Month: February 2008

I know it’s a great American tradition but, can they be serious? The George W Bush Presidential Library? Is this the guy who sat reading, “My Little Goat”, upside-down, during the 9/11 attacks?

Are we talking the same person who bragged he’d managed to read Camus’s, “The Stranger” by the time he was fifty-seven? It is, after all, required reading in most secondary schools.

His Library? What’s he going to put in it? The complete works of Dr Seuss and Thomas the Tank Engine?

And the choice of position could have been better – the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas?^[1]

I always thought that was where they assassinated presidents, not honored them.

It’s one of God’s universities, of course, which is good given that George W Bush has devoted his presidency to doing God’s will: slaughtering pagan Iraqis, overseeing torture and rape, denying global warming in the sure knowledge it was the beginning of the End Times……etc, etc, etc…

In a letter to SMU, George W Bush wrote:^[2]

““I look forward to the day when both the general public and scholars come and explore the important and challenging issues our nation has faced during my presidency—from economic and homeland security to fighting terrorism and promoting freedom and democracy.”

Although the Iraqis penned it slightly differently:^[3]

“By giving a veneer of academic respectability to torture, rape, looting, hostage taking, bribery, corruption, child killing, using chemical weapons, using starvation of entire civilian populations as a weapon, denying water to entire civilian populations as a weapon, internment of children, collective punishment of entire civilian populations, bombing civilian populations (see: collective punishment of entire civilian populations,) bombing hospitals, bombing schools, looting of museums, destruction of libraries, making academics and teachers particular targets, ditto doctors and nurses, running death squads, open viciousness, blatant racism, and naked greed…..the Center’s resources and programs will be invaluable to national and international researchers and scholars, including those at SMU.”

Come to think of it – I couldn’t have put it better myself.

^{[1] SMU Dallas.}

^{[2] White House letter.}

^{[3] Gorilla’s Guides – George W Bush Presidential Library.}

Filed under: Manure by any other name……

Carried in a British newspaper is the tale of Craig O’Connor, furniture maker, of Pennsylvania, who found Jesus in a tree trunk.^[1]

Being an ardent Christian church-goer, Mister O’Connor immediately recognized it as a “sign from God” and tried to flog it on eBay.

Sadly, he was only able to enthuse his bidders to the tune of $500, so he decided to keep it himself and incorporate it into a piece of furniture.

        

Personally, I’d have snatched the $500.

^{[1] The Sun Newspaper.}

Filed under: Wooden Jesus

In his blog today, Gideon Rachman, the Financial Times’ chief foreign affairs columnist, argues that Barack Obama is just not such a good speech maker as others insist.^[1] Rachman states:

“Exhortation can make for thrilling rhetoric. But the difference between Mr Obama and some of the great speakers he is sometimes compared with is that Churchill, Kennedy and Martin Luther King were genuinely challenging their audiences. Surrendering might have seemed rational in Britain in 1940. King’s “I have a dream” speech was made at a time when racial segregation was still a reality in the southern US. When King coined the phrase the “fierce urgency of now” (borrowed with acknowledgement by Mr Obama), he was explaining why he had come out against the Vietnam war. Even JFK’s “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” demanded something from the audience.”

I agree with Mister Rachman. I’ve often scratched my head after listening to Obama and thought, “what’s so special about this guy?”

I’ve come to the conclusion much of it is down to age.

Rachman references Churchill, JFK, and Martin Luther King as great orators, but to the majority of Obama’s supporters they are simply names plucked from the history books.

Rachman was born in 1963. I’m just about old enough to be his father. The young people flocking to Obama’s gatherings weren’t born until years after JFK was inaugurated in 1961, or after 1967 when Martin Luther King stirred souls with his speech to end the Vietnam war. Even I wasn’t around when Churchill was telling the British people they would fight the Germans on the beaches.

To many Obama supporters, adult life has meant George W Bush, and possibly a bit of Bill Clinton. Their memories of politics revolve largely around Monica Lewinski and Iraq.

It’s little wonder they won’t pledge allegiance to Hillary Clinton, and prefer to throw their support, with vigor, behind Obama. Compared to their previous political memories, he must seem like the best thing since the invention of MP3 players.

And, who knows, it’s just possible he may be?

^{[1] “Obama and the art of empty rhetoric”, Gideon Rachman blog.}

Filed under: Political perspectives