Anyone listening?

In Washington the atmosphere was tense today as a special subcommittee of the House Committee on Un-American Activities continued its probe into anti-Vietnam War protests. Demonstrators were forcibly evicted from the hearings when they began chanting anti-war slogans. Former Vice-President Richard Nixon says that unless there is a substantial increase in the present war effort in Vietnam, the U.S. should look forward to five more years of war. In a speech before the Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in New York, Nixon also said opposition to the war in this country is the greatest single weapon working against the U.S.

Simon and Garfunkel, "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night"

I always feel some obligation to watch the State of the Union address. My wife wasn't planning on joining me last night, but then I said she could play Civ III on the laptop during the speech if she turned off the music and left on the sound effects. I don't play this game, but I really like its sound effects. Especially the grunts. I was hoping for some well-timed grunts last night. I was richly rewarded.

I don't have much to say about the speech itself except that more of its 50-some minutes were devoted to other countries than to the United States. I wasn't surprised, really, but I did feel kind of cheated anyway. I mean, I wanted to hear about how (if?) Bush plans to mend our broken democracy here at home, not about how he wants to mend supposedly broken countries by giving them a copy of Cowboy Democracy for Dummies.

My dear friend Kara took this picture, posting which saves me at least a thousand words:



May Google save my mortal soul.