Obama Inauguration Speech in Wordle

I love Wordle. It’s pretty and kinda useless, but it’s pretty.

What?

Anyway, Obama’s speech made bloggers weep so it must have been amazing (I couldn’t get a decent stream so I kinda missed it. I’ll watch it later). 

Here is the speech mashed through Wordle: isn’t it pretty?

 

(Bah, thought I was the first; there are zillions of these already!)

Sheesh! Are people STILL visiting this post?

It was ever thus has a lot to answer for.

His post inspired my post and still they come every day to find out something about Titanic only be bombarded with Sufjan Stevens’ sexuality, funky house and Obama’s tweets.

Funny ol’ world, innit?*

*Practising being a Londoner.

Amazing. Colin Powell endorses Obama.

Republican former Secretary of State has endorsed Obama. He says that Obama would be a ‘transformational figure’ which is what the US needs now. He is particularly eloquent about his concerns at the shift further to the right that the Republican party has made recently and he points out that Sarah Palin is taking it even further.

It’s easy to caricature Republicans as dumb and greedy, but this man sounds intellectual and reasonable. Of course making a move like this will do him no harm in terms of his own rehabilitation with the public too, but let’s not be cynical. It inspires hope that not everyone in the GOP is comfortable with the move further to the right, and that’s a good thing. What a pity that McCain himself, who seemingly had a good reputation as a more left-leaning Republican, had to abandon his principles to pander to what his advisors think voters want. 

PS: Am I doing too much stuff about the US election? Should I get back to mixing?

The World Outside the USA

Almost insufferable magazine Monocle has an interview in the current issue with a Japanese journalist, Aga Igarishi. I found the following answer fascinating in that it reminds us just how much the US is hung up on race.

Monocle: Does the fact that a black man might become the next president of the US interest your readers? [Igarishi is Washington correspondent in Japan's top selling newspaper].

Igarishi: Yes, but I’m not sure how many Japanese people are aware of the significance of the fact that he’s going to an African-American president. Most people don’t know why it was so hard for an African-American to be elected.

Why none of us will ever hold high office

This lovely image of Governor Sarah Palin demonstrates how those of us who blog and have profiles scattered around the web will never have a shot at high office. Seriously, do you really think America will let this person be President (remember that McCain is 72 and has cancer)?

Now, look at your flickr account and ask yourself, would you vote for you?

Personally, I’ve ditched various notions of privacy and have decided that there’s more to gain from web promiscuity (as it were) than overtly censoring myself, but still, she does seem a bit lacking in gravitas. Her t-shirt reads “I may be broke but I’m not flat busted”.

And to avoid accusations of political partisanship, here’s a flattering shot of Obama. (Actually, I think he’s

quite adorable here, but still…).

And, just in case anyone is looking for a photo of me looking goofy, here you go.