It's hard to say with a straight face that 2011 for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission was truly historic. The idea of historians a century from now breathlessly discussing the debate over the federal commodity position limits regime or a new market manipulation standard may seem downright absurd. But the idea of future historians discussing anything the CFTC has done doesn't seem as absurd this year as it did just a couple of years ago when the sleepy agency was just an afterthought, if it was thought of at all.