2013 endings: Columnist Patt Morrison on what she won’t miss
![Give him credit -- he was magnificent in his brazen deception. The cyclist was a cottage industry of cliche turned real -- the epitome of triumph over adversity who invited all of us to share the dream. How many of those Livestrong bracelets went into the trash after his ways were unmasked in what the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said was "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport [cq] has ever seen"? He trashed people who talked about his doping, then complained about his mistreatment. Speaking of brazen: He was ordered to return his Olympic bronze medal. Runner-up: Dwight Howard, who, having left the Lakers, is now welcome to sit in the Rockets' fancy new locker room and down all the Skittles and Reese's Pieces he likes. RELATED: Ted Rall's five best cartoons of 2013 Washington's 5 biggest 'fails' of 2013 10 groundbreaking women we lost in 2013](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/dc22598/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2048x1353+0+0/resize/1440x951!/format/webp/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd0%2F7a%2F4ee9d191ac368c71966eb494135b%2Fla-ol-2013-endings-what-patt-morrison-wont-mis-012)
Give him credit -- he was magnificent in his brazen deception. The cyclist was a cottage industry of cliche turned real -- the epitome of triumph over adversity who invited all of us to share the dream. How many of those Livestrong bracelets went into the trash after his ways were unmasked in what the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said was “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport [cq] has ever seen”? He trashed people who talked about his doping, then complained about his mistreatment. Speaking of brazen: He was ordered to return his Olympic bronze medal.
Runner-up: Dwight Howard, who, having left the Lakers, is now welcome to sit in the Rockets’ fancy new locker room and down all the Skittles and Reese’s Pieces he likes.
RELATED:
Ted Rall’s five best cartoons of 2013
Washington’s 5 biggest ‘fails’ of 2013
10 groundbreaking women we lost in 2013 (George Burns / AFP / Getty Images)
This list should be a lot longer. There are so many people and practices we should be able to bid “good riddance” to, but they’re still with us, still haunting us. They know who they are. And we know what they are.But until they depart the scene, here are a few others we bid a happy “adieu” to in 2013, people and things I know I won’t miss. -- Patt Morrison
Follow Patt Morrison on Twitter @pattmlatimes
The filibuster, or the threat of one, has kept major issues from getting voted on by the entire Senate. Republicans say Democrats will rue the day they changed the rules of the filibuster, but the country is ruing it already, with the failure of important legislation that had a majority of Senate votes. A tool of democracy had become a tool of paralysis. Of the nearly 170 filibusters of judicial and executive branch nominations in Senate history, about half have been played since President Obama took office. What flipped the “nuclear” switch was Republicans’ limp argument that it was blocking White House nominees to the influential D.C. Circuit Court because, um, uh, the court didn’t have very much to do and didn’t need its usual number of judges; yeah, that’s it!
RELATED:
Ted Rall’s five best cartoons of 2013
Washington’s 5 biggest ‘fails’ of 2013
10 groundbreaking women we lost in 2013 (Win McNamee / Getty Images)
San Diego’s first Democratic mayor in the nonpartisan job in more than 20 years was out of his job in less than a year. He was accused of sexual harassment by many women -- a former admiral, a great-grandmother, a Marilyn Monroe impersonator -- and agreed to resign as the city agreed to pay some of his legal bills. He pleaded guilty to a felony and two misdemeanors. Surely Filner is wondering how he came to lose his job while the crack-smoking, hooker-consorting mayor of Toronto still finds himself in office -- albeit sidelined from power -- and something of a cult figure; signed bobbleheads of him are selling on EBay for hundreds (Canadian).
Above: Filner speaks at a news conference in San Diego on July 26.
RELATED:
Ted Rall’s five best cartoons of 2013
Washington’s 5 biggest ‘fails’ of 2013
10 groundbreaking women we lost in 2013 (Bill Wechter / Getty Images)
Three words from the 15th century: Joan of Arc. Four words from President Obama: “Valor knows no gender.” Ending this ban may do the additional duty of ending the volume of sexual harassment of women in uniform, and permitting women to break the military’s promotional glass ceiling of combat experience.
RELATED:
Ted Rall’s five best cartoons of 2013
Washington’s 5 biggest ‘fails’ of 2013
10 groundbreaking women we lost in 2013 (Paula Bronstein / Getty Images)
More buildup than a royal wedding, more mess-up than the Obamacare website. The consequences, including a drop in stock prices and a dent in gleaming images from Silicon Valley to Wall Street, were a dash of cold water on the swooning over tech values.
Above: A view of the Apple iPhone displaying the Facebook app’s splash screen in front of the login page on May 10.
RELATED:
Ted Rall’s five best cartoons of 2013
Washington’s 5 biggest ‘fails’ of 2013
10 groundbreaking women we lost in 2013 (Karen Bleier / AFP / Getty Images)
Those brown eyes, that curly hair, that “Rolling Stone” cover photo. The startling and icky phenom had girls and women clamoring online that the surviving brother-suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings was “too beautiful” to go to prison, “too beautiful” to be guilty. We haven’t heard as much from them since the case has moved along, and since Tsarnaev’s dead brother has been linked to the 2011 triple murder of some friends. Even Richard Ramirez, the serial-killer Night Stalker, who obliged the world by dying this year, had swooning female fans. And a 25-year-old girl vows that she’s affianced to 79-year-old serial killer Charles Manson. Love conquers all -- all good judgment.
Above: Jennifer Michio, left, from Mashantucket, Conn., and Duke La Touf, right, of Las Vegas, stand in support of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev outside the federal courthouse before his arraignment in Boston on July 10.
RELATED:
Ted Rall’s five best cartoons of 2013
Washington’s 5 biggest ‘fails’ of 2013
10 groundbreaking women we lost in 2013 (Bill Sikes / Associated Press)
