The Week the Bush Administration Fell Apart
End Game for the Lizard Brains?
By MICHAEL DONNELLY
"If the rest of the world adhered to the 'Bush Doctrine,' they'd all attack us immediately."
--Steve Spahr
Steve's and my buddy Simon Scott views civilization as a Darwinian dance between the Lizard Brains (LBs) and common mammalian knuckleheads who view the world from higher up the brain stem. The LBs, while some are not at all without capacities for high reasoning (think G. Gordon Liddy, Rudy Giuliani); when it really matters, all react from the fight, flight and greed synapses. The LBs think that, when cornered, the best option is always to strike --- witness the latest saber-rattling about Iran.
Of course, we see Bush as Top Lizard Brain. The Leaker-in-Chief can barely speak without notes (often, even with them), unless in some sort of bullying snit or that other smug "we can do and take anything we want; we're the superpower and we're in charge; I've got political capital" awfulness. Whenever the home team is on a losing streak, the manager starts to get incoming from the fans and the always slow-to-awaken, if not complicit rah, rah hometown booster media (think Portland Trailblazers). Of course, even as a Giant Lizard goes down, a lot of damage can be done by the thrashing tail before it's forever silenced.
The usual outcome is Berlin in ruins. But, here in America we have other options; unused recently. But, the rust remover has been rediscovered of late. That's why this week has been so entertaining and, dare I say, hopeful.
