E Pluribus Unum

Everything you need to know about how bad a state this country is in is encapsulated in the following headline: Couric goes to bat for Lohan.

In short, Katie Couric is the apotheosis of news-as-entertainment, a development so profoundly disheartening that future historians will look back and say "That was when they should have known that they were on the road to hell."

Now that's not to say I hate gossip and fluffery. But if I want to hear the dirt on Lindsay Lohan at all (or Paris Hilton, or Oprah, or Ryan Seacrest, or Barbara Walters, or Jerry Springer, or Rosie O'Donnell, or Larry King, or Paula Abdul, or any other celebrities) I prefer to hear it from the lips of Kathy Griffin and not on the CBS Nightly News.

So of course when Miss Julie heard that Kathy Griffin was coming to our neck of the woods, we immediately bought two tickets. The sold-out performance was last night in (of all places) Lafayette, Lousiana.

Griffin opened by calling a couple of Iraq war veterans on stage for hugs and handshakes (she toured Iraq last year). Then she teed off on Lindsay Lohan and ended two hours later with The View and Barbara ("I prefer Astroglide") Walters. She covered everyone in between and was hilarious from start to finish. Turns out she's a real lefty as well. Her take on O'Reilly and Coulter was everything I had hoped for.

If you're not familiar with her act, here's a bit she did on Ryan Seacrest a while back. [P.S. Not entirely safe for work.]

Kathy Griffin on Ryan Seacrest: Part I

Kathy Griffin on Ryan Seacrest: Part II