Guilt

John Edwards, though a thorough nogoodnik, is not guilty of any crime, as correctly decided by a jury of his peers. But Jon Corzine is guilty; he is a gonif pure and simple.

You can still

rent a German! In case you, you know, want one.

Happy Memorial Day

O brave new world

Excuse me if I don't go all starry-eyed over this prospect:

The police [in Vallejo, CA] went high-tech, investing $500,000 in cameras across the city that allow officers to monitor a larger area than they could before. The department deputized citizens to participate in law enforcement by sharing tips on Facebook and Twitter.

So the cops can sit in the precinct all comfy and cozy, watching television monitors filming the streets which it is their duty to patrol. How well has that worked in London? Meanwhile citizens can report their friends and neighbors to the authorities, just like in Hitler's Germany. No thanks.

Turkish suspicions

Oi vey!

Obama in French

Why does the President annoy me so? If I turn on the television and he is talking, I immediately change the channel. I was trying to figure out where this visceral reaction comes from. Today it came to me. A French phrase, for which we have no equivalent in English: He speaks en haut de bas. It actually means from high to low, but is generally considered to describe haughtiness-- the aristocrat looking down his nose at us peasants. It is infuriating.

New painting

The perfect man

What would my perfect man be like? Intelligent; Reads, writes and speaks fluent English; Showers frequently and cleans under his fingernails; Knows how to unclog a toilet; Looks? From average guy to Cary Grant--anything in this range is acceptable; Must weigh more than me; Likes music and movies; Does not listen to all Things Considered; Likes me. A lot. I could be more picky, but if anyone were more perfect, he would be too good for me.

Dilemma

My Keurig coffeemaker declines to make coffee. What do you do about an appliance that's too cheap to repair and too expensive to replace? There used to be a little old man in a little old shop in Rutherford, NJ, who would fix your small appliance for a small sum. Such enterprises no longer exist. I miss him.

A lot of work

A lot of work went into this comment, from my spam folder:

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The hell with the trees

The paper towel dispenser in my gym has a decal stating: "Remember, these are made from trees." I thought trees were a renewable resource. Apparently I was wrong. To the manufacturer of this dispenser: If you consider making items out of trees a criminal enterprise, stop. Go out of business. If you don't, shut up.

Teaching "innovation"

What public education system has this author observed? It doesn't seem to resemble the American system I am familiar with.

Knowledge that children are encouraged to soak up in American schools — the memorization of planets, state capitals, the Periodic Table of Elements — can only take students so far. But “skill and will” determine a child’s ability to think outside of the box, he says.

Who says American school children are being taught these things? They are not even learning the multiplication tables or how to write cursive. Instead, the curriculum is devoted to promoting self esteem, diversity, and political correctness. Our children are not being taught the basic skills they need to survive in our society, such as how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. We are educating them to become suckers. They are incapable of thinking anything through or expressing their opinions with clarity. You can't teach children to be creative. That comes from within. But you can equip them with the knowledge required not to be gullible fools. You can transmit our Western heritage.

No Kapcha!

Or is it spelled Captcha? Whatever, I really can't decipher it most of the time. Maybe I am a robot!

I've been trying for two weeks to purchase tickets for Tanglewood. There's a special promotion--30% off tickets. Maybe because I plan to attend Friday the thirteenth, I have had nothing but trouble navigating their website. First they want me to sign in. Why? I prefer that the BSO and I maintain a formal relationship. I don't want access to their website. Just sell me the tickets, dammit! But they insist. So I admit that I forgot my password (I use it once a year) and they e-mail me a new password. Back to their site. The new password does not work. Okay, Plan B. Call them on the phone. When I call, they inform me that they are closed for Patriot's Day. The State that sent Teddy Kennedy to the Senate is more patriotic than the rest of us, I guess. I e-mail the BSO and inform them of their extreme suckiness. I never get a reply, so I call again. At last, success--but the discount which was offered in the special online promotion is gone, never to be heard of again. I look at their website, seeking to recapture the magic moment, and am informed that from now on I have to change my password every time I log on. Why can't I log on as a stranger?

Apology

I've been reviewing some of my older posts, and I must admit I was a better writer then. It gets harder and harder. When I was young the words just flowed, but as I got older, I appear to have dropped a few IQ points here and there. I used to search for the mot juste, and frequently got it right. But now, instead of the mot juste, I sometimes settle for the mot second best or, worse yet, the mot good enough for government work.

A wasted morning

On the phone with Verizon. You have to grit your teeth and prepare to waste time, eons of it, to get anything done. I've never had decent phone service from them and long ago gave up expecting it. But the latest wrinkle is that callers to my home phone are informed that my mailbox is full. It isn't, because I listen to my calls every day, and remove them. So I called Verizon and after the usual interaction with the bland and irritating robot, I got somebody called John, who said he would call my phone and see what message he got, and get back to me. He didn't, unless "getting back to me" is a new phrase for hanging up. Just to make sure I had ground enough enamel off my teeth, I then called Comcast and informed them they could stop sending me letters threatening to suspend service, because I had canceled them at the beginning of the year. To make the day complete, I called the Boston Symphony to order tickets for a concert in July and found they were closed for something called Patriots Day. Whatever that is.

Food for thought?

This would explain so much.

Lynch mob politics

I wonder whether anyone else had the same reaction as I did to Angela Corey's announcement of the charges against George Zimmerman, the "white Hispanic." I thought he was being railroaded. According to Corey,

”We don’t prosecute by public pressure or petition. We prosecute cases on the relevant facts of each case and on the laws of the state of Florida.”

Sure, and I'm the tooth fairy. When I see those two old frauds, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, circling Zimmerman like a couple of sharks smelling blood, it makes me sick. I am inclined to give anyone accused by them the benefit of the doubt. Remember the Tawana Brawley case? Or Freddy's Fashion Mart?

Needed: a men's empowerment coordinator

Honestly. Is this like a community organizer? I thought men were already empowered.

Passover fun