Picking My Brain 06-10-22

I picked at my brain for a bit, and here's what came out on the end of my finger.

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"In the 24th century, there will be no hunger and there will be no greed, and all of the children will know how to read." - Gene Roddenberry, creator of "Star Trek"

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In the "TV Networks Ought to Think More Department", MSNBC put up this graphic during a story about Republican Party Coverup Beneficiary Mark Foley, "PAGE SCANDAL:PRIEST CONFESSES". (As Jane asked, "To molesting pages?")

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Watched Jack Cafferty on Saturday afternoon. His topic was "Broken Government" to promote his upcoming special of the same name. He managed to hijack the CNN crawl and run some e-mails from viewers. That was a great idea. Some e-mails were very good, and some were silly funny. (http://www.cnn.com)

"Why can't we have ordinary Joe people run our government?"

Well, sir, because you drive on the highway with "ordinary Joe people". Would you want them running your government? As libertarian as I am, I still think that government should be left to the experts. The problem has been the "experts" from whom we had to choose. Writing legislation is a complicated and tricky process. You have to make sure that it covers exactly what you're trying to make a law about. We need people who have the right kind of organized mind that can do that kind of thinking. Not everyone can. The problem is that the ones who have been running too often are untrustworthy people who have learned how to manipulate the system to their own personal advantage. You want to know one reason why so many old timers in both Houses of Congress are millionaires? Not just because some of them came from money, but because they used to be allowed to personally keep leftover campaign contributions. (I think they came to their senses and ended that, but I could be wrong. If someone out there knows, feel free to say so. I don't mind being corrected.)

"Would you want to do business with an ATM that didn't give you a paper receipt?"

Brilliant. Use this as an argument against these "suspicious" electronic voting machines. More info here (http://www.blackboxvoting.org/) And yes, I know I'm being polite with the word "suspicious". Many think the word "criminal" would be closer to the truth. I cannot argue with them, but I know enough to know that I shouldn't. I'll have some ideas another time about election reforms. Some are crazy enough that they just might work.
Jack ended the show with another great idea. "You want to send a message? Go in there and vote every incumbent out...(say to them), 'You've got one term to prove to us you can do the job, or you're out, too'." I wholeheartedly concur.

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This ever almost happen to you? Part of my job involves inventory control, and a co-worker forwarded me an e-mail from her female manager asking that an inventory count be adjusted. After doing so, I began to reply back "The count has been corrected." Except that I apparently didn't press down hard enough on the "o" key, and it didn't appear the first time. I almost sent the potentionally career-ending message before I spotted the disastrous error. My only saving grace is that she has enough of a sense of humor that she probably would have written back, "Thanks, Wayne. What for?"

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What campaign tactic will they be resorting to next? "My opponent supports breast cancer, as evidenced by these things I doodled in my office this afternoon." It wouldn't surprise me one bit.

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I have to say that I feel really sorry for deaf people who have to rely on closed captoining to understand what's being said on TV. The pre-programmed shows are usually okay, although I have noticed a tendency for long sentences to get shortened or altered in order to help keep up with rapid dialog, but it's the live events (like sports or news or even taped Sunday morning political shows) that provide the best humor. For sheer entertainment at the expense of the of ill-served hearing-paired, try putting your closed captioning on. Maybe you'll catch things like this:

Rey Ordonez used to be a hotshot wunderkind shortstop for the New York Mets. ["Ordonez" should be spelled with a tilde over the "n", but I don't yet know how to do that. When I learn, I'll use that kind of punctuation correctly. I mean no offense to my Spanish-speaking friends out there.] Anyway, the closed captioning frequently spelled his name as "OR DON'T YES".

Last month during the controversy over the ABC piece o'crap "Path to 9/11", a guest on MSNBC was transcribed as saying, "WHERE WAS THE DEMOCRATS' OUTRAGE WHEN MICHAEL MOORE PRODUCED FAIR REPUBLICAN HEIGHT 9/11?"

Later during that discussion, Sandy Berger's name was spelled as "SANDY BURGLAR." I don't think that's what the person actually said.

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Watched the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (they need to shorten this official name) United States Senator debate between incumbent Lincoln Chafee (R) and former RI Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse (D) taped this past Thursday. In questions regarding a case he prosecuted, Whitehouse kept referring to the "old peoples' housing project". It's nice to know he had such an endearing interest in the "old people." Aren't they supposed to be respectfully referred to as "seniors"?
During his closing statement, Whitehouse mentioned speaking to a woman who bought body armor for her son. Can anyone out there, anyone at all, especially those among you who support the Bush Administration, please explain to me why this had to happen? Our own government sent these people into harm's way without this proven life-saving equipment. Why are mothers forced to buy this life-saving equipment for their children? And why aren't they being reimbursed for it? I'd really like to know. You know, it gives a new twist to the very old phrase, "Come back with your shield or on it. Oh, they didn't give you a shield?" How many times have we been told by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (whose two resignation offers were declined by President George W. Bush, according to him) that we have "the best-equipped, best-trained troops in the world"? How many times was that a lie? Why is this man still our nation's Secretary of Defense? Here's an idea. Rumsfeld's supposed to be in great shape. If Rumsfeld can survive a proposed interrogation technique, then it would okay to use those techniques on detainees. Fair enough? I think so.

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Well, that's all that was on the finger this time. Tune in again soon to see what else is lurking inside Wayne's brain.