"The Ten Commandments" Movie and GWB

[edhopper]

As I caught some of the big C.B. DeMille "The Ten Commandments" last night, I couldn't help but think of Georgie Boy. No, not like Moses as David Brooks does.
But like Yul Brynner's Pharaoh. He's a man who lives under his father's shadow, and when he does attain power leads his nation on a catastrophic course. Time and again he should take the obvious and more diplomatic path (and the morally right one)and "let the people go". But his arrogance and stubbornness eventually leads to the destruction of his army (drowned in the Red Sea). He even says that he won't let these common desert folk defeat him.
So there you have it, GWB as Ramses II.

[immoderate]

1. A good observation.

Bush as pharoah, right on.

--IMM

[enid602]

2. Pharaoh

When Pharoah was asked to do something, he would always answer 'but I am Pharoah, and Pharoah cannot . . ' Subsititute commander-in-chief.

[scordem]

3. That's really stretching it...

I just don't see it.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

6. here, look at the pyramids he builds...

he even built pyramids as head cheerleader at an all boys school

do you think they picked on him too much at that school and messed his head up?

[scordem]

7. The men responsible are in the pic.

The people who join the military are adults. There's NO way in the world ANYBODY could get me to do such a thing. People have to know what they are about. Do you really think, if Bush were standing in that room, he'd approve of such activity, or allow it?

No--for whatever else I think about the man, I'll never believe THAT. Let's get real, here.

I know who to hold responsible--and who is to say WHICH political party, or any, that they might belong to?

[daveskilt]

8. so the remarkably similar abuses at multiple prisons - coincidence?

This is not by any stretch of the imagination "a few bad apples" this was coordinated. Rumsfeld signed off on all the torture provisions - in one case with a handwritten note asking to make it more brutal!

Its not as if the low ranking folks who are taking the blame all got together and decided to pack matching hoods and torture gear to their various assignments in cuba and iraq.

rumsfeld definitely knew and approved - bush bears the responsibility of the actions of his direct reports. And not firing rumsfeld is more than an implied approval of the torture it is practicly an endorsement.


also on obedience to orders: yes the military folks are adults - adults trained and conditioned to comply with orders. In millikans famous obedience experiments ordinary civilians all complied to one degree or another with orders to commit acts of violence against others. and that was in a lab! not a war zone where they are being traumatized.

[Flubadubya]

14. If you don't think that GWB is OK with torture...

you've really got an extreme amount of catching up to do. Do you know about his little "signing statement" deal on the McCain no-torture bill? Nope? Well check it out:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/03/24/bush_shuns_patriot_act_requirement/

Here's just a little excerpt:

"And when Congress passed a law forbidding the torture of any detainee in US custody, Bush signed the bill but issued a signing statement declaring that he could bypass the law if he believed using harsh interrogation techniques was necessary to protect national security."

I think our little dictator is hunky-dory, A-OK with torture. No qualms for that little cowardly weasel, no siree!! :grr: :puke:

[kiki]

17. Regardless of any official authorization

for this disgusting behavior - which does exist and is well documented - this is the kind of thing you get when you run the country - let alone the army - on a platform of bigotry, hatred and fear.

George Bush is a man who deliberately started an unjustified war fully knowing that it would cause the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people. With this in mind, if Bush were standing in a room where less than ten of those people were being put through what his subordinates have equated to fratboy hijinks, do you really think he'd give a shit?

[Bridget Burke]

20. Sorry, your President shares the guilt...

Of course, he's a good example of that question: "criminal incompetence or treason?"

Sometimes it's hard to tell. His close underlings are possibly more responsible.

[EstimatedProphet]

21. WHAT?!?!

Do you really think, if Bush were standing in that room, he'd approve of such activity, or allow it?

Uh...yeah. Have you forgotten the line about how they hate us for our freedoms, or how they don't have the same values as we do? Bush has been actively dehumanizing Middle Easterners all along, and apologists like you let the scapegoats get the punishment. It's laughable that you can take that position and claim that you know who to hold responsible.

[newyawker99]

15. Hi scordem!!

Welcome to DU!!

[scordem]

18. Thank-you!

[daveskilt]

23. oh yeah - Hi

and welcome remember the first rule of DU - tread gently and carry asbestos underpants

:)

[stopbush]

4. Well, since you asked: the only connection I see is the fantasy aspect.

The Hebrews weren't ever slaves in Egypt, they didn't build the pyramids, there was no exodus,
and a common desert folk never did defeat the mightiest power on Earth at that time. That doesn't
stop people from believing that the Biblical myths are based on historic fact.

In that regard, the 10 Commandments myth does eerily shadow the fact that bushco relied
on a whole buttload of Saddam myth to justify their war.

There's no getting around the power of myth.

On edit: BTW - the Bible never identifies the Pharoah as Ramses II. That's movie mythology at work! :)

[msongs]

5. Moses was a witch... is george one too?

moses took a stick and threw it on the ground turning it into a serpent. In Salem or the Vatican he
would've been hanged or burned at the stake for that stunt.

Has Bush done anything that exciting?

Msongs
www.msongs.com/impeachbush.htm

[edhopper]

9. Please, read my post again

I was not making an analogy to the Bible, but to the movie. In a recent NY Times editorial David Brooks tried to make the Moses analogy to Bush.
I thought that it was interesting that IN THE MOVIE Yul Brynner, the actor playing the Ramses character, seemed to act a lot more like Bush than Moses did.

For the record the story of Moses was probably taken from an earlier Babylonian myth. There is no evidence of Hebrew slaves in Egypt or the Exodus.

[KittyWampus]

10. In Qabalism Egypt= Ignorance. Until we allow the Light of Reason

to begin the process of overthrowing outworn patterns of behavior we will continue to be slaves to our habitual nature.

[edhopper]

11. WTF?

[KittyWampus]

12. LOL! Egypt symbolizes a state of ignorance where we are dominated

by our lower instincts.

Not unlike saying Egypt symbolizes those in Plato's cave.

[edhopper]

13. Gotcha.

[CatWoman]

16. Edhopper

am watching this thread take a turn for the worse, so I will try to stay on topic.

Ramses came off as a spoiled brat, who wasn't willing to claim a path to glory. Rather, he let others do the work (Moses building a city for Ramses Sr.), and him taking the credit.

Also, whenever he displayed common sense, his wife would intervene by "hardening his heart". He should have tossed her aside when he originally agreed to let the Hebrews leave Egypt.

[AnneD]

19. Casting Call

Seti...GHW Bush
Pharoh...Dubya
Nefriteri...Condi Rice
Pharoh Son...Jeb Bush
Bitha...Babs Bush
Captain of the Guard...Cheney
The Achitect...Rumsfeld
Head of Temple...Rove
Dathan...Lieberman
Moses...as yet to be cast
Aaron...as yet to be cast
Joshua...Howard Dean
Sephra...Barbara Boxer
Sheik of Numebia
Sheik's daughter:all dem candidates

I think that about covers that.

[Orrin_73]

22. Thats an insult to all pharaos