Another Top 10 List

Did I mention I love Top 10 Lists. Here's another...

Top 10 Impactful People of 2006
For Better or For Worse

10. Sadaam Hussein
Why not start with a "for worse" person. He didn't have that much of an impact directly on 2006 but with his execution by hanging happening just two days ago, one would be remissed not to include him on the list. He was a bad man, no doubt, but hanging as a means of execution still in existance in the year 2006, really quite incredible.

9. Michael Richards
Guess I'm stuck on the "for worse" theme, but he was certainly talked about a great deal this year, or at least towards the end of it. So my question is if a c-list comedian walks into an empty comedy club and screams out the n word about a hundred times, does anybody care? Now what if he does it in a full comedy club. Is there really a difference. I mean here's a guy just screaming for attention, for some fame, some noteriety, something. That wasn't a real racist rant, that was as pre-meditated as OJ pulling the Ginzu Chef on Nicole.

8. Mel Gibson
Yep, another "for worse" entry. In fact I've decided to put all the for worst one's here at the bottom of the list, so the top is filled with the people I think deserved to be there most. Ok, now this wasn't pre-meditated, he had a career. He's just a moron, with deep seeded anti-semetic beliefs. Guess you mix a little liquid truth with a total anti-semite and his stripes appear. Anyhow, I would have loved to end this entry by saying "bye bye Mel, you can kiss your career goodbye." But it turns out that the truth is most the world hates the Jews, and there weren't any major box office boycots when his recent movie came out. The studio, probably run mainly by Jews, didn't even try to hide the fact that it was his movie. Instead all the trailers played "MEL GIBSONS APOCALYPTO!" It was so loud, so bold, so clearly attached they could have said "MEL GIBSON HATES THE JEWS. AND IF YOU DO TOO, YOU SHOULD SEE.....MEL GIBSONS APOCALYPTO." From this Jew I have one word to describe Mel, Schmuck.

7. George Bush
Ok, I promise this is the last of the "for worse" entries. But if you are making a list of most impactful, good and bad, he has to make your list. He sunk us deeper and deeper into this horrible war. The blood of thousands of dead soldiers is on his hands, not to mention all the disfigured supposed survivors. Guy goes away, young, in the prime of his life. Comes back with no legs and is given some worthless metal and pat on the head. Thanks for fighting our war for oil. How he sleeps well at night, how he spends 3/4 of his Presidency at that stupid ranch in Crawfod Texas, and how the Republicans think they stand a chance in 08 is all beyond me.

6. Nancy Pelozzi
I know very little about her, so I'm neither going to make it up or google it just for the sake of looking intelligent. But the deomcrats take back power and the new speaker of the house is not only a democrat, but a woman, now's that progress!

5. James Kim
I think he would be labeled under not really better or worse, but heart-wrenching. What a horrible story that was to follow, and you had that sad sinking feeling in the back of your mind that it wasn't going to end well. And with as much as I listen to Leo Laporte, and read Digg, I really followed the story. So much so, that you really felt invested, felt great elation when they found his wife and kids and then felt great sadness when they found him dead. You never really can tell if a guy was a good guy or just an ok guy directly after they die, because everyone comes to the forefront to always crow about how great of a person they were. But with James Kim, you really got the sense that he was a great guy, a true friend, a great family man and someone that was really admired by his peers.

4. Stephen Colbert
No one would say that Stephen Colbert did anything really impactful in 2006 unless you consider the value of entertainment as being impactful. I was always a huge fan of Jon Stewart and thought Comedy Central should kiss his little ass everyday as for several years he was their anchor, he was all they had. But then just like Mork and Mindy or Joanie Loves Chachi, The Colbert Report was spawned from The Daily Show. I don't watch it as often I should, but whenever I see a clip, the guy is brilliantly funny and the definition of satire.

3. Howard Stern
Sticking with the theme of just how impactful entertainment is on lives, Howard Stern was more relevant than ever in 2006. He bravely abandoned traditional radio and with the incentive of a half a billion dollars he moved over to Sirius Satelite Radio this year. At first I was actually hesitant that his show would take a turn for the worse. That he and his crew would abuse their new found freedom and it would fuck this and shit that every other second. But much to his credit it hasn't been. Sure a few explitives fly from time to time. but overall his show has gotten only better. He seems invigorated by his new freedom, and the overall creativity on the show has propsered because of it. I listen to him everyday. He makes my workday speed along, he makes my time in the car more fun, and I have several thousand shares of Sirius stocks, so I'm a believer not only in Howard but the medium of Satelite radio.

2. Steve Jobs
2006 was the year of the Apple for me. After wanting a Mac for the past few years and even wandering into Mac stores and making ridiculous blank statements to a salesman like "Uhhh, I know I want a Mac, but I don't know why. Tell me why I need one," I finally just bought one about nine months ago. I love it. I have always loved technology, loved gadgets, but I think I had experienced a couple of years without acquiring a new tech toy that would really impact life. That is until I got my Mac. It opened my eyes to podcast, and Iphoto, and just gave me a reason to fall in love with a personal computer again. If I'm sitting at home on the couch in front of the TV, my Mac is on my lap and I'm doing something with it. We got a second Mac for the house just a few months ago, this one a desktop Imac mainly for my wife. She loves it too, and as soon as she really dives into Iphoto, she's going to be as hooked as I am.

1. Kevin Rose
I think I first saw Kevin Rose on Tech TV about three or four years ago and I didn't think much of him. He was just another sort of geeky punk on one of the shows like Call for Help or the Screensavers, who would pop on the screen with some sort of quasi witty bantor. Then Tech TV became G4 and the whole crew pretty much lost their jobs and went their seperate ways. So, I guess with the extra time on his hands, Kevin Rose grew out of his geeky punk phase and grew into an innovator. A mover, a shaker, a creator of technology, really good and useful technology. He created Digg.com, a site where you can go and checkout tons of meaningful, relevant content. A one stop shop for all the interesting stories on the internet. I think its pittiful how little news I read before I discovered Digg. I mean on occasion I would go to Cnn.com, but with a site like that you are only getting the stories from one source. With Digg you get all the news, anything interesting, any tidbit of fascinating information and all from the entire web, not just one site. And how you get it is just as interesting. Its sort of popularity contest. If a certain number of people all "Digg" a particular article then it makes the front page of Digg. I was skeptical at first, thinking stories submitted and voted on as most popular would either represent a moronic measure of the masses, or it would be some clever advertiser with some type of hacking software that just gets his products or special interest on the front page because he cheats the system. But neither was the case. The masses that migrate towards Digg are an intelligent crowd that do their due dilligence with their digging. And as for people cheating the system, it has happened, and happened widely as recent as about a year ago, but Rose seems to run a tight ship and rather than closing shop because they couldn't keep one step ahead of the cheats, they got smarter, developed better systems and now thrive in their efforts to weed out the cheats and spammers. Digg is a great site, and Kevin Rose is the kind of guy that will change the world, for better.