Where's *my* cult of personality?

If you get a free day pass at Salon magazine, you can read an exciting article about the CPAC, which is some kind of Really Damn Conservative conference where people are told that we continue to find new weapons of mass destruction every day in Iraq.

Yes, there are American citizens who literally believe this is true. Why not? As the author points out, many elected representatives and members of White House staff were present at the conference, lending these assertions an air of implicit legitimacy.

But that is not all. Many of the attendees at the conference take an attitude towards George Bush which is not healthy in a democracy, aka, they pretty much worship him.

I've been reading a lot about Alexander the Great lately, and I can tell you one thing: if he's anywhere watching this phenomenon unfold, he's really pissed. See, Alexander had a cult of personality too, except that he *earned* his. He did not sit there on his butt in Macedon and say "Hey guys! Let's go tell everyone that we conquered the Persian empire." No...he actually went out and conquered the Persian empire. This entailed bravery, hardship, and competence. His men saw him sweating out every march, they saw him lead every charge into combat, they saw him share their exhaustion and pain, they saw him go among the wounded every night when he wasn't in the field hospital himself, and they saw him make the plans and give the commands that revolutionized military history.

So if he's somewhere out there, watching George Bush get a cult of personality that he doesn't deserve (and shouldn't have anyhow, this being a democracy), then he's probably just a little bit annoyed.

And don't get me started on how Thomas Jefferson must feel.

Argh.