January, 20th, 2021

I don't date things the American way usually, I put the day, then month, then year, but I made an exception for the title of this post, because of the circumstances. One of the advantages of having a working day that ends early, is that you can watch historical live on TV. So I watched the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States of America. This is the second live inaguration I've made, the first one was the one of Barack Obama and you can read my impression here. Rereading it now, I'm surprised that I feel that I have been harsh on George W. Bush. He was not exactly my kind of president, but by hindsight, he was a decent man. I did not watch the inauguration four years ago, but I shared a filthy joke I made about it, which got me the attention of a troll. Biden may not have the eloquence or the charisma of his former boss, but given that he won against the Swine and pretty much saved American democracy (or at least contributed to its salvation), I am even happier than I was back in 2008.

My bro in Chicago

My brother PJ is off for a few days in Chicago for a conference (I think). I don't know he will be doing touristic stuff much, but I envy him. In recent years, I guess many people consider Chicago the city of Barack Obama. For someone interested in the history of organized crime, it is also and especially infamous for having been the city of Al Capone. I have never been in the US, which is downright shameful as I used to live so close, but I have been wanting to visit Chicago more than any other American city. Back in 2009, my wife and I considered going there for our holidays, but we chose Vancouver instead. I think we took the right decision: she does not share my interest for true crime stories. So anyway, my brother is there, or will be at some point today, and I hope he will share many pictures.

A thought about Obama

I am a bit late commenting the news. Four years ago, I was three quarters unemployed (I mean unemployed most of the time), so I watched live the inauguration of Barack Obama. History had been made that day, of course I did not write a long analysis of it, I was speechless about it, I am still speechless now. I did, however, made an interesting (if I may say so myself) observation about the passing of a morally bankrupt, backward administration to another that we hoped would be better: more modern, more progressist, more liberating. The president of United States is not only the chief of state of the most powerful nation in the world, he is the de facto leader of the free world.

I know Obama disappointed in many ways. He was condemned to disappoint, at least in his own country. However, he has been so far a much better president than his predecessor and we are in a much, much better place since he has been in power. I feared that he would lose the elections last November, that the US would go backwards again. The Republican party being hijacked by ignorant, religious wackos, and gun loving madmen (yes, I mean that idiot). And, well, I love the man. I blogged once that I shared two things with Obama: same tastes in TV dramas and a book. I should have said three: Barack Obama, like me, prefers Dijon mustard on his burgers. True anecdotal story, which some right-wing retards created a controversy about. His opponents were often, are often, ignorant Philistines, even when it comes to condiments. I, for one, find it reassuring that the leader of the free world is a man of taste. On a more serious note, I am glad that we are going to have four more years of him, which means four years without a war on contraceptives, four years of a bit more gun control, four years where gay rights will progress in the United States (maybe even to the point where same-sex marriages will be legal), four years of secularism, four years of something we can call progress.

Two things I share with President Obama

It is the 4th of July, Independence Day, so first I want to wish a happy 4th of July to all my American readers. Then, as the USA are celebrated today, I thought I would mention here that I share two things with President Obama. I am not making this up. We both read The Way Home by George Pelecanos (proof here). And we both are fans of The Wire. Better still, his favourite character is Omar Little. And Omar is one of my favourite characters on the show. I don't consider Obama to be the greatest president of all time, but I like him as a person, and I find him both intelligent and educated, two qualities politicians, or indeed public figures, rarely have. So I am glad I share this with him. It is not like sharing things with, say, the pope. That freaked me out. Now, what I can say about our similar tastes? Great minds think alike.

A Pint of Guinness and an Epiphany

Two bits of news, seemingly unimportant, gave me an epiphany recently. Fittingly enough, those pieces of news and the epiphany concerned Ireland. I say fittingly enough, because James Joyce developed the concept of secular epiphany.

The first piece of news is about Queen Elizabeth, who in her historical trip to Ireland refused a pint of Guinness. I was not shocked, I was not outraged, I was disgusted. What, is she in the A.A. or something? I mean what a petty snob! You don't refuse to drink Guinness when you are offered some! You just don't. At least have a sip dammit! The second piece of news is about president Obama, who in his visit to Ireland downed the lovely beverage. The president had earned my respect and admiration before, but that is just a nice icing on the cake. I don't know how much Irish blood he really has, but he certainly has Irisi spirit (and completely deserves this song). It was a trivial matter, but he did what he had to do.

I say trivial, but maybe not so much. The Queen refusing to even wet her beak with a Guinness was not only rude, it was showing a lack of understanding or sensibility. Guinness is pretty much the Irish national drink. Obama got it right, instinctively. I think it has something to do, a bit, with the fact that he was born and grew up in a republic. Of course, the Queen is absolutely foreign to this. I think she might even be foreign to her own subjects, but that is a topic for another post. No matter how many speeches she can make, how many visits she can give, in the end, she does not belong to this world of commoners, where you earn your place with hard work, intelligence, creativity, merit. Refusing to drink this Guinness, she was out of place and out of touch.

An evil man is dead

This is one Hell of a way to wake up: seeing this on the news. So Bin Laden is dead. I cannot say much about it beyond the cliché I am afraid. I thought to title this post "Satan is dead", but that would have been ridiculously pompous. He was no Satan, nobody is, nobody ever was in history. I don't believe in Satan. Bin Laden was just an evil man, a terribly evil man, who got what has been coming at him. It was about time.

I blogged about 9/11 time and again... And again. I wish Bin Laden had been judged for his crimes, but there is justice in his death, especially as it is the result of a military operation. I was afraid he might die of old age. This would have been the greatest, most appalling form of injustice, and of the Western's impotence against Islamofascist threat. I cannot help but feel smug that Barack Obama succeeded hwere the buffoons of the religious right miserably failed, for about nearly ten years. Of course, Bin Laden was only one head of the hydra that is Islamist terrorism. But I think of my American friends, among them a New Yorker, and I feel like celebrating with them.

Who else wants to be Irish?

I just read this article on the BBC news website, about American presidents with Irish blood, wanting to be associated with Ireland. Even Barack Obama has Irish blood. The article indicates that this might simply be because American politicians want to appeal to Catholic voters in the US and it has nothing to do with a particular affection with Ireland. I would find it a bit sad if it was true. I have French and probably Scottish blood, but like most Quebeckers I think I must have some Irish blood. From the little research I did, my ancestors, although Scottish by name, came to Canada from Ulster, they were Ulster Scots. The line between the two nations often gets blurry in history and I probably have mixed blood.

I did not fall in love with Ireland as early as I fell in love with England. Unlike my love for England, my love for Ireland is not entirely an allophilia, as I feel a natural bond with the country. Maybe because there are so many Irish Quebeckers, maybe because I feel, rightly or not, that I do have a bit of Irish blood in me. Yes, yes, I blogged about it before. But I wonder if there is not something about Ireland that makes it more attractive to other cultures. I remember a literature professor who once told us that Quebeckers were desperately trying to be latin. I think many people, among them Americans, Canadians, even some Brits, are desperately trying to be Celtic.

Snob

"J'suis snob... J'suis snob
C'est vraiment l'seul défaut que j'gobe
Ça demande des mois d'turbin
C'est une vie de galérien
Mais lorsque je sors à son bras
Je suis fier du résultat
J'suis snob... Foutrement snob
Tous mes amis le sont
On est snobs et c'est bon"

Boris Vian, J'suis snob

C'est Eurovision ce soir, alors nous allons passer la soirée à regarder le concours avec des amis. La musique y est rarement bonne, soyons francs. Mais bon, on a tous le droit d'être quétaine une fois de temps en temps.

Tiens, je vais poser une question existentielle qui me hante parfois: serais-un un élitiste ou pire, un snob? Obama s'est récemment fait attaquer, assez stupidement, par la les néoconservateurs (ou néocons, ce qui est une expression involontairement plus exacte) parce qu'il préférait la moutarde de Dijon sur ses hamburgers, au lieu du ketchup. Je suis entièrement d'accord avec lui: le ketchup ne goûte rien et la moutarde forte rehausse le goût de la viande rouge. En fait, j'aime les hamburgers élaborés, avec de la moutarde forte, du vrai fromage, parfois des chutneys, de l'oignon rouge, etc. Je préfère la bière de microbrasserie à la lager. Je préfère les classiques dans tous les domaines, du film à la musique. Et comme dans la chanson de Boris Vian citée plus haut, je me suis même une fois tapé un ulcère...

En guise de conclusion, et comme je ne retrouve plus le lien sur youtube, je laisse ici un lien menant à la chanson en question. J'écoutais souvent Boris Vian à une certaine époque pas si lointaine. Je le connais plus comme chanteur que comme écrivain, en fait.

EDIT: J'ai pu retrouver J'suis snob sur youtube, qui marche beaucoup mieux aujourd'hui qu'hier. Donc voici la chanson:

Men of power, men of glass

I guess I don't have to tell you what I did this afternoon. One thing really struck me during the whole ceremonial: it was seeing Dick Cheney in a wheelchair. I never liked the man and I must confess I felt a bit of schadenfreude watching him like this, but that's not what prompted me to blog again today. It was the way he, who used to be so powerful, now seemed frail and broken, almost dying. I know he never had a good health, but he never looked so powerless. It was illustrating perfectly the end of the Bush administration: a wounded, out of touch, dying dynasty moving away for good, having been broken by the power they used, the scandals they caused, the lies they lived by. However trivial was the reason for Cheney to be in a wheelchair, there was some kind of poetic justice about it.
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J'écris le prochain billet en français, promis.

What to say?

Well, indeed, what to say? Today is the big day, and I am speechless as I was not so long ago. What to say when the guy who gets in power today is so much more eloquent that you will ever be? Last time, I borrowed somebody else's eloquence. This time I think I will just mention it. And tomorrow it will be business as usual.

Oh, and I missed the feast of my patron saint (does he qualify as we have the same name?) by ten days. I wish I had said something about that then.

Everybody is Irish...

Because I am bored with a translation job that is nevertheless going smoothly (I don't complaint too much because it means I am working), because I am still enthusiastic about what happened this 4th of November (you know what I'm refering to), because I absolutely love Ireland, Irish music and because as it says in the title, everybody is Irish (at least of heart), I have decide to put here that song:



I got aware of it yesterday, but Correspondent blogged about it, I hope he does not mind if I follow his example. It's not the greatest piece of Irish music ever, but it's still a catchy song.

I'm speechless...

...but very, very, very happy. I was hoping for it, but was not daring to expect it.

Democracy

Because it is that day, because we are all in hopes and fears, because things can get better or they can get worse and because I am speechless about how important this day is, I will let the poetry of Leonard Cohen do the talking. He is more eloquent than I can ever be, especially when the stakes are so high.



The song version here.

What did Chamberlain do? (a frustrating yet fascinatin video)

I guess it's all around the internet now, but I'll show it here anyway. I found this on Richard Hétu's blog. It's baffling, surrealistic. An indigest cocktail of ignorance and loud mouth. The worst thing is, we find this sort of ignorance displayed here by Kevin James (never heard of the guy before, don't think I missed anything) everywhere in the world. But you' ve got to give that to United States: they have some educated people who can actually put those big mouths at their place, right in the middle of their verbal diarrhea. Québec journalists are often more on the whussy side. Anyway, I think the whole rhetoric (if you can call it that way) of Kevin James (and Bush and co) against Obama in that whole controversy could fall into Godwin's Law.