insanity

[solarbird]

This was going around last week, but: Mr. Bush apparently invaded Iraq on the basis of Biblical prophecy. I had been hoping desperately that it was actually about oil, as that was the only thing that made any sense, but it turns out, no, sanity had nothing to do with it. Gog and Magog, 1, Gog and Magog, 2, Gog and Magog, 3, Gog and Magog, 4. What's disturbing about this beyond Mr. Bush being out of his fucking mind is that the political class went along with this. In short, the American political class is so abstracted from reality as to be considered deranged. Please remember this when dealing with the American political class.

Maybe it was all just too much DEET. (Turns out Deet is neurotoxic in a bad way. Which for me is particularly bad - I'm one of those people mosquitoes just love love love, and the bites itch for a week after.)

Comments

[blues-kun.livejournal.com]

>Gog and Magog derp derp

wow.

It's like my mom was commander-in-chief for eight years.

[waysofseeing.livejournal.com]

Just in the interests of accuracy, the sourcing of that story is wildly suspect. Jacques Chirac has a laundry list of reasons to enjoy embarrassing George W. Bush in public, and has lately been turning into a one-man tabloid (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5571172/Jacques-Chirac-unsettled-by-Silvio-Berlusconis-interest-in-women.html) dishing questionable dirt on people he doesn't like. Even Andrew Sullivan isn't reporting this as confirmed fact (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/08/gog-magog-and-the-iraq-invasion.html).

It'd be worth waiting for more solid evidence. For one thing, are we supposed to seriously believe that Chirac, an educated Roman Catholic, had never heard of Gog & Magog before? The Catholic Bible has both Genesis and the Book of Revelation too.

[mtext.livejournal.com]

It isn't just Chirac spouting off, though. The original story actually surfaced back in 2007 from the theologian Chirac consulted with, Thomas Romer, but apparently never really made it out of the French media until Chirac confirmed the claims in his bio more recently.

Also, as a recovering Catholic myself, I can say that it's entirely plausible Chirac wouldn't have been familiar with Gog and Magog as terms in the way Bush allegedly used them. They aren't exactly of central importance to Catholicism the way they probably are to the more End-Timey faiths.

[llachglin.livejournal.com]

Evangelicals definitely use Gog and Magog in an idiosyncratic way that would not be common knowledge among Catholics. It's very much a non-denominational/scary Protestant thing when used as prophecy to justify war in the Middle East. Those Catholics who are nuts are nuts in a different way.

[ankh-f-n-khonsu.livejournal.com]

We've known DEET was neurotoxic for decades. The military even tested it as a preventative against ticks, and found it ineffective. It's a chemical derivative of nerve toxin, if I'm not mistaken.

[phillipalden.livejournal.com]

I have never understood people like David Addington, who is smart enough to be a good person, but decided to go the evil route. It's much easier to understand Doug Fife and George W. Himself because idiots can be drawn into evil easily.

What fails me about the whole bunch overall was the blindness.

[(Anonymous)]

Religion, politics and general looniness are very often found mixed together-everywhere,and everywhen. I'm mosquito food as well,and have had little luck with repellents. I've found that using neutral, unscented soap/detergents seem to work best.

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

If Dubya was smart enough to realize most Americans, including Republican Congressmen, wouldn't warm to Gog & Magog, surely he would have figured out that godless Europeans wouldn't either. This one doesn't pass the smell test. Somebody's either settling scores or selling books.