There’s something unhealthy about the way [tag]politics[/tag] seeps into every crevice of life in the [tag]DC[/tag] area. Yesterday a friend was telling me about how engaged her students are in the Scooter Libby trial. That would be less interesting if they were poli-sci students. They aren’t. They’re fifth graders.

Husband and I were watching the empty spectacle otherwise known as the State of the Union and one of us, we’ll call that person “Me,” reacted to one of the standing ovations by hurling an invective at the TV that was peculiar, to say the least. I believe that exact words were, “Sit down you earmarking motherfucker.” Not normal at all. Normal people who live in normal places probably don’t Tivo the State of the Union at all. Unhealthy and abnormal.

We did skip all of the rebuttals and commentary, which on the surface is a healthy sign. But we skipped them to watch [tag]24[/tag], Dick Cheney’s favorite show. Why do we even know what Dick Cheney’s favorite TV show is? Do people in Utah know that?

At the zoo last year a little girl who couldn’t have been more than four pointed at the elephants and asked her mom if those were republicans. This sickness infects everything in it’s path, apparently.

As an antidote to political overload, last night I went to a [tag]Dorkbot[/tag] meeting. Every other time I’ve tried to attend, the Fates have intervened in bizarre and disasterous ways. This time I got there without incident – and the primary topic was about how we need more political art in this town. (To be fair, it was the announced topic, but that doesn’t make it any less funny to me). And it’s true, we do need more political [tag]art[/tag] in this town, especially as we try to fill the large void left by the departure of John Aaron and the Museum of Modern Arf for the West Coast. But right now I’m trying to detox and I’m thinking: more robots, less CNN. (Incidentally, Wired reports that on this day in 1921 the word robot was used for the first time).

I do have one thing to say about the State of the Union – it pleased me very much that on the Colbert Report they reported on the blinking ratio of Nancy Pelosi to Dick Cheney. In the clip they showed it was 40:1, which was probably accurate for the entire speech. It was creeping us out, that’s for sure. Husband couldn’t stop watching Cheney’s reptile eyes, while I found myself completely distracted by Pelosi’s rapid eyelid action.