Monday, August 13, 2007

You Won't Have 'Boy Genius' to Kick Around Again

This one has been knocking around in my head for awhile

Chris wrote recently that it was time to call a spade a "stupid fucking shovel" (channeling a really old joke that I can't remember the rest of there) in regard to our current president. Don't get me wrong. I totally agree and always have. I'm constantly amazed at the words, as Chris Tucker would say, that are coming out of Bush's mouth. I wonder what his final 18 months in office will be like without the man behind the curtain. My guess: quiet. He'll be generating his own half-witted policies for a change. How could things possibly be worse than WITH Rove?

So it was very interesting when, on the occasion of the Barry Bonds record-breaking home run, that Bush waxed eloquent about the effect on Bonds' record should he eventually be convicted of what everyone and their brother suspects he's done -- use illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

So after the record fell, Bush called Bonds to congratulate him. Fairly innocuous stuff: “You’ve always been a great hitter and you broke a great record,” according to Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman. The president did not mention steroids.

But in a subsequent interview with Fox News, Bush spoke about steroids: “There is a lot of speculation about Barry Bonds, and my only advice for people is to just let history be the judge,” Bush said. “Let’s find out the facts, and then everybody’s opinion, one way or the other, will be verified or not verified.”

Substitute Saddam Hussein for Bonds and WMD's for steroids and, well, have fun. What struck me most about Bush's words were the thought that went into them. Clearly, this idea is one that has survived loneliness long enough to congeal into some sort coherent pattern, emerging in rounded form. So what does it say about a president when THIS is the issue that renders the most logical response of anything he's been faced with in months, years, terms? It means he's dim, right? Not so fast.

It should be said that I'm a sports fan. I watch them. I follow them in the papers. I play them...some better than others. I think they are a valid reflection of the societies that value them. I think they say as much about the fans as they do the athletes and the games themselves. So, I feel strangely that a moron like Bush chooses something I value on which to stand and raise an intellectual flag. I guess I'm thankful there IS a light on in that house, even if it's a dusty 15-watt bulb.

Posted by Unclejbird @ 3:03 PM