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I Invaded Iraq Today. Or Was It Yesterday?

David Weigel | 8.18.2006 11:40 AM

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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.

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David Weigel is a contributing editor at Reason.

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  1. SR   19 years ago

    “‘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.

  2. mk   19 years ago

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

  3. ajay   19 years ago

    Reads like the first half of “Flowers for Algernon”…

  4. Number 6   19 years ago

    I think the whole quote is, “Hell is other people at breakfast.” Either way, it’s true.

  5. Ken Shultz   19 years ago

    Brilliant!

  6. hostile   19 years ago

    “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!

  7. MainstreamMan   19 years ago

    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.

  8. Rich Ard   19 years ago

    That was wonderful. Nice work.

  9. Mike Laursen   19 years ago

    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.

  10. James   19 years ago

    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.

  11. Mike Laursen   19 years ago

    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.

  12. dhex   19 years ago

    that was really choice.

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