The View from here.

What? Have I lost my mind? Yes. The View. Boy, do I wish I was at home during the day so that four old squares could help me shape my opinion on the events taking place in the world. Now that the old lesbian is leaving, whom will they get to replace her? I can only imagine. I hope it will be someone who presumptuously spells a common name oddly, like Elisabeth, or another old-head news anchor or another failed stand-up. Oh wait, they already have one of those. If I felt as though I had to watch this show every day, I would either (a) take up mid-day drinking or (b) find a part-time job pumping gas or mowing lawns.

Meanwhile, those tornadoes that ran through Greensburg, Kansas serve to remind me how we should appreciate the fact that we merely reside here, and that events much larger than us have complete control over whether or not we are allowed to stay. People in my part of the world build homes 50 feet from a raging ocean, then complain when a storm washes part of their front porch away. Floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and snow all make me appreciate how powerful the earth is and how easily we can lose everything over something which we have no control.

We don't like it much, but it is what it is. We like to feel as though we have some control over events such as this, but as those poor souls in Greensburg, Kansas know, the weather is a powerful thing, and in the blink of an eye, everything you have can be reduced to nothing, making me wonder why we spend so much time and effort accumulating things that we feel so badly about when they are lost.

It's human nature, which is precisely the point.

Speaking of control: On Wednesday, speaking to a friendly audience, [does he speak to any other type of audience?] President Bush talked about his troop build-up in Iraq. "The question is, who ought to make that decision? The Congress or the commanders? And as you know, my position is clear - I'm a commander guy," Bush said.

Oh Bushie, you nut. The official stenographer of the event recorded Bush as having said he was "the commander guy" and some reporters did as well. It was not far off from his past description of himself as "the decider." But the quote prompted chuckles around Washington that Bush had given a new nickname to his constitutional role as the commander in chief.

Since the White House appears to have similar control over outside events (like what the President says), spokeswoman Dana Perino got off of whomever she was screwing and sprang into action:

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino took to the podium on Friday to clarify, while acknowledging to reporters that "you might find it a little strange. It's been reported that the president said, 'I'm the commander guy.' He did not. What I recalled was that he said 'I'm a commander guy,' meaning that he's one of the people that listens to the commanders on the ground," Perino said.

"He is the commander in chief," Perino said. "But the context of what the president was saying is that when it comes to making decisions about Iraq or war policy, that the president listens to commanders on the ground, not politicians in Washington."

Oy. What she recalled? Don't they record this junk? Now, if we can only get those storms to listen, like people want the president to listen, we'll be in business - and out of Iraq, presumably.

I think the same level of control exists over storms and our president, and they do equal amounts of damage.

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