Everybody's talking... or a new kind of cowboy.

Like that Nilsson song from Midnight Cowboy, everybody's talking about yesterday's inauguration. I can't recall any other swearing in that got this amount of airplay in my country. I understand the historic significance, and even the general relief as a Dick and a Bush vamoose the White House with record low approval – though, one has to think back to Bush having one of the highest approval rating in history shortly after 9-11. One reporter said this and wondered aloud how Bush would be feeling.

Any normal folk would feel like shit, but George W. doesn't fall in that category.

I was surprised (but not by much) to hear about goodbye Bush parties that were organized around the city. Reminder: I live in Canada. How about some "lets kick Harper out on his ass" celebrations? My son came back from high school to tell me he listened to the inauguration, played on speakers in a few locations at the school. Huh? Do we do this for our leaders?

I have been generally amazed by the response this side of the border. Again, I get the significance - and I really hope Obama can live up to the hype. I respect his intelligence and what I perceive as great integrity. But, why is it that no one has mentioned that an African-Canadian (or First Nations!) person has run for high office up here? True, we did have a female prime minister (Kim Campbell) but that was for what..several days...hours?

Anyway, like the rest of us, I watch in anticipation. If anything, maybe it will mean a shift to the left that will get rid of the bozos running our country.