An amazing response to getting smacked by reality

New Yawk Times, 10/24/2003

On his recent tour, Mr. Bush heard several things that surprised him.

"Do they really believe that we think all Muslims are terrorists?" he asked, shaking his head. He was equally distressed, he told them, to hear that the United States was so pro-Israel that it was uninterested in the creation of a Palestinian state living alongside Israel, despite his frequent declarations calling for exactly that.

It was a revealing moment precisely because the president was so surprised.

Yet for his part, Mr. Bush seemed determined to show that Iraq was a special case and to dispel the impression held in many parts of the world that he is impatient, trigger-happy and uninterested in building alliances. He sounds like a man who believes himself genuinely misunderstood.

"I've been saying all along that not every policy issue needs to be dealt with by force," Mr. Bush insisted in the conference room of Air Force One as he left Bali and headed here to Australia's capital.

But even some of Mr. Bush's aides concede that Mr. Bush has only begun to discover the gap between the picture of a benign superpower that he sees, and the far more calculating, self-interested, anti-Muslim America the world perceives as he speeds by behind dark windows.

Mr. Bush, in his exchange with reporters on Air Force One, expressed some regret that he did not have the time to explain himself better. "There was kind of a sense that American believe that Muslims are terrorists," he said, and he tried to defuse that by assuring them that "Americans know that these terrorists are hiding behind Islam in order to create fear and chaos and death." And he tried to explain his Middle East policy, he said, but seemed to acknowledge that his message probably did not sink in.

Bravo, Mr. President. Now that the worms are out of the can, what will you do?
- learn from the worms?
- try to stuff them back in the can?
- get a bigger can?
- blame the guy who delivered the worms?

I have to admit that I was surprised that he actually got the message and that he was concerned.
Bill Bennett admits to having clay feet.
Rush faces his addiction.
Rumsfeld asks tough questions.
The Prez finds out that the world doesn't see things the way that he does.
Who' s next? Bill O'Reilly discovers that he's a pr3&k ?

The Case of Fox News v. Homer Simpson

In a Simpson's episode there was a parody on Fox News. The parody included the "news crawl" so often seen on Fox News. Or so I'm told; I'd rather be dropped into a tank of angry Black Widow Spiders than become hideously misinformed by watching Fox News.

As any person or organization wracked with feelings of insecurity is prone to do, Fox threatened a lawsuit. They must enjoy getting laughed out of court.

Homer said "So sue me." Rupert Murdoch, Head Maroon at Fox, blinked first. A man so astute as he figured out that Fox News shouldn't sue a Fox Network program. There's too much potential for public airing of dirty laundry, not to mention a few million dollars. Why risk antagonizing the producers of your only quality program?

According to Jim Frisinger of the Dallas News, "you won't see any new episodes with the Fox News crawl under Homer and Bart's antics: as a policy matter the network asked the cartoon to drop the concept because viewers might be confused that they're watching real news."

What the network doesn't realize is that people who watch the Simpsons are generally more intelligent than people who watch Fox News. Details.

I'd worry more that during Fox newscasts, Fox News regulars might be confused that they're watching the Simpsons.

Gruesome Image of Tiger Attack

Warning: not for the squeamish.

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No Very Hungry Caterpillar Left Behind

"Then there are the president's reading habits: His favorite book is "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," which, as I recall, has no words in it." Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette

That's quite true... it has no words, candidate Bush said that it was his childhood favorite, and same candidate Bush said that it continues to be so into adulthood. That's interesting, because the book was first published in 1969 - AFTER George "graduated" from Yale.

No Child Left Behind.

Bush the Junior has pushed hard for legislation aimed at improving education. That's a goal which is noble and essential. One of the hallmarks of the plan is to require standarized testing, presumeably to ensure that all high school graduates have at least a minimum basic understanding of important facts and skills. Who could argue with that?

States are finding out that many of their high school seniors cannot pass the tests and therefore cannot graduate. Is the problem that the students are undereducated? Is it that too many students lack the essential skill of test-taking? Is the test bad?

I say it's time to put the test to the test. Let's have a highly visible, well-educated person take the same test that high school seniors have to take. I'm thinking of a graduate of one of the nation's top prep schools. He went on to get a BA at Yale and an MBA at Harvard. After a long, successful career in which he headed up several successful businesses, he became governor of a large state and then became the President of the USA.

George, sharpen your pencils and sit down. No cheating.