Bush vs. the Ten Commandments
After some time spent in a depressive mire watching the US Congress rubberstamp the Supreme Court's proud new authoritarian, I turned to (of all things) the Bible. Not in any sort of sense of any solace or worship, mind you, but to see if I had missed something when forced to read it in various high-school theology courses. I'd always enjoyed the intolerant violence of the Old Testament, with its histories of the bloodstained troops of Moses hacking their way through the inhabitants of the Land of Canaan, killing others to ensure peace and stability for themselves, but had always been bored by the platitudinous and tacked-on New Testament. Maybe a parallel view to the ancient Israelites was what I needed to aspire to in these apocalyptic days. After all, George W. and his crew of New Christian Primitives are attempting a similar project, with the same underlying philosophy--a pre-emptive war of conquest based on a delusional sense of entitlement that substitutes the goal of unlimited energy resources for a Land of Plenty, a teleological materialism equivalent to the political aims of the Crusader Era. As I thought about these ideas more, I thought it might be appropriate to apply one of the Old Testament's most famous formulas for proper behavior to the American "President" himself, just to see how he'd fare.
Located in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy are the lists of Yahweh's commandments to the people of Moses and Abraham; they are ten in number, far shorter than the 613 stipulations of the Law found in the book of Leviticus. The commandments are viewed as one of the more visible parts of the binding covenant between the Israelites and their God. As with much else in the original Jewish religion, this list of commandments was appropriated by Christianity, where it became ever more famous as a definition of the desires of God for humanity's conduct. All those who profess to be Christian must encounter this revealed list at some point in their faith; all must agree to obey and respect these commandments in the same way that a Muslim must obey and respect the Five Pillars of Islam. So how does Mr. Bush stack up against this list? Let us see.
The first commandment in question is the proclamation that Yahweh is the Lord your God; a question of belief for the individual. Bush obviously believes in God, so we'll give him this one. The next one is a little more tricky: the Lord asks worshippers to "have no other gods before me". Bush's worship of oil and gas, privilege, military spending, and his own increasing executive power put him in conflict with the Prime Mover on this one. The part about "bowing down to these graven images" is especially problematic for ol' W. One hour of repentance on Sunday isn't going to fool the Ineffable One; after all, the Godhead is everywhere at once.
"You shall not swear falsely by the name of the Lord/take the name of the Lord in vain"--this can be interpreted as either "don't curse using My name" or "do not profess public falsehoods while using My name". Here Mr. Bush begins to fall into a little trouble: as his recent comments about the validity of the US Constitution indicate, this man used the word Goddamn. Oops! And statements like the ones he made during the 2003 State of the Union address regarding Iraq's actual possession of chemical weapons create even more problems: "Three years ago, in another State of the Union address, Mr. Bush told the nation that Iraq was in possession of 26,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 500 tons (which is 1,000,000 pounds) of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent, 30,000 munitions to deliver these agents, mobile biological weapons labs, al Qaeda connections, and uranium from Niger for use in a robust nuclear weapons program. " Needless to say, this enormous stash of chemical beauties was never found because it never existed outside of the imaginations of a few fearmongering assholes--but more importantly, it appears that Bush's observance of commandment #3 is less than rigorous. Taken in conjunction with such statements as "we do not torture", "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job", and his 9-11 whopper of "I can hear you...and the people who did this will hear from us" it would appear that Bush violates #3 more than most of us do. Especially since the US armed forces and their shadowy contractors DO torture, Mike Brown did such a slipshod and negligent job as FEMA head that he should be arrested, and Osama Bin Laden (the alleged ringleader of 9-11) is mailing new recordings to the Western fascists roughly every 15 months while simultaneously avoiding the "largest manhunt in human history".
Commandment #4 asks us to keep honoring the Sabbath. Bush, like many a Christian, does not honor the Sabbath. But where most Christians' dishonoring of the Sabbath is related to screaming curses at the television during football season or socially ostracizing the rare free-thinker in their midst, W's disrespect is a little more severe. This is a tough one, because the Christian concept of the Sunday service is much different from the Jewish ritual of the Sabbath day--but in the Christian version Sunday should at least be a day where the USA doesn't put somebody somewhere to death, right? He loses on this one, in this agnostic's strict interpretation of the moral issues behind the Sabbath. After all, his army kills people every day of the week, regardless of affiliation (preferring, of course, to kill innocent Islamic folks), and doesn't take Sundays off.
#5 requests that believers must "honor thy father and mother". Here is a commandment that GW Bush fulfills to the letter. His father was a warmongering, bought-and-paid-for politician, whose transition to retirement from public life was made much easier by his involvement with the Carlyle Group. Stained black by his lifelong association with the oil industry, George Bush the First dabbled in the world of espionage and international intrigue with posts as CIA director and US liaison chief in China during the turbulent aftermath of Nixon's resignation before authoring a false overseas conflict as American President in 1990-91. No troubling conflicts about morality here...nor are they to be found in the person of Barbara Bush, his mother. This porcine, heartless, and decrepit horror of a suburban matron has been misrepresented as a rational human being due to her tacit support of a woman's right to choose during her husband's administration. Since little W has been installed in the office, however, her callousness toward the rest of American society has been on full display. She responded to criticism for her inept son's War of Lies by saying that she did not wish to "waste her beautiful mind" on thoughts of "body bags and deaths". Such concerns, according to Babsie, were "not relevant". Her wishes for the thousands of American citizens rendered homeless by the Katrina catastrophe in the Louisiana and Mississippi Deltas were not benevolent either--she thought it "scary" that refugees from this disaster were possibly heading to Texas. She also implied that living in the New Orleans Superdome was something that underprivileged Americans were used to. George W is the result of parents like this--and that is why he is a cruel eugenicist, quick-tempered and spoiled, a person whose life of constant privilege has resulted in a complete inability to see anything beyond his own immediate perceptions. When the heredity of Prescott Bush (W's grandfather, a senator from Connecticut whose business ties to Hitler and the Third Reich were so blatant that his operation was shut down by the US government in late 1942) is added into evidence, it appears that little Junior W might have had no choice, genetically speaking, to do other than he does. So W's illegal wars, inattention to public needs in the face of disaster, higher-priced medication for the elderly, warrantless spying, and general disdain for the American people are all products of this poisoned DNA. All of his actions, then, do indeed honor his despicable parents.
Commandment #6 tells believers that they shall not kill. The constant export of murder and destruction by the Bush administration to parts of the world that they desire to conquer pretty much screws W on this one. Additionally, his years in Texas as governor (where he presided over the nation's busiest execution schedule) hurt his chances in the afterlife for sure. Fascist evangelical Christians will throw the old "eye for and eye, tooth for a tooth" Old Testament quote out there to exonerate their boy Bush, but this situation simply illustrates the basic philosophical confusion at the root of most monotheistic belief. God says you shall not kill, but legions of apologists from all three monotheistic traditions like Saint Augustine, the Sicarii of the Israelites, the Popes of the Crusades, and the Islamic Wahabists have merrily justified slaughter in the name of the God. Undoubtedly GW Bush believes his war in Iraq to be a Just War; most Americans, however, see the war for what it is--just war. He is in repeated violation of this commandment, in this column's opinion.
From here we segue into God's proscription of adultery. Seeing as GW Bush has as much sex appeal as a putrefying corpse on a ninety-five degree day, I think that it is safe to say that he and Stepford First Lady Laura Bush do not violate this one. Although Condi Rice might have some highly classified information on this issue.
Commandment #8 forbids theft. Seeing as Mr. Bush has stolen two US presidential elections and is currently attempting to steal an entire country's most profitable resource, I feel secure in declaring him in violation of this commandment. He has also "owned" a major league baseball team despite putting up less than 2% of the total purchase price and has been accused of insider trading after his attempt to become an oil tycoon. Both of these acts could be potentially troubling to the Accountant of the Universe; but then who may presume to know that Mind?
Bush flouts commandment #9 with equal arrogance. Despite the proclamation from That Is What Is declaring that a believer should not bear false witness against a neighbor, W's pursuit of Saddam Hussein's demise has centered around some pretty major false witnessing (see excerpted quote above regarding Iraq's weapons capacity). He and his minions have accused their political opponents of treason on those rare occasions when Democratic timidity has been replaced by temerity; he blocked the investigation into the 9-11 attacks and blatantly rewrote the history of his actions on that morning; and he has repeatedly attempted to link Saddam Hussein, a secular dictator, to an Islamic fundamentalist movement that despised everything that Hussein stood for, despite the report of the 9-11 commission that unequivocally stated that there were no such extant links between them. The important question to consider here is this--when has GW Bush not born false witness against all of his planet's neighbors?
Wrapping up the list is the commandment that forbids coveting of neighbor's property and spouse. Bush, a sexless secret alcoholic, probably cannot achieve erection due to his allegedly massive intake of antidepressants, so he seems to be in compliance with at least part of this directive. Iraq rears its head again as a problem here, because the oil-thirsty neocon architects of disaster who surround Bush have long desired to conquer and profit from the rich oil fields of Iraq. In fact, one might say that the entire Bush administration has been based on the principle of being covetous--they covet resources, they covet dictatorial powers, and they covet a new political structure in the world. This new structure will be a brave new world of economic serfdom for the majority of people on the planet.
So all in all, the former Yale kegulator known as George W. Bush has not fared very well on this little pop quiz. Giving him full credit for correct behavior on numbers 1, 5, and 7 with half credit on number 10 leaves Junior with a score of 35 points out of a possible 100. I believe this would be a failing grade even in the present-day American school system, and it indicates that Mr. Bush probably hired other students to take his examinations for him at Yale. (This attitude undoubtedly helped him determine his own service to the USA during the Vietnam War, when his stint in the Air National Guard helped keep the skies of Texas safe from the Viet Cong. Safer, in fact, than the skies over New York City would be in the fall of 2001.) I think his right-wing Christian fan base will be upset with a score like this on such a fundamental indicator of Christianity. It demonstrates that W either completely misunderstands the religion, or that he is not compliant with the basic rules and regulations that govern Christian and Jewish behavior. Either way, his righteousness is lacking. And according to Mr. Bush's own professed belief system, Someone is taking notice. And preparing a reservation in one of the lower circles for him, too. According to Dante, it's circle #8--the one they reserve for hypocrites and corrupt politicians, those who falsify rather than speak the truth.
Located in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy are the lists of Yahweh's commandments to the people of Moses and Abraham; they are ten in number, far shorter than the 613 stipulations of the Law found in the book of Leviticus. The commandments are viewed as one of the more visible parts of the binding covenant between the Israelites and their God. As with much else in the original Jewish religion, this list of commandments was appropriated by Christianity, where it became ever more famous as a definition of the desires of God for humanity's conduct. All those who profess to be Christian must encounter this revealed list at some point in their faith; all must agree to obey and respect these commandments in the same way that a Muslim must obey and respect the Five Pillars of Islam. So how does Mr. Bush stack up against this list? Let us see.
The first commandment in question is the proclamation that Yahweh is the Lord your God; a question of belief for the individual. Bush obviously believes in God, so we'll give him this one. The next one is a little more tricky: the Lord asks worshippers to "have no other gods before me". Bush's worship of oil and gas, privilege, military spending, and his own increasing executive power put him in conflict with the Prime Mover on this one. The part about "bowing down to these graven images" is especially problematic for ol' W. One hour of repentance on Sunday isn't going to fool the Ineffable One; after all, the Godhead is everywhere at once.
"You shall not swear falsely by the name of the Lord/take the name of the Lord in vain"--this can be interpreted as either "don't curse using My name" or "do not profess public falsehoods while using My name". Here Mr. Bush begins to fall into a little trouble: as his recent comments about the validity of the US Constitution indicate, this man used the word Goddamn. Oops! And statements like the ones he made during the 2003 State of the Union address regarding Iraq's actual possession of chemical weapons create even more problems: "Three years ago, in another State of the Union address, Mr. Bush told the nation that Iraq was in possession of 26,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 500 tons (which is 1,000,000 pounds) of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent, 30,000 munitions to deliver these agents, mobile biological weapons labs, al Qaeda connections, and uranium from Niger for use in a robust nuclear weapons program. " Needless to say, this enormous stash of chemical beauties was never found because it never existed outside of the imaginations of a few fearmongering assholes--but more importantly, it appears that Bush's observance of commandment #3 is less than rigorous. Taken in conjunction with such statements as "we do not torture", "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job", and his 9-11 whopper of "I can hear you...and the people who did this will hear from us" it would appear that Bush violates #3 more than most of us do. Especially since the US armed forces and their shadowy contractors DO torture, Mike Brown did such a slipshod and negligent job as FEMA head that he should be arrested, and Osama Bin Laden (the alleged ringleader of 9-11) is mailing new recordings to the Western fascists roughly every 15 months while simultaneously avoiding the "largest manhunt in human history".
Commandment #4 asks us to keep honoring the Sabbath. Bush, like many a Christian, does not honor the Sabbath. But where most Christians' dishonoring of the Sabbath is related to screaming curses at the television during football season or socially ostracizing the rare free-thinker in their midst, W's disrespect is a little more severe. This is a tough one, because the Christian concept of the Sunday service is much different from the Jewish ritual of the Sabbath day--but in the Christian version Sunday should at least be a day where the USA doesn't put somebody somewhere to death, right? He loses on this one, in this agnostic's strict interpretation of the moral issues behind the Sabbath. After all, his army kills people every day of the week, regardless of affiliation (preferring, of course, to kill innocent Islamic folks), and doesn't take Sundays off.
#5 requests that believers must "honor thy father and mother". Here is a commandment that GW Bush fulfills to the letter. His father was a warmongering, bought-and-paid-for politician, whose transition to retirement from public life was made much easier by his involvement with the Carlyle Group. Stained black by his lifelong association with the oil industry, George Bush the First dabbled in the world of espionage and international intrigue with posts as CIA director and US liaison chief in China during the turbulent aftermath of Nixon's resignation before authoring a false overseas conflict as American President in 1990-91. No troubling conflicts about morality here...nor are they to be found in the person of Barbara Bush, his mother. This porcine, heartless, and decrepit horror of a suburban matron has been misrepresented as a rational human being due to her tacit support of a woman's right to choose during her husband's administration. Since little W has been installed in the office, however, her callousness toward the rest of American society has been on full display. She responded to criticism for her inept son's War of Lies by saying that she did not wish to "waste her beautiful mind" on thoughts of "body bags and deaths". Such concerns, according to Babsie, were "not relevant". Her wishes for the thousands of American citizens rendered homeless by the Katrina catastrophe in the Louisiana and Mississippi Deltas were not benevolent either--she thought it "scary" that refugees from this disaster were possibly heading to Texas. She also implied that living in the New Orleans Superdome was something that underprivileged Americans were used to. George W is the result of parents like this--and that is why he is a cruel eugenicist, quick-tempered and spoiled, a person whose life of constant privilege has resulted in a complete inability to see anything beyond his own immediate perceptions. When the heredity of Prescott Bush (W's grandfather, a senator from Connecticut whose business ties to Hitler and the Third Reich were so blatant that his operation was shut down by the US government in late 1942) is added into evidence, it appears that little Junior W might have had no choice, genetically speaking, to do other than he does. So W's illegal wars, inattention to public needs in the face of disaster, higher-priced medication for the elderly, warrantless spying, and general disdain for the American people are all products of this poisoned DNA. All of his actions, then, do indeed honor his despicable parents.
Commandment #6 tells believers that they shall not kill. The constant export of murder and destruction by the Bush administration to parts of the world that they desire to conquer pretty much screws W on this one. Additionally, his years in Texas as governor (where he presided over the nation's busiest execution schedule) hurt his chances in the afterlife for sure. Fascist evangelical Christians will throw the old "eye for and eye, tooth for a tooth" Old Testament quote out there to exonerate their boy Bush, but this situation simply illustrates the basic philosophical confusion at the root of most monotheistic belief. God says you shall not kill, but legions of apologists from all three monotheistic traditions like Saint Augustine, the Sicarii of the Israelites, the Popes of the Crusades, and the Islamic Wahabists have merrily justified slaughter in the name of the God. Undoubtedly GW Bush believes his war in Iraq to be a Just War; most Americans, however, see the war for what it is--just war. He is in repeated violation of this commandment, in this column's opinion.
From here we segue into God's proscription of adultery. Seeing as GW Bush has as much sex appeal as a putrefying corpse on a ninety-five degree day, I think that it is safe to say that he and Stepford First Lady Laura Bush do not violate this one. Although Condi Rice might have some highly classified information on this issue.
Commandment #8 forbids theft. Seeing as Mr. Bush has stolen two US presidential elections and is currently attempting to steal an entire country's most profitable resource, I feel secure in declaring him in violation of this commandment. He has also "owned" a major league baseball team despite putting up less than 2% of the total purchase price and has been accused of insider trading after his attempt to become an oil tycoon. Both of these acts could be potentially troubling to the Accountant of the Universe; but then who may presume to know that Mind?
Bush flouts commandment #9 with equal arrogance. Despite the proclamation from That Is What Is declaring that a believer should not bear false witness against a neighbor, W's pursuit of Saddam Hussein's demise has centered around some pretty major false witnessing (see excerpted quote above regarding Iraq's weapons capacity). He and his minions have accused their political opponents of treason on those rare occasions when Democratic timidity has been replaced by temerity; he blocked the investigation into the 9-11 attacks and blatantly rewrote the history of his actions on that morning; and he has repeatedly attempted to link Saddam Hussein, a secular dictator, to an Islamic fundamentalist movement that despised everything that Hussein stood for, despite the report of the 9-11 commission that unequivocally stated that there were no such extant links between them. The important question to consider here is this--when has GW Bush not born false witness against all of his planet's neighbors?
Wrapping up the list is the commandment that forbids coveting of neighbor's property and spouse. Bush, a sexless secret alcoholic, probably cannot achieve erection due to his allegedly massive intake of antidepressants, so he seems to be in compliance with at least part of this directive. Iraq rears its head again as a problem here, because the oil-thirsty neocon architects of disaster who surround Bush have long desired to conquer and profit from the rich oil fields of Iraq. In fact, one might say that the entire Bush administration has been based on the principle of being covetous--they covet resources, they covet dictatorial powers, and they covet a new political structure in the world. This new structure will be a brave new world of economic serfdom for the majority of people on the planet.
So all in all, the former Yale kegulator known as George W. Bush has not fared very well on this little pop quiz. Giving him full credit for correct behavior on numbers 1, 5, and 7 with half credit on number 10 leaves Junior with a score of 35 points out of a possible 100. I believe this would be a failing grade even in the present-day American school system, and it indicates that Mr. Bush probably hired other students to take his examinations for him at Yale. (This attitude undoubtedly helped him determine his own service to the USA during the Vietnam War, when his stint in the Air National Guard helped keep the skies of Texas safe from the Viet Cong. Safer, in fact, than the skies over New York City would be in the fall of 2001.) I think his right-wing Christian fan base will be upset with a score like this on such a fundamental indicator of Christianity. It demonstrates that W either completely misunderstands the religion, or that he is not compliant with the basic rules and regulations that govern Christian and Jewish behavior. Either way, his righteousness is lacking. And according to Mr. Bush's own professed belief system, Someone is taking notice. And preparing a reservation in one of the lower circles for him, too. According to Dante, it's circle #8--the one they reserve for hypocrites and corrupt politicians, those who falsify rather than speak the truth.
posted by alyosha mcbain at 10:30 AM
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