This was fun. It reminds ash of chess, which she has managed to learn – and forget from lack of practice – several times. You close in one someone; he hides behind other players; you corner him and he has no choice but to surrender. That, or become mum.
In his recent column, [name withheld] refers several times to "Bush-haters" as a monolithic group who, if not contemptuous of the president for the sake of contempt, blame him for massive job losses under his watch which, according to Gaston, are absolutely not of his making.
While I concede the economic hardship issue is too complex to be the fault of any one person, and while I certainly don't presume to speak for the many (and rapidly increasing) "Bush-haters," I can tell [name withheld] I don't personally hate Bush as much as I consider him unqualified for elected office.
In my opinion, Bush is vain, shallow, stubborn, lazy, juvenile, dishonest, simple-minded, haughty, aristocratic, insincere, uncompromising, supercilious, vengeful, vindictive, petty, incurious, reckless, lazy, manipulative, obtuse, inarticulate, vacuous, swaggering, obnoxious (see swaggering), dishonorable, compassionless, opportunistic, mean-spirited, unscrupulous, deceptive, foolish, unconvincing, rigid, short-sighted, fear-mongering, hypocritical, nonsensical, begrudging, exclusive, divisive, politically illegitimate and - yes - stupid.
[Name withheld] might chew on the following: Most people don't hate in order to hate. They hate when they find something (or someone) hateful.
What about president is so infuriating?
Dear Editor,
ash's 43-adjectival portrait of President George W. Bush revealed a sense of mean-spiritedness unbecoming to an obviously intelligent but very opinionated lady.
It would help the rest of us enormously if ash would give us specific examples of Mr. Bush's behavior that so infuriate her. Forty-three adjectival examples would go far in helping us understand her contempt for the president.
Meanwhile, assuming that Cormulley recognizes moral absolutes and the existence of sin, she might also chew on the following well-know expression: "Hate the sin but love the sinner."
Good thing ash doesn’t consider ignorance grounds for not dignifying the adversary with a response:
First [name withheld] can’t imagine why the “Bush-haters” hate Bush. Now, moving the goal post, he demands justification for each of the 43 adjectives (actually 42; I inadvertently repeated one) describing Bush.
Since it would take both editorial pages of one newspaper edition to provide an example illustrating each Bush characteristic, how about a compromise. I’ll offer the following cases in point and let [name withheld] match them to the appropriate adjective:
Bush can’t think of a single mistake he made regarding Iraq. When predictably asked to, during one of his precious few press conferences, he replies, “You’ve got me under the spot.” Bush says, “Fool me twice. You can’t get fooled again.” Bush says, “If I were dictator…” Bush smears (read: lies about) Sen. McCain in order to win the 2000 South Carolina primary. Bush includes 16 bogus words in his 2003 State of the Union address, later to be declared the ultimate responsibility of his underlings. Bush meets with the 9/11 commission – which he initially opposed – only in private, only with the vice president, and only not under oath. Bush claims, by repealing the tax cut for the filthy rich, that contender Sen. Kerry would also penalize the middle class. Bush sets a record for vacation days taken during a presidency, spending most of it on his Texas ranch. Having received the infamous 8/6/01 memo entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike Within the U.S..” Bush chops wood on his Texas ranch. Bush moves earmarked funds from Afghanistan to Iraq without congressional approval. Bush doesn’t read newspapers. Bush performs miserably on “Meet the Press” – the consensus of Republican supporters. Bush becomes an environmentalist on Earth Day, then returns to ignoring (if not undermining) the issue. Bush insists a reporter address him as “Mr. President,” not “Sir,” at a NASCAR event. Bush further destabilizes the Middle East in a joint appearance with President Sharon of Israel. Bush expresses wonderment – not shock or outrage – at the outing of a CIA agent by an official of his administration. Bush trivializes his failure to discover WMDs at a media dinner. As Iraq deteriorates, Bush vows to continue doing what he’s doing.
The only adjectives in Bush’s vocabulary are “evil” and “good.”
This list is off the top of my head. I hope it suffices, [name withheld]. As for the “sinner” remark, sorry; where politics are concerned, I play on a strictly secular terrain.