Friday, September 03, 2004

Triumph of the Will Will Saletan of Slate brought his pocket calculator to the Republican convention: For $2.4 trillion, guess what word -- other than "a," "and," and "the" -- occurs most frequently in the acceptance speech George W. Bush delivered tonight. The word is "will."  It appears 76 times.  This was a speech all bout what bush will do, and what will happen, if he becomes president. Bush also frequently uses the noun form of "will", as in the following speech excerpt: "This is a test of will for our country." And he often uses synonyms for "will," such as "resolve" -- which always makes him sound like he's some sort of household cleaner: "The new Bush -- now with Resolve." Bush's supporters like to compare him to Churchill and Roosevelt.  But what he really resembles, with his clenched buttocks, ramrod posture and jutting jaw, is their contemporary -- Mussolini. As Juan Cole points out: Bush's basic characteristic is not steadfastness, as the convention attempted to argue, but rashness.  He is a gambler who goes for the big bang.  He loses his temper easily, and makes hasty and uninformed decisions about important matters.  No corporation would keep on a CEO that took risks the way Bush has, if the gambles so often resulted in huge losses. In other words, Bush's defining characteristic is a sort of determined recklessness -- as in, "I don't know what the hell I'm doing, but I'm going to keep on doing it." 6:08:59 PM

The Continuing Recession A recent visit to my hair stylist reminded me that despite the persistent application of several purported home remedies for the follicly-challenged, procured at exorbitant expense from various Internet hucksters, my hairline continues to recede mercilessly and I will soon be sporting the dreaded Yarmulka Look, common to both Jewish and Gentile men, not to mention Muslims. This means that under the new secularization law banning the wearing of religious symbols, which went into effect yesterday, I will no longer be able to attend a public school in France.  11:26:01 AM