Freedom Is on the March -- Look Out World

The president's inauguration speech makes it obvious our president really really likes freedom (mentioned 27 times) and liberty (mentioned 15 times). Or, if I were going to be cynical, I'd say he thinks that WE, the Amuric'n Public, really like hearing about "freedom" and "liberty" and won't think too much about what it means.

The most striking (and a leetle beet scary, kids) is this metaphor:

By our efforts, we have lit a fire as well -- a fire in the minds of men. It warms those who feel its power, it burns those who fight its progress, and one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world.

Look out world, it's the untamed fire of freedom and it's coming to get YOU! Iran! North Korea! Cuba! AAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIYYYYY! (Pakistan? Egypt? Saudi Arabia? Are they in trouble, too? Doubtful.)

There are lot of intelligent people out there taking apart the speech bit by bit. I could not stomach to listen to it, so I've breezed through the transcript and caught snippets here and there on the radio. For more studious analysis, I strongly recommend Juan Cole's pictorial commentary and Max Speak's "Liberventionism," a term that is the best one-word summary of this new policy as one could ever hope for.