Heavens to Betsy! I was halfway out the door before I remembered that I still have to post this week's video. Here it is!
Video of the week: September 2009 Archives
So Joe Wilson yelled "You lie!" and Barack Obama glared at him.
Yeah, it was a dramatic moment as far as American presidential speeches go. And frankly, I think it was pretty undignified on Wilson's part.
But I've seen a lot of analysis pieces since then on the death of civility in American politics, implying that Wilson's outburst heralds our imminent descent into anarchy. I think that's a bit overblown.
This might be a good time to post a few reminders that in some countries, politicians express their displeasure with each other in ways that go far beyond sniping on cable news shows.
I'm actually working today. The vacation days I've been taking are of the "use them or lose them" variety. It's hard to get replacements to work Sunday, so I offered to come in today, then take the rest of the week off.
That's just a lengthy way of explaining that you might see my byline in tomorrow's paper, but I still don't feel like doing any extra work. So the video bonanza continues. (Hey, I'm having fun with it, too.)
I sometimes feel bad for my counterparts in broadcast media. Unlike us print journalists, they have to maintain some degree of composure while doing their jobs. I shudder to think what would happen if every testy exchange or outburst of profanity that occurred in this newsroom made it onto video, then to eventual immortality on the Internet.
Of course, none of that prevents me from snickering with gleeful schadenfreude when I see something like this:
You know the drill. I'm on vacation, so I'm just posting videos because it's less work.
In that spirit, I should say that I somehow feel as if I'm cheating when I post videos from The Onion on here, because finding them requires no real searching on my part. But I can't help it. They're too damn funny.
I had to take some vacation time. Since I don't feel like doing a lot of work over my vacation, I'm just slapping a bunch of videos up here.
Remember in "The Family Circus," when Bill Keane would go away on vacation and "Little Billy" would draw the cartoons for him? It's kind of like that.
Only this video isn't as cute. Then again, I guess we all have our own definitions of "cute."
I had to take some vacation days in the next couple of weeks, or lose them.
I don't want to neglect the blog, or any of you wonderful folks who read it regularly. At the same time, I don't want to spend a lot of time writing, researching or doing anything else that will detract from the the important vacation-related activity of doing nothing in particular.
Fortunately, I spend a lot of time scouring the Internet for funny videos, anyway. And now this blog gives me an excuse to do that as a work-related activity. Is that a sweet deal or what?
So for the next couple of weeks, think of this blog as one-stop shopping for all of your awesome political video needs.
You know, I'll bet more people would take an interest in government if every federal program offered an opportunity for something like this:
