George W Bush Noodz!

[aggienaut]

   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.

Comments

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

I wonder if he's thinking about water-boarding. I mean, I suspect not, but I am. And you're right: they're much better than I thought they would be.

A colleague of mine knows a whole lot about American history. When Jimmy Carter's book of poems came out, Voice of America was calling around looking for some academic to say something about them. But no one had read them. Then they got my colleague, who said, with perfect knowledge whereof he spoke: "They're not bad. Of our three poet-presidents, Carter is a better poet than Lincoln, but not so good as John Quincy Adams."

I wonder if there are presidents who paint better than Bush.

Now I am imagining Cheney painting Duck Stamps.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Bahahaha I think he definitely has some waterboarding on his subconscious here (subconscience even?),

And I was trying to think of what unexpected artistic endeavour Cheney could be in that might humanize him . That's a tall order. Though its pretty funny to picture Cheney going home and writing terrible slash-fic ;D

Now I'm curious to see this presidential poety.

[anisoptera.livejournal.com]

Then there are the paintings by Churchill. http://www.museumsyndicate.com/artist.php?artist=667

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Whoa, so Churchhill and Hitler, locked in an epic war across the channel WERE BOTH PAINTERS!

And to think it probably could have all been settled with a simple paint-off ;D

Also I think Churchill is much better than hitler. I like this one:

[ilovegravy.livejournal.com]

Quite an interesting story! Glad you posted about it, as I didn't hear about it from anyone else. haha

Yeah, up until recently I didn't know that he painted, let alone pretty decently/with a unique style! The first painting I saw of his was when his dog, Barney, died:

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Ah, I didn't know some people already knew he was a painter before this came out!

[crushdmb.livejournal.com]

I honestly really like these, too. The fact that they aren't generic is really ... unexpected.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Indeed, indeed!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

As I was writing this entry I kept thinking "I can't believe I'm saying something positive about GWB, I can't believe it" and I reaeally wasn't sure other people would agree with me, thought people might think I'd lost it.