OK, so Hunter S. Thompson was a raging frothing gun nut and an unapologetic devotee of sauteeing his brain in the most horrific ways imaginable. If all that adrenochrome crap is true, well...shit. Anyone that lives on a "compound" in Colorado obviously was born without a couple important bones in their head. Plus Colorado has no breatheable air, as we all know. The brain-addling effect on its citizenry is unavoidable and well-chronicled, but, thankfully, that's another story.
We need more people who don't just rant, however eloquently, against presidential administrations and their assorted crimes, but who do so uniquely and colorfully. It's one thing to say, "Here are the issues espoused by Bush Inc. that I loathe and so should you and here's why." It's far better in the long run to say "Here are the issues espoused by Bush Inc. that I loathe and so should you and here's why, and WHERE DID ALL THESE FUCKING BATS COME FROM?!?!?"
A theory. No, not a theory. A sticky flypaper-like thought that made me go hmmm. Maybe he saw down the road the America and the world born from George Bush's terrifyingly irresponsible and reckless Master Plan that literally scared the living piss out of him. I know I look down the road and see potential legacies of the goddamn Bush dynasty that positively freeze my blood. And Jeb is next in the chute.
Nixon was easy to make fun of because he fucked up so badly, and no one did it better than HST. But Nixon looks like the Artful Dodger next to Dubya, a bona fide war criminal, bulletproof liar supreme, and terrorist who makes bin Laden look like a girl scout. Is it possible Thompson thought that, compared to another four years, a gunshot wound would tickle? Perhaps so much damage has been done that satire, even journalism, in its most sublime or outrageous forms has been rendered not just unfashionable or obsolete but extinct? Maybe that the country he loved so was, as he might have said, finally being sold down the shit river at the expense of The Silly and The Doomed? Bush has killed us all? Hmmm.
You were a complete nutburger, Hunter S. Thompson. I'm glad I never met you, because I'm sure you would have brutally annoyed me in person no matter what your self-made credentials. But, by gum, you did indeed stomp on the terra, and for that I thank you.
Go rent "Where The Buffalo Roam" with Bill Murray. Better than "Fear And Loathing" with Mr. Depp.
Posted by eric at February 21, 2005 11:22 PM