The Rude Pundit: Pictures That Make the Rude Pundit Want to Drop Acid With the Bush Twins

[meegbear]

That's a photo of First Lady Laura Bush sweeping into the Library of Congress gala of the National Book Festival. While her husband is threatening to veto health insurance legislation for children who live a little above ditch-sleeping poverty, while there's a, what do you call that? oh, yeah, war going on, while Burma, a nation she is supposed to care about, is locked down, the First Lady thought it was perfectly fine to show up in an ostentatious outfit that seems to reek of Scarlett O'Hara and "Fiddle-dee-dee. War, war, war; this war talk's spoiling all the fun at every party this spring. I get so bored I could scream." Ah, well. At least it seems to be the color of dried blood.

It's not that there should be no festivities while a couple hundred thousand Americans are putting their lives on the line for something or other, maybe. It's just...a little subtlety, a little modesty goes a long goddamn way. Of course, putting any "Bush" and "modest" together in the same sentence is like asking a corpse to rot more quietly. Are the Bushes just pretending or do they really not get it? The Rude Pundit opts for the latter.

In her speech at that Gala last week, she quotes Shakespeare, Prospero, the deposed leader who finds exile on an island in The Tempest, saying, "My library was dukedom large enough." Laura Bush helpfully interprets this as "With a good collection of books, a reader can go to any place any time he pleases."

Of course, context is always a wicked whore. See, as the Duke of Milan, Prospero was so arrogant, he ignored his people in favor of burying himself in books, giving the duties of actually running Milan over to his brother. His head was so far up his own ass that he didn't see a coup coming, even though it was led by that same brother. The line Laura Bush quotes is, in the play, an admission that Prospero didn't really want to lead, that, perhaps, he wasn't even constitutionally suited to lead. The full line is "Me, poor man, my library was dukedom large enough," and then Prospero comments on his own perceived incompetence: "of temporal royalties he thinks me now incapable."

Laura Bush's seemingly innocuous quote is really a warning: don't trust the leader who disengages from reality.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com

[mike_c]

1. "At least it seems to be the color of dried blood."

Automatic recommendation for the rude one. :thumbsup:

[riqster]

7. Reminds her of her old boyfriend, no doubt nt

[Warpy]

2. Rude, crude, and educated in the classics, love the Pundit.

Somebody else probably wrote that speech, somebody with a copy of Bartlett's and a history of graduating from a 4 year bible college via Cliff's Notes.

[progpen]

9. Rude is a national hero.

Rude says what needs to be said, the way it needs to be said.

[hootinholler]

12. Not via cliff notes...

Those are called texts in those Un-iversities.

-Hoot

[lynnertic]

19. Ha! Apt

(Self-censored but it was very funny beleive me)

[Downtown Hound]

3. Who needs acid after looking at that picture?

It's trippy enough.

[Chulanowa]

4. She needs to go around naked

I'm honest here, folks. Whatever she has under the wrapper cannot be more appalling than the clothes she wears.

[BrklynLib at work]

5. She is as deaf, dumb and blind to reality as her hideous mother-in-law.

[Vickers]

6. I bet that dress costs more than I make in a month.

How disgusting.

But hey, at least it can be used for curtains down the road.

[Lucinda]

8. She looks fine.

And there is nothing wrong with

"...Most of all, thank you to our authors. You're the reason we're here. In "The Tempest," Prospero observes: "My library was dukedom large enough." With a good collection of books, a reader can go to any place any time he pleases..."

Yes. Bad bad things are happening everywhere. That doesn't mean we cannot celebrate reading.
Jeez.

[semillama]

16. Perhaps she was simply telling us how she ignores all the crap

her husband unloads on the world and still manages to smile at the cameras in her pretty dress.

The context of that quote is very telling. The fact that she and/or her speech writer can ignore that context to use the quote to promote reading is as telling.

Of course, something tells me that someone probably just googled "Shakespeare quotes library" and was completely unaware of teh context- check it:

http://www.worldofquotes.com/author/William-Shakespeare/40/index.html

scroll on down and there's the quote, right after:
"A very ancient and fish-like smell. -The Tempest. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Topic: Shakespeare
Source: None
Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. -The Tempest. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Topic: Shakespeare
Source: None"

which I'll leave to funnier people than myself to point out the connection to the topic.

[jbonkowski]

10. This is like when Bush quoted "The Quiet American"

The White House speech writers quote things without understanding the context of the quote. They seem to just use quotation books without any knowledge of the actual source material.

I find that, over and over, this administration does not do their homework. From serious stuff like the post-war planning in Iraq to goofy stuff using the wrong national anthem during a Chinese state visit, you could do a whole book on the subject.

jim

[lynnertic]

20. I'm more embarrassed than I expected to be this morning -

the *wrong* national anthem? When did that happen?

:eyes:

[Riktor]

11. Don't be so hard on Laura...

Vallium is a hell of a drug.

[pacalo]

13. The Bush regalia (& the timing of it) just irritates the hell out of me.

I have a library list for the clueless librarian to read:

[Drifter]

14. I am still reminded of ....

Carol Burnett when she made her entrance wearing the curtains.

Cheers
Drifter

[TalkingDog]

15. She seems to favor that slightly clotted blood red.

She had some Christmas rag in that same color, a few years ago. But it was brocade. I remember similar DU comments re: blood, about that one too.

Perhaps, being dyed with the fresh blood of infants, it's her homage to whatever wretched gods she chooses to thank for placing her with a family of such "importance".

I'm just sayin'....

My Favorite Master Artist: Karen Parker GhostWoman Studios

[Naturyl]

17. It puts the "puke" in Repuke

Don't get me wrong, the dress is lovely, although putting it on a body-snatcher from outer space dampens the effect somewhat. But she has no business parading around like that. Her husband is (supposedly) a public servant, not royalty. Who do these people think they are?

Don't answer that...

[Rose Siding]

18. "Books": OK, Poetry: Bad - "Protest fears scrap US poetry forum"

Remember this? -

The White House has cancelled a poetry forum over fears it would be taken over by ant-war protests.
The discussion was to be hosted by US First Lady Laura Bush on the works of Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman........

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2708651.stm