Yearning for the Condom Tree

Who would ever have thought that Ted Kennedy, Laurent Kabila, and Joycelyn Elders would all one day comprise the body of a journal entry.  But that day has come!  

I saw a bit of Ted Kennedy's questioning of John Ashcroft during the Senate confirmation hearings for Attorney General earlier.  I've missed the old Teddy.  For a decade or so, Ted was such a national disgrace that he actually kept his head low, his mouth shut, and showed some humility.  I will never forget Teddy sitting quietly as his fellow liberal Senators were grilling Clarence Thomas over that lunatic Anita Hill.  Ted, of course, had to sit quietly, because given he and his family's behavior towards women, what could he say, even if Anita Hill hadn't been a lunatic?!  It was even more fun to watch Teddy squirm as the future Supreme Court Justice accused him of engaging in a high-tech lynching.  But Kennedys will be Kennedys (at least the ones who live -- which has sort of spared us), so today that well-bred Kennedy condescension was in rare form as the Senator lectured Mr. Ashcroft.  And that well-bred Kennedy hypocrisy was also on display as Mr. Kennedy, when he was done reading from his prepared "questions" promptly fell asleep on camera.  Nice job!

Laurent Kabila, it would seem, has fallen victim to an apparent coup in the Democratic Republic of Congo (aside: what a misleading name for a regime that is neither a democracy nor a republic).  All you anarcho-capitalists out there should be pleased, as a competing government has asserted itself.  No doubt the non-republic will be better for it.  Hmm... haven't I written about this before (during the time of high contrast at the ol' website)?

And speaking of blasts from the past, I saw Joycelyn Elders being interviewed about the Clinton Presidency on some program tonight.  I have to admit: I miss Joycelyn.  She always amused me.  There was something I found hilarious about a Surgeon General who trumpeted at every opportunity the Condom Tree she kept on her desk.  Tonight, she took pride in the fact that after her time in office, sex was no longer a taboo topic, that people could "discuss masturbation over dinner."  Quotes like that last --along with the earnestness that always accompanied them -- make me yearn for the good old days of Joycelyn.  And to think she was largely forced out of office for perhaps the one sensible view she had: legalizing drugs!  Oh Joycelyn,  of all the Clintonites, you're still the one I'm gonna miss most!  

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