Democrat From Kentucky: Bush's Lese Majesty

My pal Cynicus always comes up with some excellent comments. He just put this one on the previous post and I thought it was good enough to post here. It's a commentary on the reasoning behind Bush's most recent speech.

Go to your Webster's Dictionary and look up "LESE MAJESTY".

Done? Good.

Lese majesty is at the simplest defined as treason. But it is a specific sort. Lese majesty is the crime of making the king look bad.

This can be from failing to provide the proper honors according to form (sitting in the presence of the king, for example). It can also be from remarks or publishings that disparage or impune the character, nature, actions, etc of the king. Note that the truth of such is irrelevant, so long as it is disparaging to the majesty of the king.

Observe closely, what makes this 'treason' is the notion that the king is the government, the king is the country. It would make no sense if the king were, say, an elected official holding an office OF the government FOR the country. That would not be a personification of the nation. That would be an office with power, authority, and responsibility, but not majesty.

What the GOP in general and Bushco especially have been trying to do for some time now is to reintroduce teh lese majesty concept. 'Treason' is to expand from mendacious action against the US to include whistleblowers or First Amendment exercisers, where such makes the President-King look bad - regardless of the truth of it all.

At the rate they are going they will do so - though probably not with the same name. You don't want to rub in the royalty concept too much at first - and of course you don't want it to sound French.