Evolution start of intelligent crusade
By Josh Steichmann / Rhetoric ninja of great renown MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2005
As you may have heard, the Kansas State Board of Education finally rendered their verdict on teaching Intelligent Design, a hypothesis that promotes the idea that the universe and life specifically is "too complex" to have arisen through evolution. With a resounding six-to-four vote, Kansans will no longer have to suffer under the tyranny of observable evidence, testable hypotheses, or repeatable data. Rejoice! This is a victory against the Godless, who insist on forcing their rational empiricism down the throats of wayward students. They even redefined the word "science," away from a definition of "seeking observable explanations for natural phenomena." But, like many of the decisions in this so-called Christian Nation, it did not go far enough. While students here at Eastern were no doubt heartened by the Kansan victory, they must redouble their efforts to change the curricula at our university. And they must not stop at the relatively minor accomplishment of Intelligent Design being democratically voted in as a possible argument for the origins of life. No, for if that is the end of teaching based on what we don't know, we will have achieved less than half of the necessary changes for a true religious republic. Intelligent Design is well and good, a perfectly cromulent approach to scientific learning. But what of the other disciplines? Should we falter in applying the strenuous logic of Intelligent Design to other areas of study? We would be remiss and hell-bound should our only accomplishments come on this narrow front. What of Intelligent Mathematics? If anything, this is an area that strikes at the true heart of the dogmatic atheocrats and their enforced rationality. Even more than biology, which acknowledges that different theories may simply be the best representation of current knowledge, mathematics insists that there is one right answer to every problem, even when that right answer directly contradicts the Bible. Take, for example, 1st Kings 7:21: "And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about." Even a brief mathematical examination can show us that in the Bible, pi is clearly exactly three. For years, mathematicians, a study commonly associated with paganism and licentiousness, have been deluding us with the story that not only is pi slightly higher than three, but that we cannot know it in its entirety. If, by following the rubric of Intelligent Design, we cannot know pi, then it must have been designed. And, if it must have been designed and the Bible was dictated directly from that designer, then it clearly shows that pi is exactly three. The fine state of Indiana tried to espouse this clear and inerrant logic not too long ago, only to be beaten back by the Godless hordes of sodomites who demanded that their perverted interpretation of pi be recognized, lest they bar students of Indiana from higher education and well-paying jobs. This aggression cannot stand, students of Eastern. Demand in your math classes that pi be presented to the Biblical standard of exactly three. No doubt many of the faithful have noticed another discipline long under assault by the liberal idolaters: linguistics. Nowhere has their influence been more pervasive than in the spelling and grammar of our language, and their attempts to wrest the common bond of all pious men from the true root of the King James Bible. If given even a glancing examination, we will find that the English language is too complex to have arisen through random acts of phonemes and glottal stops. Why, if language arose spontaneously, as some of the loony left would have you believe, does "I" come before "E" except after "C?" Why isn't "wife" spelled "wyf"? If one looks back at pre-Biblical spelling, such as the Canterbury Tales, it can be clearly seen that the language was nearly incomprehensible. And if you listen to the pagan moon-worshipers, they'll even posit Beowulf as an example of "Old English," the supposed roots of our modern tongue! Have you ever tried to read Beowulf? It's clearly not in English, despite the secular lies of those who wish to bring us back to Gomorrah. I shouldn't be surprised if these aren't the same liberal "environmentalists" that have killed off the behemoth and leviathan. Be happy for Intelligent Design in Kansas, but don't forget to demand your right to a pi of exactly three and the right to use "ye" and "thou" as pronouns in your English classes. To do any less would fail God, and that wouldn't be "intelligent," would it?
Somehow, I feel like I am becoming a geezer. After my bike accident, I have used a cane. I feel like poking a young whipersnapper...
Monday, November 21, 2005
Monday, November 07, 2005
Think about it....
If everything the administration does is correct, it cannot be torture.....no moral problem on his part....it is not his fault if Dick directs the torture....
Our country is at war and our government has the obligation to protect the American people," Bush said. "Any activity we conduct is within the law. We do not torture."
Our country is at war and our government has the obligation to protect the American people," Bush said. "Any activity we conduct is within the law. We do not torture."
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Bush and ethics
Too late, he abandoned those after he was elected. Just make his friends rich, the ethical refrain of the Republicans in power.....
Resignation would work, though.....
WASHINGTO -- President Bush, reacting to the indictment of a high-level White House aide in the CIA leak case, has ordered his staff to get a refresher on ethics rules.
In a memo sent to all White House aides on Friday, the counsel's office said it will hold briefings next week on ethics, with a particular focus on the rules governing the handling of classified information. Attendance is mandatory for anyone holding any level of security clearance.
"There will be no exceptions," the memo said.
The week after, the counsel's office is holding sessions on general ethical conduct for the rest of the staff.
"The president has made clear his expectation that each member of his Executive Office of the President (EOP) Staff adhere to the spirit as well as the letter of all rules governing ethical conduct for EOP Staff," the memo said.
After a two-year investigation, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was indicted last week, charged with lying to investigators and the grand jury about leaking the CIA status of Valerie Plame, who was a covert officer. Plame's CIA status was exposed in July 2003 after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the administration of twisting intelligence before the war to exaggerate the Iraqi threat from weapons of mass destruction.
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is said to be still considering whether Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, illegally misled investigators. Libby has resigned and Rove remains on the job.
The case has had some Republicans inside and outside the White House grumbling that Bush needs to take more aggressive steps to confront the fallout, which has included a drop in the public's confidence in the president's credibility.
Resignation would work, though.....
WASHINGTO -- President Bush, reacting to the indictment of a high-level White House aide in the CIA leak case, has ordered his staff to get a refresher on ethics rules.
In a memo sent to all White House aides on Friday, the counsel's office said it will hold briefings next week on ethics, with a particular focus on the rules governing the handling of classified information. Attendance is mandatory for anyone holding any level of security clearance.
"There will be no exceptions," the memo said.
The week after, the counsel's office is holding sessions on general ethical conduct for the rest of the staff.
"The president has made clear his expectation that each member of his Executive Office of the President (EOP) Staff adhere to the spirit as well as the letter of all rules governing ethical conduct for EOP Staff," the memo said.
After a two-year investigation, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was indicted last week, charged with lying to investigators and the grand jury about leaking the CIA status of Valerie Plame, who was a covert officer. Plame's CIA status was exposed in July 2003 after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the administration of twisting intelligence before the war to exaggerate the Iraqi threat from weapons of mass destruction.
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is said to be still considering whether Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, illegally misled investigators. Libby has resigned and Rove remains on the job.
The case has had some Republicans inside and outside the White House grumbling that Bush needs to take more aggressive steps to confront the fallout, which has included a drop in the public's confidence in the president's credibility.
Friday, November 04, 2005
Feds being mean to Wisconsin
If Wisconsin had voted for Bush, I bet help would have been there instantly. This will teach them a lesson, says the neocons.....
Where do we go from here?
Already reeling from August tornadoes, victims were hit again: no federal aid.
By MEG JONES
Posted: Nov. 3, 2005
Town of Dunn - The 27 twisters that tore through Wisconsin Aug. 18 flattened subdivisions, leveled farms and left municipal budgets in tatters, but, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, it wasn't enough to warrant federal aid.
Wisconsin Tornadoes
Stripped trees remain Wednesday as a reminder to Cindy and Jim Ace of the destruction tornadoes caused to their Dane County home and farm more than two months ago. The Aces have been trying to sort out how to rebuild their lives and business after federal aid for storm victims was denied.
Nearly 25 years of work on Jim and Cindy Ace’s farm was wiped out when tornadoes hit Aug. 18. The couple’s farm machinery was damaged and they lost 13 of 17 buildings. The couple figure they’re underinsured by $150,000 to $175,000. "We’re not looking for a handout," said Cindy Ace. "But a low-interest loan...that would be a godsend to us."
Wisconsin's History of Federal Aid
Don't tell that to Cindy Ace. Driving up to their Dane County farm just hours after the storm, she and her husband, Jim, found farm machinery tossed like toys, trees snapped like matchsticks and a brand new shed picked up and dumped on a pickup truck. Of the 17 buildings on their farm, just four were still standing.
The tornado that devastated the Ace farm plowed through the towns of Dunn and Pleasant Springs, north of Stoughton, killing a man, destroying 69 homes and damaging 304 others, causing almost $34 million in damage in Dane County alone. It was just one of 27 tornadoes that whipped through Wisconsin that day. Damage estimates statewide topped $40 million.
In the past five years, FEMA had approved Wisconsin aid for storms that caused quite a bit less damage than that, and the agency has recently come under fire for approving millions in aid in other states for people who weren't directly affected by disasters.
Given all of that, many Wisconsin officials expected that FEMA would declare a disaster here and open the federal spigot for reimbursement of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cleanup costs and offer low-interest loans.
Then, almost two weeks after the tornadoes, Hurricane Katrina hit. A few weeks later, Wisconsin's disaster request was denied.
Hurricane influence denied
FEMA said the mounting costs of Katrina had nothing to do with Wisconsin being shut out. The tornado damage, the agency said, "was not of such severity and magnitude as to be beyond the capabilities of the state and affected local governments."
Officials in the Town of Dunn disagree. The community of 5,300 is facing a cleanup bill of $273,000. The Town of Pleasant Springs rang up cleanup costs of $945,000. Same thing in Viola in southwestern Wisconsin, where the cleanup cost $1.3 million. The village of 700 has an annual tax levy of about $57,000.
Those communities cannot pass the bill on to property-tax payers. Because state law limits how much communities can raise the tax levy, local leaders are hamstrung, said Rick Stadelman, executive director of the Wisconsin Towns Association.
If they cannot get other aid, such as Small Business Administration disaster funding, communities will have to borrow. But if they're nearing their debt limits, that's another problem.
"I don't know that there's a lesson to be learned. I think those towns did what they had to do," Stadelman said. "It may show that we can't rely on FEMA."
A FEMA spokeswoman said the agency used a number of criteria to determine whether Wisconsin was eligible for federal aid. Among them: state and local response to the disaster, available assistance from charities and other federal agencies and whether most victims had insurance.
"The fact that there were hurricanes in the Gulf states had nothing to do with the decisions made in our district," said Gay Ruby, public information officer for FEMA Region No. 5, which includes Wisconsin. "We look at each disaster totally on their own merits, and we did so in the Wisconsin tornadoes."
For uninsured losses, FEMA looks at the per capita cost for the entire state. At the time of the tornadoes, the threshold was $1.14 in uninsured damages per person in Wisconsin. FEMA inspectors determined that the tornadoes caused only 58 cents per person in uninsured losses.
"It's not that we begrudge the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Rita or Wilma, those are truly disasters as well," said Kathleen Falk, executive of Dane County. "For the same reasons we think the federal government should help those citizens, so should they help ours."
Gov. Jim Doyle immediately appealed the denial Sept. 23, and a FEMA team was in Wisconsin this week to gather more information before ruling on Doyle's appeal. Few past appeals by Wisconsin governors have been granted, however.
Little to appeal
Not that Wisconsin has had much to appeal in the past.
In the five years before the tornadoes, the state requested nine federal disaster declarations and was denied just once.
"We don't apply every time there's a storm for federal disaster aid," said Lori Getter, Wisconsin Emergency Management spokeswoman. "With the magnitude, the number of homes damaged and destroyed, the fatality, the economic impact and agriculture loss, we really believe we were eligible for federal disaster assistance."
The toll of the Aug. 18 tornadoes is more than $40 million statewide - easily dwarfing other bad weather damage that in previous years quickly earned federal disaster aid for the state:
• In 2002, victims of tornadoes and storms in 19 counties that caused $27.7 million in damage got federal assistance.
• Victims of flooding and storms in June 2002 that caused $14.3 million in damage in eight counties received federal aid.
• Heavy rains and flooding that caused $8 million in damage in 10 northern counties in July 1999 earned a federal disaster declaration.
Ruby said it's possible the uninsured losses in the flooding incidents were higher than they were for the Aug. 18 tornadoes.
Elsewhere, FEMA has come under fire for being overly generous. An investigation this year by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found that the federal agency had paid millions to people who had been virtually untouched by major disasters, including $32 million to Miami-Dade County for Hurricane Frances, even though the storm came ashore 100 miles to the north of Miami.
News like that makes FEMA's denial that much harder to swallow in towns such as Pleasant Springs, where much of a subdivision full of two-story homes was wiped away. The town will probably lose as much as 15% of its equalized value because of all of the vacant lots, said Donna Vogel, the town's clerk/treasurer.
While a disaster declaration often means municipalities will get help to rebuild, it also often paves the way for low interest loans for people such as Cindy and Jim Ace.
The couple figure they're underinsured by $150,000 to $175,000.
"We're not looking for a handout," said Cindy Ace. "But a low-interest loan, if that would be available - that would be a godsend to us."
Though the Aces are staying, they won't build new tobacco sheds and won't rebuild two greenhouses that Cindy Ace used to grow flowers for a side business. When the tornado swept away their farm, it also destroyed the business and life they had worked so hard to achieve.
"Jim and I have been married almost 25 years. It has taken all of that to get where we are," Cindy Ace said. "We're back to square one."
Where do we go from here?
Already reeling from August tornadoes, victims were hit again: no federal aid.
By MEG JONES
Posted: Nov. 3, 2005
Town of Dunn - The 27 twisters that tore through Wisconsin Aug. 18 flattened subdivisions, leveled farms and left municipal budgets in tatters, but, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, it wasn't enough to warrant federal aid.
Wisconsin Tornadoes
Stripped trees remain Wednesday as a reminder to Cindy and Jim Ace of the destruction tornadoes caused to their Dane County home and farm more than two months ago. The Aces have been trying to sort out how to rebuild their lives and business after federal aid for storm victims was denied.
Nearly 25 years of work on Jim and Cindy Ace’s farm was wiped out when tornadoes hit Aug. 18. The couple’s farm machinery was damaged and they lost 13 of 17 buildings. The couple figure they’re underinsured by $150,000 to $175,000. "We’re not looking for a handout," said Cindy Ace. "But a low-interest loan...that would be a godsend to us."
Wisconsin's History of Federal Aid
Don't tell that to Cindy Ace. Driving up to their Dane County farm just hours after the storm, she and her husband, Jim, found farm machinery tossed like toys, trees snapped like matchsticks and a brand new shed picked up and dumped on a pickup truck. Of the 17 buildings on their farm, just four were still standing.
The tornado that devastated the Ace farm plowed through the towns of Dunn and Pleasant Springs, north of Stoughton, killing a man, destroying 69 homes and damaging 304 others, causing almost $34 million in damage in Dane County alone. It was just one of 27 tornadoes that whipped through Wisconsin that day. Damage estimates statewide topped $40 million.
In the past five years, FEMA had approved Wisconsin aid for storms that caused quite a bit less damage than that, and the agency has recently come under fire for approving millions in aid in other states for people who weren't directly affected by disasters.
Given all of that, many Wisconsin officials expected that FEMA would declare a disaster here and open the federal spigot for reimbursement of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cleanup costs and offer low-interest loans.
Then, almost two weeks after the tornadoes, Hurricane Katrina hit. A few weeks later, Wisconsin's disaster request was denied.
Hurricane influence denied
FEMA said the mounting costs of Katrina had nothing to do with Wisconsin being shut out. The tornado damage, the agency said, "was not of such severity and magnitude as to be beyond the capabilities of the state and affected local governments."
Officials in the Town of Dunn disagree. The community of 5,300 is facing a cleanup bill of $273,000. The Town of Pleasant Springs rang up cleanup costs of $945,000. Same thing in Viola in southwestern Wisconsin, where the cleanup cost $1.3 million. The village of 700 has an annual tax levy of about $57,000.
Those communities cannot pass the bill on to property-tax payers. Because state law limits how much communities can raise the tax levy, local leaders are hamstrung, said Rick Stadelman, executive director of the Wisconsin Towns Association.
If they cannot get other aid, such as Small Business Administration disaster funding, communities will have to borrow. But if they're nearing their debt limits, that's another problem.
"I don't know that there's a lesson to be learned. I think those towns did what they had to do," Stadelman said. "It may show that we can't rely on FEMA."
A FEMA spokeswoman said the agency used a number of criteria to determine whether Wisconsin was eligible for federal aid. Among them: state and local response to the disaster, available assistance from charities and other federal agencies and whether most victims had insurance.
"The fact that there were hurricanes in the Gulf states had nothing to do with the decisions made in our district," said Gay Ruby, public information officer for FEMA Region No. 5, which includes Wisconsin. "We look at each disaster totally on their own merits, and we did so in the Wisconsin tornadoes."
For uninsured losses, FEMA looks at the per capita cost for the entire state. At the time of the tornadoes, the threshold was $1.14 in uninsured damages per person in Wisconsin. FEMA inspectors determined that the tornadoes caused only 58 cents per person in uninsured losses.
"It's not that we begrudge the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Rita or Wilma, those are truly disasters as well," said Kathleen Falk, executive of Dane County. "For the same reasons we think the federal government should help those citizens, so should they help ours."
Gov. Jim Doyle immediately appealed the denial Sept. 23, and a FEMA team was in Wisconsin this week to gather more information before ruling on Doyle's appeal. Few past appeals by Wisconsin governors have been granted, however.
Little to appeal
Not that Wisconsin has had much to appeal in the past.
In the five years before the tornadoes, the state requested nine federal disaster declarations and was denied just once.
"We don't apply every time there's a storm for federal disaster aid," said Lori Getter, Wisconsin Emergency Management spokeswoman. "With the magnitude, the number of homes damaged and destroyed, the fatality, the economic impact and agriculture loss, we really believe we were eligible for federal disaster assistance."
The toll of the Aug. 18 tornadoes is more than $40 million statewide - easily dwarfing other bad weather damage that in previous years quickly earned federal disaster aid for the state:
• In 2002, victims of tornadoes and storms in 19 counties that caused $27.7 million in damage got federal assistance.
• Victims of flooding and storms in June 2002 that caused $14.3 million in damage in eight counties received federal aid.
• Heavy rains and flooding that caused $8 million in damage in 10 northern counties in July 1999 earned a federal disaster declaration.
Ruby said it's possible the uninsured losses in the flooding incidents were higher than they were for the Aug. 18 tornadoes.
Elsewhere, FEMA has come under fire for being overly generous. An investigation this year by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found that the federal agency had paid millions to people who had been virtually untouched by major disasters, including $32 million to Miami-Dade County for Hurricane Frances, even though the storm came ashore 100 miles to the north of Miami.
News like that makes FEMA's denial that much harder to swallow in towns such as Pleasant Springs, where much of a subdivision full of two-story homes was wiped away. The town will probably lose as much as 15% of its equalized value because of all of the vacant lots, said Donna Vogel, the town's clerk/treasurer.
While a disaster declaration often means municipalities will get help to rebuild, it also often paves the way for low interest loans for people such as Cindy and Jim Ace.
The couple figure they're underinsured by $150,000 to $175,000.
"We're not looking for a handout," said Cindy Ace. "But a low-interest loan, if that would be available - that would be a godsend to us."
Though the Aces are staying, they won't build new tobacco sheds and won't rebuild two greenhouses that Cindy Ace used to grow flowers for a side business. When the tornado swept away their farm, it also destroyed the business and life they had worked so hard to achieve.
"Jim and I have been married almost 25 years. It has taken all of that to get where we are," Cindy Ace said. "We're back to square one."
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Maybe W is drinking again.....
Would you blame him? Nasty way for God to treat him....
Nora Ephron Mon Oct 31,11:09 PM ET
I'm sorry to have to return to what continues to be, for me, the Rosebud event of the second Bush term, but since I live in New York and am free from the kind of facts and "inside information" that burden most people who write about politics, I keep thinking about the day the plane flew into the airspace while the President rode his bicycle.
As you may recall, on May 11, 2005, a small plane made an unauthorized detour into the air space over the nation's Capitol, setting off a red alert. The
Secret Service' Laura Bush to a bunker in the White House. The President was not there. He was off riding his bicycle in Beltsville, Maryland, and the Secret Service didn't notify him about the incident until it was over. At the time they claimed they didn't want to disturb his bicycle ride. It's my theory that this incident was one of the reasons for the rift between Bush and Cheney -- a rift, I'm proud to say, that I was one of the first to point out (on the Huffington Post), on the basis of no information whatsoever, and which now turns out (according to this week's Newsweek) to be absolutely true.
Emboldened by the success of this deduction, I would like to ask another question that I've been wondering about for some time: What's wrong with the president? Is he fighting depression? Is he being medicated in some way that isn't quite working? What's up? I even bought a copy of one of the supermarket tabloids that alleged he'd started drinking again, but the article (like all articles in supermarket tabloids) was extremely disappointing; even the over-exciting picture of the President on the front page, holding a glass of wine, turned out to be an old irrelevant photograph of him making a toast at some banquet; there was no real evidence in the article that he was back on the sauce.
But I've been wondering about what's going on with W ever since he emerged from his bizarre groundhog-like vacation and responded to Hurricane Katrina as if he were under water. He had no affect at all. He was almost robotic. His meager vocabulary seemed to have shrunk even further. He conveyed no feeling for the victims -- and this was early on, way before anyone realized how many poor people were involved. It was strange. What's so hard about cranking yourself up for hurricane victims, especially when you think they're mostly white people who have lost their second homes on the Gulf Coast?
At the time I wondered if Bush was on Paxil or Lexapro, drugs that several of my friends are taking and that seem to have turned them into strangely muted versions of themselves. I asked my friend Rita, who's a shrink, but Rita is very careful about committing on subjects of this sort. She did point out, though, that sometimes, when the President talks, his mouth has a strange sideways twitch, which is apparently common in people who are on antidepressants. Actually it might have been my husband who said this, I can't remember.
But I started thinking about all this again on Sunday. On the Chris Matthews Show, there was some old footage of the president from last year's presidential campaign. He was outdoors, talking to a group of people in hard hats; he was energetic, focused, confident, on top of the world. Now you could easily counter: of course he was, it was a lovely day, he was surrounded by supporters, things were going well. But the President we're seeing these days is a completely different man.
He has, of course, a lot of reasons to be depressed -- no point in enumerating them, you know what they are. But most of all, I think he's depressed because the job has turned out to be so much more onerous than he expected -- he said as much to a friend of mine in September. "You have no idea," he said, "how hard these five years have been." This is a fairly breathtaking remark given the number of people who, thanks to this president, are now dead as a result of his five years in the Oval Office, but never mind.
The point is that it seems possible to me that when
George Bush gave up alcohol in 1986, he dealt with the depression that often accompanies sobriety by becoming an obsessive exerciser. And that's what he's essentially done ever since. He's never held anything that could be confused with a job. Owning a football team is not a job. Even being governor of Texas takes only a couple of months a year, it turns out. So he was free to exercise.
But at some point this year, something happened and the exercise regimen stopped working. Bush started becoming depressed. My theory is that a certain amount of panic ensued, and more exercise was prescribed: hence, the afternoon on the bicycle in Maryland, and the reluctance to disturb an already disturbed, irritable man. (Interestingly, the incident happened just after the President returned from a four-day trip to Europe, which had not only required him to work several hours each day but undoubtedly interrupted his exercise routine.) Then came the vacation in August, the odd, sequestered vacation, a perfect time for the President's doctor to try medication, or change medication, or adjust medication. Then Katrina and the emergence in the fall of an unenergetic, irritable, muted, unfocussed President, the man you see today.
Look it up: depression + symptoms. You'll read it for yourself: loss of energy, irritability, feeling "slowed down," inability to concentrate.
Not that I'm an expert on any of this, of course. But it's possible, isn't it? Just asking.
Nora Ephron Mon Oct 31,11:09 PM ET
I'm sorry to have to return to what continues to be, for me, the Rosebud event of the second Bush term, but since I live in New York and am free from the kind of facts and "inside information" that burden most people who write about politics, I keep thinking about the day the plane flew into the airspace while the President rode his bicycle.
As you may recall, on May 11, 2005, a small plane made an unauthorized detour into the air space over the nation's Capitol, setting off a red alert. The
Secret Service' Laura Bush to a bunker in the White House. The President was not there. He was off riding his bicycle in Beltsville, Maryland, and the Secret Service didn't notify him about the incident until it was over. At the time they claimed they didn't want to disturb his bicycle ride. It's my theory that this incident was one of the reasons for the rift between Bush and Cheney -- a rift, I'm proud to say, that I was one of the first to point out (on the Huffington Post), on the basis of no information whatsoever, and which now turns out (according to this week's Newsweek) to be absolutely true.
Emboldened by the success of this deduction, I would like to ask another question that I've been wondering about for some time: What's wrong with the president? Is he fighting depression? Is he being medicated in some way that isn't quite working? What's up? I even bought a copy of one of the supermarket tabloids that alleged he'd started drinking again, but the article (like all articles in supermarket tabloids) was extremely disappointing; even the over-exciting picture of the President on the front page, holding a glass of wine, turned out to be an old irrelevant photograph of him making a toast at some banquet; there was no real evidence in the article that he was back on the sauce.
But I've been wondering about what's going on with W ever since he emerged from his bizarre groundhog-like vacation and responded to Hurricane Katrina as if he were under water. He had no affect at all. He was almost robotic. His meager vocabulary seemed to have shrunk even further. He conveyed no feeling for the victims -- and this was early on, way before anyone realized how many poor people were involved. It was strange. What's so hard about cranking yourself up for hurricane victims, especially when you think they're mostly white people who have lost their second homes on the Gulf Coast?
At the time I wondered if Bush was on Paxil or Lexapro, drugs that several of my friends are taking and that seem to have turned them into strangely muted versions of themselves. I asked my friend Rita, who's a shrink, but Rita is very careful about committing on subjects of this sort. She did point out, though, that sometimes, when the President talks, his mouth has a strange sideways twitch, which is apparently common in people who are on antidepressants. Actually it might have been my husband who said this, I can't remember.
But I started thinking about all this again on Sunday. On the Chris Matthews Show, there was some old footage of the president from last year's presidential campaign. He was outdoors, talking to a group of people in hard hats; he was energetic, focused, confident, on top of the world. Now you could easily counter: of course he was, it was a lovely day, he was surrounded by supporters, things were going well. But the President we're seeing these days is a completely different man.
He has, of course, a lot of reasons to be depressed -- no point in enumerating them, you know what they are. But most of all, I think he's depressed because the job has turned out to be so much more onerous than he expected -- he said as much to a friend of mine in September. "You have no idea," he said, "how hard these five years have been." This is a fairly breathtaking remark given the number of people who, thanks to this president, are now dead as a result of his five years in the Oval Office, but never mind.
The point is that it seems possible to me that when
George Bush gave up alcohol in 1986, he dealt with the depression that often accompanies sobriety by becoming an obsessive exerciser. And that's what he's essentially done ever since. He's never held anything that could be confused with a job. Owning a football team is not a job. Even being governor of Texas takes only a couple of months a year, it turns out. So he was free to exercise.
But at some point this year, something happened and the exercise regimen stopped working. Bush started becoming depressed. My theory is that a certain amount of panic ensued, and more exercise was prescribed: hence, the afternoon on the bicycle in Maryland, and the reluctance to disturb an already disturbed, irritable man. (Interestingly, the incident happened just after the President returned from a four-day trip to Europe, which had not only required him to work several hours each day but undoubtedly interrupted his exercise routine.) Then came the vacation in August, the odd, sequestered vacation, a perfect time for the President's doctor to try medication, or change medication, or adjust medication. Then Katrina and the emergence in the fall of an unenergetic, irritable, muted, unfocussed President, the man you see today.
Look it up: depression + symptoms. You'll read it for yourself: loss of energy, irritability, feeling "slowed down," inability to concentrate.
Not that I'm an expert on any of this, of course. But it's possible, isn't it? Just asking.
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