Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Life Lessons From Science Fiction: Cheney On The Planet Of The Apes

"...we finally, really did it!! You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God...damn you all to hell!"
-Charlton Heston, Planet Of The Apes

Chimps are complex, intelligent creatures who have an altruistic impulse and will aid other chimps or even humans without promise of a reward. When a chimp sees someone else suffering, they feel badly about it.

Dick Cheney, according to today's Washington Post, is a complex, intelligent creature who reacted to watching Plane Number Two crash into the World Trade Center as follows:

Cheney made no sound. 'I remember turning my head and looking at the vice president, and his expression never changed,' said the witness, reading from a notebook of observations written that day. Cheney closed his eyes against the image for one long, slow blink.

"Three people who were present, not all of them admirers, said they saw no sign then or later of the profound psychological transformation that has often been imputed to Cheney. What they saw, they said, was extraordinary self-containment and a rapid shift of focus to the machinery of power. While others assessed casualties and the work of 'first responders,' Cheney began planning for a conflict that would call upon lawyers as often as soldiers and spies."

In the meantime, Halliburton continues to gouge Americans via no-bid contracts, and Dick continues to be both a member of the Executive and Legislative branches of the US Government, depending on which secrets he wants to hide, like a human Quantum Physics paradox.

I remember "Planet Of The Apes" well from my childhood. And I remember that it was the humans, not the apes, that Charlton Heston was yelling at. And he's a Republican, for God's sake!

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