The inadequacy of words
Normally words come easily for me. Not today. I'm trying to find the right words to express what it means that Nelson Mandela has passed away at the age of 95.
I'm imagining what might have transpired if the technology of 2013 were to have been available in December of 1799. The entire world would have stopped to take notice of the death of George Washington. That is what is happening now, as word spread that the man brought democracy to and ended apartheid in South Africa has left us. Some say Mandela was both the George Washington and the Abraham Lincoln of his country. I can't argue with that. He changed the entire world we live in.
While it must be noted others were part of the journey to democracy and the end of apartheid in South Africa, without Nelson Mandela what was going on in South Africa in 1962 might well be going on there today. He was one of the most important (if not the most important) world leaders of the 20th Century.
To be able to insist that there be no revenge and no retribution by the blacks in South Africa against the whites who had oppressed them for decades on end; particularly after spending 27 years in prison, speaks to the man's commitment to his ideals. He wanted to see a nation where the majority ruled without trying to subjugate the minority. His dream has come to pass.
The tributes will pour in for days. His funeral may have more world leaders attending than any other funeral to come in this century. The accolades, no matter how many or how effusive, are inadequate. Very few people are able to change the face of a nation. Nelson Mandela changed the world.
* * *
On a related note, I read with disgust the comments of Joseph Farah, founder and editor of WorldNetDaily.com about the passing of Nelson Mandela. I will not repeat them or link to them here.
The response from both sides of the issue has been predictable. Heated commentary. Which is precisely what he strives for. Why? Because it makes him money. Now he may well believe the putrid propaganda he spews forth, but the bottom line IS the bottom line. This kind of thing drives traffic to his site and more and more advertisers line his wallet.
I won't view his site. In fact, from this point forward I'm going to do my utmost to totally ignore his rants, his website and everything about him. There are plenty of sources to visit to monitor the hate speech of bigots around the world.
* * *
One last related note. Until the day I ran 20 miles in training for a marathon and decided I really didn't need to run any further ever again at one time, I hadn't just dreamed of running a marathon. I wanted to run the Comrades ultra-marathon in South Africa. 56 miles on a point to point course that alternates between "up" and "down" from year to year. But I could not bring myself to even think of going to South Africa as long as apartheid was the rule of the land.
Nelson Mandela changed that. When I was marathon training, until that fateful day, I wanted to go there and run that race.
* * *
Let me see if I understand this. The White House is now saying that they were wrong, that President Obama did live with his uncle for a few weeks before starting law school. Back in 2011, when Onyango Obama was arrested for DUI and his illegal immigration status became public, questions were raised about possible interference in the handling of his situation. At that time the White House said there was no record of their ever having met.
Now the White House's press office is saying that their initial statements on the subject in August and September of 2011 were wrong. On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said "Back when this arose, folks looked at the record, including the president's book, and there was no evidence that they had met. And that was what was conveyed. Nobody spoke to the president" but there's a problem with his statement.
This is from an ABC News story published in September of 2011: "White House press secretary Jay Carney said that President Obama first learned of his uncle’s arrest when Carney brought it to his attention on August 29. “He became aware of this story when I walked into his office and, among other subjects, mentioned it to him.” Carney said Sept. 1, adding that the White House expected “it to be handled like any other immigration case.”"
It is difficult to fathom that Jay Carney and President Barrack Obama were discussing the arrest of the president's uncle and the subject of whether or not he'd ever met this uncle did not come up. Carney had to know that would be a question.
* * *
I'm in shock. The Jerry Springer show just asked a question that's actually relevant and meaningful about something it is exploring. A male guest is on and he wants to make sure that his foray into making gay pornographic films isn't going to cost him his relationship with his girlfriend.
The question posed was whether or not a man who does gay porno films is gay?
I find it an interesting question. We wouldn't consider either Jake Gyllenhaal or Heath Ledger to be homosexual or bisexual because they had sex scenes in "Brokeback Mountain" nor would we label any of the men who were in "The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy" as being straight or gay based on their performances in the film.
The question is when does "acting" stop being acting and start being something else. Having sex for pay isn't really acting, is it? When this guy defended himself to his girlfriend by saying it's just acting, it rings very hollow. Even films that are rated NC-17 for their sexual content aren't the same as straight-up porn. What sex we see on screen is part of a performance. The sex in a porno film may be a performance, but it isn't just acting.
In the end, doing gay porno films doesn't make a man gay. Having sex with other men makes him bisexual at a minimum.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Just how does a half-smoked "blunt" get misplaced in a hamburger at Wendy's? It boggles the mind to consider just how that happened.
Why do we call it "rush hour" when no one is rushing anywhere in Southern California freeway traffic. People might be in a rush to get home, but there's little actual rushing going on.
If someone stole money from a tip jar in my business, I would not be holding a food drive for the thief. I'd be sending the cops after them.
How much do you tip? A new survey I just read indicates that 15% is now evidence of a "cheap" tipper. People in the U.S. are tipping more than 19% on average. The Pacific region is among the cheapest region of tippers in the country. If service is good, I almost always tip 20%.
Following the tow truck that was carrying the car that Paul Walker died in, in order to steal a piece of the wreckage is gross, disgusting and was probably motivated more by money than sentiment.
Will everyone who is receiving payments from a structured settlement please call one of those companies and convert your settlement to one lump sum of cash, so the rest of us can escape being tortured by those stupid opera-like commercials?
Those who are fussing about Paul Walker's girlfriend having been only 16 when they met need to shut up. That was seven years ago. Get over it.
You think Leah Rehmini is losing any sleep over the fact Kirstie Alley blocked her on Twitter and called her a bigot? No, I don't either.
Seeing a news item about a Salvation Army bell ringer being arrested for stealing from the kettle reminded me of an anecdote in "Las Vegas Is My Beat", an excellent book by the late Ralph Pearl. He was the entertainment reporter for the Las Vegas Sun in the early days of Las Vegas. He wrote about seeing an elderly woman ringing a bell for the Salvation Army in downtown Vegas, and then seeing her playing dime slot machines with some of the proceeds of the kettle. He vowed to never publish his findings until long afterward. Now I want to find a copy of that book and read it again.
Only a doctor who'd been convicted of murdering his wife would attempt to commit suicide by slicing his femoral artery. Most convicts would just swallow some Ajax or hang themselves.
I'd love to see the admissions essay Amanda Bynes will pen when she starts applying to schools. Oh wait, she applied to Fashion school. I don't think they require essays. Never mind.
How cool is it that a college student, abused as a child, who posted a Craigslist ad to "rent a family" for the holidays is instead organizing one of her own among the other abuse victims who responded to her listing. Way cool!
United Airlines actually bumped a 90 year old WWII veteran flying to Hawaii for a Pearl Harbor remembrance because the plane was overweight??? Seriously? Someone blew that one.
Putting the Burton logo over a representation of the U.S. flag on the 2014 Winter Olympic uniform jacket is reprehensible.
Is it okay for unions that are trying to unionize fast food workers to pay those workers to protest their low wages? In an era where unions are slowly dying, a cynical person might conclude that they're reaching out to this community for survival and not just to improve their working conditions. I didn't say I made that conclusion.
* * *
December 6th in History:
1060 – Béla I is crowned king of Hungary.
1240 – Mongol invasion of Rus': Kiev under Danylo of Halych and Voivode Dmytro falls to the Mongols under Batu Khan.
1534 – The city of Quito in Ecuador is founded by Spanish settlers led by Sebastián de Belalcázar.
1648 – Colonel Thomas Pride of the New Model Army purges the Long Parliament of MPs sympathetic to King Charles I of England, in order for the King's trial to go ahead; came to be known as "Pride's Purge".
1704 – Battle of Chamkaur: During the Mughal-Sikh Wars, an outnumbered Sikh Khalsa defeats a Mughal army.
1745 – Charles Edward Stuart's army begins retreat during the second Jacobite Rising.
1768 – The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica is published.
1790 – The U.S. Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1865 – The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, banning slavery.
1877 – The first edition of the Washington Post is published.
1884 – The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., is completed.
1897 – London becomes the world's first city to host licensed taxicabs.
1904 – Theodore Roosevelt articulated his "Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the U.S. would intervene in the Western Hemisphere should Latin American governments prove incapable or unstable.
1907 – A coal mine explosion at Monongah, West Virginia, kills 362 workers.
1916 – World War I: The Central Powers capture Bucharest.
1917 – Finland declares independence from Russia.
1917 – Halifax Explosion: A munitions explosion near Halifax, Nova Scotia kills more than 1,900 people in the largest artificial explosion up to that time.
1917 – World War I: USS Jacob Jones is the first American destroyer to be sunk by enemy action when it is torpedoed by German submarine SM U-53.
1921 – The Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed in London by British and Irish representatives.
1922 – One year to the day after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Irish Free State comes into existence.
1928 – The government of Colombia sends military forces to suppress a month-long strike by United Fruit Company workers, resulting in an unknown number of deaths.
1933 – U.S. federal judge John M. Woolsey rules that James Joyce's novel Ulysses is not obscene.
1941 – World War II: The United Kingdom and Canada declare war on Finland in support of the Soviet Union during the Continuation War.
1947 – The Everglades National Park in Florida is dedicated.
1953 – Vladimir Nabokov completes his controversial novel Lolita.
1956 – A violent water polo match between Hungary and the USSR takes place during the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, against the backdrop of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
1957 – Project Vanguard: A launchpad explosion of Vanguard TV3 thwarts the first United States attempt to launch a satellite into Earth orbit.
1967 – Adrian Kantrowitz performs the first human heart transplant in the United States.
1969 – Meredith Hunter is killed by Hells Angels during a Rolling Stones concert at the Altamont Speedway in California.
1971 – Pakistan severs diplomatic relations with India following New Delhi's recognition of Bangladesh.
1973 – The Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States House of Representatives votes 387 to 35 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States. (On November 27, the Senate confirmed him 92 to 3.)
1975 – The Troubles: Fleeing from the police, a Provisional IRA unit takes a couple hostage in Balcombe Street, London, beginning a six-day siege.
1977 – South Africa grants independence to Bophuthatswana, although it is not recognized by any other country.
1978 – Spain approves its latest constitution in a referendum.
1982 – The Troubles: The Irish National Liberation Army bombed a pub frequented by British soldiers in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland. It killed eleven soldiers and six civilians.
1988 – The Australian Capital Territory is granted self-government.
1989 – The École Polytechnique massacre (or Montreal Massacre): Marc Lépine, an anti-feminist gunman, murders 14 young women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal.
1991 – In Croatia, forces of the Yugoslav People's Army bombard Dubrovnik after laying siege to the city since May.
1992 – The Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, India, is demolished, leading to widespread riots causing the death of over 1,500 people.
1997 – A Russian Antonov An-124 cargo plane crashes into an apartment complex near Irkutsk, Siberia, killing 67.
2005 – Several villagers are shot dead during protests in Dongzhou, China.
2005 – An Iranian Air Force C-130 military transport aircraft crashes into a ten-floor apartment building in a residential area of Tehran, killing all 84 on board and 44 more on the ground.
2006 – NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.
2008 – The 2008 Greek riots break out upon the killing of a 15-year-old boy, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, by a police officer.
Famous Folk Born on December 6th:
Henry VI of England
William S. Hart
Fred Duesenberg
Joyce Kilmer
Lynn Fontanne
Ira Gershwin
Agnes Moorehead
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Eve Curie
Baby Face Nelson
Dave Brubeck
George Porter
Otto Graham
Wally Cox
Robb Royer
Larry Bowa
Dan Harrington (great poker player and chess master)
Mike Smith
JoBeth Williams
Tom Hulce
Steven Wright
Randy Rhoads
Janine Turner
Judd Apatow
Ryan White
No movie quotes this time around.
I'm imagining what might have transpired if the technology of 2013 were to have been available in December of 1799. The entire world would have stopped to take notice of the death of George Washington. That is what is happening now, as word spread that the man brought democracy to and ended apartheid in South Africa has left us. Some say Mandela was both the George Washington and the Abraham Lincoln of his country. I can't argue with that. He changed the entire world we live in.
While it must be noted others were part of the journey to democracy and the end of apartheid in South Africa, without Nelson Mandela what was going on in South Africa in 1962 might well be going on there today. He was one of the most important (if not the most important) world leaders of the 20th Century.
To be able to insist that there be no revenge and no retribution by the blacks in South Africa against the whites who had oppressed them for decades on end; particularly after spending 27 years in prison, speaks to the man's commitment to his ideals. He wanted to see a nation where the majority ruled without trying to subjugate the minority. His dream has come to pass.
The tributes will pour in for days. His funeral may have more world leaders attending than any other funeral to come in this century. The accolades, no matter how many or how effusive, are inadequate. Very few people are able to change the face of a nation. Nelson Mandela changed the world.
* * *
On a related note, I read with disgust the comments of Joseph Farah, founder and editor of WorldNetDaily.com about the passing of Nelson Mandela. I will not repeat them or link to them here.
The response from both sides of the issue has been predictable. Heated commentary. Which is precisely what he strives for. Why? Because it makes him money. Now he may well believe the putrid propaganda he spews forth, but the bottom line IS the bottom line. This kind of thing drives traffic to his site and more and more advertisers line his wallet.
I won't view his site. In fact, from this point forward I'm going to do my utmost to totally ignore his rants, his website and everything about him. There are plenty of sources to visit to monitor the hate speech of bigots around the world.
* * *
One last related note. Until the day I ran 20 miles in training for a marathon and decided I really didn't need to run any further ever again at one time, I hadn't just dreamed of running a marathon. I wanted to run the Comrades ultra-marathon in South Africa. 56 miles on a point to point course that alternates between "up" and "down" from year to year. But I could not bring myself to even think of going to South Africa as long as apartheid was the rule of the land.
Nelson Mandela changed that. When I was marathon training, until that fateful day, I wanted to go there and run that race.
* * *
Let me see if I understand this. The White House is now saying that they were wrong, that President Obama did live with his uncle for a few weeks before starting law school. Back in 2011, when Onyango Obama was arrested for DUI and his illegal immigration status became public, questions were raised about possible interference in the handling of his situation. At that time the White House said there was no record of their ever having met.
Now the White House's press office is saying that their initial statements on the subject in August and September of 2011 were wrong. On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said "Back when this arose, folks looked at the record, including the president's book, and there was no evidence that they had met. And that was what was conveyed. Nobody spoke to the president" but there's a problem with his statement.
This is from an ABC News story published in September of 2011: "White House press secretary Jay Carney said that President Obama first learned of his uncle’s arrest when Carney brought it to his attention on August 29. “He became aware of this story when I walked into his office and, among other subjects, mentioned it to him.” Carney said Sept. 1, adding that the White House expected “it to be handled like any other immigration case.”"
It is difficult to fathom that Jay Carney and President Barrack Obama were discussing the arrest of the president's uncle and the subject of whether or not he'd ever met this uncle did not come up. Carney had to know that would be a question.
* * *
I'm in shock. The Jerry Springer show just asked a question that's actually relevant and meaningful about something it is exploring. A male guest is on and he wants to make sure that his foray into making gay pornographic films isn't going to cost him his relationship with his girlfriend.
The question posed was whether or not a man who does gay porno films is gay?
I find it an interesting question. We wouldn't consider either Jake Gyllenhaal or Heath Ledger to be homosexual or bisexual because they had sex scenes in "Brokeback Mountain" nor would we label any of the men who were in "The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy" as being straight or gay based on their performances in the film.
The question is when does "acting" stop being acting and start being something else. Having sex for pay isn't really acting, is it? When this guy defended himself to his girlfriend by saying it's just acting, it rings very hollow. Even films that are rated NC-17 for their sexual content aren't the same as straight-up porn. What sex we see on screen is part of a performance. The sex in a porno film may be a performance, but it isn't just acting.
In the end, doing gay porno films doesn't make a man gay. Having sex with other men makes him bisexual at a minimum.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Just how does a half-smoked "blunt" get misplaced in a hamburger at Wendy's? It boggles the mind to consider just how that happened.
Why do we call it "rush hour" when no one is rushing anywhere in Southern California freeway traffic. People might be in a rush to get home, but there's little actual rushing going on.
If someone stole money from a tip jar in my business, I would not be holding a food drive for the thief. I'd be sending the cops after them.
How much do you tip? A new survey I just read indicates that 15% is now evidence of a "cheap" tipper. People in the U.S. are tipping more than 19% on average. The Pacific region is among the cheapest region of tippers in the country. If service is good, I almost always tip 20%.
Following the tow truck that was carrying the car that Paul Walker died in, in order to steal a piece of the wreckage is gross, disgusting and was probably motivated more by money than sentiment.
Will everyone who is receiving payments from a structured settlement please call one of those companies and convert your settlement to one lump sum of cash, so the rest of us can escape being tortured by those stupid opera-like commercials?
Those who are fussing about Paul Walker's girlfriend having been only 16 when they met need to shut up. That was seven years ago. Get over it.
You think Leah Rehmini is losing any sleep over the fact Kirstie Alley blocked her on Twitter and called her a bigot? No, I don't either.
Seeing a news item about a Salvation Army bell ringer being arrested for stealing from the kettle reminded me of an anecdote in "Las Vegas Is My Beat", an excellent book by the late Ralph Pearl. He was the entertainment reporter for the Las Vegas Sun in the early days of Las Vegas. He wrote about seeing an elderly woman ringing a bell for the Salvation Army in downtown Vegas, and then seeing her playing dime slot machines with some of the proceeds of the kettle. He vowed to never publish his findings until long afterward. Now I want to find a copy of that book and read it again.
Only a doctor who'd been convicted of murdering his wife would attempt to commit suicide by slicing his femoral artery. Most convicts would just swallow some Ajax or hang themselves.
I'd love to see the admissions essay Amanda Bynes will pen when she starts applying to schools. Oh wait, she applied to Fashion school. I don't think they require essays. Never mind.
How cool is it that a college student, abused as a child, who posted a Craigslist ad to "rent a family" for the holidays is instead organizing one of her own among the other abuse victims who responded to her listing. Way cool!
United Airlines actually bumped a 90 year old WWII veteran flying to Hawaii for a Pearl Harbor remembrance because the plane was overweight??? Seriously? Someone blew that one.
Putting the Burton logo over a representation of the U.S. flag on the 2014 Winter Olympic uniform jacket is reprehensible.
Is it okay for unions that are trying to unionize fast food workers to pay those workers to protest their low wages? In an era where unions are slowly dying, a cynical person might conclude that they're reaching out to this community for survival and not just to improve their working conditions. I didn't say I made that conclusion.
* * *
December 6th in History:
1060 – Béla I is crowned king of Hungary.
1240 – Mongol invasion of Rus': Kiev under Danylo of Halych and Voivode Dmytro falls to the Mongols under Batu Khan.
1534 – The city of Quito in Ecuador is founded by Spanish settlers led by Sebastián de Belalcázar.
1648 – Colonel Thomas Pride of the New Model Army purges the Long Parliament of MPs sympathetic to King Charles I of England, in order for the King's trial to go ahead; came to be known as "Pride's Purge".
1704 – Battle of Chamkaur: During the Mughal-Sikh Wars, an outnumbered Sikh Khalsa defeats a Mughal army.
1745 – Charles Edward Stuart's army begins retreat during the second Jacobite Rising.
1768 – The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica is published.
1790 – The U.S. Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1865 – The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, banning slavery.
1877 – The first edition of the Washington Post is published.
1884 – The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., is completed.
1897 – London becomes the world's first city to host licensed taxicabs.
1904 – Theodore Roosevelt articulated his "Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the U.S. would intervene in the Western Hemisphere should Latin American governments prove incapable or unstable.
1907 – A coal mine explosion at Monongah, West Virginia, kills 362 workers.
1916 – World War I: The Central Powers capture Bucharest.
1917 – Finland declares independence from Russia.
1917 – Halifax Explosion: A munitions explosion near Halifax, Nova Scotia kills more than 1,900 people in the largest artificial explosion up to that time.
1917 – World War I: USS Jacob Jones is the first American destroyer to be sunk by enemy action when it is torpedoed by German submarine SM U-53.
1921 – The Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed in London by British and Irish representatives.
1922 – One year to the day after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Irish Free State comes into existence.
1928 – The government of Colombia sends military forces to suppress a month-long strike by United Fruit Company workers, resulting in an unknown number of deaths.
1933 – U.S. federal judge John M. Woolsey rules that James Joyce's novel Ulysses is not obscene.
1941 – World War II: The United Kingdom and Canada declare war on Finland in support of the Soviet Union during the Continuation War.
1947 – The Everglades National Park in Florida is dedicated.
1953 – Vladimir Nabokov completes his controversial novel Lolita.
1956 – A violent water polo match between Hungary and the USSR takes place during the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, against the backdrop of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
1957 – Project Vanguard: A launchpad explosion of Vanguard TV3 thwarts the first United States attempt to launch a satellite into Earth orbit.
1967 – Adrian Kantrowitz performs the first human heart transplant in the United States.
1969 – Meredith Hunter is killed by Hells Angels during a Rolling Stones concert at the Altamont Speedway in California.
1971 – Pakistan severs diplomatic relations with India following New Delhi's recognition of Bangladesh.
1973 – The Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States House of Representatives votes 387 to 35 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States. (On November 27, the Senate confirmed him 92 to 3.)
1975 – The Troubles: Fleeing from the police, a Provisional IRA unit takes a couple hostage in Balcombe Street, London, beginning a six-day siege.
1977 – South Africa grants independence to Bophuthatswana, although it is not recognized by any other country.
1978 – Spain approves its latest constitution in a referendum.
1982 – The Troubles: The Irish National Liberation Army bombed a pub frequented by British soldiers in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland. It killed eleven soldiers and six civilians.
1988 – The Australian Capital Territory is granted self-government.
1989 – The École Polytechnique massacre (or Montreal Massacre): Marc Lépine, an anti-feminist gunman, murders 14 young women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal.
1991 – In Croatia, forces of the Yugoslav People's Army bombard Dubrovnik after laying siege to the city since May.
1992 – The Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, India, is demolished, leading to widespread riots causing the death of over 1,500 people.
1997 – A Russian Antonov An-124 cargo plane crashes into an apartment complex near Irkutsk, Siberia, killing 67.
2005 – Several villagers are shot dead during protests in Dongzhou, China.
2005 – An Iranian Air Force C-130 military transport aircraft crashes into a ten-floor apartment building in a residential area of Tehran, killing all 84 on board and 44 more on the ground.
2006 – NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.
2008 – The 2008 Greek riots break out upon the killing of a 15-year-old boy, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, by a police officer.
Famous Folk Born on December 6th:
Henry VI of England
William S. Hart
Fred Duesenberg
Joyce Kilmer
Lynn Fontanne
Ira Gershwin
Agnes Moorehead
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Eve Curie
Baby Face Nelson
Dave Brubeck
George Porter
Otto Graham
Wally Cox
Robb Royer
Larry Bowa
Dan Harrington (great poker player and chess master)
Mike Smith
JoBeth Williams
Tom Hulce
Steven Wright
Randy Rhoads
Janine Turner
Judd Apatow
Ryan White
No movie quotes this time around.
posted by me at 5:20 PM
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