Former President George Dubya Bush is giving a speech today at Southern Methodist University (SMU). He and his wife Laura will be on the Dallas campus to unveil the programs to be offered at the George W. Bush Institute at SMU. Please, no tired coloring book jokes. Groundbreaking for the Dubster’s big, shiny institute won’t take place until a year from now, but plans are underway to flesh out programs for the scholarly forum’s “four core principles.” So far, though, no one seems to agree on what the four principles are. One report says they are democratic freedom, opportunity, responsibility and compassion. Another source says no, the core principles are education, global health, human freedom, and economic growth. It’s already starting to sound like the early planning for the Iraq war. No one asked me, nor are they going to, but I think the four principles should be making rich people richer, bungling disaster assistance, prideful arrogance in foreign policy, and how to kill young Americans through bad decision-making and sheer incompetence. Whatever principles the institute settles on, it’s nice of Dubya to take some time away from writing his memoirs; it can be pretty tedious work looking up how to spell “pretzel,” “bike ride,” or “rendition.”
This article appears in Nov 10-16, 2009.
those must be some old computers. big old thick screens there.
“I think the four principles should be making rich people richer, bungling disaster assistance, prideful arrogance in foreign policy, and how to kill young Americans through bad decision-making and sheer incompetence.” Brilliant, Mr. Grooms. I tried to think of which other of his bungling efforts could replace one of these, but you pretty much nailed the top four.