sitting in the lounge at work, watching a montage of teletubbies, reality TV and the inauguration day procession... I hesitate to call it a parade. It's so ominous looking, more like a funeral...

The massive police presence, car after car, flashing their lights, the lineup of security at the sides of the road, keeping the citizens back. The dark windowed limo. Not much celebration going on.

It looks more like the processional of a dictator than of the president of a democracy.

Every once in a while they show shots of the barricaded streets, where people are throwing snowballs at the security guards barring their way.

I wonder how they screened for who to let in? Card carrying members of the Young Republicans only?

Teletubbies. TV designed for kids who aren't even old enough to talk yet.

Therapy TV. Why would anybody want to watch people undergoing therapy on TV?

Commercials advertising wonderful, vibrant, youthful old age... Then cheerfully warning of the risk of dire side effects from the drugs they're promoting.

I wonder what it feels like to be proud of your country and the direction it is going in?