As it turns out, Bush got 10 things right

Well, I just got my ~$1,000 refund check. You may be asking, "Xands how you make that paper? And what time do you get off work?" Well, going to a relatively inexpensive school has its benefits *sews together a money fan*

I'm already forming my shopping list--but alas! I've been schooled by my father to spend my money much more wisely this time, and...well since my birthday isn't until the summer anyway, this shouldn't be too bad.

Anyway, let's get to the good stuff. The Weekly Standard, something I don't think I've ever read until today with good reason, seems to figure that Bush did ten things right during his presidency. I don't know if that's at least ten things or maximum ten things, and I beg to differ muchly either way, but let's save our snickers and laughing and hear what the good people have to say.

Bush's Achievements (I guess.)

The postmortems on the presidency of George W. Bush are all wrong. The liberal line is that Bush dangerously weakened America's position in the world and rushed to the aid of the rich and powerful as income inequality worsened. That is twaddle. Conservatives--okay, not all of them--have only been a little bit kinder. They give Bush credit for the surge that saved Iraq, but not for much else.

And Jacob Marley was dead, to begin with.

Since the conservatives apparently hate lists I'm just going to number them out the best of my ability for you. You can pick and choose which ones you have beef with and which ones you'll begrudgingly nod your head on.

1. The Kyoto Protocol and halting "global warming hysteria"
2. Better terrorist interrogation & intelligence gathering tactics = saved Americans
3. Rebuilding Presidential authority
4. Supporting Israel
5. No Child Left Behind (dear fucking FSM who still believes this worked?)
6. Democracy promoted abroad, mission accomplished!
7. Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit of 03
8. John Roberts & Sam Alito (eh, begrudging head nod)
9. His widely ignored strengthening of ties with East Asian countries without making China angwwy
10. The Iraq Surge

I thought about calling this Bush's Commandments because Mr Barnes really does make W seem a bit like Moses. And I mean Charlton Heston Moses, partin the Red Sea and shit. It also ends on this questionable note:

How does Bush rank as a president? We won't know until he's judged from the perspective of two or three decades. Hindsight forced a sharp upgrading of the presidencies of Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. Given his achievements, it may have the same effect for Bush.

...Okay? If you're wondering "What the hell?" I think dude is trying to get at Truman & Eisenhower being hated on for most of their respective presidencies but now we look at them all rosy and what not. Which...really isn't that true unless you're still taking a high school course. In the big leagues we admit Truman fucked up. Not even going into how they both faced totally different challenges during their terms anyway, saying we'll be looking at Bush like we look at Eisenhower now is...incorrect.

...Actually, you know what, he may be right. Future generations will probably still be scratching their heads going "What?" during their US History Since 1999 class the way your fellow classmates probably tore their hair out trying to remember who came before Johnson. Am I being mean and biased?

To segue into something totally different, after reading this post from The Minority Militant (who is now code 10: pimp down, it seems...you gotta look behind those bushes man) and this post from Pharyngula, I have been blinking incessantly. Eyelids...eyelids. Those flaps of skin that just kind of hang out around your face? Yeah...it's hard to say you DON'T notice them, but as it turns out they're sort of a big deal with some Asians. I had no idea at all. This is why I love y'all, educatin me and what not.