I don't like Bush, but a Voodoo hex?

By -
Found this little gem over at Talking Points Memo:
A renowned black magic practitioner performed a voodoo ritual Thursday to jinx President George W. Bush and his entourage while he was on a brief visit to Indonesia.

Ki Gendeng Pamungkas slit the throat of a goat, a small snake and stabbed a black crow in the chest, stirred their blood with spice and broccoli before drank [sic] the "potion" and smeared some on his face.

"I don't hate Americans, but I don't like Bush," said Pamungkas, who believed the ritual would succeed as, "the devil is with me today."

First of all, although I share Mr. Pamungkas' (forgive me if I got your form of address wrong, but I don't know how Indonesian names work) dislike of Bush, I do not believe in the supernatural forces required to make such a ritual work. It does make for some great protest theater though. Sure beats holding up an "Impeachment Now!" sign in some free speech zone somewhere. Heck, he made Internal Monologue, which is pretty good for some voodoo practitioner in Indonesia. I feel sorry for the animals killed, but I kill animals (indirectly) for much less noble causes than protesting Bush (e.g. because they taste better than the soy substitutes), so I really have no moral grounds on which to complain.

Second of all, how exactly does Ki Gedeng Pamungkas expect to able to tell if his ritual has succeeded or not? President Bush seems pretty "jinxed" already. (Maybe some other practitioner of the dark arts got to him first.) Maybe this latest ritual will drive Bush's approval rating even lower than the low thirties in which it's currently wallowing.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I particularly liked the broccoli. I wonder if Bush II hates it as much as his father.
10:03 PM, November 17, 2006
Zachary Drake said…
That stood out for me as well.
10:48 PM, November 17, 2006
Anonymous said…
Of course this attempt is doomed to failure: I'm sure Bush already has the best shamans and worlocks that money can buy. In fact, we've probably already met them, only under other titles, such as "Deputy Chief of Staff."
11:24 PM, November 17, 2006
Zachary Drake said…
Maybe Rove thought he had "THE MATH" because his numerology predictions all pointed to a Republican victory.
11:35 AM, November 18, 2006
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Snarking The Odyssey (with AD&D)

By -
Image
WARNING: Those of you who are accustomed to pithy political remarks here on Internal Monologue should brace yourselves for a major dose of gaming geekitude. Here's a link to one "Jamie R." who does a very snarky close reading of Homer's The Odyssey (HT: Mad Latinist via email). I've only read book 1, but it's pretty funny so far. An excerpt: Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might he could not save his men… Sooooo, he’s in charge, and everybody dies. Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero and his colossal failure. What? … for they perished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the god prevented them from ever rea
Read more

Where is 56th and Wabasha? "Meet Me in the Morning" Dylan Mystery Solved

By -
Image
Short version The lyric is not "Fifty-sixth and Wabasha", it is actually "Fifty-six and Wabasha", referring to the intersection of old Minnesota Highway 56 and Wabasha Street in Saint Paul, Minnesota. If you listen, you can hear Dylan sing "fifty-six", rather than "fifty-sixth", particularly on the take that was released as the B-side to "Duquesne Whistle". Minnesota Highway 56 no longer intersects Wabasha Street, but from 1963 to 1974 it did intersect Wabasha Street, at what is now (in Feb. 2021) the intersection of George Street and Cesar Chavez Street in St. Paul, or possibly South Wabasha & Cesar Chavez.  Long Version "Meet Me in the Morning" is the first song on side two of Bob Dylan's celebrated 1975 album  Blood on the Tracks. In the opening lines of the song, according to the lyrics on Bob Dylan's official site (https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/meet-me-morning/), the narrator invites the listener to a rendez
Read more

Victim or perpetrator? How about both!

By -
Remember in the movie Adaptation , the main character's brother has this idea for a screenplay called The Three? It's about a detective trying to track down a serial killer before he kills his next victim. Pretty standard, right? The twist is that the detective, serial killer, and victim, are all actually the same person . Whoa, dude. Fight Club 's got nothin' on that one. Well, this isn't quite that weird. But apparently, Utah legal authorities are somewhat perplexed by a situation in which a 13-year-old girl and her 12-year-old boyfriend are both simultaneously the perpetrators and victims of the same crime: having sex with each other (HT: Feministing ): Utah Supreme Court justices acknowledged Tuesday that they were struggling to wrap their minds around the concept that a 13-year-old Ogden girl could be both an offender and a victim for the same act - in this case, having consensual sex with her 12-year-old boyfriend. The girl was put in this odd position be
Read more