Punxatawny Philibuster

Last year I made several predictions for 2005. I guess it's time to revisit those predictions and see how I fared:

Legislation will be introduced to withdraw the U.S. from the U.N (but will
fail).
Not to my knowledge. The primary controversy was over the ambassador we sent there.

Elections will be held in Iraq on schedule, but the results will be
contested by the U.N.
Half right. Two successful elections have been held and certified by the U.N.

The Great Social Security Compromise will be passed this year.
Social Se-what?! That issue got drowned out.

I will turn 35 without spontaneously combusting.
Correct. There was no combustion, spontaneous or otherwise--not even birthday candles.

We will sell our house and move someplace bigger.
Correct. And we're loving it!

We will have another boy.
Correct. And we're loving it--er, him!

Someone will start making a "Buck Rogers in the 21st Century" movie.
Not to my knowledge.

We will have a terrorist attack on US soil this year.
Thank goodness no.

Bin Laden or Al Zarqawi will be caught this year.
Unfortunately no, though they've both made considerable strides toward removing themselves from relevance.

Iraq will be significantly more peaceful by the end of the year, but it
will get worse first.
Depends on who you ask.

Brittany Spears will get divorced.
Nope. And good for her! Congrats on the new baby, too. And hang tough, Kev. You're the media's favorite punching bag, but you seem well poised to laugh all the way to the bank.

Martha Stewart's new show will beat Oprah's ratings its first week.
Not to my knowledge. And her reality show didn't fare very well, either.

Michael Jackson's trial will finally start.
Correct. It also ended. And best yet, he moved to--of all places--the Middle East, known the world over for its tolerance and hospitality. He immediately gets off on the wrong foot by going into the women's bathroom.

The Yankees won't make the World Series.
Correct. The Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals did.

Chechnya will be granted independence.
Wrong. No progress there.

The Oil For Food Scandal will quietly go away, but not for lack of
evidence.
I should have defined quietly. The U.N. is certainly keeping quiet about it. Conservatives blogs, however, bring it up every change they get.

Not a single actor or actress who threatened to leave the country if Bush
won will actually do so (not much of a guess, really, since no one did last
time, either).
Correct. But we did get Jacko to go for other reasons. That's progress.

Emma will be chosen for the "By Invitation Only" class in gymnastics.
Nope, but she did get advanced to the next regular class ahead of schedule. I'm also not sure if the "by invitation" class ever materialized.

So that's about 7.5 out of 18. I'm getting worse! Oh well. Several of those I'm more than happy to be wrong about. The scary thing is, it seems like I just made those predictions a few days ago!

Well, so long and good night to 2005. All in all, it was a pretty darn good year for us. I'm predicting even better things for next year.