Pomp & Stupidity ~ Sullying the Secular Occasion

Obama's inaugural oration was excellent. I'm glad he spotlighted science and technology, because those are indeed the core strengths -- and critical needs -- of this nation and our time. Most of the rest of inauguration, alas -- i.e. the right-wingnut Rick Warren, endless crappy music, the bad poetry, and the boring benediction -- was awful and idiotic. (We later learned that some of the crappy music was pre-recorded a la Milli Vanilli. Ugh) Beyond being depressingly lame, however, it's an appallingly un-constitutional imposition of state-sanctioned religious irrationality on to what ought to be an entirely secular celebration. To add one final environmental and aesthetic insult to this intellectual and legal injury, check out all the trash that the millions of supposed "patriots" left on the Mall... Cleaning up their own mess is "not their problem" apparently. As the latest Economist writes in Bin It, this was supposed to be the "greenest inauguration" and inaugurate Change. So far, all I've seen is the same old Hypocrisy. Good luck to US in achieving a greener, cleaner America, nevermind even more dramatic and difficult changes for the better.