printA Vomitorium: “A passage situated below or behind a tier of seats in an amphitheatre, through which crowds can ‘spew out’ at the end of a performance.”
The Obama orgy in the fleshpots of Washington has not yet begun in earnest, and I’m already in gag mode.
The beaming tele-twits, their racial-pride roster of guests, the MLK montages, the hyperbolic homilies to the Messianic Man and The Historical Moment; the posturing from pious pundits, the overwrought, empty waffle—how low can a country, and a once-great culture, sink?
Hang in there. I’ll be back shortly with a few, recommended, DVD distractions to help get you through the next few days. I promise. (You’ll also need some grog; no getting around that.)
Update I: A spluttering Jonathan Alter of Newsweek to “Countdown” Keith: “The inauguration… here… in the capital built by Michelle Obama’s slave ancestors. …”
In case you get swept up in the tide of “history from below”: The people who established the political order described by Thomas Jefferson as “a composition of the freest principles of the English constitution, … derived from natural right and natural reason,” were predominantly British Christians.
Where’s the gratitude?
Update II: The Day of the Crowning (Jan. 20): MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow effused last night about the historical necessity–nay, obligation–to formulate an answer to the “Where Were You When” question.
A wonderful line from Peter Schiff resonates right now: “our country became great not because of what politicians do, but what they didn’t do.”
Send us word about how you’re coping with the Barack Bacchanalia.
Some more headlines from the intrepid press around the world (This segment is being constantly updated):
Black Washington looks to Obama (BBC)
What a black president means to me
Scientists optimistic over Obama
From segregation to inauguration
Difficult to Capture the Moment (MSNBC)
Watch Juan Williams Have A Wobbly
As to the last headline: Really? Let me take a timid bash: slushy, weak-minded sentimentality; senseless slobbering.
Update III: Even Sen. Ted Kennedy could not take it; he had a seizure mid-carnival. That is, another seizure. Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Republican, also Kennedy’s official “Praise Singer,” was on hand to comment on the Kennedy conniption.
I’m surprised at Michelle Obama’s awful ensemble. It is a yellow-greenish sequined affair that makes her skin look like old cheese. Not very flattering.
To Barbara’s sartorial comment: If it’s a cold, wintry day, I say dress for the weather. Draping yourself in flimsy fabric on a bitterly frigid day makes one look like a high-school girl trying to show skin.
(Update V Jan. 21): First Lady Michelle Obama’s evening gown was only slightly better than the lime number. She should have gone with a veteran, big-name designer. The white tunic resembled a curtain with bulky tussles, and did not flatter her well-toned figure. An off-the-shoulders garment is not the best fit for a woman with such a wide, amazon-like build.
As for Rev. Joseph Lowery; I’d like to see him tarred and feathered. Here’s his coruscating attack on white folks, delivered in childish, churlish prose:
“Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around – when yellow will be mellow – when the red man can get ahead, man – and when white will embrace what is right.” …
F-ck you too, Lowery!
Update VI (Jan. 21): Jill Biden’s inaugural gown was lovely. I don’t much like red, but the lines of this frock are rather nice.
Sodom on the Potomac.
That’s what I call my dystopian hometown of Washington, D.C.
[Great line.]
Oh my God, it’s my country all over again, but 10 times bigger and in Hi Def.
I can’t bear to watch.
Thanks, Ilana for the turn of phrase.
Shouldn’t the markets be booming? With the Obamanation finally in power we’re seeing change. The powers that be, regardless of party affiliation, have done everything possible to prevent what’s coming in the markets… and it’s coming very fast. It’s a televised train wreck, not only in Hidef, but also in 3D. Can anyone imagine how Nero’s MSM would have covered him as Rome burned?
I agree with you on the dress, Ilana. I think Michelle would have done better had the “Project Runway” crew been tasked to design her inaugural outfit. It seems to me that Heidi Klum, Michael Kors, etc., would have ripped this design to shreds, had it appeared on the runway.
I wish I could hear just one MSM commentator say first black* American President. You would think there are no white people in Africa. I’m proud to live in a country where one group of people went from second class citizens to President in one generation.
*black as in short, tall, old or young.
Just thinking ‘aloud’ here..Obama has a white mother, was raised by whites, but has a black father, so of course he’s Black. Similarly with, say a Japanese, or a Jewish mother, he’d still be Black, because after all Jew or Asians are not real ‘minorities’. But just imagine Obama’s mother had been Hispanic. Just imagine the dilemma!
Until Fascist Delano Roosevelt, we did not have religious invocations at these events. Washington approached the event with humility and Jefferson wanted to take even more pomp away from the inauguration. Nowadaws, it is the coronation of the Messiah and the media and the populus eat it up. They closed roads 12 miles from the White House! (hell, why not evacuate the whole country East of the Mississippi!). I asked my daughter if she wanted to watch the inauguration and parade on TV and she said no – a healthy attitude.
Did anyone else get a shiver of premonition when the new Fuhrer was spluttering giving his speech on how much we owe and how irresponsible we are?
Amen on the Lowery comment Ilana.
I watched the inauguration and I came away with the feeling that we were crowning Messiah Obama to the throne of the U.S. I suspect that the attempts to remove the restraints of Constitutional limits placed upon the number of terms that one man can serve will gain foothold. Hugo and Fidel couldn’t be prouder!