With the passing of the plow though my neighborhood on Tuesday late afternoon, I guess I can say that life is more or less back to normal after #Snowpocalypse 2016.

All told, my workplace was closed two days, I was snowed in one day beyond that, and the kids are *still* out of school. I really couldn’t tell you how much accumulation we got, probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-15 inches, though there were drifts on my lot in excess of three feet during the height of things.

I started out, oddly enough, missing a bunch of the break; overnight Thursday, I was struck with some sort of awful lower-GI plague, spent most of the night losing weight the quick (but not so easy) way, and other than an occasional bleary-eyed semi-wakened wandering, I totally missed Friday. I woke up Saturday morning, feeling drained and dehydrated, and began working my way back, slowly stepping into eating white unseasoned foods and some clear liquids. My understanding, based on the experiences of a couple of my far-flung con compatriots, somebody dropped a delayed-release viral bomb at Marscon, and more than one of us got hit with things by mid-week.

I was largely on the mend by Sunday, though I slowly eased my way back into life further, and cracking the whip on my teenagers to dig out the driveway. Monday likewise, my office was closed (my home Commonwealth is pretty awful at getting roads cleared; not that this sort of storm is in any way typical – at least the power stayed on), so I checked a couple of emails, but mostly stuck around the house, venturing out a little bit to see how the roads were, and ran a couple of errands and supported a last-minute Eagle Scout board of review (made another Eagle Scout…yay). Roads in my neighborhood were barely passable.

Tuesday morning I woke up and tried to get the car out of the driveway, though overnight, the passing of multiple bro-dozers and fishtailing sedans through my neighborhood made the barely-passable roads impassable; I got stuck halfway out of the driveway, and required the assistance of a passing local policeman to help push my car back into the driveway. I called in, taking advantage of liberal leave policies.

That’s the basics. Wednesday was back to work, dealing with that usual bullshit. Yay. Just have to get through a couple of days, tossing out passive-agressive emails to people who don’t know how to loop me in until the things the need me for have already started. It’s crap.

Still, I had a couple of days off, read a couple of books, maybe got myself hooked into a cabin-fever relieving jam session with some local folks on Saturday night, which could be fun. Plus, there’s a Humdingers gig with a bunch of other great acts coming up in a couple of weeks. At least the musical part of my life is rewarding.

Hey all, it’s a damp Sunday evening and I just got back from this year’s MarsCon, my “home” fan convention, and quite possibly one of my favorite experiences I get to have every year.

As has been the case the last couple of years, I spend a bit of time “working” these cons, as the bassist/mandolin player/roadie/co-conspirator/coffee getter/etc for Blibbering Humdingers, although it doesn’t feel like work at all; it’s just a little over 48 hours of hanging out with my friends, cracking jokes, and playing music.

While Marscon is a con with a bit of everything – Games! Science! Costumes! Writing! Art! ALL THE THINGS! – over the last half-decade or so, it’s really become well-known for it’s music track (largely guided by the wonderful Butch Allen), which has collected over the years a wonderful and eclectic collection of artists who keep coming back every year to entertain the collected throng, as well as each other.

And I’m still kind of amazed and humbled by the fact that I get to be part of that. This was my third Marscon playing with Scott and Kirsten, and going back even farther, I’ve been welcomed into the Marscon musical brotherhood in filk circles and impromtu jam sessions. I couldn’t ask for a more supportive, welcoming, and open group of creative people to be kind of adopted by; it’s truly a safe space to get out and perform and take risks (which I did this year by making an attempt at a seriously hard to play and sing David Bowie tune, “Life on Mars”, in front of about 100 people during “Filk and Cookies”), and not get affected too much by impostor syndrome.

This year, though, I feel like I’d finally “made it” as a peer, rather than an aspirant. This year I got to sit on the *big stage* during the big con closeout round-robin concert with all the performers and play along with everyone, and was welcomed with open arms by both the players and the audience. It was a great feeling playing along with and supporting (I *am* the bass player; that’s my job) such amazingly talented people like the Humdingers, Mikey Mason, Jonah Knight, Valentine Wolfe, White Plectrum, Danny Birt, and this year’s musical Guest of Honor, S.J. Tucker (who you should really check out, because she’s an amazing player and performer, and honestly, a real sweetheart of a person who made everyone feel welcome and appreciated, including my stupefied superfan daughter).

I really hope that someday I’m able to “pay it forward” to some other ascended fanboy; because I really want somebody else to feel as welcomed and appreciated as I did this weekend.

(photo by Althea Kontis)

Hi.

We’re 12 days into the new year; it’s been very much an up-and-down thing thus far. There’s been some good stuff. There’s been some supreme frustration. More than I’d really want; let’s be honest.

Work’s a never-ending pile of bluster, bro-ing, business word salad, bad attitudes, belaying progress, blowing off meetings and commitments, and other bullshit that’s not so alliterative. I have hope that I might be able to fix things in my corner of the world, but the culture here isn’t conducive to the way I operate; I don’t see good things in the future for this organization, and I’m really not digging the idea of “long term” here, though the milestone plans I elaborated in the last post (and just wrote again and deleted when I realized how repetitive it was because it’s on my mind so damned much) still stands.

It’s just that the last week hasn’t been good, and this week isn’t looking much better; for all kinds of reasons specific and non-specific that I won’t elaborate on here.

This past weekend, however, gave me some welcome respite. I drove down to Cary, NC on Saturday to play a Humdingers show at Illogicon, which is, more or less, my bandmates’ “hometown” convention. I met a few new friends, saw a handful of old ones, and despite some serious technical issues with sound and amplification, we played a damned good show with a very appreciative and responsive audience who seemed to really dig what we were doing, or at least laughed and sang along in all the right places.

I also learned, to both my amusement and slight embarassment, that I may have a couple of fans among the geek-cougar demographic in the NC Research Triangle. Weird.

Oh, I also saw a burlesque routine set to “weird” Al Yankovic’s “MacAurthur Jurassic Park” during which the performer starts out dressed as Jeff Goldblum and ends up as a T-rex in green fuzzy pasties, but that’s neither here nor there, it’s just the life I seem to lead.

This coming weekend, assuming I survive the next 30 or so hours of business time, is Marscon, which I consider “my” hometown convention, where I’ll spend the weekend hanging out with all my geeky friends and co-conspirators, playing a bunch of music late into the night, which I suspect will probably involve lots of David Bowie, because after waking up yesterday, I found out there’s a big damned hole in the world that won’t get filled any time soon. Several of my musical friends and I have already started hatching plans.

Dance, Magic, Dance.

PS: today’s the day: State of the Union Drinking Game. Go forth and imbibe.

I meant to write up something like this weeks ago, but I kind of shut myself mostly out of the internet (other than occasional poking around on social media and playing some games). The break was welcome. I read some books, had a few nice evenings out with family and friends, saw Star Wars a couple of times, and just dropped out.

I needed it.

Anyway, 2015 was a whirlwind of confusion. new job in a new job series in a new division of an organization I only joined a year prior. New responsibilities, including……kind of being somebody’s boss. New personalities to deal with; some of whom became very different (and difficult to deal with) as the year went on. Let’s be honest, most of my life this year has been dedicated to figuring out what the hell I was was doing and who I was supposed to be doing it with/to/about.

That part wasn’t fun. Not at all. It probably won’t be fun going forward into 2016. Still, I managed to keep a handle on most of it, not fuck up too much, and keep the job (heck, I even got nominated for an agency award, fat lot of whatever that means).

What the job stuff did do, however, was get me thinking. I went through some serious rough patches this year (some of which bubbled up here…a lot of it bubbled up here). I’ve had very few moments where I’ve been able to look at this job in a long-term context; whatever happens, I don’t see myself overseeing this particular corner of the world forever. After two years in the agency, and a year in this department, I’ve kind of decided that I’m not a great match for the organizational culture; most folks are nice enough, but I haven’t forged any real relationships worth dragging outside the gate, and I think a lot of it is personality and temperment. That’s okay, I think I have a plan

Around mid-2017, I’ll have 20 years federal service logged. That’s nothing to sneeze about. I’ve quietly, personally, and non-obligatorally committed to myself that I’ll stand pat until I hit my twenty, then I’ll re-evaluate. Given my age, that’s somewhere just past the mid-point of my career; Plenty of time to shift gears if necessary. There’s other stuff I might like to try – I’ve been under the defense umbrella for 20 year, much of that with the country on a de-facto war footing (which has been wonderful for my social-justice/liberal mindset). I’d like to see what life’s like under another flavor of cabinet official, you know? I’m a little averse to jumping the federal ship, given my investment, but I’m not going to say never. That, however, is a discussion for another time, once I pass the current milestones.

Outside of work, things have been a bit better. Outside projects and relationships have helped keep me sane and motivated. I played a bunch of great shows with The Blibbering Humdingers all up and down the east cost this year, wrocking lots of people at lots of neat places. We made a record we’re pretty proud of, and plan on flogging up and down the sci-fi convention circuit for the forseeable future (gigs are lined up), and I think we’ll have more music to share soon-ish.

I can’t thank the little musical family I’ve made (Scott and Kirsten, plus Eddie, Christie, Leah, Mikey, Jonah, Gray and all the rest) enough; these little weekend adventures we have throughout the year really saved my sanity. I also got a little more confortable with my own stuff – I don’t have much, but I’m starting to play it a bit, and have obtained the gear to lay it down once I really figure out how. Who knows what the coming year will hold on that front.

otherwise, my social circles, the geeks, the gamers, the UUs, the everybody else…have also been amazing. My dance card is eternally full, and it’s generally pretty excellent. We have adventures in worlds real and imagined, musical and prosaical. It seems I have a friend in every port I find myself these days, which is a real comfort. Special shout outs to the KT, Kevin, Scott, Winter and Dan…you guys are awesome.

Oh, I guess I should also pour one out for my aborted publishing career at Antimatter Press, the little venture my friends and co-conspirators Elizabeth, Duncan, Jonah, and Danny. We had great ambitions, published a handful of great things, then flamed out because we were all to busy with life, love, career, etc. It was a worthy adventure, and I’m still sort of playing in that pond, doing some light editing for one of our leftover authors. We’ll see where it goes.

Family life has been, life with teenagers, you know? Most of it’s been pretty okay, with a few extra hurdles I won’t really bother with, but i think we’ll get through it…I hope. Thanks, as always, to my dear wife, for being the rock and whatever else I tie myself to. It’s been a rough one this year, but we got through it.

Anyway – couple of other odds and ends…I checked off a couple of items on the bucket list:

I made an album (see above) and got my playing on two other releases, the HPA anniversary disc (the Humdingers contributed a track) and I played guitar on a live version of one of my favorite songs, Beer Powered Time Machine by Mikey Mason (wish I could’ve found a good version of the slow “drunkards and philosophers” version) that we knocked together at Dragon*Con this year and Mikey released in a limited fashion this fall.

Had a book dedicated to me (and my family) – Classic, by Lynn Townsend, the pen name of a dear friend (mentioned elsewhere above – I’ll let you figure it out); it’s nice to get noticed.

I think I played more shows than I attended this year – that’s neat. Did manage to see “Weird” Al again (only four or five rows back), which was kind of amazing.

I survived. there’s that.

Also – looking back, I didn’t write much this year in this space. Kinda had other things going on, you know? Nothing huge or profound to be proud of, but here are a couple of entries from this year that I liked:

• small favors, big dividends
• vigilantes custodum
• strangeness in vision and dream
• let’s talk gender and culture issues in the workplace!
• friday random ten breakdown
• spam folder poetry: my dirty hobby

Oh, and I read 73 books this year. woo.

At long last, today is my last day at work for the year 2015. I’ll be honest, it’s been a tough one. My job changed; hell, my career changed. I spent most of the year just figuring out what the hell I’m supposed to be doing here. One of these days I might even figure it out.

Every day was a new problem, and it was even odds I’ve never had to deal with that problem before. I am, for the first time since that whole catering truck thing I did through college, in charge of the work of other people, and in this case, I don’t have any more than a vague idea of how to do what those folks actually do. It’s a weird, new experience to be in charge of people, and not have the confidence to know that you could do the job at least as well as they do. I think I’m getting better at it, but it’s still new, and probably will be for a while.

The important thing, though, is that despite the setbacks and occasional breakdowns (thanks to everyone in my life for the patience you exercised in dealing with me over the past twelve months), I survived it, found my way to the road that might some day lead me to competence at this sort of thing, and most importantly, I didn’t give in to the temptation to give the boss an upper-decker*.

Anyway, after I close up shop on Friday, I’m out of the office for three whole weeks. I’m hoping to use the time to seriously uncoil some springs that have been holding entirely too much tension for the last year. It might be quiet here, it might not. However, I’m giving myself the gift of letting some outside responsibilities go, and doing more of the things I want to do (or perhaps *not* doing some of the things I don’t) for a couple of weeks. I deserve it.

On that note, here are some tunes:

1. It’s My Life (live) – Bon Jovi
2. 1000 Emerald Pools – BORNS
3. Chasing the Brand New – The Badlees
4. 18 and Life – Skid Row
5. Ijime Dame Zettai – BABYMETAL
6. Becuz – Sonic Youth
7. I’m Just A Girl – No Doubt
8. Cowboy Hat – that dog.
9. it Happens All The Time – Dressy Bessy
10. Everything – Alanis Morrissette

____________________________________________________

*This is, of course, a reference to the song linked above – go ahead and listen (and if you don’t know what an “upper-decker” is, click here. you’re welcome.). To be fair, my boss doesn’t deserve it, as he’s been nothing but decent, and has totally had my back all year. There’s another guy, however….

Once again, my spam folder becomes full, so rather than just purging it, I recycle by grabbing choice bits of word salad and create ART.

Sadly, there were fewer options this time; a good 85 percent of the 900 odd entries were the same list of questionable sales sites for knockoff designer bags for “black friday”, but I managed to pull a few choice bits out. As always, these are excerpts from actual spam comments, mixed up for maximum artistic and emotional impact to meet needs you didn’t even know you had:

to feed your aspirational and economic desires for the written word:

I was watching the episode of Ugly Betty where she started a blog..
Is there any sites which offer unpublished articles free for copyright?Free to print and publish in our name?
How to let the other people know about your blogspot?
I have heard that you can make money from blogging
That’s right AUTOMATICALLY,
just watch this 4minute video

making peace with the animal urges within:

Your post really helped me figure out life
Losing weight and not regaining it is very difficult for
most people.
it may not be essentially the most thrilling put up ever,
but it surely is a crucial one
Hungry Shark Evolution

daily affirmation:

You completed various good points there
It’s hard to find knowledgeable people on this topic,
but you
sound like you know what you’re talking about!

erm….:

Anal Seks
It happens with out my knowledge
does anyone know how i can fix this????.

unending praise for your enduring vision:

howdy I appreciated, your major,weblog
You can definitely see your expertise within the paintings you write
Strange, your page shows up with a yellow hue to it
How to Do Fabulous Dance Recital Makeup ?>
updating the memory space literally will take under sixty minutes
Youve got type, class, bravado. Come on , man it.
major league book you possess
Cheap Ugg Boots Black Friday

So folks…it’s been a week. There’ve been some great, amazing high points, and some startlingly low points, though even during those low points, I’ve had a great bunch of people around to help pull me up (or at least keep me from sinking irretreivably into the abyss).

I don’t make much of a secret of the fact that I’ve been diagnosed with depression. It makes no sense to do so; I’ve seen denial of this kind of basic medical fact absolutely wreck people, some of whom I’ve cared deeply for. I made a decision years ago to not cover this sort of thing up, both for my own personal well-being, and to do my own small part in advocacy, so that others who might deal with the same sort of thing might not feel shame about looking for help. My treatment generally keeps me on an even keel (thankfully), so I can mostly function like a reasonable human being and get through life. Occasionally, however, one side of the neurochemical balance in my brain rallies it’s forces and launches an offensive that can leave me reeling.

For me, this was Tuesday.

No idea why, really, which is more frustrating. There’s usually a relatively specific trigger, however minor, that kicks one of these things off. Other than this asshole at work being a bit more of an asshole than usual to people, the job’s been pretty steady these last couple of months, with my bosses very happy with my being able to attach a quantitative savings to the organization to the work I do (I’m even getting nominated for an award in the organization, which is nice). Home is no weirder than usual, and pretty nice since there’s more money coming in now. No crashing explosions anywhere. I’m tempted to blame the bleh weather and the looming holidays, and the fact that this has been a hell of a year in terms of challenge and upheaval, but that’s kind of general. Oh well. Such as it is.

I spent my week doing the kind of stuff I usually do; going to meetings, making sure homework gets done, being husband and father and pet owner; I did throw some time into rehearsing, both for the party gig on Saturday, and for the bass ensemble choir piece I signed up to do on Sunday. That last one threw me a little out of my comfort zone, but was actually a pretty good experience overall. Like I said; I did everything I usually do, I just did it through occasionally jarring mood swings, from euphoric happiness to weeping sorrow the whole time.

And, I don’t think I’m quite through it yet. I got more than a little weepy this morning (though I did just hear that my friend’s dad died last night, which let’s be honest, puts my issues into some perspective), but it’s, you know, life.

Anyway, I have stuff to look forward to, the biggest of which is the fact that once I get through this week, I’m done working for the year – three weeks of letting the office grind go and decompressing.

In the meantime, though, I’ve got some stuff to be proud of too – I got to spend all day Saturday making music with my friends and making a bunch of other friends happier through the doing; I even stepped a bit out of my comfort zone with it and got some encouraging results. Don’t we look like we’re having a good time?

…and if that’s not enough, I can just go watch A Very Murray Christmas again. That was transcendent.

Well, I was on a break, but now I’m back in the office for two weeks for a return engagement before taking a really long break. I’m going to be completely honest with you, dear reader, as well as myself, and say that I’m probably going to be at least partially checked out for the next little while, both looking forward to the long holiday break, and the gig this weekend. I’m not proud of this (the clockwatching bit), but I am a little proud of the fact that I’ve spent the last month or so setting things up so that my assigned projects will roll along nicely without my intervention unless there’s a big emergency, though I’ve mostly tended to that as well. You’d almost think I was turning into an effective project manager!

So…last couple of weeks. Dance thing went well. Girls didn’t place as high as they would have liked, but did really well, considering they were punching way above their weight class in a couple of instances. I did lots of dad volunteering stuff, running concessions, handing out awards, combing the city for pro-audio cables at 8am on a Saturday morning (and then MacGyvering something together with junk in my backpack when nothing was open yet). Usual stuff. I’m a problem solver.

The Thanksgiving week was quiet – couple of days off cleaning the house and sorting through stuff. The spouse worked a bit (did I mention that? She’s started doing some freelance delivery stuff for Amazon Prime Now, which just stared service in our area over the last couple of weeks) because the holiday pay they were were offering for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday season was insane, but otherwise, we kind of hung out and I cooked some stuff.

We did get together with friends on Friday and Saturday, spending a few hours playing games, cracking jokes, and all that. Friends are nice. I really appreciate you all. Still, week was pretty low key.

This week is largely going to be dedicated to refreshing myself on a few dozen tunes for the party we’re playing this weekend (as well as learning a couple of new ones), and tonight I’ve got a rehearsal for this pop-up church bass-tenor choir thing (figure I need to learn how to sing one of these days), which has been fun.

So, plenty to do. Next week, when there is significantly less to do, will be the one that really drags (my goal there is to be just busy enough in the right time windows to avoid the “forced merriment office holiday celebrations).

It’s friday, it’s kinda nice outside, I have no meetings, and, for we comics/MCU fans, it’s Jessica Jones Day!, which I will be settling into watch at least part of this evening before the weekend gets too crazy (more on that presently). I’m pretty sure you’re all aware how much I’ve been looking forward to this one.

However, the weekend is going to get pretty hectic pretty quickly, as I’ll be hanging/working/watching/bouncing/etc at the Oireachtas (AKA dance competition) all weekend while the girls dance. It’s gonna eat most of the weekend, but they all enjoy it so, and it’s kinda neat anyway.

The weekend crazy actually kind of started yesterday, as I spent most of the evening after work delivering pies. PIES.

The dance school did a holiday pie fundraiser sale, and few approached could resist the persuasive power of a cute little eight year old girl, so I hung out at the dance school last evening (after taking care of a few other things, like a kid doctor appointment, and picking up my sweet new glasses, which have been determined sufficiently hipster by my teenage daughter) waiting for the pie man and his refrigerated truck to show up…most of an hour late. After sorting pies, I loaded a bunch into the car and spent the evening in the West End delivering pies to friends there via a mostly organized pick-up (and shoving all the un-picked-up pies into the freezer in the church kitchen, carefully labeled – go pick up your pies, people!), and getting home kinda late. Did I mention that I did this all in very heavy fog and rain? No? because I totally did, making me Dad Hero of the Universe™ for at least a few hours.

That’s been it, really, apart from some usual biological functions, answering of emails relating both to work and set lists for some band gigs coming up, the creation of a great many powerpoint presentations (argh) and the occasional contemplation of what the worst Christmas song is on social media.

…and one of these days I have to maybe think about the Thanksgiving feast, point one being whether we’re going to bother with a big production or not.

In the meantime, here’s some music, since I felt like some music (and I haven’t done it in a while anyway). It’s proving to be an insteresting mix, as omewhere along the line, Mary and I started using the same Pandora account (because she likes most of my old dad music because she’s cool like that), but she adds new channels a lot, so I get a few weird surprises here and there:

1. Past Lives – Borns
2. The Great Moonwolf Trap – Tom Smith
3. Strange – R.E.M.
4. Don’t You (Forget About Me) – Simple Minds
5. Man It’s So Loud In Here – TMBG
6. I’ll be You – The Replacements
7. Teen Age Riot – Sonic Youth
8. Obvious Bicycle – Vampire Weekend
9. Mess Is Mine – Vance Joy
10. Babymetal Death – Babymetal
11. You Oughta Know (live) – Alanis Morrissette

Like most of us, I’m sure, I’ve been watching the situation regarding Syrian refugees develop, especially after the unfortunate events in Paris and elsewhere this weekend. This sort of thing, it can bring out the best in people, or it can bring out the worst of people. I’m seeing some absolutely awful stuff from folks on the right, and most of them are parroting the words of the many, many Republican candidates for President, who are spouting off all sorts of awful things, many of which harken, unfortunately, back to stuff I remember hearing fourteen years ago, only with the crazy dialed up a few orders of magnitude higher. All of it’s pretty uncharitable toward people in need, and in flagrant violation of the two disparate documents these sorts of people proclaim to revere above all others, those being the Bible (see, among many other places, Leviticus 19:33-34 and Luke 10:25-37) and the US Constitution (specifically Article VI, paragraph 3).

To play the scripture game with these folks, we’ve got a whole lot of loudly self-proclaimed Christians (most troublingly, at least 19 state Governors) taking on the part of the innkeeper in Luke 2:7. Even the Christmas/Easter types and those who slept through Sunday school ought to be able to figure out that’s the wrong side of that equations to be on.

Luckily, despite all the garbage being spewed over the airwaves, the internet, and from journalists in press conferences who should know better, there are cooler heads prevailing, and one of them happens to sit in the Oval Office, which makes me feel pretty good. Quoth President Obama:

The United States has to step up and do its part. And when I hear folks say that well, maybe we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims — when I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test? For which person, who is fleeing a war-torn country, is admitted? When some of those folks themselves come from families who benefitted from protection when they were fleeing political persecution? That’s shameful.

He’s got a cool head and definitely has the right idea, though much has been made of the frustration he showed at that press conference yesterday. I understand the frustration, especially after being asked, and answering in thoughtful detail, the same question multiple times,. It seems the reporters present were simply not getting the answer they’d like (which one journalist, CNN’s Jim Acosta, kindly articulated bluntly, would be “to take out these bastards”), lending credence to the axiom “if it bleeds, it leads”.

The response people keep talking about, to me, seems pretty reasoned, and exactly the kind of thing I want to hear from my head of state (emphasis here and there is mine):

But what we do not do, what I do not do is to take actions either because it is going to work politically or it is going to somehow, in the abstract, make America look tough, or make me look tough. And maybe part of the reason is because every few months I go to Walter Reed, and I see a 25-year-old kid who’s paralyzed or has lost his limbs, and some of those are people I’ve ordered into battle. And so I can’t afford to play some of the political games that others may.

We’ll do what’s required to keep the American people safe. And I think it’s entirely appropriate in a democracy to have a serious debate about these issues. If folks want to pop off and have opinions about what they think they would do, present a specific plan. If they think that somehow their advisors are better than the Chairman of my Joint Chiefs of Staff and the folks who are actually on the ground, I want to meet them. And we can have that debate. But what I’m not interested in doing is posing or pursuing some notion of American leadership or America winning, or whatever other slogans they come up with that has no relationship to what is actually going to work to protect the American people, and to protect people in the region who are getting killed, and to protect our allies and people like France. I’m too busy for that.

The President was a lot cooler in the presence of idiocy than many others would be.