Particularly following the shootings in Newtown, it's easy to look back at what a lousy year this has been ... but was it really?     In fact, "The Spectator," a British magazine, makes the case for the exact opposite, saying 2012 could be the best year in human history.   Here's how they've made their case: 

#1.) There's never been less starvation, less disease, or more prosperity than in 2012

#2.) The number of people in extreme poverty worldwide is less than HALF of what it was in 1990.

#3.) Global inequality is also shrinking, with global business helping developing countries move forward economically.

#4.) Advances in fracking are actually leading to an energy ABUNDANCE instead of a shortage

#5.) Fossil fuel consumption is down 4% in the world's biggest countries since 2005.

#6.) The average life expectancy is up worldwide. In Africa, it's up to 55 . . . a decade ago, it was 50. So people are living longer, healthier lives than ever.

#7.) AIDS deaths are down every year for the last eight years. And malaria deaths are down by a fifth in the past ten years.

#8.) Death tolls from natural disasters are decreasing, because more money and technology worldwide means we can do a better job guarding against the effects of natural disasters.

#9.) There were fewer war deaths in the past 10 years than any time in the last CENTURY.

#10.) Death rates from major types of cancer, like lung and breast cancer, are down by more than a third in the past four decades.