Day: August 26, 2011

What’s In A Name?

My whole life I had heard that question……so I got to thinking about it and came up with a few things….

Is it spelled with a G or Q or K?

According to a 2009 blog post from ABC news, there are over 112 ways that news media has written the name of possibly crazy Libyan president, Muammar Qaddafi, since 1998. ABC, by the way, spells it Moammar Gaddafi.Yesterday a piece published by the Christian Science Monitor shows that the Associated Press, CNN, and MSNBC spell it “Moammar Gadhafi,” the New York Times spells it “Muammar el-Qaddafi,” the Los Angeles Times writes “Moammar Kadafi,” and Reuters, the Guardian, and the BBC go with “Muammar Gaddafi.”

His name, rendered in Arabic, is “معمر القذافي,” roughly transliterates to “Muamar AlQadafi.” The part with his last name in question, is begins with a “ق” a Qoph, an Arabic letter that is definitely a “K”

Please can we just agree on one simple spelling of the name?  I realize that soon it will not make much of a difference but until he is either captured or killed….a standardized spelling of his name would be nice….

Remember back in ’08 there was that guy that McCain made a plumber and he went on to become a bit of a side show?  Joe the Plumber.  Well we may not have heard the last of that screaming morn…..

The Toledo Blade reports that Joe Wurzelbacher (R), who was often referred to as “Joe the Plumber” during the 2008 presidential campaign, is considering launching a challenge to Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH).

Plumber?  Is not that the name of the crooks and spooks that broke in the Watergate for Nixon?  Just saying.

For weeks now I have heard MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow talking the Google problem that Rick Santorum has……she keeps telling me that Santorum is not the first thing that comes up when you Google the name….after weeks of this I just had to see what she is talking about…..and BLAM!

If you Google the word Santorum you get this…..

1. The frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex.  2.  Rick Santorum………

Okay now I see what she is talking about and let me say….HAHAHAHAHA!

Bing is a bit more kind to Ricky.  But (no pun intended) some names just say it all, huh?

Does Crazy Make The Best Leaders?

During the current election cycle we have had many, many candidates and those that pretend to be candidates….some logical, some calculation and some that just sound like a mad hatter……but what about those that sound crazy….would they make a good leader?  Even if they are a stone loon?

It seems there has been a bit research in this area and the findings show that being MAD could work for the good of the country.  This reported on the Newser website……

People often complain about the madness of America’s leaders in Washington—but what if that madness is actually a good thing? After looking at famous leaders from Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King, Dr. Nassir Ghaemi has concluded that being manic or depressed often makes for better leaders, reports NPR. “Historians have often not paid much attention to these features of their lives; they’ve just written them off as irrelevant to their leadership,” said Ghaemi. “I wanted to show that these symptoms not only were present in their lives, but were relevant to their leadership.” “Creativity and resilience is higher in people with mania, and realism and empathy is higher in people with depression compared to normal subjects,” said Ghaemi, who has just published the book A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness. “The problem often with mentally healthy, average leaders is—even though they’re not weak in the sense of not having any of these qualities—they often don’t have enough to meet the very high demands of crises.” Ghaemi also speculates that one of the big problems with “No drama Obama” is that the current president might just be too normal. “And in fact, if he had a little bit of drama to him, it might be quite helpful.”

You may think that some of the candidates are not wrapped real tight….but research says…..not to dismiss them out of hand….our next leader could be a mad hatter…..and could possibly be good for the country…..(pause here for raucous laughter)…….NO!  I do not believe either but it was an interesting post to write……

Peace!