Weekend Funnies

I've been trying to avoid rubbernecking the sight of the giant accident that was the inauguration. At the moment it took its nasty little oath I could hear the prolonged honking of car horns nearby in my neighborhood, which I assumed was an annoying bleat of triumph from the people who really hate America, people who have got to be the sorest winners in history (except maybe for the Jacobins and the sans-culottes). It was a dispiriting day, worse than election day, because at least then the awful truth didn't dawn all at once, and there were days of denial and false hope to soften the blow. Inauguration day was an irresistable force depressingly bereft of an immovable object. While election day was like taking an unexpected hit from a serrated arrow followed by the foggy relief of blessed endorphins, inauguration day was more like being dragged back to camp by one's captors, bleeding all the way, then being tied up and taunted while having various objects and irritants shoved into the wound.

So you see, I really needed a good laugh.

My comic book of choice, Harper's (no, really, the "Readings" section can be hilarious), has been giving Mr Fish a forum for his cranky scribblings, and this week he seemed to sense some impotence in the opposition party no doubt due to the prolonged wound outrages perpetrated by their captors since November.

And whitehouse.org has posted their translation of the propa-babble that was the Bush inauguration speech. This is a really strong piece, and like a good movie, you can re-visit it again and again to pull out the nuances/references. His stuff is really best read aloud so you can give it the proper rhythm and inflection, and to someone who can give feedback as the audience, making the appropriate noises and clapping at the designated times (just like a real Bush audience).

Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian, had some insights into Iraq's future before the election, and by golly if they aren't still just as valid today. Some might say that Bush's reticence on the subject in his inauguration speech may reflect his unspoken doubts about the success of the course he's chosen. Betty knows better, because, "...as President Bush might say, lots of death is just one barometer of success."

Rees is thinking about Iraq and all that freedom talk in the speech, too.

Oh, hell, just go on over to rathergood.com and play a few of their movies. They're addictive like cheese curls, and they make me laugh out loud. Try Pavarotti's elephant serenade. You'll feel better.