There are many things I don’t understand.

For example, Mark Evanier has a blog where he invite readers to send him questions, and all he asks is that they provide their names:

For some reason, my e-mailbox gets a lot of mail from folks who hide behind handles. I think it’s a common courtesy to use your real name — or at least something that looks like a real name — when you write to someone who is under his or her own real name. I’ve been answering most of the ones from the hiders but I’m going to stop or at least move their messages to the bottom of the To Be Answered folder. Please…sign your real name. Or if you’re terrified for me to know it, make up something that sounds like a real name and use it consistently when you write to me.

I mean, I grok why someone might not want their name published along with their question, and Mark freely offers to keep their questions anonymous if that’s what they want, but why hide their name when writing to him?

Another site that I like to read is electoral-vote.com. Every Saturday they answer reader questions, and most of the questions are good, but almost every week there are one or two that even I could answer. I assume that the folks who read their site are generally well aware of current political affairs, or why else would they be reading the site, and yet still the site gets odd questions. They always manage to answer them quite politely. This week’s concerned who would become the House Speaker if the Democrats get a majority in the 2024 elections. As I said, even I can answer that one. With my eyes closed.

And then there’s Rudy.

I keep reading things like when did he turn into such a jerk. Well, as far as I’m concerned, he’s always been a jerk.

I vividly recall when he was Mayor of New York City and he did things like decree that police would seize the cars of people who were accused of drunk driving. Just accused, not convicted. That was an incredibly dickish thing to do as while it would not penalize rich folks at all, it would cause incredible hardships for middle class and lower people. (As an aside, I don’t understand why the people of New York City keep electing jerks for their mayor; by my reckoning it’s been an unbroken streak reaching at least back into the 80s.)

So yeah, I’ve always thought Rudy was a jerk, and I never was impressed by his speechifying during the 9/11 era; I tend to judge folks by what they do, not by what they say.