Matters of Opinion

The Buffalo News sends out an editorial farewell today to 2008:

Well, that wasn’t much of a year, was it? Eliot Spitzer got caught with his pants down, Sarah Palin liked her clothing far too much and the American economy lost its shirt. Time to give 2008 the boot. Or just throw your shoe.

We are now counting down the minutes until 2008 ends, and for many, the end won’t come a second too soon. Or will it? It turns out this year will have one extra second tacked on, as the world’s timekeepers — didn’t know we had those, did you? — add a “leap second” to today to help match clocks to the Earth’s slowing spin on its axis. Something about the tides, which like life, ebb and flow.

Elsewhere:
- The Star Ledger of New Jersey can't wait to say good riddance to a bad year: The year that closes today marks the end of an era of economic excess, brought to a close by an epidemic of incompetence that spanned government, corporate and individual decision-making at virtually every level almost everywhere.
- The New York Times Op-Ed page offers an extensive Op-Chart: The Year in Questions.
- The Washington Post and The Gazette Times in Corvallis, Ore., urge their readers to be careful out there.
- The Times Picayune of New Orleans hopes people can celebrate without bullets.
- Slate's The Big Money Web site notes: You know it’s been a bad year when you’re arguing about what the five worst days were.
- The Detroit Free Press Editorial Page Editor Ron Dzwonkowski revises and extends a list of words and phrases that should not survive into the new year: And beware of someone who starts addressing you by saying, "with all due respect ..." which is another way of saying you don't deserve any and I'm about to expose your idiocy.

So, with all due respect to 2008, Happy New Year!

- George Pyle/Editorial Writer