Maybe a Thousand Dead in Iraq

It shows you what kind of a world we're living in, when a 4-figure death count in Iraq can get overshadowed.

Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- At least 640 Shiite Muslim pilgrims were killed in a stampede on a bridge spanning the Tigris River in Baghdad today after a nearby mosque was attacked by insurgents, Iraqi National Assembly adviser George Sada said.

"When people heard that the mosque had been attacked, they panicked and rushed toward the bridge to get out of the area,'' Sada said in a telephone interview from the capital. "There were so many people on the bridge that many fell over its sides and drowned in the Tigris, others were crushed.'' He said the force of the crowds broke the bridge's barriers. Other accounts said people in the crowd reacted to rumors of a suicide bomber among them.

The 2000s (or is it the aughts? the zeroes? We're halfway into this decade and we don't have a decent nickname for it) have easily been the most tragic decade since I've been around. I'm guessing you'd have to go back to the 40s, with WWII and all.

"May you live in interesting times," as the saying goes. Or maybe not. Stop this decade, I want to get off.