Loose cannons

Hope yet for Flat Earth Society

"Part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought... You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas and the answer is yes." — Emperor George Bush II, August 1, arguing for the Christian fundamentalist doctrine of "intelligent design" (creationism) to be taught alongside evolution in high-school science classes.

Fully sovereign

"As to the [Iraqi] constitution, one of the meetings we had this morning was with Zal, our ambassador in Baghdad. And he gave us a briefing as to the progress on the constitution. We have made it clear that we believe that constitution can be and should be agreed upon by August 15th." — Emperor Bush, August 11, recounting how he gave his instructions, via his pro-consular "Zal" (Zalmay Khalilzad), to the natives.

One has

"In some ways, although we don't expect to get a thanks, they should be at least saying, 'Gee, for an industry that's in so much turmoil, we've still got decent jobs'." — Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon, August 18, announcing that the airline, after making a record profit of $763.6 million, plans to sack 2500 of its 31,000 staff. Dixon stands to pocket up to $1.2 million in bonuses this year, on top of his $2 million annual salary.

His design lacks intelligence

"[George] Bush's call for teaching so-called intelligent design alongside evolution as part of a science curriculum suggests he doesn't grasp the fundamental difference between science and religion." — Tower Timberjay News, Minnesota, August 19.

From Green Left Weekly, August 24, 2005.

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From GLW issue 639