Ever wonder how Dick Cheney came to be? You know, the
infatuation with torture, the un-thought-thru decisions about undertaking wars,
the failures in planning and logistically supporting those wars? The knee-jerk
hard-right response to pretty much any problem? Well, someone may have hit upon
the answer.
In an opinion piece in the April 9-15 issue of the Boise Weekly—yeah, that’s right,
Idaho—John Rember discusses Mr. Cheney’s history thusly:
He’s been under
general anesthesia for a substantial portion of his life. One can assume
high-school concussions [Mr. Cheney played football in high school], some months or years of not enough blood to the brain, some hardening
of the cerebral arteries, long moments when one or more of his hearts ceased to
pump blood, times when, fascinated with videos of water-boarding, he simply
forgot to breathe.
Mr. Rember raises the term “pump head,” a condition of
temporary, and sometimes not so temporary, mental problems experienced by some
recipients of anesthesia. Cranky can vouch for the existence of pump head. He’s
had two heart operations and several less serious but still anesthetized
procedures, and his head ain’t been completely right since. Oh, he’s gotten a
little less foggy as the operations have receded, but he’s still prone to
excessive peevishness, decisions too quickly made, and a general reduction in
compassion for his fellow man (and woman).
Lest anyone contend that Mr. Rember’s analysis is based solely on
politics, he also mentioned Bill Clinton’s somewhat less than stellar press
conferences following his open-hear surgery.
