Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Bearded bandits: Grover Norquist and Mohamed Morsi

It is such an interesting coincidence that two bearded fellows are making lives difficult for most of the peoples in the countries within which they operate.

(Of course, it is a bearded blogger making such an observation!)

One thinks that he is the pharaoh of Egypt and the other believes that he can reduce government to a small enough size to be able to flush it down the drain.

In fact, they kind of sort of look alike, too, which is scary!
I intentionally chose these images (sources 1 and 2) of the two of them with their respective country flags in the background for two reasons: first, for the easy affiliation, of course.

The second reason is the more important one--to convey the old Samuel Johnson line that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."  And such patriots often wrap themselves up in flags and other symbols.

The scoundrel on the left wrapped up in the American flag is Grover Norquist, and the other scoundrel is Egypt's Mohamed Morsi.

As George "papa" H. W. Bush famously asked two decades ago, "Who the hell is Grover Norquist, anyway?"  And who made Morsi the pharaoh?

They give us bearded men a bad reputation; no wonder Americans are deeply suspicious of men with facial hair, and we haven't had a bearded president since Benjamin Harrison!

PS: No offense meant, Santa; please deliver me the gifts, and more :)

1 comment:

Ramesh said...

Not sure what your grouse against bearded persons is :):):)

In the case of Grover Norquist, he is perfectly entitled to his views and what he does - however much we may disagree with him. All he is saying is that he will work against any Republican who breaks his oath in the primaries. That is an absolutely fair deal in a democracy. The real culprit is the gerrymandering that has happened in Congressional Districts which has made the primaries more important than the election. Note that the same does not hold good for the Senate. The GOP is realising that by choosing the likes of Mourdock and Aitkin, they are losing winnable seats and they will stop pandering to the likes of Norquist.

As far as Morsi is concerned, he was elected in a fairly free election. We should then not complain about the consequences of it - after all the people voted him there. It is quite likely that if a referendum his latest antics is done, he will still win. The rewards and perils of democracy .......

America needs a bearded president. Khe for 2016 :) Oh alas, I forget you were born in India :):)

Pedantic quibbling - the flag behind Morsi is not the Egyptian flag. It does contain the Eagle of Saladin, but it isn't their national flag !!