Things Heard on the Radio
A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to NPR and I heard reporter Libby Lewis giving a report in which she mentioned Lewis Libby. Not especially interesting, but I thought it was mildly amusing.
...
Yesterday, I listened live to G.W. Bush's press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi. I believe this was within a couple of hours of the U.S. Supreme Court essentially saying that Bush's plan for his captives (or are we supposed to say "detainees"?) in Guantanamo Bay is unwarranted and illegal. Before he started taking questions, he did some speechifying. During this segment, he said the following (in regards to having spoken with a Japanese woman whose daughter was apparently (from what I gather) abducted from Japan and brought to North Korea in what was surely an illegal act):
Note: I've copied this quotation directly from the White House web site (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/06/20060629-3.html). And you can tell it's not been cleaned to make Bush look better. (Note the "sic" in the first paragraph if you choose to visit the transcript.) The question mark is mine. The transcriptionist decided to use a semicolon and follow it with some more rambling that I've omitted in my block quote above.
Of course, he said it with all of the heartfelt sincerity that someone like him can muster. That is, he said it without any indication whatsoever that any sense of irony was warranted. Today, we call that "heartfelt sincerity" where in other--better--times, we might call it "dimwitted numbskullery".
He's "hosting" how many people in Gitmo? With charges having been brought against how few? And how many of them were "persuasively invited" (we don't say "abducted" in this circumstance, of course) within 6,000 miles of where they're being "treated to a little bit of American hospitality"? (Might as well commit to the euphemisms, right?)
I'm not a big fan of the profanity and I like to be kind in speaking of others. But sometimes I just want to scream out: "Schmuck!"
...
Yesterday, I listened live to G.W. Bush's press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi. I believe this was within a couple of hours of the U.S. Supreme Court essentially saying that Bush's plan for his captives (or are we supposed to say "detainees"?) in Guantanamo Bay is unwarranted and illegal. Before he started taking questions, he did some speechifying. During this segment, he said the following (in regards to having spoken with a Japanese woman whose daughter was apparently (from what I gather) abducted from Japan and brought to North Korea in what was surely an illegal act):
It also reminded me about the nature of the regime -- what kind of regime would kidnap people, just take them off offshore, you know[?]
Note: I've copied this quotation directly from the White House web site (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/06/20060629-3.html). And you can tell it's not been cleaned to make Bush look better. (Note the "sic" in the first paragraph if you choose to visit the transcript.) The question mark is mine. The transcriptionist decided to use a semicolon and follow it with some more rambling that I've omitted in my block quote above.
Of course, he said it with all of the heartfelt sincerity that someone like him can muster. That is, he said it without any indication whatsoever that any sense of irony was warranted. Today, we call that "heartfelt sincerity" where in other--better--times, we might call it "dimwitted numbskullery".
He's "hosting" how many people in Gitmo? With charges having been brought against how few? And how many of them were "persuasively invited" (we don't say "abducted" in this circumstance, of course) within 6,000 miles of where they're being "treated to a little bit of American hospitality"? (Might as well commit to the euphemisms, right?)
I'm not a big fan of the profanity and I like to be kind in speaking of others. But sometimes I just want to scream out: "Schmuck!"
Just when you thought you'd figured out how dense he really is, he kicks it up another notch. I saw another bumper sticker whose message I thought you'd enjoy:
ReplyDelete"He put the duh in W."
(I howled when I saw it.)
-SL