Dubya's coronation will cost something like $40Million, which -- considering the state of the world at the moment -- just begs for that old silly declaration: "Let them eat cake!" which has been attributed to Marie Antoinette but, curiously, may have been Rousseau .
In any event, the Denver Post provided this, which reads, in part:
For a nation at war, over-the-top black tie affairs, ice sculptures and nine inaugural balls seem a bit much - especially for a second-term president
With nine inaugural balls, a star-spangled parade, fireworks, concerts and, get this, white chocolate cowboy boots at the Ritz-Carlton, President Bush's second inauguration will be a gala affair.
We wonder if it's all really necessary, or even appropriate, for a nation at war.
The planned glitz and glamour of the three-day affair already has an air of being overdone, if not outdated, when contrasted with the American servicemembers who are in harm's way on the streets of Iraq and in the hills of Afghanistan.
And with the Indian Ocean still churning up bodies from last month's devastating tsunami, ice sculptures and black tie dinner dances seem slightly off chord.
The website of the Presidential Inaugural Committee says inaugurations "set the tone for a new administration and reflect a president's personality." What do the organizers want us to see about President Bush in next week's $40 million celebration?
This also from the Denver Post:
The tsunami may also deepen religious and ethnic divisions, perhaps dangerously. In Sri Lanka in recent years, dozens of churches have been attacked by Buddhists. It is the Christians, some Buddhists say, who are to blame for the tsunami.
Din Syamsuddin, a cleric and deputy chief of Muhammadiyah, one of Indonesia's largest Muslim organizations, said the people of the Aceh region near the epicenter had calmly accepted the tragedy as a sign of God's disapproval and a divine examination to test their faith.
Natural disasters are an indication that man has strayed from the path of God, he said: "We believe it is an examination, and we face it with passion and submission."
Ain't religion great! Don't you just want to thank God for the destruction, the death, the ending of the lives of the innocent? Don't you just want to embrace this all-knowing -- the Lord works in mysterious ways -- God who kills innocent children, infants?
Yup, by golly, by gosh, God is Great! God is Good!
Because a physical tragedy is only a test, Acehnese Muslims believe, the real punishment may come later, he said.
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