Home | Away

Bush’s chat with novelist alarms environmentalists, Christian groups

From today’s New York Times

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18—One of the perquisites of being president is the ability to have the author of a book you enjoyed pop into the White House for a chat.

Over the years, a number of writers have visited President Bush, including Natan Sharansky, Bernard Lewis and John Lewis Gaddis. And while the meetings are usually private, they rarely ruffle feathers.

Now, one has.

In his new book about Mr. Bush, “Rebel in Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush,” Fred Barnes recalls a visit to the White House last year by Michael Crichton, whose 2004 best-selling novel, “State of Fear,” suggests that global warming is an unproven theory and an overstated threat.

Mr. Barnes, who describes Mr. Bush as “a dissenter on the theory of global warming,” writes that the president “avidly read” the novel and met the author after Karl Rove, his chief political adviser, arranged it. He says Mr. Bush and his guest “talked for an hour and were in near-total agreement.”

“The visit was not made public for fear of outraging environmentalists all the more,” he adds.

__________

Environmentalists were not the only group Mr. Bush considered during Mr. Crichton’s visit.  “They covered the entire spectrum of Crichton’s work,” said Mr. Barnes.  “Crichton warned the President that the rapacious Japanese economy would soon crush America, that female executives are often the perpetrators in sexual-harassment cases, and, most important, that the lost city of Zinj is populated by murderous talking gorillas.  As in their discussion of global warming, Mr. Bush was in near-total agreement.”

Environmentalists have responded with alarm to the news.  “This shows the president is more interested in science fiction than science,” Frank O’Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, said after learning of the White House meeting. Mr. O’Donnell’s group monitors environmental policy.

Curiously, however, Christian conservatives have also expressed concern.  “The president met with Michael Crichton for an hour and they never discussed the dangers of genetic research?  That’s an outrage,” said the Rev. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family.  “While we understand that the president needs to stay informed about global-warming charlatans, sexually predatory women and dangerous talking gorillas, we strongly believe that he should take a stand against scientific research conducted by atheistic madmen.  The president needs to reassure Christians that the Culture of Life® will not be threatened by genetically engineered dinosaurs, human-animal hybrids, or deranged robots with Yul Brynner’s face.”

Toxic, rapidly-reproducing crystalline organisms from outer space could not be reached for comment.

Posted by on 02/19 at 01:36 PM

  1. How very like the New York Times to omit any mention of red-state extreme weather events.

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  02/19  at  03:03 PM

  2. And to omit any mention of certain post-poststructuralist readings of those red-state extreme weather events, as well.

    Posted by Not the same cow at all  on  02/19  at  03:41 PM

  3. Long before this, monumentally stupid Okie Senator Inhofe had a love affair with Crichton, leading me to wonder about new legislative initiatives. What about the epidemic of great train robberies, for instance?

    Posted by norbizness  on  02/19  at  04:28 PM

  4. I was under the impression his favorite author penned his childhood classic, “Make Way For Fucklings”.

    Posted by KevinHayden  on  02/19  at  04:38 PM

  5. I understand they also discussed Crichton’s pseudonymous work, A Case of Need. Apparently they agreed that no one should be liable for malpractice in the event of death resulting from, as Wikipedia put it in its plot summary, “a hack job abortion.” This was right between the conversations about female executives and talking gorillas.

    Posted by  on  02/19  at  04:58 PM

  6. Wowsers.  It’s tough to discern where the article ends and where the parody begins.

    Posted by Brad R.  on  02/19  at  05:01 PM

  7. Me thinks Prof Michael is watching a bit too much Olympic hockey. 

    Afterall Crichton is a major award “book"(?) no, sorry, “journalism” award winner, albeit the prize was given by the The American Association of Petroleum Geologists.  And he is thus worthy of our admiration and praise for writing such a fine piece of “journalism,” reporting as it does on the issues presented above. 

    Maybe it is simply because Crichton is such a towering figure in his field (fiction right?), or maybe just in any group of people, but either way, i am still reminded of him when i see that commercial, they are running during the Olympics, with the laptop computer that gets eaten by ruby-red crystally virus morphing generational thingy-majigs.

    Posted by  on  02/19  at  05:19 PM

  8. The real question here is, how can we keep <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345354613/104-3862609-2001553?v=glance&n=283155">Arabs from disrupting the traditional values of small-town Viking culture?  Also, if we really want to prevent great train robberies, it would be a simple matter to hold for questioning anybody who tries to enter a train station with one incredibly long fingernail.

    Posted by  on  02/19  at  05:32 PM

  9. Crichton also stressed the importance of the Patriot Act in preventing al-Qaeda from obtaining funding for their terrorist activities.

    Posted by  on  02/19  at  05:53 PM

  10. Thanks for the link, Michael. Hopefully my site will come back up sometime soon so that people will see something at the other end of it.

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  02/19  at  06:32 PM

  11. Yikes!  Exponents of the “culture of life” aren’t alarmed Bush and Crichton didn’t talk about the tens of thousands of dead people we’ve prevented from pointing WMDs at us (via their ex-dictator of course), the thousands of our own who’ve been killed or maimed by old-fashioned war weapons, and the uncounted terrorists the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfield-Rice-Wolfowitz machine has spawned because of their Iraqi imbroglio?

    Posted by Clifton Snider  on  02/19  at  07:49 PM

  12. "A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest / Lie-la-lie ...”

    Posted by joseph duemer  on  02/19  at  08:17 PM

  13. Clifton, Clifton.  The Culture of Life® has nothing to do with Iraq.  The Culture of Life® is all about Terri Schiavo and the Tiny Little Snowflakes®.

    Please refer all questions and comments on Iraq to the Culture of Death.  Their blog can be found here.

    Posted by Michael  on  02/19  at  09:25 PM

  14. You realize, of course, that the “Westworld” connection also explains why Harry Whittington--*robot cowboy* Harry Whittington--can catch a face full of birdshot and live to apologize for it.

    Posted by  on  02/19  at  09:35 PM

  15. Cmon MB, throw us medievalists a bone too, will ya? Don’t make me go through the trainwreck of coming up with a joke of my own.

    Posted by  on  02/20  at  12:04 AM

  16. Good sweet mother of God. Having suffered only through the movie of Timeline, I didn’t realize that Crichton’s villain in the novel wanted to corner the market on historically accurate themeparks. Hence the time machine. That’s the kind of pain I get when I read an Amazon review: learning things I don’t want to learn.

    So, WTF is up with Chrichton and themeparks (Jurassic P, Westworld, and now this: is there one I’m missing)? Is there a gimmick here? Is Crichton only playing at being dubious about global warming because he’s looking to open a branch of Seaworld in Vermont? More importantly, is there an obvious joke we can make about a themepark-obsessed hack novelist and Dubya?

    Posted by  on  02/20  at  12:13 AM

  17. H’mm.  Crichton seems to’ve not talked about wirehead technology that was supposed to control sociopathic desires but wound up encouraging them inst-

    Oh, wait.  George ("Guess What the Lump on My Back Is!") Bush probably already knows about that one.

    What really bites is, every once in a while Crichton used to write something I really liked, because once upon a time he had some pride in his craft and could turn out fascinating stories with interesting characters. 

    Until Timeline.  Timeline was so utterly, absolutely awful, it was like an insta-snapshot of how far Crichton had fallen: lousy technicals (bad science, bad history) and lazy mechanics (sucky plot and no-dimensional characters).  I haven’t read anything of his since.

    Posted by  on  02/20  at  12:34 AM

  18. According to the reviews I’ve read, the arch-villain in State of Fear is an environmental activist named Nick Drake.

    Do hack novelists not even bother googling the names of their central characters? Or are we meant to imagine this nefarious character as a mopey long-haired English folk singer in a tattered corduroy jacket?

    Posted by  on  02/20  at  01:31 AM

  19. According to the reviews I’ve read, the arch-villain in State of Fear is an environmental activist named Nick Drake.

    Bush has told me
    I’m a rare, rare find
    A global cure
    For a misled mind.

    Greens will tell you
    Not to ask for more
    That someday our ocean
    Will find a new shore.

    But I’ll write some books with a technocrat plea
    That you really don’t want to read
    Name the ways that I’m making up facts
    Just don’t call me a corp’rate flack.

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  02/20  at  01:50 AM

  20. The arch-villain in Timeline was pretty nakedly a charicature of Steve Jobs’ alleged and much-publicized personality flaws (I thought so, anyway, and wondered if Crichton had some grudge against the guy), so I wonder if “Nick Drake” is based on some real person Crichton has a beef with. 

    Or… Nicht and Dark.  Maybe he was playing with polylingual homonyms.

    Posted by  on  02/20  at  02:44 AM

  21. Nicely done with the re-working of the lyrics for “Time Has Told Me,” Chris.

    Posted by  on  02/20  at  04:15 AM

  22. Yes, well done Chris.

    Posted by  on  02/20  at  04:34 AM

  23. I could have been a Congo, could have been a Prey
    A real live Looker, could have been a Runaway
    I could have been in Westworld, a robot with a gun
    As fearsome as a Twister, in a Rising Sun.
    I could be
    State of Fear
    I would be, I should be
    in a Sphere
    I could have been
    One of these things first
    I could have been
    One of these things first

    Posted by  on  02/20  at  07:10 AM

  24. If Richard Benjamin gets top billing over Yul Brynner, James Brolin gets shot.

    If George Bush gets top billing over Dick Cheney, Harry Whittington gets shot.

    From Samuel Goldwyn’s Iron Laws of History.

    Posted by  on  02/20  at  08:05 AM

  25. Yes, but will James Brolin apologize to Yul Brynner?

    Posted by Michael  on  02/20  at  08:26 AM

  26. Oh, and by the way, Chris wins.

    Posted by Michael  on  02/20  at  08:27 AM

  27. Oh, and by the way, Chris wins.

    Good lord yes.

    Posted by  on  02/20  at  10:17 AM

  28. Do I smell a Kennedy Honor?  A Medal of Freedom?  A cabinet post for Crichton?

    Posted by pasquino  on  02/20  at  12:34 PM

  29. it’s a good thing H. G. Wells isn’t alive to meet with the president or else they’d be planning their preemptive attack on Mars by now.

    Posted by  on  02/20  at  12:45 PM

  30. And how do we know that’s not what’s behind this so-called “Mars mission”?  I just hope we’ll be greeted as liberators.

    Norbizness, way up there in comment 3, I just want you to know that I’m not the least bit surprised that you were funnier and faster off the mark than I was.  That’s the last time I take you to Westworld, though.

    Posted by Michael  on  02/20  at  01:27 PM

  31. I was much maligned by Chrichton.  Catch me on Oprah next week, when I get to tell my side of the story.

    Posted by  on  02/20  at  03:54 PM

  32. If you are really bored and don’t like the women’s Olympic hockey final, or just don’t like seeing games without the US in them, then this is an opportunity to yell at the TV during an academic “game.”

    CSPAN one today, on now…
    02:30 PM EST
    2:00 (est.)Forum
    Freedom of Expression on the College Campus
    American Council on Education
    Robert A. Corrigan , San Francisco State University
    Robert M. O’Neil , Jefferson Ctr. for Protec. Free Express.

    Freedom of Expression on the College Campus
    American Council on Education
    Los Angeles, California (United States)
    ID: 191273 - 02/11/2006 - 4:00 - $29.95

    Corrigan, Robert A., President, San Francisco State University
    O’Neil, Robert M., Director, Jefferson Ctr. for Protec. Free Express.
    Cavanaugh, John C., President, University of West Florida
    Cepeda, Rita M., President, San Diego Mesa College
    Blake, J. Herman, Director, University of South Carolina, Beaufort, Sea Islands Institute

    The 88th annual meeting of the American Council on Education held a plenary session on “Freedom of Expression: From the Classroom to the President’s Office.”

    Robert M. O’Neil gave the plenary address. Moderator Rita Cepeda talked about a case involving freedom of speech for faculty. J. Herman Blake talked about a case involving freedom of speech for students. John C. Cavanaugh talked about a case involving assuring the public that an institution is providing freedom of speech for all members. Robert A. Corrigan talked about a case involving freedom of speech for a university president.

    The meeting was held at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

    captcha word:  “appear”

    Posted by  on  02/20  at  04:04 PM

  33. Catch me on Oprah next week, when I get to tell my side of the story.

    Will do, toxic, rapidly-reproducing crystalline organism.  Just don’t get all Tom Cruise on us and start mutating before our eyes. 

    Posted by  on  02/20  at  04:15 PM

  34. The President can read?

    Posted by Saltydog  on  02/20  at  09:15 PM

  35. I’m baffled.

    I mean, does the president have some sort of special compelling powers, by which authors of his favorite books are prevented from refusing invitations to the WH?

    Otherwise, it sounds like he has exactly the same sort of “perquisite” that any of us has: nothing prohibits me from emailing (or posting on the blog of) one of my favorite [living] authors and, if I so choose and it’s convenient for them, inviting them over to tea.

    You could say, “being president allows you to fly your favorite authors up to see you on AF1” maybe; or “few authors would pass up the chance to visit the WH as a guest” but it isn’t *quite* the astonishing and lofty-royal-privilege that the NYT writer seems to think it is. The fact that we fans and authors are spread out over the continent (and the globe) is the obstacle more than anything else (that and money) but then, that’s what the internet is for. And cons, for those that can afford them.

    Posted by bellatrys  on  02/20  at  09:25 PM

  36. The factually challenged but curious - the former who, to judge by responses on this very outre thread, apparently dominate - will want to see the data attempting to duplicate historian Naomi Oreske’s claim (Dec. 2004) of not being able to find even one science journal article in ten years contradicting the anthopogenic climate warming “consensus” view. This study
    http://www.cfact-europe.org/index1.html
    falsifies her “consensus” results - which is virtually the only one seen in the news anymore. Instead, Dr. Peiser found little “consensus.”

    Furthermore, while the above studies only looked at the published scientific journal literature, there are survey results of climate scientists showing a lack of stong consensus among them. http://www.sepp.org/NewSEPP/Bray.htm

    Finally, you may have missed this story (along with almost all US media) last year about the difficulties replicating the most loudly proclaimed findings from paleoclimatology - which we’ve all heard about for many years - the UN sponsored source of “this is the warmest decade” or “this is the warmest year on record” headlines?  Then see Dutch journal “Natuurwetenschap & Techniek” (February 1, 2005): “Kyoto Protocol Based on Flawed Science: Proof That Mankind Causes Climate Change Refuted”; English version here http://www.uoguelph.ca/~rmckitri/research/Climate_L.pdf (It won a prestigious prize for science journalism.)

    I have my own theories explaining why such amazing anomalies exist yet go unacknowledged here, there, if not everywhere - but if you recall the line “follow the money” from Woodward and Bernstein’s “All The President’s Men,” you’re getting warm.

    Thus, does Dr. Michael Crichton deserve ridicule for opposing “what everyone knows is true”? or commendation for carefully considering what too few dare say? Even President Eisenhower warned against empowering scientific and technical elites to make decisions for your own good - but people on the Left (except Democrat Michael Crichton) seem to forget that he warned against more than just the sinister influence of corporations on public policy. Or if they do, very few heed this alarm in practice.

    -Orson Olson
    graduate student, environmental science and policy
    Imperial College (ie, Britain’s MIT), University of London

    Posted by  on  02/21  at  01:30 AM

  37. Finally, someone has the courage to show up on this blog and defend the Bush Administration’s rigorous approach to science.  Carry on, Orson!  I don’t know what “MIT” is, but if it’s British, it must be very good.

    Posted by  on  02/21  at  01:43 AM

  38. “follow the money”

    Mr. Olson, in regards to your first link, I’m having trouble following the money in regards to the drubbing dealt to Benny Peiser by Tim Lambert and his commenters.

    What’s in it for them? Are they on Nick Drake’s payroll, perhaps? I knew I should have illegally downloaded Pink Moon, but I went out and bought it, thereby further cementing the grip of the military-industrial complex. Or something.

    Posted by  on  02/21  at  02:02 AM

  39. Orson, we understand—from this comment and comment 43 on this post—that you think well of yourself.  But really, if you want to barge in here and claim that we’re “factually challenged” because we tend to support the scientific consensus on climate change, you’re going to have to do better than links to cranks like Benny Peiser.  (I recommend the Tim Lambert discussion.  Always nice to hear from fellow members of the reality-based community.  Thanks, John S.)

    But you’re right to suggest that we follow the money.  No doubt it will lead us to the rich and powerful interests who control the Sustainable Growth movement and are using every means in their power to crush the fledgling oil industry.

    Posted by Michael  on  02/21  at  08:23 AM

  40. You should show more respect for someone going to Imperial College, Michael, because each year at Imperial College contains five quarters, as opposed to Standard College’s four.

    Go Imperial! Pound Troy!

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  02/21  at  01:31 PM

  41. That’s very interesting about Imperial College, Chris, but I have to ask . . . does it make you feel like a king?

    You realize, of course, that our allusions to late-60s ad campaigns for margarine are, if not racist and sexist, at least ageist.

    Posted by Michael  on  02/21  at  01:43 PM

  42. It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.

    captcha: wife

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  02/21  at  01:46 PM

  43. "Speaking of literature with great dialogue, it’s hard to match the stuff of Elmore Leonard,” Bush remarked.  “Rove says, that it helps my popularism tongue; my way to speak, and connect, with the average American way of life.”

    Posted by Matt  on  02/21  at  02:26 PM

  44. Butter.  Parkay.

    And Matt, I thought Bush’s favorite writer was Philip K. Dick?

    Posted by  on  02/21  at  03:52 PM

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below:


Next entry: A matter of principle

Previous entry: Autocratic but fun Friday

<< Back to main