Opaque Lucidity

Grumpy Old Man

In November, 2001, the company for which I work moved to our current location. I was setting up some PCs in the Executive Wing on Saturday night of that weekend when one of the owners passed me and asked if I wanted to go to dinner with him, the other owners and my manager. As we sat at a local Mexican dive, the conversation turned to 9/11, still an overriding thought for all of us just barely two months after the terrible events of that Tuesday. I made an observation about Don Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense: "He always looks like he's constipated." One of the owners turned to me and said, "Good. I like a Secretary of Defense who looks like he could blow your head off at a moment's notice if you pissed him off."

Seven years later, we once again are faced with someone who looks angry: Senator John McCain. I don't believe the Senator has a real chance of becoming President (despite my hopes), but it is interesting nonetheless to watch and listen to the media's portrayal of him. He's either too old or, and this is my favorite, too angry. They use phrases like "anger management issues" to disguise their true intention, which is to make the Senator from Arizona look like your retired hothead neighbor who sits on his porch all day yelling at kids to stay out of his yard.

Senator McCain gets angry---we've all seen the clips of him losing his cool. And that's a good thing. I'm tired of the people who say that anger is something we must constantly control, along with sadness, jealously, bitterness and the like. Some of my friends who have "mastered" the art of complete emotional control seem to feel nothing deep down, at least not from outside observation. But let's stick with the Senator. There are American troops in combat right now; there are Muslim radicals intent on killing Americans anywhere they can found by whatever means available; federal spending is out of control; the price of oil is ridiculous and it hurting our economy. It's time for someone who knows how to yell and who has a low tolerance for bullshit.

Barack Obama has mentioned his willingness to sit down with President Amagonnathrowabomb of Iran and negotiate an end to their nuclear weapons program. When the President recently made another threat against Israel during a fiery speech, what was John McCain's response?

When we join in saying never again (a holocaust), that is not a wish, a request or a plea to the enemies of Israel, but a promise that the United States and Israel will honor against any enemy

Put simply, the United States under a McCain administration will defend Israel. Period. No hand-holding with state sponsors of terrorism or pie-in-the-sky hopes for peace with people who hate Jews and Americans. The Senator offers the same warning President Reagan offered the Soviets: act against us and we will do what we need to do. And yes, Reagan did sit down with Gorbachev and did negotiate. But it was from a position of strength, not a position of "equals". We have no equals.

And that's a good thing.