I Invaded Iraq Today. Or Was It Yesterday?

David Weigel | August 18, 2006

Over at The American Prospect, Reason Contributing Editor Julian Sanchez sneaks a peek into George W. Bush's book report on Albert Camus' The Stranger.

Comments

|8.18.06 @ 11:48AM|#

"'hell is other people' doesn't poll well." is my new catch-phrase for the day. Or at least it will be once I clean up the coffee I spilled laughing at this piece.

|8.18.06 @ 11:56AM|#

Good one. Worthy of National Lampoon at it's prime.

|8.18.06 @ 12:07PM|#

Reads like the first half of "Flowers for Algernon"...

|8.18.06 @ 12:11PM|#

I think the whole quote is, "Hell is other people at breakfast." Either way, it's true.

|8.18.06 @ 2:17PM|#

Brilliant!

|8.18.06 @ 4:12PM|#

"And if Americans aren't wrenched from being-pour-soi to being-en-soi (at least in relation to an observer who is Other) by the objectifying gaze of the state -- well, then the terrorists have won."

It's funny because it's true!

|8.18.06 @ 5:47PM|#

Standing on the beach
With a gun in my hand
Staring at the sky
Staring at the sand
Staring down the barrel
At the arab on the ground
See his open mouth
But I hear no sound

I'm alive
I'm dead
I'm a stranger
Killing an arab

I can turn
And walk away
Or I can fire the gun
Staring at the sky
Staring at the sun
Whichever I choose
It amounts to the same
Absolutely nothing

I'm alive
I'm dead
I'm a stranger
Killing an arab

I feel the silver jump
Smooth in my hand
Staring at the sea
Staring at the sand
Staring at myself
Reflected in the eyes
Of the dead man on the beach
The dead man on the beach

I'm alive
I'm dead
I'm the stranger
Killing an arab

That's why he picked it.

Rich Ard|8.18.06 @ 9:44PM|#

That was wonderful. Nice work.

Mike Laursen|8.19.06 @ 12:43AM|#

Seriously, though, according to Wikipedia, Bush attended the Phillips Academy, Yale, and Harvard Business School. Has anybody dug up any of his old schoolwork? Was there any to dig up? He must have written a paper or two somewhere in there.

|8.19.06 @ 3:10AM|#

Mike: Upper-class twits don't write papers; they have papers written for them. Actually, to be completely fair, I don't think anyone wants his schoolwork to be exhumed for public mockery. Even Camus probably had his off-days when he was in high school.

"This way of being I have chosen, this 'cowboy,' is as good as any other in the end."

Great stuff. Really great.

Mike Laursen|8.19.06 @ 12:02PM|#

I don't think anyone wants his schoolwork to be exhumed for public mockery.

Oh, I do. I do. :-)

I didn't think about his having his papers written for him. You may be right about that.

dhex|8.20.06 @ 2:32PM|#

that was really choice.