Hart: Giving thanks and looking back at 2015

Ron Hart
Ron Hart

Here is my annual ADD list of random things we all should be thankful for that I did not write about:

' Obama will celebrate Thanksgiving at the White House. He pardoned the traditional Thanksgiving turkey but only because it had a crack distribution conviction in 2005.

' Hacker group Anonymous said it would help expose ISIS websites to end their terrorism. Not exactly the 72 virgins the ISIS martyrs expected.

' The U.S. Department of Education was bullied by college educrats to abandon a college rating system based on cost and quality of education. Now we are back to the old rating system for deciding which college to attend: BCS rankings.

' Hillary Clinton keeps getting caught in lies. After publicly maintaining for months that the Benghazi attacks were caused by a YouTube video, emails confirm she knew from the start it was a terrorist attack. Hillary needs to get more honest and realize she is running for president, not creating a Tinder profile.

Among the embarrassing emails released was one where Hillary asked a staffer, "I heard on the radio there's a Cabinet meeting, Can I go?" In another, she found out about Benghazi attacks when Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda mentioned it on their morning show.

' This year has proven that the real risk to African-American males is not cops or black-on-black gang violence - it's marrying a Kardashian.

' After a jetliner was downed by ISIS in Egypt, Vladimir Putin - reacting more strongly than Obama - bombed relentlessly. As always, ISIS said hospitals were bombed. So the charity working in the area changed its name to "Doctors without Doctors."

' Obama's feckless foreign policy revealed to us his new doctrine. From Teddy Roosevelt's "Speak softly and carry a big stick" to George Bush's "willingness to unilaterally pursue U.S. military interests," all presidents have had one. The Obama doctrine seems to be either "Speak loudly, and carry no stick" or "You can't win 'em all."

' It was about time Bobby Jindal got out of the GOP race. He was at 2 percent in the polls. When you've been running for a year, and you are tied with reduced-fat milk, it's time to get out. Martin O'Malley should, too. He should talk over his future with his close friends and family. I bet half of them don't know he's running.

' Great news for folks who don't get good news! Netflix renewed its award-winning show "Orange is the New Black." It's the only women's prison movie men don't have to immediately delete from their browser history.

' Ohioans celebrated their state's aviation history. John Glenn was the first American to orbit Earth; the Wright brothers designed the first airplane there; Akron has the Goodyear blimp; and Neil Armstrong, another Ohioan, was the first to walk on the moon. The implication is clear: Folks will do anything to get out of Ohio.

' The Syrian refugee issue remains a hot potato. Southern cities refuse to take them; sanctuary cities like Los Angeles say they will, but the vetting process will be extensive. The refugees will not be evaluated on their criminal history, race, creed or color but will be judged like all others in L.A. - by the car they drive. If two male Syrian terrorists were to show up in a California court for a deportation hearing, the judge would instinctively marry them.

' 2015 was a wild legal year. Who would have thought you could get gay-married in Alabama before you could buy pot in Ohio?

' ISIS, dismissed by Obama as a jayvee team, continues to recruit. On the application, it's asked, "Where do you see yourself exploding in four years?"

' At age 99, Dorothea Daniels graduated from a California college with a degree in social sciences. She had to take a job as a stripper out near the airport to pay off her student loans in time.

' While in Memphis, I heard a radio ad for a contest where the winner got to meet Justin Timberlake. I got to meet the other members of NSYNC when I booked a ride with Uber.

Ron Hart is a syndicated op-ed columnist, award-winning author and frequent guest on CNN. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

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