Thursday, January 20, 2005

P.J. O'Rourke's Inaugural Address

In the latest issue of the Weekly Standard, one of my favorite authors, P.J. O'Rourke, has written An Alternative Inaugural Address, framed around the Ten Commandments.
MY FELLOW AMERICANS, I had intended to reach out to all of you and bring a divided nation together. But I changed my mind. America isn't divided by political ethos or ethnic origin. America isn't divided by region or religion. America is divided by jerks. Who wants to bring a bunch of jerks together with the rest of us? Let them stew in Berkeley, Boston, and Ann Arbor.

The media say that I won the election on the strength of moral values. If the other fellow had become president, would the media have said that he won the election on the strength of immoral values? For once the media would have been right.

We are all sinners. But jerks revel in their sins. You can tell by their reaction to the Ten Commandments. Post those Ten Commandments in a courthouse or a statehouse, in a public school or a public park, and the jerks go crazy. Why is that? Christians believe in the Ten Commandments. So do Muslims. Jews, too, obviously. Show the Ten Commandments to Hindus, Buddhists, Confucians, or to people with just good will and common sense and nobody says, "Whoa! That's all wrong!"

It's a funny, yet true read. I especially like the ending. Get the rest of it here.

Credit due: My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

3 comments:

spydrz said...

Funny, I've read this somewhere...

Micah said...

It's the speech so nice it needed to be posted twice!

Micah said...

To learn more about P.J. O'Rourke, consult your local library. Or just snag his books from me if you ever make it out to C-Bus again.

He was the only reason to read Rolling Stone when he wrote for it. Now there is no reason to read it.