"The more things change ...

... the more screwed up they become."

Ok! That ain't the French way of putting it; it's my way. But I'll bet they sympathize.

On the old "Siskel & Ebert" movie review show, while reviewing Rob Reiner's "North", Roger Ebert noted that when writing his review for his column in the paper, some inner demon took over and he wrote, "I hate, Hate, HATE this movie!", using the word "hate" 17 times in the review.

At the moment, that pretty well describes my reaction to Blogger.com's new user interface, especially when editing and creating posts.  I can't help but wonder if this is the reason I haven't seen anything new in almost a week from a fellow Blogger.com user, who may have decided that "Life's just too damned short!".

As a former programmer ("Software Engineer") I can attest that sometimes the great and pressing need for a change in software is relief from boredom. We really do sometimes make a change because it's cool, without much regard for the poor user who's just trying to get something done.

It's not really unusable; it's just that nothing seems to be in the right place, and you're spending an inordinate amount of time doing things that had become second nature in the old interface.

I've yet to see any genuine improvement or advantage over what it's replaced, and my cynical feeling that it was done on a "Wouldn't it be cool?" basis is probably correct.

I won't abandon Blogger.com over this, and will probably get accustomed to their new way of doing things, by which time one of their programmers will almost certainly propose, "You know what would really be cool?"

(Having told the great secret about programmers, you know I have to kill you. Right? :-)
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Notes by others on Holocaust Remembrance Day ...

Thursday, April 19, was Holocaust Remembrance Day.

A number of bloggers wrote some very fine pieces on it, but Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit posted Obama Celebrates Holocaust Day By Putting Jew-Bashing Crackpot on Atrocities Board, noting ...

Jeff Dunetz at The Lid reported:

Today the President tried to show he was a friend of the Jews with a beautifully crafted speech at the Holocaust Museum. Showing his words mean nothing, also today Samantha Power began work today as chair of President Barack Obama’s new Atrocities Prevention Board. If you don’t remember Ms Power, she once called for a US force to invade Israel and force through a “peace settlement.” Powers also had some unflattering things to say about about America’s Jewish population during the 2008 campaign

How long do you think it will be before Powers uses that board as a tool to de-legitimize Israel?

Yes, there are a lot of words here in this post that are not mine, but with which I'm in complete agreement, including a comment reprinted in its entirety, in which I emphasized (with bold face), the "money quote" that is the reason for this post in the first place.

Here is that comment ...
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Update - 07:05, Tue, 24 Apr 2012 -

No, here is not that comment. For those who never bother with reading them, the first legitimate (non-spam) comment this post got said ...

What a conundrum. 

The attribution to Sebastian Vilar Rodriguez is false. 

The claim that it was published in an unnamed Spanish newspaper is false. 

But every statement in the article is true.

Further research discloses, as commenter antares suggests, that this may fall into the "fake, but accurate" category (as CBS news so lovingly described the counterfeit documents it promoted in a story about George Bush's Air National Guard experiences).

So, however sympathetic I may be to what it said (and that is precisely the danger there; it appeals to personally held beliefs), being unable (at the moment) to back it up, I've pulled it.

It may be a fine subject for a post, but it should come from words I've conjured up from my own research; not just passed along from an email.
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"They say a snake bit her once ...

... and died."

I thought of that line when Democratic “strategist” and DNC adviser Hilary Rosen attacked Mitt Romney's wife Ann with “Guess what, she's actually never worked a day in her life.” (Ann Romney is a mother who has raised five kids. How many of you mothers appreciate the notion of that not being real work? I thought so.)

Problem is, to use that line in reference to Rosen gives her way too much credit.

It's from the the BBC mini-series I, Claudius (1976), in which Tiberius was speaking of his perpetually scheming mother Livia.

But Livia Drusilla (or Livia Augusta, as she was wife to Emperor Caesar Augustus), played by the absolutely mesmerizing Siân Phillips, is infinitely more interesting than Hilary Rosen could ever dream of being, and might even be someone you would like to meet (provided you survived the experience).

Siân Phillips as Livia    -    from www.themakeupgallery.info

From what I can glean, Siân is the Welsh form of Jane, and

 is pronounced "Shan" -- with a short a sound (as in Ann)
(19 Apr 2012 - I love that photo; a combination of
majestic beauty and Medusa. I suspect that Livia
could hold that expression while watching you
being disemboweled, probably by her order.)

Bringing up the example of "I, Claudius" only demonstrates how shallow and empty the current crop of political connivers are.

To Ms. Rosen, and to the rest of the vipers in The One's re-election campaign: You could do far worse than to study "I, Claudius", to see how it's really done.

But you are, and will remain, just a pathetic bunch of wannabes. This post is fading fast because not one of you is truly worth the effort.
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