Boehner to Bush-Bashing Beatle: Apologize!?

[bytor2112]

Idiot.

McCartney ended the evening taking a baseless cheap shot at former President George W. Bush.

“After the last eight years, it’s great to have a President who knows what a library is,” McCartney quipped.

When did decorum go out of style?

“Like millions of other Americans, I have always had a good impression of Paul McCartney and thought of him as a classy guy, but I was surprised and disappointed by the lack of grace and respect he displayed at the White House,” Boehner told HUMAN EVENTS. “I hope he'll apologize to the American people for his conduct which demeaned him, the White House and President Obama.”

McCartney is the third recipient of the Gershwin Prize. Hailing from England and having earned no university degrees of his own, the Beatle may not know W. was the first American president to earn a master’s degree in business administration. (The fact the MBA is from Harvard really irks the left.) Not to mention Bush is married to a librarian.

Edited June 6, 2010 by bytor2112

[Just_A_Guy]

Hailing from England and having earned no university degrees of his own, the Beatle . . .

Now, now . . . Sir Paul has an honorary Doctorate of Music from Yale, putting him more or less in the same category as Glenn Beck.

[NeuroTypical]

Perhaps he would have had better luck attacking a former president Bush's drug use instead?

McCartney remembered getting "very high" and giggling when The Beatles were introduced to cannabis by Bob Dylan in New York, in 1964.

...

In 1965, Miles introduced McCartney to hash brownies by using a recipe for hash fudge he found in the Alice B. Toklas Cookbook.

...

McCartney was introduced to cocaine by Robert Fraser, and it was available during the recording of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He admitted that he used the drug multiple times for about a year but stopped because of the unpleasant comedown.

...

In 1967, ... McCartney said everybody sat around and took LSD, although McCartney had first taken it with Tara Browne, in 1966.

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He took his second "acid trip" with Lennon on 21 March 1967 after a studio session.

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McCartney was the first British pop star to openly admit using LSD, in an interview in the now-defunct "Queen" magazine.

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“ I was asked a question by a newspaper, and the decision was whether to tell a lie or tell him the truth. I decided to tell him the truth ... but I really didn't want to say anything, you know, because if I had my way I wouldn't have told anyone. I'm not trying to spread the word about this. But the man from the newspaper is the man from the mass medium. I'll keep it a personal thing if he does too, you know ... if he keeps it quiet. But he wanted to spread it so it's his responsibility, you know, for spreading it, not mine. ”

...

In 1972, police found cannabis plants growing on his Scottish farm.

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On 16 January 1980, ... as McCartney was going through customs, officials found 7.7 ounces (218.3 g) of cannabis in his luggage. He was arrested and taken to a Tokyo prison while the Japanese government decided what to do. McCartney had been previously denied a visa to Japan (in 1975) because he had been convicted twice in Europe for possession of cannabis. ... After ten days in jail, McCartney was released and deported. He was told that he would not be welcome in Japan again, although a decade later he played a concert in Tokyo.

...

In 1984, Paul and Linda McCartney were both arrested for possession of cannabis

LM

[pam]

That seriously was classless. That comment could have been left out entirely.

[john doe]

Why do people think that musical or acting talent or celebrity automatically makes them experts on anything that goes on in the real world?

[dorave]

Why do people think that musical or acting talent or celebrity automatically makes them experts on anything that goes on in the real world?

It makes them experts in entertainment.

But McCartney is still an idiot, for such remark.

[FunkyTown]

Sir Paul McCartney isn't an idiot.

He's just living in the past. He's an old man who's glory is long past. I think we can forgive him an imprudent remark.

[Elgama]

He has 3 A :Levels at good enough grades and he had an offer for university, not to mention he actually owns part of one. He is far from an idiot, and incredibly well educated in many ways. It was a joke, based in satire and entirely part of the culture he comes from. This is the same culture that told the Queen to rattle her jewelery.. same culture that he met Bush probably would have asked him where the library was, same culture that portrayed Mrs Thatcher in an SS uniform, and John Major eating peas.

Fact is Bush around the world is portrayed in satire as an idiot, and its deserved one his first public speeches aimed at world politics had him tell everyone Kosovo was in the middle east, normally acceptable but it was the last place the US had gone to war with, its the same satire that portrayed Clinton as a sex mad power freak, Obama has other things he is portrayed as. He is not an elected official and hurting his records sales will not make him destitute, and vast majority of people around the world know where he is coming from.

Personally I think the American Sense of Humour will be satirised more out of this in my country than McCartney condemned.

[Hemidakota]

Idiot.

I guess you haven't seen the Bio channel on Beatles history. Quite an eye opener for me...

[john doe]

Sir Paul McCartney isn't an idiot.

I think we can forgive him an imprudent remark.

Only if he shuts his mouth about things he doesn't have a clue on.

[dorave]

I guess you haven't seen the Bio channel on Beatles history. Quite an eye opener for me...

Did they make mention of the influence Aleister Crowley had on them?

[Elgama]

Did they make mention of the influence Aleister Crowley had on them?

probably not much given as he died when Ringo the eldest was 7.

[Hemidakota]

Did they make mention of the influence Aleister Crowley had on them?

Yes..what ran the band was there Jewish promoter, Brian Epstein [corrected by Elgama]. I didn't know he was a practicing homosexual. But, he made the band - the Beatles.

What did disguise me, made my heart sank, when it talked about their time in Hamburg [corrected] Germany.

Edited June 7, 2010 by Hemidakota

[Elgama]

Yes..what ran the band was there Jewish promoter, Sid Bernstein. I didn't know he was a practicing homosexual. But, he made the band - the Beatles.

What did disguise me, made my heart sank, when it talked about their time in Desden Germany.

Brian Epstein the man who really made the band was also Jewish descent and Gay so that was hardly new to them. And it was Hamburg they ran wild

[Hemidakota]

Senior moment but thanks. You are right. Did you watch the show?

[Elgama]

Senior moment but thanks. You are right. Did you watch the show?

nope lol my Mother was a teenager in Liverpool in the 1950s she came from the same time and culture as the Beatles, spent time in the cavern at that time etc, my Grandfather worked as a pianist at the theatres there and they drank in my Uncle by marriage parents pub. By all accounts they weren't all that evil a bit wild and interested in religion which they would be being in Liverpool at that time its a very religious city especially then.

Its why I also know all Paul McCartney intended with what he said was a joke based entirely in satire. And like it or not the satirical character of George W Bush is idiot, forgot what his Father was but its no different to Mrs T being protrayed as an SS officer, the Queen Mum as an old lush putting bets on the horses, Prince Phillip as a rather big loud mouth etc

Edited June 7, 2010 by Elgama

[dorave]

probably not much given as he died when Ringo the eldest was 7.

It's not the physical contact I was referring to, it's the ideology.

[dorave]

nope lol my Mother was a teenager in Liverpool in the 1950s she came from the same time and culture as the Beatles, spent time in the cavern at that time etc, my Grandfather worked as a pianist at the theatres there and they drank in my Uncle by marriage parents pub. By all accounts they weren't all that evil a bit wild and interested in religion which they would be being in Liverpool at that time its a very religious city especially then.

Its why I also know all Paul McCartney intended with what he said was a joke based entirely in satire. And like it or not the satirical character of George W Bush is idiot, forgot what his Father was but its no different to Mrs T being protrayed as an SS officer, the Queen Mum as an old lush putting bets on the horses, Prince Phillip as a rather big loud mouth etc

It's not about the person tho, it's the office, McCartney's off base because he chose to joke in the wrong place and ocassion, Dumb. It's like mocking a former minister in a church on a Sabbath day. It's just disrespectful to the office.

Edited June 8, 2010 by dorave

[Moksha]

Does anyone know if the George W. Bush Library is showing David Letterman's collection of Great Moments of Presidential Speechs in the TV room?

[HoosierGuy]

I was brought to respect the office of Presidency no matter who holds it. What he said was not wrong, but where he said it was. But still, I have have little respect for Bush. McCartney was just saying what half the U.S. and rest of the world was thinking.

[bytor2112]

I was brought to respect the office of Presidency no matter who holds it. What he said was not wrong, but where he said it was. But still, I have have little respect for Bush. McCartney was just saying what half the U.S. and rest of the world was thinking.

The stupid half.

[Elgama]

It's not about the person tho, it's the office, McCartney's off base because he chose to joke in the wrong place and ocassion, Dumb. It's like mocking a former minister in a church on a Sabbath day. It's just disrespectful to the office.

He said “After the last eight years, it’s great to have a President who knows what a library is,” McCartney quipped. That is not the office he is taking a pop at its George W Bush' . However it is clear whoever wrote the quote picked up it was intended as a joke, hence the word quipped. I don't have the tone but if the comment was intended to offend anyone it was Bush Jnr. And maybe that is what he intended I don't know, part of the beauty of freedom of speech and the position he is in, he can say it and ultimately its not going to do his image any harm here I doubt.

He's not an elected official, he's not an American Citizen. He is a man born in 1942 in Liverpool a city where satire and sarcasm form part of everyday speech its noted as part of the culture, it goes with the accent. He said something that would probably raise no more than a bit of a comment in the papers here, most people would have grinned at etc had similar happened with the Queen or the PM.

Maybe he could have been more sensitive but he chose not to be, but its a lot less inappropriate to American ears, than a lot of things Bush said were to British ears.

[Moksha]

Elgama, I am sure even Bush would have seen the humor of it. He knows he is not a bookworm.

[HoosierGuy]

A better statement would have been "uses a library." Considering his wife was a librarian he probably knows what a library is.

[bytor2112]

Elgama, I am sure even Bush would have seen the humor of it. He knows he is not a bookworm.

You know this because???? He doesn't read as smoothly from a teleprompter?