Bitching about how Saturday Night Live supposedly has gone to hell, and it ain't what it used to be has been big sport for some since about the second show in 1975. Granted that in a quarter century plus some shows, casts and seasons have been better or more consistent than others, but these dismissals have been largely unwarranted. Of course, some of y'all have already started the bitching for this new '02 season.

How do you answer for last night then? The live October 19, 2002 show with John McCain rocked hard. I was about to fall out of my goddam chair laughing at the Hardball show. "Osama Bin Laden is a house negro." "Craze-o. Cra-a-aze-o Harry Belafonte is a crazy mo-fo." Then there was Rachel Dratch as the commie professor proposing to let terrorists police the police. Then there was McCain as Ashcroft, proposing bar codes on the back of everyone's necks, and computer chips that would be run from his remote control. Oh, SPANK ME, that was funny.

That was barely a match for the McCain Sings Streisand sketch, though. Yeah, that's just exactly the response she needed.

Then they had the Lifetime television show not quite based on true events with the woman suing her husband [McCain] for "invading her space" while he sat right there, supporting her in court.

Even the musical guest was cool. I'd never heard of the White Stripes, but they were pretty interesting. For a media junkie like me, it's a fair trick to come up with a good musical act that I'd never even heard of. More of this, please.

In short, they laid out a real classic new episode of the old warhorse.

Sometimes our faith get rewarded.