I have a confession to make. I haven’t actually been to a formal confessional since I was a child and routinely lied to the Catholic priest when I had nothing sinful to confess by making stuff up I thought he’d like to hear – although, lying to a priest is a sin in itself. I was a confused child. What can I say? Anyway, I left the church as a teen and, although I’ve come clean about absolutely everything in my life by vocalizing all of my deepest and dark  secrets over the years – a very freeing practice – I still have one thing that I have to come clean about. Do I need an intervention? You decide.

I truly value patience and tolerance. I do not tolerate abuse, however. And, as a born again Buddhist, these days I work very hard at having compassion for every living thing. This helps me to better understand those I disagree with. I’m also a logical person. I even studied logic in university, so I’m quite versed in what constitutes an ad hominem attack.

From Wiki:

An ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem (Latin, literally “argument [aimed] at the person”, but usually translated as “argument to the man”), is a logical fallacy that involves replying to an argument or assertion by addressing the person presenting the argument or assertion rather than the argument itself or an argument pointing out an inconsistency between a view expressed by an individual and the remainder of his or her beliefs.

Over and over online I’ve called people out for not arguing the substance of a person’s argument when they have chosen to attack the person instead. I truly believe in respect – in disagreeing without being disagreeable.

But, personally, I have failed repeatedly to honour those values about one person: George W Bush.

I knew it was time to confess when I caught a televised portion of a speech of his this morning and heard myself saying, once again, “you’re such an idiot!!”

That’s my secret: I frequently call Bush an “idiot”. I know he’s not, technically, an idiot. He may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I suspect his IQ is a bit higher than I’m willing to give him credit for. I know he’s not the best public speaker. That’s certainly forgivable. Not all of us speak well in public. I know that he couldn’t have risen to the post of president of the Unted States if he were truly an idiot. I know he’s quite politically savvy – no idiocy there. I try – I really, really try not to blurt out the “i” word when I see him speak or read various quotes  after the fact. And, I’m truly, truly sorry for not being the purely principled person I and others sometimes expect me to be.

But…

c’mon!!

I mean – really!

This is dubya we’re talking about here!

Okay. There I go – justifying my behaviour again.

I’m sorry. (I’m Canadian. We get bonus points every time we say we’re sorry, even when we’re not exactly really sorry.)

So, there you have it. I’ve admitted that I’m powerless over my impulse to call George Bush an idiot. I don’t suppose there’s a 12 step program out there for me, although I’m sure there must be some right-wing deprogrammers I could turn to. That, however, could turn my brain to mush, just as Karl Rove warned:

“As people do better, they start voting like Republicans…  
…unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing.”

What to do? What to do?

Is there hope for me? Do I really need an intervention? Or, can you all just forgive me and allow me this one imperfection?

You’re the jury. You’re my priests. You’re my conscience. You decide.

(Phew! I feel better now that I’ve let that out!)