Bush's friends talk about "a sort of Zen-like quality that he has."

[BurtWorm]

:eyes:

According to Time's Mike Allen on yesterday's Meet the Press. Quoted by Dan Froomkin:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

Allen was also on NBC's Meet the Press with Tim Russert yesterday. "There's still great promise in this administration. But nobody sees a clear plan to achieving that promise," Allen said. "A lot of friends of the president thought he's going to be one of the greats. They thought it was a given that he was going to be a Roosevelt, a Lincoln. Now, they're not sure. They think he still has it in him. If you talk to his friends, the president has not changed. They talk about a sort of Zen-like quality that he has."

Allen also added this observation: "Tim, I'm going to tell you something that's going to amaze you because it amazed me when I looked it up yesterday and I lost a bet on this. The last time the president was in the hurricane region was October 11th, two months ago. The president stood in New Orleans and said it was going to be one of the largest reconstruction efforts in the history of the world. You go to the White House home page , there's Barney-Cam, there's Social Security, there's renewing Iraq. Where's renewing New Orleans? A presidential adviser told me that that issue has fallen so far off the radar screen, you can't even find it.

"Now, the White House told me that a lot of administration officials are going down there. . . . but the other thing that was in the president's speech that's not mentioned there is: Remember how we thought that we had learned a lesson about race and poverty from what happened in New Orleans? One of the most memorable oratorical passages of this presidency, the White House put out, you know, bound books of that speech, talking about what he was going to do in that area. I go to speeches every day, we don't hear that."

[fooj]

1. A what?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Now I've heard it all.

peace.

[Scurrilous]

2. Zen?

I don't think so.

[Loonman]

3. They mean the peaceful smile of the idiotic cretin

Which can be confused as Zen by Republican morons.

what's with all the Bush puff pieces, lately? How far is Chris Matthews going to stick his tongue up Bush's ass, today?


:puffpiece:

[LiberalFighter]

25. As far as it takes so it ends up his own ass

[incapsulated]

4. Confusion between spiritual detachment

And ethical or mental vacancy. Common in republicans.

:eyes:

[Nickster]

5. You say Zen-like, I say Nap-like....stoned like.....etc

[smirkymonkey]

46. Don't forget "Drunk-like"

Do any of these idiots even know what "Zen" is? Maybe it's freeper-speak for "brain damaged".

[JackBeck]

6. 1st Commandment

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

'Nough said

[peekaloo]

7. LOL! He has made a few "Moments of Zen" on The Daily Show.

Early senility is not a Zen-like quality.

[FormerRepublican]

8. Nah, he's just zoned out because he's too stupid to understand what...

...they're saying to him. I mean, this is a guy who can't open a door. That glazed over "religious" look is the look he gets on his face when he's trying to cover just how stupid he really is.

Anyone who believes in that Maroon is just another Maroon. (Maroon = Moron plus an extra o for the way his mouth hangs open stupidly when someone with any intelligence tries to talk to him.)

[napi21]

9. A Zen quality? Doesn't that mean he's in a trance all the time?

I may be wrong, but I always thought when the people who do yoga talk about a "zen state" that's a trance, and they are completely oblivious of anything around them.

If I'm right, I think that describes Shrub pretty well!

[emulatorloo]

10. zen-like smirking, snit fits, giving out pejorative nicknames, and

mean-spirited joking.

[SkipNewarkDE]

11. Being There

They said the same thing about Chauncey Gardener...

But he was merely mentally disabled; it was the sycophants and media idiots around him that saw him as a zen-like master of philosophy and wisdom.

[incapsulated]

13. But Chauncey was truly innocent

Can't give the Chimp that much of a pass.

Other than that, it's a good analogy.

[kskiska]

27. His name wasn't even Chauncey

They asked his name and he told them, "Chance, the gardener." They mistakenly thought he said Chauncey Gardner.

[MidwestTransplant]

12. It's his meds I bet.

[O.M.B.inOhio]

14. Mixing the right pills & booze gives one a Zen quality

[Love Bug]

15. Oh sure, like my cat does when she stares into space

The lights are on but no one's home!

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. A Roosevelt? A Lincoln? Gag me!

:puke: :puke: :puke: How many examples of Pinhead** being the exact opposite of these men, are out there?

[warrens]

17. A snearing, bullying sociopath who is "zen?"

These people are fucking imbiciles.

[Sapphocrat]

18. You say "Zen-like quality"...

...I say "moments of dissociation during a full-on psychotic episode."
:rofl:

[Justice Is Comin]

19. Blind man in a room full of deaf people.

As told by Paul O'Neil who knows. Zen to the tenth power.

[Uncle Joe]

20. George W. Bush has the same Zen quality of

Peter Sellars character in the movie "Being There".

[Javaman]

21. what's the sound of one moron* thinking???

If moron* fell off a segway in a forest, would anyone care?

I think they are confusing his* deer in the head lights look as someone that is pondering deep thoughts...he's* not, trust me, he's* not.

colossal racist vacuous failure*.

[Buns_of_Fire]

45. When I see that "deer-in-the-headlights" look I figure...

...that he's really thinking to himself, "I hope we're having cheeseburgers for lunch today. I like cheeseburgers. I really have to go to the bathroom now? My underwear is a lot like a burrito gone wild. Yow! Am I having fun yet?"

Interjecting a little Zippy into the pauses makes watching ZenBoy marginally easier to tolerate.

[Critters2]

52. If you meet the moron on the road..

:dem:

[Javaman]

54. ?? n/t

[chat_noir]

22. The Zen of W

What's that, you say? You've never heard of George W. Bush talking about Zen once in his entire life? Well, my literal-minded friend, that's just further proof of Bush's Zen genius.

You see, one of the signs of a truly advanced practitioner of Zen is a certain indirectness in teaching. Great Zen teachers are not like Billy Graham. Now Mr. Graham, when he wants to teach his followers an idea, he just comes out and says what he wants them to believe. If Billy Graham thinks that his followers ought to believe that they will go to hell if they do not abstain from premarital sex, he will say something direct like, "You will go to hell if you do not abstain from premarital sex."

Teachers of Zen seek to inculcate a break from the rational mind that forms the attachment of the student to the world of everyday perception. In order to do so, Zen teachers ask their students to understand logically bewildering statements. These statements are called koans. The most well-known koan in the West is the question, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" The idea is that through the contemplation of such questions in meditative attitude, the logical minds of students of Zen will eventually crack open, allowing the students to perceive the true, linguistically inarticulable nature of reality.

Now, my theory is that George W. Bush is actually a practitioner of Zen, has attained the status of a teacher of Zen, and uses his position in the White House to bring Zen insight to a worldwide audience through the use of koans in his public statements. Just as koans contain the kernel of logical impossbility, so the public statements of President Bush make no sense if interpreted literally. If contemplated as Zen koans, Bush's statements take on a certain quality of mystical lyricism. Okay, they're not that deep, but they certainly are befuddlingly provocative.

The Bush Koans

The United States is prepared to use nuclear weapons to prevent the use of nuclear weapons.

For the sake of peace, it is necessary to start a new war with Iraq.

In order to protect their freedoms, Americans must be willing to sacrifice the civil rights guaranteed to them in the Constitution.

It is necessary to allow loggers to more extensive networks build roads and cut more trees in our National Forests and National Parks in order to preserve the areas' natural beauty.

The best way to help poor people is to give huge tax cuts to the 1% filthiest rich Americans.

Tax cuts will help the federal government avoid deficit spending.

http://irregulartimes.com/zenofbush.html

[mcscajun]

31. Only one Zen quote seems to fit ol' Shrubby...

"No thought, no reflection, no analysis, no cultivation, no intention; let it settle itself." -- Tilopa

[Lisa]

40. maybe we can call the Dubya variant "Bushido"?

Actually, there is more than one Zen master in the (White) House. Rumsfeld gives Georgie a run for his money when it comes to enigmatic pronouncements.

"As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know."


"Once in a while,
I'm standing here, doing something.
And I think,
"What in the world am I doing here?"
It's a big surprise."


http://www.slate.com/id/2081042/

[aPOSITIVEwin]

23. ZEN-like quality?

What's THAT supposed to mean?

[rumpel]

24. I have to tell you, my toe is also very Zen-like

[robbedvoter]

26. Peter Sellers - "Being There" Zen is a big word for the BFEE

But since they create new realities every day for us to study, why not?


''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And
while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll
act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and
that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you,
all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''
Bush aide to Ron Suskind

[tuvor]

28. Hey, bush's friends...The Zen doctrine of "no mind" is not what you think!

Nice try, though!

[PurgedVoter]

29. Bush is the Zen President!

Because he is and he is not our President.
He has shown right to the heart of truth. Who else has led the way in compassion without caring? Who but Bush can show the way of balancing our budget through debt? This man is the step beyond zen. In zen archery one learns to release the arrow after one has hit the target. Bush has moved well beyond that lesson. He releases bombs and is without concern as to whether there even is a target. His total simplicity backed by knowledge untainted by information gives him the confidence to stand behind more than a thousand guards, and say, to an enemy across the world from him, simply and without forethought, "Bring it on!"

[no_hypocrisy]

30. That's the autism they're talking about . . .

[grasswire]

32. Zen like AND sunny nobility?

Okay, now I get it. Someone is loosing a hallucinatory substance into the drinking supply in D.C.

Fer cryin' out loud.

[MN ChimpH8R]

33. The only connection between * and Zen

is that he's as dumb as the rocks in a Zen garden though not nearly as well arranged. Stupidity should not be mistaken for enlightenment.

34. that giant nitwit, didn't care then, doesn't care now n/t

[Dudley_DUright]

35. My pet rock has the same amount of Zen as W

(and more intelligence)

[PurgedVoter]

50. You are correct,

but then they put rocks in zen gardens don't they?

[Dudley_DUright]

51. Yeah, they also put shrubs in Zen gardens, but that does not

make Bush a Zen master. ;-)

[LostinVA]

36. What was that? Zombie-like quality?

[seabeyond]

37. if they use zen, those christian put on the armor and go into battle

cause i am telling you, my christian fundies will have nothing to do with zen. it is the devils work. and man, they arent missing around

sarcasm of course

[Ouabache]

38. so if this proves he is NOT REALLY a christian

I'll take it.

[SpiralHawk]

39. Nah, it ain't Zen. It's Boner Brain -- a speciality of the Skull & Boner

occult cabal. Only the advanced initiates learn the technique and Temporary (George AWOL Bush, Cheerleader) is widely regarded as the Uber Master of the state of consciousness known as Boner Brain.

[lectrobyte]

41. Zen-like? He's speaking in koans! Ah, I get it now...

Cord: How long have you been blind?
Blind Man: How long have you been blind?
Cord: I'm not blind.
Blind Man: Am I?
Cord: Do you answer every question with a question?
Blind Man: Do you question every answer?
Cord: Aww, talking to you is like talking to a wall.
Blind Man: Buddha once sat before a wall, and when he arose he was enlightened.
Cord: Do you compare yourself with Buddha?
Blind Man: No. Only to the wall.

[DrDan]

42. isn't "zen" slang for LSD????

[NJCher]

43. bushie's friends and what they mean by "Zen-like"

This remark is about what his friends thought of him:

"A lot of friends of the president thought he's going to be one of the greats.

and

They think he still has it in him. If you talk to his friends, the president has not changed. They talk about a sort of Zen-like quality that he has."

So really, this remark says more about the intelligence and perceptiveness of his friends than it does about bush or any journalistic commentary.

The question then becomes what rather stupid, unperceptive republicans think "zen-like" means.

Any guesses on that? I'm at a loss, since I have successfully insulated myself from these types of people.





Cher

[Lexingtonian]

44. Oh, what a cute way to describe absence seizures...

I'm sure he's a bit different when he's off the Topamax. Or, scarily enough, maybe not....

[saltpoint]

47. Most terriers are smarter than Bush.

And more contemplative.

I ain't buyin' the zen line.

[La_Fourmi_Rouge]

48. Haldol!

Just like Poppy!

[Cleita]

49. I think they have zen confused with zoned out. n/t

[La_Fourmi_Rouge]

53. It's them beady eyeballs!

[Dora]

55. Zen. Calm, Like origami boulder.

http://www.origamiboulder.com/

[StellaBlue]

56. I worked in the Texas Governor's Mansion from 1998-2001...

:spray:

[recycledindi]

57. ohhhhmmmm

yes. like the sound of one hand clapping is the effort his neurons put on thought

[Kazak]

58. Well, ignorance is bliss...

:shrug:

[TahitiNut]

59. Terry Schiavo had that same quality.

:eyes: