Mommie Dearest

The other day, I called George Bush a sociopath, and a Presidential apologist defended his honor in the comments section. This man didn't so much offer a defense of Bush's behavior, in which The Prez joked about Trent Lott's new beach house while New Orleans sank deeper and deeper into a humanitarian crisis, as insist that his behavior is always above criticism. "He's not a sociopath," the man assured me, even though the evidence seems to indicate that this psychological profile is, in fact, accurate.

See, a sociopath is defined as someone who is affected with an anti-social disorder. They are unable to relate to other people, most often because they are unable to assume the perspective of anyone but ourselves.

When you are a young child, this is the way your mind works. Nothing exists for you outside of your own experience. That's why a baby doesn't understand that you shouldn't scream and cry in a restaurant. They want to cry, and at that age, the entire world revolves around them. That's only natural - it's instinct. If you were constantly sympathizing with other people as a infant, instead of watching your own doughy, diaper-clad ass, you'd be dead inside a week.

But some people - we call them sociopaths - never really get past this stage. They learn proper public behavior - like don't cry loudly in a restaurant or don't poop in your pants when company comes over - but they don't really ever understand the thought processes or situations of those around them. They remain tightly ensconsed in the bubble of their own experience, unable to truly emotionally connect to the world around them.

George Bush is clearly one such person. He's the kind of guy that thinks joking about Trent Lott's house (or about his old party days in Houston) while visiting the scene of the most horrifying natural disaster in American history is entirely appropriate.

And this isn't the first time. Cindy Sheehan speaks of him calling her "Mom" and behaving in a callous manner when they met following her son's death. In Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911, he's seen soberly discussing the need for a war against a sovereign nation with millions of citizens, thousands of whom will be killed, in between strokes of golf. And now we can add his expressed sentiment to a bereaved child who had lost much of her family in the New Orleans Flood - "hang in there."

Not to mention all the horrible things that George Bush's policies do to people every day. Clearly, he doesn't sympathize with the troops in the field, as he won't attend their funerals, unfairly extends their tours of duty months after they were told they could go home, cuts their retirement wages and then ill-equips them for dangerous missions. He doesn't sympathize with the nation's poor, whether or not they're dying in the toxic waters of NOLA. He's perfectly happy to hamper them with harsher and harsher bankruptcy bills, to waste their tax dollars on bridges in Alaska to nowhere while their public schools wither away and die, to give money earmarked to revitalize their communities away in corporate handouts or upper class tax cuts. He can't sympathize with the citizens of any other country, or with a good number of the citizens of his own country (those that live on the coasts, or didn't want to go to war, or like legal abortion, or worship someone other than Jesus).

So, okay, the President definitely demonstrates some strongly anti-social behavior. I'm here to say...maybe it's not his fault...maybe he learned this behavior from someone...Like say, his mother.



AAAAHHH!!!! IT'S A BRUNDLE FLY! KILL IT!

Oh, no, wait, that's just the First Mother. Yikes.

The kindly, sweet old lady above had this to say upon touring the Houston Astrodome today with her husband. The 'Dome, of course, along with many other large locations in Houston and all over Texas, is being used to house thousands of hurricane refugees.

"Almost everyone I’ve talked to says we're going to move to Houston. What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."

Holy...I mean...holy shit...That's REAL. That's A REAL QUOTE from the mother of THE FUCKING PRESIDENT and the wife of ANOTHER GODDAMN PRESIDENT. She thinks that the hurricane is working out well for the refugees. Because, you know, they were poor anyway.

I mean...do I even have to write the rest of this post? These people are so rich and powerful, they have been so cushioned from interacting with other people for so many years, they no longer have any conception of proper behavior, conduct, manners, social mores or any notion of reality.

As I see it, there are 4 racist or inappropriate remarks in that one three-sentence statement. Which has got to be some kind of record.

(1) I mean, she thinks the idea of refugees (read: black people) moving en masse to Houston is scary. Scary. I mean, what if Texas suddenly fills up with even more black people. George will just have to sell the ranch and get out, I suppose...

(2) She considers the aid provided by the State of Texas and the federal government to refugees to be "hospitality." No, ma'am, you see, the government has a responsibility to take care of its citizenry in times of crisis. That's the entire fucking point of having a government. It's not supposed to be just old, out-of-touch cranky douchebags sitting around getting angry about violent video games, joint-smoking and dudes having butt sex. It's for our mutual protection and security. For example, federal officers really should be removing that photo of you from the Internet, because I will probably have erectile dysfunction problems for the rest of my life now that I have seen it.

If I go to the ER with half my arm chainsawed off and a doctor sews me up, I don't thank him afterwards for his gracious hospitality. I thank him for doing his fucking job. And if he didn't sew my arm up, or if he did it crooked so I could only use 3 fingers and my elbow jutted out to the side, I have the right to sue his ass.

(3) She thinks that the hurricane refugee situation is "working out well" for these people. As if being poor and being homeless, stranded in a strange city, grieving for your dead family, friends and worldly possessions were the same thing. As if poor people should be happy to have any table scraps the United States government is willing to dole out to them. As if being treated like penned animals were some sort of privilege for which these people ought to be thankful.

What a bitch.

(4) She laughs. This isn't really any more serious to her than any other PR event she and her hubby the ex President Georgie would attend. Go out, air out her gills, say something nice about whatever site they have to visit, pose for some photos. Pretend not to be disgusted by minorities, the impoverished and the infirm. You know, the old meet-and-greet.

Bear in min the immense weight of this situation, of this place. She's a dignitary visiting a stop-gap site set up to house trauma victims. These people have dead and missing family members. Their entire lives were wrapped up in a city that no longer exists. It has been less than a week since everything in the world was taken away from them in a moment. They are barely gathering together the loose ends of their lives and looking for any way to move on.

And this bitch comes around and makes pithy comments about how, well, it sure is better than where they were living before, har-de-har-har. She's a monster. And I'm not just saying that because, in the above photo, she looks exactly like something out of a Lovecraft story.

I always sensed that Barbara Bush was something of a mean-spirited, frigid shrew, but I never had any idea she was such a complete and total nutball. This is the woman who raised our president, who taught him everything about life, about morality and about respect. Is it any wonder he's a greedy self-righteous lunatic?