Apparently, Donald Rumsfeld started his progress reports on the Iraq War with Bible Quotations.

You can see some of the pages here.

Onion Article from January 21st, 2001:

Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'

This made my day.

Yet another indicator that the whole "Bush system" needs to be shot, drowned, staked, and buried at a crossroads:

Why Two Bush Appointees Are Refusing to Leave.

Thank whatever gods might be listening that Bush will be gone tomorrow.

A thought came to me regarding my last post:

If Batman stands for Bush, and the Joker stands for the terrorists, then what does it mean when the Joker tells Batman:

"You complete me."



Maybe the comparison isn't all that flattering even if it's accurate...

What Bush and Batman Have in Common


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I sometimes post in the Tangency Open forum of RPGNet. And in a recent thread (only viewable to forum members), I apparently stepped on some toes that the voting population of a democratic nation shares responsibility for the activities of their government.

I thought that I was stating something obvious. After all, it is the voters who ultimately put a government into power - they are its true bosses. So I was surprised when various posters said that I was "attacking" Americans by "blaming" them for the Bush administration.

This is nonsense. "Fault" and "responsibility" are different, though somewhat overlapping concepts. As an example, most of the Germans currently alive were not alive during the time of the Third Reich - let alone old enough to vote them into power or otherwise support their rule.

Yet Germany still has to shoulder the responsibilities for the crimes of the Third Reich, and with it all German citizens. After all, if not us, who else?

And as far as the American citizens are concerned, "taking responsibility" for their government does not mean magically making the last eight years go away. Instead it means admitting:

"OK, those last two terms went badly. How can we make sure that something like that never happens again?"

Surely this is not a task beyond the American sovereign...

Conservative Group Calls for Bush Dictatorship

It's always interesting - and disturbing - what kind of people lurk at the fringes of society...

Here is a lengthy article on the many staffers that have left the White House under the current administration.

Another worthwhile article to read on how the USA are perceived elsewhere:

Why Don't They Like Us as Much as They Used To?

As the article points out, the problem with how the US government is seen in the rest of the world isn't just that they made a bunch of decisions that were extremely unpopular elsewhere. After all, other American governments have made such decisions as well.

No, the real problem is that the US government has been so staggeringly incompetent when it comes to implementing those decisions. After all, no one wants to be associated with embarrassing failures...

After reading this article, I can conclude:


Please, Americans, whoever you are going to vote into office next - at least let it be someone who at least entertains the possibility that he might be wrong before committing to a course of action.

I'm getting the impression that among American conservatives there seems to be a growing consensus that invading and occupying Iraq was essentially a good idea - it's just that Bush and his team were too incompetent to do it right.

That sounds like a rather dangerous rationalization of something that was a really bad idea in the first place to me...

But I am sure we will hear more about this idea in the future - especially if Giuliani becomes the Republican candidate.

Well, actually he is harshly criticizing it.

But I'm sure that for the Iraqis it will amount to the same thing...