Farewell, 2008. And may 2009 not suck quite as hard.

2008 was a bad, ugly year for a lot of people. And even with everything that happened - the mortgage meltdown, the collapse of risky investment schemes leading to the collapse of the global economy, the loss of discretionary income, soaring unemployment, outright corporate theft on a grand scale, political corruption, the demagoguery and the fear-mongering of the Presidential campaign - I fear that we as a society will come away from 2008 with very few lessons learned.

If nothing else, I hope everyone realizes one thing: Now we know what it's like when you pass a tipping point. So when someone warns you about other upcoming tipping points, you have some idea what they're talking about.

God help us all in 2009.