Thursday, October 21, 2004

fear and loathing in 2004

Hunter S. Thompson is at it again, and the world has changed so much that he shines like a beacon of reason.

Did you see Bush on TV, trying to debate? Jesus, he talked like a donkey with no brains at all. The tide turned early, in Coral Gables, when Bush went belly up less than halfway through his first bout with Kerry, who hammered poor George into jelly. It was pitiful. . . . I almost felt sorry for him, until I heard someone call him "Mister President," and then I felt ashamed.

Later in the piece he quotes Richard Nixon...

War is an option whose time has passed. Peace is the only option for the future. At present we occupy a treacherous no-man's-land between peace and war, a time of growing fear that our military might has expanded beyond our capacity to control it and our political differences widened beyond our ability to bridge them. . . .

Short of changing human nature, therefore, the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war.

... and asks "where is Richard Nixon now that we finally need him?"

When Dr Gonzo starts looking back fondly on Nixon - fucking Nixon, who is like Thompson's very own Lex Luthor - it's like having one of the horsemen of the apocalypse pull up next to you asking if you've seen his three brothers.