Sure, you have to kind of admire anyone who thought up the idea of feeding people to lions for fun, but I'm not so sure they really understood the concept of moral relativism. How can pride be a deadly sin? Pride is defined by Wikipedia as “a strong sense of self-respect, a refusal to be humiliated as well as joy in the accomplishments of oneself or a person, group, or object that one identifies with.”
Sounds good to me. People spend a lot of money every year on books to teach them how to have pride in themselves, insofar as pride relates to self esteem. I guess what really got the goat of the robe-and-sandal set was more hubris, or excessive arrogance and vaingloriousness (yes, I used it in a sentence, and yes, I am that good.) I can understand that. They probably had the six deadly sins all ready to go, had the foresight to envision Yaletown, and decided to round it up to lucky ole' number seven.
Even Aesop chimed in on the whole issue. As the story goes, two cocks (OK, roosters, but cock is just more fun to say) were fiercely fighting for the mastery of the farmyard.
"One at last put the other to flight. The vanquished Rooster skulked away and hid himself in a quiet corner, while the conqueror, flying up to a high wall, flapped his wings and crowed exultingly with all his might. An Eagle sailing through the air pounced upon him and carried him off in his talons. The vanquished Rooster immediately came out of his corner, and ruled henceforth with undisputed mastery."
The moral? Pride goeth before a fall.
Man, I wish a big eagle would come around and take George Bush off our hands.
I have no idea why this man is possibly still in power. Come on, Lindsay’s in rehab and Britney is bald and Paris has to poo in a glass room, so there is a God. What on earth is God up to letting this asshat run one of the wealthiest nations in the world? And I don’t blame Americans at all, because I’ve never, ever met one that didn’t think he was a complete asshat too. So who the hell voted for him?
I think God did it as some grand plan to remind us that pride might be OK in Chapters but it's not OK when you start trying to unilaterally blow up things you don't like. Here is a man who barely got in office at all. He should have been thanking his lucky stars that he got to be President after the nation he was set to lead categorically and undisputedly let him know that the majority of them really wanted the other guy. He should have lived out his years in office keeping his mouth shut, quietly emulating Clinton and keeping an eye on his daughters but noooooo, he decided to go rampaging around the developed world like a schoolyard bully. And while admittedly, no one got the atomic wedgie worse than Iraq, there’s no discounting the injustices he’s visited upon the American people he has sworn to serve.
Like the whole faith-based welfare initiatives. I get that George W. Bush is a Christian and is, generally, Up With Christ. But last I checked there was something in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution about keeping church and state separate. I guess nobody but me thinks it’s kind of crappy that the President just read that part in the Constitution, shrugged, and went, "oh well."
And the whole War on Terror. I will go on record and say that I whole-heartedly agree that a response needed to be made to the terrorist attacks. And I appreciate that it had the side benefit of freeing the nation of Afghanistan from an oppressive regime that attracted international criticism for human rights violations and which the US tolerated quite happily for five years. But did it need to be a preemptive war that has permanently jeopardized international relations, led to the deaths of over 650,000 civilians, and allowed the suspension of civil liberties on ground not our own?
Oh, George, but for your pride, you could have listened to those older and wiser than yourself. Martin Luther King Jr. would have seen the futility in your efforts immediately.
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.... The chain reaction of evil — hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars — must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."
And moreover, perhaps someone who can’t spell nuclear shouldn’t be in charge of the big red button. I’m just saying. But no, he’s like the proverbial pitbull, who once he locks his jaw into something, cannot let go. Too dumb, and too mean.
And, methinks, about to take a fall. His approval ratings are in the 30s, which are comparable to Nixon’s during the Watergate scandal. Only 19% of the people in his country think that he’s headed in the right direction, which is pretty much tantamount to 4 out of 5 people thinking he’s come unglued. Former President Jimmy Carter called Bush’s presidency the worst in history. Uh, this is Jimmy Carter, folks. This guy believes in UFOs but he stops short at thinking Bush should run the country? That should tell us something.
So if pride goeth before a fall, Mr. Bush’s days are numbered. World wide censure? Check. An impeachment? Getting there.
A giant eagle? We can only hope. Guess those early Christians were onto something after all.
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