From the mouth (or pen or typewriter or whatever medium) of Marshall McLuhan:
A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.
A fine and necessary reminder for an opinionated S.O.B. such as I.
McLuhan
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[h/t to Duane Pesich at Bleed Cubbie Blue for pointing out McLuhan’s mot. And that’s the second time in two consecutive posts I’ve used the French word for word. I guess I need yet another corrective reminder.]
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Plus Ça Change…
Betcha didn’t know the head of the National Science Foundation, France Córdova, was Purdue U.’s president before she took over the NSF.
Her permanent replacement at Boilermaker Tech? Mitch Daniels, of course, former governor of Indiana.
Why do I bring this all up? 1) I was reading the latest press releases from the NSF and had learned that Córdova is scheduled to speak at the upcoming 2017 Washington (DC) Auto Show. She’ll be trying to convince auto industry sachems that the NSF is a necessary arm of the gov’t inasmuch as scientists come up with inventions like curb feelers, popcorn- and bacon-scented auto air fresheners, and — going back into the mists of time — fuzzy dice.
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Córdova’s lobbying is necessary these days as President You Know Who is busy chopping the budgets of all agencies, dep’ts, bureaus, and desks that don’t directly benefit any tentacles of the Trump Organization or his spawn.
Anyway, 2) looking at Daniels’ time in the guv’s mansion, I realized his predecessor (Joe Kernan) was a Democrat, and his predecessor (Frank O’Bannon) was a Dem, and — yes! — his predecessor (Evan Bayh) was one too. So, little did this carpetbagging media titan know (I only arrived in IN in 2009) that the Hoosier State had a Democratic chief executive for 16 freakin’ years!
And here, all this time I’d been under the impression our glorious 19th State of This Great Union had more in common with Großdeutsches Reich than the party of the New Deal, the “bright sunshine of human rights,” and the Great Society.
Hell, it’s like thinking this man…
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.. was never young, and sexy.
Then again…
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So, mebbe Indiana never really was all that Democratic.
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Purity, Pt. 6,478
Just a reminder that solidarity is the key to success in 2018 and 2020.
The Republicans have mastered the art of solidarity. For proof, look no further back than Nov. 8, 2016. The man the GOP put up for nomination for prez had never really shown much loyalty or fealty to the party of Saint Ronald et al. In fact, scads of his stances over the years have been anathema to the Republicans. Sure, party regulars called him every name in the book while he was running for the nom. They stood on their heads to derail his runaway train during the primaries. But the key was, they kept their infighting largely private. Once he achieved the magic number of delegates, the Republicans got in line and loved him like a favorite uncle.
My side of the fence? Don’t make me laugh.
Tons of Dems — liberals, progressives, and radicals among them — turned on Hillary Clinton with a vengeance that was both public and ultimately fatal to her. When she got her party’s nom., way too many voters flipped her off.
A local example of the Left’s (and even the ever-so slightly, by-a-hair left’s) tendency toward cannibalism: Mayor John Hamilton acceded to the wishes of local shopkeepers and restaurateurs and ordered signs erected advising citizens not to give money to panhandlers. Me? I’ll give panhandlers dough even if they tell me straight out they’re going to take it to the liquor sore for a bottle of rotgut — I figure if a guy’s homeless, hopeless, and unemployable, the only logical thing for him to do is get loaded. Anyway, Hamilton likely followed the advice of social workers and other such priest-like figures.
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And — wouldn’t you know it? — the uproar was deafening. Hamilton, acc’d’g to many homeless advocates, may as well be wearing a swastika armband.
Many of those hollerers will no doubt swear an oath never to vote for John Hamilton again — no matter whom he’s running against.
My party and the people we ought to be recruiting into our political army too often just can’t seem to see the forest for…, forget the trees, for the individual leaves thereon.
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