or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
February 27, 2008
What's So Funny About that? Part II
By: Bernard Chazelle
I had a dream. George Bush was driving a 2CV across a railroad track in 2001. His car stalled and the big freight train came barreling down the track... When the body was recovered from the wreckage and the rescuers tried to identify it, all they found was a piece of paper with a yellowish table on it, which had a single column of numbers entitled: January 20, 2001. At the bottom of the page these words were found: "Memo to myself: add a second column - GWB."
it's an awesome chart-- you'd think Brian Williams and Katie Couric could talk about things like this, but I guess they'd see it as uncouth or something. I was going to go praise Superfrenchie as well, but he's(?) already got 88 comments,I think that's enough feedback.
Posted by: Jonathan Versen at February 27, 2008 11:02 PMsaurah: I disagree.
Only the debt/deficit can be blamed on the bubble.
For the rest, remember, these numbers are before the housing bubble burst. These are Bush's numbers.
The current recession is Greenspan's.
PS and didn't Bush reappoint Greenspan anyway....?
Posted by: Bernard Chazelle at February 28, 2008 10:38 AMExcellent chart, Bernard. Wait till the dollar panic unfolds and add the cost of a vacation to Europe.
Saurabh, what does the Internet bubble have to do with debt levels, oil imports, budget deficits, or the cost of college?
A fair answer is: approximately nothing.
George Bush is the worst president ever.
Ever!
Posted by: Charles at February 28, 2008 01:56 PMBernard, I apologize for the multiple posts. However, it wasn't due to being fast on the trigger. It took a full 5 minutes to generate the mess, during which time assorted error messages appeared.
Posted by: Charles at February 28, 2008 02:04 PMWell, for that matter, oil imports have been steadily increasing since 1970, when US production peaked. Oil imports went up under Clinton, just as they did under Bush. It's an inexorable product of geology; Bush is not to blame.
I don't mean to suggest that NONE of this chart is Bush's fault; the last third (other than oil) seems pretty safely attributed to him, as does the large national debt (though we could debate the importance of that - other countries have much higher debt burdens as a fraction of GDP). Actually, I'm not really sure why I'm bothering to complain. The point of this chart is clearly simply Bush-hating, and it does that, so nit-picking is futile.
As for the worst president, there's other good candidates. Harding is one, as is Herbert Hoover. Or Benjamin Harrison.
Posted by: saurabh at February 29, 2008 06:25 PMalso: if the climate stuff gets much worse, i think we can point to the bush white house and congress as among history's greatest perpetrators of stupidity.
Posted by: hapa at March 3, 2008 07:40 AM
