{"id":1503,"date":"2006-10-27T10:07:53","date_gmt":"2006-10-27T17:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2006\/10\/on_a_bicycle_and_a_prayer\/"},"modified":"2006-10-27T10:07:53","modified_gmt":"2006-10-27T17:07:53","slug":"on_a_bicycle_and_a_prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2006\/10\/on_a_bicycle_and_a_prayer.html","title":{"rendered":"ON A BICYCLE AND A PRAYER"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/documents\/print\/WSJ_-A001-20061027.pdf\" class=inline target=new\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Above WSJ's front page banner\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/IWL%20300.jpg\" width=299 align=right border=0 \/><\/a>Deadline for Iraq? Rummy Boy says we should <a href=\"http:\/\/newsblogs.chicagotribune.com\/news_theswamp\/2006\/10\/back_off_says_r.html\" class=inline target=new\"><strong><font color=#003399>&#8220;just back off&#8221; and &#8220;relax.&#8221;<\/strong><\/font><\/a> The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/archives\/2005\/08\/jim_holts_criti.html\" class=inline target=new\"><strong><font color=#003399>Bullshitter-in-Chief<\/strong><\/font><\/a> holds his own <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/news\/releases\/2006\/10\/20061025.html\" class=inline target=new\"><strong><font color=#003399>press conference<\/strong><\/font><\/a>, then invites a few friendly journalists into the back room &#8212; excuse me &#8212; the Oval Office, and says, <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB116191462709105504.html?mod=opinion_columns_featured_lsc\" class=inline target=new\"><strong><font color=#003399>&#8220;If we leave, they will follow us here.&#8221;<\/strong><\/font><\/a> <i>(Subscription required.)<\/i><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/documents\/print\/WSJ_-A001-20061027.pdf\" class=inline target=new\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"WSJ's front page banner\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/WSJ%20300.jpg\" width=299 align=right border=0 \/><\/a>What struck one of the invited &#8212; Daniel Henninger, deputy editor of The Journal&#8217;s editorial page &#8212; was how different the bullshitter&#8217;s press conference was from his private conversation. In public the topic was Iraq. In the Oval Office it was America. But if you read Henninger&#8217;s rightly named Wonder Land column, it all sounds like the same bullshit. As <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Lenny-Bruce-Originals-Vol-1\/dp\/B000000XH8\/sr=8-4\/qid=1161965061\/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4\/102-0100347-5967312?ie=UTF8&#038;s=music\" class=inline target=new\"><strong><font color=#003399>Lenny Bruce once said<\/strong><\/font><\/a>, &#8220;Yada, yada. Yada, yada, yada, warden!&#8221;<br \/>\nMeanwhile, ever on the lookout to probe deeply, Henninger noticed:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The burden of war &#8230; has not sapped Mr. Bush physically. &#8230; The hair&#8217;s gone gray, but there is little sign of fatigue in his face or demeanor. I asked how he stays normal: &#8220;Prayer and exercise.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Or as Jon Stewart has said, &#8220;Worry no more!&#8221;<br \/>\n<strong>Postscript:<\/strong> A friend writes: &#8220;I am not for &#8216;cutting and running.&#8217; How about just walking out backwards?&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lenny Bruce once said, &#8220;Yada, yada. Yada, yada, yada, warden!&#8221; Meanwhile, ever on the lookout to probe deeply, Henninger noticed: The burden of war &#8230; has not sapped Mr. Bush physically. &#8230; The hair&#8217;s gone gray, but there is little sign of fatigue in his face or demeanor. I asked how he stays normal: &#8220;Prayer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-of","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}