The Two Dubyas

Like nearly everyone else in the
world, I'm puzzled by Bush's speech
impediment. When the man talks
about "strategery,"or how he's been
mis-underestimated," or
"foreign-handed foreign policy,"
or "putting food on your family"
he appears to be stupid. Yet
he's outsmarted the Democrats
at nearly every turn, so
he does have some intelligence,
even if he isn't particularly
educated.

Recently I ran across Mark
Crispin Miller's book about
Bush's ever-growing Blob of
malapropisms, Dyslexicon:
Observations on a National
Disorder. Although Miller is
obviously a liberal, he tries
to be fair with Bush. He does
not believe him to be
an imbecile, or a puppet.

He believes Bush is a "sociopathic
personality ...incapable of
empathy." On that point I believe
Miller is wrong: Hillary Clinton
appears to be psychopathic,
not George Bush.

But Miller does points out
something quite disturbing
about Bush: he's only tongue-tied
when he's trying to speak normally.
When he's angry or punitive, or
talking about vengeance, his gaffes
disappear. The best example of an
angry Bush is when he snapped at a
reporter who was speaking French
in front of him. He spoke clearly,
quickly, and forcefully. His retort
was actually pretty witty.
On the other hand, there was the
inarticulate Bush in Nashville,
when he tried to say, "Fool me
once, shame on you; fool me
twice, shame on me,"
and it came out, "Fool me once
...shame...shame on
...you...fool me! Won't get fooled
again!"

"He has no trouble speaking off
the cuff when he's speaking
punitively, when he's talking
about violence, when he's talking
about revenge," Miller said.
"When he struts and thumps
his chest, his syntax and
grammar are fine."

In that sense Bush reminds me of
stutterers, who stutter only when
trying to talk normally.
When they sing, their stutter
disappears. The reason for this is
because they're using
a different part of their brain
when they sing instead of talk.

Something similar appears to be
happening with Bush. When he tries
to talk normally, he becomes
inarticulate. But when he's angry,
he's using a different part of his
brain,and his foot-in-mouth
disease disappears.

This is a little disturbing, since
it suggests that Bush's brain works
better when he's vindictive. And he
certainly does appear to be
vindictive,considering the fact
that one of the
reasons he wants to invade Iraq is
because he thinks Saddam Hussein
"tried to kill my dad." That's not
only vindictive, it's childish
and petty.

This vindictiveness, this desire for
vengeance, may explain how he's
successfully made fools of the
Democrats, since they did bring
his father down and humiliated him.
Dubya may not be able
to say "strategy," but his brain,
when angry, got revved up enough
to help outsmart the Democrats.

Bush appears to have some kind of
brain disorder, or some kind of
minimal brain damage. Was it due to
his decades of
heavy drinking? I don't know, but
that possibility certainly exists.

If we're dealing with a man whose
brain works best when contemplating
revenge and violence, this may also
explain his attempt to start WWIII,
although I'm sure he thinks he's
trying to prevent it instead of
start it. Does he feel his best,
his most competent, when
plotting war and destruction?

This is one thing I will say: it is a
grave mistake to just play Bush for
laughs, in light of what he's leading
the U.S. into.