“What difference at this point does it make?” A lot, actually.

If I need a reason not to vote for Hillary Clinton, should she decide to run in 2016, I found it in her indignation at valid questions during the hearing on the Benghazi, Libya attacks.

(Just to dismiss any accusations of misogyny, I would vote for a woman or minority for president in a minute if I was satisfied they were the best candidate. Margaret Thatcher, PM of Great Britain in the Reagan Era when I first began to vote, is someone I would have voted for.)

Hillary Clinton gets mad at Benghazi Libya hearing.

Now read what she said, paying special attention to the red and green:

“With all due respect, the fact is, we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest? Or was it because of guys out for a walk one night and decided they would go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator.”--Hillary Clinton

Ms Clinton asks, then answers, her own questions.

Her reaction is disproportionate to the tone of the hearing and apparently manufactured to deflect attention when questions became especially painful.

I have no problem with leaders not having answers. Leaders are human, too.

My problem is with politicians who can’t get past pride and political Darwinism to conduct themselves with some measure of honesty and decorum.

“What difference at this point does it make?”

A lot, actually.

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FWIW, I think the Clintons are intelligent and sincere people who truly want to do the right thing. I also think they lack the introspection and self-awareness to see themselves as others see them.

[2014-02-23]

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Bagel holes and the genius of language.

A few days ago I posted a blog on bagel holes (“Everybody keep a tight bagel hole, now.”>)

The idea for this post came from Norman Mailer's Naked and the Dead, which I read as a boy, maybe 14 years old. No one in my home knew who Mailer was far as I know; I certainly didn't, until I got to college and realized I had read someone famous. I just thought it would be a enjoyable followup to Alistair MaClean's Where Eagles Dare.

(One of my English professors at Calvin College, Professor Oppewal, thought Mailer was too prolific, and he didn’t care for the book he’d just done on Marilyn Monroe. I must say, if you add up Marilyn and Mailer's The Executioner’s Song, you get the feeling someone’s trying awfully hard to be Truman Capote).

If you see any sexual imagery in the bagel story, it’s entirely what you brought with you. There is nothing explicitly there.

However, it is there, isn’t it? Because you read it, which demonstrates nicely the genius of language (a very old phrase that has meant different things over the years, but by which I mean “language is what language does.”)

Most of our understanding of words is what we bring to them, not what they bring to us.

Ask anyone learning English why the Sunday Funnies are funny. They're not, not to them. Because they arise out of a context they don’t have.

[2014-04-08]

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A first grade memory: getting immunized.

Jonas Salk administering a polio vaccine.

You may not remember, but when you and I were in first grade, getting to the front of the line was a big deal. If the teacher said “Everyone line up at the door,” there was a rush to be first, whether we were lining up for lunch or recess or the library.

I have a distinct memory of this scene unfolding at Vernondale Elementary School in Erie, PA (I can remember the room and door and green-and-white checkered tile floor).

But we weren’t lining up this time for lunch or recess or the library.

We were lining up for the nurse's office, in which a doctor in a white lab coat was waiting with trays of needles to give us inoculations.

As we pushed and shoved to be nearest the door, the teacher said, “You may realize once we get where we’re going that being first isn’t always a good idea.”

Of course, if we weren’t first, that meant we were treated to the tantrums and tears of all those going before us while we shuffled step by step closer to certain doom.

But “getting it over with” is never a good idea when you’re six years old, and the farther you are away from needles, the better, even if it only prolongs the inevitable.

[2014-03-28]

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Like serving Mad Dog 20/20 in crystal stemware.

MD 20 20, also known as Mad Dog 20 20,
a flavored wine from Mogen David

What is it with ukuleles and xylophones in advertising jingles, lately? And a female voice oohing or crooning above stop-action animation.

It seemed to start with Amazon a couple summers ago and now graces everything from yogurt to overnight delivery.

Sometimes it’s clapping, sometimes a piano, but in each case it’s innocuously noxious, like serving Mad Dog 20/20 in crystal stemware. (After a couple glasses you can’t taste the difference and don’t care.)

Just my 2¢. My ears now ring like a tuning fork each time I hear the same musical recipe.

Progressive Insurance Commercial Perfect Pairings

Joss & Main Commercial

[2014-04-02]

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Clarence finally retires his Intergraph multimedia keyboard at the office.

Some of the bad guys from Quake, an early first person
shooter. Charlie and I used to play this every day, 
against each other and online against others.

Back in the day, computers and peripherals were marketed as “multimedia” if they were able to play sound and render some level of animation.
The first time I heard the term, I was confused. What’s so “multi” about sound and moving images? Or is this something different than what I have already?
In those days, you bought graphic accelerators and sound cards separately. Most computers came with something that was capable of making noise and moving a cursor, but if you wanted to play Quake on a network and hear your foe dying in agony, you needed to invest in something a little better.

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My desk has moved so many times, I just left my name and extension on my keyboard. I had this one for nearly 20 years.

My old keyboard.

My new keyboard and laptop,

The view from my desk - it will soon be changing,

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I was one of the first in my company to get a laptop with sound, they were sturdy Compaq workhorses before HP bought Compaq. I created a Windows theme that made Star Trek sounds for various actions (a transporter door for minimizing windows; “He’s dead, Jim” when I deleted a file). Everyone looked at me like I was a green Orion slave girl or something.)

He’s dead, Jim.

Green Orion Slave Girl

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