George W Bush Noodz!
So apparently, a hacker managed to hack former president George W Bush's phone and email and that of his family members recently, which, I'd imagine, couldn't have been easy. Surely while he was president they'd make sure to lock that stuff down like nobody's business and a lot of that security would still be in place?
And the hacker claims he's not worried about getting retaliated against, but I personally think he's probably about to wake up in Guatanamo Bay ... or one of those CIA secret prisons in Eastern Europe. And to a certain extent he may deserve it just for the absolutely hideous watermark he plastered on most of the released photos.
But more to the point, he unleashed on the world NUDE SELF PORTRAITS OF GEORGE W BUSH!!
Now before you gouge your eyes out pre-emptively, I'll let you know that you don't see anything "alarming" in said paintings:
Now the commentary, at least on that article --which is the only one I've bothered to read about the incident-- refers to the paintings as "which are just as awkward and simple as you'd hope." But you know what? I'm actually impressed. I am way more impressed than if he had painting an absolutely stunningly beautiful farmhouse or something, because while it may not be masterfully executed, its one hell of a lot better than _I_ could do, and clearly he's doing something deeper here than just painting a pretty picture. This is something that can be psycho-analyzed, something about the vulnerability and relative facelessness portrayed (yet his face is in the mirror, is he looking at himeself or through the fourth wall at us?? WHAT DOES IT MEAN???). The revelation of these paintings expands the depth of his character in my perception by leaps and bounds. Turns out he's not just a cowboy who exclaims "yeehaw!" while pressing the bottom to blow something up in Iraq (as I've always imagined), he expressed himself artistically through painting.
Now I've also got to touch on something that I'm sure has occurred to many, though it's a flagrant violation of Godwin's Law -- which OTHER historical world leader was famously in to painting?
BUT, see, if you google "Hitler's paintings," which I now realize I'd never in my life bothered to do before, you'll see that he does exactly what I laud Bush for NOT doing -- he painted relatively well executed pictures of houses and landscapes ... which in my opinion shows a complete lack of real artistic depth.