A Bullet For Your Thoughts

So, here I sit, drinking myself into oblivion.

Veterans Day, and, with Memorial Day, the most important "holidays" of the year.

Reason: currency.

Everyone knows someone who has given his or her life in Service, or is serving now.

In Israel, military service is required. Age 18, two years' duty.

Here, it looks pretty good in peacetime.

That peace was strangled to death by Bush Jr.

Present estimate to withdraw from the Afghan quagmire: 2013.

Know this: it wasn't the pope, it wasn't Reagan, that broke up the CCCP, the Soviet Union. It was their personal hell in Afghanistan.

Hope you had a good holiday. Because people paid for it with years of their lives, and, too damn often, with their lives.

War is abysmally and abominably stupid. It points up what fucking morons we are. Because, like breathing, it's a fact of life. The Neanderthals were surely wiped out by the Cro-Magnons, who resented the "Thals'" intelligence, which was probably greater than ours.

Think we're individually that smart? Build a rocket and program it to hit the moon. Keep in mind our planet is spinning about 1,000 mph, and the moon is orbiting us at greater speed, and rotating on its own axis, and, once the rocket leaves our atmosphere, you will burn tons of fuel to adjust its path even minutely (that's why they call it rocket science).

Absurd? Okay, how about something you need, like a refrigerator?

How about a match?

Yeah, "we" can build cars, but you and I can't.

The bible is mostly about wars. The last 2,000 years are all about wars. And our recent ones, starting with Korea, have been gargantuan wastes of lives, resources, and money

But churches preach to ignore that "Thou Shalt Not Kill" stuff in the National Interest, which beats the shit out of me. Maybe I'm a black-and-white guy in a gray world, but do you really want some dickhead with a mail-order theology degree interpreting the "Word of God"? Or the pope, who's so full of self-interest shit he has to wear a big hat to hold it all?

Facts: killing is wrong. War is wrong. Heaven is empty, but for chimera and Mother Teresa.

Why is it that conservatives cling to and espouse theories long after they have dismally failed, or otherwise shown to be wrong?

Case in point: Reagan's "trickle down" economics. The idea that more wealth for the wealthy will provide wealth for all wrecked the economy for 15 years, until Clinton reined in the National Debt and actually, with the help of a Democratic Congress, began to pay it down.

Along came the Pinhead, with his antediluvian tax cuts for the rich, and the debt rose 10 TRILLION dollars.

That is public record, thoroughly documented. Nothing arcane.

Yet now the Republicans want to extend those cuts.

Pray, why?

The rich did not get rich by sharing.

Case in point: opposition to an assault weapons ban. The ban was not renewed by Congress at its expiration.

Why?

Who the fuck needs an assault weapon?

If the cornerstone of the Second Amendment is ownership of firearms for personal protection, why is an assault weapon necessary? Isn't "assault" an antonym of "defense"?

The answer is the NRA (National Retards Amalgamation) is married to another worn-out theory - the Domino Effect.

It's what got us into Vietnam. Over 53,000 Americans (about half 20 and under) died disproving it.

That should be more than enough.

The certifiably insane at the NRA still subscribe. The "idea" is if they cave on something as sensible as banning automatic weapons, it's the first step towards repeal of the Second Amendment. Which is as likely as flaming monkeys flying out of my butt.

It's the Bill of Rights. We live it. Too goddam many have died for it.

Good job, NRA fuckheads. Spread those AK-47's and Uzis around. Better to have a couple of cops armed with Glock 9's and a shotgun to square off with a handful of give-a-shit gangbangers with AK's.

Here's a fact: of all rounds fired in action by our Nation's police forces, only 30% find the target. Compare with the Kalashnikovs, which fire 600 rounds/minute, and you get two dead cops.

Rock on, NRA.

I hadn't seen any redtails for some time. Then last week, a female (as always, from size) flew across the road in front of me and hit something in cut beans. Either she missed, or didn't want company for dinner, as she flew as I passed.

Yesterday morning the cemetery redtail was on a wire along SR 18. I haven't seen him (see above) for weeks, but he looked hale and hearty.

Feels good to see an old friend in fine feather.