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2002-01-31 | 1:11 p.m.

Bush came to Atlanta from Daytona Beach, Florida, where he urged Americans to seize the moment presented by Sept. 11 and change the country's ``feel good'' culture.

``Our culture has said, 'If it feels good, do it,''' he said in a speech at an emergency operations center. ``Our dream, or my dream for the country is that we usher in a culture that says 'Each of us are responsible for the decisions we make in life.''' (Reuters)

This guy is a piece of work, isn't he? Where he does he get off lecturing me and mine about "feel-goodism" and taking personal responsibility? We're talking about a man who spent his prime as a dissolute cokehead. A man who borrowed a lot of money from his father's friends (never expecting to pay it back) to buy a baseball team. A man who won't admit he's ever done anything wrong. (And if he's ever done anything good, just for the sake of doing good, I've yet to hear about it.)

His wife irritates the hell out of me, too. Some magazine reporter asked her whether she and her husband talk about politics at home and she insisted that no, they never do. We talk about our pets and our children, she said. She also explained that this pat answer had been taught to her by Barbara Bush (or maybe I read that in a profile of Columba Bush that I read in the St. Pete Times--wherever I read it, it was explained as being advice that Barbara Bush gave all the daughters-in-law). So in other words, either they do talk politics but she refuses to admit it for fear she'll be put in the awkward position of admitting that they don't always agree politically, or else she doesn't talk politics with him, which makes them seem infantile to an extreme degree.

Or maybe they really don't talk at all. Maybe, after 20 years of marriage and seven years of politics (!), all they have time for is quick updates about where the kids and dogs are currently located and who's getting spayed, neutered, or put down.

I feel like I should write a big ranting expose, but I don't have time and anyway, it's been done. I'd better stick to my small potatoes.

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