Book-It 'o15! Book #15
The Fifty Books Challenge, year six! ( 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014) This was a secondhand find.
Title: Pardon My President by Seth Grahame-Smith
Details: Copyright 2008, Quirk Books
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover):
"Whether you voted for Bush or not, you owe the world an apology. He’s your president, after all, and the last eight years have been disastrous. Pardon My President features dozens of ways to say “I’m sorry”-just sign your name, fold along the score lines, and add a stamp.
Here are hilarious and heartbreaking apologies to John McCain, Barack Obama, Queen Elizabeth II, the people of Iraq, schoolteachers, pretzel manufacturers, the Louisiana Superdome cleaning staff, and everyone else the Bush administration has wronged, including
• Fiscal Conservatives: “Six years after taking office, George Bush and his Republican-controlled Congress had taken those surpluses and turned them into the largest debt in the history of our nation-more than $9 trillion.”
• L’Oréal USA: “I’d like to apologize to you and the rest of the cosmetics industry for the physical appearance of Katherine Harris. . . .While millions of women use your products safely and responsibly, an unfortunate few abuse them in vile and disgusting ways.”
• The English language (c/o Harvard University Department of English): “No individual, with the possible exception of Larry the Cable Guy, has wronged you so profoundly.”
• Harry M. Whittington: “I’m sorry Dick Cheney shot you in the face.”
This collection of witty, ready-to-mail apologies offers essential reading for Bush bashers, disenchanted Republicans, and anyone looking for a clean start in 2009."
Why I Wanted to Read It: As Barack Obama's presidency draws to a close (sort of?) and we shrink back from the already thriving media circus that is the 2016 Presidential election, pieces of ephemera like this are often interesting to gauge a point in time (particularly when it's one you remember). It's also pretty simplistic humor.
How I Liked It: The book is indeed of the time and offers reminders of the Bush regime in pop culture (the then still-new stark divide of red and blue state ala the apology letter to the Dixie Chicks proclaiming a disinterest in them to the point of not being caught dead with their music before the now-infamous remarks against President Bush and subsequent backlash) and does indeed offer a few chuckles (the color orange merits an apology for its significance in the terror alert level, the address being The National Gallery of Art) as well as a few solid points (in apologizing to various officials that President Bush and/or his allies offended, the book makes note of their contribution that make the offense all the more injust).
However, the book hammers home another, more important point (however accidentally) that is perhaps the most useful for the book's intended audience.
Notable: That point? Just because someone identifies as a Democrat, a liberal, and/or a Bush opponent, it does NOT guarantee they are progressive socially. Why is this something that needs reminding? Because all too often, it's something taken for granted and marginalized groups are left wondering why they've bothered aligning themselves to a "side" that's only going to continue to disrespect them.
What do I mean? The author is a Bush critic (to put it mildly) and apparently a supporter of many "progressive" causes. He even criticizes various homophobic, misogynist, and racist actions taken by Bush and his allies. That said? He resorts to many of the same insults ("Saxby Chambliss sounds like a perfume worn by French transsexuals [sic]") and oppression (Katherine Harris's make-up looks like the Joker "dressed as a whore for Halloween" and one of the reasons Valerie Plame is such a remarkable person is the fact she's "wicked hot") as beloved and cherished by "the other side". But the author has the temerity to actually offer apologies to women, gays, and Blacks (among other marginalizations) for their treatment under this administration, thereby allegedly aligning himself with progress. There's also fatshaming, arguable ableism (suggesting that Alberto Gonzales has Alzheimer's), and a distressing amount of rape jokes.
This book's best service is not catharsis but reminder; not of an era per se, but of the fact political affiliation does not guarantee progression, even when it's obvious it should.
Title: Pardon My President by Seth Grahame-Smith
Details: Copyright 2008, Quirk Books
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover):
"Whether you voted for Bush or not, you owe the world an apology. He’s your president, after all, and the last eight years have been disastrous. Pardon My President features dozens of ways to say “I’m sorry”-just sign your name, fold along the score lines, and add a stamp.
Here are hilarious and heartbreaking apologies to John McCain, Barack Obama, Queen Elizabeth II, the people of Iraq, schoolteachers, pretzel manufacturers, the Louisiana Superdome cleaning staff, and everyone else the Bush administration has wronged, including
• Fiscal Conservatives: “Six years after taking office, George Bush and his Republican-controlled Congress had taken those surpluses and turned them into the largest debt in the history of our nation-more than $9 trillion.”
• L’Oréal USA: “I’d like to apologize to you and the rest of the cosmetics industry for the physical appearance of Katherine Harris. . . .While millions of women use your products safely and responsibly, an unfortunate few abuse them in vile and disgusting ways.”
• The English language (c/o Harvard University Department of English): “No individual, with the possible exception of Larry the Cable Guy, has wronged you so profoundly.”
• Harry M. Whittington: “I’m sorry Dick Cheney shot you in the face.”
This collection of witty, ready-to-mail apologies offers essential reading for Bush bashers, disenchanted Republicans, and anyone looking for a clean start in 2009."
Why I Wanted to Read It: As Barack Obama's presidency draws to a close (sort of?) and we shrink back from the already thriving media circus that is the 2016 Presidential election, pieces of ephemera like this are often interesting to gauge a point in time (particularly when it's one you remember). It's also pretty simplistic humor.
How I Liked It: The book is indeed of the time and offers reminders of the Bush regime in pop culture (the then still-new stark divide of red and blue state ala the apology letter to the Dixie Chicks proclaiming a disinterest in them to the point of not being caught dead with their music before the now-infamous remarks against President Bush and subsequent backlash) and does indeed offer a few chuckles (the color orange merits an apology for its significance in the terror alert level, the address being The National Gallery of Art) as well as a few solid points (in apologizing to various officials that President Bush and/or his allies offended, the book makes note of their contribution that make the offense all the more injust).
However, the book hammers home another, more important point (however accidentally) that is perhaps the most useful for the book's intended audience.
Notable: That point? Just because someone identifies as a Democrat, a liberal, and/or a Bush opponent, it does NOT guarantee they are progressive socially. Why is this something that needs reminding? Because all too often, it's something taken for granted and marginalized groups are left wondering why they've bothered aligning themselves to a "side" that's only going to continue to disrespect them.
What do I mean? The author is a Bush critic (to put it mildly) and apparently a supporter of many "progressive" causes. He even criticizes various homophobic, misogynist, and racist actions taken by Bush and his allies. That said? He resorts to many of the same insults ("Saxby Chambliss sounds like a perfume worn by French transsexuals [sic]") and oppression (Katherine Harris's make-up looks like the Joker "dressed as a whore for Halloween" and one of the reasons Valerie Plame is such a remarkable person is the fact she's "wicked hot") as beloved and cherished by "the other side". But the author has the temerity to actually offer apologies to women, gays, and Blacks (among other marginalizations) for their treatment under this administration, thereby allegedly aligning himself with progress. There's also fatshaming, arguable ableism (suggesting that Alberto Gonzales has Alzheimer's), and a distressing amount of rape jokes.
This book's best service is not catharsis but reminder; not of an era per se, but of the fact political affiliation does not guarantee progression, even when it's obvious it should.