Diary entry-
January 17th, 2016
Had dinner over at George and Laura's ranch in Crawford, Texas yesterday. It was fun, as always. George did the barbeque thing, and then we sat back on the porch and watched the sun set over the new inland sea. George and Laura are very excited about having a beachfront property, though they both agree it's a real shame about Oklahoma...
We were interrupted by a call from Vice President Cheney, who wanted to bring George up to date on the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. He thinks he might have found some in the utility closet in a toy store in Najaf. It's nice that Dick keeps George up to date on that sort of thing.
George is very excited about the new round of Heresy Trials taking place in Detroit. I’d been wondering myself if the prosecutor isn’t overstepping a bit, I mean, putting folks on trial for their lives simply because they didn’t send their kids to a state-approved Sunday School? Sure, the “Detroit Six” aren’t helping themselves by questioning the Constitutionality of the Great Patriotic Christian Mandatory Church Attendance Act, but still, the whole thing makes me a bit uncomfortable. Just like when they shot those Evolutionists last year. I dunno, I suppose it’s like George says- ‘Freedom of Religion’ doesn’t mean ‘Freedom from Religion’.
George turned on the radio, because Jenna was addressing the nation about the latest oil riots in New England. George shook his head. “You just can’t please some people, you know? You give them nice weather through Global Warming and they go and riot over $300 a barrel oil. Go figure.”
“I guess it still gets cold up there in January,” I suggested. “I heard that about 10,000 poor folks who couldn’t heat their homes froze to death in December. Back at the turn of the century the government had heating-oil aid for those people. Maybe Jenna should think about making a proclamation to give them some sort of help.” (God help me, I almost said “maybe she should ask Congress” –old habits die hard, though not nearly as hard as those last Senators did before the Army gassed them out of their hiding places in the old Capitol Building. It’s better as a National Church, it really is. I keep telling myself that, anyway).
“The government can’t coddle people,” George was saying. “If they want to be warm they should work harder. That’ll warm them up, you bet.”
Laura poked her head out the screen door. “You two better come in, now,” she called. “It’s almost 8 o’clock, and the radiation cloud must be just about here.”
George groaned. “What a pain in my ass,” he said as he slowly got to his feet. “Twice a day, gotta go in so the radiation cloud don’t get us. Pain in my butt, boy.” We looked out over the waters of the Inland Sea. Over to the west we could just see the edge of the purple, glowing cloud as it advanced across the horizon. “Still,” George mused, smiling, “it’s real pretty, ain’t it? And we really showed them Iranians. I’d have to say it was worth it.”
We went inside as the three-headed peepers began to croak their evening song.
"God Bless America," George murmured, and closed the door.