2006: A pretty good year for America...

[Joe Republic]

I guess you could say I've had a pretty damn awful year, but I'm speaking selfishly.

As for the rest of the country, to be honest, it hasn't really seemed like 2006 has been particularly better or worse than most of the years preceding it.  In fact, I'd say that 2001 and 2005 were both far worse than 2006; simply due to the massive disasters that took place on American soil in both of those years.