Random Brain Squeezings

I’m skyed on painkillers at the moment, so stand by for some seriously uncategorized blather.

GUN PORN

President-Elect Obama said that he was not interested in taking peoples’ guns away. I tend to believe him. That said, I also believe he would sign legislation making the ownership of firearms extremely expensive and difficult, provided it looked like it might pass Constitutional muster by the Supremes. Since Congress (led by Mad Queen Nancy and Hopping-mad Harry Reid at the moment) has a history of metaphorically shooting themselves in their collective feet and a demonstrated cultural disdain for the intellect and abilities of the average American, I am somewhat concerned that they might try to send this sort of legislation to the new President. By the way, a Republican-led Congress would be no better (my opinion). In lieu of trying to bury the Second Amendment, they’d be vigorously trying to exterminate the First.

As an aside, I am still waiting for someone to respond to a question I asked here more than a year ago about why Democrats seem to vigorously defend and expand the scope of the Bill of Rights- with the exception of that pesky Second Amendment.

THE BAREFOOT BUM

He’s in my blogroll, up there at the upper right. The very first entry. The man has a first-rate mind, and I generally manage to learn a few things every time I visit. I don’t necessarily agree with him on a lot of things, but he has a fine grasp of logic and has an exquisite command of the English language.

And yet, I find myself visiting his site less and less. Barefoot Bum is a fervent denouncer of capitalism. On the other hand, I have no tolerance whatsoever for communism. This discontinuity of world view tends to make reading some of his work difficult for me, despite his intellectual abilities. In my opinion, capitalism promotes mediocrity but allows for excellence. Communism punishes excellence and mandates mediocrity. Given my personal intolerance for stupidity, this description (and the utter failure of every communist government to date) makes communism a very tough sell. My brace of small copper coins. Do with them what you will.

STAND BY …

Those whackjobs from the Westboro Baptist “Church” (aka Phreaky Phredd Phelps and his Phucked-up Phamily & Phriends) will be staging their annoying “protests” near the military bases in my area over the next couple of weeks. For those of you blissfully unaware of their antics, the WBC is the alleged church from that bastion of intellectual prowess in the midwest (Kansas) which “protests” at the funerals of dead servicemen from Iraq and Afghanistan. In reality, they’re extremely litigious ass-hats who do their very best to be as offensive as possible without quite going over the line into legally actionable activities. They want someone in the community where they stage these attention-whore spectacles to lose control and attack them, after which they will cheerfully sue the local government for failing to protect the WBC folks during the lawful exercise of their First Amendment Rights.

This is how they make their money, and they’re very good at it. Most of them have had a lot of legal training on how to avoid actual slander or libel while being actively and deliberately objectionable. They say and do things that gets almost every single American fighting mad- even hardcore pacifists. I’m reasonably certain that Phreaky Phred and company could get Quakers to start throwing punches.

Of course, the WBC won’t be dealing with Quakers. They’ll be doing their level best to antagonize tens of thousands of sailors and Marines, many of whom have served in combat recently. If it weren’t for the fact that it would swell the WBC’s treasury, I could almost relish the well-deserved ass-kicking the Phelps Phamily & Phriends could receive here. Knowing what they’re doing and why, however, I have joined my voice to those of the many supervisors and non-commissioned officers urging restraint and- where possible- complete avoidance of the “protests” and the people involved. I truly hope the  local police are out in force to protect the WBC from the wrath of my brothers and sisters who still wear my country’s uniform. I also hope that my brothers and sisters in arms comport themselves with the discipline and integrity they have shown around the world and stay away from these obnoxious jackasses.

DAN QUAYLE IN DRAG

Speaking of obnoxious jackasses, will everybody please quit paying attention to John McCain’s former running mate? If we quit feeding her with interviews, perhaps she would disappear into the obscurity from whence she came. The best way to get rid of an attention whore is to stop paying attention to her. Nuff said.

KEY-RICED!

Since when does Christmas shopping start before Halloween? To quote Lewis Black, “How long does it take you people to shop?”

I’ve been seeing christmas decorations at most of the local retailers for the best part of a month. What’s next- a “pre-Christmas Sales Event” right after the Super Bowl? Why don’t we just call it “Commerce Day” and have done? Any resemblance to religious or historical meaning in this “holiday” is entirely coincidental.

AND LASTLY,

I send my hopeful thoughts to maq0r and LeinadO, who live in Venezuela and are working for a peaceful transition of power away from Hugo the Horrible. There are a lot of anti-Chavez politicians running for many powerful regional offices on Sunday, and Chavez has publicly announced that he will send tanks to make sure that the elections turn out the way he wants them to.

Current status: Groggy

Current music: San Jacinto by Peter Gabriel