Time Magazine has come up with its ten finalists for Person of the Year and it's quite the commendable bunch (cough).
Bashar Assad, President of Syria
The Dictator Flavour of the Year
Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder
What? Why not just go with the CEO of Macy's because their parades are just so damn cool.
Ted Cruz, Texas Senator
Republican Wingnut Flavour of the Month
Miley Cyrus, Singer
The flavour of something but I don't want to know what kind. Whichever flavour, it isn't entirely cooked yet.
Pope Francis, Leader of the Catholic Church
Interesting leader and an interesting choice.
Barack Obama, President of the United States
Yeah, right. Make him Person of the Year before he's impeached.
Hassan Rouhani, President of Iran
Another interesting choice.
Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services
If you're from Cincinnati you may know her as she grew up there but otherwise you probably don't.
Edward Snowden, N.S.A. Leaker
Obviously my choice.
Edith Windsor, Gay rights activist
So what. Do you know who she is? I don't.
Miley Cyrus got onto the list because of a hack by two or three hacker groups trying to get into the polling mechanism used by Time to gather the initial candidate names. (ComputerWorld: Time's Person of the Year poll hacked AGAIN, Edward Snowden losing to Miley Cyrus?)
So I wind up with only three remaining after my first filter:
Pope Francis
Hassan Rouhani
Edward Snowden
After the second filter, Rouhani is gone as we still don't know if he is dealing legitimately. I like what I see from him but I'm not going to call him Person of the Year for cutting just one deal.
I see two ducks remaining and now it becomes a tougher call.
As to Pope Francis, I admire a great many of the things he has been saying ... but ... like Rouhani, I don't really think he has had enough time in the chair yet ... or papal throne, as you will. I don't doubt the authenticity of what he says but there hasn't been time yet to see what comes of quite a radical change to the leadership of Catholicism with potentially a consequent change to millions. (For a minor aside, this is the musical definition of 'consequent:' the second or imitating voice or part in a canon.)
It's not really a process of elimination to get down to Edward Snowden as I don't see there's even much debate on the matter. What he did had a profound effect on the U.S. government and its clandestine and frequently-illegal surveillance programs. The consequences of it all went around the world resulting in significant changes in many places. Snowden is definitely my pick.
Bashar Assad, President of Syria
The Dictator Flavour of the Year
Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder
What? Why not just go with the CEO of Macy's because their parades are just so damn cool.
Ted Cruz, Texas Senator
Republican Wingnut Flavour of the Month
Miley Cyrus, Singer
The flavour of something but I don't want to know what kind. Whichever flavour, it isn't entirely cooked yet.
Pope Francis, Leader of the Catholic Church
Interesting leader and an interesting choice.
Barack Obama, President of the United States
Yeah, right. Make him Person of the Year before he's impeached.
Hassan Rouhani, President of Iran
Another interesting choice.
Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services
If you're from Cincinnati you may know her as she grew up there but otherwise you probably don't.
Edward Snowden, N.S.A. Leaker
Obviously my choice.
Edith Windsor, Gay rights activist
So what. Do you know who she is? I don't.
Miley Cyrus got onto the list because of a hack by two or three hacker groups trying to get into the polling mechanism used by Time to gather the initial candidate names. (ComputerWorld: Time's Person of the Year poll hacked AGAIN, Edward Snowden losing to Miley Cyrus?)
So I wind up with only three remaining after my first filter:
Pope Francis
Hassan Rouhani
Edward Snowden
After the second filter, Rouhani is gone as we still don't know if he is dealing legitimately. I like what I see from him but I'm not going to call him Person of the Year for cutting just one deal.
I see two ducks remaining and now it becomes a tougher call.
As to Pope Francis, I admire a great many of the things he has been saying ... but ... like Rouhani, I don't really think he has had enough time in the chair yet ... or papal throne, as you will. I don't doubt the authenticity of what he says but there hasn't been time yet to see what comes of quite a radical change to the leadership of Catholicism with potentially a consequent change to millions. (For a minor aside, this is the musical definition of 'consequent:' the second or imitating voice or part in a canon.)
It's not really a process of elimination to get down to Edward Snowden as I don't see there's even much debate on the matter. What he did had a profound effect on the U.S. government and its clandestine and frequently-illegal surveillance programs. The consequences of it all went around the world resulting in significant changes in many places. Snowden is definitely my pick.
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