Harry has a killer response to the Girls Outperforming Boys meme. He manages to turn David Brooks into a champion of the welfare state, which made this egghead giggle.
Next week, I’ll give you all the update on making Jonah into a book-lover and treading that line between subtlety influencing and squashing enthusiasm in kids. We had a major victory last night.
In today’s Times, Maureen Dowd writes about that private conversation between Bush and Blair that was caught on tape. Dowd mocks Bush for his frat boy ways and for carelessly crashing through history. He treats the presidency as a hindrance from pumping weights and clearing bush, she says. She particularly ridicules Bush for complaining about the length of the speeches of some of the other heads of state.
I’m no fan of Bush, but I have to admit that I sympathized with Bush on this point. Good Lord, has anyone been to an academic conference? Hasn’t anyone ever redlined a speaker’s speech? Hasn’t anyone ever felt like that guy in Airplane who hangs himself, because he’s trapped in his seat next to the babbling old lady?
I don’t know. I really enjoyed hearing the relaxed Bush go on. He’s so much better when he’s not trying so hard, even if it’s in a grating Pledge Master sort of tone. That formal, unblinking, stick-up-his-ass, deer-caught-in-the-headlights Bush really scares me.
Dowd seems to think that politics doesn’t happen in informal chats and private phone calls between heads of state. She says that the only way to stop the horror unfolding in the Middle East is through long speeches and orchestrated diplomacy. I think she’s wrong on this one.
Apt. 11d 
thanks for the link, Laura. I’m glad you got the humour, it seems to have left most of the commenters behind. But anyone following the link should check out CB’s comment #6, for a clever joke.
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I think the problem with informal chat diplomacy is that it depends on everyone thinking they have real respect for one another. We do the dance of formal diplomacy in order to pretend we respect others with power even when we don’t.
Everyone in the world (except perhaps the English) believe that Bush has absolutely no respect for them and their point of view.
bj
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If Bush is the annoyed frat boy, Dowd is the bookish girl in college who says mean things about the cool kids because she can’t stand the fact she boring and dull. I’m no fan of Bush, but I’m wearying of cheap-shot liberals making shallow arguments about Bush.
Enough with the characterizations and whining about spending time in Camp David. Show us some substance with your analysis and quit projecting about the fact that you were ignored by the cool kids in high school and college.
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What I loved most about the Bush vid is that he clearly wanted to turn around and shout, “Jesus, Tony, I’m trying to eat here! Can you just knock that diplomacy shit off for a while??”
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Talk about missing the point. Aw, it’s a shame that the world is so complicated for Georgie-boy that he doesn’t have the patience or mental aptitude to listen to complexities, even if they take a while to discuss. An academic conference is a poor comparison — impatience over speeches’ lengths won’t result in more deaths. Don’t you think he owes it to our military to pay more attention, to care more?
In an international forum, that asshole passing for a president is representing all of us. He should behave accordingly.
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Missing the point indeed. I don’t think Ms. Dowd had any problem with ‘cool kids’. It was Bush, if anyone. That drunken asshole has always had to either do the deer-in-the-headlights thing because he can’t follow the drift or act naturally like the fool he is to cover his ‘lack-of-fit’. We are being taken to the cleaners by a low-achiever who has his finger on the button (the speed-dial one which calls Dick in to tell him what to do next).
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