1,000 Ways Not To Build A Light Bulb
January 27, 2010
Part of the reason I’ve been intermittently posting over the last few days is that we’ve had some issues with a piece of equipment at work. Sparing you a lot of boring technical minutiae, I’ll just say that some planned upgrades to it haven’t exactly worked as intended, and troubleshooting has been tedious. In short, to borrow from the title quote (attributed to Thomas Edison), it seems we’ve found a thousand ways not to do it.
That seemed to be one of the themes of tonight’s State of the Union address.
For the record, I have become a fan of the old way of delivering the State of the Union… the way Thomas Jefferson used to, via courier. I think restoring that tradition would remove a lot of the rhetoric and just get to the issues. Tonight’s, in particular, would have been better off not live, since it was one of his more unflattering speeches.
But, to get back to the theme of this post, it seemed as though this speech was a step backward for him. It was a long speech, but somewhat disjointed and without much substance. It almost hearkened back to the lofty, yet empty, rhetoric of some of his campaign speeches. That can only mean one thing: it was written quickly, because the administration, in essence, suddenly realized it had found a thousand ways not to govern this country effectively.
I would spend time dissecting the facts- real and imagined- presented tonight, but I have to get up early tomorrow to find a way to build that light bulb. I’ll wrap this up by saying that, based on the speech tonight, I don’t believe the Obama administration has any light bulbs in its future.
March 20, 2010 at 05:41
Barack Obama’s book, “The Audacity of Hope,” features a catchy title. It has an idea of bravery mixed confidently. There’s nothing Pollyanna concerning this. I would possibly not support every part he tells, but he’s our president, and then for me, he creates confidence. Which will do more for a region than any amount of backroom deals. Hope gives us energy, and energy sustains us through trying times. Boy, we’ve had them. I’m from West Texas, and I did not vote for Bush. When McCain ran against Obama, I used to be a citizen of Arizona, but I gave audacious hope a chance. The fight for progress and laying the foundations of prosperity will not be over. I’ve seen the quips of those that don’t believe Obama is capable of it. But step back a moment. Would anyone have all of us fail just to tarnish the star of an incumbent for whom they did not vote? Keeping our priorities straight, let’s work together with our president and build our future.
March 23, 2010 at 20:39
I don’t think anyone here is hoping all of us will fail. Obviously, there are some of us that hope the President fails at enacting some of his policies, including many people who voted for hope but didn’t bargain for the audacity that accompanied it.