President Bush: “It Is Unacceptable to Think”

On Friday, President George W. Bush let it be known that in the United States of America it is unacceptable to think in ways that compare and contrast the policies of his administration and their tactics in executing those policies with the tactics of our enemies. Not only is it unacceptable to speak such comparisons, which his followers have already informed us it is un-American, unpatriotic and traitorous to do so, but we, the American people, must not even think of comparing tactics. Said our president from the Rose Garden of the White House, “It’s unacceptable to think that there’s any kind of comparison between the behavior of the United States of America and the action of Islamic extremists who kill innocent women and children to achieve an objective.”

I certainly hope that the behavior of the United States of America is nothing like the actions of Islamic extremists who kill innocent women and children to achieve an objective. But why is it unacceptable to think of it and confirm that no American has done anything in anyway comparable to these “Islamic extremists” of whom the president speaks.

Isn’t this a free country? Aren’t all Americans afforded the constitutional right to say things as long as they do not endanger others or are slanderous? Aren’t we allowed further to write and read such things and consider them? But President Bush tells us that we are not allowed to think certain things. Granted the US Constitution does not explicitly grant a right to think. But don’t we assume that if we have a right to speak we also have a right to think upon those things of which we might say?

Not so, says the president, who has already instituted “free speech zones,” areas where those who dissent from his viewpoint are relegated away from the public and media’s eyes during public speaking engagements. Will we now see “free thought zones” allowing Americans to consider the possibility of similarity between US and enemy behavior? Apparently not since President Bush has stated plainly that, “It’s unacceptable to think that there’s any kind of comparison between the behavior of the United States of America and the action of Islamic extremists who kill innocent women and children to achieve an objective.”

With increasing limitations placed on those dissenting from the president’s viewpoints this does seem to follow.

Keith Olbermann puts it better than I can here.

Think happy thoughts all, OR ELSE!