BS: Bush..........the truth is out

Subject: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: grumpy al
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 02:48 PM

This is a quote from H.L.Mencken (1880 - 1956)
he was one of America's more provocative social critics, a great humorist and satirist.


" as democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closly, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

A Prophet perhaps?

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Ebbie
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 03:09 PM

That quote is what should be on the welcome sign in Canada! Blazon it across City Hall.

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: DougR
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 01:12 AM

Geeze, Grumpy, thanks! I'm sure no one on this forum has every heard of H. L. Mencken. Uh, I think you may have the wrong president in mind though. Think Bill Clinton.

Had we wanted a REAL moron, we would have elected Al Gore of course.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 01:46 AM

DougR, please give your reasons for saying such a thing? Al Gore a moron? Are you out of your mind?

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Metchosin
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 03:44 AM

Its already old hat here in Canada, Ebbie. Francoise Ducros, an adviser to former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, called Bush a moron at a NATO meeting in Prague a couple of years ago. Ducros is long gone...too bad the moron's still about.

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: GUEST,Ellenpoly
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 05:32 AM

Oh GOODIE...another political thread. JUST what mudcat needs!

..xx..e

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Amos
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 05:37 AM

DougR:

Mencken has been known for many years to a number of us here; as for moronic repute I think you will find that in this question Bush really does get more votes than Gore, for once.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 08:48 AM

Yeah Doug, of course I know Mencken. And so, I'm sure, does George W. Bush - he gets his ranch-truck mufflers from him.

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: DougR
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 12:56 PM

No, TIA, you are wrong. He gets his trucks and his parts from a car dealer in Clifton, Texas.

My remark about Mencken, Amos, was said with tongue in cheek. As to Gore, he is an idiot in my opinion. As you have made your thoughts about GWB so well known in thread after thread, (See:"what folks think about the Bush administration for example) your comments are no news at all.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 01:02 PM

DougR, he's only an idiot if YOU weren't paying any attention to all of the smart things he said. Now that wouldn't surprise me. Same with your view of Clinton--at least the democrats can come up with bone fide intellectuals for the top office. Looks at the republicans of the last 25 years--Reagan, Bush, and Bush. Larry, Curly, and Moe as far as I'm concerned. Does it threaten you to put really smart people in offices with high levels of responsibility?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: GUEST,Chief Chaos
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 01:10 PM

How can he be an idiot?

I mean if it weren't for Gore we wouldn't have the internet now would we! ;)

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Don Firth
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 01:45 PM

Doug, Doug, Doug. Who hasn't heard of H. L. Mencken?

Oh, yeah! George W. Bush!

And then there's Alexis de Tocqueville. He had a number of interesting things to say about how American democracy is liable to work out. Well worth reading, especially if one is truly interested in democracy. And there's a whole bunch of other people Bush probably hasn't heard of either. But then, Mencken and de Tocqueville write books, and Bush doesn't even read his Presidential Daily Briefings.

Speaking of Presidential Daily Briefings (PDAs)—ESTABLISHED FACT—Bush does not read them. He has others read them and tell him what they think is important (which gives those others quite a bit of power, doesn't it?). Clinton got to the Oval Office early in the morning, and by the time the official day started, he had read them thoroughly, there were marginal notes all over them, and he had decided what was important. Clinton, an idiot? I don't think so. He was a Rhodes Scholar, after all. Bush was—ESTABLISHED FACT—a C student.

And Gore an idiot? Gore writes books. The only book Bush reads is the Bible, and even then, only The Book of Revelation.

C'mon, Doug. What planet have you been inhabiting lately?

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Don Firth
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 02:21 PM

But then again, perhaps Bush has read de Tocqueville. Or someone may have read it to him. Among many other things, de Tocqueville said the following:

"The American Republic will endure until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money."

And

"It's easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth."

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: grumpy al
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 02:27 PM

Where have all the thinkers gone? Why is society. in general, dumbing down?

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: GUEST,Chief Chaos
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 03:34 PM

***Thread creep alert***

Grumpy,

I started realizing just how dumb America was getting when Married With Children hit the airwaves and Rush Limbaugh became really popular. I don't know if this is when it actually started or an end result. Shows about married couples who shouldn't be, and also shouldn't be allowed to procreate. Calenders that claim "America Held Hostage (day #).

I think perhaps it started as an honest attempt at equalization in the schools which deteriorated into the touchy feely "social promotion". Our kids realized that they didn't actually have to learn to move through school. Of course there's also the social stigma of being a "nerd", "bookworm", etc. and an acceptance of the dumb jock, airhead girl, stoned out rockers, etc. My Aunt taught in a Catholic school and used to have to deprogram the children at the beginning of the year using "Dis, dat, dem that they had adopted to fit in.

What I can't understand is how we males (as portrayed lately on TV) are bumbling morons who need constant supervision and yet we are the ones supposedly in charge?

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Once Famous
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 03:34 PM

Liberal Political correctness perhaps?

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Peace
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 03:37 PM

It's as fashionable to bash men today as it was forty years ago to bash women. TV plays to the common denominator, whatever that is. Look at it closely, because the people who watch TV are your neighbours and likely a majority of the population. Makes the mind boggle, doesn't it?

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Once Famous
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 03:51 PM

Don Firth said, "Gore writes books."

Any moron can get published. Even you, Don.

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Don Firth
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 10:01 PM

Shite, Marty! You're a fine one to talk! You even have a problem typing . . . spelling . . . thinking up words of more that one syllable . . . or more than your standard Anglo-Saxon vocabulary of four letter words.   

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Once Famous
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 10:07 PM

Lame comeback, Don.

Lame.


You don't have to be wordy and rambling to be effective, Don.

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 10:15 PM

It is pretty simple...Bush is not exactly 'dumb', but he is shallow, narrow in his interests, and simplistic in his approach to things. He would NEVER have gotten elected dogcatcher without Daddy's name to ride in on. He was molded and groomed by Karl Rove for years as having just the right combination of 'homeyness', 'holiness' chutzpah, and malleability to become a front for right wing 'movers'....much like Reagan was.

and Al Gore was in the Senate and writing important books when G. Bush was still drinking and pretending to be in the National Guard.

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Amos
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 10:32 PM

It comes down to what kind of man is important to you -- a thinking one who seeks understanding or a bullyragger who seeks to be impressive. One is interested in the world, the other more concerned by far with being interesting. Guess which has more genuine strength.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Amos
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 10:51 PM

Just for the record, Chief Chaos, those of us who do our homework learned long, olong ago that Al Gore never made any claim to have invented the Internet. He did say that he contributed to the early development of the Internet through legislation support as a congeressman. The track record bears this out. The libel that he claimed to have invented the Internet was invented by a mealy-mouth small-minded political opponent of some sort, I forget whom.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Don Firth
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 01:53 AM

Marty, I suggest you postpone any attempts at literary criticism until you've at least mastered Dick and Jane.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Wolfgang
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 09:26 AM

No one in this world, so far as I know...has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. (Mencken)
We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart. (Mencken)
There is, in fact, nothing about religious opinions that entitles them to any more respect than other opinions get. (Mencken)

Mencken is on my next-to-read list.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: GUEST,Frank
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 04:49 PM

Where have all the thinkers gone?
Long time passing?
Where have all the thinkers gone?
Long time ago?
Where have all the thinkers gone?
Thrown out of the GOP.
When will we ever learn?
Oh when will we ever learn.

Where have all the poor men gone?
Long time passing?
Where have all the poor men gone?
Long time ago?
Where have all the poor men gone?
Off to Falujah, every one.
When will we ever learn,
Oh when will we ever learn!

Frank

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 06:47 PM

So I was looking for another quote that I had thought came from Mencken when I found this one:

I have strong opinions of my own but I don't always agree with them.

From, you guessed it, George W. Bush.

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Peace
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 06:51 PM

Gotta love THAT guy. LOL

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: flattop
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 08:00 PM

Bush made a gracious, intelligent, humorous speech in Halifax today. He recognized differences between Canada and the U.S., some of them annoying differences. He thanked the Canadians who had opened their hearts and their homes to airline passengers stranded by the 911 emergency.

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: flattop
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 08:01 PM

You can find at least one Mencken essay on the web:
In Defense of Women by H. L. Mencken
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1270

A quote from this essay:
[If the work of the average man required half the mental agility and readiness of resource of the work of the average prostitute, the average man would be constantly on the verge of starvation.]

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Greg F.
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 08:19 PM

Bush made a gracious, intelligent, humorous speech in Halifax today

Yes, but he sure as shit didn't WRITE it, and he read it off a tele-prompter.

Real genius there!

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Kaleea
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 08:32 PM

If folks had only listened to me & voted for Captain Kirk for Pres & Mr. Spock for Vice Pres there would not be all of this red against the blue going on!

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Amos
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 09:01 PM

KAleea:

You are so right. I know I am but one out of the millions who should have done as you said, but please accept my apologies.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: flattop
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 11:23 PM

Whoever wrote the speach was a damn good writer. John Kennedy used Gore Vidal for some of his speaches. Hard to top Vidal.

I'm not a big fan of Bush - I didn't even want to hear it but Philip asked me to lunch and, Susan's father-in-law being a bit deaf, the TV was turned up loud. One of the commentators said that it was off-the cuff, without teleprompters but I suspect Bush had long cuffs.

Even prompted, he sounded like he was enjoying his visit and enjoying what he had to say. He didn't sound like he was choking on a speakwriter's ideas.

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: dianavan
Date: 02 Dec 04 - 02:12 AM

Charm is one thing, intelligence another.

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Peace
Date: 02 Dec 04 - 02:15 AM

If Bush was enjoying his visit, it means another piece of Canada has been given to him for zip.

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: GUEST,Chief Chaos
Date: 02 Dec 04 - 10:09 AM

Amos - it was a joke!
Kaleea - No, it would be Gold (command) vs. Blue (Science and Medicine).

Nice to know he finally got around to thanking Canada (three and some change years after the incident!) Too bad he cashed that political capitol with the invasion of Iraq.

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp
Date: 02 Dec 04 - 04:40 PM

I betcha not one of these bozos in Bush's cabinet could climb a coconut palm or scale a 90 foot brick wall...

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: flattop
Date: 02 Dec 04 - 09:28 PM

Perhaps Bush simply forgot to read mudcat yesterday morning, and so he was in better humor than usual.

On the other hand, he might be more relaxed and open after winning the election. The fear of losing the second term, like his daddy did, might have been a huge pressure on the boy.

Bush now only has to worry about not being as intelligent as mudcat addicts who carefully write each of their slurs with consummate freshness, wit, and wisdom.

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Peace
Date: 03 Dec 04 - 03:40 PM

As opposed to Bush's slurs which are stale, hackneyed and foolish. Could not agree more, flattop.

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: GUEST,peedeecee
Date: 03 Dec 04 - 04:22 PM

Come on -- Bush treated our country, our Prime Minister, and our government with casual, offhand contempt. He was rude, offensive, and lied -- there was a private agreement apparently that he would not mention ballistic missile weaponry, as it is such a contentious issue here. He did so in his Halifax speech -- in fact, many analysts say that was the entire intention of the Halifax speech. He blindsided Martin very badly -- Martin's face reflected pure shock.

Later, Bush's handlers said they had intended to mention the missile project, but toned it down from being a "demand."

The arrogance of that little twit is matched only by his ignorance.

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Once Famous
Date: 03 Dec 04 - 05:58 PM

Canadians will never understand Americans.

why do they keep trying?

Just shut-up and keep letting us protect you!

Same with you, England.

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Peace
Date: 03 Dec 04 - 06:05 PM

Martin,

The US is the only country we NEED protection from.

Subject: RE: BS: Bush..........the truth is out
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 12:38 PM

Guest Frank from 1 Dec. -- thank you for the lovely verses. We've got an air and we can sing it.    Tw