Sunday, January 25, 2009

Bush trimming

Conservation of negativity

A few people have felt compelled to point out to me that the Bush countdown clock in the right margin of my blog has served its purpose: “Hey Zeno, your Bush countdown is moot now.” Well, maybe. But I'm still enjoying it. I deliberately left it in place to see if it would decrement into negative numbers and was pleased to see that it did. While a negative influence has been removed from the White House, a negative factor now appears in the countdown clock. Negativity has been conserved!

And Bush's place in history is secure.

The clock won't last much longer. For now, though, it serves as a reminder every time I visit my blog that he really is gone. It's a nice feeling.

Goodbye and good riddance.



9 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is your blog, after all.

Anonymous said...

So does this, perhaps, mean that you are now a bona fide "Naterring nabob of negativity"? Or that perhaps the people bugging you about your counter are?

Zeno said...

I wear the title "nattering nabob of negativity" with pride, since it was the late Spiro T. Agnew's term of abuse for the "radical liberal" critics of the Nixon administration. (It passed out of general usage after Agnew was convicted of a felony.)

Anonymous said...

I'm vaguely familiar with the actual meaning of the term (As much so as can be, given Nixon's days mercifully ended a decade before I came into the picture)

But it did seem like an appropriate non-sequitir for the situation.

Barry Leiba said...

It was actually written by William Safire, who was a Nixon speechwriter at the time (and it's "negativism"; gotta get these things right).

As to the counter, I chose to take mine off right at noon on 20 January. I let it click to 0:00:00, and then replaced it with a photo of President Obama (&deity, but it feels good to say/type that!). Mais, à chacun, son goût.

Zeno said...

You're right, Barry. I knew that Safire had written the phrase, but I had forgotten about "negativism." Of course, these days I'm more into "positivism."

Anonymous said...

Of course, these days I'm more into "positivism."

I'ts only logical...

Anonymous said...

You voted for him, you got him, Obama!

See you in four years.

Zeno said...

See you in four years, Xliberal? Please don't feel obligated! You're welcome to stay away much longer.