The kindness of strangers

The net is filled with the kindness of strangers. I've yet to have a computer hiccup -- something not working right -- but that I've found a cure by searching the problem, the symptoms, on Google. Last night, for example, I downloaded a new version of Windows Media Player. Oops, no sound! Nope, mute was off, volume was okay, sound card was selected, etc. No sound. Ask Google. Lots of repetitions of the question. Various remedies suggested, some strange, then I found a link for downloading codecs, tried it, solved! The kindness of strangers. Thanks.

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On Facebook, I see someone I otherwise admire has come out in support of our mayor. I know so many who support him. Baffles me. Either...

• they think by so doing they fight homophobia (but this is about fraud, not sex)
• they don't think the penalty fits the crime (at the low end, several violations of the Code of Ethics -- though we already have a city precedent for this, the police chief recently losing his job over something less upsetting than what the mayor did)
• they don't see fraud (open your eyes!)
• it's the cool thing for progressives to do (this makes the most sense to me: another ideological fashion show)
• amazing, incredible, depressing

I know other progressives against the mayor, but we may be in the minority of the "left" in this town. I get no sense of Obama-joy in this divided city at all. I try to pretend I live somewhere else.