The Gospel of Calvin and Mo
Are we really in government shutdown? Cars are still driving by, and waves are still lapping gently in the Bay down front. And the eastern sky is lighting up, so apparently the sun is still there. How important can Congress be then. As for government, we probably didn’t need ninety-five percent of it in the first place, but who is into BlameGame will fingerpoint anyway, though those who did the shutting did not shut down their own sorry behinds and bobbing heads, are not affected financially and don’t give a rat’s axx about anything but self-importance as they crawl arrogantly in a society that holds them in utter contempt. Contempt of Congress is a crime? A crime? Really? Guilty. What to do with them, about them, to them is easy for anyone who a generation ago watched the 1987 TV miniseries Amerika episode as conquering Soviet troops entered the US capitol and dealt with congress decisively. My response then, and still
Anu Garg's word for today is druthers, a common contraction that it never occurred to me was actually a word. It's a good word, and axx is not a bad word, but this Tuesday first day of October, as often, Anu Garg's gem is not his Word but his Thought for the Day: "A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It is a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity." Jimmy Carter, 39th US President, Nobel laureate (b. 1924).
Not a political blog or post, my mind is on bullies, whom I detest with murderous passion. Maybe it’s against jingoism, but not so much. America, Americans, came out of WWII as international hero who crushed Nazis and Japs and were so filled with humanity as to rebuild Japan without hatred and run the Marshall Plan to resurrect Europe. Followed, a long Cold War of us protecting the world against the USSR. There were golden years when an American was welcome and loved almost anywhere in the world, but now the day is at hand when it isn't even safe to go to the shopping mall. Goodwill toward us was still alive in some places as late as 1978 when I retired from the U. S. Navy: one evening I was in Australia watching a U.S. Navy cruiser dock in Sydney and American sailors being welcomed on TV, radio, press, and in person, embraced as though half the population of Oz wanted to tuck away an American baby before the ship got underway Monday morning and escaped with all our sailors.
But we became the international bully in the china shop. Korea. Little places around the world. Vietnam, where for a while we got our comeuppance and briefly learned something about ourselves. More little places. Beirut, Marine Barracks. Mogadishu, Blackhawk Down. Afghanistan, prosecuted for 9/11 in ways to stir bitter hatred that will abide for generations or centuries to come. Iraq, certitude unto war crimes and crimes against humanity -- but then we’re “Mo” and no worries of international tribunal or Son-of-Nuremberg trials and gallows.
This went through the head as we were threatening to attack Assad and Syria, and arming a tiamat of rebels who hate us almost as much as they hate each other. Going through head actually was wondering, “If it had been China using chemical weapons against Mongolian rebels, or Russia using sarin against rebels in Chechnya?” would we in our My Lai and Shock & Awe glory have postured and bristled self-righteously, poising flag and forces to attack? In school, comics or war, bullies are contemptible cowards. And in national politics and world affairs, as in religion, questions and doubt stand above answers and certitude.
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Who places self beyond moral accountability and prosecutes mindless wars while kicking Lazarus earns its fate, deserves its unexcepted destiny with all empires of history -- from the four 8th century BC prophets of doom right through the 20th century, from which and whom we have learned nothing.
Not a political blog or post, my mind is on bullies, whom I detest with murderous passion. Maybe it’s against jingoism, but not so much. America, Americans, came out of WWII as international hero who crushed Nazis and Japs and were so filled with humanity as to rebuild Japan without hatred and run the Marshall Plan to resurrect Europe. Followed, a long Cold War of us protecting the world against the USSR. There were golden years when an American was welcome and loved almost anywhere in the world, but now the day is at hand when it isn't even safe to go to the shopping mall. Goodwill toward us was still alive in some places as late as 1978 when I retired from the U. S. Navy: one evening I was in Australia watching a U.S. Navy cruiser dock in Sydney and American sailors being welcomed on TV, radio, press, and in person, embraced as though half the population of Oz wanted to tuck away an American baby before the ship got underway Monday morning and escaped with all our sailors.
But we became the international bully in the china shop. Korea. Little places around the world. Vietnam, where for a while we got our comeuppance and briefly learned something about ourselves. More little places. Beirut, Marine Barracks. Mogadishu, Blackhawk Down. Afghanistan, prosecuted for 9/11 in ways to stir bitter hatred that will abide for generations or centuries to come. Iraq, certitude unto war crimes and crimes against humanity -- but then we’re “Mo” and no worries of international tribunal or Son-of-Nuremberg trials and gallows.
This went through the head as we were threatening to attack Assad and Syria, and arming a tiamat of rebels who hate us almost as much as they hate each other. Going through head actually was wondering, “If it had been China using chemical weapons against Mongolian rebels, or Russia using sarin against rebels in Chechnya?” would we in our My Lai and Shock & Awe glory have postured and bristled self-righteously, poising flag and forces to attack? In school, comics or war, bullies are contemptible cowards. And in national politics and world affairs, as in religion, questions and doubt stand above answers and certitude.
W+