Death List 2009

There's no way to start a new year like the Death List.

2008 was a pretty moderate year for me, losing only 3 people from the list--Albert Hoffmann (inventor of LSD), Jesse Helms (Yes!), and Studs Terkel (sad).

I am making one change this year, dumping Ariel Sharon from the list. Despite his severe stroke of a few years ago, it's clear that the Israelis are going to keep him alive forever and then probably turn him into Lenin or something. So although I never drop people from the list, I'm doing it this year.

That means 4 new members--former Secretary of Defense for JFK & LBJ Robert McNamara, Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad, Stewart Udall, JFK & LBJ's Interior Secretary and enemy of fellow death list member Floyd Dominy, and former Mexican president Luis Echeverria. I figure that McNamara fills the evil quotient and Echeverria helps. So does Pohlad really, since he is so cheap and wanted his team contracted. Echeverria, Udall, and Pohlad all are good and obscure too. Who wants a Death List that looks like everyone else? Not me.

1. Al Haig
2. John Wooden
3. Margaret Thatcher
4. Floyd Dominy
5. Fidel Castro
6. Luis Echeverria
7. Robert McNamara
8. Carl Pohlad
9. Clark Terry
10. Stewart Udall