The Art of Translation

The Anchoress is a superb, and anonymous, blogger who has a knack for seeing beyond the superficial and, in her posts, capturing a bit of the eternal. Not that we'd expect any less from an anchorite, of course, even one with a family who's a Yankees fan.

She links to Varifrank, who posts and then translates a CBC story on Nadagate, and a gifted translator Varifrank proves to be. Here's a sample:

A new report in the U.S. media is once again linking Karl Rove to the unmasking of an undercover CIA agent. Rove, 'Bush's brain' as he is often called, is legendary for his ability to get his boss elected and his political enemies destroyed.

Now Democrats are hoping to turn the tables with some new ammunition in this week's Time magazine. Journalist Matt Cooper reports it was Rove who told him him that Joe Wilson, a prominent critic of the Bush administration, was married to a CIA agent later identified as Valerie Plame. "After that conversation [with Rove] I knew she worked at the CIA and worked on WMD [weapons of mass destruction]," said Cooper. It is one more twist in a tangled story that began when Saddam Hussein was accused by President George W. Bush of trying to buy nuclear materials in Africa. The charge was used to justify invading Iraq but it was later discredited by Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador and who in 1990 was U.S. charge d'affaires in Baghdad, who investigated the claim and wrote an article in the New York Times saying it was false. . . .

Now, please allow me to translate for you what it is I got out of all of these stories over the past two years:

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Karl Rove blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah ‘Bush's brain’ blah blah blah oh thats funny, never heard that before blah blah blah blah blah

Blah blah blah Democrats are hoping to turn the tables blah no kidding! really? blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Saddam Hussein was accused by President George W. Bush of trying to buy nuclear materials in Africa.blah blah blah blah blah. Blah! blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, bl-bl-blblah. Blah, blah blah blah! Oh, blah blah! Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Kennedy wannabe alert blah blah I believe very clearly that Karl Rove ought to be fired," said Massachusetts Senator John Kerry blah who talks like that blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Political analyst Stuart Rothenberg says there could be a backlash for the Democrats, Ha! the bitter flat beer taste of blowback will make Harry Reids face disappear into his hairline with the pucker this sour sucker of a story is going to generate He he he ho ho ho he hehe.

Now that's the art of getting to the bitter center of a story!

Also, if you haven't already read Michael Barone's piece, "Our Titus Oates," do so.