A Heartbeat Away

Yeah, I know - it's been a month since I posted. Some of you have been kind enough to point that out in a gentle and appreciative way, and I thank you. The truth is, there are several reasons why I've been derelict in my duty.

First, I got a new gig - I won't go into the details, but let's just say you should be very afraid - and while I've been having a ball, I've been so busy lately I've had no time to post. Second, frankly, this blog had been sliding toward filterhood for a while - you know, one of those snarky Gawker-type deals where the whole thing just consists of as many tiny postings as one can find (or receive in one's inbox from amateur publicists) and write some sarcastic little in-joke about. My intention was always for Naked Singularity to be more reflective than that, for it to be about thoughtful analysis, not a tangled mass of self-satisfied hyperlinks, hit count be damned. And NS was getting away from that, so I felt a slight reboot wasn't out of order.

Third, and by no means least, there hasn't been a lot going on that I felt anyone needed to hear from me about. The tragedy in Iraq, the Downing Street Memo, Bush's plunging ratings, Episode III sucking less than its predecessors (and ain't that damning with faint praise), Crash and Batman Begins rocking the world, Nikka Costa's new album being the Fat Man and Little Boy of modern pop-funk-soul-rock - these things have all been either self-evident or adequately covered by the Mainstream Media (well, except Nikka's record, but plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose). I've always seen my purpose here as at least partly to point out issues or points of view that may not be getting the play they deserve in the media at large, and I haven't felt an urgent need for that of late.

But today's a new day, and Salon's War Room is reporting today that no less august a super sleuth than Arianna Huffington spotted your Vice President being rushed off the tarmac to a Colorado hospital for emergency EKGs and the like. It's not a smoking crash cart paddle, I'll grant you, but we all know the likelihood of Dick Cheney completing two terms was chancy at best.

So I'll go out on a limb here, because I love using the phrase "you heard it here first" and I'm so rarely proven right in the fullness of time. But here's my prognostication: sometime before January, 2008, Dick Cheney will resign for health reasons - and George W. Bush, who seems determined to see himself as a battler for diversity despite evidence to the contrary, will name to replace him your Secretary of State, Miss Condoleeza Rice. Dr. Rice will then become both the first black and the first female Vice President in American history, thus throwing the race for the Republican nomination in 2008 into complete chaos.

You heard it here first.

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