George W's Homage to Flaubert (on overturn of regulations limiting arsenic levels in drinking water, March 20, 2001) The death of Emma Bovary achieves By stroke of literary genius The status of a divine tragedy: "Gently she swayed her head from side to side Till shrieking with convulsions, and her breath Was heavy with metallic fumes. Her eyes Dilated, and her skin pale as the sheets. Vomiting blood, her livid face was wet." Since Flaubert wrote of how an arsenic dose Brought to his heroine's heart self-murdered peace, The French have civilized their ways, and now, In common with their European colleagues And World Health Organization standards, Permit but ten parts arsenic in a billion. Perhaps it is nostalgia then, that Bush Prefers to have five times that concentration In U.S. drinking water. Being steeped In nineteenth century French literature, He must be longing for that former era, Embracing the Victorian age, its typhoid, Its cholera, child labor and the workhouse. "The case is not so clear," the White House says, "Statistics must be checked. The National Academy of Sciences is wrong!" Fitting numbers to policy, and not The other way around, is Bush's method. If policy says CO2 must belch, Then global warming data must be questioned. If policy dictate a tax cut, then Convenient recessionary numbers Are cited, and opposing economics Recalibrated. And if policy Dictate a cold war, flush out fifty spies And send them back to Russia. Most of all, If policy require a president, Then make the vote-count fit by court decree! March 2001