Reinstalling Windows XP - oh joy!

I finally had 5GB free on my computer so I decided to take the plunge and install Windows XP on another partition in the hopes of starting fresh and cleaning up:

1. DVD drive doesn't work at all unless the computer is started with the Windows CD in the drive.
2. ATI All in Wonder TV card doesn't play TV and stops the computer from entering the Hibernation mode which saves a lot of power. Attempts to upgrade to current drivers reboot/crashes the computer in a loop.
   
3. A junk filled registry from years of software installations and uninstalls.
4. A Twinkle 2110 USB webcam that crashes the computer when used in conjunction with Yahoo Messenger.
5. Firefox crashing every few days, possibly from over-extension.
6. Banishing any undetected rootkit or trojan to the past [although I have no reason to suspect one is installed since I practice safe hex].
7. And giving myself the ability to back up my Windows partition to a Ghost image for easy restoration later. My 20GB C: didn't give me that possibility, and lack of an easy backup is worrisome to me.

Now that I have a "clean" Windows, I have to do all my little customizations, and utility installations again, but I'm going to do it carefully so I can identifiy what, if anything, was breaking stuff in the past. And when I'm satisfied that I have an improved computer, and I've imported all of my data from my C: drive, then I can toast the old system installation and have oddles more room. Then I can go about moving to Ubuntu Linux so I can ditch Windows XP whenever I don't wan to use it as my TV recorder.
==

In other events, Canada won a silver in women's team skiing. This is Beckie Scott's second silver medal, oh wait it's her first because her silver was upgraded to gold, after finishing originally in third place behind two cheating skiiers in the Salt Lake Olympics.
==

Gormley's "Reality Check" was probing the question: Should Ezra Levant of the Western Standard have published the cartoons that are accused with instigating riots in the Middle East? More people said that he should have published them, since it's more of a question of freedom of the press, than tip-toeing around a particular religious viewpoint. I agree with that, since how can anyone know if all of the cartoons were as tasteless as we'd been led to believe if they haven't even been viewed? The bottom line is that someone, somewhere is always going to take offense to something, so as long as the speaker's intent isn't to rally people to cause harm to others, then freedom of speech should stand paramount. Samantha Burns has made a few of her own cartoons to mock the situation, because humour is often the best window to an absurdity.