In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This is the final blog post in that annual tradition.

Despite the abject failures of his wishes for 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018,  2019, 2020, 2021 and most recently 2022, WC, in his continuing triumph of hope over experience, once again sets out his wishes for the coming year. While a few readers have suggested WC moderate his wishes, WC is not inclined to lower his expectations in the hope of greater success.

1. Anthropocentric climate change. A repeat from 2011-2022: the greatest existential threat facing humanity is the…

In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This blog post is firmly in that tradition: a look back at the kidney stone that was 2022 and a look forward to 2023.

As WC sifts through the count of the stitches from surgeries, the discarded face masks and other debris, detritus and disasters that were 2022, WC has tried to find five things that turned out well, or, in these troubled days, at least less disastrously than expected. Here are WC’s picks.

1. Joe Biden. He still isn’t perfect, but we didn’t need perfect. We just needed someone who cared more about America and Americans than about himself. Two years into his presidency Joe Biden on his worst day…

As most readers know, WC has very, very low expectation of American politicians. Most of them, Republicans, Democrats and Independents, have as their first principle getting re-elected, seeing everything else as a means to that end. There’s a spectrum, of course. At one end you have the Lauren Broberts of the nation, whose only principle shameless pandering through offensive sound bites. At the other end you have the Lisa Murkowskis, who still sell their principles but at least get a pretty good price.

The ones who take their responsibility seriously, the ones who say what they stand for, hold themselves to that standard and let the voters decide whether or not to keep them, are pretty rare. And, seemingly, getting rarer.

Let’s be clear, WC disagrees with most of the political…

In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This blog post is firmly in that tradition: a look back at another kidney stone of a year and a look forward to 2023.

We start with WC’s wishes for 2022, graded for how well the country as a whole has done in achieving them. Here are each of the the original wishes, followed in italics by an evaluation, followed by a grade.

1. Anthropocentric climate change.A repeat from 2011-2021: the greatest existential threat facing humanity is the changes we are forcing on our planet’sclimate. We learned these last three years that climatologists underestimated the rate of climate change. Earth is…