Oh, you too, from me. I understand that. But I want to tell you about a young political science professor at one of the Ivy League colleges. I'd asked him what his colleagues thought of you. You want to know what he said?
Really, you don't have anything to worry about, George. You see, this guy isn't tenured, so all he was willing to say was, "I don't know anyone in my department who thinks Bush is doing a good job."
Oh, what does tenured have to do with it? He didn't want to say anything to jeopardize getting tenure! Are you thick or something? George, 73.9%1 of the people who read this blog2 are afraid to speak their mind. In fact, I think that many of my readers read it precisely because I speak mine, and they get a vicarious thrill out of finding out what I'm going to say next. Someone said that I occasionally grab an involuntary gasp very much like laughter out of his gut. He said he thinks it's the effect of his recognizing that something I've said that shocked him initially in its baldness3 will in the very next moment strike him as true. The gasp, he thought, comes from the speed with which the truth overtakes the shock. Sort of like the speed involved in a déjà vu sensation. But the young professor put disapproval of you in almost the mildest terms imaginable: "not doing a good job." No hint that they think you're a moron or a pissant. Nothing like that. Just "he's not doing a good job."
One of my readers wrote me: "Shoot! To think that..." Then she pulled herself up and commented that she really shouldn't use a word like that, should she? What might the listeners think? What might Big Brother think? And she expressed some admiration at my telling you to "break a leg" at the United Nations the other day. Admiration, plus concern for my welfare. As though I might soon be visited by a black Suburban with dark windows.
Which brings me to today's question, George. Don't you think it's crazy for American soldiers to be over in Iraq getting killed and maimed trying to prevent the Iraqis from killing each other?
Your answer doesn't surprise me. Of course, you don't think so. After all, the perpetual "war on terror" is your main strategy for scaring people sufficiently, you hope, to keep your Busheviks in office. It's fast becoming the only "issue" you've got.
And the young professor's fear for his tenure and my friend's hypersensitivity to "dangerous" words and expressions are both results of what your Busheviks are doing to prosecute their theatrical "war on terror."
Oh, why "theatrical"? Mostly show, little substance. Like the recent reports that you're reading Camus and Shakespeare.
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- A rough estimate.
- Approximately 79,000 (also a rough estimate).
- He cited my statement that you stole both elections. Not that this was actually news to him, but "everybody" sort of pretends that the elections weren't stolen (and that you're really our president). The fact that they were (and you aren't) just doesn't get stated often enough. This may be understandable, human nature being what it is, but the denial can't be justified ultimately, for it plants a cancer at the heart of our system of government, smack in the middle of our national consciousness.
I try not to watch too much TV involving government issues. I end up really ticked off.
ReplyDeleteI love it when you rant and double-dog dare the Men in Black, Mori. LOL!
ReplyDeleteNext time you write the (naked) Emperor, would you please, please ask him WHEN he's going to learn how to pronounce new-clee-ur? Tell him I'm going to need a new TV set soon because of the stuff I keep throwing at it every time I hear his voice.
No sh*t, SJ! I shake my head in wonder every time I hear him say nuk-you-lr. How did a man who can't even pronounce nuclear properly ever get to be president? And wouldn't you think someone would have told him by now?
ReplyDeleteGood post, Moristotle.
Thank you all for your comments. I too (and my wife) can't stomach hearing or seeing Shrub (or "the twig" as my friend Keith S. calls him, thinking "Shrub" too august a word for the insignificant little #!@&%$). Rather than throw things at the radio or TV, we just switch stations or turn it off.
ReplyDeleteAs for his pronunciation of "nuclear," I've hear Maureen Dowd say that he actually knows how to pronounce it (and other words), but he chooses not to. All part of his "cowboy role" to appeal to the great unwashed masses of American voters. And consistent with his "affable" remarks at the 2001 Yale commencement, when he said that "even a C student" can be President of the United States. [baaaarf]
I'm trying to decide whether my next post will be a reflection on my project of writing an "open letter to GWB" in the first place, or simply be my next installment of same, in which I pee on his foot while absentmindedly looking out to sea (and peeing) on that little island that he and I are sequestered on....