So, I voted. I want to test if this will stop my FB friends from copying me on their pro/anti Hillary/Trump Republican/Democratic tirades. It will not make any difference now. For whatever it is worth, it did not make any difference to begin with.

Having avoided all Presidential debates and my FB friends’ silly (entirely by my personal judgment) political posturing, I figured I need to start studying before I get to the polling booth. I was hoping to download the manifestos of the two candidates and read them up and think about them during my late night flight tonight.

Except that, there is no one manifesto! There are 14 web pages for Donald Trump and 41 for Hillary Clinton. So, I now need internet connection to read and think about their positions.

Argggh!! What happened to taking printouts and thinking about a candidate’s stated positions as I read thru them and decide which positions I align with regarding the future of our country?

On the other hand, maybe this means more Starbucks time!! They have fast internet connection 🙂

Innovation is not always about coming up with some breakthru in genomics or distant astronomy and all that. Sometimes, it is all about an attitude you take to a problem.

Great story of a company who was having high damage rates for their bikes during delivery. What do they do? Print a big picture of TV on the box. Problem solved!!! Damages go down by 70%-80%.

Ingenious!!!

http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/25/13048668/vanmoof-shipping-damages-dutch-bicycle-design

To my FB friend who posted – “What’s the brouhaha on Trump talking trash? The opponent and her husband are trailer trash, and treated White House like playboy mansion during their previous tenure..no one is a saint, Trump does just the talking, the Clintons implement them.”

I really do not care about who you vote for – Trump or Hillary. That is your choice and entirely yours. Any which way you vote, I and the rest of the country will respect your choice.

My point has little to do with political choices. My point is about you asking “what is the brouhaha” – and thereby condoning “talking trash”. Talking trash??? You know exactly what words were spoken. Even the person – regardless of whether he meant it or not – at least conjured up enough grace to apologize for his comments. For you to suggest there is no big deal would mean that you could not even come up with that much shred of a grace.

The position that this is okay because the other team is worse is like saying Idi Amin was okay because he did not kill as many as Hitler. A wrong thing does not get any more right by comparing it with a more heinous wrong. Has our blind hatred for the other team devoured our basic sense of values? Has everything become relative? Has it become okay to say or do bad as long as it is not as bad as others?

I hope you realize how deeply misogynist a person must be to talk in those terms. You for one, should understand this. You draw your paycheck from a company that has a CEO from a demography that suffers from a lot of hatred in this country.

To repeat myself, your political choices are your political choices. And I hope to never lose a friendship over a political choice. But value systems are something I am willing to lose relationships over. And try, as I might, I have not been able to get over your public condoning of misogynistic words (the argument being comparatively speaking, some other people are saying/doing worse) that the person himself has expressed regret over.

I would like to give you the option – if you so wish – to rebut this (and inadvertently self identify) so everybody gets your point of view in the next day or so. But, after that, allow me to draw the line and end our friendship at a point where I can certainly say that I have deep respect for you after knowing you for so many years; it is just that our value system differed.