Back in the 'Cuse. Gotta take care of unemployment crap.

But this post is about something else. Been a while since I got out the soap box, but you didn't really think that I would have strayed from the rant for long, did you?

On Friday night, my parents and I went to fabulous Atlantic City for another one-night stay. We had a room and tickets to The Letterman that night.

Fabulous Atlantic City is better when I am winning. For the first time, I played the tables (Blackjack) and I am now hooked. This could be dangerous. Especially since I lost money this time around. I could have broken even, but it just wasn't my weekend. I'll need some time before I return. Though I can't stop thinking about it. Argh.

But I'm writing because the Letterman were actually the best show I've seen at Atlantic City. One of the original members is still traveling with the group - the two newer members are quite good, though one of them is built like Arnold and has a mullet, but that's not the point of this story.

For starters, there were an incredible amount of Filipinos who went. That's because one of their songs, "Dahil Sa'yo" (Because of You) is entirely in Tagalog. Apparently, they spent a lot of time in the Philippines when they were big.

By the way, the Letterman, for those who don't know, were the N'Sync* of the 50's and 60's. They were pretty good. "Theme from a Sumemr Place" was one of theirs, along with a string of other big hits from the oldies station.

First of all, I was with my parents, which means that we go places early. We were in our seats at least an hour and a half before the show started. Neat. My mom whispers to me, "See the Filipino family behind you? The boy? Is that some sort of new hat that is popular now?"

The kid was wearing a bike helmet.

We had a good laugh when I thought of "Garden State" and came up with a possible explanation. Also, he might have had head surgery recently, so I somewhat felt guilty at laughing at him. It's just rare to see people wearing bike helmets in public when they aren't on a bike. That's comedy.

I'm an asshole.

But then my mom goes, "Look at the guy at about 3 o'clock. Is that a Yalmulke?"

No, it was a guy who was bald. In a weird way. That was his pate my mom thought was a Yalmulke (Kippah). Nice, mom.

And has anyone yet noticed how good I am at correctly spelling Yiddish and Jewish words? Hell, I'm proud of myself.

But no, my soapbox hasn't come out yet. I am completing the comedy section of this blog.

They ended the evening with "Proud to be an American". People in the audience were swaying, standing, singing.

I wanted to cry. Because I used to be so proud to be an American. I still am. Perhaps this is why I am standing on the soapbox now.

Because no matter what patriotic song, event, or mention - I get really angry. Not at the people for expressing their beliefs and support for our country. But because they re-elected that idiot asshole of a president. All I could think of was wonder how many of them voted for Dubya. How many of them voted for Kerry. And how many of them were pissed as I was to know that the drunken frat boy is single-handedly driving the country into a ditch.

Just because I don't like the president doesn't mean that I am any less American than anyone else. And I resent being made felt that way. My grandmother a few weeks ago when I was in the middle of a rant in DC about the president told me, "He was re-elected, you should stop calling him names."

No. That's what makes me an American. I can disagree with the president. Just because he was re-elected doesn't mean that I don't believe in democracy. This is what democracy is all about. Actually, if we can use the proper term for the proper situation, we have a republic. But it doesn't mean that democracy or freedom is only the picture the president paints. It only took him a week to order flags at half-mast for the tsunami that ripped across South East Asia. It only took him a week to ignore an important security briefing that caused the worst terrorist attack on the United States. And it only took him a week to decide to invade a country that had nothing to do with that. I started thinking about all of the reserves and guardsmen and women overseas and I started getting really pissed. Because it is a far cry from what they signed up for.

And they are protecting my right to feel this way.

I guess I'm just tired of another four years of feeling that I need to explain myself. I support the troops but not the president, does that make me less of an American?

Here's one thing for damn sure, though. It strengthened my resolve to work harder to take our country back.

I just didn't expect it to come from a Lettermans concert. In Atlantic City, of all places.

Sigh. The soapbox is gone now. Just me. Frustrated. But I've got a week of rest. The new job starts on the 18th. I can start fighting again then. Until then, I better pack and get some rest.