Obama Schmobama Y'all!

I am out in a red state for business, and must admit that this is a very interesting place to celebrate the inauguration of our 44th President, Barack Obama.

A lot of folks were very grumbly here this morning leading up to the inaugural speech, and waxed poetic about the good old days of President Bush. Yes, apparently, out here, there were some good old days. I think they are all very happy to have him back home. Probably not as happy as the rest of us.

After the speech, a few folks commented surprisingly about what a great speech Obama had given, and I was whisked away to an old Chris Rock joke... "He's so well-spoken! He speaks so well!"

In the cafeteria, we were served free inauguration cake that was no doubt provided by a minority worker in a gesture of good faith. While everyone was thrilled about the cake, I'm not sure they were equally thrilled with what it represented.

The buzz died down after lunch, or so it seemed to me, as I was in a meeting for most of the afternoon. But then Obama madness struck again. My team was discussing plans for after work tomorrow night and we "all" agreed on a trip to the shooting range. After all, we have to get some shooting in before Obama takes our guns.

The Blogtari Factor

A friend of mine IM'd me a link to the Gawker post about Sarah Palin's email account being hacked. At first, I was excited. I thought there would be some major scandals revealed like receiving bribes from Pro-Lifers and Oil Conglomerates, or at least an offer from CoverGirl for their Infallible Lip Color. But no. The Gawker article has absolutely zero substance. You can see some pictures of her kids. And no, they are not nudie pictures. Just regular, fully clothes pictures of her kids sitting in the grass.

SNOOZE!

In fact, none of the recent onslaught of Sarah Palin news has been very interesting. I do not need to know that she once dressed as Tina Fey for Halloween. I do not care she uses Yahoo! mail. I am utterly indifferent about the 3 different Palin action figures available today on political spoof sites everywhere.

The media should have quit while they were ahead - announcing Bristol's pregnancy from her Baby Daddy whose My Space profile does not want children.

Ever since Babygate, Palin has been a bore. In fact, I could argue that all of the Britney Spears-inspired media attention Ms. Palin is getting is doing far more to raise her party's profile than anything John McCain is up to. And the GOP thinks the "liberal media" is against them. Hmph!

I am very much looking forward to the debates so we can start talking about real political issues again. Because you know what else I don't care about? Obama's love of the NBA and McCain's lobby for proper healthcare for boxers! Yes, I am forced to watch ESPN, and yes, both candidates were interviewed to talk about their favorite sports. I miss Joe Biden and his Amtrak antics.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not a hard-nosed politician. I enjoy my news in bite-sized, lowest-common-denominator chunks. But I do think it's a bit silly to turn our politicians into entertainers. They are not entertaining people. That's why they are in charge of stuff.

And news outlets, please lay off Ms. Palin. The more you make me think I should care about her, the more I may care about her. Let's just let her fade away into Geraldine Ferraro-like obscurity, shall we?

Red Herring

I just returned from a lovely week in Sweden, and despite my overdose of blondes in tight pants, I had a very nice time.

I was out for a training meeting with colleagues from around the globe, and what surprised me most was how ignorant I am about most of the world.

My meeting was populated by some Italians, Spaniards, Chinese, Taiwanese, an Indonesian, a Brit, and of course, loads of Swedes. Everyone spoke English, which means for everyone except the Brit, they are all bi-lingual.

I am constantly fascinated and jealous of the bi-lingual and feel that they don't get enough credit. Be honest, when you get in a cab or when your cleaning lady comes, don't you always feel a bit superior? But how many languages do you speak, buddy? Could you conduct your livelihood in Swahili? I think not.

I decided that I will take some Spanish lessons this summer to dust off the old high school educación. Plus it will make CSI: Miami villains much more relatable.

Another item of note was that most of the conversation covered US politics. I must have said the following phrase 100 times, "I think it's so interesting that you follow US politics. Most people in America don't even pay attention."

I know nothing about the current political race in China, or if they are allowed to vote there (are they still Communists?) Yet my Chinese friend knew everything about the Democratic primaries. He likes Obama by the way.

I did however receive props for my big-city Bush bashing. I think my colleague from Michigan was in trouble on that one. I'm pretty sure Bush drives American.

I was so overwhelmed by this clash of cultures that I did not embrace my usual zealous quest to consume all local foods. In every other country I have been to (or state for that matter), I make it a point to try the native cuisine. This is why I am one of two people I know who has eaten kudu. Yes, that's an animal.

At meal time, I stuck to fish. And not terribly traditional fish either.

The Swedes love their fish, probably because Stockholm is made up of 14 islands. I was also told a story about salmon being the food of the poor. The salmon people must have ingenious marketing folks these days. But the most traditional fish is herring. Pickled herring. Chased with a shot of whisky. I am not kidding.

It could have been my self-consciousness at my lack of globality, or the fact that I wasn't into vomiting in front of co-workers, but I skipped the herring and shots.

All in all, I was a pretty lame American. But I did drink the local beer.