It's that time of year again, when we don our pointy paper hats, drink champagne and count down for an otherwise every day shift of time. Yep it's New Years.
2013 has been both an enlightening and devastating year. We've seen many ups and downs, amazing highs, and absurdly low lows. This is my 2013 year in review.
Here is how it works, I pair good and bad events together, a sort of pros and cons list and at the end I determine if this year was more or less positive or more or less negative. Here goes.
LGBTQ wins and losses
1 +/a)Gay Rights; yep 2013 has had a great up surge in rights wins across the United States. The Defense of Marriage Act was shot down, several more states, including the conservative state of Minnesota pass marriage equality and many more are slated to pass this equal protection as more and more state supreme courts are shooting down unconstitutional laws that discriminate against gays.
These states include: (by Court Decision) California (June 28, 2013), Connecticut (Nov. 12, 2008), Iowa (Apr. 24, 2009), Massachusetts (May 17, 2004), New Jersey (Oct. 21, 2013), New Mexico (Dec. 19, 2013), Utah (Dec. 20, 2013).
(By State Legislature) Delaware (July 1, 2013), Hawaii (Dec. 2, 2013), Illinois (law will take effect June 1, 2014), Minnesota (Aug. 1, 2013), New Hampshire (Jan. 1, 2010), New York (July 24, 2011), Rhode Island (Aug. 1, 2013), Vermont (Sep. 1, 2009). &
(By Popular Vote) Maine (Dec. 29, 2012), Maryland (Jan. 1, 2013), Washington (Dec. 9, 2012).
Washington, DC legalized same-sex marriage on Mar. 3, 2010.
1+/b) The California supreme court determined that Proposition 8, the right wing conservative and religious movement to ban gay rights and marriage equality, was unconstitutional. This decision cemented California's marriage equality and created a lasting legal precedent for other states to follow as they push for equality.
1+/c) The United Kingdom passed marriage equality this year.
1+/d) Many states are outlawing gay conversion therapy. From total outlawing of the practice to barring the practice for minors who are often pushed into this sort of therapy against their wills. California's ban on gay conversion therapy was upheld in court this year after challenges of religious freedom violations. Again California has set a standard and precedent that other states are following. Conservative Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey is slated to sign a bill to ban gay conversion therapy and Ohio is also slated to ban conversion therapy, possibly as early as spring next year.
1+/e) Bonus: John Paulk, the former anti-gay leader and head of the now defunct Exodus International apologized for his push against gays in an interview. He's since shut down Exodus and is a voice against gay conversion therapy.
1-/a) Unfortunately there are still several states that are maintaining unconstitutional laws that discriminate against equal protection under the law for the LGBTQ community. One of which is my home state of Wisconsin.
They include: (by Constitutional Amendment and State Law)
Alabama (2006, 1998), Alaska (1998, 1996), Arizona (2008, 1996), Arkansas (2004, 1997), Colorado (2006, 2000), Florida (2008, 1997), Georgia (2004, 1996), Idaho (2006, 1996), Kansas (2005, 1996), Kentucky (2004, 1998), Louisiana (2004, 1999), Michigan (2004, 1996), Mississippi (2004, 1997), Missouri (2004, 1996), Montana (2004, 1997), North Carolina (2012, 1995), North Dakota (2004, 1997), Ohio (2004, 2004), Oklahoma (2004, 1996), South Carolina (2006, 1996), South Dakota (2006, 1996), Tennessee (2006, 1996), Texas (2005, 1997), Virginia (2006, 1997), Wisconsin (2006, 1979)
(by Constitutional Amendment only)
Nebraska (2000), Nevada (2002), Oregon (2004)
(by State Law only)
Indiana (1997), Pennsylvania (1996), West Virginia (2000), Wyoming (2003)
1-/b)In some states, police are using these laws to do "gay stings" arresting people for soliciting gay consensual sex. In some cases it's in states where debunked anti-gay laws are still on the books even though they're not legal and have been overturned by courts.
"On Saturday the Advocate, an LGBT magazine, uncovered a sting operation run by the sheriff of East Baton Rouge targeting gay men in Louisiana. Under the sheriff's orders, police officers would meet gay men in public parks and bring them back to their apartments, where they would proceed to arrest the victim on the grounds of Louisiana's anti-sodomy laws." (http://www.policymic.com/articles/57039/being-gay-is-still-illegal-in-this-louisiana-sheriff-s-town)
1-/c)Anti-gay rights advocates, while losing ground in the US, have pushed for and gained ground in other countries with less strict laws on religious intervention on governance. These include; Russia, Sudan, South Africa, and sadly India. The leaders of NOM (National Organization for Marriage) along with conservative politicians have traveled abroad to voice their anti-gay beliefs.
1-/d) Russia is probably the biggest anti-gay news source this year. With the Sochi Olympics right around the corner, their anti-gay propaganda laws, which severely cripple any discussion about homosexuality in the country, has lead to many concerns. With arrests being made for wearing rainbow shirts or ribbons, for voicing opinions against the law, and jail sentences for foreigners as well as residents, Russia has gone back to a dark age for gay rights.
1-/e) Gay bashing, literally; both in the US and in Russia and world wide for that matter, violence against gays is on the rise. Many reports of teens in Russia being lured into traps, being kidnapped, then beaten and tortured on video, have become all too common. Uganda passed a law making being gay not only illegal, but punishable by the death penalty. It also legalized and institutionalized "rape" as a therapy to turn lesbians straight.
Women's Rights
2+/a) We've seen a surge of women's rights advocates arise in the US. Including Wendy Davis (D-Texas) who filibusters for over 11 hours a bill that sadly was passed in a special referendum. The bill killed dozens of abortion clinics by forcing unnecessary medical standards that the clinics have to meet to be open. This law dropped the total number of abortion clinics available in the state to just four.
2-/a) The closing of abortion clinics and the Texas war on women, and the greater US war on women by women. Many conservative women have taken on the mantle of calling their fellow women the whores of the US. Why, because they don't agree with abortion and with contraception. This has played a major part in another area the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare aka Romney Care, see later section.
2+/b) Equal pay is closer than ever before. As many states push for minimum wage increases, some with extensive increases, woman are getting closer to equal pay in the work force.
2-/b) Unfortunately equal pay also means a drop in pay for everyone as rich corporations push to lower over all costs and maximize productivity while paying less to all employees. The creation of minimum wage jobs is the equalizer in this equation.
Governance
3+&-/a) The initiation of the insurance market in October came with bad and good news. While many states didn't expand medicare and medicaid and open their own exchanges (mostly conservative run states) many states did, bringing health insurance to millions of uninsured people and lowering the total cost for health care and health insurance for millions more now able to search for and apply for insurance through the exchange. Unfortunately, because of the number of states that didn't expand or opt into the ACA, the federal run website was overwhelmed with traffic making it difficult if not impossible for some to sign up for health insurance. The site wasn't designed for the amount of traffic. But what was worse is the fact that GOP leaks exposed a Denial of Service attack on the site created by and perpetrated by anti-Obamacare proponents. It was estimated that over 4 million of the hits on the site in the first week were caused by DoS attacks.
3-/b) The Government Shutdown and other GOP obstructionism, including Austerity cuts. The GOP has shown time and again this year that it doesn't care about serving the greater good of the people, but instead was only concerned with political warfare. Every move they made for the majority of the year, including the government shut down, was their attempt to discredit and cause harm to President Obama. Despite their hopes to get him impeached or to force the hands of the Democrats, they've only proven their stupidity and uncaring nature. Not to mention their totally non-fiscally conscious attempts to repeal the ACA. With 47 attempts costing the US taxpayer nearly 70 million dollars, the GOP attempts to repeal the ACA is the biggest expenditure in US history to repeal one law.
3+/b) Despite the obstructionism caused by the GOP many good bills have gone through, and the Dems have changed the rules on filibustering, at least on presidential appointments, filling many open spots with liberal politicians, lawyers, experts, and judges.
3+/c) The big one in this list I think is that the ACA is working, much to the chagrin of the GOP. Not only has it lowered over all healthcare cost increases, but has a projected affect on over all cost of health care going down. Further, because of the ACA, several states are working on or already have passed universal health care for all residents. Some slated already to be in affect as early as 2017. Millions of Americans who weren't able to get health insurance will now be able to with lower out of pocket costs.
3+&-/d) Economic recovery has been slow for the vast majority of the populace. While we've seen a rebound in jobs, over 70% have been in part time positions. Especially in heavily hit cities. Detroit is one of the biggest hit cities from the economic depression of the 2000s. This year it declared bankruptcy, a first for any major city in US history. Detroit lost over 80% of it's major industry over the last two decades. Car companies shifted jobs overseas derailing Detroit Steel, and labor unions. Detroit, under emergency austerity measures being dictated by an emergency economic manager, has since taken away thousands of people's paid for pensions, insurance, and has even tried to auction off Detroit's museums to get money back for the city. Implementing quick fixes to cover over a long lasting problem. Detroit is a city without industry to keep it going. On the flip side, new non-profit organizations are taking a foothold in the city. Some of which are providing free housing to writers and artists if they would be willing to move to Detroit.
Weather and Environment
4+ & -) Global warming/climate change researchers got a boost this year with more data and their weather predictions coming true. Unfortunately this boost in recognition came with many opponents from conservative sources dishing out misinformation.
None the less the weather machine churned out many massive storms this year. Check out Huff Posts' list here.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/26/most-extreme-weather-2013_n_3654414.html
5-) Monsanto wins big, people lost big. Monsanto won several court cases against them this year cementing their place in our food production and our use of their pesticides. Including several that are killing bees.
5+) This year a Malaysian company built an urban vertical farm slated to feed millions of people.
6+) Green energy hit parity, matching and then beating energy production costs of fossil fuels and dirty energy sources. With new innovations hitting new highs in efficiency (30% energy conversion) for solar panels, we'll soon see more and more solar panels and local energy production. Germany reached 400 megawatts of power per 1 million people. That's 32234.28 TW of potential power annually. If the US were to reach this same potential green energy production density, each year we'd produce 124800 TW of power, or four times the total power consumption in the US (including fossil fuels for heating). That'd be from solar power alone, let alone the additions of other power sources. Such as; wind turbines, geothermal, nuclear fusion, and hydroelectric sources (both dams and tidal). Now, only if we could do that in the US.
7) The number of environmental and weather wins and losses is massive, too massive for my list.
Social and Tech:
8+&-)The PS4, Wii U, and Xbox 1 all came out this year. All promised many things, much of which gamers didn't like and they had to change. The new generation of game consoles are more like computers than their predecessors with a first of shared tech between the two major players, the PS4 and Xbox One. This means more cross platform games but it also means an end to an era of gaming. The comparisons of performance are so minute in difference that the two consoles are almost indifferent.
9) Apple loses ground on competitors and makes the OS free, while it's competitors ever increase in numbers, with Chrome OS netbooks and tablets abound. Windows 8 replaces windows 7 and updates to 8.1.
10) Justin Bieber retires at a ripe old age of 19.
11+) Al Jazeera America started this year bringing back old fashioned reporting of the facts without spin.
3+&-/d) Economic recovery has been slow for the vast majority of the populace. While we've seen a rebound in jobs, over 70% have been in part time positions. Especially in heavily hit cities. Detroit is one of the biggest hit cities from the economic depression of the 2000s. This year it declared bankruptcy, a first for any major city in US history. Detroit lost over 80% of it's major industry over the last two decades. Car companies shifted jobs overseas derailing Detroit Steel, and labor unions. Detroit, under emergency austerity measures being dictated by an emergency economic manager, has since taken away thousands of people's paid for pensions, insurance, and has even tried to auction off Detroit's museums to get money back for the city. Implementing quick fixes to cover over a long lasting problem. Detroit is a city without industry to keep it going. On the flip side, new non-profit organizations are taking a foothold in the city. Some of which are providing free housing to writers and artists if they would be willing to move to Detroit.
Weather and Environment
4+ & -) Global warming/climate change researchers got a boost this year with more data and their weather predictions coming true. Unfortunately this boost in recognition came with many opponents from conservative sources dishing out misinformation.
None the less the weather machine churned out many massive storms this year. Check out Huff Posts' list here.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/26/most-extreme-weather-2013_n_3654414.html
5-) Monsanto wins big, people lost big. Monsanto won several court cases against them this year cementing their place in our food production and our use of their pesticides. Including several that are killing bees.
5+) This year a Malaysian company built an urban vertical farm slated to feed millions of people.
6+) Green energy hit parity, matching and then beating energy production costs of fossil fuels and dirty energy sources. With new innovations hitting new highs in efficiency (30% energy conversion) for solar panels, we'll soon see more and more solar panels and local energy production. Germany reached 400 megawatts of power per 1 million people. That's 32234.28 TW of potential power annually. If the US were to reach this same potential green energy production density, each year we'd produce 124800 TW of power, or four times the total power consumption in the US (including fossil fuels for heating). That'd be from solar power alone, let alone the additions of other power sources. Such as; wind turbines, geothermal, nuclear fusion, and hydroelectric sources (both dams and tidal). Now, only if we could do that in the US.
7) The number of environmental and weather wins and losses is massive, too massive for my list.
Social and Tech:
8+&-)The PS4, Wii U, and Xbox 1 all came out this year. All promised many things, much of which gamers didn't like and they had to change. The new generation of game consoles are more like computers than their predecessors with a first of shared tech between the two major players, the PS4 and Xbox One. This means more cross platform games but it also means an end to an era of gaming. The comparisons of performance are so minute in difference that the two consoles are almost indifferent.
9) Apple loses ground on competitors and makes the OS free, while it's competitors ever increase in numbers, with Chrome OS netbooks and tablets abound. Windows 8 replaces windows 7 and updates to 8.1.
10) Justin Bieber retires at a ripe old age of 19.
11+) Al Jazeera America started this year bringing back old fashioned reporting of the facts without spin.
11-) Fox News is still on air and has a mass of spin off news sources spreading misinformation.
For more tech advances check out http://www.technologyreview.com/lists/breakthrough-technologies/2013/
For more tech failures check out http://readwrite.com/2013/12/20/top-10-tech-failures-of-2013#awesm=~orxIu0vbr0Ig9Y
2013 Conclusion:
2013 has been a dynamic year, filled with both personal triumphs for some, and devastating failures for both individuals and the country at large.
However, one event sums up the whole of this year and the message that we as a country have sent and it is one of positiveness. Of triumph over evil and the tyranny of certain few. That is, of course, BatKid.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/15/batkid-san-francisco_n_4283772.html
What was intended to be a little known special event to celebrate 5 year old Miles Scott's recovery from cancer, turned into a nationwide event. Millions of people participated in one way or another to help Batkid take down the Joker, the Riddler, and save a damsel in distress. Elevating, at least for a small time, this little boy to superhero status. This celebration of his fight against his cancer and being able to play Batman represents the greater view that people want fairness and the righteous to win out. While we might have an issue with what is and isn't right, ultimately people at large will vote for and strive for what is right.
PS: Yes I left out things in this list. Please don't judge. I can't cover everything.
For more tech failures check out http://readwrite.com/2013/12/20/top-10-tech-failures-of-2013#awesm=~orxIu0vbr0Ig9Y
2013 Conclusion:
2013 has been a dynamic year, filled with both personal triumphs for some, and devastating failures for both individuals and the country at large.
However, one event sums up the whole of this year and the message that we as a country have sent and it is one of positiveness. Of triumph over evil and the tyranny of certain few. That is, of course, BatKid.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/15/batkid-san-francisco_n_4283772.html
What was intended to be a little known special event to celebrate 5 year old Miles Scott's recovery from cancer, turned into a nationwide event. Millions of people participated in one way or another to help Batkid take down the Joker, the Riddler, and save a damsel in distress. Elevating, at least for a small time, this little boy to superhero status. This celebration of his fight against his cancer and being able to play Batman represents the greater view that people want fairness and the righteous to win out. While we might have an issue with what is and isn't right, ultimately people at large will vote for and strive for what is right.
PS: Yes I left out things in this list. Please don't judge. I can't cover everything.
