George Bush Goes Skydiving
(Bill Gurstelle is guest blogging here on Boing Boing. He is the author of several books including Backyard Ballistics, and the recently published Absinthe and Flamethrowers. Twitter: @wmgurst)
Eighty-five year old George H. W. Bush celebrated his birthday by going skydiving. Politics aside, that's a wonderful thing. (Yes, it's a tandem jump, but give him a break, he's 85.) GHWB, perhaps unlike some of his descendants, seems to be a pretty fair practitioner of the Art of Living Dangerously.
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Nice pic, but I seem to recall this one from about five years ago. I guess he did it again, good for him!
Don't they have cardboard cut out holes on pictures like this now where you can say that was you in the picture? What about for the instructor? How about Martha instructor & GHWB jumping?
I feel sorry for the Secret Service agents who have to follow his every move.
So does this mean that in eight years, George W. will try to jump out of a plane, too? Will Cheney be the tandem?
No, George W. will not be sky-diving when he's an old man. That's Poppy's thing - primarily because Bush 41 served honorably in a war, where he jumped out of planes numerous times and almost got killed doing it. Can't say the same about young George.
According to what I read, skydiving is a sort of birthay tradition for Bush Sr. This was his eighth jump, so they said. Good for him.
Hey, how about that. I guess I share my birthday with good ole HW. I cannot, however, say that my day was even 1/10th as exciting as his.
I suppose when Bush Jr will turn 85 and will follow the family tradition birthday celebration skydiving we will forget what he has done during his 8 years "reign" and celebrate with him...
I'm surprised more people aren't talking about the hemp used in the parachute that saved Bush Sr.'s life after being shot down in 1944. And how both presidents Bush did nothing to encourage the cultivation of hemp. Quite a distance from "Grow hemp for victory!".
Sure, Bush SR. is cooler than GW but he's still an evil, evil, evil, man.
He's had a plane shot out from under him.
Once you've had something like that happen to you, faux-dangerous things like skydiving just aren't all that much.
and we think North Korea is corrupt for passing on power from father to son...
GW can't even ride a Segway without injuring himself, does anyone really think he'd try jumping out of a plane?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2989000.stm
@1 - Wow, we managed to put "politics aside" for all of zero comments. Way to go, immediately jumping to "I wish the parachute had failed, killing the 85 year old ex-President and his tandem partner." Brilliant...
I feel sorry for GB41.
If you saw the newsclip, he's there giving his
"Aw shucks" speech about how he's 85 and thriving,
and then who appears but...
GB43! Who struts up with his characteristically
awkward gait and proceeds to make some stupid
joke about 41 being reacquainted with his breakfast.
@12 - I've never had a plane shot out from underneath me, but I have almost died in a number of mind numbingly terrifying incidents. I manage to still be afraid of things that are scary.
I bet war heroes or even people who paid for right wing paramilitary death squads to run rampant through South America all through the 80s, still feel probably the same amount of desire to preserve their life as us normals. That feeling some call fear or w/e, he is not a bene gesserit. He is a war criminal, though. Yay skydiving!
@KURTMAC It was my brithday as well, I also did not jump out of a plane but I don't think it lacked anything on that accord.
But as for Bush senior living more dangerously than W - what about the years of chemically induced self-abuse or even the long lasting enemies he made with his administration? W has done plenty to insure he has a dangerous life ahead - particualrly if the secert service protection expires for him per the changes made in that policy.
Honk if you think Jimmy Carter has spent his post-presidency years far more wisely than this old fart. Getting fat off of arms trades while you endulge your silly desires 24/7. Wow. What a guy.
Unlike some of the petty negative commenters on this board, I find GHWB, as an 85 year old and still jumping out of planes, to be a very inspirational story. Way to go George!
Hey @15 - You seem mighty forgiving of a war criminal. Perhaps setting civilians on fire doesn't bother you.
"Politics aside"?
Why do you even need to bring them up if all you want to say is that it's amazing that an 85 year old man jumped out of a plane?
Sure it's amazing when oldsters perform feats like this.
It's also amazing that Americans are more interested in 'celebrifying' war criminals instead of publicly executing them in Times Square.
Hard to be apolitical about this silly-ass stunt when people you know have suffered greatly due to the decisions of the man in question.
TOTALLY in agreement with Benher. Horrible man with a horrific past. Just because he's a senior doing a trick like at 85 doesn't forgive him for his past.
GHWB was a lot more nuanced man than his son. Watch this PBS documentary to learn more. http://www.pbs.org/video/video/979907571/chapter/3/program/979359091/topic/979379158
I'm no republican by far, but I just like to think theirs a lot more to people (that includes politicians) than simple black/white, good/evil descriptions we often give them.
He chose to serve in WWII, but he was against much of the civil rights movement at the start. He was essentially one of Nixon and Reagans cronies, but when he became president, he did what he thought was necessary and against his party and his own promise, raised taxes. People are not as simple as we would like to think.
Wow.. GHW Bush, skydiving! wtf
Well, he's done that recently. At the latest big anniversary of the George Bush Library in College Station he arrived by skydive.
Why is this so hard to believe? Bush Sr. enlisted in the airforce early by lying about his age, fought in the war as a pilot, nearly got killed in the process, and remains to this day the only president ever to also serve as director of the CIA.
That so-called "whiny wimp" is one tough old bugger, and possibly one of the most dangerous old men ever to serve in the oval office.
I'm not saying I'm a fan of him or his policies, I'm just saying give credit where its due.
At least he didn't get to the open door of the plane and say "Nope. Not gonna do it..." (-thank you, Dana Carvey.)
I think Bill Hicks said it best (wish he'd lived much past 41's era) that this guy took it a little personally when Newsweek had him on the cover with the caption: WIMP PRESIDENT. He's had something to prove ever since.
Jackm: I don't think we want anyone else who led the CIA taking up the POTUS mantle, do we? First president that may have been responsible for assassinating another is nothing to brag about.
My husband is 79 years old and is now in New Zealand. He is going to bungee jump off the bridge where it was started. He said, "if Bush can jump out of a plane, I can jump off a bridge". He is also hunting and fishing. We love your comment about seniors need to quit drooling and get up and do something. We love you George Bush! We love your son too
Gerrie F