For once, I took a stand on something.... only to find myself on the winning team. Go figure.

Either my cynicism has changed, or Barack Obama is simply that good at inspiring change when it's seemingly impossible to do so. Hell, he even inspired a classy, heart-felt concession speech from a defeated McCain.

I worked with a flair bartender from Italy who gave me shit on the way I poured. To him, alcohol pours alone are an artform that Americans don't get. The prick was a major show-off, but I had to admit: the guy's technique would easily earn him higher tips. Still, he was grating... indicating in both subtle & overt ways that Americans don't have class. That's when I realized how cool it was that I was an American... where my main concern is to only get shit-faced.

I was never a chest-thumping jingoist, but thinking it through, I realized how much I valued the laid-back American tradition of convenience. We made the blue-collar lifestyle chic. Simplifying the complex down to bare foundations.

We are a nation that took classical music & morphed it gradually into Rock & Roll, created comic book art from ancient paintings & artists like Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael, & Donatello (only to later turn them into Ninja Turtles). And the rest of world ate up our pop culture. That was America's real power.... one that's more powerfully potent than the Military Industrial Complex.

And it still is..... why else would Iron Man & Batman make a shitload at the box office? (FYI: 90% of The Dark Knight's main cast are Brits).

We've also convinced the world that it's ok to wear blue jeans & a t-shirt to a trendy night club, which is the equivalent of getting away with murder. We even turned Porn into a pop culture icon (thanks Jenna), though it's debatable whether that's good or not. I don't mind, but..... well........

And now we proved that skin color is irrelevant when it comes to the presidency. Personally, I didn't think I'd see that at my young age..

Nothing's perfect, but at least there's hope... and if you're upset that McCain didn't win... at least you know how we felt in '04. We got over it... you will too ;)

Time to take a fucking piss now...