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August 20, 2005
"the children of the privileged should be doing some of the dying"
So says Bob Herbert -- who is particularly upset that President Bush has been spotted riding a bicycle: Mr. Bush is the commander in chief who launched a savage war in Iraq and now spends his days happily riding his bicycle in Texas.Well, the president is a known physical fitness buff. I'm wondering whether Bob Herbert's objection is to the president's regular exercise, or whether it's to his choice of a bicycle as an inappropriate form of exercise. If Bush took Mr. Herbert's advice and lost the bike (or used an indoor stationary bike), would that make everything OK? I don't think so, because he seems to see the bike riding as a symptom of a national disease. We're all guilty of enabling this frolicking, fun-loving president, because we don't care: If the nation really cared, the president would not be frolicking at his ranch for the entire month of August. He'd be back in Washington burning the midnight oil, trying to figure out how to get the troops out of the terrible fix he put them in.Well, shame on her! And shame on me for going out last night! I'd love to ask Bob Herbert whether he indulges himself in such decadent exercises as bicycle riding, swimming or running, or has any kind of personal physical fitness program. Has he, or has anyone in his family acting on his behalf, been shopping in any stores recently? If he has or they have, then I have more questions, because I demand answers! I don't think I'm any more likely to get answers from Mr. Herbert than Cindy Sheehan is from Bush. That's the way it is when you're dealing with rich, powerful elites. Sigh. Anyway, speaking of privilege -- and bicycles -- what about Manhattan's Upper West Side, where Bob Herbert lives? There are plenty of bicycles there, and the Upper West Side's City Council representative wants more of them! “I love bikes and I don’t love cars,” Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side, told the crowd. “I look forward to working with you to make sure there are fewer cars and more bicycles.”What? Upper West Siders ride? While others died? posted by Eric on 08.20.05 at 09:42 AM
Comments
My 80-year-old grandma once said, "It ain't a war if they ain't rationing sugar and all the available men aren't 4-F." She had a point. But this is more like one of Teddy's "splendid little wars," where the casualties are measured in the thousands while the profits are measured in the hundreds of billions. In such a circumstance it is perhaps unreasonable to hold the President, let alone the entire nation to some sort empathetic asceticism. But one might reasonably question whether we should continue to commit troops to such splendid little wars in the future. If there is no suffering on a national scale then there is little political deterrent to engaging in wars as a first resort rather than a last one. Libertas · August 21, 2005 07:16 AM |
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According to the Mad spectrum, liberals like to bicycle.
And yet, on the Far, Far, Far, Far Right, polytheologically Conservative, holy Dawn and her holy Negro wife Norma also love to bicycle, as well as to run and to swim, and Dawn loves to lift weights. Every year, she sets a record by lifting a bunch of extremely fat women. "I am a captive Goddess."