canada's #1 news item as of late has been about one of prime minister chretien's aides calling george w. bush a moron, which is making almost zero news down here (here's abc's article, but the general concensus stateside is rather muted. of course, making no news is the fact that this same aide has called the prime minister a moron too, which could argued either way (myself: arrogant and occasionally visionless, but definitely the lesser of all evils).

for some of us, though, it doesn't really come across as news, which may be the non-issue. political leaders have to show a precarious balance between not being seen as too intellectual (thus coming across as out-of-touch or pretentious) and not being seen as too underqualified. then again, stupidity experts agree that president bush may be a moron, which could account for quite a bit.

however, moronic is an appropriate word for both the cia's freedom fighters' manual used to promote insurrection in 1980s nicaragua by being lazy. outright stupid is the verbiage reserved for the fbi's black panther colouring book used to discredit the african american militant group of the 1960s. [update: these are two examples of what's called black propaganda, which uses bogus material in order to stir the masses into action.]

then again, maybe i'm not so smart either.
but i do smell pancakes.