May. Osama bin Laden was killed by a US military Special Forces unit in Abbottabad, Pakistan. According to Wikipedia, “The city is well-known throughout Pakistan for its pleasant weather, high-standard educational institutions and military establishments.” The Pakistan government denied to our own government that it knew anything about bin Laden’s presence 75 miles from their capital. They then denied to their own people that they knew anything about the US operation.

June. The first full-dress televised debate among the GOP candidates took place in New Hampshire, with local people asking the questions. There were 35 questions altogether, the top two broad categories being nationality issues and foreign policy.

July. Ice People couple Rupert and Wendi Murdoch were in London in a Parliament committee room. Rupert, 80-year-old press baron, was giving evidence to the committee investigating reporters on his newspapers who had been hacking into people’s cell phones. Suddenly a man stood up and tried to custard-pie Murdoch. Wendi leapt from her chair, leaned forward over Rupert, and gave the assailant an almighty smack upside the head. Formerly unpopular with London society hostesses as an unscrupulous gold-digger, Wendi is now received in all the best houses.

August. Police in north London shot dead a black drug dealer, igniting several nights of rioting and looting all over Britain, or at least in all large cities with big racial minorities. The British prime minister made a speech blaming the disturbances on “Irresponsibility. Selfishness….Children without fathers. Schools without discipline. Reward without effort.” That was a bit unfair to the rioters, who had expended considerable effort in breaking store windows so they could reward themselves with the merchandise. Cameron further said: “[L]et’s be clear: these riots were not about race.” Well, thank goodness for that.

September. A certain Onyango Obama was arrested outside the Chicken Bone Saloon in Framingham, Massachusetts. Mr. Obama’s vehicle nearly collided with a patrol car, and on being breathalyzed he was found to be three sheets to the wind. Mr. Obama turned out to be our president’s half-uncle. He also turned out to be an illegal immigrant. He’d been ordered deported in 1989 but had just ignored the order. He’s still here.

October. The Occupy Wall Street movement, in situ at Zuccotti Park in Downtown Manhattan, forced city authorities to back down from a plan to clean up the camp. A mix of union agitators, professional anarchists, and middle-class kids disgruntled that their degrees in Art History hadn’t opened the doors of employment squatted in downtown Manhattan stating their intent to make the city spend more on public services by shutting down the financial sector, whose taxes fund most public services.

November. The “Supercommittee” of six Republican and six Democrat congressfolk that was set up to resolve the nation’s debt problem failed to agree on anything and went home. The Democrats had wanted more taxes and benefit hikes; the Republicans wanted tax reform and benefit cuts. The last few sentient Americans who believed that anyone in Washington gives a fig about the national debt—or at least, a fig more than they give about political positioning—were disabused of that notion.

December. The Justice Department reached a settlement with Bank of America, under the terms of which BofA would pay $335 million to 200,000 plaintiffs for having done what the last three administrations had demanded they do under threat of Justice Department lawsuits: trash credit standards so minorities could be sold loans they couldn’t afford to service. Hey, somebody had to take the blame for the housing crash, and you don’t expect politicians to blame themselves, do you? Ha ha ha ha ha!

This old year was sad, so Happy New Year!