effort to cut back on travel expenses due to the now global economic crisis, only nominations for incarcerated individuals were considered for this year's Noble Peace laureate.  Lesson Learned:  If the economy is not doing well and you want to be a contender for the Noble Peace Prize, move to a communist country and promote democracy.

…After years of pent-up jealousy over the Kardashian's incessant press, North Korea decided they wanted in on the attention so they launched a few artillery shells south.  Unfortunately, the Kardashian/Jenner family Christmas card was released the next day.  Lesson Learned:  Americans are more impressed by Kardashians than by weapons of mass destruction.

www.anythinghollywood.com

…First Facebook inadvertently legalized stalking.  Then Facebook made it possible for you to farm online, inside, at any given hour of the day.  This year Facebook took it to a new level by instigating multiple revolutions.  Lesson Learned: Oprah is not the most powerful person in the world, Mark Zuckerburg is.

www.gwaker.com

…Charlie Sheen.  There is not anything even remotely redeemable about this train wreck currently unfolding.  Maybe next year.

And so, March Madness 2011 begins.