Terry Jones: "Nobody Seemed To Notice"

Former Monty Python member Terry Jones shows himself to be a man of great courage and knowledge in this interview with MotherJones.com. He's also a very funny man, but we knew that a long time ago, didn't we?

I think you should click on that link and read the whole interview. But I especially want to point out this passage:

MJ.com: In another piece, you critique George Bush’s 2002 State of the Union address through the lens of a Hollywood script reader. What would you say about his inaugural address?

TJ: I did actually start doing one on his latest inaugural address, because what amazes me about it is he’s basically just declared war on the rest of the world. But nobody seemed to really notice. He said it in a very nice way, so maybe they missed what he was talking about. Basically, he said that America can take out any government it doesn’t like and do whatever it likes. It’s stunning. It’s people’s reaction to it that’s been extraordinary to me, that nobody’s taken notice of what he’s actually saying.

That's my emphasis, by the way.

But Terry might feel differently about all this, had he read the Winter Patriot column called Burn, which said virtually the same thing about Bush's inaugural address. Here's an excerpt:

Here we go again, but this time it's "writ large".

First it was Afghanistan, and the pretext was that the Taliban had something to do with September 11th. It was a war on "terrorists and those who harbor terrorists". It was a "hunt for Osama bin Laden". We were going to "smoke him out of his cave". We were going to do the right thing for a change. Yeah, right!

Then it was Iraq, and the pretext was that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Or maybe he had something to do with September 11th. Or maybe he was planning to get weapons of mass destruction. Or maybe he was planning to have something to do with September 11th. Or whatever. Whatever the American people might be willing to swallow. Yeah, right!

Now it's the rest of the world. And the pretext is going to be whatever George Bush decides it's going to be. Some "poor" country that doesn't have enough Freedom and therefore needs to be attacked. Or some "backwards" nation that doesn't have enough Democracy and therefore needs to be demolished. Just whatever. Whatever he feels like doing.

What's the difference? This one's easy: Terry Jones is much funnier.

On second thought, maybe Terry did read my column. And maybe when he says "nobody seemed to really notice", he's referring to me as "nobody". That would be pretty funny, too.