The Queen of Spain

The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised.
--Seng-Tsan, the third Zen patriarch

It's time to stop hating George W. Bush. At this point, I'm just trying to figure out what he's up to. He seems to have gone around the bend, or into another dimension, or to have beamed himself into his own parallel universe.

Napoleon Bonaparte had fans, devotees, and true believers in his train until, in 1808, he appointed his brother Joseph King of Spain. The act was clearly an expression of the "I can do anything I want" impulse, and at that point sentiment against him pretty universally boiled over. Even his most faithful followers began to say among themselves, "We can't live with this guy any more."

Of course, it took another seven years to get rid of Bonaparte for good, from the time he deposed the Hapsburg monarch, appointed his brother to Spanish throne, invaded Spain, and launched his unsuccessful campaign against "the terrorists," i.e. the Spanish people, who for some reason opposed the liberation and democracy that only the French Republic could confer on them. After that came a series of military defeats by the forces of a by-then-unified anti-Napoleon European alliance, then exile on the Island of Elba, followed by the dictator's being smuggled back into France by dead-ender loyalists, and his final defeat at Waterloo.

At this point, nobody can live with Bush any more, whether they've followed him right up to the day he appointed Harret Miers to the Supreme Bench or hated him all along. There are still a few faithful Republican Guards trying to apologize for him, but they mostly sound like they're trying to convince themselves. Miers is so eminently unqualified for the job that her nomination has given rise to furious speculation all across the political spectrum: What's George up to, anyway? Why would he do this to us?

Are people running to Cheney and saying, in essence, "Michael, ya gotta do something about 'Fredo!"?

This much I know: crime syndicates have ways of dealing with any made man who caves in under the pressure and loses control of himself. So at this point, far from hating or fearing George, I'm a bit worried about him.

Like the Napoleonic era, this is a very exciting and momentous time in which to be alive. I can't wait to see what happens next.