The Sweetest Words I've Ever Heard

Ce-le-brate Good Times, Come On!! Ok, those aren't quite it. But rest assured: disco will be back, just you wait for when our kids and grandkids dress up for Disco Day. There's some frivolity in what I'm feeling tonight, fair enough, and something else. The virtual world is wonderful, but the problem with it is that it's not mature, not tele-presently effulgent. For times like these, times like ours, we still require some Jimmy Buffett shrill-in-your-grill comraderie and partying, and well, the Realworldosphere is an incredibly rich interface. I wish you were all here. I'm as happy as when I was first let out of prison, and lonely for birds of a feather.

I'm at one of the Drinking Liberally hotbeds, which event was held on last night, Election Night, not tonight. I came here thinking there might still be some partying (Italian style) going on. No, not really. The people here are taking our country's big change of tide in remarkably calm stride. Fortunately there's a tight-fought trivia contest, and I'm helping Shakti Davis out with his answers. We're in first place, but there's a group of over-educated geeks over in the corner who look dangerous.

In lieu of being with you all, I want to call you out and thank you for frequenting my fledgling blog. It has been an illuminating and humbling experience these past few months, hanging my big mouth out on the record. For example, I was acutely embarrassed being caught flat-footed by the Rumsfeld resignation this morning. Should've seen that coming, I was asleep at the switch during the back-room deal calculations running up to the elections, and this was the kind of thing I wanted to get out in front of. Looking back, it was completely obvious, and so the young historians on their Ivy League scholarships will one day surely say. It's true. It was kicking-myself-in-the-butt obvious.

Well. I'm an amateur, and it's a privilege to screw up in front of a small but treasured group such as you. I want to thank my old friend Still Life Living for getting me into so much trouble, and opening my eyes so many times. Thank you, John Amato at Crooks and Liars for keeping on top of Katrina. Thanks to Jane and Christy at Firedoglake, the progressive mothership. and your community who put up with me. You achieved the near-impossible and got me involved in blogging and politics. Thanks to my wife for cutting me this blog-slack, for her beauty, for our son and so much else. I thank Al C. for his contributions and the way he cuts sharp into technological stone, and the trolls from AT&T Labs. Thank you, Tom S. for the late nights, the sailboats, and the alerts from The Asia Times. I thank my frequent visitor from McFarland, Wisconsin. Hello to Bruce at the Riverblog, and another regular visitor from Atlanta, Georgia. I thank my wise partner and soul-mate, and his family from Madison, Wisconsin. Thank you, Mom, and please stop sending pictures of fluffy kitties. I thank you, visitors from Calcutta, Singapore, Provo, Cambridge, St. Petersburg, Detroit, Palm Springs, Burley, Buenos Aires, Franklin Station, Schwabisch Gmund, and Mission Viejo. Thanks Cody the Butt-Hurler, and your many local friends. Thanks to reunited friends Eddy and Heather in New Hampshire, and thanks to the other few hundred visitors I haven't cited, but haven't forgotten.

Here are the sweetest words I've ever heard:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

They fought so hard to keep that phrase "all men" in there. They caught a lot of flack for leaving it in, because a certain crowd wanted to make sure the wording couldn't apply to slaves. And what the writers really meant was "all people." All people are created equal. God Bless America.