Again, a comedian(-iene) nails what our leaders can't: POUNDSTONE on ACA vs tech distinction
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http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57611512/paula-poundstone-on-aca-hey-were-used-to-tech-problems/
[font size=5]Paula Poundstone on ACA: Hey, we're used to tech problems[/font]
(CBS News) If there were an Oscar for Best Performance by a Website, it certainly wouldn't go to the one that goes with the Affordable Care Act. But is that a reason to discredit the health care law as a whole? Contributor Paula Poundstone has a letter for President Obama:
Dear Mr. President,
I want you to know that I am still with you on this health care thing. The media would have us believe that it has lost support, which makes no sense.
Most of us agreed that we loved the idea of people with pre-existing health problems being able to receive coverage. It is simply not possible that technical challenges with the website could cause voters to turn off on that idea.
Anybody who has ever used a computer knows, that privilege goes hand-in-hand with frustration. Why would we give up on the affordable health care law because of that?
If we were ordering something from Amazon, we'd keep trying for months. Heck, if we were having cable installed, we'd take the day off work to wait for the cable man. We're no strangers to struggling with websites. Why would that make us give up on a law that makes some insurance policies provide preventative medicine with no co-payments?
Technology is fraught with frustration. I had a double-tweeting problem for a while, but I didn't give up my Twitter account.
My toaster lost its timer, but I still make toast.
It took me days to put the video I made of the first Thanksgiving up on YouTube, but just look on my website, sir. I triumphed!
Heck, when I first hooked up my computer, I spent hours on the phone with a guy at Verizon, who said his name was David (but I don't think his name was David), and it was unbelievably frustrating.
I cried.
I'm telling you I actually cried.
I reached the depths of despair, but I never gave up.
If "David" couldn't break me, how could it be that I'd already throw in the towel on a law that makes it possible for my kids to remain on my family policy until they are 26?
Maybe it'll work, and maybe it won't, Mr. President, but I sure want it to, and if I want it to anywhere nearly as bad as I wanted my DVD player to work with the same remote as my big screen TV, I don't want to, but I can, suffer through a few more glitches in the healthcare site.
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a personal noun suffix occurring in loanwords from French, where it forms feminine nouns corresponding to masculine nouns ending in -en ( comedienne, doyenne ); on this model, of very limited productivity in English, forming distinctively feminine nouns from words ending in -an: equestrienne.
Usage note
The few English words that end in -enne, indicating the feminine counterpart of a traditionally masculine term ending in -en or -an, usually carry little implication of inferiority. Many women, however, prefer that no distinction be made and that, as with other gender-specific words, the terms once reserved for males be applied to males and females alike. English is quite inconsistent in adopting such feminine nouns. Equestrian has the form equestrienne; pedestrian has no corresponding feminine term. Although we have both comedienne and tragedienne, there is no feminine variant for thespian. See also -ess, -ette, -trix.
Source
enne. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/enne (accessed: November 10, 2013).
