Ah, idiocy

I won't be blogging again until sunday the 15th. I'm sure you will all easily survive.

Several years ago, in a book I was editing (Other Fields, Other Grasshoppers), I quoted General William C. Westmoreland (Hearts and Minds):

"Well...the Oriental...doesn't put the same high price on life as does the Westerner. Life is plentiful, life is cheap in the Orient...and uh...as the, uh, philosophy of the orient, uh...expresses it, uh...uh...life is, uh, is not important."

I commented at the time: "The lamentable ignorance revealed in this statement leaves the audience stunned. How could these words have been spoken by a mature, intelligent, and otherwise well-educated man at this late date in the twentieth century?"

I still think Westmoreland's statement was pretty ignorant, to say nothing of racist. But he was clearly outdone just now by Bush who made a statement so stunningly idiotic as to go to the top of the list of the most idiotic statements of all time. I don't have the exact quote but the gist was: "I admire the Iraqis, who desire democracy so much they are willing to tolerate this level of violence." They are "willing" to tolerate the violence. Like, maybe they have a choice, and they decided they'd rather have violence and civil war than anything else? They desire democracy to the point of putting up with a hundred deaths a day (or more) with no end in sight? How come they overwhelmingly want the U.S. out of their country as soon as possible? They are so pleased with their march to democracy that many wish Sadam Hussein was still in charge? A majority think it is perfectly fine that they should be attacking American troops? Bush, to put it mildly, has become so unhinged he needs professional help, and soon.

We just received our first recorded message from the Republicans: "Larry Grant is wrong on economics." Like, Bill Sali has even heard of economics? I know, he understands there is an economic element to the fact (he insists) that abortions lead to breast cancer. So I guess he reasons is is cheaper to prevent abortions than to treat breast cancer. A penny saved is a penny earned. He prides himself on being a Bush Republican. I guess he hasn't read many polls lately, he probably gets his information directly from Dick the Slimy (who has been remarkably silent lately). I guess with Cheney's poll numbers even lower than low his endorsement of Sali will be a big help, along with all the nutcase money from out of state that Sali receives. Bill Sali, a candidate that even his own party has characterized as a belligerent idiot, and even threatened to throw him out of a window at one point, is certainly someone we ought to have in Congress (actually, he'd probably fit right in with our current Congress - too bad many of them won't be around much longer).

Tomorrow is friday the 13th. Watch out for the October surprise.