i can't be a part of the madness

[rone]

Despite the immense relief i feel over the end of GWB's presidency, i see the widespread celebrations and excitement and all i can hear in my head is Living Colour's "Cult of Personality".

Comments

[bryant]

Yep.

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

Enh, he'll be OK. Somebody has to be president.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

"Somebody has to be president, and today it's you."
"Aw man!"

Hey Paolo!

[notr.livejournal.com]

He broke thee PRESIDENT!

[vspope.livejournal.com]

As the late Molly Ivins once said, the office of the Presidency will weather this storm of approval and come out as hated as ever.

[erikred.livejournal.com]

Too cliche. Am more reminded of "Hate the game, not the player."

That said, it's been a long time since we've heard a decent Inauguration speech. Will be interesting to see if it carries through.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Cliché? Huh. Anyway, "hate the game not the player" is orthogonal to what i'm talking about, because i'm not doing any player-hating.

I've never heard an inauguration speech. I hope to keep it that way.

[erikred.livejournal.com]

It's easy to imagine a cult of personality around a charismatic leader. It's also a cliche.

I'm not saying there aren't a lot of Obama-as-miracle people out there, I'm just saying that hearing Living Colour in the background is too easy a reference. So's Transmetropolitan's The Smiler. I was much more impressed with South Park's The Greatest Thief Club treatment of the matter.

[bryant]

And then he had to shout out to non-believers and make me all happy again. Man.

but they have not counter-balance...

[drieuxster.livejournal.com]

There were Xtians and Islamists, Hindu's and jews, and the singleton's, the Non-Believers, who are the cosmic fifth wheel, because, they have not yet accepted the divinity of dubya....

We are all still accepting the divinity of dubya in spite of the failures of the Civilian Community to follow order in a time of Homeland Security Investment Bubble.

Re: but they have not counter-balance...

[epileptikitty.livejournal.com]

No Flying Spaghetti Monster? LAWSUIT! LAWSUIT!

Re: but they have not counter-balance...

[drieuxster.livejournal.com]

nice level of hysteria dude...

[erikred.livejournal.com]

Word.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

That was pretty cool.

[nixzusehen.livejournal.com]

People want to be happy and proud for the first time in years. I'm sure the disappointments of reality will set in soon enough.

Party pooper.

[mezdeathhead.livejournal.com]

Word.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Every party needs a pooper, and today, it's me. I'd rather be happy and proud when he does something to be happy and proud about, like get rid of GTMO or "don't ask don't tell" or other such bad shit.

I will say that the White House Web site looks a hell of a lot better now, and not just because Obama's a lot more handsome.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

If you want to get rid of "don't ask don't tell," without it being replaced with something of equal or greater stupidity, lobby congress. Just because Obama commands the military, it doesn't mean he has power to re-write the rule of military law, the UCMJ. That's all Congress. You know what to do.

Speaking of the Pending Fornication Trials...

[drieuxster.livejournal.com]

and yes, Adultry is also illegal under the UCMJ.

What is comical here is that folks fail to understand that under UCMJ Law a Blow Job is simply ILLEGAL, irregardless of gender alignments.

So when we talk about fixing the law, uh, maybe it is time to allow Practicing Hetro's to come out of the closet...

[mouseworks.livejournal.com]

At least, we didn't bomb Iran. Yet.

[eagle]

The problem with the rebound relationship is that after the "oh thank God I'm out of there" wears off, the pedestal onto which you put the new person is so high that everything is a disappointment.

He's still just another politician. A better one than most, but there will be a long series of compromising, back-room agreements, and similar nonsense. He did it as a senator with FISA, and he'll do it even more as President. This in and of itself is just how democracy works, but with this sort of build-up, I'm worried we're going to disillusion a lot of people who we can't really afford to disillusion, and the Republican corruption machine will just be back because they're soulless bastards who don't need enthusiasm -- they have money and God.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I don't get why so many who are so sick of Bush need to feel so happy, to the point of ecstasy, about this. I get that getting to be president means being the key log in a jam of propaganda, but i don't get why people who normally know better let themselves get swept up in it.

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

Because in spite of older, wiser understanding of how U.S. government really works, we're still completely imbued with the childhood notion that The President Is The Man. (And that's continually reinforced, both subtly and not, by how the parties and the media spin the role.)

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

"This tired old man that we elected king..." Yeah.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

At least he has a personality to get culty around...

[bungo.livejournal.com]

Personality cult or not, I'm trying to keep Nixon's AG's words in mind:
''Watch what we do, not what we say (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE5DD1430F937A25752C1A96E948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print).''

[(Anonymous)]

It's a relief to lose Clueless George, who, like Prick Cheney, is positive he made no mistakes in eight years; and put someone who sounds sane, self-deprecating, and hard-working into a thankless job. You wouldn't be rone if you didn't stand off to one side, squint your eyes, and say "So?" when a parade passes by.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

That's the thing, innit? Our expectations have been lowered so far that we go bananas for someone who seems to be an actually decent human being.

I think Obama's done a great job in his first 24 hours. I look forward to more.