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I can't honestly say that I am sorry to see Dubya go, given
the damage he has done; but I will miss shaking my head at his
butchering the English language with one of his many hilarious malapropisms, stupid verbal gaffes, and scrambled syntax.
Here are just a few by way of a final farewell:
10) "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." —LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000 (Listen to audio clip)
9) "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family." —Greater Nashua, N.H., Jan. 27, 2000(Listen to audio clip)
8) "I hear there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a
draft." —second presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004 (Listen to audio clip)
7) "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." —Saginaw, Mich., Sept. 29, 2000 (Listen to audio clip)
6) "You work three jobs? … Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is
fantastic that you're doing that." —to a divorced mother of three,
Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 4, 2005 (Listen to audio clip)
5) "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs
aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."
—Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004 (Watch video clip; listen to audio clip)
4) "They misunderestimated me." —Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000
3) "Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" —Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000
2) "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never
stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and
neither do we." —Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004 (Watch video clip; listen to audio clip)
1) "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in
Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me —
you can't get fooled again." —Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002 (Watch video clip; listen to audio clip)
Read More Bushisms
~Compiled by Daniel Kurtzman
Even God has been kept busy trying to help G.W.
 No doubt this must have been just about the time Kurt Warner was sacking groceries for a living!!
(Consider this article by Fox
sports writer, Mark Kriegel, author of two biographies, one on Joe
Namath and the other on Pete Maravich. )
First, Colt
McCoy, fresh from a thrilling win over Ohio State, begins his post-game
comments by thanking his "lord and savior Jesus Christ."
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| Tim Tebow isn't shy about professing his faith. (Lynne Sladky / Getty Images) |
Then there's Tim Tebow, whose game and demeanor I rather
like, changing the Bible verse he endorses on his eye-black, from
"Philippians 4:13" to "John 3:16." As if that might make the difference.
Personally, my own taste in quarterbacks runs toward the
epic old-school debauchers, guys like Kenny Stabler and Joe Namath. If
I go to Hell for that, then so be it. I refuse to believe that God — anyone's God — has a rooting interest in the outcome of something as secular and perverse as a BCS game.
But now football fans direct their attentions to Arizona,
where one of American sports' most prominent God Squaders — Arizona
Cardinal quarterback Kurt Warner — takes on the Philadelphia Eagles for
the right to go to the Super Bowl. And I can't help but think that the
religious guys are, well, blessed with an advantage, a big one at that.
Actually, the issue
isn't really religion. It's faith. I don't care what or whom a
ballplayer believes in: Jesus, Moses, Buddha, L. Ron Hubbard. I don't
care what his position is on stem cell research, abortion, gay rights.
But a system of belief — any system, really — that stills the mind and
quells doubt is of obvious benefit, particularly if you're an athlete.
Warner's case is as instructive as it is well-known. In
1994, after being cut by the Green Bay Packers, he found himself
working the nightshift at a Hy-Vee grocery store near his alma mater,
that noted football factory known as Northern Iowa. By 1999, he'd won a
Super Bowl ring and the first of his two MVP awards.
His appearance as the starter in Sunday's NFC championship
game marks yet another absurdly improbable comeback. Warner had been
let go by the Rams and the Giants. His career as anything but a spot
starter had been pronounced dead years ago.
In his several years in Arizona, he's been a backup to Josh
McCown and Matt Leinart, who was named the starter for the 2008 season.
Now, having thrown for more than 5,000 yards this season, Warner has a
chance to deliver the Cardinals — the Cardinals! — to the Super Bowl.
On some cognitive level, Warner had to know what the rest of
us understood too well. Grocery clerks don't often make it to the NFL.
Iowa Barnstormers don't go on to become Super Bowl MVPs. Nor do old men
beat out Heisman Trophy winners.
For Warner to have considered his predicaments in rational
terms might well have killed his dream. Statistical analysis frequently
inflicts a death by discouragement. But, then, a guy like Warner isn't
playing the odds. He's working on faith.
"It's an advantage for any individual, when you have faith
and believe in something," Warner told our Greg Boeck Thursday after
the Cardinals broke practice. "In my case, it's the power of Jesus ...
"I walk by faith and not by sight. I walk according to what
I believe, and what I believe the power of God is, as opposed to what
the world tells us, or what circumstances appear to be."
Put another way,
belief can liberate you. You need not dwell on the long odds. You're
free of the thoughts that crush so many comebacks — the assortment of
self-involved, self-inflicted self doubts.
"So much of this business is 'Me, me me,'" Warner told
Boeck. "... My faith has allowed me to step back from that and say,
'Hey, this isn't about me.'"
There are too many examples in too many sports to ignore,
from 2007 Masters winner, Zach Johnson (who, interestingly enough, went
to the same high school as Warner), to the soccer player, Kaka (that a
religious name? I wonder), an evangelical Christian who'd been badly
injured in a pool accident, to Josh Hamilton, a recovering drug addict
who may yet become a perennial major league All-Star.
But, as usual, the
best examples come from boxing. Muhammad Ali believed he was chosen by
Allah, and looking back, who's to say he wasn't? Evander
Holyfield, born with a cruiserweight's frame, believed it was a
Christian God's will for him to reign as the heavyweight champ. (It
occurs that perhaps it's time for God to have a heart-to-heart with
Evander on the subject of retirement.) Mike Tyson, for his part, believed in nothing. And it showed.
Perhaps you recall Tyson's sudden and short-lived stint as a
Muslim. Of course it didn't do him any good. Pious proclamations for
the sake of PR or damage control don't do an athlete any good, unless
he can con himself along with the sportswriters.
Warner's not conning anyone, least of all himself. The
Cardinals were 9-7 in the dreadful NFC West. The Eagles were 9-6-1
against a much more formidable schedule. The teams met in Philadelphia,
not two months ago, and the Eagles won by 28. A change of venue
shouldn't make too much of a difference, though the oddsmakers have
Arizona as mere four-point underdogs.
A guy like Warner, though, isn't working off the betting line. He doesn't care what circumstances appear to be. He's got faith. If not for that, he'd still be bagging groceries.
https://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/9084852/Faith-driving-Warner-in-another-Super-Bowl-pursuit
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