It’s great to be back.Well, in reality I’m still at home, but sitting down to write my first Cynic piece has given me a bit of back-to-school excitement. While it is tempting to dive right into the new year, these past months featured numerous issues I know the opinion team would have loved to sink their teeth into.Personally, I’d feel a little remiss if I let it all flounder in the dustbin of Cynic opinion history.So how about a quick recap?First off, the Supreme Court. Sonia Sotomayor ran the U.S. Supreme Court confirmation gauntlet this summer, becoming our first Latina justice, and, in the process, exposing just how white the Republican Party really is. Hearing Rush Limbaugh call Sotomayor a racist was like hearing SpongeBob  Squarepants accuse someone of being composed of too many right angles.Next, Iran. For weeks we watched the Iranians bravely stand up for legitimate governance and democracy. The events were so unexpected that it was almost impossible to make out Iran’s trajectory. A revolution seemed possible, but the status quo seemed more likely. Either way the Iranian government-civilian relationship was permanently changed.So we watched and waited, until, out of the blue, an even more important issue stole outattention.Yes, this summer we witnessed a monumental event in human history.Some scholars already believe it’s the most important occurrence since the rise of agriculture, the invention of the wheel or the discovery of really sharp rocks.I’m speaking, of course, of Michael Jackson’s death.And boy did we memorialize him.  Wars were literally fought and won in the time he held the public’s attention.Jesus could have gone sojourning in the desert, fasting and resisting the devil for 40 days and 40 nights, come home and still found Michael Jackson coverage on TV.By the end, there was even media coverage on the possibility that there was too much media coverage of it.That is, until we were reminded by messieurs Gates and Crowley that we were overdue for a conversation about the need to have a conversation about race.The two-week racial quagmire-within-a-quagmire ended in the famous Beer Summit — an event roughly one, one-millionth as cool as it sounds.And let’s not forget health care.As I write this, health care reform is still a convoluted mess stumbling through different congressional chambers and committees. It’s hard to make anything definitive out. As for the protestors, I get the distinct feeling that most of them envision themselves as Brad Pitt in “Inglourious Basterds.”Well, that was hardly an adequate recap, but I had to touch on some of it.Thankfully the school year is on and I can get back to being opinionated all the time.