Well, I for one got wasted last night. I'm kind of a lightweight, so when I finished my first beer in 10 minutes, I had to slow down and be considerate of my health.

I'm going to skip the first half of the speech, the defense of his Department of Defense. it's the domestic stuff that interests me. It's also when I was the most drunk.

The general impression I got from the State of the Union last night is that this was Dubya's best chance to steal as many issues from the Democrats as he can. Saying that any attempt to take away the Medicare reform he signed will "meet [his] veto" is the sort of duplicity that politicians pull off all the time.

But it didn't stop at healthcare. He talked about job training and community colleges. If No Child Left Behind is an indication of his committment to schools, community colleges don't stand a chance.

Oh, and he talked about God a lot.

I believe that God has planted in every human heart the desire to live in freedom. And even when that desire is crushed by tyranny for decades, it will rise again.

Did I say "a lot"? I meant A LOT.

The same moral tradition that defines marriage also teaches that each individual has dignity and value in God's sight.

A lot.

We can trust in that greater power who guides the unfolding of the years. And in all that is to come, we can know that His purposes are just and true.

I'm okay with God being an abstract concept in our country. "In God We Trust" is on our money, a reference to the fact that the whole of America is greater than the sum of its parts. When God, however, is paraded before us by our leaders to defend unjust wars, to deny human rights and fair treatment to homosexuals, and to influence the way we look at calendars, then I have a problem.

So the State of the Union was another self-serving sermon. When powerful leaders consider themselves as doing the work of God, uh, that always goes well. Right? RIGHT?

I've got a very busy day ahead of me, so blogging will be light today.