IT'S NEWT!
















VERSUS BUGS!

Yes. The great pontificator meets the great provocateur in the debate we've all been waiting for. All dialogue is guaranteed verbatim (As Casey Stengel said: “You can look it up”) albeit out of context, and in the case of Mr. Bunny, out of toontext. All is accurate and can be found in the official record. No additional words or phrases have been added.

BUGS BUNNY: Eh, what's up, doc?

NEWT GINGRICH: “I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time [my grandchildren are] my age they will be in a secular atheist country,

BB: Well, what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?

NG:….potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American

BB: Ahhh, don't take life too seriously. You'll never get out alive.

NG: Obama is so outside our comprehension…

BB: I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque!

NG: ….that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together his actions?

BB: And remember, 'mud' spelled backwards is 'dum'.

NG: “The idea that a congressman would be tainted by accepting money from private industry or private sources is essentially a socialist argument.

BB: What an embezzle! What an ultramaroon!

NG: “It doesn’t matter what I do. People need to hear what I have to say. There’s no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn’t matter what I live.”

BB: My, I'll bet you monsters lead innnnteresting lives.

NG: “The secular socialist machine represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did.”

BB: Do you happen to know what the penalty is for shooting a fricaseeing rabbit without a fricaseeing rabbit license?

NG: This is one of the great tragedies of the Bush administration.

BB: Shhhhhhhh! I'm about to defy you.

NG: It’s almost like they should every once in a while have allowed an attack to get through just to remind us.”

BB: Eeeeeeh, watch me paste that pathetic palooka with a powerful, pachydermous, percussion pitch

NG: "A mere 40 years ago, beach volleyball was just beginning… and that's what freedom is all about.

BB: Carrots are divine... You get a dozen for a dime, It's maaaa-gic!

NG: “I want to say to the elite of this country—

BB: Ah, your brother blows bubble gum!

NG: The elite news media, the liberal academic elite, the liberal political elite: I accuse you …

BB: I wonder what the poor bunnies are doing this season?

NG: ...of being afraid to talk about the mess you have made, and being afraid to take responsibility for things you have done… ‘

BB: I bet you say that to all the wabbits.

NG: What is the primary purpose of a political leader?

BB: Hey, I found Nemo!

NG: To build a majority. If voters care about parking lots, then talk about parking lots.”

BB: Jumpin' without a parachute? Kinda dangerous, ain't it?

NG “How can you have the mess we have in New Orleans, and not have had deep investigations of the federal government, the state government, the city government?

BB: I know this defies the law of gravity, but I never studied law!

NG: “…22,000 people were so uneducated and so unprepared, they literally couldn't get out of the way of a hurricane.”

BB: For shame, doc. Hunting rabbits with an elephant gun. Why don't you shoot yourself an elephant?

NG: “It is impossible to maintain civilization with 12-year-olds having babies…

BB: Gee, ain't I a stinker?

NG: with 15-year-olds killing each other… “If the Soviet empire still existed, I'd be terrified.

BB: I'll be scared later. Right now I'm too mad.

NG: … with 17-year-olds dying of AIDS and with 18-year-olds getting diplomas they can't read

BB: Oh, well, we almost had a romantic ending!

NG: “I’m running for President.”

BB: Of course you realize this means war!


A CLARIFICATION.

My wife Ellen challenged some of my observations in my previous post regarding Muslim practice and tradition. She and my sister Debby along with some other women friends took a trip to Morocco a few years back and witnessed a world that is considerably less repressive and constrained than what I described in my reflections after reading Bernard Lewis' historical account of the region. The trip they took was filled with gracious, warm and generous hospitality from their hosts and much of what they encountered bore few signs of the kind of insulated inbred ignorance and intolerance that I cited as prevalent aspects of Muslim life. I am no expert, and have not traveled to any Muslim countries and so I have no direct experience to inform my perspective. However, neither I, nor Lewis in his book, think that the tenets of the religion nor history of its culture are mirrors into which one can see an accurate reflection of the people who live and work and raise their families under its influence. Howard Zinn, who I mentioned in a previous post, was dedicated to making this distinction a cornerstone of his historical outlook. The ruling classes in every civilization are always operating under a different agenda than the masses living under their control. The average muslim man or woman is no different than the average man or woman anywhere in the world where the desire for physical health, family security, dignity and self-respect are the constants that bind us all together in a shared global commonality. And that has nothing to do with the ambitions and actions of a select few whose quest for power or obligation to maintain empire feeds an altogether different purpose. I think Zinn's greatest contribution was in his rejection of traditional historical scholarship that ascribes motives and intents to entire civilizations and cultures that are in truth nothing more than the paternalistic preoccupations of a powerful minority in control of the means of economic production and political influence. Zinn understood that the lives of the vast majority of human beings in the world who work and struggle to live productive and decent lives under the always volatile and often corrupting influences of the ruling class is where the most important historical narrative resides. So, in short, sorry if I besmirched the character of the Muslim masses--I only meant to call into question the beliefs and actions of those who have exploited them for profit, power and self-righteous glory.