King Henry IX

To put a Shakespearean twist on Paulson’s role is to anticipate that he set the terms, and we folded like subjects.  If, on the other hand, the point of the hyperbole is to shame us or warn us before it’s too late, I’d say Newsweek — almost completely blotted out by the crown — is doing us a favor.

Update 9/22 10pm PST – King Henry Look-Alike-Contest

I know this is a cheap shot.

Still, I’m trying to figure out why The BAG — otherwise, so temperate and cautious in its choice of images and allusions — has suddenly been infected by right-wing associations to fascism.  It couldn’t have anything to do with how much this Administration has taken the American people, and our military, and our standing in the world, and our core values, and our constitution, and our feeble Congress, and now our economy for such a ride, could it?

It couldn’t have anything to do with the cold, brazen admonition once again to do it fast and completely give it up, could it?

If, pictorially, there are dramatic differences here in ideology, maybe there are comparisons to be drawn when it comes to methodology.

(And then, there’s that nose, those eyes, the shape of the head.)  But seriously, maybe I’ve just gone (or gotten) mad.

Cover story: The Captain of the Street

(image 1: not located.  illustration: Ernest Hamlin Baker. June 9, 194. TIME cover)