Open Thread and Diary Rescue

Tonight's Rescue Rangers are jlms qkw, Got A Grip, vcmvo2, HansScholl, joyful with dadanation in two places at the same time.

The rescued diaries

• Adept2u sees both the past and the present in The View From Palmour Street. (joyful)
• desmoinesdem proves the maxim that all politics is local in this link-rich synopsis: Year in review: Iowa politics in 2008. (vcmvo2)
• Ellinorianne offers some practical advice that just might make Talking to Kids about Poverty a little bit easier and a whole lot more productive. (dadanation)
• Underground in Ohio reflects on the pitfalls of thinking about "us" and "them" in the positions we take and warns of The Dangers of Writing about Oppression. (HansScholl)
• Im nonpartisan shares words about an older Democratic man and pictures of Chi-town in A Birthday Gift for my Dad: A Barack Obama Shirt. (jlms qkw)
• A Siegel, an avowed "pessimistic optimist," pushes the Overton window on energy all the while trying to Imagine Life Differently: New Year's Resolution revisited again... (dadanation)
• Stranded Wind reviews The Year In Stranded Wind. (jlms qkw)
• kpshea notes the dreadful state of America's health care system and brings us the encouraging Top 5 Signs That Healthcare Reform Is Coming. (joyful)
• Cheez argues that the middle class will have to abandon the consumerism at the core of economic policy for the past thirty years in Bring down Reagonomics. (HansScholl)
• palantir asks us to look beyond the everyday, and in to the heavens, while the commenters ponder on a variety of topics from Galileo to Carl Sagan to the Crab Nebula: Welcome to the International Year of Astronomy. (vcmvo2)
• Vladislaw brings us a nice Commercial Space Roundup 2008. Poll Results. Not just for Star Trek fans! (joyful)

The regular extras

jotter begins 2009 where 2008 ends with High Impact Diaries: December 31, 2008.

sardonyx brings Top Comments: The Prolific Commenters, Fall 2008.

The reminder

Please use this as an Open Thread as well as your chance to promote your favorite diaries of the day. Respectful engagement is most welcome here. Please keep in mind that each Diary Rescue's daily purview extends from 3pm PST yesterday to 3pm PST today.

Oh, and Happy New Years to everyone!