http://crookedtimber.org/2003/11/21/gratuitous-links/ Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:00:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://crookedtimber.org/2003/11/21/gratuitous-links/comment-page-1/#comment-8779 Ophelia Benson Fri, 21 Nov 2003 19:15:38 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/wp/?p=618#comment-8779 "But nowadays Americans seem to be making less fun of Bush's linguistic derelictions, whichever side they're on...Bush's language has become a less important issue for his American critics, too. Not that they don't still regard him an ignorant bumpkin (or worse, a pseudo-bumpkin) who embarrasses the country, but now they're concerned that he's making America look bad in much more dangerous ways." Well, not me. I still think his ignorance and stupidity and incuriosity matter. I think how embarrassing he looks next to either Blair or Clinton does matter, quite a lot. If nothing else, I think a less ignorant, provincial, determinedly parochial man would have done a far, far better job of bringing the UN and European countries along with the US and UK and the rest of the coalition - thus making the whole endeavor a global one instead of a largely-unilateral one, thus making the level of opposition there is now vastly less likely. “But nowadays Americans seem to be making less fun of Bush’s linguistic derelictions, whichever side they’re on…Bush’s language has become a less important issue for his American critics, too. Not that they don’t still regard him an ignorant bumpkin (or worse, a pseudo-bumpkin) who embarrasses the country, but now they’re concerned that he’s making America look bad in much more dangerous ways.” Well, not me. I still think his ignorance and stupidity and incuriosity matter. I think how embarrassing he looks next to either Blair or Clinton does matter, quite a lot. If nothing else, I think a less ignorant, provincial, determinedly parochial man would have done a far, far better job of bringing the UN and European countries along with the US and UK and the rest of the coalition – thus making the whole endeavor a global one instead of a largely-unilateral one, thus making the level of opposition there is now vastly less likely.

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