In God We Trust may be the national motto but it hardly clarifies anything The more interesting question is In Which God Do We Trust and the inaugural festivities rendered a mixed verdict When Bishop Gene Robinson told the New York Times that he was horrified that earlier inaugural prayers

Yesterday watching the Inauguration I was surprised by patriotic joy This intense response confirmed a recent psychological report I had been reading demonstrating how poorly people predict their own future emotions Science 9 January 2009 In experiments showing once again that humans are poo

Ingmar Bergman s brooding film Winter Light may have given winter a bad name Certainly the long darkness of the arctic north can weigh on the soul and even residents of temperate climes can suffer from cabin fever when winter passes through the tunnel months of February and March when the sea

As soon as Obama finishes speaking people begin leaving Seriously it looks like the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium I can t even see or hear poet Elizabeth Alexander at times through the dispersing crowds But the text is a gem A last prayer from the Rev Dr Joseph E Lowery He looks

Obama speaks It begins far lighter on rhetoric than I expected Starts with the now common refrain things are going to be tough Ugh I know but I could recite the section in my sleep I wonder early on if this is going to sound more like a State of the Union or something Clintonian I hope not

Various luminaries appear on the jumbotron Colin Powell gets cheers George H W Bush looks old John McCain talks to a very tall man Joe Lieberman is heartily jeered and at some length There is clearly no love lost for Joe Michelle Obama looks amazing The girls are beautiful Dick Cheney is