“Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side;
my greatest concern is to be on God’s side,
for God is always right.” — Abraham Lincoln
Tuesday evening I was homeward bound, returning to L.A. from a long weekend spent gorging on spring-training baseball in Phoenix. I had decided to close the trip by finally catching a screening of Alex Gibney’s Oscar-winning documentary about the Bush administration’s torture policies, Taxi to the Dark Side, and as US Airways carried me home I pondered a column plotting how individual members of the Bush administration might someday be held accountable for their many crimes against humanity.
But then the plane landed and I turned on my cell phone, only to be confronted with a voice mail from the wife carrying some appalling news: “Kristy Lee Cook just sang ‘God Bless the USA.’”
I recognize that the subset of Popdose readers (and writers) who are also American Idol viewers is likely limited to, well, me, so I’ll get you up to speed as briefly as possible. Cook is easily the worst remaining contestant on Season 7, a mediocre vocalist who has ridden good looks and a love for horses (something has to explain my daughter’s attachment to her) through several bottom-two finishes, somehow staving off elimination while more-talented opponents get the boot. Tuesday the survivors sang songs from the year they were born, which resulted in renditions of “We Are the Champions,” “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” “Billie Jean” (channeling the Chris Cornell remake), “Every Breath You Take,” etc., etc. … and “God Bless the USA.” (more…)
