Thank the dear lord in heaven up above!
At long last news of our national nightmare has been superseded by an even greater earth-shattering event. The election last November of President Gag now stands in mute humility before the historic incident at the end of last night’s Oscars™ ceremony.
●
As a public service to the global readership of this communications colossus as well as to the historians and archeologists of the future, I offer a clear and concise elucidation of the event:
Somebody made a mistake.
▼
What Is Freedom?
I caught an interesting take put forth by a native of the United Kingdom, a Londoner to be precise, at a little soiree — entirely unrelated to the Surrender of the Japa…, er, Birth of Our Lord and Savi…, I mean Academy Awards™ presentation — last night.
This person has lived long enough in the New World to have lost quite a bit of her accent. In fact, a careful listener might even be able to detect the sound of an occasional -r in her speech. Nevertheless, she had spent enough of her adult life in England to now be rather familiar with both societies.
This person made an observation about the concept of freedom and how the two cultures, American and British, view it. Says she: In America, we cherish the freedom to…. In Great Britain, and for that matter the rest of Europe, they embrace the freedom from….
That is, we have the freedom to do whatever we want. Or at least we like to think so.
In Europe, people strive for the freedom from financially devastating illness, tyrant kings, and the inability to travel from one corner of their land to another for lack of a titanic SUV.
So here, we’re in thrall to guns (because it’s our right to open carry them even into McDonald’s and Starbucks) while those Continental types have universal health care, parliaments, and subsidized rail.
Free!
●
I can’t argue with her assessment.
▼
War Words
Gonna hit the mics this afternoon with Bloomington’s globe-trotting journalist Doug Wissing. We’ll be recording for this week’s edition of Big Talk, a regular Thursday feature of the Daily Local News. Tune in to WFHB, 91.3FM, on March 2nd at 5:00pm.
Wissing (Center) With The Troops
●
Doug has written his second book following several embeds with the US Army in Afghanistan. His latest book on that blood swamp is Hopeless But Optimistic: Journeying Through America’s Endless War in Afghanistan. Doug had previously released Funding the Enemy: How US Taxpayers Bankroll the Taliban.
▲