re: #128 Absalom, Absalom, Obdicut

The whole Rather story irritated me because it was just idiotic anyway. Who cares if he skyved off during his guard service, it was a long time ago. I don’t get this fascination with what people did in their twenties as somehow being ultra-indicative. I am very little like I was in my early 20s, like, I have exact opposite attributes in many ways. It was not a substantial critique, it was a critique of something explicitly insubstantial—Bush as somehow knowledgeable about war and the military—and elevated that issue far above what it should have been.

Obdi, I must disagree.

This was a dude who avoided the Vietnam draft by going into the Air National Guard, and then saying “fuck y’all” to his responsibilities.

So, I care if he “skyved off during his guard service”.