Must you soil your front page with his face? It's really off-putting. Under the fold with him!

Hasn't it long been said that he has some muscular problems on one side of his face, almost as if he had had a stroke or something?

("long been said" = "some crazy thing my subconscious popped up which I probably got from the least-reputable parts of the Internets")

Is something actually supposed to be demonstrated by this practice?

No, I've heard that too, and like you can't source it.

Megan's question, "How much longer can he hold it together?", seems to me to depend on his capacity for insulation and denial, and the willingness of others that he should be left there, and raises for the umpteenth time how decisions are made in this government, and who makes them, on what facts. Dunno.

I agree with Ben. Huh?

Means we can make fun of the man for being lopsided.

Are Ben and Willy serious? Maybe you shouldn't interact with humans.

It's even scarier when you flip one half and join it with its unflipped self.

I think he looks like he had a stroke because his interior and exterior faces are so distinct. They've been looking mismatched for a long while now.

Brock. I'm bummed to have his picture on my blog, too. But it was worth showing.

I first noticed the droop on Bush's face during one of the debates in '04, and thought maybe he'd had a mini-stroke or something. Several other people mentioned it to me at the time.

Remember that video of Bush from ten years ago, when he was giving a speech and sounded infinitely more coherent than he does now? Hmmm.

You know what, though? It appears his mouth has been doing that since he was quite young

That's a lot more symmetrical.

God, he looks like the Emperor. I hope Obi-Wan Yglesias is around to protect us after Bush provokes war with Iran and dissolves the Congress.

The one side of his face looks so... exhausted.

'Sonly in the movies where they dissolve the Senate. In real life, they just make it an appendix.

'Smasher, tell your roommate to stop freaking me out about a coming war with Iran.

It's so difficult to tell a smirk from a droop on a face of a certain age. It's just like at some point after about thirty, slouches harden into hunchbacks.

Yep.

Here's that video of Bush from ten or so years ago.

In real life, they just make it an appendix.

The senate of Rome, losing all connection with the Imperial court and the actual constitution, was left a venerable but useless monument of antiquity on the Capitoline hill.
-- Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1

I do remember learning this trick of face halves is Psych101. Something about the left brain being better able to hide that private stuff. The other great example I have of these is a book of knit hat patterns, most of which are heinous, and if you do the public face and private face trick with the hat models, it's very clearly "I'm so happy in this hat" and "What the fuck is on my head?"

Eh, Harvey Dent was younger.

Looks to me like his colostomy bag is giving him pains.

m, it's either that or his 'neo-conservative' ... allies

I'm serious. What's so illuminating about one side of a person's face being different from the other (in particular why would you call one public and one private), especially in abstraction from a series in which one could compare different face-sides in many different situations over time? The way the post is worded, it's like you think there's some a priori truth about right vs. left sides of the face.

If you look at the whole face, you're liable to miss some of what it's telling you--in this case, what looks to me like utter weariness. I've heard the public/private way of explaining the difference, but that seems a bit much, and I didn't endorse it because I also knew you'd complain if I did, you little bitch.

I'm actually inclined to believe the stroke theory. He was literally drooling in debate #2.

It doesn't seem to work with the pictures of Dikembe Mutombo and Barry Obama further down the main page. They both seem happy on both sides of their faces, though Obama's is split between stoned-happy and honest-happy. Maybe only stroke victims have right/left faces capable of showing opposite emotions?

Maybe it only works for white people.

Is one side of the face alway supposed to be the telltale side? Or do you just pick the nasty looking side, whichever that one is, when examining souls in this method?

"You know that technique where you cover one side of a person's face to see their 'private' face or their 'public' face (or just their 'one' face and their 'other' face, if you like your binary oppositions softened)?"

No. I've never heard of that.

I do remember when blogs used to "link" to stuff that explains or amplifies stuff they're talking about, though. What are you talking about?

Meh, something I heard sometime. Look, people, it's just that the two sides of the face often convey very different things, and covering one side is a way to see that. If there's some larger theory behind it, I don't know it.

Maybe it only works for white people.

Or we're not as attuned to black faces, or it's only apparent in some pictures, which seems more likely.

Here's a description of the phenomenon.

Maybe it only works for white people.

It's a side effect from the grafting.

28 - I think they aren't conflicted. I think Messrs Mutombo and Obama are happy, and they're presenting a happy face to the media. I think the two sides of the face only convey different emotions when the person is trying to mask their feelings. That's why I think of the distinction as public and private.

35: I am with Megan, and have been for decades. I have always sensed a permanent irrepressible sneer when I look at George Bush, and think it is the core of his character.

I think of Bush as a bullying fratboy in Tijuana abusing prostitutes with that smirk on his face, knowing that the Mexican police would never do anything to his father's son.

Who in later life gets religion in order to sell used cars, and then still later realizes that there's more money in Jesus than in cars.

So his preaching style has a mix of cockiness, smirky veiled aggression, ingratiating cuteness, manipulation, jokiness, sloganeering, even almost pleading some of the time, as he watches the audience's face to see if he's clinched the sale.

All the time asking himself "Who could be stupid enough to believe this shit?" Sometimes he actually looks a little afraid, as though he realized that his tightrope act could fail at any time.

If, as we are told, different sides of the brain control different sides of the body and, as we are told, different sides of the brain bear responsibility for different kinds of cogitation (artistic v. quantitative, e.g.), then why is it so incredible that different sides of the face might correspond to different aspects of the personality?

37 is of course, gosepl.

("long been said" = "some crazy thing my subconscious popped up which I probably got from the least-reputable parts of the Internets")

I'm so going to try, and fail, to remember this exact wording.

Wow, you Bush-haters have sunk to a new low. Just know there are more of us who still support Bush than hate him.

I doubt it, Thomas.

28%.

28% of over 300,000,000 population is still 90 million supporters. Let's see if you turn that many out this Saturday.

Keep in mind that most of those who voted against Bush, or don't support the surge, are not true Bush haters and would never make fun of one side of his face. That's a new low.

Really? I thought comparing him to Hitler was the new low. You guys make it too easy to break the record.

Yes, really.

Honestly, apo, you're just not being nice to the president. And it hurts Thomas' feelings. I think you owe him an apology.

would never make fun of one side of his face. That's a new low.

Ah. You misunderstand us. We're not making fun of that side of his face; we're making fun of the other side.

If Bush really did have a stroke, then I'd feel a bit bad at mocking his face. Do you have any information about that, Thomas?

As to you, Thomas, you owe us some pastries.

Is this the same Thomas who comments at Crooked Timber? Do I have to ban every new commenter now?

49- I stopped and thought about this for a minute. I don't think I would feel bad. I'd feel bad about mocking most stroke victims' faces, but not about mocking Bush. I think this means my dislike of him has grown to unhealthy proportions.

Thank you for at least admitting it, Brock. No need to ban me, as I don't want any more of this caustic blog. Goodbye.

Stroke face.

Yes, really.

What a delicate flower you are, Thomas.

most of those who voted against Bush, or don't support the surge, are not true Bush haters

This is my favorite part.

I'm annoyed because the second I mentioned that it was his turn to bring the goddamn donuts, he up and ran.

52- Okay I've thought some mre and yes I would feel bad. Whew.

58: That's okay, Brock, I wouldn't.

The list of physical indignities I daily wish upon GWB makes even a massive stroke seem like a walk in the park.

But how does it compare to being blown up or waterboarded?

Symmetry may not be a big deal with respect to attractiveness:

Measurable symmetry accounts for less than 1% of the variance in the attractiveness of women's faces and less than 3% of the variance of the attractiveness of men's faces.

Plus:

a somewhat relevant fraudulent ornithologist

Huh. I always wondered about that -- there seemed to be so much room for symmetrical ugliness, and the reverse. My father was always a reasonably good looking man, but a close analysis of his features would reveal that they might as well have been assembled by tossing Mr. Potatohead parts at a snowbank.

And I really don't wish any particular ill on W, I just don't want him to be my problem anymore. If we could get rid of him by setting him up in a villa somewhere with a Swiss bank account, or whatever it is you do with deposed dictators, I'd be happy as a clam in mud.

The villa and Swiss bank account is sooo 20th Century, LB. These days deposed dictators go to the Hague.

You're a better person than I am, LB. I want golfball-sized kidney stones, full-on incontinence, and guinea worms. For Phase I, anyhow. And I have lots more phases.

I was thinking a parasite-a-month-club kind of thing.

Thomas?

We were too caustic for him, John. He had to go get his fan and sit on the veranda for a spell.

I'm willing to go along with the Swiss villa plan, as long as he spends a years in the stocks, first.

Impeachment and removal from office, trial at the Hague, imprisonment for life would be the ideal.

At the very least, he needs to live long enough to realize that history has rendered its judgement and he really will be remembered as the worst president the country has ever had and that his legacy is nothing but ashes for his party and his policies.

The only way I'll go along with Swiss villa is if he suffers from some really painful and horrific illness while he's living there.

At the very least, he needs to live long enough to realize that history has rendered its judgement and he really will be remembered as the worst president the country has ever had and that his legacy is nothing but ashes for his party and his policies.

That I could go for as a fitting punishment, but you think he's capable of giving a damn?

I'd be happy with just hm being remembered as the worst president the country has ever had, and his legacy being nothing but ashes for his party and his policies. That would be a few big steps forward for our polity. I don't care much whether or not he personally gives a damn.

Brock, Chopper, you guys have no imaginations. Guinea worms, people!

I would be okay with Jimmy Carter's anti-guinea-worm organization deciding that the world's last-ever case of guinea worm would be suffered by G.W. Bush.

If we're thinking parasites, Switzerland is not the place to send him. Either the Amazon or the Congo, probably the latter.

Either the Amazon or the Congo

I'm not willing to spend that much money on him. Put him on a raft bound for Haiti.