I've started a new section in my sidebar on the right. It's a collection of adjectives and short descriptions which complete the phrase "Bush and Company are..."
So far, here's what I've got:
Bush & Company are...
blameworthy crooked despicable devious dishonest disingenuous heinous hostile to science hypocritical ideologues immoral impudent incompetent lacking in conscience lacking in empathy liars mendacious not candid not trustworthy opportunistic out of control prevaricating rapacious reprehensible schemers shameless tricky uncaring unethical unprincipled unreliable unsympathetic virtueless wicked without scruples
This covers most of the basics, I think, but I'll keep adding to the list as I think of more. Anyone with any suggestions can post them in the comments here, or e-mail them to me.
I'm looking primarily for descriptions of the entire Bush Administration, its character and that of its policies, not specifically for descriptions of Bush himself. For instance, while I would accept "stupid" or "incurious" as defensible descriptions of Bush himself, they don't really apply to the administration as a whole, which has some brilliant, if unscrupulous and dishonest, people in it.
Addenda: Already, I've added despicable (Kaiju) and impudent (Ivan Raikov).
More:Buck-passers and blame-placers (Shirley); dishonorable, without integrity and clueless (Kathy); and dangerous and warmongers (Breeze).
And: I'm adding from Chuck arrogant (very good!, how did I miss it?) and destructive, and also indifferent (rather than his suggestion of "apathetic," the connotation of which seems slightly wrong to me) and wrong-headed, suggested by his "wrong"; from Roger (aka MyFriendRoger), I'm adding corrupt (yes!), craven, sleazy (absolutely), pernicious, venal, calculating, perverse, conspiratorial, culpable, insincere and debased, and I'm replacing my "without scruples" with his unscrupulous (I was trying to avoid "un-" words).
I'm holding off on some that have been suggested to me: bastards, butt-wipes, atrocious, monstrous, satanic, vile and the big one, evil. Also "pathetic", because they do not arouse any sympathy or pity in me.
Et cetera: S.M. Dixon suggests "sociopathic" which seems slightly problematic to me. The dictionary says a sociopath is "One who is affected with a personality disorder marked by aggressive, antisocial behavior," which looks somewhat appropriate but feels slightly off the mark to me, perhaps because it's generally applied to an individual and not a collection of people and policies. Certainly the policies of the Bush administration have, since 9/11 especially, been quite aggressive, and they have also been, more generally speaking, very aggressive in implementing their disastrous agenda -- so I think aggressive would be an appropriate add. On the other hand, "antisocial" is a difficult one. Certainly their policies have been diametrically opposed to what I and most enlightened people believe are best for society, but that's not exactly what "antisocial" means. Still, there must be an approprate word to describe their agenda. I'm going to add undemocratic, plutocratic, and oligarchic, but they don't quite get at it. What I think I'm looking for is an antonym for "civil" or "comity" which describes the Bushies' profound disrespect for the egalitarianism which underlies the fabric of our society -- or at least its intended fabric. (I'm also adding disrespectful, now that I think of it.)
"Treasonous" I shall hold off on.
Moreover: Breeze adds: conniving, con artists, deceitful, and secretive, which suggested to me propagandists.
And then came: Roger adds dogmatic, absolutist, rigid and inflexible, and argues for "sociopath":
As you perhaps know, "sociopath" and "sociopathic" are among my favorite terms. Of course, I long ago liberated it from its rather rigorous scientific definition (in part because the psychological profession has officially abandoned it anyhow. They like the term "anti-social."). I use it in a broader sense. I have argued, only very slightly tongue-in-cheek, that there are only three kinds of Republicans: dogmatists, sociopaths, and useful idiots.
If you want to get clinicial about it, well, Newt Gingrich is possibly a clinicial sociopath (I mean, how else can you think of a guy who tries to trick his wife into signing a divorce agreement just as she's coming out of anesthesia from cancer surgery?). And I am absolutely, utterly convinced that Shrub himself is a Narcissistic sociopath ... and I DO mean in the full clinical sense.
But more broadly, I am convinced -- although I cannot prove it -- that if you were to come up with some test which could assign people somewhere on a numerical "empath-sociopath" scale, in general Republicans would score quite a bit further toward the sociopathic end.
There's more in the comments.
Even more: I've added uncompromising, compassionless, relentless, selfish and insensitive. I thought about "lamentable" but it really describes more our response to them rather than their behavior and actions -- we lament over what they do, they certain don't lament it.
Is there a good word to express "uncivic-minded" or lacking in public spirit -- and is there a word that describes class warriors? (Maybe German has one.)
Upstate: Shirley comes up with oblivious.
The list to this moment (5pm on Tuesday the 13th):
Bush & Company are...
absolutist aggresive arrogant blame-placers blameworthy buckpassers calculating class warriors clueless compassionless con artists conniving conscienceless conspiratorial corrupt craven crooked culpable dangerous debased deceitful destructive devious dishonorable dishonest disingenuous disrespectful dogmatic heinous hostile to science hypocritical ideologues immoral incompetent indifferent inflexible insensitive insincere lacking in empathy lacking in public spirit liars mendacious not candid not trustworthy oblivious oligarchic opportunistic out of control pernicious perverse plutocratic prevaricating propagandists rapacious relentless reprehensible rigid schemers selfish secretive shameless sleazy tricky uncaring uncompromising undemocratic unethical unprincipled unreliable unscrupulous unsympathetic venal virtueless warmongers wicked without integrity wrong-headed
Winding down? I'm adding not "reality-based" and disconnected.
absolutist
aggresive
anti-Constitutional
anti-intellectual
arrogant
authoritarian
blame-placers
blameworthy
blinkered
buckpassers
calculating
class warriors
clueless
compassionless
con artists
conniving
conscienceless
conspiratorial
corrupt
craven
criminal
crooked
culpable
damaging
dangerous
deadly
debased
deceitful
delusional
despotic
destructive
devious
disconnected
dishonorable
dishonest
disingenuous
disrespectful
dogmatic
doomed
fanatical
fantasists
felonious
hateful
heinous
hostile to science
hypocritical
ideologues
ignorant
immoral
incompetent
indifferent
inflexible
insensitive
insincere
irrational
isolated
kleptocratic
lacking in empathy
lacking in public spirit
liars
mendacious
misleading
mistrustful
non-rational
not candid
not "reality-based"
not trustworthy
oblivious
oligarchic
opportunistic
out of control
pernicious
perverse
philistine
plutocratic
prevaricating
propagandists
rapacious
relentless
reprehensible
rigid
scandalous
schemers
selfish
secretive
shameless
sleazy
tricky
unAmerican
uncaring
uncivil
uncompromising
unconstitutional
undemocratic
unethical
unpopular
unprincipled
unrealistic
unreliable
unrepresentative
unscientific
unscrupulous
unsympathetic
venal
vile
virtueless
warmongers
wicked
without integrity
wrong-headed
Thanks to: Breeze, Chuck, Ivan Raikov, Kaiju, Kathy, Roger, Shirley, S.M. Dixon
recently seen
i've got a little list...
Elliott Abrams
Steven Abrams (Kansas BofE)
David Addington
Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson
Roger Ailes (FNC)
John Ashcroft
Bob Bennett
William Bennett
Joe Biden
John Bolton
Alan Bonsell (Dover BofE)
Pat Buchanan
Bill Buckingham (Dover BofE)
George W. Bush
Saxby Chambliss
Bruce Chapman (DI)
Dick Cheney
Lynne Cheney
Richard Cohen
The Coors Family
Ann Coulter
Michael Crichton
Lanny Davis
Tom DeLay
William A. Dembski
James Dobson
Leonard Downie (WaPo)
Dinesh D’Souza
Gregg Easterbrook
Jerry Falwell
Douglas Feith
Arthur Finkelstein
Bill Frist
George Gilder
Newt Gingrich
John Gibson (FNC)
Alberto Gonzalez
Rudolph Giuliani
Sean Hannity
Katherine Harris
Fred Hiatt (WaPo)
Christopher Hitchens
David Horowitz
Don Imus
James F. Inhofe
Jesse Jackson
Philip E. Johnson
Daryn Kagan
Joe Klein
Phil Kline
Ron Klink
William Kristol
Ken Lay
Joe Lieberman
Rush Limbaugh
Trent Lott
Frank Luntz
"American Fundamentalists"
by Joel Pelletier
(click on image for more info)
Chris Matthews
Mitch McConnell
Stephen C. Meyer (DI)
Judith Miller (ex-NYT)
Zell Miller
Tom Monaghan
Sun Myung Moon
Roy Moore
Dick Morris
Rupert Murdoch
Ralph Nader
John Negroponte
Grover Norquist
Robert Novak
Ted Olson
Elspeth Reeve (TNR)
Bill O'Reilly
Martin Peretz (TNR)
Richard Perle
Ramesh Ponnuru
Ralph Reed
Pat Robertson
Karl Rove
Tim Russert
Rick Santorum
Richard Mellon Scaife
Antonin Scalia
Joe Scarborough
Susan Schmidt (WaPo)
Bill Schneider
Al Sharpton
Ron Silver
John Solomon (WaPo)
Margaret Spellings
Kenneth Starr
Randall Terry
Clarence Thomas
Richard Thompson (TMLC)
Donald Trump
Richard Viguere
Donald Wildmon
Paul Wolfowitz
Bob Woodward (WaPo)
John Yoo
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recent listening
influences
John Adams
Laurie Anderson
Aphex Twin
Isaac Asimov
Fred Astaire
J.G. Ballard
The Beatles
Busby Berkeley
John Cage
"Catch-22"
Raymond Chandler
Arthur C. Clarke
Elvis Costello
Richard Dawkins
Daniel C. Dennett
Philip K. Dick
Kevin Drum
Brian Eno
Fela
Firesign Theatre
Eliot Gelwan
William Gibson
Philip Glass
David Gordon
Stephen Jay Gould
Dashiell Hammett
"The Harder They Come"
Robert Heinlein
Joseph Heller
Frank Herbert
Douglas Hofstadter
Bill James
Gene Kelly
Stanley Kubrick
Jefferson Airplane
Ursula K. LeGuin
The Marx Brothers
John McPhee
Harry Partch
Michael C. Penta
Monty Python
Orbital
Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
"The Prisoner"
"The Red Shoes"
Steve Reich
Terry Riley
Oliver Sacks
Erik Satie
"Singin' in the Rain"
Stephen Sondheim
The Specials
Morton Subotnick
Talking Heads/David Byrne
Tangerine Dream
Hunter S. Thompson
J.R.R. Tolkien
"2001: A Space Odyssey"
Kurt Vonnegut
Yes
Bullshit, trolling, unthinking knee-jerk dogmatism and the drivel of idiots will be ruthlessly deleted and the posters banned.
Entertaining, interesting, intelligent, informed and informative comments will always be welcome, even when I disagree with them.
I am the sole judge of which of these qualities pertains.
E-mail
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Corrections
I correct typos and other simple errors of grammar, syntax, style and presentation in my posts after the fact without necessarily posting notification of the change.
Substantive textual changes, especially reversals or major corrections, will be noted in an "Update" or a footnote.
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the story so far
unfutz: toiling in almost complete obscurity for almost 1500 days
If you read unfutz at least once a week, without fail, your teeth will be whiter and your love life more satisfying.
If you read it daily, I will come to your house, kiss you on the forehead, bathe your feet, and cook pancakes for you, with yummy syrup and everything.
(You might want to keep a watch on me, though, just to avoid the syrup ending up on your feet and the pancakes on your forehead.)
Finally, on a more mundane level, since I don't believe that anyone actually reads this stuff, I make this offer: I'll give five bucks to the first person who contacts me and asks for it -- and, believe me, right now five bucks might as well be five hundred, so this is no trivial offer.