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I was going to try to give a perspective on this, perhaps the most confusing decade ever (if you argue that's still the 1960's, keep in mind that the people who allegedly made that decade confusing at least thought they knew what they were doing). 

Instead, I thought a song parody might sum it up better.  A parody of Billy Joel's 1989 song We Didn't Start The Fire, done by the web blog Hz So Good, pronounced like a certain John Mellencamp song from 1982.  The author of this blog, Rich Appel, doesn't imply or claim any artistic talent in this parody (and I don't know what rhymes with "wardrobe malfunction", either).  That having been said, it's pretty good.

WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE

(NOT as recorded by Billy Joel/Columbia)

Harry Potter, Elian, Gladiator, Eminem

Survivor, subway series, Putin, mad cow

Texas 7, Britney Spears, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

Dot com bubble, 11-7 Dow.

Dubya, Gore, J.Lo, West Nile, U.S.S. Cole

"Who Let the Dogs Out," Florida recount

Napster and Metallica, Shrek, Wikipedia

Condit, eBay, sued by RIAA.

We didn’t ask the writer

No, we didn’t clear it, we just changed the lyrics

You would have thought us brighter

Billy, don’t be hating, ’cause we’re just updating.

Angelina Jolie, Starbucks and Hillary

Paris Hilton, TiVo, stem cell is a no-no

Katie Couric, Kim Jong Il, "Bootylicious," Dr. Phil

Sex & the City, Rudy Giuliani.

 9/11 tragedy, planes hit WTC

Al Queda, Taliban, U.S. in Afghanistan

Al Jazeera, anthrax, Gitmo, Patriot Act

Tora Bora, shoe bomber, Operation Anaconda.

 We didn’t start the fire

Well, that song was fine, but that was ’89

We hope that you admire

All that we composed about the double-Os.

 iPod, Enron, gay teens at the prom

Iraq, Nickelback, Lakers win with Kobe-Shaq

Spider-Man, Colin Powell, Beltway sniper, Simon Cowell

Hans Blix, Dixie Chicks, "Mission accomplished."

(uh huh – yeah, right.)– washed away

50 Cent, Jack Sparrow, Tonys Hawk and Soprano

SARS, Lord of the Rings, Al and global warming

Power outage, Green River, Rush Limbaugh and painkillers

Martha Stewart in the slammer, Governor Schwarzeneggar.

You see, a lot transpired

Since the year 2000, and we’re merely browsin’

Don’t want to make you tired

We won’t overdo it, more than halfway through it

Abu Ghraib, John Kerry, Jack Bauer, crackberry

Halliburton, e. coli, Red Sox kiss the curse goodbye

Jim McGreevey, Kanye West, Iran does a nuke test

Sponge Bob Square Pants, Lance wins Tour de France.

Tsunami, TomKat, $3-a-gallon gas

New Orleans

London terror, Tom DeLay.

We didn’t start the fire

Billy Joel, he meant it, when the ‘80s ended

Should our attempt misfire

You don’t like the new groove, watch the old on YouTube.

And I'll put in "my own two cents" for this last blog of the '00's by paraphrasing what Colonel Potter said about the incoming year in one of my favorite M*A*S*H episodes:

"May it be a tall sight better than the one that just ended."

Condoleezza, AFLAC, Justin brings sexy back

Miley Cyrus, Howard Stern to Sirius

Octomom, Obama, Chris Brown and Rihanna

Bailout, Palin, Jon & Kate Gosselin.

Madoff, flu of swine, Spitzer and Client 9

Geico, Gaza, Guitar Hero, Gaga

Michael Jackson, Twitter tweets, Susan Boyle, Black Eyed Peas

Tiger Woods, Twilight craze

Did I mention Book of Days?

Made it under the wire

Yeah, we tried to cram in everything that happened

Doubtful we’ll get rehired

For the same routine in 20-19

19, 19, 19, 19, 19, 19, 19.

We didn’t start the fire

It was always burning since the world’s been turning

We didn’t start the fire

No, we didn’t light it but we tried to fight it.