SUBPRIME
James Musters: “This video was posted on YouTube last October.
I think you linked to it. In
retrospect it is quite prophetic. Time for people to see it again. If the comics knew what was coming, and named
Bear Stearns by name, how come the
market did not figure it out earlier? And
watch this one. Both were posted last October.”
F Who could forget that clip? And, yes, it’s even more painfully funny
today.
iPHONE #4
Mike Gavaghan: “The problem you had where you could only
hear audio on your iPhone when the headphones were
plugged in is, apparently, a fairly common problem. Sometimes, the iPhone
simply doesn’t recognize that the headphone plug has been removed. It happened to me, and it's probably going to
happen to you again – even on your replacement phone. When it happened to me, I was fortuitously
sitting next to a fellow iPhone user (at jury duty,
of all places). It happened to him once,
and he showed me how he was taught to fix it.
Rapidly insert and remove the headphone jack a couple times. I did that twice and, voila!,
I could hear through the earpiece again!”
F Proving once again that the real Genius Bar
is my readership – I should have consulted you (collectively) first!
OKLAHOMA
Last Friday I posted a 17-year-old’s
letter to an Oklahoma state legislator who had
said she believed people like me and Charles posed more of a threat to America than
terrorists.
Two responses:
Jeff Cox: “My
wife and I wanted to buy a house in Las Vegas,
but we could buy a bigger house in Oklahoma
and save enough money to visit Las
Vegas twice a year for the rest of our lives. As a consequence, our house is still gaining
value. I’d like to say Oklahomans have
more sense than the people paying too much in Las Vegas
and California,
but then our lawmakers say something stupid
about terrorism and homosexuality.
Please know only a few of us are that
ignorant. I don’t know why we elect
those few. For laugh value, the best Oklahoma lawmaker story
in my memory was about 25 years ago, when one lawmaker pushed another, knocking
him down, in an argument over who would appoint the chaplain for a coming
session.”
Mary Rainier: “Your column was
forwarded to me by the director of my son's gay youth support group (rosmy.org). I was compelled to write to Representative
Kern [as follows].”
Representative Kern,
. . . I am so lucky to be the mother of an 18 year-old gay son
who is the joy of my life. He is smart, funny, nurturing and dynamic. I have been asked if I could change Corey
to be "normal" would I do so. I answer, "he is completely normal
and NO! I would not change a thing." He is perfect the way he is. Sadly, he lives in a world where terrorism is
a real threat, but even more so, ignorant people in positions of power are an
even greater threat to him and other young people like him. I thought that Virginia was a state with such narrow-mindedness embedded
in its laws and history, but I came to realize that the "heartland"
of America
also has its share of backward thinking. Here, my son has found the help and
support he needs from his family and a wonderful support group in Richmond that works to
send young leaders into the world where they can be defined by their words,
actions and content of their character, not just by their sexuality, as you
have so sadly done to them. They are not one-dimensional beings, but real
people with much to offer including the love they will one day share with their
same-sex partners.
I was shocked to hear
that you are an educator
and you and I are in the same
field charged with opening young minds to ideas of hope,
self-worth and respect for others. I am
ashamed that someone with your lack of Christian values is allowed to call herself one.
Sadly, Ms. Kern, you and your fellow haters, along with terrorism,
are one of the greatest threats we have to America
and I wish Tucker, who wrote the letter about his mother sadly dying in the Oklahoma bombing, the
very best as he and my wonderful son are
the future and with them I can only trust that they will teach their
children the Christian values of love, faith, hope and charity, regardless of
their religion or sexual orientation.
I sign off as "Mother
to one and teacher to many,"
Mary Rainier
Librarian
T. C. Walker Elementary
Gloucester, Virginia
F What a fine sentiment for a
Good Friday.