oh, so that's what they meant

[jfb]

William Saletan:

Thursday morning, President Bush greeted the people of Iraq on their TV screens. "You are a good and gifted people," he told them as Arabic script appeared below his face. I don't know Arabic, but I'm sure the translation didn't convey what Bush means by "gifted." He doesn't mean exceptional. He means ethnic.

What? Go read it.

Comments

[jfb.livejournal.com]

I think he's on staff.

I think the line about the Arabic translation was a throwaway, The article wasn't about what the Iraqi people saw on TV but about a pattern of word usage by the president. (I also don't think it's meant all that seriously--I mean, it's a blog entry.)