My Country 'tis of Thee...

My heart is breaking.

I'm 54 years old, and I lived through Reagan's boisterous aggression, Bush Sr's mediocrity, and Clinton's well-intentioned charm. I survived W's stupidity and rejoiced in Obama's leadership.

I thought we were moving toward a better future.

To borrow one of our President*'s favorite words: wrong.

I was born right after the Cuban Missile Crisis, and in all of my years on this earth, I've never been so profoundly frightened. I've got two kids, you know? One's going to graduate from high school this spring, and the other one will graduate a year from now. What's going to be left for them?

President* Trump has been in office just 7 days, and I'm appalled by his actions so far, and terrified of what's to come. Will my kids be forced into military service, to fight a war designed to benefit one man above all others?

Do I have enough water and canned goods on hand in case society shuts down completely?

Maybe you voted for the guy, and you're ready to tell me off for being a liberal crybaby. If that's the case, I can only say I've lived through a number of presidential transitions, and this one is exceptional. I try to get my news from credible sources - The New York Times and The Washington Post primarily - and as much as I want our country to succeed, I don't think those reporters are making things up.

What those news stories tell me is, we're very close to being fucked.

This blog is supposed to be an adjunct to my writing, the kind of site where #MySexySaturday is about as deep as it gets. I'm not feeling it right now. I should be promoting my upcoming release, and diving into the ongoing escapades of my favorite vampire monk.

Not feeling that, either.

Instead, I'm going to take the dogs for a walk, say a few Hail Mary's and decide if I want to post this. I mean, either you think I'm crazy, or you're already so scared you don't need to add my fear to your load.

God bless America
land that I love.
Stand beside her
and guide her

Please

Friday Fun: The Colbert Report

 So it's Friday, which means it's time to have a little fun. Right? Noni and I have been busy this week, searching for just the right video. Okay, that's a bit of a lie. Both of us have been busy, and this is a video we found a while ago that seems to fit the moment.


I mean, last week's video featured my husband's band, The Fentons, and it was presented in terms of romance. This week you're going to see the guy I'd dump my husband for in a second. (Sorry dear...)

Steven Colbert.

I think he's brilliant, and not just because he's smart and he can sing and he's a good Catholic boy. I love the way he's playing with irony to get his point across. So much of what's considered humor right now is pretty sophomoric - T&A, potty jokes, angry strings of F-words. Irony is a higher level of humor, and day after day, Colbert just nails it.


Dictionary.com defines irony as "the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning". In Colbert's case, it goes beyond words. It's his persona, his attitude, the deft way he covers his anger with a smiley face. He's been accused of promoting 'ironic rot' by the National Review, and, along with Jon Stewart, of being a symptom of the decaying politic system that defines this country. 

In his 2010 Los Angeles Times article, Will Bunch compared Stewart & Colbert to Glen Beck, the pundit they're supposedly lampooning. His assessment shows more similarities than you'd expect, although I doubt the crowds of people who went to see them on the National Mall would agree.

I would offer that this disagreement is a symptom of the real problem with our political system. People of opposing viewpoints don't listen to each other. Consider some research findings published in The International Journal of Press/Politics:


Using data from an experiment (N = 332), we found that individual-level political ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert's political ideology. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements.

So he's on both sides? That doesn't bug me at all. I'm glad there's a place liberals and conservatives can find common ground. IMHO, only a united front will fix the things that are wrong with this country, and only real dialogue will get us there. And if we're laughing at the same things, maybe some of that dialogue will happen.

Wow. That went much deeper than I'd expected. Noni's crying in her cocktail over here. In the interest of keeping to the Friday Fun theme, let's make a little hay with one of our major corporation person friends. Here's Mr. Colbert talking about a fave snack...

The Colbert Report
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