Channeling Bush’s Inner Sadist: An Insight Into His Obsession with Torture
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
We were writing a review of a BuzzFlash premium of a collection of Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury" cartoons last weekend when we serendipitously came across this tidbit, posted in a 2004 Associated Press article (watch for the end of the excerpt):Cartoonist Garry Trudeau, who has skewered politicians for decades in his comic strip "Doonesbury," tells Rolling Stone magazine he remembers Yale classmate George W. Bush as "just another sarcastic preppy who gave people nicknames and arranged for keg deliveries."
Trudeau attended Yale University with Bush in the late 1960s and served with him on a dormitory social committee.
"Even then he had clearly awesome social skills," Trudeau said. "He could also make you feel extremely uncomfortable ... He was extremely skilled at controlling people and outcomes in that way. Little bits of perfectly placed humiliation."
…. Trudeau said he penned his very first cartoon to illustrate an article in the Yale Daily News on Bush and allegations that his fraternity, DKE, had hazed incoming pledges by branding them with an iron.
The article in the campus paper prompted The New York Times to interview Bush, who was a senior that year. Trudeau recalled that Bush told the Times "it was just a coat hanger, and ... it didn’t hurt any more than a cigarette burn."
We now vaguely recall the article when it first came out, but at that point Bush’s torture obsession didn’t have the horrific longevity and toll that it has acquired by this point in 2007.
For a boy who allegedly shot BB guns at his brothers and did who knows what to small animals, Bush as recalled by Trudeau offers no small insight into what is clearly a sadistic (and as we have repeatedly said, sociopathic) individual.
Bush has continued to insist that his administration does not conduct torture by merely redefining what torture is, as distinct from how it is outlawed under International law and agreements. You can see how he accomplishes this "redefining" by his claim to The New York Times, while he was at Yale, that branding fraternity pledges was not cruel because "it didn’t hurt any more than a cigarette burn."
The Democrats have long treated the torture issue as though it were a public policy issue and not an outgrowth of a psychological deviancy on the part of Bush (along with the Cheney/Addington "we are accountable to no one" worldview).
As BuzzFlash has long argued, Bush is a model narcissistic sociopath, who is devoid of the ability to empathize. It is the characteristic of such people to have the ability to "appear" to be concerned about others, but that is just for show. The inner heart is empty. You can knock all you want, but you won’t find anyone home in the empathy department when it comes to sociopathic personalities.
The long-ago forgotten recollection of Garry Trudeau, as corroborated in the Yale Daily News and The New York Times, indicates quite clearly Bush’s mindset: inside of the "great hugger" is a "great sadist."
That may explain why Bush's latest appointment for Attorney General has been so brazenly coy in claiming that he has not made up his mind yet on whether or not water boarding is torture. (Not to mention Mukasey’s Stepford-like assertion of the doctrine of "unitary authority" for the executive branch, which is what grants the White House its ability to torture at will.)
The Bush Administration’s obsession with torture is deep-seated and personal. George’s love of it in particular is not so much for what it might do in assisting in the war on terror, as it is a perverse exercise in humiliation and the exercise of absolute power to inflict pain on other people through the use of unaccountable and an all-powerful authority.
What we have been seeing unfold before us since the rendition and Abu Ghraib stories first broke (and there were earlier indications in Afghanistan of mass killings and torture, although not as widely reported) is the elevation of a sadistic fraternity head to the highest office in the land, but his delight at "harmlessly" branding pledges has just progressed to the next level: torture, murder (remember the tortured to death cadavers at Abu Ghraib), and the "disappeared."
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
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A justification?
I came across a quote from John Toland's "The Last Hundred Days" recently.
"At long intervals in human history it may occasionally happen that the practical politician and the political philosopher are one. The more intimate the union, the greater his political difficulties. Such a man does not labor to satisfy the demands that are obvious to every philistine; he reaches out toward ends that are comprehensible only to the few. Therefore his life is torn between hatred and love. The protest of the present generation, which does not understand him, wrestles with the recognition of posterity, for whom he also works."
This was written by Adolph Hitler in 1924 while he was in Landsburg prison. It sounds chillingly reminiscent of the Bush rationale for torture and for subverting the constitution.
WE DON'T TORTURE
Bush and his cronies should all be subjected to the same procedures that they claim are not torture! After the procedures, ask them again if any of the procedures were torture. I'd be interested to hear what they have to say.
rugby
And for more on Bush's long track record as a thug, google bush rugby punch.
he also blew up frogs
Google bush frogs firecracker
uh, just like cigarette burns?
How would Bush know what these felt like and why is burning someone with a cigarette not torture? Did Babs smoke?
Are not Bush Enablers Sadists, Too?
When I hear again and again that this is a Christian nation and see the acts of Hitler Jr. and his enablers, my mind keeps hearing that famous quote from American history:"The only good Indian is a dead Indian." Manifest Destiny was driven by hatred as surely as the sadistic government we now have bombed the Hell out of Iraqi citizens. That Bush was "elected" twice and that the Democratic Party joins the GOP regularly to punish ordinary citizens, says there are a lot of sick people populating this "Dead Indian" country.
Most of us
Know that bush is a sadistic psychopath, and completely unfit to occupy ANY position of authority and trust, let alone POTUS. My question is this: In spite of the overwhelming evidence of his mental illness(es) and manifold crimes, sufficient to put him and his cronies into prison for a thousand years, he's yet to be called to account for his behavior. WHY?
WHY?
As long as Bush & Cheney do what they are told by the real people who run the country, Bush & Cheney are protected. The President and the rest of them MUST DO WHAT THEY ARE TOLD TO DO by the "secret government." Then they will NOT be "removed." Bush, Jr. was going no where, so he was put in the spot of President because he can "take orders from above." Nothing will happen to him because he does as he is told and can keep his mouth shut. He's an excellent puppet for the "real controllers." (It's called Rule By Secrecy.) Plus Bush comes from a "different blood line" which does not have the same "feeling and emotions" as the regular population has. I don't care if you believe this or not, just observe and you will see.
Bush is a psychopath
Bush is often called a "sociopath", i.e., one who is self-serving, one who never recognizes the rights of others, Sociopaths are hostile and domineering and see other people as "something" to be used. They may dominate and humiliate victims. It is also accurate to describe bush as a PSYCHOPATH, one who is utterly lacking empathy or conscience. Psychopath have poor impulse control and are manipulative.
Psychopath versus Sociopath
Um, Len Hart, hate to tell you this, but Sociopath and Psychopath are exactly the same thing. The condition was originally called Psychopathy, and then the name was changed to Sociopathy. The current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, DSM IV, renames the condition Antisocial Personality Disorder.
The characteristics you describe for Sociopaths and for Psychopaths are all correct.
vote this up on digg too.
Digg Bush torture
If Cartman Was President
""He could also make you feel extremely uncomfortable ... He was extremely skilled at controlling people and outcomes in that way. Little bits of perfectly placed humiliation."" And all the stuff about sadism.
Sounds like President Cartman: American Caligula
You forgot...
that Bush loved to execute people. He has the record number of executuions as governor of Texas. And let's not forget his mocking of Karla Faye Tucker, whom he had executed, "please don't kill me Mr. Bush...ha ha". I understand John Paul II had asked Bush for a stay of execution but Bush refused the Pope. I also understand this same Pope asked Bush not to launch a pre-emptive war against Iraq. Again, Bush refused. What a stubborn fuck. Imagine the karma.
The man is twisted. Just take a close look at his parents to figure out why. When will we be rid of this evil family?
see also Bev Conover's 2002 article
< a href="http://www.serendipity.li/wot/conover01.htm">Bush isn't a Moron, He's a Cunning Sociopath
"THERE WAS NO TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB" BY TONY SNOW
AS I HAVE SAID FROM THE START, THE PROBLEM AT ABU GHRAIB HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH TORTURE AND EVERYTHING TO DO WITH CAMERAS. DID YOU NOTICE THAT ONCE THE CAMERAS WERE FORBIDDEN, THERE WAS NO MORE TORTURE.... OH YOU THINK THERE WAS? WHERE ARE THE PHOTOS THEN? AHHH. YOU HAVE NONE. THEN THERE WAS NONE.
MY PRESIDENT WOULD NEVER TORTURE ANYONE. BY THE WAY, HOW DO YOU DEFINE TORTURE? AHHH. WATERBOARDING. WE DO NOT CONSIDER WATERBOARDING TORTURE, AND WE DO NOT TORTURE. SO I GUESS THAT SAYS IT ALL.
WHAT DO WE CONSIDER TORTURE? THIS INTERVIEW IS TORTURE. TALKING TO THE MEDIA IS TORTURE. THAT IS WHY WE NEITHER INTERVIEW NOR ALLOW THE MEDIA TO TALK TO THE PRISONERS. THAT WOULD BE TORTURE.
FINGERNAILS? PULLING THEM OUT? NO... WE DO NOT CONSIDER THAT TORTURE. AND WE DO NOT TORTURE.