Blogging may be a little sporadic here. My in-laws are in town, and that’s going to keep us pretty occupied this week. Also, work is progressing on two story ideas for Business Edge magazine, and I hope to have at least one of these written up near the end of the week. And, of course, Vivian keeps me constantly on call.
The weather here has been pretty good. I would call it spring like. My American friends are a little surprised to hear that the big storm that hit the Midwest passed to the south of us, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. There’s not much snow on the ground and, while there is still a nip in the air, it’s sunny. We drove into Toronto on Sunday hoping to catch the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. We were a little late, however, and had to console ourselves with having brunch in an Irish bar, visiting the Eaton Centre, and getting a professional portrait done with Vivian.
I’ve also been working on promoting The Unwritten Girl. On my publicist’s suggestion, I’ve started The Unwritten Blog which is, as the name implies, a blog about all things related to The Unwritten Girl. I will continue to post happenings on this blog, but these will be crossposted there, so that possible media contacts that Dan Wagstaff (my publicist) sends my way won’t have to slog through my political posts to get to the Unwritten nuggets.
It’s still a work in progress (it needs permalinks, comments, et cetera), but you should pay a visit to both blogs if you have the time, as there may be content unique to that website.
What’s Wrong With the Bush Administration in a Nutshell
To shore up his drooping approval numbers, President Bush rose above the media filter to speak to a group of carefully vetted Republican supporters about his presidency. Cameras were there to take in one very interesting question from a member of the audience.
Q: Do you believe in this? That the war in Iraq and rise of terrorism are signs of the coming apocalypse and, if not, why not?
A: Um… Aha… (several seconds of stumped silence)
As Jon Stewart says: “What are you waiting for?! Say NO! Just say NO!”
Yeah, you could see the wheels turning: gotta shore up base, but can’t look insane…
Watch the full, very funny, segment here.
Erin Updates
To be fair to the man, there’s more to this story, which Erin forwarded to me:
He (Bush) called upon a citizen in the audience, who homed in on the invisible meaning of recent events in the light of two books, the Book of Revelation and “American Theocracy” by Kevin Phillips. Phillips, the questioner explained, “makes the point that members of your administration have reached out to prophetic Christians who see the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism as signs of the Apocalypse. Do you believe this, that the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism are signs of the Apocalypse? And if not, why not?”
Bush’s immediate response, as transcribed by CNN, was, “Hmmm.” Then he said, “The answer is I haven’t really thought of it that way. Here’s how I think of it. First, I’ve heard of that, by the way.” (The official White House Web site transcript alters the punctuation, dropping the strategic comma, adding “the” and thereby changing the meaning: “The first I’ve heard of that, by the way.”)
“I guess I’m more of a practical fellow.”