Annals of Stupidity is a Strategy
A footnote to the St. Michael’s assassination plot in the form of a quiz: In the famous photo, the bird feeder is “disguising” the spy camera the same way that those knit hats you see on top of some people’s toilets “disguise” extra rolls of toilet paper. It’s not about hiding the existence of the camera but about beautifying the existence of the camera. This fact is
a. Really obvious if you think for a second.
b. Stupendously obvious if you think for a second.
c. Completely obvious if you think for a second.
d. Really stupendously completely FUCKING obvious if you think for a second.
e. All of the above.
Comment by Kip W —
July 3, 2006 @ 5:58 pm
Heck, I thought Rummy had a real birdhouse there. You know, providing a place to live for some of our feathered friends, out of the goodness of his… of his… never mind. I’ll take ”E” for 800.
Comment by Jackmormon —
July 3, 2006 @ 7:09 pm
In all of the hullaballoo, nobody had managed to click through to the NYT article until you, Jim.
So it’s only now I learn that Rumsfeld owns the house where slaver Edward Covey tried to ”break” Frederick Douglass. That’s just fucking adorable.
Comment by Madeline F —
July 3, 2006 @ 8:03 pm
And it was a bed & breakfast before Rumsfeld bought it… I hope a lot of people Covey would’ve hated stayed there.
Comment by Madeline F —
July 3, 2006 @ 8:20 pm
I skimmed the ”plot” link. The stupid! It burns!
It reminds me of a letter some years ago to the UC Berekley paper from someone shocked to find that Berkeley was involved with atomic weapons. Prancing ignorant fucks.
Comment by Brian C.B. —
July 3, 2006 @ 9:04 pm
I think that the tip-off, for me, is that the bluebird house is mounted at eye-level facing the driveway and immediately adjacent to it. Not only is it so fucking obvious, after less than a second’s consideration, but it sparks a bit of self-answering speculation, too:
”I wonder whether this is the only camera covering the driveway entrance?”
Yeah. Maybe the freaking fucking obvious camera doesn’t even work, since the several other cameras are snapping away, only less obviously. And, then, you go on this whole ”Where’s Waldo?” excercise trying to pick out the smaller video feeds. In person, of course-they’re probably not visible in the Times photo. Perhaps why, too, Rumsfed gave permission to have the photo made and published. Because, you’re looking at the decoy.
I’ve never thought Bush and Rove were stupid. At getting and keeping power, they’re brilliant. Their acolytes, on the other hand…
Comment by Jackmormon —
July 3, 2006 @ 9:06 pm
That should have been ”nobody had convinced me to click through…”
I’m still a bit horrified, btw. Rumsfeld’s choice in vacation homes reminds me unpleasantly of the tone-deafness of re-using Abu Ghraib for detentions, which, even barring the abuses that surfaced, was a symbolically problematic decision.
Agreed on the people who post ”nuclear-free zones” signs right outside Lawrence Berkeley! You’d think they’d never heard of Berkelium!
Pingback by The Poor Man Institute » Amityville —
July 3, 2006 @ 9:34 pm
[...] And then, after he said “yes”, they took a picture of his house. And … that’s pretty much all there is to it. Pretty much, yeah. Anyway, from the Tre [...]
Comment by wade —
July 4, 2006 @ 4:55 am
ha! Rumsfeld lives at Mount Misery…..
Comment by Wild Pegasus —
July 4, 2006 @ 9:52 am
Thank goodness the adults are in charge.
- Josh
Comment by Nell —
July 4, 2006 @ 12:10 pm
By 1833, Mount Misery’s owner was Edward Covey, a farmer notorious for breaking unruly slaves for other farmers. One who wouldn’t be broken was Frederick Douglass, then 16 and later the abolitionist orator. Covey assaulted him, so Douglass beat him up and escaped.
So, with Rumsfeld in the Covey role, and Iraq as Douglass, the analogy is complete except for the part where Iraq ”escapes.” We’re still at the beating-up stage…