I'm in a state

Here we are; once a year we make the effort to sit still long enough to listen to a carefully scripted presentation that acknowledges what we already know about the state of our union and gives us some uplifting statements to make us feel better about it all.

I decided to turn on CNN in the hotel room and follow the coverage with them through the evening. I always used to believe that CNN was reasonably impartial as a news source although I wasn't naive enough to think they weren't leftward-leaning.

But what was the first thing I saw? Wolf Blitzer in The Situation Room - which reminds me of Presidents making world-shaping decisions...

and also - like a train wreck - reminds me of Mike The Situation Sorrentino.

Of course, my most up close and personal memory of Wolf was him ducking and covering while covering the first Gulf War in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. I was in Riyadh where we were receiving daily Scud attacks and there he was freaking out on global television...not his best moment.

But I digress...

So there I am tonight trying to put that image of Wolf out of my mind and take his pre-SotU coverage seriously and who is the fist guest I see? Bill Maher.

In modern parlance, I thought to myself, 'Oh...my...gosh.'

The king of the liberals is on the air. My grandparents, parents and teachers always told me, 'If you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all.'

You have no idea of the internal struggle that is causing at the moment.

Okay, here goes...

Mr. Maher said that President Obama should pull our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan...and every other foreign country in the world.

Leaving aside what we would do with all those troops (border guards or 20% unemployment?), I suppose the money we saved on foreign deployments might pay for every man, woman and child in the USA to get a university degree.

Since I'm still struggling, I think I'll do some more ironing, call my wife, do my taxes and generally forget that Maher's satanic image (oops) ever burned the surface of my cornea.

Enjoy the speech...and feel free to come by and tell me what you thought of it.

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