You know decrepitude is upon you...

... when leading up to what can only be described as a fulcrum moment in the history of America - and, one hopes, a terminus in the somewhat shorter history of Amerika - you doze off. There's Obama, coasting along with something more than 200 electoral votes, Stephen Colbert on Indecision 08 desperately changing the subject... and the next thing you know, it's 4 a.m.

And you wake up, and you go and check, to see Goddamn if for once, your friends in the United States - the ones that aren't represented by Fox News , who don't fit the ugly stereotype of the small-minded, bigotted, superstitious and fearful Americans that have made themselves so unwelcome in the homes of so much of the world... see if they actually managed to get their shit together and climb back up that brink over which they so recklessly stepped in 2004.

And noodling around on the internet, you see this:



... and you realize, this isn't the first time that particular country has looked upon itself, seen the face of evil, and chosen redemption.

It is, however, the first time you slept through it.

Here's some more speech.



And more.