The Tin Lizard

Alzheimer's At The Polls

On this morning's television news I saw a brief snippet concerning an elderly woman somewhere in the frozen northland (Minnesota, maybe?) who suffers from Alzheimer's and who is being investigated for, and may be charged with, voter fraud.  I can't find this report now anywhere online, but if it got the facts right, she filed an absentee ballot thinking she couldn't get to the polls, and subsequently appeared in person and voted.  It's apparent that under these conditions, it's unlikely that this woman will really be prosecuted, or sent off to spend five years in jail. 

But maybe someone ought to be - someone at the polling place.  How would it be possible for her to vote as an absentee and also vote in person?  In my jurisdiction, an absentee voter is noted in the electronic lists of registered voters, and would be precluded from voting again.  Something went wrong here.  It should give us pause about pie-in-the-sky plans for online voting, though. 

This incident reminds me of a book I just read:  Turn of Mind, by Alice LaPlante, offers  interesting insights into Alzheimer's.  It's told from the point of view of a woman suffering from that condition, and you see - in a ficitonalized way, of course - how her mind fluctuates from full recall, to partial, to none at all, through the early, middle, and late stages of the disease.  In the book, interest is maintained by the literary device that our narrator's best friend has been murdered.  The police think the narrator did it; they reappear occasionally to interview her, hoping to spark a confession from her.  Turn of Mind makes for an interesting tale, and offers a novel perspective on Alzheimer's, so it's worth a read.   

Posthumous White Male King, ISO Place To Rest

Isn't it interesting that the body found under a parking lot in Leicester, England some months ago can now be confirmed as belonging to King Richard III?  Though some of us today might wonder how a king's body could be "lost" in the first place, things were different 528 years ago, and he was, after all, the loser of a fight to the death.   Now, it seems the major problem is where to put him so he doesn't become lost again.

It's an event of historical significance, a mystery solved.  It gives us hope for Jimmy Hoffa.

A Little Help From Keene and LaPierre

You really have to love these NRA bigwigs like Keene and LaPierre, because the longer they stay at the helm of that organization, the more fuel they add to the fire that will bring their house down around them.

First, their contribution to solving the problem of mass killings was to sell more guns -- to schools!  Then, they overreacted after their meeting with VP Biden, claiming he was "attacking" the Second Amendment; they took their BBs and went home.  It was silly and childish.

Now, they've aired a television commercial bringing the President's daughters into the fray, which presents a couple of problems:  First, we all know that the danger to a President's family is more real, and more consequential, to us and our country, than any threat to our own families.  Second, any President's family, and especially one with younger children, by long-honored tradition, is exempted from the partisan fray. 

Keene and LaPierre are quite simply, out of touch.  At least as much as that other guy -- what was his name?  Romney, that's it! -- yes, at least as much as he was.  They live so deep in their own cloud that they can't see how these hard-line, mean-spirited statements designed to appeal to their "base" are perceived by the other 95% of the country.    

They're in a different game now but have failed to realize it.  This doesn't mean the administration's proposals for changes in gun law are all going to sail through Congress, far from it.  But every time either of these guys makes another statement, he's advertising the ossification of his organization.  

Subduing Television Guns, Funerals, Violence

The tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School have engendered a rash of sensitivity on the part of those who produce our mass entertainment.  

The release of the new movie based on Lee Child's successful series of books about larger-than-life but more-violent-than-average hero Jack Reacher has been postponed for fear of offending cinema audiences. And entertainment reporters are scratching for signs that television shows are being removed from the air.  That seems to be the case with "Best Funeral Ever," but perhaps not with "American Guns," which may be going off the air for other reasons.

In any event, there's a new sensitivity in the air, though there's evidence it's very temporary -- in the article above, for example, it appears lots of violent shows are still attracting eyeballs despite events at Sandy Hook.

That's not surprising, though.  I suppose these movie-goers, like most of  us, draw a mental line between entertainment and reality.  I've read some of the Lee Child books; I've seen some pretty violent films; but I've never been anywhere near confusing what goes on in these entertainment genres with what might happen in real life.  In the entertainment world, feats of violence and derring-do are exaggeratedly impossible; no one with an ounce of realism could think of them as performable by real people -- sort of like the driving feats in those automobile ads, where they tell you, basically, "don't try this in your own car, idiot!"

Maybe films and books should come with some sort of warning label like that.  It seems the difference between those who go on a bloody rampage, and those who don't, is just being unable to discern the line between real and fantasy. 

Wrongney and Lyin'

It's inevitable in the heat of a political campaign that some memes will develop to describe candidates one side or the other doesn't like.  Over four years of the Obama administration, of course, there has been plenty of time for pro-Republicans to develop a plenitude of them, but pro-Democrats will need something to refer derogatorily to the new Republican team of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.

I'm going with "Wrongney and Lyin'." 

Pets At Work

I caught wind of the "fact" that sometime this week was "Take Your Pet To Work Day."

It made me think. 

Aren't there any adults in America any more? 

Who Is Edwina Rogers, And Can She Separate Church And State?

I had never heard of Edwina Rogers until today.  Not surprising, since I don't much keep up with pop culture or the doings in area "society."  However, today's Washington Post gossip column ("The Reliable Source") describes her as a flamboyant local Republican lobbyist who will soon become head of the Secular Coalition for America, whose aim is to support the separation of church and state.

The Post column is wondering about the disconnect - a Republican working to advance secularism.  But it doesn't seem such a reach to me.  Who better to try to moderate the noisy god-in-government righters and bring them under the mainstream tent?   On this one vector, if she's serious and not an agent-provocateur, Ms. Rogers may be laying the foundation for the GOP to modernize, gain lost relevance, and reaffirm its place in the mainstream. 

 

Halloween And Daylight Time

Blessed relief is in sight!  Next weekend, we begin our annual brief respite from "Daylight Saving Time," and along with it, we'll get our morning daylight back - belated and foreshortened.

Earlier today, I mused about the apparent decline in the practice of trick-or-treating.  There are lots of reasons for this, but I will just point out that Daylight Time may have something to do with it.   One of the reasons we endure DST this late in the year, according to the politicians and others who impose it, is so that the kids can go trick-or-treating. 

WRONG!  In two ways.  First, being out in the dark at Halloween is the whole excitement of the experience; go when it's still light, and you're missing it.  Parents and kids alike seem to recognize this intuitively, because the trick-or-treaters never, ever appear until it gets dark!  They don't take advantage of DST to collect their sweets before the sun goes down; who ever heard of such a thing?

Second, for kids, doesn't it make sense to get out earlier, and get home earlier, since most will be going to school the next day?  DST just makes everything an hour later.  To what purpose?  None.  Daylight Time has contributed to the demise of an American tradition.

Let's face reality (i.e., DST doesn't contribute squat to energy conservation) and stop making up false excuses (e.g., Halloween) to extend it even longer.  If we don't reverse this trend now, we'll soon end up keeping Daylight Time through Christmas so Santa can make his rounds.  Let DST, if we must have it, be "summer time," and let it run from Memorial Day to Labor Day.    

The Future Of Local Print News

Spending some time in Greensboro, North Carolina this week, I found the local paper, the Greensboro News & Record, deposited in front of my hotel room door.  Predictably, it's not a big paper, only 24 pages, and it's focused almost entirely on local news and "style" sorts of features. 

The front page that day, for example, carried three stories that would mean almost nothing to most non-North-Carolinians, and one general interest story regarding the Netflix CEO's latest blather to former Netflix users.  There were only two sections, the "A" section, and something called "Life," which could be described as "everything else."  "Life" contained supposed general interest material (Liz Taylor's diamonds and how to plan for leaving money to your pet; but in addition, it had the comics (not a bad selection), the obits, the horoscope, the business news, the sports, the weather, and the classified.  I found a couple of wire-service reports on national or international news but I suspect these were presented more to fill space than as a systematic effort to impart any level of information on the broader world.

This may very well be the model of the successful local newspaper of the future, if there is such a thing.  Still, with this gem priced at 75 cents a copy (newsstand) or $150 per year (home delivery), can it survive? 

School Without Walls

A smile-provoking little irony ensuing from the Virginia earthquake two days ago:  One of the buildings in the DC area that's been reported as damaged -- besides the National Cathedral, Washington Monument, and Smithsonian Castle -- is something called the "School Without Walls."  You'd think they'd be impervious to most kinds of natural disaster!  Or is it just that they had walls before, but don't have them now?