Home | Writings | Resume | Links | RSS Feed
A Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community
About Me :
I'm a grownup nerd living in the Boston burbs. I write computer programs for a living and plays for fun.
I'm married to a wonderful woman, and we share a nice little house with our daughter and our cats.
I'm a humanist, a technologist, an artist, and an idealist. I believe in reason, freedom, love, equality,
and democracy. (Did I mention that I'm
an idealist? I did, OK.)
I'm also a pragmatist and an empiricist. I reject ideology and dogma, especially when they conflict with
practical facts (i.e., pretty much always). I particularly hate willful ignorance, which tends to go hand-in-hand
with ideology and dogma.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
"Abu G-guh-guh-grape"
I listened to Bush's speech last night on the radio. I didn't watch it on TV, and I didn't see any photos of him until this morning. (man, Cheney's been knocking him around a bit lately, hasn't he?) I only tuned in at all because they said he was going to outline a new strategy for Iraq. I guess I knew better, but I really was hoping that he would actually, you know, outline a new strategy. God knows we could use one, and I thought maybe, maybe they realize just how deep in the shit we really are here.
No such luck. The "speech" was just more of the same bullshit; the "new strategy" turns out to be -- surprise! -- the same old strategy. "Blah, blah, blah, 9/11. Blah, blah, blah, terrorists. Blah, blah, blah, the dictator. Blah, blah, blah, Abu ... abu guh ... abu guh-guh-grape" -- what?
It was very telling, the way he mangled the pronunciation of the infamous prison "Abu Ghraib". The first time he ran across it, he completely messed up, saying something like "Abu Guh-Gurum". He seemed utterly perplexed by the words -- as though he'd never seen them before. He didn't botch the name quite so badly the second time, but he still botched it -- and again, the third time!
OK, so maybe he hasn't paid much attention to the unfolding scandal at Abu Ghraib, and beyond. (Hey, Don Rumsfeld's doing a "superb" job!) Doesn't he read his own speeches? He sounded to me like nothing so much as a high school freshman trying to bluff his way through a book report when he hadn't even bothered to do the reading.
I'm honestly beginning to wonder about whether this guy has any clue at all about what's going on.
0 comments
I listened to Bush's speech last night on the radio. I didn't watch it on TV, and I didn't see any photos of him until this morning. (man, Cheney's been knocking him around a bit lately, hasn't he?) I only tuned in at all because they said he was going to outline a new strategy for Iraq. I guess I knew better, but I really was hoping that he would actually, you know, outline a new strategy. God knows we could use one, and I thought maybe, maybe they realize just how deep in the shit we really are here.
No such luck. The "speech" was just more of the same bullshit; the "new strategy" turns out to be -- surprise! -- the same old strategy. "Blah, blah, blah, 9/11. Blah, blah, blah, terrorists. Blah, blah, blah, the dictator. Blah, blah, blah, Abu ... abu guh ... abu guh-guh-grape" -- what?
It was very telling, the way he mangled the pronunciation of the infamous prison "Abu Ghraib". The first time he ran across it, he completely messed up, saying something like "Abu Guh-Gurum". He seemed utterly perplexed by the words -- as though he'd never seen them before. He didn't botch the name quite so badly the second time, but he still botched it -- and again, the third time!
OK, so maybe he hasn't paid much attention to the unfolding scandal at Abu Ghraib, and beyond. (Hey, Don Rumsfeld's doing a "superb" job!) Doesn't he read his own speeches? He sounded to me like nothing so much as a high school freshman trying to bluff his way through a book report when he hadn't even bothered to do the reading.
I'm honestly beginning to wonder about whether this guy has any clue at all about what's going on.
