Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Who Get's it Least?

I used to joke about the Alanis Morrisette song, "Ironic" because it seemed clear that she was having a hard time grasping that word. There wasn't any irony in the situations. Rain on your wedding day? Good advice you just didn't take? Black flies in your Chardonnay? Those aren't irony. They were just bummers.

But apparently she is not the only person who suffers from this challenge to their vocabulary.

The man who is still addressed as Mr. President seems to as well.

The word he doesn't understand? Disappointing.

I realized this while watching the Daily Show last night.

Abu Ghraib was not a disappointment. It was a horror. And the fact that we found out about it? Even that wasn't disappointing. It was inevitable and totally forseeable.

It isn't a disappointment that weapons of mass destruction weren't found in Iraq. It was only disappointing for Mr. Bush because he was no left to explain why it was that we were stuck in this stupid war. For the rest of us? It was a nightmare. It meant that despite our better judgment, we let that Git drag us into a war that is a disaster. We should have known better when Cheney walked around telling people that we would be greated as liberators. That seemed too good to be true. and it was.

So, Mr. Soon-To-Be-Former President? It is a disappointment to us that at this late date, you still don't get it.

And Alanis? Isn't it ironic that you wrote a song about defining irony for us when you, yourself, had no clue?

There.

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