George Carlin and Rome on HBO

I watched George Carlin's new HBO special Life is Worth Losing tonight. Wow. If you have HBO, if you have a friend whose cousin's neighbor has HBO, you should see this special.

And yet, as euphoric as I feel right after watching something so incisive, I can't help despairing because I still don't sense the American people as a whole, turning on the people responsible for the terrible state of our nation, the neoconservative cabal intent on exploiting anyone foolish enough to submit to them.

Earlier tonight, I watched another excellent HBO program, Rome. Yes, it's all from two thousand years ago, but the echoes in our present political situation give pause to any serious student of history. George W. Bush fancies himself a modern-day Gaius Julius Cæsar, but in fact he is more of a Nero, fiddling while Baghdad burns, fiddling while New Orleans drowns, just fiddling while Washington becomes his own private Neverland Ranch.

There's an image: Michael Jackson as emperor of Rome. For that matter, how about Michael Jackson for President of the United States? He's just as qualified as George W. Bush! True, Bush was governor of Texas, but Jacko wins in the "sincere, committed Christian" column. I would also have to give Jacko the edge on "contact with reality."