"Let's talk about Camus" "That was a couple of books ago"

[TomInTib]

Brian Williams with the fool.

Talk about an existential response.

"I read three Shakespeare's, too"

I have been reading about that interview on DU all afternoon, but it was just so bizarre in color.

If the idiot hasn't had a stroke, then what the hell is it that makes him talk like that?

[rzemanfl]

1. Dick Clark talks like he had a stroke. Bush talks like a lying

idiot pretending to be many things he is not.

[im10ashus]

2. "That was a couple of books ago."

In other words, he isn't able to retain any information for more than a few days at a time before he is in overload.

[Poiuyt]

I know you don't believe that he actually read anything

Bush reading Camus and three Shakespeare plays??? Come on!

[fooj]

8. When I heard that Camus was on his summer reading list...

I almost wet myself.:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[panader0]

31. Existentialism? Isn't that some terraist group?

[im10ashus]

10. Only if you believe I have a bridge over the East River I can sell you.

B-)

[bullimiami]

3. 3 'shakespeares" ??? who the hell ever reads shakespeare unless

you are into playwriting, acting or literature for its sake or in school and they make you.

3 shakespeares, thats not even a good attempt at a lie.

camus and 3 seuss' i might believe, if the camus was cliffs notes or a movie.

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. He's probably decided to finally make up that homework

that he never turned in when he went AWOL from school.

[Gruenemann]

45. Maybe he's talking about fishing reels. n/t

[Atman]

4. Anyone who believes Bush could make it through Shakespeare is a loon

Honestly, now...the man can't even read a Telepromptr -- even when the script is spelled out phonetically. It takes much more than reading to "read" Shakespeare. I wish Williams had had the cajones to ask him for some details about the bard's plays. I'd have love to heard those answers! Probably more difficult to comprehend than Coriolanus!

[EFerrari]

6. Yeah -- someboday ask him about The Mousetrap.

:rofl:

[WinkyDink]

13. Don't you be dissin' my Agatha! It's far too advanced a mystery for

Idiot Son.

[EFerrari]

19. Agatha took that name from the play within Hamlet --

which we are supposed to believe Junior has now read.

lol

:shrug:

[TomInTib]

11. Williams had no follow-ups at all

We were just talking about this at our house.

Any follow-up would have probably killed the interview.

A one-on-one interview with the idiot must be akin to waltzing on marbles.

[nosillies]

12. I noticed the no follow-ups also.

I had a couple of thoughts:

He had so many things he wanted to slam and ridicule Bush on that he just had to rip right through them.

Or, he was afraid that if he pressed, Bush would get so pissed that his head would start spinning and then explode.

[mcscajun]

21. Or, the White House demanded a "no Follow-Up" rule before

allowing access to El Presidente Chucklenuts.

[grannylib]

5. When he talked about the Shakespeares, he was probably talking about

fishing gear...you know his best day as Pretzeldent was when he caught a fishy in his private lake at his private mansion...

[TomInTib]

9. You are probably 1 in a very few on DU who would make that connection

Shakespeares

I think that I may be in love...

I thought that I had hit the Big Time when I got my first Abu-Matic

[grannylib]

35. *lol* Was thinking about that as my hubby was prepping the rods/reels to

take the grandkids out fishing last weekend :-)
God knows the Imbecile can't REALLY read Shakespeare...nor much beyond his own name, for that matter.

[baldguy]

7. No retention, huh?

Maybe he should start taking ritalin. That is, if it's compatible with his OTHER medications.

[Bluebear]

14. "3 Shakespeares" my ass you lying sack of shit.

Not even an 'epileptical' with exremely erudite tatses would read 3 Shakespeare plays in a row on a whim.

[karlrschneider]

17. A tale told by an idiot...

:eyes:

[Marnieworld]

42. LOL!

That describes all of his interviews.

I have a degree in theater and even I don't read Shakespeare so casually. The WH PR machine is addicted to lying. I think it's all just a game to them to play and getting away with. Who will dare to question the King?

[Lisa]

18. and people who would be that focused would NOT call them "Shakespeares"

Even the slacker grad students I hang out with would be way more specific (e.g. "Macbeth", "Othello", and "The Tempest").

[EFerrari]

20. Trading cards! He sounds like he's 10 and talking about trading cards

I'll trade you two Marlowes for a Shakespeare.

:rofl:

[Lisa]

26. I'll see you your Marlowes and raise you a Chaucer! (n/t)

[Marnieworld]

43. exactly

or at least say three of the comedies or tragedies or histories. But three Shakespeares? I wish he would just shut up and stop embarassing us.

[Atman]

22. Maybe he meant "Three Mousketeers."

More believable than three Shakespeares!

[mcscajun]

23. Three "Cliff Notes" Shakespeare books...

He really likes the black/yellow covers.

Oh! And someone must have told him about "Bushy" in "Richard II". Wasn't HE in for a surprise!
:rofl:

[C_U_L8R]

16. I didn't know they had a "Shakespeare For Idiots"

or a Camus for Dummies

or Macbeth for Morans

or Twelfth Night for Absolute Twits

[mcscajun]

24. "Shakespeare for Dummies"? Absolutely!

They've got it! And the bullet points and bold print would SO appeal to Spongehead Dumbass.

# Paperback
# ISBN: 0764551353

[Marr]

25. I'd like to point something out here.

When Clinton's sex scandal was all the rage, one thing that was constantly being brought up was Clinton's lack of honesty. "What", asked the punditocracy, "does this suggest about his character, and his fitness for the Presidency"? Even if there was nothing illegal to be found, everyone was eager to point out that a lack of character on one issue might translate into a lack of character on a more profound level that could influence his work.

Bush tells obvious lies *all the time*. He's been caught in many- including one of the most damaging lie campaigns of the last 100 years- his lies to get us into Iraq.

And yet I never hear the punditocracy fixate on little moments like this one with his reading list. They never dwell on questions of character when it comes to Bush. They never ask what sort of man lies about the books he's reading, or how that sort of fundamental dishonesty must affect his work.

[LuckyLib]

27. You nailed it. But I think this is such a case of the emperor

being naked that the press can't even go there. Once they point out the fundamental idiocy of this man, what we all know would be public -- we're being led by a moran.

[TomInTib]

30. "They can lie with impunity," Rummy

Yeah, right, asshole

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/28/AR2006082800879_pf.html

[madmusic]

57. "punditocracy" excellent word! Did you coin it?

That's so good, it about says it all "in a word."

[Marr]

58. Nah, wish I could that I did- but I've seen it bobbing around in the

stew for awhile. :D

[NightOwwl]

28. "Shakespeares?"

Is that like the Internets?

God, what a fucking fuckwad.

[npincus]

32. were those Shakespeares 'to go'?

a la carte? al fresco? on the rocks? with ketchup?

I usually have mine with a twist.

[Garbo 2004]

34. With a side order of Chaucer, LOL. n/t

[sludge man]

29. I read 3 Shakespeare's too

Shakespear
Shakespear
Shakespear

[erinlough]

33. Here is a link to Camus discussion

http://www.levity.com/corduroy/camusabs.htm

do you really think Georgie read this? I think he asked Laura, "name me a book I kin tell that Brian guy I read". And, in an act of supreme vengeance she taught him to say "Camus".

Gotta love it

[H2O Man]

36. It was pathetic.

One compares his response to RFK's frequent quoting of Camus in 1966-68. One reportedly read Camus; the other clearly understood Camus.

[Chiyo-chichi]

37. Christopher Hitchens said on Bill Maher Friday night

that he believed that Bush was dyslexic. If that's the case, I imagine he would have even more trouble with Shakespeare than with modern text.

P.S. De Vere was Shakespeare.

[EFerrari]

38. Not necessarily. At least half of my Renaissance friends

are dyslexic or have some kind of learning difference.

P.S. That's just silly. :)

[Chiyo-chichi]

39. I'm no expert on dyslexia, so I won't argue the first point.

But it is the Stratford myth that is silly. Walt Whitman, Henry James, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, Orson Welles, and John Gielgud thought it was silly. So do Mark Rylance, artistic director of the Globe, and actors Michael York, Kenneth Branagh, and Derek Jacobi.

http://www.shakespearebyanothername.com/

http://www.shakespearefellowship.org/

[EFerrari]

41. It's weird that people are always claiming that that upstart

belonged to the upper class. He would have enjoyed that. :)

[Chiyo-chichi]

48. That statement implies that authorship scholars believe that

only a member of the upper class could have written the plays. That is not the case. The authorship question asks "who did write them?"

There are mountains of evidence that it was Edward De Vere, but I won't argue the point any further. (At least not here.) :)

[lumpy]

51. The latest Smithsonian has a

pretty good article re. the Shakespeare controversy. The answer? Who knows for sure. Still a mystery.

[EFerrari]

53. The texts are more interesting to me than the author and maybe

that dates me. lol

[NYCGirl]

40. "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" — one of my favorite lyrics:

From "Kiss Me Kate" and sung by two gangsters:


The girls today in society
Go for classical poetry,
So to win their hearts one must quote with ease
Aeschylus and Euripides.
But the poet of them all
Who will start 'em simply ravin'
Is the poet people call
The bard of Stratford-on-Avon.

Brush up your Shakespeare,
Start quoting him now.
Brush up your Shakespeare
And the women you will wow.
Just declaim a few lines from "Othella"
And they think you're a heckuva fella.
If your blonde won't respond when you flatter 'er
Tell her what Tony told Cleopaterer,
And if still, to be shocked, she pretends well,
Just remind her that "All's Well That Ends Well."
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kowtow.

Brush up your Shakespeare,
Start quoting him now.
Brush up your Shakespeare
And the women you will wow.
If your goil is a Washington Heights dream
Treat the kid to "A Midsummer Night Dream."
If she fights when her clothes you are mussing,
What are clothes? "Much Ado About Nussing."
If she says your behavior is heinous
Kick her right in the "Coriolanus."
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kowtow,
And they'll all kowtow,
And they'll all kowtow.

Brush up your Shakespeare,
Start quoting him now.
Brush up your Shakespeare
And the women you will wow.

Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kowtow,

[Crankie Avalon]

44. Um, does he realize that each of these "Shakespeares" are plays and...

...not full-fledged "books" in the way novels or non-fiction are? Hell, even The Stranger is actually just a novella rather than a novel.

[EFerrari]

47. It's contagious. This morning the host of WJ called them

"Shakespeare books". :wtf:

[Crankie Avalon]

46. Brian Williams: Let's talk about Camus...

Chimp: It's all about the existentialism, Brian.

Brian Williams: What does "existentialism" mean in the 21st Century, and what is the relationship between existentialism and how you view the world?

Chimp: Yeah, existentialism is exactly that...it's existential. You...exist...and are viewed as an existing entity. (laughter emanates from audience) Therefore, the relationship between you and the rest of the world is one between...existing entities.

[peekaloo]

49. good gawd. Was this before or after he mentioned his "epileptic"

choices in reading?

He's his own Abbott and Costello routine.

[madmusic]

54. EPILEPTIC Reading!! ROTFLMAO!

The man is trying to be as intellectuals as the Internets. It probably puts him into convlusions. Leave the poor baby alone.

[annabanana]

50. THIS, I believe . . .

Is it a transcript? (I missed the interview)

[SeveneightyWhoa]

59. No, it's not. But hard to tell, no?

Sounds like a satire written by the poster, mocking one of Bush's answers on Native American sovereignty (I believe) a few months ago.

[lumpy]

52. And sovereignty is sovereign

yeah

[LibertyLover]

55. As my husband put it after we listened to this interview

"Camus, Shakespeare? I read those in high school and he's just getting around to them?"

[Jacobin]

56. So, he's admitted that his intellectual level has now reached

slightly post-pubescent.

But, of course, he's lying about this supposed reading list, so I can now only guess that he ASPIRES to a slightly post-pubescent intellect.

[LibertyLover]

60. Slightly post-pubescent

is a step up from his usual juvenile intellect. I have to confess that I screamed at the televison that reading the Classic Comicbooks versions of Shakespeare didn't count.

[Protagoras]

61. does anyone believe he read KAMUUS?

even the more die-hard repugs I know roll their eyes at this latest "I'm really into the classics" PR blitz.

[InkAddict]

62. He just needed a tune-up before the

new Thomas Pynchon novel is released near the end of the year.

Against the Day
A variety of rumors pertaining to the subject matter of Pynchon's next book have circulated over a number of years. Most specific of these were comments made by the former German minister of culture, Michael Naumann, who stated that he assisted Pynchon in his research about "a Russian mathematician studied for David Hilbert in Göttingen", and that the new novel would trace the life and loves of Sofia Kovalevskaya. A July 2006 press release from Penguin Press placed the new novel's publication date as 5 December 2006 (Getlin 2006), and the as yet-untitled book was listed on Amazon.com as 992 pages in length. It was subsequently reported that the release date for the novel had been moved forward to 21 November and that the novel would be 1040 pages long.

A synopsis written by Pynchon himself appeared in July 2006 and was posted on Amazon, stating that the novel's action takes place between the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the time immediately following World War I, which would seem to rule out Kovalevskaya as the protagonist, as she had died in 1891. "With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead," Pynchon writes in his Book Description, "it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred." He promises cameos by Nikola Tesla, Bela Lugosi and Groucho Marx, as well as "stupid songs" and "strange sexual practices" (Pynchon 2006). Subsequently, the title of the new book was reported as Against the Day and a Penguin spokesperson confirmed that the synopsis was Pynchon's (Patterson 2006b; Italie 2006).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon

[maxsolomon]

63. Why the F is the president reading books anyway?

reading books is a LEISURE activity. i barely have time to read books, and my job isn't nearly as demanding as the presidents.

hey frat boy, maybe you should dig the nation out of the iraq shaped hole you put us in before you take the time to read. put aside 1 of these books & call bashir al assad instead. he'll take the call.

jesus freaking christ.

[Jed Dilligan]

64. He should have read all the books he mentions a long time ago.

Andover and Yale and he's never read Camus or Shakespeare before?

[Bluebear]

65. Exactly.

[tomp]

67. i completely agree!

where's he finding the time? you don't just speed read works like those.

and who really believes him, i mean really? this is bush we're talking about, for christ's sake! just another big lie as far as i'm concerned. first he's the common man, then he's the intellectual. but he's neither one.

oh, i just figured it out. he does have plenty of time because it's so much more time consuming to be constructive than destructive.

[DemReadingDU]

66. He probably reads the Cliff notes

Seriously, how would George find time to read all these books - he's always riding his bike, and he goes to bed at 10. Or maybe he does the books on tape thing, listening while jetting off to his next political speech.

[MurrayDelph]

68. If anything, he MAY have watched the movies

"I really liked the sad one where the 16-year-old girl showed her titties."