a good captain owns his mistakes

There is a saying among those who sail professionally, "A good captain owns his mistakes." And a true man or womanly woman, admits when he or she has made a mistake and accepts responsibility for it. It is part of being accountable, of being trustworthy, and earning the continued trust of others. Is that so difficult to understand? No one wants to sail with a captain that cannot admit openly when he or she makes a mistake but instead tries to shift blame on others.

I actually tweeted Donald Trump a few minutes ago. Slightly more than a half hour ago, he stated that the airplane that he had "seen on TV unloading 400,000 dollars in cash on an Iranian airfield, "was actually unloading hostages in Geneva and was unrelated to the transfer of $400,000 to the Iranians.

He did not say oops. He did not apologize to those he had lied to and misled, or to those he had attempted to offend. On Twitter, he did not explain his error, or suggest how he might have avoided it or how he can keep from making such errors in the future.

Unlike a good captain (or a good craftsman) and despite all the many times the man has misperceived, misunderstood, misled and purposefully lied to the American People, he has yet to own up and apologize for any of it. But perhaps tweeting the correct information and clarifying what he actually saw on TV is a very small first step. He should by all rights be challenged now in the media to apologize for misleading the American people on this matter and so many others.

The following is from Charles H. Hamm.

It is easy to juggle with words, to argue in a circle, to make the worse appear the better reason, and to reach false conclusions which wear a plausible aspect. But it is not so with things. If the cylinder is not tight, the steam engine is a lifeless mass of iron of no value whatever. A flaw in the wheel of the locomotive wrecks the train. Through a defective flue in the chimney the house is set on fire. A lie in the concrete is always hideous; like murder, it will out. Hence it is that the mind is liable to fall into grave errors until it is fortified by the wise counsel of the practical hand.

The human hand is constantly seeking the truth and thereby finding it. By leaving laboratory science and wood shop, music and the arts outside of education, we have diminished our children in both character and intellect, and diminished  human culture.

Donald Trump has been called a "short-fingered vulgarian." We have ample evidence of his vulgarity, but now also have evidence that he is short fingered. In fact his hand size ranks only in the 15th percentile when measured against all men even though his frame size is on the upper scale. In other words, his hands would be small, even for a small man. For a tall man, his fingers and hands are minuscule.

a bronze cast imprint of Trump's hand

This is a thing you can actually test for yourself. There is a life-sized bronze casting of Trump's hand near the exit of Madame Tussauds wax museum in New York city. It you are in New York, you can go by the museum and measure your own hands against those of the "short-fingered vulgarian." There is no serious evidence linking hand size and stupidity. On the other hand, there is ample evidence that the training of the hands is a factor in the development of intelligence.  Donald Trump's blunders are enough to make one wonder. He does in fact have tiny hands and no evidence of skill in using them for anything but golf.

If you want to actually compare Trump's hand size to your own, I've made it easy for you. Download and print this .pdf file and compare sizes. Remember that Trump is also 6' 3" tall and should by all rights have a larger than normal hand size.

Make, fix, create, and assist others in learning likewise.