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Tuesday, January 20, 2004

[1783 - US and Britain end hostilities]

The Exemplary Status of Our Grand & Glorious
Union as told by Our Noble & Great Leader

State of the Union

Our Founding Fathers in Article II., Section 3. of the Constitution directed the President that "He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient;..." Do you suppose they envisioned anything like the spectacle that now takes place in our Nation's Capital every January? Does it occur to you that they might look askance on the pomp and circumstance of the event, befitting as it is of the opening of a royal court rather than a simple report by the Chief of the Executive Branch to the Congress? Dr. Franklin might have had some real fun in his Almanack with the ritual applause, the phony standing ovations, and the insincere exhibiting of selected common folk in the Peanut Gallery. It may be good theater, but it is bad for democracy when we are so full of ourselves.

clapping

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