BBSNews 15 Year Anniversary!
Michael Hess
BBSNews 2005
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BBSNews 15 Year Anniversary! |
In BLACK & WHITE Michael Hess BBSNews 2005 |
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I caught this story over at Rolling Stone and thought I'd share it. It's a great read. I was especially enthralled by this excerpt dealing with Bush's inaguaration speech:
"...In Bush's history, 9/11 becomes an apocalyptic test of Christian mettle, perhaps even a sign of the End of Days. Judging by this speech, Bush's response to this Godly test has been to position himself as a crusader for a particularly Christian brand of liberation.
The following exaggeration drives home the point: Take the text of the inaugural address (found here) and sub in the word "Jesus" for each of the 27 times that the president says "freedom" and each of the 15 times he says "liberty" or "human liberty."
With few exceptions the speech scans perfectly, and in some cases it even makes more sense. As when Bush proclaims: "Eventually, the call of [Jesus] comes to every mind and every soul. We do not accept the existence of permanent tyranny because we do not accept the possibility of permanent slavery. [Jesus] will come to those who love [Him]."
I'm no theologian. I don't claim to understand exactly what Bush is doing here. I only know enough to be creeped the *censored* out. What's clearly evident here is Bush's messianic streak, front and center. I don't know if Bush sees himself as an agent of God spreading liberty in Jesus' name. Or whether he actually aims to spread Christianity, in the guise of liberty. Either way I'm not happy about it.
Even Republicans are wincing. "It was a God-drenched speech," wrote Peggy Noonan, a former Reagan speechwriter, in The Wall Street Journal, adding that its push for world freedom fell somewhere "between dreamy and disturbing." Quipped Noonan: "Tyranny is a very bad thing and quite wicked, but one doesn't expect we're going to eradicate it any time soon. Again, this is not heaven, it's earth."
Pat Buchanan denounced the speech for more secular reasons, specifically for asserting the right "to intervene in the internal affairs of every nation on earth and that is, quite simply, a recipe for endless war. And war is the death of republics..."