Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their “common faith” (Christianity) and told him: “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled…. This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.”One visualizes Chirac putting the phone down slowly and uttering the French equivalent of "What the fuck?" (Come to think of it, what is the French equivalent of "WTF?")
This astonishing anecdote testifies not only to Bush's zealotry but also to his narrow view of the world. Dubya presumed that a well-educated European, the leader of a nominally (or at least historically) Catholic nation, would understand the gonzo terminology used by barely-literate Southern Baptists addicted to the works of Hal Lindsey and other purveyors of Apocalypse porn.
Weird tale #2: Many of you have seen the not-terribly-good Comedy Central animated series, Drawn Together, a show noted for its tastelessness. The script for one episode featured the line "“Wow, that’s almost as bad as the Holocaust and Slavery.” (The joke, if you can call it that, presumably had something to do with the hyperbole of such a comparison.) The person in charge of Comedy Central's Standards and Practices, who usually spends each day taking eight-hour lunches with the person who does the same job at Fox, suddenly felt compelled to censor this line.
S&P’s note however was that the comparison to Slavery was quite fine, but the Holocaust reference had to be removed because Slavery wasn’t as bad as the Holocaust.Boy, is that telling.
Weird tale #3: Well, this isn't so much a tale as an observation. A lot of Americans appear to be under the impression that Medicare (which has a higher satisfaction rating than does private insurance) is not run by the evil gummint.
The New Republic's health care blog, The Treatment, points out that during the Hillarycare battle back in 1994, then-Sen. John Breaux, a Louisiana Democrat, was accosted at the airport by an elderly constituent. "Now don't you let the government get a hold of my Medicare," she said. Writing in The System, Haynes Johnson and David Broder related Breaux's criminally disingenuous response: "Oh, no, we won't let the government touch your Medicare." In a similar vein, supply-side economist Arthur Laffer recently complained on CNN, "If you like the Post Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles and you think they're run well, just wait till you see Medicare, Medicaid, and health care done by the government."Yeah. And how about those national parks? Those forest rangers do a great job -- but if the gummint ever gets involved, everything will go to hell.
11 comments:
How about if the Democrats get the government out of Medicare for those complaining and use the money saved to give health care to more appreciative people? At least get the government out of Medicare long enough for them to get a clue.
"If you like the Post Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles and you think they're run well, just wait till you see Medicare, Medicaid, and health care done by the government."
Gog and Magog? Baise-moi!
And when Co. Sheriff's funds start drying up all across the country, this pea-brained, fascist loving crew will go gog gog over Xe rolling in to 'serve and protect.'
George Bush was only partially right in his, supposed, conversation with Chirac. The Middle East is a hot bed of political machinations that will, at some point, lead to a war called Gog/Magog. That war is where Iran and Russia hook up to go after Israel. From the descriptions in the Bible it looks to be a nuclear exchange. While the war will happen, it won't be to erase enemies for a New Age. It will be to show Israel that God is still their God and they are still the apple of His eye. Hal Lindsay and the Left Behind Series aren't the ones who made the call, God did. If a person don't believe it all they have to do is ask Him with a sincere heart...He'll tell you the truth.
Lonni
WTF in French is 'Qu'est-ce que c'est, cette connerie?'
Thanks, Buddhist. Good to know!
Although "Baise-moi!" also seems possible. I had forgotten about the double meaning of baiser. As I see it, Dubya's interpreter would have gone for the more sedate, old-fashioned translation of the word. To which Dubya would have responded:.
"You want me to kiss you, Jacques? But...that goes against the teachings of our common faith..."
the French for WTF is (above translation is correct too) in every day speech "c'est quoi ce bordel ?" (literally "what kind of brothel is that ?".
I think that Chirac understood the "Gog and Magog" stuff, because even Catholics read the Book of Revelations (even if it's considered as folklore) - Catholics are interested in the gospels, the rest is background literature - but the French were interested in what it IMPLIED.
If one reads the Chirac's book, you'll find that Chirac predicted with an astonishing "prophetic" accuracy what was going to happen in Iraq : the civil war, the GI-losses, Al Quaeda resurgence etc...
@Lonni
We the French believe in science and facts and not in magical crap. The fact that those stories have been written on a goat skin 4000 years ago by herders that didn't have TV and needed cool stories to have some fun at night, doesn't change a thing.
"C'est quoi ce bordel?" I'll have to remember that. Thanks!
As for "magical crap" -- oh, every national population has a segment that maintains a wistful affection for tales of the supernatural. My boyhood crush on St. Bernadette was shared by quite a few Frenchmen, and her body (preserved by either wax or magic, take your pick) is still on display in Nevers. And I'm given to understand that magical thinking -- "New Age" thinking, as we say in America -- is still very popular in Cathar country.
If you want to define "magic" a little more rigorously, I could point out that, roughly a century ago, France was still the home of the wildest occult revival of modern times. Papus, Peladan, Doinel, de Guaita, d'Alveydre...ah, good times, good times. That strain still exists in French culture, although it is now a bit more subterranean. Don't discount the possibility that you could have another huge eruption. These things tend to be cyclical.
That said: When I was a boy, America had a far greater appreciation of science than is the case today. We were the nation of Einstein and Oppenheimer and Feynman and NASA. Then came the hippies, then came the Jesus freaks, then came the cuts in education... And now we have a population of young people who think that the radio works because it has little people inside.
The Bush 22 percenters believed the same. In fact some of them wanted him to go further and hasten the coming of the Apocalypse.
You can thank the print and broadcast media for both Reagan and Bush II. Oh, and Bush III and the damage he will do.
Kinda makes you embarrassed that you live in a country populated by "Ignant" people!
"Don't let the Gummint touch my Gummint Medicare?" Bwaa haa haa!
Lonni, I don't know if you're referring to Daniel or Revelation, but Jesus himself said that the prophecies in the former were fullfilled in him, and as for the latter, it's not intended to be taken literally, but is a story with the message to Christians "don't worry, if we stay true to the faith (non-violence, good works, love, etc), we will win in the end."
[Incidentally, the inclusion of Revelation puts the lie to claims that the Church excludes books based on some sort of theological "party line": the council which did so didn't want to include it (due to, among other things, how it could be misinterpreted by some as being literal), but had to based on its sole criterion, that being "Has it been determined beyond a reasonable doubt that this was written by one of Jesus' apostles?]
-----
Hmm, I and everyone I know though DT was hilarious (we even had 'watching parties' where we watched each episode the day it premiered...twice.
Sergei Rostov
We the French believe in science and facts and not in magical crap.
France:
[http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3842.htm]
Religion: Roman Catholic 85% (est.), Muslim 10% (est.), Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%.
That would be 98%, as compared to the world average of 95%.
Also, surveys show that 90% of scientists are religious, i.e. the vast, vast majority of them don't feel it's an either-or propostion.
Sergei Rostov
Post a Comment