• That wacky, wacky President: "'The Patriot Act defends our liberty,' Bush said, repeatedly thumping the podium. 'The Patriot Act makes it able for those of us in positions of responsibility to defend the liberty of the American people.'"
• Those wacky, wacky evangelists: "Christian teens are stealing Jesus music." ... "'A lot of students think it's, like, a cheap way to witness to the Gospel,' said Scott Flagg, 22, who belongs to a Christian fraternity at the University of North Texas."
• Who says journalists don't have senses of humour? "...the predicted Year 2000 apocalypse failed to materialize, leaving many disillusioned survivalists with basements full of dried beans."
• Who's willing to take a stab at parsing the Condi-speak? "I think that we do have to take very seriously the thought that the terrorists might have learned, we hope, the wrong lesson from Spain."
I think my favourite thing about the Patriot Act is that it solidifies the grand right-wing tradition of giving an initiative a name that is the exact opposite of what it acually does. Here we have a bill that takes a match to many of the freedoms true patriots hold most cherished. In this same tradition we have the "Clear Skies Initiative", which makes life easier for polluters, and my favourite, the "Range and Readiness Preservation Initiative", which exempts military bases from cleaning up pollutants that seep into the water table and have been found in things like lettuce. Nice.
Posted by: Thom on April 22, 2004 08:44 AMI would add this one, Eddie:
"Ariel Sharon came to America, and he stood up with me and he said, `We are pulling out of Gaza and parts of the West Bank,'" Bush said.
In "my judgment, the whole world should have said, `Thank you, Ariel. Now we have a chance to begin the construction of a peaceful Palestinian state,'" Bush said.
Why are the savages so ungrateful?
My personal favorite is from the Christian teen. Having grown up in Fort Worth in the 80s and 90s, the pervasiveness of this creepy fundamentalist logic made me timid and self-hateful. But perhaps now greed and technology will help it impose less on others.
Posted by: Derek on April 27, 2004 03:53 PM