My friend Mike Moldeven found my last posting on Anthony Weiner especially interesting and has written a cogent response. Here is his take on poor Anthony Weiner and the media that feeds on human frailties. After that Mike presents excerps from a News Hour interview with Robert Gates and hilights his belief in all americans contributing service to our country. Enjoy
'About Weiner's public embarrassment over the nastiness of his situation I felt the same as you might have. As with most males, I am not and never was an angel, but, again, as with men collectively and/or generally, we guys get to feeling somewhat negative trying to avoid, reject or rub off the smear of gender association with some schmuck that can't keep show-and-tell away from profit motivated-candid-camera-snapshot-photographers and -commentators.
At my age (94) I still have strong recollections of Minsky's 1930s 42d Street Burlesques and similar NY dives 'in action.' So, the hell with the Weenees a la Weiner and the yelping media (paper and electronic) columnists that use scandal-in-print/via TV to diminish-and-destroy. Your blog (Will) presented multiple views of a human's character. To me that was 'context' for the human dilemma: the fair-minded conscientious effort to ask oneself: what am I doing?'
~~~~
Jim Lehrer's Last Interview with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
Posted by Meyer Moldeven on June 25, 2011 at 6:30pm
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This posting reflects my thoughts after viewing the PBS NewsHour program of a few days ago in which Jim Lehrer formally interviewed Secretary of Defense Robert Gates for the last official time. One point in their conversation was of special interest to me because Gates' expressed his feelings on 'citizen' involvement taking on responsibilities and tasks like I did along with my many colleagues for over 35 years as a government employee.
From the transcript:
JIM LEHRER: Mr. Secretary, you spoke a year or so ago at Duke University, where you talked about the fact that for most Americans, our wars, America's wars, have become an abstraction because so few of Americans and their families are directly involved. Is that hurting us as a country, do you think?
ROBERT GATES: Well, I think that it makes most Americans, the 99 percent of Americans who are not serving unaware of the strains and the stresses on our military families. And so what I've been trying to do and what Mrs. Biden and Mrs. Obama and the chairman and his wife - all these folks, are trying to do is to try and get that other 99 percent to - they all say they support the troops, but it's not just enough to say it. Go out and find one of them and give them a job. If they need some repairs on their house, do that. Mow the grass. Find some action you can take as a citizen who appreciates our military to help those families and particularly the families of those who are deployed. Every town in America has somebody from the National Guard who's probably deployed. So there's somebody out there that they can help. And actions always speak louder than words.
JIM LEHRER: So you're not suggesting some kind of mandatory national service or something like that that would force people to be more aware of war?
ROBERT GATES: No. Speaking personally...
JIM LEHRER: Yes.
ROBERT GATES: ...I have always that there ought to be some kind of mandatory national service, not necessarily in the military but to show everybody that freedom isn't free, that everybody has an obligation to the nation as a community. And so it could be military service, it could be teaching in rural or poor areas, it could be nursing, it could be any kind of service projects - the Peace Corps, whatever, but a period of service - working in our national parks or something - but a period of service that basically gives back to the nation that has given its citizens so much.
JIM LEHRER: Mr. Secretary, much has been written and said about your last four and a half years as secretary of defense. And a lot of people have been assessing your performance. What do you think of the way you've performed as secretary of state the last - secretary of defense the last four and half years?
ROBERT GATES: Well, I would say that, you know, there's been a lot that's happened over the last four and a half years. I will say that I think that the thing I'm proudest of is what I've been able to do for our troops, giving them these heavily armored vehicles, these Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles; giving them one-hour medevac or less in Afghanistan; more reconnaissance capabilities to prevent them from being attacked; trying to do whatever was necessary to help them accomplish their mission and come home safely.
JIM LEHRER: And you feel good about what you've done?
ROBERT GATES: I feel very good about that.
JIM LEHRER: Mr. Secretary, thank you and good luck.
ROBERT GATES: Thanks very much.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Ruminations on a Weiner
Think of a two sided coin. That's what I think about with the current demise of Congressman Anthony Weiner's career. Let's look at one side of the coin.
On one side we have the deposed narcisscist. A young man as politicians go,(45) he is done in by his own juvenile antics. Why in the wide wide world of wonder didn't he realize that twitter, photos, and texts can be gotten ahold of in this voyeuristic society of ours. I had high school kids capable of tracking down photos sent from a cell phone. There are people out there that do nothing but look for these kinds of stories. You send a picture thinking it's just a private creepy moment between you and Carlotta, also send along some creepy dialogue with the pictures but what is to keep Carlotta (the recipient of your "package") from offering the pictures to a scandal rag (magazine) for money or maybe seeking notoriety for herself by calling Andrew Breitbard and saying boy do I have story for you.
Simply put, none of us can get away with much of anything these days and the higher profile job you have, the less you can get away with. Don't believe me? Ask Tiger Woods, John Edwards, Newt Gingrich, Eliot Spitzer and a dozens of others. So that tells me, deep inside Anthony Weiner is self destructive. Someone that has to sabotage his own efforts. I saw many students in my classes work hard, be on the verge of success and then find some way to do themselves in. Time to see the therapist Anthony (but I mean a real one) not the Lindsay Lohan kind.
In truth he is still young (politically) and can mount a come back as I believe Eliot Spitzer is doing now. People will soon forget his dumb move because soon enough someone else in the limelight will do something even dumber. 2 years from now he could still use his political smarts and speaking skills to get back in the game. But he does have to change his ways. He has to figure out why he did himself in and fix that. Anymore photos of his scrot (or worse) and he can forget politics altogether and begin applying to the Tom Cruise School of Bartending. Thank your lucky stars Mr. Weiner that you are forty five and not sixty. If you were sixty it would be game, set, match!
On the other side of the coin is this. Why do we, Americans, continue to labor under the foolish notion that our elected officials have to be squeaky clean perfect people in order to do their job? Have we always had this belief that elected officials were (are) holier than everyone else? Thomas Jefferson had a long relationship with one of his slaves. Ulysses Grant was an alcoholic president. Look, JFK had lots women on the side and he was the ruler of Camelot. Robert Kennedy the icon of virtue had a hot and heavy with Marilyn Monroe and at a time when he was married with a station wagon full of kids. Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, Charlie Rangel, and scads of others. These are people we are electing, not robots. People can not only be weird they often are weird.
Think back to your young adult years, any skeletons there? So just because some people are smart enough, speak well enough, schmooze well, BS with the best, and claw their way up the snarky ladder of politics doesn't make them impervious to doing dumb things. We have to separate out the job they do for us from their own personal shortcomings. If I said it once I said it a thousand times, the American people mostly don't care who you are screwing while in office as long as it's not them. Let's get off the Anthony Weiner is the worst human being on the planet thing and just accept that he did something really, really dumb, dumb enough to give himself his own termination notice. Maybe he'll grow up and finally become the leader he had shown promise in becoming. It's a toss up.
On one side we have the deposed narcisscist. A young man as politicians go,(45) he is done in by his own juvenile antics. Why in the wide wide world of wonder didn't he realize that twitter, photos, and texts can be gotten ahold of in this voyeuristic society of ours. I had high school kids capable of tracking down photos sent from a cell phone. There are people out there that do nothing but look for these kinds of stories. You send a picture thinking it's just a private creepy moment between you and Carlotta, also send along some creepy dialogue with the pictures but what is to keep Carlotta (the recipient of your "package") from offering the pictures to a scandal rag (magazine) for money or maybe seeking notoriety for herself by calling Andrew Breitbard and saying boy do I have story for you.
Simply put, none of us can get away with much of anything these days and the higher profile job you have, the less you can get away with. Don't believe me? Ask Tiger Woods, John Edwards, Newt Gingrich, Eliot Spitzer and a dozens of others. So that tells me, deep inside Anthony Weiner is self destructive. Someone that has to sabotage his own efforts. I saw many students in my classes work hard, be on the verge of success and then find some way to do themselves in. Time to see the therapist Anthony (but I mean a real one) not the Lindsay Lohan kind.
In truth he is still young (politically) and can mount a come back as I believe Eliot Spitzer is doing now. People will soon forget his dumb move because soon enough someone else in the limelight will do something even dumber. 2 years from now he could still use his political smarts and speaking skills to get back in the game. But he does have to change his ways. He has to figure out why he did himself in and fix that. Anymore photos of his scrot (or worse) and he can forget politics altogether and begin applying to the Tom Cruise School of Bartending. Thank your lucky stars Mr. Weiner that you are forty five and not sixty. If you were sixty it would be game, set, match!
On the other side of the coin is this. Why do we, Americans, continue to labor under the foolish notion that our elected officials have to be squeaky clean perfect people in order to do their job? Have we always had this belief that elected officials were (are) holier than everyone else? Thomas Jefferson had a long relationship with one of his slaves. Ulysses Grant was an alcoholic president. Look, JFK had lots women on the side and he was the ruler of Camelot. Robert Kennedy the icon of virtue had a hot and heavy with Marilyn Monroe and at a time when he was married with a station wagon full of kids. Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, Charlie Rangel, and scads of others. These are people we are electing, not robots. People can not only be weird they often are weird.
Think back to your young adult years, any skeletons there? So just because some people are smart enough, speak well enough, schmooze well, BS with the best, and claw their way up the snarky ladder of politics doesn't make them impervious to doing dumb things. We have to separate out the job they do for us from their own personal shortcomings. If I said it once I said it a thousand times, the American people mostly don't care who you are screwing while in office as long as it's not them. Let's get off the Anthony Weiner is the worst human being on the planet thing and just accept that he did something really, really dumb, dumb enough to give himself his own termination notice. Maybe he'll grow up and finally become the leader he had shown promise in becoming. It's a toss up.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
New Features"
Hi
I've added some new features to this blog. You can scroll down to the "What in the World is Going On" and it will give you the most current headlines from three different news sources. It continues to change from one source to another, and if you see a title that intrigues you, click on it and it takes you to the story.
I updated my ups / downs list, and I took individual names off the followers list since I do not know who still reads and who doesn't. From now on the followers is simply YOU.
I've added pageviews but I don't know what it is exactly right now but it's at 995.
I'm keeping the color scheme and layout because it works. Please consider writing about something important to you and send to me via e-mail and I will import it into the blog.
Also I would like to add a picture of you for the followers section like Sabrina did. Send me a picture and I will import it.
Good News for Me: My son Austin will teach his first college class this next fall. English 201 at Hunter College, a composition class.
I've added some new features to this blog. You can scroll down to the "What in the World is Going On" and it will give you the most current headlines from three different news sources. It continues to change from one source to another, and if you see a title that intrigues you, click on it and it takes you to the story.
I updated my ups / downs list, and I took individual names off the followers list since I do not know who still reads and who doesn't. From now on the followers is simply YOU.
I've added pageviews but I don't know what it is exactly right now but it's at 995.
I'm keeping the color scheme and layout because it works. Please consider writing about something important to you and send to me via e-mail and I will import it into the blog.
Also I would like to add a picture of you for the followers section like Sabrina did. Send me a picture and I will import it.
Good News for Me: My son Austin will teach his first college class this next fall. English 201 at Hunter College, a composition class.
Monday, June 6, 2011
"The Starship Rises Again"
I was flipping channels, bored on a Sunday night…again when I stumbled on something very compelling on the cable channel HDNet. On Sunday nights they have rock concerts. They tend to show famous bands from the past, performing in the present.
Tonight it was the great band Jefferson Starship. They were performing with the Cleveland Youth Orchestra and choir. They were doing a concert from the Jacobs Pavilion on the Ohio River. So check this out:
Here are these 60+ years old rockers playing with these 13-16 year olds and trust me it worked. The kids really got into the music, (of an era they weren't even alive in). They rocked, sang and the many others played cellos, violins, flutes, drums and more. Nothing like seeing and hearing a full orchestra of 15 year olds with Jefferson Starship doing a version of their song "White Rabbit". That plus in the background was the Ohio River and the Cleveland skyline. It was really cool.
That gets me to this: I do feel sad for the great rock stars from the past because they can still bring it but they look one day removed from a rocking chair. Some show the years of hard living big time. I mean two of the Starship band members had white hair (like me) and looked like the two dudes I saw in my doctor's office waiting room but man they still had the talent. There is no getting around it, Bob Dylan is almost 70, Paul McCartney is 69, and Paul Simon is 68. There in lies the weirdness of it all because they sound almost as good as they did 30-40 years ago, they clearly like performing and still can. It saddens me that time renders them grandmas and grandpas singing about “feeding your head”, or someone 70 singing "Just Like a Rolling Stone". He's not rolling much these days.
For those of you younger try to imagine Josh Groban at 65, or Justin Bieber at age 63 with his floppy hair white as snow. How well will Lady Gaga's outfits look on the jowly, paunchy 64 year old frame? You can’t imagine it and you don’t want to imagine it anymore than I want to see Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young the aged hippies singing great but looking like my 95 Corolla. For the love of God!
Here is my wish, please universe, let all those stars from the 60’s through the 80’s, The Kinks, The Dave Clark Five, America, Dianna Ross, Boston, Dan Fogleberg, Linda Ronstadt, The Zombies, Chicago, Carlos Santana and many, many others go back to being the age they were at the height of their careers just for one last tour. Just one last tour with their youth, energy, and talent. You young folks would just shake your head in amazement. I mean I saw Jefferson Airplane in 1969 and there was Gracie Slick on stage with Paul Kantor and the others. She was dressed all in black with patent leather boots up to her knees, with heavy black eye liner and when she launched into "White Rabbit" my God it was magic. I wish these artists could go back and be at their best one last time and all you younger people get see today what we saw in them, then.
Tonight it was the great band Jefferson Starship. They were performing with the Cleveland Youth Orchestra and choir. They were doing a concert from the Jacobs Pavilion on the Ohio River. So check this out:
Here are these 60+ years old rockers playing with these 13-16 year olds and trust me it worked. The kids really got into the music, (of an era they weren't even alive in). They rocked, sang and the many others played cellos, violins, flutes, drums and more. Nothing like seeing and hearing a full orchestra of 15 year olds with Jefferson Starship doing a version of their song "White Rabbit". That plus in the background was the Ohio River and the Cleveland skyline. It was really cool.
That gets me to this: I do feel sad for the great rock stars from the past because they can still bring it but they look one day removed from a rocking chair. Some show the years of hard living big time. I mean two of the Starship band members had white hair (like me) and looked like the two dudes I saw in my doctor's office waiting room but man they still had the talent. There is no getting around it, Bob Dylan is almost 70, Paul McCartney is 69, and Paul Simon is 68. There in lies the weirdness of it all because they sound almost as good as they did 30-40 years ago, they clearly like performing and still can. It saddens me that time renders them grandmas and grandpas singing about “feeding your head”, or someone 70 singing "Just Like a Rolling Stone". He's not rolling much these days.
For those of you younger try to imagine Josh Groban at 65, or Justin Bieber at age 63 with his floppy hair white as snow. How well will Lady Gaga's outfits look on the jowly, paunchy 64 year old frame? You can’t imagine it and you don’t want to imagine it anymore than I want to see Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young the aged hippies singing great but looking like my 95 Corolla. For the love of God!
Here is my wish, please universe, let all those stars from the 60’s through the 80’s, The Kinks, The Dave Clark Five, America, Dianna Ross, Boston, Dan Fogleberg, Linda Ronstadt, The Zombies, Chicago, Carlos Santana and many, many others go back to being the age they were at the height of their careers just for one last tour. Just one last tour with their youth, energy, and talent. You young folks would just shake your head in amazement. I mean I saw Jefferson Airplane in 1969 and there was Gracie Slick on stage with Paul Kantor and the others. She was dressed all in black with patent leather boots up to her knees, with heavy black eye liner and when she launched into "White Rabbit" my God it was magic. I wish these artists could go back and be at their best one last time and all you younger people get see today what we saw in them, then.
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