It is being reported today that Bush has had to put down his summer reading, Albert Camus' "The Stranger" and a biography of Lincoln, to concentrate on the top three crises at hand: Lebanon, UK terrorists, and the war in Iraq. Rueters

But MSNBC reports that Bush has finished Camus' "The Stranger" and found it a quick read.  Then he discussed existentialism with his aides, including Tony Snow.  

He read Albert Camus's The Stranger, triggering a discussion about existentialism with his aides. "He found it an interesting book and a quick read," said Mr Snow. "I don't want to go too deep into it, but we discussed the origins of existentialism." MSNBC

Bush, who has demonstrated scorn for the literate, has boasted about declining to read the daily newspapers, was advised by someone in his White House literati cabal, to read Camus' "The Stranger"  Plot summary follows with the Bush cycle.  

As Helen Thomas of Hearst Publications wrote:  "He walks into the Oval Office in the morning, and asks Chief of Staff Andrew Card: `What's in the newspapers worth worrying about? I glance at the headlines just to kind of (get) a flavor of what's moving,' Bush said. `I rarely read the stories,' he said."

BUSH AND READING

The Bush Dyslexicon
Observations on a National Disorder
By Mark Crispin Miller;
Norton & Company; 2001

As the Dyslexicon makes clear, this President would seem to be the most illiterate in US history. His is not the merely technical illiteracy of most Americans who, irrespective of their class or education, routinely make grammatical mistakes so slight that only pedants mind them: George W. Bush is so illiterate as to turn completely incoherent when he speaks without a script, or unless he thinks his every statement through so carefully beforehand that the effort empties out his face.

... His incapacity does not reflect one problem in particular, but several kinds of verbal defect. As Gail Sheehy has argued, the President may actually suffer from dyslexia. Surely that condition may explain his tendency to transpose words and to blurt out the opposite of what he means. It may also explain his frequent malapropisms ('hostile' for 'hostage,' 'arbitrary' for 'arbitration,' 'preserve' for 'persevere,' 'cufflink' for 'handcuff,' etc.)

For the faith-based emperor to delve into the reality based community is extraordinary.  Either Bush is now involved in a study of himself, or one of his aides has advised him that he'd better do so.  What an interesting time to dip into a study of discernable reality.  And remember, Bush is impressionable.

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''
Ron Suskind; "Without A Doubt;" Esquire, November, 2004

PLOT SUMMARY FOR BUSY EXECUTIVES

The Stranger: Plot Summary

Fight with Arabs

One day, Raymond brings Meursault and Marie to the beach to visit his friend, Masson. They see a group of Arabs following them (including the brother of Raymond's ex-girlfriend). Near a stream at the edge of the beach, the Arabs fight the three men, and run off. After the three men return to Masson's cottage and their respective female companions, Meursault returns to the beach with Raymond's gun. He comes across the same Arab as before, and before much provocation shoots him once. After he falls, Meursault shoots him three more times

Pre-Emptive Strike; Disproportionate Use of Force: Go to Jail

He comes across the same Arab as before, and before much provocation shoots him once. After he falls, Meursault shoots him three more times

The Trial: The Whole World is Watching

A Media Circus

His Character on Trial: Betrayed by his Intimate Friend(s)

When the case begins months later, it is a media circus.

Meursault observes his surroundings and sees every person he knows in court. The prosecuting and defense attorneys call them to testify on his character. Although all express their friendship and connection with Meursault fairly and in a positive light, it is Marie's testimony that ultimately destroys' Meursault's credibility.

An Apathetic Monster

The prosecuting attorney persistently describes Meursault's indifference towards his mother's death as monstrous and apathetic. So, when Marie explains that they began their relationship immediately after the funeral proceedings, the judges and jury and audience members are convinced that Meursault is truly the unfeeling monster that the prosecutor makes him out to be.

Convicted of Premeditated Murder, Sentenced to Death

Meursault is convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to public execution by guillotine.

Time in Prison to Ruminate Over His Life and Actions

While Meursault awaits his doom, he returns to prison and is forced to pass the time and think, again, of his life and actions. He is not changed.

There Is No God

The prison chaplain enters to speak with him, to urge him to find God and salvation. Meursault still does not believe in God and finds the man frustrating and annoying. He grabs hold of him and begins to yell until the prison guards restrain him.

Protagonist Comes To Consciousness

Excited on his last day, he hopes everyone cheers for his death

When the day of his execution arrives, Meursault understands Maman's actions and feelings prior to her death. He thinks that maybe he could live another life. Regardless, he is excited about the day. He walks out to the guillotine hoping that everyone cheers loudly for his death.

Bush Plot Cycle, "The Stranger"

1.    Fight with Arabs
2.    Pre-Emptive Strike; Disproportionate Use of Force: Go to Jail
3.    The Trial: The Whole World is Watching
4.    A Media Circus
5.    His Character on Trial: Betrayed by his intimate friend
6.    Exposed in Court as An Apathetic Monster
7.    Convicted of Premeditated Murder, Sentenced to Death
8.    Time in Prison to Ruminate Over His Life and Actions
9.    There Is No God
9.5    Protagonist Comes to Consciousness (NA)
10.    Excited about the day of his execution, he hopes everyone cheers for his death(NA)

FOLLOWING THE BUSH CYCLE

Where are we now in the Bush existential cycle?  The administration lawyers are busy trying to nullify those sections of the Geneva Conventions that would leave Bush liable for prosecution for War Crimes.

The disproportionate use of force is Israel's destruction of Lebanon, provoked by the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers (in "The Stranger" this is the fight on the beach), while the US swift-posts them more deadly weapons.  Since the open microphone in the G8 summit, the whole world is watching Bush the barbarian clown.  It's a media circus.

Bush has shifted from "faith-based" empire to "reality-based" reflection, (or at least his aides and advisors are shifting that way)  At the end of his term, the death sentence Bush contemplates is the end of his presidency, and his administration. Worst. President. Ever.

UPDATE 4:29 PM PST:

WHY DID BUSH GO EXISTENTIAL?

Not, as I thought, that his aides were feeding him reading material, but because Blair and Olhmert are using words Bush does not understand:

The security landscape has been changed dramatically and for the worse with the discovery of the alleged mid-air bomb plot last week. This affects us all. British prime minister Tony Blair might also be entitled to say ``I told you so'', for in his own very personal, inimitable way, he gave a dire warning of the threat from Islamic extremists as recently as the beginning of this month in his speech to the World Affairs Forum in Los Angeles.

``We are engaged in an existential struggle against radical Islam," Blair said, and most would recognise the argument, if not his rhetoric.

Sunday Business Post (Ireland)

Now it's time for Bush to be betrayed by his intimate friend.  Stay tuned as the Republicans distance themselves from GWB.  Stay tuned as Britain pulls away ideologically and tactically from the Bush War on Terror,

Exposed as an apathetic monster in the international press, his own advisors understand Bush's culpability for creating more terrorists and terrorism.  The latest terror-plot prevented in Britain was halted by investigation and appropriate police action.

Bush's comments on Islamic Fascists exposed him as an idiot.  These comments and the mentality that produced them are putting Americans in ever-increasing danger.  The international community is not willing to reap what Bush has sown.  

Does Calling It Jihad Make It So?
New York Times
August 13, 2006
By DAVID E. SANGER
SOON after the British police announced last week that they had broken up a plot to blow up aircraft across the Atlantic, President Bush declared the affair "a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists."
British officials, on the other hand, referred to the men in custody as "main players," and declined to discuss either their motives or ideology so that they would not jeopardize "criminal proceedings."

The difference in these initial public characterizations was revealing: The American president summoned up language reaffirming that the United States is locked in a global war in which its enemies are bound together by a common ideology, and a common hatred of democracy. For the moment, the British carefully stuck to the toned-down language of law enforcement.

A critical debate in America today -- among political candidates and among national security experts -- is whether five years of war declarations and war-making have helped to make the United States more secure. Or, even in the absence of a major attack on American soil since 9/11, has this strategy created greater danger by providing terror groups with exactly what they crave: the sense that they are a unified army of jihadists? And has the strategy radicalized large swaths of the Muslim world in ways that were not imaginable as recently as 2003?

What can we do to hasten the transition from faith-based crusade towards inevitable Armageddon-Rapture to a world of rationality, dialogue and diplomacy?  Well, on terrorism, read the international and especially the British press.  Read the Chatham Report on Terrorism 2005: Security, Terrorism and the UK  Bring a measured and reasoned approach into the dialogue.  

There is no hope that the president will come to consciousness. For Mr. Bush, I'm sure you can just see him in the terrors of delerium tremuns stuck under his bed, a huge bug on his back.  Do his head in: send him a copy of Sartre's "No Exit," Kafka's the "Metamorphosis" and "The Trial."  Keep it up, reality-based community.  You're winning.