Bush jokes, slices boar's ribs as Middle East explodes
by Mark Silva,
Chicago Tribune
July 13, 2006
STRALSUND, Germany — With the world's most perplexing problems weighing on him, President Bush has sought comic relief in a certain pig.
This is the wild game boar that German chef Olaf Micheel bagged for Bush and served Thursday evening at a barbecue in Trinwillershagen, a tiny town on the Baltic Sea.
"I understand I may have the honor of slicing the pig," Bush said at a news conference earlier in the day punctuated with questions about spreading violence in the Middle East and an intensifying standoff with Iran about nuclear power.
The president's host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, started a serious ball rolling at this news conference in the 13th-century town hall on the cobblestone square of Stralsund. But Bush seemed more focused on "the feast" promised later.
"Thanks for having me," Bush told the chancellor. "I'm looking forward to that pig tonight."
This 13th-century setting and formal news conference may seem an odd stage for presidential banter. The 21st-century problems that Bush confronts often prompt him to attempt to defuse the tension in the room with a dose of humor.
Reporters from Germany and the U.S. peppered him with questions about the standoff in Iran, violence in the Middle East and flagging democracy in Russia. He answered all in earnest but leavened it all with pig talk.
"Apart from the pig, Mr. President, what sort of insights have you been able to gain as regards East Germany?" a German reporter asked.
"I haven't seen the pig yet," Bush said, sidestepping the question about insights gained from his two-day visit to this rural seaside region that once rested behind the Iron Curtain.
And when an American reporter asked whether Bush is concerned about the Israeli bombing of the Beirut airport and about Iran's failure to respond to an offer for negotiations, Bush replied with more boar jokes before delving into the substance of the questions.
"I thought you were going to ask about the pig," said the president. "I'll tell you about the pig tomorrow."
The boar and two deer rotated slowly on spits as Bush arrived later in nearby Trinwillershagen, the site of the barbecue for the two leaders and about 100 guests.
Smiling, he cut several slices near the boar's ribs before handing the knife and fork to Merkel, who took some meat from a leg.
Bush told the guests that since he and his wife, Laura, come from Texas, throwing a barbecue for them is "one of the greatest compliments you could have."
In an inane, inept and disrespectful performance President Bush made a series of jokey references to a pig dinner during his German visit with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Bush's habitual mockery of reality is a pathetic, transparent and ineffectual attempt to disguise his incompetence and cluelessness. There is simply no way he can speak extemporaneously on serious matters at the level one would expect of a world leader. He makes jokes because he is this joke.
But in this case, with the entire Middle East going up in flames, it is impossible to calculate the impact on Muslim news viewers, for whom, as in Judaism, religion dictates that the eating of animals with cloven hooves is a grievous sin.
You might think that on the brink of WWIII with the entire world listening to what the Leader of the Free World has to say that President Bush would display some contextual awareness and not rub salt in the wounds of one-billion-plus Islamic people.
And there is Bush the Infidel, yukking it up at length about roasting and eating a pig — almost as funny as an execution, ha-ha — with not a single serious word about events that are unfolding on his watch.
It's like his Texan vacation during 9/11 or his "gittar" playing during the Katrina disaster.
Perhaps this will be remembered as the infamous Pig Roast incident: Our utterly clueless president making a laughingstock out of America, with nothing to tell the world except what he is planning to have for supper.
Paul W.
Commentary by Rebecca:
The headline about 'jokes' is the only joke here.
Bush's comments aren't jokes — there's no punchline, no humor, unless you think it's innately funny to see a featherweight fool of a frat boy pretend to be President of the United States, refusing to answer serious questions because he's doesn't have a clue.
He can't even feign enough sanity to come up with something semi-statesmanlike in answer to the most serious questions, not even, "We're looking into it." Just pigs, pigs, and more pigs.
in·san·i·ty n. 1 a : a deranged state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder (as schizophrenia) and usually excluding such states as mental retardation, psychoneurosis, and various character disorders
b : a mental disorder
2 : such unsoundness of mind or lack of understanding as prevents one from having the mental capacity required by law to enter into a particular relationship, status, or transaction or as removes one from criminal or civil responsibility
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