Rubénerd!

Sometimes it's not a good idea going through Google Reader first thing in the morning, because an image from a shared article makes you jump out of your chair and spray the cereal that was in your mouth all over the place.

I was half expecting the book that was attached to an article Sparx shared was a satire piece, but it turns out it's real. From Amazon.com's product page:

Don't laugh when you see the title of a new book that challenges the elite's view that President Bush is no brainiac: The Leadership Genius of George W. Bush. Really. "We did it," says coauthor Carolyn Thompson, a leadership expert, "because he's so widely underestimated and because everybody thinks he's not what he really is." That would be Master Leader, she and James Ware conclude in their scholarly study. More in-depth than others like The Rumsfeld Way, it charts Bush's 10 common-sense leadership lessons, like: Hire smart, build trust, talk straight, and leave aides alone.

I was unaware expecting the leader of the most powerful country in the world to display more intelligence than a sock puppet made me an elitst. Then again, the book was published in 2002; while it would have still been difficult to pull off back then, one thinks it would have been infinitely more difficult if they did it now.

The comments included with the the book seem especially tragic especially given what happened after 2002. I think Robert A. Watson and I are thinking of two different George W. Bushes:

"Carolyn Thompson and James Ware have it right . . . leadership is about what one is, not just what one does. About character, not just charisma . . . about credibility, not just credentials. This timely account of The Leadership Genius of George W. Bush will truly encourage and inspire readers."
–Commissioner Robert A. Watson, Retired National Commander, The Salvation Army, U.S.A.

I'm hotly anticipating the followup "Microsoft: 10 common sense lessons in ethical business"!

Zbigniew Brzezinski's on The Daily Show in 2007

Unfortunately as much as I love Wikipedia and use it daily, I am finding their trigger happy approach to deleting articles (or should I say shooting articles?) before they can be thoroughly fleshed out because a select group of people question it's notability is becoming difficult to cope with.

For example, this morning in class I was telling someone about "Manichaean paranoia", the very apt term Zbigniew Brzezinski coined when he appeared on The Daily Show a couple of years ago to describe the actions of George W. Bush. He defined it by saying Bush believed that because he was morally superior to the terrorists, it gave him permission to perform immoral acts. One could draw parallels here to Israel's recent actions in the Gaza Strip too for example.

ASIDE: Crooks and Liars has the video of Zbigniew Brzezinski's appearance on The Daily Show you can download and watch.

I had my machine open so I fired up Wikipedia and attempted to find the page I had remembered reading before... but it was completely gone. Bummer :-(.

I clearly don't have an audience as big as Wikipedia's, but I feel this article must be preserved. If anything else, by putting it here I can link back to it in the future instead of linking to Wikipedia.

Manichaean paranoia is a rhetorical phrase used in one television show by the American politician Zbigniew Brzezinski to describe the morals of the George W. Bush presidency. [...]

In the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Brzezinski "defines" the phrase thusly:

the notion that somehow or other he's [former president George W. Bush] leading the forces of good against the empire of evil, the notion that somehow or other in that setting, the fact that we are morally superior justifies us committing immoral acts

and otherwise pleads to the audience's education to accept this phrase as valid. [1]

The article then started to discuss how different religious people feel they have moral superiority over others and attempt to impose themselves, but while I think that's true (with dangerous consequences) I don't think that was really what Brzezinski was referring to. Perhaps the debate over this part of the article was what got it deleted.

In the meantime, feel free to use the term "Manichaean paranoia"... let's get it out there!

I had completely forgotten about this post I created on the 25th of October 2006, back when we were living in Kuala Lumpur, but reading it back made me smile. It was a link to an automatically updating countdown for the number of days until George W. Bush was out of office. Seems he's all done now!

Designed by georgedorn and provided by Positronic Design.
Grab your own copy here.

The 25th of October 2006 means that counter would have read 817 days back then. To quote a Bush fan, By Golly, Gee Whiz! Now the question becomes, I wonder what the world will be like in another 817 days?

On Monday I posted a discussion I had with someone on Twitter who was adamant that everyone was wrong and that George W Bush would be remembered favourably by people... and he was serious! Upon receiving a tweet from me where I contradicted his assertion, he made a comparison between Bush and Nixon.

Not knowing much about historical American politics I didn't know if this comparison was apt, so I asked some folks about their opinions and got responses here, in email and in Google Reader. Let's just say I wasn't surprised by the responses!

Alex wins the grand prize. I had forgotten how terrible Bush Jr had been for environmental causes too; here in the world outside the US the media seemed to have focused more on his... how do I put this delicately?... less than successful international relations. Alex's comment about the "perception of western people" was especially spot on.

Yeah it’s true, Nixon was a pretty decent president but Bush is viewed in a negative light for much better reasons. My brother came up with a list of over 45 reasonably sized screw ups like messing up the Environmental Protection Agency, Hurricane Katrina, a bunch having to do with Iraq.. basically he is oblivious to the irreparable damage he’s done not only to the American economy, the American society, the global society, the Eco-systems around the world and the perception of western people in general.

He’s been a disgrace to us all and the only people who approve of him compose the lower idiotic wrung of society here in America. They kind of people who whole-heartedly believe his meaningless rhetoric and feel an obligation toward supporting the neo-conservative republican party.

I’ve lived in Illinois for all of my life and I have maybe met 3 people who approve of his actions. So yes - history will judge him as an obtuse, unqualified disgrace of a president who got to where he was with corporate contributions and a mutually beneficial relationships with the wealthy, power-hungry, apathetic kind of people who are destroying our planet.

Amen.

Thank you to everyone for your emails and comments, I'd like to think I've learned something today! I didn't learn that Bush won't be remembered favourably though... I knew that already. Did I mention I'm relieved beyond belief he isn't in charge anymore? I'm not Bill Kurtis.

I generally don't like to get too political on my blog or on Twitter, but given the once in a lifetime circumstances we see ourselves in with the election of President Barack Obama in the United States, I figure I can post a miniaturised epic series of posts here and get away with it. Politics and computer science have more in common than I thought; though that's for another post!

Yesterday evening after I had started penning my previous post about how relieved I am (and I could tell many Singaporeans were too) that Obama is now president, I was surprised to read this tweet by Corrie Bergeron on Twitter:

Reading comments on some blogs today, I wonder where the Bush-haters will turn their vile invective. Must be horrible to have that much hate
(tweet link)

I couldn't resist, I just had to reply to it.

@skydaddy Very few people are worthy of such contempt, but I'm confident that Bush Jr qualifies!
(tweet link)

I can honestly say I was not prepared for the reply.

@Rubenerd I'm sure it tears the haters up that Bush doesn't care about the hate. He's a bigger man than that. History will judge him well
(tweet link)

At that point I wasn't sure whether this was denial playing out, or whether it was a carefully and brilliantly worded work of satire. Given history I suspected the former, though I did give a little and admit that not everyone literally hated Bush... I'm positive at least 1% of people around the world will remember him in a positive light!

@skydaddy "History will judge him well."... oh man my dad, sister and I are roaring with laugher! But I guess some will judge him better
(tweet link)

He replied with some American history which alas I haven't been versed well enough in at this stage.

@Rubenerd Truman was despised, Nixon even more. Time has a way of telling. Nixon was a bad man, but a pretty good President looking back.
(tweet link)

To my American readers, is this statement true? I've heard the names Nixon and Truman thrown around, but know little about their past or their tenures as President. Ask me about former Aussie Prime Minister Paul Keating or former Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and I'm somewhat more informed!

I guess Bush can take some comfort in knowing that 18% approval ratings mean that at least some people liked him. Just not the vast majority of the world! Did I mention I was relieved Obama is president now?

Photo from the JudiciaryReport.com via a Google Image search. He's so creepy.

Given timezone differences this will be in some areas a few hours off and in other places up to a day off, but bear with me. Today is the first of the last single digit days that George W. Bush is in power. Doesn't that just excite the heck out of you?

As a caucasian person living in Asia, I am very much looking forward to being able to walk down the street without a few people glaring at me because they assume there's a chance I'm an American and voted for him. This has ebbed somewhat since Barack Obama won the election to end all elections, but I'll definitely feel more comfortable once he really has control of the ship.

I don't know enough about American politics, but is it possible to impeach him and Dick Cheney after they've left office? As in, would it theoretically be possible to screw up their legacy and have them officially disgraced? It'd be getting off easy after doing what they and their cronies have done, but it'd be start.

One of the best Jon Stewart clips I have ever seen! In this scene Jon attempts to figure out what George W. Bush's job actually is given his low approval ratings, the fact he's a bit "intellectually challenged" and the fact that Bush himself seems to be unable to explain it himself!

It involves avocados, crows' nests, power cords, deep analysis and a cache of random clips of Bush saying what his job is. Very funny!

February 2009 Update: Removed by request :-(

You can watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in Australia on The Comedy Channel and intermittently on Thursday and Sundays on SBS.

Don't try watching it on SBS in Singapore... because SBS is a transport company not a television network.

Tonight's guest: Elke Schade in the Rubenerd Studios!

Wearing a tutu, the Malaysian powerpoint culture in coffee shops, signs you may have a nerdy son, Rubenerd Show host Ruben turns 21, the flotation ability of glass deodorant containers, irresponsible environmental wastage in razor packaging, reviewing Twitter, Rubenerd Interview (Ruben's sister Elke), Principal Skinner from the Principal's office, stupid product packages, Ruben's hopes and dreams, tornadoes on Taiwan, Ruben's half-arsed MySpace page, how to pronounce MyMyMyMySpace, evil apostrophes Billy Connelly, George W. Bush losing the war on drugs, coffee is disgusting apparently, getting a MacBook), and drying your hair in the shower!

Download MP3 to Listen ↓ 45:00 minutes, 20.6MiB

You can also stream this episode and view its Internet Archive page.

We were all almost killed by an asteroid on Monday 03rd July (destroying ourselves, do other animals kill each other like us?!), the great Stem Cell Research Debate (George W. Bush (being George W. Bush!) vetoing bill to expand federal funding, why Ruben thinks life is a better punishment to the death penalty), a computer crash that corrected itself!

Download MP3 ↓ 10:00 minutes, 4.6MiB

You can also stream it and view its Internet Archive page.