tone deaf

old men lose their senses, sometimes several at a time, to the point of caricature. (the other day a friend pointed out i had a spare pair of socks hanging out of my back pocket in addition to the pair on my feet, and, yeah, i often stuff the day's pair in a back pocket early in the day before its time to add shoes and head out, and, yeah, sometimes a guy forgets). today we have ap coverage of a more dangerous form of the disease, in dick dastardly (remember that cartoon on saturday mornings back in 1968?) cheney's comments on the "good friendliness" of hosni mubarak.

i'm not here to debate the accuracy or veracity of the comments--hosni may very well be the us' bff. but in needing to hear himself talk, and in responding to a lazy reporter's fishing questions the other day at the reagan center, the old fool has added nothing but grist to the mill of any disaffected and disgruntled malcontent with an axe to grind against the us meddling in mideast affairs.

my esteem for dubya, once non-existent, has grown with each opportunity eschewed to shoot his mouth off and muddy the waters for his successor. disagree with him or not, (and i most certainly did and do on almost every single point of policy he felt compelled to implement), you have to recognize that respectful silence is the greatest service an ex-president can offer those who follow whenever a subject might be contentious, and tip your hat to #43 for being the best we've had in this regard in a very, very long time. (jimmy c's habitat for humanity gig is a great uncontentious example of when a little publicity is ok, as opposed to his self-serving rehash book on the middle east, which is not). it's a little less dire when it's a doddering old veep, (set your watches, folks, for the biden follies to come), but still inexcusable.

dubya, of course, bears at least that much responsibility for having set loose the pestilent curmudgeon upon the world in the first place. "double-dealing do-badder" sure appears to cover it.