Is McCain Physically Fit to Lead?
Through all the the past week and probably longer, Google News has been citing the same articles over and over again, that say that J. McCain, at 71 and a skin cancer survivor, is fit to lead the nation. And I fully expect them to keep running that bit of information for another week or so.
I've heard that the choice of articles on Google News is machine generated and so presumably free from human influence, but I definitely question that, because I've noticed that where the opportunity arises for a boost to conservative views and denigration of groups deemed unworthy by them, Google News forgets the very valuable dictum that once around, and at most twice, is enough. Before the McCain health thing, the most egregious example was when running articles for five or six days straight about the conviction of Wesley Snipes for tax evasion still didn't seem to be enough.
In McCain's case, Google is risking running afoul of the familiar principle that if you deny something often enough, it starts to create the impression that what is being denied is in fact quite true. So inside the latest reports that I finally got around to reading, we hear that McCain has had several operations on melanomas on various spots on and around his head, and he can never be 100 percent clear of the danger.
But being even older than him, it is not his health that I would question but his sanity.
I know that ego knows no limits, but I would say that once they start hitting that age 70 mark, the overwhelming majority of men, even if they won't admit it, are ready to start "laying their burdens down," while being extremely averse to picking up new ones. And it's hard to conceive of a burden, outside of being in a prison in some kind, more aggravating than being the U.S. President.
McCain looks and sounds to me like a man who alternates between periods of confusion and lucidity. And I refuse to believe that he is completely happy with the situation in which he now finds himself. Instead of being free to stay at home on his ranch and tell war stories, he is being expected to spend untold amounts of time and energy convincing a lot of rascally American citizens with millions of different agendas that he is the best man in the country to run that country's affairs.
Probably worst of all, he can't be happy about having to alternate with his opponents in having every word he says gone over by countless hostile parties with fine tooth combs. Being a pompous Naval officer and then a pompous U.S. Senator could not have prepared him for that humiliation alone in any way.
More than his melanoma count, people should be eagerly awaiting a psychiatric report on J. McCain, and preferably a whole battery of them.
I've heard that the choice of articles on Google News is machine generated and so presumably free from human influence, but I definitely question that, because I've noticed that where the opportunity arises for a boost to conservative views and denigration of groups deemed unworthy by them, Google News forgets the very valuable dictum that once around, and at most twice, is enough. Before the McCain health thing, the most egregious example was when running articles for five or six days straight about the conviction of Wesley Snipes for tax evasion still didn't seem to be enough.
In McCain's case, Google is risking running afoul of the familiar principle that if you deny something often enough, it starts to create the impression that what is being denied is in fact quite true. So inside the latest reports that I finally got around to reading, we hear that McCain has had several operations on melanomas on various spots on and around his head, and he can never be 100 percent clear of the danger.
But being even older than him, it is not his health that I would question but his sanity.
I know that ego knows no limits, but I would say that once they start hitting that age 70 mark, the overwhelming majority of men, even if they won't admit it, are ready to start "laying their burdens down," while being extremely averse to picking up new ones. And it's hard to conceive of a burden, outside of being in a prison in some kind, more aggravating than being the U.S. President.
McCain looks and sounds to me like a man who alternates between periods of confusion and lucidity. And I refuse to believe that he is completely happy with the situation in which he now finds himself. Instead of being free to stay at home on his ranch and tell war stories, he is being expected to spend untold amounts of time and energy convincing a lot of rascally American citizens with millions of different agendas that he is the best man in the country to run that country's affairs.
Probably worst of all, he can't be happy about having to alternate with his opponents in having every word he says gone over by countless hostile parties with fine tooth combs. Being a pompous Naval officer and then a pompous U.S. Senator could not have prepared him for that humiliation alone in any way.
More than his melanoma count, people should be eagerly awaiting a psychiatric report on J. McCain, and preferably a whole battery of them.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 8:52 AM
2 Comments:
It isn't just his age. My grandmother will be 90 this fall, but she has beeen crazy for at least 40 years!
My concern is what kind of treatment he received after Vietnam. I just don't believe that anyone can survive what he did and come away completely sane. Did he get help? Has he worked through those issues? Or does his temper come from the hell he went through and could he snap at any given moment?
Scary, guy.
Hi, Lady. I think he has already snapped at various times. One of the worst for me was the terrible epithet that he was caught applying to his surely loving wife when she joked in front of others about his thinning hair. It was the kind of thing that a decent man should never say to his wife, or to any other woman, even in his most private and infuriated moments. A man capable of that much sudden anger should never be given access to the suitcase.
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