Mmm, bitter swill

In his inaugural speech, Obama said that it is time to put away childish things. In Crawford.

George didn’t have the grace to keep his mouth shut today, giving a speech at a “welcome home” rally in Texas. He declared that he’s “coming home with my head held high and a sense of accomplishment.” One of the things he said he’s accomplished: “we liberated 50 million people from the clutches of terrorism.” That’s the combined populations of Afghanistan and Iraq, who were in the clutches of unpleasant regimes, not of terrorism.

One interesting factoid: he’s the only person ever to leave the presidency with both his parents still living.


Obama’s speech wasn’t hugely interesting (not a single “in other words” and he didn’t remind us of anything!), although he did both quote a Depression-era Astaire-Rogers musical (“we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off...”) (I can’t have been the only one watching the speech who sang the next few lines) and use the phrase “bitter swill of civil war and segregation”.

“With old friends and former foes, we’ll work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life nor will we waver in its defense.” Because our way of life has nothing at all to do with the nuclear threat or the specter of a warming planet.

Also, it’s not a specter. The planet is actually warming.

But enough of criticism, for on this day, we are united; on this day, we are all secret Muslims.

Caption contest: