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It occurs to me whether non-Southerners share the tradition of the same New Years Day good luck meal as I contemplate the death of my late fellow South Carolinian's 73 year life that epitomized the American Dream against great odds and who did eat the same meal as I did today; the late Midwesterner and 38th President of the United States Gerald Ford's 93 year American Dream and what meal added 20 years to his luck; and the relevance of the late fellow, close in proximity on the Obituary list, Middle Easterner Saddam Hussein's 69 year search for Saladin's Dream, what one eats in spider holes and what its like to be eaten for eternity by imps, demons and Lucifer himself in Hades.

Seriously though, please tell me the courses that compromise the New Year's Day Good Luck Meal in your comments. GC has a story to tell on this later in an update after surveying Redstate.

I have heard a number of commentators comment on the rather unique occurrence of the close proximity of the passing of so many prominent public figures, and wanted to look at them in light of history and our present circumstances. One should also mention the recent passing of Jeane Kirkpatrick, former US Ambassador to the UN under President Ronald Reagan, as well, and I invite you to read the Jeane Kirkpatrick, RIP by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s December 14 peice in the American Spectator, which includes this passage:

WASHINGTON -- It was at Jeane Kirkpatrick's funeral this week that I finally heard of some good achieved by the United Nations midst all its dithering and graft. According to Jeane's pastor, during her momentous tenure as our UN ambassador Jeane was so wobbled by the international body's cynicism and moral emptiness that she forsook years of atheism and became a person of faith. Mind you, she had always had an abundance of secular faith before President Ronald Reagan tapped her for the UN. Her faith in the American way of life, its freedom, democracy, and equality, was as ardent as it was intelligently conceived. But after leaving the house of hustlers on the East River, she became deeply Christian; and religion gently informed all she thought and did thereafter.

But let's look more closely to the even more closely-in-proximity departed:

Saddam obsessed his whole life and dedicated everything he did his whole life to obtaining and wielding power with megalomaniacal fervor. He killed anyone in his way, which numbered in the hundreds of thousands directly via political murders and mass slaughter even of the children of his political opponents, and over a million indirectly through imperialist wars. While he became the Dictator of a nation, he was thwarted in his EVIL dreams by people like Gerald Ford and James Brown who lived the American Dream and accomplished much more, and much, much, much more GOOD.

Gerald Ford epitomizes all that we admire about the Greatest Generation generally, and specifically the Midwestern variety of same, that were Boy Scouts, persevered thru the Great Depression, beat the Nazis and Imperial Japan, and stood up to the Soviets in the Cold War. It would be wrong to say that Ford was not driven by ambition, but it is accurate to say that he did not obsess over any dream of being president and that when he assumed the office, it was more as a duty than the achievement of a goal more than any other of the 42 that have held the highest office in our land.

James Brown epitomizes the now largely untold story of the monumental achievements of Black America from the end of the Civil War and before the passage of the Civil Rights and voting Rights Acts of the 1960s. In fact, liberals don't want this story told, beacuse it proves the lie that they seek to perpetuate that Blacks can't make it in America unless liberals help them.

Liberals viewed the ending of de jure segregation as but a very small step in fixing the evils of America. James Brown achieved the American Dream even before the ending of same, and after same never asked for a "more level playing field," not only as Black man, but also as a Southerner.

From 1865 thru 1965 Black Americans went from slavery to being the equivalent of the 13th most wealthy nation on Earth. But thanks to Liberals, since 1965, they remain today, January 1, 2007, still in 13th place.

And if it weren't for James Brown, they would have sunk to 14th. Yet, oftentimes liberals, black and white, resented Brown for his refusal to accept the Black public politically liberal victim-dependency orthodoxy and antipathy towards conservatives and especially Republicans.

James Brown was a conservative in the way he lived his life. He was also a sinner. But he was a self sufficient businessman who also had God given talent. But he wasn't called "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business" because of talent.

The man worked. He was an American pursuing the Dream. Living the Dream. Like when he sang at Nixon's Inauguration or visited Reagan's White House. Or when he sang and danced, and oh how he sang and danced!

And he ate the same meal every New Years Day.

Do you, fellow Redstaters, eat a traditional NYD meal? What is it? I'll tell those, or more likely one of you will before I must, what James ate.

But given the 93 years, the real question is: What did Jerry eat! Or better, NOT eat.

See also a very funny take on the year that was and the one to come from a frequent and regular guest of Hugh Hewitt, James Lileks' and his Looking back on the follies of the year ahead.

Gamecock, DeVine Op-Ed for The Charlotte Observer, blogs at Race 4 2008 and The Minority Report. “One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson