Sgt. Schultz

Who could ever have imagined that a silly TV program, that portrayed the Nazis as "Oh So Funny" foils for an clever American prisoner of war, would someday be prescient for a sitting American President. Of course, the name of that silly TV program was called "Hogan's Heros", and it was prescient because an actor, John Banner, played a lovable Nazi named Sgt. Schultz. Sgt Schultz had a tag line in that silly show that is now used almost daily by the sitting President of the United States, Barack Obama, and this is why the show was prescient to events happening today.
Who knew?
Sgt Schultz's tag line was, "I Know Nothing", and Sgt Schultz always used that explanation whenever he had to disavow knowlege of anything that might force him to accept any responsibility for the slings and arrows of misfortune that happened on his watch.
Who could have ever imagined that Barack Obama would employ that same line, over and over, as the slings and arrows of misfortune keeps happening on his watch.
You know, "I know Nothing."

TEXTING

TEXT, TEXT, TEXTING,

SEALING UP YOUR LIPS,

BY BANGING ON YOUR QWERTY,

AND MAKING MUM'S THE WORD.

I bet you have witnessed the modern day phenomenon of hip teenyboppers sitting within whispering distance of each other while enthusiastically banging away on their personal communication devices to post and reply to endless encoded typed messages to each other. You would think that people would rather face-up to each other in order to make a very personal connection, and then to complete the social link, select the appropriate words from a vast reservoir of words and meanings to make a uniquely personal presentation by conveying abstract ideas and emotional feelings in a more directed, and personal way. To wit: The spoken word comes with the added advantage of judging the emotional state and possible underlying reasons for the verbal communication. 

But wait, I bet you have also witnessed hip adults doing the same texting thing.

What's going on here?

We could research plenty of psychobabble to address the latest human idiosyncrasy, but perhaps, just an old geezer's observation would better serve a measure of understanding.

So here goes. It seems to me, speaking "face-to-face" with another person carries with it the acceptance of "personal responsibility" for the whole tenor of the personal interaction because you are, indeed, interrelating "face-to-face." By substituting texting in lieu of personalizing speech, personal responsibility for the communication is muted because of the lack of the more human communication factors, such as, using and interpreting body language, eye contact, emotional state of each party, to name just a few. While using indirect speech (phone) lacks the more personal human communications factors listed above, it nevertheless carries with it more emotion and meaning than the written word.

So, it seems to me, we have a modern day dichotomy here. Modern people now have the technical means to be in constant contact with one another in order to fulfill some sort of human need to be in a continuous social interacting state. However, by substituting texting for speech, they avoid the more important aspects of human communications by becoming less responsible for it.

Very strange.  

Time Passages

 From P J Tatler

Police

It is instructive to study the aftermath of the abduction and captivity of three women in Cleveland Ohio. The Police is in full investigative mode as they try to piece together how this crime was comitted.
Here is the salient that this crime once again instructs us, in paticular, those who want us all to be willing victims by restricting guns that enable us to protect ourselves from those meaner, stronger and incivil thugs that pefer to ataack those unable, or unwilling to protect themselves. Those citizens that are unable or unwilling to protect themselves depend upon the Police to protect them.
Here is the salient concerning the Police in a free society:
THE POLICE ARE THOSE WHO ARRIVE ON THE SCENE AFTER THE CRIME HAS BEEN COMITTED.