Living With War redux

Last night I ordered Neil Young's "Living With War" from New World Record, the shop literally around the corner. It took the shop girl (is that worse than "clerk"?) some time to find it - it wasn't in their usual database.

It's due to be released next Tuesday, May 9. I left my cell number, and she called today to say that they got them in and were going to put them out early. Yum. I picked it up tonight and listen now.

What if Al-Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by our government's protection
Or was someone just not home that day?
Flip...Flop
Flip...Flop
Flip...Flop
Let's impeach the President...

It's a long way from "Ohio" but still...singing truth with an edge.

Bush The Comedian

Our Dear Leader did a little routine at the White House Correspondent's dinner last Saturday night, followed by a cutting Stephen Colbert speech. It's surprising that Colbert is still free to walk the streets after that night. Crooks and Liars has a link. There are Bittorrents that include Bush's routine out there as well.

Bush's routine was with a Bush impersonator, who actually got most of the lines. He played Bush's inner thoughts:

NotBush: Gotta get this right. Nuclear proliferation. Nuclear proliferation.
Bush: Nukular ploriferation.
NotBush: Nailed it.

The rest of this post is going to veer off topic, it's a response to a post on another forum, talking about Bush's routine and then this:

I still think i would probably like George Bush personally, if i got to know him, even if i disagree with most of his policies.

I thought the Bush/NotBush routine was surprisingly funny. Perhaps the man does have some self-awareness after all. Of course he didn't write it, but he was a good sport to go along. The timing worked, for the most part, and the impersonator makeup was pretty good. The jokes rang true, if overdone.

But the old canard (often raised around election time) about who you would like personally or who you would like to have a beer with is completely irrelevant. Sure, plenty of people like him personally. But does he like them? Would he want to have a beer with you? Probably not. He doesn't care about you or me, or people like you or me. (I'm presuming something about "you" here.)

Remember the said-in-jest Bush line, "This is an impressive crowd - the haves and the have-mores. Some people call you the elites; I call you my base." It's all too true.

This man has lived the life of privelege all his life. Do you think he has ever done his own laundry, even at Yale? Isn't that what scholarship students are for? He has failed at everything he has been given to do, except play the cheerleader. That’s what his performance at the White House Correspondent's Dinner was, if you think about it. Playing the fool to his own throne.

Biking

I'm trying to get myself out on the bike more. Being a congenital record keeper, I was happy to find a neat website to help map my routes.

Here's the route I took today to Squaw Island in the Niagara River.