The instant the Big Bang burst to life, it heralded a barrage of boiling, bubbling globular clusters teaming with flickering flakes of gold, silver, platinum, plutonium, and pearls in every direction across the vast, virgin expanse where they eventually metamorphosed into billions of stars, and planets, and galaxies, and black holes. Behold, our Universe was born.

He was a charlatan masquerading as a respected arbiter of moral values and virtues, peddling pious poison to vulnerable simpletons eager to believe that which is not believable.

I wasn’t sure if he was trying to be funny or clever with a back-handed insult about America’s Mickey Mouse, hamburgers, and chewing gum culture or if he was merely showing his admiration and appreciation towards a country that prevailed during the darkest hour only to resurrect a shattered society in partnership with the promised land. Where we were once foes, we’re now friends. Where there was once hatred, fear, and loathing, there’s now a begrudging submission underscored by repressed anxiety, envy, and resentment. Except, perhaps, in the beer halls late at night, when the talk is cheap, loud, and boisterous, and rhetoric is unimpeded and true.