Beloved Balaclava blasphemy.

Aradhna and I will soon be moving out of Balaclava and nostalgia for its bohemian spirit (and Jewish bakeries) is already sinking in. This poster went up before the US election and has remained, relatively unscathed, on a wall just off Carlisle Street. To juxtaposition Obama's image with the words 'Second Coming' is enough to detonate the brain stems of holy rollers back in the States. Woo-hoo!

I've yet to meet anyone in Australia who isn't optimistic about soon-to-be-President Obama. Especially as The Miserable Failure goes out in a final blaze of ignominy:

• A bipartisan Senate report confirms what the world has long known: Rumsfeld was responsible for detainee abuse at Gitmo. The Miserable Failure has never spoken an ill word about his former Defense Secretary, and I'm sure Rummy will be a welcome guest and confidant at George & Laura's new home in a segregated Dallas suburb.
  
• His administration has rushed through a new gun law that legalizes loaded, concealed weapons in nearly all US national parks. Gives camping at Yellowstone a sorely missing element of mayhem, don't it?
  
• Bush administration stooges at the EPA have decided against ridding drinking water of a toxic rocket fuel ingredient that's fouled public water supplies around the US.
  
• The Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz invasion-on-the-cheap of Iraq sent countless soldiers to their graves and left many more limbless by not taking steps that would have protected them from roadside bombs, according to the Pentagon's Inspector General.
  
• Then there's that 'aimless war' in Afghanistan ...
  

UPDATE: The Bush administration has just revised endangered species regulations so that the developers & federal agencies responsible for dams, power plants, timber sales and other projects do not need to consult federal scientists about their possible harm to vulnerable plants and animals.

It's weird. Bush never hesitates to profess his sanctimonious Christianity, yet also never hesitates to eliminate one of his god's creations when it suits business interests. So which is his one, true almighty?