Jose can u see

.

Christina Aguilera not only flubbed a line during her rendition of our National Anthem at Superbowl XLV but she could not even hit the high note near the end. Throughout she added hiccupping motifs making it sound like a hip hop tube. Such digressions on our solemn Anthem are a desecration of the spirit of our forefathers and should be forbidden. You would think good taste by the singer would be sufficient to maintain the dignity of the song.

STICKY NOTES

One of the Windows 7 goodies I share with my friends:

If you run windows 7 on your machine, the sticky notes facility provides a great way to quickly type a reminder, a name, a phone number, an idea in a sticky note on your desktop like the paper ones you stick about your desk .

Click is always LEFT unless right is specified.

Using sticky notes:

• To create a new note, click on + in an existing  note heading (top left),
• Or click on the Sticky Note icon in the Task Bar (See below how to create that icon )
• Delete a note with a click on its X (Top right).
• Add text in Note: click inside note to get a typing cursor. Type .
• Change color of Note: right click in Note

Very easy and convenient to use.

A little more intricate to set up.

One time set up

create Sticky note icon on the taskbar:

1. Click on Start then on All Programs
2. In the list that appears click on Accessories (usually below a bunch of “Windows …” entries)
3. In the Accessories list that now appears, RIGHT click on Sticky Note then,
4.  in the menu that opens, left click on Pin to Task Bar. Now your Task Bar has a new  Icon ( a picture of a yellow note on top of a blue note).

 From now on, just click on that icon to get a new note on your desktop.

Enjoy.

EGYPT

After Sept 11, President Bush enjoined us to chose between ourselves and the terrorists. In Tunisia in December 2010 the choice was between a friendly dictator and a Taliban type regime in a North African country.

This is a familiar historical cycle. A spontaneous movement spreads among dissatisfied subordinate groups. The challenged rulers make concessions. Are they sufficient? The liberal bourgeoisie desires to get back on the smoother road.  The protesting tide must choose: collect your gain or double you bet. The younger segment wants to replace the  aging autocracy. Often an outside factious group intrudes in the disorder and imposes its own Mafiosi interests.

Remember the suggestion by Jeane Kirkpatrick some 30 years ago that pro western authoritarian regime were preferable to the totalitarian regime that may replace them. Enthused Ronald Reagan nominated her to be US Ambassador to the United Nations. No doubt the replacement of the Shah by the Ayatollahs in Iran and the substitution of President Somosa by the Sandinistas in Nicaragua are two examples that the evils of a moderate autocracy well disposed toward American interests are preferable to unfriendly extremism.

As of today- Friday Feb 4 2011- The situation in Egypt is still evolving. Will the  pro western and well remunerated  friendship of strong man, Mubarak or his successor going to continue? Or worse are the Islamists going to seize power before the current democratic protesters establish an egalitarian government?

Protests  for democracy and freedom stem from the suppression of the motto of the French revolution “ Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité” by a brutal police, a stale parasitic bourgeoisie, a corrupt leader, a future without hope.

Let us hope that we are not heading for a new Nasser and international trade compromised by a blocked Suez canal.

STATE OF THE UNION

Last Tuesday was the traditional State of the Union address. We needed an inspiring orator to convince us that we were out the woods on the road to see the Wizrad of OZ.

 Cicero was the superlative orator in the roman senate . He was so good that eventually it cost him his head …and his hands. President Roosevelt had a clear metallic voice emphasized by the mikes of the times. His aphorisms were memorable but short of oratorical recollection. Nixon was a good story teller about dogs. He carried the conviction of Al Capone protesting of his innocence. JFK was the utmost orator with his tousled hair taking us to the moon with Camelot. Bill Clinton is a superb orator as long as he does not deceive us into an impeachment.

President Obama last Tuesday in his State of the union address appeared as a chastened leader after a drubbing in the November election rather than the rock-star politician who swept in 2008 into national consciousness with such clarity of voice and vision.  

Obama wants to use government to revive the US economy. He has calculated that he can only do so if Americans believe he is tightening the belt on the bloated monster in Washington. At times Obama sounded more like the CEO of a failing company with a $1.5 trillion debt, a Social Security in the red with funds exhausted by 2037. He voiced the classic unsuccessful proposals: a government spending freeze, ineffectual budget cuts, unworkable earmarks suppression , an unfeasible simplified tax code and problematic investment in a bullet speed train, one million electric cars and nuclear energy plants.

 As Alexander said:  “Investment is a bad word when it’s used as a cover for just more random spending.”

Maybe by next year the economy will have completely recovered and we can believe again In the promises of the young orator who catalyzed the voters before.

JACQUES

a new start is always welcome

I am starting a new blog at the beginning of this 2011year.
This one will not contain personal information unless recounting one of my experiences in our fast evolving society. Mostly lucubrations about life in the twenty first + 10 century.
Thanks for your reading and comments,
JACQUES

Imagine that the following was an actual blog entry from me on the internet. Impossible since the internet in my story is down!!!! But maybe someone found this note scribbled on apiece of paper in my destroyed house.

From what we understand a cyberattack last week, on January 30, closed down the distribution grids for electric power first on the West Coast then the rest of the country and part of Canada. No more lights, no internet, n0 banking , no transportation, empty supermarket shelves, no clean water from the faucet, no TV, no cell phone, still radio on a portable with almost exhausted batteries, no newspapers, no mail, no gas in the car.I saw our neighbor yesterday come to get water from our pool. He carried a rifle.
Yesterday there was an army truck at the club house. They handed out ration boxes. Tuna fish in hermetic plastic bag and a powdered drink.
It is 6 o’clock soon and getting dark. We are burning pieces of our wooden kitchen table in the fireplace. It is getting down to 50 during the night in our living room where we congregate. We heard that the restoration of power is delayed because of the lack of large transformers .
We disconnected the downspouts from the gutters and collected rain water during last week storm. Pool water has chlorine not recommended for dinking. I wonder if a water truck will come like you see in scenes from Africa. We have almost finished all the frozen stuff from our refrigerator. Not much on our pantry shelves.
Who would think that a bug planted in a Utilities computer system by a possibly Al queda malevolent hacker could explode in such a national cataclysm with a complete debacle of our lives?
JACQUES

here we go

so one has to start some day somehow