That was a debilitating election. I've been struggling with what to say in the wake of Bush's re-election. The standard responses have been: "we need to keep fighting," "it's not as bad as you think," and "it's been this bad before." All are different ways of saying "stay hopeful, don't get discouraged" to those on the left.

Rather than being prescriptive, I'll be descriptive. Let me tell you what it was like in one of the indigo-blue pockets of the U.S. during the week after the election. It was like being in a zombie movie. A glazed look clouded people's eyes, and people seemed to stagger forward rather than walk, as if unaware of their surroundings. Few broke the mood of heavy gloom by speaking to others. I found it eerie to imagine that huge swaths of the U.S. population were in a similar condition. Pass the soylent green, please.

Did someone just say "time to start the healing"?

Unless you watched it yourself, I'm not sure you could really comprehend how juvenile, shocking and tasteless Drawn Together was when it debuted last week. But that's okay, because that means you might be motivated to view the new "animated reality show" yourself, and you might enjoy it just as much as I did. That is, if you enjoy things that are juvenile and shocking and tasteless.

And I'm not kidding about the tasteless part. I was somewhat alarmed by Pop Culture Gadabout's take on the racism jokes in Drawn Together. So much so that I wound up discussing his review with the Sister, who also watched the show, to assess what I thought about how these jokes were handled. I viewed them more as a commentary on the egregious racism on display in today's reality shows, rather than as a critique of the character type of the princess. But there are certainly other ways to interpret them, including plenty of room to take offense.

Of course, the hot tub kiss between two women really sold me on the show, although I also appreciated the steady course of in-jokes for animation aficionados. The Sister and I agreed that the defecating pig was our least favorite character in the show, although I will also add that when the country you call home is on the verge of sliding into complete chaos, a good doo-doo joke may be just what the doctor ordered.