Excuse me while I rant

If you're puzzling over how people can be against the war in Iraq, complain bitterly about lost jobs and still vote for another four years of the same administration that got us here, don't go running to the moral values argument for an answer. The fact is, most Americans are completely capricious when it comes to voting because they're living in La La Land. Here's the proof: MSNBC's The Year in Pictures multimedia presentation. In it, you will find two separate galleries. One - the editors' choice - is a highlights reel of the year's big events - most of them painful - accompanied by an audio track of reports covering those events. The other - the readers' choice - is highlights reel of your favorite wall calendar pictures, accompanied by an audio track of music for an eighth-place World Cup Skating routine.

You might ask, what criteria would you use to edit the choice photographs from a whole year's worth of images? Well, given that MSNBC is a news outlet, I'd say newsworthiness is a good start, followed by the ability to move the viewer in some way, be it to laughter or anger or tears. Good composition, of course, is a key element. The photo should tell a story, and beauty always helps. Looking at the reader's picks, you may come away thinking the big story this year was a horse befriending a cat.

Mother nature kicked the crap out of us, people; she rained down fire and flood and pestilence - and lets not forget the locusts. What little she didn't get around to decimating, we the people did our best to destroy. Oh, and there was a presidential election and a new leader of Palestine (over Arafat's dead body) and some big upset in the world of sports that I'm not allowed to mention, lest I be kicked out of the house, but who's got room for that when you've got a cat sleeping on a skateboard? There were three (THREE!) pictures cats, and a trifecta each of horses and ducks. Amazingly enough there was only one dog picture, but the elephants, giraffes and polar bears made up for that oversight. Ok, the picture of the minivan in the swimming pool was pretty good, but two pictures of fallen leaves on still water (when none would have been enough) and the quintessential dentist office decor photo of footprints on sand completely obliterate any points for that.

Now, you might say the editors' picks go way too far in the other direction - it's all sensasionalism with the media. They show us nothing but searing pictures of human agony. Where are the happy human moments? But I say: life is pain, Princess. Anyone who tells you different is trying to sell you something. Besides, they included picture of Buddy the terrier catching a wave in Ventura. Heh heh - a dog surfing. That cracks me up.