Word: doofuses
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...will come to pass. Chester A. Arthur will remain Chester A. Arthur, and there is nothing you can do about it. But beware. Lewinsky or no Lewinsky, the American presidency still inspires some reverence - an awe that may work in complex ways. Voters may put an apparent doofus in the White House, yet in their awe, may trust that the presidency's sacramental, transformative powers will, so to speak, transubstantiate the doofus. Historical memory teaches that a base metal like Harry Truman, and therefore maybe even George W. Bush, might yet turn into gold - or anyway, be raised to unexpected...
...attack. The temptation to firebomb in those areas of vulnerability will, I suspect, be too great to resist. What areas? In the case of George W. Bush: abortion, capital punishment, gun control - all fairly passionate and motivating issues - and on top of those, what might be called the Doofus Dismissal: the persistent rap that he is not smart enough to be president. The first three questions will invite increasingly vicious us-versus-them rhetoric; the last will eat away at Bush by insinuation and late-night comedy...
Outside Providence--the title refers to Tim's native habitat, Pawtucket, R.I., as well as to the silence of God when it comes to doofus teenagers--works in mysterious ways its wonders to perform. For the coming-of-age cliches don't stop once Tim settles in at Cornwall. There are a sadistic housemaster, a hidebound headmaster, a geeky roommate and a duplicitous pal to contend with, and the prettiest girl on campus (Amy Smart) to woo, ruin and redeem. One finds oneself asking how such familiar stuff breeds contentment instead of contempt...
...crowd, of course, may at any moment become a mob, devolving into a single, violent mind. It's too bad that the Doofus of Mayhem (to give the idiot a title, like the Duke of Windsor) got loose at this third Woodstock...
...what this study shows is the extent to which subconscious racist attitudes still afflict even highly educated, humane white people who sincerely believe they do not have a prejudiced bone in their body. In what might be called the Alfred E. Neuman syndrome--after the Mad magazine character whose doofus slogan was "What--me worry?"--people in this group tend to react with shocked innocence when minorities complain about the persistence of unfair treatment. "What--me racist?" they seem to say. "Perish the thought...