On Friday, February 14, 2003, at 01:19 AM, Matthew Perdue wrote:

> Many others and I have tremendous respect for your talents and
> contributions to the HP3000. However, your stature is diminished when
> you resort to name-calling. Mr. Rumsfeld is also a person of tremendous
> talents whom you clearly do not respect. That in the United States is
> your right - to have your opinion and express same. I'm sure you have
> the intellect to express your disdain of Mr. Rumsfeld without equating
> him to a small member of the lizard family and borrowing heavily from
> the GEICO television commercials.

Our government has employed many persons to explain and sell our
position on Iraq to members of the UN in a diplomatic endeavor to win
their support. Many of them have done well in their endeavors. Mr.
Rumsfeld seems to me to be an exception. His efforts to "win over"
France, Germany and Belgium consisted of antagonizing them by referring
to them as the "old Europe". At that time, I made no posting to this
list. Subsequently, when CNN reported his references to nuclear bombs,
I was prompted to point out his less than diplomatic efforts to this
group.

My comment wasn't intended to equate Mr. Rumsfeld with any lizard.

For months, Geico has had several "cute" commercials involving a gecko.
One of these had the gecko speaking and a "cute" astounded chihuahua
responding with reluctant acceptance: "Oh great. A talking gecko.".

My use of that same phrase in response to Mr. Rumsfeld's statements was
meant to be critical in the same light-hearted manner as that of the
chihuahua. I had assumed that all of the members of this list had seen
the Geico commercial and would understand the lighthearted (albeit
meaningful) nature of my comment.

My fault. I should have attached a ":-)" to make sure.

I apologize for my boo-boo.

FW

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