Finally

Henry Kissinger is finally dead. Good fucking riddance. While Americans loved him, he was a war criminal, responsible for most of the atrocities of the final quarter of the twentieth century. Cambodia. Bangladesh. Chile. East Timor. All Kissinger. Because of these crimes, Americans revere him as a "statesman" (which says rather a lot about Americans). I prefer Anthony Bourdain's view: Kissinger deserved to face trial in The Hague, just like Milošević. Now he's dead, well, Milošević's corpse was staked. I wonder how Kissinger's victims will finally take revenge?

Sir Edmund Hillary

Bugger. He'd had a long life, and everyone goes sometime, but bugger just the same. He was a great New Zealander and a kiwi hero, not for climbing a mountain (though at the time people thought that was impressive), but for what he did afterwards. And he quietly symbolised kiwi values - honesty, decency, modesty - not like the loud and self-inflated "heroes" of the business community, who mostly seem to symbolise greed, selfishness, and self-aggrandisement. New Zealand just won't be the same without him quietly reminding us just by his presence of what really matters. Bugger.