Roundup -- Incest Fashion, AIG, and Obama on Leno

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Other than making sure you have at least a bit of green on, I don’t really know anyone that actually does anything to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. I realize it is a good excuse to drink a few beers, but usually it being Tuesday is a good enough excuse to drink a few beers.

In actuality, I’m a quarter Irish. My origins are split up evenly four ways. However, I can never remember exactly how. I believe my mother’s side of the family is Scotch and Irish and my father’s side is English and Welch. Whatever the breakdown, I’m one Waspy guy.

On a totally new subject, I was reading the Express newspaper on the subway ride to work this morning and saw the story about Josef Fritzl. He is on trial in Austria for a variety of horrendous things: incest with his daughter that resulted in him fathering seven of her children, killing her 2-day old son, his daughter’s enslavement in his basement for years, etc. What struck me odd about the story was the mention of the fact that Fritzl wore a mismatched suit at his trial. Did Cojo, from Entertainment Tonight write this story? All the terrible stuff this guy did, and they had to add a crime of fashion.

Also on the front page of the Express was a story about all the outrage over the AIG bonuses. Of course, the only people in the entire world who think this is a good idea is the people getting the money. As a Federal employee, I get paid with taxpayer’s money, and I got to tell you, if they decided to give me a bonus, I would take it. Conversely, I also pay taxes, and I happen to know every dime I pay in taxes is going directly in AIG executives’ pockets.

I also saw in the paper that President Obama is going to be on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno Thursday night. The blurb says this is the first time a sitting president appeared on such a program. I immediately thought of Richard Nixon’s appearance on Laugh-In, saying, “Sock it to me?” That was played during the campaign in the fall of 1968, so he wasn’t yet a sitting president. I was only 7 years old, but I remember it. Damn, I’m old.

I’m not sure that appearing on the Tonight Show is such a good idea for the president. If he was going to be a talk show, he should have picked something a little more hip, like David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Tyra, or perhaps Nightline. If he really wanted to connect with the American people and make a political statement, he should be a judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race. At any rate, you’d think he’d be too busy for talk shows at the moment. The Republicans are going to accuse him of being a celebrity again. That worked out so well for them before. Oh well. We should indulge him a bit and let him enjoy his popularity. I wonder who Dave will have on that night (it’s a rerun and will be delayed because of the basketball tournament).