Is it Pathology, Evil, or What? Sometimes I think the road from psychopathology to politics is not such a very long stretch, but a look at todays news, I dunno. It is often so tempting to reduce class dynamics and power politics to individual behavior, and when the social becomes bizzare, it often seems that they become one and the same. After looking at this stuff, figure it out for yourself. In the book, Bush on the Couch, to be released Tuesday, Justin A. Frank, a clinical professor at George Washington University Medical Center, claims President Bush exhibits "sadistic tendencies" and suffers from "character pathology," including "grandiosity" and "megalomania" -- viewing himself, America and God as interchangeable. ,,, Frank concludes in the book: "Our sole treatment option -- for his benefit and for ours -- is to remove President Bush from office . . . before it is too late." How many remember Son of Sam, the nice boy from NY who just liked to kill a few (13) people. OK, he's back, the nice Christian man who wants to save people, but he has a web page (of course tied to right wing evangelicals). I guess, you can do evil things and then simply convert? Or in Bush's case you can just wrap your evil up in pseudo-Christian theology and justify it that way. From what I can tell, it is not a problem of intelligence but attention span and memory. The Public just has a very short memory and is easily distracted. Its the only way the politicos and corporate bosses can keep foisting off all the crap on the public. People simply don't remember. Ask people about Afghanistan ("huh?"), WMDs ("a new burger from McSludge) or Federal deficits? For most, some vague recollection -"oh, that name rings a bell (but I don't know which bell)." Ask them even harder questions about Iran-Contra, US support of Saddam, the Star Wars boondoggle, the first fiasco in Iraq, etc. etc. and its blank stares - simply no idea. There is no individual or public memory in this country. There are several reasons why such as the sensationsalist nature of the mass media or the disconnected character of experience in modern society but whatever the reason, the (same)shit continues because people forget the shit of the (immediate)past.