We see a lot things being said about McCain's war injuries, some valid, but some perhaps invalid.
Recently, we are seeing the injuries being used to explain McCain's lack of computer skills.
Specifically, I have seen people referring to his fingers having been broken by his torturers.
This didn't accord with what I remembered having read, which was he received injuries to his shoulders and to one of his knees from the airplane crash and a subsequent beating by a mob; his captors withheld treatment, and also subjected him to beatings and waterboarding. I couldn't remember any mention of injuries caused by torture, or of injuries to his hands.
So, I decided to do a quick Google search and make a report, on the theory that it's better to know things than to talk out of your ass.
It turns out that in 1999, McCain released his medical records to the media. Here is an article in the NY Times describing their contents:
http://query.nytimes.com/...
Here's the parts about the status of his war injuries at that time:
Severe wounds suffered as a prisoner of war in Vietnam have left Mr. McCain, a Republican presidential candidate, with degenerative arthritis in his shoulders and right knee that might someday require joint replacement.
Mr. McCain's war injuries, most of which he suffered in the first moments after ejecting from his aircraft, left his shoulders and right knee badly damaged. He now has degenerative arthritis in those joints, which will continue to deteriorate and may lead to a total shoulder replacement or a knee replacement....Doctors are recommending that option only if Mr. McCain one day suffered intractable pain or his ability to function worsened.
That's about it.
I don't really have any big point about this. FWIW, I know people with handicaps far more severe than McCain's who manage to use a computer, but obviously people differ in how they adapt to handicaps.
If anyone has information to the contrary, please post it with links in the comments. I don't want to mislead anyone.
Greg Shenaut