So please don't read the rest of this article as a defense of Harry Reid, for sheer political reasons. Reid has a few political options now, none of which have much to do with what he said to a reporter during the 2008 presidential campaign: he can stick it out, hoping for an upset victory which would allow him to remain Majority Leader; he can step down from the leadership position, campaign as just another senator in the midterms; or he can announce he will not be running this year, and give another Democrat a shot at his Senate seat. My preference would actually be for that last one, but my political instincts tell me that he'll run and not step down from his leadership spot, choosing instead to "tough it out," and hoping that he can spend enough during the campaign to convince Silver State voters to send him back to Washington.

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In any case, in these economic times, I felt we better end with some transparency here. As your Web Site Czar, standing on the cusp of a shovel-ready upgrade of ChrisWeigant.com to begin the new year (but not, for those who can count to ten, the "new decade") which will improve the site (but not require you to download a new app) by getting rid of some toxic assets, software-wise, and providing a stimulus to your experience here; I can truly say that 2010 will be a year of bromance between all of us chillaxin' here. Because we like to consider ChrisWeigant.com Obamaliciously too big to fail. Oh, and don't forget to friend me by following my tweets! And I assure you, there will be no sexting....

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Thursday's column, with luck, will be another year-end tradition -- the annual "banished words" list from northern Michigan. Last year, I wrote about the list and had such fun doing so that I'm going to end 2009 by doing the same. But this means that today is pretty much the last chance you have to enter phrases you'd like banned from everyday usage by your peers. And 2009 was a rich year for grating phrases, from "death panels" to "teabaggers." In any case, check out the official Lake Superior State University "Banished Words" site, and enter your nominations today!

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Because yesterday's column was a wee bit un-holiday-spirit-ish, I offer up my thanks today. I am thankful for the web. I am thankful that I can sit in front of a machine and have at my fingertips perhaps not the sum of human knowledge, but a pretty close approximation (the closest the race has ever seen since, perhaps, the library at Alexandria).

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There are big subjects which I should be writing about today. The abortion battle within the Democratic Party, for instance. What Obama is going to announce about our troop commitment in Afghanistan. And, believe it or not, David Hasselhoff's contribution to freedom.

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It must be a little hard to understand, for anyone reading this under the age of about 30 or so, the significance of the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago. Because one event has become historical shorthand for an immense change in the dynamics of not just our country, but the entire world. We've all seen the pictures of an exuberant crowd at the Brandenburg Gate (or "Checkpoint Charlie"), seemingly tearing The Wall down with their bare hands. But it wasn't just one wall, or one city, or even one country that the events in Berlin were changing -- it was the entire political makeup of the planet. Because the fall of The Wall signified the fall of the Soviet Union, and an end to the Cold War. And while this was of enormous historical import, I fear that future generations won't really pay much attention to it. Truth be told, I can already feel it slipping away in the American consciousness. Which, while I understand the impulse, I still think is a shame. Because as the Cold War is forgotten, passing into the dusty pages of children's history books, we run the risk of forgetting some of its lessons.

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Tomorrow is the internet's fortieth birthday. Its creators are even throwing it a birthday party at the University of California, Los Angeles, the origin of the first message ever transmitted over what we know today as "the internet," on October 29, 1969. If you're wondering what the first message ever transmitted was -- the digital age's "Come here, Watson," statement, as it were -- it consisted of two letters: "LO." It was actually supposed to be "LOG," as in "LOG IN," but the receiving computer crashed after receiving just the first two letters -- not a very auspicious beginning, it must be admitted. Still, for poetic reasons, "LO" seems pretty apt: "Lo! The Internet was created!"

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That question has been on my mind of late, due to an overload of idiocy on the airwaves. But, I had to wonder, is it truly idiocy from the media talking heads, idiocy from the people who decide what stories to air (and what prominence to give them), or could it quite possibly have something to do with the idiocy of those watching as well? It's a hard question to ask, which is why "Do we get the media we deserve?" is so much more polite.

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Now, there is no hard-and-fast rule about what constitutes a "big" quake, to say nothing of the (always-capitalized) "Big One." Generally, it is measured in how much damage the quake leaves behind. But any quake above 6.0, and/or any quake that lasts longer than three or four seconds, is (in my book, at least) a big quake.

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There are sins of commission in the way we're taught American history as children -- such as the fable about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree (which never actually happened). Then there are the much more prevalent sins of omission -- which conveniently gloss over the parts of American history which we have to "protect the children" from learning about. The reason I preface this column with such an observation is because a woman -- whose name we all know -- was honored today by the unveiling of her statue in the United States Capitol's Rotunda. Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was on hand for this ceremony, as was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But the astonishing thing (to me) was that Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and John Boehner were also on hand, as well as the Republican governor of the very red state from whence this woman came. This state has honored the woman before, when it selected her to be their representation on their own state quarter. But the truly astonishing thing is that this woman not only helped found the A.C.L.U., but also was a radical and revolutionary Socialist, a fan of the Soviet Union and Lenin, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (the "I.W.W.", or the "Wobblies"), and an ardent foe and critic of capitalism. Not the type of woman usually honored by Republicans, you might think. But, in a glaring sin of omission committed by history teachers across this great land (and repeated by politicians even now), the only story we all know about her is of the daunting odds she overcame in her childhood. We're all familiar with this shared story, but it abruptly ends when she becomes an adult. All the parts about the raging Socialist she later became are conveniently swept under the rug.

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