Nuancing

“It's unacceptable to think," (said the President).

It is never unacceptable to think.

And when a President says thinking is unacceptable, even on one topic, even in the heat of the moment, even in the turning of a phrase extracted from its context, he takes us toward a new and fearful path -- one heretofore the realm of science fiction authors and apocalyptic visionaries.

That flash of lightning freezes at the distant horizon, and we can just make out a world in which authority can actually suggest it has become unacceptable to think.

Thus the lightning flash reveals not merely a President we have already seen, the one who believes he has a monopoly on current truth.

It now shows us a President who has decided that of all our commanders-in-chief, ever, he alone has had the knowledge necessary to alter and re-shape our inalienable rights.

This is a frightening, and a dangerous, delusion, Mr. President.

If Mr. Powell's letter -- cautionary, concerned, predominantly supportive -- can induce from you such wrath and such intolerance, what would you say were this statement to be shouted to you by a reporter, or written to you by a colleague?

"Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government.”

Those incendiary thoughts came, of course, from a prior holder of your job, Mr. Bush.

[...for the whole of the post... (and the answer if yer not quite sure)]

I know this is "old news". Since I'm still such a silly rebel-against-what's-popular, I missed reading it when new.

And now I get to stand out.

LOL!

Yah, well. . . KO irked me with the way he used the quote, then explained his reasons for doing it suchly - snipped and a wee bit out of context - so he stays in my mind as one of the few talkin' heads who actually "gets it".

'Tis Tuesday, folks! For whatever that's worth.

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. . . Found by following Shakespeare's Sister's link to Think Progress' post on W's use of teh Google.