GWL and GWB
"Obviously, there's concern now I read about that-- I'm occasionally reading, I want you to know, in the second term, your stories that is-- that, you know, they haven't formed a government yet. But I take a different look. First of all, obviously, there will be a government formed. But I think it is interesting to watch the process of people negotiating and worrying about this and worrying about that, and people seeking out positions as to their stands on issues that'll be relevant to the future of Iraq. It's a wholesome process and it's being done in a transparent way. I mean, you've got the press corps all over them, watching every move, which is a positive example for others in the region, and that's important. It's important for people in that region to see what is possible in a free society."
-- G.W. Bush, March 16 press conference
"BAGHDAD, March 29 -- Iraq's attempt to fill the first posts in a national-unity government erupted in shouting and factional strife Tuesday, as what politicians described as last-minute power plays overran a Shiite- and Kurd-led effort to form a coalition with Sunnis. . . Assembly leaders abruptly ordered news cameras out of the hall after 22 minutes. For the Iraqi public, television broadcasts of what was only the second session of their new parliament snapped to black, then went to a Saddam Hussein-era-style tape of a popular singer warbling an Iraqi national anthem."
-- Washington Post, Effort to Form Iraqi Government Collapses
"Whence it follows that God who possesses supreme and infinite wisdom acts in the most perfect manner not only metaphysically, but also from the moral standpoint. And with respect to ourselves it can be said that the more we are enlightened and informed in regard to the works of God the more will we be disposed to find them excellent and conforming entirely to that which we might desire."
G.W. Leibniz, Discourse on Metaphysics, 1686
posted by awol | 8:51 PM
4 Comments:
I took the "in the second term" comment as Bush's reference to his own notorious statement, to Brit Hume, that he doesn't read newspapers:
HUME: How do you get your news?
BUSH: I get briefed by Andy Card and Condi in the morning. They come in and tell me. In all due respect, you've got a beautiful face and everything. I glance at the headlines just to kind of a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves. But like Condoleezza, in her case, the national security adviser is getting her news directly from the participants on the world stage.
HUME: Has that been your practice since day one, or is that a practice that you've...
BUSH: Practice since day one.
HUME: Really?
BUSH: Yes. You know, look, I have great respect for the media. I mean, our society is a good, solid democracy because of a good, solid media. But I also understand that a lot of times there's opinions mixed in with news. And I...
HUME: I won't disagree with that, sir.
BUSH: I appreciate people's opinions, but I'm more interested in news. And the best way to get the news is from objective sources. And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world.
HUME: Mr. President, thank you very much.
Remarkable how many knots are in this statment by Bush.
The Leibniz and myshkin/voltaire quotes put me in mind of this from Harper's (which I'm sure many of those engaged here have seen), an inquiry into a certain strain of Christianity that seems to hold influence among the Bushies:
http://www.harpers.org/JesusPlusNothing.html
Scrolling way down into the piece, you get to this:
As I have read more about Jesus, it ran, I have also been intrigued by his style of interaction with other people. He was fascinated in particular by an encounter in the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 35–39, in which Jesus asks two men why they are following him. In turn, the men ask where Jesus is staying, to which he replies, “Come and see.” I am not sure how Jesus asks the question, Bengt had concluded, but from the response, it seems like he is asking, “What do you desire?”
“That's what it's about,” Bengt said. “Desire.” He shifted in his chair. “Think about it: 'What do you desire?'”
“God?”
“Yes.”
“That's the answer?” I asked.
“He's the question,” Bengt retorted, half-smiling, satisfied with his inversion by which doubt became the essence of a dogma. God was just what Bengt desired Him to be, even as Bengt was, in the face of God, “nothing.” Not for aesthetics alone, I realized, did Bengt and the Family reject the label “Christian.” Their faith and their practice seemed closer to a perverted sort of Buddhism, their God outside “the truth,” their Christ everywhere and nowhere at once, His commands phrased as questions, His will as simple to divine as one's own desires.
As to what those desires might be, we get this, earlier:
“Hey, you know what's interesting about King David?” From the blank stares of the others I could see that they did not. Many didn't even carry a Hebrew Bible, preferring a slim volume of just the New Testament Gospels and Epistles and, from the Old, Psalms. Others had the whole book, but the gold gilt on the pages of the first two thirds remained undisturbed. “King David,” David Coe went on, “liked to do really, really bad things.” He chuckled. “Here's this guy who slept with another man's wife—Bathsheba, right?—and then basically murders her husband. And this guy is one of our heroes.” David shook his head. “I mean, Jiminy Christmas, God likes this guy! What,” he said, “is that all about?”
The answer, we discovered, was that King David had been “chosen.” To illustrate this point David Coe turned to Beau. “Beau, let's say I hear you raped three little girls. And now here you are at Ivanwald. What would I think of you, Beau?”
Beau shrank into the cushions. “Probably that I'm pretty bad?”
“No, Beau. I wouldn't. Because I'm not here to judge you. That's not my job. I'm here for only one thing.”
“Jesus?” Beau said. David smiled and winked.
...
That's the way everything in life happens. If you're a person known to be around Jesus, you can go and do anything. And that's who you guys are. When you leave here, you're not only going to know the value of Jesus, you're going to know the people who rule the world. It's about vision. 'Get your vision straight, then relate.' Talk to the people who rule the world, and help them obey. Obey Him. If I obey Him myself, I help others do the same. You know why? Because I become a warning. We become a warning. We warn everybody that the future king is coming. Not just of this country or that, but of the world.”
I think in Bush we have a self-proclaimed princeling, if not a king...
So, possible shorthand of this piece: Jesus means never having to say that you're sorry.
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