DEAD AIM

I had a rare few hours of leisure time last weekend so I decided to curl myself up in bed with the latest offering from our Netflix que -- Death of a President. I've been curious about this film since it came and went from Los Angeles in about a week last year. I've read that theater chains banned it, and the politically correct police said all the proper things about how horrified they were at the film's very premise -- a mock documentary about the assassination of President George W. Bush. What struck me is not the film itslef, which was mildly compelling, but fairly predictable if you get all your political information from The New Yorker and Air America radio, as I do. What I find more fascinating is the idea that the world climate is such that this film exists at all. I mean, how fucked-up, how much vitriol and hate, must tens of millions of people around the world have toward Bush, that allows for such a film be conceived and released into the marketplace.

How bad has it become that a sitting president becomes the target of a faux doc revolving around his murder and its aftermath? It really gave me some perspective on how awful the country -- and the world -- has become largely because of the policies of the present administration. Of course, I would argue that Bush has made his own bed and thus is fair game for such cinematic treatments.

But remember, boys and girls (and Death of a President makes this abundantly clear), things could be worse. I give you the three scariest words in the English language: President Dick Cheney.