ho-hum

Every once in a while, the stars and planets align such that something out of the ordinary happens. Tuesday was one of those days. The little lady was deathly ill (still is), and my schedule managed to clear up such that I was able to work from home and take her to the doctor. President Obama was being sworn in right as we turned the TV on when we got back from the doctor's office, and I was able to watch many of the other festivities and goings on while I worked. Normally, none of this would have been possible.

I don't remember ever watching another inauguration. I also don't remember any inauguration being so hyped. I felt like I was witnessing the decline of Western civilization as I listened to idiotic news broadcasts that were dumbed down to the lowest common denominator:

"We really expected Michelle Obama to be wearing something else!"

"Barack Obama's jaw looks a lot tighter today than usual. Must be a lot of pressure!"

"The president-elect and his family are running 23 minutes behind schedule. We don't know how this will affect the rest of his day, but it's going to be a late one!"

The inaugural proceedings were interesting, but weird. Nice hat, Aretha Franklin. Nice witty racist prayer, guy. Way to be inclusive of all Americans with the Lord's Prayer, Rick Warren. And all the tears. I just don't get it, but then, I didn't vote for the guy, either. Sure, he's the first black president. He probably represents many firsts, but I don't really care about that. I vote for the person that I think will do the best job. That wasn't Barack Obama.

Obama's speech was interesting. Thank the previous guy for his service to his country, then come out swinging and criticizing much of what the guy's done during his presidency. If nothing else, Obama succeeded in differentiating himself from his predecessor.

Obama's been busy since he took office. He's following up on things he said he would do, like closing the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I wonder how much he really knows about the place, or about other things on which he's acting swiftly. It seems like there's only so much you can know about intelligence activities if you're not the president or directly involved in those activities.

So, on from the hype and into the honeymoon. I'll be glad when that's over, too.