Sentential Links #155 (the Final Bush edition)

Here we are with the final Sentential Links to appear in this space during the George W. Bush administration. Thank God. Yes, these will be political. Sorry.

:: It was my original intention to let the passing of the Presidency of George Walker Bush go unmentioned in this blog.

:: Thinking back to George W. Bush’s farewell address it’s striking that the best thing the man can say about his record in office is that only once during his term in office were 3,000 people killed by foreign terrorists. And it’s really striking that other people in the conservative movement seem to take this “accomplishment” very seriously.

:: Still, I sure hope that the public doesn't forgive Bush for a very, very long time. To this day I don't understand how such a manifestly unqualified candidate got either nominated or elected in the first place, and the damage this man-child has done to the country during his eight years in office is hard to even put into words. If Barack Obama is lucky, he might — might — by 2016 be able to get us back to where we were in 2000. The last eight years have taken us backward by almost every metric that matters, and as he heads off to Texas, hopefully never to be heard from again, Bush will go down in history as one of the very few presidents to have left the country in demonstrably worse shape than when he got it. It's an elite group indeed.

:: An Administration that came into being as a result of a legal ruling has operated outside the law, in absolute contempt for the processes that have distinguished America from tyrannies for the past 230 years.

:: It is enough to say he was a failure, and leave it at that. He can spend the rest of his life giving speeches to justify his actions. But he will never be able to drown out the roar of his record.

Ach...that's about it for that, actually. I really don't want to give this President any more space here than I already have. He doesn't deserve it. George W. Bush is, by any conceivable measure and by far, the worst President of my lifetime, and I was born during Nixon's first term. Ugh. Go away, George.

(And God help me if we ever elect Jeb.)

Anyway, some non-Bush-related links, just to clear the air here of Bushism:

:: The real hero of this story is not supernatural. He's a very natural, very human 57-year-old man named Sully Sullenberger. Good job, Captain. You deserve every plaudit you may receive for this.

:: Khan was as mysterious as he was popular, though, and we found 16 things that even Star Trek fans might not know about the lovable superhuman tyrant. (I've pointed this out before, but I've always felt that Wrath of Khan wasted an absolutely fascinating character on a simple revenge story. The results of Kirk's depositing of Khan and company on Ceti Alpha V should have been left for the Next Generation crew to discover.)

:: Can't forget good old Goom. (Goom? Yes, Goom. Believe it or not.)

:: I feel fun in my overalls, I feel relaxed in my overalls, I feel happy in my overalls. I dress to please myself and I love my overalls! (There you have it!)

More next week. Yes we can!