John's Blog

I hate to be right, but Bush's speech last night covered all the ground that I thought it would, in the manner we've become accustomed to in the past. Trot out the soldiers, wave the flag, throw in a few 9-11 references, try to say that this mess is part of a war on terrorism. We've heard it all before, but finally some of the sheep are wandering away from the herd and not buying this malarky hook, line, and sinker.

I did stay awake and get to watch "Rescue Me" which had a scene which contained what probably would have been good advice for Bush as well. Tommy was getting yet another parking ticket, and was trying to talk the cop out of it because of the brotherhood between cops and firefighters, but the cop wasn't buying it. Tommy pulls out the "9-11" card and the cop says something to the effect that "it was four years ago; get over it." Not that we should minimize the pain and loss of that tragic day, but it's about time that we have a moratorium on using it as a banner to rally around, and as an excuse for stuff that's totally unrelated.

Another thing that the cop said that applies to this is "America likes it simple". Sadly true, and look where that got us. But simplifying things for the unwashed masses isn't entirely a new phenomena. The dumbing down of America is another story.