Bush reads Camus's 'The Stranger' on ranch vacation

[kskiska]

US President George W. Bush quoted French existential writer Albert Camus to European leaders a year and a half ago, and now he's read one of his most famous works: "The Stranger."

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Friday that Bush, here on his Texas ranch enjoying a 10-day vacation from Washington, had made quick work of the Algerian-born writer's 1946 novel -- in English.

The US president, often spoofed as an intellectual lightweight, quoted Camus in a February 21, 2005 speech in Brussels praising the US-Europe alliance and urging other nations to help Washington spread democracy in the world.

more…
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/08/11/060811231406.rsxjfr54.html

[Cleita]

1. I'm sorry but I find this hilarious.

I doubt if he has the vocabulary to read even the English translation.

[Sugar Smack]

62. Don't be sorry. I nearly spat out my coffee this morning.

I wonder which one of his handlers suggested this to him. Whoever it was that was trying to "help" him improve his Gumpish image with that particular pamphlet must really hate him. He should read "The Plague" instead, or maybe "The Myth of Sisyphus".

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

CAMUS! BWAAAAAH!

[alarimer]

2. does it come in comic book format? n/t

[LordLovesAWorkingMan]

3. probably reading the 'murkin-talkin' version

translated by that good ol' sumbitch Larry the Cable Guy.

$20 says he HAS a copy but isn't reading it.

[David Zephyr]

4. I don't believe this for one second. He couldn't possibly understand it.

God, I never thought I'd hear Camus and Bush in the same sentence. He even dirties Camus.

[EFerrari]

5. LOL!

:rofl:

[NanceGreggs]

8. My sentiments ...

... exactly!

:rofl:

[EFerrari]

33. Somebody in the communications office is having too much fun.

Next week, "Pericles, Prince of Tyre" and for odd moments, "The Wasteland".

:rofl:

[Sugar Smack]

64. BWAAHAHA!! "The Wasteland". Good one!

:rofl: Nothing like a little TS Eliot to make a cowboy's head explode.

[PA Democrat]

24. Yeah, he "made quick work" of it, no less.

Bush: "Eh, Condi, Karl said I'm s'posed ta read this book so the Murkan people think I'm smart. How about tellin' me what it's about? And find some words from the book ta put in my next speech so they think I read it."

[redacted]

6. Maybe next he'll read The Plague

[NMDemDist2]

7. interesting

reading a novel about a man who is incapable of remorse

too droll

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stranger_(novel)

[hfojvt]

94. that was my thought

He could have been reading his own autobiography, or Rumsfeld's. Did he read it as an instruction manual? Is "The Stranger" a role model?

[Jim__]

9. Bush ... had made quick work of the Algerian-born writer's 1946 novel

I'm sure he did. I'd love to hear him discuss the book.

[oxbow]

89. by "quick work," they mean target practice, of course

Oh, hes reading it.... he reading it right between the eyes.

Camus: Wanted Dead or Alive :nuke:

[Nay]

10. Will they PLEASE stop trying to make this asswipe an intelekshul?

NO ONE falls for this shit. He's just now getting around to The Stranger? Most of us read it in high school or college English. And we understood it better then than he ever will. Jesus.

[Cleita]

104. Yes, that's where I read it as assigned reading in high school.n/t

[man4allcats]

11. Oh please! Give me a break.

I doubt seriously he could manage the Cliffs Notes version.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. Bush reads Camus? I didn't know Camus wrote a book about goats.

I doubt he could even get through a Cliff's Notes version of "The Stranger." And I bet he pronounces the author's name like "Kay-muss."

Bush reads Camus -- my ass.

[man4allcats]

15. Ha ha! We are in sync.

Exact same thought at exact same time! :hi:

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. Notice the propaganda - it says "often 'spoofed' as..."

Not 'often ridiculed as' or 'often pointed out as' or 'often said to be an', but "spoofed as".

As though every person who has ever talked about his "intellectual incapacity" was obviously and merely joking, just a spoof, a gag.

And, even if the Chief Asshole War Criminal of Human History did quote Camus, I think we can all rest most assured that it was only because one of his speechwriters put it in, not because of Fuckstick's initiative.

[bullimiami]

16. there is a "camus for dummies"?

[IChing]

38. Nice point Epistemology for Dummies

It is often said he is a turtle on a post.

[badgerpup]

83. IIRC, "The History of Salt" was on his reading list last summer...

...there were a few others that escape me, but I don't believe that he reads...just logistically. Spends so much time 'clearing brush' and exercising when he's not fundraising and ducking grieving relatives, tucked into beddy-bye by 9:30...when does he have time to crack a real book?
He doesn't even pay attention to the PDBs...and they're read to him, fer cryin' out loud!
:rofl:

[virgdem]

14. Isn't that special...

Bush reading existentialists.. Whooda thunk it. How in the hell did he graduate from "My Pet Goat" to the Stranger? Must be getting pointers on how to make his presidency a more Kafkaesque experience.

[sistersofmercy]

17. Just the headline made me chuckle,

Please! Huckleberry Finn reads Camus, indeed! :eyes: I was certain the article would be a "spoof." O

[CrushTheDLC]

18. Never read the book, but I'm familiar with Robert Smith's adaptation

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

I'm alive
I'm dead
I'm the 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 chose
It amounts to the same
Absolutely nothing

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

I feel the steel butt 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

Chimpy likes killing Arabs. I guess that fits.

[Lost-in-FL]

27. The Cure??

[Junkdrawer]

19. Taken on face value, "The Stranger" is easy reading...

Simple declarative sentences.

[rasputin1952]

20. Perhaps he should try "Animal Farm" next...

:evilgrin:

[IChing]

21. "Maman died today"

One of the most famous lines in literature.(No Fucking Way he read this book)
He is no Existentialist

Existentialism is a philosophical movement that is generally considered a study that pursues meaning in existence and seeks value for the existing individual. Existentialism, unlike other fields of philosophy, does not treat the individual as a concept, and values individual subjectivity over objectivity. As a result, questions regarding the meaning of life and subjective experience are seen as being of paramount importance, above all other scientific and philosophical pursuits. Existentialism often is associated with anxiety, dread, awareness of death, and freedom. Famous existentialists include Sartre, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Camus.

The book in a short synopsis is as follows
The main character Meursault:

The narrator and main character of the narrative,
he is the driving force behind Camus' examination of the Absurd.
He, like the author, does not believe in God

and comes to the realization that one must struggle against and with the Absurd
in order to create meaning in a meaningless world.

He leads a highly indifferent life through much of the book,
reveling in the physical impulses which made him happy such as swimming and sex and smoking.

The second half of the book turns the man who does not judge into the judged
as the reader watches him indicted for the crime

of not giving into society's code of morals or sense of fate and the divine.
The ridiculousness of the trial and his reaction to it allows him
to finally transcend its symbolic imprisonment

and free himself for a life beyond what society could offer him.

[karlrschneider]

61. As they say, Nietszsche is peachy but

Sartre is smarter.

;-)

[AnnieBW]

111. I Kant Take It!

I just Kant take any more of these puns!

[Octafish]

63. Like Prince Charles, that is Smirko's favorite line.

Great summary of existentialism and the book, IChing. The thing that stands out for me about existentialism is that one must be aware that he or she is thinking in order to do any real thinking. Like the sociopathic solipsist he is, Bush has never shown a sign that he is awake.

Where's a Bodhisattva when you need one?

[bridgit]

22. he READS!!

:wow:

[Sugar Smack]

76. I want to see a book report ON MY DESK at 9 am

tomorrow sharp! :rofl:

[Bigmack]

78. ...and no crayon!! nt

nt

[bridgit]

79. "Yes, Miss Sugar." President of these mighty, United States of America...

trundles off beneath a black cloud of morose, and abject hopelessness no longer smiling but rather, yet again, a tear is seen forming for all the wrong reasons...yet again :cry:

:rofl:

[pitohui]

23. tell me another EOM

,

[IChing]

25. Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S. the August 6th memo from 2001

The following is a transcript of the August 6, 2001, presidential daily briefing entitled Bin Laden determined to strike in US. Parts of the original document were not made public by the White House for security reasons.

Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate bin Laden since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Laden implied in U.S. television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring the fighting to America."

After U.S. missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, bin Laden told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a -- -- service.

An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told - - service at the same time that bin Laden was planning to exploit the operative's access to the U.S. to mount a terrorist strike.

The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of bin Laden's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the U.S.

Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that in ---, Laden lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his own U.S. attack.

Ressam says bin Laden was aware of the Los Angeles operation. Although Bin Laden has not succeeded, his attacks against the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Laden associates surveyed our embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were arrested and deported in 1997.

Al Qaeda members -- including some who are U.S. citizens -- have resided in or traveled to the U.S. for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks.

Two al-Qaeda members found guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our embassies in East Africa were U.S. citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.

A clandestine source said in 1998 that a bin Laden cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.

We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a ---- service in 1998 saying that Bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel Rahman and other U.S.-held extremists.

Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.

The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full-field investigations throughout the U.S. that it considers bin Laden-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group or bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives.

[NoodleyAppendage]

26. I bet he won't read Camus' "The Just Assassins"

Last line from the play...

"You start off wanting justice, and you end up forming a police force."

J

[Divernan]

28. That's the book the gay French NASCAR racer reads in new film.

Just saw Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Will Farrell plays NASCAR hero, Ricky Bobby and his nemesis is a gay French race driver who listens to jazz instead of country, flaunts his husband in the face of stunned NASCAR sports commentators, and is shown reading "L'Etranger" while racing. (The movie drags in spots, but was worth it just for the intense, loooong mouth to mouth kiss between Ferrell and the French driver - and thinking about how all the NASCAR fans who come to see the movie will react to it!)

Some posit that Camus' most significant contribution to philosophy was his notion of the absurd. It makes sense that a comedian like Ferrell would therefore choose a Camus book. One wonders whether some sarcastic wag in the White House selected this book when told to spin the public that Bush was doing some serious reading on his vacation. Camus was also a member of the Communist party and a pacifist - hardly someone Bush should brag about reading to his fundie base.

[TexasLawyer]

47. Talladega Nights

That was one of the funniest scenes in the movie.

The dashing, flamboyant French dude who is so unpressured and relaxed during his challenge of Ricky Bobby that he can sip macchiatos and read Camus while muscling for rank at 180 mph.

Chimpy probably watched that scene and decided-- "Hey, I can do that!"

He's the Decider, after all.

[xmas74]

100. Now we know why he chose that book.

I didn't think he would browse a bookstore or log on and find a reading list, deciding that it sounded like something he should read.

He chose it only because it was referenced in a recent movie. (I wouldn't have known that-no money to go to the movies.)

[silverweb]

106. Now we know why!

I just saw the movie this evening with my kids and we laughed so hard we hurt. The second I saw L'Etranger in Jean Girard's hand, I knew why _georgie decided to claim he's reading it currently!

I also understand now why the fundies have their panties in a wad about this movie. The irreverent spoofing is continuous and is just too much fun!

:rofl:

BTW, Jean Girard is played by British comedian, Sacha Baron Cohen, who I'd never heard of before, but is incredibly talented and funny. We saw previews for his new movie, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, and it looks like one not to be missed.

We also saw previews for the new Robin Williams movie this fall, Man of the Year, in which he plays a Jon Stewart-like comedy host who runs for president. It looks hilarious and wonderful in that special Robin Williams blend.

[Cocoa]

29. maybe he's thinking about war crimes

you know it's on his mind...

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/08/10/white_house_proposes_retroactive_war_crimes_protection/

White House proposes retroactive war crimes protection

Moves to shield policy makers

By Pete Yost, Associated Press | August 10, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act that would retroactively protect policy makers from possible criminal charges for authorizing any humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees, according to lawyers who have seen the proposal.

more...

[leesa]

30. Metamorphosis suits him better.

[alcibiades_mystery]

31. Uh oh...Robert Smith wrote "Killing an Arab" after reading "L'etranger"

But Smith was a songwriter...


What will Bush do???

:scared:

[Reader Rabbit]

68. Wasn't "Killing an Arab" the original/intended title of the book?

I vaguely remember hearing something like that when Camus was forced on us by an overly zealous high school teacher.

[librechik]

80. yes--a title immortalized later by The Cure in their first album.

you can't read a book like that nowadays without a professor to help out, and perhaps a little knowledge of French and the culture of Morocco. Is Pickles helping?

[Junkdrawer]

32. I'm not sure why I invaded Iraq. The gun was in my hand and the sun....

was hot. There was one missile attack, and then two more followed quickly.

[EFerrari]

34. "Christmas won't be Christmas without any payloads."

:rofl:

[Melynn]

35. Maybe he is reading the Classic Comic Book verision of the 'The Stranger'

Funniest thing I have read in a long time.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

36. Or watching the Camus Puppet Theatre.

Maybe he could handle that, if it didn't go longer than 10-15 minutes and they brought him some popcorn and Jack Daniels.

[EFerrari]

37. Camus Puppet Theatre!

:rofl:

ouch

:rofl:

[ReadTomPaine]

39. The only thing Bush reads is a menu. n/t

[Jamastiene]

41. You really think he can read that much?

I was thinking more like "My Pet Goat."

[RagAss]

40. How about "The Fall"

[MichiganVote]

42. Camus wrote about goats?

[Poiuyt]

43. He was going to read Spencer's The Faerie Queene, but he didn't want

to read any gay novels

[EFerrari]

46. Especially after Laura caught him with The Arcadia. lol

[Generic Brad]

44. I expect a comprehensive book report at the end of his vacation

None of that "Cliff Notes" nonsense. And it has to be in his own handwriting, too.

[IChing]

50. "But, I did read it with Condi and I have the book to prove it"

[Irreverend IX]

45. Unka Dick, Unka Dick...

Why'd the nice man have to go to jail for killin' an Ay-rab? He was just doin' his patriotic duty. Why, if I were president of Al-jeerya, I'd give him a Presidential Medal of Freedom!

[China_cat]

48. If they claim he reads Kafka

I'll puke.

[EFerrari]

49. You're going to wait?

lol

:)

[sleipnir]

51. I'll take a different view here on this topic. One of hope...

I read Camus for the first time as a Junior in High School and I still rank his book, La Peste (The Plague, I read the translation) as one of the most influential life changing moments for me. I was not the same person as I had been for 17 years after I finished that book and I still am not.

Perhaps Bush will find something in the text that leads him on a path to discover a different world within his own conscious and a life that may be more fruitful and useful.

For all of you depressing cynics out there, I think that if Camus was still alive today, he'd be rejoicing at the idea that perhaps a tyrant may be moved by words to change his views on life and duty to the world. I think it is a beautiful thing and maybe I'm too much of an optimist, but I hope that a few of the words will reach beyond Bush's everyday life and into the center of his being. If Camus can change me, it could change Bush...(granted he's not a 17 year old conservative living in the mid 90's, but...) this does give me some level of hope.

And isn't that what Camus is about? Realizing that there is the potential in all humans to change and better themselves when faced with adversity?

[niyad]

52. everything you are saying is based on an actual ability to both read

and comprehend, something most of us believe is lacking in chimpy's world.

[IChing]

53. Do you think that Bush has a consciousness to

have philosophical let alone an existentialistic examination of Camus' observation of the absurd ?

It would blow his mind.

He doesn't even understand irony.

[China_cat]

56. You're expecting anything like that from Bush?

If he had any capability of understanding don't you think we'd have seen it by now? Potential for change? Not for the better from this one. He's still the same spoiled brat who used to blow up frogs with fire crackers and shoot his brothers with his pellet gun. Only now he's blowing up other countries and watching our sons and daughters get shot. With the same glee that he carried out executions in Texas.

[Sugar Smack]

69. Well now, that WOULD be the best-case scenario.

I am one of your "depressing cynics" whose assumption is that if Bush can't see what he's done with his own eyes, he'll never internalize the meaning of such a book. It is a step up from tantrums about not wanting to hear "bad news", granted. And I do appreciate your optimism. It's a different POV than most of us have.

:pals:

[earth mom]

101. Extremely Doubtful. The dude's a sociopath.

From wikipedia:

Ultimately, Camus presents the world as essentially meaningless and therefore, the only way to arrive at any meaning or purpose is to make it oneself. Thus it is the individual and not the act that gives meaning to any given context.

What gives *'s life meaning? Seeing people die of course. :puke:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stranger_%28novel%29

I also found these snips from a link in the wiki article above to be quite telling:

"While this analysis is persuasive, I'd be more inclined to say that Camus has "caught the fundamental traits of modern" alienation or even nihilism---that moral standards are meaningless, that personal responsibility for one's actions takes second place to expedience, that social cohesion is unimportant, and that, finally, nothing matters but one's own pleasure."

<snip>

"Perhaps it "didn't matter" because Meursault can see only the pseudo-objective "absurdity" of man's place in the universe. But it does matter, very much, to Meursault's own character and to the very fabric of the society that makes human life possible, human life as opposed to the animal life that Meursault tends to lead. Meursault rejects what he sees as the window dressing of society, the tact, the etiquette, the careful phrasing of words to spare the feelings of others, without seeing that he rejects the very mechanisms and conventions that allow us to live in comparative happiness with one another. We can, indeed, lead "absurd" lives, if we choose to do so in the name of a spuriously "objective" view of our place in the universe."


http://nicollsbooks.com/articles/Stranger.html

[Jeroen]

54. W is reading Das Kapital by Karl May and wonders where the Indians are

An old but appropriate joke ;-)

[Vidar]

55. Bush reads"--now that would be news. The very idea of this

xenophobic, fundamentalist lightweight appreciating an atheistic French existentialist is ludicrous. I would, however, recommend Camus' death to our imperial moron

[H2O Man]

57. Oh, yeah. Sure.

My German Shepherd is reading it, too.

[alittlelark]

107. My cat just finished it.

She is now even more aloof and unreadable. I hope your Sheperd gets a more comprehensive wold view.

[Neshanic]

58. "Ma croaked today? What kind of shit they givin' me to read?"

[Sugar Smack]

72. I wonder what Freud would say about all this?

:spray:

[Marr]

59. Who do they think they're kidding?

C'mon- even his supporters tacitly acknowledge that the man is an ignorant, incurious fool. That's what all the "but he's surrounded by experienced advisors" talk was about. What's more, they *celebrate* their hero's stupidity by saying he's not one of those "pointy-headed intellectuals", but rather a "regular guy" that a voter might "want to have a beer with".

[mitchum]

60. What? It wasn't in his junior high library?

[Sugar Smack]

65. Presidential Syllabus for this semester: "Catcher in the Rye"

"The Stranger"
"Animal Farm"
"The Bell Jar"
"Siddhartha"
"The Old Man and the Sea"
"Lord of the Flies"
"The Age of Reason"

;-)

[bridgit]

75. Gravity's Rainbow...

:rofl:

[Sugar Smack]

87. The Magic Mountain!!!

:rofl:

[bridgit]

96. pft...

:spray: :thumbsup: the selected works of: Marcus Aurelius!! :rofl:

[bleever]

97. And for dessert, Will and Ariel Durant's History of the World.

This reminds me of the fact that Dan Quayle saw Robert Redford in "The Candidate" and totally missed the statement the film was making about the emptiness and cynicism of politics.

[rug]

66. Camus also wrote:

There are many things worth dying for and none worth killing for.

[WinkyDink]

67. So, catching up on his Freshman English class, eh?

What a pathetic creature.

[lonestarnot]

70. Is there a picture version?

[npincus]

71. How ironic: Camus actively opposed Totalitarianism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Camus

I am sure B*sh will not 'get it'.

Through out his life, Camus spoke out against and actively opposed totalitarianism in its many forms, be it German fascism or the total revolutionary philosophy of radical Marxism. Early on, Camus was active within the French Resistance to the German occupation of France during World War II, even directing the famous Resistance journal, Combat. On the French collaboration with Nazi occupiers he wrote:

Now the only moral value is courage, which is useful here for judging the puppets and chatterboxes who pretend to speak in the name of the people...

[npincus]

73. that's a Camus bookcover on a copy of "The Pet Goat"

[UTUSN]

74. K&R #4. One more for hallowed hilarity n/t

[marions ghost]

77. OMG

:banghead:

this is to torture us, a little Rovian joke

[Bigmack]

81. They're printing that .....

in the comic-book version, now?

...or coloring book version?

[electron_blue]

82. LOL. it's one of Camus' shortest works, eh?

That was my first thought, anyway.

[Gregorian]

84. Left to right, George, left to right.

Well, that's if the book isn't up side down.

[Shakespeare]

85. Another kick because.....

....this is the funniest thing I've heard in a long, long time.

No. Fucking. WAY. Is that imbecile reading a French (!) postmodern novel. I doubt he could even handle the Cliff's Notes.

They need to work on making their lies more convincing. Until then, this is the best good-for-a-laugh material I've read in ages.

[The Count]

86. Ha! Finding reasons behind his sociopathy? Much better this way!

Whoever picked this one didn't quite know about existentialism.
Actually, the idea of responsibility is big in the movement, but NOT in The Stranger. Maybe, they didn't pick so badly after all.

[Fermezlabush]

88. Mon dieu! Again with the intellectual! before the Pet Goat, Karen tried

this spiffing of the image - telling us how he reads all them big books in the summer of 2001 playing Hamlet in the stem research bill 9result - mice stems!). After 911 they rather went with the napoleon/caesar/Churchill/ Rosevelt image - statesman warrior - trying to erase that Pet Goat. Now, that they yet terra!terra!terra! they try to raise his stature again...Irony is dead.

[quiet.american]

90. The subject was sociopaths....

Interesting that he's "reading" about a character who is typically described as a sociopath (he probably has the audiobook version).

[El Fuego]

91. Hope it has pictures.

Next press conference, I wish someone would ask him a surprise question to prove he actually read it.

"Well see, ummm, there's this guy, and no one knows him, so he's a stranger..."

:rofl:

[El Fuego]

92. Hope it has pictures.

Next press conference, I wish someone would ask him a surprise question to prove he actually read it.

"Well see, ummm, there's this guy, and no one knows him, so he's a stranger..."

:rofl:

[OregonBlue]

93. Bush Reads? Isn't that an oxymoron?

[timtom]

95. I'm pretty sure it was the Classics Illustrated version

(I have a copy myself).

[EstimatedProphet]

98. I didn't know Camus wrote coloring books!

[izzybeans]

99. Jean Girard reads The Stranger while kicking Ricky Bobbie's Nascar

ass.

[AusTexDem]

102. Don't most read this in High School?

So he's quoting Camus before ever reading any of his work.

I bet he had no idea who he was quoting in that Brussels speech.

[Kat45]

108. I read it in French in high school.

[jmowreader]

103. He would have made "quick work" of The Stranger

He picked up the book, flipped through it quickly, discovered there's nothing to color in it, and gave it back to Tony Snow.

[schrodingers_cat]

105. He just borrowed the cover of a nearby book

to disguise the tattered copy of 'Mein Kampf' that his buddy KKKarl lent to him......

[mikelewis]

113. It's been widely reported that Bush is still trying to get through...

"My Pet Goat" and frequently switches covers. I heard someone told him about Mein Kampf at one point but he just snickered and gave the person a wedgie.

[Kat45]

109. Is he trying to suck up to the French for some reason?

Does he need something from them?

[AnnieBW]

110. High School Honors English Reading

I read this in 12th grade Honors English. Nice to know that a 60-year-old man is reading what I read in high school.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

112. "Being And Nothingness" is next on his reading list

after which he will immerse himself in Foucault's "Les Mots Et Les Choses", Levi-Strauss' "The Savage Mind", Barthes' "Writing Degree Zero", and then Derrida's "L'Ecriture Et La Difference" in the original French. Soon, Bush will be smoking Gauloises, eating Camembert, and talking with his hands at press conferences instead of bobbing his head up and down.