Sometimes I fear for my country...

...but then something comes along to remind me that there is always hope as long as our singers and storytellers still have a voice:

"Welcome back my friends / To the show that never ends.."

You might think that after a 10-month break I could do better for an opening line than a quote from Emerson, Lake & Palmer. But, "write what you know" and all that...

Anyhow, without further adieu I'm going to propose that we dive back into our usual topic, i.e. what's been amusing me lately. This week I'd have to go with: ranting tea-baggers who couldn't find a clue with a spotlight and a steamshovel. This bit in The Onion about a man "whose understanding of the Constitution derives not from a close reading of the document but from talk-show pundits, books by television personalities, and the limitless expanse of his own colorful imagination" is so dead on the money that the laughter it generates comes out sounding distinctly queasy.