Is Bush Nuts? by William Thomas

[Guest guest]

http://www.willthomas.net/911/Bush/

 

Is Bush Nuts? by William Thomas

 

 

What drives a man to go against the wishes of his

countryfolk and the entire world community - including

the presidents of Russia, China, France and Germany?

 

How can a professed Christian continue to defy church

leaders worldwide - including the Bishops of Britain

and the Pope? How does he rationalize breaking the

commandments of his God, which clearly prohibit

coveting another's property, theft of their oil, and

mass murder of defenseless populations?

 

 

How can he ignore his own generals when they complain,

" We're advocating a policy that says we will invade

another nation that is not currently attacking us or

invading any of our allies. " [Capitol Hill Blue Jan,

22, 2003]

 

To those who deem it unseemly to count the brick's on

one man's load, let us recall that this unelected

President is one brick short of killing what the UN

fears could be up to a half-million people in Iraq.

This massacre could easily see Pakistan's government –

and its 30 to 40 nukes – falling to an al

Qaeda/Taliban majority. Bush's announced plans to

attack North Korea and Iran have already prompted both

countries to hit the nuclear gas pedal, virtually

assuring a " nuclear event " . And his $5 trillion

blowout has taken the American economy to a $2

trillion deficit in two short years. As ignored global

warming triggers Extreme Weather Events, frightened

Nobel price-winning economists warn that GW's proposed

$600 billion tax cut is " fiscal madness " - " a very

serious economic error " that will collapse the country

in exactly the same way the ex-Soviet Empire went bust

buying and deploying so many arms in so many places.

Ditto Imperial Rome.

 

Are these the acts of a rational person?

 

Not since Nixon's famous freak-outs in the White

House, which saw National Security Adviser Henry

Kissinger ordering military commanders to ignore

nuclear launch orders from their Commander-In-Chief,

is it so urgent that we examine a president's

cognitive capacities. [The Trial of Henry Kissinger]

 

It might be useful to scrutinize the following

findings. While everyone " goes nuts " from time to

time, the salient question is whether traits described

below dominate and drive today's presidential

decisions. Is a man called by other government reps,

" an idiot " " an imbecile " " dangerously incompetent " and

" a moron " competent, capable and qualified to direct

America's unchallenged military might?

 

Read on. If you dare.

 

Pattern Recognition

" Is The 'President' Nuts? " asks Carol Wolman, M.D.

" Many people, inside and especially outside this

country, believe that the American president is nuts,

and is taking the world on a suicidal path. "

[Counterpunch Oct. 2, 2002]

 

A board-certified psychiatrist in practice for 30

years, Dr. Wolman feels compelled to understand the

" psychopathology " of man " under tremendous pressure

from both his family/junta, and from the world at

large. " Dr. Wolman wonders if GW is suffering from

Antisocial Personality Disorder, as described in the

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Fourth Edition:

 

" There is a pervasive pattern of disregard for and

violation of the rights of others: 1) failure to

conform to social norms with respect to lawful

behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts

that are grounds for arrest; 2) deceitfulness, as

indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or

conning others for personal profit or pleasure; 5)

reckless disregard for safety of self or others; 7)

lack of remorse by being indifferent to or

rationalizing having hurt, mistreated or stolen from

others. "

 

Dry Drunk

GW Bush is highly regarded for " kicking " the twin

demons of cocaine and alcohol addiction. If he is

still off both wagons and there is no proof that isn't

– such a triumph, encouraged and aided by his wife, is

commendable.

 

When probing the mysteries of GW's brain chemistry, a

key point to ponder is that damage done to brain cells

from drug abuse is permanent and irreversible.

 

Quaker and university professor Katherine van Wormer

co-authored the definitive, 2002, Addiction Treatment.

This expert writes that " George W. Bush manifests all

the classic patterns of what alcoholics in recovery

call 'the dry drunk'. His behavior is consistent with

being brought on by years of heavy drinking and

possible cocaine use. " [Counterpunch Oct. 11, 2002]

 

" Dry drunk, " explains the professor, " is a slang term

used by members and supporters of Alcoholics Anonymous

and substance abuse counselors to describe the

recovering alcoholic who is no longer drinking - one

who is dry, but whose thinking is clouded. "

 

Such an individual is 'dry' but not truly sober. Such

individuals tend to go to overboard. A good example of

Bush' " polarized thinking " is his call for " crusades "

based on " infinite justice " for " evil-doers "

comprising an " axis of evil " .

 

Bush's " obsessive repetition " also remind this

professor, " of many of the recovering

alcoholics/addicts I had treated. " Van Wormer

worriers, " His power, in fact, is such that if he

collapses into paranoia, a large part of the world

will collapse with him. "

 

Paranoia? Impatience? Rigid judgmental outlook?

Grandiose behavior? Childish behavior? Irresponsible

behavior? Irrational rationalization? Projection?

Overreaction? these are all " dry drunk " traits.

 

Van Wormer observers that Bush's pompous pledge: " We

must be prepared to stop rogue states and their

terrorist clients before they are able to threaten or

use weapons of mass destruction " is a projection from

the world's leading rogue state preparing to attack

with nuclear weapons.

 

" Bush's tendency to dichotomize reality " should be

emphasized. Prof. van Wormer describes this is as

either/or reasoning - " either you are with us or

against us " . A White House spokesperson puts it this

way: " The President considers this nation to be at

war, and, as such, considers any opposition to his

policies to be no less than an act of treason.''

[Capitol Hill Blue Jan, 22, 2003]

 

 

BUSH'S BINGES – HISTORY IMPACTS THE PRESENT

Bush's binges were legendary. Van Wormer describes

" years of binge drinking starting in college, at least

one conviction for DUI in 1976 in Maine, and one

arrest before that for a drunken episode involving

theft of a Christmas wreath. " She adds:

 

" The Bush biography reveals the story of a boy named

for his father, sent to the exclusive private school

in the East where his father's reputation as star

athlete and later war hero were still remembered. The

younger George's achievements were dwarfed in the

school's memory of his father. Athletically he could

not achieve his father's laurels, being smaller and

perhaps less strong. His drinking bouts and lack of

intellectual gifts held him back as well. His military

record was mediocre as compared to his father's as

well. [He went AWOL] "

 

In Fortunate Son, Bush himself explained: " Alcohol

began to compete with my energies ... I'd lose focus " .

Though he once said he couldn't remember a day he

hadn't had a drink, he quickly added the giveaway

phrase that he didn't believe he was " clinically

alcoholic " .

 

Van Wormer notes that " Bush drank heavily for over 20

years until he made the decision to abstain at age 40.

About this time he became a 'born again Christian' –

going as usual from one extreme to the other. " When

asked in an interview about his reported cocaine use,

he answered reasonably, " I'm not going to talk about

what I did 20 to 30 years ago " .

 

One motive driving Dubya could be his need " to prove

himself to his father - to achieve what his father

failed to do - to finish the job of the Gulf War, to

get the 'evildoer' Saddam. " Adds van Wormer, " His

drive to finish his father's battles is of no small

significance, psychologically. "

 

 

Brain Damage

According to Van Wormer, " scientists can now observe

changes that occur in the brain as a result of heavy

alcohol and other drug abuse. Some of these changes

may be permanent. "

 

Van Wormer characterizes this damage as " barely

noticeable but meaningful. " Researchers have found

that brain chemistry irregularities caused by long

bouts of drinking or drug abuse cause " messages in one

part of the brain to become stuck there. This leads to

maddening repetition of thoughts. "

 

One of these powerful " stuck " thoughts, says van

Wormer, is that " President Bush seems unduly focused

upon getting revenge on Saddam Hussein ('He tried to

kill my Dad'), leading the country and the world into

war, accordingly. "

 

Grandiosity is another major trait of former addicts

brain-damaged by their addiction. Bush has reversed

the successful, five-decade old U.S. policy of

containment and no first strikes. Now he says,

Americans can attack anyone, anywhere at any time with

any weapons of their choosing – including banned

cluster bomb munitions, radioactive explosives and

nuclear bombs.

 

 

AN AGENT OF ARMAGEDDON?

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, a

person suffering from Narcissistic Personality

Disorder, " Has a grandiose sense of

self-importance-exaggerates achievements and talents,

expects to be recognized as superior without

commensurate achievements. "

 

Sound familiar?

 

This personality is preoccupied with fantasies of

power and being loved. Such a person requires

" automatic compliance " . He or she is " exploitative " of

others, " lacks empathy, is unwilling to recognize or

identify with the feelings and needs of others. " And

also " shows arrogant, haughty behavior or attitudes. "

 

" This set of characteristics, " says Dr. Wolman, not

too reassuringly, " may describe Rumsfeld and Cheney

better than Dubya. "

 

For those who, like Nobel Prize winner Joseph

Stieglitz, warn that Bush " has been captured by a

small group of ideologues,” Dependent Personality

Disorder describes someone who " has difficulty making

everyday decisions without an excessive amount of

advice and reassurance from others. " [CBC Feb. 10,

2003]

 

From a Jungian perspective, writes Dr. Wolman, " Dubya

may be identifying with an archetype – something out

of Revelations, perhaps, whereby he sees himself as an

instrument of God's will to bring about Armageddon. "

Concurs Katherine van Wormer, " To fight evil, Bush is

ready to take on the world, in almost a Biblical

sense. "

 

 

A PRESIDENTIAL PATHOLOGY

Is Bush's belligerence bent on securing another oil

fix? Katherine van Wormer believes that a Portland

peace protestor's sign, " Drunk on Power " nailed it.

Says this quiet Quaker, " The drive for power can be an

unquenchable thirst, addictive in itself. "

 

Senator William Fulbright agrees. His bestseller, The

Arrogance of Power defined power politics as the

pursuit of power. " The causes and consequences of war

may have more to do with pathology than with

politics, " Fulbright wrote.

 

A key " dry drunk " trait is impatience. Bush, who often

describes himself as " a patient man " , is not. Just

four weeks after inspectors went into Iraq, he called

for obliterating Baghdad. " If we wait for threats to

fully materialize " , Bush pointed out to West Pointers,

" we will have waited too long " . Translations: It's

okay to attack projections of our own fearful

imaginings – in case those phantom threats someday

become real.

 

Alan Bisbort's " Dry Drunk - Is Bush Making a Cry for

Help? " appeared in American Politics Journal. Bisbort

believes that Bush's " incoherence " when speaking away

from prepared scripts is a classic sign of addicted

brain damage.

 

For Bisbort, another " dry drunk " tip-off is Dubya's

irritability with anyone who dares disagree with him –

including Germany's new leader, who insists he is

opposing Bush's folly in Iraq as a concerned long-time

friend of America. (Schroeder's wife is American.)

 

Another " Dry drunk " sign says van Wormer, is Dubya's

" dangerous obsessing about only one thing (Iraq) to

the exclusion of all other things. "

 

Van Wormer's bottom line prognosis: " George W. Bush

seems to possess the traits characteristic of

addictive persons who still have the thought patterns

that accompany substance abuse. The fact that some

residual effects from his earlier substance abuse -

however slight - might cloud the U.S. President's

thinking and judgment is frightening, however, in the

context of the current global crisis. "

 

 

DON'T LAUGH

The Toronto Star recounts how NYU author and media

critic Mark Crispin Miller attempted to catalogue GW's

verbal gaffes. Some favorites: " The vast majority of

our imports come from outside the country. " " If we

don't succeed, we run the risk of failure. "

 

" The future will be better tomorrow. "

 

" He meant it for a laugh, " wrote the Star. " Not now. "

 

The author of Boxed In: The Culture of TV believes

" Bush is not an imbecile. He's not a puppet. I think

that Bush is a sociopathic personality. I think he's

incapable of empathy. He has an inordinate sense of

his own entitlement, and he's a very skilled

manipulator. And in all the snickering about his

alleged idiocy, this is what a lot of people miss. "

 

Miller's judgment - that an unelected president might

suffer from a clinical personality disorder - is much

heavier than being called the global village idiot.

" He has no trouble speaking off the cuff when he's

speaking punitively, when he's talking about violence,

when he's talking about revenge. When he struts and

thumps his chest, his syntax and grammar are fine, "

Miller mentions. " It's only when he leaps into the

wild blue yonder of compassion, or idealism, or

altruism, that he makes these hilarious mistakes. "

 

Bush even has trouble repeating comforting clichés.

" Fool me once, shame ... shame on ... you, " Long,

uncomfortable pause. " Fool me - can't get fooled

again! "

 

While the world was laughing, Miller saw something

darker. " What's revealing about this is that Bush

could not say, `Shame on me' to save his life. That's

a completely alien idea to him. This is a guy who is

absolutely proud of his own inflexibility and

rectitude, " wrote Miller.

 

Miller says that Bush saying, " I know how hard it is

to put food on your family " is not 'cause he's stupid,

but " because he doesn't care about people who can't

put food on the table. "

 

When Bush is envisioning " a foreign-handed foreign

policy, " Miller contends it's because he can't keep

his focus on things that mean nothing to him. " When he

tries to talk about what this country stands for, or

about democracy, he can't do it, " Miller observes.

 

According to Miller, this is why GW is so closely

watched by his handlers. " Not because he'll say

something stupid, " the Star paraphrased, " but because

he'll overindulge in the language of violence and

punishment at which he excels. "

 

" He's a very angry guy, a hostile guy, " Miller says.

" He's much like Nixon. So they're very, very careful

to choreograph every move he makes. They don't want

him anywhere near protestors, because he would lose

his temper. " Adds this media expert, " It would be a

grave mistake to just play him for laughs. "

 

 

DEPRESSION CAN BE DANGEROUSLY DEPRESSING

Confronted by a man who will not listen to anyone but

a few " chickenhawks " urging worldwide war, why

shouldn't we feel depressed? Not surprisingly, we do.

 

Seventy percent of U.S. pastors constantly fight

depression. Right now, almost three million Canadians

are seriously depressed. (Multiply by four or five for

approximate U.S. figures.) We can't blame GW for this.

Or the fact that suicide is the 3rd leading cause of

death in 15 to 24 year olds. But as the man

responsible for perpetrating a worldwide bummer,

George isn't helping! [www.tonycooke.org; National

Institute of Mental Health]

 

If it's politically incorrect to ask these questions,

how " correct " is it to launch 800 cruise missiles and

thousands of one-ton bombs on a captive urban

population already suffering the ravages of

deliberately imposed hunger and disease?

 

 

Choka Cola

Another big clue to Dubya's displays of dementia comes

in " photo-ops " showing him slugging back diet Coke

with other Aspartame addicts, like Chicago's mayor

Richard Daley. Their beet red faces spell either

embarrassment over Bush's hijacking of America, or

aspartame poisoning. [Chicago Sun Times, Sept. 27,

2002]

 

According to Carol Guilford, an Aspartame expert and

support worker, the President-Select's " pretzel "

pratfall was most likely an Aspartame seizure. Bush,

like Carter, Al Gore and millions of Americans, is

addicted to this constant caffeine hit. Among the

FDA's listed 92 symptoms for Aspartame poisoning are:

" Difficulty Swallowing " , " Fainting " and

" Unconsciousness " .

 

Bush's facial lesions, removed as a result of " Too

much sun " is another sign of Aspartame poisoning. So

was his recent knee surgery: Aspartame depletes

synovial fluid lubricating the joints.

 

Would you drink 6 to 12 cans of formaldehyde a day? It

turns out that methanol in Aspartame converts to

formaldehyde in the tissues. As Guildford wrote to USN

Captain Eleanor Marino, Physician to the President

(Feb. 21, 2002): 10% of a 200mg can of diet soda is

straight methanol wood alcohol! Methanol is such a

gross cumulative poison, the EPA's limit for drinking

water is 7.8 mg daily. For serious addicts like Bush,

the methanol intake can exceed 32 times the EPA's

recommended limit..

 

Now the punch line: Clinical case studies shows that,

among other symptoms, Aspartame ingestion results in

" mind fog " , feeling " unreal " , poor memory, confusion,

anxiety, irritability, depression, mania, and slurred

speech. [Neurology 1994]

 

Alcohol-related brain damage is not helped by chugging

formaldehyde. James Turner, consumer protection lawyer

and author of The Chemical Feast learned that an Oct.

1980 FDA inquiry found that the formaldehyde formed by

Aspartame actually eats microscopic holes and triggers

tumors in the brain.

 

That finding banned Aspartame from the food supply.

But three months later, Searle CEO Donald Rumsfeld

told that pharma giant's sales staff he would get

Aspartame approved pronto. The next month, the FDA

commissioner was replaced by Dr. Arthur Hayes. In Nov.

1983 the FDA approved aspartame for soft drinks. Under

fire for accepting corporate bribes, Hayes went to

work for Searle's public-relations firm. Searle lawyer

Robert Shapiro coined the name NutraSweet. Monsanto

bought Searle. Rumsfeld received $12 million for his

help. Shapiro now heads Monsanto.

 

The same " revolving door " swings wide for arms makers

and the oil mafia. The Big Question is: Why hasn't

Dick warned George that the diet drinks he's swilling

are eating his brain and making him crazy?

 

Crazy? Am I calling the President-Select of the

Excited States crazy? Not me. As a journalist, I can

only point out that published medical evidence goes

frighteningly far in explaining GW's behavior. For

certain, this good ol' boy should go in for a brain

scan before being allowed to command more firepower

than the next 11 nations combined. If George W. Bush

is not crazy - he's sure acting like it.