Pete Stark and Bill Shakespeare

Congressman Pete Stark should never have had to apologize to anyone for what he said about George Bush having soldiers killed for his "amusement." He was following in a long tradition of people who eventually understood what happens when power becomes perverse. Shakespeare put the following epigram into King Lear:

As flies to wanton boys
Are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport.

Thanks to information about President Bush's childhood we see a through line from his joy at blowing up frogs when he was 10 to branding pledges when he was 21 to smirking at executions when he was 50 to outsourcing terror when he was 56.

If Shakespeare were alive today he'd just transpose the speakers to soldiers in Baghdad:

As frogs to wanton George
Are we to his God;
He kills us for his sport.

Comments

[SamEllison]

It's kind of like pulling the wings off of flies then sending them out for another tour.
Bush seems to enjoy it.

[Desiderata]

There's something happening here.
What it is ain't exactly clear.
There are goons in power everywhere.
They told Stark he better beware.

Hey, stop, freedom__what's that sound?
Everybody look, another down.

Paranoia strikes the free.
Into our lives spy these creeps.
They start by keeping us afraid.
Step out of line, they tazor and take us away.

So you better stop, Pete Stark__what's that sound?
Everybody look as freedom drowns.

[Tubby]

Apparently "progressive" males don't have childhood experiences that train them for manhood. All red-blooded American boys have at one time or another engaged in bloodsports, be it frog gigging, shooting BBs, 22s or arrows at little critters and birds. What Dubya did was quite ordinary. It's the repressed urban males who have NEVER honed their instinctive hunting skills in this fashion who are the sociopaths.

[SamThornton]

I'm no Bush apologist but his reputed frog adventures, while probably not predictive of future greatness, may actually be more a product of the southern culture he grew up in, rather than any pathology peculiar to himself.

In documenting the roots of southern culture, historian David Hackett Fischer notes that young boys were encouraged to participate in childhood blood sports involving the killing of small animals.

An example Fischer documents is a favorite ritual involving a boy having his hands tied behind him, the wing of a live bird thrust in his mouth which, using his lips and teeth and enduring the pecking of the bird, he maneuvers to a position in which he is able to bite off its head.

This is thought to encourage his "manliness" in all respects.

The persistence of this, as well as other similar "normative" behaviors by young southern boys persists to the present.

[Sephirothii13]

AMEM!
Rep Stark should have stood by his words, because that is why we on left are so upset, they talked in nov. to be willing to "talk truth to power" but they have been Bush's lap dogs. it's time we have reps that speak that truth, it's time to be honest and stop being "kind" they did that years ago. purple band-aids and mocking a mothers pain to threating a 12 year old boy. when I heard the words from Rep Stark I was proud for the first time in a long time of the DNC, and now... *sighs* stand up, and talk out and get a backbone Dems, or we will find left minded people that will

[Annoula]

PRICELESS!
Thank you, Dr. Frank!
And, please, keep posting on this site.
We miss you!

[wldnswmmr]

What happens is that the mainstream media, the arbiter for what Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emmanuel consider the permissible limits of criticism of Bush, do not allow comments, such as Pete Stark made, based on a rational perception of Bush's psychopathology. One may only criticize his policies on their "merits," i.e., is the war a good idea, is the surge working, etc? Yet Stark identified the real motive force for Bush's policy; it's a personal project of violence, his frog-killing propensity acted out on the world stage. Bush's policies should not be analyzed in terms of "politics," to which they bear no rational relation, but as aspects of psychiatry and criminal law.

[JacqueItch]

Agreed, Dr. Frank.
Something about the REPREHENSIBILITY of what this administration, especially its token leader Bush, has done is completely under the radar for the average American.
We have become so inured to violence that we not only excuse it away, we hanker for it periodically.

The most curious mystery surrounding this apology by Stark is its contrast with his original comments: a very self-assured and brave man suddenly cowed, reduced, and clearly deeply affected by something of an intimidating nature.
What happened to Pete?
He sounded in the apology like a fellow at the front door telling the police that the 911 call was a mistake, all's well, while someone is in the kitchen holding a knife to his daughter's throat.
Something doesn't add up here.

[westwind]

Like chastened schoolchildren, the Democrats apologize and cower before the minority and a sadistic president, for doing nothing more than telling the truth. Pathetic.

[mellene]

The Republicans would never have forced a censure vote for something one of them said. Their mission in live is to remain the party in charge no matter what the means to their end. The Democrats have the power and they need to use it to squash the Republicans. Thank goodness a long term representative had the guts to say what we're all thinking.

[Dap]

Dear Dr. Frank,

Told ya Bush was a sociopath. :) Agape.

[sorenmeetsdylan]

Perhaps you ought to psychoanalyze (what a useless preofession) yourself and then explain to us why a man of your age is so childish.

[dignityandhonor]

...said W.