Happy Holidays

 Merry Christmas...

And Happy Chanukah...

Norman Mailer, 1963, writing about live television

The paragraph, above, is from Norman Mailer's non-fiction collection The Presidential Papers, published in 1963.

The paragraph is from a brief section in the book dated January, 1963.  In it, Mr. Mailer refers to the period of "five, six years ago"--which means that he was writing, here, of 1957 or 1958--and was recalling, certainly, appearances he made on interview programs.

 (The Presidential Papers, Berkley Medallion paperback edition, 1963)

Murder, and the responses to it

I wanted to write, briefly, about the December murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare.

There is, today, the inability (the shocking inability), on the part of some--actually, it appears, on the part of more than some--to make moral distinctions. 

If there is distrust of, anger about, resentment toward the United States health care industry, that is one thing.  

To murder the CEO of America's largest health care company, because of that anger, is another.

The various perverse, hideous responses, in online videos and posts/reactions, to the shooting death of Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, have been breathtaking--the cold-hearted expressions of approval, the jokes, the justifying of the murder, the open admiration of the alleged gunman, Luigi Mangione. 

Merchandise has appeared online--t-shirts, for example, and mugs--in support of Mangione. Online selling platforms have, fortunately, been taking such merchandise off of their sites.

Today, Mangione was extradited from Pennsylvania to New York, to face charges in the December 4th killing.

As one who lived in Philadelphia for years (and who continues to follow press coverage about the city, and about the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania), I'll make note of comments made by Pennsylvania's Governor Josh Shapiro, in reaction to the abysmal online responses to the murder.  The Governor, as noted in a December 9th Philadelphia Inquirer story,

decried online comments celebrating the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as "deeply disturbing."

"Brian Thompson was a father to two. He was a husband and he was a friend to many, and yes, he was the CEO of a health insurance company in America," Shapiro said.

"We do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint. I understand people have real frustration with our healthcare system, and I have worked to address that throughout my career, but I have no tolerance, nor should anyone, for one man using an illegal ghost gun to murder someone because he thinks his opinion matters most in a civil society."

Nominees

Hegseth and Kash Patel--just terrible nominees.

I hope Republican Senators will do what is right for the country.  

They didn't--thank heavens--go for Gaetz.  

In my previous post, I suggested that various Trump nominees were, notably, unqualified.

I am hopeful that, during their deliberations/assessments, enough Republican Senators will (at a minimum--there are now many nominees, all told) determine that Hegseth, Patel, Gabbard, and RFK, Jr. are not just unqualified choices, but are perilous ones, each in their own ways, and should not be handed the significant powers Trump would like them to have.

(A few changes have been made to the above, since its posting.)